Saturday, April 5th, 2008 Who: Astrid and Jack Where: Out on the beach When: Saturday, April 5th, 2008, afternoonish What The two have a chat on da beach before leaving tomorrow
This Saturday was kind of sucking. Not because last night had sucked, in fact, the sex was... quite a nice development and all the making out was even nicer. Well, wait, no, they couldn't be compared. Apples and oranges. But, after talking to Rae earlier, she had kind of wondered if everyone else was gonna be stupidly awkward about spin the bottle. For Pete's sake, it was a GAME. So, that's why Astrid had decided to spend part of her Saturday on the beach, in her blue bikini tanning, goddammit. Screw everyone else, she was gonna enjoy the afternoon.
"Hey Sweedie," he said, never one to back down from a very bad pun, "you're gonna bake -- you load up on SPF?" He came to a crouch beside her, wearing swimming trunks and not much else.
Astrid glanced up at Jack through her sunglasses, cracking a grin at him. Her hands had been behind her head, but she freed one of them to reach out and swat at him. "Of course I loaded up. Do you see how fair I am? I would turn into a tomato." She relaxed again on her towel and sighed. "I'm enjoying what sun I can get before we go back to mopey, murky, cloudy Massachusetts."
He sat at the edge of her towel, practically on her feet. "Permission to speak freely?"
With a mock Patrick Stewart accent, Astrid nodded. "Permission granted, Number One."
He grinned, twisting away from his staring out into the ocean to look over his shoulder at her. "You look bangin' in a bikini, Ms. I'm-A-Huge-Nerd."
Astrid looked up at Jack with an attempt at a neutral expression, but she had just flushed straight from her forehead to her neck at the compliment. "I... um..." She cleared her throat, blushing harder, her voice still only half-with her on this one. "Thank you..."
"Oh, what.." he laughed, half his mouth turned up in a broad smirk. "NOW you're shy? Beer muscles, huh? I know guys like you." He reached over to pinch her bicep.
Astrid laughed and squirmed away from him a bit. "Shut up, you! I AM shy! I don't know what you're talking about!" Astrid felt her leg slide off her towel and hit sand, and her nose scrunched up in dismay.
"Yeaaaah RRRRRRIGHT."
Astrid sat up and reached out, tackling him so she could jab him in the ribs. "Don't you mock me!"
He laughed, grabbing her wrists and handing her hands back to her. He hated being tickled. It was so unmanly. "Shy my ass. None of us were shy last night. I blame the booze and weed. The glorious, glorious booze and weed. Haven't seen your boy. He gonna kick our asses? He looked like he wanted to beat Fox. I hope not me." He grinned, batting his eyes. "I'm a gooooood boy, right?"
Astrid smirked a little, just as unintentionally flirty and witty as always. She crossed her arms over her chest and sat up, wiping the sand off of her legs. "Keagan has no plans to kick your asses. He's happy as a clam today, he's just relaxing inside for now. And y'know, that is such bullshit."
"I don't blame him. I wouldn't have played if I had a girlfriend there. But... I didn't... so.." he shrugged and grinned. "But wow, thinking back, next time Rae's not allowed in. Awkward city."
Astrid rolled her eyes. "Oh, god, not you, too. Please don't tell me you're gonna try to apologize for Rae enjoying the kiss. As I explained to Keagan and as he AGREED after we talked, it was a game. There's nothing wrong with enjoying the game." She glanced over at him. "The funny part was that Keagan was in no way jealous of you. I, on the other hand, was quite disappointed."
"Apologize for Rae? No way... disappointed with what?" He was confused.
"I was disappointed with you chickening out." Astrid smirked, pulling her shades off and nibbling on one of the temples of the glasses, winking at him. She had no issues goading him on right now. Hell, the sun was out, she was happy and warm, life was good.
"Ohhh stop, I felt bad for the guy. I wouldn't want to watch my girlfriend french kiss another guy, game or not. I'm surprised he even agreed to playing. He seems like a nice guy." He looked at Astrid for a moment, his eyes scanning her features. "You guys didn't fight did you? He was real pissed when he left, it looked."
"We talked about it. He was jealous of Fox because he seemed to think that I was going to just cave at the first sign of pressure." She rolled her eyes at Jack. "And I had to explain to Keagan that I'm not some waif and that cheating is something I hate so I'm not gonna do it to him. If I want to be with someone, I'm gonna be with someone. If I decide I want someone else, I will actually break up. But, I don't just do it on a whim." Astrid chuckled. "He was... much better after that."
"Hah, so you did have a thing for him," Jack said, sounding just a little triumphant.
"For Fox?" Astrid laughed a little, shaking her head. "No. I'm pretty sure that it's just... tension. That will eventually go away. I have absolutely no desire to be more than pals with Fox."
"Right, but why would Keagan worry about you caving to Fox and not me? Or to Cassie, if that's your thing." More grinning.
"Because Keagan knows that Fox and I fight all the time. And... as Keagan flat out told me," Astrid smiled at Jack. "Keagan believes that you would at least wait until I was single to bed me. Or at the least, you know what's safe and what's not. Keagan said, and I quote 'Fox has homewrecker written all over him.'"
"Aww, Keagan sounds a little judgemental for a guy who spent the last couple months in a cave."
Astrid rolled her eyes and leaned back, bracing herself from behind. "He was in a conservative 'omfg, the commies are gonna nuke us' commune. I'm not surprised that he makes judgements like that."
"Bah," he said, watching her move. "So you stroked his ego? Told him he had nothing to worry about?"
The shit-eating grin on his face implied he was making more puns.
"I did more than stroke his ego, Jack." Astrid chuckled, squirming a little before relaxing and glancing over her shoulder out at the water.
"I figured Rae was gonna apologize to you. Take it as a compliment. Means she likes you. If she didn't, she wouldn't give a fuck what you thought."
Astrid grinned some, shrugging. "Your sister is cool. I like Rae. I really do. I just had to explain to her repeatedly that believe me, I like Keagan and I can see all the reasons she would like him." Astrid sighed a little, slipping her shades back on. "I just also know that this is Keagan's first relationship and the thought of someone else has not even crossed his mind."
"You sound mature for him," he said, perhaps the first non-playful, serious thing he'd said to her this vacation.
Astrid rose an eyebrow at the comment. "Really? I mean... I am two years older than him." She sighed a little. "But, I've had my share of bad relationships and a couple of good ones."
"And he's had....this one. So.. there you go. Age has nothing to do with maturity." He scooted over so he wasn't still hogging her blanket, moving his butt into the sand. Eh, he'd deal with that later.
"Haha, right." Astrid glanced over at Jack with a serious look. "Well, y'know, for a guy who acts like he's a playboy at times, something tells me you're pretty mature when it comes to relationships."
"I'm mature enough to know that I'm not mature?" he suggested, with a cheeky lift of his shoulders.
"Bullshit," She giggled, reaching over and whomping him in the shoulder. "You're mature. Otherwise, you would not have played it so safe at spin the bottle. If you were really immature, you would have grabbed me and kissed me senseless just to prove a point. Like Fox."
"Yeaaah..." he said, dubiously, "not really sure what point Fox was trying to prove there." Jack figured it was just to rub in Keagan's face that he got to make out with his girlfriend with no consequences, which did make him a little bit of an asshole, but Jack wouldn't tell Astrid that. "I was just thinking what I want if I were in Keagan's place."
Just for the sake of being difficult, Astrid laughed a little and turned to look at Jack. "Oh, really? And what would you want if you were dating me?"
"I'd want for my girlfriend to not play Spin the Bottle," he said, with a laugh that indicated it was an obvious answer.
Chuckling, Astrid shook her head and gave a long, melodramatic sigh. "Uuugh, you boys are hilarious. You love the idea of kissing girls for free, but when your chick wants to kiss a man, 'oh noooo, run and hiiiide! Bring on the machismo! My shrinking violet of a girlfriend will bow to your crushing male temptations!'"
Jack laughed at her. "God, you are such a drama queen. Who said *I* would play if *I* had a girlfriend?"
"You're the one who gets easily bored, remember?" Astrid teased. "I figure Spin the Bottle would be ideal while you had a girlfriend."
"Hell no. I don't share."
She laughed. "So you're saying that if your girlfriend didn't play, you wouldn't? Because if you're telling me the truth, then good sir, I applaud you for bucking the stereotype."
Jack thought about this, his animated expression going from 'hmm' to 'weeell.' "I guess so. I could also be saying that my girlfriend wouldn't play, period, and neither would I."
"Okay, I'll accept that." Astrid smirked, shifting in how she was sitting and brushing sand off her hands. "Of course, this is all pointless speculation because I am dating Keagan and you are not dating me and I have no desire to tell you how to run your life." She genuinely shot him a grin. "I think the proof, though, is in who is in your bed that night after a game like that. The game is harmless. It's what happens after that's important."
"Right." He smirked at her. "Rae just went with Fox to get a tattoo and piercing. Interesting."
"Oh, yeah, they mentioned that they were gonna do that." Astrid nodded some. "Earlier in the week, though. I dunno what Fox decided to go with. He was gonna ask Rae to design a tat for him at some point." She batted her eyes and sighed. "How cuuuuuute!"
Jack bit his tongue. He had opinions about that.. whole situation.. but he was not sharing them with Astrid. Astrid had a motor mouth and a motor mind -- bad combination. He didn't think of her of a Vault of Secrets.
So he just rolled his eyes and laughed.
Astrid was deifnitely not good at keeping secrets. Well, no, she could be, she just didn't as a general rule because she'd rather people be open and just say what they think. And Jack had warned her about that and she just... kept right on doing it. "So, all in all, would you say this was a worthwhile vacay?"
"Yes," he said, without missing a beat. "Totally awesome."
"Cool! I agree!" Astrid smirked, then reached over into the cooler beside her towel to pluck a Dr. Pepper free. "Next vacation, though, you sure as hell better actually make out with me instead of chickening out."
"Next vacation?" he smirked. She was planning that far ahead?
Grinning some, she unscrewed the soda and took a swig. "Yup. I dunno about you, but I have no problems sticking around for a year or two. Sure as hell beats anything else."
He scratched at his bare arm. "I don't know about that. It doesn't beat NOT being in a school-slash-detention facility."
Chuckling, she shrugged. "Yeah, but, look at it this way. We're being given pretty much free reign of the school we're in, it's SUPER easy to beat the bed checks, and we get to actually be ourselves and use our nifty abilities to our heart's content." Astrid smiled some. "I think that's worth a year or two. Unless I get bored."
"Being able to use our abilities def makes it worth it," Jack said, laying down beside her on the sand. "Totally. Not that Rae and I didn't before, but it's easier now, for sure."
Astrid turned to look over at him. "Well, yeah, you guys can probably get away with it in the real world, but, y'know, me changing pencil colors while in class? That would freak people out."
Jack laughed, nodding. "So you just relaxing for now?
"Totes. For me? This is total chill time." With another swig of soda, Astrid tossed her hair out of her eyes. "I get an excuse to work on math and science. That, for me, is an easy day."
"What are you going to do with math and science?" Jack asked, propping his elbow and head up.
"Well, my family are all scientists, and i like science, so I'll probably try to get a grad degree or something so I can become an actual scientist. But, y'know, my mom keeps telling me that with my smarts and my magic, I could probably invent sustainable cold fusion." She grinned. "I think that might be a good goal for the next ten years."
"Yeah, but if you do it with magic, how do you explain it?" he asked, looking... actually interested.
"Huh. Well, I'm thinking it might be easier to reverse engineer it. Y'know, I'll have the magic and the science to make the final product, then I can kind of go backwards from there until I figure out where other people went wrong." Astrid liked talking science. It was comfortable, it made more sense than anything in the world to her.
"I do that. But with... objects. Not energy sources." He smirked
"Huh? How so?" Astrid reached into her cooler and held out a Dr. Pepper to him as barter.
"I take things apart, see how they work, then put them back together. Used to do it all the time as a kid," he said, taking the can of soda. "Clocks... toys... my grandfather's camera, once.." he grinned. "Yeah. That... didn't get put back together."
She laughed a little, shaking her head. "Boy after my own heart. For realz. That's awesome. Although, to be fair," Astrid held a hand up. "I don't really do that with mechanics, yeah. I can't... me getting my hands dirty would be a little hilarious."
He arched an eyebrow at her, squinting in the sun. He didn't have a pair of sunglasses. "What? Why? I could see you under the hood of a car. All greasy in overalls and stuff." He grinned.
"I'm a clutz, have you not seen this?" Astrid laughed, looking at him like he was crazy. "I would totally wind up breaking said car." She smiled a little. "It does seem like it'd be fun to tinker around, though."
"I could teach you if you wanted. You know how to change a tire, right?" Rae did. Jack had made sure of it, just in case she was ever driving anywhere -- not that she had her own car, or anything -- and needed to. God forbid she get stranded.
"Ummmm..." Astrid blushed a little, chuckling some. "Do I get in trouble if I say no?"
He laughed gently. "What are you gonna do if you're driving somewhere and get a flat?"
She blushed harder, clearing her throat. "Ummm... call my dad or cry on the side of the road."
Jack laughed, picturing this. "How is that going to help? What if your dad can't come? You should know how to change a tire if you don't have triple A. But even if you do, what if your cell dies? No good!"
"Okay, well, then when we get back to campus, I just GUESS you're gonna have to teach me!" She laughed, reaching over and poking him in the ribs.
He squirmed violently. "Don't do that!"
"Woooah, woah woah," Astrid laughed some, getting up onto her knees so she could see better. "Are you ticklish?" She poked him again.
He grabbed her wrist and handed her hand back to her. "No." Which meant yes. He was smirking.
"Ooooh, you ARE!" Astrid laughed triumphantly, and she shot out with both hands to try tickling him again. HAHA! Leverage!
Absolutely not. Jack snatched at her wrists and yanked her hands away and to the right of them, even if it meant she would faceplant herself in the sand. "I will THROW YOU IN THE OCEAN."
Astrid thankfully had turned enough that she landed on her shoulder, but now she had her hair in her eyes and looked incredibly put out. Huffing, she tried to blow hair out of her eyes while her shades now lay beside her on the towel. "You're mean."
Jack still hadn't let go of her wrists. "I'm not mean. I just hate being tickled."
"Apparently so..." Astrid sighed a little, not really making an effort to move for the moment, not that thoughts of tickling hadn't totally disappeared, she was just more focused at the moment. On the fact that suddenly she was... kinda turned on. Okay, not cool.
He let go of her wrists slowly, smiling. "ANYWAY..."
Astrid smiled back at him, but decided to let the tickling go for the moment. "Anyway," She chuckled, now deciding to remain laying on her side on her towel. "You'll teach me how to change a tire?"
He was sitting up, sand sticking to his naked torso. "Yeah, sure, if Keagan can't teach you."
"I'm fairly certain he's less than useless with cars." She laughed a little. "I mean, I heart the guy, but he lived in a cave. And apparently took public transportation all the way out here. He might be worse with cars than I am. At least i know to check my fluids."
"Rae could teach you. I taught her. Grandpa taught me." He brushed sand off the back of his arm.
Raising an eyebrow, Astrid moved so she was on her back and propped herself up on her elbows. "But I asked you."
"No, I'm just saying, she could because she knows," he replied, sipping his soda.
"Right, okay, well, I get that," Was it bad that Astrid felt a little... put out? "Just seems like you want to shove me off on your sis. Kind of a letdown."
Jack felt his neck get warm, but he shook his head and ignored it. "I was just SAYING, jeez. If you really wanna watch me get all grease monkey for you, I will."
Astrid sat up all the way, crossing her legs Indian-style and looking over at him with a sigh. "It's not about me watching you. I like the idea of spending time with you and talking to you. No offense, but up until this week, almost all of our conversations happened in cyberspace."
It took Jack a moment to realize that all Astrid was saying was that she actively wanted to be friends with him. It was..odd. But why? It shouldn't be. It was sad to him that her honesty disconcerted him. More people should honestly be like Astrid. "Oh. Uh. Yeah, sure."
Once she got the okay, Astrid grinned brightly, then reached out and pushed him some on the arm, which really didn't do much, in fact, she wound up being the one swaying in the other direction instead. "Good. Awesome. We shall attempt to be grease monkeys together. Although, I'll be more like a grease... moose... or... something."
Jack sputtered out a laugh, almost choking on his Dr. Pepper. "Moose? Really?"
"Don't laugh!" Astrid chuckled, even though she was doing the same exact thing. "My dad had a saying, which was that I was about a smooth as a moose. Y'know, awkward. Hence grease moose." She smacked his arm. "Shut up, it worked in my head!"
"Is that some sort of odd Sweeeeedish humor I don't get?" he grinned, finishing off his soda.
"No, that's just Erik Magnusson humor, which is about as many degrees off of cool as you can possibly get." Astrid sighed, smiling a little as she thought of her father. "Y'know, I actually kind of miss him, even though he really tends to piss me off with his whole 'are you being a good witch, Astrid? Did you do your Sabbat, Astrid? Don't look at the research your mother and I left, Astrid!'" Astrid put on the typical fake gruff tone of someone making fun of their parent.
He laughed, eyebrows flying up. "Erik Magnusson, huh? Now there's the name of a guy who can fuck you up. Or at least, sounds like it. I just pictured a big fuckin' viking dude." His hands went up to touch invisible horns -- "You know, I WILL KILL THE WABBIT WITH MY SPEAW AND MAGIC HEWMET!" -- Yes, Jack was doing Elmer Fudd.
Astrid burst into laughter and rightly so. Her dad was often so gruff and tough that thinking about something like the Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny cartoon was a perfect reference. "My dad IS big, though! My family is like, super old. I don't even KNOW how old my parents are, because they're witches so they can be as old as they want. But my dad is like this big-shoulder, broad blonde-haired and blue-eyed Viking guy with a scowl that can shake the earth."
Jack cracked up laughing, now, at the EPICNESS of Astrid's reply. "Shake the fucking earth, huh? Is he THOR? Is your dad THOR?"
"JA!" Astrid laughed, not even realizing she'd slipped into a bit of her parent's native tongue. "Min far ar Thor!" She laughed, not even realizing that she was talking in Swedish.
Jack realized, and his face screwed up. "WHAT! Was that Englsh?!"
It took her a second, and when she realized what she'd done, she couldn't help but giggle and shake her head, putting her hand to her eyes. "Oooh, I faaaail. No, sorry, that was Swedish."
"That's funny, it totally sounded a little like English. Like you had mega marshmellows in your mouth and could only say the first syllable of words," he explained, grinning so hard his face might have cracked.
"Well, it's sort of like English. And it is shorter most of the time, but, yeah, um, whenever I start talking about my family it just pops out. I start sounding like some freakin' bad movie." Astrid laughed a little, but now she was blushing from her forehead to her shoulders.
"Like that chef guy, on the Muppet Show!" Jack had watched too much TV as a kid.
"Yeeeees, like the Swedish cheeeeeef..." Astrid groaned. God, she couldn't even remember how many times she'd heard that as a kid. And in high school.
Jack grinned, aware of how common of a stupid joke that probably was to her.
"Lemme just say that if I ever hear you do a Swedish Chef impression, all bets are off and I will tickle you until you beg for mercy." An empty threat, cause physically, Jack could probably pin her with one hand.
Probably. "No way, I don't do muppets," he said, with a grin. He squinted out against the water, then looked back. "I think I'm going to go get some last bit of swimming in."
"Okay, then, you go do that. I'm gonna keep working on my, uh..." Astrid looked down at her still quite fair skin and sighed. "tan..."
"Are you trying to tan? You're blonde. Don't tan. Nothing worse than a tan blonde."
Feeling herself blush again, Astrid giggled a little and looked down at her Dr. Pepper. "Go swim, Flash. I'll talk to you later."
He smirked and jumped up, trying to not kick too much sand awry, and padded off. "See you in a bit!"
"Byeeee!" Astrid called, watching him run. And enjoying watching him run, too. She couldn't quite help it. Man, this trip had rocked.