InsaneJournal

"If I’m to beat you I want it fair and square!"
Who: Ace and Azelma Thénardier
What: Talking about pictures, mostly.
When: After this
Where: Éponine and Scoot’s side of Haruka and Michiru’s place. :v
Rating: Probably PG13, and only because Ace swore. le gasp.
Status: Complete. :v

Azelma nervously sat on her bed, realising it might have been a little awkward asking a nearly total stranger over to see her pictures, but she’d seemed nice enough. She hadn’t bothered getting dressed properly, choosing to stay in just lounge pants and a tank top type shirt because it was way more comfortable and all the shirts she had now were a bit too tight in the chest area.

She rocked front to back, having entirely forgotten she was pregnant for the moment of actually inviting the woman over. No one could probably really blame her for being anxious over someone seeing, what with so many having very bad stigma ideas of teenagers getting pregnant. Azelma bit her lip and waited for a sign that she was there.

When she heard the doorbell ring she stood and walked all the way over and opened the door enough to show just her face, using her foot to try and keep Ego from bolting out or tackling. “Are you okay with dogs? I can put him into the kennel we have quickly if you aren’t. And you’re not allergic to cats, right?”

It wasn’t often that Ace really got to go out of the house. Sure, she had the occasional moment with Luna, or her doctor-y friend, but... that was really about it. It was kind of nice to be out, and even nicer to be with someone new - sure, little awkward to come to her house already, but nothing she couldn’t deal with.

“I’m good with animals. It’s really fine.” Personally, she preferred cats, but that wasn’t something she was about to admit. “Not allergic to anythin’ like that. ‘Cause I’m well wicked, obviously.”

“...your accent is sexy in person.” And oh god did she just say that out loud? She blushed and tried to have it off as not having said it and pulled her in, shutting and locking all 5 of the deadbolt locks and side locks of the door. “This is Ego, Nyx is the little grey tabby kitty, Kei is the pretty one right there, Mana is the little black kitty...” And it’s at this point that she made a face because the kitten obviously wanted to be held but that meant bending over...

Azelma held on the table in the doorway and squatted down as best she could to try and pick the feline up. “Oh you bastard cat, Nyx.” He’d run off. “After I got down here!” Pushed herself up and tried to regain her balance, “Come on, everything is in my room in back. We can grab you a drink on the way there.”

Why yes, yes she did just say that out loud. Just a bit of a surprise to Ace, really, but one she could totally recover from... she moved to help Azelma regain her balance, just because. “Much as I like cats, I know they’re total bastards. Kinda what they do, y’know.”

“But he behaves just fine for my brother...” Azelma pouted and gave the cat an evil glare before heading off properly. “Do you have anything in particular you like to drink?” Opened up the fridge. “We have pretty much anything you could want really. Joys of living with people who pretty much throw money like a horny bastard at a strip club.” Grabbed a thing of orange juice for herself before stepping out of the way. “Pick something. I’m going to get a thing of chips and a little bag of those mini donuts so we can share!”

That was... definitely one of the weirdest metaphors that Ace had ever heard. She picked out a drink pretty much at random, just from the stuff she knew she liked. “This is gonna be pretty nice...”

She hoped it would be nice after all. Azelma turned and led her to her room and pulled the rolling table over by her bed so that the food could lay there. All over her walls were the many pictures she’d taken, finally off the little rolls of film. She grabbed her portfolio book and set it on the bed and patted for Ace to sit. “Here.” She eeped and rested a hand on her stomach “Hey now... Calm down little one.”

“Can’t imagine how you can cope with that.” Let it be said that Ace definitely, definitely wasn’t parent material. Of any kind. She was bad with children, verging on completely and utterly terrible. “Must be well weird.”

“It’s... different but something I’ve wanted for a long while...” Bit her lip and just focused on the pictures. Several of them were actually photos of police brutality, men and women protesting, and other activist things. Amongst pictures of flowers, the city, and the ocean. Azelma began chewing on the inside of her cheek because for some reason looking at a picture of her parents‘ gang drinking (something her father insisted she take) was eating away at the back of her mind.

“Massive range of things...” It was kind of impressive to Ace. All she’d ever been good at in life amounted to... well, nothing, really. She’d never found herself to be anything special, anything even remotely unique. “I’m impressed. Really.”

“Thank you... I put all my heart into photography... Maybe I should show my sister all of what I’ve taken. Maybe she could help get me a job in doing it?” Shrugged. “Not like anyone will hire a pregnant teenager with mental problems.” Laughed dryly a few times before setting the book away.

Well, you never knew, right? Photography was one of those well weird emotionally-based work-fields, so... “Won’t know until you ask. I mean, this stuff is well wicked.”

“I guess so.” Meeped when suddenly another kick that actually made her shoot up to sitting straight up and held her stomach. “Kid, why so hard?!” Little knowing it was because her heart rate increased.

Ace arched an eyebrow. That was kinda weird. “Probably got a reason. Seem to remember that they don’t do stuff like that without, y’know, something happening.”

Not that she’d ever been any good with kids. Only child and all, and most of what she knew came from her friends’ various attempts at parenting.

“Maybe she just wants to be evil today, tends to be the norm with my family.” Ran a hand down her shoulder and looked up to her. “Not meaning anything behind this... But do you think I’m pretty?”

Ace shrugged. “I guess you look pretty good? Definitely a lot better than... well, lot of people out there.”

That wasn’t the best sort of answer she wanted, but she’d go with it. She leaned against the pillows and rubbed her neck. “Agh, I ache all over...”

Ace was clearly the master of giving not-exactly-right answers. It was a talent. “Uh... anything I can do, or is that just a thing that happens?”

“It’s something that happens. I have double the hormones a woman has because there’s a little girl in there. And so my whole body doesn’t know what to do with it.” Shrugged. “A massage would be nice, but we just met so that would be rushing it.” Playful smirk that she quickly pushed down. She was bad at flirting, okay?

Man. And Ace had thought that she could suck at flirting. “Yeah, definitely rushing it. Can’t be doing that.”

Azelma put her head down. “You can go now if you want... I won’t mind. People usually grow bored of my company so you won’t hurt my feelings.”

Well, people like that were mega naff. Personally, Ace thought that Azelma was a pretty damn interesting person, and what she’d done with those photos was pretty interesting too... “‘Case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly like other people. That’s why I’m ace and all, y’know?”

She looked up and she’s smiling, partially because Ace is a bit silly, the other because it was nice knowing someone wasn’t going to just leave. “Want to do something? We can play a board game? Unlike my siblings I don’t cheat or throw pieces at each other.”

Definitely nice to see her smile like that. Ace’d been starting to think that she was one of those people who just... didn’t. “Sure. Might be fun, I guess?”

“Okay!” Azelma exclaimed and hobbled onto her feet, nearly losing balance once because she got up to fast but was quick to recover. “Do you like Monopoly? Or do you not like counting? I don't like counting... We could play chess?”

“I’m actually the kind of person who cheats at Monopoly. Y’know, you wait until the other person leaves the room, then steal their stuff...” Yes, Ace knew she was terrible, and no, she didn’t care. Why should she? “I’m kinda good at chess. Been a while, but it’s not something you forget, right?”

“I was in the chess club in high school... Sort’ve won state champion every year till I graduated... Maybe playing with you wouldn’t be fair.” She knows full well she was a nerd going through high school. Taking pictures, chess, stuff like that.

“That’s actually kinda awesome.” No, Ace wasn’t lying. She’d not been fantastic at school, but she’d had nothing but respect for the people who could be like that.

“It’s all thanks to my sister... She helped me keep nearly straight As, helped with homework and everything in hopes we’d end up somewhere, where we all of us could get a better life. Guess all her hard work didn’t matter much, huh?” Azelma sighed and rested a hand on her stomach briefly before looking back in the game closet. “My sister’s boyfriend has a game room, if you like video games. I’m good at that weird melee one or something!”

Ace certainly wouldn’t have said that. It wasn’t like being pregnant ruined the chances you got in life... she’d had enough friends, back home, who’d gotten pregnant during high school and still managed to come out more than okay. “Still got one hell of a future ahead of you, if you ask me...”

Ooh, games. That... was more tempting than Ace was about to admit. “If he wouldn’t mind us ‘borrowing’ his gameroom? Yeah, I’m good with that.”

“I don’t think he would. As long as we don’t do anything naughty.” Did that just come out of her mouth?! Oops!

Ace was going to pretend that she hadn’t heard that, just for the sake of keeping things from getting... special. She wasn’t that kind of girl, dammit. “Wicked. Show me what you’ve got, then?”

Azelma smiled and led her to the game room and set the TV on. “Now... You can play anything you want and I can blog, I’m only really good at this one.”’ Held up a melee fighting game. “So... I’m more than okay with you playing and me getting my laptop and updating blog.”

“How ‘bout we play together?” It made more sense to Ace for things to be that way, at very least. “I’ll even go easy on you...”

“You don’t have too! If I’m to beat you I want it fair and square!” Gave a rather miffed face, crossed with a bit of a pout.

And, try as she might, Ace couldn’t help but laugh. “Wicked. Let’s do this.”