Clarice is working with portals (lostinexile) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-10-08 19:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, clarice ferguson (blink), neena thurman (domino) |
This is great!
Who: Clarice and Neena
What: Meeting the parents
When: A few days ago
Status: complete
Rating: PG-13
There had been some delays. And other things. But Clarice had finally managed to convince Neena it was okay to meet her parents. She’d chosen a public place, a nice restaurant that wasn’t too fancy, but not a dive either. It would make it harder for them to have some kind of freak out. They’d always thought her bisexuality was just a phase. And then she’d started ‘dyeing her skin pink’ and it was sometimes a little much, she knew, even for parents as supportive as they were.
She’d put in some contacts to hide the glow of her eyes, but she left the markings. They could just deal with the tattoos.
“We’re going to be late.”
"I'm... almost done. There." Her voice sounded a little thick and rough, still. She'd gone nearly three weeks without speaking before Clarice managed to get something out of her, just in time for this meeting with her parents.
Neena stepped out of the bathroom and nervously tucked some hair behind her ear. She'd applied some white face paint over her eye spot to even her complexion out. With a little extra blush and some eyeshadow, she just looked like someone who was really pale. She'd opted for a nice blouse and some pants, something that didn't look too promiscuous. "I hope this is okay."
It had been hard. The not talking thing, and Clarice couldn’t have done it alone. But she was glad to hear Neena’s voice again. She smoothed out Neena’s shirt, then her pants, then smoothed her shirt out again, then flailed her hands. “Okay. Okay. Calm. I’m calm. You look great.”
Dealing with all of her bullshit was pretty hard, Neena knew that. That's why she wanted to make tonight the best she could. Meeting the parents wasn't even her thing. It made her just about as nervous as Clarice was.
But she grinned devilishly, and tugged on Clarice's shirt, "You look amazing. We're... going to look so good together that they can't possibly be pissed off at us or anything. And I'll buy. Kind of like... you know, being the guy in the relationship. Maybe they'll think that's classy."
Clarice grinned at her, then gropped a breast playfully. “I don’t know how you can be the guy with breasts like these, but we can pretend.” She winked, then twirled a portal around then. “Ready?”
She didn’t wait for an answer.
"Oh yeah sure I'm-- Aaand, you portaled us already." Neena didn't think that Clarice was bold enough to just portal them straight into the restaurant, and she looked around to familiarize herself with their surroundings.
She'd had just enough time to grab her jacket before they'd portaled, which was good. Her wallet was in there and so was a knife. The pockets were too small for a gun. "I feel kind of naked."
Clarice had ported them nearby and out of sight. She wasn’t that crazy. She took Neena’s hand, admiring the ring on it with a pleased grin. She squeezed her fingers. “Come on.” She led Neena towards the entrance, winking at one old man who was staring.
Neena flashed an impudent little smirk at the old man as they walked by, because she was the one who got to go home with the woman he was staring at. It made her feel a little more confident and sure of herself, feelings she tried to embrace as they made their way into the restaurant.
"This is going to be so much fun. Lots of fun. The food smells really good."
Clarice could feel eyes on her as they walked in. “Yeah, this was a good choice. It’s one of their favorite places.”
And they were watching, and hopefully not judging, because Clarice wasn’t sure she could handle them judging. This was serious. She was getting married, and she just hoped her parents could accept the girl thing. The age thing she wasn’t worried about - Neena was hot enough that she didn’t think they’d notice.
Being older was definitely the thing on Neena's mind the most, but she wasn't about to go mentioning that in front of Clarice's parents. She, too, could feel eyes on her and not in the admiring way. It made her want to fidget with something.
"Which ones are your parents? It's hard to tell since... you know, Pink doesn't run in the family." Maybe the joke was in bad taste, but Neena just needed to break the tension.
“Over here.” She led Neena over to her parents, who were waiting at a table. Neena’s mom got up and offered Neena her hand. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Lin.”
She was a lithe woman, taller than Clarice, with hair gone white and sharp green eyes. “This is Tom.”
Clarice’s dad was shorter, and a little portly, with a salt and pepper mustache and receding hairline. He just eyed Neena like he was sizing her up.
Neena was no stranger to that kind of look. She got a lot of them in her line of work, which made a certain amount of sense considering the other people she met on the job were usually trying to kill her. Since she didn't want to cause a confrontation, she merely gave him a nod and a steely look before turning her attention to the more welcoming parent in this equation.
With Lin, she put on the charm. Her most winning smile, and a handshake that was just firm and enthusiastic enough, "It's a pleasure to meet you both, too. I'm really glad that we could all get together like this."
“It could have happened sooner,” But the look she gave was reserved only for her daughter. “But maybe she was worried. I don’t see why. She scored a looker.”
Clarice smiled sheepishly at her mom and shrugged her shoulder. Tom just sat back down, still trying to process all this. So it hadn’t been a phase?
"That's not entirely her fault," Neena replied, looking a bit sheepish as she took her seat. She pulled the napkin off the chair and took a quick glance around to survey the exits as she settled it onto her lap, "I was nervous to meet you both, too. I think she was just looking out for me. She does that a lot."
The comments about her being a looker though, those were flattering enough to make Neena's cheeks pink up a bit. It was something she heard from Clarice and Logan, sure, but from people's mothers? That was another story.
“That’s one of her best traits,” Lin agreed. She sat as well. They ended up with Tom across from Neena and Lin across from Clarice. Tom’s scowl only grew deeper. He shifted in his seat, looking intensely uncomfortable.
Clarice rubbed her arm. “I got some other news too. Besides the meeting the girlfriend thing.”
They were more than girlfriends, but Neena thought it was better to ease her parent into things than just rip the bandaid off completely. Even if that wasn't really her style. Tom especially didn't look enthusiastic about things, and she didn't want Clarice getting hurt if he made some kind of annoying scene.
"This is your moment, I'll let you talk." Neena figured the other news was about the theatre, and that was a safer subject. Maybe her father would look less like he'd swallowed sour grapes afterward.
That’s what Clarice was hoping, too. She could tell them later that they were going to get married. That Neena was going to be a part of their lives whether they wanted her to be or not, and from the way she looked at the older woman she hoped at least one of her parents got the hint that this was serious.
She licked her lips. “You know how I took over managing for the theater?”
Her dad nodded so she continued, getting more excited. “I bought it! I got a loan and now I own it!”
Silence fell at the table and Clarice felt her heart in her throat. Her dad unfolded his arms and leaned forward. “It’s all yours?” As if asking if Neena had anything to do with it.
“All mine, I did all the work myself.”
“Good.” He seemed happy about that. “I know that’s always been something you’ve worked hard for, you’ll do fine.”
"She's pretty amazing. I didn't even get a chance to offer to go in on it with her, she got it all settled like a sneaky ninja before she even told me about it." Neena added, giving Clarice a playful wink. She was obviously proud of Clarice's accomplishments, "Owning the space gives her a lot of freedom to explore more of her own work."
It brought a grin to the pink woman’s lips. “We’ve held an open forum of sorts recently. We had someone arrange it so that people could come in with their talents and do their own shows and such on the nights we’re not doing our own thing. It’s a lot of fun.”
“And… people are okay with…” Lin gestured at her daughter. “The skin thing?”
The reminder made Clarice’s face falter a little bit. “Yes. It’s one of the draws. I actually feel more like… myself this way. It ‘s not easy to explain, but that’s how I feel.”
"She's gorgeous." Neena's tone was firm, as if her final input was the end to any arguments on the matter of Clarice's skin color. It was a sticking point with her, Neena knew, much like Neena's age was one of her own. It made her blood boil to hear the woman's own parents dragging her down.
But it wasn't like they could explain that they were mutants. Her parents would never understand, and that made the discussion difficult, "I never even knew I liked the color pink until we met, and now I can't see my life any other way."
“Is that what you...do? Too?” Tom gestured at Neena, indicating her own skin. The woman was shockingly pale, and he wondered if she was one of those goths he’d heard so much about. A likely troublemaker.
“She’s naturally that pale,” Clarice said, narrowing her eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with that, just like there’d be nothing wrong if she was naturally dark.”
Lin kicked Tom under the table and he looked suitable abashed.
"It's actually a skin condition, all the people in my family seem to be born with it. You wouldn't even believe the amount of sunblock I have to wear when we go outside. I've had to come up with creative ways to make using a parasol look cool." It wasn't actually a lie. Her mother's skin, her brother's skin, were all as white. If Essex was involved with her family in the dream world like he was, here, then it went even further back, Neena figured.
"Where's a waiter when you need one, eh? I think we could all use some refreshments here don't you?"
Of the alcoholic variety, mainly. Neena thought this dinner could definitely use some alcohol.
This was awkward, but Clarice didn’t really regret it. It could have been worse, she could have been disowned or something and her mom seemed okay with it, and even her dad seemed to slowly be getting over his issues. “We tried this all over tan spray once, she ended up looking like a bronze idol.”
Lin laughed, and flagged a waiter over. She needed some alcohol, herself.
"If I'd stood still long enough I think someone would have mistaken me for a statue," Neena joked.
The waiter couldn't get to their table fast enough, as far as she was concerned. She reached her hand under the table to find Clarice's, and gave it a squeeze. This was going pretty well as far as she was concerned.
“How long have you two been dating?” Tom asked, right as his wife asked, “How did you meet?”
Clarice flushed a little bit and hid behind her glass when it arrived. Thank god. She wasn’t sure how she was going to get out of that latter question, but she could at least answer the first. “We’ve been officially dating since March. So about eight months now.” Even if the booty call had been Feburary, and they hadn’t really said they were dating for awhile, even past March. But March made for a good date.
"But it feels like we've known each other forever. It was so strange to me, I've never met anyone in my life that knew me that well so quickly." Neena wasn't going to even touch how they met. She wasn't sure if Clarice wanted to formulate a polite lie about it. As she reached for her own glass she wished that they'd had a chance to get their stories straight before this.
“You could say it was one of those whirlwind things at first. Neena can be pretty exciting and she’s good about … encouraging me when I need it.” She glanced at her woman, unable to keep the adoration out of her eyes. It was a look she didn’t often get - part of her always afraid she’d scare Neena away by displaying her emotions. And she also knew Neena wasn’t hugely into displays like that so she didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. But she couldn’t help it just then.
Neena didn't even mind it, especially not at that moment. In fact, the look she returned was openly adoring, as well - she kind of wanted to show the two of them off a bit. "Yeah, well, I'm not the only force of nature at this table."
It made Clarice’s heart swell, and she felt herself resisting the urge to bounce giddily.
“My god you two are disgusting,” Lin said, rolling her eyes. “I’m going to get cavities. This is great. You can keep her.” She nodded at Clarice, then glared at her husband. He grunted.
Clarice took that as a good sign. “Oh! I got you guys tickets to one of my shows.” Just not the one where half the cast was naked.
Maybe this meal was going to go well after all.