Anna might be (elatedorgassy) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-08-05 08:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, agent washington, anna of arendelle |
Who: Wash and Anna
When: July 5
Where: Wash’s place
What: Drinks and stuff
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete
After the crazy that’d hit the area over the last week or so, Anna was relieved that all of her loved ones seemed to be in one piece. A little traumatized, maybe, because of the danger, drama and explosions? But in one piece, anyway. She’d been pretty awesome herself, and had actually chopped the head off of some dragon monster creature to save Katou. It was pretty amazing, if she didn’t say so herself.
Anna had talked to Wash during the crazy, but hadn’t seen him in a week. It was far too long, Anna thought, so she sent him a message and asked if he was busy tonight. Of course, she’d sent it from her car on the way to his place, so when she got the green light, she pretty much pulled up and climbed gingerly out of the car. When Katou dropped her, she’d hit her hip hard. It was still smarting, though she hadn’t checked the bruise there.
She rang the bell and waited for him to answer the door, looking forward to relaxing a bit, letting loose. Hopefully they could help each other out.
Not since the Fog and monsters that had crawled through Orange County in February had a Dream Event been so rough on Wash. He had taken somewhat better care of himself during this event, however, making sure to get just enough sleep and eat just enough to keep functioning. However, Wash did not do well with loud sudden noises, especially explosions, and there had been quite a number of them over the Fourth of July weekend.
The adrenalin in his blood was long gone. Without it pumping through him, he was physically exhausted. However, his mind refused to shut down so that he could rest. Between the combat, explosions and Fourth of July fireworks, Wash’s nerves were frayed and raw. As was usual after a county-wide event like this, Wash had a lot of leftover pent up energy that he couldn’t expel.
He’d already had one or two drinks by the time Anna had texted him. He wasn’t sure what kind of company he would be for her, however she sounded as though she really wanted to see him and he found he couldn’t tell her no. Actually, if he was being honest, he didn’t want to.
When Wash opened the door for Anna a few moments later, he looked ragged. He’d managed to get a shave in, so he wasn’t scruffy looking. However, no amount of face washing would wash the dark circles from around his eyes. He smiled at Anna anyway, tired, fatigued. “Hey, Anna.” he greeted her. “Come in.”
Anna wasn't sure what she was expecting to see when Wash opened the door. But it wasn't Wash looking so... tired. Ragged. The happy grin on her face faded into something a little more concerned. After all, Anna was an open book. She couldn't hide those feelings, even if she wanted to.
"Hey," she said, warmly, even through the concern. She stepped into the place, then lifted her arms to wrap him into a giant hug. Maybe he didn't need a hug, or maybe he didn't want it, but she was going to have one anyway. It felt good, this hug she'd forced upon him. It felt comforting, even if it was stolen. "Thanks for having me over."
Wash had never been a touchy-feely type of person. It hadn’t been the way he’d been raised. Hugging had not been something his family had ever done, at least not with him. He was awkward at it. Unexpected touching had always made his body tighten reflexively. It wasn’t something he liked. Normal people didn’t act like that. He tried to force himself to relax as he felt Anna’s arms go around him. The hug was awkward - at least on his end - but not unwanted. People needed contact with one another. They needed those connections in order to survive, to know that they weren’t alone.
Though the muscles in his body were rigid he returned her hug. “You’re welcome,” he said against her hair. “Thanks for coming.”
“Hey, anytime,” Anna said. She could feel him tense as he returned the hug, but she didn’t mind it. She was used to him being a little awkward about the physical stuff. Anna was a highly physical person, and she’d worried the first few times she’d hugged him that he was only putting up with her to be polite. (Actually, sometimes she still worried that about him. Because that’s what the other men she’d dated seemed to do.)
Pulling back from the hug, she brought her eyes to look up into his, noting the dark circles around them. She lifted a hand to brush hair from his forehead in a surprisingly maternal way. “...I think you owe me a beer.” She teased.
They weren’t quite at the point in their relationship for Wash to feel comfortable telling Anna the reasons behind why his muscles always seemed to tense-up when she reached out for him like that. At some point soon if their relationship continued on the friends with benefits path it currently was on, he would tell her that not all of his scars came from either his time as a marine or from the Dreams. He hoped she would understand.
Her touch brought a little color to his cheeks and he could feel them heat up. “Uh, yeah, beer.” He gave her another tired grin and gestured towards the living room. “Make yourself at home and I’ll get you a beer.”
“Thanks.” Anna understood that she’d pushed him, and didn’t want to push too much. So she stepped back and released him, then walked around him to go explore the living room. She’d been here before, but most of the time when they spent time together, it’d been at her place. It was kind of nice to not have to worry about Vampire hearing. And the look that Stefan always got--the crinkle in his forehead--whenever Anna mentioned Wash. (Which she did. She couldn’t help it.)
“Is your sister home?” She called out, dropping keys on an endtable and flopping down on the sofa. “I’m not interrupting family bonding time, am I?” Said with a little smirk.
The apartment Wash shared with Carolina was clean with a place for everything and everything in its place, although there wasn’t much to clutter the place. Wash didn’t have a whole lot in the way of personal belongings and Carolina had not yet gotten her own items out of the storage unit in Texas. A medium sized tabby cat came wandering out of one of the bedrooms. She paused for a moment to look up at Anna before meowing and coming over to the guest to rub against her legs.
“Carolina went out earlier,” Wash called to Anna from the kitchen. He pulled two bottles of beer from the refrigerator and opened them. He came back to the living room to hand Anna hers. “I’m glad you got through this latest round of weirdness ok.” He said.
When Wash came back into the living room, Anna was cuddling with the cat. She’d climbed down off the sofa and onto the floor, and was scritching the tabby behind her ears, cuddling in close, and talking to her as if she was a baby. “...yes, yes, you are. Yes, you are. Aren’t choo?” Anna said, letting the purring feline rub her face against her nose.
Then she noticed Wash and sat up to accept the bottle. “Thanks. And uh… yeah. Well, except for this horrible bruise on my hip, but. That’s all Katou’s fault.”
Suda was loving the attention. She purred something fierce as Anna patted her and looked most put-out when the girl stopped. She turned her attention up towards Wash and mewed again before wandering off to jump onto the back of the couch Carolina had brought.
Wash took a seat on the other couch and knocked back a third of the beer in one gulp. “How did that happen, exactly?” He asked, eyeing Anna carefully.
Anna climbed up off the floor so she could sit with her beer on the sofa. Then she lifted one foot and tucked it under herself, getting a little more comfortable. She sipped from the beer bottle. Okay, so Anna didn’t really like beer, and may have pulled a funny face as she swallowed. But hey, she could handle the bitterness.
“Well. Um. I don’t know what it is about Orange County and throwing me and Katou together, but… every time the crazy happens, he ends up saving my life. This time, I totally saved his. You should have seen me, Wash, with my sword? I was awesome.” She lifted her hands as if holding a sword, and swung the invisible sword around in the air, beaming like a maniac.
Wash raised a brow slightly. He could have gotten Anna something other than a beer. In fact, he’d been drinking whiskey when she’d texted him. If he had known she wasn’t much of a beer drinker, he’d have poured her a shot of that instead. Next round.
He chuckled softly as he watched Anna pantomime her sword skills. “I wish I could have,” he said. “You’ll have to show me your sword sometime. I’d like to see it. What did you have to save him from?” Wash had fought everything from nightmarish vampire monsters to actual literal demons. He’d heard reports about what others had faced while the rifts were open. Literally everything and anything had been pouring out of them.
She’d drink the beer. She’d asked for it. She couldn’t remember what they’d talked about--some sort of drinking?--so beer was her go-to. Stefan seemed to have learned that when she said “beer” she pretty much meant “something with alcohol in it” and he’d taken to surprising her with Zima or rum-and-coke or whatever. Anna would have to train Wash, too.
“Maybe next time we’ll be together when the crazy hits. I think you might be more fun to be with that stupid Katou. He dropped me so hard on my hip I have to sit sideways so I don’t hurt it.” Anna scowled, but it was short lived. She couldn’t stay mad for long. “I can definitely show you. It’s from when I worked--” Emotion welled up when she thought of the fencing studio, and she had to swallow it down. She cleared her throat, gulped the disgusting, bitter stuff from her bottle, and then tried again. “When I worked at the fencing school.” All thought of the ugly, lizard thing was gone from her mind as she thought about working with her ex before he left. It was so long ago, and yet it still hurt.
Wash chuckled tiredly. “Yeah, that’s Katou. I’m going to have to give him shit for dropping you, you know. Still, he’s a good guy to have at your back when this type of shit happens. I’m glad you two were able to help each other and that you’re both ok. I’m sorry I wasn’t there. Next time I will be, I promise.”
Wash’s beer was already gone. He set it aside on the table and got to his feet to get another. He paused when he saw Anna’s mood shift. It wasn’t hard to see. Anna never hid her emotions. Wash liked that about her. So many people he knew tried to hide what they were feeling, their pain. Wash was no exception. He even went so far as to attempt to drown his emotions nightly. Anna was more of an open book. Her honesty was refreshing and welcome.
Wash thought about asking her what had happened at this fencing school, but thought better of it. “You want something else?” he asked and pointed to the beer she was holding. “You don’t have to drink that for me. I’m gonna get a glass of whiskey. I think we have some wine if you’d rather drink that.”
“He’ll probably just laugh it off.” Anna didn’t hate Katou. Actually, he was a friend. But she found his cynicism supremely irritating, as much as he probably found her optimism. Some people might say they balanced each other out, actually. Anna was thankful to him for his help, and had come to understand him better than she ever imagined when they swapped bodies. “But it’s okay. Just don’t touch my hip, and we’re fine. At least, don’t touch it hard.” Because Anna could never tell Wash not to touch her.
“I’ll have whatever you’re having?” She said, turning to watch him wander out of the room. She gave him a relieved smile. Thanks for not pushing. The fencing school and everyone who worked there were part of Anna’s past. Not her future. She turned to pet the cat again, leaving the choice of beverage up to Wash. She trusted him to bring whatever he thought was good.
“Oh I have no doubt that he will,” Wash called back. “But I can’t not give him shit.” Katou was a good friend - like a little brother, really. It would have been remiss of Wash to not poke at him for letting Anna save him. He really wished he had seen it.
Wash’s drink for the evening was whiskey. He picked up the bottle and a couple of glasses and returned to the living room. He set the glasses down and showed her the bottle. “Do you like whiskey?” He asked. It was what he’d been drinking when she had texted him. “If not I can find something else. We might have wine, but I can’t vouch for how good it is.” For as often as Wash drank, he tended to stay away from wine and stuck primarily to hard alcohol or beer when none was available.
So, Anna and hard liquor were an interesting combination. The girl was a lightweight, and would probably only need two big swallows to get tipsy. She’d only had rum and vodka; the more college-aged drinks. Things like scotch, bourbon, and whiskey were a bit of a mystery to her.
“No, I’ve never had it.” She said, sitting up and away from the cat again. (Apparently, she had magic fingers, because the cat was purring like a chainsaw when she moved away from her.) “Is it good? I mean, the whiskey?” She was excited about trying something new.
“It’s what I usually have,” he answered. When beer just wasn’t enough to take the edge of his nerves or get Epsilon’s ghost to quiet down enough for him to concentrate or relax enough to slow down and actually sleep. Did he drink it a little too often, probably, but Wash was beyond the point of caring what was considered normal and what wasn’t. Nothing around this place was normal. “I like it. But like most alcohol, it’s something of an acquired taste. Here, give it a try.” He poured her a small shot and handed her the glass. If she tried it and didn’t like it, Wash would dig out that bottle of wine for her instead. If she wanted it. Wash certainly wasn’t going to make her drink if she didn’t want to.
After handing Anna her shot, Wash poured a healthy glass of whiskey for himself. He set the bottle down well within arm’s reach. Three drinks were not going to be enough tonight, he had known that even before Anna had texted.
“Okay.” Anna was willing to try anything once. Twice, even, since everything deserved a second chance. She lifted the glass and sniffed it, then gave a little cough. The smell was super strong. She was gonna be drunk. That was for sure. It might be just what the doctor ordered. “You drink this stuff a lot?” She asked, then sipped tentatively. It burned, but it wasn’t horrible. So she sipped again. After what felt like two heartbeats, she could already feel the stuff warming her tummy. She decided she liked it.
“I can see why,” she said, and then tipped back the rest of the glass. It burned even worse than the first couple of sips, so she coughed again.
“Well, not a lot.” Wash answered. Carolina would have argued otherwise. Wash was very familiar now with the looks she gave him when he poured himself a drink at night. She hadn’t actually said anything yet, but Wash didn’t appreciate the implications of said look. It was almost as if she were silently counting how many drinks he was having. Was she worried, was she silently scolding him? Wash couldn’t quite figure it out. What difference did it make? He was a grown man and it wasn’t as if he was getting falling down drunk all the time or missing work. He was holding it together just fine.
He chuckled a little bit. “Take it easy,” he told her. “Sip it your first time. It won’t hit you quite as hard.” He knocked his own back like a pro. The burning sensation down his throat was quickly followed by the relaxation he had been chasing that evening. Ahh, a buzz. That was what he was after.
“Okay. Sipping. Sipping slowly. Um, on my next one.” Sheepishly, Anna realized her glass was nearly empty. She took the last sip, then cradled it between her warm hands.
Anna could already feel something happening. Whether it was actually the alcohol sinking in or some kind of psychosomatic thing, she wasn’t sure. But she was already starting to feel warm and fuzzy. She set the glass down so her could refill it, then shifted against that bruise on her hip. The jeans were rubbing it the wrong way.
“I’ve got an idea,” Anna said, perking up a little. “Let’s play a game.”
“Next one,” Wash agreed as he took her glass from her. “Stefan will kill me if I got you totally blitzed.” Stefan was protective of the bubbly girl, which Wash totally understood. It was also kind of endearing. He understood the whole brother/sister dynamic. Even before Carolina had revealed herself to be Wash’s long lost sister, they’d had a very similar relationship - accusations of stalking notwithstanding.
He poured Anna another shot and decided that was probably enough for her. He sat back with his own drink already half gone and raised a brow at her. “Game?” He asked. Sure he could try playing a game. He was buzzed enough now to relax enough to play. “What kind of game?”
“Bah. Stefan wouldn’t kill you. He might smack you around a little,” Anna teased, giving him a grin. She knew that Stefan was protective of her, but she had no idea the extent to which he’d go to make sure she was safe. It was as if she wasn’t fully aware the affect she had on people--they were super protective of her innocence and optimism the same way she was determined to brighten everyone’s day. It was sort of a win-win situation.
“Oh, I dunno. Something where we don’t have to move too much,” she said, because her bruise was smarting again. She reached forward for her glass despite the twinge it caused. “...truth or dare, maybe?” Wait, was that showing her age? “If you’ve got a deck of cards we could play something with it.”
“With Stefan’s vampire strength, smacking me around might just be enough to kill me.” Not that he thought Stefan would kill him. Not on purpose anyway. Not unless Wash had truly done something to deserve it.
Then Wash laughed. A deep kind of laugh that was rare for him. “Truth or dare?” He asked. Ok, maybe Anna was showing her age a little, but Wash wasn’t laughing at her. She was young, why shouldn’t she act like it? Besides, it had been a long time since Wash had played Truth or Dare and he was just drunk enough to think it was a good idea. Plus, the last time he and Carolina had played cards, she’d fleeced him and he’d been fucking sober at the time.
“We can do Truth or Dare if you want,” he said after taking a gulp from his glass. “Few ground rules though. Neither one of us is up to doing anything too...physical, so the dares have to involve whatever we can do on the couch...maybe the floor we think we can manage. Second...nothing too personal with the truths. Fair?”
Anna had been on the receiving end of Stefan's vampire strength only once, and she would like to keep it that way. It could absolutely kill someone. But there was no doubt in her mind that Stefan would never hurt Wash. Never in a million years.
The way he asked made Anna blush. Did he think it was too immature? Was she being a silly girl for asking? But his restrictions sounded reasonable, so she broke into an excited grin. The alcohol was already sinking in. She sipped again, nodding. “Absolutely. You want to go first?”
Wash knocked back what was left in his glass. He had an appropriate buzz going. The ragged look he had answered the door with had mostly gone, replaced by more relaxed posture and a half grin. Dark circles still lingered under his eyes, but those had become almost a permanent fixture on his face. All he had to do now was maintain said buzz without stepping over the line into drunk. A fine line to walk indeed.
“Alright, I can go first,” he said with a shrug before reaching for the bottle to freshen his glass. Let’s see if he could remember how to play. “Hmm...truth, I guess?” He wasn’t quite up for a dare quite yet.
Little sips. Anna was taking little sips. More than she would have if she’d been taking big ones, but still getting less alcohol into her system than if she’d been drinking as fast as before. She was warm and fuzzy, and happy to be there with Wash.
The cat jumped up onto the sofa, and Anna started to pet it again.
“Truth, hmm?” She said, her mind swirling a bit. “All right… um… let’s start simple? Something easy.” She took a moment to think, setting her glass down on the table. “If you could be any fictional character, who would you be?”
Wash tilted his head thoughtfully. “Any fictional character?” He repeated and leaned back in his seat. He glanced down at Suda who was nuzzling herself up against Anna’s side purring loudly. “I haven’t ever thought about it,” he admitted after a moment. “When I was a kid I used to loose myself in comic books and video games to escape my home life. Just kind of got caught up in those kinds of worlds whenever I could. I never really put much thought into becoming one of them. So I don’t really know…” that was a lame answer to start their game and he frowned a little bit at himself. “When I was a kid I guess I’d say I’d want to be a superhero or something. You know, like one of the Avengers.” He polished off his drink. “Maybe if I wasn’t living in Orange County where I kind of have to deal with weird ass comic book shit every other month I’d say the same thing.” He reached for the bottle of whiskey. “Your turn now, right? Truth or dare?”
“Oh, man! I can totally see you as a superhero.” Anna gave him a smile. Warm, sloppy, her eyes glowing with affection. She lifted the glass to sip from it again, slightly bigger than before. The buzz was definitely there in her head. Wash was totally a superhero in her mind.
“Oh. Um. Dare.” Anna said, fearless and flirtatious.