Vanessa Cleveland can turn invisible (filiampandora) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-03-27 15:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | penny adiyodi, vanessa cleveland |
Who: Vanessa and Penny
What: Talking about a rather extravagant Christmas present she got
When: Decemberish
Where: Their apartment
Rating/Warnings: Drinking, Taylor Swift lyrics, talking about the future
Status: Complete when posted
Vanessa was trying to figure out the best way to tell Penny about the house she’d been given. And she wanted to be the one to tell him. Not him picking it up from her thoughts which was why she was singing the lyrics to every Taylor Swift song she knew over and over in her head, knowing it would annoy him and maybe keep him from poking around in her head anymore. She heard the door open and turned around to see who it was. “Hey. I got something to tell you. But you have to promise not to get mad first.”
***
Penny, generally speaking, pretty much abided by the phrase ‘already mad’, but he did his best to make his face not look as angry as usual. “Okay, sure, whatever,” he said, but tried to poke around in her head a bit to get a read on what it was going to be. All he got was a very aggressive SORRY, THE OLD TAYLOR CAN’T COME TO THE PHONE RIGHT NOW. WHY? OH, ‘CAUSE SHE’S DEAD! Same as it had been the last few days.
Penny grunted and went to the fridge to get a beer. ‘Promising not to get mad’ always meant bad news, and bad news needed alcohol to deal with. Leaning against the counter, he said, “If you tell me I’m gonna be a father I’m leaving,” as he popped the top off his beer.
***
“Please that’s a phone call and asking to meet somewhere public so neither of us can cause a scene.” Vanessa said giving him a smile as she grabbed the beer to take a sip. “No. You’re not going to be a father. Presto’s moving to England.” She said handing the beer back as she moved to sit on the counter beside where he was leaning.
“That’s where I was earlier today. Hanging out with him at his house. Which -” her voice trailed off as she held up the key ring. “He gave me for a late Christmas present. Fully furnished.”
***
“Hey now - “ Penny reached for her, grabbing the beer and setting it securely on the counter and out of the way, before catching Vanessa by the hips to help her up. “How is that ‘don’t be mad’ news? I fuckin’ hate Precious.” Not really; Presto was probably the least offensive person in the multiverse (and Penny had met plenty of offensive motherfuckers, in and out of the dreams), and a single nudity-based incident aside, they hadn’t had any beef. But Penny couldn’t let that nudity incident go. That just wasn’t who he was.
But the revelation of an impressibly large gift - the kind of thing that Penny would never be able to give her, the kind of thing that represented the kind of intangible future that he couldn’t even fathom...well, that might get Presto actually on the goddamn shit list. His face screwed up and he did his best to not get mad but, like...this was everything that Penny was supposed to be providing, right? He was the man of the house. (Not that V couldn’t provide for herself, or that she couldn’t be the main breadwinner, or that they weren’t on equal footing in all things non-psychic, but Penny didn’t exactly have a good basis for what a ‘family’ even was, just a collection of outdated nuclear concepts gathered from television mingled with his own discomfort over the concept.)
And that was assuming that he was even invited along. It was, y’know, V’s house in a very concrete way. She could just as easily tell Penny to get lost as she could do anything else. “‘Kay,” he said, noncommittal and trying for ‘cool’ and ‘not anxious’ and ‘not in any way terrified that the best thing to ever happen to him was going to end before it had a chance to start’. “So what?”
***
Vanessa shook her head at him, not even bothering to try to correct him about Presto’s name. Some fights just weren’t worth the energy and that was one of them in her book. “The house is the don’t be mad part.” She said softly. She took a deep breath, reaching out for his hand. “Because I really think that we’ll get a lot further on deciding what to do with this house if we’re both clear-minded. We could sell it and put the money in a bank account to save it for something. Or...we could live there. The lease here is up in a couple months and the house would have a lot more room for us.” Okay yes she was involving him in her plans without asking him if he wanted to be but she was trying to be optimistic and hopeful that he’d want to be.
***
Penny hated the way his shoulders dropped, hated the way he visibly relaxed at the fact that she was obviously including him in this, hated that if she paid attention she’d be able to tell how much it had bothered him. “I mean,” he said, turning to get his beer to cover that up and taking a long drink. “I mean, y’know. ‘S your house. You do whatever you want with it, I’m just the freeloader here.” He had the feeling she might object to that, which would feel good (he’d admit), but it was the truth.
***
Vanessa ran her hand up his arm to rest on the side of his neck. “Look at me. You are not a freeloader. And maybe the reason the house got put in my name only is because yours is a nightmare to spell. I mean hell - I can’t spell it and I live with you. And because of that - I really want this to be a decision we make together. Because it affects both of us.”
***
Penny resisted the touch for a long moment, then turned into her hand so her palm was cradling his face and he could press a kiss against her wrist. “Whatever, not my problem you white people can’t figure it out,” he said to cover up the moment of softness.
He wanted to stay in that moment, the comfort and sweetness of it, but that just wasn’t who he was. Constantly moving and always hard was more his style, at least, that was who he wanted to be. So he pulled away and took a drink of beer. “I mean, I guess the smart thing to do would be to sell it and run, property taxes ‘n shit, y’know? But like...if it’s in a good place, maybe we could rent it out or something. Plenty’a frou-frou rich fuckers to cater to around here.” He shrugged. “I wouldn’t know what to do with a place that big, y’know? The homes I was in didn’t have the space for us to have our own rooms, let alone tons of extra ones.”
***
Vanessa shook her head at that comment. “I’ll stick to my boring old city last name thanks,” she told him, trying to keep from getting sucked into that little moment they’d had. Penny wasn’t good with feelings and she knew it. She could handle it.
“Yeah I know that feeling. Maybe before we make up our minds though - we could go check it out? See if we can’t come up with something to do with all those rooms just in case we can’t find a renter?”
***
“Whatever you say, City Mouse.” Another sip of his beer and he wandered into the living room to drop onto the couch. “Whatever you wanna do with the place, it’s yours. I’ll go with you. Should probably christen every room, right?” He leered at her with a slight grin, mostly teasing.
***
“City Mouse huh? I always did like their life better than their cousin.” Vanessa told him, sliding off the counter to go into the living room with him at that teasing comment. She sat on his lap, facing him. “There are a lot of rooms so it might take us a couple days to get through them all.”
***
“That a challenge?” Penny asked, leer fully dialling up. “I’m down for it if you are.” In the meantime, though, he drained the last of his beer and set the bottle aside, settling his hands on her thighs. His smile softened into something almost sweet. “A real house, huh? Never thought I’d see the day.”
***
“It might be.” Vanessa asked him, resting her hands on his shoulders as she made herself comfortable on his lap. “A real house. All for us.” She wanted him to say yes to moving there but she also knew he could be stubborn. She could try to convince him, which might end up a waste of her time or...she could just let him know what she wanted to do about it and leave it there. “That we could maybe go check out this weekend?”
***
“If that’s what you want,” Penny said with a shrug. Then he curled his hands more securely around her thighs and stood up, shifting his grip so he had a better hold of her. “In the meantime, let’s go rechristen the rooms here. Starting with the bedroom.”