Fruit Loops are for Krogers (quadpower) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2012-10-06 23:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, kasumi goto, wrex |
When’s lunch?
Who: Kasumi, Wrex
What: Kasumi visits the ranch, there is flirting and kissing.
When: Recently
Where: Urdnot Ranch
Ratings/Warnings: PG-13 for shirtless guys and cupcake subtext.
Status: Complete!
There were a number of volunteers milling about at Urdnot Ranch. Some of them were regulars, but quite a few were first time volunteers. Some of them had read a piece about the Ranch that had been in the news recently, talking about the damage suffered in the quakes and the ongoing construction effort. Several people in matching yellow shirts appeared to be part of a church group.
Kasumi was able to gather all of this information by slipping through the crowd, making casual conversation and eavesdropping a bit. She wasn’t entirely out of place, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, with her hair pulled back into a ponytail and threaded through a baseball cap. There was a check-in table, and Kasumi melted into the middle of the crowd.
When she finally got to the front of the line, she grinned at the man with the check-list.
Managing the volunteers was one of those things that someone had probably told Wrex 18 times would be better handled by some kind of electronic means. Computers, iPads, even his Starkphone could have handled it better.
Instead, he kept a handwritten check-in list on one clipboard and a check-list of volunteer jobs on another. It worked for him, and he was mainly just pleased that he'd managed to keep track of everything so far. Of course, he wasn't expecting the volunteer that had just showed up.
He stared up at her, blinking his eyes a few times. Then a slow grin spread across his face, "Hello stranger. Welcome to Urdnot Ranch."
The motivation behind a lot of things Kasumi did was to see the reaction. She liked to see how people worked, what they did when they were surprised. It was better than TV, most of the time. Wrex's reaction made her grin broaden.
"Hey, boss," she said brightly. "Got anything you'd like me to do?" she asked, batting her eyelashes in faux-innocence as she leaned forward to peek at the checklist.
There were a couple of things that sprung to the top of Wrex's mind at that question, which he had immediately guttered thanks to the way Kasumi had chosen to dress that day.
It'd been a long, long time since his mind guttered things like that. It made him grin even more widely, though his ears had gone a bit red, "Well, that depends on what kind of skills you've got."
Horrible attempt at flirting, check. He handed her the one clipboard so that she could sign her name, while looking over the other one. Just in case he wasn't going to drag her off right then and there, she might actually be there to volunteer. It didn't always need to be about cupcakes.
Kasumi took the clipboard, signing her name. Really, her outfit wasn't much different than anyone else in the line, she just filled it out well. "Well, I can't promise I'm any good with a hammer," she confessed.
She handed the signup sheet back. "Promise me you're not going to be stuck behind a clipboard all day. Was hoping to see you moving some heavy machinery or pounding something into something else..." Not her best work, maybe, but she did hope to see him working. A twitch of a smile pulled at her face. "I'd like to see you work up a sweat."
"Not to worry, Ms. Goto, I'm sure you'll be suitably satisfied by the time the day is over." The smile Wrex gave her as she took the clipboard back was honestly smug. He probably had no idea that it was smug, but it was.
He looked over his work list and tilted his head, "I'll be working on setting up the ground floor of our barn today. You'd probably do decently with directing traffic while we're all moving plywood and two by fours around so we don't kill each other accidentally."
"Mm, I hope so," she said, grinning with all the innocence of a cat who'd caught the canary.
She nodded at the assignment. "Just put me where you want me," she said, shrugging. Keeping Wrex from getting accidentally killed sounded like a good plan. "I'm flexible."
Nearby, some of the students were watching this interaction. At least a few of them were groaning. Their old dinosaur caretaker was horrible at this, but hey, more power to him for getting a woman like that to flirt with him!
Wrex shot them a look and they scattered off to work on their respective things. Then he looked up at Kasumi with the kind of look on his face that implied he was thinking of all kinds of places he wanted to put her. It didn't last long, however, before he handed off his clipboard to a volunteer next to him, "I'm going to bring her over so we can get started. Get the rest of the line started on things like lunchtime prep and painting the second floor dorms."
The volunteer was used to this and nodded, leaving Wrex free to get up from his chair and start leading Kasumi to the stable and barn area, "I have to admit, I never expected to see you show up here like this. But I'm not complaining."
Kasumi followed alongside Wrex, stealing the occasional glance at his arms. Lalala. "Well, you came to see me. I figured I'd visit you this time." She wanted to show him that she was still interested, and was doubtful he'd have picked up on it otherwise.
"Didn't mean to embarrass you in front of the kids," she said, biting back a smirk. "I hope I'm not out of line."
As Wrex was somewhat dense when it came to the subtleties of dating women, he probably wouldn't have picked up on it. He was definitely picking up on it now. He kept on walking in the direction of the barn construction, mentally willing himself to keep his hands off of her. The magnetism he felt wasn't entirely new, but he hadn't felt it in a long time.
What he really wanted to do was lure her off to his cabin and forget the work day entirely. That probably wasn't for the best, though. At the mention of embarrassing him in front of his kids, he ducked his head and grinned, "Well, I think they're happy to see the old dinosaur get a life. I wasn't too embarrassed. And I really don't mind. I'm glad you're here."
As they hit the outskirts of the foundation area, the level of activity raised - there were several people swarming around the place, getting ready to saw, hammer, construct, and then raise walls. Wrex pulled his shirt off and tossed it over the nearby fence, then handed Kasumi a whistle and a worksheet, "This is a list of names of who is supposed to be doing what. Basically what I need you to do is go around making sure those people are doing their thing, while also making sure that one of us doesn't back into another of us while we're carrying wood around. Use the whistle if you have to. We'll probably need you to be our eyes when we finally raise the walls up, too."
Kasumi grinned when Wrex pulled off his shirt. “Keep an eye on your wood. Right.” She took the supplies he handed her. “Oh, I’m sure to be doing plenty of whistling.” Seriously, this many brawny men in various states of undress, moving big heavy things around? Why hadn’t she volunteered sooner?
She would try to take this seriously, and not do too much ogling of Wrex and other men. For ‘safety’. He didn’t make that easy, though, losing the shirt like that. She eyed him with very little subtlety, licking her lips. “When’s lunch?” she asked.
Losing the shirt was kind of important, though, and not only because he wanted Kasumi to stare at his manly chest. Which he would admit, at least to himself, he did. It was also a warm day and he was going to be working up a hell of a sweat, so there was just no point in staying shirted.
He watched her lick her lips and smirked, "4 hours. I have cupcakes."
Kasumi couldn't help but pout. "Four hours is such a long time," she complained. "But I guess cupcakes aren't really breakfast food." Besides, Wrex had important things to do, and she really did want to help. Pulling him away from work every time she got an itch she wanted Wrex to scratch probably wouldn't be doing the ranch a service.
Screw it. Kasumi reached up to grab the back of Wrex's head, pulling him in for a kiss.
It was entirely public, but he hadn't been worried about embarrassing himself in front of the kids before. If she was going to have to wait four hours, she wanted to sneak a lick of the icing to tide her over.
Much cheering, guffawing, catcalling and whistling filled the air around them, but Wrex didn't care. There wasn't any reason to hide this, anyway. Kasumi was the type of woman whose interest in you ought to be a little bit flaunted. Just enough to show you appreciate the interest at all.
So he kissed her back, and it wasn't one of your quick pecks on the lips, either. He took his time, waving the other guys back to work with one hand while the other hand wrapped around her. It was a good long kiss that promised that in 4 hours that itch was going to be really, epically, scratched.
Kasumi liked that promise. A lot. She was starting to get comfortable with how much she liked it, as a matter of fact. This whole public thing was a little like staking a claim, and as much as she would probably still enjoy watching some of the other men working, maybe having a claim wasn't a bad thing.
"Come get me when you're ready for lunch," she said when the kiss finally ended, her voice a little husky. "Not sure where your kitchen is, but I hope the walls are sturdy." There was a mental image she was happy to share with him.
"The walls are very sturdy, I built them myself," Wrex grinned, and stole another kiss, then tried to busy his mind with work before that mental image got away with itself and he ended up just dragging her back to his cabin for an early lunch instead.