WHO Ella and Neal WHERE Morningside Manor WHEN Saturday evening (April 10th) WHAT Date night #2, post TopGolf STATUS Complete WARNINGS Talk of the afterlife and sex.
Their second date seemed to be going just as well, if not better, than the first date and while TopGolf was a lot more fun than she’d anticipated, she didn’t want the evening to end when their game did. So with maybe a little bit too much alcohol in her system and a sweet, but cheeky look, she’d invited him back to her place. Nightcap, watch a movie, whatever. She just wanted to keep hanging out.
Luckily for her, he’d agreed, which made an already nice evening that much better.
“I hope you feel better about the fact that there was no total ass kicking tonight like there was when we played pool.” Ella grinned, using an elbow to nudge his side playfully as they approached her door. She dug out her keys, unlocking the door with ease and then paused to turn, looking up at him with a smile for a brief moment before opening the door to lead him inside.
“Make yourself at home. Though shoes off, if you don’t mind? My abuela sort of drilled that into my head when I was a kiddo, never grew out of it.” She slipped her own shoes off - flats tonight - and set her purse down before heading toward the kitchen. “Want anything to drink?”
Neal had never done TopGolf before, so it was his first time - a TopGolf virgin, actually, though he imagined it wouldn’t be too different than going to a range or something. The bays had nice views and they spent plenty of time getting lost in doing the rounds - he hadn’t even kept track of their scores, not really, since they were automatically recorded and he was having a lot of fun, also sidetracked with bar food and beer. The buckets of beer had been a good choice, drinks kept on ice so the heaters in the place didn’t leave them with warm liquid in a pitcher - because yuck.
Overall a good experience and it seemed like a good place for a date - when Ella asked if he wanted to come back to her place he gladly accepted. A nightcap sounded nice, or they could watch a movie, or - whatever else, he was honestly up for anything. Not like he felt any pressure on any level - she was fun to be with, and definitely good to talk to.
“Shoes off,” he agreed, working on getting out of his own footwear. He was dressed pretty casually but still presentable - dark jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt (all of it freshly laundered with a spritz of cologne that was definitely not Axe body spray due to the fact that he had some taste), with lace-up boots that he left by the door. “I wouldn’t dare to defy the abuela. And yeah, sure - drinks sound good. Whatever you have?” He wasn’t picky. It was also the first time he’d actually been to Morningside, since he’d moved in with Regina and Henry right away, and he looked around to see what the interior of the apartments was like. Fancy. “This place ain’t bad.”
Well, she at least knew he liked whiskey and beer, so being the gracious host that she was, she poured them both a shot of Jameson and grabbed a couple of Coors Lights from the fridge, twisting the caps off with ease. Her brief time as a bartender had gained her the skill of carrying multiple drinks in her hands at once, so carrying all four things into the living room where he was didn’t pose much of a problem.
“It’s nice, right? I was kind of surprised since they’re, you know, free. A place like this in LA would cost like, three grand a month or something. More, probably. I’d need three roommates just to scrape by and have no space to do anything.” Ella rolled her eyes a little then, but crossing over to him, she held out her hands to him so he could take a shot glass and one of the bottles.
She smiled then and glanced around the space. “It’s not quite home, but it’s getting there.”
Neal was also surprised the apartments were free - but he guessed that came with some caveats, meaning, you had to register with some weird foreign government to reap the benefits (which not everyone wanted to do, and that was understandable). “Oh yeah - my shoebox in New York City cost an arm and leg and it wasn’t nearly as big as this,” he chuckled. Multiple bedrooms? That was definitely getting into a dollar range he’d been unfamiliar with.
It was like that apartment on Friends - how the hell did they afford that thing while making coffee shop barista money? Totally unrealistic.
Liquor and beer, sounded like a good combo - he’d already had a few beers at TopGolf, so he was throwing ‘liquor before beer you’re in the clear’ wisdom out the window, but that was mostly bullshit anyway. “Heeeey, thanks,” he took the shot glass and the bottle, clinking the shot glass against Ella’s. “Here’s to getting there.” And with that, he knocked it back - spice and oak and something grainy, it was good shit.
Then he settled on the sofa, sinking into the cushions. “Yeah, I definitely like it here. A lot more than I thought I’d like a place I was spirited away to thanks to magic.”
“I almost think New York is worse than LA where prices are concerned, but San Francisco has them both beat, which is freaking ridiculous.” Though it amused her, at least to a point. Housing prices were so high there and yet… people still flock in droves? Why? She’d never quite understand it.
Grinning as their shot glasses were clinked together, she threw back her own and then chased it with a sip of the beer, following suit to settle on the couch beside him, though not before setting the empty shot glasses down on the coffee table in front of them. She turned to face him a bit and tucked a leg up under her, foot nestled under her thigh, wanting to be able to keep the conversation going easily. “I know, right? It’s not so bad. I was… very confused when I first got here, sure, but I’ve really come to like the place.”
Meeting new people she’d never get the chance to meet anywhere else was certainly a perk, though it also had its downsides. Primarily being that people just… disappeared. Which sucked. It made it hard sometimes to want to really connect with anyone, not knowing how long they’d actually be there, but she also didn’t want to spend whatever time she had in Vallo completely alone either.
“Okay, so clarify for me. You were actually in your afterlife and got pulled from there to here?”
The idea of connecting with someone and then having them disappear was pretty shitty - it was what Neal worried about too, but he also knew he had to at least try. Otherwise he’d be squandering a second chance at anything and maybe he wasn’t the smartest guy in the room (he always had more street smarts than book smarts anyway) but he sure as hell wasn’t that kind of stupid.
And he didn’t mind talking about death, dying, or the afterlife either - people were curious, he got that. Plus, going to the weekly meetings helped - and he talked there too. Sharing his experience with other people was oddly calming. Made him feel like he wasn’t so alone, like his feelings were valid. He had loved Emma (was it the infamous True Love? Maybe), and he loved her parents - but a lot of the times he just didn’t get that ‘valid’ vibe from them. Not that it mattered much anymore. “Yeah, I was in the afterlife,” he said, cradling the beer bottle in his hands. “I don’t know how long I was dead for. Time moves weirdly there. But it’s like a whole separate realm, I want to say? Very based on Greek Mythology, at least in my world, so it’s not necessarily Heaven or Hell - it’s Mount Olympus, and there’s a worse place like Hell, and then the Underworld which is Limbo. Every soul goes there at first and it’s decided if you have unfinished business or not - if you don’t, you either go to the better place or the shitty place. If you do, you’re stuck in Limbo until it resolves.”
He took a swig of beer, shrugging. “It’s peaceful, where I was. Happy. You feel content, you’re not afraid of anything anymore.” It was kind of like that clarity and calm that settled over you right before you died - Neal wouldn’t assume what the experience was like for everyone (some probably died feeling terrified, depending on the circumstance) but in general it was as if your mind, your psyche, just let go of everything right as you drifted away. And it was freeing.
It was really interesting to Ella to hear about other versions of the afterlife, because it wasn’t like she really got that opportunity, uh, ever. Yes, she believed in Heaven and yes, she now knew it absolutely existed in her world -- as did Hell -- but it was sort of comforting to know that something similar seemed to exist in other realities as well. Why shouldn’t it, though?
“Okay, so Greek Mythology, Mt. Olympus vibes… was it just a lot of sitting around and eating and drinking or what?” She laughed a bit, genuinely curious, and flashed him a bright smile when the laughter had faded off. “I’m not trying to sound snarky or anything, I just have no idea what that would be like. It sounds really nice though. I’ve heard some of what Heaven is like, but y’know, from a source who isn’t fond of it so he might just be a tiiiiiny bit jaded.”
Look, Lucifer was a wealth of knowledge about things when it came to the celestial, but he wasn’t exactly the person to talk to if you wanted to know anything about God or Heaven.
She paused for a moment and let a bit of quiet come over her, glancing down at the beer bottle in her hand. “I think feeling content and at peace is all any of us can really hope for in the end though, right? Some people truly deserve whatever awaits them in the shitty places,” like her ex, “but I think those people are fewer and far between than we realize.”
“Right, I mean - I think we tend to get what we deserve at the end of the day, whatever it may be. Good or bad,” Neal said. It all depended how you lived your life, the decisions you made - everyone made mistakes, but learning from those mistakes was a big part of life too. Fuck knew he made plenty of foul-ups in his day - and yet he also liked to think that he paid for those gaffs. He’d died to help save Storybrooke from Zelena’s clutches, so the townspeople would know who she was and could band together to stop her - maybe that sacrifice meant something.
He grinned at Ella, reaching over with his free hand to rest it on her knee. “Yeah,” he teased, and it was apparent the next words out of his mouth would be complete horseshit - or maybe not? Hmm, who could say. “Mount Olympus was basically all ambrosia, nectar of the gods, and orgies. Wish I could take you there.”
Well, Zeus was the King of the realm - so it probably wasn’t much of a stretch to imagine?
“That sure seems to be the gist of it. My understanding of Hell in my world is that your guilt is what sends you there. And like, you just… live it over and over. Whatever it was that made you feel the most guilt in your life.” It sounded heavy and Lucifer had said that people can get out, but no one has figured out how to get past that sort of emotional toll to right their wrongs.
When his hand fell on her knee, she shifted a little unknowingly, scooching just a little closer to him. With a beer in one hand, she draped her free arm along the back of the couch and bent it at the elbow so her head could rest in her hand. “Oh, you wanna take me somewhere where there’s just lots of good booze and orgies, huh?” She grinned and then giggled a little, taking another sip of her beer.
“Guilt is a hell of a thing,” Neal agreed, and he could see how the torment would lead to someone’s eternal suffering in Hell - and he knew guilt. Knew the way it felt like a heavy coat worn in the summer, weighing you down so you sunk further and further. Goddamn, it was a thirty-pound blanket made of lead - beyond his childhood guilt about how he clearly wasn’t enough for his father he felt a stab of it regarding Emma, whenever he thought back to how their relationship had ended. There had to have been something else he could have done, another way, another piece of the puzzle he was missing. What if, what if, and all of those useless questions.
Eventually, he’d forgiven himself - long after she’d forgiven him. But it was always more difficult to forgive your own self, wasn’t it?
He set the beer bottle down (on a coaster, because he was polite and wet rings on a coffee table were impolite), turning toward Ella. “Booze and orgies - also good second date material?” he quipped. “Unless you had any better ideas.”
Being able to forgive someone else and forgiving yourself were two very different things and one was certainly far more difficult than the other, for whatever reason. Though it wasn’t exactly a secret that most people were the hardest on themselves in every facet of the universe, honestly. Humans were generally just complicated creatures.
Her eyes followed as he set the bottle down and she couldn’t help the look of amusement on her face, trying to smirk but finding herself smiling more than anything else. “Uh huh. Well, we have the booze covered,” she said, lifting her own beer up in a gesture, “not sure about the orgies though.” She paused then and leaned to set her own beer down, before moving back to where she’d been, though her head was maybe a little closer to his than it had been before. “Can’t really be an orgy when it’s just the two of us, can it?”
The smile was nice - Neal was kind of drawn in by it. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting when he signed up for the Tag! dating app thing, but so far, he was really damn glad he took a chance on it. Sure, he’d talked to Ella when he first arrived and saw her at Lux a couple times but if it weren’t for messaging back and forth maybe they wouldn’t have gotten to this point. Or maybe it just would have taken longer.
Either way, he wasn’t complaining. “So a two-person orgy - that’s what you want, huh?” he grinned, cupping Ella’s cheek in his hand - and he casually tucked back a few spare wisps of hair behind her ear. “Alright, sounds good. Sign me up.” He was teasing, because if there was only the two of them he was pretty sure they just called that fucking - but whatever. Been awhile since he’d been in a situation like this and he could only hope he didn’t screw it up.
Though to test the waters he leaned closer and kissed her first - and it was fun, and dizzy (but the good kind), like being on a Tilt-a-Whirl; he was a fish on her hook and clearly caught. But there wasn’t any question about that.
She couldn’t help but laugh a little at the comment about a two person orgy, but it quieted when his hand cupped her face and she felt that rush that came during sweet moments like this with someone new. And she nearly blushed, but her train of thought went from one thing to the next, with the next being his lips on hers.
Oh, she liked this a lot and Ella smiled into the kiss, leaning in toward him a bit more in order to deepen it. Slowly at first, but then a little more eagerly, her hands coming up between them enough so that her fingertips could run along the curve of his jaw as they kissed.
He tasted like the whiskey they’d just had and smelled wonderful now that she was closer. Yes, these waters were good; nice and warm and she felt perfectly content in that moment. Though she wanted more and as the kiss continued, she shifted, only breaking it long enough so that she could move herself onto his lap, one leg on either side of him and comfortably hovering before she kissed him again.
That kiss went to the deep and, and Neal thought that kissing her was a little bit magical - the kind that tingled, not the kind of magic that screamed danger and was better off shoved back in its dark vault where it belonged. It was anticipation and gravity going all topsy-turvy, all of that doubled when Ella climbed into his lap - and, again, not the smartest guy in the room. But he’d be a right idiot to not appreciate how this had escalated.
He felt buzzed, but not because of the alcohol - it was this different kind of warmth, that drizzled through his veins. His hands stroked down her back, coming to rest on the sides of her waist - and Neal’s smile was back, just a little one, pleased but also trouble with all that toothy charm. Potentially trouble, anyway, but he doubted it was something she couldn’t handle.
“You wanna take this two-person party to your room?” A bold question, but he’d see how the subsequent response went.
She hadn’t known what to expect when they kissed, but it was instantly satisfying and she felt herself gravitating toward him like a magnet. Just wanting to keep herself as close to him as she could just then, keep kissing him, touching him. Honestly, she’d felt that pull from the first date, but now that they were like this… well, it was completely undeniable for her.
Ella returned the smile when she felt it and draped her arms against his shoulders on either side, looking at him for a moment. “Mm. Yes, I do, very much.” She even gave a small nod to confirm her words before leaning in to kiss him again eagerly, though it didn’t last too long. With a playful laugh, she climbed off of his lap and pulled her top off with ease, tossing the fabric at his face. “Let’s go, handsome.”
Cheeky. If Ella was going to throw her clothes at him, Neal would definitely catch them. Until all her clothes and his ended up on the floor - but that was really the goal with this whole thing, wasn’t it?
He had her top, however, and it was currently the start of some kind of sexy gingerbread trail leading toward her room - and he’d follow, since this wasn’t his place. But you can bet he’d be memorizing everything regardless. “Right behind you,” he huffed a laugh, somewhat breathless with anticipation.