dǫçţǫŗ şɭęęƥ (shone) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-07-03 14:47:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ₴ inactive: allison hargreeves, ₴ inactive: dan torrance |
WHO: Dan & Allison
WHAT: Attempting to unpack and get stuff done, but best laid plans and all that
WHERE: Their new house! Vallo City!
WHEN: Idk today?
WARNINGS: Not really!
STATUS: Complete
The house was perfect for them, it really was - a cottage, charming (and never did Dan think he’d end up in something described as ‘charming’), with a quirky shaped roof and a blue and white exterior, the blue the shade of a robin’s egg and evergreen trees in the yard, setting off the look of the short hedges. There was also a pleasant border of flowers and some other gardening pots to complete the look - it appeared very picturesque when you walked up that front path, a far cry from the apartment he’d lived in when he’d been hunkering down in Frazier. Of course, it wasn’t difficult to be much better than that - he was essentially living in the attic of Billy’s apartment building. There wasn't much to it a small bed, a dresser, a table and chairs, and shelves crammed with books and knick knacks, plus one wall that was a chalkboard (where a mathematician once wrote his formulas, and he’d used it to initially communicate with Abra). Everything about it was dark, literally, with little natural light - but it had been important to him because it was a symbol of how he’d gotten his shit together and managed to actually not get evicted from a place for once. He lived a sober life there and then he’d died, so he’d never be going back - this house in Vallo was also a turning point for him. It wasn’t an apartment or technically someone else’s space - it was theirs, his and Allison’s. And Claire too, who had her own bedroom they planned to adorn with plenty of pink furniture (while knowing that she may outgrow the penchant for pink soon enough). But before it officially felt like theirs, they had that one daunting task ahead of them - unpacking and putting together all the new furniture they had to acquire. Dan stood in the kitchen, assessing the endless unopened boxes (dishes, silverware, glasses, pots and pans...) and the curtains that still needed to be hung up. Their stools for the island had been delivered already, at least; it was a kitchen with kind of a vintage feel, with a retro sink, exposed cabinetry, and perfect wood floors. Retro was in, apparently. “Is there a way to just...speed this along?” he wanted to know. Mary Poppins, maybe? The house was a different sort of quaint than the one she remembered from her time in the 60s. She loved it, though. It was the looking for a house that took the most work of everything. So naturally, the next thing, was to unpack everything they’d ever owned and set up the furniture. She let out a sigh at the thought of all the work ahead of them, almost wishing she’d bribed her siblings into helping them. She was sure that they could have gotten something that would have helped them with the bribery. Alas, it was just them and Claire off somewhere. She’d at least plaited her hair in an effort to keep her hair from being in the way as she worked. “I’d say we could call my siblings and bribe them with sweets, protein powder, and good coffee, but they might be busy. Unfortunately no Mary Poppins.” She snapped her fingers to prove that she didn’t have any other powers. “It would have been nice,” she said, voice wistful. “I think the only way we’re going to speed anything up is by starting somewhere.” She frowned slightly. “Let’s start with the dishes and then go from there. We’ll need to set up the coffee maker soon so we can at least have that ready for tomorrow.” Oh, yeah, the coffee maker. That seemed essential - the kitchen would likely be a mess for a little while or, at the very least, until they could put together some semblance of a housewarming party. But by god, they would have life-saving coffee. “Excellent point,” Dan replied, grabbing for the box cutter that he saw amongst the clutter on the top of the island. “We should have ground coffee somewhere too - or I can run out and get some later.” They’d have their caffeine boost come hell or high water, damnit. It was the one vice he wasn’t so keen on giving up - and likely wouldn’t, not anytime soon. But starting with plates and everything else seemed best - since this was a new set, they’d have to run everything through a cleaning cycle first anyway so it’d be a good time to test out the shiny dishwasher as well. He sliced open the first box and started unwrapping everything that was packed away neatly in paper, beginning the Tetris task of stacking it all in the racks of that dishwasher. “I think Sabrina and Nick have settled in nicely too,” he said. “This is going to be good. It seemed like it was time.” To move out of the mortuary, that is. He and Allison had wanted to for awhile, actually, but it never felt right. She laughed. “If not, I bet I could bribe Five to bring us coffee.” If Five cared about anything, it was good coffee and so he’d be the one to ask that wasn’t Dan. And he could get there and back faster than either of them could. But Allison was sure they’d figure it out one way or another. “Or tell him I’m getting the cheap coffee and wait for him to self destruct.” She tried not to tease her siblings too much these days, but it was fun sometimes. “Yeah. I hope it is a good step forward and at least they shouldn’t have anything else to expect from their lives back home.” She hoped. The only positive thing she could imagine was that the terrible things they’d been through were fixed and righted, but even that might be a lot. It was probably best that they were left alone about it. To heal and move on with their lives. “It’ll be nice to have our own place.” She didn’t mind living with everyone else, but sometimes she wanted a place where her and Dan could be on their own. She moved to help him put the dishes in the dishwasher, smiling a little as she looked at him. “I can’t wait till this is all finished. And then we’re actually working on settling in ourselves.” If there was one good thing about the memories that walloped Sabrina and Nick upside the head? It was probably that it couldn’t get any worse. Difficult to come back from something as final as death, and from what Dan had heard from Zelda it seemed like no amount of bargaining or finagling with loopholes would be able to return them to the mortal coil. But right, no more just meant that they’d be able to process what happened and find a way to tuck it away someplace so it didn’t necessarily harm what they had here. “Settling in with you is what I’d like to do,” he admitted, leaning in across the expanse of dishes to stealthily steal a kiss from Allison - a few kisses, actually, because they were here in this house they picked out together, and he loved her. Continued to be comforted by that, actually, and how he was still lost in her maze. “We’ll get there. All on board for Five bringing coffee though - you think you can convince him?” She couldn’t help the smile that formed as he kissed her. She knew it wasn’t weird for it not to pass or for the butterflies not to fade because she’d been married before. Twice, but only two of her marriages had actually been because of real and actual love and she loved Dan with her whole heart despite everything she’d been through and everything she might still be through. She was under no delusions that she was free from whatever was going to happen after they’d gotten back. Ben was alive, but he wasn’t their Ben. But she hoped she could avoid the knowledge update. She wasn’t promised that, all the same. “Well, I do like the sound of settling in with you,” she said after a moment, moving to open some more things and start opening them. “I think I could find a way to bribe Five with traveling to get us some coffee. I might not even need a bribe. Might just ask.” Even Diego would probably do it if she asked. They’d been doing a little better at getting their stuff together. “I’ll just send him a text and wait for him to reply. If he doesn’t, I’ll call. If nothing else, I guess we can get our own and not be lazy about it.” She let out a sigh, getting to the few other cookware things they had. “I’ll wash these in the sink while you keep loading the dishes, okay? We should probably be able to make something for dinner later or just order pizza. I’m not sure how lazy we’re feeling. Don’t mention the pizza to Claire until we’ve decided, though. Cause it will definitely be puppy dog eyes.” “Not be lazy about it? But honey,” Dan protested with a chuckle, clearly teasing. He wasn’t usually lazy, considering how many hours in a week he worked (overtime especially, whenever something ridiculous popped up) so he likely wouldn’t advocate for it now - but sometimes you just had to, right? Moving and unpacking drained a lot of energy and it was just - so much. Although they were also alone while Claire was off playing with a friend - and they didn’t get many opportunities like that, so there was the other part of him that wanted to break in the new king-sized bed they’d had delivered. A nice splurge for a nice house, and because their bedroom was big enough to fit it and the key to a successful marriage was being able to sprawl at night and not necessarily be breathing on top of your spouse for however long you slept. He unpacked as many glasses and pieces of silverware as possible and found the dishwashing detergent under the sink, getting the washer going. “I vote for ordering pizza,” he decided, rolling up his sleeves and slicing open another box - this was definitely the cookware. “I think we’re allowed one night of being sloths. Especially since nothing in Vallo has tried to kill us recently. How long do you think this winning streak will hold out for?” Probably not very long. May as well enjoy it while it lasted. Allison rolled her eyes, lightly bumping him with her elbow. “Don’t but honey me,” she said, doing her best not to laugh as the words formed. She wasn’t sure they were either of them spectacularly lazy. She used to be a superhero and then she became an actress and a mom. Then they had to save the world from the apocalypse and then they were back in time and everything that happened then was a lot, too. She was just kind of glad she didn’t need to worry about most of that. She looked over at Dan, smiling a little bit as he voted for pizza. “I guess we’re pizza people tonight, then.” She didn’t mind it, though. Claire would be having her own party once she got back and realized it was pizza night. “And I hope that we’re on a winning streak for a while because I’m not sure I want to do any more fighting or worrying about you getting hurt having to help injured people.” She started to get some of the cookware out to start cleaning it. “You think it’ll be a light couple months or we’ll have some weird stuff going on?” Since they were taking the cheesy-carb-tomato-sauce route for dinner tonight, that meant Dan wouldn’t worry about unpacking everything; they’d just get done what they could get done and tackle the rest tomorrow. He also wasn’t above using magic, sometimes, to help with furniture assembly - it had its uses on occasion. “Oh, I’ll ‘but honey’ you,” he teased, reaching over and - grabbing a handful. There was no other way to put it - he definitely grabbed his wife’s ass, but that was pretty standard protocol and she sometimes did the same thing. His ass was hers for the grabbing, that was what this union was all about. “I don’t think we’ve had a light couple of months since I’ve been here...” Nope. No, they haven’t - at least, Dan couldn’t recall anything remotely calm. It always felt like one disaster after another, and maybe they’d just all gotten used to it? Something to ponder, maybe. But, right, since Allison was handling their new cooking shinies, he began the exciting task of hanging up curtains. Which meant starting by measuring the window and putting the rod in (no comments from the peanut gallery); he was there on the step stool, leaning over the sink with sleeves rolled up - such fun, getting settled into a new place. “But yeah, might be nice to keep coasting on this calm. Which means something terrible will happen shortly and I’ll have to work overtime again.” He hadn’t been injured badly yet, however? So Allison could rest easy there. “Oh, so this is a butt honey moment, is it?” Because she had a pun and she was absolutely going to use it. She wasn’t sure it was going to register, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. She considered repaying the favor but a wet butt was probably not sexy. She’d get him later. “I will still hope for something that at least seems light.” Because the whole thing of it was that it was a little exhausting to have to continuously worry about what may or may not happen every month. There was always something to fight and she couldn’t rumor everything. She’d tried. Allison glanced over as she spotted Dan climbing on the ladder. Maybe the wait was not as long as she figured it would be and it was entirely possible that she wasn’t worried as much about the wet butt debacle as she’d previously believed. She finished washing off one of the pans, putting it off to the side to dry before moving to lightly smack his ass, snickering a little at the wet handprint on his ass. “Well, until your overtime kicks in, I’m sure we can find something to keep you busy when you’re not at work,” which was absolutely followed up with a wink. That pun was absolutely picked up on, and Dan got the gist of two T’s to that butt even though it was spoken out loud - and he was so proud, he really was. But then Allison just - “What?!” he laughed, looking over his shoulder and scarcely believing that his wife had just left a sopping wet handprint on the ass of his jeans. “Okay, you know what...” It was war now (and it was also a miracle they ever managed to get any home improvements done, considering they’d gotten into a paint-splattering contest while doing up her salon). He stepped down from the stool, with the curtain rod hung up and the actual curtains still strewed about on the kitchen island (they were a classically country apple red shade, went well with everything else in here) - and then lunged for Allison to grab her from behind and let her crash against his chest with his arms around her. Caught. By a kraken named Dan. “What do you mean, keep me busy while I’m not at work? Tell me, Mischievous Butt-Grabber.” She looked up at him with as much innocence as she could muster in that moment. It was very difficult to look innocent, though, when it was very clearly her fault. She laughed a moment later as he stepped down off the stool, eyes widening slightly. “I’m an innocent,” she cried out as he grabbed her from behind. It was at least entertaining and she wasn’t actually bothered by this change. Even if it was taking time from them actually unpacking. “Also if I’m a Mischievous Butt-Grabber, so are you!” He was the one that had started it! “And I feel like you should be able to use your imagination to figure out keeping you busy. We have an entirely new home and it’s not full of teens or other people.” Dan wasn’t buying this innocence act for a moment - after all, he’d married Allison. But she was a great actress, he’d give her that - even if he saw right through it. “I can use my imagination,” he promised. “Then I can make the imagination part come alive. Glad we seem to be on the same page though.” And with that, he twisted her around to face him - just so he could pick her up. Hoist her over his shoulder actually, a romantic fireman’s carry, and he headed for the stairs. At least their bed was all set up - that happened to be basically the only thing in their room that was set up, but. They didn’t need assembled dressers to do what Dan had in mind and the rest of the settling in? That would be figured out gradually. It was the ‘new home not full of teens or other people’ part he thought they deserved to celebrate. Thoroughly. Those curtains could wait a couple hours anyway. |