dǫçţǫŗ şɭęęƥ (shone) wrote in valloic, @ 2020-08-07 17:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ₴ inactive: allison hargreeves, ₴ inactive: dan torrance |
Who: Allison & Dan
What: A Pantsless Proposal™
When: Friday night
Where: Galdin Quay, the soon-to-be-opened B&B (thanks, Iggy)
Rating/Warnings: PG-13? I mean they're half naked for most of the log but it's whatever
Status: Complete
This particular corner of the beach was a hidden treasure - most of the beaches along Vallo’s coast were, in fact, a little rocky and rough. But not this one - it was all sand in a gentle golden hue, blue-green water the temperature of tepid tea that lapped at your feet when you walked along the shore, hissing, bubbling; it was a briny aroma and the sun melting into an apricot sort of shade, reflecting along the neverending sea - from their room at the Galdin Quay B&B (where they were currently the only guests), they had the best view as Iggy had promised, and Dan knew he was going to repay the man someday even if he insisted otherwise. The dinner they found warming in the oven for them was fantastic too - chicken paprika, perfectly smoky and spicy and paired with a really good lemon yogurt and crispy potatoes. They’d gotten through it and were now on dessert, delicate chocolate mousse tarts that weren’t overpowering with the chocolate at all - which was good because an overload of sugar wouldn’t be good for Dan’s anxiousness, or his doomsday thoughts (that Allison wouldn’t want to marry him, that she’d tried for that already with Patrick and it went up in flames) since he already felt like he was going to be sick. He still ate everything, because he was hungry - but nerves. They twisted his stomach into knots. “It’s so quiet here,” he said, sounding relieved as the edge of the small silver spoon broke apart a piece of mousse tart. “I actually kind of love it.” No secret that their house was full of people. Being away with Allison, even for a night, meant a lot of things - including adult things (he wasn’t a screamer in bed but, Christ, sometimes he wanted to not worry about making noise). Hopefully they’d get to those adult things once the ring box stopped burning a hole in his pocket. Allison was definitely enjoying the alone time with Dan...and her own thoughts. The scenery was an added bonus as well. Really, the entire experience outside of the habitual momentary overthought about her daughter was amazing. Especially considering the overcrowding that was their current housing situation. It wasn’t that Allison wasn’t used to it, but there were more people and animals in the house than even in her childhood. She was grateful for the fact that Dan had suggested it and even more so that she had people that could look after Claire. She’d apologized to Claire, who mostly seemed to study her curiously as if she was going to say something before going off on her own. She had uncles to invite for tea. There was a smile when Dan mentioned the quiet and she looked over at him. “You mean that you’re not a perpetual fan of the sounds of teenagers running through the house? Well, teenagers and now a five year old.” “Sometimes it’s a comforting sound,” Dan admitted, and that was true - because the teenagers were important to him, Stan (when he stayed over, anyway) and Sabrina especially; he loved them like they were his own, even if they weren’t. “But - I think I needed this.” The serenity, the stillness, the sound of waves rolling in - long and fringed with white, when they had the windows open (and they could leave the windows open, there was no one nearby); yeah, that was what he needed. He swallowed another bite of mousse and it was beginning to hit his tongue like sawdust so maybe he should just try to get his shit together. Dan slid his hands across the table, which wasn’t large - it was an intimate setting - reaching for Allison. “I’ve been wanting to get you alone,” he added. “And not necessarily on a time limit.” They had a chance to, uh, connect when everyone at the mortuary went skating on Moon Day, or attended the ball at that castle, but that was only for a little while. At least now they had until tomorrow, after breakfast, maybe into the afternoon. So that meant he could put off the proposal speech, right? Maybe save it for breakfast. That seemed like a good idea. “I guess we all need a moment to recharge.” And she didn’t mind the teenagers in the house. She was starting to get used to the fact that she was parenting at least one teenager and that there was the potential for parenting more than one. She knew the future to an extent, so she had a feeling she fell into it more. She arched an eyebrow at his comment about getting her alone without a time limit. She reached out for his hand since he seemed to be reaching out. “Oh? And what did you want to get me alone for?” She assumed part of it was so they didn’t have to worry about anyone hearing them, but knowing Dan, there was something else going on. She couldn’t have guessed what it was, but he seemed...a little off. Their hands touched, and Dan laced his fingers with Allison’s. He hoped it wasn’t ridiculously obvious that his heart was pounding like a jackhammer - at least he wasn’t sweating, so he had that going for him. His hands were nice and dry. “I think that’s more an upstairs activity,” he noted, with a smirk that could only be described as impish; outside, the waves were calmer than the look Dan had in oceanic eyes, crashing and churning with excitement and anticipation. “If you want to go upstairs with me.” He wasn’t going to be a rude B&B guest, so he’d do the dishes - tomorrow. Right, yes. It would be breakfast, proposal, dishes. Or breakfast, dishes, proposal - whichever order spoke best to him and didn’t make him feel like he was going to vomit (tall order, really). She tried to keep herself from laughing by pressing her lips together. Whatever heart racing anxiety he was experiencing wasn’t noted through touching. It was just a feeling. Mostly because she knew Dan. “Oh, yes. An upstairs activity.” She was certainly not opposed to such activities. She laughed then, standing so she could walk around the table. “Well, I don’t think I’ve refused so far and I’m about ninety-nine point nine percent sure I’m not going to start today.” She wasn’t overly concerned about cleaning up because she knew they’d get to it. “Plus, I might have splurged a little bit since I knew the alone time was coming up. I went with fashionable, but easy to get off.” Which was also the look she was going for with her wrap dress. It did help that it was light enough to make it comfortable in the heat. “Just to make things a little special.” She also liked having a reason to buy cute underwear. Who didn’t? Probably someone. Either way, she’d never heard someone complain about it. Hopefully no one else was really seeing Allison’s cute underwear, but she could buy as much of it as she wanted - Dan was definitely not going to offer up any complaints. Or hesitate, when it came to going upstairs with her - honestly, he’d have fucked her right here on the table, because he was that impatient and it wasn’t something they could do at the mortuary, but it wasn’t really something they could do here either - when he talked to Iggy about dinner and staying over, he didn’t ask if kitchen relations were an option. They probably weren’t. So upstairs it was, and he practically ran there, pulling Allison toward him so she collided against his chest, and his arms went around her with hands locked together on the small of her back. He was looking for how to get this dress off, exactly - it was gorgeous and she looked gorgeous in it, but he wanted it off; luckily there seemed to be kind of like, a place to untie it and hell, his clothes were a lot easier. Just took a minute to unbutton the dress shirt, without ripping anything. He was caught up in the moment, not really thinking about anything else - he just ducked his head and kissed her, a spark crawling across his skin, warmth and a buzz burning through him. "You always look beautiful," he said, voice a throaty murmur, imbibed with silk. Dan was the only one seeing her cute underwear and she was pretty sure he was the only one she planned on showing for the foreseeable future. She laughed once he pulled her towards the upstairs, temporarily amused by how fast they were going. Had she been given a second to undo the dress herself, it would have been very simple. Once it was undone, she slid the rest of the fabric off, letting it pool on the floor around her feet. She slid her sandals off, fingers moving to run over the skin of his chest as it was revealed, fingers moving down to help him get his pants off, fingers still for a moment as he kissed her. She smiled at the words, moving to kiss him again for it before finishing getting his pants undone and over his hips. The touch of Allison’s hands on his chest, heaving with breath and a creaky, bruised heart beating beneath, stilled Dan a bit in turn. He had to remind himself to go slow, since for once they didn’t need to hurry - no one was going to come home and interrupt, there wasn’t a chance of waking anyone up; it was just them, alone, and that was a heady thrill on its own. I love you, the thought projected and it was more of a feeling, really - it settled over her mind like a soft blanket, clarity and knowing that any moment of hardship he experienced here was worth it. It made sense, why people lived through the pain of life itself - that was all worth it, he thought, when he looked at her, fell into her. One of his hands curled around the back of her neck and he touched his forehead to hers, letting her work on his pants (they’d been perfectly pressed before this and now would end up in a crumpled heap in a corner but he didn’t care), fingers of his other hand drifting up her ribcage and along her back, hungry for smooth skin and about to unfasten the bra part of the pink and lacy set she wore. But he didn’t get that far. Because of course when he shifted to facilitate his pants being kicked all the way off, the velvet box fell out of the pocket and onto the ground. “Shit,” he just about gasped the word, like he’d been punched in the stomach. The feeling that settled over her made her feel warm and happy. She hadn’t exactly expected to have any sort of luck in love after everything, but she was glad that she’d found Dan and that he’d ended up liking her. I love you. Because she wanted him to understand it wasn’t ever just him in this. The sound of Dan swearing, followed by the fact that he’d stopped short of taking her bra off, made her open her eyes and look around. Her eyes settled on the box on the ground. Everything stilled in that moment and she looked between Dan and the box multiple times. “Everything okay?” Because she didn’t really know what else to say. She knew where her mind was, but she also wasn’t sure immediately how to bring it up. They were mostly naked at this point. This was - so goddamn embarrassing, and Dan actually kind of laughed about it, turning red as a summer fucking strawberry. But maybe it was just the universe wanted him to stop pussyfooting around and actually propose, and not put it off until tomorrow morning or the very last minute. Maybe he would have preferred when they were both not mostly naked (he was wearing only boxers and a smile, though it was more like a grimace) but shit was what it was at the moment. “Yeah, it’s - it’s good,” he replied, hand running through the riotous mess that was his mop of sandy blonde hair. “It’s why I asked you to come here, so - “ He dropped to one knee and picked up the box, flipping it open - nestled inside was the ring Ronan had dreamed up, heart-shaped yellow moissanite lined with smaller white moissanite gemstones, set in a gold band that should fit her finger perfectly. “I’ve never loved anyone like I love you, Allison. I love you and the life we’ve built here. It’s all real and sometimes it’s hard but that’s okay because we have each other. And if I disappear tomorrow I just don’t want to go not having asked you to marry me. Will you?” That was off the cuff, but he meant every word he said. He loved Allison, he was proud of her and how far she’d come - she’d been born with a powerful mind control ability and had grown up with a controlling father who never sat her down to explain the ethical issues, the wrongs, of taking away someone’s free will. With a father like ol’ Reginald, who was only interested in harnessing her powers for his gain ever since she could even speak, it made sense that part of her journey was to overcome her own need to control the people she loved. But she’d never used her powers on Dan - everything they’d built, they did it together, without taking any easy road. She wanted to reach out to reassure him, but she resisted because she didn’t want it to be misconstrued as her trying to stop what he was doing. She was almost certain that it was what she thought it was, but then she’d been in movies before where it was one of those ‘earrings instead’ situations, so she decided not to get ahead of herself. But then he opened the box and she saw the ring. She didn’t know why that suddenly made it so much more real, but she felt herself starting to tear up. It was both funny and emotional at the same moment. Here they were, in their underwear and it was the most ridiculous dress code for a proposal, but everything else matched the ‘how to’ of proposing. Just usually the disrobing happened after the proposal. Oh well. At least she still looked good. But the ring was absolutely beautiful and Dan was stupidly adorable to her on his knee in his boxers and the words were good. “I’m still trying to come to terms with the fact that we’re in our underwear right now.” She let out a small, broken laugh that was mostly to keep herself from crying. “And you better not disappear tomorrow or I’ll...probably just cry, honestly.” She hadn’t given an answer yet, however. “But yeah…yes. I’ll marry you.” She wasn’t going to apologize for the fact that she’d started crying at this point. They were happy tears anyway. It was okay because Dan was crying too - not a dry house in the house, blue eyes having misted over. Rose was wrong about, well, pretty much everything - but during those very painful moments on the Overlook staircase when she’d been feeding off his steam, digging her fingers into his wounds to cause more pain for her pleasure, she’d been right about something. So much terror - all your life, huh? The Overlook’s target had always been Danny - that was why the ghosts who haunted its interior used Jack Torrance’s addictive personality as a weapon; possessing him, corrupting him, was the easiest way to get to Dan in order to kill him. It hadn’t been worked, but he’d lost everything in the process - including his father, showing him that the Torrance family demons, and the demons of the drink, were never far behind. He kept running, and they kept nipping at his heels. He never thought he’d get a chance to be this happy. To know what it was like, to love someone and be loved in return. And he struggled to think of how to even quantify it, and maybe he couldn’t - maybe he just knew that the love he had for her knew no length or depth; it was simply absolute. Allison’s left hand was taken in his, and he slid the ring onto her finger - now he could get up (ow, knees), stepping close to her and hands getting a good grip on the backs of her thighs, hoisting her up so he could carry her the short distance to the bed and deposit them both there. He chuckled throatily, hand behind her knee and gliding along her skin, shifting so he could assume one of his favorite places - in between her thighs and holding his weight carefully. “Well, if it makes you feel better, our underwear’s about to come off,” he shared, tone dark like espresso, charcoal and smoke. Pitched low and raspy, but his voice was always that way - as if he was fond of sharing secrets. Allison looked at her hand briefly, admiring the way the ring looked. She hadn’t expected a second engagement after the end of her marriage, but she’d been careful and she knew this had nothing to do with her abilities and everything to do with the fact that Dan loved her, which was nice. She didn’t have to question it or wonder about it. Nothing. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders, legs wrapping around his waist as she was lifted up and taken to the bed. There was soft laugh at his words. “Thank god.” How was a person even supposed to think, when your pulse sounded like thunder in your own ears? Dan wasn’t quite sure, but he didn’t really attempt it. Having Allison so close was giving him a jolt, like electric eels, those eyes that were all black water and less ice blue closing briefly to try to gather his wits about him. It didn’t work too well; his body had a mind of its own. "Have to celebrate our engagement somehow," he pointed out, giving her another kiss that was deep and intoxicating. Then there really wasn't a need to say anything else - they had all night, and he intended to take advantage of the silence, to fill it with the sounds of their celebration as well. There was nothing to worry about, nothing at all. And that was rare as a sea pearl that took a thousand years to form too. |