Participants:
| Scene Title | Between Putting Out Fires |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Lucille and Finn find a moment to connect. |
| Date | May 24, 2021 |
Lucille's home
The usual gray light of morning has an ominous red cast to it, courtesy of the nearby fires. The smell of smoke has become a constant recently, but as Lucille enters her living room, she realizes it has a different quality than the smoke outside of her house. It’s only then that she sees the familiar shape of someone in one of the armchairs.
Finn sits in a rare stillness, hands and arms lightly laying on each of the armrests, and his head tipped back. The smell of smoke clings to him, and he has a smudge of soot on one cheek, though otherwise his clothes bear no mark of fire. At a glance, he looks like he’s simply sitting, but his eyes remain closed. He’s sleeping — probably because he didn’t want to wake Lucille, either by sliding into her bed, smelling like a campfire, or by running the shower.
Seeing Finn sitting there the tall woman leans against the doorframe and tilts her head regarding the dirty blonde man with a stare. She actually hadn't slept much, working in the basement and making sure it'd fully suited her needs had been a grueling task. Arms crossed around her chest as Lucille pushes off from the wall and walks softly to the chair. "I thought I smelled BBQ." She says softly and slides into the man's lap, nudging him awake with a hand on his cheek.
It was a comfort to see him here, there was a part of her that was always afraid she would wake up and he'd be gone.
PTSD or something silly.
There's a smudge of white paint on her cheek that she hasn't noticed. Dressed in loose sweats and a tank top, one of his.
His eyes open sleepily, and a slow and sleepy smile follows before his arms lift from the armrest to curl around her waist and pull her more comfortably into the seat with him.
“Hey,” Finn murmurs, his voice a low rasp — even in the helicopter, out of the way of the flames, the smoke is rough on the lungs and throat. “I didn’t mean to wake you. Did I wake you? What time is it?” He definitely hasn’t had enough sleep, however long he’s been dozing in the chair.
One hand comes up to brush the bit of paint on her cheek with light fingertips. “What were you painting?” he asks, curiously.
"Of course not, I couldn't sleep already." Lucille isn't exactly lying, she's just omitting how much she didn't sleep last night. "And it's early enough that you can still get some proper sleep I think, yea?" Caring for someone's well being in this way was new, her previous partners had mostly been a string of messy hookups, emotional abusive long term relationships and pining over men that couldn't be bothered to truly love her.
She never felt any of that with Finn, she wanted him to be at his best self always. It worried her that he was working so much lately even if the work was admirable.
"I was painting down in," And her blue grey eyes roll at the nickname that was coined for it, "The Batcave." Her little project of a very well designed work space for a bounty hunter type of woman like herself! That was totally not a Batcave. Leaning in to kiss him on the lips and lingering for a few moments she savors.
"How are you though? I'm living with a real hero." A pause, "That needs to maybe take a day off." Saying that even while knowing the current situation with the fires doesn't feel fair and that's why Lucile doesn't put much weight behind that statement.
It was also very ironic to hear someone like Lucille say take a day. The woman notorious for just not stopping.
Finn hums the theme to the television Batman even as she leads up to the word ‘Batcave,’ and grins, reaching up to weave a strand of her hair behind one ear.
“I’m not a hero, Luce. I just like to fly birds and these people pay me to do it. Not a lot of call for helicopter tours of New York these days, you know?” he says with a smile. “I need to do right by the kid and I want to be closer to you, or I’d still be playing Little House in the Big Woods out in Providence.”
Or what’s left of Providence.
“But I have a really important question to ask, so let’s forget me for a moment,” Finn says, trying his best to school his features into a solemn expression that doesn’t seem to want to stay put.
"We should fly soon," it had been awhile since she had been in the air with him. She missed it, leaning into his touching of her hair she grins openly as he tries to stay serious. She won't let it be an easy task at least.
"What," placing both hands on his sides, "Question," her fingers lightly dig into his side, "Would that be sir?" Lucille laughs as she starts the tickle attack. He always makes her laugh; it's the least she can do to return the favor. "Huh?!"
Another pass of tickling and laughing and Lucille is laying her head against his chest and laughing more.
He is ticklish, and he squirms beneath her hands, one knee coming up and then his hip jerking to the side to try to protect the space above it, sending her into a more awkward sprawl in his lap.
“You don’t play fair!” he yells before he manages to get ahold of both wrists, even as she gives up to lie against his chest.
“Holy shit, woman, you’ll be the death of me. I can dodge everything but you,” Finn laughs warmly, twisting back so he’s not contorted beneath her. “Fuck, I forgot what it was…”
His brows draw together, and then he looks up at the ceiling, one finger lifting and then another, as if he’s counting as he tries to remember whatever it was he was going to ask her.
"I have that effect on you huh?" Pleased with herself and happy to see Finn laughing, it's the best sound in the world to her. Lucille's light eyes stay trained on his face, tracing the outline of a vein on his neck with her gaze. "The suspense is killing me," Grinning and threatening to tickle him again.
"Is it a boat? Is it a plane?" Dragging out the last syllable with a snort.
She laughed the most with him, it was good for her. The possibility that she could have in fact dazed Finn enough to have made him forget his question also makes her want to laugh.
"Is it a puppy?"
Uh oh when did this get about gifts?
"A cruise to the Caribbean."
His laughter grows, and he grasps both of her hands in one so he can retaliate with the tickling, grabbing one of her feet and going for the insole, to splay his fingers across the sensitive skin there.
“How much do you think I make, girlfriend?” he says with a shake of his head. “Especially after the fancy Xavier’s School for Gifted Children tuition.” He makes enough that he doesn’t qualify for aid, now that he has a legitimate job.
Finn settles again, still holding her wrists, but loosening his grip so she can break free if she wants (she could have all along, he knows) and leans down to kiss her again, lashes lowering and then lifting again so he can look in her eyes.
“Actually, you’re on the right track. I wanted to know if you’d take time off to travel a bit this summer with me and Junebug. Maybe a road trip north to Canada, check out some colleges there if she doesn’t want to go to Brooklyn?” His eyes widen a little as he studies her face. “There’s a couple overnight prospective student events, so you and I can definitely go find ourselves some fun when she’s otherwise occupied.”
He smirks, and brings one hand up to his lips to lightly bite her finger playfully. “If you don’t tell Epstein it’s with me, he might say yes.”
"No!" Lucille shrieks and leans against him trying to get his hands away to no avail. "Not like we don't have planes and jets at our disposal," it's a total joke but the idea of taking Wolfhound's baby for vacation with Finn almost causes her to crack up.
Finn's request makes Lucille's eyebrows raise and she looks pensive for a moment before her mouth turns upward into a smile. "You both really want me to come along?" She throws her arms around him and hugs him close. "Thank you. Of course I wanna come. I have some old war buddies in Canada we can meet up with."
As for Avi, "Oh he's gonna let me and he's gonna know it's with you. He's got to get over it at some point. The man became friends with former Vanguard for crying out loud." Lucille chuckles and lays a hand on his chest. "He's like the grumpy ass uncle I've never had. It might have something to do with feeling protective as well." Avi's way of showing he cared was swearing and being crude.
His face lights up, eyes widening, mouth pulling up and out into a broad smile. “You’ll come? Of course we both want you there! June puts up with me, but you are cool and interesting in her regard.” That’s probably oversimplifying his brief relationship with his daughter, but he doesn’t seem to be too hurt by the fact that Lucille is the cool one.
“Be that as it may, he may be more inclined to give you the time off if you don’t tell him it’s with me, but I know better than to tell you what to do,” Finn says with a smirk. “I figure you’re owed the time, but I know your work is important, and I wasn’t sure you’d want to take it for something so ordinary, you know? Not when you could go off somewhere with warm beaches and umbrella drinks. Heading up to Toronto’s pretty mundane.”
He smiles, twirling a lock of her hair around his finger. “We do have my bird to fly, though. It’s not the Taiwanalua.” It’s hard to tell with his straight face if he’s mispronouncing it on purpose or not.
She almost asks are you sure?? again but this doesn't seem like a joke. Lucille feels a warmth inside of her that she wishes would never fade away. She feels as if she belonged with her family Wolfhound but this sort of belonging was different. This felt stronger even. "Anywhere with you is enough." She says it a bit more seriously then she means too, not wanting to draw away from the moment she leans in and kisses his lips, staring into his eyes. Lucille could see herself waking up to that face every morning.
"You're right, the massages on our bird are well worth it." Snickering and ruffling his short hair with a grin. "Did you know there is a robot that pours champagne after successful missions? Allies with Raytech perks."
Now he can't tell if she is serious.
She thinks about how she wants him in Wolfhound in that moment. How he would fit perfectly but Lucille has fear being that close would make him scared and run away. Still, it was worth the thought.
Finn laughs, tipping his face up to the ceiling. “Now I know you’re lying. If Epstein’s letting anything be poured, it’s whiskey that tastes like cynicism distilled with the tears of his enemies.”
With that said, he shifts in the chair – it’s an awkward bit of maneuvering before she’s behind him instead of on his lap, and then he reaches back to encircle one of her wrists in one hand and her opposite leg in the other and rises, lifting her with him across his shoulders.
“I need a shower, and we need to conserve water, so you,” he says, as he rises, intent on fireman-carrying her up the stairs, “are coming, too.”
Gleeful laughter feels the house as Finn carries Lucille up the stairs as she lightly kicks her feet, blue gray eyes dance with mischief and desire. "Don't slip this time." She warns, except she would catch him just as he would do for her.
Finding your person in a world of billions feels like an impossible task but somehow they got lucky. Somehow they were doing it right. She wouldn't repeat the mistakes of her father and how could she when she woke up every morning to that face?
No this was good, this was alright. Lucille was safe.
And soon to be clean.
The sound of the bathroom door banging open can be heard. Then the cascade of rushing water.
Then love.