I Am Not Domesticated

Participants:

cardinal_icon.gif elisabeth_icon.gif

Scene Title I Am Not Domesticated
Synopsis Just a moment in time.
Date Sep 8, 2009

Elisabeth's Apartment


It's 1:00 in the morning. She should be sleeping…. but Elisabeth can't. Even with the medication she was given, she's afraid to take a sleeping pill. Afraid she'll get sucked into the dreams again. Hokuto's help has been invaluable and she's still entirely fucked up. Instead… she's baking. There are mixing bowls all over the counters, various muffins and breads cooling on racks on the table. The stereo's playing at a level loud enough to be sung to but not loud enough to bother the neighbors. She's singing… an interesting choice of song, perhaps.

Is there anybody listening?
Is there anyone that sees what's going on?
Read between the lines, criticize the words they're selling
Think for yourself and feel the walls, Become sand beneath your feet

And as the guitar riff begins, Elisabeth pops another pan into the oven.

Knock knock. It's on the inside of the door, though, where Cardinal's just appeared; waiting a moment or two before stepping over to lean in and check into the kitchen area, greeting casually, "Some of us are. Whatcha cooking, good looking?"

The music's not loud enough to drown out the knock or the voice, though Elisabeth visibly jumps and the oven door slams closed. "OH!" Whirling around, a hand to her chest, she stares at him. The struggle not to bite his head off is visible, but she manages it — she told him that it was okay. That she was okay. She can't yell at him for letting himself in, because she doesn't want him to not let himself in. Trying to will her heartbeat back down to normal, she answers in a husky voice that holds just a hint of a tremor. "Hi." It's kind of a lame offering to conversation. "Uhm… let me get that." She moves to turn the music down with a small remote control sitting on the counter. "I wasn't sure if I was expecting you tonight. Muffins?" she finally answers the question when her scattered wits catch up.

It's why he's been careful knocking, even though she told him just to show up, and to announce himself rather than simply pop up like he used to. "Sure, sounds good… and I just though I'd make sure you got home alright," Cardinal says, stepping into the kitchen and regarding her with a careful eye, "So you all right?"

She actually offers a smile, a real one. "I wasn't offering," she comments tartly, "I was answering the question. I had some zucchini left, so I thought I'd make a bread." She looks at the profusion of foods, both baked goods and other things, scattered on the table and counters now. "And then I decided that while that was baking, I'd make… some dinners for freezing?" She seems only now to really become aware of just how much food she's gone through this evening… there's a chicken pot pie and a shepherd's pie cooling near the microwave, there is a pan of lasagne and the attendant large cauldron of spaghetti sauce on the stove. There are six dozen muffins on the table on their racks, along with about a dozen zucchini breads. "Uhm….. I think I went a little overboard."

"I was wondering if Thanksgiving was coming early this year," observes Cardinal in wry tones as he looks over the counters, his head shaking a little before he walks along up to her at a slow pace, "You know, if all you've got to distract you is cooking, you'll end up huge in a month. Maybe we should pick you up an XBox or something, Liz."

Her expression as she looks over her handiwork is rueful. "Well… at least the next time you're rummaging in the freezer, it won't be canned goods, right?" Liz's eyes turn to him, shadowed in spite of the help she's already had. She doesn't pull away from him, doesn't really even tense with his proximity. Though it still happens when he comes up behind her or in her periphery. She looks up at him, absolutely subverting more serious topics into teasing. "Will you still lust after me when I'm plump as a partridge?"

"I'll just put you on a strict exercise regimen," Cardinal answers with a wry half-smile, sliding an arm around her waist once he's stepped close enough and leaning down to rest his brow to her temple lightly, "We'll get you lithe and slender again in no time."

Her face tilts to accomodate his resting position and Liz leans against him when he slides his arm around her, taking comfort in the heat of him. "Slave driver," she grumbles mildly with a smile as her arms go up around him. "Meeting went… okay," she offers quietly as she rests against him. "It amuses me that your recruits thus far all seem to be women." Her grin is quite evident.

"Brian must not've had any clones available," Cardinal replies with a rough snort of breath, "Or just decided not to come, either way. Alec isn't in deep enough yet, either… I do need to pick up more people."

There's a long silence while she rests there with him. "One step at a time," Elisabeth finally whispers. "We just have to break it down to small enough steps." As if it's that simple. She closes her eyes turning her head to bury her nose against his throat, taking a deep breath. Small steps. She goes still there and murmurs, "Did I ever tell you … that I like the way you smell?"

"Just like everything," Cardinal agrees quietly, his hand sliding up her back as she nuzzles into his throat; cheek pressing to her crown, eyes closing and his other arm reaching out to wrap about her in a loose embrace. A faint chuckle rattles his breath, "You're not going to cook me next, are you?"

Elisabeth grins just a bit and opens her eyes to look up at him. "It's an association. A… safe place. And when I wake up screaming and it's you, I can find my way out of it faster because I'm … used to the smell of you. In my space. I know I'm not there when I smell you." She's not explaining it very well, but she's trying. And she gets far less serious, "Although to be fair, I don't like the five-day reek much."

Cardinal flares his nostrils in a snort at the last. "I shower more often than that," he objects only one-quarter seriously, his head shaking just a little before he teases, "Guess I shouldn't start wearing cologne, then?"

There's a cheeky smile and Liz comments, "You do now. Cuz you're getting all domesticated and shit." She'd duck if she could, clearly laughing at him now, but well — hard to duck when you've got your arms wrapped around someone. "C'mon, you…. help me stick some of this stuff in bags so I can take 'em to the precinct in the morning… in a couple hours," she amends. There's a waggle of the eyebrows. "I'll make it worth your while."

"I am not domesticated!" A slap against her backside, and Cardinal steps away with a faux-grumbling to reach for a pot on the stove, "As if. It'll take all damn night just to pack this shit up. I need a bigger fridge for the library…"


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