Participants:
| Scene Title | Just Enough (aka Friends With Benefits) |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Mazel tov! Magnes and Delilah end up in a not so serious and free-loving place that neither of them seem to mind. |
| Date | January 20, 2010 |
Village Renaissance Building: Delilah's Apartment
Just entering the apartment, it gives of a feeling of comfortable homeliness; light colors, pastel shades, floral designs, clean and sweet smells, and only accents of dark where it most fits. The front room leads to a den further on, with a large sofa in a coffee cream color sitting opposite a similar chair, and a wooden table in between. There is only an almost retro-looking television off on the other side, but the things hooked up to it show that it is not as old as it seems. Nothing is, really.
To the far end is the kitchen, which always seems to smell like something recently cooked there; the appliances and counters are squeaky clean, but obviously used on a regular basis, and the leftover anything in the fridge can attest to that, as can a perpetual dish of cookies on the table. The bathroom is also squeaky clean, and it seems as if anyone coming out smells significantly nicer than when they had gone in; there is a closet within where the washer and dryer stay. There are two bedrooms, but one is emptied and instead made into a big rainbow-colored sewing and storage room, complete with fabric bolts and racks on wheels centered around a masterfully ordered sewing machine and table.
The actual bedroom is based in those mainly soft colors, yet the lower walls have at least two long, cluttered tackboards home to pictures, clippings, seemingly random crafts, and generally quirky things. A desk in a similar state sits in the far corner by the closet, opposite a low, wide, fluffy-looking bed swamped in pillows and comforters. At least half a dozen stuffed animals peek out from various points.
Later in the afternoon, after he's gotten back on track with training sessions, which largely consisted of martial arts montages on his roof, Magnes is knocking on Delilah's door with a grocery store bag in his hand. He's wearing an unbuttoned black denim jacket with his red Spider-Man symbol shirt under it, and a backpack on his back. "It's Magnes. I have food, and video games."
Today it takes Delilah a moment longer to open the door, and even then she squints out first, taking stock of Magnes standing in the hall. "What about tylenol? I'm out." But she opens the door for him anyway, stepping back so he can let himself come in. "The thing about nights out, I tend to end up with hangovers- this one's been all day for some reason. Maybe something didn't agree with me." The girl is in a flowery skirt today, her shirt plain navy blue with a series of white birds along the bottom. She looks a little hungover, still, but somehow manages to make it more graceful than most.
"Sorry, no tylenol. I didn't drink much, I'm kind of afraid to. I mean, with this new aspect of my ability, I can sometimes feel the weight of someone's heart beating. This isn't something I want to suddenly lose control of, until I understand how it works more." Magnes leans down and pecks her on the lips, then heads in to sit on her couch and place the bag on the table. "Eight tacos, four for each of us. I managed to track down some Nesquik banana milk, Twix… that's basically it. I brought my Wii and some games with me."
"You can feel someone's heart beating?" Such as the few moments after she is suddenly given a quick smooch- her heart rate does pick up a bit, out of surprise. Well, now. "Banana milk?" Delilah switches tracks onto something she has never heard of before. "It isn't actually made with bananas, is it?" Samson is in the middle of the carpet, lying on his side and generally taking up as much space as he possibly can for no apparent reason. His dark eyes do follow Magnes from the sideways view on the floor. You again.
Magnes smiles down at Samson, then nods to Delilah. "Yeah, it's hard to explain. It's not so much that I can feel it, as I'm feeling the shifting of the weight. I wish there was an easier way to explain… But I don't feel it all the time, only when I have my ability extended. Like a moment ago." He grins at her, then starts laying the tacos out on the table.
"I think it's unsettling, to be honest, but I'm still trying to get used to this ability, so I extend it sometimes, just so I don't end up getting performance anxiety or something." He takes out the two bottles of nesquik, putting them in front of both rows of tacos. "And banana Nesquik isn't real bananas, it's like… drinking a banana cream pie. It's completely smooth like regular milk, but tasty."
"I bet you could learn to tell when someone is lying, with that- measuring heartbeats can do that, right? And you're gonna make me fat, feeding me mounds of tacos and sweet milk." Dee laughs, though, so it can't be that bad. She finds a perch on the arm of the couch, and Samson cranes his head on the carpet to look over. He doesn't seem to want to bother getting up for any of this.
"I love your thighs, a little bigger never hurt anyone." Magnes unwraps two tacos, floating one over to her as he lifts one in his hand to his lips. "I think I'm feeling a little better, I'm seriously, well, in a mood, but I'm feeling better. The world is saved, I need to be grateful for that. I just wish I could do more for Teo. I saw him kiss Francois, right before Francois went to sacrifice himself to try and stop the nuke…"
Thankfully, Delilah has a bite of food in her mouth that keeps her from immediately saying anything. She chews for a bit after Magnes stops talking, looking very pensive. "Teo is …complex." What she wants to ask is about Francois, but she doesn't. Maybe it's best to drop it. "He'll be okay. He has everyone here for him, and he's loved. He has had a lot of heartbreak so maybe what he needs is something less serious- some downtime."
"God knows I know about heartbreak. Maybe I'll try hanging out with him some time." Magnes sits back, chomping at his taco, eyes wandering over her a few times. "I was talking to my friend Daphne, she says I need to stop being serious and be with someone for fun too, but, I wouldn't even know how to start." He briefly clears his throat, as if hinting for her to do… something.
Delilah pays it seemingly no attention at this time, chomping down her own taco and finding a napkin from the wrapper to wipe her fingers. It takes her a while to chew, as maybe she wasn't quite prepared for that much. "I think he'd like you if you spent time around each other. He can be a little guarded, but he responds well to praise." Lilah pauses a second. "In fact, he's just like Samson."
"I'm not trying to misinterpret or anything, but…" Magnes picks a piece of lettus from his chin, sliding it inbetween his lips. "You're not, like, trying to set me up with Teo, right? I mean, I wanna have sex, but… not that badly."
Delilah has to laugh this time. El-oh-el. "No. He just is the type that should surround himself with friends, but somehow he avoids it. So it's up to other people to force it on him. That's how I met him, actually. It's only been a year but it feels like he's always been my friend, these days." Dee reaches over to brush a pat onto Magnes' shoulder. "Pretend he's like Wolverine- if you press kindess on him he's bound to grow attached." Sounds like she is more interested in talking about Teo all of a sudden, than about Magnes' need to get laid.
"Yeah, I guess so." Magnes lays his head back, finishing his taco, but not reaching for another. "Maybe I should take Teo and just fly to Italy or something for a day or two, I don't know." He seems at a loss for what he should do in general, not just Teo. "I need to talk to Cat. I'm so anxious to do something that'll get me over Claire, but, I don't know, maybe Cat knows what I should be doing with my life. I should find a direction. After I figure out what I'll major in, I'll go and see if Teo wants to go to Italy. But… I'm not so sure I wanna leave the country again so soon, even if it's just for a day or so."
"Don't go that far." Delilah does let go a bit of a warning for him in the Italy department. "Just be his pal. Take him a pizza, hang out at Lucy's with him, stuff like that. Don't get so committed. I can give you Cat's number later if you need it, by the way."
"I know how to contact her, but I'm not sure what I'll say to her. I wanna know what to do in college, what to do in general. I've been kind of laying in my apartment aimlessly wondering what to do next. Maybe me and Cat can start a band, I've been thinking about that…" Magnes glances over at her, and that invisible force starts wrapping around her waist to lightly tug her over a little closer. "I could bake him a pizza from scratch, I think Teo could appreciate that. Um, do you think I've changed at all?"
"Ever think about working for Evolved rights?" Delilah's question seems perfectly innocent for now, as she moves along with the tugging to sit down on the couch seats with him. "Changed? A little, I guess …haven't had that much time to tell, yet. It's a bit soon for deciding that."
"I was just curious, I mean, I did a lot on that mission, and went through a lot, and I was hoping I didn't change too much, at least not for the worst." Magnes leans his head over on her shoulder like the day before, sighing. "I don't mind working for Evolved rights, but I don't know what I'd do exactly. Any ideas?"
"I dunno. Go to school for some kind of social science, go into politics, join an advocacy group, use your celebrity- there are lots of things." Taco time. Delilah starts on her second, inwardly planning to just save the rest of hers. "You could come with Teo and help out at Summer Meadows. You'd be damned useful there." And it gets him a step closer to something else in the process.
"I'm a bit out of the loop, I mean, I've been out of the country for two months with no TV or anything. What exactly is Summer Meadows?" Magnes' arm wraps around her stomach, just kind of ignoring his food for now. It's clear he's just wanted to be close to someone for a while, or at least just feels relaxed right now. "But, you're right, I really should do something to help Evolved, though I'm not so sure I'd use my 'celebrity'. After being gone for two months, I think people might be starting to forget me, and as far as I'm concerned, that's a good thing. 'Course, I'm sure I can't stay out of the spotlight forever. Eventually some cars gonna be crashing, or another helicopter, or someone's gonna be trying to jump from a building… I just realized that Superman has the worst life ever."
"It's a renovation project out on Roosevelt Island. A volunteer group I'm with has been fixing up a neighborhood in disrepair, we've been there since you guys left, I think." Delilah is concentrating on food, which seems to be working to alleviate her headache. "Kaylee can tell you more about it than I can, really- I just know it's going well and could use all the hands it can get."
"I'll talk to her. If I can be useful somehow, it's the least I can do." Magnes sits up, though keeps a hand on her stomach, staring at her now. He's quiet, swallowing, seemingly working up a nerve. "Everyone keeps saying I should just go for it, with you."
Thankfully she doesn't have a handful of taco at this point, though Dee is also trying to suckle the taste of the flavor out of her cheeks. She watches Magnes steadily as he works up what nerve he has right now; Delilah doesn't look at all nervous about the topic, so that might contribute to his own. "Everyone, huh? And why don't you?" The redhead's brown eyes meet his now mismatched pair- there is a silent dare behind them, waiting curiously to see what he does.
While a few months ago he'd go red, stammer over his words, and completely back down from her challenge, he is a different person in some ways. "That's a really good question." Wrapping his arm back around her stomach, he leans forward, trying to lock his lips with her's… going for it.
He can feel her chuckling in her throat when their lips meet, soft and warm, and the slight weight of arms moving up to rest on his shoulders. Delilah has always had a great degree of acceptance- and even aside from grandstanding the 'thinking about it' part, this is somewhat the same. Though she'll be hardpressed now after he himself was just telling her that he's going to try being less serious. And for now Magnes can run the show- she kind of wants to see if he'll actually remember what he was barking about.
Magnes' hand is quick to move down to her inner-thigh, starting to slide her skirt up, though moves his hand back down as he simply begins to caress it. Who knows if his hand will ever complete the journey forward, but his tongue easily parts her lips. Unlike the last time they kissed, which was quite some time ago, he's definitely gained experience in this area.
They haven't been this close since before Claire, actually. Now that she's fairly certain Magnes isn't going to fall backwards and stutter away, Delilah hooks one hand over the side of his neck and lets the other trace a line down his chest and over the top of his ribcage. Her mouth, incidentally, tastes like taco- which isn't entirely the best thing ever- but there's also something sweet, possibly some kind of girly and very Delilah-y flavored chapstick. Fruity, if anything.
Magnes slides both hands to her waist, starting to peel her shirt up, breaking the kiss to do so. "If we're gonna do this, maybe we should go to the bedroom, so Samson doesn't get excited and bite me or something…" He snickers, looking over at him, then back to her.
Samson is asleep on the other side of the room, and only the tiny rise and fall of his chest signals that he hasn't fallen over and died for some reason. But, Delilah glances past Magnes' shoulder at the dog, gauging things. He's right, even if Samson is asleep at the moment, he won't be very soon, is likely. Her arm hooks under his, hand running up his forearm to take his hand; her smile is small, but one of those that shows much more contentment than other expressions. "Yes, let's."
Magnes stands, bumping a leg into the table, but otherwise anxiously heading for the bedroom as he holds her hand. "I'm kind of nervous." he admits, thumb caressing the back of her hand. "Not 'cause I'm afraid or anything, just, maybe I'm more anxious than nervous." expressed by the fact that the bedroom door swings open before they even touch it.
Like sneaking past a bear, Samson opens one eyelid and closes it again at the bump of the table. "Yeah, that's anxious." Delilah explains as the door opens on its own, tugging him inside when she gets there first. She pauses just inside, looking the couple of inches up at his eyes. "I know I said I didn't want to be the first one a long time ago, but if you're ready and you're going to take that 'not being so serious' to heart-" Well, she can work with that.
The door closes behind them once they're in her room, sliding his arms around her waist. "I can't say I don't feel anything for you, Delilah, but I promise I won't be proposing marriage to you as soon as we finish." he chuckles, then leans forward, trying to float them both over to the bed.
Delilah wraps her arms around Magnes' torso, hands warm against skin under his shirt and face burying a moment in his chest, cheek pressing there like a cat. "That's good enough for me. What I like to hear." And if he does do it, she'll punch him in the mouth. Promise, cross her heart.