Less Dialogue

Participants:

adel_icon.gif jj_icon.gif

Scene Title Less Dialogue
Synopsis A reunion between two friends ends with less talk than expected.
Date January 11, 2011

Manhattan Adel's Apartment


To call this place an apartment would be generous. One big room that contains everything, and a very small second room which has what passes for a bathroom. A standing shower, a toilet, a sink with a mirror. Nothing fancy at all. All in all, the place could pass for a cheap motel. Though almost every cheap motel in the world, no matter how cheap, actually has a bed.

Adel's apartment does not. A matress laid out on the floor with blankets and pillows seems to be the most that she's added to the room. A guitar leans against the wall near the bed, a small lamp on the floor, with a few books laid out. The books themselves aren't storybooks, or romances, or actions— but books of music.

It's one of these books that she's reading as she paces around the cold stained wood floor. Soft clicking of her tongue to practice in her head what she can't play, her footsteps even in time. She doesn't have a drum set here, so she has to improvise.

This Santa is rather late, but they say, better late than never! Jobs and schedules and keeping up appearances has kept JJ from delivering his Christmas goods, but hopefully it's the thought that counts. Even on January 11th.

He glances down at himself once before knocking on the door — making sure his jeans are folding just so over his boots, that his scarf is folded just so and tucked at the right angle into his coat. After all — it's a girl on the other side of the door. Looks matter in this case.

A hand lifts, still in gloves, though he's tempted to touch that door knob without them, see what sort of people have come and gone over the past weeks — sometimes better not to know. He lets his knuckles wrap on the door, the sharpness dulled by soft leather.

If Adel knew she was about to get a visit from one of Santa's Elves, she might have dressed more appropriately. As it is, she's wearing bright green stockings, with orange sweat pants to keep some of the cold hanging in the air of her "apartment" from making her shiver, and a white hoodie, with the hood hanging behind her against her back, leaving dark hair free.

The sound of knocking cuts off the music in her head, and she closes the book of songs and tosses it toward the bed. It bounces off the matress and thumps heavily against the floor, illiciting a wince.

The wince is still there a bit as she steps over to the door and looks through the peep hole. That makes the wince go away with an excited squeak that can be heard through the too-thin door.

The chain is unlatched, the two deadbolts twisted out, and the door flies open. A second later, the brunette flies out. Or at least leaps out, arms wrapping around his neck and messing up many of the carefully checked folds in a rather forceful hug. "Jay! It's been forever!" she calls out in an excited voice, before she hops back down onto her own feet and looks around the hall. Oh no, Frontline in this crappy part of town! "What are you doing here?" she asks, all smiles as she pulls him inside and closes the door. She hasn't noticed any sign of presents.

The presents are in a bag held behind him, and he grins wide, green eyes sparkling as she pulls him in. The Apple shopping bag, full of small wrapped boxes, is set on the ground so that he can pick her up and swing her around properly.

"A!" he says, echoing her Jay! teasingly, before stepping back and holding her hands at her sides so he can look at her.

"Now that's a colorful outfit," he says with a grin. "I like it. The girls at work all wear like black and gray and fleece if they're not in their suits," he says. "I felt all lonesome so I figured I'd give you a visit."

"That sounds dull. I'm so glad I didn't take your job," Adel says with a hint of her tongue sticking out for a moment, as if the idea of having that job left a bad taste in her mouth. She likely wouldn't have been cut out for it anyway— too young, too inexperienced— and too afraid of blood.

"Oh my gosh, is that a bag of presents; you brought presents?" she suddenly squeaks out as she spots the small wrapped boxes. It's too small to be a television, which her place is sorely lacking, but her place has something that many places don't— color. There's posters here and there, on the floor on the wall on the ceiling. Band posters of all shapes and sizes and genres. And all adding specs of color to an otherwise uninspiring home.

"You should come over more often! Or— well— when you can. I know you got an important job and stuff, but— I miss you guys. I love the band, though, don't get me wrong!" But— she shifts on her toes a bit, and then lets that trail off as she holds out both hands and smiles. "Presant?"

"Well, I'd have taken yours in a heartbeat," 'cause, you know, lesbians, "but I didn't get any musical ability when they passed that out. I can't even hum without making small children cry." JJ grins as she holds out her hands.

"Well," he begins, "I am really unoriginal and stuff, and everyone got the same thing, so most of them are for everyone, figuring you can find a away to see them better than I can? Be my little elf! But… yours is special."

He crouches to look through until he finds one wrapped in green with a purple bow rather than the rest, green with red bows.

"Here." He starts to wait, bouncing lightly on his toes like an impatient kid before he thinks to add, "If you didn't get me anything, don't even worry about it, okay? Like — I have income and all, and they pay bank. But there's robots so it's, you know. Kinda … balanced."

"I did get you something!" Adel says as she takes the gift, but doesn't start ripping into it yet. Instead she bounces away toward the only piece of furnature in the room that actually counts. A small table and chair that services as a desk. The present isn't wrapped, but she picks it up, in a flat plastic case, and brings it over. "I saved a CD of some of our stuff— what I've been doing with Robyn at least. We're gonna be famous, but you get to have the first CD— I made one for everyone." There's a stack of them on the desk, fallen over by all appearances.

"And you'll get an invite to our first performance, too! Though I'm not sure I'll be able to hug you there…" The bad part about having a FRONTLINE buddy that— well…

Once he has his CD case, she starts to tear open her special present, as she adds on, "I'll make sure they get them. The guys on the island will be the hardest— I was hoping that the band guys would invite me there, but— I don't want to push it. I'm not supposed to know about it, right? Undercover sucks sometimes." Paper gets dropped on the floor with no care. By the looks of the place, though, it's likely she'll clean it up later. There's not even dirty clothes laying on the floor.

JJ grins at the CD and slips it into his pocket. "I will listen to it all the time, if only to hear you in some way when I can't otherwise," he says, then green eyes dart down to the package in her hands while a flush overtakes his slightly freckled cheeks.

When she finally gets to the box part of the present, it's an iPod Touch. "They're all preloaded with stuff I thought people would like, but yours has the most memory and your 3G is all paid up for a year," he says conspiratorially.

If his cheeks flush— then hers turn the color of a tomato. Adel keeps her eyes on her present, though, obviously avoiding looking up at him immediately after. Did he say what she thinks he just said? Really? The gift itself distracts her a bit, but it doesn't remove the color from her cheeks. It's a healthy color! Or so she would insist.

"A — oh wow thank you, Jay," she says, pressing the revealed box against her chest to hug it, before she smiles up at him. "I can actually use this as a television even. Which is great cause I don't have one at all, but— really. Thank you." Rather than the usual excited tones, that last part comes out softer, quietier, somehow making it more genuine.

No television? He uses that as an excuse to look away from those rosy cheeks, to examine her apartment with more scrutiny than when he first entered it. "No TV? Oh, man. That just sucks. Do you want one? C'mon, I'll totally go get you one. I mean, I can't buy you a giant plasma one or something that would take up the whole wall…" he squints. "Well, that's a small wall…" he says jokingly, since nothing in the apartment is //big. "But you know, we can find you a little one I bet!"

"I don't need anything," Adel says with a wave of her hand, dismissing the idea of getting a plasma television, as she focuses on getting her iPod Touch out of the box. Tape is hard. "I spend all the money I got on really important stuff, like clothes. I'm not sure I could even get that stuff. The cable company might require proof of registration. And no, I don't need help with that either."

Really, one would think she could at least want a proper bed— but no.

"This will work just perfectly, though!" she adds, giving up on the tape for the moment and walking over to the desk to put it down. She can figure it out later. "So you have robots? They're not… evil or anything, are they?"l

"A," JJ says with a shake of his head, like she's asking a stupid question. "They're robots."

He heaves a sigh. "Harrison had some technopath in to look at it, and suddenly we have brass prowling around to make sure we're all dotting our t's and crossing our i's, you know?"

That's how it goes, right?

"And the technopath's in government 'care.'"

He reaches up to rub the space between his brows. "I hate robots."

"Check, evil uncaring robots," Adel says with a gesture of a single finger as if she's actually putting a check on an invisible floating piece of paper. "I can't believe someone would bring in a technopath. I thought she was your boss— aren't bosses supposed to be smart?"

And further, other things that he says make her worry with teeth on her lower lip. "Now you have to be extra careful too… is that going to make stuff hard for you? You're going to be okay, right? They won't come after you, will they? I mean I already gotta worry about you getting hurt or something, but if…" she trails off. "Just be careful, okay?"

JJ smiles, reaching to touch a lock of her hair, then dropping his hand, realizing he's still wearing gloves. He tugs these off. "It's probably better now — we had someone who just got transferred who could make you say the truth just by looking at you. Luckily, she wore sunglasses all the time, so we weren't like, you know, saying things that would get us in trouble all the time. I think they figured we'd all end up suing each other for sexual harassment or whatever?"

"Hey, tall redhead, I can't stop staring at your chest… oh boss, do you know I think you're hot? Oh, man, guy I think might be gay, it's kinda creeping me out when you look at me like that, no offense, man," he says with a wink and a grin.

He shakes his head, snickering. "But that's like, the least of my problems, right?"

"You were staring at a tall red head's boobs?" Adel speaks in deadpan tones, her voice soft and stemming towards lacking emotion. From her, that could mean something very bad. But she turns away and goes to find that book she tossed across the room a bit ago, to return it to the pile. It's a distraction!

But even as she does, she talks, that emotion coming back into her voice. "I wasn't meaning getting caught lying! I was meaning getting hurt. You're job is dangerous and you might… lose an eye or something! Or— a finger, or…" she stops there, despite making gestures.

"Nah," JJ says with a smirk, the flat tone making one brow arch a little. Oh really. Is someone jealous? "That's what I was saying they would probably expect me to say, you know? But Gav got transferred so now I don't have to worry about saying the shit I ain't supposed to say, right?"

The smirk fades, and he reaches to touch her arm lightly. "I know what you meant, Adel. And I promise I'll try and not get hurt, okay? So far I haven't done anything super dangerous. Hopefully it'll stay that way. And I only plan to stay as long as I need to. It's not my career of choice forever."

He drops his hand, the touch lingering a moment. "What about you? Staying out of trouble?"

The hand on her arm earns a glance, but Adel doesn't pull away, or try to move. Instead she smiles, a fainter smile than her usual wide ones. At least her skin is starting to return to the natural light color! "Oh, you know me— I don't get into much trouble! Unless you count getting caught floating up onto a rooftop by one of the band's girlfriend's…"

That was an oops, but— minor.

"I've been careful. I mean this is a really bad time to be running around with no registration papers! So I'm extra super careful. Most the time." Extra super careful, except when she's not.

There's a pause, hesitation for a moment, before she rocks in place, going up on her toes, then down to her heels slowly. "So— you— missed hearing me, huh? You know I don't sing— I'm the drummer."

His brows rise in amusement and he shakes his head at the floating newsbite. "Only you," he says playfully, tapping her arm playfully. "And yeah, I know you're the drummer. I can still hear you — beating on the drums with your sticks'll make me smile, even if it's not as good as hearing your voice or seeing your face."

He glances down at her feet as she rocks on them. "We can probably get you some papers, but then you'd have to explain why you have 'em to your rebel girlfriends, right?"

"I'm good. That's why I didn't want papers— I want them to help me. They've made small offers, but… I'm waiting for the big one," Adel shakes her head, as if it's just bound to happen eventually. After all, how will they get famous record contracts if their drummer doesn't have a card?

But really, right now— other things on her mind. Her head tilts to the side as she looks up at him. "When did you get so sweet tongued? If I didn't know better, I'd think you really missed me." There's an odd daring look in her eyes.

That makes him flush — he may be a little more smooth talking today, but he's still flusterable. His green eyes drop to study the floor, her stockinged feet, his boots.

"I did," he finally says, darting a glance up at her, before clearing his throat. "I do."

He reaches up for that strand of hair, this time tucking it back behind an ear and tipping his head slightly to peer into her eyes. "But now I'm… kinda tongue tied," he adds with another blush, just a little at his inability to speak for the moment.

While he studies their feet, Adel steps forward, until her stockinged feet are suddenly standing on top of his boots. For extra balance, she puts her arms up, hands around his neck. Getting up on her tip toes, she stretches closer to him as she says, "Then stop talking."

The words come off with a soft sound, one of playful laughter. Not a command, more a request, but… maybe a soldier would take a command better.

And as if to insure her request is followed, she presses her lips against his.

His lips part to speak before he is given the order not to, and JJ gazes down at her for the briefest moment, green eyes sparkling, lips curving into a smile before they feel the warmth of hers against them.

Strong arms move to wrap around her waist, holding her close, closer, and then grinning into the kiss, he begins to walk — making her walk backwards — until they get to the mattress on the floor.

When her feet hit the mattress, she begins to tumble back, but he keeps an arm around her, making sure she doesn't land too hard, and he carefully plants a knee when he follows Adel down so as not to land too heavily on top of her.

"I like your bed," he murmurs into her neck. Apparently he doesn't follow orders for very long.

The sudden introduction of bed to back is a bit of a surprise, or at least Adel makes a startled sound against his mouth, before she grins up at him. "I think you'll like the sheets even more— I said I spend all my money on the important stuff." Clothes and sheets seem to be among them. And most likely laundry to go with it.

"I always did like pretty guys," she says, with a light smile, and some color to her cheeks, but— really, at this point it may be late to blush.

"And you're sweet as well as pretty as they come… And I've wanted to do that for a while," she admits, pressing her nose up against his.

"Me, too," is whispered against her lips before JJ kneels up to wriggle out of his scarf and coat, tossing them somewhere toward the middle of the floor. "But shhhhhh," he whispers, reaching one finger up to trace her mouth lightly, first the bow of the upper lip, then the curve of the bottom.

"Let's try this non talking thing…" he whispers, moving closer to brush his lips against hers again. "I think I kinda like it."


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