Participants:
| Scene Title | Roses and Pizza |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Two friends becoming more, day by day. |
| Date | November 11, 2008 |
Elisabeth's Apartment
It's not exactly late, only 8:30, but Norton pops up after work, with a little knock on the door. He had called before coming over to make sure you were home, and since you mentioned you hadn't eaten yet, he has a pizza, half and half, one half sausage black olives and mushrooms, the other half your favorite, since he know what you prefer.
Pizza sounded fabulous. There are any number of days when Elisabeth doesn't feel like cooking, and tonight's one of them, so the timing worked out great. She opens the door and lets him in with a smile. "Hey, you," she offers in greeting as he breezes in. "Sorry I didn't call you the other night," she adds with a grimace. The night of the memorial, she means. The anniversary of the whole reason they ever met. "C'mon… I've got soda, a little beer, and some wine. Whatcha in the mood for?"
Trask puts the pizza on the counter, not opening the box. "I'll take a coke, I…yeah I decided to avoid the dog and pony show myself"
With a grimace, Liz replies mildly, "I should have. The adrenaline spike and crash sucked shit." Did she forget to mention she was at the cathedral that night? Probably. "Should have known it would happen, though. Too big and too public an event NOT to have something go wrong." She moves about the kitchen, grabbing sodas, plates, and napkins, and then sets them down near the pizza box. She glances at him as she opens it, "How's it been on the streets?"
The pizza itself is surrounded by the stem of a long stem rose, turned back on itself and tied together at the flower itself, the rose is a soft white-pink one, and the smell of it hangs on the air with the smell of the fresh pizza.
Elisabeth pauses, staring into the box. "…oh!" And she gets that silly grin that all girls get when a guy does something sweet out of the blue. Reaching out to pick up the flower, she brings it to her nose and then looks back at him. "Well, now…. talk about making a girl's day." She leans her hip on the counter, turning to face him, and looks up at him. It's strange to her, feeling suddenly so hesitant around him. She leans up and the move is hesitant as she goes to kiss him gently, her "Thank you." a mere soft whisper.
Trask kisses back, tentativly, softly, tenderly, his hand moves to the small of her back. He looks into her eyes, and smiles softly, "You sounded like you needed a pick me up on the phone."
It's not that it's awkward, really. They've hugged each other for any number of reasons. But because of their friendship, she's always sort of made a point of not noticing things like his eyes. And now that they're sort of dancing around this move, she's practically finding it impossible NOT to think about (and sometimes mildly panic over!) a host of things that she never worried about with him before. "I did," she answers softly. And her smile goes from being somewhat dazed to a little bit abashed. "But you never brought me flowers when I was down before," she teases a little.
Trask looks down at her and smiles, "I want you to promise me something…you'll never get done up for just me. If we go out and you want to get all done up for you, thats fine, but when we are here alone. I kinda prefer you without makeup, and all that stuff, I like you just they way you are, the way you have always been. Can you do that for me?"
Elisabeth looks surprised, but then chuckles. "You know me better than that," she offers. "I don't change for anyone. What you see is what you get… mostly." Aside from the secret things, anyway. She leans up and kisses him once more, lightly, and says, "Food, mister. Now that it's here, I'm starving to death." She reaches down and hands him a plate, keeping the flower in her other hand. She keeps raising it sniff lightly at it.
Trask releases her to take the plate, he leans over and gets a piece off her side first, handing the plate back to her, then collects a second one and gets a piece of his own. "You know what I mean." He smiles and heads to the couch.
Elisabeth takes the plate, perhaps only a little surprised at that particular move. He's always a gentleman, though. She takes her plate and the rose in one hand, grabs the sodas in the other, and sits down with him. "I do," she replies easily. "Not to worry, I'm not going to turn into someone I'm not, Norton." She glances at him. "How're you holding up this week?" The anniversary is pretty rough on most people — last year she locked herself in her apartment for three days. This year's a bit better. PARIAH jerks aside.
Trask says, "I spent the other day out at Sergei's grave." She knows that since his mother technically has no grave his brother's grave serves double purpose for him. "We had a nice long talk, at least it didn't rain."
Elisabeth nods at him. "I'm glad. It's kind of rough to sit out there in the rain," she says with sympathy. "I went ahead and went to the memorial after I stopped to see my dad. He's…. eh, I don't know. Still lost without her, I think." She toys with her pizza, her appetite subverted for the moment by memories.
Trask says, "We need something to cheer us up, what makes you forget the past?"
Elisabeth grins. "Uhm… pizza?" And she suits actions to words by taking a large bite. With majorly stringy cheese, which makes her squeak in alarm as she tries to get her food under control! Around the bite, she laughs a little as she fights with it. And it's not until she's managed to chew and get things no longer dribbling that she looks back at him. A little more seriously, she answers the question. "What about you?"
Trask grins as he watches her, shaking his head he takes a sip of the coke, and then bites into his own pizza…which is still /HOT/ he pulls back quickly and downs more soda in a quick chugging motion choking on his words, if he was going to answer.
Elisabeth snickers at him. She didn't just string cheese around cuz she's clumsy, you know! And the mental image of the two of them burning their mouths on pizza like this just makes her laugh harder. It makes it tough to actually swallow the bite in her mouth, but she finally manages. "That's what you get for laughing at me," she tells him self-righteously.
Trask knew exactly how hot it was, he just wanted to make sure she wasn't alone. He smiles a little around his slice of pizza and returns it to the plate. "So what are our plans for tonight?"
Elisabeth settles in, the pizza on the plate in her lap for a few minutes to let it cool. "I didn't make any. When you called and asked to stop by, I finished the papers I was grading and….. panicked," she admits sheepishly, picking up a napkin to wipe her hands.
Trask says, "Panicked? Why did you panic?" He smiles and looks at you.
Elisabeth uhms, that abashed look back on her face again. "Well…. cuz you were coming over. And I had this sudden 'oh my god!' moment of 'what-if'." She shrugs a little. "I don't think I've ever just sort of fallen into a dating relationship before, so you know…. 'what-if' he wants to kiss me and then he hates it? 'What-if' I hate it? 'What-if' we're sitting there together and suddenly realize that we never should have gone out? 'What-if' we don't really talk to each other anymore? You know…. about a hundred other things." She rolls her eyes a little and grins at him. She's never freaked out about a date — much less pizza in her living room with Trask — before.
Trask says, "So…you wanted to kiss me apparently…you didn't seem to be thinking about it that much….did you hate it?"
Trask says, "I'm your best friend, give me the dish." He winks.
Elisabeth laughs at him, picking up her pizza slice. "No, I didn't hate it! And hey… clearly you didn't hate it too much - you brought a flower!" She reaches out to touch the rose, which is sitting right next to her, for the moment.
Trask turns on the couch, pulling his now shoeless feet up under him like a soriority girl, "So you going to see him again? How was his kissing? Does he have a brother for me?"
Elisabeth blinks and dies laughing. "You're a sick, sick man. Really!" Cuz that pose? All too reminiscent of college.
Trask says, "That doesn't get you out of answering the questions…." He smiles and winks, still sitting that way."
Elisabeth rolls her eyes. She really was starving — she pretty much forgot to eat very much over the past couple days, she replies around a bite of pizza. "Hrm…. Well, yeah, I'm gonna see him again. Duh! What girl is stupid enough to turn away a guy who brings a flower just because he thinks it'll make her smile?" She winks at him. "What about you? Does coming here like this make you feel any kinds of weird?"
Trask says, "I just think of it as double dating." He smiles, "I get to spend time with my best friend at her house, and get to have a date with a beautiful inteligent funny woman. What is to lose? I guess it helps that I am slightly disturbed doesn't it?"
"Double dating?" Liz echoes with a puzzled look. And then he explains and she snickers softly. "There's a unique spin on it," she adds, nibbling on the last of her piece of pizza. "Anything fun happen at work today?"
Trask says, "Hey at least I always know I have a wingman going with me, who knows my date better then she does herself…well almost, so tell me, what would be my best friends advice in wooing her?""
Elisabeth tilts her head and looks thoughtful. Maybe he really is a little bit as weirded out by the turn of events as she is. Setting her plate aside with the remains of the slice of pizza that she practically inhaled during their short conversation, Liz gives every evidence of giving the matter thought. And she's actually thinking, cuz…. well, how DOES one go about telling someone how to woo you? "Guess the only real thing I can suggest is that you be yourself — be real. Cuz the one you've got on the hook right now? She doesn't seem to like bullshit too much," she offers with a grin. "The flower was a darn inspired start, that's for sure."
Trask bites his lip and nods slowly, "Speaking of which….whatever happened at the church…did that sour you on your plan?
Elisabeth grimaces. "The adrenaline crash certainly made me remember the parts I hated," she says quietly. "The whole time, I worried they were just waiting for the cops and press to arrive so they could blow us all to hell." The admission there is rough on her — she spent all her time on the other side of the line. Not *being* a hostage. "I was pretty sure it was going to end badly…. and then they just up and left." She hesitates. "I should have answered the phone. I'm sorry. I knew you'd worry, but I just…. really couldn't. By the time I got home, I pretty much lost it."
Trask leans over to give her a hug, "Elisabeth….I….did you see any of them…I haven't gotten a chance to review the police report…and I didn't know you were there.
Elisabeth slips her arms around him, adjusting her position to sit the way they've sat so often in the past year or so, snugged against his side. "Yeah. I saw them. Pretty damn clearly. They weren't exactly hiding." She looks up at him and says, "I almost called to ask you to go with me, but I decided at the last minute that I just…. needed to be a face in the crowd, you know? Somewhere that I could be sad without really knowing too many people. Sometimes it's easier to be sad with strangers than with …. you, or my dad." People who are sad in their own right but try to hide that to be there for her.
Trask smiles and reaches up and brushes her hair a bit, "I'm sorry Pariah wasn't what you wanted it to be…."
Elisabeth pffts. "What *I* wanted it to be? There's no such thing…." She smiles a little. "I don't know that there's anything out there that's going to be what *I* want it to be. People are too scared." She shrugs a little. "You know, it's weird…. you can have all these friends, and the minute it comes out that you're Evolved, probably 80 percent of them won't talk to you anymore. What changed? Nothing. You're still the same person. But….. you're not. Because now you're a target." She reaches up and rubs her forehead a bit, as if her head hurts or she's just got a lot in it."
Trask says, "I know…..you have been safe so far…by keeping it quiet. It's like finding out the person next to you, is suddenly not who you think they are. Only have they really changed, does that make them any less or more then what they were before you knew? Before they knew?"
"Not to me," Liz replies easily. "But then again… I'm one of the ones who changed, right?" She smiles a little. "Nowhere's safe anymore. Oh, I'm playing it safe by staying unregistered for as long as possible, sure." She pauses. "I ran into a guy after the memorial that I busted like a dozen times back when I was on the streets — before the negotiator gig. Turns out he was hauled in for something minor and now he's registered. *That* is the kind of thing that bothers me. People being forcibly registered against their will, detained just because they have abilities…. people like you, using your abilities for good and hauled in by HomeSec for what amounts to torture. That's all just…. completely unacceptable. And I haven't a friggin clue how to change that." She pauses once more and admits softly, "I just know that on one level, I was really glad you weren't there the other night in the cathedral… because I was about to step up and start talking. And I would have outed myself before I let those fuckers hurt a single person in that church."
Trask says, "Well…technically anyone not registering is breaking the law….and as things go further I am sure more…laws will be passed to support that. With the fear that is running through this country….people are going to keep lashing out, it's going to get much worse before it gets better."
Elisabeth nods slightly. No point in arguing a fact. "So…. I'm basically still at the 'don't know what to do' phase of all this," she says on a sigh. "So far as I'm concerned, if some Evolved wanna play bad guy, then some should step up to play good guy. You're doing it. Felix is doing it. There are others out there with abilities willing to stand against the Evolved playing terrorist. But the trouble is…. there's two kinds of bad guys. There's the ones who are really bad — using hteir powers to hurt people or do whatever they want, rob, cheat, steal, murder. And then there's the ones who are…. well, 'misguided' is too benign a term. But I think they fall into the category of 'doing the wrong things for the right reasons' and a bunch of OTHER people are getting hurt in the crossfire. It's like now that superhuman abilities are known about, we're turning into a comic book world."
Trask says, "What this town needs is a miracle."
Elisabeth turns her head and looks up at him. "What this *world* needs is a miracle. I think New York really is just the tip of the iceberg. And it's a monstrously big iceberg."
Trask smiles and raises his soda, "To Miracles?
Elisabeth smiles. She doesn't have her soda in her hand, so instead she leans up to kiss him lightly. "To Miracles."
Trask smiles and kisses back, softly. "So how am I doing with the whole no BS thing?
Elisabeth chuckles softly. "Pretty well, I'd say. All in all, you're scoring very highly on the wooing meter."
Trask says, "I am am I? Is that 9 out of 10 Wu's? I beleive the Wu meter was invented in Taiwan wasn't it?"
Elisabeth chuckles at him. "I believe we'd have to be…. around an 8 on the wooing meter. But this is not Taiwanese Wu here, it's the all-American 'woohoo!' meter." It's nice to be silly.
Trask says, "Oh…8 out of ten on the Woo Hoo meter? So you get to keep two articles of clothing of your choice?"
Elisabeth looks up at him, startled enough to actually show her surprise. "Oh really?" she asks with a laugh. "Here I was thinking it might earn you a dinner that I actually cook, for a change, and you're jumping all ahead to the nakedness part."
Trask grins, "Who said anything about nakedness… I said you get to keep two articles…." He winks. "Besides….your gonna cook? I thought I was winning…not being given a death sentence."
Elisabeth groans, laughing in the same breath, "Oh, MAN! And that right there totally negated all the points you got for being an inspired date." She looks up at him with a grin. "Dickwad."
Trask says, "Hey you said be myself….anything else and you would know I was faking….don't I gt points for honestly being an ass and not dishonestly trying to seduce you?"
Elisabeth just laughs at him. "Well, all right…. so you only lose HALF your points, cuz you're right. You're honestly an ass. And if you're gonna seduce me, do it honestly."
Trask smiles and kisses you again, this one is a little bit more then the others, a slow, tender, but hungry and passionate kiss.
This moment. This one moment is the one that caused her earlier near-panic. Their kisses since the surprise date on Friday have been a little more than friendly but a good bit less than passionate…. until now. Liz catches her breath, feeling the shift in his intentions even as he touches his mouth to hers, and there's that split second of not-quite-alarm again. Ohmygodwhatifitallgoestohell…. And then she doesn't really have time to think as she engages, a full participant in the slow kiss as opposed to a passive reciever.
Trask lets the kiss linger, lets her get fully relaxes, even if she was tense at first, he kisses her, kisses her good and hard and long, till when he finally does break it, they both have to gasp a little for air.
Admittedly, she did tense up. But only for a couple of moments. When he finally pulls away from her, Elisabeth has a sort of dazed look on her face — one of those 'wow, I didn't quite expect that kind of response' faces. She blinks at him, her breath hitching a bit, and then says, "Uhm…. wow."
Trask says, "Do you know what makes me forget the pain…and the lost…the memories and the past? It's you…that's what brings a smile to my face."
Elisabeth'ss face shifts to a soft smile, affectionate and tender, as she puts her hand up to cradle his cheek. She rests her forehead lightly against his cheek and says softly, "I didn't know that."
Trask says, "I don't think I could have made it through…without you…you are my rock."
Awww…. geez, what girl isn't going to totally melt at being told that? Liz tells him softly, "You're mine, too, you know." It's why she started panicking.
Trask says, "I'm not going anywhere…no matter what happens….I'm still going to be here…because if I lose you…I lose myself."
 November 11th: Mens Rea |
 November 11th: Clusterfuck |