OOm - Eric's room, late night

[onceaviking]

After having finished his little intermezzo with Jay Eric returns to his room.

He pushes the door open and locks it behind him, once he is inside. Old habits and all.
He strips off his wife beater and toes off his boots right inside the door. He could do with a shower.

His laptop is on.
"What are you looking at?" he asks Pam, as his jeans go the way of boots and wife beater.

Comments

[lazy_but_loyal]

Her throat tightens and she blinks rapidly, with a small shake of her head.



"No. But-"

[onceaviking]

He talks a small step closer, towering over her.
"But what?"

[lazy_but_loyal]

She meets his eyes.

"But this is not about me."

[onceaviking]

She always could meet his eyes.
That was one of the things he liked about her. Back when he first saw her.

"I am not loosing my grip. I am not being played. I am in control of this, Pam," he says, slowly.

[lazy_but_loyal]

Holding his gaze, she nods.

"Okay."

No trace of passive aggressiveness this time.

She reaches up (way up) to cup his cheek and sweep the pad of her thumb over his cheekbone.

"Okay."

She just doesn't want to lose him. In the end she doesn't give a shit who she loses him to; she just doesn't want to lose the Eric she knows.

[onceaviking]

He reaches up to take her hand and presses a swift kiss to her palm.

Then he says, "I think I'll go to bed. Are you coming or are you going to watch another episode of the tentacle porn?"

When the room is as secure as this, he'll always prefer a bed to a coffin.

[lazy_but_loyal]

She snorts a short laugh.

"Going to bed with you, or watching octopuses fuck? Hmm, I don't know. Let me weigh my options."

[onceaviking]

"I know it's gotta be a difficult choice," he says, heading out of the bathroom and straight for the bed.

He feels safe here. There is no need to get dressed for bed.

[lazy_but_loyal]

"You have no idea," she replies, eyeing him up and down as he leaves the room.

She turns back to the mirror to finish her makeup. Yes, she does her makeup even before going to bed, because that is how she rolls.

(It's not like it gets messed up if she tosses and turns. Because she doesn't toss and turn.)

[onceaviking]

Eric is on the bed. Naked. Outstretched. His hair still a little damp.

He likes it when she dolls herself up before bed. Because she does it for her.
And perhaps a little bit for him. Or so he likes to imagine.

[lazy_but_loyal]

Pam eventually emerges from the bathroom and there is nothing else that could possibly draw her attention than Eric stretched out on the bed. Smug, handsome bastard.

"I changed my mind. I think I'll watch some more tentacle porn."

She smirks and shuts off the lights.

"Just kidding."

And she makes her way to the bed and climbs in, settling on her back. It's a large bed, but Eric is a large man and still takes up a lot of it.

"I like this. It's like a sleepover."

[onceaviking]

"Doesn't that involve jammies and fuzzy slippers and - I don't know - strippers? Or is that another female ritual?"

He sounds relaxed now.

"We used to sleep in the hay on the floor in winter. Around Yule, we brought the goats in too. And the cows."

At some point, he had stopped telling her about his past. Everything had seemed so distant. Like it had belonged to someone else. But now everything seems painfully bright and clear.
Perhaps loosing Godric is making him remember. Perhaps it is just a coincidence.

[lazy_but_loyal]

She grins.

"Yes, strippers, exactly. And they're the ones who wear the jammies and fuzzy slippers."

She likes it when he sounds this relaxed. It's been a long night of ups and downs. As usual, she supposes, but never quite like this before.

She's quietly amused at what he tells her. He doesn't say much about his past anymore, and the most that it ever comes up is when they happen to speak Swedish to each other.

"Didn't the goats and cows smell?" she chuckles.

[onceaviking]

"They did," he says. "They did. Then again, I frequently fucked the girl watching the goats so to me it's a smell with many happy memories attached."

And some not at all happy ones. Fucking wolves.

He turns on his side and looks at her.

[lazy_but_loyal]

She chuckles warmly at that, smiling in the darkness, her eyes closed.

"Leave it to you to associate happy memories with the smell of barnyard animals."

She feels the mattress dip a little and hears Eric shift his position. After a moment, she opens her eyes and turns her head toward him.

"What?"

[onceaviking]

"Nothing," he says with a small smile. "I am just looking at you."

There's a lengthy pause. Then he says, "I like the lipstick."

[lazy_but_loyal]

Well.

That just makes her smile right back.

Her eyes flick up and down his body.

"I like the nothing."

[onceaviking]

"Thank you," he says "I picked it especially for tonight. I considered Chanel No 5, but it never washes out of the sheets."

[lazy_but_loyal]

She laughs.

He can be ridiculously charming sometimes.

"It's just as well. You've been putting this bed to good use, haven't you?"

She's noticed the scent clinging to the sheets.

[onceaviking]

"I have," he says, sounding pleased with himself.
"That thing I told you, about people switching gender? Had one of them right here. That German, I told you about. Turned out he turned into the sweetest little, virginal flapper. Sweetest, little, virginal, eager flapper."

The pleased smile turns even more pleased.

"I showed him a couple of the good spots as it were."

Community College in the Seventies had been ever so enlightening. And not just when it came to transitory verbs or Maslow for that matter. One of the girls had been very keen on the Betty Dodson Orgasm Workshop she'd been to. It had been most educational.


{ooc: bedtime for me}

[lazy_but_loyal]

Her eyes grow wide.

She doesn't say anything for a few moments, as she seems to be processing the possibility of someone changing genders (can shapeshifters even do that?), and Eric having sex with them. Finally she replies,

"I have two things to say to that. One: the next time that happens, you better come find me, and two: you better share."

[onceaviking]

"I might do that," he says slowly. Teasingly.
"But what would be in it for me?"

[lazy_but_loyal]

She heaves a dramatic sigh.

"You're right."

A beat.

"You'd better just hand her over."

[onceaviking]

He snorts and turns back onto his back.

"We could tell her to bring a friend?"

[lazy_but_loyal]

"Hmm. Maybe."

There's a smile in her voice as she closes her eyes and thinks back, way back to those early years and how things used to be. How they used to be, together.

But times change; people change; the world changes around you. And there are just some things you can't go back to.

She's quiet for a long while before she murmurs,

"Thank you for dinner, by the way."