milliways_bar | (no subject)

"I didn't know things like that could happen. Doesn't sound like much fun to me," she frowns. Ah, control issues.

"Sam? Is this your mystery man you're so close about?" She nudges him playfully with her elbow.

"Thank you," Cal says. "Jesus, finally somebody sane around here. Some things should be voluntary." They have a matching set.

"Uh." He laughs uncomfortably. He'd forgotten he'd even mentioned anything at all about Sam to Bela, vague though it was. "Yeah." And here are some more of Cal's issues on display.

She kisses him on the cheek, and the subject is dropped.

"Yeah, I don't get into the instant makeovers unless I ask for them. Even though I do want to see you in leather pants sometime. So let me guess, lots of corsets and pirate wenchery abounded yesterday, yeah?"

Pirate movies are popular right now where she's from. She knows the drill.

Cal smiles. Maybe he can have this conversation without getting into a bunch of weird, unpleasant shit. He gives Bela's hand a squeeze and admits,

"I still have them, if the cleaning staff hasn't gotten hold of them yet." Well, if she's interested, he may as well put it out there. He still maintains that it is questionable taste, but he can put up with it if she will be helping him back out of them.

"Yeah. Serious stiletto heels, too. Esfir was actually over five feet," he adds with a laugh.

"I did not know that pirates wore stiletto heels," she says, raising her eyebrows playfully. "One would think that heels would cause difficulties when walking about on a splintery wooden deck."

She squeezes his hand back. See, she is getting better at this avoiding traumatic conversation thing. It makes things ever so much nicer.

"I think I'll have to demand a modeling session. Pity my door is not reliable. I have this leather halter top and skirt I wear when I need to look a little less than refined."

Cal laughs. "You'd think so, wouldn't you? Guess it just goes to show that shoes have always turned women crazy." He half-ducks like he might be expecting a swat. 'Cause he kinda just asked for one.

"See, now that sounds interesting." He gives her a leisurely once-over, then nods. "Very interesting."

She gives him the obligatory whack, since he was, indeed deserving.

"Shoes make the world go round," she states, matter-of-factly.

"I like interesting." She nuzzles her head on his shoulder. God, he smells good. No cloying cologne. Just- him.

"I'll change the subject immediately if you want, but I have to say that you're looking much better tonight than last I saw you. I'm glad."

"Esfir makes me go running with her," he grumbles. Poor Cal. "Every morning. Makes it a little easier to sleep, though, so I guess she's on to something."

Pause.

Then, with good-natured fake annoyance,

"So everyone can stop trying to feed me now." He slips his arm around Bela and squeezes her gently.

"Hey, I merely offered to share my ample order of scones," she says, laughing. "Once."

"It's good that Esfir is helping you."

She'd like to ask, for curiosity's sake, whether Esfir's helping with the sleeping in another way, but really, it doesn't matter. Not when Bela's the one who's warm and comfortable in Cal's embrace right now.

She sighs happily. This is such luxury.

Sadly, Esfir is not, and Cal is beginning to suspect that this is unlikely to change, but he doesn't mind like he might have a couple weeks ago. He gets more, and more important, from Esfir than sex, anyway.

"Yeah, you and everyone else. I was about ready to dump Sam's fries over his head before he managed to take a hint." He laughs. It isn't nearly as annoying now as it was at the time. "But then I figured out what to eat and it's easier to get things down than it was before." He still isn't quite on three square meals a day, but two is better than one-ish.

Bela smiles and pats his chest. "I know what it's like to lose your appetite and then get it back. I could always choke down scones."

Which is why she offered them to him that night. Scones sustained her, growing up. Nowadays, she rarely has problems with her appetite, but there are bad days every now and again when scones and clotted cream are what gets her through. Yay, comfort foods.

"Comfort food?" Cal guesses. "Yeah. That's kinda what I'm going with. I figured it out when I was talking to X - oh, you know her, right? - and we ended up talking about favorite foods. Turned out she'd never had chocolate chip pancakes. Or decent chocolate, for that matter. And I mean that's just not right. So I ordered us some, and it was the first thing I'd had since I got here that I actually wanted to eat. I hadn't had them in years. So I've been trying to remember all the stuff I used to like when I was younger, and going with that."

It's not exactly the healthiest diet, but one step at a time, right?

"I do know X. She's a very odd kid, but she's grown on me. The first time I met her was my first time in. She fucking freaked me the hell out. I literally spooked and ran, but I was concerned at the time I'd been trapped in some kind of haunting without even knowing it."

Hmm. Chocolate chip pancakes, eh? Bela can think of some fun uses of syrup. She'll keep those in mind.

Mm, sticky.

"Yeah, she's - different. She even stands out here. I think it's the staring. I'm not new to getting stared at or anything, but not like that. I like her, though. First time I met her, she was worried about you because of the hellhound thing. It bothered her that you were so scared. So, you know. Right away we had something in common."

Cal picks up his coffee mug with his free hand and takes a sip. In no way is this any sort of displacement activity in response to getting dangerously close to - well, emotion of any kind.

Bela doesn't respond, but she doesn't frown or look overly concerned, either. In fact, her smile becomes softer and more genuine.

"No one's worried about me in a long time."

Even though there have been multiple reasons for anyone in their right mind to worry a great deal about her.

"I guess- that's what friends do. Worry about each other." There is a questioning tone in her voice; she's not really sure what adult friends feel for each other, aside from the surface view pop culture paints.

Cal glances at her. For just a few seconds, she looks very young indeed.

"That's what I hear," he says lightly. "You know how rumors get around, though."

He himself is not overly familiar with the concept of friends who don't want something from him, be it money or favors or drugs. When he was a kid, maybe. If their parents weren't just trying to curry favor with his.

Light tone is good. Light tone is not scary. Light tone doesn't make her want to flee.

She smiles up at Cal and then kisses him. Wordless communication is also much, much easier.

They're friends. She doesn't need to ask, and she doesn't need to say it. She thinks that maybe he doesn't either.

Mm. Cal is comfortable with words, but no words can be good, too.

He's also getting comfortable with the idea of friends around here. Some of the people he's met since his arrival he might even trust, maybe, and that's practically a dirty word back home. Trusting someone at home is just asking to get fucked over. But that, like everything else, seems to be different here.

That makes two of them. Trusting others hasn't been a part of her life, ever, so she doesn't know what she's missed. The friendships she's making here just might show her. Slowly, but surely.

If she could articulate her feelings a little better, she could tell Cal these things, but she's hidden her true self, her true emotions, for so long that it isn't an option. Not yet.

Bela lifts her hand to lightly trace the side of his face with her fingertips. She likes his face, and not just because he's very handsome. She likes how his face looks when he's talking to her.

"Thanks, Cal." Her brow furrows momentarily. She's not sure why she said that, or whether she should have at all. It just seemed the thing to say.

Cal leans into the touch a little and gives her a smile.

He's not sure what to say back, aside from the obvious. He's not really good at this stuff. He'll sit inside a circle of dust with a frightened woman, or buy chocolate chip pancakes for a girl who's never tried them before, or try his best to explain religion to a boy who has just been introduced to the concept of holy wars, but ask him what friendship entails or to try to express it and he'll come up empty-handed.

"Any time."

That smile of his kills her, in the good way.

They can be emotionally stunted together! It will work well, except for when it doesn't.

She leans again, this time to whisper in his ear. "Take me upstairs, yeah?"

Cal grins.

"Any time," he repeats. He gives her a kiss and then stands, holding his hand out to her.

Bela takes his offered hand and sticks close by him as they walk upstairs.

Halfway up the stairs, she realizes exactly why she's so happy.

She feels safe.