To see an opera

[sunbaked_baker]

(Up in her room, Rae gets ready.)


When Sunshine comes down the stairs, today, she may not look wholly like herself. The baker is usually seen in the bar wearing bright t-shirts or sweaters, with colorful jeans and sneakers, her hair up in a ponytail or held back by a likewise colorful kerchief. One colorfully casual customer.

Today her hair is down, tumbling about her scarred shoulders in loose waves of red, and what she wears is not her normal style at all.

She takes care with her steps, and not just because of the silver heels that grace her feet. As she moves down the stairs, Rae consciously straightens her spine against the fluttery nervous feeling in her stomach, and hopes it will soon pass.

This is going to be an enjoyable outing. Rae refuses to let her feelings of self-consciousness mar it.



(ooc: Sunshine will likely be out of the bar for a while after this, so any and all threads are welcome, but will be millitimed to before her thread with Hannibal Lecter.)

Comments

[sunbaked_baker]

"I don't make friends on the basis of fanciness," she sticks out her tongue at him, wryly.

"It's an opera called Nabucco? I've heard the gist, but it's not a story I'm familiar with."

[runningred]

"I hope not." He bumps her naked shoulder softly and playfully. "Otherwise you'd never hang out with a ruffian like me."

"Can't say I know that one. But then I use to fall asleep in the back of the private box every time I was dragged to one of those things."

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae looks puzzled. "Why were you dragged to operas?"

[runningred]

"My mentor was a very rich man with a very public profile. He and his adopted son needed to be seen at all the very best of the city's cultural events. Thankfully, private boxes are very deep and have great shadows to sleep in."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Well at least you got some sleep there," Rae says, wryly, bumping his shoulder very lightly with her own. She doesn't want to mess up the intricate beadwork of the dress. "If opera isn't your flavor of entertainment, being forced to stay awake through it, I suppose could be construed as cruel and unusual punishment."

[runningred]

"There was no such thing as enough sleep at that point." Jay chuckles, remembering. "Between school, training and patrol; sleep was something I got whenever I could find time."

He looks over her shoulder and the pattern of scars. "Let me give you something for tonight?" He goes to the bar and has a quiet conversation with her shawl of fine net gold silk. It's just enough to obscure the scars. "I was taught to be proud of my scars, they show I'm a survivor but I can tell by the way you're holding yourself, you're worried about what people will say and think."

[sunbaked_baker]

Her wry look fades with one of faintly bemused curiosity, as he goes to the bar. She isn't sure what he means by 'something for tonight' until the shawl appears.

"Jay, no," she says, her look surprised and a little pained. "I'll be fine. I couldn't accept that."

Today has been a day of sudden and unmatchable gifts already, with an opportunity to go to the opera, plus a dress worth more than she makes in a month. It is easy to be overwhelmed.

"Promise, I'll be fine. If people stare, I'll... I'll step on their foot and say it was an accident."

[runningred]

"Ah, so you have sharpened those heels." Jay chuckles, leaving the shawl in the table in front of her. It's hers now. After all. it won't suit Jay.

[sunbaked_baker]

"I haven't, but I'll make up for it with force," she promises, still shaken. Jason may be chuckling, but she isn't.

"Jay, please..." her eyes keep going to the shawl. There isn't any good way of doing this, and the awkward mix of not wanting to hurt his feelings and being unable to accept his gift are only making the knot in her stomach grow. He ordered it for her, but she cannot accept it. She couldn't wear it anyway - what kind of message would that send to Dr. Lecter, that she felt the need to augment the dress he's picked out for her? "Please, take it back."

[runningred]

"All a matter of pressure."

He studies her face for a moment before balling up the shawl and shoving it into his jacket.

[sunbaked_baker]

An apology, an explanation, a plead for his forgiveness, is rattling around in her head but she has no idea how to properly put to words. It shows in her eyes, though, as she opens her arms to ask for a hug, instead of a pretty thing to wear and hide her scars.

"I need to... learn to wear them with pride," Rae murmurs, hesitating. "Might as well be tonight."

[runningred]

He takes the hug gladly, holding her close. "You are unbelievablely fucking beautiful, Rae. Doesn't you ever believe otherwise."

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae rests her chin on his shoulder, sighing. "The scars are just... physical signs of the ugliest parts of my life. I worry what people will see in them."

She has had someone tell her she was flat-out lying when she told them she was a baker, because of those scars. It hurt her more than she can admit.

[runningred]

He holds her close, not letting her go till she's ready. "I get it. First time the press got a glimpse of my older brother in shorts, someone started a campaign to take me away from our mentor. They started all sorts of rumours about what B was doing to him. After all, rich playboy takes in a beautiful orphan boy, people are going to talk. Worse when it was a bratish street-walker like me. I learnt to be more careful that Dick was."

[sunbaked_baker]

She hugs Jay tighter for a moment, before reluctantly letting go. "I'm sorry. That people are gossipy jerks, like that." He shouldn't have to be careful.

"I've decided, if someone asks me how I got the scars, I'm going to answer that I got them while wrestling bears, or something similar," Rae adds, offering a faint attempt at a smile. "Alligator attack, maybe."

The alligator totally had a knife, officer.

[runningred]

"Alligator. I like that. That alligator totally had it coming. Dick and I use to use 'skiing accident' a lot. It was fucking emembarrassing the first time I did hurt myself skiing."

[sunbaked_baker]

"You could'a played it off like you were going for verisimilitude," Rae chuckles, smiling. "It's all about how you frame it."

[runningred]

"Nope, I sulked for a week and got teased mercilessly by my other brother. Mostly because I got hurt tripping over a ski-bunny."

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae can't help but snicker at the mental image, pressing a hand to the intricately beaded scales over her stomach.

"I'd say I'm sorry, Jay, but I can't blame him - I would, too."

[runningred]

He shoulder bumps her again. "You'd make a bloody evil sister, you know that?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"My younger brothers would heartily agree with you," she bumps him back, smirking with one eyebrow arched. "But only if I were out of earshot."

[runningred]

"Smart boys. How many brothers do you have?" He asks, interested.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Two," she answers. "Half-brothers, technically. Kenny and Billy."

[runningred]

"I hope you keep the pair of them in line." He teases. "I only have one adopted older brother. We... lost touch a while back."

[sunbaked_baker]

"We were close when we were young - I'd tell them stories, sometimes," she says, a touch of wistfulness in her voice. "But we went through a not-speaking-to-each-other phase, which only really ended once I had graduated from high school and was out of the house. We've made up, but never really been close, since. Kenny's in his second semester at college, now, and only came back over winter break. Billy's just starting high school, so he's still around."