Madelyn, Alison - last Monday afternoon

[x-madelyn.livejournal.com]

Madelyn has gossip, and no-one to share it with. At least until she tracks down Alison. There is much adolescent squeeing over the state of Madelyn's love life, or rather, the fact there is one now.



The problem with having good news, Madelyn thought to herself as she unpacked her wedding outfit with a wistful little smile, was finding someone to share it with. Scott was still on the sensitive side when it came to relationship news, and while she and Kurt were talking again, gushing to him about Hank would be beyond insensitive. Haroun had made it plain what he thought of Hank. Moira was on her honeymoon. Alison would be perfect, but she'd been so busy lately... With a noise that was half-sigh, half-growl, she closed the lid of her suitcase with a jerky movement and headed for the door. Busy be damned. She had gossip, and if she didn't tell someone, she was going to explode.

The door to her suite not quite being pounded upon before the already slightly open door popped open had Alison looked at it with something of a surprised look. Still cradling the gift Moira and Nathan had given her, Alison patted the dark wood of the silver-inlaid mandolin inlaid protectively. Intricate celtic designs gleamed under her fingertips and a pointed look as given to Madelyn, as though making that much noise and bothering the mandolin demanded an explanation. "Oh. Wait. You have that look." A pause. "Please don't blow up in the living room? It's still new." Setting the mandolin back in it's case, Alison smothered a grin as she cleared the couch for Madelyn to take a seat.

"I," Madelyn declared from the doorway, ignoring the comment about blowing up rooms. "Have News. With a big N, even. And no-one is inter... hey, is this the new living room I've heard about? This is nice," she continued, completely distracted by the Arabic furnishings. Having surveyed the room, she headed for the cleared space and plopped down next to Alison, giving her a mournful look. "If I be happy at you, you won't be all mopey at me?" she asked, with a hint of a pout. "I have happies and no-one wants to share."

"Why would I be mopey? Seeing people happy is a good thing. Seeing happy people decide to share the happy with me is ever better." Alison's slightly wry reply was tempered by a decidedly amused grin. "And yes, it is nice, isn't it?" She beamed at the room for a moment, still pleased with how Haroun had just taken to the new look. And then some. The new mandolin was nudged just a bit further into safety, Alison still not having decided on a nail for it. Or even a gender. Though she suspected this one would earn itself a male name before long. "So." She raised an eyebrow at Madelyn's star struck expression and decided not to ruin the telling of the happy with any pre-emptive comments. "Tell."

"Well, Hank probably picked the worst time and person to wibble at earlier, so maybe I'm being a bit unfair..." Madelyn admitted, grabbing a cushion and hugging it to herself. Cushions were a definite feature in the room. As were rugs. It was all very exotic looking... and comfortable. "Well, you know Hank and I decided to try dating, see how things went?" she began, feeling obscurely adolescent now. "Taking things slowly and all the rest of that terribly sensible and mature thing?"

Good lord, it was like being in high school again. Alison couldn't help the slightly incredulous smile at that, though there was a fair dose of simple relief and pleasure at the mundanity of it all. "I know, Hank told me. You emailed me about it." She gave Madelyn a playful poke with one foot. "It's probably driving him insane and checking himself every step of the way. You'll have to watch him on that," Alison said, claiming a few cushions of her own to settle around herself on her end of the couch. "So. How long did it last? The terribly sensible and mature I mean." She was still
straightfaced and oh so proud of it.

"Oh, it is. We've already talked about it - we agreed to be straightforward with each other about the important stuff, given he tends to hide behind the jokes and I just don't talk about my feelings. Not the big ones, at any rate." It was an admission she hadn't actually made to anyone besides Hank, she realised. "And it lasted until the wedding. We went for a walk, and, ah..." Okay, way too high school, even for her - Madelyn's cheeks were flaming by now. "It's silly to be all excited over a bit of kissing," she said, looking down at the nice, safe cushion. "But... I am. It was... I haven't felt like this about someone for so long, and he's just so sweet, and witty, and he makes me feel..." Madelyn gave up and buried her face in the cushion. "Gah," she said indistinctly. "I'm being a doofus."

"You only kissed? What, no feeling up? You behaved? All that blushing only for that? You're holding out on me." Alison only managed to keep up the indignant expression for all of two seconds before collapsing in laughter, both hands up in a warding gesture. "Augh! Not that cushion, the tassels are my favorite!

Madelyn lowered the brandished cushion, laughing despite herself. "Yes, we behaved. Slow, remember? Although I can't say I wasn't tempted..." The blush was threatening to catch her head on fire, but there was a certain wickedness to the grin. "It wasn't even the kissing, although that was nice. Very nice," she amended. "I... I like him, Al. A lot. I mean, I thought I might, but I wasn't sure, which was why the slow and the careful, in case I was wrong, but I wasn't and I haven't felt this way since high school, which is just entirely ridiculous and wonderful all at the same time. And yes, you can laugh at me some more."

She was chuckling more than anything herself, shaking her head slowly. "You're both dweebs, you know that?" Stretching out her legs at an angle from the couch after claiming the cushion, Alison smiled faintly. "You both like each other a lot and get along fine. Neither of you is a dysfunctional mess, you stand to support each other nicely and you're all around Good People. Of course it's wonderful. And I'll substitute ridiculous for silly but nothing more than that. Everyone gets to be silly in situations like these."

"I can handle dweeb," Madelyn said, still grinning a little goofily. "He's just... he's not like anyone else I've dated before. He likes that I'm smart. And he's this incredibly sweet, caring, intelligent man, and he thinks he's the lucky one!" Madelyn shook her head, chuckling ruefully.

"Just like you think you are." Alison hugged the cushion to herself, a small smile curving her lips. "That's how it's supposed to be, isn't it? And you are lucky, both of you."

"We are, aren't we?" Madelyn's smile softened, as did the rest of her expression. "We're still going to take things slowly - I'd hate to spoil anything by making big declarations too soon. But I promise not to leave the poor man hanging," she added, remembering Alison's earlier warning. "Besides, there's other people's feelings to consider here." Regret touched her voice - she and Kurt had talked, but about anything else than Hank.

"Took me forever to actually tell Haroun that I loved him." The admission was candid, Alison shrugging a bit as she spoke. "Course, that was me being terrified and a whole lot of other things besides, but... yeah." Eyeing the cushion she was holding pensively, remembering how she hadn't even known about Sam... but that, she hoped, seemed to be working out. Slowly but surely, which was how it should be and she was glad for it. "Yeah, there are other people's feelings to consider. But you have nothing to hide, at the same time."

"I know. The last thing I want is Hank thinking I'm ashamed of him or something - I just don't want to hurt anyone more than I already have. It just needs time, all of it, and in the meantime we'll try and be as decorous as we can." Madelyn caught Alison's pensive look, and reached over to pat her hand sympathetically. "He seems to be getting used to things," she said, meaning Sam.

"Huh?" Blinking, Alison stared at her, then raised an eyebrow catching on. "Heh. Sure you're not a mind reader?" she asked, shaking her head slightly. "We've spoken, some and more to the point, he seems to be getting beyond things, which is what really matters." And that was all Alison was willing to say on that topic. "Don't think Hank would go for that line of thought, but then again, sometimes he twists himself up in really bad ways over things."

"Wasn't hard to put the two together - talking about other people's feelings and the look you had on your face just then..." Madelyn teased a little. "And while I'm clueless about my own life, I'm actually not so bad noticing other people's." She shrugged and let it lie. "Hank does twist himself up sometimes - we've already had a couple of talks about it. Which is why the honesty deal."

"That's something that should be a deal in any relationship, really." People slipped up even when it was, though. She had
done so, with Haroun, as he'd slipped as well. It was a continuous work in progress. She winked suddenly, deciding that setting Madelyn right back into squeeing mode was required. "So. Any mad sweeping off your feet yet?"

"Not yet, but he wants to, desperately." Madelyn chuckled a little. "We're going out for dinner and dancing at some point - I think there should be some sweeping then. Although I have no clue what to wear," she added, giving Alison an apparently innocent look.

A snort greeted that transparent ploy for clothing advice. "Well, I guess this means I finally get to do that full review of your closet, huh?" Grinning in way not unlike a shark might, Alison curled up her legs close and leaned forward. "You game to give me free reign?"

"You haven't let me down yet," Madelyn said, not at all phased by the sharklike grin. "And I think you'd know the best thing to make Hank's eyes pop."

"Well, I might be able to help just a little bit," Alison grinned, pondering what Madelyn might like best herself and feel most comfortable in. That, in fact, was the best path for anyone to feel like a knockout, after all. "Come on. Closet raiding we go, mmm?"