Logs [Alison/Lorna - Alison/Haroun] The little things about living together...

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Tuesday afternoon. After the argument, Alison is snatched from the hallways as she stalks away, still in a high rage. After the successful relocation of one angry lightbulb to her own room, Lorna proceeds to enable the return to sanity.

Slamming the door, Alison turned to the left more by instinct than guided sight, blindly stalking down the hallway. She was more than aware of the light buzzing around her as she counted off steps in her head, focusing on that as an attempt to keep from losing it entirely. Despite the strong desire to head back there and slam the door again just for the satisfaction of doing so she kept moving forward, remembering to breathe every now and then.

Lorna opened her door just as Alison went by, grabbed her best friend's wrist and yanked her inside, closing the door neatly behind her.  She gave the other woman a quick study and shook her head, "Chocolate?" She offered a tin of wrapped dark chocolate, bitter as sin.  She figured it would either get thrown at her head or eaten.  Either way, she sensed a rant coming on and it was better vented here than on whichever unfortunate got in her way next.

The chocolate bar was snatched out of Lorna's hand in lieu of a snappy comment about how she kept yanking Alison into her rooms. With a low snarl a corner of the bar was unwrapped, Alison biting down on the bitter dark chocolate before starting to pace around the room, frowning at anything in her path, the light following her obstinately being the strongest focus of her ire. Obviously, self-control wasn't the most prevalent thing at that particular moment.

Lorna got two cups of coffee and took a seat on the couch.  She set one mug on the coffee table, curled herself around the second and waited for Alison to speak in words instead of incoherent growls.  The little light trails would have been amusing in any other circumstance, right now they were just one more good reason for Lorna to keep her friend from innocent bystanders.  "So what did he do?"

"Again!" The word broke through the room, spoken loudly out of exasperation and still lingering anger. "Again with the pick this up or pick that up!" Waving the hand holding the chocolate, light glinting off the vase on the nearby table, Alison finally let out a strangled cry of exasperation. "I can't clean the tea kettle properly. Fine. I can stay away from it, I don't care." She did, but that was another story entirely. "But would it kill him to just leave one of my shirts or books lying around just a bit longer until I get around to picking it up? Huh?!"

Lorna just nodded and sipped at her coffee.  They were a great deal alike in that it took very little encouragement to keep them on a rant.  Silent sympathy was called for here.  Time enough for sense and reason later.  "Mind that lamp," was her only comment as Alison stalked by the couch.

The lamp nearly bought it then and there as Alison stopped and whirled about to stalk the other way, one arm still waving to and fro. "Who cares if there's a book lying about? It's not the end of the world! So what if I have a shirt over the chair!? It's just a shirt! Big deal! How much can you fuss about stuff like that, it won't end the world if it doesn't get picked up right this very instant!" With an explosion of breath, she stopped, about to continue ranting as she pointed the chocolate at Lorna. And then paused, staring at her hand.

"...damn it. The chocolate is melting. Here." With a piteous expressing she handed the bar back to Lorna, eyeing her smeared and glowing hand sadly. And sniffled, just a bit. "No fair." Another small sniffle followed.

Lorna accepted back the chocolate as though there was nothing odd at all about handling a gooey, sticky mess.  She set it aside, folding the foil back around it neatly. "It'll cool again, no big deal. Plus I have more."  She gestured to the couch next to her with her coffee mug.  "Sit?"

Tension still radiating from her, even with the pout directed at the melted chocolate, Alison finally nodded once and then flopped down on the couch. "It was just a book," she re-iterated sulkily, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, without looking at Lorna. "Not that big a deal."

Sensing they were on the downward slope of this, Lorna nudged Alison in the ribcage.  "Sweetie, I hate to tell you it but, um, former roommate here and all?  You're a slob."  She kept her tone light, still mostly sympathetic.  "You do okay when it's business but chica, I tripped over your stuff every day.  I'm just not a neat-freak like Haroun is."

Drawing up her legs on the couch and looking increasingly woeful, Alison just shrugged. And then sniffled again. When she finally spoke, one hand waving weakly, the words were lost in the small sob that followed, heralding an outbreak of tears as the entire situation finally hit home.

Lorna set her coffee mug aside and wrapped her arms around Alison. It broke her heart to see her friend cry but it was a great deal better than seeing her friend rage uselessly. Plus it meant that she was probably thinking instead of just reacting.

"Not fair. Need my space! You can stifle artistic talent like that!" The words were spoken fitfully between sobs and sniffles, but the one wail that had been trying to make its way through all the sobbing finally became clear once the fit of tears started to abate. "I'm a slob!" Burying her face in her hands after that grand declaration, Alison sniffled once more.

Laughing would be bad.  Laughing wouldn't help.  Laughing was...Lorna clapped a hand over her mouth, glad that Alison wasn't looking at her while she giggled soundlessly.  Once she was sure she could trust her voice to not betray her, she patted Alison's shoulder sympathetically and spoke quietly, "You're not too bad, sweetie.  You just need to get used to living with someone else.  It's not all your own space anymore."

"I've always been in my own space! What if I can't get used to it?" She hiccupped over the last word, giving Lorna a horrified look at the mere thought, the inkling doubt that she was perhaps exaggerating just a bit not being given any attention for the moment.

"You lived with me for a year and a half," Lorna pointed out calmly. "But if you can't, then I guess you'll have to move out and live alone.  I'll buy you ten cats and you can be the old spinster on the hill."  Okay, so that wasn't nearly as sympathetic as it should be but, damnit, it was getting really hard to keep a straight face.

Any hint of dawning reasonableness faded on the spot. "You're laughing at me!" Giving Lorna a betrayed look, Alison reached for the nearest cushion - torn between feeling ridiculous and still needing to get even for being laughed at when there as nothing to laugh about in the situation.

Lorna shook her head and grabbed at Alison's hands to keep them off he pillows, "I'm really not, sweetie. I just think you need to take a step back.  You don't really think that there's not a middle ground here.  Haroun is a big anal baby and you're a independent brat.  Isn't that just a little bit funny?"  She gave Alison a wide-eyed look, "Just a teensy bit?"

"No!" Sniffling again, Alison freed one hand to swipe at her face. "Okay, maybe a bit." Another pause, and the she looked down and sighed, shoulders slumping. "Lots." She wasn't laughing as she slumped back in the couch, hugging a cushion close to herself. "I guess I should apologize. Find a compromise or something."

Lorna hugged her.  "I think that's pretty much your only option since neither of you are going to change your fundamental natures. He's a law and order kinda guy.  You, not so much.  You both need to bend your stubborn necks a bit."

The temptation to reply 'Don't wanna' was fleeting and easily dismissed. "Gnrn." Running a hand through her hair and taking a deep breath, Alison nodded in agreement. She wasn't about to argue the stubborn comment, not one bit.

"Compromise. Right. I can do that."

~*~

Tuesday, early evening. Shortly after this exchange of emails. Volatile tempers are talked about or hinted at, as well as a trip into town for the next day. Oh yes. There's making up as well.

The email exchange had reassured her somewhat. At least that there wouldn't be any imminent end of the world of having to hide out forever and generally indulge in hating herself for being a shrew. And she was probably overdoing it with the contrite, but she was tired and felt lousy and badly wanted a hug and some promises that everything would be fine. Opening the door quietly, Alison peeked inside the living room of their living quarters, hoping Haroun would be nearby.

Haroun was sitting at the desk he usually used for drafting and other engineering work. It was a complete sham, though, as his concentration and ability to focus were well and truly destroyed. "Hey." he said, looking up at her and shooting her a dazzling smile. "You OK?"

"Mrf." The smile was enough to have her slip inside and barely manage to close the door before heading straight for him through the room. Smiles were good and she wasn't about to stop now that she'd gotten close enough  to wriggle her way between him and the desk to sit on his lap and wrap her arms around his neck. "Tired." Hearing the sound of her voice, Alison realized that woeful probably wasn't even close to describing how she sounded. "M'sorry I yelled."

Haroun scooted his chair back a touch to make room for the Alison in his lap. "It's OK. I kinda got a little hot as well." he said with a somewhat embarrassed look. "Neither of us handled this very well." He admitted. "We can do better. We will do better."

"We will!" She settled that much more comfortably against him what with being granted a bit more wiggle room, ducking her head to the side to claim a full hug. Taking a deep breath, the warmth of his body slowly seeping through, Alison then let it out slowly, trying to dispel the lingering tension as best she could. "We can get both the kettle and the extra basket tomorrow?"

"Sure." he said with a smile. If he didn't have room on his calendar - well, he would. This was important, dammit. "And we're gonna need some new teacups too. Those blue-and-white deals you liked so much? They're, well, they're a little bit broken right now." he confessed.

Blinking, Alison stared at him for a moment while the words sunk in. "The Blues are broken?" It was a testament to her fondness for the teacups that she'd actually named them. "What happened? Did they fall down when I slammed the door?" She looked mildly horrified at the thought.

Haroun shook his head. "Not exactly." he said sheepishly. "They, err, fell victim to an extreme gust of gravity. I've already cleaned up the mess and I'll replace them when we go out tomorrow, assuming you find anything you really like."

"Extreme gust of gravi-" she paused, eyes widening a touch in understanding. "Oooooooh." A slow nod followed. "Gravity. Right." Still nodding, she bid her favorite teacups adieu without a second thought. "We can pick out a new set we both like tomorrow?"

"Sure." he said with a reassured look. He wasn't sure she was buying the gravity explanation - ~probably because it's completely retarded, Haroun!~ - but she wasn't pressing the issue. Which was another massive relief. "You look tired. I think it's an early bedtime for us, what do you think?" he asked her with a slow, lazy smile.

Her lips quirked in response, shifting into a small, warm smile in return. "I'm not that tired," she murmured slowly, not budging from his lap in the least. "But we could do with an early bedtime, yeah. In fact, that sounds like a very good idea." The small purr to her voice wasn't overdoing it either, she decided on the spot. Not at all."

Haroun caught the purr and gave her a saucy grin of his own. "Oh, I think I can dredge up some energy from somewhere." he said, standing up while keeping her carefully cradled in his arms. All those workouts had come in handy after all.