Jono and Paige and sparkles

[x-foliate.livejournal.com]

December 26, before the concert

A lot of Jono's life seemed to have centered around standing behind doors lately. He noticed this when he was staring at the 201 on the door to Paige's room. He knocked, a rhythmic tap-tap.

It was, as predicted, Paige who answered the door, although it would have been very difficult to tell as she wasn't behind it once it had opened. She was putting in a final pin in her hair, dressed in merely her black slip and quite oblivious to her possibly inappropriate company. "Hey Lee. Thanks again for lending me your-" Finally, Paige looked into the mirror to see behind her. "You're not Alison."

Jono's eyebrows went up in surprise. "I'm glad that you finally noticed," he said, closing the door, and leaning against it.

Turning around to face him, Paige smiled a bit. "Just as useful even if you are with less shoes for me. You can help me with my dress."

The dress was, in fact, not easy to miss. It had an almost pearly white glow about it, neatly hanging from a hanger on the door of her closet. Jono gave it a look, then ran his eyes over Paige, rather undressed as she was. "That sounds interesting."

Paige smiled, as innocently as she could, and tried not to blush too hard under his gaze. "I can't do up the zipper by myself."

"I'm here to help," Jono promised, walking over to Paige and twining his arms around her.

If she wasn't blushing before, she certainly was now. "Why thank you, kind sir," she replied with just a hint of her twang, clearly pleased.

As if it would have been somehow possible not to want to touch her. Jono tightened his arms, fingers splaying against her back. He hummed, no melody, just a bee-like buzz.

Paige smiled contently, enjoying his mood, his closeness. "Does this mean I get my dance now, my antisocial lead guitarist?"

At that Jono slid his grasp to her hands, twirling her around. "It might."

The carpet under her bare feet was comforting as she spun, laughing at him. "I'm in my slip, and you're playing hard to get?"

"I'm just trying not to come off as too easy," Jono tugged her close again, and leaned his forehead against hers. The blue of her eyes was an interesting mix of colours, seen that close.

"Who wears the pants in this relationship again?" she teased with a slow, amber smile. Paige slipped her arms about his neck as she swayed to a beat only they could hear.

One of his eyebrows curved higher than the other as Jono pulled back a bit and glanced down. "Right now? Me."

Paige laughed again, pulling him back to her with an urgent tug. "You're so helpful. I certainly couldn't have figured that out on my own."

"Really, I don't know what you'd do without me," he smoothed his hands down her back, across the slippery fabric.

"Not know who's wearing pants, I figure," Paige countered with ease.

"And what a loss that would be," Jono continued.

Paige threaded her fingers in his hair as they oh-so-slowly moved together. "Well, it certainly would be dangerous, either way."

"People would be wearing trousers and you'd never know," Jono stated matter-of-factly, leaning closer at Paige's touch and nuzzling the side of her face.

Humming a small noise of contentment from the back of her throat, Paige returned the affection. "Imagine. Going up to people and telling them they had no pants on when they really did." She chuckled, not quite willing to give up the secret, low voices.

"That would be somewhat awkward," Jono advised, feeling the vibration of her hum. "To say the least."

"Probably." Paige paused and stood on tiptoe, tightening her arms about his neck as she pressed herself close to him. She whispered in his ear, if only for whispering sake, "But since you have been kind enough to bring it to my attention, I really must compliment the band's costume designer..."

It was pleasant how the cloth bunched and then smoothed under Jono's arms as he lay his palms flat against Paige's spine. "You know, I'm sure Alison will be happy to hear you think so highly of her designing skills."

"The fantastic model helps," she replied. Her hands unclasped from behind his neck to slowly run down his arms, under his hands and rest on slim hips. Her thumbs hooked into his belt loops, making circles there.

"Says the girl wearing next to nothing," Jono tilted his head as if to kiss her, but stopped, staring at her almost anxiously instead.

"My wearing next to nothing has very little to do with how stunning you are. Shh," she said to the next words forming in her head, arching her neck to kiss just above the black covering, a slow line across his face.

"Just in comparison," Jono murmured, closing his eyes. "If people were to walk in, they'd be looking at you, not me. No matter my apparent gorgeousness." He slipped his hands lower, to the curve of her waist because it felt like the perfect place to keep them.

Paige broke up her words with her mouth against his skin, "Only because it's my room and I happen to be in my underwear, heart..." Her fingers ran lines across the leather of his trousers, keeping her balance.

"I'm sure they'd look at you anywhere you went, sunshine," Jono pressed against her, following her kisses with a teasing nuzzle.

"So long as I was in my underwear, you bet." Paige followed his tease with one of her own, taking his hand and drawing away to spin herself about, grinning.

"So I'm the practice dance?" He pulled her back to him.

Paige let herself be pulled, spinning in playfully. "Hardly. You're the real thing."

"I feel very special," Jono said seriously, then glanced at the dress, glowy white as it was. "Shouldn't you put that on at some point? I really don't want to let you run out of here dressed like you are now."

Glancing over her shoulder, Paige found what he was looking at before turning back. "I didn't think you'd approve. It's so... white."

Jono's eyes crinkled amusedly. "I didn't say I approved of the dress, I also just don't approve of other people seeing you in your underwear."

Paige stuck out her tongue. "Oh, so you're the jealous type. I hadn't noticed." She was clearly amused.

The worried expression rising to Jono's face was obviously faked. "Really? Punching Angelo wasn't a good hint? What else should I do?"

"Well, I think I'm convinced now," she said, pulling away to make her way over to her dress. "But what can I say, clearly I'm just not as observant as you. First the pants, now this." Paige pulled the dress from it's hanger, holding it in front of herself.

Jono leaned against a chair now that he no longer had Paige to hold. He shook his head. "For a genius you're really not that perceptive."

"Hypocritical much?" Stepping into the dress, Paige adjusted the straps just so, making it impossible to tell what was underneath.

"Hypocrisy suits me," Jono's voice went almost flat, but even the slight displeasure didn't make him stop watching Paige.

"No, those trousers suit you. Hyprocrisy you're just used to." Paige peered over her shoulder at him with a little smile. "Help?"

Jono walked over to her without comment, and zipped up the dress gently. Then he looped his arms around Paige's shoulders, pulling her against himself again.

Paige looked at the two of them in the mirror, the white against the black, and smiled. "Thank you."

She earned one of those expressions that were clearly the way Jono smiled. He nosed her ear. "My pleasure."

"Mm... We are the ultimate cliché, you know that?" Paige observed.

Jono glanced up at her eyes reflected in the mirror. "We are?"

Paige brushed at her skirt, sending glitter fluttering to the ground. "Mhm. All opposites attract, ying to yang and whatnot."

"You're right, we are a cliché," Jono admitted, pressing his cheek against hers. "Though I don't mind all that much."

"Good. That means neither of us cares. In fact, I kind of like it," Paige replied, rubbing her cheek against his lovingly, enjoying the moment.

"Yeah, we do look rather dashing together," Jono regarded their movements in the mirror.

Paige laughed, smacking his thigh playfully. "You look dashing. I look like a fu- I look like I belong in The Nutcracker. You, by the way, are a horrible influence on me."

Jono made a face that would have clearly been a grin if only he had a mouth. He let his hands fall from her shoulders to her hips. "I should bloody well hope so."

"Oh, shut up and dip me." Paige grinned enough for the both of them, looking up over her shoulder to kiss his chin.

Jono spun her around in his arms, then dipped her carefully, feeling like a member of the Nutcracker himself. "I think you're ready for the dance floor."

Paige arched her back into the dip like a pure professional, the curve of her neck more like the dancers of Swan Lake than anything Clara would be doing. She reached for her skirt, pulling some of the sparkles from it to brush along his cheeks. "And now you're ready for the stage."

"I'm sure I'll out-dazzle Alison," he commented rather dryly, wrinkling his nose. He pulled Paige up from the dip and twirled her, the skirt blossoming fuller around her.

"How puny of you," Paige answered mock cheerfully, but there was obvious amusement in her eyes. Her dress spun close again around her knees, their arms stretched between them in a classic pose. "You're going to spoil me, though."

"This is nothing compare to what Angelo will do, I'm sure," Jono replied, noticing the glitter from Paige's dress clung to his shirt now as well. He resisted the urge to dust it off, eyes narrowing into its direction.

Paige smiled a little, noticing the tone of his voice. "Maybe." She came towards him, brushing most of the glitter off him, enjoying the simple familiarity it brought, but left the sparkle at his cheeks.

"He spoils you rotten, doesn't he?" Jono said noncommittally, watching the glitter float to the floor. He knew he'd be finding the stuff for weeks from his pillow, glitter had a nasty habit of sticking.

"Yes. We spoil each other, really. I'm wearing this dress aren't I?" Paige tapped his nose, bringing his attention back to her. "You're pretty good at it yourself, though. Thank you."

"Oh, right," Jono rolled his shoulders, setting one hand to his hip and posing for a fraction of a second. "Incredible zipping action."

Paige rolled her eyes and snaked a hand around his waist, pulling him almost roughly to her. "Getting into the angsty rockstar character, hm?" She kissed just above where his mouth would be and pulled back half a breath. "Go. Before I get an embarassed Xavier in my head asking if the band can have their lead guitar player back."

Jono was pushed towards the door by Paige, making a bit of a show of trying to pull away but not really pulling away much in the end. She resisted giving him a slap, barely, but had quite the time making sure he knew she was pondering it as he made it into the hallway.

"Break a leg. Can you break a leg? Nevermind, I'll see you later, Jono," she said.

"Bye."

Paige watched him walk down the hall then closed the door.