Adrienne & Vanessa | Saturday Night

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Adrienne unexpectedly stops by with beer and tells Vanessa about her date with the man she's currently avoiding. Confessions are made and promptly ignored.

With a bottle of wine in one hand and a six-pack of Anchor Steam in the other, Adrienne juggled the door of the Brownstone, aided by the doorman. She glanced around for any sign of Jake Gavin, then headed up the stairs quickly to Morgan's flat, knocking hurriedly on the door. "Lemme in, lemme in," she called out impatiently.

"Or you'll huff and you'll puff and you'll burn the house down?" The response floated through the door with Vanessa's characteristic thick Southie accent. She groaned and grumbled the whole way to the door, annoyed at having to dislocate herself from the comfortable spot she'd curled up into on her couch. When she opened the door it was obviously she'd been lounging around, for once doing nothing at all. The lounge shorts and tank were her usual sleeping attire but her hair was down which wasn't like her at all. "What, someone chasing after you and you've come here to hide before they can find you and beat it out of you where you've hidden the body?"

The fact that the Morgan mask was off gave Adrienne a momentary start, but she told herself that if Vanessa had different reactions to her situation than Morgan, it might be interesting to know them. "I think it's 'blow' the house down, Sassafrass," Adrienne corrected, closing the door behind her and setting the drinks down in the kitchenette, "and no, no one's chasing after me. Just... trying to avoid someone," she said, brow furrowing. She hadn't realized she was avoiding him until just now. And it frustrated her.

Vanessa gave her a look like Adrienne was maybe a little crazy. She even poked her head out of the door and looked around for any suspicious persons, which she realized was a bit stupid since everyone who lived in the Brownstone was a Suspicious Person. Except maybe Doug. Maybe. "Who're you avoiding here? Shouldn't you be avoiding other people and be all safe inside the Brownstone where everyone's mad and likes weapons and the like?"

"You're assuming everyone in the Brownstone likes me," Adrienne pointed out wryly. The odd thing was that she did get along with most, if not all, of the Trenchcoats. "And why would a place where everyone's crazy and likes weapons be a safe place?" She gave Vanessa a smirk as she poured herself a glass of wine and handed a beer to Vanessa. "What's with this?" she inquired, flipping Vanessa's hair with her hand. "You don't usually wear it loose."

"Because anyone'd have to be mad to come in here after anyone. Likelihood of them walking out injured, needing an ambulance or not at all is a lot higher than them getting to you for their nefarious purposes." The metamorph took the beer and hopped up on the counter of her kitchen, perching comfortably there. Her nose wrinkled at the mention of her hair. "I was lazy when I got out of the shower's all. You never said who you're avoiding."

"I'm not worried about someone coming in here after me, I'm more worried about the people who already live here. Your newest tenant here at the Sanctuary for the Weapon-and-Violence-Loving," Adrienne answered, leaving Vanessa on the counter and commandeering her couch. "Have you met him? Gavin?"

"Who?" Who the fuck was Gavin? What sort of poncy name was that anyway? Who did that to their kid? It wasn't as bad as Gertrude or Percival but it was up there. Vanessa imagined an aristocratic English accent to go with the name Gavin. She also made it Sir Gavin Lancaster the Eighth of Devonshire as well. She hopped off the counter and went to perch on the arm of the couch since she wasn't fond of holding conversations in different rooms without line of sight. "Who's Gavin? We have a new tenant? Thought North and I were the newest wayward orphans."

Adrienne shrugged and sipped at her wine, sitting up to make space on the couch for Vanessa if she wanted to sit properly. "Jake Gavin. Shapeshifter. Dazzlingly cute. I think he fucked my sister. He asked me out."

"Jake Gavin." Well, that ruined the aristocracy in her head, the image fizzling and dying a valiant death. "Also, that's disgusting. Incest one step removed and all that rot and...why are you avoiding some bloke who asked you out?" And, again, who the fuck was he? Vanessa searched her brain for possibilities. "Is he the skinny bloke I saw the one time the other day? Short brown hair? Light eyes?"

Rolling her eyes, Adrienne drank a little more. "There's no such thing as incest one step removed. Not that I want to sleep with him anyway," she added quickly. "I don't know who you've seen around here, Sassafrass, but yeah the description fits and I don't know any other males in this building who fit that description." Did Remy have light eyes? Did Remy even live here? "I'm avoiding him because... I don't know." She frowned again, confused by her own actions. "We were talking and he asked me out. I wasn't expecting it. I don't like being asked out when I'm not expecting it." Couldn't even remember the last time that had happened. Probably when she'd been an undergrad, before she'd met Steven. "And I said yes." Her head flopped back against the back of the couch.

Vanessa blinked at her and took a long drink from her bottle. "Just so we're clear here, you're avoiding him because he asked you out without asking permission first? You realize how entirely cocked up that logic is, yeah?" People didn't usually give you a head's up or have your assistant write being asked out into your schedule for the day so you knew in advance. What did Adrienne expect? "You said yes so what's the issue exactly?"

Adrienne made a face, feeling a little easier for being able to talk about it with the blue woman. "No, I'm not avoiding him because he asked me out without asking permission. What I meant was that when I get asked out, it's always because I'm trying to get myself asked out, because I want it for some particular reason, wanting to be seen with the person or wanting to get some business deal out of them. So when I do get asked out, it's anticipated and not a complete shock. And yes, I know how shallow that sounds," she pointed out, making a face again. "That's not the point. The point is that I wasn't anticipating this, I wasn't thinking to myself 'okay self, let's get this guy to ask me out' and I don't know anything about this guy so I don't know why would he ask me out. Which is also why I'm not sure why I said yes." For all that she projected self-confidence around other people, Adrienne knew she didn't have to act with Vanessa. She didn't think Jake would have asked her out based on the merits of her personality or looks, but that he must want something else from her and it made her wary. She felt like he must be playing the game she had always played, asking her out to get some form of power for himself.

Adrienne's explanation had done nothing to wipe the confusion off the ex-mercenary's face. If anything she just looked more confused. "So you're made of crazy because some cute bloke, so you say, asked you out for reasons that have nothing to do with your premeditation? You realize you sound like a massive control freak who can't handle anything not orchestrated by yourself, right? Maybe he just asked you out because you're hot as hell. Guys've got this thing we like to refer to as a cock, which tends to house their higher brain functions loads of times. You're hot, this triggers a hormonal reaction that turns on The Cock which then does The Thinking and then, presto!, dates are asked for because ultimately we all want to get hot girls into bed with us. Even the straight chicks. They just don't realize it so they displace it and project onto guys."

"But... I am a massive control freak," Adrienne reminded her. She was a Frost, after all. Thinking Vanessa's explanation over, she sunk down into the couch and drained the last of her wine. "It's been so long since I've seen one I think I've forgotten The Cock often does the thinking." Vanessa's suggestion almost made things worse, though. Being asked out for the purposes of sex later seemed even less desirable than thinking that Jake had asked her out because he recognized and wanted to exploit her business connections. "I am hot as hell," she agreed with a nod. "But if he wants me in bed with him, that doesn't really solve my dilemma of why I said yes in the first place and if I should get out of going."

"Because it's been a damn long time since you were laid and even if you aren't going to go for it you like the idea that someone wants you naked and sweaty on top of them and that they're imagining the way you move and the way you look when you come," Vanessa told her nonchalantly. "Why are you so fucking worried? It's a date, cupcake, and somewhere your metaphor cock wants to go out with some pretty person because it reinforces your hotness to yourself because it reminds you that people dream of being inside you." She shrugged and took another drink. "I'll track him down, do the obligatory 'your hands go anywhere they aren't supposed to and I'll cut 'em off and keep them in a jar' thing, he can ask around and find out that I really will cut off his hands and keep them in a jar and he'll be on his best behavior. Then you can go out, calm the fuck down, be hot as fuck and then send him to bed alone while you go home and get yourself off to thoughts of me." She gave her friend a wide grin because the situation really did need some distracting humor before Adrienne let her head explode for all the wrong reasons.

"I..." Wow. What was she supposed to say to that? She didn't even know where to start. It was just... wow. Did it actually make sense? The brunette gave Vanessa a laugh and a shake of her head. "Christ, my metaphor cock? Are you serious? Why do I come here to listen to this crazy talk?" she asked rhetorically. The fact that Vanessa was probably right wasn't something she was going to admit, and she figured it was useless arguing so she changed the subject. "I don't need you to track him down. I'll even hold off on my usual requests for bits in jars on this one." But the fact that Vanessa would do that for her was very much appreciated. "You know," she pointed out with her own grin, "I wouldn't have to go home and get myself off to thoughts of you if I came back here to you when I send him home alone."

Vanessa sighed theatrically and slid down the arm of the couch until she landed on the cushion properly and her long, bare legs extended across her friend's lap. Her feet planted on the other side of Adrienne and she used the hook of them to pull herself closer to her friend. Vanessa was a little on the close side and she played it up by cupping her friend's face and giving Adrienne big, open eyes. "Oh, love, if I thought you'd actually make good on any of that I might actually reconsider my stance on this relationship I've got with my Mudflap." She gave Adrienne a quick peck on the lips and then leaned back until her back found the arm she'd been sitting on a moment again. Another heavy sigh came out and she slumped once it was past her lips. "As it is, I've doubts you're in any way in the sort of place that would allow you to engage in a serious relationship or commitment with anyone, honestly. And so I will refrain from inviting you back here lest I become too tempted to restrain myself from seeing if you will make good on confirming or denying how I suspect you look naked, sweaty, beneath me and coming." Vanessa smiled slightly, a far off look in her eye suggesting she was caught up in the very mental image she'd just described. Several moments later she snapped out of it and focused on the brunette again. "However, I never asked your permission and he's lucky it's only his hands I'm threatening to cut off and not his bollocks."

Adrienne ditched her empty wine glass and settled against the arm of the couch next to Vanessa with her arm around the blue woman's waist, wedging herself in comfortably between the back of the couch and Vanessa. She still didn't really understand why it was comfortable, why they could tease each other this way and it not be awkward. All she knew was that it was strange and new and that she liked it. "I can be committed," she corrected quietly, a little indignant and a little wistful. "I was committed once. I could do it again. Not now, yeah, but if I was sure something was right, I could." She gave Vanessa a smile. "But you're the one in the relationship, so I can't make good on anything, and I know you wouldn't really be tempted to be seeing me naked, sweaty, beneath you and coming because you have that hangup about having to be in a relationship first, and you have a Mudflap in one of those with you so even if I did think I could be committed it wouldn't work."

If circumstances had been different, who knew? If Vanessa wasn't with Sam, or if she was the sort of person who would let herself be seduced away from the person she was currently with by someone else, if Adrienne could admit to herself Vanessa was worth the risk of heartbreak, she might have been willing to be committed to the blue woman. But things were the way they were, and what they had wasn't the sweaty naked sort of relationship, but Adrienne liked what they did have, here and now, and she wasn't going to regret anything. "That's why you'd let me stay with you," she pointed out. "Because you know you wouldn't cheat on Sam and you know I wouldn't let you compromise your values, so there'd be nothing to restrain yourself from. You only cut off the bollocks of your brothers if they have sex with Laurie?" she mused, still grinning.

Vanessa shifted so that Adrienne had room to get comfortable before shifting a leg to hitch up around the other woman's hip while an arm curled around the back of her shoulders. Vanessa's stray hand playfully ran up and down Adrienne's arm before settling on her waist. "I am awfully fond of the Mudflap, it's true. Also, totally wrong about the naked, sweaty and coming thing. Some of us, generally those with metaphor cock instead of The Cock, however, have restraint and temptation means fuck all about action, that's all." She said it so flippantly that whether or not she was serious about wanting to be in that situation was lost somewhere in the tone. Though Vanessa sighed and nuzzled the side of Adrienne's neck. "Right about the staying though. I'm a sucker for punishment though. Must be that masochistic streak I've got."

An eyebrow quirked upward and Vanessa gave her friend a bit of a mischievous look. "No, I cut off my brother's bollocks for fucking underage girls. Maybe for Laurie but I don't see how any of them would be in a position to be doing that anyway. And possibly if they try to fuck you, because you've got better taste than that and it's insulting to you," she grinned. "Also, Jake loses the bollocks if he tries to fuck you and you don't want him to. It's an eye for an eye thing, you see. If his hands go somewhere you don't want them to then the hands come off. If The Cock insists on going somewhere you don't want it to then The Cock comes off. Really, now that I think about it just the bollocks doesn't do much other than stop him from having spawn. That could be encouraging for him in a way. Like those blokes who do it for porn for the penetration shot."

The psychometrist made a face. "I know the modeling business is a distant cousin to porn what with the sale of human flesh and all that, but that is disgusting, and not a mental image I want in my head." She toyed with the ends of Vanessa's hair and smiled in amusement. "If Jake tries something I don't want him to do, I don't think I want you to cut off bits of him- I think I want you to show me how to do it so I can cut off bits of him. I fight my own battles now," she said, curling up against the blue woman. At least, she felt like she was learning how to fight her own battles. "Besides, I don't want you getting into trouble with the law over my account. Not that you would get caught or anything. I just seem to have all these annoying morals where you're concerned, so I think about these things now."

Vanessa made a pfft sound, dismissing the notion of Adrienne being taught to cut bits of him off. "It's not so much how to do it so much as having the will to do it. Fight your own battles all you want, cupcake, but you're not getting me to pull you down to my level of dismemberment. Just because you are capable of something doesn't mean you need to do it. Though I'm touched I inspire morals in you." She smirked, more to herself than to her friend, and laid a kiss on Adrienne's forehead. "Aye, it's very endearing, but you went and let me steal that car and break into that empty shop and all so don't go thinking you've too many morals where I'm concerned now."

"Yes, but breaking into the car and the shop weren't on my account," Adrienne pointed out with a smirk, "so the situation is different. If you want to go and be stupid for your own reasons, that's fine with me, but being stupid on my account is another story. And I don't think of you as being on a lower level than me, you know. Although, now that you mention it, the fact that you have no fashion sense..." She continued to play with Vanessa's hair. "You don't fail completely for having the good sense to wear your hair down, by the way. You should wear it down more often."

"I retain the right to be stupid over people trying to violate my cupcake and steal licks of her frosting when that is my frosting and only I am entitled to be licking it off her." Vanessa gave a firm nod as if that settled that discussion there without any possibility of rebuttal. She went to make a face about the comment about her lack of fashion sense, only she stopped because Adrienne had a point. That sour look, however, managed to manifest at the comment about her hair. "It's just hair, cupcake. What's it matter if it's up or down or back or in a braid or all shaved off?"

Adrienne chuckled and nipped at Vanessa's ear, close to her hairline. "You're dense sometimes, Sassafrass. Or maybe I'm dense and shallow and it takes someone shallow to understand. Hair is a total turn on, with many, many subtle signals that it sends to the Metaphoric Cock."

Vanessa shivered just a little at the nip and arched an eyebrow at her friend. "All this time and all I had to do was let my hair down to get you to want to get me in bed? Well, that's fucked." She even threw in a pout for good measure.

"Nothing's fucked," Adrienne smiled, a little ruefully at her own double entendre. "You have a Mudflap. And I'm going on a date with a... cute guy who I don't happen to know very much about... because I like the prospect that someone might be thinking about seeing me naked who is actually in a position to see me naked if I choose to be naked without me caring if he has a Mudflap. Except I think he fucked my sister." The train of thought was derailing rapidly.

Adrienne received a whole lot of blinking and silence for that one. "Come again? You think he did what with your who? Remember what I said about incest once removed? Gross."

"There's no such thing as incest once removed!" Adrienne insisted. "And I never said I was sleeping with him! Just that I may have an option to, which is more than I have with you, what with Mudflap and all."

"You don't want the option," Vanessa pointed out. "Waffles is a moot point. Even if I wasn't dating him you wouldn't actually want to sleep with me so your argument is invalid."

Adrienne raised an eyebrow. "It wasn't an argument. I don't want to argue with you. Of course I want the option. I just don't know if I want it right now. Don't think I don't want to sleep with you, Vee," she assured the blue woman sincerely, "as Morgan or Vanessa or whomever you're wearing. I just know you wouldn't sleep with me unless we were in a relationship, and that's the part I know I'm not ready for- with anyone. And I know it's not fair to ask you to wait until I'm ready, since I might never be ready for another relationship." She still wasn't going to get wistful about it, though. They still had something between them that she valued. "I like... this, what we have, despite the no sex." Maybe because of the no sex, because that was what made it so different... special. "And I want all the options I can get," she added, smirking again, "so that I can use them to figure out what the hell it is I want."

"Arguement, excuse, stance, point of being, whatever." A hand flipped through the air in a dismissive gesture. This conversation was turning a lot more serious than Vanessa had intended for it to. She wasn't too keen on this conversation being this serious, especially since she'd then have to start replying in a completely serious manner without the playful mask on her words. Obviously she had to change the tone of things. "What you need is a hooker, a horse and a convent. Between the three you're bound to find what you want."

The eyebrow went skyward again, but this time in jest. Adrienne was happy to leave the seriousness behind. She'd told Vanessa how she felt and if Vanessa didn't want to address Adrienne's feelings or share her own, that was perfectly fine with her. She wasn't being told to leave, after all, or being yelled at or fought with or struck, so she considered the confession a success and a closed topic until Vanessa decided to reopen it. "What's the horse for, or is it what I think it's for?" she inquired, "and if so, eew."

Vanessa grinned triumphantly. "Aye, that's exactly what it's for."