Wanda and Jake

[x-courier.livejournal.com]

A drunk Wanda and Jake manage to kind of, sort of, Talk. And then some. Again, backdated because of brain spasm.



Jake stumbled slightly as they emerged from the stairs and into the hallway, wrapping an arm around Wanda to steady himself. He wasn't quite drunk, but he was definitely feeling warm and--well, maybe not content, exactly, but somewhere close. They'd impressed and terrified the waiters at the meat-on-a-stick place with how much the trio could pack away, of both the meat and alcohol varieties. "Fuzzy," he decided. "That's the word."

"What's what word?" Wanda asked, trying to support Jake on one arm and fish out her keys with the other hand. They had offered Jennie a place to crash but she'd decided to head back to the mansion, care of various taxi services. There had been a few more drinks after she'd left and now they were in the process of stumbling back home - again.

"Fuzzy," he repeated, a little confused--hadn't he just said that? "Warm and. S'what it feels like right here." He tapped the center of his chest for emphasis. "But that might be the alcohol talking." He snickered slightly at that. "Don't let anyone know I'm letting my alcohol talk for me. They'll just get mad at me again."

Key found and then the door unlocked with not as much difficulty as Wanda had feared. She eyeballed Jake before letting him fall through and into the small foyer, gingerly stepping around him as she headed straight for the couch and the ability to sit. "You do seem to have that ability in spades," she agreed.

He blinked at the knot in the floor that was suddenly staring him in the eye. "Hey," he protested gamely, "no fair taking advantage of me when I'm drunk. And making me fall over twice in one day, too...You suck." He rolled over onto his back, staring unfocusedly at the ceiling. "I didn't mean to," he said quietly.

"What did you do, exactly?" The question came from the couch, the only visible thing from Wanda were her feet propped over the top of one of the arms of the thing.

Jake dragged himself to his feet, trying to ignore the vague wobble around the edges of the room, and disappeared into the kitchen. "I gave Cammie a key because she kept waking me up in the middle of the night to let her in," he called over the sound of water running. "She decided to let herself in and punch me in the nose. It was awesome." He emerged from the kitchen carrying a pair of water glasses and made Wanda sit up long enough for him to settle on the couch with her head in his lap.

"Mmm," she said after he'd settled a glass on the coffee table and started to comb his fingers through her hair. "Half truths are almost as bad as no truths, you know." She eyed the glass of water and decided she would drink some later, when she had the energy to reach it.

The fingers in her hair stilled momentarily, then started again as Jake took a long drink of water, dripping cold drops of condensation on her forehead. "What do you want me to say?" he asked finally. "It's a stupid story."

She wrinkled her nose as she scrubbed at her forehead. "I want you to either tell me what happened or tell me to bugger off because it's none of my business."

"It's more your business than anyone else's," he muttered into his water, then sighed, setting his glass down. "Cammie got mad at me because she found out that...that Jean-Paul was mad at me," he finished lamely.

Even with the drinks in her body, it didn't take Wanda long to suss out why Jean-Paul might be mad at Jake. She responded with a soft, "Ah" as she leveraged herself up to get the water, balancing on one elbow as she drank.

"Yeah," Jake said miserably.

She finished half the water in one go before leaning back against the couch, not going back to resting her head on his lap but more because of physical comfort than of 'emotional distress'. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, swirling the rest of the water around in the glass.

He shrugged, not sure if Wanda had put physical distance between them on purpose or not. "I don't know. I mean, I can't say I'm really excited about it, but..." Another shrug, this one more half-hearted than the last. "We're probably supposed to, aren't we?"

"I think we're supposed to do a lot of things, to be honest, but we don't." Wanda looked at him and she looked neither upset or angry. She looked a little drunk, a little tired and not really like she expected much of anything. "I know you well enough to know when I can push you - which is always, mind you. But I don't always because I'm not your -" Mother was a really awful analogy. "-keeper."

She thought that made sense as she finished off the rest of her water.

"Yeah." He stared at his hands, wrapped around his glass, fighting off the urge to wrap his arms around Wanda and not let go. There was a distance there, and he wasn't sure how much of it had to do with his actions. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen," he said quietly.

"Do you regret what happened?" She waved a hand at him, gesturing between them, as she sank further against the couch, shoulder rubbing against his. "Oh, I don't mean the emotional whatsit of the fallout but, well, the sex."

"No, of course not," he protested quickly. He glanced sidelong at her. "It was fun." He couldn't help leaning against her arm, increasing the pressure between them just the slightest bit, even as he hated how desperate he was for validation from her. It had been a rough couple of weeks, however, and if Wanda was done with him he might as well find out now so he could pack up and leave. "It's just that everything since then has been pretty awful."

There were times that Wanda worried that she had too much influence over Jake and his world view but she knew that deep down in there was a grown man and he had his own ability to decide. Even if he didn't realize it sometimes. She leaned her head on his shoulder, eyes half closed in the dimness of the apartment. "Mmm, I'm sorry that I was the cause of the rift between you and Jean-Paul," she said, obviously not sorry about what had happened between them.

It was still awkward and they were doing the 'where do we stand', even if they weren't aware of it but she wasn't sorry.

He nestled his cheek against the top of her head. "It...was going to happen sooner or later. I just chose a spectacularly lousy way to make it sooner--not that you were spectacularly lousy," he backpedaled as he realized how that must sound. "Just that I knew he wouldn't take it well. And then when he didn't, I made it worse by acting like it was ridiculous of him to react that way." He sighed miserably. "I've been pretty good at fucking up lately and then telling people they shouldn't get bent out of shape over my fuck ups."

With some effort, Wanda wedged her arm in between the two of them so she could slide it through the crook of his arm, effectively bringing him closer. "We tend to be singularly very good at hurting the ones that we don't really want to," she said. It wasn't soothing, just the truth as she saw it. And while Wanda might agree that Jake probably should have gone about it better, they had very similar view points on 'relationships'. "And thank you for clarifying," she added in, dryly.

Jake shrugged with his free shoulder. "No problem." He wound his fingers through hers idly, as though it were an afterthought. "So am I going to see you ever again, or are you going to stay buried under this museum nightmare for the forseeable future?" He tried to keep his tone light, but there was concern there. Some of it was selfish--he had missed her, after all--but some of it was borne out of worry for her.

"I have so missed the outside world," Wanda teased and then sobered, tightening her hand around his. "I promised Amanda I would back off and, apparently, I am a horrible liar. Though I have cut back. It's not enough, is it?" She knew the answer to that, knew she was buried so emotionally into the entire mess that it was hard to withdraw. She'd make more of an effort.

Trying to regain some of the fun, Wanda tilted her head up at him and tried for an impish grin. She only got so far as adorably drunk, though. "Why, miss me?" she teased again.

He grinned back at her. "I was just thinking," he started offhandedly, "that if I'm going to have to wait weeks and weeks to see you again..." That Gavin charm, oddly intense when it needed to be, zeroed in on her suddenly with a smirk. "I should probably see as much of you as I can while I have your attention."

Charm didn't make her weak in the knees but it did make her throw her head back and laugh. It was a rich, deep sound that was only amplified by the amount that they had to drink. Despite the drink, though, she was still deft enough to untangle herself so she could rise up and throw a leg over his hips so that she was straddling him. "Is that so, Mr. Gavin?"

He grinned, ignoring the feeling of relief that washed through him in favor of the lust that followed closely on its heels. "Oh, absolutely." One hand came up to pop the buttons of her shirt open casually, with a restraint that he didn't feel. "Starting here, I think."

"I was always partial to my wrists -" Her voice trailed off into a slight shriek as Jake surged up against her and almost sent them both tumbling backwards onto the floor. Laughing, Wanda clung tightly around him so as not to completely fall off. Hanging precariously on his lap, half sleepy and aroused, Wanda felt a surge of affection for Jake. She murmured something in Rom in his ear before biting it.

He mumbled something incoherent in return, although in his case it was less an issue of language and more an inability to string syllables together in a complete fashion. Another surge brought him to his feet and stumbling awkwardly in the direction of the bedroom, Wanda clinging to his front like a monkey as she shrieked and playfully cursed at him, laughing wildly the whole way. Despite one rather awkward misstep into the doorjamb, they managed to make it to the bed without serious injury.

"New rule," Jake said as he finished the shirt removal process, sliding her shirt from her shoulders and trailing along behind it with his mouth. "You're only allowed to lock yourself in here and work if you come up for air every couple of days."

She grinned up at him, one leg wrapping around his knee as she jerked him closer. It brought groans out of the both of them and she arched up off the bed. "But if this is what I have to look forward to..." Wanda's voice trailed off, not only because that was broaching territory that neither of them necessarily wanted to talk about but also because he was doing something rather wicked to her neck.

Growling, she grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head up. "Kissing now, talking later," she chided.


"I think that can be arranged," he agreed, and she didn't have the chance to ask if he was responding to her first sentence or her second one or both before he was kissing her as ordered.