Vanessa & Warren | Tuesday night

[x-copycat.livejournal.com]

Warren stops by the X-Factor offices to make good on that offer of drinks with Vanessa. Instead he ends up offering dinner and drinks when he finds her rummaging through the office fridge. They also find a kindred spirit of flirtation in one another.

The more time Warren spent in District X, the more he enjoyed it. Being able to ditch the harness he strapped his wings down with was something he enjoyed more than he really realised, and he was starting to resent the necessity of wearing it at all. Today he'd taken Vanessa's advice and not flown in, instead simply walking through the streets to the X-Factor offices to drop in to see if she was around for a drink. Of course, the wings being out meant that other features were hidden, wrap around sunglasses obscuring his facial features and a hood pulled up over his head so people didn't look too close. If it wasn't one disguise, it was another. He knocked on the door, sliding his hands into his pockets as he hoped he hadn't called at an inopportune time.

"It's open," Vanessa called from somewhere in the back of the office. The only walls in the place were for the bathroom and one that tried to define a kitchen space. The rest of the floorplan was dotted by structural pillars. Without anything to hold back her voice the sound carried easily to the door while she scrounged for food in the fridge. Vanessa was fairly certain either Bishop or Jean-Paul had scarfed down the stew Laurie had made and which Vanessa had set aside for herself. "Too many bloody mutant metabolisms," she complained to herself aloud.

"Wasn't me, I eat like a bird," Warren said with a grin on his face, letting himself in and wandering towards where he'd heard the voice from. "I was going to see if you were free for a drink, but perhaps I should take you out for dinner instead." Dinners out tended to be Warren's usual form of eating, and he did usually prefer to do it with someone else if he could help it.

Vanessa's head popped up over the refrigerator door, a playful smile on her face already. Her arms folded across the top of the door and her chin perched atop them. For a moment she made it look like she was enjoying the view. "Oh, lookit what I got. Genuine eye candy." Her smile broke out into a grin and she stood up fully, stepping away from the fridge and allowing the door to swing shut. "If I lament the guys eating my stew does that mean I revoke my date with you for drinks? Because I have a personal philosophy which would be absolutely devastated to find out I talked my way out of drinks with someone so pretty by accident. Just think what that would do to my street cred."

"It's just your lucky day," Warren countered, grinning back to her. "I think it would be pretty irresponsible of me to ply you with liquor on an empty stomach, so I think I'm duty bound to offer you sustenance before alcohol. So really, you're just upgrading. Dinner and drinks, rather than just drinks."

"Well, I am a lucky girl, aren't I?" He got a downright beaming smile. "All the boys will be jealous of me. And then promptly worry you've been swayed to the Breasts Side." Vanessa made a clicking sound with her tongue and shook her head. Then she looked down at herself. She was wearing black dress pants and a white collared shirt. She only dressed like this when she was working the office and needed to pretend to be a professional. "Am I going to have to change for this outing? I know you got Amanda in a dress, but it's less likely you'll pry me into one."

"With all of the beautiful women I know, I don't know how anyone could blame me." It was true, Warren had developed a tendency to spend more time out with the women of his acquaintance than the men, but he didn't discriminate on purpose. He just had more female friends than he did male. He looked over her outfit carefully, a serious expression on his face. "I think you may be a little overdressed. But I suppose I can live with it if you can. Dresses are only for special occasions, but you look a little bit like my secretary at the moment."

"I look like your secretary because I had to pretend I'm a professional today. Some clients just don't feel all that at ease when you wear a gun and a smile, oddly enough. I can always swap out for cargo pants and a tee shirt along with more prominent display of knives," she offered in a genuinely helpful tone. Currently Vanessa had four knives on her but all were out of sight, hidden down by her ankle or under the long sleeves of her work shirt.

"I have the problem of no one taking me seriously when I show up to the office wearing jeans. I miss the days of working for myself." He sighed overdramatically. "But seriously, whatever you feel comfortable wearing is fine with me. And I don't mind waiting if you want to change."

"Normal people clothes would pretty much light up my life." So-called normal people clothes insofar as Vanessa was concerned involved combat boots, pants with too many pockets and a plain white shirt that got pulled over one's head rather than buttoned up. "I'd even love you forever even if you already said you wouldn't mind. I live right about," she looked over the floor and then pointed at a spot between her feet, "there. So I can disappear and be back real quick without having to lock up here first if you're cool with that."

"Just fine," Warren said with a grin. "I'll make myself at home. Though if you take more than half an hour, I might start getting impatient." There was a twinkle in his eye at that - he didn't think Vanessa was the sort of person who would take so long to get ready, at a guess, but you never did know.

"I need thirty-two-point-six-seven minutes to be fit for being seen with you," she declared, then blew him a kiss and went jogging off toward the office door so she could disappear. It would take her ten minutes tops and that was only if she couldn't figure out where she'd left her boots last night.

The sound of Warren's laughter followed her up the stairs, and Warren made himself comfortable as he waited for her. Which mostly consisted of him doing his best not to poke his nose through everything and instead keeping himself entertained by flicking through his emails on his Blackberry. Most of it was stuff he just ended up deleting, email invitations to parties and other events he had no interest in, and he was leaving the important emails to be read and replied to on an actual computer.

Seven minutes later Vanessa opened the door with a flourish, cocked her hip and leaned against one side of the doorway. Her hand was still on the doorknob, keeping the door at arm's length. True to usual form, she was wearing black, fitted cargo pants, a white long sleeved tee, combat boots, a coat and a sheathed knife hung off her belt on one side. The only difference is she had taken her hair out of her usual ponytail, hoping her ears would be kept warmer that way. "C'mon, lover boy, I can't go out and show myself off, can I? It ruins the effect. So get your fine ass over here so I can show you off instead," she half-demanded with a grin.

Warren grinned, moving up out of the chair he'd commandeered to join her at the door. "You're going to give me a big head if you keep up talk like that." He offered her his arm in an exaggerated display of his occasionally-gentlemanly nature. "Keep it up," he finished with a wink. Warren was certainly the last person who needed to be reminded about his own physical attractiveness, but he wasn't about to complain when people did.

"You're not my boyfriend, what do I mind your big head?" She managed to make that sound dirtier than it was with minimal effort. She locked the door and flipped the sign on it to indicate no one was currently in the office. There was an after hours number on there which she already had forwarding to Bishop's cell. With everything locked up, Vanessa looped her arm through Warren's offered one with a faux girlish squeak and headed down the stairs with him. "So, darling, where are we going? And if you tell me you're a vegetarian then we're going to need to break up. I love vegetables, but they aren't committed relationship material, you see."

"To be honest, I had been planning on bowing to your superior knowledge of the area," he said with a shrug as he lead down the stairs. "And I think I'm going to have to do something about my reputation, far too many people mistake me for a vegetarian. Do I look like the sort of person that doesn't enjoy a great hunk of meat?" Vanessa wasn't the only one who could make things sound dirtier than they might have otherwise, the smirk on Warren's face belying the complaint he was making.

Vanessa made a purring sound in response to that and laughed. "I've no doubts about your appreciation of meat, but the sort of meat remains debatable. And really, vegetarians just make me sad. However, I accept your apparent carnivorous nature on all counts and would be happy to make you bow." She licked her lips and gave him a look that injected innuendo where there had been none a moment before. Then she cleared her throat. "However, before we get you bowing, you should tell me what sort of meat your inclination is leaning toward so I can direct all that adoration, which will of course have to come whilst on your knees. Bowing just isn't done right unless one is on their knees whilst doing so."

A low chuckle came from Warren as he looked over to her, a dark, amused look in his eyes. "It's funny you should say that, considering my best adoration happens on my knees." He withdrew his arm from hers, moving so he was walking backwards down the stairs in front of her, her hand in his and being brought to his lips for a kiss. "Simply point me in the right direction, I'll think you'll find I'm entirely too easy to please."

From this angle it was easy for her eyes to fall half shut as she looked down at Warren. Her tongue darted out over her lips before her lower lip found itself trapped beneath her teeth. "I could give you very specific directions if you enjoyed adoring women," she told him in a throaty purr. "Should that not be the case, can I watch while you adore if I do the direction pointing?" From the half-raised eyebrow and the lip once again ensnared by her teeth she was all too convincing with her proposition. Someone who knew her well may have supposed she wasn't entirely serious, but these days it was hard to tell what she meant when it came to her flirtatious fun.

The level of Warren's seriousness was hard to gauge as well - he was just as likely to flirt with women as he was men, but he hadn't acted on any of the flirtation with the former since he was a teenager. "It's been a very long time since I've had occasion to be adoring a woman, those directions certainly would come in handy." He stopped at the bottom of the stairs, a smirk on his face. "And I'm afraid I'm far too private a person to let anyone watch."

Vanessa paused a few stairs from the bottom in order to maintain her current height advantage over the otherwise equally tall blonde. "That's a shame for me." She even pouted at him a bit. "Though, you're aware I could be any man you want if you just point him out to me...?" Her smirk was wicked and full of promised mischief. The last time she had been propositioned to have sex with someone as a man it was by Jean-Paul and she had said no because she hadn't been interested in sex outside of a relationship. She was reevaluating all sorts of things in the aftermath of her recent break up which meant it was entirely possible she would even make good on that flirty little offer.

Warren arched an eyebrow, tilting his head to look up at Vanessa. "I didn't say I wouldn't. Just that I haven't." Not to say the offer of the change wasn't intriguing at all, especially to a man who was currently suffering through the longest drought of his adult years, but at the same time, Warren thought it was a disservice to the beautiful woman she was to sleep with her as a man. He offered her his hand again, doing his best to keep a smirk off his face. "Shall we?" He did seem to recall a promise of dinner and drinks, somewhere in amongst all the flirting.

An appreciative, purr-like sound resounded low in Vanessa's throat. She slipped her hand back into his, the gesture far more delicate and dainty than one would normally think her capable of it. Vanessa had been many people over the years for jobs and all of them had a place somewhere inside of her still. "I'll keep that in mind, lover boy. Especially while I'm getting you drunk." She didn't tend toward drunkenness much, but Vanessa did tend toward very happily tipsy a fair bit of the time. She got more flirtatious and a lot more physically affectionate in direct relation to the amount of alcohol in her system.

The metamorph stepped down the last remaining stairs and gave Warren's hip a little nudge with her own before heading for the door. "I feel like something spicy is called for, don't you?"

"You are trouble," he said with an appreciative smile, guiding her outside in something of a gentlemanly fashion, as much as his words and looks were anything but. It had honestly been over ten years since he'd flirted with intent with any woman, but Warren was finding he was enjoying it more than he would have thought.

"Spicy it is," he agreed with a nod. "And I feel like I'm going to need vast amounts of food if I'm going to be able to keep up with you." Alcohol had a tendency to hit Warren fast and hard - and then burn off just as quickly. Chalk it up to those wacky mutant metabolisms.

Vanessa walked with a bit of a sashay in her hips, smiling wickedly all the while. "Sweetheart, I'm not sure the drinking is the only thing you'll need to worry about keeping up with me in." Without infusing her tone with innuendo at all, her words still sounded as if they spoke more of the bedroom than anything else. Vanessa put it down to context. Within the right context innocuous lines could change their meaning all on their own without any help from delivery. She raised their clasped hands over her head and spun herself in a circle. Their hands came down over her shoulder and she let her hand slip out of his so it could sneak around his waist, her arm fitting neatly between Warren's back and his wings. "I am very feisty, after all. And trouble, as you've so keenly observed. But I promise I'm only the very best kind of trouble."

"All the more reason to have a large meal. I wouldn't want to disappoint." He raised his arm to let her twirl, settling into the new configuration without a misstep, flicking his wings slightly so they were spread just a little, settling into place behind Vanessa as his arm settled around his shoulder.

"That's good to know, since I could only possibly get into the very best kind of trouble." Warren didn't think he was much of a snob, to be honest, but poking fun at himself and his heritage was far too easy, and far too much fun.

"Slumming it would destroy your street cred," Vanessa joked. "Once you've gone lowbrow you'd never bounce back from that. Instead you'll be followed by whispers of tall, leggy women falling all over you and clearly unable to get enough." She illustrated that point by cuddling into his side and sliding her other hand over his waist and then up his stomach a bit with a small, girlish giggle.

Vanessa had been an incorrigible flirt as of late. But she hadn't had nearly as much fun flirting with anyone as she was flirting with Warren now.


- - - - -

All of their flirting over the night comes to head while they get drinks after dinner and results in what they had both assumed was a highly unlikely situation from all sides.

Even with him sitting on bar stool it was easy for Vanessa's leg to lift up high enough so she could slide right into his lap until she was straddling Warren. She'd had the presence of mind to be sure he was seated solidly enough that he wouldn't fall off. The bar around them was fairly dim and only sparsely populated for the moment. People were scattered in groups of two and three with a few lone patrons sitting at the other end of the bar from them.

Vanessa smiled sweetly at Warren from her perch on his lap, even as she snaked one of those long legs under his wing so it could wrap around his waist. She flagged the bartender for another two drinks. "Still keeping up, lover boy?"

It was a good thing she had that presence of mind, because Warren certainly didn't. If someone had told him a few hours ago this was how he would end up spending his night, he would have said they were crazy, or wrong, or both. But he was the one who would have been wrong, and he was having far too much fun to care.

He slid an arm around Vanessa's waist to make sure she didn't fall, though it was as much for his own balance as hers. He flashed her a smile, pulling her in close to speak close to her ear, even if the bar was fairly quiet.

"Not at all," he said with a giddy laugh. He was well on the way to being completely drunk, the food they'd consumed earlier not being nearly enough to compensate for his wacky metabolism. "I am completely toast, and utterly at your mercy. All I beg is that you treat me at least a little kindly, in the end."

A single finger traced along the top edge of a wing and Vanessa watched the feathers under her touch. "Mm...qualify 'kindly'." She had many, many ideas about what treating him kindly could entail. Of course, a little description never hurt anyone so she tilted her head in order to whisper into Warren's ear. "Should I adore you?" she asked, referencing a conversation that happened many drinks earlier.

Warren shivered a little under her touch, having somehow forgotten how good it was to be close to someone. This close, at least, and through the drunken haze he was wondering why it was he'd only been with men for so long. Maybe it was just Vanessa, or the alcohol, or being single for so long, he wasn't sure. He leaned his head closer to hers, his free hand coming to slid over her hair before coming to rest on her cheek. He couldn't help but notice how different she felt, the curves under his hand, the slight delicateness underneath her strength. "I seem to recall it was to be me adoring you," he said in a low voice, though it wasn't nearly as steady as he would have liked. "But it's possibly a little mutual adoration is exactly what is called for."

A fingertip poked him gently in the chest. "Mm, lover boy, you'll never manage any adoring until you're more sober anyway." Her finger traced its way down, over his stomach and came dangerously close to much more interesting areas, but halted when their drinks appeared on the bar beside them. Her attention shifted to the bartender for a moment so she could nod her thanks. Vanessa had handed over her card for their tab when Warren had started to get tipsy. It was easier that way. Though, with the bartender on his way back to the other end where the lonely drunks were hanging out her finger started to move again, this time edging along the waist of Warren's pants.

This had turned into a classic case of Vanessa getting caught up in her own flirtation and not stopping to think about what she was saying or doing. What had started as playful and generally meaningless flirting between the pair had escalated all night until now they were wrapped around one another on a single bar stool. In the morning she would look back on this and wonder how she had gotten from point A to point B. For now, though, she just kept whispering into Warren's ear. "And wouldn't you just love to get lost in all that adoration and let the world go blurry for a while?"

"Stop plying me with alcohol, and I'll sober up fast enough." Warren's system burned through alcohol at a fairly fast rate - he got drunk fast, and sober just as quickly. Something that was a little frustrating sometimes, but he wasn't at all bothered by it this evening. No, nothing was bothering Warren right now, except possibly the fact that they were in public and still dressed.

"That sounds," he replied in a whisper of his own, his hand sliding down over her neck. Now that he'd starting touching her, he didn't want to stop, enjoying the feel of her under his fingertips far too much. "Like a perfect way to spend the rest of the night." He moved his lips just enough to brush them against her neck, the merest hint of a kiss. Tomorrow he'd wonder how they got here as well, but tonight he honestly did not care.

"But I like you like this, vulnerable to suggestion. And handsy." Her voice caught from the shiver his lips on her neck caused. "Mm, very handsy. I approve of that. What if I let you sober and you start having ideas about personal space?" The finger at his waist had found its way beneath the hem of his shirt and now her hand was quite happily skirting along his skin. Vanessa was very touch-oriented and she was equally resistant to cease contact. In fact, the leg she'd left dangling came up to join the other around Warren's waist. The movement caused her to shift, a faint grinding of her hips against his in the process.

"Don't worry, I can be just as handsy sober," he promised, his lips continuing to brush a path down her neck. Warren had half-forgotten that there were other people around, the arm around her waist moving to slid down and cup her ass, pulling her in even closer to him. "Personal space is overrated, don't you think?" Warren had had enough of his own space, and was currently more than enjoying just how much Vanessa was invading his personal space.

Head rocking to the side, Vanessa gave Warren's lips as much access to her neck as possible. The mostly faint contact of his lips caused a tingling down her neck and up into her hairline that made it feel even better. She squirmed a little in his lap and drew her legs tighter around him in an attempt to get even closer to him. "Personal space is entirely overrated," she agreed, hand moving around to his back under his shirt. Vanessa found the muscles of his back, fingertips exploring the muscle she could feel shifting under his skin whenever he moved. She was starting to get too distracted to keep talking.

Truth be told, Warren was okay with not talking. His mind was clearing just enough to really start properly noticing how different it was kissing down the neck of a woman than it was a man's, and he was starting to want to explore just how different other things were. He'd been a teenager the last time he'd been in a situation like this, and to be honest, he didn't remember much of it.

His lips found the juncture of her neck and shoulder, and he paused, nuzzling her neck before he pulled away just enough to look at her.

"I've always found invading someone's personal works a lot better in private."

The loss of his lips against her skin stood out in stark contrast to the tingling from a moment before. Vanessa's head uprighted again and she looked from Warren's eyes to his lips and straight down his body to where her hips met him. She licked her lips and flagged the bartender so she could settle the tab. "Yeah it does. And I'm pretty sure I live closer."

"I'm pretty sure you do too." Of course, Warren could probably get them to his apartment pretty quickly if he flew them both, but flying at night, drunk, through New York was not something he wanted to try in a hurry.

Ignoring the fact that Vanessa might need to be paying attention while she settled the tab, Warren returned his lips to her neck, dropping kisses down it once more. He might have been the one to suggest leaving, but she was the one who had him trapped here, and he wasn't going anywhere until she was ready to move.

An appreciative sound met the feel of his lips. Attention was, perhaps, overrated as well. She certainly couldn't understand why focusing on anything other than the man she was wrapped around was important. She did manage to lean over to sign the credit card slip and get her card and ID back into her pocket. She made sure they were secure before turning back toward Warren.

Blue fingers caught Warren's jaw so he couldn't wander off and Vanessa pressed her mouth to his. If his lips were going to distract her so much then she was going to distract his mouth right back or she may never get off of him.

Warren more than happily returned her kiss, his lips parting against hers as he held onto her tight, for the moment forgetting that they had plans to leave. Why would he want to leave when -- oh, right, no. He got to have more than just this if they did leave. He eventually pulled back from the kiss, his eyes dark and his breath ragged as he just looked at her.

"Let's go before we get banned for public indecency." Because honestly, it wasn't going to be long before he started insisting she lose some of those pesky clothes getting in his way.

Vanessa's expression was at once mischievous and seemed to consider whether or not she really wanted to get arrested. After all, considering all the things one could be arrested for... "Too bad I don't wear skirts." She nipped at his lower lip and then unwound her legs from his waist. Vanessa slid off his lap to the side just as she had come onto it and held her hand out for his. "C'mon, lover boy. Much adoring awaits." Her eyes raked down his body as she said that.

It took Warren a few moments before the skirt comment made sense, and then he just laughed, sliding off the stool he'd been sitting on and taking her hand. It was far too tempting to just wrap himself around her again, though he was pretty sure they'd never make it home if they did do that. And he was far too interested in exploring just how different a woman was in bed to want to rush this.

"Lead the way, beautiful."