Moira/Nathan

[x-mactaggart.livejournal.com]

*Note: The award dinner logs will be up tomorrow.



Fiddling. Moira knew she was fiddling. She stared at her reflection in the mirror in disbelief. The dress still fit perfectly, even though the slit looked higher now than when she tried it on, the bracelet she had borrowed from Emma still fit. She had decided not to do anything fancy with her hair but she enjoyed the way it fell. A little bit of make-up and she was good. Well, nearly.

She pulled out the only bottle of perfume she owned and applied a small amount to her wrists, behind the ears and cleavage. The scent was of the heather flower, the one that grew on the moors in Scotland. It reminded her of home, a little.

Everything done, even the shoes were on and she did admit that she was amused to go from 5'5" to 5'8". Now, to just -leave- the bathroom. Henry and Charles were going to bust down her door if she took any longer. She really didn't want to admit she wanted Nathan's reaction to be a rather positive one. And there was the presence of the anonymous package that one of the students dropped off. No time to open it but the curiosity of it was killing her.

'Well, 'ere goes.' A deep breath and then she was out of the bathroom

Nathan looked up from his book and smiled warmly at the vision in the doorway of the bathroom. "I was wondering when you'd emerge," he said with a gently teasing smile. "Well worth the wait, though. You look beautiful." Though the outfit needed just a little something more. It took a fair amount of self-control not to look in the direction of the package sitting on her desk.

She blushed, pleased. "Thank ye." With a sigh, she shook her head. "Nay used ta this. Last time I wore a dress was fer Kevin's funeral." She refused to let herself sink into anything bad tonight and instead walked towards the desk. "Ye know, they always said curiosity killed th' cat. Wonder what it did ta th' Scot?" Moira started peeling off the layer of tape on the side, muttering curses at the box under her breath.

Nathan watched her, straight-faced. "I don't think I heard any ticking coming from it, if that's what you're worrying about," he said pleasantly.

"I'm nay -hesitatin'- ta open it, it's bein' a bloody stubborn box." She eyed it. "If I shook it, wonder if'n th' box'll open...nay, tha' would be bad." She held the box out to Nathan pathetically. "...please? Jus' th' tape?"

Nathan made a monosyllabic noise of agreement, taking the box from her. The store had gone a little overboard with the packing tape, he decided, and split it carefully with his telekinesis. He wanted her to have some of the fun of unwrapping it, so he handed it back over without opening it.

Later, she would deny heavily that she squealed slightly as the tape came off. She hated not knowing. The rest of the box quickly fell victim to Moira's enthusiasm but she stopped once she saw the velvet box inside. "Wha' th'...?" The lid creaked as she slowly opened it and then her breath caught in her throat. Nestled inside was a stunning necklace. The chain was silver, the only metal she would wear really, with the first circle made out of white diamonds and the smaller one of black diamonds.

"What is it?" Nathan asked brightly.

Moira glanced at him suspiciously but turned the box around to see it. "Ye dinnae know who sent it?" It was an unusual piece but, somehow, it fit both her and the outfit she was wearing.

"Not a clue," he said cheerfully, and made a show of peering at the necklace. "Pretty," he remarked. "Looks kind of vintage to me, with that sort of design." The design was what had grabbed his attention when he'd seen it on the internet. The small circle of black diamonds inside the larger circle of white diamonds was both striking, and had a sort of 'take-it-or-leave-it' symbology.

An eyebrow quirked. "Aye, tha' it certainly does. An' only someone who knows me well would get it, knowin' me style."

"Maybe you have a secret admirer," Nathan said, a little too innocently.

Two could play at this game, she decided cheerfully. "Mmm. Or...ye know, it may 'ave been Rory," Moira said, widening her eyes a little. She knew the two men, boys when they started bickering to be precise, didn't get along that well. "I mean, if 'tis nay anyone else..."

"Rory's taste isn't that good," Nathan muttered a bit resentfully, eyeing her. This was ceasing to be quite as much fun.

"Oh? Care ta tell me whose are?" She batted her eyelashes at him and waited.

"Okay, so I found it on the internet yesterday," Nathan grumbled. She clearly wasn't going to let it go until he admitted it; he didn't need the link to be able to tell that. "You couldn't find your mother's necklace, so I thought I'd see if I could find something else that suited that dress. That one--" He paused, making a helpless gesture. "Jumped out at me, I suppose. And the store was nice enough to ship it overnight."

Moira's face lit up. "Nate, yer a complete an' utter sweetheart, ye know that?" She lifted the necklace out of the box. "'elp me put this on, will ye? I'll catch me 'air if I do it."

His face felt strange and hot all of a sudden, but Nathan ignored the sensation determinedly and got up, coming over and taking the necklace from her. It was a little larger than he'd thought it would be, based on the picture, but that wasn't such a bad thing, given the style of the dress. "Not used to picking jewelry," he muttered a bit sheepishly as she lifted her hair out of the way and he put the necklace on her. "It's not something I've had a lot of experience in." But he'd wanted her to have something special for tonight, after she hadn't been able to find her mother's necklace.

Moira shivered when the necklace slide around her neck. She told herself firmly that it was because the metal was cold. When she felt him secure it, she dropped her hair and turned around. "Well?" she asked, suddenly feeling oddly shy.

"Perfect," he said somewhat wistfully, looking at her. "I was looking for something with garnets, at first, but--this works, I think."

Her hand reached up and touched the necklace and she smiled. "Nay, 'tis perfect." Her heart started racing and she tried to calm it. "I jus'...thank ye."

It was one of those do or die moments, she realized. Hesitate or lose the moment. Moira took a deep breath and stepped up quickly. Even in the heels, she was still shorter than Nathan by a good deal and she stretched up as she brushed her lips over his. It was barely there, just a brief contact, skin against skin, but it was still a kiss. She stepped away again, nearly losing her balance on those stupid shoes, already on the verge of apologizing.

Nathan blinked at her, part of him wondering why the hell he hadn't reacted to that, the rest of him a little too busy wondering at what had just happened to care. "Uhh--you're welcome," he said, a bit dizzied by the gentle warmth that had pulsed across the link in that moment. The necklace caught the light as she rocked a bit on her high heels, and he stared at it for a moment before it struck him just how easily she could misinterpret the direction of his gaze. "I like black diamonds," he said somewhat inanely. "They're pretty."

"Aye, they are," she replied, trying not to appear too flustered, though she was beginning to realize that if she moved anymore backwards, she'd fall over thanks to the shoes. "Um..." Her hands fluttered slightly. "...um...garnets?" She discreetly tried to right herself.

"Rubies are too flashy," he muttered. "Garnets are--they're deeper. Plus I like what they mean. Always made me think of you."

"Really?" Moira stared at him for a second and then wryly realized she couldn't blush any deeper than the shade she was currently sporting. She was trying to ignore the fact that her insides had turned all goo-ey on her in the last few minutes.

The situation was rapidly getting kind of out of control, Nathan thought wildly. Moira was giving him one of those looks, and he didn't quite know how to cope with getting one of those looks from her. His mind was running in little circles, except for the little part of it that was laughing heartily at him.

"It looks pretty," he said unsteadily. "Garnets next time, maybe."

Well, damn, there was a deeper shade of red. "Next time?" It was suddenly rather hard to breath and Moira wondered how the dress managed to shrink in the last few minutes. Her mind was currently little better than a deer in headlights at the moment. "Um...I...jacket...aye..." Moira tried to scamper by Nate as she hit fight or flight mode, but the dress certainly wasn't cut out for scampering of any kind and mentally she winced as she bounced off of his arm.

Nathan did flinch, this time, mostly out of instinct, but she seemed to be too busy finding her jacket to notice. Which was good, because this had gone rather well, he supposed, even if it had gone a little too far. "Uh, have a good time?" he offered hesitantly.

"I'm sorry," she blurted out, clutching her found jacket.

He blinked at her. "For what?"

"Fer...th'..." She waved a hand frantically. "Th' kiss," she finished weakly. "Yer pace an' I...ack." Flustered. She was flustered and she was -never- flustered.

Nathan frowned at her. "You're apologizing for--" The sudden, most perverse impulse suddenly rose out of nowhere and swamped what was left of his coherent thought, and he crossed the distance between the in two quick steps. Moira let out a tiny yelp, but he leaned down and kissed her, rather more seriously than she had him. What came across the link in that long, lingering moment, was impossible to read. Like champagne bubbles, he thought a little dizzily, straightening again. "There," he said, as firmly as he could. "We're even. No more apologizing." Moira gaped at him for a moment, and a wry smile tugged at his lips before he could help it. "I don't need you to tiptoe around me, you know, Moira. If you push too hard, you'll know about it. Trust me."

"...aye..." she replied weakly, blinking up at him. She shivered and clutched at Nathan lest she tip over and fall. "I...um...wow." She tried to clear her head but there was too much happy murmuring from both sides of the link. "...Nathan, ye killed me brain...an' me knees..."

"Well, then," he said as dryly as he could, "my job is done."