Log: Alison, Paige and spa plans (don't ask)

[x-foliate.livejournal.com]

Alison and Paige finally end up having a way overdue little chat. Little things are said that are bigger than they seem. Oh, now you're curious.


Alison stared up at the ceiling, considering her options, and sighed for what had to be the nineth time in the last hour, ever since she'd started considering hunting down Paige to talk to her. Or for Paige to talk to her. Or something of the sort. Course, she'd been holding off on the deep "tell me your woes" talks in the hopes that Paige herself would seek her out to talk but, well... with a shrug of defeat, she rose to her feet and headed towards the door, determined to find the girl on her own. And then talk. Or something.

Oddly enough and little did the othe realize, but Paige had been partaking in the exact same activity a few doors down and a few steps ahead. It was because of these extra seconds that as Alison opened the door, there Paige was, standing in the door way, with her hand on the knob and, therefore, her arm extended into the room. "Well! Hello there."

Blink. Oh. Hey! Alison grinned and well, kept pulling the door open since Paige wasn't letting go, and it was one way to get her in the common room, right? "Hiya! How you doing?" Alison grinned, amused at the coincidence. "Come on in!"

Paige suddenly found herself in the little hallway with the door magically shut behind her. Looks like she wasn't going to be able to pull a disappearing act for the moment or even a subtle ducking out of the room. "I'm... good! Yes, yes I am. Good." Her eyes darted around the room, trying to find a place to settle. "Um. How about yourself?"

"Try the couch," Alison said, amusement showing clearly through along with a certani smugness at snaring her prey so easily. It wasn't often Paige was quite that easy to corner, after all. She gave herself a mental pat on the shoulder and headed towards the small fridge she and Lorna had splurged on. "Not bad. Good since I can walk normally. Orsomething like that." She paused and looked down at the metal brace on her leg, waiting for it to bleep something at her. Silence followed.

It's not that Paige didn't notice the leg brace, she just couldn't think of a polite reaction to it. Obviously, eye darting had been the incorrect one, but she didn't think, 'Oh! What a lovely brace you have there!' and 'Wow! What model is it?' were appropriate either. Whatever the correct response had been she'd missed it and practically flung herself at the couch, bouncing slightly. "Very comfy. And good. About the leg I mean, not the couch, but it is too."

"Hank rigged it," Alison pouted, not even thinking that anyone might be inclined to be uncomfortable about the damn thing. "It... scolds me." She set her hands on her hips, glaring down at the offending thing. It gleamed up at her innocently, a few lights near the top blinking as they monitored her condition. "Want something to drink?"

"May I be naughty and have something other than water? Juice maybe?" Paige asked sincerely. For some reason she always seemed to revert to such such innocense around Alison. Maybe it was just nerves. She tried to politely look at the shiny thing; she always did have a thing for shiny things. "How is Mister McCoy, anyway? Other than devious as always I mean."

"You can be naughty and have anything you want," Alison replied easily, tapping her chin as she considered the options. "Have a few coffees we're hiding from the rest of the school here, if you want some of that." She winked, grinning briefly at Paige. "Hank is getting revenge for the sugar rush the deep fried twinkies gave him. Other than that, he's groovy." She paused. "Down in the damn lab too much thought."

Paige stuck out her tongue, reverting to her eight-year-old self. "Juice will be fine, Lee." Ew. Coffee. Tucking her legs up under her, Paige gave Alison a purely angelic look before suddenly needing to examine her nails. Look at that, they were growing nicely. "Perhaps you could assist in bringing him upstairs occasionally?"

"Trail of twinkies, leading up to the kitchen for real food?" Alison mused, reaching in the small carton of apple juice. She popped the straw loose and popped the metallic foil seal with it before handing the whole thing to Paige with a smile. "And might you perhaps assist in bringing him upstairs?" The start of an idea was taking shape, and she thought Paige would rather have fun with this.

"Something like that," Paige drawled with a little bit of an evil edge to her words. Taking the apple juice, she smiled her thanks, touched at Alison's abnormally fantastic memory skills before sipping gratefully. "I was thinking it was more a one woman operation, but I suppose we could... change the operation. Your way involves less of your wearing low cut shirts and bending after all." Where had Paige innocence gone? Damn Cosmo magazines.

What could only be called a cackle answered that and Alison snagged a bottle of water before joining Paige, flopping on the other side of the couch while still managing to be careful of her brace. Which still bleeped irritatingly at her. She stuck her tongue out at it before twisting the cap to her bottle open, taking a sip of the cool liquid before crafting an innocent expression of her own. "Actually, I'm almost tempted to resort to stink bombs, at this point. Think we should drag Jamie into this and turn it into the mother of all pranks?"

Paige's eyes went especially wide; she'd never been allowed in on a prank before. She wasn't really the type. "Do it," was all she could say, more of a breath than actually words. "Please."

Like a small girl offered the bestest lollipop in the world. Alison blinked then grinned widely. "I'll email him tomorrow. Consider it done. Want to be the straight man? Woman? You know."

"I don't even know what that is but yes. A thousand times yes. Whatever you'd like." Paige had a sort of awed tone, staring wide-eyed.

Oh, now those words weren't about to be let go lightly. "Gotcha." In more ways than one. "I'll put you in copy of the email." She winked and leaned back, and my that was a nice expression to see on Paige's face. She kept her next question held back for a bit, letting Paige 'go next' as it were.

Pure joy was spread out across her features. That meant it was time for Paige to blanche in five... four... "Wait a second," she said, suddenly. "I just agreed to wear a bunny costume or something, didn't I?" How did she keep getting herself into these things.

Laughter greeted that reply, bright and cheerful. "Naw. You get to plot with us, instead. Means you get a say in any bunny wearing costume, though I'd suggest you not bring that up in the email if Jamie is in CC, unless you want to wear one."

"Okay. Good," Paige answered, trying to sound tough and just sounding stupid instead. It generally worked that way. "Right. Glad we got that settled. Um." They'd just run out of things to talk about again. Undangerous things, anyway.

Alison shook her head a bit, still smiling, and took another sip of water. "How're you doing, Paige?" she asked softly. Still smiling but wanting to know, not wanting the 'oh, fine' perky brushoff the question often received.

Paige shrugged to that, her straw still in her mouth. "Eh. Been better. Been worse," she tried, not wanting to bother, but certainly not wanting to lie either. They were getting along and she wasn't in the mood. She hadn't been in the mood for a while as of late.

"I'm glad it's not at the worse level," Alison murmured, stretching out her leg slowly then glaring at the brace as it bleeped warningly. "Bad girl! Don't do that!" With a low growl she reached over and tapped a few commands on the slim panel, then proceeded to not so carefully yank the thing off. "Ha. Nag that."

"Not yet," she murmured in reply, "No, not yet." Paige watched the show with slow amusement, an almost wry sort of smile coming over her features but with her tinge of naiveity. "Sure showed it."

"It's obtemperate. And Hank stuffed a dictionary in it." She grumbled, depositing the brace (carefully) behind the couch before dropping several cushions over the side to muffle it. Small cries of 'help, suffocating' could be heard following that and Alison groaned, hiding her face with both hands. "Why me?"

Paige gently patted Alison on the shoulder in something that could have almost been soothing if she didn't look so amused. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm sure there will be a special place in hell just for Mister McCoy. A hell in which twinkies are always out of grasp and he can't remember basic HTML."

"There better be," she grumbled, not meaning a single word of course. She leaned back against the arm of the couch, wriggling down until her head was resting on the soft fabric, one leg on the floor and the still aching one carefully bent at the knee. "Girl day sometime soon? We can hit a spa and go clothes shopping. Books too," she added, teasingly.

"I suppose I could handle that. So long as they don't touch me with mud and I don't come out of the shops owning a corset, I think we'll be okay. Maybe." Paige looked shiftily about. There was going to be pink involved, she just knew it. "But I could do with an Alison day and so I suppose sacrifices must be made."

"I'll throw in ice cream to make up for the woes." She was thinking bright scarlet red, if anything, but Paige wasn't a mind reader so she'd be left to worry about the pink in peace until the actual shopping started. "Corsets are awfully uncomfortable. Unless you go for the more flexible stuff and why did you think of that first?" was the innocently asked question.

Paige smiled; Alison knew the way to get her to do practically anything. This could explain why she and Bobby were so close. "Jono has a fetish for very strange things. Corsets strike me as strange," she shot back, just as off-hand and as if it made any sort of sense.

"Then maybe we can look at corsets and if you think one of them would fit Jono, we can get it for him," Alison suggested, a smile tugging at her lips. She suspected that getting one for Paige and giving it to Jono would actually make the poor boy's head explode (perhaps literally and she winced at the mental image).

"Now there's a fun idea. He does need to trim his waist a little and I can't get him to come running," Paige mused, stretching out a leg until her knee cracked. "Perhaps... fuchsia?"

Alison shook her head, giving Paige a stern look. "Lousy for his complexion. And he'd want black. Hrm. Compromise. Something striped, black and maybe some red. Vinyl of course. If you go pure goth, a touch of lace isn't really out there."

"Ah," chimed Paige, making a very knowledgeable noise, "But you forget that once the corset is on, it's not about him. And therefore I demand some green if not fuchsia." She really had no idea what she was talking about, this was just a better subject than other things.

"Lime green. Might be negotiable. Guess we'll just have to corset shop, then." And bingo, with that, Paige was doomed. "Might pick up one for myself." Alison grinned at the thought, remembering the last time she'd bought a corset.

Paige doesn't like that grin. That grin had preceded her owning a wide array of new underwear last time and the disposal of her old garments. She didn't actually know if she owned white underwear anymore. "Great."

A cushion was lazily thrown at her and Alison tut tutted quietly. "Oh shush. It'll be fun."She smiled and took another sip of water, waiting to see if the cushion would be returned to her in a similar fashion.

True to form, Paige tossed it back, mindful of the leg. A reason for baseball little league or whatever it's called strikes again! "Whoo. Fun." She wasn't all that ingenious when it came to being backed into a shopping corner.

Chuckling softly, Alison caught the cushion and placed it under her leg, bracing it better than it had been before. "You pick whatever we buy, if we buy." She tilted her head to the side, considering. "Heck. Want to pick something out for me? Anything?"

"I'm not that kind of evil," Paige informed her with a little nod. "But I might find something, you never know. Just don't hold your breath. Actually, either way, don't hold your breath."

"Well, it'll be a while before we go shopping," Alison teased, "at least all of 12 hours if we go tomorrow. Hank'd be peeved with me if I ended up in the medlab again and accuse me of trying to steal the blue shtick."

Paige lay back on the couch in relief. "Oh, thank gosh. Maybe I can come up with an excu- I mean. Um. Nevermind." Her eyes darted back and forth suspiciously, but it was so overdone that this time it must be false.

More laughter and Alison made a show of considering throwing the cushion at Paige again before deciding to keep it for herself, instead. "Oh shush, you. You know there are books in there somewhere."
"Of course! Why else do you think I was planning on going?" Paige asked, before hurridly adding, "Other than the pleasure of your company, of course."

Alison didn't even consider contesting that, already mentally planning out the shopping route - and making sure that there would be more than just one book store on their path. "I need to pick up some guitar strings too while I'm it... mind tagging along for that as well?"

"Would there be pianos in there as well?" Paige questioned before she could stop herself. There was a pause in which she looked very confused, rubbing at her temple in thought. "I'm sorry, I have no idea where that came from. I have no trouble with tagging along for guitar strings, especially if you get me another mechanical pencil for my collection."

"There are pianos there," Alison replied softly, ignoring the entire latter part of what Paige had just said. "Samantha told me she'd just gotten a few in from a music school that closed in the Bronx. She loves the older pianos, hates seeing them go to waste, so she's going over them to see if they can be salvaged and offered up to another teaching school."

Paige smiled a little, if not a bit uncertain. "You know good people, Lee. She sounds very nice." She's caught herself off guard and she hated it when she did that.

"Well, you can see for yourself when we go!" was all Alison said, grinning cheerfully. That was more than enough pushing on that matter after all and Alison could see the signals Paige was sending clear as crystal. She shifted on the couch, resettling her leg and giving Paige time to recompose herself.

"Um... yeah. Sure." Paige swallowed and tried to smile, but only getting silence in return and with her nerves already frazzled, part of her conscious seemed to decide that further making trouble was needed. "Were you the one who requested that Miles not be allowed to see Sarah without supervision?" she spit out in a rush, resisting clapping a hand over her mouth once she was done.

"Of course I was," Alison responded calmly, far more than she'd expected she would if Paige were the one to ask - but at the same time, she'd thought about it long and hard and had felt at peace with the decision, by the time she'd emailed Charles. She waited for Paige to ask any more questions, focusing on her patiently.

There were no questions to come, however. Paige merely nodded her approval. "Good."

Relief. Of course there would be some and Alison sighed a bit, relaxing into the couch, not even realizing she had tensed up quite that much. She just smiled a bit, a silent acknowledgement and perhaps even a thank you in a way, and nodded back.

"You expected something else?" Paige asked gently, offering her a small smile. She even went so far as to tuck a stray piece of hair behind Ali's ear. "I spend time with insane people but that doesn't immediately make me the same, sister dear."

"It seemed a very clear decision to me," Alison said in a low voice, after Paige had pulled back. "What took time was figuring out what and how." She sighed, more heavily this time. "Some of the kids seemed to think her behaviour was justified. This... it troubled me." She smiled wanly, shaking her head. "I think people underestimate exactly how important Sarah is to Miles. And the influence her actions have as a result. Including Sarah herself, first and foremost."

"You've gone and messed up your hair again," Paige chided, pushing small pieces back again in an almost motherly fashion. "You had every right, Lee, and you went about it in exactly the right manner. Sarah needs boundaries and no one in this school seems to be willing to give them to her." She rolled her eyes slightly, trying to keep a memory of her smile there. "Then they wonder why she never changes."

Alison has no doubt she would have done it had the entire school gone up in arms about it. It was something that had to be done, simple as that, as far as she was concerned. "Maybe it'll help. Don't know. It's up to Sarah, in a lot of ways, right now." Curling up was easy and she managed not to shake her head again, though barely.

Paige frowned at her, looking worried. "Don't fret about things you can't change, hm? Wrinkles. For me, anyway, when I worry about you worrying."

"Wrinkles. Horrible things, those." Alison pursed her lips and looked disaproving. "Maybe we'll have to go to the spa tomorrow too. Hrm."

"Oh gracious," Paige moaned, "What have I gotten myself into? Quick, I must depart before you get any more ideas."

"Hey," Alison protested, snickering. "You're the one who brought up the wrinkles, I'll have you know! The spa thing is totally your fault!\"

"I can't hear you!" Paige sing-songed in reply, making her way to the door as quickly as possible. "I'm leaving now, thank you for the lovely night!"

"That's ok!" was the cheerful reply. "You're mine tomorrow for the entire day of shooooopping!" A snicker followed. "Sleep well!"

"La la la!" was Paige's only answer, as she closed the door behind her.

Comments

[x-crowdofone.livejournal.com]

Means you get a say in any bunny wearing costume, though I'd suggest you not bring that up in the email if Jamie is in CC, unless you want to wear one.

I would never!

Except for the times that I would. But those don't count. There's a chance I would never, anyway. Technically. Anything's possible, right?