forum what're you in for, love? (closed, o/o with @Dances_with_Shadows)

Started June 28, 2019 by Deleted user

tune

Edit topic

"that is rude of her." he said lightly, raising an eyebrow playfully at tessa. he was rather happy he was getting along with junia, and that the 'im not much' joke didnt earn him a badge of 'lil bitch'.

Tessa scoffed and crossed her arms indignantly. "Excuse me, but my own beauty is too much for people to handle. Putting that around my neck would kill off anyone to walk near me, it's so beautiful." A compliment and a form of bragging twisted in one, but Junia seemed to only focus on the compliment part, as her amber eyes lit up when Tessa spoke of the necklace.

"oh really?" nik leaned on the table, looking over his shoulder at tessa. "what's it look like?"

Junia held up her hands and gestured wildly as she spoke, sometimes drawing random lines in the air as if painting a picture for Nik. "I made a necklace made of gold and in the shape of a dragon, the chain fashioned as its tail. I measured it to fit Tessa's neck perfectly without adjustments needed to keep it from looking wonky. The dragon's body is wrapped around a polished sunstone, as if guarding it, and its eye is a tiny amber gemstone. Took quite a while to make, but I did it."

he took a quiet breath, visualizing it as she spoke. "wow. impressive, i've always loved dragon imagery. where did you get the idea?"

Junia hooked her thumb towards Tessa again. "Girl's like a dragon and golden. I'm pretty good at matching designs to a person. If I run up to you with some chain or something, then I'm probably taking measurements and/or visualizing a design on you."

"good to know, i don't want to get euthanized by the residents of this house because i tried to fight you over a tiny necklace chain."

nik knew that if junia hadn't warned him, an unexpected measurement would scare the living shit out of him, and prompt either a fight or a desperate escape.

Junia offered a slight smile. "No promises I wouldn't fight back with a few choice punches aimed at your throat." Tessa snorted.

Fenris, the tall and half-blind guy, sat down next to Junia with a pot of homemade mac n' cheese. "June. Violence," he warned as he got his food, then slid the pot over to the three of them for their turns.

"Squishy," was all Junia had to say to the assassin that was nearly 2 feet taller than her.

"i'm sure you would fight back, didn't think for a moment that you wouldn't. just from knowing tessa, i know that everyone in this house could kick my ass 80 times over in a fight."

he eyed fenris, immediately wary of the taller and much more imposing figure.

Fenris noticed Nik's attention almost instantly, having been a trained assassin, but Nik and the girls were on his blind side, showing that he trusted them—even the newbie. Junia started digging into the food as she stuck her tongue out at Fenris, having seen him sigh at the nickname.

Tessa lightly nudged Nik. "Fenris is cool, I promise. Sweetest guy I've ever met, actually. You see that girl coming over to him? The one with the white hair and looking all cute and adorable? That's his girlfriend."

"oh. thank you. she is cute."

he leaned back, trying to visibly relax. he definitely didn't want to appear scared, but scared is really all that he was right now. although, talking to junia was definitely pleasant. i'd like to get to know her better.

Junia passed the food onto Tessa and smoothly, without hesitation or remorse, practically call Tessa a hog and fatass with her warning to not eat it all—and there was still a lot of food left. Tessa scoffed and smacked the other girl's arm with the back of her hand. Junia just snorted and aimed her knife in Tessa's direction.

"dangerous play you guys have going." nik attempted to tease, lightly bumping tessa's shoulder with his own.

"Dangerous is the only sort of play," Tessa said, and Junia pointed the knife at Nik in agreement before making a noise of protest as it was plucked out of her hands by Fenris. Tessa finished grabbing what she wanted and slid the pot over to Nik.

he raised his hands to chest level in surrender as she pointed the knife at him, and lowered them with a smirk as it was taken from her.

nik received the pot with a sudden expression change. anxiety.

"uhh… tess, how much am i allowed to get?"

"Just not all of it," Tessa said as she laughed at Junia attempting to get her knife back (she was seriously contemplating standing on the chair to get it back). She turned her focus back onto Nik and softened her gaze as she noticed the anxiety. "Don't worry, there's more that Cin made. You can skip it if you want."

"alright."

nik got a mediocre amount, passing the pot to the next person afterwards. he turned back to tessa with a nervous smile.

"i think it's going well so far, yeah?"

She reached over and lightly grabbed his wrist. "It's going fine," she tried to reassure him, "You're doing fine."

There were a few people separating them from him and Tessa, but Cinthia and Demitri sat down next to each other semi-across from Nik and Tessa.

nik noticed as the pair sat down, pressing his hand gently over tessa's where she had his wrist.

"thank you, and look. it'll be go time soon, i think." he leaned over so she could hear his lowered voice.

Tessa averted her gaze over to the two, a smile flickering over her lips as she looked back over to Nik. "Wait until everyone's settled and eating. Then conversation over the table is more expected and not as random."

"aye aye."

some time passed, everyone passing food around the table, but eventually everyone settled and began to eat. nik looked to tessa, quietly asking her what kind of conversation one would start with cinthia and demitri to get friendly with them.

Tessa leaned forward and spoke without hesitation. "When's the last time you two got a break?" Cinthia and Demitri blinked at her with mirrored looks of confusion, and she continued. "I've been thinking, and I realized that most of us has had at least one break, while you two always seem to be working." She gestured to Nik. "Nik and I were thinking of going out to have some downtime for a bit."

nik put on a pleasant expression, and gave a small wave across the table.

Cinthia and Demitri rose their brows, almost in sync with each other. "And you're inviting us?" Demitri guessed, catching on relatively quickly. Cinthia turned her raised brow in him, asking a silent question. He pretended to not see her as he pinned Tessa with his heavy gaze. "Am I correct?"

"Yeah," Tessa said simply with a shrug, stabbing into her food and gesturing lazily with her fork as she said, "I thought we might be able to go out sometime. Call it a double date?"

Now people were listening.

nik just barely nodded as she spoke, quirking the corner of his mouth into a faint smile. he had noticed the sudden attention, and smoothed himself out for business.

((sorry, I've just been out of sorts lately))

"Double…date," Cinthia slowly repeated, as if she was silently pleading for Tessa to change her mind and say she was just joking. Demitri had a similar look directed towards the golden-haired girl.

However, Tessa hid her smirk behind her laced fingers as she leaned forward on her elbows and nodded. "Yeup. Double date. Whaddya say, Nik?" she asked, turning her head just enough to look at him and toss a wink. "You game?"

(it's alright!!)

"sure!" nik chirped, lightly bumping his shoulder to tessa's. "i think it'll be a nice time for us all to step away from work. opinions?" he turned back to the other pair. the eyes on him were uncomfortable, almost like he could physically feel people staring, but he diligently ignored it in favor of the act.

feigning being in love, or at least liking tessa a lot, was surprisingly easy. i probably shouldn't ask myself why this is so easy. smile and wave, nik.

Demitri narrowed his eyes, attempting to see past their charade like the spy that he was. To throw him off, Tessa hooked an arm around Nik and rested her chin on his shoulder with an easygoing smile, a touch of that special something else in her eyes to make the act believable. "Well?"

A few of the others grinned and started urging Demitri and Cinthia to go and have fun. They needed it. They deserved it. Jamir could take care of the place just fine. It's only one night. So on and so forth.

nik raised an eyebrow when tessa slung herself around him, quipping "someone's awfully affectionate today." before wrapping an arm around her in return and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

damn. i'm awfully fucking attention starved.

he grinned when he looked back at the rest of the group, tired and world-weary persona melting just a bit for the lovestruck boy to peer through.

((all I can smell is lemon and it's driving me nuts, but I don't want to relocate the source))

They bought it, nudging each other and cashing in bets they had made long before Nik showed up. Tessa raised a brow at the money being passed around, letting out a little "hey" in protest, though it wasn't extremely forceful. She knew that they knew her chances of getting someone to actually like her and stick around long enough to want to be with her were slim, so she wasn't too upset with the bets.

Honestly, she wasn't overly opposed to his display of affection between her and Nik, and that slightly freaked her out. It was too easy to fall into the act, easier than it should be, and he was going along quite well. So well, in fact, that Cinthia and Demitri fell silent and shot glances at one another in their secret language. Tessa took that as a good sign but kept up the act just in case.