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 Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2017 12:22 pm
"Oh, of course not," Brian teased back. He hadn't had any plans to get up, but something about watching Misha stretch triggered a reaction in him like the way a yawn traveled around a room. He didn't want to admit it but his muscles begged for him to just get up and do something, so he slid to the edge of the bed and stretched his back and arms like it was first thing in the morning. It felt nice. "Mm?" was all he offered in terms of her sleeping incorrectly.
"Flexibility isn't totally my thing," he admitted then, sidling back up onto the bed and pulling up his legs. He was moderately flexible, though he couldn't really say if it was more or less than the average guy. Yoga was something he had taken up and he still moved well, but his focus was more on cardio and muscle gain than keeping supple. "You stretch and you dance, I don't think it has to do with flexibility. It has to do with laying against a rock-hard slab of muscle." He smirked and fell back against the bed, peering up at Misha now.
"The usual. Maybe a few more weights than I used to, but I'm trying to focus on endurance." Building muscle hadn't been a goal so much as a side effect of his time in the army and on the force. Now that he had a bow to draw, though, it was more important. Besides, it helped his crappy self-esteem to watch himself firming up little by little. To just work himself into a pulp wasn't any good either, though, and that was where all of the little side-classes came in.
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Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2017 8:15 pm
"Ooooo, a rock hard slab of muscle? Is that what I was laying on?" Misha gave him her best and brightest smile under the category of Sweet and Innocent. She sauntered back over to stand beside his bed and looked down at him, expression unchanging. Her light eyes very clearly proceeded to roam over his body as he lay there on full display. Her smile twitched at the corners a bit. She could not possibly help it. Brian had an incredibly nice body; it was an indisputable fact. Misha knew damn well she could take a vote among the straight ladies and gay men of Prytaneum and get complete back-up on the subject. The fact that Brian took care of himself so well just helped the argument. Misha figured they were all incredibly lucky that he was, by nature, modest. Suddenly, she leaned over him, one hand landing on the mattress to help brace herself above him. Her dark braid tumbled over her shoulder and threatened to tickle his chin. She smirked. "That's what they all say," she teased. "Careful you don't turn yourself into an iron man."
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Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2017 3:50 pm
Brian felt oddly self-conscious while Misha looked him over. Usually his body wasn't something he doubted, and he couldn't say he doubted it now either, but something about the way she was surveying him stirred up the desire to please. He didn't linger long on the thought, just lay there smiling softly with wide, curious eyes.
Of course he didn't exactly have long to think about it before Misha was suddenly over him, hovering, her shadow falling across him, like a punch to the gut and elsewhere. He was reminded of their dalliance on the beach, which felt like a lifetime ago as nearly as it felt like yesterday. He took a deep breath and let it go, then forced his smile to return. Just breathe. Keep calm, don't grab her by the face. There was no excuse sober.
"Is that what they say?" he asked, covering over the adrenaline rush with a tease. Go ahead! Grab her! She thinks about it too! No, no, no. She might well not, and even if she did, it wasn't appropriate. Right? He just smiled, heart thumping.
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Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2017 8:53 pm
"Mmhm." She felt her own heart thump suddenly at his smile, her pulse unexpectedly ratcheting up in response. It was a rare thing but sometimes Misha forgot her own reactions and preferences in the course of her teasing. How she could forget certain things about Brian seemed ridiculous but there it was. Judging by the slight tension that appeared in his body, she figured he forgot sometimes, too. Her smile hid her slight swallowing action as she muffled both a giggle and the urge to kiss him senseless. Misha wondered if Brian remembered the sunset on the beach as well as she did. She really hoped he did. In the meantime, though, that was not for now. Maybe some other night. For now, they were relaxing and watching movies and not letting things get complicated. So Misha just dipped her head down enough to brush a kiss over the tip of Brian's nose. Then she winked as she straightened. "Damn straight but you're not like other guys." With that, she moved to join him on the bed again, snuggling back into place. "By the way, have you heard any exciting news from home?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 8:14 am
The kiss was almost too close for comfort, but just almost. Her lips were within such a short distance, they would be easy to capture. Brian did no such thing, though, even fighting the urge for his eyes to stay closed after they reflexively flickered shut. He looked up at Misha with a grin. "Well a man can always use endurance."
It had only just struck him that they might have been talking about two very different things, and who was he to give up a chance to tease Misha?
Then, as per usual, it was all suddenly over. He sat up to let Misha curl against him again and arched a brow. "What?" What a weird question. "Do you know something I don't?" He hadn't officially introduced Misha to his family yet, but that didn't mean she didn't have her ways. Then again, maybe she was just leading into a particular conversation? "Have you?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 8:44 am
"Nothing new and exciting," she admitted. Her head rested on his shoulder and she reached up to idly play with an escaped wave of ebony hair. "Mom and Dad are good. Staying out of trouble, yadda yadda. They don't believe that I'm staying out of trouble, though." Misha tilted her head just slightly so she could offer an impish smile up at her friend. "I don't know why they never believe me when I tell them everything is quiet and peaceful." She sighed. "Mom's started come up with some really silly theories about why I moved away from Philly. Including one that is a pure insult to feminism." She made a sound with her tongue halfway between a click and a tsk. "I'm ashamed of her. Really I am."
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Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 12:17 pm
"Well, some people still think I'm on drugs," Brian admitted with a little laugh as he reached for a Twizzler. He couldn't tell anything the truth either, and if he did they'd just maybe switch from thinking he was addicted to thinking he was mentally ill. It was a weird little life they lived out here at the Prytaneum. "Well. I don't know if 'quiet and peaceful' is really right either. Maybe for the past few weeks, but overall...?" At least his own family had seemed to have moved on from their worry. The more normal he acted, the less they frowned and hugged him like he was going somewhere.
The man took a bite of his Twizzler and snapped off the end between his teeth. He'd expected some more information from Misha than that and waited, brows raised, but it didn't come. "What does she think?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2017 7:15 pm
Misha grinned up at him, bright as starshine. Then she reached for the box of Whoppers and answered him, casual as anything, "She thinks I followed a guy out here. Fell head over heels, lost my head, and chased some guy." She dumped a few candies into her palm. As she studied them thoughtfully, she added, "She's been reading too many trashy romance novels, I guess. Which I would have thought totally beneath her but what do I know? I just hope she doesn't try to start a conversation with me about Fifty Shades."
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 3:33 pm
Brian laughed and shook his head. He wouldn't entirely put it past Misha to run off with some man she was in love with, but serious relationships didn't entirely seem like her thing, either.
"Well, it was Aphrodite. Technically you went running after a woman," he corrected. Then he rolled his eyes and shook his head. "And I guess I came running after a man." He took another bite of Twizzler and returned to beaming at Misha. In a trashy romance novel, she'd have been swept off of her feet by some hunky Chosen with a dark past like half of the movies they'd watched together. He thought he was more the type to move off for a woman, though, and it wasn't really something he'd ever considered doing in real life.
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 5:51 pm
"Oh, Brian..." Misha gave a little wiggle at his side so she could better share a smile with him. "Don't do it, Handsome. You deserve to so much better than Zeus. He might be a great lay but he'll never call you the next day." Come to think of it, neither was Aphrodite really. Not that either one represented a healthy relationship option in any way, shape, or form. Not like some people they had called upon to come to the Prytaneum. She popped the remaining Whoppers into her mouth and reached out to lace her fingers with his. She gave an affectionate squeeze while she chewed and swallowed. "I'm not knocking love, of course. It's powerful stuff," she admitted. "I'm just... Well, it seems kind of funny that my mom is convinced it's all about a guy. I think she might be drawing conclusions by how much I mention you and some of the others."
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 5:22 pm
"Who doesn't want a shower of gold? I mean, the whole 'I want to appear as some kind of weird animal for this, hold on' thing is a little weird, but a man can get used to that!" Lucky for Brian, he'd had a sort of working knowledge of Greek myths from high school, and since he'd done more, but the whole gold-and-swans thing was a pretty common myth to know. Zeus' dine-and-dash demeanor didn't really suit Brian's romantic style, though, gender aside. Neither did Aphrodite, really, or any of the Greek gods for that matter.
For just a moment there was a flutter of pride in his chest. She mentioned him enough for her mother to be worried? Quickly it was half-snuffed, though, by the addition of 'some of the others'. Oh well. At least he was a part of it.
"Well, whether or not you're after a man, I know a lot of men are after you," he said, then decided to add: "I'm pretty sure my family thinks I've got a girl somewhere too, just because of how I talk about you." In fact, his sisters teased him about 'his girlfriend,' but that was pretty par for the course. Brian had always had female friends but very few serious girlfriends.
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2017 6:08 pm
"Oh, dear." Misha's eyes shone with her desire to giggle but it was not an unkind look; her mouth curved in a gentle smile, a bit enchanted with the idea. "Do they think I'm that girl?" she asked. "I'm sorry. Maybe you should start name dropping Beth and Sylvia more..." She paused and shifted to rest a hand on his forearm, light and affectionate. Then, against her will, a smirk bloomed on her face. "Unless that will just get them thinking that you went and became a player?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2017 6:27 pm
Brian recognized that he had painted himself into a bit of a corner. If he said he spoke about Misha more than the others, more personally, then he was in for more teasing. If he said he had always had female friends and so it wasn't so strange, then it was just a different sort of teasing. He huffed and arched a brow, offering a little smirk.
"I talk about all of my friends," he said, "Here, they just happen to...mostly be women." He wasn't ashamed of that fact by any means. It was a matter of his childhood and that, every so often, a man wanted to get away from the testosterone-soaked land of his brothers in arms. Every so often, a man wanted to feel something. So sue him.
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2017 6:39 pm
"I would say you have good taste in friends but that would be pretty immodest of me, wouldn't it?" Misha never minded being accused of such, to be honest, but she found herself hoping and wanting Brian to think the best of her. For a moment, she considered this idea. It was not uncomfortable. Maybe a little surprising, given she was used to assuming everyone pretty much adored her. Nine times out of ten. She regarded Brian's expression thoughtfully. Then she gave a mental shrug and settled back down to put her head on his shoulder. "Does your mom ever try to set you up?" she asked suddenly. "Mine used to. Not all the time but just enough to make me leery when she starts mentioning names, you know?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2017 5:04 pm
Brian shrugged. "It'd be true."
Misha's little tweak of expression as she settled back in was a little heard to read, but he turned his head and came just short of kissing her hair. He enjoyed the innocent closeness of this.
"Nah, not really," he said, then corrected: "Well, maybe once or twice. Not so much I have to worry, and now that I'm mostly here she doesn't really get the chance." He couldn't remember the last time his mom tried to set him up with someone. Once or twice in high school, sure, and once after Jen, but he couldn't conjure a time after all of that when she'd casually dropped a name. It had mostly been casual, or a single mention and a dropped subject. He really couldn't complain. "Is your mom trying to do that now?" Lure her home with some better hunk than the one she'd run off with, perhaps.
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