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 Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2016 6:28 pm
Oh! Psycho! Like the movie! Were this any other house on any other day, he might have laughed. Something had whispered in his ear earlier in the evening, and the television had turned on by itself. Even if the crazy spirit or the strange electronic thing had been the cause, he was reasonably unsettled in this place. He was pretty sure nobody was going to break in and kill them, but he understood the fear. He'd always been nervous closing his eyes in the shower after horror movies when he was younger and now they were living one!
"Want me to stand outside the door?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2016 6:36 pm
Misha nodded, sheepish. "Yes, please. Sorry, I just..." She shrugged. "It's this place." Her eyes dropped to make sure he was clear of his pants and then she grabbed his hand and started for the stairs. She skipped the fourth one by instinct. She vaguely remembered which door was the bathroom and managed to get it right on her first try. Before entering, she peered inside. "I really hope the water heater is still working."
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2016 6:46 pm
"Sure." Presumably they were both going to want to get dressed at some point, but he could always go back and grab Misha's bag after she was finished. If not, they were either going to have to shuffle through the Hearth in half-damp clothing or spend the night huddled together. With all of this in mind, he followed Misha to the bathroom. His teeth were legitimately chattering at this point, and no matter how hard he tried to fight them they were still happening. Still, he managed to throw a joke in there: "You just don't want to spoon me." He smiled slightly and entered the bathroom, retrieving a towel from the closet and then motioning for Misha to take over.
"I'll stay right out here. Yell if you need me." He pointed into the hall and went out there to begin drying off head-first. s**t, he was cold.
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2016 6:59 pm
"Okay. Thank you. Brian?" Before he could quite clear the door to make the hallway again, Misha flung her arms around him in a tight hug and squeezed him close for a few heartbeats. Then she released him and slipped back into the bathroom. As the door shut, he heard her add, "I'll be as fast as I can." True to her word, he heard the shower turn on within seconds. Her yelp might have made him laugh but then he heard a sigh. "There's hot water!" she called.
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2016 7:09 pm
Brian smiled again at the hug, but it was incredibly cold and slick and uncomfortable. He returned it with one arm nevertheless and released Misha to try the shower. When the door was closed he began to dry off more earnestly and peered off toward the living room. Alright, so maybe he'd have to leave her for a quick second.
"Good!"
Only when Misha gave her relieved sigh from the shower did he take his chilled undies off and toss them on the floor. This was not going to be pretty. He was bent over for just a short while, then glanced behind him to be sure Misha wasn't silently watching. Nah, he knew better than that.
"Save some for me!" He was already feeling warmer with the water gone.
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2016 7:25 pm
"There should be plenty left. I couldn't wash my hair or anything. No shampoo." Luckily for Brian's modesty, Misha's answer through the door warned him the instant before she opened it and he was able to make sure his towel was secure. The curvy brunette stood just inside the frame and gave him a rather stronger grin than she had been able to give him before the shower. Her skin glowed a bit, flushed from what had to have been the hottest water she could stand, and she had her hair wound up and hidden beneath a towel twisted atop her head. She held another towel firmly around her body, fist over her heart; it came down barely to mid-thigh. She fought and lost the battle to give Brian's naked torso and towel-covered lower half a quick once over. Misha bit her lip. "Do you want me to wait out here for you?" she offered.
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2016 7:37 pm
Brian was in the hall with one arm holding the towel around his waist and the other up at his shoulder so he could blow on it to try and warm it up. His eyes darted to the side, but his back was to the door as he leaned against the wall and so he didn't truly see her until he had turned. He couldn't help but smile when he caught her eyes lingering over him.
"No, no, I'm good. Go get dressed," he said and, without thinking, went straight for the bathroom rather than the living room where his bag was sitting. That was the furthest thing from his mind, though, as he got to drop his towel and step into an already-warmed stream of water. His extremities stung like hell in the heat, but it was a good sting. He sighed and relaxed as the warmth crept in and the chill stole away.
This had been one hell of a night. Just when you thought you had the acceptance of the supernatural under your belt, something new happened to remind you that maybe it would never get easier.
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2016 8:34 pm
Misha had stood outside the door for a moment longer, listening to the water run. Then she shook her head. What was she going to do, waiting out there for him? Try and catch another eyeful? Very tempting but not sensible at all. She cast another contemplative look at the door, smiled fondly, and readjusted her hold on her own towel. Brian had told her to get dressed. She better do just that. The shower helped. Clean and dry clothing would help more - both in warming her and in normalizing the situation. Though heaven help them if haunted houses and ladies in lakes and strange glowing things underwater became so common that they yawned! When she skipped over the fourth step without thinking again, though, she laughed at herself. That bit had become normal pretty damn quickly, she thought. She reached the living room and tugged up her bag to dump it on the couch. The contents spilled out and she retrieved the necessaries. Misha glanced towards the steps. Brian was still in the shower. Then again, he had already seen everything. She shrugged, dropped her towel to the floor, and started putting on dry underthings. If she finished getting dressed before Brian was down, she figured, she would take him his bag. grasshopper pie feel free to have her fully dressed or mostly as you like when Brian returns
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 5:36 pm
Brian came down the stairs a few minutes later, looking rather dry and pleased with himself as he clutched a towel around his waist. His teeth weren't chattering any more and he didn't feel like he was going to keel over in the hallway. He smiled to Misha, but only really regarded her briefly before he crossed over to get his own bag. It was a conscious effort to not look closer, of course, but that was the gentlemanly thing to do. He was pretty sure Misha's boundaries encased a friend briefly seeing her in her undies, if not before she had turned into a cat than certainly after. Her confidence was charming.
He pulled out a pair of white boxer-briefs and stood straight, then regarded Misha.
"No peeking." He stepped behind the couch, turned his back to her, and dropped his towel to change. It was just a butt, after all. Once he was in new skivvies, he went over to find some actual clothes to sleep in.
"So I think I'm about done with this house, what about you?" he asked before he pulled his shirt over his head.
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 6:00 pm
"Oh, very much done with it," Misha agreed. The grin she gave him let him know that, of course, she peeked. Just a little. It wasn't as if she saw much, anyway. He was behind the couch. She finished buttoning her fresh pair of jeans and then reached for a worn-looking sweatshirt with the collar torn out. As she tugged it over her head, it slipped a bit to expose part of one shoulder and the logo on the front indicated someone, at some point, had gone to Temple University. "I guess we should make sure everything is okay before we leave so maybe stay until morning to see that the place is clear in the morning? Sunshine always helps. Besides..." Misha unwound the towel from her head and her mess of hair tumbled over her shoulders, wet and inky black and haphazard with waves. She bent over, flipping all of it forward, and began scrubbing at it with the towel. Her voice drifted to him through hair and towel, muffled and amused, "I'm way too tired to try and have any more adventures tonight. Plus you offered to spoon me."
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 6:23 pm
If he'd been especially worried by Misha's likelihood to take a peek, he'd have gone further than the couch. He found that he didn't mind much at all. They knew all kinds of weird things about each other and had been through quite a bit. What was some butt and a belly between friends?
A lot, he reminded himself. He had never been this at-ease with any other friends of equal time. Oh well. He smiled softly to himself as he pulled on a pair of sweatpants. Changing was one thing, but sleeping in undies only was something else entirely.
"Well, they said we had to stay the night and I think we've still got a few hours before sun-up." They had more than enough for some decent sleep. The hike back wouldn't be all that bad if they rested. In fact, it's probably be pretty beautiful, especially if they didn't find a corpse on the shore in the morning. Go figure.
He laughed then and held up one finger. "Hey. No. Spooning is for people who are freezing to death."
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 6:43 pm
"You're so mean." Misha straightened with a graceful arch and a sharp snap of her neck sent her hair flying back over her shoulders. A few droplets detached and splattered on the couch, just missing Brian. Misha gave him a completely unapologetic grin. "What about trauma? Do you spoon for that?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 6:47 pm
He could hear the splattering on the couch as her wet hair flung water into it. He doubted that anyone would mind a few drips on the back of a couch when they had previously been haunted. Maybe the last owners would never be back here.
"Uh... not usually?" His hand fell back to his side, but he was still smiling. "But we should get some sleep. Do you want the couch this time?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 6:57 pm
Misha shook her head and her smile gentled. Already she was forcing the terror of the lake and the anxiety and cold into the back of her mind and focusing on Brian. The fact that he was safe and she was safe and... Suddenly, she started and her eyes fixed on his hand. Before he could say another word about the couch, she scooped up the first aid kit from her bag and crossed the room to him. "Sit," she ordered. "While I look at your hand, you can try and sell the couch to me, Handsome. I warn you, though, I'm still interested in the floor with you instead."
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 7:06 pm
Brian wasn't sure what the sudden seriousness was for. Misha's gaze had dropped, though, and he tried to follow it to something but found nothing at all. It was only when he grabbed the first aid kit that he remembered that he had hurt himself while prying that panel off of the Rusted Submerged Thing. When was his last tetanus shot anyway?
"I'm okay, really." He was bleeding a bit, though. It was just a few drops; the lake had done a number on constricting the scrapes already, but the shower seemed to have aggravated it again. He had been so cold he had forgotten entirely. In fact, that sort of ached, didn't it? He plopped down on the couch obediently and held out his other hand for the first aid kit. The wounded one still remained upturned in front of him so as to not get any blood on the abandoned couch.
"I gave you the proper disclaimers, so it's your own fault if you still want to sleep on the floor."
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