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 Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 1:09 pm
Lissie took another bite of chocolate, and studied Michael for a long moment. "They've made some improvements," she said, and smiled. "Where ever we like?" she paused and considered for a moment. Was there a place she'd like to go? Maybe a place Michael would like to go...
"Where would you want to go?" she asked.
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 2:47 pm
"Well, where ever we like within reason. Our travel is inhibited the same way as any living human's," Michael said. He tilted his chin up then and thought. "We could go to the museum. You like art, don't you?" Of course in the long term he'd like to see England again, and much of the world. He simply hadn't had a reason before now, save the occasional mission.
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 3:08 pm
Anywhere within reason. Lissie nodded at that. “I’d like to go to the museum,” she said, and gave him a smile. Art was nice. And maybe she could learn something about history that way, too. “We could go to the park.”
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 3:31 pm
"We could always go to the park," Michael agreed, "and there's an orange grove just outside HQ."
It was several hours before the plane landed and the crew and passengers were able to settle down for the night. There was, of course, one small complication.
"So do you two want the double-double?" Toby asked.
Michael tilted his head as they walked to their hotel rooms, and then his eyes grew wide. Right. They hadn't planned to come back with a fourth person, and so the allotment of beds was a little odd. Toby and Dari had a room with two double beds, and Michael's had only one. Regardless of whether he planned to sleep in it, there was now a second person who would be sharing the room. Presumably Lissie would choose him over the two other men.
"Well..." Michael mused, then turned to Lissie, "I'm afraid we have a limited choice of rooms. There is one with two double-beds and one with one double bed, and I'm afraid we'll be forced to share one for the night. We needn't pretend to sleep, of course, but haunting the hotel wouldn't do well."
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 3:56 pm
Elise was quiet for a long time. She looked from Michael to Toby and Dari, her expression was baffled. “A lady can’t share a room with a man until she’s married,” she tsked. But maybe—maybe that rule had changed? She turned to look at Michael.
“They should have the two beds. They need to sleep.” At least, she assumed they did. “We can share.” And not haunt the hotel—but wasn’t being there haunting the hotel?”
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 5:25 pm
"I don't sleep," Dari offered, not wanting to encroach on Victorian standards of morality with a misunderstanding. He did like to rest, and to enter that sleep-like state he had learned to achieve in recent years, but he could just as easily crawl into bed with Toby if need be. They'd shared rooms more than once.
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:55 pm
Lissie studied Dari for a moment before shaking her head. “I’ll stay with Michael,” she said. There was undoubtedly a chair she could nest in; maybe with a book, so if Michael decided to undress for bed, she wouldn’t be watching.
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:27 pm
Dari tilted his head. What?
"You may stay with me regardless of which room we choose," Michael said. "Would you like to share the room with two beds, or the room with one?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:48 pm
Lissie considered. Well. Men who weren’t married probably shouldn’t lay in the same bed, especially when one of them was married. Neither she nor Michael needed a bed. Or sleep.
“You two take the two beds,” she said. “We’ll be fine.”
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:57 pm
Toby nodded. "Sure thing. Here, these are yours, then," he said and offered out the little paper packet that held their two room calls. "Have a good night, kids!" He smiled and waved as he inserted the card and let himself and Dari into their room.
Michael accepted their cards and used one to enter the room just two doors down. It was a fairly standard hotel room with a television, a desk, an armchair, a small bathroom, the double bed, and a side table with a clock and lamp. The art on the walls was of generic landscapes, but it was clean and offered a good view of the city from the airport hotel. It was to the view that Michael gravitated, peering out over the city with whitelighted eyes. It was so much more beautiful now.
"Come, see." He offered an arm back to Lissie and, should she accept it, would wrap it around her.
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2017 12:57 pm
Lissie studied the art on the walls for a moment, then went to join Michael. “It’s beautiful,” she said, after a while. She moved closer to him, and smiled as she looked. It was beautiful; so different from the pictures in books. This was real.
“I never thought I’d be in a flying machine,” she said. Or see cities quite like this. “Or enjoy chocolate. What else is there?”
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2017 1:15 pm
Michael let his arm lay around Lissie, not so low as to touch her hip but not so high as to go near her breast either. It was a modest, but affectionate gesture. He didn't really know where they stood now and he planned to discuss it, when the time was right.
"That is the one good thing about death. When the white light comes, you get to live all over again. There's a lot to see, and we can see it together." He pondered whether he could kiss her hair perhaps slightly too long and so decided to not.
"Lissie, can we speak on the circumstance of us? Or should we wait for a time?" He'd never been a man who saw any use in waiting to discuss one thing or another.
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2017 4:34 pm
Lissie smiled. “I’m looking forward to seeing everything with you,” she said. Experiencing all the things she’d missed out on during her short life. She studied him for a long moment. “The circumstance of us?” She echoed.
She leaned up and placed a kiss on his cheek. “What’s there to discuss? I love you.” She’d come back from the light to him, hadn’t she?
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2017 5:05 pm
Michael smiled.
"Of course. I love you as well, but I'd like to discuss where we go from here. Are we courting? Will we follow the usual conventions, or is our relationship one that should move as feels natural? I must say, we've broken a great many rules thus far."
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2017 6:24 pm
“I think we’re past the usual conventions,” Lissie admitted, and gave him a smile. How did they even describe their relationship? It was different. “I like breaking rules,” she said, then. “What’s a word for us?”
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