Welcome to Gaia! ::

The door opened, and she was ready, in a way he probably hadn't actually expected. It took a while to learn it and get it done, but she figured if he was about to make her watch the entire set of movies, she was going to have to lay down a first impression. So when she opened the door, and her blonde, curly hair had been rolled up in tight, well kept cinnamon buns on each side of her head, it was no surprise that she looked extremely smug about it.

"Ready for what?" She asked, leaving the door open to let him drop all of his stuff inside. "Did we have plans tonight? I might be busy, I should check my calendar."

Two 2 liters, a pair of champagne glasses, and a bucket of ice was sitting on her table. She had plans. Sure she did.

"What is that." She murmured hesitantly, finally noticing the minipet carrier.

Both her eyebrows raised at the accusation, and she looked about ready to punch him in the gut for calling her a nerd. Instead, Maebe folded her arms tightly in front of her, and glared at him with disdain. "I am the opposite of a nerd. This is a hairstyle. I am very good at styling my hair. Just because it happens to be in this movie does not mean I am a nerd, and if you tell anybody I did this, I will - I will - do something. I don't know what yet. But something."

She brushed her hands along the buns, considered ripping them out, and then gave up and huffed all the way to the bed.

But when he mentioned Talia, the tantrum evaporated in place of curiosity. "Can she come out? Does she like people?" She laid down on the bed, leaning over in the hopes of seeing into the grate.

Maebe tried her best to see the pet within the box, and her expression softened as she wiggled her fingers near the cage. "Hi Talia. Hi baby. I'm Maebe. Hi, sweetie. I'm going to cuddle you when you're feeling more social, okay baby? You just relax in there for now." Her voice had hitched up an octave as she spoke to the minipet, clearly infatuated with it's presence.

He pulled a movie out and she gestured lazily to her laptop, nodding her head. "No, I'm ready to watch the Star Wars with you." She sniped out. Her voice had returned to it's dulcet, sugary undertones, but every so often she muttered out a quick, high pitched little hi baby, hi at the cage.

"Wait, I need a soda first. Pour me a glass? Caffeine is going to make sure I don't fall asleep on you in case this movie's boring." She bared her teeth in a grin, ready to give him as much s**t as possible for several hours in their immediate future.

She didn't understand the full reference, but enjoyed being called a princess, and a rebel, so he'd won her over with it.

She took the drink before acknowledging the present, because she was a well trained brat. Instead, she gave him a kiss on the cheek, and sipped her coke. "You are forgiven. I like scruffy. If that present is for me, you might want to actually give it to me, rather than place it in my vicinity and just hope I get the hint."

Still she did not touch it, she just sipped her coke daintily and waited to be handed a present that was inches away from her. She was going to watch all of the Star Wars movies with him. But unfortunately, she was going to do so with dangerously high levels of sass.

As soon as he handed it over, she took it and ripped at the paper ravenously, until the bear surfaced in her hands. Her lips slid up in a slow smile, and she gave it exactly what it was asking for - a great big, almost childish hug.

The candy bars were sifted through, looking for the Snickers first.

"Thank you." She murmured, into the bear that was now crushed against her lips. "I was hoping for a stuffed animal from you." She needed something new to sleep with, at night.

Wrapped around the little bear, she looked smaller, younger than usual. Her legs curled up and she buried her face into it, all but her eyes. It was no surprise that Maebe loved stuffed animals - her room was bursting with them. Sometimes, just sometimes, she was easy to read.

Maebe fell into his embrace like a plush herself, with an embarrassing giggle escaping her right before she could hide it by smushing her face into his chest. When he pulled away to put the DVD in, the smile that his touch had managed to steal from her was gone, but her cheeks were no less redder.

"I will probably have a lot of questions. I would apologize if I knew what shame was. Which I don't. So good luck."

She settled in to the most comfortable, warmest spot against him that she could find, and wrapped her arms around her teddy bear.

And then it was beginning, and those first few seconds gave her a terrible flashback of Mark's room, and the smell, and those Doritos covered hands, and ugh.

She shuddered it away, and tried to focus on the movie, this time.

The first question came far too soon. The word scroll.

"Is this a movie, or a book?"

She stared at him blankly, her eyes never giving away a thing as he went on about screenplays and books, waiting for him to realize his mistake. When he did, her face lit up in an amused, but affectionate smile.

"Yeah, well, that's what I have you for. Good thing I didn't bother to read it."

She really hadn't, except for the first line. But by then, the movie had already begun, and she felt the quiet of the beginning sink in. She went quiet, too - all the way until the fighting started.

"Why did we start with movie four?" She leaned in to whisper near his cheek, with her eyes still on the computer.