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 Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 10:14 pm
Misha glanced at her cell phone one final time before setting it to vibrate and slipping it into the back pocket of her jeans. Three hours had passed since their return from the bayou. In that time, she had showered twice, scrubbing her skin with her favorite jasmine bath gel and combing out her hair until it shone and practically snapped with static electricity. There had been a moment mourning the loss of her shoes and underthings but then the focus shifted towards getting Mal's shirt washed thoroughly and ironed. There had been food and water and a brief moment of rest.
Then her mind had wandered and she thought of the bayou and what they had done there and seen there and... She thought of Brian and their votes.
So she figured three hours would be enough time for Brian to do whatever he needed to decompress. Even if it wasn't, well, she wanted to check on him anyway. Misha smiled to herself as she knocked on his door. This could, she thought, become a regular after-adventure tradition.
Her smile grew, remembering every detail of the last time. She wondered if every bit of that time would become a tradition. That would be fun indeed.
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 3:34 pm
Brian hadn't interacted with much of anyone outside of Sylvia when they had first returned. He'd had a reason to tease her and try to lighten the mood, but everyone else seemed either sullen or exhausted. With this in mind, he had returned to the dorms, showered and shaved, done a bit of grooming, and taken a well-needed nap. The knocking startled him awake, but after a brief shock of adrenaline he remembered that he was back home.
He groaned and wiped a hand down his face. Awake. Right.
"One second!" he called to the door. He slid out of bed in bare feet, pulled on a shirt to be decent for his guest (just in case it was a higher-up for whatever reason) and opened the door. When he saw who had come to visit a broad smile crossed his lips.
"Hey, you. How are you feeling?" His eyes were still a bit sleepy, but otherwise he was definitely awake. He looked forward to his and Misha's little chats, and they really were usually just chats.
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 7:06 pm
"Much more human." Her response was flippant and cheerful and bright but her gaze sobered slightly at the sight of his sleepy face. She woke him up. She hadn't meant to do that. Not really. Her eyes searched his face, his smile and the set of his jaw and the lines of his eyebrows. She relaxed almost instantly as she translated his happiness to see her. Waking him up or not, Brian was still pleased at her arrival. That worked for her. Misha took a step forward and reached up a hand to pat his cheek in a friendly, teasing manner. Then she smiled brighter and her hand dropped to prop on her hip as she leaned against the door jamb of his room. "Clean and human and once more wearing underwear," she continued with a chuckle. "How about you?"
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 7:55 pm
"Mm, I'm sure," he said and tilted his head slightly. The smile remained on his lips, and broadened slightly at the cheek-pat.
"Clean and human and not wearing underwear." Secretly this was true, but he winked at Misha as if to suggest that it might or might not be. He wasn't about to show her, and he had a feeling she wasn't going to ask; not seriously, at least. Ill-fitting sweatpants were also not the most flattering nap-attire available.
"Do you want to come in? I don't have anything exciting in here..." But if she needed to vent or trauma-detox she was more than welcome to join him.
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 8:05 pm
"Fibber." The offer made, Misha shamelessly slipped through the door and into his room. As she passed, her hand drifted out to touch his wrist in a gesture of warm affection. "You're in this room, Brian. Don't sell yourself short on the excitement sweepstakes." She moved further into the room and looked around curiously. It was always fascinating to her when she could see a person's private space. It often told so much about them. It was a sort of easy, acceptable intimacy... And she was nosey. Pausing in the center of the room, Misha slowly rotated in a circle until she was facing him again with a smile. "Are you sure I'm not interrupting you?"
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 8:17 pm
Brian just smiled. Heh.
At the little compliment he just rolled his eyes at her. Yeah, sure. She was one hell of a flatterer, but it always seemed half true and half teasing. It was sort of how they worked, and he really didn't mind it.
The room was fairly predictably clean and empty. The bedsheets were rumpled but had clearly been tugged military-tight prior to his nap. He had a desk, his laptop, a clothes hamper, a mini-fridge, all of the normal things one found in a dorm when the resident had moved in. The only real marks of Brian were the photos. There were two obvious pictures on the wall, one of his military unit and the other of a mass of cops in uniform. A tiny bifold sat on his desk with his respective ID photos. His medals lived in a frame above his bed. There was family too, though. On his desk, it was he and his sisters with him in fatigues. He looked rather young, and so did they. Another on the wall seemed to be from a family party. The largest frame, however, held a portrait of his immediate family from much more recently or, at least, two men and three women spanning two generations. Brian didn't look much like his dad, but his sisters did. They were much less severe, but still obviously related. He had his mother's lips and smile.
There he was, all on display. He even had a few more in the drawer of the desk.
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 11:24 pm
Misha could not possibly have been more delighted had he actually handed her the keys to the room and walked out. After glancing at him briefly for permission, she wandered over to inspect the pictures more closely. A faint smile danced on her full lips as she took in each one with interest. It did not shock her overly to find that Brian looked very, very good in uniform. On the other hand, seeing him with his sisters, so young, made her want to giggle. Then the was the family portrait and she stood and stared at it for a while. They looked like such a nice family - happy and close and just so very nice. Terribly attractive, too. Finally, Misha turned around to meet Brian's eyes and she held out her hands in a half-beckoning, half-meaningless gesture. The small smile blossomed into a full-on grin. "You have your mom's smile," she announced. "You should probably thank her for that."
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 12:03 pm
Brian might not have let Misha come inside if he was any more self-conscious about the photographs he displayed. The walls had seemed so empty without him, and they did mean quite a lot to him. This was Misha, though. They had shared more between them than he had ever expected. These were just little glimpses into his past and a couple into his family life. That was all.
"I do," he agreed, walking forward and taking Misha's hands. He wasn't sure if she was going for a hug or what, but he wasn't going to leave her standing there with her arms out. He nodded then to the photographs of him among many other, identically-dressed man.
"Can you pick me out of the lineup?" He was just playfully curious.
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 12:23 pm
She laughed, squeezed his hands, and then managed some sort of elaborate body-warping witchcraft so that she was suddenly tucked into his hold, her body leaning slightly to the side and back into his, their hands still tangled. "I bet I can," she announced as she turned her attention to the group shots. "Let's see. You're the one who looks most born to wear the outfit. Probably also the most handsome." She hummed a bit under her breath, making a game of guessing. Then she gave a nod towards the army line-up. "Second row, fourth from the left."
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 12:28 pm
Brian hadn't been expecting the little spin, but he didn't fight Misha's sudden closeness. He could use a hug, and this was even better. He leaned his chin on her head and looked over the photo.
"Flatterer," he accused, and then followed Misha's directions. "Nope. That's Johansson. Third row, third from the right." he had been much younger in the Army; even more baby-faced and less grown into his features. He was harder to recognize there than in the more recent (and smaller) police photo. Of course the military ID in the bifold on his desk was more recent and held the rank of his latest promotion.
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 12:38 pm
"Well, damn." Misha's voice held no especial note of annoyance or disappointment. After all, it was hard to be upset when you were being so well cuddled. It felt good in Brian's hold and relaxing and far safer than she had felt in the past week. "Is it too late to say that I was hedging my guess by picking the second most handsome because I know all about your streak of modesty?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 12:42 pm
"Nice try." Brian sounded unamused but was definitely smiling. He leaned down to kiss the top of Misha's head and rubbed her side in a comforting manner. "I was young, though. I hadn't become my most handsome, obviously."
In reality he had been kind of a weird-looking little kid. He had actually grown into himself somewhat, and he was glad for that. "What were you when you were eighteen?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 12:47 pm
"I was me." Her answer should have come across as supremely egotistical but, somehow, it simply sounded like simple, honest truth. Idly, she brought one of his hands up to rub her cheek against it. "Finishing up high school, getting ready for college," she added. "I was doing community theater. Did a bit of modelling, too."
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 1:01 pm
Brian smiled again. Of course. He was just him too. Maybe it had been a silly question, or maybe he just hadn't phrased it properly. He allowed Misha to take his hand and even moved it to stroke her cheek softly.
"Of course you did," he said. "Favorite play?" It was definitely not surprising to hear that Misha had been on stage, and even less so to hear that she had been in front of a camera.
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2016 1:06 pm
"A Midsummer Night's Dream. I actually got to perform it twice in my life." She turned her head and smirked at him over her shoulder. "Both times, I was Titania. Totally different takes, though, which made it so much fun." Misha watched his face, studying his smile. Her smirk gentled to match his smile. "How old were you in that picture? Were you really only eighteen? Is that why you asked what I was then?"
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