Room 227, Saturday Evening

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie had considered dropping by the party at Dite's earlier. Honestly, she had. For about as long as it had taken to walk right past the door, anyway. There were days where she was interested in dealing with crowds of people in small spaces, and this was not one of them. So she'd kept walking, all the way to her original destination: the Boards. She had the keys, and Jono's blessing to use them, and getting to play the piano didn't get much more private than that for her, on this island. It'd been nice. She'd even managed to work on a new song a bit. Something like that needed room to breathe. Which meant she'd needed room to breathe.

She felt better now.

And now her bedroom floor was strewn with books. She'd amassed a lot of paperbacks over her time in Fandom, enough to fill up a small box or two that she'd been keeping in her closet. She figured not all of them would be worth dragging back to Montreal. Some of them had been bought on a whim, or just for light trip reading. She figured she could take them to a second-hand shop, get some of her money back. But before that, she had to see what she actually had. So here she was, sitting on the floor and going through piles of books, examining back covers and leafing through pages, while Moxy jumped into one of the boxes, because he was a cat.

Another exciting Saturday evening in room 227.

[ooc: Open door, open post!]

Comments

[pursuedthestars]

"All right," Jim said, moving to settle back down on the bed beside her. He tucked an arm under his head to prop himself up a bit but didn't say anything else.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie didn't for a moment, either. Just watched him in silence until she'd formulated something to say.

"I think I only want things to not matter until I'm told they don't."

[pursuedthestars]

"Seems like that philosophy defeats the purpose of pushing people into agreeing with you that it doesn't matter," Jim replied after some silence.

"If people think you don't want stuff to matter, then they're gonna go with it," he continued.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie refrained from remarking on how that was likely not to be as much people in general as it was him.

"I don't want to force things," she said, after some more of that silence. "I don't want a soul-baring emotional connection if it doesn't happen naturally. I'm content with taking what I get."

[pursuedthestars]

"And I ask again, do you want to me to open up emotionally with you?" Jim asked. "I'm honestly curious."

[whenshewasnice]

"I think I just answered this." But she could reword it more specifically to this case. "I wouldn't shut you down. I won't force it but I wouldn't reject it, either."

Maybe that was a yes, then. Just with a caveat.

[pursuedthestars]

"Mmm."

Interesting. He wasn't great at emotional anythings but it was interesting to hear some honesty about this particular situation.

"I appreciate the honesty."

[whenshewasnice]

"You're welcome."

She was at a loss for anything else to say, immediately anyway.

[pursuedthestars]

Well, so was he. And not just because he didn't know if he should just come out with something she didn't know or if that would seem forced all things considered.

So, he stayed quiet.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie stayed both still and quiet for a moment longer. Then she let go of one of those qualities, to bring a hand up to brush against his shoulder.

Something to keep from getting completely paralyzed by this situation.

[pursuedthestars]

Jim shifted a bit, turning enough to bow his head down so his lips could brush her hand where she was touching his shoulder. His way of reciprocation.

[whenshewasnice]

It was good reciprocation. Natalie half smiled at it, though she kept quiet. Just kept touching him, rubbing her fingertips back and forth.

[pursuedthestars]

Jim kissed her fingertips a few more times before he pulled back up and sighed, eyes closing. His eyes didn't stay closed for too long before he opened them and looked across at her.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie looked back at him. Her gaze trailed over his face a few times before it fixed on his eyes again.

"Hey," she said softly.

[pursuedthestars]

"Hi," Jim returned, keeping his own voice quiet. He kept his eyes on her face.

[whenshewasnice]

"I think I'd like to kiss you now."

Sometimes it was good to be straightforward.

[pursuedthestars]

"Then, kiss me," he told her, nodding. "C'mere."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie shifted closer, draping an arm over him. And then she kissed him, and while it was kind of soft, there was nothing tentative about it. Nothing playful.

[pursuedthestars]

Jim responded to her kiss pretty much immediately. He moved an answering arm around her waist, bringing her closer to him and kept kissing her as he did so.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie did one better, and got her leg tangled up with one of his, too. Rubbing leg against leg and body against body because she suddenly felt an overwhelming desire to be close.

Had something to with the deepening of the kiss, too.

[pursuedthestars]

Jim didn't mind her urge to be close to him. He didn't mind it at all. He cradled her against his body and went right along with that deeper kiss because it felt good and she felt good too.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie felt pretty good. She even hummed her appreciation while she slid her tongue against his.

See, this was so much easier than talking.

[pursuedthestars]

Jim didn't really mind talking but he didn't mind this either. They each had their merits and if she didn't want to talk, they could do this instead.

He would have smiled if his lips hadn't been busy.

[whenshewasnice]

She was probably going to end up circling back to talking soon enough, anyway. Never could resist words for long. It was just probable they weren't going to be anything too heavy. No soul-searching.

But not yet. She had a hold of a handful of his shirt and her hand tugged on it absently, for no real reason except for the touch.

[pursuedthestars]

Soul searching could wait. It was exhausting to do that anyway. Jim kept himself close to her, still kissing her even if he figured one of them would need to breathe soon.

He kept himself close to her and kept his lips pressed against hers, smothering a sigh against her mouth.