Room 227, Thursday Afternoon

[whenshewasnice]

Post-radio, Natalie had been busy. Not with big things. Getting groceries and essentials. Getting superficially up-to-date on the goings-on in Peter's world on her laptop. Talking to her dad on the phone. The topic had started out being the presentation he was currently working on at home, and then gradually somehow moved on to all the time he'd spent doing random things back in the day, before getting on the university-and-beyond path he was still on. They hadn't talked about what her plans were. Maybe because they were assumed to be the same as they'd been for years.

Truth was, she wasn't so sure anymore. Things were shifting. She was yet to decide which of them she wanted to go with. She didn't say anything to her father about that, although she wondered if he hadn't already somehow figured it out. They were Adamses. They didn't need everything spelled out to them.

He said he loved her as they ended the call. Just like always.

She sat down on the edge of her bed with a sigh. Feeling this optimistic and open to change was... Well, it was weird, after the six months she'd had. She was going to try and hold on to it for a moment.

[ooc: Open door, open post!]

Comments

[lockestheway]

Peter waltzed into the room without as much as a 'hello', collapsing on the bed with a very loud, very dramatic sigh.

[whenshewasnice]

Thus completely upstaging her own sitting down sigh! Oh well. She'd live.

Actually she just looked amused as she glanced down at him. "Sigh to you too."

[lockestheway]

Taking on Peter in a stand-off about drama was always bound to be a losing battle.

"I've got half the world sending me emails 'off the record'," Peter complained. Bragged. Bragplained?

[whenshewasnice]

"Attention is the price of influence, Mr. Wiggin," Natalie drawled. "That was to be expected."

[lockestheway]

"Well, I'm going to hide here for about ten minutes," Peter said, shutting his eyes. "Wake me up at the end of it."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie rolled her eyes. She didn't need it seen, anyway, it was just for her benefit.

"When did my room become a teen politician naptime sanctuary?"

[lockestheway]

"As of right now," Peter said. His eyes were still closed. "I'll call in some favors and make it legal."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie snorted, and reached for a book off her nightstand.

"The hit tell-all book I'll eventually write is so going to ruin you."

[lockestheway]

"'He would make a terrible Hegemon'," Peter said, making a vague gesture with his hand, "'I knew it from the start. He napped during the day time in an unmarried woman's bed!'"

[whenshewasnice]

"'He also made allusions to using his considerable influence for ill-advised stunts," Natalie recited. "'Such as turning a dormitory bedroom into a legally-recognized naptime sanctuary.' You'll look terrible."

[lockestheway]

Peter opened his eyes and moved his head to the side so he was looking right at her. "Oh, that's damning testimony, miss Adams."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie shrugged a shoulder.

"I'm a bad person," she deadpanned.

[lockestheway]

"Is that the role you're hoping for?" Peter wondered. "Brilliant reporter, breaking down powerful people for fun?"

[whenshewasnice]

"Uh huh." Not even close. Although she was going to be pretty destructive to people's egos in some years. "I was just telling my dad about it and everything."

[lockestheway]

Peter whistled. "I knew I should've watched out before I took up with you."

[whenshewasnice]

"Well, it's too late now," she told him lightly, shrugging again. "Not sure there's any getting rid of me anymore."

[lockestheway]

Peter pulled an (exaggerated) face. "Are you saying you imprinted on me like a baby goose?" he said. "Maybe a puppy?"

[whenshewasnice]

"I'm a snake," Natalie scoffed, rolling her eyes. "We don't imprint."

She still paused to watch him in silence for a moment. Judging his worth.

[lockestheway]

Peter raised an eyebrow at her. "What are you doing?"

[whenshewasnice]

"Thinking."

Delightfully vague, wasn't she?

[lockestheway]

"Fine, try the mysterious act," Peter sighed, looking back up at the ceiling. "I was going to nap."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie rolled her eyes and looked away.

The silence stretched on for a while longer.

Then, idly, "In an alternate universe where I'm not continuing to college, and choose to dabble in your world's affairs instead, what exactly would I be doing?"

[lockestheway]

"You would be my assistant," Peter said. He hadn't taken his eyes off the ceiling. "That doesn't mean getting coffee - that means keeping an eye on my schedule, arranging meetings, helping me out with diplomatic affairs, making sure I don't walk into an important meeting in sweatpants..."

[whenshewasnice]

"You barely wear anything other than suits anyway, so that's not much of a challenge," Natalie told... the random direction she was absently looking in. "Although I suppose that could turn out to be the difficult part out of nowhere. To spite me."

[lockestheway]

"I'm unpredictable like that," Peter agreed.

He wasn't.

[whenshewasnice]

"No, you're not."

She turned her head, and looked down at him.

"So how good do you think something like that might look on a university application?"

[lockestheway]

"In my universe, it'd look beautiful," Peter said. "In yours-- well. You do have that meta thing, so I suppose it's possible."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie waved a hand. "It'd require some special multiversal paperwork, but where I come from is a lot more accepting of other universes and dimensions than most."

[lockestheway]

"In that case, I'd like to reiterate that it'd look beautiful," Peter said smoothly. "Civic responsibility, real world experience, an easy way to show you've got a track record of excellence..."

Hey, if she was hinting at what he thought she was hinting at, he was going to sales pitch the fuck out of it.

[whenshewasnice]

Who said she was hinting at anything? Maybe she was just making conversation!

Okay no, maybe she was hinting at something.

"Mm."

She fell quiet again.

[lockestheway]

Please. Peter had perfected the art of roundabout getting his way. Don't even try to play him.

"Mm," he agreed, taking a deep breath, then exhaling. "It is nice and quiet around here."

[whenshewasnice]

"It's Comic Con week," Natalie replied, straying from the topic that wasn't really at hand. "It's quiet all across town. Not too many things to report when I did radio this morning."