Natalie's Duplex, The Hegemony Compound, Brazil, Sunday

[whenshewasnice]

It had seemed like a good time to finally ask Jim over to visit the Compound, so that was what Natalie had done. And things had gone just fine. He'd accepted, they'd made plans, she'd gone to get him from the Portalocity hub. All fine.

But thank goodness for her amazing poker face when it had turned out she was picking up a more feminine-looking person than she'd expected. She hadn't even really commented on it on the way to the Compound – with a bodyguard and a driver involved, it wasn't like she could have – so she'd been saving her comments up for when they were alone.

And now that she'd closed her door behind them, they were alone.

"Fandom strikes again, eh?"

[ooc: NFB, for the boyfriend who is a girlfriend.]

Comments

[whenshewasnice]

"You look like a girl." Maybe he'd already noticed that. "And since I'm not freaking out, I'm just curious. It's in my nature to analyze."

[pursuedthestars]

"What kind of poking do you want to do?" Jim asked, raising an eyebrow.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie reached out and poked him in the side.

It wasn't really an asnwer but she didn't care.

[pursuedthestars]

"So, you literally want to poke me?" he asked, swatting her hand away lazily. "And what are you hoping to find out from the poking?"

[whenshewasnice]

"To establish how much of you is still the same," Natalie replied without missing a beat. "Which parts are soft and which are not."

[pursuedthestars]

"...are you going to write a research paper on this or something?" Jim wondered curiously.

[whenshewasnice]

"No." There were actually limits to her nerdiness. She skimmed her fingers along his side. "I'm just joking."

[pursuedthestars]

"If you really want to poke me, go ahead," Jim said, shaking his head. "Just be gentle. No jabby fingers in my ribs or ears or anything weird like that."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie snorted as she shifted closer to him. "Have I ever done any of those things? I'm not going to poke you painfully."

[pursuedthestars]

"Hey, just getting it out there," he said, watching her move closer to him. "Just in case you got any jabby ideas while you're doing your analysis of me as a girl."

[whenshewasnice]

"I'm not going to get jabby." No, but she was going to get close and a little cuddly, plastering herself against his side. "Inappropriate, maybe. But not jabby."

[pursuedthestars]

"Inappropriate?" Jim asked, looking down at her. "The things you do for science, right?"

[whenshewasnice]

"The things I do because my boyfriend looks like a rich chick," she retorted, brushing her hand up his arm. "And also for science."

[pursuedthestars]

"No idea where you're getting this rich bit but okay," Jim told her, sighing quietly. "Glad to be a guinea pig for you."

[whenshewasnice]

"I'm plucking it out of wherever meta lives." Her fingers traveled along the curve of his shoulder. "Don't worry about it."

[pursuedthestars]

"Whatever you say," Jim told her, shutting up and watching the movements of her fingers instead. That was much more entertaining.

[whenshewasnice]

Well, Natalie was about to be a jerk. Because she just had to test whether he was still ticklish about her fingers brushing against the hollow at his throat.

So that was what she did.

[pursuedthestars]

He was.

"No nope no no no no nope," Jim told her, pushing at her hand. "No tickling me. Not allowed!"

[whenshewasnice]

But it made Natalie laugh! Actually laugh. Wasn't that worth getting tickled?

She was still trying to do that. Giving up straight away just wasn't her thing. "Come on."

[pursuedthestars]

"No," he said, still pushing her hands away. "No tickling! You're not allowed. Tickling is off limits!"

[whenshewasnice]

And she was going to be a little bold here, by shifting to try and get on top of him. Because goddammit, just let her do some tickling. It was very important, clearly.

"But why?"

[pursuedthestars]

Jim was a little surprised but he didn't let it show. He brought his hands up to try and defend his throat.

"Because I said so," he laughed. "Why do you want to tickle me so badly?"

[whenshewasnice]

"Because it's amusing."

Because it was a weakness. But one that was a little more fun and harmless to try and exploit than most others.

She tried swatting his hands away.

[pursuedthestars]

"You have other areas to poke!" Jim argued, trying to keep her hands away from his throat. "You don't need to tickle me. No no no no no!"

[whenshewasnice]

"You are such a baby about getting tickled."

Well, Natalie tried grabbing at his wrists now.

So, at least that meant her own hands weren't free for more tickling, right?