Toronto, Not Brazil Nor Space, Tuesday

[whenshewasnice]

This felt surreal. After the... several months Natalie had just had, taking a day or two to actually be away from Brazil and the Hegemony and Peter was just surreal. Knowing she was going to get to actually see Jim for the first time in over three months? Yeah, weird.

Since they were not very into the idea of meeting in either Ribeirao Preto or Iowa, Natalie had picked a place almost at random from the first selection of package deals Portalocity had happened to offer her. So now she was standing in the Drake Hotel lobby in Toronto, with her bag slung over her shoulder and check-in already dealt with, just waiting for Jim to arrive.

[ooc: NFB, for the boy!]

Comments

[pursuedthestars]

"You're such a girl," Jim teased, taking a sip of his wine. "So girly and demure. And I'm not even surprised."

[whenshewasnice]

"No I'm not, I'm highly professional," Natalie replied as she watched the tub fill up. "Demure, though? Maybe. We haven't even kissed yet."

[pursuedthestars]

"That's because it took you about ten years to even touch me," Jim replied, tilting his head. "I figure kissing will take another fifty years or so."

Joking, he was joking.

[whenshewasnice]

"And you can't take the initiative?" she retorted, glancing over. "Shave off twenty five years or so from the estimate?"

[pursuedthestars]

Jim thought about it then shook his head. "Nah. I think I'll let you do that."

That probably wasn't true. He'd take the initiative.

[whenshewasnice]

"Prepare to wait for fifty years, then," Natalie quipped. She turned the water off once the tub looked full enough, with a pleasing amount of foamy bubbles on top. She looked over at him. "Can you get the wine?"

Well it seemed like a good idea to bring the bottle along.

[pursuedthestars]

"I waited three months, I can wait another several hundred months," Jim said, moving back to grab the bottle before he joined her back in the bathroom. "I'm patient."

Sometimes.

[whenshewasnice]

"Mm hmm."

She sounded like she was doubting him, but in a teasing way.

She also reached down for the hem of her shirt to start pulling it off herself.

[pursuedthestars]

And Jim was going to watch and enjoy her stripping in front of him. He had the bottle in one hand and his glass in another and he didn't even care about looking shameless about his watching.

[whenshewasnice]

He was welcome to do that. Natalie glanced over once she'd pulled the shirt over her head, and smirked at him a little.

"I missed that look," she remarked as her hands went to the button and zipper on her jeand. "No one's watched me undress in a while. At least no one who was particularly interested in watching it."

[pursuedthestars]

"Someone was watching you undress and wasn't interested?" Jim asked, shaking his head. "Stupid person."

[whenshewasnice]

"Less watching and more just being in the vicinity while it was happening." She shrugged. "Peter and I have a pretty platonic relationship."

Apart from that one pollen time, anyway.

"But thank you for the compliment."

[pursuedthestars]

"I'm pretty sure that Peter was thinking impure thoughts while he was nearby," Jim decided. "He'd be stupid not. He's still a guy."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie snorted. She pushed her jeans slowly down her hips as she shook her head.

"That just shows you don't know him."

[pursuedthestars]

"I don't want to know him either," Jim said, shrugging. "No offense. We're not gonna be buddies."

[whenshewasnice]

"That's a weird decision to make about a stranger."

Not that she cared. They weren't very likely to cross paths in too significant a way, anyway, and Peter would certainly reciprocate the feeling.

[pursuedthestars]

"You haven't made judgments about people before?" Jim asked, shrugging. "I don't have to know Peter to not really like him. Nothing personal."

[whenshewasnice]

"Seems a little personal to me." She kicked her jeans off. Just there in her underwear now. "But what do I know?"

[pursuedthestars]

"Nothing personal to you," Jim clarified. "I just won't like Peter. It's just not gonna be a thing where we have drinks. That's how it is."

[whenshewasnice]

"I didn't mean personal to me as in directed at me, just that it seemed that way to me." That made sense, honest. "Anyway, I didn't come here to talk about Peter."

Much. Talking about him a little bit was inevitable when he'd been her closest companion for seemingly forever.

"Get some clothes off."

[pursuedthestars]

"I've got my hands full," he pointed out. "Might need you to take these from me or take my clothes off for me."

He held up the wine and his glass and waggled his eyebrows at her.

[whenshewasnice]

"If you want me to strip you, you're still going to have to lose them," Natalie pointed out, although she stepped closer. "Or do you think you can get out of your shirt without doing something unfortunate with the glass?"

[pursuedthestars]

"I think I can hold onto the glass as long as you're not yanking my shirt off," Jim told her. "I'm pretty sturdy and there's not much less in the glass anyway."

[whenshewasnice]

"Mm, and you can gulp down what's left before it gets to a risky point." She brought her hands up and pressed them to his chest, smoothing the fabric out under her fingers. Or maybe just feeling up his chest through it. Or both. "Okay. I'll help you. But while I do that, you should tell me how much you've missed me."

[pursuedthestars]

"You want me to talk?" Jim asked, making a face though he didn't really mean it. "You know that's asking a lot, don't you?"