whenshewasnice | Natalie's Duplex, The Hegemony Compound, Brazil, Tuesday Morning

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Natalie's Duplex, The Hegemony Compound, Brazil, Tuesday Morning

Natalie had returned from another stay in Toronto yesterday, via a short layover – the length of a cup of coffee – in Fandom. Things in Toronto were... well. They were okay. Good, even. The school part was going great, as might have been predicted, and the social was interesting, for lack of a better word. She was integrating into some circles, as much as she ever did.

But it was still good to be here where she had space and quiet, and Moxy rubbed himself against her ankles and purred. It was still early, almost too early to be awake, even. She figured she could steal some time to herself.

So she got her guitar and sat down on her living room floor. She could play something, just for herself.

[ooc: NFB, but open!]

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"Aren't you always judging a little?"

Her hands were still strumming a soft tune.

"I know what it's like to play pretend," Peter said lightly, "Exaggerate parts of your personality because it's expedient or you need to. So no, I'm really not judging."

"I know, Peter."

She glanced down at her fingers, hummed some words mostly under her breath. "Did they tell you you should grow up, when you wanted to dream?"

Peter shrugged with both of his shoulders, then sat back, giving her some space.

She used up that space with music, her gaze down on her hands although it didn't really need to be. "Did they warn you, 'better shape up if you want to succeed'? I don't know 'bout you, who are they talking to? They're not talking to me."

This was all very much a work-in-progress, and she wasn't sure about some of the words. That didn't stop her, though. It was a Tuesday morning and they were sitting on the floor: it didn't need to be perfect.

"I'm higher than high, lower than deep, doing it wrong, singing along."

Hadn't she always had her quiet confidence? She had that here, too. Nothing very selfconscious about her. She glanced up. "Did I ask you for attention when affection is what I need? Thinking sorrow was perfection, I would wallow 'til you told me there's no glitter in the gutter, there's no twilight galaxy."

You know, a guy could be forgiven the thought that, between the lyrics and the eye contact, that might be about him.

Peter was well (and painfully) aware of his own tendency towards narcissism, though, so he pushed the thought aside. It'd be stupid to get something into his head, only to embarrass himself by bringing it up.

She really did have a fantastic singing voice, though. And presence, which both did and didn't surprise him.

In a few years, she'd be making entire sold-out clubs pay attention to her every move. Some people were going to think that was coming out of nowhere, but it wasn't. It was here waiting to bloom. "Go higher than high, lower than deep, keep doing it wrong, singing along.." And she was building up her song, adding half-hummed o-ooh-ooh-oohs between the lines, bulking the chorus up. "Higher than high, lower than deep, doing it wrong, singing along."

And you know what happened with buildup like that? It had to lead somewhere. Her eyes closed, her voice was subtly sweeter, the guitar was louder. She held on to her mildness but that just meant she had skill for subtle variation. "I'm alright now, come on, baby, I've seen all the demons that you've got. If you're not alright now, come on baby, I'll pick you up and take you where you want, anywhere you want, anywhere you want, anywhere you want, anything you want."

And she returned to the chorus, slowing down and winding down until it was natural to just let it bleed into silence. Her eyes opened, and her hand came off the strings to push her bangs away from her eyes with a precise little movement.

"Something I've been working on."

Peter was notoriously bad at a lot of things, including parsing nuances in other people's emotions that weren't somewhere on the wide spectrum of fear. But he'd never been blind to Natalie's potential-- he'd never have made her Chief of Staff otherwise. And she could do a lot with a little already, sometimes managing to make him nervous with only a mild look and a word.

The intensity of presence she put on display was interesting, but hardly beyond the realm of what he'd thought her capable of.

"I was going to give you a raucous applause," Peter said, "But I get the impression it'd ruin the mood."

"Too bad," she replied with a faint, lopsided smirk. "I'm not sure I've ever seen anything 'raucous' from you."

"But this way, I retain the element of surprise," Peter joked.

He gave her an appraising look. "You wrote that yourself?"

Natalie allowed him a tiny nod.

"Mm-hmm."

What, like she needed actual words?

"You're pretty good," Peter said lightly.

She raised one eyebrow.

"'Pretty good'?" she asked. "Quite the leap from 'not bad'."

"Hey, there was a wall in the way the first time I heard you."

"True, the acoustics in here aren't great but they're better than that," she agreed. "So I will accept this jump in your appraisal."

"I'm glad," Peter said, grinning. "I wouldn't want your work to go unappreciated on a technicality."

"Good, me neither," she replied, with a glance down. "Even if it is just a hobby."

For now. Not that she knew that.

"Hey, maybe you can play a tune when we present the FPE to the world," Peter said, only half-joking. "Or at my funeral, if everything goes pear-shaped."

"I'm not sure your parents would approve."

(She was also not sure she would care whether his parents approved.)

Peter shrugged. "Who cares?"

He cared a lot about his parents' approval - but not like that.

Natalie considered this.

"Well, I don't."

"We'll probably keep the FPE announcement simple," Peter demurred - sort of. "But if we host a big event and you want to step onto the stage, by all means."

Natalie gave him a dry-ish look. "I'm not going to," she said. "I think it would be too confusing for all involved. And... tacky."

"Probably," Peter said easily, "But it'd sure liven up the place."

"I can wear something pretty and achieve the same effect."

Without any damage to her professional image, too.

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