simplestgift | Four Bells: [Voice] Somewhat Unwell

You're shocked, right? I'm completely unexpected. [ she sets her backback on the floor, teasing right back. even with the massive crush, there's something about archie that makes her more comfortable with him than not. ] I brought you some genuine surprises.

Did you?

[ kneeling down to unzip her bag, dawn nods. ] It's not, like, a pony or anything exciting but I brought some extra books and tea.

Tea! That would be wonderful. [He settles into his pillow, watching her work.] Eventually you'll see me when I am neither drunk nor ill.

[ she pulls out a thermos, and then a small tin after it. ] I made some before I left, and then I brought more in case you didn't have any stashed yet. You want the books to be a surprise, or should I show them to you now?

Show me now. [It's spoken in a slightly petulant tone, but with a spark of excitement in his eyes. He's not used to beautiful women bringing him tea and books in his illness, and this is the second one today (although Jilly is only a friend, and Dawn...may not be.)]

You're going to get totally spoiled. [ notice the lack of censure in her voice. ] Okay, so. I thought maybe I'd stick to stuff from after your time, get into crazy modern lit without getting too crazy.

[ she pulls out... quite a few books, then blushes a little. ] I might have gotten slightly carried away, but I couldn't narrow it down.

[He gives a huge grin as she talks of spoiling.] That's all right.

[ she catches the smile out of the corner of her eye and can't help grinning back. ] You deserve some.

[ and then as a hasty tag on because holy embarrassing, batman. ] Sick people are supposed to be king or queen of the house for as long as they're sick, it's the tradeoff for feeling gross. Therefore, spoiling.

I like that approach. [His eyes flicker to the books.] What did you bring me today, beautiful Dawn?

Good, because it's a Summers tradition and if I get sick, I fully expect you to make cheesecake runs.

[ give her a second, archie, you just fried something in her brain. ] Um. [ she clears her throat and looks down at the books and spreads them out to give herself something to do until she can talk without sounding like an idiot. ] Mostly basic big name stuff to start. Faulkner, some Hemingway... and then Gatsby and Grapes of Wrath because those are both can't misses.

[He notices she's acting a little awkward, and worries about how many different bad ways she could have taken his sudden departure the other night. Or he might be completely off the mark, but her tense flustering is making him worry. He wants to ask her what's wrong, so he begins with her name.] Dawn.

[That's when it occurs to him--of all his new female friends, he probably knows the least about her, and has told her the least about himself. There's been pressure to court her, but he is closer to Buffy or Jilly, neither of whom are potential romances. This superfluous mutual interest in books can't be all there is.]

Archie?

[ dawn looks up, and while she's still a little red the 'oh god he called me beautiful' flailing is largely under wraps, now, and she just looks inquisitive. ]

[He hesitates, trying to think of how to approach this. He gestures toward the chair by the bed, from which Jilly had read to him.] Sit down. I'd like it if we... [Had a conversation? He gives a helpless shrug.] If you talked to me a little.

[ dawn's smile is pretty much edging in on radiant, and she abandons the books to come sit, tucking one leg underneath her and bringing the other up to rest her chin on her knee. ] It's a deal, but only if you talk back too.

Aye-aye, sir. [It's spoken with a gigantic grin. He coughs a little.] Tell me a story about Dawn Summers. A true one.

Something nautical, sailor. [ dawn considers stories for a second. most of the really interesting ones are also horrifying, but that's par for the course. and he asked for true, which means by the letter of the law no memories created via monk. (she's dreading explaining that one.) ] Okay, so. Once upon a time, there was a junior in high school named Dawn Summers. She lived in a house that used to seem pretty big, but once you filled it with really noisy teenage girls it got ridiculously small and suddenly barren of all the mochi-- it's a kind of ice cream-- said high school junior bought with her own money and stuck in the freezer to enjoy at an undecided later date.

[ she stops and grins, wryly. ]

...Just so you know there's no moral or happy ending here, they were always eating my food.

Edited 2011-02-09 04:28 (UTC)

Was this the so-called army of Slayers?

The soon to be super powered locusts, yup. [ she shifts position a little, stretching. ] What about you? I want to hear a true story about Archie Kennedy.

Archie Kennedy. [He pretends to think hard.] I believe I've heard the name somewhere. Isn't he that devilishly handsome lieutenant who proposed like a fool to the prettiest woman in Luceti?

[ dawn is starting to wonder if archie has a pavlovian type need make her turn bright red and tongue tied. she doesn't do lack of words-- she actually does surplus of words, ask anyone-- so it's a new and weird place to be.

...but buffy (and spike, admittedly) didn't teach her to stay quiet, so despite the red face she'll tease back. ]

I knew he was a serial proposer. You tell a guy you'll be his Cleopatra and he still asks other random hot girls to marry him. [ she's not debating his hotness, here. ]

[Or his foolishness, for the matter. He doesn't press the matter that she has the only proposal he's given here. Instead, he breathes out a thoughtful sigh.] A true story about him. Well. [Most of his true stories are about Horatio. That, or stories about him and Horatio getting drunk and doing stupid things, and she doesn't need more cause to think he's a drunkard.]

What sort of true story?

[ dawn is actually of the opinion archie is both the niftiest thing since sliced bread and not at all foolish, but that's neither here nor there. ] How about... one from when you were a kid.

[ she pauses, fiddles with the hem of her pants. in for a penny... ] I could tell you one, too. If you don't mind a looser, more philosophical version of truth.

Philosophical truth? [He grins.] What does that mean?

Um. [ saying anything at all was an impulse, and dawn shrugs helplessly. how do you explain 'oh, and then monks made me so all my memories before i was fourteen are fake' to someone without saying the actual words? ] So, my world's all magic-y, right? Well. Me as a kid is... I mean. Memories are real because you believe them, and they're subjective anyway so if a bunch of people remember something, it becomes the truth in a more philosophical way.

[ hopefully archie can read between the babble lines, because he's actually the first person she's told herself about this, and it's not the easiest thing ever. ]

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