(no subject)
WHO: Gabe Coolidge (CHESHIRE CAT) and Ryoko Hashioka (QUEEN OF HEARTS)
WHEN: Monday, 25th February, around 11am.
WHERE: The airport, and later Ryoko's hotel room.
RATING: R is for Ryoko, S is for scandalous - among other things.
Gabe: It was ridiculous how, after an entire year, Ryoko could tell him 10:45 and he'd be at the airport by 10:30. Still. After all that time. He waited in the white zone, parked with his engine idling, halfway listening to the radio and watching the people milling about. It was crowded, there were quite a lot of people coming and going. Gabe rested his head against the window, eyes shut. Jesus christ he was hungover and still a bit nauseous from earlier. His head was throbbing, and consciousness was slowly slipping away...
He wasn't sure exactly how long he'd been sleeping, only that he jerked awake from his impromptu nap at some loud beeping from some soccer mom in a bigger SUV than his. Frowning and scratching his beard - it was coming in nicely, after almost a week of no shaving - he glanced around and yawned, stretching out. He peered out the window, then at his watch, then at his cell phone, finally deciding to switch the radio station. Maybe that would help keep him awake. He'd be fine, he just needed a Starbucks, and it wasn't worth it to find a parking spot just to run in to the one at the airport. "Drive Thru's better," he decided, aloud, to himself.
Ryoko: Ryoko would love to be hung over, but damn those airline drinks are expensive. Still, with the help of a few Bloody Marys somewhere between Los Angeles and New York, she managed to get a few hours sleep, and wake up in time to put herself together and walk off the plane looking much sharper - if also, underneath, much more exhausted - than all those silly Americans who just slept the whole way.
By some merciful act of God, she is through customs and with her baggage and walking out the door only a little after the hour. She even has two coffees, carried in a handy cardboard tray, though one is about half empty just between the terminal Starbucks and the door. Ryoko pauses a moment outside the sliding doors, squinting into the light and scanning the rows of cars. She'd forgotten how different America looked, even only so far as its baggage claims and airport driveways. But at least there's something familiar in there - she walks in a quick clip down the sidewalk, to Gabe's car, and just as he is fiddling with the radio she taps on the window.
"Good morning," is her unmistakably drained greeting, sliding a coffee to him across the roof of the car when he emerges. "街たせ. I kept you waiting." Still, she manages something like a smile.
Gabe: To his credit, he only jumped a little bit at the tap, looking at her for a moment and swallowing hard. Oh, no. This wasn't difficult at all. He pressed his lips together, forcing a smile before he got out of the car. "Oh, thank god," he greeted the coffee a moment before Ryoko - more as something to distract him than anything else. He took a sip, and then looked back up to her. "Hi. It's okay, I had a nap." He took another drink of the coffee, and leaned in to put it in his cupholder. "Let me help you with your bags," he said, moving around to start loading them into the spacious storage area.
"How was the flight?" he asked her while he loaded them, using the age-old trick of keeping himself busy so he didn't have to look directly at her. Definitely hard after not seeing her - or really talking to her -for a year. "How are things going?" he added, looking over his shoulder to her, and shutting the back door behind her luggage. He took a breath after a moment, looking at her quietly and leaning back against his car.
Ryoko: While Gabe so kindly loads the one wheeled suitcase and one duffel bag, resting on top, and both larger and heavier than herself, Ryoko gives him A Look. It is A Look that persists through his gentlemanliness, and polite questions, until finally she asks, "What the fuck is eating your face."
It is, predictably, rhetorical, as they've got those beard things across the ocean too. But still with her slight frown she insists on taking his chin and turning it to look at his jaw, and throat, and then lets him go. Adjusting her purse on her arm she says by way of a real answer, "Shitty. More than shitty. But now I'm here and that'll change. I hear you're not doing too well, either." She makes a vague gesture at the car. "Let's go. You can tell me about it on the way." She moves to the passenger side and lets herself in.
Gabe: Gabe made an offended face when she asked him, pouting a little bit while she scrutinized the beard that, Gabe thought, was damn manly. "It's a beard," he answered her innocently, raising his eyebrows and giving her his best look. "Yeah," he agreed, quietly, moving around to the driver seat and getting in; he fastened his seatbelt and turned the radio down before pulling out into the long line of cars trying to escape the airport. "I'm having a mid-life crisis," he told Ryoko matter-of-factly, taking a sip of his coffee while the line of cars inched forward.
"So I decided to grow a beard and quit my job and have a bender," he told her, with a solemn nod. "It'll keep me occupied for a little while. And then I can figure everything out when I'm done that." He took another sip of the coffee, glancing over to her. "So, you're going straight to the hotel, or... do you want to grab something to eat first?" he asked her.
Ryoko: "Are you now," Ryoko answers, tucking her purse by her feet and pulling her seatbelt on. She managed to grab her coffee off the roof, too, even amid her mild delirium, and sips it quietly. "Aren't you only thirty? You're starting a little early." She leans back, and after a little fiddling managed to get the seat to recline.
She closes her eyes. "If I may, then, since I don't seem to have to worry about making things worse - it's nice to see you. I'm sorry I was out of touch, but - I didn't expect to miss things so much. Then I did, and pride, you know, on top of not knowing if my Visa would come through, and the constant bullshit of Tokyo- But you treated me better than anyone has in a long time. So. Thank you. Now snap out of this crisis... thing." She makes an absent gesture with her hand, nearest Gabe. "And don't tell anyone I can do 'thank yous', or they'll all want one. But the hotel is fine. I'm not fit to be in public. It'll be lunch by the time we get there, we can order in."
Gabe: "Well, I'm an early bloomer," Gabe told her, smiling a little bit as he pulled, finally, out of the airport and onto the highway. "Figured I'd get it over with now while I'm still young enough to enjoy it." Of course, upon getting an apology about Ryoko disappearing, Gabe almost swerved the car off the road. Almost. It was a shock. Not only an apology, but then a 'thank you' right after it. He looked over at Ryoko, a somewhat astounded expression on his face.
"It's just - you disappeared," he said, quietly, foot pressing down on the gas pedal. It was a guy thing, he was pretty sure. Driving faster when one was upset. He put on his turn signal and got into the passing lane. "And things got weird and bad. If I could just snap out of this crisis thing, I would've done it already." He frowned a bit, going faster, passing a couple of cars and switching lanes again. "Hotel it is. I don't know about staying for lunch," he added, carefully.
Ryoko: There's sort of an eyebrow quirk, and Ryoko opens her eyes enough to look sideways at Gabe. She noticed the shift in driving, and tone. "Gabe." Skepticism bordering on disbelief. "Did you actually care? You're a guy. And an attractive one - even with a hobo beard. They may not all be queens, but you can have any woman you want." A beat. "I think very highly of myself, mind you. But tragically it's not something that's ever been shared. Just because you're a Tale doesn't mean I thought that would change." She shrugs.
"Yes, well. Point." She lifts her hand, rubbing the corner of her eye. Alas, tired but not sleepy, despite her nice seat and a moment of pseudo-napping. "You can stay for lunch. I'm too tired to do much but lie down with a piece of toast. I'm sure I'll never be this unoffensive again. Besides, I'm so very experienced with the weird and bad. You can tell me about it and I'll fix it."
Gabe: Gabe glanced at her, shaking his head a little bit. "Attractive guys aren't allowed to miss people when they just up and disappear?" he asked her, slowing down just a couple of seconds after the needle hit seventy-five, bringing it back down to the speed limit before he got pulled over. That was all he needed, right there. "I," he started, and then shrugged a shoulder. He spared a glance in her direction, though he soon went back to watching the road and keeping track of what exit he needed to get on, to get to the hotel. It wasn't very far from the airport at all.
"You'll fix it," he echoed, shaking his head and smiling a little bit. Ryoko wasn't the only one who'd said she could fix his problems. He'd believe it when he saw it, he guessed. "There's the exit," he murmured, more to himself than to her, slowing and switching lanes, getting off of the highway and navigating through the grid of streets toward the hotel. "Okay. I guess I'll stay for lunch. I am hungry." Which wasn't exactly breaking news, but relevant to Gabe, anyway.
Ryoko: "No. That's not how it works. Attractive guys sleep with attractive women and when they leave it's over because all she was was a free whore. And I have no plans of going from Queen to whore in the space of one reincarnation, and ending things how I liked was the best way to avoid the whole thing. So don't get mad at me. You're the bastard for being a rare male example of a decent human being." Somehow there's a lack of seriousness or, you know, real perturbation in her voice. Still, she manages to say it all with a tired, faux edge. "Christ. Now I have to adjust my sweeping generalizations and whole world view." She takes a fortifying sip of coffee. It's a little cold, now.
"Of course. I didn't learn how to make a shank for nothing." Then, with a fleeting smirk, "Good."
Gabe: Unsure of how to respond to the accusations of being too nice, Gabe used his innocent face instead, raising his eyebrows to her and keeping quiet, until she said she knew how to make a shank. And then he laughed a bit. "I don't think you're going to need a shank to fix my problems, but that's good information to know," he said, grinning a little bit and slowing down as he neared the hotel. Since it was early, there wasn't much of a problem finding parking at all. Most people who were checking out already had, and so he pulled into a place right near the door.
"Want to go get your room key and stuff and I'll carry the bags in?" he offered, taking a drink of coffee once they were parked and the car was off. "I'll even make do without a bellhop uniform."
Ryoko: "No apology? That's fine. Just wait. If anyone can make you sorry for being decent, I can." She closes her eyes again, though sleep is as elusive as before. Not that passing out now would be particularly good for overcoming her jetlag, nor persisting in her mission to tighten her noose on Gabe. So when they pull into the parking lot, she only rests a moment more, then sits up. "Okay." She pats his hand. "You'll manage somehow."
After all the requisite car-unloading, hotel-in-checking, from-the-restaurant-ordering, elevator-riding and door-unlocking, lo, there is a pretty sweet hotel suite. It's a corner room, with windows opposite and to the right of the door, a queen size bed on the left wall, plush carpet, a flatscreen television, and even enough room to move around. The bellhop arrives only a few moments after them, room service tray in hand, and even in her exhaustion Ryoko is able to take he food and tip him properly without incident. She sets the tray on the kitchenette counter, takes a bowl of fruit and a toothpick, and manages to cross the distance between there and the bed. Upon which, of course, she immediately collapses. Her heels are kicked off somewhere in between.
"Well," she says, the first thing in quite a few minutes to break her heel-dragging silence. "Isn't this nice." The bowl of fruit resting on her stomach, toothpick between her fingers, she idly pats the space beside her on the bed, then spears a strawberry.
Gabe: Priding himself on his gentlemanliness, Gabe carried the luggage up to the room, helped Ryoko get situated, and then sat himself comfortably down on a chair to wait for room service. By the time the food got there he was good and hungry, and he watched Ryoko collapse onto the bed, pressing his lips together. "Nice," he echoed, looking at the bed for a moment and then slowly getting up and making his way over. His sandwich - submarine, chocked full of meats and veggies - was left forgotten for a couple of minutes, while he made himself comfortable and stole a grape from Ryoko.
"Why would I apologize for being decent," he finally brought up, leaning back against the headboard. "You're the heartbreaker." He gave her a rueful smile, and dug into his sandwich after a minute, wondering if before noon was truly too early to break into the minibar. Most probably it was, and would be frowned upon. Gabe hummed thoughtfully, chewing.
Ryoko: "This is to make the never-ending series of talks, book signings, and dedicated research hurt less," Ryoko explains, her usual veneer of seriousness broken by the fact she's lying on her back with a fruit bowl handy.
"Oh don't make me come up with reasons. Because I'm the Queen and you're fucking with my assumptions, that's why. Because you sound like you're going to be difficult and not let me give you a handjob to make it all better. Because you- STOLE my grape, son of a bitch." She frowns at the ceiling and pops a strawberry in her mouth. "Fine. Maybe I am a heartbreaker. But you can't tell me getting to fuck me again wouldn't put your heart on the mend." She pokes a mango slice. "Grape-stealer."
Gabe: Whining a little bit, Gabe threw himself onto his back on the bed, hands folded behind his head. He stared at the ceiling as well. "Ryoko," he whined her name a little bit, pouting. "You're not helping." Gabe couldn't help it - it'd been a while on this break with Harrison. It'd been, what, a couple of weeks? At least. Maybe more. Maybe months. Years. That was what it felt like, anyway. And plus, all of the memories of the things he did with Ryoko... he frowned a bit as well. "Fine, I'm a grape-stealer. Stealer of grapes," he glanced over at her, biting on his lower lip a little bit.
"So what are you going to do about it?" he asked her, tilting his head in the most challenging manner he could manage. Gabe generally didn't try to look contrary, usually it was the exact opposite. But he liked pushing Ryoko a little bit.
Ryoko: "I am helping so much you can't even handle it." She eats the mango, still looking at the ceiling, and leaving the toothpick poised thoughtfully between her lips. But when the challenge is leveled, her face freezes, and she shoots a sideways frown. Ryoko removes the toothpick, stands it upright in the bowl, and rolls sideways to reach across Gabe and set it on the nightstand. Leaving her, of course, with an arm across him, and a hand moving down.
"I could take a straight razor to that so-called beard. But you might want to relax a little, first - I'd hate to nick something vital just because you were twitchy. Terrified, yes - making a mess of my bathroom, no." She thumbs his belt buckle.
Gabe: Swallowing hard, Gabe watched her quietly, taking a deep breath. This was wrong, morally. Even if he wasn't technically in a relationship, he still felt wrong about this. "You're not shaving me," Gabe said, with a tiny smirk, just growing all the more challenging by the minute. He couldn't help it. It'd been a while, he was rusty on just how Ryoko got him under her thumb, anyway. "And it's not a so-called beard, it is a beard. It's a good beard. It's the beard of a man with too much on his mind to worry about shaving."
He pursed his lips, and looked down at her hand, then up at the ceiling again. "It's just, I've got this thing with Harrison," he said, quietly, knitting his brow up toward the ceiling. "I- I don't want to hurt him," he said, voice still soft like there was someone sleeping who he didn't want to wake up. Or like Harrison was going to hear him from Long Island.
Ryoko: "And you're going to stop me while I've got a straight razor?" Ryoko has propped herself up with her other arm, and her smug smirk is unwavering. Even - especially - at the mention of Harrison. "Really," she says, hand going still but remaining firmly suggestive in its placement. "I heard a little about that. If I may impart some wisdom from too many years of marriage - nobody ever "takes a break" because it'll work so much better when they're back together. All you're doing is dragging out a breakup. If you really give a shit, the kindest thing you can do is end it."
"Not," Ryoko goes on, after this uncharacteristically sage advice, "that I have particular experience with being kind." Though she had it in her to hold Gabe's gaze for the kinder, gentler half of her advice, she's looking down, now, the hem of his shirt between her fingers. "But since I've done what you're doing just to be cruel, I can only imagine the opposite is the decent way to go about it." A pause. "Besides, I haven't got the energy to fuck you right now. I'll just jerk you off. That's hardly cheating."
Gabe: Ryoko somehow simultaneously made very good sense, and no sense at all. Gabe was left confused and a little bit afraid. He hid it fairly well, though, looking down to her and watching her hand. "I don't know," he said, hesitantly, raising his chin just a little bit, tipping his head up toward the ceiling and just trying to think. And get control of those urges. Before he acted too thoughtlessly. "I'm pretty sure most would consider a handjob to be cheating," he said, voice still that weird soft tone. Well, weird for Gabe, anyway.
He swallowed hard, and then cleared his throat. "If you say that one more time, though, I don't think all the math equations and thinking about baseball in the world is going to help me," he confessed, with a soft chuckle.
Ryoko: Ryoko seems to recall something about Margaret Thatcher naked on a cold day, but feels it less than useful to mention right now. She hooks her fingers in the waist of Gabe's pants instead. "Maybe. Technically. But technically you don't have anyone to cheat on, either, so I guess you're set." With any actual physical protest nonexistent, she quits her dilly-dallying and sets her hand to unbuckling his belt.
"What? 'Fuck'? 'Handjob'? I've been studying, I'm sure I could come up with things that'd distract you from thinking at all." The belt clicks free, and she pops open the button of his fly with a sharp tug. "Not that I have to talk to do that."
WHEN: Monday, 25th February, around 11am.
WHERE: The airport, and later Ryoko's hotel room.
RATING: R is for Ryoko, S is for scandalous - among other things.
Gabe: It was ridiculous how, after an entire year, Ryoko could tell him 10:45 and he'd be at the airport by 10:30. Still. After all that time. He waited in the white zone, parked with his engine idling, halfway listening to the radio and watching the people milling about. It was crowded, there were quite a lot of people coming and going. Gabe rested his head against the window, eyes shut. Jesus christ he was hungover and still a bit nauseous from earlier. His head was throbbing, and consciousness was slowly slipping away...
He wasn't sure exactly how long he'd been sleeping, only that he jerked awake from his impromptu nap at some loud beeping from some soccer mom in a bigger SUV than his. Frowning and scratching his beard - it was coming in nicely, after almost a week of no shaving - he glanced around and yawned, stretching out. He peered out the window, then at his watch, then at his cell phone, finally deciding to switch the radio station. Maybe that would help keep him awake. He'd be fine, he just needed a Starbucks, and it wasn't worth it to find a parking spot just to run in to the one at the airport. "Drive Thru's better," he decided, aloud, to himself.
Ryoko: Ryoko would love to be hung over, but damn those airline drinks are expensive. Still, with the help of a few Bloody Marys somewhere between Los Angeles and New York, she managed to get a few hours sleep, and wake up in time to put herself together and walk off the plane looking much sharper - if also, underneath, much more exhausted - than all those silly Americans who just slept the whole way.
By some merciful act of God, she is through customs and with her baggage and walking out the door only a little after the hour. She even has two coffees, carried in a handy cardboard tray, though one is about half empty just between the terminal Starbucks and the door. Ryoko pauses a moment outside the sliding doors, squinting into the light and scanning the rows of cars. She'd forgotten how different America looked, even only so far as its baggage claims and airport driveways. But at least there's something familiar in there - she walks in a quick clip down the sidewalk, to Gabe's car, and just as he is fiddling with the radio she taps on the window.
"Good morning," is her unmistakably drained greeting, sliding a coffee to him across the roof of the car when he emerges. "街たせ. I kept you waiting." Still, she manages something like a smile.
Gabe: To his credit, he only jumped a little bit at the tap, looking at her for a moment and swallowing hard. Oh, no. This wasn't difficult at all. He pressed his lips together, forcing a smile before he got out of the car. "Oh, thank god," he greeted the coffee a moment before Ryoko - more as something to distract him than anything else. He took a sip, and then looked back up to her. "Hi. It's okay, I had a nap." He took another drink of the coffee, and leaned in to put it in his cupholder. "Let me help you with your bags," he said, moving around to start loading them into the spacious storage area.
"How was the flight?" he asked her while he loaded them, using the age-old trick of keeping himself busy so he didn't have to look directly at her. Definitely hard after not seeing her - or really talking to her -for a year. "How are things going?" he added, looking over his shoulder to her, and shutting the back door behind her luggage. He took a breath after a moment, looking at her quietly and leaning back against his car.
Ryoko: While Gabe so kindly loads the one wheeled suitcase and one duffel bag, resting on top, and both larger and heavier than herself, Ryoko gives him A Look. It is A Look that persists through his gentlemanliness, and polite questions, until finally she asks, "What the fuck is eating your face."
It is, predictably, rhetorical, as they've got those beard things across the ocean too. But still with her slight frown she insists on taking his chin and turning it to look at his jaw, and throat, and then lets him go. Adjusting her purse on her arm she says by way of a real answer, "Shitty. More than shitty. But now I'm here and that'll change. I hear you're not doing too well, either." She makes a vague gesture at the car. "Let's go. You can tell me about it on the way." She moves to the passenger side and lets herself in.
Gabe: Gabe made an offended face when she asked him, pouting a little bit while she scrutinized the beard that, Gabe thought, was damn manly. "It's a beard," he answered her innocently, raising his eyebrows and giving her his best look. "Yeah," he agreed, quietly, moving around to the driver seat and getting in; he fastened his seatbelt and turned the radio down before pulling out into the long line of cars trying to escape the airport. "I'm having a mid-life crisis," he told Ryoko matter-of-factly, taking a sip of his coffee while the line of cars inched forward.
"So I decided to grow a beard and quit my job and have a bender," he told her, with a solemn nod. "It'll keep me occupied for a little while. And then I can figure everything out when I'm done that." He took another sip of the coffee, glancing over to her. "So, you're going straight to the hotel, or... do you want to grab something to eat first?" he asked her.
Ryoko: "Are you now," Ryoko answers, tucking her purse by her feet and pulling her seatbelt on. She managed to grab her coffee off the roof, too, even amid her mild delirium, and sips it quietly. "Aren't you only thirty? You're starting a little early." She leans back, and after a little fiddling managed to get the seat to recline.
She closes her eyes. "If I may, then, since I don't seem to have to worry about making things worse - it's nice to see you. I'm sorry I was out of touch, but - I didn't expect to miss things so much. Then I did, and pride, you know, on top of not knowing if my Visa would come through, and the constant bullshit of Tokyo- But you treated me better than anyone has in a long time. So. Thank you. Now snap out of this crisis... thing." She makes an absent gesture with her hand, nearest Gabe. "And don't tell anyone I can do 'thank yous', or they'll all want one. But the hotel is fine. I'm not fit to be in public. It'll be lunch by the time we get there, we can order in."
Gabe: "Well, I'm an early bloomer," Gabe told her, smiling a little bit as he pulled, finally, out of the airport and onto the highway. "Figured I'd get it over with now while I'm still young enough to enjoy it." Of course, upon getting an apology about Ryoko disappearing, Gabe almost swerved the car off the road. Almost. It was a shock. Not only an apology, but then a 'thank you' right after it. He looked over at Ryoko, a somewhat astounded expression on his face.
"It's just - you disappeared," he said, quietly, foot pressing down on the gas pedal. It was a guy thing, he was pretty sure. Driving faster when one was upset. He put on his turn signal and got into the passing lane. "And things got weird and bad. If I could just snap out of this crisis thing, I would've done it already." He frowned a bit, going faster, passing a couple of cars and switching lanes again. "Hotel it is. I don't know about staying for lunch," he added, carefully.
Ryoko: There's sort of an eyebrow quirk, and Ryoko opens her eyes enough to look sideways at Gabe. She noticed the shift in driving, and tone. "Gabe." Skepticism bordering on disbelief. "Did you actually care? You're a guy. And an attractive one - even with a hobo beard. They may not all be queens, but you can have any woman you want." A beat. "I think very highly of myself, mind you. But tragically it's not something that's ever been shared. Just because you're a Tale doesn't mean I thought that would change." She shrugs.
"Yes, well. Point." She lifts her hand, rubbing the corner of her eye. Alas, tired but not sleepy, despite her nice seat and a moment of pseudo-napping. "You can stay for lunch. I'm too tired to do much but lie down with a piece of toast. I'm sure I'll never be this unoffensive again. Besides, I'm so very experienced with the weird and bad. You can tell me about it and I'll fix it."
Gabe: Gabe glanced at her, shaking his head a little bit. "Attractive guys aren't allowed to miss people when they just up and disappear?" he asked her, slowing down just a couple of seconds after the needle hit seventy-five, bringing it back down to the speed limit before he got pulled over. That was all he needed, right there. "I," he started, and then shrugged a shoulder. He spared a glance in her direction, though he soon went back to watching the road and keeping track of what exit he needed to get on, to get to the hotel. It wasn't very far from the airport at all.
"You'll fix it," he echoed, shaking his head and smiling a little bit. Ryoko wasn't the only one who'd said she could fix his problems. He'd believe it when he saw it, he guessed. "There's the exit," he murmured, more to himself than to her, slowing and switching lanes, getting off of the highway and navigating through the grid of streets toward the hotel. "Okay. I guess I'll stay for lunch. I am hungry." Which wasn't exactly breaking news, but relevant to Gabe, anyway.
Ryoko: "No. That's not how it works. Attractive guys sleep with attractive women and when they leave it's over because all she was was a free whore. And I have no plans of going from Queen to whore in the space of one reincarnation, and ending things how I liked was the best way to avoid the whole thing. So don't get mad at me. You're the bastard for being a rare male example of a decent human being." Somehow there's a lack of seriousness or, you know, real perturbation in her voice. Still, she manages to say it all with a tired, faux edge. "Christ. Now I have to adjust my sweeping generalizations and whole world view." She takes a fortifying sip of coffee. It's a little cold, now.
"Of course. I didn't learn how to make a shank for nothing." Then, with a fleeting smirk, "Good."
Gabe: Unsure of how to respond to the accusations of being too nice, Gabe used his innocent face instead, raising his eyebrows to her and keeping quiet, until she said she knew how to make a shank. And then he laughed a bit. "I don't think you're going to need a shank to fix my problems, but that's good information to know," he said, grinning a little bit and slowing down as he neared the hotel. Since it was early, there wasn't much of a problem finding parking at all. Most people who were checking out already had, and so he pulled into a place right near the door.
"Want to go get your room key and stuff and I'll carry the bags in?" he offered, taking a drink of coffee once they were parked and the car was off. "I'll even make do without a bellhop uniform."
Ryoko: "No apology? That's fine. Just wait. If anyone can make you sorry for being decent, I can." She closes her eyes again, though sleep is as elusive as before. Not that passing out now would be particularly good for overcoming her jetlag, nor persisting in her mission to tighten her noose on Gabe. So when they pull into the parking lot, she only rests a moment more, then sits up. "Okay." She pats his hand. "You'll manage somehow."
After all the requisite car-unloading, hotel-in-checking, from-the-restaurant-ordering, elevator-riding and door-unlocking, lo, there is a pretty sweet hotel suite. It's a corner room, with windows opposite and to the right of the door, a queen size bed on the left wall, plush carpet, a flatscreen television, and even enough room to move around. The bellhop arrives only a few moments after them, room service tray in hand, and even in her exhaustion Ryoko is able to take he food and tip him properly without incident. She sets the tray on the kitchenette counter, takes a bowl of fruit and a toothpick, and manages to cross the distance between there and the bed. Upon which, of course, she immediately collapses. Her heels are kicked off somewhere in between.
"Well," she says, the first thing in quite a few minutes to break her heel-dragging silence. "Isn't this nice." The bowl of fruit resting on her stomach, toothpick between her fingers, she idly pats the space beside her on the bed, then spears a strawberry.
Gabe: Priding himself on his gentlemanliness, Gabe carried the luggage up to the room, helped Ryoko get situated, and then sat himself comfortably down on a chair to wait for room service. By the time the food got there he was good and hungry, and he watched Ryoko collapse onto the bed, pressing his lips together. "Nice," he echoed, looking at the bed for a moment and then slowly getting up and making his way over. His sandwich - submarine, chocked full of meats and veggies - was left forgotten for a couple of minutes, while he made himself comfortable and stole a grape from Ryoko.
"Why would I apologize for being decent," he finally brought up, leaning back against the headboard. "You're the heartbreaker." He gave her a rueful smile, and dug into his sandwich after a minute, wondering if before noon was truly too early to break into the minibar. Most probably it was, and would be frowned upon. Gabe hummed thoughtfully, chewing.
Ryoko: "This is to make the never-ending series of talks, book signings, and dedicated research hurt less," Ryoko explains, her usual veneer of seriousness broken by the fact she's lying on her back with a fruit bowl handy.
"Oh don't make me come up with reasons. Because I'm the Queen and you're fucking with my assumptions, that's why. Because you sound like you're going to be difficult and not let me give you a handjob to make it all better. Because you- STOLE my grape, son of a bitch." She frowns at the ceiling and pops a strawberry in her mouth. "Fine. Maybe I am a heartbreaker. But you can't tell me getting to fuck me again wouldn't put your heart on the mend." She pokes a mango slice. "Grape-stealer."
Gabe: Whining a little bit, Gabe threw himself onto his back on the bed, hands folded behind his head. He stared at the ceiling as well. "Ryoko," he whined her name a little bit, pouting. "You're not helping." Gabe couldn't help it - it'd been a while on this break with Harrison. It'd been, what, a couple of weeks? At least. Maybe more. Maybe months. Years. That was what it felt like, anyway. And plus, all of the memories of the things he did with Ryoko... he frowned a bit as well. "Fine, I'm a grape-stealer. Stealer of grapes," he glanced over at her, biting on his lower lip a little bit.
"So what are you going to do about it?" he asked her, tilting his head in the most challenging manner he could manage. Gabe generally didn't try to look contrary, usually it was the exact opposite. But he liked pushing Ryoko a little bit.
Ryoko: "I am helping so much you can't even handle it." She eats the mango, still looking at the ceiling, and leaving the toothpick poised thoughtfully between her lips. But when the challenge is leveled, her face freezes, and she shoots a sideways frown. Ryoko removes the toothpick, stands it upright in the bowl, and rolls sideways to reach across Gabe and set it on the nightstand. Leaving her, of course, with an arm across him, and a hand moving down.
"I could take a straight razor to that so-called beard. But you might want to relax a little, first - I'd hate to nick something vital just because you were twitchy. Terrified, yes - making a mess of my bathroom, no." She thumbs his belt buckle.
Gabe: Swallowing hard, Gabe watched her quietly, taking a deep breath. This was wrong, morally. Even if he wasn't technically in a relationship, he still felt wrong about this. "You're not shaving me," Gabe said, with a tiny smirk, just growing all the more challenging by the minute. He couldn't help it. It'd been a while, he was rusty on just how Ryoko got him under her thumb, anyway. "And it's not a so-called beard, it is a beard. It's a good beard. It's the beard of a man with too much on his mind to worry about shaving."
He pursed his lips, and looked down at her hand, then up at the ceiling again. "It's just, I've got this thing with Harrison," he said, quietly, knitting his brow up toward the ceiling. "I- I don't want to hurt him," he said, voice still soft like there was someone sleeping who he didn't want to wake up. Or like Harrison was going to hear him from Long Island.
Ryoko: "And you're going to stop me while I've got a straight razor?" Ryoko has propped herself up with her other arm, and her smug smirk is unwavering. Even - especially - at the mention of Harrison. "Really," she says, hand going still but remaining firmly suggestive in its placement. "I heard a little about that. If I may impart some wisdom from too many years of marriage - nobody ever "takes a break" because it'll work so much better when they're back together. All you're doing is dragging out a breakup. If you really give a shit, the kindest thing you can do is end it."
"Not," Ryoko goes on, after this uncharacteristically sage advice, "that I have particular experience with being kind." Though she had it in her to hold Gabe's gaze for the kinder, gentler half of her advice, she's looking down, now, the hem of his shirt between her fingers. "But since I've done what you're doing just to be cruel, I can only imagine the opposite is the decent way to go about it." A pause. "Besides, I haven't got the energy to fuck you right now. I'll just jerk you off. That's hardly cheating."
Gabe: Ryoko somehow simultaneously made very good sense, and no sense at all. Gabe was left confused and a little bit afraid. He hid it fairly well, though, looking down to her and watching her hand. "I don't know," he said, hesitantly, raising his chin just a little bit, tipping his head up toward the ceiling and just trying to think. And get control of those urges. Before he acted too thoughtlessly. "I'm pretty sure most would consider a handjob to be cheating," he said, voice still that weird soft tone. Well, weird for Gabe, anyway.
He swallowed hard, and then cleared his throat. "If you say that one more time, though, I don't think all the math equations and thinking about baseball in the world is going to help me," he confessed, with a soft chuckle.
Ryoko: Ryoko seems to recall something about Margaret Thatcher naked on a cold day, but feels it less than useful to mention right now. She hooks her fingers in the waist of Gabe's pants instead. "Maybe. Technically. But technically you don't have anyone to cheat on, either, so I guess you're set." With any actual physical protest nonexistent, she quits her dilly-dallying and sets her hand to unbuckling his belt.
"What? 'Fuck'? 'Handjob'? I've been studying, I'm sure I could come up with things that'd distract you from thinking at all." The belt clicks free, and she pops open the button of his fly with a sharp tug. "Not that I have to talk to do that."