The Orpheum Theater, Downtown Los Angeles | Valentine's Day Evening
Warren had managed to drag her a few yards at most before Karla shrugged him off. "I am capable of walking, thank you," she drawled. "I know you're currently confused about what I'm capable of, but trust me on this one."
"Don't worry," Warren retorted, "There's very little I don't think you're capable of right now." The last few hours of fuming followed by Karla's cute little remarks were taking a toll even on his ability to keep quiet.
Karla's jaw clenched as she bit back another comment. They had potential super-natural creepiness to investigate and that took precedence over throttling her boyfriend, no matter how pleasant that image was.
KarlaOf course, wouldn't you know it, there was a security guard standing in front of the door to the backstage. Good. Because that was what this evening totally needed: possible evil, a sulking boyfriend, and now some rent-a-guard who looked like he'd rather be reading the kind of magazine she sold at 'Dite's.
"Well, great," she hissed at Warren. "We have a friend."
Warren"That's a bit more security than a ballet company probably needs," Warren noted, furrowing his brow a little. "Any ideas for taking care of him?"
Not that he had much stock in Karla's ideas tonight. He was still prickling around the pinfeathers over their conversation earlier.
Karla"One," Karla said. "I was thinking about maybe going the subtle route for a change."
And then she was striding forward, fluttering her lashes at the guard and smiling. "Excuse me," she said, as sweetly as she could. "But do you like bribes?"
WarrenThe guard, for his part, seemed to take that question rather well. He returned Karla's smile with a smile of his own.
"Do I ever."
Warren, meanwhile, just stood back and buried his face in his hand.
KarlaKarla held her hand out to Warren imperiously. "Wallet, please," she said, trying to sound pleasant. "Dear."
Warren"Karla, I don't..."
No. No, really, it was probably better for him to just hand it over and not argue. He sighed, shook his head again, and produced his wallet.
This was going to go over like a lead balloon.
KarlaKarla opened it, pulled out the only bill in his wallet, and then stared at it, incredulously.
"A twenty?!" she asked, holding it up and looking at Warren. "You're a bloody Worthington and all you keep in your billfold is a twenty?! Dammit, we're trying to bribe him, not tip him for parking our car!"
Warren"Why would I actually carry cash on me? Most people I give money to accept credit."
Honestly, Karla. Keep up! You too, security guard, because you were getting a fist with the swing-power of a guy who was built with a good amount of flight muscle, square to the side of the head.
Nighty-night.
Karla"Oh, well, glad we decided to go for subtle," Karla snarked, stepping over the unconscious security guard and opening the door to the hallways beyond. "That certainly doesn't suggest that anyone's come this way!"
She probably would have had more to say, but seeing the endless hallways stretching out in front of her gave her pause.
"...Okay. You saw this building when we drove by. Do you remember it going on forever?"
WarrenWarren actually swallowed as he looked down the hallway, yawning out in front of them for what seemed like an eternity.
What was it with this type of reality, and throwing Warren into that type of hallway, anyhow?
"It's... probably a spell or something," he ventured, his wings flattening unconsciously against his back. He half expected the walls to start creeping in on them or something. "We probably shouldn't just go rushing down them without thinking."
KarlaFor the first time tonight, they were in total agreement. "Yeah, let's not. Maybe we could go get Angel and Cordy, maybe even Wes and discuss our options?"
She turned around and came face to face with a blank wall. It sounded thick and heavy when she knocked on it, too. Made of wood, possibly even wood over stone, not plaster or drywall.
"Maybe we could call...?"
WarrenWarren immediately reached for his phone. If Starktech couldn't make the call in here, nothing could.
So, of course, the phone was showing him a 'not in service' screen.
"It was a nice thought."
KarlaWell, this was just bloody brilliant. Karla began muttering some quality Eyrien curses that she wasn't supposed to know while she sized up their options.
"You're going to hate this," she said, "but it looks like the only way to get out of here is to phase through the wall." It had worked in Sunnydale! "So I'm thinking we exit stage left and come back with more reinforcements?"
Karla, please leave the adventure-related puns to the professionals.
WarrenWarren closed his eyes and inhaled, slowly. Yeah, he definitely hated this. But it seemed like a step up from wandering the hallways for eternity. Or being crushed to death in them, if this was some reality-twisting demon at work again.
"Right... Easy out. Let's do that, then."
He was grumpy, not stupid.
KarlaAnd a second later, they got a reminder that whatever was going on here, they weren't in Sunnydale anymore. "Ow!" Karla said, shaking out her hand and looking at her stinging knuckles. "Mother Night, that hurt!"
The wall remained resolute before them and Karla could not pass through. The same thing went for the floor, the walls of the hallway itself, and even the ceiling.
"Okay, so...next option?"
WarrenIf Warren's wings weren't invisible, they'd be very obviously drooping as Warren turned to look back down that seemingly endless corridor.
"Well, we could stand here and hope that someone notices that we're missing," he ventured, because that still sort of seemed like the saner of their options, "or we could see where that leads."
KarlaFrom the expression Karla was wearing, she did not agree with his assessment.
"...Because that won't take forever or anything. Who knows where Angel and Cordy are going to end up, and Wesley and Gunn are both too busy making eyes at Fred to notice if the theater started burning down around their ears. And you want to wait?"
She threw up her hands. "Fine. You can stay if you want, but if we can't get out, I'm going to at least try and do what we agreed to do. Because my guess is that the key to getting us out of here involves breaking whatever stupid spell is on this place."
WarrenIt took a fair bit of effort to keep from just flat-out growling at that.
"I did give two options," he pointed out, and then shook his head and prowled right on past her. If she wanted to throw a fit because he had suggested they play it safe like sane people, fine. Let them both go running into danger this time, like idiots. At least she'd be in good company when one of them got impaled or something, inevitably. "Nowhere did I actually say that we needed to stand around and wait."
He'd implied pretty strongly that doing anything but was probably the stupid option. And now, as he made his way down the hall, he was not actually rescinding that opinion, either.
Karla"Right, I'd forgotten," Karla snapped, flouncing striding down the hallway. "You never come out and say anything. You just imply it. Heavily. And then accuse me of doing something stupidly cruel and thoughtless."
She stopped in front of a door, the first one they'd seen in this long maze of empty corridors. "Shall we go in?" she asked. "Or would you prefer to bicker about it first?"
WarrenWarren was not going to point out that she was the one who was doing the bickering right now. He was going to just narrow his eyes and shake his head and reach for the doorknob. Like an adult.
A sulky one.
"Let's just see what's in the damn room and get this over with."
KarlaHe was so attractive when he was acting like a child. Mother Night. She gave him a totally mature curtsy and then flounced stalked into the room.
It was small and cluttered, filled with bits of costumes and flowers and spare shoes, most of the danced to tatters. A chaise dominated the center of the room, while a wardrobe and a vanity swallowed most of the remaining space. On the vanity lay more jewelry and powders and stage makeup. "This is her room," she said softly, making her way to the vanity and picking up a necklace. "Her dressing room. The prima ballerina's."
WarrenWarren fell quiet as he stepped into the room behind her, shutting the door after himself and looking around. It was a dressing room, yes, but it wasn't like any sort of dressing room that he'd expect to see in this day and age. Even the makeup cases alone would probably fetch a fortune with an antique dealer, these days.
"It doesn't look like it's changed much in the century or so since Angel last saw this ballet."
Karla"She would wait for him here..." Karla breathed, unaware she was even saying it aloud. She stared at the necklace she picked up, a simple cross on a silver chain, almost entranced. "Here in this room. In secret."
WarrenHim... Something about that chewed at Warren for all of a heartbeat. Just an instant, and then he shook it off, looking around the room, wide-eyed.
"It's... warm. It's very warm."
Like something about the room itself was wrapping around him, trying to sweep him away, and he wasn't quite willing to hold it off.
Karla"Warren?"
Karla stood, the blue silk of her gown slithering around her. The feeling of the rich fabric was sensual and so was the smell of him, expensive soap and something else. Something almost dry.
Cornchips.
Wait, what were cornchips again? She shook her head, trying to shake the cobwebby feeling from her brain, then looked up at him, licking her lips. "I want you to undress me." He looked a little surprised at that, so she gave him a slow, inviting smile. "It's just another costume. I want you to see me as I really am. You're the only one who can."
WarrenHis reply was right there, lingering on his lips. It seemed wrong, somehow, that she was looking at him that way. Wrong, in a way he couldn't put a finger on.
Those words, right there, like they'd been scripted for him, like he'd rehearsed them thousands of times before for a hundred years.
"Karla... I... This..." He pulled in a deep breath and shook his head, trying to pull his gaze away from her. "This isn't right. Someone else is doing the talking, here..."
He'd been possessed before, he was well aware of what it felt like to be a spectator while his body did the bidding of something other. Feeling it now, here, had him wanting to run for the door again.
He couldn't quite.
KarlaShe drew closer now, sinuous and gliding, her every graceful move an invitation for him to come nearer, to reach for her and touch her and pull her close. "You make it sound like this isn't something you've been waiting for. Wanting. Needing."
She was close enough to touch him now, a single finger sliding down his chest. "Undress me," she repeated. "It's just another costume. I want you to see me as I really am. You're the only one who can."
Could you try not to mess up your line again, Warren? There was a script to stick to!
WarrenThe repetition of the line should have thrown Warren more. It should have, but the way Karla's finger was moving down his fest, it just managed to drag the floor out from underfoot, and he stepped up closer to her, breathing in the scent of her.
"Is that what you want?"
Because he could give it to her. He would. Happily.
Karla"Please," Karla said, twining her arms around his neck.
She was practically afire with need, wanting him to peel this costume off, to lay her on the divan, to give her all of him and accept all of her in return.
"I..."
WarrenWarren looked down at her, seemed to drink in the sight of her there before him, tracing his hands over the fabric of her dress, over her hips. What she was asking was hardly outside the realm of possibility. This wasn't even all that much of a stretch for them normally.
Except he was still angry, and hurt. And so was she. And he opened his mouth to say as much.
"You want me to make love to you right here?"
... That was not as much.
KarlaHis hands were driving her crazy, making it hard for her to think, never mind make words. But still, he had asked her a question and it needed answering. She wasn't entirely sure why it did--wasn't the answer obvious already?--but there were words to say and a compulsion to say them.
"You know I do," she whispered, looking up into his eyes.
Warren"But you're afraid."
He was leaning against her, now, caressing her hands with a gentle sort of fearlessness that he'd never quite managed to master. Not since the alien illness had scarred his hands with those claws he was still even unconsciously wary of.
KarlaA fear that Karla understood, but never quite accepted. She loved his hands: the delicacy of his fingers, the quiet strength in them, the beauty and grace he showed with every movement. She nuzzled his palm, then leaned in and caught a single finger in her mouth, teasing it with her tongue before letting it go again.
"What if he finds us?" she murmured. Afraid, yes. If she let herself think about what would happen if they were caught, if he saw Warren trifling with his property, she would freeze and panic and cringe away.
So she refused to let herself think about it. All that mattered was the two of them and what was building between them.
Warren"I'm not afraid," Warren breathed, though there was something very wrong with that statement. Something that was terrifying him even now, something about control, and how he didn't have it. Warren was very afraid, somewhere deep that he couldn't reach. "I'm not afraid of anything."
But he had a script to play to. He was all bravado and passion.
He wasn't afraid of anything...
Karla"I'm only alive when you're inside me."
For a moment, the part of her that was still Karla sat up and kind of blinked a little bit. That was not the kind of thing she'd say. At all. Her sense of self was not defined by Warren, inside of her or not.
But then she was kissing him, all wet heat and passion and aching need and that bit of Karla lay back down again and let herself be carried away by it. She was in Warren's arms and kissing him fervently. What could possibly be wrong about that?
WarrenKissing. The sort of kissing that always could sweep Warren away, could rip his mind away from what was eating at him and thrust him bodily into a world that consisted only of the two of them.
Except.
Yes.
No.
"Karla!" He pulled back with a gasp, wide-eyed, pulling a hand back and clenching it into a fist tight enough to make his nails bite into his palm. Something to drag him back to reality.
He... really needed better mental defenses against this sort of thing, whatever it was.
"Karla, this isn't us."
Karla"What?" Her eyes were heavy-lidded and her brain was slow, foggy, almost cobwebby with desire. She swayed closer to him, brushing her breasts against his shirt. "'Course it is. Don't you want to kiss me? I want to kiss you. And...more than kiss." She smiled up at him. "A lot more than kiss."
Mother Night, he was a devastatingly attractive male. Even when she was furious with him, he was...
Wait. She was furious with him. For accusing her of spying on him for his father. Puzzled and confused, she shook her head, trying to clear it. "...The Hell?"
Warren"Something in this room," he managed, forcing himself to take a half-step back as he felt whatever it was attempt to surge up and drag him toward her again. "There's something-"
He tapered off and slipped into a hungry sort of smile.
He really needed better defenses against possession. Yep.
Karla"We should..." She was going to say 'go.' That they needed to go. Get out of there. But then he was smiling at her, the kind of smile that always made her knees a little weak and her breathing a little fast.
Was it her conscious decision to step closer to him? Did the entities that lived in the room decide she she nuzzle his neck and then give him a playful bite?
"Go?"
Warren"Go?" The world was a bit of a fog all over again. "You want..."
Warren wasn't certain what she wanted for a moment. Just that they were together, this was their chance, whether she was afraid or not, and so long as he didn't show up...
... Who was...?
Damn it. Damn it. They needed to get out. His head was leaned back just enough to give her access to his neck, and his arms were around her, and he was using one more moment of lucidity to try to haul the both of them to the door.
KarlaKarla's face was buried in his neck, one leg twined around his so her shoe could slide up and down his calf and her thigh could brush against his...thighs, yes. Definitely his thighs.
"Open the damn door," she murmured as she licked the side of his throat. "We've got to get out of here."
WarrenThe door. That one. That door that was right there. Warren could open it. He could absolutely open it. See the way he was standing--
Oh god, her tongue was amazing.
"Kinda hard," he gasped, one hand groping blindly for the doorknob.
Karla"Kinda noticed," Karla said, pressing that much closer to him. "I could take you right up against this door, you know that? I could--"
Whatever else she could do was lost as Warren finally found the doorknob and opened the door, spilling them out into the hallway. Karla went sprawling to the floor and stayed there a moment, trying to collect her bearings.
"What the fuck was that," she hissed. It was a rhetorical question. Now that she was outside of its grasp, the cobwebby feeling was going away.
WarrenWarren slammed the door shut behind them both, and then leaned back against it, staring up at the ceiling and gasping for air.
"Ghosts? Spirits? Something." He pulled in another shaky breath, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. "A really compelling argument for trying to find another way out, I think."
KarlaKarla nodded, pushing herself up off the floor. "Got me while my defenses were down," she noted, half-defensively and half as an explanation. "It's a good thing it wears off immediately. Mother Night."
Warren"No kidding," Warren mumbled. "You... you repeated yourself once in there, like you were feeding me lines. It was weird."
There was a lot that was weird, but that kind of struck him as being extra off.
KarlaOn her way to standing, Karla noticed that the front of Warren's pants were still a little tight. So, no, while the possession wore off immediately, the effects sure didn't.
Of course, she could have figured that out herself, considering the state of her own undergarments.
"Hmm?" she asked, slightly distracted. "Oh! Oh, yes. I remember that." Vaguely. "You didn't feel it? The compulsion to say things?" Her expression grew more sardonic. "Or do you honestly believe that I 'only feel alive when you're inside me'?"
Warren"I hope you feel alive more than just when I'm inside you," Warren replied, maybe a little dryly, himself. "And I did feel the compulsion."
It had scared the figurative crap out of him. He glanced sidelong at the door.
"I'm voting we don't go back in there."
Karla"Looking for another way out it is," Karla agreed. "Maybe if we get further away from this area, there'll be a place we can escape, or we'll run into Angel or Cordy or something." This time, rather than immediately taking off down the hall and waiting for Warren to follow, Karla fell into step beside him. She was still angry with him, more than angry, really, but they'd just been possessed and then had a very hot makeout session. It was hard to keep her equilibrium about her with that. And, well, so long as they were stuck back here, together, they might as well face it together.
[More of Angel s03E13 "Waiting in the Wings," though spindled and tweaked to awesome according to wesleynotponcy's direction, and preplayed with not_a_parakeet. Follows this, this, and this. NFB, NFI, OOC is happy-making]
"Don't worry," Warren retorted, "There's very little I don't think you're capable of right now." The last few hours of fuming followed by Karla's cute little remarks were taking a toll even on his ability to keep quiet.
Karla's jaw clenched as she bit back another comment. They had potential super-natural creepiness to investigate and that took precedence over throttling her boyfriend, no matter how pleasant that image was.
KarlaOf course, wouldn't you know it, there was a security guard standing in front of the door to the backstage. Good. Because that was what this evening totally needed: possible evil, a sulking boyfriend, and now some rent-a-guard who looked like he'd rather be reading the kind of magazine she sold at 'Dite's.
"Well, great," she hissed at Warren. "We have a friend."
Warren"That's a bit more security than a ballet company probably needs," Warren noted, furrowing his brow a little. "Any ideas for taking care of him?"
Not that he had much stock in Karla's ideas tonight. He was still prickling around the pinfeathers over their conversation earlier.
Karla"One," Karla said. "I was thinking about maybe going the subtle route for a change."
And then she was striding forward, fluttering her lashes at the guard and smiling. "Excuse me," she said, as sweetly as she could. "But do you like bribes?"
WarrenThe guard, for his part, seemed to take that question rather well. He returned Karla's smile with a smile of his own.
"Do I ever."
Warren, meanwhile, just stood back and buried his face in his hand.
KarlaKarla held her hand out to Warren imperiously. "Wallet, please," she said, trying to sound pleasant. "Dear."
Warren"Karla, I don't..."
No. No, really, it was probably better for him to just hand it over and not argue. He sighed, shook his head again, and produced his wallet.
This was going to go over like a lead balloon.
KarlaKarla opened it, pulled out the only bill in his wallet, and then stared at it, incredulously.
"A twenty?!" she asked, holding it up and looking at Warren. "You're a bloody Worthington and all you keep in your billfold is a twenty?! Dammit, we're trying to bribe him, not tip him for parking our car!"
Warren"Why would I actually carry cash on me? Most people I give money to accept credit."
Honestly, Karla. Keep up! You too, security guard, because you were getting a fist with the swing-power of a guy who was built with a good amount of flight muscle, square to the side of the head.
Nighty-night.
Karla"Oh, well, glad we decided to go for subtle," Karla snarked, stepping over the unconscious security guard and opening the door to the hallways beyond. "That certainly doesn't suggest that anyone's come this way!"
She probably would have had more to say, but seeing the endless hallways stretching out in front of her gave her pause.
"...Okay. You saw this building when we drove by. Do you remember it going on forever?"
WarrenWarren actually swallowed as he looked down the hallway, yawning out in front of them for what seemed like an eternity.
What was it with this type of reality, and throwing Warren into that type of hallway, anyhow?
"It's... probably a spell or something," he ventured, his wings flattening unconsciously against his back. He half expected the walls to start creeping in on them or something. "We probably shouldn't just go rushing down them without thinking."
KarlaFor the first time tonight, they were in total agreement. "Yeah, let's not. Maybe we could go get Angel and Cordy, maybe even Wes and discuss our options?"
She turned around and came face to face with a blank wall. It sounded thick and heavy when she knocked on it, too. Made of wood, possibly even wood over stone, not plaster or drywall.
"Maybe we could call...?"
WarrenWarren immediately reached for his phone. If Starktech couldn't make the call in here, nothing could.
So, of course, the phone was showing him a 'not in service' screen.
"It was a nice thought."
KarlaWell, this was just bloody brilliant. Karla began muttering some quality Eyrien curses that she wasn't supposed to know while she sized up their options.
"You're going to hate this," she said, "but it looks like the only way to get out of here is to phase through the wall." It had worked in Sunnydale! "So I'm thinking we exit stage left and come back with more reinforcements?"
Karla, please leave the adventure-related puns to the professionals.
WarrenWarren closed his eyes and inhaled, slowly. Yeah, he definitely hated this. But it seemed like a step up from wandering the hallways for eternity. Or being crushed to death in them, if this was some reality-twisting demon at work again.
"Right... Easy out. Let's do that, then."
He was grumpy, not stupid.
KarlaAnd a second later, they got a reminder that whatever was going on here, they weren't in Sunnydale anymore. "Ow!" Karla said, shaking out her hand and looking at her stinging knuckles. "Mother Night, that hurt!"
The wall remained resolute before them and Karla could not pass through. The same thing went for the floor, the walls of the hallway itself, and even the ceiling.
"Okay, so...next option?"
WarrenIf Warren's wings weren't invisible, they'd be very obviously drooping as Warren turned to look back down that seemingly endless corridor.
"Well, we could stand here and hope that someone notices that we're missing," he ventured, because that still sort of seemed like the saner of their options, "or we could see where that leads."
KarlaFrom the expression Karla was wearing, she did not agree with his assessment.
"...Because that won't take forever or anything. Who knows where Angel and Cordy are going to end up, and Wesley and Gunn are both too busy making eyes at Fred to notice if the theater started burning down around their ears. And you want to wait?"
She threw up her hands. "Fine. You can stay if you want, but if we can't get out, I'm going to at least try and do what we agreed to do. Because my guess is that the key to getting us out of here involves breaking whatever stupid spell is on this place."
WarrenIt took a fair bit of effort to keep from just flat-out growling at that.
"I did give two options," he pointed out, and then shook his head and prowled right on past her. If she wanted to throw a fit because he had suggested they play it safe like sane people, fine. Let them both go running into danger this time, like idiots. At least she'd be in good company when one of them got impaled or something, inevitably. "Nowhere did I actually say that we needed to stand around and wait."
He'd implied pretty strongly that doing anything but was probably the stupid option. And now, as he made his way down the hall, he was not actually rescinding that opinion, either.
Karla"Right, I'd forgotten," Karla snapped, flouncing striding down the hallway. "You never come out and say anything. You just imply it. Heavily. And then accuse me of doing something stupidly cruel and thoughtless."
She stopped in front of a door, the first one they'd seen in this long maze of empty corridors. "Shall we go in?" she asked. "Or would you prefer to bicker about it first?"
WarrenWarren was not going to point out that she was the one who was doing the bickering right now. He was going to just narrow his eyes and shake his head and reach for the doorknob. Like an adult.
A sulky one.
"Let's just see what's in the damn room and get this over with."
KarlaHe was so attractive when he was acting like a child. Mother Night. She gave him a totally mature curtsy and then flounced stalked into the room.
It was small and cluttered, filled with bits of costumes and flowers and spare shoes, most of the danced to tatters. A chaise dominated the center of the room, while a wardrobe and a vanity swallowed most of the remaining space. On the vanity lay more jewelry and powders and stage makeup. "This is her room," she said softly, making her way to the vanity and picking up a necklace. "Her dressing room. The prima ballerina's."
WarrenWarren fell quiet as he stepped into the room behind her, shutting the door after himself and looking around. It was a dressing room, yes, but it wasn't like any sort of dressing room that he'd expect to see in this day and age. Even the makeup cases alone would probably fetch a fortune with an antique dealer, these days.
"It doesn't look like it's changed much in the century or so since Angel last saw this ballet."
Karla"She would wait for him here..." Karla breathed, unaware she was even saying it aloud. She stared at the necklace she picked up, a simple cross on a silver chain, almost entranced. "Here in this room. In secret."
WarrenHim... Something about that chewed at Warren for all of a heartbeat. Just an instant, and then he shook it off, looking around the room, wide-eyed.
"It's... warm. It's very warm."
Like something about the room itself was wrapping around him, trying to sweep him away, and he wasn't quite willing to hold it off.
Karla"Warren?"
Karla stood, the blue silk of her gown slithering around her. The feeling of the rich fabric was sensual and so was the smell of him, expensive soap and something else. Something almost dry.
Cornchips.
Wait, what were cornchips again? She shook her head, trying to shake the cobwebby feeling from her brain, then looked up at him, licking her lips. "I want you to undress me." He looked a little surprised at that, so she gave him a slow, inviting smile. "It's just another costume. I want you to see me as I really am. You're the only one who can."
WarrenHis reply was right there, lingering on his lips. It seemed wrong, somehow, that she was looking at him that way. Wrong, in a way he couldn't put a finger on.
Those words, right there, like they'd been scripted for him, like he'd rehearsed them thousands of times before for a hundred years.
"Karla... I... This..." He pulled in a deep breath and shook his head, trying to pull his gaze away from her. "This isn't right. Someone else is doing the talking, here..."
He'd been possessed before, he was well aware of what it felt like to be a spectator while his body did the bidding of something other. Feeling it now, here, had him wanting to run for the door again.
He couldn't quite.
KarlaShe drew closer now, sinuous and gliding, her every graceful move an invitation for him to come nearer, to reach for her and touch her and pull her close. "You make it sound like this isn't something you've been waiting for. Wanting. Needing."
She was close enough to touch him now, a single finger sliding down his chest. "Undress me," she repeated. "It's just another costume. I want you to see me as I really am. You're the only one who can."
Could you try not to mess up your line again, Warren? There was a script to stick to!
WarrenThe repetition of the line should have thrown Warren more. It should have, but the way Karla's finger was moving down his fest, it just managed to drag the floor out from underfoot, and he stepped up closer to her, breathing in the scent of her.
"Is that what you want?"
Because he could give it to her. He would. Happily.
Karla"Please," Karla said, twining her arms around his neck.
She was practically afire with need, wanting him to peel this costume off, to lay her on the divan, to give her all of him and accept all of her in return.
"I..."
WarrenWarren looked down at her, seemed to drink in the sight of her there before him, tracing his hands over the fabric of her dress, over her hips. What she was asking was hardly outside the realm of possibility. This wasn't even all that much of a stretch for them normally.
Except he was still angry, and hurt. And so was she. And he opened his mouth to say as much.
"You want me to make love to you right here?"
... That was not as much.
KarlaHis hands were driving her crazy, making it hard for her to think, never mind make words. But still, he had asked her a question and it needed answering. She wasn't entirely sure why it did--wasn't the answer obvious already?--but there were words to say and a compulsion to say them.
"You know I do," she whispered, looking up into his eyes.
Warren"But you're afraid."
He was leaning against her, now, caressing her hands with a gentle sort of fearlessness that he'd never quite managed to master. Not since the alien illness had scarred his hands with those claws he was still even unconsciously wary of.
KarlaA fear that Karla understood, but never quite accepted. She loved his hands: the delicacy of his fingers, the quiet strength in them, the beauty and grace he showed with every movement. She nuzzled his palm, then leaned in and caught a single finger in her mouth, teasing it with her tongue before letting it go again.
"What if he finds us?" she murmured. Afraid, yes. If she let herself think about what would happen if they were caught, if he saw Warren trifling with his property, she would freeze and panic and cringe away.
So she refused to let herself think about it. All that mattered was the two of them and what was building between them.
Warren"I'm not afraid," Warren breathed, though there was something very wrong with that statement. Something that was terrifying him even now, something about control, and how he didn't have it. Warren was very afraid, somewhere deep that he couldn't reach. "I'm not afraid of anything."
But he had a script to play to. He was all bravado and passion.
He wasn't afraid of anything...
Karla"I'm only alive when you're inside me."
For a moment, the part of her that was still Karla sat up and kind of blinked a little bit. That was not the kind of thing she'd say. At all. Her sense of self was not defined by Warren, inside of her or not.
But then she was kissing him, all wet heat and passion and aching need and that bit of Karla lay back down again and let herself be carried away by it. She was in Warren's arms and kissing him fervently. What could possibly be wrong about that?
WarrenKissing. The sort of kissing that always could sweep Warren away, could rip his mind away from what was eating at him and thrust him bodily into a world that consisted only of the two of them.
Except.
Yes.
No.
"Karla!" He pulled back with a gasp, wide-eyed, pulling a hand back and clenching it into a fist tight enough to make his nails bite into his palm. Something to drag him back to reality.
He... really needed better mental defenses against this sort of thing, whatever it was.
"Karla, this isn't us."
Karla"What?" Her eyes were heavy-lidded and her brain was slow, foggy, almost cobwebby with desire. She swayed closer to him, brushing her breasts against his shirt. "'Course it is. Don't you want to kiss me? I want to kiss you. And...more than kiss." She smiled up at him. "A lot more than kiss."
Mother Night, he was a devastatingly attractive male. Even when she was furious with him, he was...
Wait. She was furious with him. For accusing her of spying on him for his father. Puzzled and confused, she shook her head, trying to clear it. "...The Hell?"
Warren"Something in this room," he managed, forcing himself to take a half-step back as he felt whatever it was attempt to surge up and drag him toward her again. "There's something-"
He tapered off and slipped into a hungry sort of smile.
He really needed better defenses against possession. Yep.
Karla"We should..." She was going to say 'go.' That they needed to go. Get out of there. But then he was smiling at her, the kind of smile that always made her knees a little weak and her breathing a little fast.
Was it her conscious decision to step closer to him? Did the entities that lived in the room decide she she nuzzle his neck and then give him a playful bite?
"Go?"
Warren"Go?" The world was a bit of a fog all over again. "You want..."
Warren wasn't certain what she wanted for a moment. Just that they were together, this was their chance, whether she was afraid or not, and so long as he didn't show up...
... Who was...?
Damn it. Damn it. They needed to get out. His head was leaned back just enough to give her access to his neck, and his arms were around her, and he was using one more moment of lucidity to try to haul the both of them to the door.
KarlaKarla's face was buried in his neck, one leg twined around his so her shoe could slide up and down his calf and her thigh could brush against his...thighs, yes. Definitely his thighs.
"Open the damn door," she murmured as she licked the side of his throat. "We've got to get out of here."
WarrenThe door. That one. That door that was right there. Warren could open it. He could absolutely open it. See the way he was standing--
Oh god, her tongue was amazing.
"Kinda hard," he gasped, one hand groping blindly for the doorknob.
Karla"Kinda noticed," Karla said, pressing that much closer to him. "I could take you right up against this door, you know that? I could--"
Whatever else she could do was lost as Warren finally found the doorknob and opened the door, spilling them out into the hallway. Karla went sprawling to the floor and stayed there a moment, trying to collect her bearings.
"What the fuck was that," she hissed. It was a rhetorical question. Now that she was outside of its grasp, the cobwebby feeling was going away.
WarrenWarren slammed the door shut behind them both, and then leaned back against it, staring up at the ceiling and gasping for air.
"Ghosts? Spirits? Something." He pulled in another shaky breath, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. "A really compelling argument for trying to find another way out, I think."
KarlaKarla nodded, pushing herself up off the floor. "Got me while my defenses were down," she noted, half-defensively and half as an explanation. "It's a good thing it wears off immediately. Mother Night."
Warren"No kidding," Warren mumbled. "You... you repeated yourself once in there, like you were feeding me lines. It was weird."
There was a lot that was weird, but that kind of struck him as being extra off.
KarlaOn her way to standing, Karla noticed that the front of Warren's pants were still a little tight. So, no, while the possession wore off immediately, the effects sure didn't.
Of course, she could have figured that out herself, considering the state of her own undergarments.
"Hmm?" she asked, slightly distracted. "Oh! Oh, yes. I remember that." Vaguely. "You didn't feel it? The compulsion to say things?" Her expression grew more sardonic. "Or do you honestly believe that I 'only feel alive when you're inside me'?"
Warren"I hope you feel alive more than just when I'm inside you," Warren replied, maybe a little dryly, himself. "And I did feel the compulsion."
It had scared the figurative crap out of him. He glanced sidelong at the door.
"I'm voting we don't go back in there."
Karla"Looking for another way out it is," Karla agreed. "Maybe if we get further away from this area, there'll be a place we can escape, or we'll run into Angel or Cordy or something." This time, rather than immediately taking off down the hall and waiting for Warren to follow, Karla fell into step beside him. She was still angry with him, more than angry, really, but they'd just been possessed and then had a very hot makeout session. It was hard to keep her equilibrium about her with that. And, well, so long as they were stuck back here, together, they might as well face it together.
[More of Angel s03E13 "Waiting in the Wings," though spindled and tweaked to awesome according to wesleynotponcy's direction, and preplayed with not_a_parakeet. Follows this, this, and this. NFB, NFI, OOC is happy-making]