i cradled the crow, always shooed off the dove.
<@Maria> "I hope you're bleeding."
<@Martel> "Probably." Hmm, is that hook suitable?
* @Maria throws a garter at him.
<@Martel> "--excellent," Martel says, cheerfully, catching it one hand and sidetracking to grab some tacks.
<@Maria> "Hey! I was /wearing/ that one when I came here, I can't only have one!"
* @Martel clearly has no sympathy.
<@Maria> "How am I supposed to keep my stockings up?" She attempts to bite him. Because she does not want to get up off the bed or move very far to do this, she ends up mostly sinking her teeth into, uh, his hipbone nearest. :D? "Rrr." ...did she attempt to growl at him just now.
<@Martel> "What was /that/?" He is probably not asking about the biting, which...come on. Also, he's tacking up her panties and garter in the shape of a flag.
<@Maria> "Fierce growling--you are such a fucking /freak/," she laughs, into the bedspread.
<@Martel> "I'll never go out of my way to oblige your wishes again, love, I promise."
* @Maria ...is busy being outrageously pleased at the endearment, so it takes a moment before she can say anything. "Liar."
<@Martel> "I'd never." He's done now, and satisfied that it's high enough she probably can't get it down herself.
* @Maria will TRY later. And probably injure herself in the process. "Are you finished?"
<@Martel> "Yes, I think so."
<@Maria> "Come here, please." :3?
<@Martel> "What are you going to do if I do?" ...he says, going towards her.
* @Maria kisses him sweetly. ...and then sinks her nails into his stomach, viciously.
* @Martel makes the most fascinating noise in response to this.
* @Maria attempts to return to her computer with the world's most serene expression.
* @Martel snags her around the waist so he can return the favor on hip-biting...and then lets go.
* @Maria tugs his hair a little after making the requisite girl noise. (Crossed with a yelp. Ow, boy.) "You're evil."
* @Maria snickers at her computer screen.
<@Martel> "Really, you need them right now?"
* @Maria glances over. "...not right this /second/." She pouts at him.
* @Martel is smug.
* @Maria jawdrops at her computer screen.
* @Maria seeks revenge >:E
* @Maria goes 'hmph'.
<@Martel> "Oh, /what/."
* @Maria sticks her tongue out. "I didn't hurl it at you! I was totally reserved. For me. I could have been sooo much worse."
<@Martel> "If you were totally reserved we wouldn't be having this conversation." He looks kind of amused.
<@Maria> "I said I was reserved for me! I didn't do half the things I wanted to do." ... oh lord.
<@Maria> "'Tel, sweetie, Mel would like to know if you're busy brushing your hair." Maria is busy giggling.
* @Martel glances up. He has a craft knife, so this is potentially kind of a weird sight. "I don't appear to be."
<@Maria> "Ooh, can I see that?" NO.
<@Martel> "Absolutely not."
<@Maria> "Why not! I'm good with knives, although I haven't used one si--oh, no, I guess that was--anyway, why not."
<@Martel> "Because I'm using it, and also already said no."
<@Maria> "Okaaay, fine." She huffs and rolls onto her back. Stretching. A lot. Dear Maria: stop that. "Nnnhso are you bored or something, is that why you're projecting over there?"
<@Martel> "I had an idea." He's SQUINTING at it, now, as though he can improve whatever it is he's doing that his typist will totally actually figure out in the next minute. Or so. Just by squinting.
<@Maria> "Can I help?" She has on ONE GARTER right now, and has currently hiked up her skirt to frown at the difference. >:E She wants her other garter back, damn it.
<@Martel> "N--yes, can I have that?" He's pointing at the remaining garter, by the way.
* @Maria slides it off, pouting. "It's more fun when you take them off." She tosses it at his face.
<@Martel> "Next time." He catches it and...we really hope Maria didn't want that back.
* @Maria pretty much gathered. "Now I'm gonna need new ones." Like she doesn't have a trillion.
<@Martel> "I'll replace these." He's taking it apart for the elastic, by the way.
* @Maria watches him quietly for a while. She really does genuinely enjoy observing him working, just, you know. Complaining is fun.
* @Martel can split his focus enough to respond, but when she doesn't talk he doesn't either, messing about with his little 'idea' over there.
<@Maria> "You are so ridiculously smart," she says, after a moment, and then buries her face in the bedspread. Kind of like she's embarrassed, but not quite. He knows he's smart already.
* @Martel looks up and...then swears and looks back down, because he almost superglued his hand to her lace. Awesome.
* @Maria tries not to giggle. "Sorry, I'll stop distracting you."
* @Martel rethinks everything he was about to say in response while trying to come up with something that doesn't sound like a challenge. "...thank you." >_>
* @Maria eyes him. "What."
* @Martel pretends not to hear her, pushing his hair out of his eyes with the back of his wrist.
<@Maria> "Martel. What."
<@Martel> "What?"
<@Maria> "What did you just not say." She can TELL when he does that. Sometimes. Not all the time.
<@Martel> "Obviously nothing worth saying in the first place, let alone repeating. Come over here, I need you for a second."
* @Maria goes over. "Yessir?" BRAT. Well, if she's going to let the earlier topic slide, she has to get some kind of revenge.
* Martel goes '...' briefly. "Hold that still while I do this." He has, for the record, a rather nice little glass bowl that evidently had some kind of previous use around here, probably...holding something small and ridiculous, and having attached the elastic on opposite sides, he is now fixing little semi-precious stones around the edge. Who gave this boy superglue.
* @Maria obediently holds still. Are you stunned, Martel? She's trying to figure out what the hell he's doing, but it's definitely pretty!
* Martel affixes a little circle of stones, although when he runs out almost all the way around he does look distinctly put out. There is a 'hold that thought' gesture and he goes rummaging in a drawer of his desk.
<@Maria> "At some point, are you going to actually tell me what you're doing?"
"Yes."
<@Maria> "I await that time patiently." SEE? See how patient she is?
"Good." He detours via his bathroom and returns with a small seashell that evidently just got a rinse.
* @Maria looks amused, also still totally confused.
* Martel mutters 'I don't even have any damn potpourri' at one point, which probably doesn't help matters.
<@Maria> "..." She gives him a look like he might be high.
* Martel pretends not to notice. "I'll be...right back. Don't move that while they're drying."
<@Maria> "Okay! I won't." You weirdo.
* Martel is gone long enough that it's probably actually kind of strange, especially when there are sleepy voices making noises to the effect of 'what the hell, Martel'. He returns shortly with a single string of clear christmas lights, the heads of several roses and something else.
"--those are NOT YOURS, Aloysius!" is Elena at the bottom of the stairs.
"I only took three!" Pause. "Four."
* @Maria ...tries not to LAUGH, now. "Seriously, honey, what the fuck are you doing? Is Elena going to maim you in your sleep?"
"You'll /see/. --go away, Elena, I'll get you more tomorrow." He settles down with his PRIZES, putting the roses to one side and taking the bowl to ... twist the string around it.
<@Maria> "Pretty," she comments, interested, "Are you done with me now?"
"Just for the moment. Can you check the drawer by my bed? I might have more of those stones."
* @Maria goes to see! "Yep, there's some." She brings them over and then goes to perch by her laptop again.
* Martel has left the end of the string fairly long, and is now dropping quartz crystals in the bottom of the bowl. He tests the weight of it against the elastic a bit, then arranges the roses inside with the quartz. The other thing he brought back was one of the small bottles of scented oil Serafina keeps for her oil burners.
* Martel pours sooome of that into the bottom of it, and goes to plug the thing in, just to be sure.
* @Maria ...blinks at it. Wait a minute.
* Martel holds it up by the elastic. "Voila. Nightlight."
<@Maria> "...for me?" Excuse her if she sounds totally like a tiny girl (...tiniER) version of herself for a second here.
"Yes." He looks sort of critically at it. "The flowers and the oil won't last, but you can change those out."
<@Maria> "You made me a nightlight." She looks at it, and then at him, kind of smiling.
"You had a nightmare."
* @Maria inclines her head, slightly, acknowledging that, and then tugs him closer. "Thank you. I didn't--well. You're sweet." She really means this; she doesn't think a lot of people get to see it.
* Martel is somewhat pleased with himself. He turns it off, unplugs it, and sets it down. "You're welcome."
<@Maria> "You made me a nightlight," she says again, laughing, mostly at herself. "Best boyfriend ever. And you let me come over at 11:30 at night after said nightmare!"
"If you're here, you're not having nightmares," he reasons, wrapping his arms around her waist. Which does actually require some lifting, because she is the tiniest girl in the world.
* @Maria arches up onto her toes to help. "I don't think I could have a nightmare here. Do you want to know what it was about? --it was two, they kind of tied in, though."
"All right." He bends a little and picks her up, because obviously now they should go sit on his bed and his way is faster. Or requires less letting go. One of those.
* @Maria totally ignores her laptop for the time being and curls up on his lap once they're situated on the bed. "It was all sort of in black and white, or desaturated, kind of? And there were these two kids, I didn't know them--white, pale, the girl I remember better than the boy. They were going to live forever."
* Martel rests his hands clasped against her thigh, listening.
<@Maria> "They were really, really, really in love. And it was like--they planned to be /together/ forever, too, but something happened, I don't know, they just weren't together anymore. And they were on a train with their new boyfriend and girlfriend, and the boy had his immortality back, but the girl didn't. She had this face like a Noh mask, one of the smiling ones--not real. And she got off the train with her boyfriend into this place full of mirrors." She bites her lip. "I don't...remember much of that part." Total, total lie. "But I know they didn't ever come out again. And that was it, I just--woke up, and the mirror was /right/ by my bed and I saw it and just--freaked." There's a tiny shudder, and then she's quiet.
* Martel is quiet with her for a while. "You can't see any from here." There is one in his bedroom, actually, but it's on the inside of the wardrobe door.
<@Maria> "Yeah." She leans on him. "I was gonna call you but I didn't know--I'm 16, you know, nightmares are nooot supposed to be a big deal. And normally they're not. For me. I don't know about you."
"I don't have them often." But when he does, they're kind of spectacular.
<@Maria> "Do they scare you really bad?" She kisses his cheek, mostly for her own reassurance.
"They scare me enough." That's a yes.
<@Maria> "I don't think I've ever seen you scared. Have I?" She frowns, thinking.
* Martel shakes his head. "No, you haven't."
* @Maria twists in his lap a little. "I hope I don't--you know what I mean. And I hope it's never 'cause of me." She does not mean he'd ever be scared /of/ her, but the fact that he, you know, seems to care about her, and she gets into trouble the way other people breathe...yeah. She does not want to stress him out. ... any more.