573. DON'T YOU LOCK THE DOOR? (Now on IJ as well)

[breakupsbadly]

You Should Have Knocked
So everyone has had this moment in their life, the one where they were so impatient or absent minded they went flinging a door open when they really shouldn't have. Sometimes its not your fault, how could you know your housemate and his girlfriend were having sex on the kitchen table!? Othertimes someone was in the bathroom

Comments

Ben Mackinnon | 3 ♦ | House of Cards

[intotherough]

[Canon or...powered criminal civilian (notyetrough)]

3

[onlytolerable]

The dancing shows were her guilty pleasure. She'd seen Shall We Dance five times and Take the Lead at least that many. She'd put in the sound track and before she knew it, she was dancing along. Safe in her rooms, she could pretend she was Ginger Rogers and Arawn, her stuffed Dragon, made a perfect Fred Astaire.

No one, absolutely no one, was supposed to walk in when she was leading Arawn in a tango, rose held rakishly in her mouth.

[intotherough]

Alas, it was not to be, Sophie, but it does take Ben a minute to look up from the book he's reading to catch sight of his girlfriend doing a very credible tango.

With her dragon.

The eyebrows shoot up, and he just leans against the door to watch.

[onlytolerable]

"You dance divinely," Sophie assures Arawn in a comically exaggerated French accent. "Come, my love, do not be shy. Let me take you to the--Cas--!"

She whirls them back towards the door and her unintended audience.

"...bah."

Oh, dear.

[intotherough]

Ben just smiles at her, tucking his book against his chest and raising his eyebrows. "I hope I'm not interrupting, lass."

[onlytolerable]

"I was, um, I was just--" Making an idiot out of myself. Sophie clutches Arawn protectively to her chest. Maybe Ben will think the waves of red washing over her from the pit of her stomach clear up to her scalp are reflections from the dragon's soft red plush.

No...obviously he won't think that. She whirls around. You aren't really blushing if no one sees you doing it.

"...um...cleaning."

Why do holes never open up and swallow you when you want them to?

[intotherough]

He raises an eyebrow at her, his lips quirking up. "Oh, are you, then?" he asks. "Does it always look like the tango?"

He had, in fact, noticed that once when Isaac was dusting, but he'd thought of it as an Isaac Thing.

[onlytolerable]

Fortunately, Sophie's back is turned so she misses his amused expression. She can feel it though. She swallows the reflexive, "What are you doing here?" It's not Ben's fault he walked in on her doing something horribly embarrassing.

Oh dear. Best brazen it out Sophie.

"Not at all. Sometimes it resembles the Rumba. I've been known to branch out into the Merengue, but only during deep spring cleaning, and--"

That's as far as she can get before the laughter overtakes her.

[intotherough]

Ben laughs softly along with her and sets the book on the table and moves forward. "And is the dragon a very good cleaning/dancing partner, or do you want someone taller?"

[onlytolerable]

"I--" She glances over her shoulder, blush staining her cheeks, torn between hiding and succumbing to temptation. Temptation wins, as it always does where Ben's concerned.

"I'm not sure. Arawn's awfully light on his feet." Her cheeks dimple. "He's a terrible lead, though. Can you make a better offer?"

[intotherough]

"Hmm." Ben circles her, considering. "Well, I suppose we can but try, yeah?"

[onlytolerable]

Sophie looks from Ben to Arawn to Ben again. A dismissive shrug, and she's tossing the stuffed dragon over her shouler to land unceremoniously on the couch.

Then she's tilting her head imperiously and circling backwards in time to the music.

But not before brandishing the rose between them.

[intotherough]

He smirks at her and takes the rose, sniffing it before taking the stem between his teeth and offering a hand.

"Shall we, ma petite?"

[onlytolerable]

Her lips purse, but she manages not to burst into giggles. Instead, she tosses her hair and prowls towards him, managing quite a bit of attitude for someone who's nearly as red as her hair.

"Certainment, mon cher." And she slips her hand into his.

[intotherough]

It's been a while since he's tangoed - not a skill much used in his last life, shall we say - but he remembers the steps, and he's graceful enough to do them with aplomb.

"So, you like ballroom, hmm?"

[onlytolerable]

"Some. Waltzes? Not so much. If it was fun, you can believe we weren't allowed to dance it.

"Where did you learn?"