[For Ray] Backdated to November 23

[shareofdevils]

The day following the Tabula Rasa Day festivities had been spent primarily in bed occupied with a hangover. The day after that, the guilt and mortification began to set in. As drunk as she'd been, Marissa remembered enough of the night to be thoroughly horrified by her behavior. Ray had done the right thing, she supposed (At least the Ryan

Comments

[whiskytango_rto]

He'd been gathering books to take back to his hut for a few days when he found the piano. Sitting down at it proved that his posture was horrible after all these years, but he still knew his scales, and after he'd gone through them a few times, he started playing the Exorcist theme. It was pretty fitting for his mood, which he'd decided to call Confused As All Fuck after the party.

[shareofdevils]

Considering the relative brevity of their acquaintance, it wasn't that surprising that Marissa didn't know Ray was musical. It seemed strange, somehow, to see him at the piano -- The idea of it was completely at odds with the way he acted most of the time, she thought. But then again, she was beginning to have a sneaking suspicion that there was a wealth about Ray Person that she didn't know or understand.

It took only a moment to square her shoulders and steel her resolve, and she crossed the room to the piano, lingering awkwardly as she waited for him to finish.

[whiskytango_rto]

Some musicians got lost in their music, but since Ray wasn't sitting there composing the theme, it was easy enough to notice Marissa's approach. He turned a bit to look at her, not missing a note as he tapped out the repetitive keyboard melody from Blue (Da Ba Dee What the Fuck Ever), because who didn't love random eurodance hits? "Hey," he greeted, smiling like a kid that had learned to ride a bike while she was gone.

[shareofdevils]

"Hey," Marissa replied, and briefly wondered if Ray had forgotten more about the other night than she had, with the way he was smiling like he was just pleased as punch to see her. She pursed her lips together and rubbed absently at the back of her neck. "Are you busy?"

[whiskytango_rto]

"I think the closest to busy I ever get around here is making out with you," he teased, pulling his hands into his lap and relaxing in the hopes that she might do the same. She seemed nervous, and he slid to one edge of the bench and turned to face her, offering the space next to him.

[shareofdevils]

He had a point, but the nonchalant demeanor was mildly unnerving. They'd fought, hadn't they? She thought she remembered that. Shouldn't he be brooding about that or something?

Nevertheless, Marissa settled beside Ray on the bench and folded her hands over each other in her lap. "I wanted to apologize," she began, and looked over to him. "For the other night."

[whiskytango_rto]

He didn't want to be smug or anything, but after he'd slept off the irritation, he'd figured sobriety and a headache might lead her to his point of view. It wasn't like he was going to know hers without an empty stomach, flask, and possibly some date-rape drugs, and the island didn't exactly have signs for MAKINGS OF A RETARDED EVENING SOLD HERE.

Still, he knew he'd said some stupid things in the middle of it all, and he wasn't the one with an excuse to forget them. "I could've handled it better," he admitted. "It was just really weird to see you like that." He laughed, suddenly. "You were quoting Nancy Reagan's drug slogan at me."

[shareofdevils]

"What?" Marissa asked before she could consider addressing the first part of what he'd said. It was only peripherally that she knew who Nancy Reagan was at all, and she couldn't imagine quoting her on purpose. "I wasn't on drugs." At least, she was pretty sure she hadn't been.

[whiskytango_rto]

"Hey, when I asked you what the fuck you were talking about, you told me to google it," and he could only relay the story with a straight face for so long, leaning against her and laughing. "And yet, I can't say it was too bad for a," he paused and counted back on his fingers, giving up and guessing when he realized he didn't know how to define date vs. not date, "Was it our third date?"

[shareofdevils]

Marissa's eyebrows shot up at that. "We haven't been on our first date," she corrected, suddenly incredulous despite her original intention to be contrite.

[whiskytango_rto]

"Oh no, I've been secretly dating you since the first day. We had coffee." He was kidding, of course--he only considered it a date now because it fit the mold better than anything else they'd done. Dark caves, moonshine, and abandoning parties were a little outside the box.

[shareofdevils]

"That so doesn't count," Marissa protested with a slight scoff. "That was totally innocent, 'welcome to the island, please don't have a mental breakdown, military man' coffee. Not a date. I have to be aware of it being a date for it to count, and you haven't asked me out for real yet. You just randomly show up and put your lips on me." Not that she was complaining, of course, but it was about the principle of the thing.

[whiskytango_rto]

"Military man," he repeated, laughing again as he stood up from the bench. "I'm a fucking Marine," correcting her as he leaned over and picked her up whether she wanted him to or not, one arm under her knees and the other against her back, "And we're going on our first date right now. I'll write it down in your little diary for you later."

[shareofdevils]

For the first few precarious seconds, Marissa scrambled to first escape Ray's grip, and then cling to him to avoid being dropped. While she managed to not sputter at being moved bodily, she did squeak once in alarm when he lifted her from the bench.

Of course, there wasn't any real reason for distress, as Ray was deceptively strong and unlikely to let her go. After the first moment had passed, Marissa settled entirely too easily into his arms, swinging one idle leg as they moved.

"I didn't know you were a fucking Marine at the time," she countered, and figured she must be pretty lame to have gotten a tiny thrill from cursing. "I just knew you needed a bath. Where are we going, Conan?"

[whiskytango_rto]

He wouldn't have been surprised if he weighed less than his full gear, so it wasn't much of a task to carry her off to the kitchen. "Well, I was going to just hit you over the head and take you home, but I couldn't find a blunt object fast enough. Maybe I'll use a mug after we have coffee and you give me a few more anecdotes from your personal War on Drugs."

[shareofdevils]

"What, no dragging me off to your cave by the hair? How disappointing." In truth, she was delighted by all the attention much more than she would have liked to admit. Summer probably would have accused her of not being independent enough, but at the moment Marissa didn't really care whether she was setting women's lib back fifty years.

"You know," she began again, arching to speak quietly against Ray's ear, "I think you have to ask and I have to say yes for this to count."