Hello, hello! Happy 2017, everyone. Welcome back to FLOSS! Let's see what kind of trend I can get going. Probably none, but maybe one, hopefully some? Ha. What are your desires for the new year? Let me know, honestly.
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Chapter 18: The Best Defense
"You know, I'm starting to find it kinda sexy when you run away from me," Aaron murmured.
I glanced behind me as I placed silverware in a drawer. "What are you talking about?" I responded, eyebrow cocked.
Yes, we both knew I was working on "feelings" and "relationships," but even an attempt at discussing these concepts was up for debate. I mean, if one looked at Victorian and I, it was easily noticed that I wasn't too skilled at either of them. He was my best friend and I was ready to kill him every time he chanced a simple inhale.
Definitely not appropriate for social situations.
"We're getting closer right? Am I just imagining things? I think we're getting closer but I still scare you for some reason." Aaron said matter-of-factly. He dried the last plate and walked over to the cabinet beside me. "I don't know why that is, but I do know that I don't want that. I certainly like finding you sexy, but what I'd really like is to find you sexy because of something else. Like maybe running toward me instead. You get me?"
My forehead stitched together in an attempt to discern his rambling. I was sure there was an innuendo I had lost in translation but pressed forward. "I'm not afraid of you; fear has nothing to do with me running away from you. And, for further correction, I'm not running away, I'm—"
"Artfully retreating?" Aaron suggested. His face was close to mine and his grin was of a wolfish sort that could infect anyone in the same room.
"Artfully retreating. Yes." I felt the corners of my lips turn upwards slightly.
Cue infection.
"I just don't think that this is a good idea. We barely know one another—honestly, it's been a little over a week—and I just discovered that my father may or may not be alive. His not being alive also being recognized as a direct product of my actions, or lack thereof. There are plenty of indicators of future failure." My hands moved in the air in a nonsensical direction, just like my words. While my mouth had said "bad idea," my body wanted to scream the exact opposite.
Aaron rolled his eyes. "Don't start with the 'couple days' thing again. We're not gonna argue about the 'couple days' thing again. And two indicators doesn't equal plenty, Miss Lieutenant. That wasn't even two, really." Aaron's head moved side to side, giving his dissent a physical form.
He tacked on the nickname he had established for me after our first meeting and while it might have sounded simple to an eavesdropping ear, I knew what he was doing; dropping the Scarlett bomb would have made it too personal. I definitely would have pulled away from him then.
He was starting to figure me out.
Thank God.
"That still doesn't change the fact this is not a good time to be initiating relationships..." I hesitated. "Or whatever!" That's right. Save face, girl.
"Do Slicers, Hunters, and near-death experiences turn you on?" I frowned. "That's not an attractive fetish—that is, if fetishes can even be attractive—and it certainly won't be earning you any brownie points." I scrunched my face in disgust to drive my point home further.
Aaron inched closer and boxed me in against the counter. "If you're involved? Absolutely." He bent while wrapping his arms around my middle and lifted me to sit atop the marble surface. "And, if given any amount of time and space that allows me to be with you, I will be."
His fingers trailed up my arms, crawled across my shoulders, and slid up my neck before resting along the sides of my face. I could feel his eyes on mine, waiting for me to look up at him. His thumb moved across my bottom lip and I let my eyes meet his.
"I will be. End of story," he finished.
And then he was kissing me. His lips moved against mine for one second. Two seconds. Three, until it occurred to me that end of story was right. I would probably never have enough of him. His hands were everywhere; rising along my back and surfing up and down my arms again until suddenly he kissed me harder, deeper, pushing unspoken words through every electric touch. He leaned into my side and landed a peck on my neck before his hands lowered to my hips. I felt his lips near my ear, his breath flowing in and out, quick and shallow.
"And if you think I'm letting you and those cheeks 'artfully retreat' away from me without a fight, you've got another thing coming."
"The attitude comes from these cheeks, you know. They're a package deal." I said bemusedly as he pulled away, leaving our fingers for last. I took notice of the empty air around me as my hands fell back into my lap. I was beginning to feel the same; acknowledging it at the very least.
He stepped back and gave me a once over. "Don't I know it. All four of them." He left the kitchen with a wink.
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"Okay, how in hell do you hold these?"
I grimaced as Jarvis swung my katanas dangerously close to his face.
"Not like that, Jarvis, please, if you would just give them back to me, I could show you." I wanted to reach out and snatch them back to return to the safety of their case but, at the rate he was going, Jarvis was just as hazardous to my health as a Slicer. Anybody's health, really.
"I've got it, Mademoiselle! My ancestors—you know, the French—used swords all the time! I'm gonna be a natural at this! Imagine, Jarvis Rousseau, master swordsman." He finished the sentence with a wide flourish, his eyes gazing up at the ceiling in a dreamy state.
Jarvis and I were sitting in my suite, waiting for the others to come and discuss Victorian's idea further. After his announcement, it was clear that I wasn't going to be able to listen and respond rationally. Jarvis had swooped in and saved whatever light air our dinner managed to retain; he cracked a joke every couple of seconds, chipping away at the tension in the air. When I wasn't hearing the stern voice of my father, the laughter at the table wove itself around the silverware and into my ears. Any talk about my father that could have followed was at a standstill for that moment. Victorian's recount had suggested that Abraham was alive and that—more than anything else—required an irrational response.
There was a knock at the door as Jarvis gave another misplaced swing and the katanas fell to the floor in a cacophony of metal against metal.
In a quick leap, I was off of the bed and grabbing up the swords and sheathes, trying my hardest to keep Jarvis from impaling himself.
"Come in!" I huffed.
The doorknob wiggled but the door remained closed. I turned to look at Jarvis and he waggled his eyebrows. "You never know, Mademoiselle. When the moment is just right, when you just can't resist me any longer..." He grinned.
I unlocked the door and watched as Stephanie walked in clutching her laptop, eyes wary of her surroundings. "Did I miss something? It sounded like rabid cats and dogs in here."
My gaze traveled from Jarvis to Stephanie and back. "Jarvis is under the impression that he was a samurai in another life. Clearly the wrong impression."
"Clearly." Stephanie pulled the desk chair to a corner on the opposite end of the room, away from Jarvis. He didn't have the swords anymore but something told me that he could cause chaos with just about anything at his fingertips. Nevermind the fact that she had known him longer than I had.
Smart girl.
"Lieutenant! Hey Love!"
Victorian's body filled the empty doorway. "Ah, Steph, feels like we just saw each other, doesn't it?" He flashed a smile at her. Stephanie didn't say anything but shook a reddening head.
The blush in her cheeks and the slight disarray of her hair weren't convincing anyone at all that they hadn't just seen each other. Leave it to Victorian to believe stating the obvious made him appear subtle.
He strolled in and immediately moved to the corner Stephanie had escaped to, leaving the door open behind him. I watched as the blush on her cheeks became more vivid but she said nothing. It didn't take long before Jarvis was filling the air with his voice again.
"Well, what have the two of you been up to, huh? Victorian, you sly dog!" Jarvis' eyebrows did another waggle, his eyes trained on the pair. Kissing noises began to fill the room when Stephanie took off her sneaker and threw it at Jarvis.
"Alright, Jarvis! That's enough!" Stephanie spoke up through the embarrassment. She was standing up for herself, albeit, without the passion I expected. My guess was that she didn't have to do that much with computers.
Jarvis had dodged the sneaker and ran over to give Victorian a high five. "Up top, man!"
Victorian and I met eyes as I returned to my place on my bed. He kept still.
"Come on! Don't leave me hangin', man! Steph is cute! I'd be all over her if I wasn't chasing after Mademoiselle! I mean, look at her! She's gor—"
A pillow flew over my head and smacked Jarvis in square in the face.
"What did I tell you?"
Aaron's arm hung in the air, evidence of a perfect follow-through at Jarvis' feet. "Stop flirting."
Jarvis picked the pillow up and chucked it back in the direction of the bed, Aaron catching it before it hit him.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Jarvis slid down the wall and sat with his elbows on his knees, a wide grin on his face. "I'll get her," he mumbled.
I moved the pillow back to the headboard before Aaron could grab it again.
"So, Victorian, why don't you elaborate on your...idea?" Stephanie started.
"Right, right," the Englishman stood up and cleared his throat. "I think we should go to the research facility." He sat down.
I hadn't spoken a word to him since dinner, but he was obviously trying to push my buttons. Stephanie glanced over at me and jammed her elbow into his side.
"And...?"
"Ah!" Victorian stood up again. "All in favor? Say aye!"
"Aye!" Jarvis' hand was raised.
"Fish and Chips." I didn't turn to look at Aaron's expression but I felt his irritation like it was my own.
"I have to do everything around here..." Victorian muttered. "The research facility is as intangible a place to me as it is to you, mate. All I know is that that's where I was pushed to go. I have no idea what's there—or who. If anyone else has any suggestions, feel free to just shout them out!"
"It could have information we need, you guys." Stephanie was typing away at her computer. "I mean, think of what else I could compile at a research base! We could find an antidote...or something. There's no reason not to go, right?"
"There are plenty of reasons not to go." My voice was low but it coursed through the room. I was less angry now, confused as to why they found this so imperative. Why leave safety?
Why listen to my father?
"We have no idea where we're going, why we should go, or what we'll find—and that's if we make it there. You all are insisting that we throw ourselves into a completely disadvantageous scenario."
"We're super-soldiers. What's more advantageous than that, Mademoiselle?"
My eyes floated to over to Jarvis, his voice—for the first time—soft.
"You want to find out how this, we, happened? This is our chance. Why not take it?"
Aaron's hand rested against my back, his fingers opening and closing, a radial caress.
"He has a point, you know." Victorian addressed me. "I know that you're upset with me, but, I also know that you have no chance of figuring out anything if we don't go."
He stepped toward me and squatted in front of me for the second time that day.
"That's worse, don't you think, Love?" He extended a hand toward me.
I didn't need to look at Aaron to know he agreed; he hadn't smacked Victorian's hand out of the air yet.
I continued staring at my best friend. He knew me better than anyone in the room—anyone remaining in the world.
I trusted him.
Our hands met and he weaved his fingers between mine. "Alright, Lieutenant!" He planted a kiss on my cheek. "What's that phrase again? A good offense is a good defense? Or something like that?" The Brit's brow furrowed.
"The best defense is a good offense," Aaron, Jarvis, and Stephanie corrected.
"Right! Well, there you go, Love! We're on the offense! Just like old times." He gave a dazzling smile. "Not bad, eh?"
I nodded slightly. "Close enough."
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YOOOOO. This was decent right? No one remind me how long this took to get up. In my defense, I had about a quarter of it written for awhile! In my defense...?
Also, I'm starting a new divider thing—the yellow heart emoji. It's cute right? (If you can see it—if you can't, imagine a cute yellow heart at "scenes" where time lapses).
Anyway, Happy New Year!
Keep Flossing,
❤️ Swaggerwithwords