(no subject)

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

Date: January 4, 2001
Status: Private - Adam, Pepper
Setting: Pepper's Room
Summary: Adam wants to check up on his friend.


It had been three days since their New Year's kiss and Adam hadn't seen Pepper anywhere. He was starting to get a little worried. It could have gone better, sure, but she wouldn't just avoid him afterward, would she? He didn't want that to happen again.

Just in case, Adam went to the kitchen and armed himself with Wensleydale's best hot cocoa. When Wens had learned it was for Pepper, he added extra whipped cream and a mint leaf. Smiling faintly, Adam carried it carefully up the stairs and knocked on her door.

"Pep? You in there? I got somethin' for ya."

Comments

[playswithboys.livejournal.com]

She rolled her eyes. "I dun't mean that. I wouldn't say that." But he had a point. She could be too blunt sometimes. "I just want to know what happened, is all. Besides, they might need someone to talk to. And it's not like any one of us is really good at gettin' help when we need it." All too stubborn. More than a little scared too, she thought.

She sighed at the reassurance, though it made her pause. Liked it? She was fairly sure that she should be glad of that; she had too, after all. Just too much. "Good. Because I wouldn't want to feel..."

(The star that leads the way is your star.)

"...left out of things. Just because I stopped thinkin' with my brain for a moment." Her mouth twisted in a self-deprecating manner and she took another sip of cocoa to mask it.

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

He nodded. "No, you're right. We should talk to 'em in case they do wanna talk 'bout it. But no forcin' the issue. We jus' talk about it if they bring it up, right? You wanna take Wens an' me Brian?" And if Adam spoke of himself and Pepper as if they were a team, well, they were.

With a smile, Adam shook his head. "Stop, Pep. You didn't do anythin' wrong. You don't think I coulda stopped you if I wanted to? I'm not even talkin' powers here. I jus' mean I coulda put out my hands and said no, but I didn't. So it was jus' as much my decision as yours, okay? It don't change how I feel 'bout you." The blond paused. Then, "It is an ever-fixed mark..." he ended in a murmur.

[playswithboys.livejournal.com]

She decided that plan sounded well enough for her and nodded quite seriously before breaking out into a full-on grin. Just so long as Brian and Wensley could talk without worrying about getting judged even more. Of course, they didn't know that Adam and Pepper knew. Well, that would be the first barrier to break, she supposed. "Yeah, I'll take Wens. He never could keep a thing from me if I stared at 'em for long enough."

She set down her hot chocolate as she listened to him speak more. He certainly could have stopped her, in fact, part of her still couldn't understand why he hadn't. But then, as he said, he hadn't disliked the whole thing so... well, she still didn't quite get it. But that was fine. This sort of thing was never easy to understand, no matter what you did. "Okay," she agreed, catching the trail-off and raising a teasing eyebrow. "What's that s'pposed to mean?" she half-laughed, though she was truly curious.

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

Adam laughed. "That's true enough. An' I c'n talk to Brian without hittin' him," he joked.

Then he grew sober again, looking frankly at her. "It's somethin' Shakespeare wrote. Means love don't change no matter what happens - no matter if the person you love gets old, or you never see 'em again, or you kiss 'em when you don't quite mean to, or nothin'."

[playswithboys.livejournal.com]

"Eh, it's good for 'im," Pepper insisted. "Makes sure he keeps 'imself in line."

At another time Pepper might have protested Shakespeare's idea on that particular subject. After all, people got divorced and disowned their own children, and changed into different people sometimes, and hurt each other over and over again. But at that moment she was highly inclined to agree. "Guess not," she said quietly.

After a silent moment she grabbed hold of something on her desk - a very old and rather tame stuffed shark - and chucked it at Adam's head. It did no good to keep staring at each other with such somber faces, not if they didn't have to.

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

Pleased that Pepper hadn't argued the point - it was hard to discuss the constancy of love when others didn't have quite the same perspective on it - Adam let the stuffed toy hit him in the head and fell back on the bed wrestling with it.

"Sharky, no! We been friends for years, ain't we? Why this? Why now?" he wailed.

[playswithboys.livejournal.com]

Pepper got up from her chair and moved over to the bed to watch the ensuing struggle. "Go on, Sharky, you 'ave your orders. No mercy. And no monologuing to explain your evil deeds." She watched with feigned coldness, like a general overseeing a battle from a great distance. It was hard not to laugh.

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

In a squeaky voice that was apparently supposed to be that of the shark, he said, "But Fraulein... I've waited years to attack the boy, Adam. You know how we've been plannin' to shave 'im bald and turn all that yellow hair to gold so we c'n afford that laser beam and FINALLY TAKE OVER THE WORLD!"

Adam nearly couldn't finish, he was laughing so hard.

[playswithboys.livejournal.com]

Oh, he hadn't used that voice in far too long.

She flicked the shark in the head sharply, doubled over with laughter. "I told you not to monologue! Now he knows everythin'! You've put us right in the enemy's hands! The battle is lost unless I do somethin' drastic and unexpected!" So she spun around and dropped to the bed, landing directly across Adam's stomach.

Okay, that wasn't really an unexpected move. But knocking the wind out of people had always been a speciality of hers.

[average-adam.livejournal.com]

"PEH!" he managed. No one can laugh when they're not breathing, but Adam was certainly trying. Attack seemed his only means of escape, so he started tickling her fiercely.