juststopped | for Krem

It isn't the first time she's ended up somewhere she didn't necessarily intend. In private, she's done her fair share of crying over Flemming - she misses her daughter like a part of her, even after so many years - but in public, she's decided to put a brave face on it. After he'd delivered her to her apartment, Krem had told her that he'd be happy to take her for dinner, once she felt more settled. Adaline's done a little bit to make the apartment her own. She's gone back to the place that Sam bought her and put together a capsule wardrobe that's a sad shadow of her guest room back in San Francisco. She is, in short, trying. And that has to count for something.

It's the middle of the afternoon when she texts Krem.

Dinner would be nice - Adaline.

They arrange to meet at a place that Adaline's walked past a few times. It's not a particularly showy place, but she does make an effort, putting on a dress with a full skirt that reminds her of something she might have bought new in the fifties. She does her hair and make-up. She considers heels for a long time and then decides to wear them anyway. Krem strikes her as someone who doesn't lack for confidence, quiet though it seems to be.

She's a little late when she steps into the restaurant, shrugging out of her coat to let the hostess check it for her.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

krempuff

Krem smiled, and he felt that subtle squeeze on his arm, and maybe, just a little, he flexed his arm a bit under her hand. Just a touch, more a natural instinct than anything else really.

He was more than happy to share her time and space, the companionability of her presence as they walked together. The chill of the evening didn't seem quite so bad with someone else beside him, after all.

From:

juststopped

They walk in silence for a moment, the click of Adaline's heels loud on the sidewalk. She risks a glance at him, his profile. Maybe the fact that he's nothing like Ellis at all makes it easier. Maybe that's a lot of the charm. It's cold and Adaline huddles down into the collar of her coat a little.

From:

krempuff

Krem was aware, a few times, that Adaline was looking at him, but only because he was looking at her as well as they walked, and because he was trained in years of being aware of when he was being watched. He was never a spy, but he was a soldier, and he knew when someone had their eye on him. But he didn't call her on it.

When they reached her apartment, he paused outside her door, reluctant suddenly for the end of their evening.

From:

juststopped

"Well," says Adaline, leaning against the wall, her arms wrapped around herself as she looks at him, head tilted slightly. "I suppose this is where I ought to say goodnight."

From:

krempuff

"I suppose it is," Krem agreed softly, with just a touch of that reluctance in his voice. He lingered his fingers gently on Adaline's elbow for a moment, admiring her yet again as they stood there outside of her apartment door.

"Would it be terribly inappropriate of me to kiss you goodnight, Adaline?"

From:

juststopped

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't," she says. "And you're really not making it easier to not invite you in."

From:

krempuff

Krem smiled a little, fingers still gently on her elbow, but tracking up her arm just a little. "It would be irresponsible of me to make sure you didn't safely settle, I think. You did drink four glasses of wine. I'd at least won't to make sure you made it to the couch before I gave you that kiss. Plus, if we were both sitting, then you'd actually be a height I could reach."

From:

juststopped

Adaline finds herself amused by how suddenly forward he is. Yes, they've been flirting all night, they both know it, but this is something else entirely.

"The heels do come off, you know," she says, pulling away from him to start opening her front door.

From:

krempuff

"I should hope they do," Krem said, tucking his hands into his pockets and acting the perfect gentleman as she opened the door for them. He let her lead them in slipping off his jacket once again and holding it delicately in front of himself for now.

"That doesn't change that I know I'm shorter than most other men. It's something I've gotten used to over the years. I've gotten used to a lot of things that make me different from most other men."

From:

juststopped

"Tea, coffee or something stronger?" she asks, immediately slipping out of her heels and her coat and holding out her hands for his coat. She smiles, eyebrows raised expectantly. She knows a lot about not being the same as everyone else.

"You make it sound as though you've got a tail."

From:

krempuff

"Are we planning to be up all night? I'll have whatever you feel up to making for a nightcap," Krem said with a smile. "It just can't have dairy in it, if you want me to keep being good company."

He passed over his coat to her and slid out of his shoes as well, loosening the buttons on his waist coat and relaxing, just a touch. He supposed, well things were pleasant and loose and before they were terribly complicated, then was the best time to approach things.

"No, nothing quite so exotic," he assured. "I'm just a bit...queer. In quite a lot of ways."

From:

juststopped

"I suppose we'll have to see how things go," says Adaline, padding towards the kitchen in her stockinged feet. "There's beer or I think I have scotch, but only a little."

She lived in San Francisco for long enough that the word "queer" doesn't ruffle her but it does paint a very particular picture. She wonders whether it means the same thing when he says it.

"I'm very difficult to shock," she says.

From:

krempuff

"Beer sounds just fine," he said with a bit of a nod. He trailed after her quietly, his own socks quiet on the floors, his eyes trained on her ankles and calves of all things. He admired the shape of them. He wondered if she danced.

"The truth is," Krem began, and then faltered a little. Somehow, in the months he'd been in Darrow, it became harder and harder to say the words again. Wine had loosened his tongue, but the nerves still existed.

"One of the truths is," he started over, softer, "I was born a woman."

From:

juststopped

"Oh." She breathes out the sound, frozen for a moment in the process of bending over to fetch beers out of the fridge. For a moment, she stays where she is, and then it occurs to her the aspect she just be presenting and she straightens.

"Well," she says, holding out a beer to him. "I'm not sure what the appropriate response is. "Other than to offer you a beer and assure you that I'm still..." Her cheeks flush. "Still expecting that good night kiss?"

From:

krempuff

Krem, who had still been looking at Adaline's ankles, looked up when she straightened and turned back around so that their eyes met when she handed over the beer. He took it, their hands brushing momentarily. It was not nearly so intimate a touch as their one on the table had been. Still, it had him blushing just a little.

"No, that's--you deserved to know, so you didn't stop having any. Expectations."

He was quiet a moment, and then he laughed, a quiet sort of giggle, before it became a more thorough laugh. Nothing in particular was very funny, except for the way they were both suddenly dancing around this so delicately, acting as if something had so fundamentally changed, as if they hadn't just spent however long sneaking each other glances and innuendos, drinking wine and licking spoons and making vaguely crude remarks, such that he thought it was appropriate--and she thought it was appropriate--to have a nightcap together.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, let's--alright. I'm alright. Okay."

From:

juststopped

Adaline takes a swallow of her beer, leaning her butt back against the counter and studies him for a moment. Even that brief touch against her fingers leaves her craving more.

For a moment, she considers swapping her truth for his but that's too much so she just swallows her beer and then holds out her hand to him.

"Come on," she says. "Come and sit with me."

From:

krempuff

Krem nodded, picking up his bottle again and taking a sip of it to match hers. He let Adaline lead him to her couch and sat with her, near enough so that they were close but without crowding her space unnecessarily. He could smell her fragrance from this distance, or perhaps her soap; either way, it was clean and fresh and pleasant. His fingers itched to gently push her hair back behind her ear, but he contained himself, holding his beer bottle with both hands.

He smiled at her softly. "I won't be offended, you know. If you change your mind after tonight, about seeing me again. I might even still make you lemon cake."

From:

juststopped

Adaline tucks herself into the corner of the couch and, after a moment, lifts long legs and drapes them across Krem's lap. She tilts her head, leaning her temple against the back of the sofa.

"Why am I changing my mind again?" She asks.

From:

krempuff

"No, just. If you did."

He adjusted her legs carefully across his lap, aware of all the points where his callouses were and the thinness of her stockings, and how the combination of the two could go terribly wrong in an instant. It did not. He smiled at her gently tilted head and took a sip of his beer.

"You're not going to fall asleep on me, are you?"

From:

juststopped

"How disappointed would you be if I did?" She asks, lifting a sip of her own beer, enjoying the pleasant, floating sensation when she closes her eyes for a moment. "Be honest."

From:

krempuff

"Not disappointed at all," Krem assured. He brushed the side of his hand across her knee, just below the hem of her dress. "But I'd have to get that kiss from you now, before you fell asleep. Otherwise I'd feel awful about kissing you while you couldn't tell me whether you still wanted me to or not."

From:

juststopped

"I definitely want you to," Adaline says, her free hand grazing against his bicep as she looks at him. Just the small touch against her knee is enough to convince her of that.

From:

krempuff

"I should get on that then."

Krem moved slowly, shifting under Adaline's legs, to set his beer aside first. He didn't want to spill anything on her after all. Then he turned gently toward her. He finally let his needy fingers brush her hair back from her face, as he'd watched her do throughout the evening and as he'd thought about a handful of time.

He cupped her jaw gently, giving a soft little chuckle as he leaned in toward her and pressed his kiss against her cheek, soft and chaste, next to the corner of her mouth.

From:

juststopped

Adaline places her beer bottle on the table behind the sofa just before Krem's lips brush against her skin. It's a chaste kiss, relatively innocent but it stills sends a shiver through her, warmth pooling in her belly. Her fingers graze against his jaw.

From:

krempuff

He sighed, a little gustily. It might have been the remnants of a laugh caught in his chest, because his lips tipped up in a smile. He didn't move his fingers from her jaw, and her own smooth, long fingers rested peacefully on his own.

"Sorry if the ring is strange," he said softly against her cheek. "I haven't kissed anyone since I got it."

And then, gently, he shifted his mouth just that little bit more and brushed his lips on hers.