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

"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.

From:

juststopped

It's a good kiss, light as it is, and Adaline leans forward so that she can press into it, just a little, hand shifting to cradle the side of his neck. She huffs a little laugh against his mouth.

"Well, it's definitely a first for me."

From:

krempuff

"Good first?"

Krem matched her, pressure for pressure and angle for angle, not quite wanting to rush anything too quickly no matter how much he wanted to see what a deeper kiss was like with her. He smiled a little. Talking through the kisses seemed to be a good way to keep things light, for now.

From:

juststopped

"So far so good," says Addie, shifting a little closer still, even if it's slightly awkward with her legs still draped across his lip. She makes a soft sound against his mouth and she's blushing when the kiss breaks, down under the collar of her dress.

From:

krempuff

Krem shifted, just a little more, adjusting the way that Adaline was settled with an ease that spoke to his strength more than anything else. It ended up with her hips in his lap more than her legs across him, and he paused in the kiss for a moment, his nose against hers, as he looked at her from up close.

Then, he kissed her a bit more deeply than before, still slow and a little coaxing, but chasing after that soft sound that she'd made only a few moments before, hoping to elicit more of them out of her.

From:

juststopped

How strong he is takes her a little bit by surprise, her cheeks flushing even darker. She curls her arm around his neck, leaning down into the kiss now, blonde hair slipping forward to curtain their faces. Her fingers slip into Krem's shorter hair.

From:

krempuff

There was something about a graceful woman atop him like this that always managed to make him feel him alight. Krem didn't have a lot of experience with it, but the experience that he did have proved it an awfully concrete fact. He sighed against Adaline's mouth as she slid his fingers into his hair, one of his own gently carding into hers as well as he kept on with the kiss.

The other fell back down to her knee, now on the fabric of her skirt, rubbing gently. He was not quite bold enough to dip underneath. Not yet at least.

From:

juststopped

"This is a lot more involved than I was expecting when you mentioned a kiss good night," she says, biting her lip as she looks down at him, her hair tousled over one shoulder. She shifts her hips a little in his lap, alcohol making her feel loose and bold.

He's handsome and he smells good and Adaline takes another kiss just because she can.

From:

krempuff

"This is a bit more than I had intended when I meant a kiss good night," he confessed, his hands pausing in their spots, enjoying the warmth and weight of her across his lap as he darted his tongue across his lip briefly. "We can stop, if you'd like. We're both adults."