Background tat for Forsaken
Oct. 8th, 2009 07:43 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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writing_shadows"You know this is kinda creepy, right?" the schoolgirl said.
The blonde man, sat perched on a motorbike across the road from the school gates had the grace to look decidedly awkward.
"What the..." he spluttered, followed with "goddamnit, Rio. I was just in the area..."
"Of my school?"
Rio Knight raised an eyebrow. The man on the motorbike looked like he was torn between blushing and snarling.
"Yes," he said at last. "Of your school. And I thought you might like a lift home. Because I'm nice like that, you see."
Rio looked entirely unconvinced.
"Right. You know there's a word for 'nice guys' who hang around schools waiting to give lifts home to school children? Do you want to show me puppies as well?"
"What? No! Look, I just wanted..."
Leonard Anderson had the distinct feeling that this was going badly wrong. To be fair, that wasn't exactly uncommon with Rio Knight. Talking to her was rather like trying to hug a porcupine and he was increasingly confused as to why exactly he kept doing it.
Rio raised an eyebrow at Lennie.
"You wanted?"
"I wanted to offer you a ride home. Seein' as it's a long way an' all."
Rio looked unconvinced. "Do you want to offer Raph a lift to? How about Isabelle? She's pretty young. Probably harder for her to walk home than me..."
Lennie looked as if he was considering breaking something. Or running away. Or maybe both. The expression on his face gave Rio an odd kind of satisfaction. She had no idea exactly why she enjoyed tormenting the young Elodoth quite so much, but she had pretty much never managed to get that kind of response out of an Uratha before. Most of her Dad's pack would have clipped her by now at the very least. But Lennie just developed a very slightly pained expression.
"Yeah. I guess li'l Isabelle probably needs a lift..." he said, with a tone of resignation.
Rio suspected that Isabelle and Raph had set out for home ages ago, but she leant against Lennie's bike companionably without saying anything.
"I'll keep you company," she said, "but if you try leering at me again, I walk."
"Wha...?" Lennie almost did growl this time. "I wasn't..."
That was a lie. They both knew it. He'd been looking her up and down since she walked out of the front gate. At seventeen Rio knew that look. It meant, she figured, that she had the length of time it took for her to either put out, or for the guy to give up, to say pretty much anything she wanted. After that time expired the guy would be a prick, but then, that was kinda inevitable in the grand scheme of things as far as she could tell.
Rio grinned at Lennie, sharp toothed and unafraid.
"You were," she said, and leant against him for a moment, nudging him with her shoulder affectionately.
Outside the last of the students were walking out, with Isabelle Richards and Raphael Knight not amongst them. Rio threw Lennie a look of mock sympathy.
"Guess you're out of luck," she said.
Lennie sighed.
"Yeah," he said. "Guess I am. Better get goin', I guess."
He swung his leg over his bike, and reached for his helmet. He genuinely wasn't expecting to feel warm hands at his waist, and the clear scent of rosemary and lavender that always brought Rio to mind.
"Look," she said, as she slid her arms around him, "I've got nothing else to do, so I'm going to catch a ride with you on two conditions.
"First, you take me anywhere except my Dad's house. And second, if you try and make a move on me, I'm going to tell my Dad."
******************************
There was a sharp wind up at the hill that they drove to that night. It bit through Rio's blouse, and made her shiver. She and Lennie argued for five minutes about whether she was going to let him put his coat around her shoulders. In the end she gave way, mildly surprised that he hadn't tried to put his arms around her. In fact, he hadn't tried to touch her all evening, although he'd not managed to stop his eyes from wandering.
She decided to ignore him for a moment and stared out across the glittering lights of the M25, somewhere beneath them.
"So," Lennie said after a while, "what kind of things do you like?"
Rio threw him a contemptuous look.
"That's a lame chat up line," she said.
He snarled, almost in earnest for the first time. Being snipped at was beginning to get to him. OK, so it was cute that this girl wasn't scared of him but she was also the closest thing to a grade A bitch he'd met in some time.
"It wasn't a chat up line, Rio," he growled. "It was a question. You know, makin' conversation. The thing of thing folks do when gettin' to know each other."
Rio raised an eyebrow.
"OK, and you really care what I like?"
"Well, not if you keep talkin' to me like that," Lennie snapped.
Rio paused for a moment, and then smiled. It was the first time Lennie had seem her smile, and he was taken aback. She looked better that way, softer somehow, although this smile had an edge of amusement in it which didn't entirely make sense.
"OK," she said, slightly more gently. "What do I like? I guess...I like music."
"Music?" Lennie said.
She nodded. "Yeah. Music. I'm going to go the Glastonbury Festival this year."
"Is that right?" Lennie said. "Who's playin' there then?"
"Not Suzanne Vega,"
Rio wished she hadn't said that almost immediately. Suzanne Vega had been playing Glastonbury two years back, when she'd had the line up written in biro and pinned to her bedroom wall with little notes that Jonah had added about each of the acts. She frowned slightly and when she spoke the normal edge to her voice had come back.
"James are playing this year. You know James?"
"Well, not personally..." Lennie said and got poked in the ribs by the teenage girl at his side. He couldn't help but laugh. "I'm 29, not 80, Rio. Yes, I know who James are."
Lennie's laughter was contagious and Rio found herself smiling again. "You like them?" she asked.
Lennie shrugged.
"I guess," he said. "I'm a bit more into the older stuff. Not this whiny indie shit."
Rio's eyes opened in indignation.
"Whiny indie shit?" she squeaked.
Lennie had never seen her look quite so flat out horrified. The laughter overtook him before he could stop himself, and even the fairly solid punch to the left bicep couldn't stop him.
"I'm sorry..." he gasped. "Sorry. Really. I am. OK. What else do you like?"
Rio continued to glare.
"Whiny indie shit?" she said again, and tried to recover her slightly dented dignity. "I like Classics. You know...Latin, Greek. You do know, right?"
Lennie raised an eyebrow. "American," he said. "Not dumb. Well, not that dumb anyway."
Rio rolled her eyes at him. "I don't know," she said, sharp and cocky again. "You seem plenty dumb to me. Anyway, I'm going to do a Classics degree next year. Get out of this place..."
She gestured around her with some contempt.
"Good for you," Lennie said gently. He smiled at her, and was surprised to be rewarded with a smile back.
"I always said I'd get out of here," Rio said. "You know, see the world. Go somewhere. I want to go to Greece. I've got this picture of Phaistos Palace on Crete pinned to the wall by my bed. I got it when I was...like...twelve or something. One day I'm going to see it for real."
Her expression was softer than it had been before. "Then I want to go to Rome, and Turkey. I want to learn how to scuba dive. Don't you think that would be amazing?"
Lennie nodded slowly.
"Yeah," he said. "I reckon it would be. So, how did you get interested in that kind of thing?"
The prickliness came back almost instantly. Her shoulders tightened and the hardness about the eyes was back, making her uglier than she had been a minute ago.
Rio shrugged. "Some guy I knew was interested in it for a bit when I was younger. He did Latin GCSE."
"Sounds like a nice guy," Lennie said, slightly confused as to the tension in Rio's voice.
She laughed, shortly and without humour. "Not really. Well. Maybe. I don't know. He called me a slut and dumped me."
"What?"
Lennie blinked.
"OK. So he's not a nice guy. That's a hell of a mean thing..."
"What? Are you the morality police now? What do you care?" Rio snapped back. The porcupine was back in force now, and her tone was like a knife. She stared out into the darkness and shrugged. "Doesn't matter anyway."
Lennie didn't say anything to her for a minute but looked at her steadily. Then he said "OK. Guess it don't matter."
Rio half smiled, and leant against him. He felt warm and solid. And she knew it wouldn't last, and it would all evaporate, like it always did, but right now it felt good to be here with him.
Lennie very cautiously put an arm around her shoulder. She didn't seem to object.
They talked a little more, going back to music, to travel, to the exact time it took to cover Route 99. It grew late, and at last Lennie muttered, reluctantly, that maybe he should be getting Rio safe home, before her Dad started taking offense.
Rio shrugged.
"He won't be home yet. He's out playing poker tonight with Paul Richards. He won't get home to the small hours."
She glanced sideways at Lennie, thoughtfully. He was good looking enough and she liked the way his breath sometimes caught in his throat when she touched him. She wasn't quite old enough to understand her own reactions to him either, but she'd noticed that getting him riled made her feel very slightly out of breath herself, and as bright as polished copper.
She raised an eyebrow and put on her most lazily bored voice.
"So, are you going to actually kiss me or not? Because I'm getting kinda bored of waiting."
Lennie's expression actually made her laugh out loud, which made him growl low in his throat.
And then he kissed her, and the rest of the evening was lost.
The blonde man, sat perched on a motorbike across the road from the school gates had the grace to look decidedly awkward.
"What the..." he spluttered, followed with "goddamnit, Rio. I was just in the area..."
"Of my school?"
Rio Knight raised an eyebrow. The man on the motorbike looked like he was torn between blushing and snarling.
"Yes," he said at last. "Of your school. And I thought you might like a lift home. Because I'm nice like that, you see."
Rio looked entirely unconvinced.
"Right. You know there's a word for 'nice guys' who hang around schools waiting to give lifts home to school children? Do you want to show me puppies as well?"
"What? No! Look, I just wanted..."
Leonard Anderson had the distinct feeling that this was going badly wrong. To be fair, that wasn't exactly uncommon with Rio Knight. Talking to her was rather like trying to hug a porcupine and he was increasingly confused as to why exactly he kept doing it.
Rio raised an eyebrow at Lennie.
"You wanted?"
"I wanted to offer you a ride home. Seein' as it's a long way an' all."
Rio looked unconvinced. "Do you want to offer Raph a lift to? How about Isabelle? She's pretty young. Probably harder for her to walk home than me..."
Lennie looked as if he was considering breaking something. Or running away. Or maybe both. The expression on his face gave Rio an odd kind of satisfaction. She had no idea exactly why she enjoyed tormenting the young Elodoth quite so much, but she had pretty much never managed to get that kind of response out of an Uratha before. Most of her Dad's pack would have clipped her by now at the very least. But Lennie just developed a very slightly pained expression.
"Yeah. I guess li'l Isabelle probably needs a lift..." he said, with a tone of resignation.
Rio suspected that Isabelle and Raph had set out for home ages ago, but she leant against Lennie's bike companionably without saying anything.
"I'll keep you company," she said, "but if you try leering at me again, I walk."
"Wha...?" Lennie almost did growl this time. "I wasn't..."
That was a lie. They both knew it. He'd been looking her up and down since she walked out of the front gate. At seventeen Rio knew that look. It meant, she figured, that she had the length of time it took for her to either put out, or for the guy to give up, to say pretty much anything she wanted. After that time expired the guy would be a prick, but then, that was kinda inevitable in the grand scheme of things as far as she could tell.
Rio grinned at Lennie, sharp toothed and unafraid.
"You were," she said, and leant against him for a moment, nudging him with her shoulder affectionately.
Outside the last of the students were walking out, with Isabelle Richards and Raphael Knight not amongst them. Rio threw Lennie a look of mock sympathy.
"Guess you're out of luck," she said.
Lennie sighed.
"Yeah," he said. "Guess I am. Better get goin', I guess."
He swung his leg over his bike, and reached for his helmet. He genuinely wasn't expecting to feel warm hands at his waist, and the clear scent of rosemary and lavender that always brought Rio to mind.
"Look," she said, as she slid her arms around him, "I've got nothing else to do, so I'm going to catch a ride with you on two conditions.
"First, you take me anywhere except my Dad's house. And second, if you try and make a move on me, I'm going to tell my Dad."
There was a sharp wind up at the hill that they drove to that night. It bit through Rio's blouse, and made her shiver. She and Lennie argued for five minutes about whether she was going to let him put his coat around her shoulders. In the end she gave way, mildly surprised that he hadn't tried to put his arms around her. In fact, he hadn't tried to touch her all evening, although he'd not managed to stop his eyes from wandering.
She decided to ignore him for a moment and stared out across the glittering lights of the M25, somewhere beneath them.
"So," Lennie said after a while, "what kind of things do you like?"
Rio threw him a contemptuous look.
"That's a lame chat up line," she said.
He snarled, almost in earnest for the first time. Being snipped at was beginning to get to him. OK, so it was cute that this girl wasn't scared of him but she was also the closest thing to a grade A bitch he'd met in some time.
"It wasn't a chat up line, Rio," he growled. "It was a question. You know, makin' conversation. The thing of thing folks do when gettin' to know each other."
Rio raised an eyebrow.
"OK, and you really care what I like?"
"Well, not if you keep talkin' to me like that," Lennie snapped.
Rio paused for a moment, and then smiled. It was the first time Lennie had seem her smile, and he was taken aback. She looked better that way, softer somehow, although this smile had an edge of amusement in it which didn't entirely make sense.
"OK," she said, slightly more gently. "What do I like? I guess...I like music."
"Music?" Lennie said.
She nodded. "Yeah. Music. I'm going to go the Glastonbury Festival this year."
"Is that right?" Lennie said. "Who's playin' there then?"
"Not Suzanne Vega,"
Rio wished she hadn't said that almost immediately. Suzanne Vega had been playing Glastonbury two years back, when she'd had the line up written in biro and pinned to her bedroom wall with little notes that Jonah had added about each of the acts. She frowned slightly and when she spoke the normal edge to her voice had come back.
"James are playing this year. You know James?"
"Well, not personally..." Lennie said and got poked in the ribs by the teenage girl at his side. He couldn't help but laugh. "I'm 29, not 80, Rio. Yes, I know who James are."
Lennie's laughter was contagious and Rio found herself smiling again. "You like them?" she asked.
Lennie shrugged.
"I guess," he said. "I'm a bit more into the older stuff. Not this whiny indie shit."
Rio's eyes opened in indignation.
"Whiny indie shit?" she squeaked.
Lennie had never seen her look quite so flat out horrified. The laughter overtook him before he could stop himself, and even the fairly solid punch to the left bicep couldn't stop him.
"I'm sorry..." he gasped. "Sorry. Really. I am. OK. What else do you like?"
Rio continued to glare.
"Whiny indie shit?" she said again, and tried to recover her slightly dented dignity. "I like Classics. You know...Latin, Greek. You do know, right?"
Lennie raised an eyebrow. "American," he said. "Not dumb. Well, not that dumb anyway."
Rio rolled her eyes at him. "I don't know," she said, sharp and cocky again. "You seem plenty dumb to me. Anyway, I'm going to do a Classics degree next year. Get out of this place..."
She gestured around her with some contempt.
"Good for you," Lennie said gently. He smiled at her, and was surprised to be rewarded with a smile back.
"I always said I'd get out of here," Rio said. "You know, see the world. Go somewhere. I want to go to Greece. I've got this picture of Phaistos Palace on Crete pinned to the wall by my bed. I got it when I was...like...twelve or something. One day I'm going to see it for real."
Her expression was softer than it had been before. "Then I want to go to Rome, and Turkey. I want to learn how to scuba dive. Don't you think that would be amazing?"
Lennie nodded slowly.
"Yeah," he said. "I reckon it would be. So, how did you get interested in that kind of thing?"
The prickliness came back almost instantly. Her shoulders tightened and the hardness about the eyes was back, making her uglier than she had been a minute ago.
Rio shrugged. "Some guy I knew was interested in it for a bit when I was younger. He did Latin GCSE."
"Sounds like a nice guy," Lennie said, slightly confused as to the tension in Rio's voice.
She laughed, shortly and without humour. "Not really. Well. Maybe. I don't know. He called me a slut and dumped me."
"What?"
Lennie blinked.
"OK. So he's not a nice guy. That's a hell of a mean thing..."
"What? Are you the morality police now? What do you care?" Rio snapped back. The porcupine was back in force now, and her tone was like a knife. She stared out into the darkness and shrugged. "Doesn't matter anyway."
Lennie didn't say anything to her for a minute but looked at her steadily. Then he said "OK. Guess it don't matter."
Rio half smiled, and leant against him. He felt warm and solid. And she knew it wouldn't last, and it would all evaporate, like it always did, but right now it felt good to be here with him.
Lennie very cautiously put an arm around her shoulder. She didn't seem to object.
They talked a little more, going back to music, to travel, to the exact time it took to cover Route 99. It grew late, and at last Lennie muttered, reluctantly, that maybe he should be getting Rio safe home, before her Dad started taking offense.
Rio shrugged.
"He won't be home yet. He's out playing poker tonight with Paul Richards. He won't get home to the small hours."
She glanced sideways at Lennie, thoughtfully. He was good looking enough and she liked the way his breath sometimes caught in his throat when she touched him. She wasn't quite old enough to understand her own reactions to him either, but she'd noticed that getting him riled made her feel very slightly out of breath herself, and as bright as polished copper.
She raised an eyebrow and put on her most lazily bored voice.
"So, are you going to actually kiss me or not? Because I'm getting kinda bored of waiting."
Lennie's expression actually made her laugh out loud, which made him growl low in his throat.
And then he kissed her, and the rest of the evening was lost.
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 08:48 am (UTC)I see now why Holly never heard the story about Lennie getting put through a wall by her Grandad.
If the story began with 'well, your Mum got pregnant by accident' she started to howl and run for the hills.
"Lalala...that's not possible...my mum and dad would never do that...never...only had sex once...maybe...to have me...argh!"
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Date: 2009-10-08 09:01 am (UTC)The three of them live in a motorhome - Holly can't have not heard them!
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Date: 2009-10-08 09:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 09:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 09:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 09:41 am (UTC)Otherwise I should try and write up my october challenge piece later.
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Date: 2009-10-08 11:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 11:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 11:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 11:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 11:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 11:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 10:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-08 10:41 am (UTC)It wasn't that bad!!!!!!!!!!!!