Disclaimer: I own nothing nor intend any copyright infringement.
Notes:
1-Netflix lost their minds canceling this show.
2-Van Damme's latest movie actually did just release yesterday.
Movie Night
Lito bit his lip, stifling what threatened to be a giggle at any moment. A purely childlike glee bubbled up inside him, near to bursting. It felt like being a little boy in the theatre when the houselights went down; the thrill that still caught his breath as a grown man and saw his name etched across the giant screen. It was the anticipation of something magic.
"This is really what we're watching tonight?" Hernando was not quite so excited. He kept flipping the DVD case in his hands, examining each side over and over again to see some vital clue he must have missed. He looked so adorable puzzled like that; all his high-powered intelligence mystified by a piece of garishly colored plastic. His soulful eyes were just perfect for looking like a puppy startled by its toy.
"Lito thinks we need to broaden our tastes." Daniela swept past the both of them, grabbing the case from Hernando. The two of them were always fascinating to watch together; a carefree spring breeze flitting over tranquil, watery depths.
"It is good to have variety," Lito defended his choice, carefully assembling fruit on the cheese plate. Grapes and nuts with the gruyere, figs and peach compote by the camembert. "An artist cannot fixate on only one style or role; they have to be exposed to new things, fresh ideas." The flat of the cheese knife smacked Daniela's hand when her sneaky fingers tried to steal an olive. "I just thought I should try to have a little more diversity."
He failed to stop Daniela the second time and let her make off with a sea salt cracker before he lifted the whole platter to bring to the coffee table. Movie nights were one of their most sacred times together. Two of the people he loved most—albeit in completely different ways—sitting beside him and getting lost in the wonder and power of stories on a screen. It filled Lito with such a feeling of joy that it spilled over into guilt, nearly shamed by this glut of fortune and love. The only penance could be trying to share, and that was no punishment at all.
"Yes, but—," Hernando followed Lito to the living room, still shaking his head.
"—Since when do you like Van Damme?" Felix demanded for the fifth or sixth time.
"I feel like seeing someone get thrown out a window," Wolfgang shrugged, popping the top off a beer and settling onto the sofa. The driven bass notes of the club music were loud enough to reach even this back office, becoming a dull pulse that he felt in his feet more than heard. He took a swig from the bottle and looked up to see Felix still staring down at him, caught between confusion and protest. The corner of Wolfgang's mouth tilted up in a lopsided smile, just a hint of threat playing low in his tone, "But if you prefer I could go entertain myself in the club instead."
"No, no, the movie's fine!" Felix threw up both his hands, eyes wide and face panicking as if he was about to get run over by a train.. He hadn't owned the dance club for long but a lifetime of experience had already taught him not to let Wolfie go play when he was in these moods. He glanced at the movie box, trying rather feebly to feign interest. "Oh, it's his newest one? Just released this week. Looks like it has some hot women in it."
"There's hot women in the club, Felix, go watch them. I don't need a babysitter." Wolfgang grabbed the remote with a roll of his eyes. Warm air caressed his face, heavily fragranced with fresh flowers and old furniture. Kala stood beside him with her arms crossed, lips already curling into that bemused expression of patient affection.
"Don't be like that, Wolfie, we're brothers," Felix protested, but his gaze had already drifted to the office door. The naked longing in his eyes made him a worse liar with every word. "I don't want to leave you alone."
Kala's smile grew wider at that, perfectly white teeth biting her lower lip to hold back a laugh.
"I have what I need. Go have fun." Wolfgang shooed his friend off with a wave of one hand, giving Felix permission to race back out to the teeming mass of bodies and beats.
"You see?" Kala's accent was pure music, dark eyes glittering. "You are sweeter than you think."
"He was only going to keep fussing at me and make it impossible to watch. He never stays quiet during movies." The grumbling, dismissive response came too easily. Wolfgang kept his face a mask, but inwardly there was a cringe. It was too much his second nature to evade her compliments; to try to avoid the sensation of walls growing thin and beginning to crack under the assault of her gaze.
"Because you care so much about watching actors that are pretending to do what you've done your whole life." Kala sat down beside him, the arch of one sculpted brow an eloquent accusation in itself.
She did not have to be any more specific. Unspoken between them lay bodies battered and broken at Wolfgang's feet, no trace of apology left in him for doing what others couldn't or wouldn't do. There was never judgment in her eyes; bottomless color only shimmering with the pain he'd stopped feeling years ago. She wanted to believe he was a better person than he was. The danger was that there were times she almost made him believe it too.
"And you? This isn't a Bollywood song and dance picture. You'll spend half the movie with your hands over your eyes." He expected the teasing jibe to earn him her usual tsk of annoyance, or perhaps even the roll of her eyes heavenward that seemed to implore an entire pantheon of gods for patience.
It wasn't fair that she simply took the remote from him and slid her fingers into his now empty grip. It was the simplest of touches, certainly nothing compared to what they'd shared through their resonance before. Yet the squeeze of Kala's hand felt like it wrapped directly around his heart. Her warmth was both safe haven and final assault when she leaned against him, smiling, "I love that you care."
"Of course I care! This is the third time this month I've had to go to these meetings without you. I hate thinking of you here alone all evening." Rajan paced irritably in front of the TV, oblivious to Kala's contented expression. She wrestled her face back into something that she hoped resembled concern.
"It is part of your business, Rajan. I knew when we married that I was committing to you and to the company. If I must play second wife so be it." A playful confidence that she seldom felt crept into her tone, comfortable enough to tease, "At least I am the pretty one."
The hint of laughter in her voice was enough to make him stop and face her, a sigh immediately easing the rigid line of his shoulders. The way his eyes softened and drew peace just from looking at her set emotions stirring in Kala's chest; a tumult that made her more and more uncomfortable these days.
"The most beautiful woman I will ever know." Rajan bent over to take her hands, pressing a kiss to each before meeting her gaze once more. "And more perfect than I could have hoped to find."
This time the flutter beneath her ribs had weight to it, the boulder in her belly sinking just a little deeper. She was pleased and proud to know she could help him so easily, that he could gain calm simply from her presence. Neither feeling, however, was strong enough to erase the doubt between her thoughts. The questions that were only threads before their marriage had grown steadily into chains.
The twinges of guilt she could endure; she could even convince herself that loyalty meant more than love. What she couldn't handle was this gnawing awareness that something—maybe everything —was wrong. It was a dizzying pressure cutting off her breath; the sensation of falling for so long that she didn't even care it was going to kill her, she just wanted it to end.
"Breathe." The gentle voice in her ear was so familiar by now that Kala didn't even startle. She forced her eyes to stay only on Rajan despite Riley leaning over the couch to squeeze her shoulder. "You do not have to solve every problem in one night."
Kala gave a small nod, letting out the air that she didn't realize had been trapped in her lungs. Tonight wasn't about her marriage or her problems. It really wasn't about her at all. She blinked, clearing the noisome thoughts from her mind and offered one of her most dazzling smiles.
"Don't go spending all your charm on me. You will need at least some of it for that room of businessmen waiting for you." She pressed Rajan's hands once and then pulled her fingers away, retreat disguised by sinking deeper into the plush sofa cushions.
"Very well," Rajan surrendered at last, smoothing his jacket the way a soldier might check armor before battle. He paused in the doorway, turning to cast one final worried glance towards his abandoned wife. "You won't be bored?"
"How could I possibly be bored?" Amanita shot back and forth like a roman candle on the loose.
Changing the direction of the fan by the table, rushing to close all the curtains behind the TV, grabbing pillows and blankets off the bed, making sure for the twentieth time that the DVD was loaded before darting back to the kitchen to check on popcorn. Nomi had given up trying to slow her down, content to watch the show and follow the Doppler effect of Amanita's voice ricocheting off the walls. There was an undeniably breathless excitement in her shouted reply, "I mean, we're watching a movie with your cluster!"
Nomi narrowly stepped aside in time to keep from getting clobbered with a chair. So far every possible surface that a human being could sit on had been gathered into the unofficial entertainment nook. The mass of furniture was swiftly becoming an impenetrable wall guarding the television.
"Neets, you know how this works, right?" Nomi carefully climbed over the back of the couch because that was the easiest way in.
"As much as anyone understands how any of it works, yes," Amanita shoved the bowl of popcorn into Nomi's arms and then clambered over the sofa as well. She plopped down with a grin so wide it looked painful. "I won't see or hear anyone but they'll all be here with you and we'll watch the movie." She tossed a piece of popcorn in her mouth. "It may not be totally normal but that doesn't make it complicated."
Amanita threw herself into new experiences and emotional situations with a passionate freedom that Noma still felt she had barely brushed. There was a ferocious quality to her acceptance, an unbridled enthusiasm that wasn't just a philosophy of life but an entire force of nature. Coming from a family that thought 'adventurous' meant having red wine with fish, Nomi often found her throat closing up with too many emotions, too many words that all failed to describe all the ways this woman was the perfection she'd wanted her whole life.
"She's right, it's not complicated." Logic always had the same voice. Despite the dimness of the room, there was a momentary shaft of light behind Sun that made Nomi wince. The morning light of Seoul faded, letting the willowy silhouette become a fully shaped body. One that slid with confounding grace through the tangle of furniture and took a seat.
"Someone's here aren't they?" Amanita's breath hitched, wide eyes following Nomi's gaze towards nothing.
"And it was nice of her to think of chairs. I always forget that," Will agreed, whipping her attention back around. He and Riley were already settling in beside the sofa, the blonde leaning across one armrest long enough to plant a quick kiss on Nomi's cheek.
"Yeah, they're here." It was hard to make her words come out as anything more than a whisper as everyone appeared. Nomi felt Amanita's fingers wrapped tightly around her own, happy for no reason other than the fact that she was happy.
"I smell something lovely on the popcorn." Lito leaned over the bowl, wafting the scent in for a deep breath. "Truffle oil?"
"She didn't want to use butter," Nomi nodded, astonished at the details they could pick up.
"I thought Kala might prefer it," Amanita addressed the empty space on the other side of the coffee table as naturally as if she could see Lito herself. "I thought about using ghee but I wasn't sure. It's still a dairy product and cows in this country are not treated like they're sacred on dairy farms—!" She realized she was getting too caught up in her explanation, stopping short with a slightly embarrassed smile that was utterly endearing.
"This is much healthier anyway." Nomi kissed one blushing cheek before she tossed a piece of popcorn in the air, catching it on her tongue. A trick she'd never successfully done in the past. That had to have been Wolfgang's influence.
"And it is very delicious," Kala confirmed her approval, polite even in everyone's mind.
"What's going on?" Amanita's eyes swept back and forth across the room, a hundred questions poised on her parted lips.
"Kala likes the popcorn and the consensus is that you're great." Nomi deliberately caught her girlfriend's attention, a wry smile tugging one corner of her mouth. "I think they probably wish you were in the cluster instead of me."
"Bullshit," Amanita laughed, wrapping both arms around Nomi's shoulders and sliding into her lap. "Then who would do all that sexy hacking that saves their asses?"
"Bug." Nomi might've been able to keep her deadpan expression if not for the tiny noise of revulsion that came from Sun. She looked over just in time to see one of the most stoic faces in the cluster roll her eyes.
"Unlikely." There was a marvelous quality to Sun's brusque style of speech. Inoffensive words twisted on her tongue and took on whole new meanings. In this case, a fairly scathing insult that bordered on profanity.
"But he likes my movies!" Lito argued, one hand flying to his chest as if he'd taken a deathblow.
"Well, you're no Van Damme." Wolfgang tossed a pillow at the melodramatic display. Which meant that Nomi tossed a pillow. Right at the TV.
"What is everyone doing?" Amanita stared at the wrongfully abused television.
"Oh-ho! Those are fighting words, my friend." Lito widened his stance, one brow tilting up in challenge and his finger crooking at Wolfgang with the universal 'come and get me' invitation.
"They're," Nomi hesitated. She wasn't sure how to explain that Wolfgang had tackled Lito. Or that they were having a good-natured wrestling match in this tiny space. Or how Riley and Kala were cheering them on while Sun pointed out flaws in their technique. She gave up, turning to her girlfriend with an astonished, beaming smile, "They're having fun."
There was no other way to put it; no single word could ever harmonize the exhilaration and simplicity of being together like this. Usually, when they were all connected in one place it was to fight for their very survival. Or their resonance had reached out to sweep everyone away in far more consuming pleasures. In comparison to all of that this felt so ordinary. And perfect. It was the first time they could all just . . . be.
"Are we ready for the guest of honor to arrive?" Will finally jumped in before the evening could go off track. They'd never tried this before, something basic but also—in its own way—wonderfully grand.
"Oh, yes!" Kala quietly clapped her hands, a girlish anticipation lighting her eyes.
"Let's do it." Wolfgang went back to his chair, slightly winded but with a smile that was closer to being genuinely open than Nomi had ever seen.
"Now or never, right?" Riley tugged her sleeves up into her fists, nervous but eager.
"He's going to be so happy." Lito's excitement mirrored Kala's.
"He deserves it," Sun's firm verdict was softened immeasurably by the half smile cracking her reserve.
"We all do," Nomi countered, earning nods from all the others. Regardless of whatever hell their lives had been or might become, they all deserved time to be happy. And this might just be a place to start.
Nomi knew that all of them meant different things to each other, shared different parts of themselves. She thought of fear and courage, helplessness and hope. Above all: heart, so much heart. No two of them would draw from the same place in themselves or have the same feeling, but she could feel it all flowing together; like a shadow taking on shape and then substance.
"Ah, finally!" Capheus jumped up from the couch, spinning around to greet everyone with handshakes and back slaps and even the hugs that no one else might ever offer. His face was beaming brightly, eyes dancing with the sort of innocent wonder that the rest of them had barely touched since childhood.
"So," he rubbed his hands together, sweeping his eyes over everyone in the room to search for clues, "Now will you tell me my surprise?"
End.