Thumb Rings and Ballet Slippers
When Victoria woke up, she knew she wasn't in her own bed. She wasn't worried though because she could see her brother's jeans strewn over the top of a chair and she remembered staying the night there instead of braving the way home by foot since trains and buses had all stopped running by the time she'd stopped talking to Cassandra and started to talk to her brother and his friends.
She smiled a little as she remembered her conversation with Cassandra, the sleek and obviously sophisticated woman couldn't give her a job but she'd be able to get her an audition and put a good word in for her. In a few weeks, Victoria could be a dancer for some TV singing show which meant she'd dance when they needed her and mainly in the background so it wasn't exactly the dream but she was prepared for baby steps. Hell, it was better than what she was up to now, which was absolutely nothing. Cassandra had said that if she was really good then she'd maybe recruit her for the show she was working on which was entirely dance based. Victoria felt her heart hammer in the hollows of her chest and she tried to stifle a squeal before it escaped her lips. She didn't want to get out of this bed, she wanted to spend the morning wrapped up in bedsheets and recounting her conversation with Cassandra.
She couldn't though, she knew she couldn't. She looked over at her brother's bed side clock and rolled her eyes at the '13:09' that glared back at her. Hoisting herself out of bed, Victoria felt her head go a little fuzzy and her stomach churn. She hadn't drunk much, she wanted to make sure she was coherent whilst speaking to Cassandra but when Cassandra left Victoria hung around with Quaxo and Tugger and felt the need to catch up with them. She hadn't gotten drunk but she remembered being a little disorientated when she clambered into the bed last night and now she felt off. Her stomach rumbled and she had a dry taste in her mouth, quickly, she decided to go downstairs and convince Jemima to go and get food with her before they went home.
She'd expected her brother to be waiting for her, ready to make fun of her for sleeping late, but there was only Jemima who was still curled up and sleeping on the sofa and Munkustrap who was sat adjacent to her. The two of them looked quite sweet, actually, Jemima was in Munkustrap's shirt and her tights and Munkustrap had one hand in her hair and the other wrapped around a cup of coffee with a newspaper perched on his lap.
"Oh," Victoria said, feeling awkward having walked in on them and disrupted the intimacy of the scene, "I'm sorry."
Munkustrap looked up at her and flashed this great smile, all teeth and crinkly eyes, "Don't be. Just woken up?"
Jesus, he's friendly, Victoria thought as she walked further into the room and returned his smile. Now it was light, the room didn't seem as welcoming as it did before. It was very minimalistic, with white walls and two black leather sofas, there was a poster of some old rock band that she'd never heard of on the wall but it was framed so there were no loose edges to contaminate the neatness of the place. She'd probably have liked it more before she moved in with Jemima and got used to organised messes and patterned arm chairs. The girl sat on the opposite sofa, still smiling.
"Yep, I promise I'm never this lazy," she nodded at Jemima, "And neither is she, though she's made herself very comfortable with your shirt."
Munkustrap chuckled a little, his hand was still in her hair, "She was moving around all night because she couldn't get comfortable in her dress so I just chucked my shirt at her in the end. I could her hear from there," he said and gestured to the couch Victoria was sat on with the hand that held his coffee.
"My brother said he was going to sleep here," she said patting the couch, "I wonder where he slept instead."
"With my brother, I think," Munkustrap said, his toothy grin turning wry, "Do you think we should expect a happy announcement?"
Victoria giggled, "God no. Quaxo and Tugger? No offence, your brother drives him up the wall."
"My brother drives me up the wall, it's a Tugger trait," Munkustrap replied with a grin, "Speaking of those two. They went out about twenty minutes ago to get stuff for breakfast, I think you're expected to stay and be fed."
"Joy," Victoria smiled a little as she watched the man opposite.
He was pretty attractive, she supposed, he had lovely silvery-blond hair and kind blue eyes. She watched his jaw as he took a gulp of coffee, it was one of his strongest features besides his arms and broad shoulders, she'd been trying very hard not to look at his exposed torso but couldn't help but appreciate the curve of his arms and the lines on his abs. He must have seen her looking because when he'd finished his gulp he jumped slightly and said,
"I'm sorry. Would you like a coffee? Tea? Anything?" Victoria smile a little.
"I can get to it, don't worry," he shook his head and placed his mug on a little table next to the sofa before standing up, his hand slowly unwinding itself from Jemima's hair as he did. The sleeping girl's smile flickered a little as he clapped his hands,
"What do you want?" he asked her with that friendly grin.
"Tea, if you're really that keen," Victoria said playfully as she tucked her feet beneath her and got comfortable on the sofa.
He walked into the kitchen that lay next to the living room with an open door separating them, when he flicked on the kettle it made that boiling noise and stirred Jemima, who had already been disrupted by the man's clap, from her sleep. The younger girl blinked a little confusedly at Victoria, her gentle brown eyes bleary with sleep, and slowly uncurled her body.
"Morning," Victoria giggled.
Jemima picked at the shirt she was wearing in place of her dress, "Morning. Where'd my clothes go?"
"In the corner," Victoria said and nodded to where her dress had been folded neatly with her shoes placed alongside them.
"Cool," Jemima yawned, "How did it go with Cassandra? She's great, isn't she?"
The blonde smiled as she recounted her talk with Cassandra, "She's incredibly great, she said she could get me an audition."
"Wow, incredibly great," Jemima nodded and pulled her knees to her chest, "And you'll pass that. I've seen you doing your pointy toe thing, it's great."
Victoria laughed a little at her friend's tired face as Munkustrap came in the room, his hands full with two cups of tea and his face filled with a smile.
"I thought I heard you," he said and nodded to Jemima, "So I made you tea with too much sugar, I guessed you'd still take it the same."
"You know me too well, Mister," Jemima grinned as he came closer and handed the two girls their drinks. Munkustrap sat where he was before he'd gone out to the kitchen, his hand that was wrapped in her hair fell limp at his side and the other went back to his nearly empry cup of coffee.
"We were just talking about how great Cassandra is," the dark haired girl said and nodded at Victoria.
"She's looking well, isn't she?" Munkustrap nodded, "Alonzo wouldn't shut up about her."
"Bless," Jemima grinned, "I didn't know you knew Alonzo, 'Toria."
"He's the one who shows up every morning, orders a coffee, flirts and leaves," Victoria said with a fond smile, "He's great too."
Munkustrap grinned, "Ah, so that makes you pretty coffee girl. He talks about you in work all the time."
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Cassandra was a thing of exotic beauty. The way she was already up, showered and walking around in one of his old shirts with her damp hair dripping slightly like she owned the place made him smile. He admired the curve of her hips and the length of her legs as she dried her hair with one of his towels in the mirror on his wardrobe. She was bare faced now, her lips weren't rouged and her eyes weren't shadowed but she was still so gorgeous with her tan skin and her high cheekbones.
He sat up slowly so not to disturb her and watched her for a little while before she caught sight of him in the mirror and turned quickly on her heel so she could face him.
Alonzo was a creature of handsome masculinity. He was sat straight, the blanket snaked around his hips and his back pressed against the head board. He was brushing his tousled hair back and a crooked smile was on his face and when he breathed his chest moved up and down. He was far too pretty to be a teacher. Cassandra stopped drying her hair and shrugged a little, a guilty smile tugging at her lips.
"Sorry, I was going to crawl back in when I was done, I didn't think about you waking up before I was done." He shook his head, the crooked smile not shifting from his face.
"Don't be. You can crawl in now," he said with a raised eyebrow.
She rolled her eyes and gestured to her hair, "I'm all wet."
"I don't mind."
She stood still for a minute letting the damp towel drop from her fingers, she crawled up the length of the bed before reaching the pretty man who held his arms out for her. She kept his eyes on his before resting her head on his chest and curling up on his lap, he wrapped his arms around her and rested his hands in the small of her back. She felt him sigh, his chest heaving before falling back to it's original state.
"I've missed you, Cassie," she smiled a little at that. His voice was sincere, they'd never been in an exclusive relationship but staying the night together was not unusual, well, not up until recently when the two found they were both too busy to meet up any more. Not until Cassandra had said that she was too involved at work to come to lunches and when Alonzo said that he was too tired to meet up in the evenings. She'd missed him too, she never understood why they never reached their full potential in their relationship, they could have been great.
Still could be, she thought as she pulled back and brought her face up to his so she could look at his crooked smile and brown eyes. His hands were rubbing at her back, like she was a child and he was comforting her, she felt enveloped in safety and it was all seemed so easy even though she knew having a relationship with Alonzo, second only to Tugger in the slut leagues, would be anything but easy.
"How does it always come to this?" she said with a smile, "Why do I keep coming back to this crappy teacher flat and stealing your shirts?"
"Because I'm just so damn pretty," he replied, chuckling as she slapped his chest feebly and catching her hand with his own. She looked down at their hands and smiled a little as their fingers entwined, sand on caramel skin.
"Well your pretty self slept the day away, I was afraid that you wouldn't wake up and I'd have to go," she said, biting her lip slightly as she chuckled under her breath.
"Who says you have to go?" she blinked up at him, his eyebrows were laced together now but he was still smiling, "I mean, you won't be working tomorrow right? It's Sunday tomorrow. I can make food, we can chill out on the sofa, watch bad television and then maybe a bath later. You don't have to go."
She sighed a little, "Sounds tempting but you know I can't just spend another night in your shirt, I need to brush my teeth and change my underwear, I need to go home and make sure my house remembers my name..."
"You can stay, I can go run down the corner shop and get you a toothbrush, you can borrow my underwear and I'm sure your house won't miss you as much as I will."
"'Lonzo," she murmured a little but he cut her off with a quick peck on her cheek.
"I won't complain if you tell me now that you really don't want to stay here with me but if you do then please don't leave, I miss you Cassie."
She looked at him, her eyes scanning over each of his pretty features; those eyelashes that were too long for his brown eyes, the warmth to his complexion, his white teeth and his dimpled chin. She knew that if she stayed tonight it would be harder to leave tomorrow, she knew that she'd be behind on work if she spent another night away from her study, she knew that she'd want them to be more if she watched bad television, ate, bathed and slept with him tonight. It wasn't sensible. She should say no.
"Damn you Alonzo," she murmured, "You get your ass to the kitchen and get the coffee brewing and I might think about it."
He kissed her, she felt that he was smiling while he was kissing her and in turn this made her smile. They both knew that she'd be staying.
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It was late now; outside the sky was that deep navy blue it goes before getting pitch black and the street lamps were on, if you looked outside you'd see that it was cold from the way that people were walking with their collars turned up and their hands stuffed into their pockets.
Jemima was happy to be home, in her own little chair and her pyjamas on. They'd spent two hours of the afternoon at Quaxo's, eating toast and bagels and drinking tea and orange juice. On her way home with her room mate they'd stopped to pick up a drink from the little coffee shop that Victoria worked at which was bizzarely empty for a Saturday. Rumpleteazer had laughed at their sleepy expressions and made their drinks as loudly as she possibly could to upset Victoria's now aching head. When they got home, they took it in turns to bath and once she was clean and comfortable in flannel pyjamas, Jemima made a beeline for her chair. Ah that chair, with it's embroidered birds and flowers. Victoria had put some mundane television on as background noise as both read amiably, little smiles on their faces.
"This is nice," Jemima commented, "I love my chair and pyjamas. They're the best."
Victoria chuckled and turned a page of her magazine as Jemima held her book a little away from her face, the blonde had tied her hair up in her normal bun and dressed in her pyjamas to match her room mate even though she'd laughed at Jemima when the dark haired girl surfaced from her room clad in flannel sheep.
"This is nice," Victoria agreed, "Though last night was nice too. Cassandra was great and Munkustrap seems really sweet too."
"He is very sweet," Jemima concluded with a grin.
Victoria had wanted to ask her friend about the man since she walked in on him with his hand in her hair this morning. They seemed very close, not that there was anything the matter with that, it was just that Jemima had never really mentioned him before but then again, Jemima never really mentioned much about her life before London. She bit her lip, Jemima wasn't a closed person but maybe it'd be overstepping the line asking her about this man that she knew very little about. Victoria looked at the younger over her magazine and regarded her with an uncertain look before finally deciding to get it over with.
"So are you two like... A thing?" Jemima blinked at her in surprise, "Sorry, was that too much?"
She began to laugh as Victoria babbled slightly and held up her hand, "It's okay, 'Toria. We're not a thing, he's a family friend. He's actually head over heels in love with my older sister, so I guess it'd be a bit awkward if we were a thing."
"Oh," Victoria started to laugh a little too.
"Tugger was actually head over heels for my other sister once too, frankly, it all seems very incestuous to me," Jemima grinned, sensing that Victoria was still feeling a little awkward and wanting to make her feel a little more at ease.
"Oh gosh," the blonde laughed harder, Jemima watched with relief as she started to get more comfortable. She knew a lot about Victoria, how she'd been bought up in the country with her banker Father, dancer Mother and magician brother. How her Uncle, who was some politician around London, frequently sent her some money to ensure she was getting by okay because he had far too much of it and only spent it on food, he also had been inviting her to dinners since she was thirteen and trying to marry her off to some other politician's son since she was fifteen. Victoria barely knew anything about Jemima because Jemima hadn't really wanted to tell her. It wasn't an awfully tragic story or even that difficult it was just so different from Victoria's, plus, her room mate had never asked so it seemed pointless to talk about it anyway.
Victoria stretched a little bit, her eyes still on Jemima who looked back at her with a little smile. The two were close now, it had only been a month of cohabitation and Victoria felt as though she could tell Jemima anything and not worry about her being judged. It was refreshing, when she was younger all she'd experienced from friendships with girls her own age was speaking when she was meant to and hoping desperately that she was liked. She didn't need to worry about whether Jemima liked her because Jemima liked everyone, she endorsed Victoria's occasional silliness and sat and listened when Victoria needed her to. So why did Victoria know so little about her room mate's life before London? She knew the basics, that Jemima had two sisters, that she counted Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer as her siblings and that there was another cousin she was close to who was about Victoria's age. She wanted to know, she just felt rude asking. The blonde stood quickly and walked to the kitchen, her bare feet slapping the floor as she did.
"I propose horrible take out food and a film," she called as she tried to find the local Chinese food place's flier in the kitchen, her lips broke out into a smile as the younger girl's laughter chirped from the other room.
"Sounds good, let's ruin that dancer physique of yours with over priced grease."
((A/N: There we go, new chapter! I like writing the characters as humans and I'm glad to see that people are enjoying it too c: Thank you to everyone that has been reviewing, it really does make my day!))