Jane swings the bag back and forth as she prances along the sidewalk next to you. She's still wearing the blue dress, since you didn't go back to your room before heading to the grocery store. You cling to her hand to ensure she does not bounce too far ahead of you. She smiles up at you, showing her pearly teeth.
"So, you really have never had an actual dinner, not frozen pizza and ramen kind of dinners?" Jane asks, again.
"Bro cooks burgers on the old barbeque sometimes."
"Other than that?"
"Well, it's not JUST frozen pizza and ramen," You say, she raises an eyebrow, "But, yeah, that pretty much sums it up."
"Well, tonight, we will be having chicken breast with fried rice and-"
"And tomorrow?"
"Spaghetti."
"Oh, can we have that tonight? I haven't sketty in eons."
"Alright, we can have it tonight."
"Sweet."
You lay sprawled across your bed, staring up at the ceiling. You can hear Jane moving around in the kitchen, you know she hasn't been in there long, but it feels like you have been laying there for quite a while. You lift your head a little to look at her. She's facing away from you, but you're fine with that view. She's still wearing the blue dress, she didn't even argue about taking it off to cook.
You let your head drop back onto the sheets, not long after, Jane swiftly prances over to the bed, without alerting you, and plops onto it next to you. You turn onto your side, propping your head up with your hand, like Jane is.
"Is it ready?"
"No, silly! It has to cook first!"
You groan dramatically, "I'm so-o-o-o hungry." Not really.
"Suck it up, Princess." She smiles.
"Excuse me, there's no way you're not the princess in that dress."
"Since when do princesses cook?"
"True. Okay. Improv. It looks kinda like a maid's dress."
Jane glances at the dress, "Yeah, okay."
"Oh, so you're my maid. I like this idea."
She giggles, covering her mouth shyly with her hand.
"So, that means I get to boss you around and tell you what to do." You say suggestively. You roll onto your hands to hover above Jane. She stares up at you nervously, her face turning to a bright red shade. You grin slightly at her and lean down to kiss her passionately on the lips.
She returns the gesture, pulling you closer to her and running her fingers through your hair. Your hand slowly moves farther up her leg, under her dress and towards her underwear.
"Uhm, Dirk?!" She squeaks after pulling away from him.
"Darn, I was hoping you wouldn't say anything." You smirks.
Jane raises an eyebrow, "I thought you knew me better than that Mr. Strider."
"Mr. Strider? Are you suggesting roleplay?"
"And what if I am."
"That's hot." You say, making Jane giggle.
"I'm sorry Mr. Strider, I can't indulge in your tomfoolery right now, I'm supposed to be cooking a meal!"
"Damn the man that requested such of you. Crocker, you don't need to spend your life cowering in the kitchen and cooking for this man. You could run away with me, we'll get a little kitchen of our own, and everything will be perfect." You tell her, fake sincerity in your voice and eyes as you speak passionately about the 'dream' you have planned out for the two of you.
"Golly, Mr. Strider, that's quite the offer, it's very tempting, I must say! But I have a family! Brothers and sisters to feed! Dozens of them! I could never leave to let them starve while I gallivant around with you."
"That's okay, Dave can take care of John."
"Right. Of course he will."
"The kid's adorable, who wouldn't take care of him."
"That's true."
The buzzer to remind Jane of the cooking noodles went off suddenly, causing Jane to jump up in surprise. She tried to get out from beneath Dirk, but he refused to move his arm to allow her out.
"Diiiiirk." Jane whined exasperatedly.
"Jaaaaaane." Dirk copied with equal intensity. Jane furrowed her brows and stared straight into his glasses for a moment. She slowly reached up after a moment to remove his shades. At that motion, Dirk immediately rolled onto his side, out of her way. Jane giggled as she made her way over to the kitchen. She took care of the noodles, draining them and placing them in a bowl for them to be served. Dirk sheepishly followed her from the bed to the kitchen, and watched her work from there. She pulls the pot of sauce off the stove, though it's not homemade, it's warmed up from a jar you bought at the store, Jane apparently added her own little ingredients to it. She sets everything out on the small table, and two sets of dishes.
You take a seat at the table, and wait for Jane to join you.
"Dirk, no shades at the table." She grins as she sits across from you.
"What?"
"It's the same as no hats at the table." Jane tells you flatly, though you know she has motives behind it.
"Does that mean I have to take my shirt off, too?" You gesture to the orange hat printed across your chest.
"Yes, and your shades. Chop, chop." You take her up on that, making sure you remove the shades last, you sit across from her, shirtless and shadeless. Needless to say, you'd rather be completely nude than shadeless. You help her dish out the spaghetti, then dollop some sauce onto your plate. She added meat balls. Hell yes.
You take your first bite before her. She watches you slurp it up and bask in the glory. "Oh my God, this shit right here is absolute perfection." You scoop up another forkful.
"Hey, do I need to start feeding you myself? Because it would be a real inconvenience if you choked."
"My apologies, m'am." You say sarcastically and start nibbling at one noodle at a time. She rolls her eyes, a smile creeping onto her face.
"I bet Roxy and Jake are wondering where the heck we are right now and are freaking out." She chuckles.
"Every time I turn the internet on on those things," You nod at the shades, "I get bombarded by her messages. I'm betting your pesterchum is looking pretty beat up, too."
"Gosh, I feel bad."
"Did you bring your computer? We could cam with her."
"No. It would have been too much. I've got my phone."
"Damn. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to put up with her fury when we get home."
Jane shudders at the terrifying thought, "It won't be fun."
"Yeah, but she'll get over it when she hears our little juicy piece of gossip."
"I don't know why she likes gossip so much? Who does she have to tell it to. All she has is us and Jake."
"Roxy's an odd duck. I stopped wondering about her a long time ago." You say.
Jane chuckles, nodding in agreement.
"Wouldn't it be great if all four of us could be here?"
Jane smiles at the thought, "Jake would be calling it his big adventure. Roxy would be having the time of her life. It would be great."
"I'd say let's drive up to New York, but then we'd be leaving Jake out."
"Yeah, I'd hate to do that."
"He just had to be born in Hawaii."
"So selfish."
"He's probably that weird kid that everyone thinks is nuts, like Lilo."
She laughs, "I'd bet a whole lot of cash on that. He probably loved that movie as a kid."
"You're probably right." You chuckle as you finish off the last of your food. "I'm sorry to say that I don't think I can eat another bite."
"Not for another three days?"
"Definitely not for another three days."
"Good, I've done my job." You help Jane clear the dishes away from the tabletop, and you both opt to do them later, and decide on wandering the area for a while. It seems like a cool night, perfect for a walk. You each grab a sweater before heading out.
She slips her hand into yours, even against the cooling wind, her hand warms yours up like a blazing fire. You can easily picture laying in front of a fireplace in your own house you could own with her someday.
She talks you into going to a movie rental place, you easily agree to whatever she says at any time, though.
"What should we watch?" She wonders as she pulls you through the isles, scanning the hundreds of DVD covers.
"Well, I know this great site this weird guy with these weird pointy shades runs, I bet you'd be pretty entertained by that." You grin devilishly from behind her.
"Now would would I want to watch that when I can see the real deal in person." She rebukes suggestively.
"Well, snap, Jane isn't actually a prude, guys. What are we still doing here?"
"Well, I'm being a tease, 'cause there's no way you're getting a piece of this tonight." She winks after gesturing to herself, then giggles as she prances away. You chase her into the next isle.
She starts scanning the movies again. You realize she's looking at Disney movies.
"Sweet, we're having a Disney night."
"Yes! I want to watch Lilo and Stitch now."
"Okay, can we get Tangled, too."
She giggles sweetly, "You pick the princess movie?"
"Hell fucking yes. Who wouldn't pick that movie?"
Jane grabs the movie from the shelf, a smile still on her face. She takes your hand again and leads you towards the front desk.
"I'm renting these. Not you."
"Fine." You shrug, not bothering to put up a fight and make her feel worse about the money situation. She pays for the rentals and you exit the building. You take your time getting back to the hotel, and fool around on the slowly emptying streets.
When you make it back to your room, you lock the door behind you, assuming neither of you will be leaving again tonight.
"Okay, I'm going to change out of this first." Jane says as she rummages through her bag. She pulls out some pajamas and heads for the bathroom.
"Wow, you can't change out here? It's not like I'm some stranger you just started rooming with."
"I'm not stripping for you, Dirk." She continues for the bathroom.
"Hey, I never said anything about that!" She slams the door to end the conversation.
Your purse your lips, accepting defeat, but you know you'll break her someday. Soon. You decide on putting Tangled in first, and Jane can't say a word about it. You relax on Jane's bed and watch the previews while waiting on Jane.
She hangs up the dress in the empty closet next to the bathroom and joins you on the bed.
You're not more than half way through the movie when you realize Jane's asleep in your arms. You gladly let her sleep like that for the rest of the movie.
You let the credits play while you settle her properly into the bed, smiling at her peaceful face. Now you can see how much stress she was under before, now that you see her without it. She must be making herself worry too much about her dad and John. You turn off the television and all the lights. As you're about to climb into your bed, but you decide to curl up with Jane. She won't mind. You're not actually doing anything bad.
You slip under the covers with her, she immediately latches onto your body and you smile, wrapping your arms protectively around her and enjoying the glory of her presence, even if you only get it for a little while.