[ct] 57.5 - small talk (formerly 45.1)
Mar. 16th, 2009 01:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magic_fratboyNOTE: takes place during Tommy's extended solo vacation earlier this year, prior to his birthday.
“What’s the weather like?”
“Completely shitty.” He declares, unable to stop from smiling as he stretches in place on the bed in his hotel room. “I’m kinda into it.”
She laughs, and he catches a vision of her in his mind. She said she was just out of the shower and he can see it: damp skin wrapped in a fluffy towel, hair swept back off her face as she huddles in on herself to ward off the chill of the too-cool room.
“How ‘bout you? What’s the weather like out there?”
“Oh, it’s…um…well, it’s LA, ya know?”
It’s evasive, but he’s more interested in the rustle and shift on the other end of the line than what she’s actually saying. The words are empty, meaningless…it’s the voice, the image, the sensory memory of her scent and her skin that he’s interested in. He hates the inevitability of his trip, the necessity of leaving her and traversing the country to find answers to questions he should have answered before Harry Houdini died.
“Yeah, I know…how’s Hardy?”
“He’s good, he misses you. I had to give him your pillowcase to sleep on. Sorry.”
He laughs, his voice merging with the chuckle in her voice. Every word is a length of rope he uses to pull her closer, across the miles, across the wires and into his room…into his bed.
“Don’t sweat it, let him have the thing. I got more.”
“I know…I miss you, baby.”
He sighs, the quiet loneliness too much for him to bear in that moment. “Christ, not half as much as I miss you…you don’t have any idea.”
“Just…don’t take any extra time?”
The words are like pulling teeth, he can tell, admitting how new this is, too new to be tested by a long separation. It hurts, perhaps too much…it turns small talk into a strange and intimate ritual more intimate than making love, lays too much meaning in words that ought to mean nothing as they fill the space between the parts of the conversation that actually matter.
She’s not used to needing him, and he’s not used to being wanted by her. Yet there they sit…wanting, needing, waiting.
“I’ll be home before ya know it.” He assures her, making the words a promise without saying the words.
“…okay.”
“Okay, then.”
“Tommy?”
“Yeah?”
“Love you.”
“I love you, too, Zee…talk to you soon.”
“Bye.”
She says it like it’s real…like she’s still expecting the bubble to burst. For that reason, he doesn’t say goodbye before hanging up.
It’s just one more silent promise to her that he’s coming home.
Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 443
Partner: Ziyah Ambrogio (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
zee_ali)
“What’s the weather like?”
“Completely shitty.” He declares, unable to stop from smiling as he stretches in place on the bed in his hotel room. “I’m kinda into it.”
She laughs, and he catches a vision of her in his mind. She said she was just out of the shower and he can see it: damp skin wrapped in a fluffy towel, hair swept back off her face as she huddles in on herself to ward off the chill of the too-cool room.
“How ‘bout you? What’s the weather like out there?”
“Oh, it’s…um…well, it’s LA, ya know?”
It’s evasive, but he’s more interested in the rustle and shift on the other end of the line than what she’s actually saying. The words are empty, meaningless…it’s the voice, the image, the sensory memory of her scent and her skin that he’s interested in. He hates the inevitability of his trip, the necessity of leaving her and traversing the country to find answers to questions he should have answered before Harry Houdini died.
“Yeah, I know…how’s Hardy?”
“He’s good, he misses you. I had to give him your pillowcase to sleep on. Sorry.”
He laughs, his voice merging with the chuckle in her voice. Every word is a length of rope he uses to pull her closer, across the miles, across the wires and into his room…into his bed.
“Don’t sweat it, let him have the thing. I got more.”
“I know…I miss you, baby.”
He sighs, the quiet loneliness too much for him to bear in that moment. “Christ, not half as much as I miss you…you don’t have any idea.”
“Just…don’t take any extra time?”
The words are like pulling teeth, he can tell, admitting how new this is, too new to be tested by a long separation. It hurts, perhaps too much…it turns small talk into a strange and intimate ritual more intimate than making love, lays too much meaning in words that ought to mean nothing as they fill the space between the parts of the conversation that actually matter.
She’s not used to needing him, and he’s not used to being wanted by her. Yet there they sit…wanting, needing, waiting.
“I’ll be home before ya know it.” He assures her, making the words a promise without saying the words.
“…okay.”
“Okay, then.”
“Tommy?”
“Yeah?”
“Love you.”
“I love you, too, Zee…talk to you soon.”
“Bye.”
She says it like it’s real…like she’s still expecting the bubble to burst. For that reason, he doesn’t say goodbye before hanging up.
It’s just one more silent promise to her that he’s coming home.
Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 443
Partner: Ziyah Ambrogio (
zee_ali)
