17247/Your place or mine
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| Your place or mine | |
|---|---|
| Date of Scene: | 20 February 2024 |
| Location: | 4B - Luca Bandoni |
| Synopsis: | Luca and Olivia just wanna have fun, but the deep end is too tempting.
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| Cast of Characters: | Luca Bandoni, Olivia Gaudin
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- Luca Bandoni has posed:
His place was the correct answer to the question. Luca's a blue collar boy and the building he lives in reflects it. It's not a slum, but it's definitely not the Taj Mahal. The moment he unclips his keys from one of his belt loops, it starts.
...excited whimpering and whining from the other side of the door.
Once Luca pushes the door open, he's greeted by an excited, but very well mannered, Belgian Malinois. Rigatoni doesn't jump or bark or anything other rude puppers may do. He sits in front of Luca with his tail thumping back and forth happily and his tongue lolling out one side of his open mouth. Luca stoops to give his best friend a good old head rubbing and scritches all behind the ears. The whole time he's baby-talking, "Were you a good boy? Such a good boy! I know you were a good boy."
The dog gives a chuffing sniff and a whine of interest in Olivia's direction but doesn't move toward her until Luca says, "Go on, say hello," as he straightens back up.
Rigs does the same thing with Olivia, he sits there with that tail wagging and his tongue all lolling, but he never jumps or barks.
- Olivia Gaudin has posed:
Olivia is waiting just as much for permission as Rigs is! If she had a tail, it'd be wagging, too. Once the dog sits in front of her, she is down on her right knee, crooning out her own greeting, "Hello, Rigs," she sing-songs, reaching out with both hands to scratch behind ears, than pet his sides. "You are such a good boy, aren't you? The very best!" She can't help it, really. And he's so well-behaved! Is there dog hair on her dress? She doesn't care. She's not /that/ kind of woman. Hopefully Rigs likes hugs, cause he's getting one.
Admittedly, it takes Olivia a moment to get back up. It gives her a moment to see the place. To really see it, rather than what her echolocation is telling her about structures, shapes, density. It's a lot but she's growing accustomed to seeing 360 degrees at all times.
"Nice place!" she says, quite honestly. She sees the flag, then, and looks back to Luca. They just arrived, so she doesn't ask. But her eyes? They indicate she knows exactly what that means.
"How long have you lived here?" That... is a much safer direction for the conversation to go, considering what they are both intending to do tonight.
- Luca Bandoni has posed:
She probably winds up with slobber on a cheek too.
Luca watches Liv's interaction with Rigs and he can't help but to smile. "Right around three years," he replies before telling Rigs, "Leash." His tone is both gentle and firm, it's obviously meant to be a command and it's one that Rigs follows with an renewed sense of excitement. Rigs moves round Luca to the hook by the front door where his leash hangs, retrieves it and sits down in front of his 'master' once again.
He doesn't miss where Liv's gaze landed, but Luca doesn't mention it either, at least not for now. "I need to run him outside," just two shakes. Rigs sits patiently while the leash is attached to his collar. "Make yourself at home, yeah?" It's clear he doesn't expect Olivia to go all the way back downstairs to watch a dog piss.
- Olivia Gaudin has posed:
Olivia watches Rigs with interest. "I've never seen a dog behave that well except in a movie," she says honestly. "You are full of surprises, Luca. I'll wait here. I can look at all these pictures of your lovely family while you are busy." She has no problem filling time. Photos are just the perfect way to capture her attention, too. She loves all the happy faces. There are probably some more serious ones, too, in this mix, considering the many people going to and graduating from various academies and schools.
Olivia does not /touch/ anything, though. It's not in her nature to intrude to that degree. Nor will she look beyond this room she has been invited into. His bedroom can wait. She has every intention of seeing it before morning. But the darnedest thing about it is that the more she looks at these photos and sees this place, the more she has a problem with her little idea of just having fun and not getting too strong an emotional connection.
It's just not in her nature to go in without big hopes and dreams. And here she stands, doing just that again. Even if she hadn't intended to.
- Luca Bandoni has posed:
"He's not just a bed warmer and my running buddy, he's also my partner on building collapses or anything were people may be trapped under rubble," Luca explains once the leash is attached and he stands.
He's out the door before anymore conversation happens. It's really less than five minutes. Rigs also has good potty manners, he doesn't take half an hour and a billion sniffs to find his spot.
Once back inside, Luca releases the dog from lead and Rigs immediately curls up on his big, memory foam dog bed.
If she paid close enough attention, Olivia would notice that all the pictures seem to radiate out from one central canvas; a young boy sitting on the knee of a man that looks a lot like Luca, minus the blue eyes.
The flag case, if she read it, has a name and dates on it of course. Mario Giovanni Bandoni, Jr. It lists his date of birth and his date of death - he died the year of the Invasion.
"You want something to drink? I have beer, water and some tea. But the tea is questionable." Typical bachelor really. Who knows how long that tea's been in there. "Oh, and some vitamin water."
- Olivia Gaudin has posed:
Olivia's study of Luca's walls did include the flag. The date is not lost on her. Nor would it be for anyone in the area. It's impossible not to pay attention to it. The importance cannot be overstated. She directs her attention to that central photo next. She tries to piece it all together, like a puzzle she must solve before Luca's return. She could guess at several things, naturally, but she is sure Luca will tell her soon enough. Tearing his clothes off and going right into the bedroom just doesn't feel right.
She focuses on the door when he returns. Her heart skips a beat on her. Olivia has to remind herself to... just breathe. No matter how sexy he is.
"Vitamin water for me, please," she replies. A pause. "Is this your father?" she asks, gesturing to that central picture. It's a guess, but she thinks it is a pretty good one.
- Luca Bandoni has posed:
Luca dips into the kitchen for that vitamin water for her and a beer for himself. He takes a few moments longer than it should just to grab a few bottles out of the refrigerator. The view from the living room would show him just standing there with the door open.
Finally he cracks open his beer and twists off the top of Olivia's water, both tops go into the trash and he returns.
His gaze drifts to the flag reflexively before it goes to the picture. "Yeah, that's him and me, I was six when that was taken." It's not so much a full blown cloud that seems to have settled over him, but there's a slight frown where there's typically at least a small smile. He hands to water to Olivia and settles onto the couch. He gives a little 'c'mere' gesture with one hand and pats the seat next to him.
Now that the topic has been, sort of, broached, he keeps glancing at that flag. Luca doesn't seem ready to actually /talk/ about it. He turns the topic on a dime with, "Crazy huh, girl getting all bent over a song like that?"
- Olivia Gaudin has posed:
Olivia doesn't want to intrude, but focused as she is on his face, she can tell there's a story there, and she's rather opened the cover to the book. It puts her in a spot where she has to decide. Will she risk getting her heart involved in this right now or will she focus on the quick and easy fun.
She hasn't decided, even as she sets herself next to Luca. Sets herself very, very close to Luca. While she has done her best not to focus on his pulse, she can hear her own. Pounding, racing, making it very hard to think.
She takes a drink, buying herself a moment to still herself. It fails. Olivia, thus distracted, latches on to his topic change.
"I imagine she had a whole picture in her mind of how amazing she would be singing it. We girls can get rather caught up in unimportant things like that sometimes."
She meets his eyes. She's searching that gaze and she makes her choice. "I'm sorry if I stirred up something I shouldn't with the picture. Honestly, I feel like I've entered a very special place here. And I can go either way. But maybe you could tell me about your family? It's clear they are a huge part of your life." It's close to the mark, but not directly on it.
- Luca Bandoni has posed:
His pulse? It's steady as can be should she listen. Man runs into burning buildings for a living, this is a cake walk. Not that Luca isn't more than attracted to Olivia and not that he's not walking that same line, it just takes more to get his adrenaline pumping - like option one actually beginning.
Luca turns away from her just to take a long pull from his beer and, perhaps, keep her from seeing into his soul through those blue eyes. When he sets his beer down and turns back, that little smile is there again.
"My family's everything to me. They're loud and obnoxious, they like to butt in where they're not wanted, they're the first to call me on my bullshit, sometimes they show up here at the /worst/ possible times. But I wouldn't trade it for anything."
His brow furrows, but more from considering what to say next. "In 2019, I actually died during a call. I'd just started with rescue 1 a few months before. It was a car in the river, temperatures were in the single digits and something went wrong with my SCUBA gear. By the time they realized I hadn't tugged my line in a while, got someone in after me and pulled me out, I was blue. I was dead. But I wasn't warm and dead."
Luca pauses in the story to take another pull from his beer. Then, "It was my firehouse family that saved me that day, but when I woke up in the hospital it was my family that had the waiting room filled to standing capacity only. I mean, my crew was there too, but family couldn't even all fit, some where waiting in cars. My family's my love, my job is my passion and both are my life."
- Olivia Gaudin has posed:
Olivia keeps watching, keeps working on... just figuring him out, maybe? At least a little more. She's fully aware that she's making this more complicated. But his description of family has her laughing. And then, well, he makes another thing clear.
His life is so much more real than anything she knows.
Hearing that he was dead in the river makes her gasp. There's no masking her shock. It makes her self-concious. Everything feels a bit smaller.
"Thank you, I'm..." She's a bit thrown-off, frankly. Honestly she's never been able to navigate anything vaguely like a one-night stand, so she's terrible at this. She tries again. "You're amazing, Luca." It sounds like a cop-out to her, but she can't quite find better words to say.
Unsexy humility is what she finally offers. "Honestly, you are out of my league." She turns away to drink and to listen to those unhelpful inner voices remind her that she's blowing it. When she turns back, she's smiling, though. "You sure you want a girl like me? I sing, dance, and play pretend every week. You're real."
There's a sudden feeling of heat. "You're very real to me, and I... want you."
- Luca Bandoni has posed:
"I'd hope we're both real, if not someone must have laced my drinks tonight," Luca quips in return, trying to lighten the mood maybe? "Be a shame to wake up tomorrow and find out you were just a hallucination."
There's that little crease in his brow again when Luca reaches up to cup her cheek in his hand. He doesn't immediately lean in for a kiss. Instead he says, "I'm not all that, don't put that on me. You'll only be disappointed if you do. I'm just a guy that leaves the toilet seat up like every other guy."
The crease vanishes. He's wearing a little half smile. Finally he leans in for that kiss. He smells of the barroom and whiskey and beneath it some kind of earthy cologne or soap. At least it's not smoke, not tonight anyway. That kiss is soft and sweet, so very tender and not at all what she might have been expecting. It breaks, perhaps too soon, when he pulls back again.
"I know where I wanted this to go when we left the bar," he begins. "But I'm not really sure I can take you to my bed, rock your world, and send you on your way after pancakes and bacon in the morning." He tries to make it come off as a quip, a joke. It's not that though, he truly /likes/ Olivia. He barely knows the names of most of his bar conquests.
- Olivia Gaudin has posed:
Olivia laughs at his response. "Well, I am certainly real enough in that sense, Luca." She's smiling more warmly now, and her eyes have a little more of that playful glint in them. He's course-corrected for her.
"Imagine my shock, that you would do that," she teases back. "But if I fall in and get stuck, you better rescue me. And not say a word to anyone!"
There's the slightest tremble as his touch, though, despite her casual response. And that kiss is just not at all what she imagined he would be giving her. It reaches in for her heart. She responds in kind, naturally expressing what she feels, as well. There's a kind of ache for more that she doesn't ignore, but does not allow to influence her, either.
Luca's explanation of his feelings has her grinning. She will let him finish, and then she admits, "I... kind of thought it would be so easy. Just show up, get in your bedroom, burn your sheets to ash and leave in the morning. I'm sorry, Luca. I think the truth is, I'm just not wired that way. I'm going to want to see you again after this." A pause, a bigger grin, "But I /will/ take you up on that world-rocking you are talking about, too."
- Luca Bandoni has posed:
The next kiss is just what the last one wasn't. It's rough, a little demanding and a lot heated. It's the sort of kiss that makes a person if they'd suffocate if they don't come up for air, but finds them willing to take the chance. It would be a good death.
Odds are, Luca has way more experience with all of this than she does. The kiss breaks. He straightens and strips off his shirt to toss it aside.
"Who am I to disappoint a lady?" he almost purrs before taking her by the hands and pulling her up off the sofa.
Then Luca lifts her up, encouraging her to wrap those long legs around him. That little black dress? She may have to buy a new one. Damned thing is going to be way too hard to get off in any traditional fashion.
The next kiss lasts from the sofa into the bedroom and he makes it there without both of them ending up on the floor or banged into a wall. He tosses her on the bed and follows her down.
Luca just has no clue how much his own world is about to be rocked, not by what's to come tonight, but what might come tomorrow.
Luca's own heart is racing now, almost out of his chest.
If he stopped to think about it, he'd stop now before he gets in too deep, before he drowns in it. Of course, he knows from experience that drowning isn't so bad in the end.
- Olivia Gaudin has posed:
There's a kind of warming up that Olivia needs to go from sweet to fiery, and Luca of course races through it like a flame. She's on autopilot once his shirt is off. Arms and legs are around him, and her body heats up.
That kiss isn't just hungry, it's ravenous. Her tongue is fully prepared to give Luca's one hell of an experience. As for needing air? She doesn't really need her mouth or nose to breathe. They just slow her down.
Speaking of her little gifts, they just kick in. His heartbeat is her entire universe now. She can barely hear him when he speaks. That fast, powerful sound that is his lifeforce fills her thoughts and inspires her to move.
In the tangle of bodies another thing is getting all wound up, though. Faster than ever, she feels herself getting closer to this man in her arms. It's too late to escape it now. She's falling fast.
She's not looking back.
