Room 507, Monday late afternoon

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia was hanging about in her room, playing the lobster song for Furrball on the guitar, because she felt guilty for ignoring him all weekend in favor of leee Park-over.

That is the only reason why she was hanging about in her room.

Of course.

The lobster song is really short, so she sings another song, too.

They're tearing up streets again.
They're building a new hotel.
The Mayor's out killing kids to keep taxes down,
and me and my anger sit folding a paper bird,
letting the curtains turn to beating wings.
Wish I had a socket-set to dismantle this morning.
And just one pair of clean socks.
And a photo of you.
When you get off work tonight,
meet me at the construction site,
and we'll write some notes to tape to the heavy machines,
like "We hope they treat you well. Hope you don't work too hard.
We hope you get to be happy sometimes."
Bring your swiss-army knife, and a bottle of something,
and I'll bring some spraypaint and a new deck of cards.
Hey I found the safest place to keep all our tenderness.
Keep all our bad ideas. Keep all our hope.
It's here in the smallest bones, the feet and the inner-ear.
It's such an enormous thing to walk and to listen.
I'd like to fall asleep to the beat of you breathing
in a room near a truckstop on a highway somewhere.
You are a radio. You are an open door.
I am a faulty string of blue christmas lights.
You swim through frequencies.
You let that stranger in, as I'm blinking off and on and off again.
We've got a lot of time.
Or maybe we don't, but I'd like to think so, so let me pretend.
These are my favourite chords.
I know you like them too.
When I get a new guitar, you can have this one and sing me a lullaby.
Sing me the alphabet.
Sing me a story I haven't heard yet.

The line about the SAK makes her a tiny bit sad, but for the most part, it's happy song.

Comments

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter stopped outside Nadia's room with his bag from All and Sundries and listened to the music before knocking. "It's Walter."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia gave Furrball a look, that might have meant "that bath thing still stands" and might have meant "help!".

"It's open!"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter came in and set the bag down on the empty bed. "As promised. Sheets."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia blinked. "You actually bought sheets."

Did that mean he would actually want her to . . . .

Dammit, she really wanted to know what he was thinking.

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter grinned and pulled out two twin sized sheet sets, tossing her one of the packages. "I've slept in this bed enough times that I thought it could use some sheets."

[nadiathesaint]

"Well, yeah, we talk about it all the time but at lunch--"

And Nadia stopped there. Because she wasn't going to push the issue ever, dammit.

Even if she wanted to.

"Thanks."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

They could probably do this forever, dancing around the subject. Walter glanced at Furrball and wondered what the cat knew, not that he'd ever ask.

"Today at lunch I asked you to take a look at my nose...?" Had that really been all he'd asked her? "Or do you mean the kiss?"

[nadiathesaint]

The kiss. . . . which one?

"Do you want me to kiss your nose better again?"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"Do you want to?"

He wanted to keep teasing her because it was easier, which is almost definitely why he didn't. "I don't know what I'm doing."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia bit her lip. This wasn't her pressing the issue. It wasn't. Totally not. And if she kept telling herself that, she might actually believe it.

"Marty said that boys don't kiss people they're not at least a little interested in."

As soon as she said it, she wanted to take it back. She? Was an idiot.

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

She'd been talking about it with Marty?

Was he interested? Did he want to lose a friend if "experimentation" just proved he definitely preferred guys? Was it too soon?

He? Was an idiot.

"Maybe kisses on the cheek..."

[nadiathesaint]

And now Nadia was confused.

"Kisses on the cheek mean a boy is interested?"

There was no way this conversation would go well, was there.

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

What?

"No. Kisses on the cheek can be neutral."

[nadiathesaint]

Headlights race towards the corner of the dining room.
Half illuminate a face before they disappear.
You breathe in forty years of failing to describe a feeling.
I breathe out smoke against the window, trace the letters in your name.
Our letters sound the same;
full of all our changing that isn't change at all.
All straight lines circle sometime.
You said "Somewhere there's a box full of replacement parts
to all the tenderness we've broken or let rust away.
Somewhere sympathy is more than just a way of leaving.
Somewhere someone says 'I'm sorry.'
Someone's making plans to stay."
So tell me it's okay.
Tell me anything, or show me there's a pull,
unassailable, that will lead you there,
from the dark, alone, benevolence that you've never known,
or you knew when you were four and can't remember.
Where a small knife tears out those sloppy seams,
and the silence knows what you silence means,
and your metaphors (as mixed as you can make them)
are linked, like days, together.
I still hear trains at night, when the wind is right.
I remember everything, lick
and thread this string that will never mend you
or tailor more than a memory of a kitchen floor,
or the fire-door that we kept propping open.
And I love this place; the enormous sky,
and the faces, hands that I'm haunted by,
so why can't I forgive these buildings,
these frameworks labeled "Home"?

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

It was like Carita's without the zombies, alcohol, or audience. And with a Nadia he'd just kissed.

While Nadia sang, he wiggled his fingers for Furrball, just ever so wary about his kneecaps.

[nadiathesaint]

Furrball licked his chops. Nadia didn't notice as she finished up the song.

Kissing Walter and then singing? She could get used to this.

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter should have been thinking about her singing or how Nadia's guitar playing was improving, or even about ways to protect his kneecaps from Furrball's depredations.

Instead his thought processes moved through, I'm kissing a girl on a regular basis? I wonder if Victor's met that purple guy yet? I'm kissing Nadia on a regular basis? She's really pretty when she smiles. I like that she sleeps with a mallet under her pillow. What's the radio going to say about this? Did I ever get that green slime stain out of my shirt from the day that she and I got wet and slimy and...

"Nice song."

[nadiathesaint]

Now that's done singing, Nadia's thoughts are more along the lines of omgyaykissing and sheets and kissing and yay and he just broke up with his boyfriend, stupid shut up, you, KISSING.

"Thanks." She ran a hand over the guitar. "Do you want to try playing?"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"I've never tried it, but maybe I can be better at playing with strung wires than I am at singing." Which would be a blessing to those who had heard him sing. Although he probably wasn't quite as awful as Angel.

[nadiathesaint]

It . . . wouldn't be hard to be better at this than at singing for him. But she liked that he kept trying. "It's not too hard. Those frets show you where to put your fingers, and then you just pluck or strum the strings."

She held out the guitar. "It's easier to just play notes instead of chords. You don't have to worry about getting all your fingers in the right place."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"I'm very good at getting my fingers in the right places." Oh no, I did not just say that. "Wire practice!"

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia raised her eyebrows at that line but didn't make comment on it, otherwise. "Okay, I can try to show you some chords, if you want."

Was that Furrball smirking? Couldn't be.

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Oh thank you so much!

"We can start slow." Walter took the guitar from Nadia and tried to ignore the feline smirk and figure out how to hold the guitar properly. "How do I start?"

[nadiathesaint]

"You hold it like this," Nadia edged closer to him and reached around him to postion his hands correctly on the guitar.

And, yeah, it was also totally an excuse to get even closer to him. So sue her.

"You use your left hand on the frets and your right hand to strum." She pointed out the spots on the guitar for an A chord. "Now hold the strings down, there, and use your righ hand, like this," she demonstrated. "To strum all the strings."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter liked a legitimate excuse to be close. He wasn't sure if it was more or less weird, than it might have been, say, yesterday, but it was okay.

He followed her instructions, picking up the basics without too much trouble and found himself relaxing.

Maybe this wouldn't be so weird after all.