I am the passenger

Walter brushed a bit of lingering rainwater off the bench for Nadia before sitting down himself.

"Yeah. It's amazing how hard it is to find someplace ~~Jamie isn't~~ private."

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"Almost makes me wish I didn't have a roommate."

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"I know the feeling." Walter grinned and nudged her gently before putting an arm around her without the stupid "yawn and stretch maneuver." About your roommate."

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"Well, he really is a nice guy. So it is only almost."

Nadia leaned against Walter happily. "And is it just me, or do you sometimes want to kill Pip?"

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Jamie walks by and waves at Walter and Nadia.

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"Maybe just see him develop laryngitis." Because killing his friends was sort of a tender subject at the moment.

And there was the roommate.

"What were we just saying about him?" Walter asked Nadia in a low voice, even as he waved in a "we're fine if you don't come chat" kind of way.

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Jamie walks by and waves at Walter and Nadia.

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Nadia's wave might have involved a small shooing motion.

"Shhh, his vision is based on movement. If we do no more than wave, maybe he'll go away."

She liked her roommate, really, she did, but now was not the time for roommate bonding.

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Jamie walks by and waves at Walter and Nadia.

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"This is a conspiracy," Walter muttered.

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Jamie walks by and waves at Walter and Nadia.

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Nadia facepalmed. With the cast.

Good thing it was still damp.

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"We didn't pick the right place to get away from your roommate, did we?" If it weren't so funny, Walter would be getting annoyed.

He waited a few minutes and sighed. "I think we might have run out of Jamies."

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Jamie walks by and waves at Walter and Nadia.

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Nadia sighed. "You were saying?"

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"I was saying that your roommate is going to find out that I can talk to your cat." He leaned over to kiss Nadia carefully on the cheek.

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Nadia smiled. "I don't know, Furrball seems to like him. But you're welcome to try."

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"The power of sashimi is not to be underestimated." See? Joking, and sitting close, and kisses on the cheek. Walter was feeling more optimistic than he had in a while, but he was still going slow.

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"You're going to spoil my cat just to get revenge on my roommate for interrupting us repeatedly?" Nadia grinned, turnin to face him. "I approve."

Look at them. Acting all normal. Go them!

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"Nothing terrible. I thought I'd ask him to sleep on Jamie's face or steal his breath or something."

Not that he was thinking too much about Jamie; he was more thinking how pretty she was when she smiled like that.

He found her unbroken hand and took it in his before leaning in to kiss her gently on the lips.

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His lips caught hers, and Nadia abruptly stiffened.

He should have let you keep swimming,

No. Nonononononononono! This was what they came out here for!

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Shit.

Walter pulled back to search Nadia's face. "Are you okay?"

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Nadia kept her eyes squeezed shut and shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just--" She shuddered and opened her eyes, staring at him for a moment.

That wasn't him.

"Just give me a moment." She squeezed his hand.

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"As long as you need."

It wasn't me!

Shut up, she's earned as much time as she needs. Talking to someone in his head had better not be a habit. Even if it was just to himself.

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Nadia bit her lip and squeezed his hand again, seeing the concern on his face. "I'm sorry. I know it wasn't you, I just . . . the body remembers."

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"I know." And hell no he wasn't going to think about anything his body remembered. "We can just sit here if you want. Talk about things I can ask Furrball to do to Jamie."

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Nadia shut her eyes for a moment again, taking a deep breath. "We came out here for a reason." She opened her eyes, keeping careful eye contact.

Grey-green. Not red. And they're never going to be red again if I can help it.

"Maybe we can give my body something else to remember." Steeling herself, she leaned forward to kiss him. If nothing else, maybe the fact that she was doing the kissing would help.

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Walter kept his eyes on Nadia's face and let her come to him. He stayed carefully still except for the slow stroking of his thumb over the back of her hand until her lips touched his.

He wasn't nearly as good a kisser.

Walter did his best to live up to that. Gently instead of roughly, like the other one had, and letting Nadia take and keep the lead.

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She had to fight for a moment to keep from stiffening up again, but really, this Walter was much different from the other.

She couldn't feel fangs behind his lips, for one. Still, perhaps it would be best to . . . check . . . more thoroughly.

It took a bit, but she slowly relaxed and deepened the kiss.

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Mmm... lips.

Walter was still letting Nadia take the lead and had no problem with deepening their kiss, parting his lips to demonstrate that among other things, there were no fangs hiding there, and that he'd been paying close attention to prior guitar lessons.

Butlers and their attention to detail.

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Nadia didn't stop . . . checking until she was in danger of running out of breath. She leaned her forehead against his. "See?" She gasped slightly. "New memories. Definitely good."

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Walter? Still back on the details of a few seconds ago.

So the fact that he had a response at all should be points in his favor. Even if the response was, "Good. Yes."

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She reached up her good hand to run it through his hair.

Hair that should never, ever be tied back.

"Of course, we'll have to keep working on it. To make sure we get it right."

. . . he should have--

Shut. Up.

. . .

"Right?"

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Walter rubbed his nose over hers and smiled. "Right. Practice is vital to making really good memories."

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