Aspen

It only took a few pages turned before Ducky held chapter one in front of him. He swallowed in preparation before his raspy voice began the story "It was a dark and stormy night..." The book opened on the main character, a preteen, sitting in her bedroom and painting a depressing picture of her life. Even now as an adult the writing elected a sadness within him.

The girl had a bite to her. She was quick-witted and over dramatic. It reminded him of Aspen and he couldn't help but try and picture the woman next to him as that precocious thirteen year old.

Resting her head on his shoulder as he read, Aspen did her best to try and follow along the lines with his words but she got lost very quickly and instead just closed her eyes and let herself listen. It was like listening to the radio, or to a movie, and just like movies it was one of the few things that could make her be still. Aspen loved stories in all their forms and this was no exception. Especially this story, her first new one in some time, and such a pretty one it was.

His smile softened as she spoke of how others viewed her. Oscar personally hadn't found her annoying. A little bit Jack Russell in her energy level maybe, but nothing he couldn't handle. In the current climate it was honestly a little refreshing if he was being honest - which was why he was always so disappointed when she wham, bammed, and thanked him without so much as a second thought.

His eyes went to where she tapped before his fingers followed, tracing the very scar as she showed off hers. "Almost," he a bit halfheartedly agreed - the stories behind them for sure differing. "It was one of the first things I noticed about you actually," he flattered her to deflect from having to drudge up the IED incident that caused his.

Aspen had to admit that it was pretty nice to be cuddled into his side, his large arm resting comfortably around her narrow shoulders, the entirety of her knee engulfed by his hand. His size was definitely one of the things that turned her on about him, though maybe she could get used to the cuddling as much as the pressure of him as he pounded her into the mattress.

Almost was right. From location to size they were nearly identical, and that tickled Aspen that they shared something as coincidental as that. It was his words though that had her truly grinning up at him from ear to ear. That was the thing about Aspen's gaze; when you held it, you were the world. "I never noticed either that you have barely there freckles. You spend too much time in the sun, Moose." Finger tapping barely there over each one she spotted, one on the apple of his cheek was tapped with a little peck of a kiss instead.

"I got a question for you, though..." Though her grin didn't change it's affectionate 'innocence', a mischievous glint filled her eye. "Are you... ticklish?" Not that she gave him much of a chance to answer before she was poking at his sides in an attempt to find that sweet spot.

"It's a good bargaining chip." Anora admitted as she tried to do a mental count of the bottles numbers. Six. Eight. Thirteen. It went on, the remaining bottles about half of what she'd already counted. "It's gonna be fucking heavy though. Let's see if there's anything else worth taking before we commit to grabbing it." There could always be something better, something more valuable, along the way. Everything was worth something and even within the Wexley's friendly walls somethings cost more than others.

Anora returned to walking the hall, heading to the short stairwell and climbing to the next floor. She turned left in a two direction hallway, opening the first of three doors. The sun came in through the windows easily providing enough light to examine the room. It was some sort of home office. There were fabrics and sewing supplies--even some creepy mannequin torso in the corner. "Asp, I need you to make another Ethan voodoo doll when we get back." ( yes she had one and yes it's stuffing was falling out from being poked and prodded ).

Watching as her sister headed back upstairs, Aspen moved on to other rooms, a few little trinkets finding their way into her pockets like a paper weight shaped like a giant diamond and some pretty, burgundy, leather gloves. Head popping back into the foyer as Anora's voice filtered down from upstairs, Aspen grinned so hard her cheeks hurt, proud at the request. "You got it, Dude!" She chirped back up with the same cadence as the youngest Tanner Daughter that stolen it from on TV.

Snagging an unopened pack of printer paper from a shelf of crafting supplies in one the living room's built in shelves around the TV, it was soon followed by just about everything else there with little thought to how it may all end up a jumbled mess by the time they got it back. All she really thought about was that it might be good for the kids. Shortly after it was all joined by a few silly party games that the diner needed to make it more fun, and a book with a super nice leather cover and pretty fancy loopy scripted lettering that just looked like a fancy design to her. Not even registering for a moment as letters. That was for Ducky. He liked things like that.

All movement stopped, though, when she came across a picture of the smiling family. A father and his two daughters, smiling, on the very same beach that they'd been to with their own father, and for a moment she found herself lost in happier memories. Maybe they'd be able to go home some day and find some pictures of them, too. That would be nice. Not really thinking about it, but instead acting on instinct, the little picture and it's frame found itself in the pocket of her bag before she made her way to look for bathrooms with medicine cabinets to raid.

Ash rolled his eyes the moment it was made clear it was a movie, one he was certain none of his friends had made him watch before. Most of even the actors names flew past him like they meant nothing, simply giving her a blank shrug at them as she listed them all out. He didn't even know what Aerosmith song she was taking about. "Liv gets dicked down.. on screen..?" He was more confused by what this movie was even about anymore. "I think I'm good not watching it, you can just tell me what's it about."

"I mean not like... peen in the vag up on the screen or anything, but like they make it obvious that's what's gunna happen. At least it's in like the engine thingy on a like a-... like a space ship thing. You know with the actual ship part with the wings? Yeah. Or maybe the rocket part? I dunno, it was like being built or something, I think?" Realizing she's rambling about the wrong part, Aspen gives herself her signature 'resetting' shake and then launched into the tldr of the movie.

"Big meteor or whatever," She already couldn't remember the differences, "Coming for earth right? And it would like just..." Both hands and face made an explosion demonstration that she was rather proud of, "And then like they find these like dilling guys that work on those big things out in the ocean, right? And the come and like talk them into coming to train as astronauts so they can go up in space and drill into the meteor so they can drop a nuke in the middle. Since like just hitting the outside of it I guess wouldn't be enough. Yeah. So it works but Bruce Willis dies and Ben Afflecks face when he's screaming is so funny, I can never not laugh even though it's supposed to be all emotional because Bruce Willis used to be the biggest hater of Ben and Liv, even though they were so cute together.