Art Deco

her smile shifted, something melancholy darkening her teasing expression as she listened to astrid speak; she couldn’t remember the last time her mother had done anything even remotely kind for her, all told she couldn’t remember the last time her mother had spoken to her to ask her about anything other than her grades. “ your mom sounds like a very lovely person, ” she swallowed briefly, willing herself to ignore any further thoughts of her own mother. “ astrid, huh? that’s a very pretty name. d’you come in here often? ‘cause i’m going to have to pay way more attention in the future if you do. ”

A shaky breath left her when she heard her words. Your mom sounds like a very lovely person. That made her heart ache. Her gaze dropped and she cleared her throat. “Y-Yeah.. she was” she said as she continued to write in her book. Talking about her mother always made her body ache. She always cried when she was alone, whenever she thought about her. Looking at her again, Astrid felt a soft smile form on her lips. “It’s Norwegian. And I come here from time to time, not so often. And god, that was the most cliché pick up line” she giggled.

“Oh, I don’t think they’d be jealous at all. It just means that there’s another human being to reign over. Fluffis would be the queen – or king? – of their own little kingdom, isn’t that the dream of every cat?” Hana chuckled. She’d never had a cat, but everything she knew of cats pointed to them ticking that way. “That’s probably what I’ll have to do, if I can’t find someone in my circle of acquaintances who’s interested. Hey, you’re like, college-aged, right? Think I’m too old to fit in to the college crowd?”

“Fluffis is very possesive. So if there is another human in the house, she get’s super pissy. But she is also wary, like she is used to people being very loud and stuff and she doesn’t like too much noise. But I think she would love to feel like the queen I know she is” Astrid mused and giggled softly. All cats are different. Some loves to be with other people while some hate it. “I think you will find one. Roommates are not that hard to find, or at least so I’ve heard. And I think you would pass as twenty or twenty one”

“Dragons are pretty cool,” he offered, taking another sip of his water as she sat down.  “Sitting around, staring at the wall is basically it,” he shrugged, a grin forming on his face.  “No, I’m joking.  I play music occasionally, but I own and run a recording studio on a more full-time basis..”

“Dragons are the best” she said and chuckled softly. Looking at him as he spoke, she smirked. “Oooh you play music? What kind of music?” she asked and tilted her head to the side. “Now I know who I will bug if I ever do decide to do music” she added with a shrug.

“Then we’ll take it slow,” he responded in a manner that was far from similar to what he said. The rest of her words brought a soft smile to his face, though he was slightly surprised. He knew that what he’d done was far from just in the past, but he hadn’t expected them to return to how things could’ve been so quickly. His smile slipped away as his eyebrows furrowed in worry. “Yeah, of course, lead the way. You okay?”

“Okay, slow sounds good” she said with a nod. She was very wary around him and she knew it would be like this for a while. Trusting people had never been something she could do, it took her time. And time was something she needed now, because she would constantly worry that he would just leave her again. Placing a hand over her forehead, she flashed him a soft smile. “I’m okay, promise” she told him, leading the way to her home. Once they had arrived, she unlocked the door and stepped inside.

“Batman had a villain like that.  He was called Firefly and basically flew around with a flame gun and threatened to burn Gotham down.”  Mike scrunched up his nose a little, quietly judging himself for being such a geek.  “Sure, why not?   Might as well embrace it.”

“Ayee, that’s me! But genderbent” she said and chuckled softly. “I think I was a dragon in one of my past lives” she added with a shrug. As she joined him again, she sat down on the floor. “So, besides from being a nerd. What do you do? Just sit around, stare into a wall?” she teased.

When she pulled back, his hand moved to rest against her cheek once more, making eye contact. “No, don’t do that. I’m asking what you want, because that matters to me. I don’t want to try to force you into something because I’m trying to make this better. We’ll take this however you want. I owe you at least that much.”

Nodding slowly as she listened to him, she sighed softly. “I’m a little overwhelmed and dizzy actually” she admitted. “All I know right now is that when you are near, I am happy and my heart beats really fast. And I have missed that, more than I care to admit” she mumbled. “Okay.. my head is really spinning so could we like go to my place because I need to sit down. I don’t live far away from here”