Elevator Trumps Stairs
"Parts of what I say are jest, yes, but I'm realizing as you and I speak that I should go easy on the humor, until you pick up a bit more. Then again, being British, my idea of humor isn't quite the same as most Americans'. As far as them trusting me, I certainly hope they do; there is the overwhelmingly obvious 'only warm body available that is responsible' cloud hanging over my head, too, but we aren't complaing, are we?" With a wink, Dayle marched Shay through the doors. When the younger woman turned towards the stairs, Dayle was suddenly in front of her, blocking her path.
She gently turned Shay and pointed her towards the elevator. "This way dear. No sense tuckering you out totally, I wouldn't want to carry you through seven flights of stairs. Even though I could," she winked twice at that. Vaguely she wondered if Carol had noticed their entrance; the human would definately notice the elevator activity - as would she notice the stairways as well. If one picked up a dictionary and looked at the definition of 'voyeur' the smiling face of Carol Hedley would likely be included as a reference.
While they waited at the elevator doors, Dayle looked at Shay in the reflective surface - one of the few floors of which had a reflective door. "If I took offense at anything you'd said or done tonight, believe me I'd have said something. No sense taking things to chance, right? Though some people won't be as forthcoming as I, I'd imagine."
When the doors opened, Dayle waved to let Shay in first. "Do you want to stop back at your apartment, or Ginnie's? She'd asked me to tell you to tell her when you returned."
Again she admitted to herself that she was T I R E D. But now she also knew it wasn't just from the outing alone. Like she had heard in the park, all the small, far away noises, Shay could still pick up a lot more 'exterior' sounds, that she couldn't physically see the cause of. At the moment she could hear the elevator as it ascended, doors closing through out the Domicile, voices - some faint, some louder. Even a bulb somewhere, about to burn out, sizzled loudly in her head. Beyond all that, if she concentrated strongly she also thought there were other things going on that involved more than the ability to hear, or see. But that was more difficult for her to get a handle on, and she just didn't have it in her now to consider it further.
Through all that, she still managed to follow Dayle into the lobby. When Dayle turned Shay towards the elevator, Shay just nodded. There was no way she would have attempted even one flight of stairs, unless she really did expect, or want Dayle to wind up carrying her the majority of the way. As it was, even taking the elevator now seemed an impossible task.
So as they walked together, Shay just leaned against Dayle every so often, to prevent herself from falling over.
"I would imagine you are more forthright than a lot of people Dayle, but, as you said, no sense in creating misunderstandings when you can avoid them. I think that is a wise way to live myself."
Yawning again, then wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes, Shay wondered what it would be like to have Dayle sleep over. She had so much fun tonight with Dayle, and not only did she not want the evening to end, but she really didn't want to be alone in bed.
Though it had only happened twice, Shay had woken up in the night with a horrible nightmare swishing around in her head, and it had taken two hours one night for her to fall back asleep. She hadn't shared that with Ginnie, Alec, or Dayle, mainly because she didn't see how they could do anything to prevent it from happening again. But being as tired as she was now, she didn't relish the possibility of not getting a good nights sleep, and if having Dayle stay over helped, would it be wrong to ask?
"Let's go back to my place, and I'll call Ginnie from there. I am always afraid I might be disturbing her and Alec...but if I do so by phone, it's easy enough to rectify." Shay wiggled her eyebrows when the subject of her 'mum and dad' came up, and didn't consider that Dayle wouldn't get what she was referring to.
"I do have a favor to ask of you, it you wouldn't find it too big an imposition? I would really appreciate it if you would spend the night?"
Before Dayle could answer the doors to the elevator opened, and then swallowed them up inside.
When Shay mentioned going back to her place to call Ginnie, the Brit couldn't help but smirk and quip, "But she'll wonder why you couldn't just knock on the door to say hello." The eyebrow wiggle didn't go unnoticed, and the administrative vampire guessed - she hoped correctly - that Shay meant 'interrupt' as in 'coitus interrupt', and simply smiled back.
The favor requested of her seemed out of place at the moment, but Dayle realized Shay was right; it might be better if she did stay to make certain there were no adverse effects from the evening. After selecting the button for Shay's apartment's foor, she answered the question, "I suppose I could, if you don't think I'll be an imposition. Do you have a couch? I didn't see the new furnishings yet, but I'll take the couch, or even just a blanket on the floor."
While they waited for the elevator to reach her floor, Shay rested her head on Dayle's shoulder, and closed her eyes. "You know, I think I really could fall asleep standing up tonight, unfortunately, there's nothing to assure I wouldn't wake up again."
When Dayle said she would sleep on the floor, Shay's eyes flashed open and she turned to Dayle aghast.
"I will not have you sleeping on the floor! I have a perfectly fine queen size bed, though if you prefer, you can sleep on the love seat. I'm just not sure it will be long enough for you. I suppose I should look into getting one of those sofas with the beds inside, if I intend to have guests over, but that won't solve tonight's problem."
Sleeping cuddled up with Dayle was really what Shay wanted, but for fear of having the other woman go back to her own home, Shay didn't go into that. If Dayle would be more comfortable on the love seat, at least Shay could go to sleep knowing there was someone else in the next room. Then if she woke up from a bad dream, she would have someone there for support.
Above all else, Shay hoped these dreams were just a brief phase, possibly related to the change. With any luck at all, they would decrease in regularity, and all would be fine.
She did suppress a giggle at Shay's vehement denial of allowing Dayle to sleep on the floor. "I'm perfectly capable of curling up on a short sofa, but if you don't mind another warm body in bed, then I don't mind either."
As the elevator slowed, Dayle commented, "Though those sofa beds aren't so comfortable. Futons are much more so, and take up less room either when bed-shaped or couch-shaped. They're also more comfortable," she mused with a smirk, "if you sleep on them without any cushions at all, compared to the springs of a sofa bed. They pinch." The doors slid open.
"After you, missie."
"A warm body is exactly what I think I've been missing. Though I truly have no recollection of how I slept 'before'...I've been thinking now that this might be one reason I'm sleeping so crappy now. I've even tried cuddling pillows, but without success."
Still resting her head on the other woman's shoulder, eyes closed, Shay was picking up parts of the conversation.
"Uh huh...futon...check."
When Dayle told Shay to get off the elevator she reluctantly opened her eyes, and moved forward. Walking down the hall she fished through her pockets, but couldn't find her keys. When she remembered Dayle had them last, having driven the car, Shay stopped in the middle of the hall, and turned with her hand out, most mechanically.
"Keys, please." And through slightly closed eyes, Shay regarded Dayle before offering a goofy, sleepy grin.
They exited the elevator; Shay walked almost like a robot, her head nearly flopping about on her shoulders. Shay turned to her hand out and said, 'Keys, please,' and Dayle gently took her hand, pointed her thumb out and turned her towards the door, to press her thumb against the computer plate. The door opened slowly. Holding Shay's hand in hers, Dayle reached her other hand across Shay's shoulders and carefully propelled her through her door. "Don't forget to ring yer mum, Shay, lest she think bad things. Even if you'd rather sleep immediately, you've got to ring her. Call her."
Something green in Shay's hair caught Dayle's attention; reaching, Dayle picked out a lump of grass and held onto it to drop it in the garbage (whenever she might find it.)
A look of confusion crossed Shay's face, when Dayle told her to call her 'mum'. Again, Shay herself had referred to Ginnie on several occasions as her 'mother', and Alec as her 'dad'. But somehow now the remark seemed out of context, and Shay was ready to remind Dayle that she didn't recall her mother. But then the concept of Ginnie's place in Shay's life returned, and she nodded as she sat down and flipped open her cellphone.
Before she had a chance to dial, Dayle was tugging on Shay's hair. Seeing the reason for the attention to her hair, she smiled, and shrugged. Having grass in one's hair was no call for concern. More amazing to Shay was the fact that the grass had found a way to cling to her new, short style.
"There are pajamas in the dresser in my room...most haven't even been worn yet, but I'm sure they'll all fit, since we're about identical in size. Please..." Yawn. "Help yourself. There are also clean towels on the rod next to the shower, on the right side."
Shay didn't know what all Dayle would need, to make her stay comfortable, but she would give the woman whatever she had.
Dialing the phone, she waited for Ginnie to answer, but got her voice mail instead.
"Hi Ginnie, reporting in, home safe and sound. Dayle's staying the night. No worries. Had a lot of fun, and can't wait to show you my new hair. Sleep well, and I will see you in the morning. Kiss dad for me too."
Flipping the phone closed, Shay grinned at the last bit of her message. For all she knew, Ginnie might have been doing just that then...though it was still early in the grand scheme of things.
Head resting on the back of the chair, Shay felt too relaxed to move. So she didn't, but remained there with her eyes closed, phone in her lap.
She looked so exhausted, Dayle thought, as she lazed there in the chair, so it was with a tad bit of reluctance that she approached the seated younger vampire. Kneeling in front, she whispered, "Shay? I've got your peejays. I dunno if you shower before bed or what..."
Dayle wondered if the woman was even awake, let alone capable of being able to dress herself, for as dead to the world as she looked.
"I shower in the morning, usually...though tonight I probably should, after all the wrestling around on the ground."
Forcing herself into a more upright position, Shay also forced her eyes to open wider, and really look at what Dayle had in her hands.
"Oh, right, pajamas. I don't normally wear them, but then that's when I'm here alone. I tried to the first couple nights, but wound up getting so tangled up in them that I decided they were too much bother. I don't guess I'm a very 'still' sleeper."
She took the brown pajamas, and tucked them under her arm. The effects of the medication now seemed to have completely left Shay's body, and she didn't feel quite as lethargic as she had, though she was still sleepy.
"Hand up?" The chair she was sitting in was overstuffed, and because she had settled into it so well, it would take a bit more energy to lift her body up and out on he own. So she put one hand on the arm, and held the other out to Dayle.
The comment about being a still sleeper perked up a logical point in Dayle's mind. "If you weren't much of a still sleeper, any warm body you may have had next to you would have ended up on the floor or gotten frustrated and pushed you off the bed instead." She snorted at her own joke and allowed Shay to take the brown set.
Shay's hand rose and Dayle stood with it, and carefully wrapping her free hand about Shay's wrist, pulled her standing, to be very close in front of her. "Though as tired as you look, it might be better if we just got you to bed." Dayle frowned and looked sheepish as she apologized, "I'm sorry that my attempt to get you out of the house ended up so... exhausting."
"Baby fresh, huh?" Grinning into Dayle's face, Shay sort of slumped against her, and wrapped an arm about her attendant's waist. "I hope neither one of us finds ourself on the floor somehow, tonight. I'm hoping we both enjoy a quiet, and restful night."
Stumbling slightly as they walked back to the bedroom, Shay noticed Dayle had a rather sweet scent about her own person, and rubbed her cheek against her friend's shoulder.
"You smell good too...but not like baby powder..."
Once in the bedroom, Shay disengaged herself from Dayle, and began taking off her clothes. She leaned her thigh against the bed for stability, and took off her sweater first. The tank and bottoms of her pajamas were in a pile on the foot of the bed, where she had tossed them.
Stepping out of her jeans, she kicked them aside, and quickly found herself sitting on the edge of the bed. Grabbing up the silky, brown pajama top, she pulled it on over her head, and stood up again, not quite as shaky. Standing before the other woman, now clad in the tank and her panties, Shay took hold of the bedspread and gave it a firm yank.
"I think for both our safety, I'll sleep in this tonight. I don't need the bottoms for warmth, and I don't need to ask for trouble wearing them."
And with clothes strewn about, and a rather silly, sleepy look on her face, Shay slipped between the sheets.
A quick yawn, and an even quicker fart, and Shay apologized, and giggled.
"My, my, I am terribly sorry. I wonder if that's a result of all that fried food Barbara had eaten?"
She patted Shay's back gently when she rubbed her cheek on Dayle's shoulder and smiled when she was complimented about her scent as well. Then after they entered the bedroom the contact was gone, and Shay stripped to her panties and pulled on the tank top. Her comment about Dayle's safety left her touched, even if it was a little silly to worry about hurting a vampire.
Dayle pulled off her turtleneck and jeans, mirroring Shay's motions of getting dressed, but she climbed into the pajama bottoms. "I hadn't expected sharing a bed with anyone but me myself and I tonight, so I didn't shave," she explained without embarassment.
She walked along the opposite side of the bed and was about to climb in next to Shay when she yarted. Raising her brows together, Dayle lifted her corner of the bedspread and flapped it a couple times, grimacing at the pungent odor. "Maybe you should watch the fried foods from now on, hmm?" After a moment, she climbed into bed as well, but gave Shay a half-arm's length of space and tugged the covers over herself.
"Good night, Shay," she murmured softly.
Turning onto her side, facing Dayle, she gave the expected... "Good night, Dayle, and please, don't worry about anything that happened tonight. You had no way of knowing that Barbara was on that medication, or that Ginnie would be at all peeved by me going out. I really had a very nice time, and love my new hair. I also liked playing in the park, and getting to drive my new car...but most of all I'm glad you were with me when I had my first meal, and helped me figure out how to do it. I think you and I should be friends."
Unconsciously Shay's hand had found it's way across the small expanse of bed, and her fingers were now toying with the hem of Dayle's pajama top.
"You will go with me tomorrow...when I face Ginnie? I mean, I don't think she's going to come all that unglued, but just in case...? I've never seen her angry, and I hope never to...I really didn't set out to disappoint her. Hopefully when she sees nothing awful befell us, she'll relax a little more."
When another yawn began pushing its way from Shay's mouth, she brought her hand up to cover it, and left it resting on the pillow next to her cheek.
"Are you asleep yet Dayle? Cause I'm not so sleepy all of a sudden." Hoping her bed pal wouldn't wonder how she could not be sleepy and yet keep yawning, Shay still didn't reveal anything about her nightmares, or the thoughts that once she fell asleep tonight she might be visited by them again.
Shay's last comment kind of caught Dayle off guard. 'Should be friends.' Weren't they already, even if they hadn't known each other more than a week? "Friends? Dear Shay, that I think we already are."
She wiggled a bit to roll over to look at Shay. She looked so young, with her hair cut that way, and yet a good deal more ... mature? than she had with the long tresses. "Of course I'll go with you," she said, ignoring the tickling at the base of her shirt, "but you know as your 'mother' for lack of a better term she'll be worried about you for at least, oh, a hundred years or so." Dayle was not able to keep a wide grin from forming on her face when she claimed that last.
Shay yawned again, but Dayle didn't feel compelled to return it. Perhaps it was the younger vampire's exhaustion, as opposed to sleepiness that was eliciting the yawns. "Well what with you chatting me up, and the fact that it's a few hours before my regular bed time anyway - though arguably I haven't slept a whole lot this past week - I'm not sleepy either."
Dayle paused a moment before asking, "If you would please stop tickling me with my shirt, I'll answer just about any questions you might have, since we didn't get a whole lot of chance to actually talk tonight. But I reserve the right to say 'I decline to answer' or 'I do not know.' How does that sound?"
A smile split her face when Dayle reminded Shay that Ginnie was probably going to be the way she was for some time. What Shay didn't tell Dayle was that it wasn't the concept of Ginnie's mothering that she found funny, but more Dayle's infectious smile.
"I suppose you are entitled to refuse to answer, but I think I'd like it better if you agreed to answer honestly, to whatever I might ask. 'Do not know' would be acceptable, of course."
Not that Shay had any predetermined questions, but she did want to know more about her friend.
"Have you slept with many people?"
Right off the bat, Shay figured she might as well get personal. Not only would Dayle be sharing a deeper, probably less known fact, IF she answered, but Shay felt the need to know more about the 'private' Dayle. Getting to know a teacher didn't hold anywhere near the intrigue that getting to know a woman did. Or a man, for that matter. But since it was a woman lying across from her, that seemed the logical avenue to travel down, at the moment.
"While I can't think of anything that I might specifically refuse to answer," Dayle commented, though a nagging little voice in the back of her head that sounded an awful lot like her sister's piped up, "I do make it a 'life philosophy' to answer honestly. While I'm no longer mortal... Life is too short to deal with multitudes of bullshit, you know?"
The very first question shocked Dayle into silence. There was no malice in the other woman's face, no other express emotions, it seemed, other than intense curiosity. "It depends on your concept of 'many.' More than one person at a time? No. As far as a total quantity? Well I've had eleven husbands, and assorted other lovers... So perhaps not more than two dozen or so. Recently?" Dayle raised a hand from under the covers to scratch her cheek. "It's been a good eight years or so? since my last. Give or take. Oh no wait... since Margaret Thatcher left the Ministry... Blimey, sixteen years." Her hand moved from her cheek to her brow, squeezing the opposite sides of her eye ridges, her eyes momentarily closed. She opened her eyes and sighed. "Yeah, that's about right."
"Just how old are you anyway? And did you love them all...out live them all? Were any vampires too?" Each query Shay made, seemed to generate yet another question, but before she had asked too many, she stopped. If she kept going at the rate she was, she didn't think poor Dayle would be able to answer.
"Sixteen years, huh? That's a long time, isn't it? I mean...granted, for all I know I could still be a virgin, though if I lived with that guy who deserted me, chances are against that...but wow...aren't you...really horny?"
It was true that Shay was a child in many ways yet, but sex wasn't one. It was true that she didn't recall having had any lovers at all, but she already knew about pleasure, and what it took to make her body feel it. It just seemed inconceivable that she would go sixteen years from now, without consummating that aspect of herself.
Not to mention, Dayle was an incredibly hot woman... "Surely you've had hundreds of offers over all your years?"
She waited for the age question, and its followers, but smirked when Shay stopped herself. "Believe it or not, I am only eighteen. Or, rather, if you wish to be technical, I was turned when I was eighteen. That was back in fourteen-aught-eight. I am nearly six hundred sixteen. My birthday is December Twenty first. Even with the invention of the birthday cake - sometime in the mid-eighteen hundreds, if I recall - we never used candles. We'd have set the house on fire." She giggled. "Anyway, I did love some of them; I did outlive all of them. I haven't been married since the early twenties. I've never had a vampire lover, nor husband, no."
Stretching her neck because lying on her side, talking to Shay, was not something those muscles were used to doing, she brushed a suddenly obtrusive lock of hair from her face. "Sixteen years may be a long time for you, right now, but in the grand scheme of my life so far, it's a pittance, and you learn ways to get by." She waggled her right eyebrow, smiling. "But were I to hazard a guess, I'd say you are not, no, but then, I'm the one being interrogated here," she paused, actively neglecting to mention her own 'status,' and smiled, winked and continued, "but 'really horny'? Kind of, but not really?" The older vampiress shrugged one shoulder and let out a soft sigh. "It's hard to explain. It's almost like a craving for chocolate. You know you want some at some point, but the box is out of reach, so you ignore it until it falls on your head."
Dayle didn't quite know how to answer the next question, though. "Offers, yes. Oftentimes, though, I had a husband, and generally it's considered very bad form to proposition a married woman, you know? Not very ace. I mean brilliant, on the part of the approachee. Likely get his willy chopped, if caught. Nowadays, not so much. The one or two prospects that presented, sauntered right out of my radar, so it hasn't been too big a deal."
The analogy between chocolate and sex didn't work for Shay either.
"I don't know about that. Don't you ever want something so bad, that you do anything to get it? I don't think I like chocolate that much, at least not enough to go berserk for it, but...I wouldn't say something else might not push those buttons. I'll get back to you on that in a few weeks, maybe... By then I should know more about myself to answer that better."
Some of the words Dayle used, when describing things, such as a penis, made Shay giggle. She just couldn't decide if the blond used the euphemisms for comfort, or if they were more a result of her British upbringing. In either case, Shay found them cute.
"So...if you didn't meet anyone in say...another sixteen years...you'd be content to just go along like you are now?"
It was a theoretical question that Shay knew Dayle could only imagine the answer to, but Shay was curious. If she hadn't felt as strongly as she did for herself, she probably wouldn't have given the matter another thought.
"Your sister...she's not married or involved with anyone either?"
Dayle wasn't quite sure how to respond. The 'itch' came and went, as did many other cravings, but perhaps she'd gone so long without, that it just didn't bother her? Even with her sister's regular offers of assistance. And her mother's vicarious questioning. "The acquisition of physical pleasure in that vein hasn't been a forefront concern to me of late, so it's not something that weighs heavily for me. This could change tomorrow, I don't really know. But right now, I'm very 'meh' about seeking it out. If it comes to me, I likely won't turn it down."
Dayle had noticed the giggle when she said 'willy'. As much as she wanted to stroke Shay's sense of humor with British colloquialisms, she also didn't want to inundate the woman with them, either. "In sixteen years, things may change where people of all ages may not need direct physical stimulation for pleasure. In sixteen years, I could be a dusty memory. In sixteen years, things could change so drastically... So why not live for now? To say that I haven't had a rousing good fuck in sixteen years is also not saying I haven't had a happy high. If you want to get technical, and remember, you asked, so this might tread the 'too much information' line, I haven't had an orgasm since before I arrived in America. So..." Dayle did some quick calculations in her head. "Nine months or so."
The question about Dayle's sister was easier to answer. "She does have a steady boyfriend, yes. She's not married, no."