[AU - Locked to Kaine]

[jianhuo]

When Saffron invited him to come by for dinner, she was half expecting him not to show. But then he does, and she's more than a little pleased, in small part because she's put a lot of effort into the meal she's cooked, but mainly because he intrigues her, and she wants to see more of him.

Dinner goes surprisingly well, things more at ease once she lets him in on the fact that she knows who he is, so he might as well take the mask off. He's a smartass, but she can deal with that just fine, and anyway, she's always been more drawn to a man who's gruff.

Standing, she moves to clear away the dishes, intending to leave them for later since her current company's much more interesting than washing them. "More wine?" she asks as she takes his plate.

Comments

[jianhuo]

"Okay," Saffron says, taking another drink of her wine before she turns slightly more towards Kaine, so that she's sitting sideways on the couch with her legs tucked up beneath her, close enough that her knees are gently touching the side of his leg. "Truth or dare?"

[badtotheclone]

"Dare," I say.

That far more safe for me right now. There are a lot of things that I don't want to say about myself and she's far too curious for me to feel safe starting off with 'truth'.

[jianhuo]

She thinks for a second. "Okay, I'll start you off with something simple, so you can get a feel for how this works. I dare you to...cluck like a chicken."

[badtotheclone]

"Bock bock," I say in a slightly more than half-hearted attempt at clucking like a chicken. I wasn't quite sure if that was good enough or not for the dare. She didn't say I had to be enthusiastic about it.

"Truth or dare?"

[jianhuo]

It was true, she hadn't specified what kind of cluck, just that he do it, and Saffron smiles. "See? Not too difficult. Okay, I choose truth."

[badtotheclone]

I already hate this game. It's not that I don't want to do the things she's going to suggest, but that I can't come up with any good questions on the fly. I feel like this sort of game should be given some prep time to think of questions, especially if you haven't played it before.

"What's the most ridiculous dare you've ever had to do?"

[jianhuo]

"Oh lord," Saffron says, laughing. "The last time I played this was with a bunch of girls at the Companion Academy when I was...fifteen or sixteen, I think? I was dared to streak down the hall and back. It was lucky for me it was a warm night."

She smiles, remembering. The girls at the Academy had been decent, for the most part. It hadn't been them she'd had a problem with. "Your turn. Truth or dare?"

[badtotheclone]

That sounded... incredibly tame to me. Apparently these other girls weren't all that creative with their dares. Maybe I won't have to come up with something all that crazy after all. Animal sounds seem pretty easy to match to me.

"Truth," I say, feeling a bit bold. Maybe it's the wine or the reassurance that this game isn't as intense as I thought.

[jianhuo]

There are so many things she wants to ask, but Saffron doesn't want to scare him off of this game right out of the gate, so she picks something relatively non-threatening for her first question. "How often do you swing around looking for criminals to bust?"

[badtotheclone]

Again, it's another tame question and I figure that this isn't going to be bad after all. Not all that fun, necessarily, but it's not that bad. Either way, Helen is nice enough company, especially to look at.

"Every day," I say. "Amount of time varies. Truth or dare?"

[jianhuo]

His answer is not unexpected, but it leads of course to follow up questions in her mind, which she may or may not get around to asking, depending on how this game goes. "Dare."

[badtotheclone]

"Do an impression of me," I say.

I'm not sure where the idea came from, or why I think she'll be good at it, or at least amusing, but I'm sure she will. It also might be fairly telling about what she thinks about me.

[jianhuo]

Saffron likes that one, since it draws on her inherent talents, though he of course doesn't know that. She draws herself up, swinging her legs around to sit cross-legged, still facing Kaine.

"Hey," she says in as gruff a voice as she can manage, which isn't all that gruff, a hard, stoic look on her face. "The fuck you think you're doing, being kind to strangers? That's stupid as shit, you'll get yourself killed doing something like that. Stop talking to people. Now excuse me, I have to swing away into the darkness to go beat up more thugs."

[badtotheclone]

"Hilarious," I say, although the corner of my mouth twitches in a smile at the impression. Not half bad, that is how I talk to people who are being that stupid. I have to admit that her kindness to strangers doesn't seem too bad at the moment though.

[jianhuo]

"Why thank you," she says, sketching a bow of sorts from her shoulders. "Truth or dare?"

[badtotheclone]

"Dare," I say, figuring that it's only fair. The truth she wanted to know was tame enough that I'm not so worried about that option anymore. I could answer questions like that all night.

Taking another drink of wine, I roll my shoulders a bit, feeling myself loosen up. I don't know if this is quite 'fun' yet but it's not bad.

[jianhuo]

After a moment's thought, Saffron decides this game needs something a little more naughty; she doesn't want him thinking it's all boring stuff after all.

"All right," she says. "I dare you to kiss me. A good kiss, like you actually want to be doing it."

[badtotheclone]

That definitely caught me by surprise. It seemed as if we'd suddenly gone from 20 to 100 mph all at once. Kissing isn't that big of a deal, I know that, and it's not like kissing her would be unpleasant. It was just surprising.

"Sure," I say. Leaning forward I wrap a hand around the back of her head and pull her into a kiss. It's hard, rough and raw and doesn't last long but there's no way she could say it didn't seem like I didn't want to be doing it.

"Truth or dare."

[jianhuo]

It isn't like Saffron isn't expecting to enjoy a kiss from Kaine, but it lights her up, sends warmth spreading all through her. She's always liked it best when it's rough, though.

"Dare," she replies, smiling before she takes a drink of her wine.

[badtotheclone]

I can't even imagine what I could do that would match that. Part of me wants to give her a similar day, but I don't know if that's what the game is for. It seems a long way from clucking like a chicken or running down a hall.

"Uh, drain the rest of your glass," I finally say. Completely lame but it's the best I can come up with.

[jianhuo]

"That's easy enough," Saffron says, and then does, drinking the rest of her wine down in a couple of swallows. She stands, goes to get the wine bottle so she can refill her glass.

"Truth or dare?" she asks, bringing the bottle with her when she comes to sit back down on the couch and setting it on the coffee table.

[badtotheclone]

"Dare."

The answer comes easily this time, although it comes as a surprise. Part of me knows it's because I liked the last one so much and I'm not sure how I feel about that. Do I even care how I feel about it?

[jianhuo]

"I dare you to kiss me again," says Saffron, with a little smirk. "But not on the lips this time. Anywhere but my mouth. And try to be creative."

[badtotheclone]

This dare was a bit easier. She never specified I be in to it and I got to pick where I did, with an emphasis on creative. Scooting a bit forward I reached out and took hold of her foot, pulling it toward me. Leaning in, I gently kissed her ankle inside her leg. Gentle but firm, my lips lingered a bit before I pulled back and set her foot down.

"Truth or dare?"

[jianhuo]

Saffron smiles as he picks up her foot and kisses her ankle, gently this time, which is sweet. "Dare," she replies, after a sip from her fresh glass of wine.