"From a musical standpoint, it's atrocious," Rachel says dubiously, tucking her legs underneath her as the television fades to a commercial break.
Jesse gets up to refresh their drinks. "It's endearing." He grabs a blanket off the back of the sofa as an afterthought, drapes it across her lap as he places a mug of tea in her hands. She sips it pensively, lets her fingers drum at the sides in perfect triplets. Jesse smiles to himself and pulls the blanket over his knees.
"The plotline is escaping me, as well," she adds, cutting her eyes at him. It's always dares with them, a little push and a little pull; they test each other, feeling for the cracks in their foundation. Jesse will present her with a novel, a film, an album, and Rachel will dissect it into something base and simple, unmaking it through innocuously snide remarks.
Jesse finds it kind of cute.
"This is the first episode you've ever watched," he argues easily. "It'll come to you, you're bright." Luminous, radiant, fluorescent—she is all of these, at different times. The lights are off in the living room, but she absorbs the warm, yellowy light leaking out from the crack in the door to the hall. Right now, she glows.
"Call me old-fashioned," she says (he never would), "but I prefer my monsters to be frightening."
"Spontaneous song and dance could be terrifying in the wrong hands," reasons Jesse. "Think of Coach Tanaka." She shudders and he congratulates himself, pulling the blanket further to his side.
"I don't think this relationship will work out if you're a cover-hog," she teases him good-naturedly, smiling the softest smile she knows (Jesse has memorized and catalogued every one she has; she's got a showface that could give him a run for his money and a trembling little lip twist that could break a lesser man to tears).
"I suppose you'll just have to sit closer to me," Jesse murmurs, tugging her over by the waist. Rachel obliges him and slides her legs over his thighs.
"I'll have to endure," she says, leaning into his chest. The show comes back on and Jesse hums Buffy's lines into Rachel's hair.
i'll never tell (1/1)
"From a musical standpoint, it's atrocious," Rachel says dubiously, tucking her legs underneath her as the television fades to a commercial break.
Jesse gets up to refresh their drinks. "It's endearing." He grabs a blanket off the back of the sofa as an afterthought, drapes it across her lap as he places a mug of tea in her hands. She sips it pensively, lets her fingers drum at the sides in perfect triplets. Jesse smiles to himself and pulls the blanket over his knees.
"The plotline is escaping me, as well," she adds, cutting her eyes at him. It's always dares with them, a little push and a little pull; they test each other, feeling for the cracks in their foundation. Jesse will present her with a novel, a film, an album, and Rachel will dissect it into something base and simple, unmaking it through innocuously snide remarks.
Jesse finds it kind of cute.
"This is the first episode you've ever watched," he argues easily. "It'll come to you, you're bright." Luminous, radiant, fluorescent—she is all of these, at different times. The lights are off in the living room, but she absorbs the warm, yellowy light leaking out from the crack in the door to the hall. Right now, she glows.
"Call me old-fashioned," she says (he never would), "but I prefer my monsters to be frightening."
"Spontaneous song and dance could be terrifying in the wrong hands," reasons Jesse. "Think of Coach Tanaka." She shudders and he congratulates himself, pulling the blanket further to his side.
"I don't think this relationship will work out if you're a cover-hog," she teases him good-naturedly, smiling the softest smile she knows (Jesse has memorized and catalogued every one she has; she's got a showface that could give him a run for his money and a trembling little lip twist that could break a lesser man to tears).
"I suppose you'll just have to sit closer to me," Jesse murmurs, tugging her over by the waist. Rachel obliges him and slides her legs over his thighs.
"I'll have to endure," she says, leaning into his chest. The show comes back on and Jesse hums Buffy's lines into Rachel's hair.