The Call |TAG: Mel|

[Melisande Theroux]

Instead of Mario Kart, she went straight for Super Smash Brothers. She would definitely put Mario Kart in next, but she needed to beat him down a few times before she started losing horribly. She was good at Mario Kart, but she was in the habit of flinging her controllers at the TV if she got too many ass-whoopings, so she mainly targeted Nikki and Drake, who were awful at the game, to make herself feel better.

"We'll do Mario Kart in a second. First, I wanna try my luck with Smash Brothers," she announced, dropping down onto the couch. She quickly threw it into two player mode and selected Pikachu and Samus, waiting for him to make his own choices.

"So, do you guys do that stuff all the time? I mean, the pranks," she asked casually, looking over at him. She smiled a little; she couldn't imagine someone giving her that much crap. She couldn't say how she'd react until it happened, but as long as it didn't involve anything expensive or irreplaceable, she supposed she'd live.

[Drew Richardson]

Really, the game didn't matter, because he was pretty sure he was going to lose regardless of what they played.  He might eventually get the hang of it, but she'd be getting a hell of an ego boost in the meantime.  He could only hope that he'd fare better in her mind than Nikki and Drake did.

"Sweetheart, I don't think you're gonna be needin' luck on your side with this one.  You gotta teach me how this thing works, first," he warned her.

Pranks, though.  Pranks he could do, and he could explain.  Those were more his style.  "Yeah, Josh an' I have been doin' it since we met in the military.  Used to pull the tails offa scorpions an' drop 'em on him, an' he musta filled my shoes an' clothes with sand so many times that I swear I still had sand comin' offa me in the shower a few months later.  Wes joined in when he joined SWAT, an' we been messin' with each other since.  Josh an' I flipped Wes' desk a few days ago," he finished, grinning.  He was proud of the chaos they could cause between 'saving the world'.

[Melisande Theroux]

Mel gave him a brief run-through of how the controller worked, and then just handed him hers, taking his. She selected two random characters and then set the second player controller down. "Just beat up on them for a few minutes until you figure out what you're doing," she advised. She was guilty of 'figuring out the moves' on her opponents, so she'd just let him screw with it without her interfering.

"Wow, you're a bunch of big kids. How come Wes wasn't with you guys tonight?" she asked, settling back on the couch to watch him try to destroy Mario and Luigi with Pikachu. "I don't understand -- you flipped his desk over? Like.. literally?"

[Drew Richardson]

He accepted the controller and did as he was told, trying to get the hang of beating up on Mario and Luigi while she asked about their 'antics'.  The game really wasn't that hard, but he felt like an idiot doing it, so he probably wasn't doing so well.  She was going to cream him.

"Pretty sure Wes was sleepin'.  We tried callin' him, but Josh only got through once an' he seemed to think he'd woken 'im up.  Man sleeps more than anyone I know," he remarked, shaking his head some.  Pikachu was beating ass on the old school Nintendo characters, but Drew knew better.  If Mario or Luigi had started moving, he'd have been toast.  He liked his PS2 controller.

She didn't understand that they flipped his desk over?  Oh, she hadn't seen pranking, obviously!  "Yeah, tape up the drawers so they don't open, then flip it over.  Sometimes, I even set everythang that was on the top up on the underside, then jus' leave it for someone to find.  It always gets 'em," he explained.  At least they hadn't gotten Wes' car, which would have been pretty shitty.  He knew he'd have been mad if it was HIS car, but that was because he didn't want his paint all scratched up.  Besides, that'd take more than just him and Josh. 

[Melisande Theroux]

Melisande raised her eyebrows again, watching him beat up feebly on the stand-still characters simultaneously while listening to him talk. "Why don't you just go glue some of his stuff to the ceiling in his apartment, or is that breaking some sort of code? And for the record, if I come home and anything of mine is on the ceiling, I'm going to shave off your eyebrows."

She smiled, but through that smile there was the definite promise of a threat. It was either that she'd shave them off, or she'd put toothpaste in them so the fluoride turned them blue. She wondered how the rest of his coworkers would feel about that.

"We don't really play practical jokes on eachother like that at work. We joke, but we can't really horse around. Outside of work, most of the girls have day jobs, except for a few. I hang out with Delilah when she's not busy; she's sort of like my big sister, I guess. But other than that, I'm fairly solitary." She smiled a little. "I'm sort of hoping I do get to meet some of your friends, provided that my job of choice isn't going to be a thorn in your side."

[Drew Richardson]

He stopped suddenly, listening to her list potential practical jokes, and looked over at her.  Did he hear that right?  Did she really just offer him up ideas like that?  And she'd sounded so surprised when she'd said they flipped each other's desks!

Okay, so shaving off his eyebrows wasn't so bad.  His brothers had done that plenty of times.  They'd never glued things to the ceiling, though.  "What kinda glue you sugges' for somethang like that?" he asked, honestly curious.  You didn't run into glue that could handle something like that often.  Gorilla Glue?  God, whoever got that treatment was going to be pissed.  Who deserved it more?  Probably....Wes.  He could get Josh to help.

They could glue a dentist's chair to Wes' ceiling, or at least, a huge picture of a dentist and the office. 

"Well, it don't mess up our jobs if we look kinda funny from pranks.  The girls you work with migh' not like it so much," he offered up, and it was a pretty good reason not to pull pranks there.  "You could meet my friends.  They ain't gonna say anythang, and besides, you're a waitress.  Ain't a thang wrong with that."  He meant it.  Waiting tables at a strip joint didn't make you a stripper.

[Melisande Theroux]

She shrugged. "You could use... no. No, I'm not giving you any more ideas. You've got that gleam in your eye, and if that's anything like the gleam in the eyes of most other men I know, it's when you're brewing on an idea that's potentially horrible, so no." She frowned at him, though laughter hinted at the edge of every word she said.

She picked up the second player controller suddenly, and Mario sprang to life. Drew wouldn't last long.

"Well, maybe I can meet them soon. I need friends that aren't strippers," she said with a laugh. "Maybe other people on a normal daytime schedule, that would be nice. And, Drew, I know what you mean when you say that there isn't anything wrong with being a waitress, but you have to understand. Most of the people I talk to hear strip club and end up making it synonymous with prostitute. I've had jokes like that fall in my presence before, and they don't go over well. If your friends are anything like you, though, I think we'll be okay. I'm just saying... it's not always hugs and lollipops on this side of things."

Round over. Melisande set her controller down. "Mario Kart?"

[Drew Richardson]

"Aww, c'mon!  I ain't gonna hit you with any of it, an' believe me, Josh an' Wes have earned anythang they get," he told her, interested in any ideas she had.  He was always open to new ideas. 

Then, she picked up the other controller, and Pikachu was getting its ass kicked.  He cursed under his breath, focusing his attention back on the game for the time being, but it was a lost cause.  He wasn't going to last long.

He could understand what she meant about the prostitute thing.  Some men were just assholes.  Hell, Drew didn't even think strippers were prostitutes necessarily, though he knew that a lot were.  That didn't mean they all were, though.  He'd give someone the benefit of the doubt wherever he could.  "We'll be goin' out sometime this week, if you want, an' don'choo worry, they ain't gonna say anythang like that, I promise."  First off, he knew they wouldn't because it wasn't how they were, and second, he'd beat some ass.  The 'Wrath of Drew' wasn't common, so it wasn't usually feared, but he was a Marine with Marine-training.  He could beat some ass if he wanted.

Wow.  Round over.  He sucked.  "Yeah, new game sounds good," he agreed quickly, more than willing to put that defeat behind him.

[Melisande Theroux]

Melisande went about selecting Bowser for her competitor, more or less because she liked how it looked like he was wearing his car. She waved the little wand around, waiting for Drew to pick his player, and leaned back into the couch for a moment. She stole a glance over at him, and smiled a little to herself. Maybe she'd made a good choice for once.

"So, what's your job like? I know this city can get pretty crazy, but do you guys have a lot of downtime, or is there always something happening? I guess all I really know about SWAT I learned from that movie. I have to admit, Hando was my favourite character. The sassy black man always gets my vote," she said with a little laugh.

[Drew Richardson]

Really, it didn't matter who he chose for his character, and he knew that.  He was going to lose, he was going to lose badly, and so he chose the most ridiculous looking competitor possible.  Why not look like a retard while he lost?  Hey, he had a sense of humor.  Besides, right then, all he cared about was making her laugh, since he couldn't be all that impressive with his video game skill.

Not like it would be gentlemanly to beat her ass in video games on the first date, anyway.  His saving grace was that he wouldn't have to worry about the whole, 'you let me win' bit later, cause he really just sucked at the Wii.  Get him on a Playstation 2, and he'd beat some ass, but the Wii was new trouble for him.

"My job?  It ain't usually like the movies or anythang, but it has moments.  We get lots of weird calls, bein' SWAT, an' some of 'em get pretty crazy, but it ain't the movies.  We'd probably be in some serious shit if it was," he told her honestly.  The movies were only about BIG, BAD situations, and really, Drew hoped never to be in a situation like that again.  He had enough of that in the Sandbox, and really didn't need it in the city.  That didn't mean he wouldn't jump right in, but he really didn't need a situation where he and his friends might die ever again.  "Hando was pretty sweet in that flick, though.  I liked Gamble, but I tend to like villains."

Funny, since he so wasn't a villain sort of guy himself. 

[Melisande Theroux]

"Gamble, yeah," she said with a laugh. "I thought he was cute, but he got his head knocked off by a train. That's not the most noble way to go - OH SHIT!" she yelled, cutting herself off as Bowser and his funny car took a header right off the side of the track. She sighed as the Lakitu dragged him back on, watching the screen as Drew's player whizzed feebly by her. "Bullshit!" she hissed. She waved the little controller furiously, trying to catch up.

"Weird calls, huh? I don't think I want to know. This city has enough weirdos in it, let alone the ones who make it a habit of calling the cops every time something goes crazy. You know there was some guy in my old complex who used to call the cops over anything? He kept notes, like the old coot in Dexter. It was really unnerving. He knew everything about everyone. I guess that's what you do when you get old, though."

She threw her controller down when she went off the track the second time, just around the time Drew crossed the finish line. "Did I mention I'm a sore loser?" she asked sheepishly, looking at him with her big blue eyes and shrugging a little.

[Drew Richardson]

"Yeah, trains really ain't somethang to play around with," he agreed, just a little distractedly.  She'd gone off the side of the track, and he'd actually almost followed.  He really, really sucked at this game.  Fortunately, he managed to keep it together with some concentration, and actually found that he was doing alright.

Imagine that.

"Dexter?  You mean that tv show?  Man, I don' watch anythang that has to do with police.  Half of it is BS, an' the res' makes me wonder how many of the guys we deal with watched too much of it," he told her, shaking his head and trying to focus on the game again for a second.  He might actually manage a win...

YES.

Not that he was going to brag or anything.  He smiled at her and shrugged, setting the controller down.  "Beginner's luck?  That, or you're so distracted by my manly good looks that you threw the game?  I'm down with either," he told her with a teasing wink. 

[Melisande Theroux]

Melisande smiled in that way she had, that way that made the dimples in her cheeks stand out. It was innocent and mischievous all at the same time - how did she do that, anyways? It was the way her face was shaped, mostly - heart-shaped, with chipmunk cheeks that just begged to be pinched by old ladies, which was the reason she waitressed at All Hallows and not O'Charley's or some other franchised piece of crap atmosphere.

She shrugged girlishly, light brown hair falling over one eye in that Jessica Rabbit sort of way that women's hair just did. "Maybe," she agreed, a hint of flirtatiousness on her voice. She lifted a hand and rested it lightly on his knee, sitting forward a little. "I mean, you are pretty good-looking. And I am easily distracted..." she trailed off, looking from the television and back to him, tilting her head.

[Drew Richardson]

Okay.  What the hell was going on?  This kind of thing never happened to him!  Ever!  These were the sort of stories that Josh and Wes told!  It wasn't like Drew wasn't as good looking or charming as they were, or that he couldn't be, because he could.  That didn't mean this kind of thing happened all that often, though.  Seriously, he was actually trying to keep his mind out of the gutter, and he wasn't being an ass or pushing her limits because he actually liked her and didn't want to scare her off, but he did NOT expect her to come on to HIM like that.

Fucking win, that was what this was.

He was like a deer in headlights for that first instant, almost thinking it was too good to be true that she was looking at him like that and putting her hand on his knee and saying those things.  She leaned forward, and he couldn't help himself.  He mirrored the movement, the teasing smile that had faltered ever so slightly breaking into a full grin as she said she was easily distracted.  "Guess that means I'm not as good at distractin' as I thought.  Gonna hafta work on that," he told her, and he leaned in, hoping for a kiss.  He'd try to play it off if she refused, but it was looking good and he just couldn't live with himself if he didn't try.  It felt wrong not to.

[Melisande Theroux]

Well, maybe Drew had beginner's luck after all - Melisande couldn't help but smile a little before she gave him the lightest of kisses - and she might have actually fallen in some sort of puppy love with him at that exact moment. She couldn't explain it - it was like a... a spark. Most men she'd kissed always tried to be too aggressive, too demanding, too.. manly. Even the way their lips felt - always too dry, too slobbery, too something.

Drew was like the third bed, the third bowl of porridge - juuuuuust right. And so she smiled, pressing her lips to his, finding them soft and warm - and she opened her mouth just a little, leaning further, situating herself so that she could be in a more comfortable position - really, she was suddenly doing a lot of leaning, and she wasn't the most graceful swan in the pond, so she'd probably end up flat on her face on the floor if she wasn't careful.

She pulled away after a moment, and smiled - no more flirtatious smiles, though, because now her cheeks were a little rosy, and she was bashful all over again. "I guess I got a little carried away," she said. She was practically on top of him - well, from where he was seated, she'd definitely put an arm passed him, centering at least her upper half even with his.