In the Beginning

The weather outside was far from Christmas-y; instead of a white Christmas, Dante was observing a wet Christmas. It didn't look like there would be any sort of snow, not that it mattered to him. He stretched out on his couch, ignoring the mess of an apartment around him, and waited for the phone to ring. White Christmas or not, there was last minute shopping to be done. And of course a restaurant to hit up. It was amazing, how different things were, now that she was around.

Downers Grove, Illinois surely was a downer this Christmas. The mid-west was hit with rain, not snow, and it seemed to never end. A soft sigh was exhaled as she picked up her mobile, and punched in his number, tucking strands of magenta behind an ear. She glanced surreptitiously at the clock. Still early. He'd better be up by now, because if he wasn't -- Uh oh! Angry Viking Astrid!

"Yeah, darling," he drawled, watching the light from a pair of headlights stream through the blinds of the living room.

"Oh, good, you're awake!" She sounded pleased; she hated waking him up. Taking a sip of her chocolate soy milk, she glanced at the clock one more, then out the window. "Are you ready to go? It's getting late .."

"Plenty of time." He smirked, then remembered she couldn't see him through the phone. "But yes, I'm ready." He didn't want her angry at him. Things were going well. He could still remember when they had met, at that stupid party. "Hey, do you remember..." Yeah, probably stupid, but... "Chris's party?"

Never stupid! Astrid was always prone - and up for - a stroll down memory lane. She laughed, playing with the bird keychain on her key ring, leaning her head against the window. "Of course I do ... how could I ever forget?" There was a shuffle, a flick; she'd found her cigarettes in her purse, and lit one up. "I was so scared to go up and talk to you ..."

He had bummed a cigarette off of her, he thought. Or maybe it had been the other way around. No, it had been she who had done the bumming. She had run out; he could remember her grimacing at his menthol cigarettes. He now smoked Camel Wides, a far stretch from Marlboro Menthols.

"We played pool." He chuckled. "I didn't think you'd go with me."

She grinned into the filter of her Camel - hah! she'd converted him - and plucked it from her lips, exhaling a stream of smoke and tapping the ash into an ashtray. "My God. How could I have said no to you?" Raking her fingers through her hair - she remembered the anxiety, the anticipation, the excitement of him taking her hand into his, tugging her along, leaning close together in the smoke-filled billiards room. "That was so much fun ... and going to Dennys afterwards, too.."

He shuddered at the mention of Denny's. How had she talked him into that one? "Oh, right. You're just so damn cute." He lit himself his own cigarette and sat up on the couch, more awake now that he was talking to her, reminiscing.
das kleine vogel: Hey, talking him into Dennys was easy! She giggled, drained her glass of milk, and set it aside, leaning back against the couch, staring out at the street. "Oh, I know .." She grinned into the phone. "That's how I get away with everything! You know that."

He leaned into the back of the couch, which was surprisingly comfortable, despite how old it was. Maybe that was the reason being. Without saying anything aloud, he thought of their firsts. Just thinking about her, just seeing her.. He shook his head and pulled a heavy drag inward. It was best not to go there.

"Hiking," he said, the one word bringing back a flow of memories.

She blew out a stream of smoke; blinked at the word, then laughed, burying her face in her palm. "Oh, my God." The memory overwhelmed her. How awkward that day was, at first, anyway! She had tried so hard to impress him, acted like she knew what she was doing ... oh, but it had been such a perfect day. "We'll have to do that again sometime, when the weather gets nicer .." She sounded wistful; gazing off into the distance.

"Yeah." He snubbed out the cigarette, trying to chase away his negative thoughts with more positive ones. Why couldn't things just stay simple? No, he didn't think they would.

"Chris is having a New Year's Eve party." It was an unspoken rule that if you were going to attend one of Chris's parties, you had better bring something to keep yourself occupied with. They were that bad. Dante and Astrid had left the one they had met at to play pool, a sort of first date rather than hang around Chris's parents' basement.

"Oh?" She blinked herself out of her little reverie, grinding out the filter in the glass ash tray at her elbow. "Is he?" A wicked grin spread across her lips, and she shifted the phone fron her left ear to her right, readjusting her lean. "You know we'll have to go, and at least crash it. Try to make it fun. Something." Yeah .. Chris's parties were always a drag, but she always went. What could she say? She liked seeing people she used to hang with in high school. Most of them, anyway.

"Sure, why not?" He lit another cancer stick, eyeing the empties strewn around the apartment. "Shall I pick you up?" He rose from the couch and began tossing empty bottles into a garbage bag filled with crumpled sheets of paper. He had attempted the art of songwriting and failed miserably before having a bit of JD. If she was going to pick him up he'd better get this place cleaned up, and fast.

She poked around her pack of smokes before coming up empty handed, and exhaled a gusty sigh. "Mn. I'll swing by your place. I need more cigarettes, anyway." Standing up, she gathered her bag and keys, heading for the door. "Just keep cleaning, baby." A little laugh. "I'll be there soon .." The phone was closed, and tucked in her pocket, and she was out the door.

Shit. How much time did he have? She knew he was a slob, but she didn't know about this. He almost threw the half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels at the far wall. Instead he tucked it securely behind the entertainment center and put the rest of the beer bottles into the garbage bag. Amazingly enough, Dante was able to get dressed and look halfway decent within ten minutes. He sat back down on the couch, flicked on the tv, and tried not to look as awful as he felt.

Oh, she knew how he could be. So she took her sweet time getting her cigarettes, and even took the scenic route to his apartment on 63rd street. The car door slammed, and she trotted up the stairs, knocking on his door not twenty minutes later.

"Hey." He managed a smile and moved aside so she could come in.

"Hey yourself." She slipped inside, and nudged the door shut, before pulling him close for a kiss. "Mn. I've seen you cleaned." Her eyebrows arched up, an amused grin curling her lips.

He held her close and kissed the top of her head. "Yes, a day's worth of laziness scrubbed away with Axe."

"So I noticed." She leaned in against him, sniffed his neck. "You're lucky I like the smell." Pressing a quick kiss against his throat, she smiled up at him. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, just lemme get my wallet..." He ducked into his bedroom, glanced wistfully for a moment at the dresser in the far corner of the room, then headed out, wallet in hand and taking Astrid's hand in his.

She caught the glance, and lowered one eyebrow, her mouth twisted to one side. No comment. Letting him go, she waited at the door, and perked up as he led her outside. "Man. Woodfield is gonna suck. I hate malls." She yawned as she unlocked the cardoors, and slipped inside. They still had a bit of a drive ahead of them.

"You're telling me. I'm not even sure why I'm shopping for anyone, besides you." He grimaced at the thought of his mother and stepfather.

She chuckled as she started up the car, and turned down the volume immediately; before then, Opeth had been blasting. "It's okay, though." She touched his hand as she pulled out of the parking lot, and back onto 63rd, heading towards 355. "It'll be fun. And then we'll have the rest of the day to ourselves."

"The night, you mean." Eyeing the dark sky. Squinting against the headlights of oncoming traffic. Fucking rain. He put his pessimism on the back burner of his thoughts and brought them back onto Memory Lane to distract himself. "Didn't think your rents would be too thrilled with me."

Soon enough, they were heading north, and she put on cruise control. Lazy! She stared straight ahead, but smiled as he mentioned her folks. "I knew my mom would love you. My dad, though ... he likes you ... he's just ... I don't know." A helpless little laugh. Mr Liljegren had his reservations about Dante, but maybe that was the Scorpio slash Taurus dynamic at hand .. neverminding the astrology dorkiness, she knew her dad tried to get along with Dante. "Anyway, Mom is always asking about you."

"Really?" He turned his head and looked at her, grinning. "Your mom is a sweetie." He noted the cruise control and relaxed. He trusted her.

She hazarded a glance over to him, smiling. "Yeah, she's great .." He'd better! Astrid was always designated driver, the one who staryed the most sober at parties just so she could take care of other people. She looked back to the road, then checked over her shoulder before changing lanes, relaxing in her seat once more. "You'll have to come by again sometime to see her. When my dad's not around, of course."

"Oh." He looked out his window and lit another cigarette. "Sure." Honestly he was a little intimidated by her father, but he guess that was the way these things were always supposed to work. His thoughts strayed back to their first few weeks together.

Dads were supposed to intimidate boyfriends! Obviously, that was their reason for being. Astrid was quiet to as Ghost Reveries quietly played in the background; though after a few minutes of silence, she touched his knee. "Hey," she said suddenly. "Do you remember when we, you know, first ..." She trailed off, pale cheeks flushign slightly.

"Of course," he said softly. He took her hand in his, twining their fingers. "Maybe you could stay over tonight and I could refresh your memory," he added, voice almost a whisper.

The crimson blush deepened, and she grinned, lacing her fingers with his. "Sounds good ... it has been awhile, hasn't it ..." Trailing off, stroking his hand with the edge of her thumb.

A warm chill ran through him. "Sure has." Still whispering. "Won't let that happen again." He flicked the cigarette out the window, and grinned at her playfully. "Or, if you wanna pull over..." He winked, to show her he was just kidding. Maybe.

She swatted his thigh gently. "Quit it!" But she was smiling - and almost considering his offer! Even so, she breathed in deep, and steadied herself; nodding to the side of the road. "See, we're almost there. Just wait until later ..." A playful nudge. "I'll make it worth the wait." As they pulled off 355, she was the one grinning.

"You're always worth waiting for." He looked away quickly, wishing he hadn't said something so.. blatant.

She glanced at him quickly, greygreen eyed widening for the briefest of moments. This was her typical knee-jerk reaction: wonderign what he meant by that, analysing, then letting in sink in. Nothing was said back, though she squeezed his hand tightly as they pulled into the mall's parking lot, cruising for an empty space.

He swallowed hard, and squeezed her hand back. Then, without another word, he opened his car door and stretched, looking at the mall spread out before them, and the amount of people pouring in and out. "Last minute idiots. Like us." He grinned and went around to her side. "Shall we?"

She was quick to follow suit. Her face didn't show it, but she was still turning his words over in her mind. Typical Astrid. Standing next to him, glancing up at Woodfield, she inhaled, leaned in and kissed his neck. "We shall." And with a little tug on his hand, she led him inside the mall, straight inside the chaos.

That same shiver when her lips touched his neck. He was glad when she took his hand, but still admonishing himself for what he had said. It had already been too much to expect her to want to even date him. And now here he was, saying things that he didn't even know if he meant. He thought about that for a moment. He didn't know what the hell he was thinking, at all. "Where to, first?" He didn't want to admit a lot of things, the number one right now being that he hadn't been to this mall in years and had no idea where anything was.

"Wherever the crowd takes us, I guess ..." Sure enough, the crowd moved them, and they couldn't help but follow along. She held his hand tightly, pressed herself close to his side; not wanting to lose him in this big sea of people. You're always worth waiting for ... Stop it, woman! She squeezed her eyes shut for the briefest of seconds, and shook her head slightly. "Let me know if someplace catches your eye."

He shrugged, though she probably couldn't see. His hand held hers tightly, afraid they would be separated and, well, stampeded. "Where do you shop for people you don't like?" He had to practically yell to be heard over the throng of people. This was nuts. They were nuts.

"You don't!" She shouted back, grinned, and tried to force his words out of her mind to try and concentrate on the task at hand. She only met Dante's folks a few times: they were nice enough to her, but ...