room 216 ; saturday afternoon

[necroslacker]

A weekend spent in here and now was a good weekend as far as Sam was concerned. He hadn't even existed last weekend so, slow or not, this weekend was gonna be a good one. He'd spent the morning talking to people in Seattle and he'd even gotten a visit from Ashley. She'd been pretty scarce lately and when Sam had asked about it, she'd just given her head a shake and kept typing on her Blackberry.

Sam took that as meaning she'd just been busy and he needed to not worry. Or something. So, that's what he was doing right now. He was not worrying about anything. He'd gotten mail from his mom and Haley that morning (a care package containing cookies) and he was nibbling on those every so often while exchanging text messages with Ramon.

Poor Ramon was still adjusting to the whole were-bear thing and was bitching about Frank nearly peeing himself when he'd run into a transformed Ramon in the hall and hadn't expected it. Sam was just lucky that Brannoc and his family were around and were helping Ramon through since he wasn't really there right now.

Ramon forgave him and even started sending him stupid, joking text messages about them getting married and running away and living as husband and husband. It was just good to joke with his friend and, for a split second, the part of Sam that was constantly reminding him that he'd go evil one day disappeared.

It was just a second but still, it'd been nice.

[Door cracked, post open.]

Comments

[necroslacker]

"Should I make a note of immediately sending you away in the future?" Sam countered because he could.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie shook her head. "That doesn't even make sense."

[necroslacker]

"Yeah well, what else is new?" Sam asked, shaking his head. "I just meant that thinking doesn't mean you've gotta immediately run away and when I get a little distant, that doesn't mean I want you to go either."

[whenshewasnice]

"I wasn't running away," Natalie pointed out. "Offering space doesn't mean running away. But glad we got that settled out."

Or something.

[necroslacker]

"Yeah," Sam said and snickered quietly. He stayed where he was. "So, what's new with you?"

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie shrugged and leaned back on her hands some. "Nothing." It was the truth. "I've been reading and playing some music. Nothing new there. I've kept to myself."

[necroslacker]

Nodding, Sam waited to see if there was more but there apparently...wasn't going to be anything else. Inwardly, he sighed.

"Cool." He nodded again. "Feeling better since last week and all?"

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie did not always do very well without prompting, no.

"Obviously." She thought it was obvious, anyway. The world had grown stable under her feet again. "I haven't fallen prey to any Dungeons & Dragons sessions or anything."

[necroslacker]

"Always a good thing," Sam agreed with a brief nod. "Well, it was great to catch up with you and all. Glad I haven't missed anything important."

[whenshewasnice]

"If there had been anything important, I think I would've reported that a little sooner." Or maybe not. But Natalie felt like she was maybe being judged on her economical distribution of information and words here. "But I've just been getting back into the normal swing of things."

[necroslacker]

Sam really just wanted to talk to her and she didn't seem to want to talk back and thus, he was running into walls that he was just kicking at and pouting.

"Yeah, I get that," he said because he did. "I'm just -- I dunno, I don't wanna sit here in silence but that's what it's getting to because I don't know what to talk about."

[whenshewasnice]

"What have you got against silence?" Natalie asked, even though she knew others weren't quite as predisposed to it as she was. "Or doing something other than talking?"

[necroslacker]

"I don't have anything against silence," Sam argued, shaking his head. "I was just hoping to talk to you since I haven't seen you in a few days. But if you wanna do the silent thing, we can. I can do quiet."

[whenshewasnice]

"I'm not the best at social chit chat, Sam." Which he obviously knew already. "I can't force talk out of myself if I have no particular topic at hand. There were hearths at the Perk, that's about the most interesting thing that's happened lately."

[necroslacker]

"And I said we could do the silent thing," Sam reminded her, raising his eyebrows. "It's fine with me. I get it, you're not a talker so we can just do the silent thing."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie was just being defensive. Which she didn't particularly like being, but it was an instinct.

"Doesn't help that you've wandered off," she noted, mildly, nodding in his direction. "Away."

[necroslacker]

"I'm like three feet away from you," Sam pointed out with a quiet snicker. "What doesn't that help? I'm not that far from you."

[whenshewasnice]

"A distance is a distance." For her, it was significant. She was a professional when it came to that sort of thing, after all. "It's pretty far for some things."

[necroslacker]

"I have to be close to you for us to sit in silence?" Sam wondered, tilting his head. He was curious as to what she'd say and if she'd reveal anything there.

[whenshewasnice]

"Physical distance cuts out the chance of anything physical," Natalie replied, leaving it simple like that.

[necroslacker]

"Ah." He nodded but didn't move just yet. "You could always ask me to come back over, you know. I probably would."

[whenshewasnice]

"Come back over."

Her tone suggested just the hint of an eyeroll that didn't happen.

[necroslacker]

"What's the magic word?" Sam asked even if he was already walking back towards the bed. "It's always nice to use the magic word."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie held off on replying for a beat, looking up at him.

And then she said, "Abracadbra."

Well, it was a magic word.

[necroslacker]

"Smartass," Sam said but dropped down beside her again. He leaned back on his hands and when quiet because, well, she wanted quiet or something.