more than a feeling

In New Orleans it had been a little hole in the wall place in the Quarter. Off the beaten tourist path, down a side street that probably didn’t get much traffic other than the dudes strolling up on a Friday night in leather gauntlets and wizard’s cloaks. A couple of times he’d caught people following them, dudes laughing at the weirdery, others looking to take advantage of the weedy geeks gabbing about gorgons and levelling up their dark mage trailing them until the guy at the door with the bruiser’s face and scarred knuckles had sent them reeling back. He’d never liked pulling his badge, it’d never been Detective Buckley who’d slipped inside almost always last to put on the mantle of a ranger or the quad’s best skiff pilot, just Chase. The kid who’d never really grown out of the well thumbed comic books or the idea that there were worlds out there not near half as grim as the one he lived in.

He’d been rattled when he’d driven past the store here the first time. Unsure why the hell he was even here, other than the fact that maybe Raven was here. Maybe she’d finally have answers for him. Dark eyes had skittered over the sidewalks as he’d driven through, fingers tightening on the wheel at every blonde that walked past. None were but he had seen the giant classic post of Superman in the store’s window, had tracked that with his eyes until he was past that too. Chase knew he’d end up back there if he stuck in Mystic Falls. You could make a man of the kid but that kid was gonna stick around somewhere.

Friday nights, some Saturdays too. Trivia Tuesdays. Especially those Tuesdays. No grand campaigns and twenty sided dice then but a break from the grim details he was picking apart from the case files that crossed his desk on a daily basis of any sort was pretty damn welcome.

A late appearance had left spots in the back of the store thin on the ground. Luckily as he’d turned away from the counter, a beer in hand, one of the guys he knew from other Tuesdays here was waving him over. The whole thing was gonna kick off soon and even if he had to beg one of these guys to buddy up at the last moment, he was gonna end up on that stage at some point, schooling all the college kids who hadn’t even been born when Frank Miller had stormed onto the comic book scene.

Chase watched as the pairs headed up on stage one at a time. Questions asked, questions failed miserably. He’d laughed along, tongue tracing along his lip to chase the taste of the fourth beer his buddy the Elf Lord had just brought back as he noted down everything he woulda got right. It looked like most of the people heading up there tonight were just chasing the free beer, demonstrating about as much Geekhood as Lady Gaga.

The brunette who slipped up as two girls in Starlord t-shirts hopped down giggling didn’t exactly look like the other girls here. A little older maybe, dressed like a woman instead of a teenaged boy. His gaze lingered a minute, then drifted around, looking for the inevitable geeky boyfriend, the one who liked to stretch his Batman t-shirt tight enough across his bulging biceps to cut off circulation to the knuckles that were likely gonna drag across the stage.

Elf Lord said something then, mentioned something about the D&D game they were gonna carry over from last week on Friday night. Chase set his bottle down on the corner of the table, shook his head as he glanced over his shoulder. ”Don’t think I’m gonna make it … work y’know …” He missed the brunette calling out to him until the Elf Lord shot an elbow to his ribs, the guy’s face lighter up brighter than he thought he’d ever seen it.

Swivelling back he caught the finger aimed in his direction, a smile lighting up the brunette’s face. Dark brows rose, darker eyes fixing on her until he was snorting. Cage fighter? Maybe she wasn’t that far off, on that or the massive nerd follow up. ”Who said there’s a dividin’ line?” he asked. With others there probably was but it’d always been a mish-mash in him, the Bruce Wayne to the Batman not such a massive shift. Chase lifted his chin slightly as she hopped down, studied her as she made her way close. An arm slid around his, tugged him off of his stool before he could argue it. If there was one person in here who wasn’t a nerd it was her, he’d put a year’s wages on it. ”Thought you had one already,” he muttered, making a show of looking around as he let her tow him up.

Hopping up on the stage he turned, offering her a hand up as she announced to the clerk in charge of this that she was all partnered up now. Muscles in his jaw flexed with the curl of his smile as she eased in, looking at him with those big brown eyes. ”Chase,” he murmured, his voice a rasp. Dipping his head, Chase let his eyes slip over the crowd and then back to hers from up close. ”Lucky for you I’m like a fuckin’ savant at all this shit. You ready to drink all these guys under the table with the big prize?” Stage fright wasn’t a problem, never had been, although there were times back in New Orleans when that iron band would tighten around his chest, everything he thought he knew suddenly alien. Not now. Flashing the clerk a guileless smile Chase turned towards her, his hand coming up to settle lightly at the small of Roxanne’s back.

The clerk knew him, had seen him at a dozen of these things and knew the competition was suddenly on. She flashed a smug grin back, tapping her fingers on the cards in her hands. ”The following are archenemies of which superheroes: A – the Green Goblin, B – Red Skull, C – Doctor Doom, D – The Shredder and E – Loki…” Oh it was on. Chase was already laughing low, the husky edge of it a warning. If they were gonna play it this easy then he wasn’t gonna be the one walking out of here with Wonder Woman travel mug.

Tagged: ROXANNE BRASCHI * Word Count: 1047

Wow this one had a mouth and not just of the prettily painted kind. Snorting at him, dark eyes practically daring him as she took his hand to step back up on stage. Chase clucked his tongue, mouth twisting into a grin as he looked around again pointedly. ”I think Dave would’ve probably argue it but … women like you don’t normally end up in a place like this … no offence.” He’d caught the look their compere for the night sent him. She was more obviously the stereotypical geek - the plaid shirt, faded classic Marvel t-shirt and Loki hair grip things giving her away. Chase’s smile went apologetic for a heartbeat before he was looking back at the brunette who’d called him out.

She hadn’t let go as she’d pressed in, guileless as she looked up at him. Like butter wouldn’t melt before that mouth went from merely sarcastic to something just a little naughtier. Definitely unlike the girls … and hell, half the guys … in here, who would’ve gone up like a roman candle if she’d made the same offer to any of them. Chase’s dark eyes narrowed even as his brows rose. His mouth worked for a second before a laugh rolled out and he shook his head. ”Any boyfriend who’d let another guy get his hands on you is freakin’ crazy…” He’d known she was shitting him even before she was turning away from the clerk to confirm it for him. Chase ducked his head slightly, tilting it to eye her as she ducked her own chin. ”’s a shame. I thought I was gettin’ lucky for the night then.” Not that he would’ve just tumbled between the sheets with the first woman in town who’d practically suggested he’d taken a frying pan to the face.

Close as she was Roxxi had to be seeing every line, every scar on it, remaining plastered up against him despite it. Her lips were still brushing his cheek, whatever she had on them leaving some trace of her there. He thought he could see it on her lips still as she flashed teeth in her smile, all that swagger culminating in the wink she shot him. Chase lifted his hand, knuckled his mouth as he snorted. ”Does it count as confidence when it’s just the truth?” he asked. Those dark eyes lifted to the clerk, nodded to her to tell the woman they were ready.

The first question had just been a lead in. Practically everyone in the place could’ve answered it. Chase glanced at the crowd, already spotting Dave the Elf Lord smirking over it. These dudes ate up heroes like Spiderman and Captain America, they worshipped them, had their own geeky little shrines built to them on bedroom walls that hadn’t changed much since they were 15, if at all. He rolled his lower lip between his teeth, dipping his chin to look at Roxxi. Conferring was practically expected but damn, she was already going balls to the wall, gabbling out some answer that was … right … once. Jesus, it was no wonder she’d had to pick a partner, although going for the one guy who didn’t look like he belonged there was a risky strategy.

The clerk was immediately offering up a little smile, marking down the one right answer out of five in that mess. He groaned, hanging his head towards her as he started laughing. This time it was his lips close to her ear as he could get, rough laughter rumbling from somewhere deep in his chest. ”You weren’t jokin’,” he drawled. ”You’re fucking horrible at this.” Chase drew back, letting out a low whistle. She definitely hadn’t known what she was walking into here but the fact that she was trying with a ballsiness most in here wouldn’t have managed was … impressive.

Still, as the next question came, Chase lifted his hand between them as Roxxi tucked herself in close. He pressed a fingertip to her lips as she went literal with it. His grin growing, he shook his head. It didn’t take a Level 9 geek like he was to know this one. Anybody who’d seen an MCU film and actually got what was going on these days could’ve gotten this one. ”Lemme take this one, huh?” He nodded to her as he let his finger drop from those pouting lips. ”It’s vibranium, mined from Wakanda.” There was a smug edge to his grin as the crowd whooped and another point got marked down. Score one for Buckley and his … partner in crime.

By the time the last question had been marked off … Eddie fucking Brock for the win, thank you very much … half the faces in the crowd were glum. They’d just smashed the top score, had practically made it impossible for the teams still to go to have a chance, unless the Elf Lord could pull out a perfect game. Knowing the free beers were in the bag Chase hopped off the stage, reached back up to grip Roxxi’s hips and lift her down, even though it was probably only six inches to the ground. He let one linger there as he dropped his head. ”We’ve got it in the bag,” he promised, his voice rough. Using that touch to tow her, he nudged her out of the way of Dave and his partner, a guy who played a warlock in practically every game they’d played here so far. Chase winked at Dave, knowing the dude had zero chance. ”What do you say we grab another couple of beers? ‘specially since we’re gonna have carte blanche on it.” Cocky? In more ways than one? Yup. It was a cockiness born of confidence though, something he’d always had in his skills as a total nerd in disguise.

Tagged: ROXANNE BRASCHI * Word Count: 972

Nights at the store didn’t usually end like this. A couple more beers with Dave the Elf Lord and some of the other guys after the festivities were over, an ambling walk home on his own – cause he’d rather gauge his eye out with the replica sword in the stone that sat in pride of place at the back of the store just waiting for someone to try and be worthy enough to pull it and he sure as shit wasn’t the type most of the girls, women, who came to the store were interested in. A little extra groan as he rolled himself out of bed the next morning, a little worst the wear for the noise and celebrations over the geek victory. A life lived without indulgence because once you’d found yourself at the bottom of a treacherous canyon or coming round from a coma brought on by a vicious kick to the head that left you with a skull fracture and a grade 3 concussion.

Chase stared at her from under his lashes, his lower lip catching between his teeth in a look that had always had that sudden wariness about what he was gonna do shooting into his ma’s eyes. He held it there for a moment, nodding smoothly until he started to laugh low. ”Right,” he drawled low, ”and we’re gonna have most of left to celebrate.” Cock sure? Definitely, but it was a confidence born of weeks of domination on these nights.

Solo those rare times they allowed it, talking Dave or one of the others into partnering up with him when he couldn’t. A guy who looked as out of place as the pope in a strip joint standing, he shouldn’t have been any sort of competition to the kids who had lived, breathed, and drooled over RDJ’s Tony Stark – oh, but he was.

A lean, mean dominating machine that had broken into a groan as his partner made it clear there was no Diana Prince hiding beneath that skirt and guileful dark eyes. The groan broke off into a laugh and Chase was drawing back, whistling but meeting her equally dark eyes as he shook his head. ”Ya didn’t,” he echoed. ”’bout anything?” The boyfriend thing had been a joke but that promise for the rest of the night? If she was good to her word then no matter what happened here, he had a win of some kind definitely going for him. Two if he could get them through every other question without Roxxi dragging them down the wrong path.

Chase had pressed his finger to her lips, the two of them close in to confer. Warmth from her radiating out to him, her breath hot against the pad of his finger as she hummed, tilting her chin down in a way to drag his touch over her lips. Jesus. It had a hot shiver racing under his skin as she eased in against him. An arm around his waist, her body pressed to him knee to shoulder. If there had been a guy in the crowd that belonged to her he’d have needed the patience of a saint to see her getting another guy hot under the collar like this. And he was. Chase felt that scorch of heat in his throat as he gave the answer. Each came in that broken rasp of a voice afterwards, a rasping rise and fall that almost peaked at a squeak as she nudged her hips into his at the end. Eddie Brock had never been squealed that way and never would be again.

The collective misery of most of the crowd made it clear that they’d only caught on the epic string of right answers rather than the subtle seduction going on while he’d displayed his geek prowess. Was he showing off a little for her? Maybe but it’d been a hell of a long time since any woman had looked at him with anything but a little trace of fear in their eyes over this hulking brute of a guy bearing down on them.

Boxers knuckles, scarred from the job and a childhood of pushing his limits, flexed as Chase curled his hands around her hips to lift her down off of the stage. He kept one there, anchoring her to him as he dipped his head to whisper about their victory in her ear. She ran a hand up his arm, flexing her fingers in turn. ”Mm-hmm,” he confirmed. ”The Elf Lord’s got some game but he ain’t gonna have a lucky charm hanging on him. We are the champions, Roxxi.” An echo of Queen in that rasping voice as he slid his hand to the small of Roxxi’s back pressing her into him as Dave hopped up. Chase grinned, winking at Dave as he gawped at him. A raging case of geek envy that was only gonna intensify if he and Roxxi spent the rest of the night tucked away in a corner of the store, drinking their victory before it was announced. Those devious fingers continuing to send the goose flesh racing over his skin if he had her pegged right.

They found his know, his larger, rougher hand flexing around hers as he let her tow him through the crowd towards the bar. Chase pressed in close behind her, his hand on the small of her back, his thumb trailing the dip of her spine through her blouse as she ordered. He shifted as she turned back towards him propping an elbow on the edge of the bar in a mirror image of her, his own grin taking on that confident edge before she had him laughing again. ”You don’t wanna hear that I’m Clark Kent by day and Superman at night?” he asked. Chase’s chuckle punctuated his words as he shook his head. ”I get ya, I get ya. No life stories.” No sordid tales of a family broken by teenage delinquency and a kid who’d tried to make up for what his brother had been dragged into doing by the kinda guys he’d made a job out of trying to put behind bars instead of the kids they talked into doing their illegal shit for them.

Chase rolled his lip between his teeth again, eyes crinkling at the corners with a rueful expression as he looked around. The origin story wasn’t that far out of anything you’d find in at least a couple dozen of the vintage comics Briana had stacked in a couple of racks in the middle of the store. He dragged his lip back out, slow, teeth stretching it slightly as she trailed her fingertips over his hand. Those same shivers rolling up in arm, spreading across his chest as he inched closer. ”Orrrr…” he echoed. ”Me and my brother both got into it for a while. It was all kinda badass, you know, these unassuming guys cleanin’ up whole cities, never getting knocked by it for long. Then there were the capes … those were always kinda hot, ‘specially on the heroines.” Most guys went through that stage, action figures and explosions, cartoons and comic books. Most grew out of it but he hadn’t, some part of him clinging onto the flip side of his own job like the fictional version somehow took the tarnish off the real. ”How ‘bout you? Why are you here when this so ain’t your thing?” His finger curled tighter around hers, a little tug given to draw her closer again. This wasn’t her place, it’d been obvious the minute she opened her mouth, long before she’d butchered that first question.

Tagged: ROXANNE BRASCHI * Word Count: 1275

Guys like Dave the Elf Lord did not get women who looked like Roxxi coming on to them in places like comic book stores. The whole idea was one he would’ve scoffed at over a beer on nights like this usually, the geeky guys who’d gone through high school a little pudgy, triple damned with acne, glasses and braces, clutching their Pathfinder rulebook against their chest like a shield not getting the knock outs because nobody who looked like that came to a place like this. Sure, they weren’t far off the mark with the fact that most women who came to comic book stores proudly wore their geek on their chest but there was a big freaking world out there and those cliques clearly marked by the boundaries of how hot you were on the high school scale didn’t exist. It was a different set of rules and Chase had been pretty prepared to stick by them but she’d blown the ones that had regulated these quizzing nights out of the water like a depth charge.

Dave was still gonna be going home alone but glancing over Roxxi’s shoulder as she shot him another of those sly little looks, Chase could see the hope in the guy’s eyes. Oh, it was a possibility now. His buddy had proved it. Long minutes later he had his hands spanning Roxxi’s waist, fingers tracing the supple lines of muscle clad in that skirt, his lips practically on her ear. Chase saw her brow furrow out of the corner of her eye and that fish outta water look on Dave’s face. ”Man, you really don’t know anything,” he said on another of those low chuckles. ”Pretty much. He always plays an elf when we table top game here. Pretty sure you’d make his entire life if you let him sit through ‘em with you.” Dave probably wouldn’t consider losing track of the movie before the Hobbits had even gotten out of the Shire.

Well shit, now the image was in his head as trailed Roxxi to the bar, eyes on those swaying hips before she turned back towards him. Dark eyes raked up those curves, his lips slowly curling beneath them until he was beaming that smile at her. His hand had remained on her waist, his thumb exploring and drawing a shiver out of her that had his lips twitching. She arched at his touch, pressing back against him for a moment before she was turning back. One of those dark brows rose at his question. Naw, she didn’t wanna hear the boring details of his life, how he’d dragged himself out of a rough neighbourhood and into a job where he got to fight the sorta crime that had sucked his own brother in. She didn’t want to hear about the slippery slope he’d started to stumble down either.

Chase’s throat went dry, leaving him clearing it as he nodded. Maybe it was time to cut out the geek references, find some common ground that’d erase the need for explanations without tiptoeing into the minutia of life territory. ”Bingo,” Chase said in that low rumble. ”Clark’s the newspaper photographer, Superman’s the hero.” Not that it was ever that clear cut a line. Grey areas were as big in comic books as they were in real life.

His own had been a mile wide but on nights were you got to race around some other realm with a sword and the ability to cut things down five times you size with the roll of a twenty-sided-dice, all that muddy grey washed away. It wasn’t a rattle of plastic in his hand this time, or the flip-flop of his stomach as they tumbled across a table. It was her – all dark eyes and pouty lips and zero knowledge of anything in this store. Roxxi had cut all that fog out of his head, left him rolling his lower lip between his own teeth before he’d admitted he wasn’t the Elf Lord sort growing up. He hadn’t even been the Bruce Wayne sort really. He was a kid in a rough neighbourhood watching his brother get dragged into all that trouble. What had happened with Mikey had been what his whole world had ended up revolving around.

The laugh she rung out of him as she admitted he’d worried her was another of those low rumbles, more a vibration in his chest than a sound aloud but maybe she was close enough to feel it in the air between them. Chase winged a brow, dipping his head slightly. ”You mean you won’t get into the Princess Leia slave bikini for me? Damn. There goes a fantasy.” He didn’t need any of that, not with her when she’d already gone balls to the wall the minute she’d pulled him out of the crowd. Chase’s free hand went up, all innocence. ”I prefer my muscular men a little more butch, thanks.” And his women a little more separate from the life he had here, or the one down at the station. The only way he’d been able to function the last couple of years was to compartmentalise.

A little heat started to ride his cheeks above the scruff on his jaw as she called his story cute but Chase ignored it, pursed his lips instead as he shook his head. They’d agreed not to go down that rabbit hole and God some part of him wanted to stick to it. A single night to blow away the cobwebs and then no expectations afterwards, no getting caught up in that rat’s nest his life had ended up before he’d headed here in search of Raven. Chase slowly eased his hand away from her back, tracing it lightly over her lips again to cut off her trail of thought again before he brushed it down to her chin to allow her to tell him how she’d ended up here, a fish out of geeky water.

Chase felt that shiver of every touch as she trailed her hand over his, fingertips exploring until they curled in, flexed out to slot between hers. He glanced down at them, peering through his lashes as he slid his arm around her waist again, fingers at the waistband of her skirt to make sure there was no room between them anymore. ”Hey, that might not be so far off the truth by the time we get out of here. You didn’t bet on the level of nerdiness here, right?” His lips curled, that low laugh emerging, warm breath, his, hers, shivering over skin as the bartender for the night set the bottles down on the bar. Chase glanced sidelong at them, nodded as Roxxi lifted her bottle and took a long sip.

He’d definitely say there was promise.

An hour later as he sat at a corner table with her, the surface of it littered with the spoils of their victory in empty bottles, Chase was lamenting the fact that she probably wouldn’t be back. As great as the conversation with the Elf Lord was … it wasn’t this. He had a leg slotted beneath her chair, his own pulled in far enough that the hem of that skirt had been brushing his thigh the whole time, each shift of it making that muscle in his jaw pop. ”Last call.” There was a thread of amusement in the clerk’s voice as she swept in, gathering up the empties. She glanced back and forth between the two of them, something knowing in her eyes as she set two last fresh bottles down.

Chase dipped his chin, waiting for her to slip off before he snagged the bottle and leaned in, the curve of it cold against his chest as he hitched his brows at his partner in crime. ”You gonna be able to walk out of here with that? Or is this gonna be where I sweep you off your feet?” It’d been a throwaway line earlier but now he was letting his gaze drift down her side again, like he was appraising just where to get his hands on her. One curled around the back of her thigh, fingers laced through the slit at the back of the skirt. The other arm stretched over her rump, the bottle pressed to it between sips as he ambled the couple of blocks to his apartment. He could already feel the imaginary heat of her pressing through his shirt, up against his neck.

It went fucking cold as his phone vibrated at his hip though. Chase groaned, letting his head roll forward as he abandoned the bottle without taking a sip. The station’s number lit up on the screen. He punched a thumb impatiently to answer it. ”I’m sorry, it’s work. I’ve gotta … Buckley … hey man … I’m meant to be off the clock … wait, they specifically asked for me name?” The place had emptied out far enough that it was quiet now, the Elf Lord and his buddies gone, leaving the ‘Detective Chase Buckey’ that rolled out of the phone in response to his question a sharp tinny damnation to his night that he didn’t know was coming clear in the air.

Tagged: ROXANNE BRASCHI * Word Count: 1561 (sorry!)

These nights had been a saving grace for years. His escape from the house after they’d banged Mikey up, a racing bike ride away from a house where a pall had fallen over them all. Hours spent in other worlds at the comic book store, not getting a single pitying look or menacing ones either because his brother had fallen in deep enough with the Agnellis to have been caught in the crossfire. Chase Buckley wasn’t the kid bound to follow in his brother’s footsteps there, he could be whatever he wanted, strap on a sword, cast spells, clean up realms that had suffered things less invasive, less destructive than the Agnellis. That Chase had already had those first tugs of attraction towards girls and maybe the thought that he was gonna one day get to Han Solo to some girl’s Princess Leia would’ve got him hot under the collar.

He wouldn’t still have been picturing it more than an hour later though. Dark hair braided over golden shoulders, that skirt cut high on the lush hips confined in that pencil skirt that kept her legs bracketed either side of the one he had kicked idly underneath her chair. Dark eyes, slightly soft around the edge, not as soft as hers or that smile on her lips, cut up to the clerk as she chivvied them along with last call, slipping two last beers onto the table for the road. Thanks for the drinks, the quiet skirting of them in the corner while the night had wrapped up and one geek at a time had slipped out the door. Dave being Dave he probably woulda taken one look at her if she’d been alone and offered up a gentlemanly arm in a bow, an escort home. She’d still get one, Chase thought, seeing that grin turn molasses slow again as she rolled her eyes.

The laugh the answer to the question he’d tossed at her, half out of that same chivalry, half out of the thought she really was too far gone to get there under her own steam, rolled out low. There was a challenge in his own dark eyes as he rolled his lower lip between his teeth, back and forth with that rumble in the base of his throat. Chase groaned it off, shifting his weight as he tilted his head to look her over like the toss over his shoulder was a foregone conclusion. ”I think I could probably do it, unless you’re some sort of Black Widow kind of bad ass.” There was a lean play of muscle under both skin and clothes that would either go butter soft under the grip of his hand or hard and fierce as she took that dare.

Damnit.

The universe that’d had a Bruce Wayne/Frank Castle kinda hate on for him for the last couple of years had to smack him down, reminding him that things like this … the beauty hitting on the beast … they didn’t happen in real life, not for anybody, especially not for him. Roxxi didn’t let it go as the phone rang and his apology slipped out. Chase kept his head down, eyes rolling up to watch Roxxi as the station started to fill him in on why they were putting out the call hours after he’d finished his shift. She was inching in, her hand wrapping around his thigh, sliding close until she had her lips on his throat, kissing skin that suddenly felt hot and sensitive. His other hand came up as he let out a raspy huff of air, sliding into the dark silk of her hair, his thumb skating the high line of a cheek bone, circling her temple.

Patera’s voice continued to buzz from the other end of the phone. The low drawl explaining how a call had come through to the front desk of the station, some woman. He hadn’t gotten a number but it had sounded urgent so he’d wanted to pass the message along. Chase heard Roxxi’s question slip out, his lips curving faintly as he nodded at her. He’d expected her to keep up that slow exploration of his throat, the distraction promised all night finally hitting at just the wrong moment. Roxxi was slipping away as he spoke the soft heat of her mouth against his skin gone, a static zap against the thigh of his pants leaving him twitching as she withdrew. He laughed, shifted as the apology on his face intensified. Chase cleared his throat, watched through his lashes as she scooted back to her own stool, just that brush of her skirt against his leg left of their brief contact. ”I’m not coming in but if they call again, get a number, call me back. Thanks man.” He thumbed the phone off, already slipping it back into his pocket.

Chase grimaced slightly, reaching for his beer. He was sorry but without diving into the conversation they’d both been trying to avoid there wasn’t much he could do to clean it up. She was writing another laugh out of him though, the bottle being pulled away when he had it an inch from his mouth. A full on belly laugh that sent him rocking back on his seat. ”I woulda said they were wrong about the taste, right about the working, but … it’s just worth it in the end.” That heat was back, stoked by her mouth in an entirely different way as Chase shook his head and sipped from his beer. His tongue traced his lower lip as the gulp rolled down smooth, thick fingers aiming the bottle in her direction. ”I thought we weren’t doing that … guess I did kinda spoil it though.” He made a faint sucking sound as he sucked a breath in and nodded at her. Getting into the NOPD had put him on that path to doing something about the neighbourhood, about people like the Agnellis.

It wasn’t a story he’d admitted to anybody but Raven. One night over beers she’d pushed about why he was pushing so hard for the gangs, what was driving him. That had been like ripping a band aid off, tearing open a wound that’d taken months for the resultant bleeding to even slow. It still hadn’t stopped. Chase rolled the foot under her stool, let his thigh brush against the inside of Roxxi’s knee again. ”Straight outta high school. I always knew I wasn’t gonna do the whole college thing and it felt kinda right. Here in town? It’s only been a couple of months.” That unexpected change, the desire deep in the pit of his stomach to find out what the hell had happened to Raven when she’d slipped away. Driven in a way he still didn’t entirely understand. It was a fresh break after those long, long months of hell in New Orleans. Not so much of the boring details, just a short explanation and Roxxi was already bringing it back around to what had gotten them started tonight. ”I’d say I’m more Daredevil but that’s gonna be way out in left field for you. I’ll give you kudos though, you managed to name two superheroes at least. Tonight’s gotta be rubbing off on you, huh?” The geek stain clinging to her, slowly drawing her in until suddenly she had just a little bit of hero worship going on for Batgirl.

Tagged: ROXANNE BRASCHI * Word Count: 1237

Cops had an instinct. Some of the instructors at the academy had droned on about how it couldn’t be taught. You had it or you didn’t and if you didn’t the chances of you ending up anywhere but on a street patrol for life were about as high as the moon crashing down out of the sky one day. If you did have it then that instinct was something you had to trust. In the middle of all the trouble in New Orleans, with his memory fritzing out on him like bad TV reception and bodies being dropped on his doorstep like offerings from particularly psychopathic mouse, Chase wasn’t sure he had it anymore. That twitch in his gut and the alarm bells in his head were just gone. Maybe some part of them came back enough to get him out of town when he’d gotten the news that Raven might be in Mystic Falls but there was anything suspicious now as Roxxi drew back he wasn’t seeing it. Confusion, maybe, and a vague sense of disappointment roll off of the fact that it was curtain being pulled back on his job that suddenly seemed to have edged things sideways.

Wouldn’t have been the first time.

Chase swallowed it back, full on laughing as she queried his name. As kids they’d heard the joke enough, school yard insults tossed around about every name under the sun. Getting older, with Roxxi, it was loaded in a different way, the teasing between the lines edged with a heat that had him pushing the sudden change in her proximity aside. His laugh was deep, rough, but it had her smilng at him again, bright, pretty even with the lipstick she’d been wearing earlier long gone. Pretty full stop in a way he hadn’t let himself consider for a long time.

His face went a little hot but it wasn’t the booze or the loss of the touch of her hand painting that pink stain along his cheekbones. It was the job. It had put a damper on where they’d been heading as she’d eased in and latched those lips on his throat and they weren’t back to where they were yet. Roxxi’s fingers were knotted in the hem of her dress now, drawing his eyes down as his shook his head, chagrined. ”It’s the job,” he admitted, laughing ruefully. ”It’s worse when you start out, rookie always gets the crap, ya know?” Especially when your brother was serving time and everybody expected that same stain was on you. Shit that wouldn’t rub off. ”By the time you get to Detective you’re Queen Bitch, making the uniforms do that grunt work for you.” He winked back, trying to soften the words that felt all too serious, the sort he’d been happy enough to avoid earlier.

He didn’t want to bring the mood down, sour what had probably been the best night he’d had at the store since he’d arrived. She sure as hell eclipsed the week him and the Elf Lord had pasted a couple of college kids at Magic the Gathering. Chase’s grin grew, took on a faintly cocky edge as she took the conversation down that same swallow your tongue route again. There was a heat in his dark eyes as he looked at her from under his lashes. ”Something or someone?” he asked, a rasp to his voice. The offer had been there the whole night, any doubt he mighta had about taking her up on it slowly erased by the beers. Chase leaned forward, his knee sliding a little deeper between her own as he nodded his head at something behind hers. ”Matt Murdoch, he definitely ain’t no Evel Knievel. Blind lawyer by day, vigilante by night. Could kick Evel’s ass right off of that motorbike.” Real didn’t bother him, the real was what put pressure on your life, the grim never quite washing away, no matter how much you tried.

The press of her knee against his thigh had Chase slumping a little closer. He scraped a nail over the label on his bottle, thin silver flecks glittering as they floated down to the thigh of his jeans, the back of his hand just an inch from her knee. Close enough that as he extended a finger to gesture vaguely around the store. ”Naw, most nights a week, different things. Video game tournaments, the trivia shit, RPGs, pretty sure there’s at least one night a month where they get full on dressed up. You turned up as Catwoman then I could guarantee at least half a dozen heart attacks.” A broad grin at that, edged with that heat again. It remained as he watched her sudden confusion hit, her fingers slipping into her pocket to retrieve her phone.

Blue light highlighted her face in the dim light of the store. He didn’t shift to look at her screen, wasn’t his place, but the shit that fell from her lips with a sigh had him giving a faint groan. He’d said the same a thousand times over in the last decade, the dawning awareness that something he didn’t want to hear was coming right there. Chase grimaced faintly as he shook his head. The apology seemed honest enough, the croak and frown giving it credence instead of letting him blow it off as a pretty girl playing a beast. ”You don’t gotta,” he started, but Roxxi was already dipping her head, slipping away from him as she swung a leg over his. Her shoes were going back on before she eased closer, her hand pressing against his chest.

Chase looked up at her, managed a slanted grin as that soft as silk voice slipped out. ”Seriously, you don’t have to apologise. I dicked first with that call.” He nudged his bottle aside, pushing his way to his feet, catching her hand on the way up. Those dark eyes kept dropping to his mouth, a hesitation there that had him dipping his head down towards her. ”How ‘bout next week? Gives you time to swat up and learn your Punisher from your Luke Cage.” His lips hovered an inch from hers, dark eyes unblinking as he waited that heartbeat, giving her the out before he closed the gap and brushed his lips over hers.

Tagged: ROXANNE BRASCHI * Word Count: 1053