fandomtownies | Fandom Post Office, Wednesday (02/20)

Not moddable!

Knowing there was a good chance that Romeo would be stopping by around lunchtime, A.J. took his lunch early and headed right to the only place he could think he'd want to spend it right now. "Got a stool and a makeshift hat over there on the other side of that counter for me?" he asked, by way of greeting, and then held up a take-out cup from the dinner. "I'll give you a milkshake for it."

A.J.'s voice was certainly one of the things that would grab Beauty's attention, and she looked up from her reading with a happy smile, slipping a bookmark between the pages.

"Of course I do. Well, a stool anyway. But I can have a hat for you in no time. Would you like it decorated?"

"Ooh, decorated?" It was hard to not be encouraged by decorated. A.J. set the milkshake (choco-caramel espresso today) down on the counter before hopping over it himself. "With what?"

"Well, um..."

Beauty snagged the milkshake and took a sip as she looked around the post office and considered what materials she might have. "I've got a couple of colored pens, and there's always stamps?"

There was also a package hiding under the counter for A.J., but she wanted to wait and give it to him after he was all settled in with his Official Postal Assistant hat.

A.J. grinned slightly, pulling up the stool and having a seat, and really just wanting to lean up against her, but he'll save that for maybe later, if she was okay with it. "We can put a lot of stamps on it," he decided, "and then pick a random place and send it there when my lunch break's over. We'll have to include a return address, and see if they send anything back..."

"Ooh, that sounds like an interesting idea!" Beauty exclaimed. She pulled open the stamp drawer and set a huge assortment of stamps in front of A.J., so he could pick out the ones he liked while she folded up a new hat for him.

"If you get something back, maybe we can try it again, with a different place, and see what we can collect."

"I like that idea," A.J's grin grew a little more as he went about picking up a cool looking stamp here, an awfully designed one there. "Of course, that would mean I'd have to come visit more when you're working, so we can make the hats."

"Hm, yes it would," Beauty agreed, with a grin. "Or else I'd have to make them ahead of time, and bring them to you to wear at the diner."

"You can't wear post office hats at the diner, Beauty," A.J. said, simply, clearly the epitome of logic here and not at all letting her get rid of him that easily.

As if Beauty was even considering any kind of plot to get rid of him!

"I could always make you a diner hat," she suggested, looking up at A.J. mischievously before turning back to her careful folding of paper. "With pictures of food on it, or something. You could decorate it with straws and those little colored paper packets of sugar."

"I'm making an artist out of you yet!" A.J. proclaimed proudly, grinning again and leaning over to slip an arm around her shoulders so he could pill her in for a kiss on the cheek.

Beauty laughed, partly at the idea of her being any kind of artist, and partly with pleasure at A.J.'s pride. She turned her head when he pulled her toward him, stealing a little kiss on the lips instead.

"One step closer to sainthood, if you do. What will you do for your next miracle?"

"You'll have to wait and see," A.J. said, nodding slightly, beaming just a bit at her deft little maneuver there. Turning rather pink over it, too, and then, suddenly, he sighed, sagging, leaning his head on his shoulder. "I've missed you a bit these last few days. They've been kinda hard."

Immediately, Beauty frowned and slipped her arm around A.J.'s back. "I've missed you as well, A.J. What's happened that I've missed?"

She really needed to remember to listen to the radio more often. Although she'd found it wasn't always precisely accurate.

"I'm really worried about Annette, Beauty," A.J. muttered. "We got in a really bad fight last night. And the night before. And practically every other meeting we've had since she and Dick broke up..."

"Annette and Dick broke up?"

Beauty pulled away and rested her face in her hand. "Oh God, I'm an awful friend, I had no idea. I've had my nose in my books so much lately I haven't spoken to hardly anyone. Poor Annette. And poor you!"

She sat back up and put her arms around A.J. "I'll try and talk to her. Maybe she's just confused and upset."

"I, uhhh, don't really know if that's a good idea, actually, Beauty..."

Beauty pulled away and gave A.J. a confused look. "Why not?"

At the very least, she figured she ought to apologize for not being more on top of what was happening, and the needs of her friends.

"A lot of the root of the fights with her," A.J. admitted sadly, "has been us."

"Us..."

Beauty frowned again, her shoulders slumping a little. "You mean, us as in you and me?"

"Yup. Heavier on the me part than the you part, though, which means it's kind of my fault, and I'm sorry for that."

"Don't be sorry, A.J. You can't...control how people feel. I just wish I'd known."

Beauty bit her lip fretfully, forgetting for the moment about A.J.'s paper hat. "Is this something we should talk about? The two of us, I mean. The situation with you and Annette...I don't really understand completely what that is, or what it's been in the past, except that I think I know there was something between you that was enough for Dick to be angry. Is..." She took a deep breath. "Is there still something?"

A.J. bit his lip for a moment, not sure how to answer. He knew that while he came here to feel a little better, he couldn't do that with all this hanging over his head. And Beauty was way too important to him to do anything but be completely honest with her. "It's kinda...messed up. Role reversal. The whole time I knew her, she was with Dick, and I wanted to be with her. But now, now that she's not with Dick and I'm with someone, she wants to be with me..."

He paused, frowning, before adding, "But the thing is, Dick really wasn't good for her. You, though...you're absolutely perfect..."

Well, except for that whole uncertain-time-in-this-realm thing, but, y'know. Semantics.

There'd always been a little voice in her head telling Beauty that Annette and A.J. had some kind of romantic connection between them, but she was surprised to find how unsettling it was to have that belief confirmed. Still, she had to smile gratefully at him for calling her perfect, even if she was anything but.

"So, if I weren't here, would you want to be with Annette?"

Beauty wasn't quite sure she really wanted the answer to that question, except that worrying about things that you could just as easily find out the truth of seemed silly and useless.

A.J. shrugged. "I might. Hard to tell, because there is a lot of stuff there, both good and bad..."

He trailed off a little, unsure of just how much he should say, but....he really didn't want Beauty going off and thinking that she was standing between something that was pretty much never going to happen.

"I mean, I had the chance. At New Year's. But I still said no..."

Beauty looked up quickly. I should have been there, at New Year's, and then it wouldn't have mattered, she thought.

"I haven't been very good to you lately," she murmured. "I wouldn't have blamed you for not saying no..."

She remembered the box under the counter, and sighed, because now it was going to look like she was trying to ply A.J. with gifts out of fear or something. When it was really just that she was forgetful. "It's pretty late, I know, but I bought you a Valentine's gift." Then after a brief pause, she added, in almost a whisper, "Are you sorry that you said no?"

A.J. responded first with shaking his head, "Not in the slightest," he responded, just as quietly. "You didn't have to get me anything, you know. It was nice enough just spending all that time with you..."

"Annette...said that it was traditional..."

Beauty knew that in the grand scheme of relationships and romance, this was hardly anything to be concerned over. Certainly poor Grace's situation had taught her that. But it was a little scary, and she found herself irrationally wanting to demand promises and assurances that were not only ridiculous, but unfair.

So she slipped down off her stool and pulled the gift box from under the counter, holding it out to A.J. "I did it because I wanted to."

Once he got it open, A.J. would discover that the box was filled with a rainbow assortment of little paint tubes and colored pencils, as many different colors as Beauty had been able to find.

And, of course, it was met with a great, big, dorky grin. "Aw, see, now this is unfair..." he said after a moment, trailing off intentionally for a response.

The big dorky grin was good. Beauty liked that kind of response. But A.J.'s words...

"How is it unfair? Don't you like it? Did someone else get you the same thing? Is it inappropriate for this kind of holiday?"

Art supplies! How could art supplies not be a good gift? Beauty started to flail inside.

"It's unfair," A.J. continued with the teasing, "because you got me something really good and useful and amazing, and all I got you were silly, stupid flowers."

Beauty's jaw dropped open at A.J.'s statement. "I loved those flowers! You know how I feel about roses, they were absolutely beautiful. Don't say such things!"

The expression got a light chuckle out of him. "You did like them, then? I feel bad, like I'm cheating, because I know I can just get you roses and you'll like them..."

"A.J.," Beauty said sternly. "You could give me a bundle of sticks tied up with string and I'd like it, because it came from you. I love that you thought of me and gave me roses, and I know that you did it because you know I how much I adore them. But it's getting them from you that makes them worth so much to me."

"I'll have to remember that about the sticks next time," A.J. remarked, trying to keep his grin constrained. He couldn't help it; he really liked it when she got all stern like that. "But, you know what? I just thought of another reason on why your present is better."

Beauty was still looking pretty stern, but now she was curious as well, and it showed in the way her frown softened a little. "What reason is that?"

A.J. turned a little red, hesitating a bit with his shyness before saying it. "'Cause," he said, "with these, I can make you more roses..."

He was about as red as roses right now, too.

"You can..."

Beauty's earlier worries about A.J. and his feelings for Annette vanished with those words. She stepped over to stand right next to his stool, put her arms around his neck and pressed her cheek against his shoulder. "I'll never know how I managed to find someone as nice as you," she whispered.

A.J. grinned (how could you not with something like that?), and wrapped an arm around Beauty to pull her in closer. "I don't know what you're talking about," he muttered quietly.

"Do so," Beauty murmured, smiling as she snuggled in closer to A.J. "Wish I could make nice things for you."

"But then I wouldn't fell all special and stuff," A.J. said, wrinkling his nose and playing around the word, "when I make you stuff."

"Well, I guess that's a good point," Beauty agreed, peeking up at him with a little grin. "Suppose I'll just have to be satisfied with being your muse."

"I like you as my muse," A.J. responded, grinning back and exploiting that peek up to give her a kiss. "You're a very, very, very good muse."

Completely moddable!

Soooo tired!

Fandom Post Office, Wednesday (02/20)

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