fandomtownies | The Magpie Emporium, Monday [27/6]

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The Magpie Emporium, Monday [27/6]

Vi had had a lot of cold showers over the last few days, and not just because of the heat. A lot. As well as a great many jogs all around and over the island, and a more training sessions than were probably wise, even if she didn't think she'd strained her bad shoulder.

Not that she was trying to distract herself from anything or anyone.

AS it was, she was helping Little Bot attach an array of miniature flags to the rigging of his ship costume, while Saffron 'helped' her by batting at the flags. See? Not distracted at all.

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Would Vi have noticed, in her current state of mind, that the office and the area around the register were incredibly tidy? The flat surfaces probably hadn't been this free of sticky notes since the first week Steph took over the store, in fact, and all the pens and pencils were back where they should be instead of piling up in corners. (Which was the pine cones' job now anyway.)

Hey, Steph had been working all weekend anyway, so she'd had to find her own means of distraction: namely cleaning up the store like a maniac, and long late night drum practice sessions when she got home.

She felt pretty bad about the way things had gone on Friday, so she was being careful to give Vi plenty of space if she needed it today. Didn't mean she wasn't going to occasionally lean against the office doorframe and watch with a little smile, though.

What? She was invested in Little Bot's whole ship makeover, okay? That was all. Really.

Vi had picked up on that, mostly because she'd been looking for something to keep herself busy before she'd started on the flags.

After several more minutes indulgently playfighting with Saffron over teh flags, she got the last one tied to Little Bot and sent him zipping along the floor. She looked up and grinned when she caught sight of Steph. "Hey."

"Hey," Steph replied, with a small grin of her own. "You've been having a productive morning."

Vi brushed off her hands as she stood back up. "I've been keeping myself busy." Mostly to keep herself from thinking too much.

Weird, Steph had been doing the same thing, on both counts. As Vi could tell from the state of the store.

"Yeah, I had a feeling," she said, laughing as Little Bot swerved around the jumbo mimic plushie (god, she hoped it was just a plushie) on the floor beside the mixed dice bin to... pick up another pine cone. "You doing okay?"

You know. After that whole... thing.

So strange, that.

It not being a plushie would probably put an end to any awkwardness. "Yeah, I'm good." No reason she wouldn't be. None at all.

If that mimic wasn't a plushie, it would cause so many more problems than it solved, though.

Steph looked at her for the space of a few breaths, trying to see if she could tell how true that was. But then again, actually pursuing the question would mean addressing that pesky elephant in the room, so...

"Are we good?"

There. Nice and vague, and even if Vi knew exactly what she meant by it, at least they didn't have to say they were talking about how flirty things had gotten.

That depended entirely on just how awkward things got.

Vi definitely didn't want to bring up that pachyderm, not when acknowledging it might mean it'd stop completely. "We're always good," she replied, maybe not quite as confidently as she'd like. "Right?"

Look at them acting like the flirting was a new thing.

"I mean, I'd like to think so," Steph said, not quite relaxed yet but starting to get there. "So if you can hang with --"

She made a vague back-and-forth gesture between the two of them.

"-- that vibe we had going the other day, then yeah, we're good."

Totally a new thing, ignore pretty much the entire summer so far for a start.

"I can...hang with our...vibe." Because apparently that's what they were calling it.

To be fair, at least partially acknowledging that maybe the way they acted around each other wasn't totally normal friend behavior actually was a new thing for them.

"Cool." The smile Steph gave her came much more easily this time, and was a lot brighter; she pushed away from the doorframe and came over to give Vi a friendly shoulder bump. "If it ever gets, like, weird... just say so, okay?"

'Vibe' was such a terrible word choice here, you two, come on.

New and likely to be a passing fad.

Vi leaned in against for a moment, grinning. "Yeah, I'll tell you if it's weird," she promised. Of course weird was a totally different thing from frustrating, or any of the other myriad emotions Vi felt at times.

It was the worst, but they were stuck with it now.

But hey, it was something!

"I'm fucking serious," Steph told her, turning and going in for a quick hug. "I know we like to give each other shit, but I will dial it back if it gets to be too much."

Not that this was actually about them giving each other shit, but that was true too.

Whether that was a good something or bad something remained to be seen.

Vi wrapped her arms around Steph to return the hug, squeezing tightly. "I'll let you know," she said. "Trust me I'll let you know." Possibly dramatically.

Probably six of one, a half dozen of the other.

"I know you will." Steph kind of burrowed into the hug a little bit, because seriously, Vi was the best hugger she'd ever known. "You call me on my shit when I need it, so I don't expect you to stop now."

With all the shit that had been getting repressed here, was there any way it could be anything but dramatic?

Sounds about right.

That was because Vi practiced and had had a good example. She rubbed Steph's back. "I don't intend too."

True, but there was drama and there was drama.

Steph gave her one more squeeze before easing up and leaning back to flash a grin at her.

"And naturally, I'll return the favor if you ever need it."

Vi grinned back. "Oh, I can't see that happening, being perfect," she joked.

Vi, just a fortnight ago you needed to be sent back to bed.

Steph snorted and made a grab for her hand.

"You do remember why I offered to teach you how to play the drums in the first place, right?"

Vi let her catch it, because it was certainly nicer than Steph not holding her hand. "Yeah, I do," she said softly.

Steph ran her thumb back and forth over Vi's knuckles a few times, brought her hand up almost as if she was about to kiss the back of it, and then finally just cupped it between both of her own hands.

"So I call bullshit," she said with what was somehow an incredibly fond smirk.

"I'm pretty sure I still won in this scenario, since I got drum lessons out of it."

Vi would ask for her hand back any moment now. Annnnnnnny moment...

Steph gave her a wide-eyed, exaggerated look of shock and indignation.

"You mean it was all about the drum lessons and not getting to hang out with me? Damn. Way to crush my ego."

She was going to let go of Vi's hand really soon. Honestly she was.

Butter wouldn't melt in Vi's mouth about now. "I mean, the drum lessons still involve hanging out with you."

Which was good, because Vi probably needed it for...stuff.

"And here I thought the pleasure of my company and undivided attention was the real highlight there," Steph said with a dramatic sigh, like those things weren't an integral part of the lessons.

Saffron was probably going to start demanding to be petted any time now, so... yeah, just give Steph a few more seconds to absolutely not keep thinking about kissing Vi's hand.

"Hey now, I didn't say that it wasn't."

Now that Steph had brought it up, Saffron was in fact sitting on the countertop with a little kitty glare. How dare Steph, how very dare.

Pfft, Saffron. Steph wasn't monopolizing both of Vi's hands. Which was good because it really didn't look like she was about to let go of the one any time soon.

"You're getting pretty good by now," Steph told her, blithely ignoring Saffron's glare.

"Thanks," Vi said, blushing and petting Saffron, would would be continuing to glare at Steph, thank you, with her free hand since she didn't really know what else to do with it. "Guess I have a pretty great teacher."

If Steph could think of a few things Vi could do with that free hand, she wasn't admitting to it and she certainly wouldn't be listing any of them. She did at least let go with one hand, though, and hook that thumb into her pocket. This was comfortable and familiar enough, just holding hands and hanging out together, and maybe they could go back to pretending any actual overt flirting hadn't happened.

"Damn right you do," she said with a cocky little grin. "But you've got a natural talent for hitting things. All you had to do was get used to a few adjustments."

Which was oversimplifying quite a bit, but she felt her point stood.

Given Vi wasn't quite game enough to suggest any other options, pretending it was.

"If you say so." Just a tad, Steph. "You're getting there when it comes throwing a punch."

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The Magpie Emporium, Monday [27/6]

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