The Apartment- Cambridge, MA- Thursday night

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Aeryn hates work. A lot. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for her coworkers, or her boss, or the customers, or the job itself, but... Okay, Aeryn just hates the job.

So it might be a little unusual when she comes home later than usual after the closing shift, though she doesn't look very happy about it.

[Open for the Cambridge peeps, should they be in the hizzouse, and up early for time zones. Izzle. Omg it's early.]

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[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

John's still awake, some textbook on his lap and pencil tucked behind his ear.

Well, mostly awake. He's sitting up, at least. The eyes closed and light snoring might make people think he's doing something else.

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If he slept through the door slamming, that's kind of impressive. Aeryn's already on her way to the bedroom to change.

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"I'm awake!" John said, startled and knocking the textbook off his lap. He didn't even get a chance to see Aeryn come in. "Um, hello?"

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"What?" she calls from the bedroom.

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"Aeryn," he says, climbing off the couch and heading back to the bedroom. "You're home late. I made some dinner."

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"Sorry," she says, trying to slam the closet door and figuring out that doesn't work so well. "I had to go out for drinks with people after work."

It might have been possible to sound more sarcastic at that last bit, but it would be a challenge.

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"Sorry," he says and frowns. "Did you want some dinner? I can heat it up for you."

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"I'm fine," she says. "They card here, you know. I had to have Coke."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"Sorry," he says, frowning. "Want to just go to sleep?"

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"No," she says, perfectly content with ranting at the moment. "And? They insisted on going somewhere so far off that I couldn't walk back, so I had to wait for them to finish before I could be driven back and these people know where I live now."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"Sorry," he says for lack of anything else to say. "Call me next time and I'll come get you?"

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"Oh, there is not going to be a next time. If they try this again, I will take hostages."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

He laughed but stifled it quickly. "Shower?"

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She sighs, but doesn't immediately have a rant ready. "I have no idea," she admits, because her brain's been stuck on 'rant' since about oh, the time they started driving to the bar.

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"Take a shower and I'll heat up some dinner," he tells her. "And then you can use me as a pillow."

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"Fine," she says, because all the jaw-clenching and teeth-grinding gave her a headache and she doesn't feel like making that worse. "You know these people are more obnoxious when they've been drinking? I didn't know that was possible."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"That happens to a lot of people," he says, steering her towards the bathroom. "It's over now and you don't have to do it again."

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"And the really horrible thing is that Andrea went along," she says, letting herself be steered. "You know, the one who will take any opportunity she has to call out? So I guarantee I will be back in there in the morning to cover for her."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"Andrea's a twit," John says, turning on the water and pulling her shirt off. "We both know that."

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"It makes me lose faith I didn't have in the company to know she hasn't been fired yet."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"She'll get hers," John says, going for the pants now. "Step," he says, nodding to her feet.

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It says a lot about her day that she's letting him do this. "You don't have to do this," she says, but steps out of her pants anyway. And yes, he did. She'd still be in the bedroom with the rage-blindness thing going on.

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

"I want to," he says and steers her towards the shower. "Inside, let the hot water do it's job. I'll be right back."

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Aeryn wordlessly gets into the shower, but decides to do the mature thing and fight the knobs for control over the temperature, just because she can.

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

He leaves her to that before disappearing back into the kitchen and pulling out the very gourmet dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread he'd manage to make. It goes into the microwave for about five minutes, comes back out and then he's making his way back to the bedroom.

He sets the plate on the foot of the bed and grabs one of his shirts and a pair of his shorts before going back into the bathroom.