Open + Closed Text

[mightbeconcussed]

I got bored last night and made cupcakes. The Houndstooth is now serving dark chocolate cupcakes with peppermint cream frosting and hot chocolate cupcakes. If you don't like chocolate...what is wrong with you?

(ooc: action is totally a go)

Closed to Duke


Hey, Pirate Man, you up for an adventure?

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[mightbeconcussed]

"Oh good. I looked cute that night," Lucy says with a grin. "Implied pirate-ness. So that's a thing now," she jokes. Lucy likes it because it's fun; it's light hearted. She's got no idea how much it means to Duke. However, Lucy will be happy to help Duke be a pirate.

Lucy can understand how it would be a little weird for Duke, but she's glad that he doesn't want to end anything because of it. He'll get used to the awkwardness and eventually it won't be awkward.

"My place it is," she nods. She doesn't mind introducing Duke to her place. Jill arrives with a paper bag holding two chicken dinners. She passes it over to Lucy who leans in to kiss Jill on the mouth lightly. "We'll be at the apartment for a while," she warns Jill. It's a two bedroom so it's not a huge deal, but often Jill and Lucy sleep in the same bed so she doesn't want Jill walking in on them.

[troubledrogue]

Jill is quick to understand that she shouldn't walk in and says goodbye to both Duke and Lucy.

Duke puts the items of his scavenger hunt back in his bag, grabs the flowers and the food, then gets off the stool. He'll carry all the things on the way to the apartment. It's just a block down so it isn't too far and it seems the gentlemanly thing to do.

"I'll follow you." He says. "Do you have a jacket or do you want mine?"

[mightbeconcussed]

Lucy figured Jill would be. They've had this arrangement for years now.

Lucy smiles at him. Duke is thoroughly charming and he's making it very hard for Lucy not to just want to keep him.

When he asks if she wants his jacket, she stops, goes up on tiptoe and brushes her lips against his cheek. "You are precious," she says, "but I have a jacket." She goes to the coat rack near the door and slips on a bright yellow wool coat that hits her mid thigh. She adds a crimson oversized scarf around her neck. When she's all dressed for the weather, she hoops her arm through Duke's. "This way," she says as she pauses to let him open the door (because she's Southern and that's what a good Southern girl does). Once out on the sidewalk, she'll lead him along toward the apartment building.

It doesn't take long to get inside the building. An elevator opens almost immediately and Lucy steps inside with Duke.

[troubledrogue]

They're in the elevator pretty quick and once inside, they just have to wait to get to whatever floor Lucy lives on. Duke has never been inside the apartments although he's heard things about them (like that the rooms are kind off sentient) and they do seem pretty high tech and swanky, almost surprisingly so.

It's in the elevator that Duke leans back against the far wall and looks over to Lucy. "You're unlike anyone I've ever met before. In a good way."

Lucy is happy and carefree, it seems. But he does wonder what's beneath the surface. He wonders if there is a beneath the surface. A part of him is curious to strip away those layers and see. A part of him is scared of it. For Duke, curiosity always outweighs fear.

"But you should know, where I'm from, Crocker's don't usually get to have good things." It's his way of saying that he's worried about ruining this. His way of saying that he does have layers and he wants her to know that there's a lot going on beneath the surface and that if that isn't her thing, she can say so. "...or good people."

[mightbeconcussed]

The rooms are kind of sentient and they are pretty swanky and high tech. Lucy likes living here better than she has pretty much anywhere else. She's turned shopping into a profession; her best friend in the world is here and most of the time it's safe.

When Duke says he's never met anyone like her, he's rewarded with a bright smile. She leans in, resting her weight against him to press a light kiss to his lips. She stays pressed against him that way while the elevator goes up, one hand sliding up to twist in his hair.

Oh, there's a beneath the surface. It's not as dark as Duke's, but it's dark to Lucy. It's what drives a lot of her happy, carefree attitude, what fuels her determination to live in the moment, the reason for her hedonism. She's never told anyone about it. Jill knows because she was there. No one has ever really cared to look to see if there's a beneath to Lucy. All most people care about is the pretty, happy packaging and Lucy figures that's only fair since that's what she presents to the public. If she has a bad day, she abides by her momma's favorite saying 'Fake it' 'til you make it, Sugar'. The only hint to Lucy's bad day is the overabundance of baked goods, generally cupcakes since they're her favorite thing to make.

She looks up at him, humming a bit beneath her breath at his words as she tries to decide how to respond to that. She could be flippant or she could take him seriously. She senses that he's kind of showing himself to her so she chooses the serious approach, for the most part. "We're not where you're from," she reminds him and in a tone too serious to be teasing, "and who says I'm good?"