X-Red Sleepover

November 22, 2016:

With busker in tow, Wanda returns to X-Red HQ to make a sleepover out of things. Nerina doesn't even turn and run at the mention of Transian cooking.
(Continues from Coffee Talk: http://cmbeta.wikidot.com/log:4897)

X-Red Headquarters

Located in what was previously, the TWA Flight Center at the John F.
Kennedy International airport, the building combines the ephemeral and the
ageless along with the enduring beauty of inspired modern design. The
building was designed by mid-20th century Finnish-American architect, Eero
Saarinen and was first opened in 1962.

The lobby of the building opens into spacious area framed by windows that
overlook the JFK Airport. The whole effect is light and airy, lots of space
and very relaxing. A central staircase divides the building into two levels.

The lower level, is predominantly the lobby which contains a reception desk
(which may or may not be staffed) and a common area for relaxing and
greeting or meeting with people. There is a circular conference table with
built in terminals. Around the rest of the area are smaller tables, couches,
and armchairs scattered through the area, easy to reposition for meals,
close conversations, or movie nights. There is a kitchen on this level. The
upper level has been fitted out with office space, desks with built in
terminals, over head displays and holo-imaging.

The 'wings' of the building have been converted to living / guest quarters,
on both levels. Whilst X-Red members can live in the facility, they are
encouraged to live in the community.

Outside, part of the parking space has been converted to a permanent
facility for Rescue Inc. Air Ambulances and there are Rescue Inc. EMT's
permanantly rostered to the X-Red team. Ther rest of the parking area is
spacious enough for flyers and vehicles to land.

Visual walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwRHgch12wA

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Plot:

Mood Music: Clair de Lune, 3rd Mov. Suite Bergamasque, by Claude Debussy


Fade In…

(Continues from Coffee Talk: http://cmbeta.wikidot.com/log:4897)

Finally, the two of them make their way back to X-Red HQ. Wanda has to let them in and convince security - both the person at the desk and the computer - that Nerina is okay to come inside. She manages to without any magic. "Make yourself at home" the witch smiles as she gestures to the kitchen area and the lounge area. "I'm gonna get changed" she announces, already peeling off her hoodie as she heads down a corridor where her room must be located.

Nerina has followed so far quietly, warmed and contented by the gifts of hot drink and food, but lagging not quite at the witch's side. It's a bit like being followed home by a stray cat. She stiffens as they reach the headquarters, not at the size, but at the presence - digital and physical - keeping watch over it.
With some coaxing, the blonde follows Wanda through, but never quite making good eye contact or clearly-spoken answers to any questions. Her shoulders loosen as they walk away from the entrance and, discretely, her blue eyes keep up a vigil scanning her surroundings - especially for surveillance. "You said you lived here alone," she accuses once they're away from prying ears. Undressing or not, she keeps following Wanda towards the living quarters.

"I do. The security guard works here, he doesn't live here. Sometimes the X-Red financier shows up but even he doesn't actually live here. It is just me." Wanda frowns a little at the blonde. "You should trust me more." With that she hurls her hoodie at Nerina before slipping into one of the rooms; it must be hers.

"That was under-handed," Nerina complains, taking more than a little umbrage. "Who else 'visits' here—ack!" *Paff!*
The flautist's gray arms flail as she tries to dig out of her new scarlet and vaguely witch-scented world. It buys Wanda more than a few seconds to slip away before a very tangled pile of blonde hair breeches the surface.
Nerina's eyebrow twitches a little beneath a fresh mop-top before she sighs heavily and flicks the hoodie straight, then sets to folding it. It's the least she can do, but while Wanda is in her room, the part-time thief glances for doors on either side.

The other rooms look like more quarters - furnished but nothing to indicate they are actually inhabited. After a few minutes, Wanda reappears in an overly long football jersey and a smile. "Hey…do you want to change? I think I can find some clothes for you." She takes the folded hoodie, looks confused that is has been folded, and then tosses it in a nearby laundry hamper.

By the time Scarlet steps back out all that's left is a Nerina-shaped outline of air and the neatly folded hoodie. The door of the room beside hers is shut, and the blonde's long coat has been spread neatly across the length of the bed - as has the fishwife herself.
Nerina lifts her head to sit back up from the pile of blonde locks that have fallen out of her hood. More than a few strands reach her stomach, but most are in a knotted mane of sorts from too much time scrunched up. She smiles blearily until she notices the witch's outfit. "Are we having a sleep-over now?" She asks off-guard.

"If you like" Wanda smiles sweetly. "I should let you get some rest though. I think you are pretty tired." A jerk of her thumb behind her. "I will be in the lounge when you wake up. Probably watching a movie or something." She takes a step back to lean against the doorframe. "It is nice to have company."

"For me the opposite," Nerina laughs a little before covering a yawn. "When do the lights turn down?"

"I will turn them off. Sleep well." With that Wanda gently closes the bedroom door and, sure enough, the lights outside dim.

Nerina smiles softly as the door shuts. "Grazie," she adds quietly just before the click.
With the room to herself, she looks around one more time - just in case - then climbs back off the bed with a reticent grunt and locks her door… and goes one step further as she grabs her end table. With another grunt and some awkward lifting, the flautist drops the furniture in front of the door, properly sealing herself in. Content with her handiwork, she dusts off her hands and falls backwards onto the floor - only to dissolve as she drops. Losing first color, then form, then substance, the blonde mutant flows through and around her outfit as her clothes continue their fall into a neat, Nerina-shaped pile on the floor. Glistening in the artificial room lighting, her watery silhouette ripples and shifts as her arm stretches down as a long tendril to pull two precious possessions from beneath her hoodie: the plastic flute that's been joy-riding below her neckline, and a golden heart-shaped necklace.
The flute is placed back atop the hoodie while the necklace flows up her arm and settles in its home around the transparent youth's neck. Color gradually returns as her body solidifies again and little human details and flaws spread out across her preternaturally smooth and featureless form, like ink seeping across paper. Before she's even whole again, the naiad has drawn back her bedsheets and made a cozy spot for herself, but just after she's completed - naked and human - her right foot melts into a tendril to retrieve a *little* clothing to sleep in.
Now half-dressed at least, Nerina drops onto the side of 'her' 'new' bed with the loudest diminutive squeak her light frame can muster. She lifts the little heart-shaped locket in both hands and smiles in bittersweet fondness at it. The naiad has a short bed-time ritual to complete before she can get her rest.

As promised, Wanda has been on a couch in the lounge watching some movies…and nodding off as she does so. She keeps waking up to see snippets of a movie that she isn't even sure she put on before she finally, after some hours, regains full consciousness and stretches her arms up over her head. A big yawn to go with that before it is time for a hot chocolate in the kitchen. Rubbing her eyes she skips up to her feet and pads barefoot over the tiled floor.

The refurbished airport is still and quiet as Wanda makes her way into the kitchen. The wide-open space softens the small creaks and hums of the building heaters and the dim evening lighting gives the HQ a cavernous and secluded feeling. It's a lot of room for one person…
"Buonasera," a delicate voice greets impishly from close behind Wanda - too close. Nerina smiles to herself as her breath disrupts the witch's thick auburn hair. She's finally awake, barely in time for dinner, and a few layers lighter than when Wanda last saw her. Outwardly she's still dressed in her grey hoodie and sweatpants but the thick cotton lays looser and more airily on her short frame. Her blonde hair is hanging free and matted by water - somehow it's even longer than it looked on the bed. Falling in a coarsely-brushed curtain down her back, it nearly reaches the flautist's hips. Poking out of either pocket, the enormous bulge of her water bottle and the delicate plastic shaft of her flute are both visible.

Wanda jumps a little at the voice behind her - and there may have been a sparking of scarlet around her fingers - before she turns to smile at her house guest. "Did you sleep well?" she asks lightly before looking over the other woman. "You look rested at least.. and you love that flute." A little giggle before the witch is heading for the kitchen cabinet and an attempt to cook. "I sometimes think that my cooking is what frightens people away but hopefully you will be different. I will cook you something from Transia." She starts plucking ingredients out of the cupboards. "You managed to find a shower?" A nod to Nerina's wet hair.

The flautist nods, swinging a damp bang in front of her face that she takes a moment to tuck behind her ear again. "I like to play it." Nerina grins a little as she finds the coffee maker and starts it before leaning back against the counter - absent-mindedly rolling her head to swing her blonde curtain in front of one shoulder. "Is it so long since you were homeless you forgot how to walk silently?"

After only a couple moments, she pulls herself up and sits on the counter in a lazy hunch, letting her feet dangle. Like Wanda, she's going barefoot.

"I still think I can be silent" Wanda shrugs, "I just wasn't expecting to be sneaked up on in here. Though you are very good at it. I would ask you to play the flute while we have breakfast but that would make it hard to eat, da?" A warm smile for the other woman as she starts figuring out which ingredient is going where. "Sometimes I do miss living on the street" she admits softly. "Being alone sometimes has its benefits. Being out of the way. Not being a problem for everyone. Do you understand? It is very easy to lose yourself and know that it does not matter." A half-smile. "And sometimes it was horrible to be alone." She shrugs away her thoughts. "But now I will never be able to go back. Now everyone knows me, well a lot of people. I still get less fan mail than the X-Red members who have left."

Not having taken the time to add a coffee filter or grounds, the coffee maker begins spitting forth a hot stream of water into the pot underneath. It splatters loudly inside and the ghost of fog starts to cloud the glass.

"Maybe bribe me and I will play after," Nerina offers before the conversation turns to something more personal. Her soft blue eyes look somberly in study at Wanda and the bags underneath make them look aged and weathered well beyond the age of her face. "It would be easy for you to disappear," she says, "just dye your hair. But I think you don't want to."

The flautist pauses to pull the metal thermos from her pocket and knock back a drink. Afterwards one free arm grips the elbow of the other and if the witch is paying close attention, she'll notice the fair-skinned blonde briefly panting to catch her breath.

"I don't understand your problem at all," she confesses, glancing away from the gentle, matching pair of eyes upon her to check the coffee pot. "Being homeless means you can be alone from people you do not want. If they try too hard, you leave."

"What is food from Transia like?" She asks non-sequitur as her eyes find a diversion in the pile of ingredients before returning to Wanda.

"I do not think I even need to dye my hair to disappear" Wanda shrugs. "Sometimes it would be nice to do that. To run away. But I have been running away all my life and yet it has never been my fault. And I suppose it does not really make me feel any better."

Thankfully the conversation changes to food and Wanda does like her food. "Lots of spices and lots of strange food being thrown together in a big pot. When life is grey you need all the colors you can find on your tongue." The panting of her guest may be noticed but it is not her business to ask about it. "So I hope you like it."

"Not too hot I hope," Nerina broaches at the mention of 'spices'. Beyond that, she seems willing to let the Transian's cooking speak for itself. "Maybe when the weather is warmer again…" she offers pensively, but trails off without finishing her thought. Dipping her head a little, the fishwife sticks the side of a finger in her mouth and bites it like a dog craddling a bone.

Wanda quirks a brow at the finger gnawing. "The food will not be too long" she promises. "And I will try to keep the spices down." Discretly she pushes a few containers of spices away before returning to the stirring of the stew. "But I hope you do not mind lots of flavors at once. I like…chaos" she smiles sweetly. "So how long would you like to stay here?"

Nerina looks back up to see she's been caught and opens her mouth enough to slowly lower the finger from her mouth and discretely wipe it on her hoodie. "The world has enough chaos already, but I do like flavors," the flautist admits as she takes a moment to survey the kitchen and lobby beyond it anew. "That depends how many other people 'work but do not live' here," she answers factually.

"Just security" Wanda shrugs before trying a spoonful of stew. "Mmm…that should do. Maybe some maintenance people will come into fix things every now and then. You can always hide in your room. I know I always used to" she smiles. "But now there is no one else to answer the door so I have no choice." She starts serving out the food. "If you stay, great. If you do not, that is okay too. You do what you need to do to be happy." A pause. "As long as it does not hurt other people."

With her water ready before the food, Nerina unscrews her thermos and pours the coffee pot's hot contents inside. She takes a sip before the cover's even back on and sighs in quiet relief. Trying to catch a moment when Wanda's attention is back on her food, a small pill slips out of the sleeve of her hoodie and into the flautist's mouth before being chased by more water, this time guzzling the steaming hot liquid.

Nerina tops her bottle off again before getting off the counter and this time sighs more noticeably while catching her breath from breathing like a fish for half a liter. Her nose twitches as she sniffs at the aroma of hot, homemade food. "How often do they come inside the common rooms?"

Wanda shrugs in reply to the question. "Only if they need to fix something in here." She looks concerned for a moment. "Are you okay? Do you have asthma?" A pause of worry before nodding to the food. "Eat up. You are happy with the coffee or would you like something else? How about I just keep a room for you here. You do not have to stay and you can come and go as you like. I know what it is like to live on the street. How safe it can appear and how dangerous it also is."

Nerina sets a hand on the lower part of her stomach for a moment and lets a little discomfort show on her face in a pained smile. "No, just pain." She pulls out a second chair for Wanda before taking her own seat. "If it's only you here, I may stay while it's cold, capisce?" The question is raised with a touch of fondness and a little more light in the homeless flautist's eyes than were there a minute ago. Without waiting for an answer, she claps her hands in front of herself to pray over her food.

"Sure. Whatever you need" Wanda smiles, about to start digging in when there are prayers to be done. Not really the witch's thing but she bows her head and holds her hands together until Nerina is done. Hopefully it is short. "I might be able to help with pain" she offers once the 'amen' is done. "I have a healing touch" she giggles.

It is a short wait and Nerina smiles a little more when she catches sight of Wanda imitating her gesture. She blows on a spoonful of the Transian stew before slipping it into her mouth for a taste. The flautist hums happily and goes for another spoonful; the witch needn't ask what she thinks.

"Tu fai?" the blonde asks somewhere around spoon number five. "What can you heal?"

"Anything I guess" Wanda replies, happy that the food is staying down and met with a smile. "It is hard to explain. I cannot really get rid of the problem - I do not know medicine enough - but I can change the reality of the experience. Say you have a pain in your stomach…what if I changed it so that pain was actually pleasure? Or those nerve endings relayed information differently. It is obviously not a long term solution but it is something."

Nerina's shoulders lurches as she almost chokes on her mouthful of stew before forcing it down with an audible swallow. "That is… impressive. Very powerful magic, da?"

Glancing awkwardly from Wanda's gaze, she broaches, "How long does it last?"

"Not that powerful" Wanda blushes before sighing softly. "I am not sure. I usually only use it to help people get to hospital though I think it last whle they are there too. Maybe we can find out together?"

Nerina takes another sip from her bottle before going back to her food, chewing over the question as an embarassed heat rises belatedly to her face and then calms back down. It's a pregnant pause as her eyes fall back on Wanda but no answer seems forthcoming.

"What do you want from me?" She asks bluntly.

Wanda offers Nerina a curious look at that question. "Nothing. Why would I want anything from you?" It really has her bewildered before she shrugs and gets back to eating. She is quite the voracious eater.

Seeing her host attacking the food, Nerina's own manners loosen a little. She's hungry too and the steadily disappearing stews between them begins to show it. Still, Wanda's reply earns another pause. "You gave me hot food, hot drink, money, somewhere to stay, and now using magic… that's too much," the flautist concludes she looks back up with cool suspicion. "What do you want?"

"For you to be happy?" Wanda replies, desperate to come up with an answer that will be acceptable to her guest. "I do not want anything. Honest" she sighs. "If all of these things I am able to give then why is it too much? I do no want anything in return."

"Everyone else gives because they want something back. In mestiere - trade," Nerina answers plainly as she takes a few more bites. "Why are you different?"

"Because I don't need anything" Wanda decides afer some thought. "Possessions mean nothing to me. I give away most of my pay. And I would not force someone to love me or be my slave. So, therefore, I do not need anything and I can be helpful because I can be. That is all."

Nerina laughs, suddenly and boldly. Her hoodie bounces with mirth as she shakes her head from side to side and a hand comes up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Che impossibile donna che ho incontrato," she mumbles to herself. "Questo è troppo impossibile … ma chi se ne frega? Non può essere troppo dannoso."

"Mi dispiace," she offers to Wanda, waving down with a hand to excuse her outburst. "I cannot understand you at all, rosso. But I think, in mestiere, if you 'heal' me I will play my flute for you after dinner - da?" Despite herself, Nerina can't keep some of her surprise showing in a wise-crack smile on her face.

"There is nothing to understand" Wanda smiles before nodding. "Okay, you will play your flute after dinner and I will take away the pain. And we will see how long it will be gone." There is a sound of something like bagpipes and Wanda pulls out her phone and checks a text. "Hmm…The Avengers want to see me. I wonder what I did wrong this time."

Nerina frowns at the interruption. "You have to leave already?"

Wanda shakes her head as she closes the text. "No. I have to meet the X-Men as well. Everyone suddenly wants to know the Scarlet Witch." A little laugh. "Though I think it is because they want to keep an eye on me. Chaos is not a good thing to let loose."

Nerina's frown deepens as she leans forward over her bowl. "So they're coming here?" she presses.
"No. No one comes here. I will go there" Wanda smiles. "No need for you to leave. Or hide."

"Or hide you," Nerina adds. She leans back in her chair with a small sigh of relief and picks up her bowl to slurp down some broth. "How long do we have? Tonight?"
Wanda nods. "Tonight. We should have ice cream. A lot of it." A wicked glint in her eyes at the idea.

An easy, warm smile spreads across Nerina's face at the assurance. It's small, but it brightens the young blonde's face like soft candle light. "Ice cream? But it's cold!" she blurts, perhaps betraying just how long she's spent outdoors. "…Unless you can make a… freeze of the brain feel good," she considers, needing a moment to find the words in English.

"You do not eat ice cream because it is warm. You eat ice cream because it is delicious" Wanda grins before her brow furrows. "I suppose I could make a brain freeze feel good but where is the run in that." A nod to the plate in front of her guest. "Eat up and then we have dessert!"

"And then you do magic to me e poi I play my flute, da?" Nerina affirms as she picks her bowl back up and slurps down more food. Manners seem to be dieing a warm, tasty death on her side of the table as the bowl reaches and then passes vertical. When the dish clacks back down on the table, it's bone dry.
Wanda scoops up the bowl and takes it over to the dishwasher. She doesn't pack it yet, much more important to get the ice cream going. A nod towards the kitchen bench. "Sit up here and show me your stomach." Then she is off to get the ice cream out of the freezer - it will need to melt a bit first.

"So you do have to touch it," Nerina concludes before an impish smile spreads across her face and she covers her mouth. "You're going to turn rosso o/~," she teases in a lyrical sing-song tone as she gets up from her seat and tucks it in - not hopping up just yet.

"It would make it easier to tough it but if you do want me to then I will try other ways" Wanda shrugs as she drags out a huge tub of ice cream and drops it on the bench. Her fingers start twitching and scarlet energy stars to conjure from the air. "Up to you."

Nerina keeps her face covered as she examines the counter space of the kitchen. Instead of the seat she chose earlier, the flautist's gaze lights on a corner section underneath a cabinet. A look is cast at Wanda's glowing fingers for just a moment as her own hand drops again and rests itself on an organ below her stomach. "You can touch me just - be gentle. This is a pain every month. You know it - da?" she explains before ducking her head beneath the cabinet and shimmying up face-first. Once the fishwife's hips are fully raised and presented, she spins in place to expose her front, leaving her legs and upper body to dangle off either side. Slender fingers helpfully pull the top and bottom of the flautist's outfit away, exposing a flash of pale skin while Nerina's sea-blue eyes peek around the side to watch.

Nerina keeps her face covered as she examines the counter space of the kitchen. Instead of the seat she chose earlier, the flautist's gaze lights on a corner section underneath a cabinet. A look is cast at Wanda's glowing fingers for just a moment as her own hand drops again and rests itself on an organ below her stomach. "You can touch me just… be gentle. This is a pain every month. You know it - da?" she explains before ducking her head beneath the cabinet and shimmying up face-first. Once the fishwife's hips are fully raised and presented, she spins in place to expose her front, leaving her legs and upper body to dangle off either side. Slender fingers helpfully pull the top and bottom of the flautist's outfit away, exposing a flash of pale skin while Nerina's sea-blue eyes peek around the side to watch.

"Oh…it is /those/ pains you are talking about?" Wanda asks with a bit of a blush to her cheeks. "Of course I will be gentle" she nods before placing her hand gently on the other woman's stomach. The scarlet energy seeping through the skin and doing its work. Changing reality so that pain is no longer pain. Negating it rather than turning it into pleasure…that may be a bit dangerous. "There…that should do it. Anywhere else?"

Nerina takes a short intake of breath and stiffens at the initial touch of Wanda's hand, but as the magic takes effect the tension passes and the flautist relaxes - perhaps a little too much. She groans in relief and flops back limp, bending almost double around the counter. "And no vertigini. Rosso you should sell this."
A hand trying to be discrete rests itself upon Wanda's as the flautist regathers her energy and lurches up into a loose plank to look eye-to-eye again, causing the skin under her fingertips to sink into a natural well even as her hoodie falls back overtop. "Poi… what else can you do?"

"Lots of things" Wanda shrugs bashfully. "But I do not want you to think bad of me, da? Besides, it is time for ice cream and flute." Her gentle fingers lift themselves from Nerina's skin if the other woman's hand allows it. "Why would I sell it? I do not need money, remember."

A soft smile graces Nerina's lips again as she lets Wanda retrieve her hand. "Da, cold food and music time. If you do that every day I have pains, I will play my flute every time," she offers readily while squirming her way back off the counter and pulling her clothes back into order. "Why would I think bad of you?"

"I do not know. Not everyone likes to talk about some things" Wanda explains. "Though I suppose you are European too" she considers, "But…still…I have only met you tonight. There are some things people do not talk about to new friends."

Nerina pauses as if to say something but catches herself and nods in agreement. "I don't want to talk to you about *everything*, but your magic helps - so it was worth it. Besides," she shrugs off-hand, "people I like less than you have seen more than that."

Wanda nods to those words…not sure what else to do. "Ice cream" she remembers and starts to serve it up. "Any flavor you like? It is Neapolitan…and you are Italian!" A grin as she makes the connection.

"Neapolitan?… Oh! Napoletano!" Nerina blurts in happy realization, although it gives way just as quickly to confusion. "What is ice cream di Napoli?"

"It has the three flavors in it. Chocolate. Vanilla. Strawberry. Three in one. Those clever Italians" Wanda teases playfully. "Do you have a preference for flavor or all three in equal amounts?" Ice cream distribution is a serious business!

"Clever Italiani e tale generosa Traneni," Nerina shoots mirthfully back, trusting the cognate will translate. Moving over the Wanda with the same sneaky, silent steps as before, the flautist scoots beside her and holds the serving bowls to help. Up close, the blonde lets off a waft of shampoo and bath soap from her recent shower. "All three per favore, since that is Italian."

Wanda starts heaping the ice cream into the bowls until they are almost overflowing and it is already begining to send trickles of melted goodness towards Nerina's fingers. "That should be enough…for now" Wanda winks before taking her bowl and heading back to the table. "Do you ever miss Italy?"

Nerina readily bends down to lick her ice cream-coated fingers dry of the sugary nectar - at least from her bowl. She waits until she's handed Wanda's away before sucking the same finger in her mouth. "You have an American love of sugar," the flautist giggles, a little slow to follow. Her expression falters at the question and Nerina loses herself for a moment in her ice cream - three colored stripes like the Italian flag.

"Da, I do… si," she admits quietly before looking back to the red-headed witch and finally following her back to the table. "But it's like you with Transia, non? Like my… crampo, you know that pain."

"Da…I know the pain" Wanda sighs before tucking into her ice cream - it cures everything. "I cannot go back or they will put me in jail. And worse. Is it the same for you? So we are both strangers in a strange land and have no home."

Nerina nods solemnly but perks up for another reason that's just as sweet. "We are almost homeless strangers together in a strange land, but you had to find somewhere to love," she teases light-heartedly before taking a pleasant taste of the ice cream. For the flautist, good company tastes better than food. "If you become homeless again, tell me, da? We can look out for each other."

Nerina nods solemnly but perks up for another reason that's just as sweet. "We are almost homeless strangers together in a strange land, but you had to find somewhere to live," she teases light-heartedly before taking a pleasant taste of the ice cream. For the flautist, good company tastes better than food. "If you become homeless again, tell me, da? We can look out for each other."

"Okay, I promise. If I am ever homeless again then I will let you know and we can watch out for each other." Wanda seems happy with this as her phone plays that strange noise again. A quick glance. "Witchdoctor. Oh…I invited her to stay here too but I am not sure if she wants to. But she is a nice person and will not bother you."

Nerina frowns lightly at the thought and has some more ice cream. "One nice person is plenty," she replies, casting a gentle glance back at Wanda. Some of her hair dries enough to slip in front of the flautist's shoulder and she lightly brushes some from her face.

As she returns to eating, the Italian's eyes drift back to her food and slowly gloss over, growing distracted with something internal.

Wanda half reaches out to move some of that blonde hair but thinks better of it. With Nerina drifting into inner monologue, Wanda concentrates on the ice cream. And it is yummy!!

There's more than enough hair to touch; the rebellious strands run all the way under the tabletop. Ignoring them and her host, Nerina stays lost in her own little world for some time, her expression a dull and far-away neutral. Under close inspection, her face has some of the hallmarks Wanda might have recognized in her own reflection in the past. A little too much fatigue beneath the eyes, weathering around the edges of her cheekbones, and from her recent exposure - a little too much hip bone. She's not starving thankfully, but the signs are there; Nerina hasn't had a steady home for a long time.

"Hey" Wanda whispers softly before reaching out to put a gentle hand on her guest's back. "How about we go watch a movie? You can lay you head on my lap and if you fall asleep then so be it. You need to relax a little, Nerina. Get some rest. How does that sound?"

Nerina jumps and looks up again as she's startled back to the present. There's a momentary incomprehension when she looks at Wanda before memory floods back to her eyes. "I already had rest, and now plenty of sweets. I won't need to rest again until later," she assures - though it's hard to tell whether the flautist is still being genuine. "Instead of a movie maybe we can… listen to music?" The blonde hesitates for just a moment. "Or I can play you my flute - I told you I would."

Then her sea-blue eyes blink. "Aspetta… I can what?"

"You can play your flute" Wanda replies in a masterful change of subject. "I am ready to listen" she smiles, scooping up some more ice cream that finishes off the dessert. "Let me take your bowl." The witch will take them both to somewhere near the dishwasher.

Nerina offers the bowl with a nod of thanks, her face not quite up to the task of another smile again. The flautist takes a cleansing breath as she stands up. "Okay. Can you listen in your bedroom or mia? The living room is… public. I play in public too much… like rana - a frog."

Taking a few steps in the direction already, the blonde pauses. "I'll meet you there, da?"

"Whatever room you like" Wanda nods to Nerina before she disappears. The dishwasher is packed and turned on before the witch follows along. "Which room?" she calls out.

"Indovina," Nerina calls back from the hall, trying discretely to put a healthy lead between her and the red-head. The blonde will need a minute to prepare…

Wanda thinks that means stop so she will stand in the hallway until summoned. She glances at herself in a hallway mirror and offers her reflection a faint smile before looking away. The witch has never had much ego.

And just like that the flautist gets more than a minute - a lot more. Wanda's bedroom door is left as open as it started while the door beside it - Nerina's - is left politely ajar. Inside, the young blonde finishes cleaning a fresh cut on her hand as it flows back together and pulls the cleaning rod and cloth out the end of her flute. The tool is dropped on the ruffled bedsheets and the instrumental Italian sits down beside it to wait - and wait. Her clothes are left in their creepily-anatomical pile to one side of her bed, revealing a pair of khaki cargo pants that were hiding beneath her sweats. With the shower steam still dissipating slowly through the air vents of the room, it's already begun to smell like the flautist herself - or rather the natural musk she's buried under scented products.

Wanda wanders into the room and finds a chair to sit in. Fingers politely steepled on her lap she awaits the show. How Nerina wants to keep her clothes is her business. "What will you play?" she asks lightly.

"''Jazz flute'', you call it," Nerina smirks as she shuts and locks the door. For the witch, this is a private show.

Tossing her hair back over her shoulder, the young Italian walks back towards Wanda and stops as she reaches the bed, leaning a hand on it. "This isn't a movie," she considers, softly batting her eyes, "but maybe I can lay on you anyway, da?"

Wanda is momentarily surprised by the request before she nods happily. "Of course." She slips off the chair to sit on the bed, leaning up against the headboard as she pats her lap. Nerina did mean her lap, didn't she? "Jazz? Okay…I am sure it is brilliant."

"You already heard some," Nerina mentions as she climbs up after Wanda and crawls towards the witch on all-fours, leaving a leash-like trail of blonde hair dragging on the sheets beside her. Peering down the dangling neck of her hoodie, a little glint of gold catches the light. The flautist smiles when blue eyes meet and sweeps her nearly endless locks to one side of Wanda's lap before rolling over and leaning back against her…

That's about as long as her mundane magic lasts, as the Italian bumps more than settles against the edge of the witch's jersey, and bumps around a few more times as she tries to lift and reposition herself.

Wanda tries to keep her 'oofs' and winces to herself as Nerina gets herself comfy. The redhead putting her arm around the blonde and trying to have it rest on something innocent - Nerina's flank seems the best bet. "You have a pretty necklace" she remarks quietly though doesn't express a desire to see it.

"Sorry," Nerina apologizes quietly as she settles to a stop, resting her head slightly propped against Wanda's stomach and letting her shoulders drape gently over her lap. If there's one saving grace for the flautist, it's that she's light-weight. Her legs at first sprawl out down the bed, then fall to one side as the blonde jumps and giggles a little. She might be ticklish.

"Oh! You saw?" She asks, trying to look up and back to Wanda but finding the angle surprisingly difficult. "When did you see it?"

"Just then" Wanda notes. "When you were crawling on the bed. Just for a moment." She was probably more interested in looking at other things. "Are you set now?" Fingers move away from ticklish areas, ending up stroking that long blonde hair.

"Mmm, yes…" Nerina affirms softly as color slowly rises to her cheeks again. Reaching down the neck of her sweater, she pulls out the centerpiece of the necklace, a golden heart-shaped locket. The flautist kisses it as other Italians might a cross and holds it up enough for Wanda to see. "It is very precious to me - molto prezioso."

"Do you have anything like that?" Nerina asks curiously as she buries the necklace out of sight again.

Wanda studies the locket when it is on display, smiling softly at the kiss to the metal heart before shaking her head. "No. Nothing like that. The only thing that means that much to me is my brother and we have managed to find each other again. He is all the family I have." A shrug before she nods to the flute. "You were going to play." Her long fingers resuming their gentle stroking through Nerina's hair.

"How long have you been playing the flute? I can bash a tambourine…sometimes in the correct rhythm, but nothing more than that."

"Without him I think you would," Nerina replies for her necklace. The blonde Italian sinks against Wanda’s lap as a sigh slips out of her mouth, and she tilts her head enough to snag a bang to gnaw on thoughtfully. “Non lo so… Three years?”

“And you lie again, Rosso,” she notes while idlying fingering the flute in her hands. “You said you dance. Maybe later you’ll dance to my flute like un serpente, da?”

A thumb brushes the hair back out of her mouth as Nerina sets the plastic reed to her lips and blows a light trill to playfully mark her comment.

"Yes, okay, I like to dance" Wanda admits with a giggle before adding, "Does not mean I am good at it though." The trill makes her smile. "You sound like a wandering piper. Say a word and then make that noise while you are stealing children" she teases, helping get that hair away from Nerina's lips.

Nerina's plastic flute emits a low and droning warble of thought as it wanders between two notes before sliding out of the flautist's mouth again. "Close enough, da," she concedes. "Except for the children."

"So you are a magical piper" Wanda asks with a warm smile. "My people have to be wary of your kind" she giggles. "At least that is what my grandparents warned me about. Bewitching pipers. Leading me astray to who knows where?" She glances around before giggling. "Like their bed."

Nerina chokes on a snort just as the flute touches her lips again - a noise that very nearly became a woodwind shriek. She bites her finger for a moment and glances at the wall. "Not my bed," is all she musters in her defense. "And I mean a wandering piper. You lead me here - magic witch. In Transia you would be… Baba Yaga? You've made me fat tonight, to cook in a pot tomorrow, da?"

Wanda smirks at the reference to Baba Yaga. "Maybe I am" she grins. "And I would not put you in a pot to eat you." A pause before she blushes and clears her throat. "I think that did not come out like I meant it to sound." A nervous scratching of her head before, "You stopped playing."

The flautist smiles a little at Wanda's nervousness. "You kept talking," she rebuts. For good or ill, the pot comment earns a confused furrow of her brow. "Cosa intendi? Is there another use for 'pot'?… Beside the drug?" The flute returns to Nerina's mouth long enough to playfully jump through a scale with bird-like tweets, quietly lifted from old but popular notes by Prokofiev. The jazz-flautist might be a thief of many things.

It was more the comment about eating that got Wanda blushing but if it was missed - yay! "I will stop talking then" she smiles before the tunes start flowing again. "I remember that story." The redhead knows the tune at least. "Do you think you can play trance on that?" If Nerina can then Wanda will be very impressed. Her fingers still stroking the long blonde hair. She wants to ask questions but remains silent for the music.

The flautist looks up and adds a happy little tweet as her tune is recognized but whether she wants more music or not, the question draws an answer. Nerina can't talk with her mouth full - with a flute in it or otherwise. "Trance?"

"European dance music" Wanda 'explains'…which may not be much help at all. "I really like it but you do not hear much of it here. But I also like traditional traveler music. I like most music. I just cannot play it. Can you play other instruments?"
Huh? (Type "help" for help.)

"Oh. I never heard that in Italia," the flautist replies mutedly as the mention brings bad bittersweet memories and a moment's melancholy. "No, only this sweet flute." The blonde lets out a little dry laugh despite herself and shakes her head. "Magia male," she murmurs to herself.

"Man magic?" Wanda asks, translating as best she can those last words. "A flute is better than nothing" she shrugs. "But I really should stop talking and let you play. It is very relaxing." She leans back against the headboard and closes her eyes.

The flautist doesn't correct Wanda's mistranslation as she takes that as the cue to set her flute back against her lips. The small blonde exhales a cleansing breath out through her nose to clear the thoughts that have started swirling around within her head - and catches a light whiff of garlic as she draws in a short, sharp burst of air to fuel her playing. The thick cotton of Nerina's hoodie rubs against Wanda's thighs as the flautist sinks a little lower, reclined as she is against the witch's lap and jersey.

What follows is a clear, unembellished copy of Prokofiev's duck, using the instrument's lower registers to carry the redhead on a relaxing swim through a deep pond in the meadow…

Relaxing. Very relaxing. Perhaps too relaxing. At this rate the two of them will be sleeping together…and literally sleeping. Wanda sags against the headboard, letting her cares drift away as the music seeps through her. Her fingers slowly in their caresses.

Relaxing. Very relaxing. Perhaps too relaxing. At this rate the two of them will be sleeping together…and literally sleeping. Wanda sags against the headboard, letting her cares drift away as the music seeps through her. Her fingers slowling in their caresses.

The duck swims around lazily in subdued, unrushed strokes - a long kick here and a long kick there stretching and bending the tempo without concern. After swimming a few circles, the duck passes seamlessly through the edge of the pond and out into the broad lake of an improvised journey. Nerina's in no risk of falling asleep just yet but Wanda's own relaxation helps her to unwind a little further and let the notes flow out her lips and fingers. She settles softly against the little crevices presented by the laying witch like a Italian blanket and her chest grows and shrinks with each breath - stretching across her legs and rising against her stomach before sinking back down with an outpouring of more gentle melodies. The light but controlled sound of Nerina's breathing punctuate measures and long sustains as the tune drifts through other musical influences, tickling emotions and sampling the flavors of old concert hall music.

By now Nerina's bright blue eyes have long since closed as well and the flautist is drifting along on a velvety raft. More emotion flows into the piece as the room and even Wanda's presence are left somewhere downstream - as old as the tall and stately concert halls, wistful, venerable. The familiar motif of the bird makes an appearance as a solace; still present, attainable company. By now a garlic nest of scent has taken roost in the flautist's senses, the notes of her new environment. Who knows what memories are being attached to them now.

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