The X-Project

Vanessa tries to put together an adequate selection of clothing options for a mimic-on-the-go she'll need for a case. Warren is monumentally unhelpful.

Vanessa stared at the collared shirt, suit jacket and slacks hanging on her closet door with a frown and her nose wrinkling. "I never mimic short guys, do I? I don't even mimic average guys. It's all six-foot or taller with broad shoulders and...wow, I pick guys who can flirt a woman's knickers off too often. What if I only find lanky little nerdy guys?" She sighed and went searching through her closer again. It was a walk-in sort and filled the clothes for her mimics, or potential mimics. The clothes she actually wore all fit into the dresser and a handful of hangers in the other closet. Hell, Warren managed to have more clothing that needed hanging around here than she did. "Average women, that I've got clothes for. Maybe scrubs. Scrubs could be useful. Shit. Where did I put those?"

The metamorph stood in the middle of the closet with several blouses, a couple skirts and a tie slung over her shoulders while she spun in circles slowly. "If I were scrubs where would I be?"

"In a hospital?" Warren was sprawled on Vanessa's bed, watching her pack. He'd originally been reading, but had long ago abandoned that for the amusement of watching Vanessa wander around trying to figure out what to take.

"Were you a boy scout in another life? Because I think packing scrubs is going a little bit passed being prepared for anything." What would she need scrubs for? Unless she was planning on pretending to be a doctor.

"I need to break into a blood donation center and steal a sample for a paternity case," she explained, still spinning.

Vanessa stopped, tilted her head and stared at a box in the corner. Her nose wrinkled up again. "Are you hiding my scrubs?" she asked the box with an accusatory tone. "I bet you are." She pulled everything else off her shoulders and left it in a heap in the doorway. "I will conquer you, mister box, just you watch!"

"Lalala, I did not just hear that." Because if he did, he'd have to point out to his girlfriend the civil rights violations involved. And, well, the actual laws being broken as well. But he didn't hear it, so he didn't have to.

"What did that box ever do to you, huh?" Warren was trying very hard not to grin.

Nothing came for a moment except the sound of the box hitting the ground when Vanessa pulled it off another box and dropped it in the middle of the closet. "It's hoarding my shit. That's fucking rude, you know? It doesn't even have the decency to be labeled. Bastard." She pulled the flaps open a little too forcefully and ripped one a little. Then she unceremoniously started pulling stacks of neatly folded clothes out. They were soon a towering mess around her after they all tipped over.

"Aha!"

A triumphant grin was shot in Warren's direction when she held up a stack of folded scrubs in different colors. "You give blood recently by chance?"

"So I shouldn't point out that you would have packed that box and thus not labelled it?" He grinned from his spot on the bed, his head propped up with his hand.

"And I haven't recently, no. I can't remember the last time I did."

Her grin quickly turned into a frown. "What good are you to me then?" What color did nurses wear at blood clinics? Vanessa decided to just go with standard hospital green and hope for the best. She took a medium and a large, thankful for unisex sizing, and considered a small set as well. It was amazing what the woman could pack into a gym bag when she needed selection for an on the fly mimic.

"Oh, I don't know," his grin transforming into something of a lazy smile. "You seem to like keeping me around." He pushed himself up into a seated position, his gaze watching her every move.

"When are you leaving again?"

"I'm not actually going anywhere," she told him as she stood and made her way over to the gym bag to lay the sets of scrubs inside. "I'm going to the clinic tomorrow but aside from making some friends, having a chat and then dropping something off at a lab I'm not venturing all that far. Hell, I don't even have to leave the city this time 'round." She'd just gotten back in town from tracking down a belligerent ex who had kidnapped his children out of spite. He'd said if his wife wanted to leave him then the bitch couldn't have the kids either. He'd lost the custody case a week before he'd snatched them.

"I swear to God, I can not keep all of your trips - or non-trips - straight." He pushed himself up off the bed, moving over towards her. She was finished packing, right? And even if she wasn't, she wasn't going out of town, so it didn't matter if she hadn't yet.

"But I'm glad you're not going anywhere for the moment." He moved up behind her, sliding his arms around her waist and leaning in to press a kiss against the side of her neck. "When do I get to whisk you off out of town, hrmmm?"

"Mm..." Nothing was guaranteed to get Vanessa to stop what she was doing quite like Warren. The feel of his arm around her had slowed her but the kiss had stopped her attempt to zip the bag quite swiftly. The bag was forgotten in an instant as she leaned back against him. "I don't know. Maybe you should try scheduling some time. I could maybe work it in if you schedule ahead of time. Or if you can do impromptu at the ready three day weekend sort of whisking off. That I could probably work in between cases pretty easily."

Warren pulled her in tight against him, continuing to press kisses down her neck. "I can schedule. Or do impromptu. Really, I'm flexible. As long as I'm around on the 26th and 27th of July." He paused in his kisses, looking at her from the side and smiling. "I do believe I owe you a trip to a country estate. For some horse riding lessons."

Her head fell to the side, opening her neck up for those wandering lips of his. It was hard to keep her eyes from falling part shut. Vanessa didn't even bother trying. "Is that a none-too-subtle hint I should be open for kidnapping those days?"

"No no, those are the only days I can guarantee I won't be kidnapping you. Since I'll be suffering through two days of the bar exam." He resumed the kissing, his free hand starting to slide under her shirt. "But if you happen to have an opening in your schedule before that, I suspect we could both do with the break."

"Ah. Well, I think distracting you from all that hardcore studying is probably a bad idea. But maybe afterward? I could make sure I'm not on a case, say, the twenty-eighth to the thirtieth or so? We could run away in celebration of the bar being behind you?" She squirmed a little when his hand slipped over a particularly ticklish spot. It would have been worse if Warren had the soft hands of a man who arbitrated and worked at a desk all day but he didn't. His hands were rough, calloused. She was pretty sure he had said something once about it being part of his mutation. His skin had to withstand the wind friction. Something. Vanessa was having a hard time concentrating enough to remember.

"I think that sounds like an excellent idea," he murmured, before both hands slid to her hips so he could turn her around and kiss her properly. She was packed, he had her pencilled in for a few days away on vacation... really, what more did they need to discuss?

They apparently agreed on the point of discussion. A fact which was made abundantly clear when a leg raised and hitched up over Warren's hip. It was carefully situated beneath his wing, something she'd gotten so good at that she barely had to think about it these days. It was mirrored by an arm winding around his shoulders. The other leg soon followed and Vanessa had herself quite happily hitched up around her boyfriend's waist as they kissed. It was so much easier to climb up onto a man when he was at least as tall as she was.

Warren grinned into the kiss, his hands sliding to move over her ass so he could hold her in place. Distracting his girlfriend - and well, often himself - had become his favorite thing to do these days. Mostly because she had so little free time, he liked to take advantage of it while he could. He slowly started to move his feet, moving them both towards the bed.

The kiss broke abruptly and unceremoniously. There was no apparent cause when Vanessa leaned as far back as she could while keeping her hands clasped behind Warren's neck. "Have you seen the garden?" she asked excitedly out of the blue. "Things are growing. Actual, eventually edible things!"

Warren laughed, his hands sliding up to support her back as she leaned back. "No, I haven't. You really haven't managed to kill anything yet?" He asked teasingly. "I think I may need to see this. Just for verification."

One eye closed, the other squinting, and her nose wrinkled as she considered the options. She could slide off him or she could make him carry her. Actually, that wasn't a very hard decision. One hand cupped the back of Warren's neck so she could point to the doorway with the other. "Oi, then get a move on so I can prove my mad skillzzz to you. That's skillz. With a 'z.' 'Cause I'm hip or dope or whatever." Vanessa beamed at him.

"Or suddenly incapable of using the English language properly." He laughed again, pulling his wings in closer so he could carry her out the bedroom door, heading for her front door. "You know, you'll have to get the door when we get to it. My hands are a little full right now." What with making sure she wasn't about to fall off him or anything.

That free hand she had been using to point to the door was so very convenient. It just cut right through the air to thwap him upside the head as easy as anything. "Don't front." Vanessa paused, trying to figure out if that was the right phrase. "Actually, I think I used that wrong. And despite you cruelly picking on me I will get the door since your balance sucks so badly you can't spare a hand for it."

"Ow!" Not that the slap up the head hurt, but that wasn't the point here really. He pouted exaggeratedly at her, attempting the whole 'puppy dog look'. "You're the one who wants to go outside," he pointed out, resisting the urge to poke his tongue out at her quite childishly. "And I'm the one who doesn't want to take his hands off his sexy girlfriend."

Well, if he was going to pout then fine. She would tug on the offending lip with her teeth. Vanessa even threw in a little puppy dog growl and head shake while she was at it. Which amused the hell out of her, really. I'm losing it. Too much work, she thought. Really, she had totally lost her marbles here but she wasn't going to admit that aloud. With his lip still trapped Vanessa narrowed her eyes and jabbed a finger in the direction of the door.

Warren couldn't help but laugh a little at Vanessa with her teeth trapping his lip, but he obliged, his fingers digging into her skin a little as he moved towards the door.

Rather than giving her a chance to open it, he pressed her up against it, leaning it to press his lips in against hers. They'd get to her garden. Possibly. Eventually.