2025-02-24 - Playing Hooky

Eddie Lightner is supposed to be working. He's on shift for another hour before he has a break. Eddie Lightner is currently taking pictures of tourists in the Court of Portals and trying not to think about all the water around the island. But Eddie Lightner also has to go...

Eddie ducks out of one of the bathrooms down in the tunnels beneath the Court of Portals, drying his hands and ducking halfway back into the door to toss the paper towel into the trash. He's in his royal blue blazer and black pants, the full uniform for when it gets cooler on the island, running his hands back through his hair before pausing a moment and glancing upwards with a thoughtful look on his face. He quickly pulls out his phone.

[TXT to Leon] Eddie: When's your break? I've got thirty minutes or so before I'm back on duty.

Out in the Court of Portals, Malia the Wicked is sweeping away from her adoring fans and beloved haters with her character henchman in tow. She's stepping out of view and through one of the backstage entrances, and immediately Leon turns and offers a high-five to the punk-haired employee who keeps her on schedule; they slap palms with Leon, joining her in laughter.

"Scared the crap out of that dudebro, Lee... nice," Vin offers before they turn to whip out their phone. "When are you due back?"

"Not until the afternoon parade... I got to go get fitted for Rosie's costume updates," replies Leon as she takes out her own phone just as Eddie's message pops up across the picture she captured of the photographer, turning toward her, smiling, encompassed in shadow. She bites at her lower lip as she smiles, tapping open the message. "But first, I'm taking a break."

[TXT to Eddie] Leon: Now. Where are you?

[TXT to Leon] Eddie: That's a complicated question. 😉 I'll come to you.

[TXT to Eddie] Leon: Meet me at wardrobe? Or do you want me to be somewhere... else?

[TXT to Leon] Eddie: You're working Court too today, right? Yeah. I'll meet you at the Court wardrobe. I'm not entirely sure how long I have.

[TXT to Eddie] Leon: Meet you there.

Eddie moves quickly, because he doesn't have a punk to shake or a costume to haul along (besides his basic uniform). By the time Leon arrives, he's leaning against the wall besides wardrobe, his arms crossed over his chest and a little grin lingering at one corner of his lips. He looks a man completely at his ease at first glance, although there are little hints of tension around his shoulders and eyes at a closer study.

As Leon walks through toward the Court's wardrobe, the Dark Queen's sharper cheekbones, taller ears, and beautiful wings have all melted back, leaving her freckled and bright-eyed with those arched, peaked ears half-hidden beneath her mass of dark hair. She comes around the corner within sight of Eddie, and she slows as she starts to smile at the casual way he waits for her. Sweeping forward on her stiletto-heeled boots, she closes the distance between them in a casual, slow pace.

"Hi," she murmurs. When she comes nearer, she catches sight of that tension—familiar with Eddie as she is. Her brows quirk slightly. "Everything okay?"

Black dots swirl through Eddie's eyes, pulling away from his pupils, but he doesn't seem to notice them, looking over to watch Leon approach down the hallway. He looks down at the click-clacking stilettos, shaking his head in amusement as his smile grows and he looks back up to her. "Don't you have a school for exceptional individuals in Westchester to menace?"

He pushes off the wall and steps up to offer Leon a hug and a kiss to the temple, "Hi. And yeah. Just trying something out. You're already done for the day, aren't you? Lucky, I'm still on duty for another two hours." Plus a little more to make up for the 15-minute break he's due in an hour.

"Yes, but here I am, ready to menace you instead," Leon replies brightly, almost laughing through her words as she steps up closer to him to be drawn into that hug and lean her temple into that kiss. She murmurs something content before she lifts her eyes to meet his, and her smile turns curious as her eyes narrow slightly. "What're you trying out?" She steps up closer to him, catching the edge of his pockets. "And not quite... need to go get fitted for Rosie's new costume and have a parade right before dinner... so, I think you will be done before me."

Leon can't help but admire the black dots in Eddie's eyes, the way they draw her hazel gaze so easily to his.

Eddie glances up in the direction that might be where his position in the Court is, and then looks back down to Leon, glancing down to where her fingers catch at his pockets and shaking his head in amusement. His hands settle lightly at her hips, and he leans back against the wall again. "Oh, forgot about the parade. Wait, you go from the sexy dark fae to the evil werewolf? I mean, it's a cool look, but definitely a bit of a cold shower." But he's laughing softly as he makes the comment, his eyes crinkling at the corners with his smile.

And he still hasn't answered the question about what he's trying out, looking over his shoulder toward the door of the wardrobe, "So am I in the way? Do you need to get in there and let out your inner beast, Leon?"

"Rosie isn't evil... she's desperately misunderstood... just wild." As his hands settle on her hips, Leon nudges closer to him as her fingers curl tighter at the edge of his pockets. She tilts her head back, smiling up at him with a bit of heat in her eyes—a heat Eddie always inspires. "Though, the fact you find Malia to be irresistible, and not Rosie... it's the fur, isn't it?" Her smile turns a little crooked.

Her eyes slide over to the door to the wardrobe room and then back to him. Her chin tips to one side, only enhancing that crookedness to her smile. "You are in my way, but... I'm not objecting to it... yet." She brushes her nose gently across his, but her lips don't quite come to touch his—teasing.

"It's definitely the fur." Eddie doesn't even try to protest the fact. "The costume's cute, the face is cute, but the fur... I'm sorry Leon, I don't find the idea of cleaning out the drain twice per shower attractive." He nudges his nose back against hers, doing his manful best to resist the teasing nearness of her lips for a little while longer. "And I don't mind the wild at all either. Just the fur. And maybe the claws, although Malia has those too. I think that's a very special mood."

A couple of hospitality guides on break come wandering down the hallway, one sniffing slightly at the near-canoodling in the hallway -- and the other winking at Leon and Eddie in approval. The sniffer calls over their shoulder, "Eddie, aren't you supposed to be on-duty at the Court?"

Reluctantly turning his head away from Leon, Eddie calls back -- a little more quietly since he's so close to Leon -- "I am on-duty at the Court."

"Poor Rosie... she's going to be forever looking for love." Then a low, content laugh warms her next words. "But, you'll have to tell me when you're in that mood," Leon murmurs, her lips still teasing promises of a kiss until the two guides pass them. Her brows arch at Eddie's response, and her eyes dart around curiously. "You are?" She narrows her eyes then. "I don't think you are, Eddie."

Her nose brushes across his own again. "I'm good, but I haven't even kissed you yet to make you forget where you are." Her smile lifts a bit higher before she leans back from him just enough to more easily meet his eyes, still accented in motes of shadow.

"Must be why Rosie's so evil -- I mean misunderstood." The narrow-eyed look from Leon draws Eddie's grin up a little broader. "I am." The swirl of dark dots through his eyes is steady, well steadier than it usually is when he's doing anything besides actively using his magic, but still well short of a blizzard.

"Up there. And down here. I really couldn't wait until my next break. So I didn't. That's also why I'm not sure how much time I have before I need to get back. I haven't really tested against the strain too much."

Leon's eyes widen slightly when Eddie reveals just how he is on-duty, while also being here with her. A sudden breath of laughter escapes her, and she steps in closer to him. "Guess I shouldn't let you wait any longer," she teases, having not known that he actually had to use the restroom not hoped she was on break. But she kisses him all the same, tightening her fingers on the edge of his pockets while she rocks up to close the distance between them. There's a low, soft need there in that kiss, as her kisses with Eddie have often, if not always, been.

"Better not," Eddie murmurs just before Leon's lips meet his, and he smiles under the soft kiss, letting the heat simmering around the edges scorch him lightly. Straightening up again in the wake of the kiss, he reaches up to brush a wayward curl away from Leon's cheek and back behind her ear again. "I want some good memories to take back to the rest of me when I go back."

He leans his head forward, brushing his brow against hers, and then straightens up again. "It's still a pretty new trick." His hand runs slowly up and down Leon's back as he tilts his head to one side, considering, "I probably should let you get on with your costume change, shouldn't I?" But instead, he leans forward once more, looking to catch up her mouth in another slow-burning kiss that washes his eyes closed and loosens some of the tension in his chest.

The brush of his fingers against her cheek as he tucks away that curl sends a little shiver down her spine, her stomach dipping pleasantly at that touch. Her smile lifts higher into her cheeks as her brow returns the gentle pressure. "'The rest of you,'" she repeats thoughtfully before her eyes brighten with mischief only Malia often inspires. "I can think of one or two things that two of you would be good for." Her steps tiptoe even closer even while he considers how he's interrupting her progress into Wardrobe.

But before she can elaborate, he's leaning forward again to capture her in that kiss. Her fingers loosen from his pockets and instead grasps his shirt tightly, pulling her frame into his. Eddie's mouth on hers immediately dissolves thoughts of what she is supposed to be doing in favor of what she wants to be doing. Weak-kneed and heating, the woman still gowned as the dark faerie queen presses Eddie back into the wall beside the wardrobe door. What may have been canoodling is quickly escalating—

She pulls back just enough to break her mouth from his, and she inhales sharply. "You should probably let me get on with my costume change..."

The full press of Leon's desires washes away Eddie's thoughts like a sandcastle before the rising tide, leaving vague, blobby concepts of what might have been there beforehand. His fingers tighten between her shoulder-blades, his other hand dropping away from her cheek to find a lower cheek to urge closer to him. A low sound of approval lifts its way through the dance of lips and tongues, and it Eddie a couple of heartbeats to draw his thoughts back together after he can breathe again.

"Um." Beat pause as he desperately draws diverted blood back toward his brain, "I can think of a costume I'd like you to change into..." No, wait, that didn't work. Try again. Reboot! Reboot!

"I thought it might be a good way to get some pictures. Of us." Mischief wars with desire in his eyes, and he shuffles his feet as if he were going to start to draw them along toward the changing room -- but never actually gets moving. Instead, his lips find hers again, and there is very little slow or soft about this kiss, forging it in the fires of his need for her, banked only by the vague and insubstantial knowledge that they're in the middle of the tunnel system and there's at least one camera that can see them beautifully right now.

Leon's breath catches as he pulls her body tight against his. She is aware that anyone could come down the hallway and see them, but she's far too caught-up in the way Eddie's captured and held her attention; the world around them is vaguely out of focus, with Eddie the only sharp detail—Eddie and the taste of his tongue and graze of his lips. Her hand slides up to pull her arm around his shoulders, lifting her higher against his frame as she meets him, beat for beat, until he lifts away from her.

His words spark a sudden laugh from her, and then she settles all the closer against him. "I'd like... that." Her lips brush against his as she murmurs those heated words. "Maybe tonight..." His feet shuffles, and hers start to take lead, drawing him back with her. "I'm starting to feel a bit lightheaded," she says, tone wistful. "Might need... to rest until the parade this evening." Her mouth moves against his as she says those words, sharing that kiss each time she takes a breath.

"What happened," Eddie asks between short little kisses that manage to regain a little bit of softness as he follows after her lead, "to costume fittings?" One hand stays planted between her shoulder-blades, the other rising up her back to smooth over the bouncy whorls of her hair, "And you mean... I have to stay awake... 'till after the parade?" He's probably teasing her -- almost certainly teasing her.

Whether she's leading them toward the dressing rooms, down the tunnel, or back the way she came, he has absolutely no idea. Doesn't even seem to matter to him, really.

"Dante will understand," about her ditching her fitting. But then Leon stops, halting them on the way to the changing room so she can get out of Malia's gown and these impressive boots. She groans against his mouth, sighing. "But you still have two hours to your shift." She drops her head back from him, meeting his shadow-accented eyes. "And you have to get back... to yourself." Her smile lifts at one corner. "So maybe you have to just help me with my zipper and then scurry off."

She them resumes her slow backward steps, guiding him toward the door into the department so she can then try to sneak him into the changing room.

Eddie laughs soft and low at Leon's easy readiness to ditch her fitting, nodding slowly into the not-quite-a-kiss as she notes that he still has the rest of his shift. "And we have to get back together," him and the rest of him. He follows her to the door, and then stops right at the frame, slipping far enough away from her so that she can open the door without anyone spotting him utterly wrapped around her -- besides whoever is watching the security camera overhead.

Once she's opened the door and he's peeked in so that they can confirm that there's no one in the main room (there's a fitting going on in a side room by the patter coming from the doorway), he follows after her, stepping up close behind her and leaning forward to whisper with a raised eyebrow, "You're really going to make me unzip you and then scurry off? I didn't know you were as cruel as Malia, Leon..."

Leon peeks over at the fitting happening in the adjacent side room, as if trying to peek at who might be in there, but Eddie soon snares her attention back to him as he continues to follow her into the wardrobe space. She's about a third of the way to the changing rooms when the photographer steps in close behind her, slowing her steps as her breath quickens. She starts to laugh, smothering it out behind her pressed lips at the whisper he leaves across her skin, leaving gooseflesh in the wake.

"I don't know... I figured you didn't have much time," Leon murmurs thoughtfully as she continues forward, closing in on the first vacant changing room curtain. She darts another glance toward the room where the fitting is happening, and then quickens her steps to drag Eddie in after her.

"I don't," Eddie admits reluctantly. He starts to linger at the curtained doorway to the changing room, his fingers teasing at one hip of the costume, only to be pulled in almost bodily. His head and feet stay back a moment as the rest of him sways after Leon, and then he's inside the smaller room and twisting to tug the curtain closed again.

"But I'm sure I've got some time for smooching and unzipping you." His hand shifts from her hip across her stomach, fingers curling tight, and then he shakes his head with a husky little laugh. "I guess we'll just both," or is it 'all three' now that he's split himself in two, "have to just hold on to that energy until after the parade." And then he winces broadly, "Oh dang it. I don't know that I'll be able to split up tonight. It leaves me pretty drained after and I can't do it again for a while."

"Smooching?" The word is almost giggled before Leon turns in his arms once they are safely inside the changing room. Her hazel eyes search his, once more following the motes of shadow that trail off his pupil like droplets of ink, a shade or two darker than his irises, and then stark against the sclera. Her smile lifts a bit higher at one corner, and there's a sudden flash of sharp canine—a fang usually accenting Malia's smile, but seems to be reluctant to shrink back despite Leon releasing that bit of her power. "Sometimes, I don't believe you spent time with soldiers... smooching, dang..."

Her hand rolls back across the back of his neck, pulling him closer to her as she stands tall on the balls of her feet on those deadly heels. She brings her lips closer to his, threatening—or promising—a kiss. His bad news draws her back a moment, and then she bobs her head. "Bummer," she murmurs. "Guess that'll have to go on our wishlist." Then she claims his mouth with hers, pulling him tightly back against her frame as she molds to him.

"Making out," Eddie suggests in that close press, one hand rising up to brush along her smiling cheek, "Necking?" Evidently some portion of his education (or his parents upbringing) was old-fashioned, "Dry humping? Sucking face? Snogging?" Thankfully, the promise of her lips shuts him up, even if she sinks back in disappointment. He follows after her, ducking his head as he smooths his hands down her back, hands clasping tight at the base of her ribs as he meets her in that kiss.

There's a moment where it seems he might draw her up his frame, but he doesn't challenge the strength of his arms, letting his hands slide across her back to wrap her closer instead. When he turns a trail of kisses aside from her lips, along her jaw, he murmurs, "I can still try. I'm just learning what I can and can't do, and I don't want to disappoint." Finally, his fingers find the hidden zip on Malia's costume, tugging lightly and then pulling more steadily to loosen it.

"Sucking face," Leon murmurs, her laughter still light before her head drops back, inviting the graze of his lips across her jaw. She sighs perhaps a touch too loudly to the ceiling before she drops her hands from him, no longer grasping the back of his neck or the side of his hip; she instead holds her arms out to let him work not just the zipper down her side to well below the widest swell of her hip but to also let him start to work her sleeves loose. She wears a simple pair of cotton briefs beneath her dress and those thick leggings that give the illusion she's merely wearing stockings over bare legs.

"You've never disappointed me," she offers earnestly as she drops her eyes briefly to his hands and then back up again to try to find his mouth in another kiss—this one sharper, more needy for what they can't achieve in this curtained closet of the wardrobe department.

Eddie runs the zipper down to its logical conclusion, the fingers of his other hands following it down along the revealed skin. Turning his head across hers, his lips graze the other side of her jaw, and then tickle their slow way down her throat. Both hands rise up and grasp the back of her costume to help her peel it off her shoulders, arms, and body. His efforts are stopped, however, by that passionate kiss, and he contents himself with exploring her bare back with his hands, fingers curling and stroking as his lips part and his tongue teases at hers.

One hand smooths down her spine to settle at her sacrum, short nails scritching at the soft skin there. There's something soft and a little sad to his little murmur, "I'm pretty sure that I have, Leon... a few times right about the holidays."

Leon turns toward him once she's free of her dress, it pooling around her feet in heap of comfortable mesh and soft cotton. Her arms thread around his shoulders, pressing her bare chest close against his clothed one, and she smiles gently against his lips even as there's a little sadness to his murmur. "You've not disappointed me since the Masquerade," she murmurs, brushing her nose against his.

Then she starts to step back so she can contend with the zippers of her boots, easing herself out of them one at a time so she can sink down those four inches to her normal height; when she smiles over her shoulder, this time it is through the fall of her curly dark hair. Her smile brightens a bit more when she meets his own shadow-dusted gaze, and her two sharp canines flash. Then she leans in closer to him to peck a soft kiss to his nose.

Eddie takes in a breath as Leon turns her curves toward him, his fingertips tracing over her skin in slow curls and circles. He nods an only-slightly-sad agreement to her clarification, "I can live with that."

Reluctantly, he lets his hands slide away to her shoulders, then down her arms and away to let her see to her boots, even as he discovers the benefits of stepping away and getting an eyeful of his very significant other. He's about to say something in the face of that brilliant smile when she pops up to give him a kiss on the nose, and he wrinkles the bridge, and then laughs softly, "Rosie has those fangs too? Or are you just keeping them around to keep me honest? I think I came within a sneeze of getting my tongue pierced that last kiss."

Her own tongue touches the edge of her new fangs—they are petite, only slightly sharper than the human average. "It's like the ears... they are just kind of... sticking around." A bit of anxiety tightens around the corners of her eyes. "Sorry... I can force them back to the way they were before, but..." She gestures to her ears, indicating that some of her Changeling traits seem to be settling into permanence. "I won't bite you." Her smile softens, and her lips do not part again, as if a bit bashful about those sharp, little teeth.

Now she turns her back to him and starts to pull off the dress, aiming to carefully pluck it up off the ground to pull onto the hangar marked with Malia the Wicked. She stands there, bare from the waist up, and in thick comfortable leggings from the waist down that give the illusion of bare skin and netting tights. She reaches for her sweatshirt, aiming to tug the garment on.

Eddie is already shaking his head when Leon gestures up to her ears and her smile fades a little. He starts forward, but she's sweeping off the dress and he retreats again -- as far as he can in the enclosed space of the changing room. As she reaches for the hanger, he settles the fingers of his left hand on her back, stroking slowly down -- and then back up as he reaches out for her far wrist, looking to pull her back to face him so that he can ducks his head into a slow, electric kiss. His tongue brushes her lips, urging them apart with a splay of his own lips.

He brings his hands up to her jawline, thumbs stroking so that when he straightens up, he can give a little shake of his head as he looks down at her. "It's fine, Leon. I was teasing you. You haven't gotten me with them at all." Despite the little worry for her reaction still catching between his brows, he offers up a faintly-crooked smile, "Although if you keep this up, I'm going to have to start watching any deals I make with you, my Fae Queen."

The course of his fingers down her spine sends a shiver of gooseflesh across her tawny, freckled skin. She turns her head toward him at his encouragement, forgetting about the sweatshirt now hanging loosely in her fingers. She smiles just before he captures her lips in that sudden kiss. A low groan is murmured against his lips before they part, inviting him past where her tongue curls gently, invitingly. Her fingers close around his forearms, pulling him in closer to her as she presses her bare chest against his own, sweatshirt now a puddle of cotton at their feet.

When he lifts away from her, she sinks down onto her heels again, having lifted on the balls of her feet to meet his kiss. She starts to smile through the coil of forelock bouncing into her gaze. "I'll make sure that it's worth it... for both of us." Her lips curl higher before she sinks her mouth more heavily against his mouth. forgetting that he has a timer to his own magic and that she should be getting dressed.

Eddie reaches up to brush the curl of hair out of Leon's face, but doesn't get as far as tucking it behind her ear before she's kissing him again, and he responds rapidly. Turning his head to tuck himself in close, he gets one hand off her bare shoulder to feel behind him, leaning back against the interior of the dressing room and looking to drag her with him so that she can lean into him as they kiss. The pressure ebbs and flows, but the desires that it speaks fluently of does not, building upon itself to ignite banked coals and send them roaring into flame once more.

When he finally lets his head back against the wall behind him so that he can look down at Leon -- less down than usual now that he's leaning back -- he makes a soft, pleased sound, and then murmurs, "I'm not going to say no to that. I'm not always a fool." Glancing down her nearly-bare torso beyond the clasped sweatshirt, he slowly lifts his eyes again to meet her gaze, "But if you don't get dressed again, it might be a while..."

Leon staggers forward those short steps to press Eddie's back into the wall of the dressing room. Her arm sweeps around his shoulders, hauling herself up on the balls of her feet again until she drops back down with a little sound—a mix of a sigh and a groan. She tips her head back, smiling at him with a somewhat dazed, warmed expression. "I'll get dressed." She nips gently at his lip. "And you should get back to your body..." Her dark eyes warm, almost smolder. "Then you can come find me back at my apartment after the parade..."

She then slips back, stepping two strides backwards before aiming to pull on her sweatshirt.

"My other body," Eddie notes, but he's smiling high enough to crinkle the corners of his eyes. His arms linger around her, trying to hold her close for a heartbeat, and then he looses his grip before she can tear right through it, trailing his hands down the back of her arms and her forearms, "Pretty sure we're both 'me.' I think." But his smile flashes back into place in the wake of his momentary philosophical conundrum, and he drops his arms back to his sides so that she can pull on the sweatshirt, watching with great interest. "I like the idea of finding you at your apartment after the parade though."

"Your other body," Leon agrees to the correction, her nose wrinkling with a smile. "And good to know they're both you." She sweeps in to kiss the tip of his nose before she tugs down the oversized sweatshirt over her patterned leggings. She reaches into her bag for her Ugg clogs, and slides those on. Somehow, she looks both fashionable and comfortable as she smiles at him, beginning to thread her hair up into a bun.

"I mean, I'm definitely me, and last time I tried this the other guy said he was definitely me, so... one of us is lying, or we're both me." He pauses a moment, squinching one eye closed in thought, "Wow. Pronouns get really complicated with this." But the kiss to the tip of his nose forestalls any more metaphysical ponderings, and he laughs softly, pushing up off the wall of the room to wrap his arms around her under her upraised arms, "That's a cute look. I'm pretty sure it's because it's your look, but it's still cute. Very comfy looking."

He draws in a slow breath, lets it out, and then ducks his head to steal one more kiss as she finishes with her hair, "Okay. I'll see you after the parade. Thanks for indulging my playing hookie."

"I don't think this actually counts as playing hookie," Leon points out wisely in the wake of the kiss that still curls her toes, still makes her heart leap, and that little knot of pressure swoop low in her belly. She is terribly reluctant to leave the changing room, but smiles over her shoulder as she finishes tightening the knot of her hair. She tilts her head. "See you after the parade, Eddie."

There's a little heat in her eyes as she bites at the corner of her lip, walks backwards two steps, and then turns to exit, taking Malia's dress with her to return to the racks.