good MORNING [lark?/open]

[larkeh;]

<sub>Westley's eyes closed as he lay there, relishing the feel of the nice sofa. He'd paid extra for that, being the slight snob he was, but it was worth it. He wasn't even sure why this apartment needed a bed, the couch was perfectly acceptable. He shook his head at that thought, he really had been living with Kris too long. His eyes snapped open again at Kris' words and chocolate brown eyes stared, "Huh?" Surely he hadn't heard her right, Kris on her own in a house? He wasn't sure why but he just didn't like the thought; it bothered him.

His head shook and he sat there blinking, sort of shocked. He'd wished she would have told him before he'd signed the lease for this apartment. He'd thought he'd still see her all the time and all that, but now he'd have to get his lazy butt up, get in the car, and drive God knew how far to get to her house. He didn't like that either. In fact he just completely disliked the idea of Kris buying a house, or she probably already had with the way she worded it. He scowled a bit, still unsure why he didn't like it, thoughts being ripped away as she spoke. "Well yeah, I was, but... why didn't you tell me? About your house I mean." He didn't suppose it was really any of his business, and yet he felt as though she'd been hiding something from him.

That was one of the things that made him mad was withholding information. She'd done it with Cocoa too, not telling him for so long. He wasn't a child, he could handle the truth and to him it was demeaning. He knew he had no claim over Kris, other than her being his closest friend, but beyond that none and therefore no reason to be mad, it wasn't like she was his girlfriend or anything. She had no obligation, and yet it bugged him. He scowled a bit, standing and shoving his hands in his pockets, no longer feeling so tired. He sighed deeply and then realized he really had nowhere to go and he flopped back down. That couch would probably be ruined in six months if he didn't stop flopping down on it.

OOC: *sighs* I'm sorry, it's like ridiculously short.</sub>

[♥ poppies]

Her eyes grew wide a second as she looked at him and smiled before speaking. "Why? Afraid I don't want you around? Well for your information I have an interest in the house I haven't bought it yet." Smile on her face as he flopped down beforeshe leaned her head to the right. She looked like a teenager who rested there head on their date's shoulder at a movie theater. Problem was this was her best friend and for some reason she had a feeling she was going head over heels for him. That silly kiss before probably meant nothing to him but it meant something to Kris. Then again she was the kisser and not the person to get kissed. "Anyways if I were to move into a house. I'm a big girl I can handle myself." A proud yet silly smile had crossed her face as she looked at him and then looked away.

From the things he had said to her in the last few minutes well the last few words it was like he was her boyfriend. He had no claim over her, well he did, but that had been in New Orleans. Kris had been a sister and also an object to him at some moments. It had seemed like some of the past was coming into her fture, Kris's feelings for him. Some other things, but when she thought of the two of them she knew that things hadn't worked out the first time. What happened when she turned in her thirties. Would she be single or married? If she was married would she still be friends with Westley or would she never remember his face, let alone his name? Those were some of those questions had hung over her at night. They were the questions turned into a nightmare that was so horrible it seemed real.

But, then again he was here and he wasn't gonna leave her any time soon. Right...? Before Kris could know it a girl at a bar could take him, make him her puppet and he'd forget all abot her. It had happened with Kris one night after she got out of juvi, she had forgotten everything before that night. Even so young she had gotten so drunk that she woke up naked in a hotel room she had never seen before. Well Kris hadn't re-lived anything like that, except for getting drunk and having huge hangovers. Maybe once or twice dancing in a bar for guys to get her a drink but it hadn't been since she was seventeen or eighteen. Other than that a sober life had been in her life since then and Cocoa, Martini, and now Westley were there to make things so much better.

[larkeh;]

<sub>It wasn't intentional but Wes still saw Kris much like one would see their kid sister's best friend. She was still a kid in his mind, he didn't know why he saw things that way, he just did. She was the same exact girl he'd known in New Orleans, she really hadn't changed. He had his suspicions that if he told her right now he wanted sex she'd give it to him quite happily, just like she'd always done. And Westley liked sex, so why shouldn't he just try it? He had a conscience now, that's why, but why did he have to have one now? He'd functioned quite happily for two decades without one. Now soliciting her for sex would feel wrong to the young man, but if it didn't he was fairly sure she'd be happy to give it to him.

That had been just the problem for Westley too. If one girl would just deny him what he wanted then maybe he'd actually take an interest, but it seemed every girl just threw herself at him. Kris had done so and it was still in Wes' mind that she was just another girl that would give herself away to him and probably any other guy she took a liking to. He'd actually started to care for her because of the way she'd kept him guessing until she'd smooched him this morning and now she had her head on his shoulder and he was questioning the whole thing. If he'd kissed her it would have been different, but no she'd been gutsy and put herself out there, and in this case it might not have been the best thing to do because Westley was the exception and not the rule.

"I'm gonna start getting boxes out of the car, you can help if you want," he said as he stood deciding he would really rather not talk about it now. He spun the keys around his finger in a flashy manner as he wandered out of the apartment and began the tedious process of removing the boxes that had been there for months. The little sports car didn't hold a whole lot, so Wes had had to be picky about what he took and what he just left to rot away in his parent's French chateau, where he'd been crashing without their knowledge before coming here. They would sure be surprised when they went on vacation and found their son had been hanging there, though the maids had taken care of cleaning up after his wild parties. Still remnants were surely there: the raided bar out by the pool, French rock in the stereo, the lingerie a lot of the women had left in the chest of drawers in the master bedroom. (Which no doubt his mother would wear.) It had been before he'd decided to shape up and Mr. Covington had gotten his hands on a variety of gorgeous and promiscuous French women. He'd had a whole lot of fun last summer, that was for sure.

Nearly thirty minutes later the last box was being set on the floor in the living room and Wes sneaked into the kitchen for a moment for a knife before returning and slitting the tape on one of the boxes. Upon opening it he found photo albums. Even though he was a guy he liked to keep his photographs and remember other times. He opened the one on top that was filled with photos of him as a kid. A spoiled rich kid. There were ones of him with a dolphin when he'd demanded he get taken to Sea World and had wanted to swim with a killer whale, compromising for a dolphin. There were others of him and his brother riding an elephant in India, a trip his brother had wanted and Wes had been sent as well with the nanny. There were further pictures of all sorts of extravagant things no normal child had experienced, but Westley had never been normal.

He pulled a couple more out with more photos spanning into his teenage years and then he found the one with Kris. "Hey Krissy, c'mere," he said getting her attention from wherever she had wandered off too. "Look," he said with a laugh, motioning for her to sit down next to him. He had all day to move and he wasn't hurrying things. He pointed to a picture of him, looking much the same as he did now, sprawled on the sofa with his arm around her, a beer in his hand and a grin on his face. He continued to flip through the album finding more, not all of them with him or Kris in them. He located the Mardi Gras pictures and shook his head, "We were so smashed!" He pointed to the one of Kris with her shirt up, something Wes hadn't been able to resist capturing, "Particularly you."

There were about a zillion Mardi Gras photos as between Wes and everyone else in their group they'd gone through seven disposable cameras alone, not to mention the normal cameras they'd used. Westley wasn't in possession of all these photos as some of the guys had kept the photos themselves, though many had showed off the girl they'd celebrated Mardi Gras with, or in the case of Braxton the two girls he'd spent it with, at the same time nonetheless. Even Westley didn't do threesomes. He chuckled as he turned a page only to find his own collection of scandalous imagery, featuring him and Kris. He shook his head, "Do you remember that," he asked as his eyes drifted over pictures of him and Kris and as the pages were turned they both began to lose their clothes.</sub>

[♥ poppies]

Thoughts of the several Mardi Gras she and Wesley had spent together flooded into her head. Fingers crawled to the bottom of her shirt as she pulled up just for those beaded necklaces. It she were to count how many she could probably supply the entire world with two each. But, it had been almost forever since she collected beads and she always went home with her neck weighted down basically. Afterwards she, Wes and the others always went back to the apartment and lazed around. Mostly drunk and now and again it went from lazing around to everyone cursing and a fight breaking out here and there. Once it had been Adam versus Garth, the two brothers who were the top hotwirers who had been trained by Wes himself. In the half an hour Wes had dissappeared to get the boxes she had managed to escaped out the back window and sit on the shingles of the lower apartments. It was nice to sit there once in a while, she had done it several times at her own palce.

Her ears then picked up her name as she crawled in the window and saw Westley holding something in his hands. "What?" Simple question as she walked towards him her boots clipping on the floor before she sat next to him. When she saw what he had wanted her to see she shook her head and laughed. It was funny to see this girl from years ago who looked like Kris but was completely wasted. "If I remember correctly that isn't me when I'm totally hammered. That's me after two drinks!" It was true, she could remember those days clearly. Taking two drinks from a cooler and those were the only ones, she got hammered quickly. To bad her mom couldn't see her back then, even after she was given to the witch of a woman as a baby she was a bad seed from the beginning. Never knowing her real parents Kris only had the stables to live off of them by and Beau owned most of it but still, riding and horses were her life. Not alcohol and sex, well sometimes.

As the pictures went farther and farther in it seemed like a movie with still shots. "Yeah yeah I remember everything." It was true, Kris remembered all the good things and all the bad things. Good things played in her mind like dreams and those were the things she didn't want to let go of; but they were rare. As for the bad things of New Orleans they were repetitive and played as nightmares, night after night. Some of the worst have grown over the time Westley was there, even if she dozed off it was a nightmare beginning. Head tilted to the side as she looked at the pictures before her eyes had drifted back up to him. One question was sitting on her lips, did he possibly feel the same way he did back then about her?

[larkeh;]

<sub>Westley sat quietly, looking through the photos taken by a camera that had obviously been set on timer as both their hands were quite busy. He shook his head, "We were animals," he said with a chuckle as the images grew more and more graphic, but they were of himself so he saw no problem in looking at them. The images soon turned completely pornographic, he could probably sell them to some pervert for quite a bit of money, but he wouldn't dare. He didn't want the whole world seeing him doing something so private. He reached the end of the album and shut it slightly hard, almost resolutely. "I say we keep these to ourselves," he said with a nod and a tiny smile. He didn't know why he wanted to keep the pictures, most wouldn't, but for some reason he did.

He pushed the album aside, still trying to forget that the whole time they'd been doing such things she'd thought it was real, meanwhile she'd been just another girl to him. He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees and his chin resting on his hands. "So," he said quietly, gazing at her seriously, "What exactly is going on between us?" He knew it was an audacious question, but he was sick of the games, of the guessing. All he wanted was to know what was honestly on her mind and whether or not he was ready to be what she wanted. Boyfriend was a possibility he supposed, how seriously he wasn't sure, but he supposed he could be a pretty good boyfriend if he actually wanted to be, he'd just never tried.

The problem for Wes though came at where he had no definition of how he felt. He could actually see Kris becoming a responsible woman he might be able to have a life with, not now, she was so young he didn't feel she should have to get married now. He was most certainly not ready for such now. The problem for him though was that actual feelings and lust were mixing in this bad combination and what exactly was going on with him; whether he just wanted those photos to become his reality once more, or if he actually wanted more than sex. He shrugged a bit, he supposed he'd leave that up to Kris. If she wanted to give an actual adult relationship a try, then Westley was happy to give them a shot. It certainly couldn't hurt anything, now could it?

OOC: I have the most ridiculous muse ever. One second I'm churning out freakishly long posts and then the next they are so short!</sub>

[♥ poppies]

The photos got into more detail and it took her back to those times as a kid. That word made her wanna die, so many people had called her cute and adorable, all kiddish words. Back then Kris could be more adult then some of the other girls in the group. Yet back then Kris had been one of the youngest and was usually never there. Sometimes at home with her drinking, drug addict mother. Sitting on the couch just watching as her mother threw away so many years of her life being caught up in drugs and drinking. A path Kris had wanted to stay off of but the taste of her first drink, it made her shutter down her spine and it wasn't gonna be her last. So she had continued and continued and she couldn't stop until she went to juvi were everything came to a pause. Including her whole life and the thoughts about Westley had ended there, well after a while.

Keep them to theirselves, yeah so they could look back on all the peeks of their time together. Before she knew it she heard him speak, as she watched him she leaned back into the couch. His question was a good one, but it was almost like one she couldn't answer. One that was like a silly question like 'why?' but his question took seriousness. "I don't know." Truth was in Kris's mind was she wanted to be more than friends, but sometimes going from friends to more ruined all of it. "I will however admit though I have feelings for you." With that it looked like she was going to leave when she stood up and put her hands in her back pockets. Kris had never been one to admit things but she wasn't about to hide anything from Westley. All though shedding the truth felt like a weight had been taken off it felt as if a heavier one had just been put on.

As she started to walk around she looked at the floor before she stopped back where she had been before. Kris hadn't been nervous ever since she told Westley that Cocoa Quette was getting surgery, which if she remembered was in about a week. Her new filly she was getting also had a race on the same day as the surgery which Kris hated because she'd miss. Thoughts of the two horses she already had at the stables had the feeling they were hungry. All though the stable hands did checks to make sure the food was fine and to see to the horses who didn't have any food which was what Kris loved. Cocoa Quette got a smaller ration since she put on weight so quickly and Martini got the average amount. Poppies, her new mare coming in soon was going to be getting a average ration for a active racehorse.

Her thoughts couldn't keep dragging her mind away from the situation at hand. Looking at Westley as she stood, hands in her back pockets as she sighed. What if what she said about having feelings for him and the problem was he felt nothing? Or what it they both had feelings for each other? Would it just be a real relationship that neither of them had had or would it be just one where they had their benefits? Those were questions that had to be answered that day.

[larkeh;]

<sub>A quizzical look crossed his face at the 'I don't know' response, his lips pursing a bit. Women were so complicated! One second they were all into you and seemed so positive that's what they wanted and then the next it was all 'I'm not so sure.' Guys were just so much easier to understand in his mind. If a girl was attractive they wanted them, that was that. There weren't all these other things playing into that, unless they could cook too and then well men were all over them without a doubt. Seriously any woman trying to catch a man should just get undressed, go in the kitchen, and cook, no man in the world would find that unsexy. It was the sad reality of being filled with testosterone.

He tuned back in just as she said something more and his look of befuddlement disappeared. He didn't have time to say anything as she hopped to her feet and Wes sighed, standing to his full height, towering over her by eight inches, and yet it really wasn't all the awkward. He looked down at her quizzically as she stood there, he wasn't sure why she'd stood, unless she was going to leave all of the sudden. He hadn't expected her to stay all day anyway, but why take off now, when so many things were left unresolved? He stared down at her looking beautiful in her ripped jeans that she normally wore to the barn, jeans that she'd actually ripped herself and on accident, unlike the jeans Westley possessed that he'd bought that way, and for more money too. Her t-shirt was a little too tight, hugging her curves in a way that made her so much more tempting. Her long dark hair framed her face perfectly and boots were on her feet. It was odd how she could look so plain and yet was more attractive than women with breast implants and hair extensions and all sorts of artificial things.

His big hands came to rest on her upper arms and his dark eyes focused on hers, an uncommon look there. A look of gravity. "Well then, what do you say we give this a try? See what happens," he proposed, waiting on an answer before he made any response. Even if she did like him that didn't mean she wanted to date him. After all he had broken her heart once already, and they were good friends, which might not remain true if they went through a nasty break up. Then again wasn't there that phrase, it was better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all? He'd never been a romantic that bought into all those cheesy sayings, but perhaps there was some truth in that. He'd never had the will to test it, until now.</sub>

[♥ poppies]

As she stood there her eyes dragged to the floor. It seemed as if something of interest was going to be found there but it was just a floor. Her entire world wasn't on track anymore it had taken a curve and was still going in that direction. It seemed as if things were starting to get organized but what happened if something tiny went wrong? Then she looked at him as she put his hands on her upper arms, it did however still feel awkward at the height difference between them. The sound of what he said seemed as if it were a proposition and not just a regular question. Sometimes guys just didn't understand what a girl went through with feelings. Now and again they were jumbled and other moments they were completely straight. Well this time Kris knew what her mind and emotions and so much more was pointing towards.

It seemed as if the words almost poured out of her lips but for once when she opened her mouth nothing came out. But as her lips closed shut her head nodded up and down, she agreed. If things didn't work out then they could be friends again. This was one way they'd know is how fate wanted things to turn out. The first time it had been stupid, to Kris it was just a kiddish love and it was torn apart by juvi. After that Kris hadn't even had anymore thoughts of names of who the people were she just knew that they had been there. Westley had been one of them and all though she never wanted to see any thing or one of New Orleans she was happy to see him. If it had been anything else nothing good would have come out of it, nothing at all.

All though all those horrible times had happened in New Orleans and he had broken her heart once everything was in the past. Her heart had healed over the years and she wasn't that love sick puppy of a kid. Even though things had given Kris a good shake now and again possibly having Westley as more than a friend would do her some positive justice. Finally though words came to her as they dripped off her lips. "Let's give it a try." Anyways what harm could it do, none...right?

[larkeh;]

<sub>A grin spread Westley's lips at her answer and he wanted to let out a whoop. Funny how something so simple could make him so happy. His arms moved to wrap around her waist and even though he could easily just lean down a bit and kiss her he picked her up, pulling her face to face with him. They were so close he could feel her breath against his lips and an overwhelming temptation came over to carry her to bed with him and yet he didn't. "Are you sure," he whispered against her lips, already knowing the answer she would give and he cut her off, his lips touching her soft pink ones. It wasn't like that silly pointless kiss this morning, oh no this was a real kiss like the kind at the end of a movie, only this wasn't the end, it was only the beginning.

His lips moved over hers gently; it was more meaningful than any other kiss he'd ever given her. He leaned into the kiss, his eyes closing, completely into the whole thing. He had never actually kissed a woman he had real feelings for, but it was quite addictive, there was something different about it. Something he couldn't quite explain. He pulled away, his eyes regarding her softly and he smiled, "I'll do my best to make you happy." He nodded a bit and kissed her nose before he set her back down with a little laugh. His eyes examined the numerous boxes on the floor and he sighed inwardly. He didn't have the time right now to go to the barn with her and he knew from the way she'd dressed she intended on doing so.

He gave a shrug and looked back to her, "I reckon I'd better get back to work." He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers briefly, he supposed he'd better ask her out before he let her go. "So will you have dinner with me tonight, six o'clock," he asked, knowing she wouldn't be busy. He nodded at her answer and moved to sit back down and empty the next box, excited about tonight. He didn't even intend on sleeping with her, and yet for once in his life some other plan put a bounce in his step and a smile to his face. Funny how people changed with time and that strange emotion they called love.

OOC: Alright, that's the end of that. I'll start a new thread with their date... somewhere.</sub>