Nori — Family dinner (and Dominic)
Feb. 28th, 2019 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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return_to_nolaDominic wanted to make a good impression. He tied his long hair back into a neat bun and wore a collared shirt and not even a hint of eyeliner. He came to the purple house with strawberries dipped in chocolate and a genuine sense of enthusiasm for meeting this wild, wonderful family. He was going to, he hoped, make a good impression. And he was going to hold Gavin’s hand under the table.
After dinner, when things were more relaxed, Dominic finally had a chance to talk to everyone one on one — and he caught Nori’s eye. He didn’t have a read on Nori yet, but he suspected they might understand each other a little bit. “Hey, Nori,” he said easily, comfortably. “You look like you’ve been sizing me up.”
After dinner, when things were more relaxed, Dominic finally had a chance to talk to everyone one on one — and he caught Nori’s eye. He didn’t have a read on Nori yet, but he suspected they might understand each other a little bit. “Hey, Nori,” he said easily, comfortably. “You look like you’ve been sizing me up.”
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Date: 2019-03-19 06:25 am (UTC)It wasn't far off the truth, really.
When the group performance ended and everyone went back to being a little more normal--their normal, anyway--Nori felt a little of the tension in her shoulders lessen. Not all of it (never all of it), but enough that she felt like she could talk and it wouldn't come out in barks and growls. "That's because I have been," she answered just as easily, sipping at her can of coke. (Gavin didn't need to know that it was liberally dosed with rum. Best behavior meant not letting fundamentally different opinions on alcohol come up at the dinner table. Again.)
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Date: 2019-03-19 06:36 am (UTC)Dominic had to grin. He liked Nori immediately for all the things she was: suspicious, sharp, unswayed by the making-nice ritual. “Oh yeah? What’s the verdict?” He was genuinely curious how much she could read of him, especially under best behavior conditions.
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Date: 2019-03-19 07:00 am (UTC)"You're trying very hard to seem respectable." Which everyone in the house could see right through, she was sure. For some of them, it was because they spent a lot of time doing the same thing. Either way, the others probably found it sweet, or at least neutral. Nori was more on the fence. She had a tendency to prefer seeing things as they actually were, if only because it helped to see the shit before it hit the fan; she wasn't fond of surprises. "But you seem pretty harmless."
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Date: 2019-03-19 07:02 am (UTC)Dominic chuckled, but only a little — and only because Nori was right. “You nailed it,” he admitted, largely undisturbed by the assessment, and unbothered by being seen as harmless. “I know how important you all are to Gavin, and I know I came in out of nowhere and took up a big space in his life. So I figured I should leave the makeup and half of the charm at home.”
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Date: 2019-03-19 07:22 am (UTC)"They probably appreciate it, and they're the ones you have to impress, not me." Nori was happy for Gavin if he was happy, but whether it all worked out or ended messily in a week, or a month, or a year, she wasn't really fussed.
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Date: 2019-03-19 07:25 am (UTC)“Steve and Maggie, but for entirely different reasons.” Those were the people he most needed to win over, Dominic knew. Which, naturally, made him want to know so much more about Nori. “So I’m not going to try to impress you, but I do want to know you better. Not just because I love your look, although I really do.”
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Date: 2019-03-19 07:46 am (UTC)Nori nodded. "Steve's opinion has some real sway, and Maggie'll make your life difficult otherwise. Not that she won't make your life difficult anyway, but that's mostly a side effect." Maggie had big opinions, and the energy to make them heard and felt. It was a blessing and a curse, depending on the day. "Thanks. I'm not sure how much luck you'll have, but knock yourself out."
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Date: 2019-03-19 07:49 am (UTC)“She’s cute. I like her. I like all of you, actually.” Dominic had never had the sibling experience, and they had fought so hard for theirs. He loved watching it in action. “Which I realize now sounds like something I’m supposed to say, but.” He shrugged. “Sometimes I’m a sentimental bitch. What would you be doing if you didn’t have to be meeting me tonight?”
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Date: 2019-03-19 08:08 am (UTC)"You'll fit right in with these nerds, then," she said, affection in there somewhere. Nori was very much not sentimental, though she did feel things strongly. "And I'd be working. I was guilted into switching my shifts. Which ends up working out, actually. I'd rather work a Friday than a Wednesday. Less boredom and better tips."
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Date: 2019-03-19 08:13 am (UTC)Dominic heard the affection and noted it with pleasure. It was nice to see, or hear, something about a person’s feelings, he thought. “I do well with nerds. Always have. Not sure why.” Well, he did know why: he was a relatively decent person underneath the partying and cool posturing. “You tend bar, right?”
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Date: 2019-03-19 08:31 am (UTC)"I don't, and the universe finds that hilarious," Nori noted wryly. None of them were people she'd be close to if she didn't have anything tying her to them. Well, maybe Maggie, but only in small doses. But there they were anyway. "Yeah. The bar I usually work at has a lower than usual number of douchebags, even, so I only have to poison two, three people a night."
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Date: 2019-03-19 08:53 am (UTC)“Those are great odds. I was a bartender for like, six months, and it was not, let’s say, something I was suited for.” Turned out Dominic was better at drinking than serving drinks. “I may have poisoned people accidentally.”