Emma's House, Emma's New York, Tuesday Noon

[bitten_notshy]

Jack hadn't intended to move in with Emma quite yet. But as his friends left, the island started feeling less like home. And as the island felt less like home, he was less inclined to excuse its inconveniences. (Eggnog out of the faucet was much less charming the tenth time around.) So he'd started spending more time in New York, where the only problem he ever had in the shower was when a slayer-in-training "borrowed" his shampoo.

When he found himself regularly skipping work at the Devil's Nest with the excuse nobody really wanted to drink on a Monday night, he had to admit it was time for a change.

It was his last semester in law school; arranging an internship near Emma's house and a class schedule that would let him commute to Baltimore once a week or so was trivial. So he gave Eric two weeks notice. (Tiny seemed happy.) And when the time came to renew his lease on the house in Fandom, he didn't.

Emma would never be so needy as to admit she wanted him there. But she not only hadn't kicked him out, she had even cleared a little space in her closet for him. That, more than the wedding magazines hidden deep in her bookshelf, reassured him that they were playing for keeps.

After he unpacked his home office, he sat down at the desk to send a few emails and make some calls with the news. It might be nice if people knew where he lived.

[OOC: Open for calls, texts, etc. If you think you got a message from him, you did.]

Comments

[icecoldfrost]

There was the lightest of tapping against the edges of his mind. <<The girls just discovered I gave the chef the entire week off, and are fighting over ordering pizza or Chinese,>> Emma informed him silently, once she had ascertained he wasn't actually in the middle of a call. <<I don't think they realize this house is not a democracy.>>

There was one Queen, thank you very much.

<<Preferences, darling?>>

[bitten_notshy]

By now, her mental voice was as familiar as the physical one. Jack started only the faintest bit at the interruption before thinking back,

Chinese. With Mongolian beef and hot and sour soup, please. Do the slayers know you're spoiling them?

[icecoldfrost]

<<I'm spoiling us not them. Also, if I don't give the chef week long vacations occasionally, I risk burning them out trying to feed this unruly mob.>> To be fair, they ate a lot. <<I'll tell the girls it's Chinese unless they want to pay for it themselves, and they have ten minuets to figure out what they're ordering.>>

Emma wasn't above letting them resort to PB&J for a night if they couldn't work as a team.

<< One Mongolian beef with hot and sour soup for the gentleman. Almond cookies?>>

[bitten_notshy]

I never turn down cookies, Jack returned.

A moment later: Where are you? Can you come visit after you've placed the order? I miss you.

[icecoldfrost]

<<I'm just upstairs,>> she replied, mental voice laced with amusement. <<I wasn't going to shout across the whole house for you.>>

That would be tacky.

Still, a few moments later footsteps could be heard down the hall, and there was actual, physical, knocking on his door. "Dare I disturb the inner sanctum?"

[bitten_notshy]

"It's your house," Jack pointed out as he rose from his chair to let her in. "I think you can disturb whatever you want."

[icecoldfrost]

"Don't be ridiculous," Emma scoffed, grinning at him as he opened the door. "A person's office is their private professional space, and I wouldn't dream of intruding unless you'd locked yourself in for a week on a project, and really, I'd send the girls as a threat, first."

[bitten_notshy]

"If you sent in the girls, I'd start working in Starbucks," Jack threatened, a laugh in his voice. "But thanks. I like having my own space, even if I don't mind you being in it once in a while."

[icecoldfrost]

"The only way I'd let you spend that much time in a Starbucks is if you were bringing me bribes," she said, making a face. "I shall only deploy them in a case of utmost emergency, then."

Emma adored her Slayerettes. She happened to like Jack more.

[bitten_notshy]

"Now I need to know what you consider an utmost emergency," Jack said, hand snaking around to rest at the small of Emma's back. "A sale at Barney's?"

[icecoldfrost]

"Goodness no. Candy's the one that goes along with my madcap shopping trips," Emma said, stepping in to his personal space and placing a hand on his chest. "If, say, you hadn't slept in a real bed for a week because of a case. That's an emergency."

[bitten_notshy]

"What if it were a really important case?" Jack asked hopefully. "They aren't letting me near the mutant discrimination suits yet, but I'm trying."

[icecoldfrost]

"You won't be any good to your clients without sleep," Emma chided. "--or if you're crabby from a crick in your neck from falling asleep at your desk."

"I'm mandating a rule, Mr. Priest. Three hours of sleep a night in a real bed, at least three nights a week. Don't be me."

Though at least these days Emma usually fell asleep on the settee in their library, not at her office.

[bitten_notshy]

"Three hours of sleep a night, three days a week," Jack said, tilting his head thoughtfully. "I can do that. Especially if my fiancee is beside me. Can we make then the same three nights?"

[icecoldfrost]

"If you're lucky," she teased, looking him over like a particularly tasty treat. "Or if I'm lucky. Are you sure your fiancee won't mind?"

Emma Grace Frost, behave.

[bitten_notshy]

"I'm not sure," Jack said, neatly stepping into the game. "I haven't seen her in a bit. Poor dear's always working."

[vanillajello]

emma's gonna ooooown yooooou, bro

Kate's way of showing her love had not changed over the years. Neither had her lack of proper capitalization in texts, apparently.

[bitten_notshy]

She has since high school, Jack replied, and if a text could be smug that one was. This'll just let her do it at the same address.

[vanillajello]

valid point.

Well, they'd all gone to high school together. So, she knew.

and i'm all for emma's life being as convenient as possible

[bitten_notshy]

What about mine? Jack joked. You don't care if I'm inconvenienced?

Jack's soft spot for Emma would have been a very badly kept secret, if he ever pretended it was a secret at all.

[vanillajello]

nope. should i?

She was teasing, obviously.

[bitten_notshy]

i guess i'd be surprised if you started now, Jack teased back. it's a nice house. you should come visit.

Talking to Kate made Jack forget how to capitalize. It was contagious.

[vanillajello]

Kate was the worst kind of trendsetter. It continued to make her brother's brain hurt.

i shoooould, she agreed. i was just telling eric about how i don't go out enough.

Telling, whining at, same thing.

[bitten_notshy]

says the woman whose whole job is flying places, Jack returned. how are the friendly skies?

[vanillajello]

kinda same old same old & boring. but someone said i should take up training the new recruits cuz the old broad who trained me is retiring

Kate had been pretty sure the lady would keep terrorizing young flight attendant hopefuls until she died, but apparently not.

[bitten_notshy]

might make things less boring, Jack answered. are you going to do it?

He probably would. But he got bored easily, and he never minded a little friendly terrorizing.

[vanillajello]

idk yet. it's tempting, and i did already teach stuff in fandom...

But it also seemed like kind of a big jump.

Yes, even though she'd been working there for basically way too many years already.

[bitten_notshy]

and if you can teach in fandom, you can boss around flight attendants. it's Science.

Maybe not science, but it seemed likely, anyhow.

[vanillajello]

& it's not like bunny ever taught us a ton of shit anyway, i could probably even do better than her

There'd been a tough love approach. Minus the love.

[bitten_notshy]

you could, Jack reassured her. easy. i promise you're smarter than anybody who goes around being called bunny.

[vanillajello]

she's the most terrifying bunny i ever met tho

That was... really neither here nor there.

idk i'll think it over. haven't even told bod yet

[bitten_notshy]

rabid bunny? were-bunny?

Either seemed equally possible to Jack.

how is Bod, anyhow?

[vanillajello]

still far too good and english for me to deserve him

That whole 'smitten' thing wasn't going away, it seemed.

[bitten_notshy]

you are sickeningly cute. i'm glad.

Said the person who was equally smitten with his own fiancee.

[vanillajello]

we've done alright, haven't we?

No, she didn't mean herself and Bod. She meant herself and Jack. And was thinking back to where they'd started.

[bitten_notshy]

More than I expected.

It hadn't gone at all the way he'd expected. But it had been more than all right,anyhow.