8/16 Instance: Fail

[Slarti]

Timelined directly after Cautious and Crusty.

<Lorna> Lorna sat on the Tribble sofa eating her mango and trying to not let it remind her of Chris Kattan. That was just impossible though but the mango was good enough she would brave the imagery anyway. "Zu cannot have ze mango." she muttered to herself, going back to her grading.

<Bobby> Bobby fumbled the keys in the darkness before getting the door unlocked. Coming inside, he paused. Lorna was on his bed. He... kind of wanted to just sleep after this day, but... "Hey!"

<Lorna> "Hey!" She waved the mango in greeting. "How'd everything go?"

<Bobby> "Oh, fine." He nodded and dropped the keys on the table by the door, running his hand through his hair. Mission completed, he pushed his hands into his pockets and wandered over to her. "She calmed down."

<Lorna> "Good to hear." Lorna said, trying to tell her mind not to now imagine drunk Jess dancing with Mango now. "You want the mango? ...I mean a mango?"

<Bobby> Bobby laughed. "Well not as much when you put it like that." He sat down next to her on the sofa, closer this time. "But it does smell good, and not at all like a scary little monkey man."

<Lorna> "Chris Kattan's contribution for generations is making it impossible to eat a fruit without thinking of him. I'm sort of jealous of that." Lorna admitted thoughtfully as she held out another to him.

<Bobby> "I could do without being remembered for fruitiness." Bobby grinned at her and took the fruit. He leaned toward her a little more to look at the papers. "So, what'cha doin?"

<Lorna> "Grading comps for the musical. It's going to be hilarious I hope." She smirked, passing a few of the submitted songs over. "They're pretty dreadfully great so far."

<Bobby> Bobby took a bite of the peeled mango, forgetting they were messy suckers, and looked over the papers. "I'm so not acting in that thing, but I'll help with stuff... you know, if you want me to. I can be your assistant stage hand... picker upper of heavy objects?"

<Lorna> "Aw, even if I cast you as someone funny?" She looked pleadingly. "You don't have to play yourself after all. I suppose there may be many heavy objects to be handled though."

<Bobby> "I might be able to be persuaded." He distracted himself from yelping out a I'll do whatever you want! by licking mango juice off his wrist. "Brotherhood the musical, done as an homage to Assassin's Creed looks .... pretty potentially disastrous." Bobby looked at the name on the paper and snorted.

<Lorna> "Yeah...I'm going to have to be careful about certain subjects, I'll admit. I'm not sure if I should give that an A for it's use of puppetting Jason or fail for that." Lorna admitted, frowning. "I'll probably settle for a C and let them know that wouldn't be kosher to do."

<Bobby> "It's... creative?" Bobby laughed a little, realizing he might end up starring in some of these skits. It made him doubt himself again, so he gave her back her papers and picked at the mango again.

<Lorna> "Oh, it's definitely creative. You should also see the Chicago-themed Mojo skit. It's going to be fantastic!"

<Bobby> That earned another snort. "What you said about playing myself.... yeah. That would be a bad idea."

<Lorna> "Does that mean you want to be Mojo? Because I think that would be awesome...we'll just have to test out her suits on you first."

<Bobby> Bobby rolled his head to the side and wrinkled his nose at her.

<Lorna> "You could be Xavier...then you wouldn't have to go to dance rehersals for the most part."

<Bobby> "You want me to shave off my hair?" He turned on his puppy eyes at that. "But, but..." After all that work Paige went to saving it, she'd kill him.

<Lorna> "I'm sure we can get you a showercap or a hat, don't worry about that. Just...run when someone taking care of make up and costumes comes with a razor."

<Bobby> "I realize you're the evil mastermind behind the production, but I think you should have the pleasure on the stage too, y'know." He thought about it, then grinned. "Channel your mother and play Mojo yourself."

<Lorna> "You know....I could. I mean, it all depends on when we stage this but right now it looks like it'd be well after Gollum is released from wombordor." She pondered the idea over, wondering how she'd manage the part.

<Bobby> "Just need a babysitter. May as well seize the moment."

<Lorna> "Too right." Lorna laughed, shuffling more papers and drawing herself up to get back to grading.

<Bobby> He bit the mango again and shifted a little closer. "I think Jess had fun after all, despite herself."

<Lorna> "That's good to hear, maybe she'll figure out she can do that without having to be patched up even if she's stuck sober."

<Bobby> "Yeah." He finished off the mango and played with the seed, frosting it over. "I mean, I know she's had a shitty life and all, but maybe she can just learn to let it go a little."

<Lorna> "I'm pretty sure most of the school's had a shitty life from the sounds of it. She'll have to if she wants to enjoy anything. I'm sure she will sometime."

<Bobby> Bobby laughed a little, nervous again. He was close to her now, closer than he'd been for months, really. "Yeah... I-I mean, we all deserve second chances, right?"

<Lorna> "Mmmhmm," She glaced over to him from her paperwork, nodding. "And she'll be fine. She just needs to realize she can do these kind of things for herself."

<Bobby> "Yeah, that's kind of what I mean... that we kind of have to take our opportunities. Try to make things... better." Biting his lip, he reached over and brushed his fingers against her face, turning her head towards him.

<Bobby> Their eyes met. Now or never... He leaned in and gave her a soft kiss.

<Lorna> There was no kissing back but Lorna didn't shove him away either. It was the middle ground that they were still in right now. Her eyebrow raised slightly at this, however.

<Lorna> "So...that happened."

<Bobby> He pulled back, trying not to look hurt. "Yeah."

<Lorna> What does a person do when that happens. Lorna wasn't quite sure but right now her answer seemed to be 'just sit there and stare as if a potential answer shall appear on the coffee table and offer you some cookies.

<Bobby> "Would it make this better or worse if I left?" Bobby was clenching the mango pit in his fist and staring at the same spot on the coffee table himself.

<Lorna> "I don't really think it would matter, really. You're fine where you are." She offered him a small, awkward smile and shrugged. "I just...it was nice."

<Bobby> He kept his eyes on the table. Nice? "It matters. Either... you still want me around, or you don't. Not out of habit, not because you're pregnant... but because you meant what you said and you still love me, still want me around."

<Lorna> "I meant for after...that it doesn't make any difference if you're here or not for me to think about that."

<Lorna> "And I wouldn't keep you around because of habit or pregnancy, Bobby."

<Bobby> Grinding his teeth, he blinked a couple of times and nodded. "Okay. I... guess that's enough."

<Lorna> "So..." What now? That was a giant elephant in the room and there was nothing to actually do about it. She didn't know what the hell Bobby had been expecting from that to be honest and she wasn't overly sure she appreciated it either. It just seemed like more rushing when she couldn't actually make her decision.

<Lorna> It was just all kinds of not helping.

<Bobby> "I know for you... everything has changed. You think you don't know me. You see what I did as a betrayal. I get that." He still wasn't looking at her. Couldn't. "You're right, of course."

<Lorna> "It doesn't matter who's right about it. It just matters on whether or not we can actually piece it together or not...I just am not quite there on...'that' point with you yet I don't think."

<Bobby> "Okay. But for me? Nothing has changed... and I miss you. I feel like... we're here together, but we're not, and I can't even touch you." He snorted at her expression when she said that. "I'm not asking you to fall into bed with me, Dee. I just want to be close to you again."

<Lorna> "And I'm not all that ready to be close. That's what I'm saying. I mean, touch? Fine. I'm not going to go have a fit about it and it's probably going to be a damned long time before I start any of it. I just...how can nothing have actually changed for you?"

<Bobby> "Because what I did? As much as you hate it and as fucked up as it turned out and as much as I wish I hadn't? I really was trying to protect us. Everyone." Bobby nodded toward her stomach. "This. Even though I didn't know he was there. But, the possibility..."

<Lorna> "I never said you didn't have your reasons, Bobby. I don't think we need to cover that ground again. We all have our reasons."

<Bobby> He shook his head and stood up. "Yeah. I guess I'll go to the mansion tonight."

<Lorna> "Oh sit back down." Lorna snapped a little bit but sighed. "One thing that is definitely going to mean we're not going to work is if we leave each time we have a problem. It's sort of part of married life, isn't it?"

<Bobby> "Well, yeah, but that's kind of the problem, isn't it?" He didn't sit, but he turned back to look at her. "This isn't married life. You're just like... barely tolerating me. Sure, we can smalltalk, but we always could do that."

<Lorna> Lorna was trying to keep her temper in check. It wasn't going to help anything if she let it go. "I'm sorry if me trying to get myself acclimated to you again and getting to know you again is going slow but I don't know what you expect me to do about it other than keep trying."

<Bobby> "Oh, so you are trying? It's kind of hard to tell with all the avoiding going on. Acclimated?" That just made him flail.

<Lorna> "If I wasn't trying I would have just signed the damned papers and we would have all ready went to court, Bobby. Hell, I've had dinner with your parents, you're back in here now, we talk about baby things and how we're going to do this together as much as possible and now I'm not trying, hmm?"

<Bobby> "You talk to me like you would to Paige or any other friend, not like I'm still your husband. How... how are we supposed to make this work if I feel like any move I make might make you just go ahead and set that court date?"

<Lorna> Lorna just gave him a look as if he were the dumbest thing she had ever seen and just shook her head. "You can make all the 'moves' you want but if I tell you I'm not ready for a particular move I'd hope you can accept that and work up to it."

<Bobby> Bobby returned the look. "Again - not even talking about those moves right now."

<Lorna> "Neither am I!"

<Bobby> That was it, then. This weird orbit thing, with no end in sight. No way of knowing how to proceed or when the story ends. "Okay." He shrugged, looked away again.

<Lorna> "So...try things. That's just fine. I'll let you know when I'm not ready for something and you'll let me know the same."

<Bobby> "Right now I'm ready to go to bed." He waved a hand at the sofa she occupied.

<Lorna> "Fine, good night." She shuffled her papers all in a pile she could carry and stood up. "Hope you had a good time." She turned to walk out, just shaking her head. Well, at least that was blatantly spelled-out for him.

<Bobby> "Good night," he said automatically. He caught the head shake from the corner of his eye while he retrieved his pillow and resisted the urge to punch it. If he was so fucking frustrating, why was she trying at all?

[puppygirl]

Loooooong road ahead for those two, nice instance guys.

[Svartfreja]

Poor Bobberz, give the guy a chance Lorna!

[Ferguson]

That's what she's doing!