Playing House | Audrey

[Freedom Blakely]

Freedom sat laid back on her bed staring up at the ceiling and wondering what in Hades she was supposed to do. Today was the day. Audrey was supposed to be coming over, in fact, she would probably be here any minute knowing Free’s luck but as far as actually getting up and doing something about it the daughter of Heracles wasn’t having much luck.

Today hadn’t been one of her best days for sure. Free had started out alright cleaning up her place and had even managing to make the cabin fairly presentable in the time she had put in by shoving some dirty clothes out of sight and tossing a few bags of trash somewhere over the state line but it hadn’t taken long for her nerves about Audrey coming to set in and with the nerves came that overwhelming sense of ‘blahness’ that smothered her desire for just about everything.

Would Audrey like her art? Would she even show up at all? They had seemed to hit it off so rapidly but there was just so much happening. Freedom didn’t even know if she could trust her own feelings anymore. She wanted things to be perfect for having the hunter girl over but the problem was that she didn’t even think she knew what perfect was and that just served to depress her even more.

Free hoped desperately that seeing the girl might bring her out of this gloomy, morose state that she was in but at this point she just didn’t know. She didn’t know anything and was wondering if it really had been a good idea inviting Audrey over in the first place. ’Why couldn’t she just be an easy one night stand? Those never make me feel like I’m drinking molten lead. What’s wrong with me?’

Audrey Appleby

[Audrey Appleby]

Audrey wondered if this was still a good idea. She still wasn't sure if she pressured Freedom into seeing her art or not. She was genuinely interested, but at the same time... Her head was full of thoughts and she couldn't work on anything for the Usurpers while she had that girl in her head. Not that she was complaining... Freedom happened to be a very pleasant thought in her head. She did have difficulty picking out an outfit to see the Heracles girl. She couldn't do anything too fancy, but she couldn't do anything too formal either. Audrey finally settled on her nicest jeans, shirt, and jacket before she finally made her way other to the Heracles cabin.

Audrey stood on the porch for a good few minutes as she took a few deep breaths trying to compose herself. After a couple of moments, she finally reached out to knock on the door.

[Freedom Blakely]

The knock at the cabin door made Free’s heart drop like a rock. Audrey was here and now she was out of time. For a minute she wondered if she should just pretend not to be here. If she could do that then she wouldn’t have to deal with all the confusing feelings that were swirling around inside her but then again she did really want to see Audrey again. Free chewed at her bottom lip nervously trying to decide but finally yelled out across the cabin before jumping out of bed. “I’m here. Just a minute.”

What to do? What to do? Free nervously glanced at the mirror straightening her hair and giving herself a disapproving look over. She couldn’t really change or anything now so the ripped jeans and her loose fitting t-shirt was just going to have to do. She rushed to the door almost tripping over a chair in the process and opened it up to see the girl standing there waiting on her. “Audrey, h..hey.” Free smiled when she saw her. She looked really good in her nice jeans and her jacket. “Sorry I was...cleaning. umm Come on in.”

[Audrey Appleby]

Audrey stood there on the porch as she waited for some sort of answer. Was she wrong? Did she get the time and cabin wrong? Was Freedom no longer interested in their hanging out and something? Audrey could feel herself sadden a bit as she was about to take a step backwards before she heard someone calling out from inside. Freedom was there! She smiled a bit as she paused a bit and waited for the door to open. And the wait seemed like it would take forever, but soon enough, the door opened.

Freedom was there looked just as good as Audrey remembered. "Hey," she said with a smile as she reached up to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. "Nah, you're okay," she said to Freedom's apology as she moved to step inside. Once inside, she looked around the cabin, wanting to see Freedom's art. "So," she said as she looked at Freedom and smiled sheepishly. "What do you want to do first?"

[Freedom Blakely]

Now that Audrey was here Freedom’s fears that she had been experiencing moments ago seemed kind of silly in hindsight. The hunter girl was smiling at her and that seemed to make Free's worries disappear at least for the moment. That smile was infectious too and as Audrey followed her inside Free found herself smiling as well. "umm...I'm not sure. It's been a while since I had anyone over." Free said in answer to her question about what they should do. "Usually it's just me here so I'm kinda not used to having to entertain people."

Free glanced around the main room of her cabin seeming to look for something and then nodded to herself. "I could show you around. There’s not really much to see but I keep most of my sketchbooks in my room so we could make our way back there." Now that she had said it she realized how bad it might come off. She hadn't invited Audrey over just to get her back in her bedroom but now here they were and she couldn't really change things. "If that's okay."

[Audrey Appleby]

"Well," Audrey said with a nervous laugh as she shrugged. "You don't have to worry about entertaining me. I'm fine with just hanging out and chilling if that's what you want to do." Audrey double-guessed herself for a moment. Did Freedom really want her over? Was she imposing herself with wanting to see her art? Audrey stuck her hands in her pockets, trying not to go into her nervous habit of ripping off her nails and cuticles. She pressed her lips into a smile as she watched Freedom. It didn't look like Audrey was imposing herself, but Freedom could've been playing it off very well.

"Yeah," Audrey said as she pulled one hand out of her pockets to push her hair back out of her face. "I'm okay going to your room if you want. I still want to see your artwork." She smiled awkwardly before saying. "I won't even judge if you have a messy room!"

[Freedom Blakely]

Freedom breathed a little sigh of relief. Chilling sounded nice. She could do chilling. Just a nice and relaxing visit with a really cute girl. She would just take this all one step at a time and if things happened they happened. "Yeah I guess you're right. It's really good to see you again Audrey."

She smiled actually feeling a little excitement when Audrey confirmed she wanted to see her art still. "Hey," She said while letting a little laughter creep into her voice. "I'll have you know that I at least shoved all my dirty clothes under the bed before you showed up." Free smiled at her again. "That's really impressive for me." It felt a little easier now. Audrey did really seem to like her after all and they did have fun the last time they were out. Maybe this didn't have to be as hard as she had thought. "Come on. I'll show you back." Motioning for Audrey to follow Free led the way to her room.

[Audrey Appleby]

Audrey could tell that Freedom visibly relaxed when she mentioned chilling was okay and that brought a small smile to her lips. Was Freedom really as nervous as she was? Maybe... just maybe... The thought of the potential made Audrey's heart well up a bit with excitement. She smiled a bit widely at Freedom as she nodded her head before saying, "And it's good to see you too."

It felt natural between them and Audrey could feel like she could relax and not worry about the constant Usurper business she had to deal with. Around Freedom, she felt like she could be herself even if she only knew the girl for a little while now. She laughed when Freedom mentioned she stuffed all her dirty laundry underneath her bed. "I feel so honored that you'll do that much for me," she said as a smirk crept onto her lips. She nodded her head as she followed Free into her room. "I just stuff them under one of the other hunter's bed and blame it on them."

[Freedom Blakely]

Freedom’s heart lifted a little as Audrey mentioned how good it was to see her again. That was exactly what she wanted to hear and to some extent she even trusted that Audrey was telling the truth and not just trying to butter her up to get something out of her. In all the time they had been hanging out Audrey hadn’t really made one pass or request of her that had made Free think that she wanted to do anything other than get closer to her and even though it was uncharacteristic for her to do so Free actually was inclined to trust her.

Taking Audrey’s hand Free led the girl back to her room. They were both seeming to relax now and that was good. It was nice to finally get back to that easiness that they had shared at the training yard and mess hall. “That actually sounds like a great plan. Unfortunately I don’t really have anyone else to blame it on.” Granted one of the reasons she really didn’t care in the first place was because there was no one to impress, well, except of Audrey now.

They hadn’t made it two steps into Free’s room before it became apparent they had arrived. While she hadn’t really left anything specific out for Audrey to see, for a long time Free had practically been using her art work for wall paper. As the girl finished sketches both big and small they usually found their way to the wall at some point and ended up being excellent examples of the girl’s artistic talent. Selections could range from anything to common black and white ink drawings to sketches done in colored pencil. Most were of a decidedly graffiti-esqe nature, the kind you would typically see in tattoo artwork, but some were more serious. Just about all of them were rather dark and gloomy reflecting Free’s defacto mental state. “Well…uh…what do you think?”

[Audrey Appleby]

Audrey's face flushed a bit as Freedom took her hand and lead her back to her room. She took deep breaths trying not to let it show on her face, but she couldn't help but admire Freedom at this angle. She was slightly behind the girl, so she only got a view that she only seen once before and that was before she got to know the girl. "Well," Audrey said as she chuckled nervously. "It kind of helps when you got several people on your cabin to blame it on, but it's still nice you did that. I didn't expect you really to pick up after yourself. You should've seen my bed back when I was living in the Ares cabin."

But they made it into Freedom's room and Audrey looked around all wide-eyed. Her sketches just decorated her room. They varied from complexity to color, from big to small. Audrey stood in awe for a moment as she took in all the different designs that covered her wall. "I... I..." she tried to find the right words before she looked over at Freedom. "I love it. It's amazing." And at that moment, she realized that she was still holding Freedom's hand. She blushed a bit harder as she let go of her hand and walked over to one of the walls and got a closer of her drawings. "You're really good," she said as she tried to distract herself from the fact that she was blushing from holding Freedom's hand.

[Freedom Blakely]

Free laughed along with Audrey's comment about her apparent messy bunk. She liked the fact that the hunter girl was a little messy. Not only was Free not a neat freak herself but it also made her seem more like a real person. At the very least it certainly made getting to know Audrey that much more fun. Of course Free was having plenty of fun right now just holding Audrey's hand. That was pretty exciting in itself and the girl would have been lying if she said she wasn't a little disappointed when Audrey let go.

"Oh it's nothing too spectacular." She said a little embarrassingly as Audrey stepped away to examine the drawings on her wall. Feeling a little left despite the compliment and without a hand to hold on to Free stepped back and took a seat on her bunk. She watched the hunter girl from the place on her bed and began flipping through some of her sketchbooks in a distracted manner. She wasn’t really looking for anything but it gave her hands something to do. "I mean I do appreciate the compliment but it's nothing too fancy. I just sort of draw what's on my mind and as you can see it tends to pile up..."

[Audrey Appleby]

"Nothing too spectacular?" Audrey repeated as she looked at the walls again. Were her and Freedom seeing two different things. Audrey was seeing art. Even the simplest doodle was something that Audrey couldn't recreate for the life of her. Art wasn't her thing, but it was clearly something for Freedom. She turned back around to face Freedom as she noticed the girl was flipping through one of her sketch pads. Audrey was very tempted to ask to see it, but decided that might have been pushing boundaries just a little bit. "You must have a lot on your mind," she said quietly as she noticed some of the darker pictures.

She walked over to Freedom before she sat down next to her as she folded her hands in her lap. "But how do you chose?" she asked as she motioned to the entire room. "How do you chose which ones become tats? I don't see you having sleeves or anything."

[Freedom Blakely]

Free glanced up and smiled at her as Audrey came over to have a seat beside her on the bed. She looked like she was telling the truth when she complimented her and that she really wanted Free to see it too but the daughter of Heracles had too many years of being down on herself to accept it so easily. Granted the compliments were nice when they came from Audrey’s pretty lips. “Yeah I guess I do.” Free said answering the girl’s statement. “I don’t really get along so great with other people so I draw to express myself. It’s not really a talent you’d expect a daughter of Heracles to have but it passes the time you know?”

Free thought for a moment about how to answer Audrey’s next question. It was a lot harder for her to think when the girl was sitting beside her but it was a lot better than being over here alone she was finding. The fact that the conversation was turning towards something that she was passionate about helped a little. “As for the tats I don’t know. I might do sleeves or something one day when I can actually do it myself or find someone I trust but right now I’ve just done some things that seemed kind of important or interesting to me. So while I’ve got a few most of them are things that sort of define me if that makes sense.”

[Audrey Appleby]

Audrey shrugged her shoulders. "I can think of worse ways to express yourself. I have probably made Chiron replace a couple of training dummies to be honest. He probably would prefer for me to draw or something, but I can't draw. Not like you." She smiled softly at Freedom as her eyes glanced down at the sketchbook in her hands. Audrey hoped to see more of her artwork, but she wasn't going to push the limits either.

She looked at Freedom as she spoke about her tats. Audrey leaned towards her a bit as she attentively listened to her. She slowly nodded her head before she smiled a bit. "Nah, it makes sense. I get it. You want things that define you on your body and not something else that you'll regret later. It's understandable."

[Freedom Blakely]

“Yeah I suppose you’re right.” Free knew some of those other forms of expression and had gotten in more than enough trouble in her time by exploring them. This was one of her less destructive outlets and coincidentally the one she enjoyed the most. Unlike the others the peace she found when drawing actually stuck around for a while so she guessed there was something to what Audrey was saying after all.

Noticing that the hunter girl was looking at the sketch book she had been thumbing through with interest so Free decided she might want to see some more examples of her work. Thinking this would be the perfect opportunity to get closer to her again she scooted over a little until they were side by side and then moved the book so that it sat between them in their laps. “This one has some more recent ones.” She said as she opened it up for them. “Nothing I’ve got on me but there might be a few good ones in here for one day though I’ll probably have to sneak out of camp again to get one. Chiron almost killed me after the last one.” She turned past a few of the darker ones until she finally arrived at one that showed the back of a beautiful dark winged angel girl. “This one I might actually try to add on to one that I already have. I guess you could call some of my tats an ongoing project.”