March 8th, 2014

One week in and eight shows to go, Dru thought she deserved a little R'n'R. Joseph was going remarkably well, despite the occasional flub - including an excruciatingly embarrassing episode during Wednesday's matinee in which she had gotten entangled with someone else's costume and very nearly revealed all to the audience at large - but it was hard work, especially on those days with two performances, such as today. But with tomorrow being a day off, she'd decided to take Josh at his word and challenge him to the game he had teased her about - Never Have I.

Despite Josh having moved onto the Grove, she'd brought him back to Willow Manor, secure in the knowledge that Lena and Tommy were camping out in King's Cove for the night and that Xoren didn't know about that. Privacy without the scandal attached, always a bonus. Straight from the theater, she'd changed her clothes to be more comfortable, and the pair of them had set to drinking in the main family room of Willow Manor, making use of the wide couches to be as comfortable as they possibly could.

Josh had shared the rules as he knew them with Dru, having played the game a few times back home in drama school. There weren't any real hard and fast rules, except that whoever remained the most sober at the end of the game was considered the winner, though generally most games ended with everyone fairly evenly drunk. It was a bit more of a challenge with only two players, but they were only playing for fun, after all, and Josh figured he had a slight advantage since he was both bigger and older than Dru and could presumably hold more liquor. He had smuggled along a bottle of blue vodka for the occasion and was sitting cross-legged on one of the couches facing her as they readied to start the game. He knew if Xoren ever found out what they were up to, he'd either laugh his *ss off or kill them - or maybe both.

Leaving herself barefoot, Dru folded herself down onto the couch to face Josh, cross-legged and smirking. So she was tired; so what? She'd made him promise to do this seven days ago. "So how does this start, then?"

"One of us starts out by saying something we've never done that we think the other person has. So, let's say I say, 'Never have I fallen out of a tree,' and you have, then you have to take a drink, but if you haven't either, then I have to take a drink." Of course, he wouldn't be using that example, as it would be cheating, since he already knew that about her. He unscrewed the bottle and set the cap on a nearby table. "Ladies first."

Dru's smirk deepened. They both knew enough about each other to keep one another drinking for a while yet. Lena and Tommy might find them both passed out right here if they played without cheating. "Hmm ..." She considered what she was about to confess to, eying him playfully. "Never have I ....saluted His Serene Highness."

Josh's eyebrows drew downward into a scowl. "You can't use something like that! That's cheating! That's like if I were to say something like, oh, I don't know....Never have I worn a bra. Pick something else," he told her stubbornly, as he rested the bottle of blue booze against a denim-clad thigh.

She laughed, pointing a slightly accusing finger in his direction. "You didn't say I wasn't supposed to say things like that," she pointed out cheerfully, poking holes in the rules he'd laid down only a few minutes before. "You go first, so I know the sort of thing I'm supposed to be saying."

He exhaled an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes at her. "Fine. Um..." He paused a moment to consider. "Never have I..." He furrowed his brows. This was going to be harder than he thought. Everything that came to mind he had either done himself or figured she hadn't. "Never have I been invited to a slumber party."

"Oh, I see." Dru grinned, reaching for the bottle, because amazingly she had been invited to several slumber parties. She'd never attended any of them, but she had been invited. Raising the bottle to her lips, she took a decent mouthful, wincing at the burn of the alcohol as she swallow. "Urgh ....Okay." Holding the bottle between them on the couch, she eyed him for a moment, and decided to go for the kill. "Never have I kissed a girl."

He smirked a little pleased with himself, but the pleasure was short-lived as he rolled his eyes again at her choice of statements. He had to guess whether or not she'd ever been invited to a slumber party, but she already knew he'd kissed a girl, since he'd kissed her. "Dru, you know I've kissed a girl because I've kissed you!" Or did she not count, for some reason"

"Are you going to argue with everything I say?" she accused him laughingly, raising her hand to brush her hair back out of her eyes as she giggled once again. "Fine," she sighed, and tried to think of another one. "Never have I ever ....had a dream where I was naked. Better?"

His mouth dropped open, satisfied with her question, but more than a little surprised at its contents. "Really' Never?" He'd thought that was a pretty common dream. He did reach for the bottle, however, to take his first swig.

"No, never," she beamed, handing over the bottle, happy to have come up with something that was apparently common but not common to her. "Is that strange?"

"Kinda, yeah." She had mentioned nightmares, so he thought she must dream, but never to have had a dream where she was naked seemed a bit unusual to him. Still, the point of the game was getting to know these little tidbits about each other, besides trying to get the other one drunk. He took a swallow of the vodka, seemingly handling it better than her. He considered his next statement as the vodka burned its way down. "Never have I been caught cheating on a test."

Already confused, she reached out for the bottle and hesitated. "Wait a moment ....do I drink if I have been caught cheating, or if I haven't?" she asked him, wondering where the clarity of the rules had gone. Perhaps she should have paid closer attention, rather than admiring the way his lower lip moved when he spoke.

"I haven't read that pile of drivel!" he protested, poking a finger at his own chest. He'd gotten so caught up in the game and the debate over falling in love that he'd forgotten it was her turn. "Cheating Pants! It's not my fault if you read that silly book!" He scowled at her choice of questions again. "You've got to be kidding me. Do you mean like live in person or in a magazine?"

Sniggering like a particularly filthy minded badger who had just seen the joke, it took Dru a moment or two to answer that one. "Whichever," she eventually managed, and had the decency to blush. She really hadn't seen another person naked, in the flesh or on the page. Even her biology textbooks had been censored in the hope that it would somehow keep her virginal until the day she was married.

He reached for the bottle. He had obviously seen another person naked at some point, but whether it had been in a book, magazine, movie, or in person, he wasn't about to say. He grumbled under his breath about cheating but went ahead and tipped the bottle back for another swallow of the blue stuff, wiping his mouth with the back of a hand. It was either getting warm in there or he was starting to feel a little bit tipsy. "I have never ever..." He lifted a hand as though he was making a solemn vow before continuing. "Eaten a pomegranate."

"I am not cheating," Dru insisted stubbornly. "So unless you want to change that last one so that I am by stripping off right here, stop grumbling, Grumpy Pants." Like him, she was feeling the effects of the alcohol, shucking off her cardigan to cool off as her skin started to flush. His next statement made her groan. "You're just evil, you know that?" she informed him, taking the bottle back to take a drink. "Hever have I never have I ....wait, there's too many nevers there ..." She paused, blinking as she tried to clear her head, and tried again. "Never have I ever worn stockings."

He shrugged and smirked smugly, knowing he'd gotten under her skin and for some reason, enjoying it. "I've been called worse. Hever?" he snickered. "You're drunk. I win." And then he was laughing again at her most recent statement. "And you think I have" Take another drink, Miss Smarty Pants." And tights worn on stage did not count.

"I'm not drunk, I'm pleasantly tipsy," she countered sweetly, rolling her eyes at the fact that she had been way off with that last one. Sighing, she took another drink, hoping he wouldn't notice that she only sipped, despite the dramatic gesturing with the bottle. She was a lot smaller than him, after all. "Your turn."

Oh, he'd noticed, crossing his arms against his chest and eying her stoically. "That's hardly a sip," he pointed out, feeling the vodka going to his head, making him a little bit woozy, but not woozy enough to notice that she was taking girly sips. But then, she was a girl. "Fine," he admitted, reaching for the bottle, as if he expected to have to take a drink this round. "Never have I ever..." He screwed up his face as he tried to think of a good one. "Fallen off stage!" he blurted, before realizing too late that she probably never had either.

The triumph on her face as he offered this up was more than proof that she wasn't going to take a drink this time, a crowing cackle filling the room as she pointed at him. "Drink! And a proper one, because you're a big manly manly man."

"I'm a what?" he chuckled back, knowing she had to be feeling the booze more than he was. "Your turn," he said as he tipped the bottle back again. He took a longer swallow this time, mostly to prove that he could.

"Big and manly, and sort of lickable," she informed him. This was certainly a side of the princess no one had ever seen before - Josh was privileged, even if he wasn't exactly in the best state to enjoy it himself. "Never have I ever licked an ice statue,"

He arched a brow at that comment. "Lickable?" he echoed. She was definitely drunk. He'd never seen her quite so loose before. The Princess Royale certainly wouldn't have called him lickable. "Just where do you want to....lick me?" he was unable to resist asking, though it was his turn to answer her question. He chuckled again. "Take another girly sip, Princess. I've never licked an ice statue either."

"I'm not telling." Instead, she blew him a kiss, and took another of her girly sips for him, braving the wooziness that threatened each time she tipped her head back in order to make a big show of it for him.

"Uh huh," he replied with a smirk. He glanced at the bottle, noticing it was getting close to empty. The game was almost over, and so far, it looked like he was the winner. He paused a moment again as he looked over at her. There was something he wanted to tell her, but wasn't quite sure how. His expression changed, turning serious as he studied her silently a moment. "Never have I ever wanted anyone the way I want you," he told her finally, in a hushed voice.

That confession shocked her out of her teasing smile, though there was no sense that it had been a step too far. Instead, her eyes locked with his, dark and stormy, the desire that was growing by the day deep inside her right there for him to see clearly. The silence around them seemed to draw down, wrapping them in something far more private, far more intimate, than they had first enjoyed. "Drink," she whispered, proving to him that she, too, wanted him in a manner more powerful than anything she had felt before.

He, too, seemed to sober in that moment, though his head was spinning from the vodka. He wasn't sure why he'd said what he'd said, except that it was true and the vodka was loosening his tongue. His gaze lingered on her for a long moment, feeling that need, that inexplicable desire rising in his heart and echoing through his body, though it wasn't a solely physical sensation.

He wanted her in every way one could want someone. The admission that she wanted him, too, was a jarring one, and only served to heighten the desire he was having such a hard time controlling. He pressed his lips tightly together as if that might help in some way, his insides tightening and coiling into knots that were both pleasant and agonizing. He reached for the bottle, his fingers brushing hers for a moment, that innocent touch like fire against his flesh. He pried the bottle away from her and tilted it back, draining whatever was left, so that the game was over. It no longer mattered who won or who lost. It was clear they both wanted the same thing.

Perhaps if Dru had given herself a moment, she might have realized that the reason she couldn't quite keep her eyes open was more to do with the vodka than the enticing closeness of a topless Josh, but as usual, she wasn't letting herself think too much about it. Sliding so close she could feel his heart beating through his chest, she resumed their tryst without a moment's hesitation, greedy hands eager to touch and learn the youthful strength that was so handsomely understated in the firm body he displayed to her.

He paused a moment to admire the view, devouring her with greedy eyes before he was kissing her again, trailing kisses against her neck, her bare shoulder, while his hands explored the soft curves of her exposed flesh, heart thumping with excitement, his body feverish with desire. Maybe it was the vodka, but he was slowly reaching the point of no return, the point past which there would be no turning back.

In all her young life, there really was nothing to compare with the feeling of his lips against her skin, each passing brush of his mouth, each ghost of his breath, sending shivers so far down her spine she could have sworn she ended up sitting on a quivering mass of eager tremors. Her head fell back with a low groan that vocalized her desire with hungry need ....a groan that faded as she failed to raise her head once again. That alcohol really was a powerful sedative, wasn't it"

He was so enthralled with the excitement of kissing her, of discovering her that he didn't notice right away that she had grown still and quiet, her head coming to rest against his shoulder. It was only when he returned his lips to hers that he noticed that her eyes were closed and she wasn't responding. "Dru?" he asked quietly, as he touched her cheek.

She sighed softly, passed out from the long day and half a bottle of vodka on an empty stomach. She wasn't quite asleep yet, murmuring in answer to his gentle calling of her name, her arms curling about him affectionately as she nestled closer. Whatever else had happened, he could at least be confident in the knowledge that she considered him the safest person to fall asleep on that she had ever met.

He sighed, frowning, knowing that nothing else was going to transpire between them tonight. Maybe it was better that way. The way they were going, they might have easily gone too far, and he had no intention of taking advantage of her in the state she was in - in the state they were both in. He brushed a tender kiss against her cheek and pushed a wayward tendril of hair away from her face. It had been a long day, but a good one - it had, after all, ended with her in his arms, and he couldn't help but smile at that. "Time for bed," he whispered gently, as he pushed himself to his feet. It took three tries before he actually made it, the vodka affecting him almost as much as it had affected her.

He stood still a moment waiting for the room to stop spinning around him with her in his arms, glancing across the room to the stairs he'd have to maneuver if he wanted to tuck her into bed and deciding it was better to tuck her in here than risk tripping on the stairs and dropping her. He turned toward the couch and as carefully as he could, laid her down against the cushions for the night, hovering a moment before tugging an afghan off the back of the couch and laying it over her. "Goodnight, Princess," he whispered close, pressing another soft kiss against her cheek.

Dru's sleeping face settled into a scowl as she rolled over to face the cushions, one arm wrapping tight about Josh's neck as he kissed her cheek. Whether she managed to say it aloud or not, she obviously wanted him to stay, and he was either going to have to hurt her to make her let go, or acquiesce to her wishes. Either way, he was pretty close to being strangled.

There wasn't much room for him on the couch, but he got the message. Besides, no one was there but the two of them, and if he left now, he'd have to walk back to his own cottage, leaving her here alone and wondering what had become of him when she awoke. No, he decided. He'd stay for a few hours until she woke up from the vodka coma and could make it to bed on her own, then he'd take his leave and no one would be the wiser. Besides, from the vice-like grip she had on his neck, it didn't look like she was going to let him go anywhere anytime soon. "I'm here," he murmured as he stretched out on the couch beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist not only to hold her close but so that he didn't end up on his *ss on the floor.

She relaxed as he reassured her, conscious enough to press herself as tightly into the fold of the couch as she could, leaving him as much room as was possible as she linked her fingers with his where his hand lay at her waist. Thankfully, the couches were pretty deep, so there was a chance they wouldn't tumble off, provided neither one moved about too much in their sleep. But there was one more little surprise in store as the vodka pushed them both toward oblivion for a few hours. They say alcohol is a truth sayer. As Dru sighed softly, hugging Josh's arm about her waist, three words made themselves known in the last vestiges of consciousness. "Love you, Josh."

Those three little words surprised him, leaving him with a smile on his face as he, too, drifted into unconsciousness. Whether either of them would remember come morning what had transpired between them this night or what had been said was uncertain, but for now, he was left with a warm feeling deep in his heart that, whether he was consciously aware of it or not, was the first vestiges of love. "I know," he replied sleepily, as if only just realizing that this was what it was he'd been feeling and had failed to put into words. "Love you, too, Dru," he said, very quietly, unsure if the words had even made it past his lips before he drifted off to dreamless sleep. He didn't need to dream because the girl of his dreams was right there in his arms.

Wrapped up in each other's arms, they drifted together into the comforting oblivion of sleep, each aware just at the very edge of perception of what had been said in those last moments of wakefulness. Perhaps it was too soon, perhaps neither one could be certain it was real, but in that moment, with the drink loosening their tongues and opening their hearts, it was as true as anything they had shared sober. And for now, at least, it was enough.

((Blocked by alcohol! Poor Josh ....poor Dru! Here's hoping Lena and Tommy don't come back early and catch them! Many thanks, as always, to the awesomeness that is Josh's player!))