From Unexpected Places [Morans/Erin]

[Wyatt Moran]

He was glowering again. He didn't like being predictable, even in the smallest and most obvious ways. But it wasn't just that, it was that Dani was letting someone they'd only met a matter of hours ago so far into their lives.

Nevermind that he was letting it happen. Or that he was starting to think he liked Erin. He was going to brood and that was that.

"Yeah, our personalities are as subtle as your hair," Dani grinned. "Which? Is awesome, by the way. I wonder if I could pull it off."

That had Wyatt rejoining the conversation. "Don't you dare."

A sigh. "He's so conservative," she lamented to her new friend.

[Erin Tischloew]

[erin]"You ever want to try it, let me know. I'll hook you up." Wyatt's objections she didn't even deign to notice, any more than she was paying attention to the glowering. Different reasons, though. She really didn't figure that boys got to weigh in on the hair dyeing issue, but she was actually bothered by the glowering. Just determined not to admit it. "They make sprays, too, if you want to just try it out for a night. Just use a good leave-in, then spray with dry shampoo before you spray it so it won't stain your hair."[/erin]

[Wyatt Moran]

"Okay, that's just cool," Dani decided and Wyatt practically threw his hands up as he stood, taking his dish to the sink.

"I'm going to check on Navajo," he said, and vacated as fast as he could amble.

"Maybe I'll go purple!" Dani said very loudly as he left, then gave Erin a very amused look. "It's so cute how he thinks he gets a say. And how he checks on that horse once an hour. But mostly the thinking he gets a say."

[Erin Tischloew]

[erin]Erin grinned but had to ask, "So, I gotta know. You guys throw around that brother-sister thing awfully heavy-handed. Even to the point of doth-protest-too-much. Is there anything there? At all? Because my dim memories of my own brothers and sisters," she went right over the top of the pinch in the chest, "didn't include them feeling like they got the right to comment on my hair choices. Boyfriends, however, always assume they can."[/erin]

[Wyatt Moran]

Danika wrinkled her nose. "Okay, ew."

But then, "Not that I haven't contemplated it, but that was a long time ago. I was really young when we met and he was sort of a really grumpy knight in shining armor. Really grumpy. But," a shrug, "Little girl crushes recede and besides, apparently I only get to end up with another grim. Or something. Not sure how it works but something about the continuing of the species."

She stood, took her plate to the sink and grabbed a bottle of Riesling from the fridge, bringing it and two glasses to the table. She didn't pour for Erin, as she knew the prophet had that flask, but it was there if she wanted it.

"He doesn't like me drawing attention to myself because deep down he's now terrified something's gonna happen to me like happened before. It makes him clingy." A wry grin. "But Wyatt doesn't do anything normally so clingy looks like 'crank-assed overprotective douchehound'."

[Erin Tischloew]

[erin]"Gotcha." Though some part of her wondered whether those crushy feelings might be lingering, on either end. She didn't go for the wine, largely because she'd have to drink a gallon to feel it and wine didn't taste good enough to be putting in that kind of effort. Instead she stuck with the milk for the moment, and the knowledge that there was a bottle out in the van if her flask started running low.


"So the cranky doesn't fade, is what you're saying? There's not going to come a time when he decides that I'm not a spy or a trap or a plant and starts smiling and lets his shoulders unbunch?"[/erin]

[Danika Moran]

"How to put this?" Dani asked, chewing her lip and looking upward as she thought about it. "Wyatt's shoulders - and his shorts - have been bunched up since the day I met him."

She gave an amused grin. "So I wouldn't hold my breath, no."

Then, because it was fair, "But he can relax, as much as he does. He's even funny, sometimes."

[Erin Tischloew]

[erin]A narrow look. "I don't want to call you a liar or anything? But I'll just wait and see." Then she grinned, because hey, picking on a dude who wasn't even there was fun.[/erin]

[Danika Moran]

"May be a long one," Dani said with a soft laugh, "How's the saying go? 'Settle in, it's gonna be a bumpy ride'? Why am I getting the feeling that that applies, now that we're all just one slightly bigger, very odd family? Don't argue, I've adopted you."

She lifted her glass in toast. "To keeping things interesting," she said, then drained what was left of the wine. She had a feeling this latest twist in their story was going to do that, probably more than once.

She was kind of looking forward to it.