[ for kate : winter plot ]

[notgoingtorun]

The decadence of a free New York is overwhelming to Neal, impossible for him to ignore. In record speed, he's decorated his new home in style, a characteristic mixture of vintage fashions and modern flair. Everything has been legally acquired -- as legally as one can in a version of New York which refuses to allow you to pay for anything -- despite his pathological need to test out the security at the Guggenheim, at MoMa, the Whitney. His closet is full of vintage suits and modern, bespoke ones. He has a wine rack and a bed that is practically impossible to get out of, and every book imaginable at his fingertips.

He also has a whole city to show to a beautiful woman. Neal lives and breathes New York, and while Kate might be a Second City girl at heart, he still wants to show her his world, the New York that he loved so much that he would have done anything to stay.

Neal shows up at Kate's door in a suit -- black with faint pinstripes, tailored to perfection -- and flowers. Flowers aren't her, he knows -- she puts up walls, she doesn't want to be wooed, and they both want to pretend that what they're both doing is just fun rather than meaningful -- but beautiful women are Neal's kryptonite, so to speak, and he just can't help himself.

Flowers clutched in one hand at his chest, he raises the other to knock on her door. He is going to take her out for a night on the town, with dinner and dancing and walks through the park, whether she likes it or not.

Comments

[girlsolo]

Kate doesn't hate New York, especially because Lilo's having fun with it. They've been record-shopping, getting her classic vinyls and a turntable for her own room in a nice but not too nice place, with colored walls. The murals disappeared and that was kind of a drama, but Kate promised they'd be back, so it's all right.

They've got Rockettes and musicals and museums and every kind of entertainment a kid could want on the menu, including Coney Island. Which, is all great, and if this is being a mom, Kate doesn't hate it, either. It might be nice, though, she thinks, to do some not-recommended-for-children exploration of the Big Apple, but there hasn't been time yet.

Not that she's planning on admitting it anytime soon (ever), but if she's going to see New York, she kinda wants to do it with Neal. So instead of going out on her first Lilo's-with-ohana day since the island changed, Kate's staying in. Frozen pizza, popcorn, movies she hasn't seen a dozen times.

She just got out of a long bath and yesterday she got a great haircut (nothing fancy, but it was long and it's always nice to have the conditioning) and took Lilo for mani-pedis. So she's got slick as hell silver nails with silver, teal and eggplant glitter on them (Lilo has bright orange on her nails and bright yellow on her toes), Samsara perfume (that she didn't have to pay for) and... a lumberjack plaid flannel and black leggings on when there's a knock at the door.

Okay. So her heart skips a quick beat, but she's just startled. Which is why she slides her Sig in the back of her leggings, before she answers the door.

...okay so that skip has nothing to do with being startled. "Um. Hi." God, he looks...incredible. Even with the flowers. That should probably remind her of Declan, but it's all Neal. "Sure you have the right place?"

[notgoingtorun]

"I tried to give the flowers to Peter, but he just rolled his eyes," Neal quips, which is untrue but also within the realm of possibilities. "Yes, I'm at the right place." He holds the flowers out a little bit, wagging them ever so slightly at her to entice her into taking them.

"Come on, get dressed, slip into something nice. I'm taking you out." He steps over the threshold, inviting himself into her home. "I've got things I want you to see, and looking like a sexy lumberjack isn't going to cut it."

He'll beg if he has to, but he also knows that he's very, very hard to resist.

[girlsolo]

"Way to seduce a girl, Caffrey. Secondhand flowers," Kate banters back, deceptively mild, even though the combination of emphasis, flowers, Neal in a suit, and even the hint of a suggestion he might be sleeping with Peter has her tied up in more knots than the last time she got taken hostage.

She takes the flowers (beautiful) - metaphorical hostages for his good behavior. Or a distraction tactic. That's fucked up, Freelander, she tells herself and coaxes a smile to her lips for him, letting her fingers linger against his just a little longer than necessary as she tips her head toward the kitchen.

Weirdly, it actually steadies her out enough that when she walks away, she gives him a saucy little look back over her shoulder. "Telling her she looks like a lumberjack's not much better. Even if you get points for 'sexy'." Somewhere in this kitchen there's got to be a vase. "Anything I had nice enough to wear with that suit's back in Sea Lord Elvis's Castle."

[notgoingtorun]

He follows her to the kitchen, all smiles -- real ones, too, not the con man's smile that he turns on just about everyone else he knows. The city's put him in a good mood, and he is willing to tolerate just about any level of banter, if it means he gets to take Kate out on the town and show her the city that spent so long calling to him.

"Looks like we've got to take you shopping, then," he says, leaning up against the refrigerator. He lounges there, looking comfortable and natural in ways that only men practiced at lounging in suits can do. "I'll make it up to you for the sexy lumberjack thing. There's a great little boutique just down the street that has some dresses that would be perfect. We'll get dressed up, have a night on the town. Dinner, dancing..." He drops his voice then, into a conspiratorial whisper. "Surveillance on the security at some of New York's top institutions."

He swears he isn't going to steal anything. He's just curious.

[girlsolo]

"You had me at--" Looks like, because he's Neal and he breathes charm. But she pauses puts the flowers in a vase, turns, and leans up to murmur, "Surveillance," at him, with a purr and a wink that promises it'll be a good evening.

True, Kate's not a fan of dressing up, fancy dinners, dancing, most of that crap. But it's less because she doesn't like it and more because dating's a pre-fuck interview and when they're already fucking, she's not sure what it means. There's the part where he's slick as hell and she's westside all the way down, but she's a good enough con to work around it.

And even if Kate's not a fan of dressing up, she's a big fan of being her partner's fantasy. It's great foreplay and a lot of fun. So if Neal wants to dress up and take the city by storm and stealth, Kate's not gonna say no. She even curls her fingers behind his tie to straighten it, looks up at him and smolders. "Gonna drape me in bling, too, while we're at it?"

[notgoingtorun]

Neal lifts his chin, looks down at her as she fusses with his tie. He likes the feeling of her hands on him, having her close. He could get used to this, and he's trying not to.

"As much bling as you want," he agrees, letting his hands fall to rest at her hips. If he doesn't keep his mind on the prize -- a night out in New York -- he's going to have a hard time convincing himself to leave Kate's place. After all, there are various enticing pieces of furniture which haven't quite been christened yet.

He presses close to her, swaying to a silent beat. "What do you say, hm?" His eyes are big and innocent, like he wants nothing more than to just show her a good time in the city.

[girlsolo]

He smells good, is what she notices so close like this. Today it is. Sometimes it's that he's surprisingly ripped under all those fancy clothes. Or that there's something about how he touches her that's different from everyone else, not more confidently but maybe more comfortably, and she's pretty sure that's her own fault somehow.

She fights the good fight to keep her eyes from closing just at the feel of him and sighs. "Not much," Kate concedes. "It's gaudy, tasteless and an invitation to people like us. But if I'm putting on a dress for you, I need heels, make up, and proper accessories which includes the right jewelry."

Putting on a dress for him. She did it for Declan. And she and Imri had made a proper date for it, just before he disappeared. She'd have done it for Sawyer without thinking twice about it. There's a shadow in her eyes, briefly, when she says, "Stay here while I change, or we won't make it out." A shadow because part of her's sure dress-up can only end in tears.

[notgoingtorun]

"Just enough to shine," he says, and oh, shit, he means it, he wants her to shine and sparkle for him, in her own way, deadly and glamorous and brilliant. Sometimes he manages to forget how he wants this to be so much more than it is; he makes himself be happy with what he has, and if he's going to be lucky enough to convince Kate to go out for a normal night on the town -- a date, if you will -- then he'll be happy with it, even if it never happens again.

Neal leans in and kisses her again, one hand tangled in her hair, before releasing her, a bit reluctantly. "Go," he said, nodding towards her bedroom. "As much as I'd like to stay here all night." He steps back, presses his hands against the kitchen counter.

He'll stay there. He'll behave. Promise.

[girlsolo]

She's unsteady on her feet, all she can do not to flee - or tell him that's what she wants, for him to stay, all night. Not for sex, but to stay with her and watch the new Avengers movie and tangle around her in her sleep and wake up with her. "Be right back," she manages somehow and doesn't bolt either.

Kate does spend a solid thirty seconds, hands pressed behind her to the door of her bedroom, leaning into it and trying to slow her pulse. What are they doing? This isn't them.

She breathes out, getting a handle on herself, and the whole process of putting on something she can 'shop' in and leave behind without missing it, putting on make up that'll work with whatever they 'buy', and a pair of silver stilettos that should go with anything she'd agree to wear takes maybe seven minutes. When she comes out again, she's wearing black leather pants, a strapless black bra, sheer black shirt and one of the dozen different black leather jackets - this one long, like a trench - she's picked up since NYC happened, black liner sharp around her eyes, mascara, berry lip stain with a gloss she pockets and her hair...down for now, but she'll let him decide.

She'll put on a dress for him. Yeah. She never said she wouldn't do her damnedest to make his jaw drop without it.