Playing Doctor. [Johnny/Caeline. Christian]

[palacechristian]

Caeline collapsed in a cascade of squealing giggles and buried her head in the pillow -- again -- and Johnny smacked her on a denim-clad knee. "Come on, you're the one who asked! And I'm serious, what you do with your tongue is important!"

Christian was carrying a sheaf of papers almost as thick as his forearm and all of them in one way or the other related to the wedding. He kicked the front door closed with his heel and dumped them on the closest flat surface. The dogs were at the end of the hall and just raised their heads and looked at him questioningly. "Nope." he told them. "Not supposed to be here. I escaped. Don't tell anyone." Obie wagged his tail and then rolled onto his side, not really caring about human travails. Shannon thumped her tail too, but then huffed and collapsed back down, eyes closing and a doggie smile on her face. "See if I care." Christian muttered as he opened the bedroom door. His eyebrows shot up into his hairline. "Pardon me!" he apologized. "Should I...?" He hiked a thumb over his shoulder and grinned.

Johnny and Caeline yelped and sprang apart so fast Johnny fell off the side of the bed and landed with a thud on his arse, only his Gifted reflexes preventing him from cracking his head on the dresser. Caeline sprang to her feet, one hand on her heart and the other in her hair, her face red, her eyes wide and her mouth opening and closing silently. All in all, if you opened a dictionary to the word "guilty" you'd probably find a photo of this exact scene on the page.

Christian folded his arms and watched them both patiently. "Playing 'Doctors'? he inquired casually.

Two hands appeared on the dishevelled bedspread, then Johnny's tousled head appeared. He was almost as wide-eyed as Caeline, and was definitely as red-faced. "Umm, what? I mean, no! We weren't, I mean, just talking, really!" He hopped back up onto the bed but didn't quite make it and flailed trying to find his balance before falling back onto the floor. A depressed-sounding "Ow," drifted up from behind the bed.

"Uh-huh." Trying to keep his face from showing any of the laughter bubbling up inside was terribly difficult, but Christian managed to look stern as he turned to Caeline. "Your version?"

"We were talking." Caeline's ponytail did that defiant flick thing she was mistress of and she sat herself down, rather abruptly, on the opposite side of the bed from Johnny.

"About what?" Christian asked in innocent tones.

Caeline stiffened her spine and put on her haughtiest look. "I don't care to say."

Knowing a brick wall when he saw one, Christian turned to his lover and gave him a look of patient inquiry. He didn't speak, didn't need to, the look was enough to get Johnny's lips moving again.

"Umm, I mean, we just...." Johnny pulled his shirt down and looked frantically between Caeline and Christian. Caeline pursed her lips and gave him a stare that'd melt steel. He withered, getting it from both ends at once, and finally just threw himself back onto the bed and buried his head under a pillow -- the same one Caeline'd been using just a minute earlier.

He bit his bottom lip, but it was no use. The facade cracked and Christian began to laugh. His face split into a grin and he found he had to hold his sides for stability. When that failed and his knees gave way, he was happy to drop to the carpet, rolling around on the floor and letting the tears of merriment leak from his eyes. "Your, your... faces." he gasped. "Soo... precious...."

Caeline's face was at first a picture of outrage. How dare he... But either Christian's laughter was infectious or she was beginning to see the funny side of it for herself, her indoctrination into Caleran ways perhaps coming along faster than she thought. Stealing the pillow Johnny was hiding under, she lobbed it hard in the general direction of the giggling wreck on the floor. "That was mean!" she pronounced.

Johnny squawked and grabbed for the pillow, but she was too fast for him. "Hey!" He was left sprawled in the middle of the bed and scrambled to sit up. "It's just... I mean we were just...." Caeline glared at him again. He shrank back and finally managed, "It was... wedding stuff."

"No." Christian managed to disclaim, too busy trying to stop the laughing cause his ribs were starting to ache. "I think it was after wedding stuff."

Johnny made a noise which could definitely be defined as "high pitched" and cut a guilty look at Caeline.

Caeline wrinkled her brow and looked between one and the other. Johnny's look only served to further deepen her confusion. She leaned over the end of the bed so she was looking right down into Christian's face. "How did you know?" she asked, curious enough that she forgot she was admitting to his being correct.

What should have been a question that doused his mirth like a bucket of iced water, did no such thing. Christian gave a mental shrug; she had to know sometime. He quieted his hilarity enough that he could raise his eyes and look back toward Johnny. "Tell her. Go on." he dared.

"Me?! Why me?! I mean, ummm...." Johnny was wishing with all his heart that he was far away, by himself, on a horse at least a couple of hours' ride from anywhere. Unfortunately it didn't work. "He's... I mean, it's just... he can sort of, readyourmind. It's okay, though, really, 'cause he doesn't do it unless you say he can or unless you're thinking really loud and I think we sort of are right now so he would've picked it up no matter how hard he tried not to."

"He can..." Caeline's mind went blank and then began to race frantically. "He can, you can. You can what!??"

Her voice rose in tone and Christian was forced to put aside the fun and roll over onto his stomach so he could address her patently growing concern. "Hey." he said softly, trying to calm his fiancée down. "I don't, okay? I'm a Telepath not a busybody. I only know what you were talking about because it was..." His brow wrinkled as he tried to think of the best way to explain. "Because you were both thinking about it so hard when I asked, it was kind of just...there. I picked it up without trying. I've never read your thoughts, hun, and I won't."

Caeline gave him a long hard look and then he could see her shoulders relax, her face resume it's normal serenity and she nodded, apparently satisfied. "I believe you."

Johnny eyed them both, one and then the other, then let out a huffing sigh and relaxed. "So, we're all right now, right?"

"No!" Caeline's denial was so emphatic that Johnny's head snapped around to face her. She was staring his way intently, trying, he thought, to convey something without words. A minuscule tipping of her head in Christian's direction gave him a clue. "No." she said again. "We have been mocked. "

Christian was relieved that Caeline had taken it so well and so easily. He was in the act of rolling back over and didn't quite catch what was said. "Pardon?"

What...? Oh! Johnny immediately focused on something innocuous -- there, the color of Caeline's shirt. He concentrated on pink-pink-pink-pink just before he dove off the bed and onto his lover, his hands snaking up under Christian's shirt and tickling like mad.

Caeline was right behind Johnny, landing on Christian's legs and clinging like a limpet, despite his frantic kicks. "Now," she pronounced grandly. "You pay!"

Christian was already breathless when Johnny landed, then suddenly he was winded and his only thought was escape of the most mundane sort. "Wha... No! Geddoff! Ohnomigodplease. C'mon guys!"

Johnny couldn't resist Christian's pleas for very long and soon his hands slowed down from tickles to caresses. "Your own fault for being mean to us," he teased, with a wink up at Caeline.

Christian just waved his hands weakly, conceding, well, anything they wanted conceded at that point. He raised his head about an inch and looked down at his future queen. "While yer down there..." he panted, waggling his eyebrows obscenely.

Caeline gave him an arch look. "Need neutering?" she inquired mildly.

"Hey! None of that!" Johnny takes a play-swat at Caeline. "That's part mine, you know? No alterations without a consult!"

"Get. Me. Up." Christian pleaded with them both.

Caeline got to her feet, looking mighty pleased and held out a hand to her downed intended. Johnny took the other and together they dragged him to a vertical position. "We're even." she told him, glancing at Johnny and winking. "'Til next time at least."

Johnny nodded and threw Caeline an innocent look. "And maybe next time you'll have more than one way of getting him up?"

Christian hit the floor again. They really shouldn't have let go in the first place.