Fires banked down.

[sunshine_queen]

From yahtzee63 's AFI challenge.

 

"You've got fires banked down in you, hearth-fires and holocausts." -- The Philadelphia Story

 

 

Simon Walker appreciates a good woman.

 

His idea of "good" was hardly being well-behaved, or kind, or loving; his idea involved being a fast-draw, a good fuck, and a pretty face, but standards are standards.

 

Julia Thorne is not a good woman. She is the best woman, in every sense, and he might just love her.

 

She's cool to the touch and smooth under his palm, indifferently sipping at iced vodka. They had argued, and then they'd made up, and now Julia's playing coy.

 

Simon knows that he loves apathy. Had she been fawning, or easily won, he'd have lost interest long ago. Come now, love, he might say in a teasing tone, no ice queens tonight. They breed them in this country, I can get them a dime a dozen.

 

You like them cold, she’d reply, go find yourself a snow bunny. Or several, if you’d like.

 

Oh, you hurt me, Jules. Leave you?

 

She would roll her eyes, as she always does when he’s melodramatic, and push him away.

 

Instead he says, “Why the gloom, babe? You could cut steel with those eyes.”

 

“Cut a lot more than that,” she says absently, and she sips reflexively. She’s thinking about their job, he can tell. She looks at her glass. “It’s clear,” she says, “And it numbs. Like we do to ourselves so we can do our work. Vodka in the blood.”

 

“Liquid fire,” he counters. “Gives you courage, makes your blood hot.”

 

She smiles at him, acerbically biting, “You always say I’m cold, cold as ice. Don’t you remember?”

 

He does, and she is, but he smiles widely for the sake of argument, “Nonsense. You've got fires banked down in you, hearth-fires and holocausts."

 

“Holocausts,” she says distantly, “Slaughters and sacrifices. In me.”

 

He wonders if she’ll get up and leave now, if he managed to touch a nerve sensitive enough to be stung when so many are dead. Instead she looks up and smiles slowly, widely, ferally. “Really, Simon. You flatter me.”

Comments

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is excellent--few things that I love better than fleshing out a character we've only seen an intriguing but short glimpse of; your Simon here *is* the sly rogue we've seen on screen, but he also has a silver tongue and some standards. & ;-)

Lovely job--great idea, excellent execution, and your dialogue is to die for!

[sunshine-queen.livejournal.com]

I absolutely love Simon more than words can say. I want him to show up again just to raise some hell for fun. And JuSi is all about witty dialogue and smut.