When Gabe calls her, his voice sounds hollow, and she thinks she hears water in the background.
"Tell me that you are calling me from in front of an awesome water feature and not from the bathroom," she sighs into the phone.
"Does the shower count as a water feature?" His smirk transmits perfectly through the cell towers.
"What do you want?" she asks. She doesn't mean to sound abrupt, but she's had a long day and what she really wants is to lie down on the bed and watch some really terrible late night television, not verbally spar with Gabe.
It takes him a couple of seconds to answer, and in that time, she toes off her heels and starts rolling down her stockings. "Are you embarrassed that fake you is flirting with fake me on Facebook?" he finally says, and a fingernail goes right through her stocking.
She hisses through her teeth, but still answers. "No, what do I care?"
"You answered the tweet," he says back, almost immediately.
"I just --" She stops before she says something stupid, and finishes rolling down her stocking, doesn't bother being careful, just leaves the one with the hole on the floor. The other, she carefully pulls off her foot and puts on the table. "So what?" she demands.
"Would you be embarrassed if real you was flirting with real me?"
Gabe sounds like he's teasing, but it's been years. She can tell the difference. And she has an answer, because it's not like she's never thought about it -- especially since his split with Bianca. She waits, though, because… well, because it's Gabe, and she loves him, but she doesn't want to give him the satisfaction. Or the power. If being in Cobra has taught her anything, it's that she needs all the power she can get and manage to keep, just to keep her head above water. Not with the boys, but in life.
She could still be easily written off by everyone, including herself, as just the girl who plays keytar in Cobra Starship. And that's not what she wants.
But being in Cobra has also taught her the value of taking a risk, so she waits. And when the silence has drawn out so taut that it could snap, she answers.
"I haven't ever been yet."
It's his turn to hiss in his breath, and her turn to let her smirk bounce from cell tower to cell tower until it reaches him in the bathroom in the hotel room next door.
FILL: Yet, Victoria/Gabe. 1/1
"Tell me that you are calling me from in front of an awesome water feature and not from the bathroom," she sighs into the phone.
"Does the shower count as a water feature?" His smirk transmits perfectly through the cell towers.
"What do you want?" she asks. She doesn't mean to sound abrupt, but she's had a long day and what she really wants is to lie down on the bed and watch some really terrible late night television, not verbally spar with Gabe.
It takes him a couple of seconds to answer, and in that time, she toes off her heels and starts rolling down her stockings. "Are you embarrassed that fake you is flirting with fake me on Facebook?" he finally says, and a fingernail goes right through her stocking.
She hisses through her teeth, but still answers. "No, what do I care?"
"You answered the tweet," he says back, almost immediately.
"I just --" She stops before she says something stupid, and finishes rolling down her stocking, doesn't bother being careful, just leaves the one with the hole on the floor. The other, she carefully pulls off her foot and puts on the table. "So what?" she demands.
"Would you be embarrassed if real you was flirting with real me?"
Gabe sounds like he's teasing, but it's been years. She can tell the difference. And she has an answer, because it's not like she's never thought about it -- especially since his split with Bianca. She waits, though, because… well, because it's Gabe, and she loves him, but she doesn't want to give him the satisfaction. Or the power. If being in Cobra has taught her anything, it's that she needs all the power she can get and manage to keep, just to keep her head above water. Not with the boys, but in life.
She could still be easily written off by everyone, including herself, as just the girl who plays keytar in Cobra Starship. And that's not what she wants.
But being in Cobra has also taught her the value of taking a risk, so she waits. And when the silence has drawn out so taut that it could snap, she answers.
"I haven't ever been yet."
It's his turn to hiss in his breath, and her turn to let her smirk bounce from cell tower to cell tower until it reaches him in the bathroom in the hotel room next door.