[For Saffron]

[gonewiththereap]

Once in a while, Daisy imbibes just a smidgen too much during her shift. She loves her work and it's something to do, but she just drinks a little here and a little there. It never did a thing before with a reaper's constitution, but now it settles pleasantly in her stomach and makes her feel like she's tumbling.

She's in a little blue number tonight that binds at the front with a white corset-like shirt and she's done for the evening and sitting to rest her precious corns, watching Helen as she finishes up for the night. She's still tipsy and that bite of regret and loneliness is just around the corner, she can feel it.

"Don't you ever feel sorry for them?" she wonders aloud in Helen's direction. "All the girls and boys who come here to play?"

Comments

[devilwoman]

Saffron glanced up from where she was looking over the list Bridge had given her of the night's patrons. "Why, because they don't have somewhere more meaningful to go?" she replied, arching an eyebrow. "Not really. I think we keep them well entertained here, even if the thrill is only temporary."

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

Daisy's still twirling her hair and thinking about it as she watches Helen. "The fact is, though, that this is a perfect little breeding ground," she says thoughtfully, voice drowsy with alcohol. "And they're still here because they'd rather have sex than something meaningful. I find it sad."

[devilwoman]

"Not everyone is looking for something meaningful," Saffron pointed out. She knew she sure as hell hadn't been, though she couldn't blame that entirely on the club. "And you say that like sex is a bad thing. Besides, you're here, aren't you?"

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

"I don't sleep with the clients," Daisy points out. Not that she thinks it's a bad way about it, but she just thinks it's not for her. "Helen, sweetie, I haven't had sex in almost two years, the one man I had it with, I basically did it to prove a point. I'm probably the driest well in this place," she says perkily.

[devilwoman]

That was true. Saffron had never known Daisy to sleep around, not since back when they'd been roommates. Her eyes widened in surprise, though, at the hard facts. "Almost two years?" she echoed. "Was that by choice?" Daisy was beautiful; surely she didn't have trouble attracting men.

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

"I can't exactly take two shotgun rounds to the chest and survive here and being the other woman got very old, a very long time ago," Daisy admits, still giggling softly. "I moved in with Max Carrigan. Didn't give him any choice. But it's all so very platonic, you know? Ninety-some years, I'm too old to still be sleeping around."

[devilwoman]

"Well, sleeping around isn't for everybody, I'll give you that," Saffron admits. She knows there are plenty of people out there who truly believe in and desire monogamy, even if she isn't one of them. "But age doesn't matter, sugar. Besides, if you didn't share your real age no one would think you were anywhere above twenty-something."

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

"You know what, I don't even want to sleep around with one man," Daisy admits. "Honest to god." A weary sigh and a bubble of a laugh escapes her. "It's more than being too old to do it, it's being too old to coach young men who don't know what they're doing and if they don't love me, it's all so tired."

[devilwoman]

"That sounds terrible cynical, and I definitely know cynical," Saffron commented with an arched eyebrow. "So are you giving up on the whole thing? Or are you holding out for true love?"

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

"I haven't found it yet, I don't think it's ever going to find me." Maybe she's a bit too maudlin, but she's been working and she's been drinking and the two together have never really worked to form a very good version of Daisy Adair. "No one has ever quite loved me like that."

[devilwoman]

Saffron wasn't sure anyone had ever loved her like that, either. There had been him, but he obviously hadn't, otherwise he never would have left her the way he did. She knew Chris cared about her, but she didn't know if he'd loved her, at least the way she'd realized she'd loved him once it was too late. And the most recent one, well, he obviously didn't return the feelings. There was Warrick now, and Saffron loved him, and knew he loved her, but it wasn't the kind of love Daisy was talking about.

"Me either, I don't think," she admitted. "I'm not sure what that says about us." Well, she had an idea of what it said about her, Saffron, but she was fairly positive it wasn't the same for Daisy.

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

"That the world's never counted on having girls like us in it?" Even now, tipsy and maudlin, she's so used to habit that she puts the front back up and grins away, all forms perky and false. "There was this guy. And he was here," she admits, twisting that engagement ring she wears on a chain around her neck. "And I never seriously gave him the time of day and I told him never, ever, ever because god help me, he's a drunk. So he found himself another woman. And that love he had was as fleeting as any love's ever been for me."

[devilwoman]

"Well, that's a given, honey," Saffron agreed, her smile flashing sharp and wicked as she took a seat next to Daisy. She didn't want to talk about Chris, her flawed and beautiful boy, so she stuck with the present. "I have someone now, I reckon you could say. And I do love him dearly, and I know he loves me. But when it comes down to it, really, he's just one of several. I never trust any love to be more than fleeting."

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

"Still, you're better off than I am," Daisy points out, happy to do so. "You've got yourself a man and while it may not be the conventional way, it's still far, far better off than I've got it." And she does want it. She does.

[devilwoman]

"Far from conventional, but then I'm not exactly the conventional type, " she agreed, because it was actually men, plural, though she didn't feel the need to point that out. "Now you've got me wanting to play matchmaker."

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

"Don't you dare in a million years," Daisy warns, thinking that at least she won't have to wander the Earth quite that long. The longest reaper's still tracking almost a millenia, but that's those poor boys in the plague department. All those vaccines.

God help her if someone ever cures murder and accidents stop happening.

[devilwoman]

"I just said I wanted to, not that I would," Saffron said, raising one hand in an acquiescing gesture. "I promise, I wouldn't actually try and set you up with someone without your blessing."

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

"I don't think there's a man on this rock that would know what to do with me," Daisy admits with a giggle of a tipsy laugh, weary and amused at once because it's true. Not many men know what to do with a ninety-plus year old reaper who's seen death more than most people.

[devilwoman]

"It takes a special kind of man to be able to handle either of us, Daisy honey," Saffron agreed with a laugh. "Well, I won't try to feed you some nonsense that there's someone out there that's meant just for you. But you never know, I reckon. Stranger things have happened."

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

"Ninety-four years, Helen," Daisy very politely notes and if she hasn't met her man in that amount of time, she really doesn't think she's bound to. "I think I'm out of luck, out of hope, and out of options on that count. Doesn't mean everyone else is. Just me."

[devilwoman]

"Well, you are living with Max now," Saffron pointed out with a suggestive kind of look. "And you have to admit the guy's hot. Why not have a little fun? I'm pretty sure you won't have to do a whole lot of teaching with him."

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

"And then when he starts doing that thing that all men do?" Daisy points out, twisting and twirling her hair. "Maybe this place is all I should have. What do you think? I could do nightly acts," she teases, because she doesn't know how to strip so much as she knows how to get naked and be gorgeous at it. "Let it be my one true love."

[devilwoman]

"Which thing would that be? There are so many, after all," Saffron replied with a little smirk. "And honey, far be it from me to discourage more performances from you."

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

"The thing where they don't know what to do because of silly feelings deep down," she sighs, as though it's a lot more problematic than it is. Or is it? It is a terrible thing, really.

[devilwoman]

"Oh, that thing," Saffron said knowingly. "Well, I just like to take those silly little feelings and use them to my advantage, personally."

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

"You're a better woman than me," Daisy admits because every time she does it, she just gets so exhausted with it all and can't bear to do it any more, not a second after. "Maybe I just need a good roll in the hay. It's been nearly two years and all."

[devilwoman]

Generally, Saffron didn't mind a little work. It was what she did best, and what she enjoyed, and she didn't mind sometimes having to put forth a bit of effort to get what she wanted. Besides, she couldn't exactly have continued her usual profession on the island.

"Nothing wrong with a roll in the hay," she agreed. "And it's not hard around here to find a little fun without any of those pesky strings attached."

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

It's something Daisy's going to have to seriously take into consideration after everything. It's not like she's ready to become Mrs. Anyone and hell, she doesn't even know she's capable of it. "Any suggestions from the clientele?" she wonders.

[devilwoman]

"As a matter of fact, I have the perfect suggestion," Saffron said, not even needing to think about it more than a second or two. "But he's an employee, not one of the clientele. Bill Weasley."

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

"Bill Weasley, hm?" Daisy echoes, mulling the thought over in her mind. It's not a bad one, exactly. And she doubts she'll have a bickering contest with him like she had with Billy before sleeping with him. "I'll keep it in mind."

[devilwoman]

Saffron smiled and got up to pour herself a drink, just a small one - call it a nightcap. It seemed like a good night to visit the Boarding House.

"You won't regret it," she promised, then smiled a little wider. "And look at that, I guess I did get to play matchmaker after all."

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

"That only qualifies if I actually sleep with the man," Daisy feels inclined to tease, but the truth is that right about now, anything to shake off the melancholy would probably do her well and she shouldn't shake a stick at anything, especially any good suggestions.

[devilwoman]

"True enough," Saffron conceded. She held up a second glass, wiggled it a little. "Have a little nightcap with me?"

[gonewiththereap.livejournal.com]

"I could never say no," Daisy admits, still already a little tipsy, inhibitions lowered and she pries herself up off the chair to reclaim that glass. "Here's to...hell, whatever it is we ought to toast to."

[devilwoman]

She poured one for Daisy, then slid it over to her before holding her own up. "To having fun, wherever we can find it," she said with a smirk.