Renee / Ry - Hemlock - R

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Renee shut down her computer and quickly gathered her things together. Ry had the hemlock for her. They had hastily organised a meeting over e-mail, but he hadn't sounded well. And why should he? His father was dead...



No doubt a little recreational use of the hemlock would do... something. It was normally used as a sedative, after all. Not quite the use Renee had in mind, but there would no doubt be plenty of it to go round. Hemlock didn't really come in small portions, after all.

She left the house without a word to her sister. Best to not have to answer questions. Not that she was likely to ask, but still. Lies could get you in more trouble than you could imagine. If Renee knew anything at all in this world, she knew that.

Skate park. Nobody ever paid attention to the shadier stuff that went on there. Ry knew this from having partaken in more than his fair share of the shadier stuff in the past. With his hands in his pocket, he could feel the packet that contained the Hemlock. He still didn't know that this was about to be a great idea; more that now, he didn't really care.

Shove that in the face of family members who dicated that now was the time he should be responsible to their arses that had never paid the slightest attention to him in all the time he'd grown up!

Renee stepped off the bus just across the road from the skate park. Unlike other days, she had dressed not to be noticed. She wore baggy black cargo pants that would hide the shape of the hemlock root easily, and an equally baggy Iron Maiden T-shirt that Pierre had left behind. She tried to measure her pace as she moved across to the skatepark, but she was nervous enough that her step still quickened every few seconds before she slowed down again.

He was there by the big tree, just like he said he would be. She gave a small smile as she approached him, not wanting to make a big deal. The hemlock wasn't the only thing that had her shaken. Ry was hard to read at the best of times, and at a time like this, it was going to be almost impossible to predict how he would want her to act...

"Hello, Ry," she said softly, intentionally avoiding the question of 'how are you?'

Ry smirked just slightly as he glimpsed Renee walking towards him. Her choice of clothing style today did not go unnoticed. There was a moment when he got to watch her before she caught sight of him, and then there was a little longer that it took her to reach his side. In that time, many things became obvious about her from just the way she held herself.

"If I didn't know you better, I would think you nervous," he mused idly.

"Well, this kind of thing is traditionally considered a little bit dodgy," she said, turning to shield her hands from view of the road as she pulled what was essentially the last of her money from her pocket. "I'm sorry I didn't have anybody else I could trust with this. I hope it was not... too much trouble."

"Not trouble. Timing could have been better," Ry sent her a look under his lashes, "Well, probably not for you. I want you to understand, this isn't the kind of stuff I would usually deal in..."

He paused significantly in order to make sure she understood. "You okay with doing this here? Or have you got plans of better placement?"

"Here works as well as anywhere," Renee shrugged. "Unless you would prefer to come back to my house. I doubt my parents will be anywhere to be seen, and if you would like to share some with me, I am sure we would not be interrupted..."

She looked down for a moment, then back up at Ry. She did feel bad for asking this of him right now. But things were already in motion by the time they had found out. Sharing some of her new acquisition with him was really the least she could do.

"Your place it is then," Ry agreed. "Just for the chill factor. As easy going as this place is, there's only so far you can relax without fear of getting stupidly caught. Don't think I've ever actually been to your parents' house. Lead the way?"

"Of course," Renee smiled, turning to head back to the bus stop. It wouldn't take too long to get back to her place... and then there would be interesting times afoot...

She closed the bedroom door behind her, and immediately opened a window. Having the room filled with the stench of hemlock was bound to grab even her parents' attention.

The room was in its usual state of organised chaos, possessions loosely sorted into piles - pile of DVDs, pile of CDs, pile of books. The altar, for the moment, was clear.

She sat down on the bed, motioning Ry to sit wherever he liked, and pulled off her boots. "I suppose if we are going to smoke that, we will need to... grate it?" she asked. She couldn't immediately think of any better ways to grind that root into a smokeable form...

"Grate it? Sure. Or we could cut it up and use one of those garlic shredder devices... assuming you have one?"

He glanced around her room once sitting on the bed, then looked up at Renee with a somewhat bemused exprssion in his eye. "You know, I think this is the first time I've ever been invited to your parent's place. Interesting times."

"Interesting times call for interesting measures... or something to that effect," Renee smiled, as the tension gradually drained away. Ry was acting much more like his usual self than Renee had expected, and despite the fact that his personality could be considered by many to be somewhat abrasive, Renee found it comforting. It was nice to know that they could just be normal and chill out and together.

Renee reached for Ry's hand and led him out of the room, hoping once she was touching him that he wouldn't mind the familiarity.

"Nobody in this house can actually cook," she explained as they descended the stairs and entered the kitchen, "so I have no idea what is in here." She placed the hemlock root on the bench and began searching random cupboards, not admitting that she didn't even know what a garlic shredder looked like. Hopefully something would catch Ry's eye...

Ry smirked. This was a welcome distraction from the outside world already. "Why Renee," he said, glancing down at her fingers around his hand, "So familiar? I didn't know you felt that way."

She almost closed a drawer before Ry's eye caught the shimmer of stainless steel sitting in the drawer. "There!" he said, reaching out and grabbing it in one hand. He held it up in front of her face. "Anyone would think you'd never seen one of these before."

Renee stared blankly at the strange, shiny object that Ry held before her. "That would be an accurate interpretation of the text," she said, holding the blank look until she cracked and grinned at the end.

She fetched a small bowl from the cupboard behind Ry, intentionally pressing up against him as she reached past his head. It was a nice to change to flirt with somebody without any danger or subtext.

"Well... show me your mad Jamie Oliver skills?" she winked. "Cook me up something tasty."

"Jamie Oliver skills?" Ry scoffed. "Hardly. Give me that," he said, holding his hand out for the hemlock. "Now, if you stick this, right here, like this; see, it's easy." He instructed by demonstration. "And if it's too much to fit in there, you cut it. I assume you know where your cutting implements are located?" He gave her a smart arsed look as his hand brushed her wrist in the passing the garlic grater across.

Renee stuck her tongue out at Ry and opened the top drawer, exposing quite a nice set of silverware. "We may not be able to cook, but we don't eat with our hands, I will have you know!"

She glanced toward the stairway, then back at Ry. "Shall we take our paraphernalia upstairs and begin this debauch experience?"

"Indeed," Ry answered. "Lead the way."

Renee led the boy back up to her room, and closed the door once more. Immediately, she wandered over to the stereo, and let The Cure softly fill the room.

"So," she said, moving over to her small vanity and producing a packet of cigarette papers that she used for the other type of smoking. "I could help you grind that stuff... or I could stand here and grind my hips..."

She began to dance to the music, vaguely wishing that she had a pole to complete the effect...

"... and you can watch me while you do it like the chivalrous man you aren't."

Anyone else, and it would have felt wrong to be baiting him at a time like this. But this was their relationship. It was what they did.

Ry rolled his eyes and pulled the cigarette papers closer to him. Busily, he began getting everything to a state of readiness, with barely a look up at Renee.

"It would be far more enticing if I thought you liked dick," he murmured over what he was doing. "Besides, you know you have a nice body. Nothing I do is going to change that."

Curiously, he looked up at her while his fingers still worked. "So anyway, what's new on the romantic interest list for you? I find it hard to beleive you are still utterly single. You keeping it quiet for Deirdre?"

Ry's question pierced Renee's defenses as surely as if he had used a sword. She sighed and sat down somewhat heavily, as if the weight of the world were suddenly dropped upon her shoulders. After her dancing, the action seemed utterly devoid of grace.

"It's complicated," she muttered, emphasising the word as if it were the height of distaste. "It is not that I am keeping it quiet as such... it is just..."

She looked up at Ry, but his eyes were focused upon the hemlock he was preparing. Obviously he was just going to wait for her to continue.

"There are... two interests, actually. The only trouble is that neither of them are single. In fact, they are seeing each other," she said with a slightly bitter laugh.

She had always tried to fight off the bitterness she felt about Kait and Scarlett's relationship until now. They were beautiful together. It felt wrong to look on that with negativity. But here with Ry, she felt as though... it was okay to not be so perfect.

Wow. He certainly hadn't expected that as a reaction to his simply asked question. It was Valantine's day after all. Couldn't a person ask such a simple question on today of all days?

Clearly not.

"So split them up. Or bring yourself into the mix. They're obviously both up for that sort of thing," Ry murmured ironically, with a side glance away from what he was doing. Abruptly, he pushed away from the bench and looked up at Renee. "Right then. All done. You ready for this?"

"Ry, my dear, I have been ready for this for a week," she enthused, taking one of the beautifully rolled hemlock joints. She grabbed a lighter from one of her bedside tables and lit her joint before leaning over to light Ry's.

She took a deep drag and let the strange sensation fill her. It was different from weed, that was for sure. Harsher was quite the word... bitier, perhaps? Like a very sharp cheese. The taste of it filled her mouth. It was really quite superb, better even than any expensive cigar she had tasted. And it went straight to her head... wow!

She crawled over to Ry and lay her head in his lap before continuing their conversation. "I dunno, Ry," she said, her speech far more relaxed than usual. "I don't wanta split zem up. That would be... so wrong."

She took another drag of her hemlock. "I would like to be with zem both, but... Hmm. Well, one of zem might agree to it..."

"Yeah?" Ry looked through dazed eyes at Renee. Hah, the hemlock already had her down if her French was slipping through. Then he tried to stand up... and failed. Okay, so maybe he wasn't as unaffected by it himself. "Which one?"

"Mmmm... I should not be telling you zis... it is all secret until now..." She inhaled deeply from the joint once more, exhaling the oddly-coloured smoke in a sigh.

"She is Scarlett, ze one whom I could... Mmm. I think she would like us both very much... but zen maybe not."

She looked up at Ry and smiled. "She's pretty."

Without thinking, Ry burst out laughing. Actually, there was very little thinking going on at all between the two of them right now.

"You're kidding; I actually know that girl! Oooh Renee, such a naughty French wench," he rhymed. "You certainly have a thing for the redheads."

"You rhymed," Renee giggled, and tried to touch Ry's nose. She missed and almost stuck her finger up his nostril, which only made her giggle more.

"I like redheads," Renee declared, as though she were making some kind of profound statement. Her face became quizzical as she processed the actual content of Ry's dialogue.

"Why d'you know Scar?" she asked, turning a little in his lap to be able to see his face more clearly.

"Why do I know Scar? That wench is almost about as loud mouthed and opinionated as you are!" Ry said, with half closed eyes. Then he paused. He hadn't meant to say it like that. Words like that were reserved for thoughts, not speech. "Man, this stuff... it's intence."