Challenge 40: Finishing the Pong Fic

[catko]

So, this was a challenge over at sorkinverse , where we did a progressive (pong) fic, with everyone on the team writing two words, up until the deadline. Then, the challenge was to take what we had, and finish it individually. Here's mine. (Also, sorkinverse  challenges are fun! Ask me, or check the link, to learn more!)

Title: Nota Bene
Fandom: Sports Night
Characters: Natalie, Jeremy, Dana
Rating: Implied ... romance

Natalie closed her eyes and took a pencil from her light blue fanny pack. Jeremy wondered why Natalie didn’t have a nicer place to keep her pencils. She had owned a nice purple rucksack where she used to store her stuff. “Hey, where did your rucksack go? I think it was sexy when you strapped it to your bicycle. Just make sure that you remember to bring it tonight when you come over and we eat pasta and ice cream. We can try to dance with gusto if you’ll wear one of the red roses from that shop.” Then they had a beer, and Natalie wrote a note that said “Dear Jeremy, I love your new grey vest with the pink flower on the chest. Please wear it to test if you are really as sexy as this mental image I have.” Natalie smiled and licked her lips. Reaching in for the red lipstick Dana accidentally left behind--

--she simultaneously folded the note and contemplated whether to make the bold move and slide it across the bar table. All this silly banter was kind of fun and flirty.

But as she pulled the red lipstick out of the light blue fanny pack that was not a purple rucksack, her mind drifted back to the other night. Dana wrapped in a copper-colored kimono, applying the creamy color to her lips, then reaching down to stroke Natalie's hair, and tuck the lily-patterned coverlet around her shoulders. The goodbye kiss, gold lipstick tube laid on the bedside table, and off she drifted to get dressed and leave. And Natalie, snuggling down in a reverie, with a wisp of Dana's freesia-scented perfume lingering on the pillow.

The clatter of a glass brought her back to the present, Jeremy gazing, slightly puzzled, across the table. Under one hand, the folded note; in the other, the metal tube. She blinked her eyes, slid the note back and crumpled it into the fanny pack, uncapped the lipstick, and smoothed it over her mouth in slow strokes.