Judging from the cover, I'd love to read the book

[cowboycop]

Who: Jake Marshall and Re-l Mayer
When: Tuesday, April 17th
Where: SPPD headquarters
Summary: Jake has been affected by the Seven Deadly Sins Plot with Lust for a certain raven-haired beauty. Re-l's been affected with Wrath. Things end in hilariously horrible consequences.
Warnings: Semi-forced kissing (from Jake) and physical violence (from Re-l).

The morning before, Jake had found himself in quite a predicament. He'd found his thoughts slipping to Re-l more often than he would want to ever admit. But it had been much stranger than his normal, fleeting thoughts before he went on with his work. Not only did he find himself distracted for longer and longer periods of time, but he found it harder to think about mundane stuff. Simple things like the blue sky were difficult to ponder, without thinking of how it matched Re-l's blue eyeshadows she was so fond of. Passing by store windows on his patrol had been hard to - looking just for a millisecond on a porcelain teapot made him think of Re-l's skin being just as smooth and soft. And when he'd been passing through AGI territory?

... well. Jake had turned as red as a tomato imagining a particular act involving Re-l, and had quietly passed by while hiding his eyes under his hat.

But today was different. Today he didn't notice anything peculiar or out of the ordinary. Mostly because, ever since he'd woken up that morning, he'd been thinking about Re-l. His coffee that morning had reminded him of that one time he'd brought coffee in ridiculously early for a case they were all working on and Re-l had almost touched his hand when he'd offered her a cup. His desk reminded him of the time he'd slipped a Valentine's card and a present onto Re-l's desk, on separate spots so that she wouldn't suspect anything. And his radio reminded him of her voice quietly humming along with a few of the songs she knew as she passed by.

Jake didn't have time to think about the implications when he was busy imagining Re-l smiling at him, or replaying a memory of this or that, or looking around the office to see if Re-l had come back yet. He had mistaken his thoughts lately for being lovestruck, but now he had no way of controlling them - his conscious had sort of muted itself in the back of his mind, and allowed his impulsive side to emerge. And unfortunately for both him and the police force, impulsiveness made you stupid, as was proven by his next thought.

Today, he was going to tell her how he felt, somehow. Now, he just had to find her.

Comments

[awakenings]

She didn't think she'd ever see Jake, of all people, stoop to this. Re-l was an attractive woman and this was something she knew. She, like many other men and women on the force and outside of it, would be subjected to catcalls, wandering eyes, and quite a few people would try to sneak a wandering hand in there once or twice. The latter would either be hauled in for harassment or would break their wrists when she threw them to the ground for their behavior. She was no stranger to the looks people gave her or to people's opinions on her beauty. She was called pretty almost as often as she was called a bitch.

But to hear it from Jake, in the same sort of drawl others gave her... It put her off guard. She actually looked almost startled at the compliment, especially when he looked her over. His entire stance was relaxed, like a come-on. She frowned. "That's a joke, right?" It had to be. He wouldn't do something this dumb.

And where she might have given him some slack, maybe smiled and laughed it off because he was a friend, she immediately felt anger. "You didn't really come in here to sweet talk me, did you?"

[cowboycop]

Jake simply shook his head, keeping his eyes on nothing but her. Their surroundings didn't bother him, nor did they get any attention. "Ain't a joke, darlin'. Why, I reckon you're the prettiest gal I ever did see." Apparently he would, because his words were spoken with utter sincerity, if he suddenly got a tiny bit embarrassed and tried to laugh it off. While normally he would be reserved, today was completely different. He was in love and he was happy to let her know it.

Again, he didn't notice her anger rising, only that she was still speaking to him. Even her stoic glare seemed to only make Jake find her more attractive. "Naw, I ain't that great at butterin' up any gal 'cept my mama. Jus' wanna talk, that's all." But his mind was urging him to be closer to her with every second, and without a clue as to why he was doing it, his hand reached out to touch hers, as if trying to hold it. The touch was gentle, nothing forceful, but to Re-l it was likely something to make her even more angry.

Meanwhile, Jake seemed the calmest and happiest guy, if ridiculously lovestruck, in his mannerisms and his speech. "Y'know, you've got a real pretty voice. It's nice every time I hear it. I reckon no matter what you say, it'd still sound like a song."

[awakenings]

The prettiest girl. Something stabbed into her chest, something she couldn't properly decipher. Maybe it was anger, maybe it was pride... She didn't know. She did, however, know how she felt when people tried to butter her up like that, regardless of whether they considered it "true" or not. Re-l had spent a long time back home being called pretty by people who were condescending. Here, he wasn't just saying she was beautiful because he thought she was. He was saying it because he was feeling something for her. And that left her uneasy.

"It sounds like you are," Re-l murmured, an edge of annoyance still in her voice. His hand brushed hers and she didn't quite recoil from it, though she was left uncomfortable there, uncertain whether she wanted to order him to leave or if she should just let it go.

She frowned. "Jake..." she warned. "You're not sounding like yourself."

If she didn't know any better, she'd say he sounded like a lovesick puppy. Or like Vincent Law.

"Why are you...? What is all of this about?"