If Only Until Morning

“Angie, Angie, Angie!”

“Yes, Matt?”

The shorter two of the Penny Dreadful boys skidded to a halt next to the table where their singer and her boyfriend were eating breakfast. “Have ye seen Jess, Pen?” Sean asked breathlessly. “We can’na find ‘im anywhere.”

“Where did you leave him?” Angie queried calmly, sipping her tea. Ryan snickered at the three of them. Somehow this didn’t seem unusual.

Matt and Sean looked at each other in frenetic thought. “Last time I saw him was last... night. With... ” Matt trailed off, pushing his black hair away from his forehead with a sigh. “Don’t tell me they’re still there.”

Angie grinned across at Ryan. “D’you think Pete’s awake?”

“Pete’s always awake,” he replied with a wry smile.

A group of them piled into a borrowed van and returned to Angels & Kings, where they’d all had a grand old time the night before. Some grander than others. Sitting in the back, Penelope began to snicker, and it grew until her loud laughter filled the whole vehicle. “Wot?” Sean asked, turning around bemusedly. She just shook her head and laughed again.

Fifteen minutes later, Angie was still laughing. “What the fuck is so funny?!” Matt cried in frustration as they stopped in the parking lot. His aggravation amused everyone else as they piled out of the car.

Beth, eyes fixed on the sleeping giant on the couch, shimmied back into her skirt from the night before. Her clothes, her skin, felt unclean and the first thing she’d do when she figured out the way back to the hotel was take a nice long shower.

“Trying to be sneaky, are we?” She turned to find her redheaded friend leaning in the doorway with her arms crossed, keys in hand and smirk on her face. “Trill won’t like that.”

“Oh hush,” Beth retorted, throwing a heel at her. Gathering up the rest of her things, she made to stride past Angie into the hall, but she caught her arm, shaking her head solemnly. After a moment of mental communication, Beth sighed. “People downstairs.” Angie nodded. “Well then, you’d better have brought jeans, otherwise I’m heading down there for all the world to assume.”

Angie swung her knapsack off her shoulder and handed it to Beth, who went down the hall to the bathroom. Instead of following immediately, Angie crossed the room and leaned down to her guitarist’s ear, placing a hand on his bare shoulder. “You awake, love?”

“Yep,” he replied, opening his brown eyes. The bassist smiled and traipsed out, coming to rest against the wall just as Beth stepped out in jeans and a t-shirt.

“So?” Angie prompted teasingly, walking with her down the hall. Her blonde companion raised an eyebrow, at which she grinned. “Did you two have fun?”

Beth scoffed. “You’re interrupting my escape of awkward morning afters,” she pointed out. “You do not get to ask for details.”

“Didn’t ask for details.” She pulled off her striped hoodie and held it out. “Oh, and you might want to put this on. I can spy four bite marks at casual glance.” Beth grumbled to herself as she pulled it on and the pair descending the stairs.

Upon seeing the group of males waiting around, she paused at the foot of the stairs with a scowl and pushed past them all in exiting the building. A few seconds later, Jesse whistling hopped down the stairs behind Angie and stopped when everyone stared in silence. After a moment, he cast a glance at Angie, who grinned. “Front door,” she advised.

Kissing her hand, Jesse jogged out and slowed when he saw that Beth was attempting to hail a taxi. He strolled up behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle. “Not thinking of leaving, were you?” he asked with a grin.

Beth blinked at him over her shoulder. “Not thinking of it, no,” she replied, waving her hand high in the air again.

Jesse chuckled. “Now why would you be running away from little old me?”

“It isn’t running away.” She gave him a disparaging look, thinking, Especially from you. “It's finding a location with a shower to get massive amounts of styling product out of my hair.”

“And after that would you be sticking around or finding some means of disappearing forever?”

She blinked at him, thoughts of a cab temporarily forgotten. “I’m slow. It’s morning, I have a hangover, and I need coffee. What the hell do you mean?”

He smiled again and combed his fingers through her stiff hair. “I mean, are you staying for the rest of tour or heading back to Chicago seeing as Pen and Ryan seemed pretty cozy again?” he explained.

“I currently have no cash and you currently have no merch girl,” Beth replied, shivering as his fingers grazed her neck. “So I guess I’m stuck. Suspicious man, aren’t you?”

Jesse leaned over and planted a kiss on her cheek. “J'apprends rapidement.” Stepping out from behind her, he stepped into the street and raised his hand. A few seconds later, a cab slowed to a stop next to him. He opened the back door and swept a bow. “Your chariot, milady.”

Beth smothered her smile as she slid in and blinked in surprise as Trill slid in beside her. “What?” he asked with a grin. “I need a shower too.” She turned her head out the window, internally freaking out. Did he mean together or separately? Jesse studied her placid expression for a while, given away only by her twitching blink. “Apart if you’re so worried.”

She shot him a weak glare. “I’m well aware of my body, and I’m not afraid of it. Problem?” Jesse shook his head, smiled playing on his lips. "Good."

The rest of the ride to the hotel was silent; when they pulled up, Beth bolted into the hotel into the elevator, combing her fingers through her hair. Jesse took his time paying the driver and ambling his way up to their room.

By the time he reached the eleventh floor, Beth was already in the shower, having dropped her clothes on the floor. Jesse sat down on the bed casually, kicked off his shoes, and pulled off his socks. After a few minutes of simply sitting, he stripped off the rest of his clothes and knocked on the bathroom door.

Without waiting for a response, he walked in and shut the door. “Want some help?” he offered.

Pause. “If you'd like to wrestle with a thick unruly mass of hair, be my guest,” Beth said over the noise of the water. “Honestly I’d be glad for the help, because apparently I’m having no luck. Whatever the hell Aero gave me apparently has cement as an ingredient.”

With a laugh Jesse slid into the shower. “They are insane, those hair product people.”

Beth smiled over her shoulder at him. “This is why you don’t let them get their hands on you.” Jesse, however, was only half-listening, more interested in trailing a finger down her side after a droplet of water. She shivered. “Cheap, Trill. Very cheap move.”

He beamed innocently. “Take what you can.”

She leaned lightly against him, fitting her body to his with a smile. “Oh,” she murmured, “Don’t think I won’t.”