Small Cottage

"We're dating now. So, go turn the heater on for me, bastard."

"Go do it yourself, bitch," he joked. "Make me a sandwich while you're at it."

"Okay, if we're embracing stereotypes, why don't you get me pregnant then go off and pick up girls at a bar? Oh, wait, that's not a stereotype, that's how you actually are." Serenity said, in a half-joking, half insulting way.

"Sure, see you." Elroy got up out of the chair and slipped on his shoes. "What time's dinner?" he said as he headed for the door.

"Seven thirty. Hey, I wasn't being serious. Don't actually go pick up girls at a bar."

Elroy returned to the chair. "I know, stupid." He didn't bother removing his shoes again.

"Oh. Right." She supposed she had ruined it, then. "Well.. I suppose you could use those wasted pick-up lines on me."

"Lines? Elroy Astor's never used 'lines'."

"What do you do, pick them up like a magnet? Well, I'll tell you, I've never had to use lines either. They came running to me when I walked out onto the streets."

"You were a whore, of course they would."

"Well, that still counts, right?"

He shrugged. "Could. Either way, for me, I think it was the whole bad-boy thing."

"Oh, I could tell you what it was, and that was not it. You weren't even remotely nice. Only crazies liked you for that. Honestly, I think it was the closet. There were sex drugs in there, I swear."

He smirked. "No, not at all. Plus, quite a few of them admitted that that was the whole draw."

"Well, maybe it was. Don't let it get to your head."

"I'm mostly over it now, actually."

"Well, I don't believe that for a minute. What else is there for you to do except be a bad boy?"

Elroy sighed. "Conform, I suppose."

Serenity sat there in silence for a long time. "I don't like that. I don't like that at all.. Stop at once."

"Not like, become-a-mindless-robot conform, I mean just..." His voice trailed off as he tried to think of the explanation he wanted. "... following a few more moral laws."

"Which ones are you talking about?" Serenity said with a pout.

"Not screwing everyone in sight."

"Well, I'm in sight. I don't like this new conformity."

"Aside from you, of course."

"That's not as bad as I thought, but what about badness? Rebelling? You need to be more dangerous and fun. I'm bored just looking at you. Don't follow any other rules, will you? Oh, and buy a motorcycle while you're at it."