Dance for me (Avery and Oliver)

Oliver made some sparse notes on the reactions of many patients as they watched Avery go through her show with the careless ease and grace of someone who was very much a professional. The patients seemed to, by and large, love it as he had expected that they might do.

Many of them would have been reaching and rushing to touch her by now but they were sat in chairs bolted to the floor while their hands and arms shackled to the arms of the chair, giving them just enough room to clap their hands.

Which many of them did.

Some not at the right moments but still, they were reacting and that was a big plus.

And her brother Henry was... angry. He hated that his 'wife' was being 'paraded around like a piece of meat' or some such rot. He had had to be gagged subtle before he even arrived in the room. As the show came to it's end, Oliver went backstage to greet Avery as the nuns and other employees helped the prisoners to leave,

"Well done out there Avery!" he told her with a small grin, "You might just have gotten a heck of a lot more girls to crush on you now."

Avery smiled softly as she finished her show, bowing to the audience, normally she would have done an encore but it seemed as if everyone wanted the patients to get to bed as soon as possible so, she didn't this one time. Oddly enough it felt a little strange to deviate from the norm, but, it meant that she would be able to go and talk to Oliver sooner.

She knew that he had been watching her rather intently during the show at some parts and she wanted to be able to know if he had liked it, or more importantly liked her and the clothes that she had been wearing. It seemed shallow, she knew but, it had been a long time since she had felt the way she felt for someone like she did for Oliver.

He'd been on her mind since the tour of the asylum, he protected her when she needed it, and had gotten close to her too.

Now backstage, Avery took a drink of water and grinned when she saw him coming backstage to talk to her. Biting her lip she was just glad that he liked her show, her singing, it was what she liked to do the most at the end of the day.

"Thank you Oliver!" she squeaked out happily "I'm so glad that you enjoyed the show, everyone did seem to like it I was worried."

Blushing a little bit Avery laughed, rubbing her hair softly; "Well I don't think I need anyone else having an inappropriate crush on me, my brother is quite enough I don't need girls following me around as well."

Oliver had been watching every part of the performance as intently as he could and he had to say that there wasn't a single thing he'd change about it all. It had been amazing in every respect, from her singing to her beautiful clothes and how they enhanced the beauty that she naturally possessed. He licked his lips a little bit when he saw her coming towards him. She was an amazing vision of beauty after all, there was no doubt about that,

"My pleasure I can assure you Avery!" he told her with a teasing wink before nodding in agreement, "Yeah pretty much everyone loved it I can tell you that right now for free darling... if they'd be allowed up they'd have mobbed you in their excitement I could tell!"

Seeing her blushing made Oliver blush slightly at the sight of something so incredibly cute and beautiful. When she mentioned not having any more inappropriate crushes on her, he smirked a little bit as they got closer to their destination of her dressing room,

"Oh there's more." he joked with a wink, "Men, women, young, old..."

He smirked a little bit as he held open the door for her,

"Men who think they're women and women who think they're men too."

Avery was always glad to get a good review for her show but this one had meant so much more to her because she wanted to help the people here forget for a few minutes, a few seconds, even for a moment or two what they had gone through, and what they had left to go through on their journey to getting better.

The idea of getting mobbed by a load of crazy people however, was one that she did not like much at all, and Avery was very glad that it hadn't happened.

"I'm just glad that everyone did love it." she stated with a soft hum, her cheeks still blushing, the delicate rose pink bright against her porcelain white skin "I'm very glad I did not get mobbed though, it sounds like the kind of thing that orderlies tend to resist around this place."

Entering her dressing room, Avery laughed and shook her head, dear me, she thought to herself, however was she going to deal with coming back to this place now that everyone wanted to mob her? It had been good that Gibbs, the man from last time, was not at her performance today, she didn't think he deserved it.

"Well I guess it's one of the drawbacks in a business like mine, people fall in love with ideals." she smiled softly, pouring a drink of her rum into a little glass "I know you are on duty but would you like a shot? In a celebratory toast of course."

Oliver had to say that from what he had seen this little show had done wonders for the morale of patient and staff alike. There was nothing like listening to some soothing female voice that seemed to resonate with the patients... and with him too. He loved the way that the acoustics made her voice seem all-encompassing, all around him. He licked his lips a little bit as he thought about it...

That voice with her soft, smooth, silky skin? Surely she might be the one!

No... NO! He couldn't think like that; not when he was out in public. In private he could think it. In private he could plot about what his response would be.

"Oh course, how could they not love it? You have an amazing singing voice." he complimented her with a grin before chuckling slightly as he stroked her cheek with one finger, "Yes well being mobbed occurs regularly when the attackers have no understanding of their own mortality in some cases... they will just seek to cause as much harm as possible."

Thankfully certain patients, like Gibbs, had gone missing. There wasn't that much more that needed to be shared on that subject. He had killed them so they would not be an embarrassment.

"Of course... and your beautiful appearance had nothing to do with it huh?" he teased her with a wink and he had some more work to do. Licking his lips a little bit, he nodded to her,

"I would love a shot!" he told her with a grin before he decided to relax a little bit, when he then just leaning against the wall to wait, "People fall in love with you as a person too you know? Not just because of your little transformation into an ideal. But now... lets have as much as we can get away with for tomorrow!"

Avery smiled softly when she heard that Oliver liked her singing voice, she had hoped he would like it because she loved to sing, it was one of the ways in which she could escape her lonliness sometimes and she was feeling lonely more often. Especially now that she had her sights set on someone that she probably would never have.

Not for more than a night anyway, and Avery was not that sort of a woman. Her thoughts on that subject were distracted however when she felt Oliver stroking her cheek with his finger, resisting the urge to kiss and nibble on it, Avery merely locked eyes with him, her green ones glistening in the light.

"Thank you, singing is my favourite pursuit." she stated with a small smile "I hope that no such things have been happening to you since my last visit, you seem to handle the patients so well, I think its because of your hard work that they enjoy things like my performance, I have never heard of it happening at Briarcliff before."

Pressing her cool hand against her cheek when he said that she was beautiful, Avery bit her lip and didn't know quite what to say. Simply pouring another shot, Avery held it out to Oliver and gently brushed her fingers against his own, drawing them back slowly as she handed him the drink.

"I think, people see me perform and they make me into what they need me to be." she stated with a soft smile "Which is okay, until you want someone to look past that and see who you really are. After that little statement, I think it's time for some alcohol!"

Grinning, Avery tipped the shot glass back and shivered pleasantly, her lips turning a softer shade of red as the alcohol burnt them.

Oliver looked into her eyes and he found it yet harder to look away from her and harder still to think of anything other than 'testing' her to make sure if she was what he was looking for or not. But what kept him from doing it was the fear. The fear that if he was wrong he'd be without a woman who was quickly becoming his best friend.

Fear of success too perhaps? What would he be without his search after all? It did kind of define him on many levels.

"It shows in your polished skill at the art." he told her with a small grin before chuckling slightly while scratching the back of his head in faint embarrassment, "Yes it's the first time and it's due to me pushing for it to happen but I like to think, prefer to think, that all this only happened because you wanted it to happen, because you were so willing to help."

So she was a little bit speechless was she? That was rather cute to be honest. He smirked slightly before nodding his head a little bit,

"What they need to see to feel better about themselves... the music and performance change to fit them." he agreed with a small smile before smiling again, "Well you have me and our good friend alcohol for that my dear."

Drinking the shot, he sighed happily and looked at Avery as she shivered from the alcohol... and for a moment she was strapped to a table, shivering from having the cold metal of his blade touching her throat, her eyes wide with fright and horror as he... no! Control it... not in public! He swallowed thickly and tried to ignore that it had happened.

Avery smiled softly and was a little bit bashful when he continued to compliment her skills with singing, if she had been any kind of famous she would have given him a private recital but she was certain that was something that he wouldn't be interested in in the slightest. Oliver didn't seem to want to accept the praise that she was giving him.

It was strange to her, because she wanted to show him just how much good work he did here at Briarcliff, for her brother...for her.

"How about we say it was down to each other, that way we can both calm down our red cheeks." she giggled a little bit, stroking her hair back from her face as she sat down in one of the chairs in the makeshift dressing room.

To be honest Avery was thinking that she wanted to ask Oliver out but she was simply too scared, a woman never did that these days it would be shameful to be honest. So all she had to do was hope that he would get himself together and maybe make another occasion for them to see each other later on.

Hearing him swallow thickly Avery wondered what was wrong.

"Are you alright? Do you have other patients to attend to or are you free to speak for a little while longer?" she asked with a shy smile "Of course we don't have the tour to take me on this time around but, I still wouldn't mind talking to you for a bit longer."

Oliver wanted to do no such thing! To calm the red in her cheeks would be to make her soft skin seem slightly less soft... and he didn't want that. He wanted her skin to remain as soft as he thought it was. Soft and cool to the touch was what he wanted that was for damn sure! Licking his lips slightly, not in an overtly sexual way but to wet his lips instead, he smirked a little bit at her and shook his head,

"And what if I like how you look with red in your cheeks?" he teased her with a wink before grinning slightly, "I'd love to be able to hear you sing in a more private setting too actually..."

He wanted to hear her sing, that was true. But at the same time... it was time for his question to be answered. It was time he learnt whether or not she was the right one for him. Licking his lips slightly again, he nodded to himself when she asked if he was alright,

"Well I'm just nervous is all Avery... how would you like to come over to my home for dinner tonight?" he asked her, his cheeks light red from both asking her to dinner and the idea of what he was going to be doing with her (to her). He chuckled a little bit, "I'd love to see you after work after all, to see more of you."

Oliver grinned slightly and nodded,

"But I still have time to talk so don't worry about that."

Avery couldn't help but grin widely when she heard that Oliver was going to ask her around to his house for dinner, it sounded so sophisticated and so lovely that she couldn't possibly say no. It was like he was reading her mind, she had just been thinking a few seconds ago how she wanted him to ask her to meet after work.

On a date.

There was nothing more intimate than going to someone elses house and she was all for it! Avery was going to have to make herself look very pretty in order to make her night a success. Maybe she would use her new moisturiser she had gotten? It was more musky, and sensual she believed.

"I would love to come over for dinner tonight! Shall I come to your address around 7ish?" she asked with a soft smile "I'll bring the wine." Avery winked.

Picking her bag up, she placed it over her shoulder and held her hand out for Oliver to shake as they parted ways;

"I don't wish to keep you from your patients, especially as I'm seeing you later on tonight, so, until then I'll say goodbye." she whispered.