Indecent Exposure
Property: Gargoyles Characters: Goliath x Elisa Words: 3,634 Fics are for fun, so no I do not edit these or rework them. At least right now. My focus is just trying to write again despite very little motivation. This also means writing every silly little self indulgent scenario I'm inspired to contemplate. And that's what this was! Let's say that this is maybe between the first and second season? Still early on but not like, early early on. XD
The only light on in Elisa's apartment at this moment seemed to be a lamp in her bedroom. Goliath made his way to the slanted glass, to-ceiling windows outside that room of her place. He had asked once about human dwellings and found they varied greatly in size based on a number of different factors. The place she lived seemed quite small to him, but he was to understand that for the location and setup of this apartment, it was actually quite nice. Windows like this definitely did seem pretty rare, at least for spaces designated for dwellings. But, it was awfully convenient for his clan to have a place to land outside and large windows to enter through.
He tapped on the window before sliding it open in the way she had shown him. "Elisa?" He called, as he dropped into the room with the light on. He didn't immediately see her. He did hear some sort of fan running from behind a door connected to the bedroom that he knew did not lead to her living room. That was fine, as he was in no hurry. It seemed likely she was at home as there was light coming from under that door and light on in her room.
Goliath turned his attention to the lamp, for it seemed to sit upon a bedside stand with a glass of water, a watch, some smaller items he didn't recognize, a piece of cloth that seemed to run in a circle, and a book. He picked this last item up: "Eyewitness Testimony: Civil and Criminal." It had several authors listed. He flipped it open and found that her bookmark wasn't very far into the book. Either it was a new book, or it hadn't caught her interest. He made sure the bookmark was firmly in place before flipping the pages to the start and beginning to read.
Goliath was just finishing the introduction to the novel when he heard a 'click.' He looked up from his reading to address Elisa, but words died on his lips as she emerged in the doorway.
She was mostly silhouette, given the light behind her was much brighter than that of the lamp in this corner of the room, which was opposite the door, but there was enough light for faint details to reveal that the figure in the doorway was naked, head bent to one side, a long piece of fabric being worked around the hair draped to Elisa's side.
Goliath's wings flew up as, startled, he made to block her from his view, knowing he had managed to violate her privacy. The lamp crashed into the wall as his wings opened and he turned away. He heard a startled cry behind him, but he didn't turn toward it, knowing what more he could see if he did. Instead he focused on recovering the lamp, half fallen between the corner of the room and the nightstand, looking like it may already be broken, but the light was still on.
Goliath kept his wings partially raised, as much as the space would allow, to be a clear visual indicator that he was not looking her way as he fumbled the lamp back into place and began scooping up some of the smaller items from the stand that had been knocked down by the shifting of the lamp.
"Goliath?!" Elisa's voice was breathless and startled.
"I'm sorry!" Goliath said, closing his eyes and bracing his hand against the opposite wall. He looked up in exasperation and noted that parts of the windows, that didn't have the glare of the lamp and the room beyond, reflected the rest of the room. He dropped his eyes immediately, feeling a little dizzy. "I called out to you when I came in, but... I realize now you must not have heard me over that fan."
He thought he heard a slight, breathless chuckle before he heard Elisa say, "You gave me quite a scare there. I wasn't expecting anyone obviously. Lucky I didn't have my gun with me; I was ready to shoot." And this laugh sounded more natural.
He heard her shuffling around, some drawers opening and closing. Needing to know what was happening behind him caused him to lift his eyes to the reflections in the window without thinking. Elisa's back was to him now, and the cloth hung loosely around her, covering her lower half but showing most of her back. He couldn't make out what she was doing except that she was hunched over slightly like she was looking down. He lowered his eyes again. He hadn't meant to look. It was a difficult instinct to fight, not keeping an eye on movement behind him.
Goliath cleared his throat. "I should leave." But he didn't move immediately. To leave would mean to go back through the window and for the moment, that was where her reflection still was.
"Goliath, it's fine. Just give me a moment; I'm almost decent."
"Decent?" He asked, for he saw nothing about her actions that would deem her indecent. He was the one who had intruded.
"Covered up." She said in that way she did when she was explaining how a word was used colloquially without going into a long explanation. "There." She said, and he lifted his eyes to her reflection. It was even harder to make out fine details there than it had been when she was silhouetted by the room behind her previously, but it did seem she was wearing something at least.
"You don't mind if I turn around then?" He clarified.
She laughed as she assured him it was safe-another odd phrasing, but he believed he caught her meaning well enough not to question.
He turned around, and it seemed she had resumed the activity she had been doing as she came out of the room and rubbing down her hair with the cloth. She now had clothes on, but somehow he still felt like he was intruding. He'd never seen her in so little. Humans seemed to put a lot of importance on covering up their bodies, but she did not seem uncomfortable in the black, somewhat reflective shorts that seemed... well quite short. And the top, while covering her torso, only seemed to cling to her by little more than strings, with the neck looping low enough to reveal cleavage. And the way the fabric laid on her body seemed different as well.
"I was taking a shower. Between the water and the fan, it's hard to hear much outside of the bathroom." Elisa explained, finishing on the ends of her hair with the cloth. As she did so, she stepped back into the bathroom for a moment. "It's odd, I've never thought to ask you all about showering. You guys function like... well, like you're not magic. But I think you must be." As she emerged from the bathroom, she was without the piece of fabric she'd been using before and was using a much smaller piece that appeared the same fabric as her clothes to push back her hair from falling into her face. He'd seen similar hair pieces on women before, but they usually seemed to stop behind the ears and be of a rigid material.
"What do you mean?" Goliath asked, though he found himself distracted now by something of a very different nature. Another thing he had noticed about human females was that their breasts, while very similar in relative size and shape to female gargoyles, seemed to have a different property. They didn't... move the same. There was a rigidity to them. But suddenly Elisa's were moving like those of gargoyle women.
"I haven't heard any mention of needing a shower or a bath from you guys since you've been in the clock tower. I think the sun must refresh you over night. That seems awfully handy." She stopped as she reached the other side of her bed, and as he opened his mouth to reply to her assertion, he found himself stopping at the expression she gave him. He realized, with sudden intense embarrassment, that she had caught his gaze. He searched her face for discomfort as he tried to figure out what to say. He couldn't read the expression. Discomfort is not how he'd describe it. Much of it was amusement, but he did see some color on her cheeks which he thought probably did mean he was making her uncomfortable.
He looked down at her nightstand as an excuse to look away and noticed the book. He touched it. "Light reading before bed?"
Elisa sat down on the corner of her bed, leaving space between them.
"I try to keep learning." She said with a shrug. "You know Goliath, if you have any questions for me, I am always happy to answer what I can."
This caused him to look at her again. She was offering to him to address what had just happened but leaving him with an out. He didn't know why he was so embarrassed all of a sudden. Curiosity was natural, and there was a lot he didn't know. Elisa had always offered to fill in gaps where she could. In his previous world, it did not matter much what he did not know of humans or their ways. But now, if they were to survive in this world, humans were all they had for their communities, if they were to have any outside of their small group.
He gave a nod and turned more toward her, fighting off his discomfort at broaching topics that seemed taboo. "The clothes you are wearing." He started, but found he wasn't even sure what the question was he was trying to ask, or how to ask it. This was not embarrassment, just a lack in knowledge about human norms.
"My pajama's." Elisa offered with a nod.
"Pajamas?" Goliath questioned. This felt like a route that would get him answers.
"They're clothes we wear to bed. Well, that's normally how it's thought of, but honestly, many of us wear pajamas as soon as we get home. They're the most comfortable things we wear." She gave a wry grin. "If we decide to wear anything at all. Many people don't wear anything to go to sleep."
Which begged the question, if he had not interrupted her, would she have gone to sleep as he found her? Had she put these on for his sake? And if so, had she done so for his comfort or hers? He ignored these questions for the ones more relevant to interactions with humans more generally.
"So modesty rules do not apply in the home." It was a question, but he made it a statement to demonstrate that he was starting to understand, and that the conversation was going in the direction of providing answers to the things he was curious about.
Elisa gave a shrug, which with new revelations, did make Goliath uncomfortable. He tended to see the differences between gargoyles and humans more than he noticed their similarities, which did not seem to be the case for all of his clan. One of the more distinguishing differences to him when interacting with the women, was this oddness about the breasts. It wasn't like he ever stared. It's just a thing he noticed once, and then they meant nothing more to him than the color of one's hair or width of their shoulders. But suddenly the similarities stood out to Goliath as he acutely felt how long it had been since he had looked upon a woman he found appealing in a more sensual manner. He could never deny his attraction to Demona, but now seeing her brought so many painful feelings that there was no room for something as simple as attraction.
As he wrangled with these thoughts, Elisa had explained the various settings and modes of dress common among humans. He was able to gather peripherally that he had always encountered Elisa when she was dressed for work or a practical night out and about. That pajamas, or PJs as she'd started to refer to them, were one of the most casual of attires humans wore, and the degree of how revealing they run tended to depend on the relationships they had with the people they lived with, if any.
It made a certain amount of sense to him. He had just assumed humans were much more modest than gargoyles, and he would have to consider this new information. It certainly made some things he saw often on the streets make much more sense.
"Something I said seems to have made you uncomfortable." Elisa suddenly said, and Goliath realized that as she finished an explanation, they had lapsed into silence.
Goliath looked back at her and saw an expression of concern. "No. Not at all. I am merely... thinking. I am seeing that I have made many assumptions without realizing. I... understood less than I realized."
"Is that upsetting?" Elisa asked, drawing her legs up and wrapping her arms around them. It was a casual movement, but something about the movement or her posture belied a sudden discomfort she hadn't had earlier.
"No. Certainly not." Goliath replied, shaking his hand. He looked about the room. He had the urge suddenly to not seem to take up so much space, but his choices seemed to be to sit on the floor or on the bed, and after everything she had just said about homes and bedrooms and sleeping being the most intimate locations, he felt to sit on the bed might make her further uncomfortable. "I am more concerned, after what I learned, about your comfort. Does it... is it upsetting for you that I am here rather than your living room? That I saw you earlier naked?"
Elisa laughed, and that tension she'd had a moment ago seemed to ease. Her uplifted legs moved to a crossed position, and she leaned forward. "What would you do if it did?" There was a playful note to the statement that suggested she was not, but humor sometimes masked that which made us most uncomfortable.
"Well, I could certainly leave immediately. Perhaps that is what I should have done right away. I... don't know about the other, but if there is anything I could do that would... ease any discomfort, I would hear it."
Elisa chuckled at that, and Goliath found himself once again diverting his gaze. He found himself desperate to know what had changed about Elisa that she... moved different all of a sudden, but he had already stumbled into crashing into various sensitive topics. Though it was a relief at how remarkable Elisa was taking it. He wondered how grossly he had overestimated human modesty practices.
"What?" Elisa asked, her tone serious again. "Something keeps making you uncomfortable. Is it too strange seeing me like this? I can put on more clothes if I've managed to make you uncomfortable. Perhaps I’ve assumed too much about a lack of modesty among Gargoyles based on the attire I've seen?" There was genuine curiosity in her voice, but also a hint of frustration.
"No." Goliath assured her. "We do of course cover sensitive flesh, but it is mostly out of comfort than modesty."
"Then it's to see a human naked?" Elisa asked, and again there was something in her tone he couldn't quite interpret. "You have such an appreciation for the arts that I assumed you would have at least seen nakedness in art and photography."
"I have. Yes." He interrupted. "It's none of those things." He sighed. "I apologize. You have done nothing wrong. I am the intruder here. You are not making me uncomfortable. I simply find that I am confused, but I do not need to understand everything."
"Goliath, where else are you going to find answers to your questions? I don't know everything, but it's not like you can ask your books a question and get an answer. I at least could ask a librarian and find books for you. Look. I promise, I'll tell you if you ask me a question I don't want to answer, but you have a right to understand this world you live in, and I've offered to do what I can to help you. If I don't want to answer myself, if it makes me uncomfortable, I can try to find books on the topic for you."
Goliath sighed and readjusted his wings, uncomfortable. Elisa pushed some hair that had fallen over her shoulder back. She made to tuck it behind her ear, a gesture he'd seen from her often, but of course the piece in her hair already held the hair back from her ears.
"I don't know how to ask about it without questioning you... you're," He gestured helplessly at her chest and then jerked his hand back, realizing how brusque that must appear. It was embarrassing, but a relief when Elisa let out a burst of laughter at the gesture.
"Boobs? You want to know about boobs? Goliath, gargoyle women also have them. Or at least Demona does. Weren't you and Demona intimate before she went... well, you know." She shook her head in a manner that suggested she meant to say Demona was crazy.
Goliath shook his head as if to clear it. "Gargoyle women yes, they do have breasts. But they... move differently than yours. Or, I thought they did." He felt a bit light headed. This was not a conversation he wanted to have, but yet he found he was desperate to understand.
Elisa tilted her head and gave him a confused look. "I'm not sure I follow. I can't say I've noticed anything notably different, though of course I haven't seen Demona's naked breasts. Is that what you mean? You have referenced your kind lay eggs, perhaps gargoyle women don't have nipples?" Her voice was pure curiosity, but after a beat, he saw color rise in her cheeks again. He was actually comforted by the sight. He realized that part of his uneasiness was how much more composed Elisa had been than himself through all this, when it seemed to him their roles should be reversed.
"They have nipples." He assured her. "But when a gargoyle woman walks, her breasts move with the movement. When she laughs, they move. It's not something that seemed to happen with human women, only..."
Elisa had made a sound of understanding. "Mine have" she finished for him. She got up and walked to the set of drawers along the far wall from her bed. She pulled something off the top and tossed it to him. It appeared to be a top designed for a woman, only it looked like it was intended only to cover the breasts. He looked at it for a moment, then looked at Elisa again and raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Typically before leaving home, we put one of these on. It's called a bra. It keeps our breasts in place. It can get uncomfortable to do a lot of physical activity without something holding the girls in place. It also prevents our nipples from being visible through our clothes." She gave a shrug. "For some reason, it's considered inappropriate to let them be seen in public."
"But your men have nipples." Goliath commented on the discrepancy while setting the bra aside.
"Yeah. It's pretty dumb." Elisa said, returning back to the bed and sitting back down, this time one leg crossed under her. She gave a sudden laugh and shook her head. "All this time, and you thought our boobs were just stiff." Goliath gave her an embarrassed look, and she shook her head in response. "No it makes sense! How would you know? It's crazy how seamlessly you all have become such a normal part of my life that I forget how strange sometimes mine must be to you."
Finally, Goliath sat on the bed. It bowed a bit under his weight, but seemed to hold fine. The tension finally had seemed to evaporate enough that it didn't seem like an invasive gesture anymore. "It has been a learning curve." He admitted. "And I can only thank you for your candor. I think even among gargoyle women, to ask them about their bodies as I did yours would not have been very welcome."
Elisa just smiled at him then shook her head. "I suppose you dropped in just for the peak show then?"
"What? Oh no! I came to see if you wouldn't want to meet us in the park tomorrow. Lexington has finished another project and wants to show us. And I believe Broadway wants to ask you to track down some movie or other that he wants to see."
Elisa smiled. "I'll be there at dusk when you all wake up tomorrow. I have a pretty busy night coming up with some stake-outs we have to do, though I'd love to see what Lex has gotten up to. But I can check in with you all and see what movies Broadway's heard about now.
Goliath nodded and stood back up. "We will be pleased to see you. Next time I drop in, I will make sure to announce myself clearer and wait for you in your living room."
Elisa chucked and nodded. "Have a good night Goliath.”
Goliath gave her a smile and a short bow before bidding her a good night as well and taking his leave.
He supposed there was a lot he should consider now and think on, but as he took to the night sky, he found he didn't particularly care to keep contemplating on what he'd learned. It was good to know, but it was just enough that he did.