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He Prefers White Lilies over Roses	By : Kuronohime Category: 1 through F > Dexter Views: 7281 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Done for purely non monetary purposes. I do not own Dexter or the franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. All characters © Showtime network

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Ah, the glorious morning after. Astor had been awake some while, listening to the low guttural noises that came out of Dave. For a few minutes he kept completely silent to just burst out into giant snores in his sleep. Astor had barely gotten a wink of sleep during the night and was just waiting for an appropriate time to roll him off her bed. When the sun was high enough for Astor to figure it was nearing mid-day, she not-so-gently nudged Dave by his shoulders.

The detective groggily aroused from his stupored rest and obviously struggled to figure where he was at.

“Mornin', lover.” Astor cooed at him, trying to suppress her evident repugnance.

Dave's hazy gaze focused on Astor and he gave her an lazy smile.

“Is it morning already?”

Astor gave a dry chuckle. “More like afternoon.” She gave his stubbed chin a small peck. “Time for you to rise and emit light, honey.” Hoping he'd get the gist, she got off the bed and began picking up her clothes that had been scattered all over the floor.

Dave took his time to stretch his arms and languidly scratched his tingling chin. “It was the nightingale and not the lark” he teased her, but Astor really wasn't in the mood for frolicking and didn't yearn any company for her breakfast.

She grabbed his t-shirt from the ground, rolled into a ball and threw it at his face. “But alas, the night truly is over and I need to take a shower.”

Dave chuckled and hatched from the comfy cocoon of Astor's blankets. When he wobblingly made his way to his trousers laying across the room, Astor quickly gathered that he wasn't quite yet sober.

“Sweet thing,” Astor softly said to him “I need your car keys, since you are not in a state of minimum required condition to operate a motor vehicle.”

Dave didn't put up a fight and obligingly handed her the keys.

When they were decent enough, Astor and Dave walked downstairs. No-one was home to Astor's disappointment. She would have loved to see the look on Dexter's face upon seeing his best friend walk down with tousled hair and his t-shirt on backwards. Her companion however was visibly relieved that they managed to get away without anyone seeing them.

When they reached the car, Astor asked him where he lived.

“Yeah, it's just down the street.”

Astor raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Dave. “And you brought a car? Don't tell me you're one of those guys who won't walk a trip if its longer in length than their car.”

Dave uttered a laugh and shrugged in an apologetic manner. “Something like that.”

When Astor had safely deliver the detective home and ended up promising that they'd ought to “do it again” she walked back to Dexter's, having some much needed quiet time to herself.

The walk was pleasant, it eased the subtle throbbing in her temples and refreshed her spirit as well.

When she was finally back at the house, first she noticed that Dexter's station wagon was parked at the end of the driveway. A small elation gave more spring to her steps. Harrison was back home.

When Astor opened the front door, she heard little murmurs coming from the kitchen and soon little footsteps followed. A little tuft of fair amber appeared from the corner of the hallway and was followed by a petite little boy of 10 years old.

“Tory!” Came an exited exclamation out of the little boy as he ran into Astor's waiting arms. Astor squeezed her little brother for her dear life. Whatever issues she had with Dexter, she was sure to leave her younger brothers out of it. She adored her smaller siblings. They meant the world to her and she would always guard their happiness from all her ugly inner doubts, cynicism and anger. Even though the happy facade sometimes tore her at inside.

“Hey, you handsome little runt!” Astor giggled and lifted her little brother up in the air. “Ugggh! Someone's been home at dinner time!” She winked at him when it took her some effort to lift his legs off the ground. She ruffled his hair and Harrison playfully slapped her hand away.

“You should eat lots of eggs and fish. They will make you stronger!” Harrison suggested after noticing that she struggled to heave him up. A notion that was a bit childlike until Harrison continued. “Eggs contain all nine essential amino acids. You shouldn't worry about the cholesterol in yolk, the myth of eating food high in cholesterol causing issues with cholesterol metabolism is debunked. As for the fish, I'd suggest...”

“Okay, okay, okay!” Astor had to abate her brother's enthusiasm. “I get it brainiac, you know your stuff!” She added a little more softly “Do they teach all this is school?”

The little boy gave an earnest look of exhilaration. “No! I read it on Pedic Verbatim. Dad subscribed it for me! It's full of cool stuff! I'll lend them to you if you want to!”

Harrison was super sharp for someone his age, somewhat borderline idiot savant. Certainly more academically oriented and knowledgeable than what she had been in his age. Hell, he could probably have kicked her ass in Trivial Pursuit already three years ago with that encyclopedic head of his.

The man aforementioned appeared behind them and interrupted their conversation. “Pizza should be here in fifteen minutes. I took the liberty to order in your behalf, Astor.”

Instinctively Astor's mouth tightened to a straight line even though she tried her hardest to suppress her dislike in front of Harrison. But she couldn't help but to feel like that man was a dark cloud that enshrouded her breathing space whenever they were in the same room. All the glee of boinking his best friend evaporated like a droplet of water at a fire's scorch. Dexter was no idiot. If he hadn't seen what had went down last night, he must have heard. Yet his face betrayed no emotion, his tone was as non-descriptive and flat as ever. Like whatever she would or would not do meant nothing.

He didn't wait or really expect her to say anything as he reached for a bowl that was sitting on the hallway chest. A dull clatter was sound as he picked up a set of keys from the bowl.

“Could you look after Harrison for a while? I need to run some errands.” Dexter asked and fiddled with his car keys still maintaing an eye-contact with her. Then, for a split second, there was almost like a suppressed sneer on his face. Something that went by so quickly Astor had to question if it was her imagination once again.

“I'm sure you'll enjoy your meal more if I'm not here... complaining about the lacking use of napkins. Which I do hope you'll use.” It was almost like a jab at her refusing to eat with him because she couldn't muster up her appetite in his company.

“The pizza delivery guy should be here in a short while” At the following words Dexter's eyes bore into Astor's. “Otherwise please remember to not open the door for anyone. Unless you're expecting company.”

That was definitely a jab at her nightly company but Astor didn't as much as blink her eyes.

He smiled endearingly at Harrison and turned to leave. As he was already closing the door behind him, he reminded that he wouldn't be gone for long. There was a muted clunk as the door shut.

***

It took almost exactly fifteen minutes when the doorbell rang and Astor received their pizzas.

“Salami is for me!” Harrison hollered from the kitchen. Astor tipped the delivery guy and cracked the lid on the boxes to see which one was which. The salami infused fumes hit her face as she peaked inside the first box. She was curious to see what Dexter had ordered for her. Probably something nasty. Like a chopped liver pizza with no cheese and pine cone toppings. When she cracked the lid on the second box she was surprised. Pizza Margherita. Her favourite. She was so stunned for a while Harrison grew impatient and came over to snatch his own box. After standing still for a while like an idiot, Astor finally followed suit to the kitchen.

They sat down around the kitchen island, enjoying their food in silence – not bothering to use napkins, of course.

“So,” Astor began while sucking the sweet, sweet pizza grease off her fingers and wiping the residues on the side of her jeans, “how's life been with Dex?”

Harrison burped loudly and grinned with tomato sauce painted teeth. “Not complaining. Dad's pretty busy with work, but whenever he has a day off, we do lots of stuff.”

“Okay, what kind of stuff are you into nowadays?” She continued their idle talking.

“Dunno. Like baseball and going around town for exhibitions for stuff.”

“Sounds... Fascinating” Astor replied absent-mindedly and thought about how she should go shopping for a primer that she was running out of. Hopefully they carried her cruelty-free brand in the nearby stores.

“Yeah. Last week we went to this open museum on Coral Way. They had these huuuuge mechanic installments, lots of lights and cool stuff. Like robots and all this futuristic stuff. I even got to try out their r/c robodog!”

“Mmm-hmn” Astor nodded with her mouth full of pizza. While she'd be out, she should definitely check out some of the local gyms. No time to slack off her training while she was here.

“Dad's also taken me to the office a couple of times. I asked him to show me his work. Of course he can't but he's shown me some cool supplies and tools they use for analyzing blood patterns.”

Now Astor's curiosity peaked and Harrison had her undivided attention.

“He's shown you blood analysis? Isn't that kind of... advanced stuff for someone your age?”

Her little brother shrugged his shoulders. “Well, I find it interesting. And dad doesn't think I'm too young to know that stuff. He knows I'm not your run-of-the-mill snot-nose who only plays Playstation and doesn't intellectually comprehend anything more arduous than what an offside means in a game of ball.”

An involuntary snort escaped Astor's mouth. She knew perfectly well that her little brother was not run-off-the-mill-anything. Majorly due to his origins. It was depressing but also somewhat comical how her 10-year-old brother managed to be her most intriguing conversational partner since she had come to Miami.

“So. Have you heard of any gruesome and thrilling cases?” Astor urged her brother to tell more. Eventually trying to lead him to shine more light on the stuff Astor had seen around the house. With a razor knife sharp mind like Harrison's – if there was anything iffy going on, he'd know. If only he trusted his sister enough to spill the beans.

“Oh yeah. Loads. Severed bodies, serial killings, crimes of passion, ritualistic murders.” He took a big bite out of his slice of pizza, his reminiscing seemingly not having an effect in his appetite. “But I don't want to spoil your night of sleep.” He precociously mumbled with his mouth full of pepperoni topped flatbread.

Astor nearly choked on her glass of water and spilled some on her sleeve as she suffered from a fit of cough-mixed laughter and tried to hold her arm in front of her mouth.

“Oh, yah? I think I can take it, Sherlock.” She riled him.

The young boy looked pensive for a while and finally put down his slice of junk food.

“Okay.” He breathed deep and looked Astor dead in the eye before continuing grandstandingly.

“There was this guy. A computer programmer working in a large gaming company to remain unmentioned. He had a wife and three kids, not that much older than me.” Harrison began his gruesome tale and took a long sip on his soda before continuing. The plastic mug making gurgling noises to indicate he was running low on soda. “So. This guy was assigned a new project. He had to do coding on a game that was due release in two years. A game about a family. A man, a wife and their three kids. A funny coincidence he first thought. When he continued the work on the game, he found more and more coincidences--”

His bigger sister snorted and cut Harrison right there. “Yeah, yeah. I know this one. The guy found he was living in the Matrix and he was just a part of the game. Killing his family, blah, blah. C'mon Harrison... That creepypasta is like older than me.”

Harrison shrugged his shoulders defeated. He really didn't have that many entertaining stories that hadn't already been covered by the local news. Besides, obviously his dad didn't disclose the grittier details of some of his more horrific cases to his son, no matter how much he pleaded and tried to convince him he was mature enough to handle the horrors.

“What can I tell you. Dad's cases haven't been that fascinating. Truth proves to be quite dull.”

They continued finishing their dinner in tender silence and Harrison sniping the rest of Astor's drink.

As her margherita was diminishing slice by slice, Astor burned with curiosity. She wanted to unravel the mystery concerning the blood slides she had seen when she first arrived and she was assured that Harrison would provide her with answers.

“Does Dexter ever bring work home? I know he's quite the work-a-holic.” She led him on.

“I dunno.” Her little brother tilted his head and tried to suck the pizza grease off his fingers. “Some paperwork sometimes.”

This was going nowhere. Either he purposefully dodged her prives or he didn't know. Best to come out with it if she wanted to get any info out of him before Dexter came back.

“Have you ever seen him store any blood samples around the house? Like. Blood slides? In a small wooden box? In the air vent upstairs bathroom.”

She held her breath.

“Whoa, sis. That's pretty specific.” Harrison laughed and dismissed her question.

Astor grew impatient and clenched her fists.

“Have you or have not seen them! Is it something related to his work or something personal I should be in the know of?” She demanded, her voice rising higher than she had intended.

The little boy stared at Astor with his brows knitting together in a pensive frown. He sifted his gaze to the cool surface of the table that prior to their dinner had been pristinely spotless, mirroring their faces.

"Yeah, I found them ages ago.” He admitted finally.

“Sometimes dad is out all night and a new slide appears.” He continued in a small voice and fidgeted with the hem of his shirt unsure wether to reveal the last part.

“Couple times I've heard that people have gone missing the same night dad was out somewhere. So, piece it together."

Astor looked horrified as his confession came to an conclusion. Implication his little brother was making ment that the blood was...

“C'mon sis. I'm pulling your leg. You shouldn't be so gullible at your age.” Harrison burst into laughter and slammed his hand on the table, in disbelief that a 20-something still bought the same crap he scared his smaller relatives and neighboring kids with.

The gaping mouth of Astor's previously experience shock of horror snapped close and pursed into tight, lipless scowl.

“This is not a laughing matter, Harrison!” She scolded him.

Harrison stood up and picked up the empty pizza boxes from the counter and sneered.

“What did you want me to tell you? You were obviously expecting me to say something like that. 'I dunno' didn't seem to quell your curiosity.”

“But--” Astor wanted to explain, but Harrison suddenly halted before the trash bin and gave a stern look at his big sister.

“I know you and dad are not in the best of terms. Whatever you are digging for, drop it.”

“Buh--”

“I mean it.”

They stared at each other in silence that had gone from comfortable to sour. Only for that silence to be broken seconds later by the front door opening and Dexter yelling if the pizza had been good.

Another one for the enemy. Tsk.
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He Prefers White Lilies over Roses