fandomtownies | Ching Tai, Saturday night

Current Mood: whatever

Entry tags:

Ching Tai, Saturday night

So... Squall had showed up at Rinoa's door at 7:55, wearing his dress uniform, and carrying a half-dozen white roses. Rinoa had been wearing a nice dress he hadn't seen before, and had liked the flowers, so that was good, right?

They'd made it all the way to the restaurant, and everything seemed to be going well so far. Squall was nervous, though -- he'd never been on an actual date, before. "Is... This is all right, right? You'd tell me if I got something wrong?"

(For the other person on the daaaaaate, although there are plenty of open tables if anyone else is hungry.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Squall did not want to know how much Rinoa had gone through, looking for her dress for tonight. Half of the dresses looked too trampy, and the rest, too formal. It was a date. She needed something fun, but not ... the bad kind of fun.

And then she had realized she was agonizing over a dress to go on a date with someone who might not notice if she wore a burlap sack. So she'd chosen something fun in teal and decided not to stress about it.

He had said she looked nice, but with Squall, it was entirely possible that he had realized he was supposed to say it, and had recited it regardless. But it was a nice touch, anyway. And so were the roses.

"It's not a quiz," she teased -- especially hypocritical given her dress dilemma, as well as the long debate about possibly pulling her hair up (which she had decided against). "Are you having a nice time?"

"I am," Squall told her. "I just want to make sure you're having a nice time. I don't know everything that's expected on a date, and I might miss something." He smiled at her. "This should be special."

Rinoa had to roll her eyes. "Is this why you were so scared of dating?" she asked with a laugh. "There isn't a manual. People say they're going to go and do something nice, together, and then they do. I just made you bring me flowers because I like them" -- and because she was an entitled princess -- "and wanted you to. People go to dinner, or they go to movies, or they even just hang out."

She reached over to take his hand. "Dates aren't special because of what you do," she reminded him.

Well. Unless you took a hot-air-balloon ride to a foreign city, or rented out a castle, or did something else dramatic like that.

"I know there isn't a manual," Squall sighed. Holding her hand was nice, and comforting. "But there are all sorts of unspoken rules in social interactions, and I don't want to do something wrong and have you think I don't care for you."

He shrugged. "I don't even know if the food here is any good."

"I've been willing to put up with you this long," she teased. "If you mess something up and act like a jerk, I'll tell you. Okay? I'm not going to think you don't care."

Short of him doing something really catastrophic, and she couldn't imagine something like that being an accident.

"Let's find out," she said, pulling the door open and swooping in to the restaurant like she owned it.

"Good," Squall told her. "Because I do care."

He followed in her wake, swooping into the restaurant like she owned him.

As the host seated them, he looked over the rest of the restaurant's patrons, assessing whether any of them looked like a threat.

"You don't have to look so nervous," she joked. "It's a date, not a job interview. And nobody in Ching Tai is here to kidnap me back to Esthar."

At least, she hoped not. She'd be really pissed if someone interrupted a date for that.

"It's my responsibility to make sure you have a nice time tonight," Squall reminded her. "If someone kidnaps you, or the date sucks, I've failed." He took happiness very seriously.

Rinoa was going to crumple up her napkin and throw it at Squall's head.

"If you don't stop treating me like a chore, and start enjoying yourself," she laughed, "then I'm going to walk out of here and find someone else to have dinner with, and that means it will be a failure."

Squall glared at the napkin, but it hit him anyway.

"Not a chore, a duty," he answered. "You're important to me. I don't understand why that's wrong."

It was cute, watching the napkin bounce off his forehead. That's why she was giggling.

"I'm not a duty, either," she said. "Being my Knight, that's a duty. Being my boyfriend, that's a choice. One you make because you think I have pretty hair and like kissing me and want to spend time together. Not because you're obligated. If you just feel obligated to be my boyfriend, then I don't want you to be my boyfriend, anyway."

Her tone was light, but the words were serious, underneath. He wasn't just dating her because he thought he was supposed to, was he?

"Being your Knight was also a choice," Squall pointed out. "I don't feel obligated to do either; I want to." He frowned at her, a little confused. "As your Knight, it's my duty to keep you safe. As your boyfriend, it's my duty to keep you happy. Because I choose to."

"As my boyfriend, you are obligated to stop using words like obligated," she said with a sigh. "It's making me feel like I'm a chore. You should spend time with me because you enjoy it, not because you think I do."

Edited 2011-01-09 10:15 (UTC)

"But... I do enjoy it," Squall answered, confused. "And I wouldn't do anything unless I wanted to."

"You have a very weird idea of fun," she said. She was crumpling another napkin up in her hands.

He might want to think about coming up with a better answer. Or ducking.

"I'm not very good at 'fun'," Squall agreed. "I'm trying to get better at it."

Strangely enough, her doing cute things like throwing napkins while he glared and got annoyed was his idea of fun.

"Okay," Rinoa said, straightening up and giving him her full attention. "Tell me something you like to do. That you'd like to do with me. Something fun. That'll be our next date."

If he really wanted her to just throw napkins at her for an hour, they could always do that. Although that might make her suspect some bizarre fetish at work.

Squall thought about that. "This is nice," he told her. "I like dancing. And kissing." He shrugged. "What do you like to do? We could try some of that, and maybe I'll think it's fun."

Rinoa was going to ignore the kissing thing. Not that she wasn't in favor of kissing. But kissing, by itself, didn't make for much of a date.

... okay, maybe it did, but this was their first date and that seemed like a little much, right there.

"Dancing," she said. "We could go to that club Ariel took us to. Or we could watch a movie, at the theater in town. Do you like watching movies? What would you be doing, right now, if you weren't on a date with me?"

Squall shrugged again. "I dunno. Sitting in my room, probably. Movies are okay, I guess. That sounds like a good idea. We should do that."

This whole "dating" thing was hard.

"You sound sad," Rinoa said, frowning as she watched him. "I didn't mean to upset you. Is it ... hard, being around people? Trying to figure out what to do, or say?"

Squall frowned back, confused. "I'm not sad or upset," he told Rinoa. "I dunno why you'd think I was." Did he seem sad to her? He shouldn't! He was on a date with her, and actually having a good time for once. He should... smile or something?

"It's very hard for me, dealing with people," he added. Didn't she know that already? "I'm... not sure what they want from me."

"I want you to have a nice time," Rinoa said with a sigh. "And not feel like you're obligated to have a nice time or worrying about me having a nice time or ... see? Now it's getting all confusing, and this was just supposed to be a nice date."

"Then... can't it just be a nice date?" Squall asked. "I like hanging out with you. I don't know what else we're supposed to do."

"Next time, I'll have a list," Rinoa said, rolling her eyes. "It'll be itemized and have an itinerary, scheduled down to the minute. Then you can check it and make sure you're having exactly the right amount of fun at the right time."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject