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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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 Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:47 am
As Aulus ordered, she leaned back a bit and sipped her drink slowly, then placed it back on the table. It was a good thing she did, because she might've dropped it or something at his compliment. As it was, a furious blush bloomed over her cheeks, and she nervously reached up to play with the silver chain around her neck between a couple fingers on one hand. "Thank you.." Wait, was she supposed to compliment him now? s**t, what was she supposed to say? Didn't she already compliment him when they got there? Oh, wait, he'd complimented her first.. s**t, what was she supposed to say? "You, um.. I've never seen you dressed up before," she started a bit awkwardly, and shifted slightly in her seat. "You look really nice." Well if that wasn't the lamest compliment ever... Good job.
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 2:34 pm
"Oh. Umm. Thanks." Once again a flush rose to his cheeks and Aulus bean to wonder exactly how much like a human tomato he looked like. "I don't usually... I mean it's not something I really do much. Glad you approve." In order to cover his embarrassment, and lack of anything else to say right away, Aulus took a sip of water, and then another one. He needed something they could actually talk about, something they would have talked before he'd gone and asked her out.
"Oh! Uh, so Red and I have been practising a lot of flying... or had been until we got roasted anyway. She's starting to get the hang of knowing what the physical commands are... and I'm getting used to giving them too. Knowing what to do is one thing but it's the doing it, the little subtleties that are hard especially when you're both learning at the same time." He spoke from experience, though not with a bird of course, and wondered internally if he should talk to Claire about it. He probably should actually; Phaeth had been a huge part of his life and... and maybe a bit of openness from him would get some in return from her albeit not here, he was almost sure she was too private for that. Anyway, yea, maybe he'd steer the conversation in that direction, if she seemed interested... or was it too much of a downer for a date? Ugh, when had he become so crap at this sort of thing?
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 2:58 pm
Claire was infinitely glad when he directed the conversation to a much easier topic, and she nodded both eagerly and appreciatively at his comments. "Yeah, it's difficult in the beginning, but once you start to get the hang of it, it gets loads easier," she said, then straightened up a bit as she took another sip of her drink. "It took quite a while to train Odette at first, mostly because she didn't want to be ridden. Probably thought her feathers would get messed up or something," the agent said with a good-natured roll of her eyes before they focused on the glass in front of her rather than at her date. Why did she want to look at that instead? Why was she so nervous? It was ridiculous, she'd spoken to Aulus and hung out with him plenty of times and never felt so nervous before. This was ridiculous. No more being nervous.
Her resolve quickly evaporated as soon as she looked back up at him, and butterfree started fluttering around in her stomach again. "We can practice more if you want. With Odette out when Red is, I mean. If you want to," she amended quickly.
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 3:06 pm
More water sipping, because despite something to talk about he was still jittery. "I'd like that," Aulus nodded as he set his glass back down, "I'm sure I'm doing loads wrong, mixed signals and that- Oh! Thanks." The lemonade arrived and Aulus flashed a brief smile at the waitress, which caused her to smile back in a rather glassy fashion. Once she's set the drink down she turned her back and hastened away at high speed. Well typical, of course he couldn't go one evening without a reaction like that. Silly him for forgetting he looked like an axe murderer, apparently even when he was in a positive mood and genuinely smiling.
Scowling at the girl's retreating back Aulus rubbed the line of the scar on his face and muttered; "Well she's not getting a sodding tip."
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 3:21 pm
Talking about their Pidgeot did help soothe her nerves, although she still couldn't help the residual anxiety swirling in the pit of her stomach, ready to surge back up again at a moment's notice. For now though, at least, it stayed where it was. She opened her mouth to reply when the waitress arrived, gave him his lemonade, then hurried off again. The corners of her mouth turned down in a small, thoughtful frown as she watched her retreat, then looked over at Aulus when he spoke and rubbed at his scar. "She might just be busy," she suggested hesitantly before she glanced around the restaurant. It was a popular place, and they were by no means the only people there.
"Well, anyway," she started, straightening again as she played with the drink in her hands, "I gave Odette plenty of mixed signals when we first started, I'm sure. A lot of it is trial and error, especially if you haven't had any training in it." The phrase 'flying by the seat of your pants' popped into her head for some odd, strange reason - where had she even heard that phrase before - thought she refrained from voicing it.
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 3:28 pm
"Yea. Sure. Could be." The tones in which Aulus said this indicated that he was far from convinced, as did the way he kept fingering the scar for a few moments before scowling more deeply and dropping his hand to pick up his glass. "Sod her either way," he said firmly, "not going to let her interfere with a nice evening.... And yea, everyone has to start learning somewhere and it must be harder to try to learn with nobody to teach you.... You know I thought I'd be able to transfer some skills over from Rapidash riding but it seems not so much. Ehehe, still, all the better for you to spend time teaching me, right?" He didn't feel like he'd phrased that very well at all. Maybe not even intelligibly. "Uh... that is I like spending time flying with you, even if I am perpetually getting told I'm doing things wrong, you know how fond I usually am of that."
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 5:24 pm
When he was obviously not impressed by her suggestion, she diverted the majority of her focus to the glass in her hands for a few moments before she took another sip. She shouldn't be too surprised, honestly; this wasn't the first time she'd seen people react negatively to his scar, nor the first time he'd been upset by people reacting that way. She'd always sort of assumed he liked it - didn't guys like having scars, to make them seem tougher or something? - it certainly fit in with his 'tough guy' attitude, at any rate, but.. maybe he didn't like it?
Anyway. She pushed the thought aside for the moment and focused on him again with a small smile. "It was for me," she affirmed with a slight nod, though her eyebrows arched a bit at his following comment. "Rapidash? I didn't know you rode. I've never ridden one before," the agent admitted as she shifted a bit in her chair, then smiled again. "Oh, I know how fond you are of that, though I'm not sure how fond you are of having a teacher who's never taught anyone before."
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 5:32 pm
"Well, maybe I like having a teacher I like?" Aulus suggested with a slightly shy grin, picking an ice cube out of his drink and crunching on it, realising only after the fact that this was a nice place and he probably ought not to. Oh well, he was already an axe murderer, wasn't he? "But uh, yea, I used to ride a lot... I got a Ponyta egg for my seventh birthday see, and riding along with karate ended up being pretty well my whole life until I was eighteen." He should have ignored that woman's charms and stuck with his hobbies, she had advertised that she was trouble and he'd still chased her. If he hadn't chased her his life wouldn't have turned as it had and he wouldn't be here stuck in a criminal organization... he wouldn't be here opposite Claire. Well. Everything came with pros and cons he supposed.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 5:53 pm
His suggestion made her blush again, so she hid behind her drink. It didn't make a very effective shield, but it did prevent her from noticing the ice-chewing, not that she'd think anything of it even if she had. Thankfully the topic switched back, and she put her drink down on the table. She did a double-take at it when she realized it was nearly gone already. Well crap.. "Oh?" She started, glancing back up at him. The butterfree returned. "That's so cool. I didn't get Odette until I was.. About seventeen I think. I didn't have any pokemon before her.. Why until 18?" She asked suddenly, tilting her head slightly as she caught the little bit. ..oh. Oh wait. He didn't have a Rapidash - as far as she knew, she'd never seen him with one? What happened to it? s**t, was that why? Why did she ask that? s**t, she probably just single-handedly ruined the entire night in one fell swoop. s**t.
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 1:49 am
Nuuuugh. “Oh, uh, you know how life is,” Aulus said vaguely, “things don’t always work out like you hope.” This was why he’d been hesitant to bring it up. It was good to talk about the good times but the ending....
“Hey! Cheesy peppers!” Thank Arceus for that; just the distraction he’d needed. It was a different server this time, and the guy actually managed not to look at him as if he was a psycho. The starter, as it happened, had come with cutlery (two sets) and so he resisted the urge to pick up a pepper and bite it. Instead he cut a piece off one of them with knife and fork like a civilized person; Char would approve. “Mmmh, these are nice,” Aulus commented with a nod, “Not too hot and nice cheese. I forget what kind it said it was though. Yea though, loved riding, I took up photography through it too kind of; when I was allowed to start riding out alone I went to a lot of lovely places and wanted to record them all.” He really was glad Claire didn’t think photography was a sissy pastime.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:23 am
"Mmh." Claire made a face at the comment, and filed 'Rapidash' under her mental list of 'sensitive topics.' "Not always, no," she agreed in somewhat bitter tones as she swirled the last of the drink in her glass before she downed it.
He was obviously very grateful for the distraction - as was she - and before the waiter could leave she politely requested another drink. That done she focused on the stuffed peppers as Aulus already had, though she'd nearly used her fingers as well. Instead she cut into them with the utensils they'd provided, and slipped the first bite into her mouth. She didn't remove the fork right away, instead she let the tines rest on her bottom lip gently as she thought. Her mind was still lingering in the past - as much as she didn't want it to - but she pushed it away with a firm shake of her head as she lowered the fork. "Yes, they're quite good," she agreed, eyebrows arching a bit as she lowered her gaze to the plate in front of her so she could cut another piece. "I like the cheese very much." Another bite, and again the tines of the fork rested on her lower lip. "Anyway --," the fork lowered, "-- I'd love to see some of those pictures sometime. Where did you used to live?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 8:16 am
The way her fork lingered on her lip was really quite... uh... buh.... Yea. Attractive. Nice lips. Very kissable. Somehow though - with current levels of awkward - he didn't think he was going to get to do any kissing tonight. Nugh. Unfair. So gorgeous. She wasn't the most stunning peerless beauty that had ever lived, he knew that, but... but....
As that sentence continued its failure to finish, Aulus realised that he was sitting there doing nothing but look at her. Luckily it had only been for a moment or two, but he still felt stupid as he slightly belatedly processed what she'd said to him. "Oh, uh, sure, yea," the blushing marathon continued unabated, "I'll show you tomorrow or something? Got all my pictures from before I came here uploaded online, mainly from the heart of Bucks - England - where I grew up. We moved to Kanto when I was just about nineteen though so there's some pictures from there too, oh and of course holidays and that."
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 12:19 pm
Claire was focusing on her plate for the few moments Aulus had been staring, so she didn't notice anything but him blushing when she looked up - and that wasn't too out of the ordinary, it seemed like they were a pair of ripening tomatoes tonight or something. Regardless of that, she smiled at him as her stomach did a complex flip. "I'd like that," she said, then blushed a bit. "I have some pictures too - not too many, of course, but I can show them to you if you'd like..?" Unlike his, hers weren't of scenery really, but she thought he might be interested in them anyway. He seemed to want to know more things about her, and it was a bit distressing having to talk about herself so guardedly.
It was then that the waiter returned with a drink for her, and before anything else she had to ask him if it didn't have alcohol in it. Once he'd reassured her, she thanked him and took a sip as he left again.
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Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 11:04 am
"Uh, yea, that'd be nice," Aulus nodded, pausing in the action or raising his fork to his mouth. "We could... I dunno, look at pictures and have snacks and watch a movie. Sound good? When we both have an afternoon free, or one evening or whatever."
The cheesy peppers were almost all gone now, in fact there was just half of one left. Aulus glanced at Claire and gestured to it. "Uh, you want the last bit? Go ahead if you do, I don't mind." He would more than happily eat it himself, but if she wanted it then he was more than happy to give way.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 1:16 pm
"That sounds like a good idea," she said, then shook her head a bit at his question. "Ah, no, that's alright, you can have it." She needed to save room for dinner anyway, couldn't just fill up on appetizers...
The next several minutes were filled with nervous, idle chatter and more blushing before the waitress from before returned to give them their main course they'd ordered. She placed Claire's down first - first the heated rock with the food on it on top of a plate to protect the table, then a dinner plate - then the same for Aulus, and pointedly avoided looking at him if she could - or if she did, it was a fleeting glance that only lasted as long as it had to before she picked up the empty starter plate and hurried back to the kitchens.
Claire watched her retreat with a mild frown before she carefully used her utensils to cut a piece of her dinner and move it to the plate in front of her. Well, the waitress's behavior was rather obvious now.. Aulus was right. That waitress wasn't getting a tip.
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