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 Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 8:03 pm
Saturday, Saturday. Rikki paced the length of his room, phone pressed under his chin as he stressed. He was supposed to meet up with Danny today. She still didn't remember. He was supposed to find out how to fix this mess today.
He paced again. He hadn't felt this nervous about seeing Danny in... ever?
Finally, he took a huge gulp of air and text her.Quote: Still up for seeing me today? I'll meet you at the pizza place at 2.
He arrived at the pizza place 15 minutes early feeling shaky and anxious. He immediately took Danny's favorite table nearest the kitchen. If she sat facing the kitchen window she could watch the cooks spinning the dough, he knew, and it never got old for her. He rearranged the salt and pepper shakers approximately ten times, changed the angle on the napkin holder, and organized sugar packets. He even made sure the faint scorch mark on the surface of the table would be visible in hopes she'd remember when they'd accidentally burnt it when they got too rowdy.
He was just really jacking nervous, okay?
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Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 8:08 pm
Danny still wasn't sure about this dude but free pizza was free pizza. Well, actually no. It wasn't going to be free because she'd most likely end up paying out of good will, but that was besides the point.
New friends were new friends was a better way to phrase it. She showed up late, like she did to everything, and looked around the restaurant, squinting even to see where her friend had disappeared to. When she finally spotted him, she smiled, waving and joining him at the table. It was clean, and had a neat black mark. Was that art?
"Hiya. So um. Hi..." What did she even say?? Hi my best friend told me we were dating so I guess we are. Wait that was a perfect thing to say. "Amphi told me we actually are dating like you said, so I guess we are? I mean I don't think I'll be a very good ghoulfriend, but uh- ....???"
Graceful as ever, Danny.
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Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 8:38 pm
He supposed he wasn't really surprised she was late. Even if she'd forgotten him, some things never changed. He was conflicted between being glad she'd showed at all, and terrified because now he was actually going to need to talk this out with her.
He offered her a shaky smile as she sat down, noting sadly that even as she looked at the scorch mark her expression didn't waver.
"Hey," he greeted, rubbing at his neck. He nodded along with her acknowledgement, but he couldn't just let her accept it point blank. That felt wrong. "Yeah, Amphi told me she'd talked to you. Look," He put his palms on the table to brace himself like an anchor, "you don't have to do this. Now you know I wasn't just spouting crazy at you, but that doesn't mean you're obligated to be with me or anything.
"If you-" He stopped and closed his eyes for a second to steady himself, because he knew his voice would shake, "If you don't want to do this? If you want to have a clean slate, and find try to find someone else? I'll let you do that. I want you to be happy. But this?" He gestured between them, "This has worked amazingly for the last two years. You're a great ghoulfriend, and I won't take back what I said. I'm in love with you, Danny. I want to help you remember that, or something. I don't know."
Weak finish aside, it was all out on the table. Right? He was being clear. That was good. Amphi would be proud.
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Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 10:40 pm
Wow he was saying some pretty intense things. Danny listening intently, feeling pretty bad about how much she'd harshed this guy's mellow.
His hands were turning white against the table (which was surprising considering he was quite a warm shade of tan) and Danny could hear the strain in his voice. "Um ... listen," she said, setting one of her hands on top of his, "I can tell you're really broken up and stuff. It'd be kind of a d**k move if I just ditched without trying." She gave him a smile, one that was awkward, but it was in an attempt to reassure him, so she hoped he figured it out.
"'Sides, 'finding my memories' or whatever," she said with air quotes, "Sounds kinda fun. Like an adventure or somethin', you know??" Had she gotten a bit more excited just thinking about it? She realized she still had her hand over his and awkwardly pulled back, putting the hand on her cheek and looking away. "Maybe there's like a villain dude who took them." Her thoughts went to hunters, but that was too private to share with a- ... er ... ?
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 10:26 pm
She... she was willing to try? Rikki felt a grin coming on as hope blossomed. He'd genuinely thought that Danny might walk out that door because of just how much he was asking her to do. He wouldn't have blamed her if she had.
He looked down at the table to hide his delight and his eyes caught on their hands touching, casual and seemingly normal. Just as he was about to turn his hand over and grab hers, though, she pulled away.
"Maybe," he said, shrugging. Villain immediately made him think about back inside the tear. He didn't know how they'd get back through to test that theory. "Maybe it's to do with the locks?" He asked, pointing at hers. He pulled down the collar of his shirt to show the matching one. "I definitely didn't have this before all of... this."
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 10:58 pm
Danny tilted her head at the lock that loomed around her neck. It was a pretty little thing, but odd ... she couldn't ... place where she'd gotten it.
"This? I thought it was a present from my mom I'd just forgotten about or something ..." A troubled look came over her face. "But I wouldn't ..." Her eyes glazed over as she had a genuine thought.
She snapped back to their conversation, shaking it out of her way with a wave of her hand. "Um! Maybe! We could take it to like a ... is there a guy who does things with locks?" She didn't really know what prying apart a necklace could do, but it sounded like fun!
Danny looked to the kitchen. "Um shouldn't you go like. Order at the counter? All this mystery solving makes me hungry." It wasn't a demand though. Just a friendly nudge in the right direction.
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Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 7:50 pm
"We could find keys?" He suggested. He chewed on the side of his finger in thought. "Or.. I dunno there's gotta be some way to remember."
His eye's widened slightly. "Oh! Right, s**t." He jumped up, wincing a little at the annoying screechy sound chairs only seemed to make when it was the most opportune time to make him look like an idiot. "Yeah, I'll go order." He backed away a few paces, and then turned to step up to the counter.
He didn't even consider asking her what she wanted. They'd been ordering the same pizza four nights a week for the last forever. He just returned to the table with a soda for himself and a toy from one of the kids meals. It was a squishy eyeball today. He dropped it in front of Danny and sat down with a hopeful smile.
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Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 7:59 pm
"Ooooh yeah. I bet Moira has a whole bunch of keys." Being the janitor, it would make sense anyways.
She waited for him to come back, eyes lighting up when he brought her a toy. Her claws immediately wrapped around it, squishing it and watching it ooze happily. "Aw man I love these thingies," she said absently.
An awkward silence fell over the twosome, one that might've been normal and comfortable for Rikki, but felt stagnant to Danny. "Um so. Locks and dumb stuff aside ... We're dating and I don't really know anything about you. Isn't that like ... kinda weird ..." She smiled and waited expectantly for her answer.
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Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 8:08 pm
Augh. Yeah, Rikki'd forgotten that part. s**t, what had their small talk been about when they first started dating? He couldn't even remember. It was like they'd just woken up and known everything one day, even though he knew the reality was it had come through a long period of learning. "I don't really... I can't just..." He paused and heaved a sigh. "I don't know where to start, I guess. What do you want to know?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 8:09 pm
Danny folded her hands, leaning forward on them as she squished the eyeball in between her fingers. "Ummmm .... um .... How did we meet and stuff? Like how did I know you before?"
Might as well start at the beginning.
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Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 8:28 pm
He squinted a little as he thought back, but it wasn't hard to dredge up the memory. "Music club. You were judging with Roch when I auditioned. You called me Riri then, because you couldn't pronounce my real name. After I got in, we ended up grouped together for a club event. We had to play songs on street corners. We just kept ending up together after that." He shrugged.
"It took us a while to get our act together and finally date, though. You thought I was with Edel at one point." He screwed up his nose at the memory. Not one of the more flattering things Danny's ever accused him of.
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Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 8:40 pm
"AH you're in music club! I'm the vi-" she paused. "Oh, you probably know that, huh." She paused, tapping her chin. "Okay well you told me a thing- is there anything about me you don't know or like? I dunno, I think it's kinda unfair to just ask you a bunch of questions."
Her tail flared at the mention of the name Edel, but no tables were torched today.
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Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 8:28 am
Rikki frowned. "I don't want to weird you out or anything, but we've been together a long time. There's not much that I don't know about you, I guess. I'm comfortable letting time teach me anything I don't already know." He brushed his fingers along the edge of the table and shrugged. "It's not unfair if you're just trying to catch back up. Ask me anything you need or want to know, I have no problem answering, Screech."
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Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 11:09 am
Danny couldn't suppress the giggle that rolled up her diaphragm. "You sound so dumb," she chortled, (yes chortled), "TIME WILL TEACH ME."
She fell back in her seat, laughing at his (and now her) grandiose gesture. "Okay okay. Ummm have we kissed?" That would probably help. She'd kissed Nahm, so it wasn't like her first kiss, but if Rikki hadn't even kissed her yet, the relationship probably wasn't that far developed. Then again, Amphi had told her they'd been dating for a few years ...
Either way, kissing was important.
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Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 12:54 pm
Rikki grinned and ducked his head. "Shut up, it's still true."
His eyes widened and he looked up, and bit startled by the question. He was expecting more questions about who he was, not... that. "Uh, yeah. A lot. Among other things that probably aren't cool to talk about in a pizza joint."
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