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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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 Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 11:34 am
Luckily for Aulus, Claire didn't have any idea what to say either. "Yeah," she affirmed with something between a shy smile and an excited grin, her cheeks still incredibly pink. Oh, what days did she have off... "Umm..." Her gaze slid to the corner of the room, brow furrowed a bit as she thought. "I'm free saturday night," she offered as she focused on him again. "Would that work for you?" Holy Arceus, his face was red...
...and that's what he was thinking, too. "Thanks.." She couldn't help but giggle a bit as she reached a hand up to brush across her cheek, then unnecessarily tucked hair behind her ear again. She chuckled a bit, then added, "your face is bright red too, so." So I'm not the only one blushing like an idiot.
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 11:42 am
"Um, y-yea, I guess I am and Saturday sounds great!" Aulus replied, beginning to wonder vaguely if the last few days had just been a dream and he was actually still unconscious in the medical wing. Damn he wanted to stroke her cheek too, and kiss her and... he shouldn't rush anything. One step at a time. He didn't want to ruin this. She'd said yes. This had to be the fanciful creations of his unconscious mind, what could possess her to agree?... Did he really think himself that unlikable? He had failings but he had good points too, it wasn't so very strange that a woman would be interested in him.
"So, uh, I'm sorry about the whole Dani thing," Aulus went on after a brief pause, wondering even as he spoke if bringing it up again was a mistake. "Like I say I just... I was trying to ignore liking you. I should probably just have been honest sooner but...." He trailed off there, a shrug of his shoulders substituting for 'I was too scared'.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 2:45 pm
"Oh, that's okay.. Why were you doing that?" Did he not.. want to like her? ...no, he obviously did, given the... well, everything that had happened thus far. And he'd even asked her on a - eee - a date, so obviously he did like her... "But what?" He was making her more and more curious.
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 2:55 pm
"Well I...." Aulus did break eye contact at that point, looking down at his bandaged arm rather than at Claire. "I already said," he muttered awkwardly, "I thought you weren't interested so I... yea, so I tried to ignore it and it didn't work. I've, y'know, liked you since that mission to the cave... well before that really, but I realised it just after, when I brought dinner up to you, remember?" How long had he actually been interested in her? He'd found her attractive from day one, he remembered her arse in those jeans, but when had it become more than that? He couldn't really pinpoint a moment when it had changed, one of those gradual things he supposed.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 3:04 pm
Claire turned to look at the floor between her toes with a small, thoughtful frown - but it wasn't long before it morphed into a smile. "Oh yeah," she murmured, watching as Artemis bounded out from the bathroom - having sufficiently sniffed everything she could reach and some things she couldn't - and promptly shoved her nose into Claire's hands again. The agent resumed the head-scritches. "I remember now."
Her gaze slowly wandered over back to him, and she seemed to notice the bandages for the first time - or at least, just remembered them. She hadn't completely forgotten he was injured, of course not. A slight blush bloomed across her cheeks for the second or third time in so many minutes. "I should probably go so you can get some rest," she suggested as she stood up with a vaguely sheepish smile. Artemis seemed disappointed the scritches stopped. "I have a few things to do anyway." Like train, or finish up a few bits of paperwork, or think about what to wear saturday. Eee, date!
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 4:20 pm
"Oh, yea," Aulus gave a less nervous but rather more worn smile, "I think that's a good idea, could hardly settle down there with people wandering all over the bloody place.... So, um, thanks for helping me up here and... and I'm looking forward to Saturday. Lots." And lots. And lots. He hadn't been on a date in ages, he'd probably make a fool of himself but... it was kind of okay to do that. Sure he'd rather not end up shoving his foot in his mouth and prattling on like a total tit but it was better with Claire than it had been with other girls he'd dated because they'd been friends first and had some understanding of one another. He knew she might laugh. He also knew she didn't mean it in a cruel way, and that if he seemed annoyed by her teasing that she'd probably apologise to him.
"I'll see you around soon then?" Aulus went on after a moment or two. "If I don't see you before Saturday I'll let you know where we're going."
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 4:31 pm
Augh, yeah, she didn't like staying in hospitals - or the infirmary - either. Too... sterile. And too many people. It made her feel way too uncomfortable. "You're welcome," she said with a smile, then added as a pink tinge reappeared on her cheeks, "me too." Lots. "Alright. I hope you feel better soon. C'mon Artemis," the agent added after a short pause, indicating the Growlithe with a vague gesture. The fire-type yipped in response and trotted at her owners heels before she slipped out the door behind her trainer.
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 4:46 pm
As the door closed Aulus sighed, but not the same kind of sigh he usually gave when Claire left a room he was in; this sigh was positively contented, and almost dreamy. Wow. Grinning like a fool Aulus eased himself down into a more comfortable position, curled up on his left side. After a moment of thought he reached over to the pokeballs on his nightstand to let Tortie and Paul out of their pokeballs. "Nap time," he informed the pair before settling back down and calling; "Oi Char, kill the lights will you?" He got a 'Charrrrr' in response to that and the room went dark just as Tortie hopped up onto the bed and nestled up against him, while Paul climbed up onto his favourite shelf.
Life felt good.
Then he remembered Aila again and closed his eyes tightly, wrapping an arm around Tortie. Was it wrong to be happy? Tortie licked his face then and he snuggled closer to her; the affection didn't answer his uncomfortable question, but it did make him feel better. Rest. His head would feel clearer later today after he napped for just... just a few... just a....
By the time Aulus woke up again technically it was tomorrow, not that he had ant idea of this as he drifted back to consciousness.
"Mmfh?" Blinking and rubbing his face Aulus pushed himself slowly into a sitting position and wondered why it was so damn dark. Then he remembered that he had a date, and promptly did the only thing it was possible for him to do on recalling this small detail.
He panicked.
No decent clothes. No idea where to take her. No anything. Shitshitshitshit! Fumbling for one of his crutches Aulus heaved himself upright and hobbled awkwardly - extra awkwardly because he was trying to support his left leg with a crutch in his left hand rather than the right - he headed through the bathroom and hammered on Hayes' door. "Hayes! Hayes! You in there? You have to help me, you're my only hope!" While it sounded a bit silly and dramatic, so far as he was concerned it was true; the only thing his brain was currently good for was telling him all the ways everything could go horribly terribly wrong.
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Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 2:58 pm
There was an unintelligible groan and a rustle that suggested Aulus' partner wasn't too thrilled about the prospect of getting out of bed at two in the morning.
"'ve got work t'morr'w, man. S'goin' on?" Hayes' voice was muffled by his comforter and half-asleep state. "Pika pi," Switch agreed. If Aulus was taking the time to knock, it couldn't be that serious.
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Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 4:10 pm
What? "What?" Aulus' brow knotted with a confused frown. "So? Can't be that late, I only lay down for a nap at, what, three? C'mon man, I need to talk to you!"
"I's-" More noise as Hayes fumbled for his Rocket Dex and worked out the time, "-two forty." A metallic rattle and a 's**t' were his glasses falling on the floor. There was a click; light flooded under the door, and after some heavy footfalls Hayes opened it, blinking blearily at the other Rocket in his old 'I void warranties.' t-shirt and pajama pants.
"Y're a horrible Princess Leia," he said.
...What? "What?" Aulus blinked. "Two for- Princess Lei- Oh nevermind, you're up now! Just... just drink lots of caffeine tomorrow or something and let me in so I can sit down would you?" Arsehole. You utter, utter arsehole. Stop being an arsehole, arsehole. Aulus sagged and rubbed his forehead wearily. "Alright, sorry," he muttered, "sorry I'm apparently not a very good cinnamon bun head - can't imagine why I can't pull it off - and sorry for waking you up but this is important Hayes. Please? At least just... I dunno. Can you spare a couple of minutes to sleep so I can panic like an idiot at somebody?" He felt stupid for sleeping so long and not realising, stupid for waking Hayes up, and stupid for panicking. It was a date. It was a good thing. Normal people didn't panic about dates, or at least not so much that they woke their partner up at nearly three in the effing morning.
Blink, blink. Now subject to the pull of gravity, Hayes' tousled hair flopped in his eyes; he brushed it out of the way and stifled a yawn. "..m'kay." Having accepted that he was going to be up for a while, the blond moved aside to let Aulus in. "What's up?"
Thank Arceus for Hayes. Giving a deep sigh, at once weary and relieved, Aulus hobbled awkwardly into the other Agent's room and sat down on the end of his bed. Stretching out his left leg with a grimace he said; "I've got a date," in tones that sounded something like they ought to have declared 'I'm on trial for murder'.
"Pi!" As Aulus sat, a lump under the covers shifted and moved towards the edge. Switch, yellow fur as ruffled as his trainer's hair, gave the scarred intruder a look and migrated slowly to the head of the bed, where he took advantage of Hayes' vacated pillow with a muttered little "P'chu."
Hayes was just sitting down in his computer chair when he blinked again, this time in surprise. "Oh, s**t- who with?"
"Oh, sorry Switch," Aulus muttered vaguely, gnawing on his lower lip as he tried to work out how to approach this. When he managed to pull off a bit of dry skin and cause mild bleeding he pulled a face and gave up the effort at being anywhere near funny or eloquent about any of this. Licking away the small amount of blood he looked up at his partner with a plaintive expression.
"Claire."
The striped ball flicked an ear. "'ka'chu."
Hayes grinned, draping an arm over the back of his chair. "She said yes? Dude, that's great." But.. knowing Aulus, there should have been whooping and fist-pumping and punching him in the arm. Clearly there was not.
Hayes ran through a list of possible scenarios and settled on the most likely one. "So.. where're you going?"
Aulus sagged; "Dunno."
Right. "What're you wearing?"
"I haven't a bloody clue."
Although the crease in his brow was sympathetic, the agent was starting to grin. "And you're picking her up at..?"
"...Umm.... s**t. I really haven't thought any of this out, have I?" Aulus rubbed his face wearily, still feeling groggy from his - apparently over long - nap. This was a mess, he hadn't planned anything, and the more Hayes talked the more that fact became painfully apparent.
"But she did say yes." Under the circumstances it was reasonable to ask.
"Oh," Aulus blinked, a slight grin creeping back onto his face, "yea, she did. I didn't think she would, but she did! Oh! And it's Saturday we're going out, I at least thought to give myself a couple of days to recover enough to walk with some degree of competence." Given the rest of his planning ability this foresight was shocking him more and more by the moment.
"Okay," Hayes laughed, fully awake now despite that geez, it was late. He didn't seem to hold any hard feelings about the rude awakening, though. "So you've got some time to plan."
"Yea, but no time to go shopping given I can't bloody well walk, and mail order isn't exactly an option!" Aulus exclaimed dismally. "I should've set it back further, given myself more time, but I was too bloody distracted by the fact that she'd bloody well said yes to use my bloody stupid head and bloody well realise I'd not given myself enough time!" Realising how ridiculous he'd probably just sounded, Aulus decided he might as well put the last nail in the coffin for Hayes' amusement given he had dragged himself out of bed for a poor pathetic frantic idiot.
"Bloody."
It worked; his partner laughed again, though it was by no means unkind. "Okay, okay." He put a hand up to stop the flow of self-kicking and turned to his computer, waking it out of sleep. "Just chill out for a minute."
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Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 3:34 pm
"Chill out?" Aulus looked incredulous. "How the bloody hell am I supposed to chill out Hayes? I've buggered myself before I've even started!"
"A minute. C'mon. I think you're bothering Switch." His partner didn't turn around; he had his eyes on the screen as he brought up a search engine. "So.. dinner? Movie? LAN party?"
Ugh, he had to stand up?... It was nearly three in the morning and Hayes had got up for him, so he could just take his whiny arseholeishness and shove it up his... nevermind. "Right, right," Aulus pushed himself to his feet and picked up his crutch, limping awkwardly over to the computer. "Dinner," he said once he was standing behind Hayes' shoulder, weight leaning on his right leg and left arm. "Definitely dinner, planned that much."
"M'kay." Hayes flipped through a few more screens, scanning over their contents quickly as he scrolled up and down, then clicked through to a particular page and stopped. "How's this?"
"Ha," Aulus actually grinned then and shook his head, "too rich for my blood. If I was sure we'd be splitting the bill sure but... well I don't know. I asked her out, so I suppose that means I pay right?... I mean I don't mind I just feel like it's... I dunno, I always thought it was kind of sexist for the guy to automatically pay, but is it more about who asks who on the date? Ugh. Bugger. I haven't thought about this kind of thing in far too long."
The blond thought for a minute, then scruffed a hand through his hair. "Yeah, I dunno. Just offer and see what she says." Not really knowing the girl in question all that well, it seemed the safest piece of advice. He brought up another screen. "Okay, here. Looks like they do vegetarian."
"Hu..." Aulus lent a bit closer to the screen, frowning as he read. "Stonegrill. Meals are served cooking at the table on super-heated natural volcanic stones... seriously? That's effing awesome! Why have I never been to one of those places before!... Ugh. I bet it's really satisfying to cook meat like that!" Why did he have to be such a wussy plant eater? Damn. Sometimes it really was hard.
"Price isn't bad either," Hayes commented offhandedly, managing a grin at the scarred Rocket's enthusiasm. "So call for reservations in the morning." His computer clock quietly ticked over to 2:52; he tried not to notice.
Good that was that then. "Right, thanks, great I will... Clothes!" Aulus exclaimed. "Haven't got anything to wear! Nothing for a date I mean." Bloody hell he was useless. He should have thought of all of this before he asked her!
Hayes looked speculatively at him and got out of his chair. "Gimme a sec." He made his way over to his closet, half-tripping over the hamper as he disappeared inside.
"...What the heck are you doing?" Aulus asked, starting to frown and then half laughing as Hayes tripped before adding; "Y'alright there? I'm not really in a position to come rescue you."
There was the sound of hangers moving about. "Yeah, just hold up. You're six foot or something, right?"
"Just six foot, why, do I look bigger?" Aulus replied with a smirk, seeking refuge in banter.
"Try these." A deep red dress shirt and a pair of black pants on hangers were thrust out of the closet.
...Was he serious? Aulus tried not to laugh, after all it was nearly three in the morning. "Sure, why not?" he shrugged, taking the hanger and hobbling to the bathroom. Getting out of his sweatpants and t-shirt and then into the proffered clothes took a great deal of effort but when he actually got them on (mainly, the buttons on the shirt were a fiddle with one hand so he only did a couple) he found himself quite surprised. Frowning a bemused frown he opened the door to Hayes' room again. "They... fit?"
Hayes poked his head out and had a look. "Looks like it." He'd been deep in sleep when Aulus had interrupted it, and despite the brief moment of lucidity when his partner had announced the date it was obvious the blond was half-awake and running on autopilot. "Prob'ly can't wear my shoes."
"Oh.... Thanks. Yea I can wear my boots, think they'll look quite good with this actually." He took the jacket and slipped it on, balancing on one leg and leaning his crutch against the wall to do so. The jacket fitted too. They were nice clothes.... He'd sounded really underwhelmed just then. Aulus smiled; genuinely, warmly, slightly awkwardly. This was really what best friends were supposed to be like, wasn't it? He didn't think he'd really had a human best friend before, he'd not been lonely growing up or anything thanks to Phaeth but... but it was really indescribably fantastic to have somebody he could wake up at stupid o'clock and not only not get thrown out but have his date location and outfit sorted for him without a word of a grumble. "Really. Thanks. You're a life-saver Hayes..."
Sincerity.
Awkward.
"But seriously! Who are you? I mean," Aulus gestured vaguely, "how come you have all this stuff? You're a geek!"
"Heh. Well," the blond grinned a minute before Aulus put his foot in it, "so're you."
The question got an automatic response as Hayes meandered back to his desk, nudging a stray combinatorics textbook against his dresser as he went: "Jules and I used to go out a lot." The Rocket brought up a new window and started pasting information. "I'll e-mail you this stuff."
"Oh, brilliant, thanks and... Jules?" Aulus raised his eyebrows. "Not heard that name before! An ex, eh?"
"Yeah." Hayes sounded distracted as he hit the send button, then looked over at his partner with his characteristically mellow smile. "Y'need anything else?"
"Uh.... No. I think you just about covered everything actually... you alright?" Maybe it had been a good break-up? Maybe it had been a long time ago?... Couldn't have been when he was a kid or anything though given the clothes.... Hayes was smiling though and that was good, right?
"Well there's this jerk who's not letting me sleep but otherwise yeah--" He covered a yawn and shrugged. "M'good." Eyelids drooping, he grinned at Aulus and delivered a sleepy punch to his left shoulder. "You'll be fine. She likes you."
"Oh s**t! Yea. Of course. Sorry. Massive jerk standing right here." Aulus gave an apologetic grin, flushing slightly at his partner's last comment. "And, uh, yea... I guess she does. Unless I dreamed the whole thing and am about to make a massive prat of myself... thanks for the clothes, you'll get them back clean and pressed on Sunday. I'll let you get back to bed for now though, shall I?"
"Sounds good." Hayes sounded like he would have agreed with anything if it meant he could go back to sleep. "Have fun storming the castle."
"Thanks," Aulus grinned, "I'm sure I will once I get over being terrified. Sleep well Hayes." He kind of wanted to add more thanks, or maybe more apologies but he kind of felt like it would be going too far and get weird. As such he just gave another smile and a nod of gratitude before turning around and heading back for his own room. Thank Arceus for Hayes.
"Night man." Hayes smiled back and shut the door behind him.
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Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 3:38 pm
Saturday:
KNOCK KNOCK. "HAYES!"
"Dude, I'm in the shower!"
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