|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 11:11 pm
Kirin actually had a very vague awareness of Audrey, but that was entirely due to Barren Pines, not Meadowview. His current schoolmates barely registered, what with everything else Kirin had on his plate these days. BP had been simpler times. Ha, zombies. Simpler times. It boggled the mind.
The abandoned meal earned Jada raised eyebrows. Barely touched, but she wanted more food. "We should have just shared," Kirin idly offered, too late for it to make a difference. "Or checked if they offered a tasting plate."
He gave a startled chuckle at Jada's 'come hither' look. The heiress wasn't as new to the expression as she'd thought she was. "Oh, that's good one. Biting the lip is a nice touch, too. Very vulnerable," Kirin approved. Guys would fall over themselves to serve poor helpless Jada if she gave them that look. "If you really wanna knock them dead, bat your eyes while doing that, like there's something in your eye."
Kirin demonstrated the flutter again, like his lashes were about to fly off on their own. He was too busy enjoying himself to realise the utter irony of a boy teaching a girl how to flirt with boys.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 4:40 pm
"I'll eat the leftovers." she assured Kirin. "I almost never finish my whole meal. Save it for later. And if I don't eat it, Zora or Lucas will. Lucas is ten, and has a bottomless pit in his stomach. I shudder to think what he'll eat once puberty hits." she was flipping through the dessert menu, debating what they could get. "Mmm, Kiri, they have Tiramisu." Would the other woman object to the nickname? Jada was running full steam ahead, staring dreamily at the names of the deliciousness on the colored pages. "And they bring out a dessert tray! I haven't seen one of those in a while."
It was almost childlike delight, one that Jada didn't bother to hide behind appropriate- appropriate was long out the window with this entire lunch date. Jada really did have such a fondness for sweets, too. "Hurry up and finish eating." she told the other girl sternly. "Take home boxes! One can not come to a place like this and not try the dessert!" Under the table, she nudged Kirin firmly in the ankle with one foot. Hopefully that wouldn't get in the girl's touch zone so much as reaching over and tapping on her hand would.
As she waited for Kirin to finish eating, she practiced her eyelash flutter, turning it on the hapless waiter when he brought more tea.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 3:51 pm
Kirin was glad to hear that Jada wasn't anorexic, or prey to some other eating disorder. It seemed she just really wanted her dessert before filling up on her main. It made his lips twitch - he'd often tried the same thing as a child, to no avail against his mother's immunity to pleading and puppy dog eyes.The smile fell before it could properly form. He didn't like remembering those sorts of things. He looked up to Jada, hoping she would distract him.
"Mmm, Kiri, they have-"
Kirin didn't hear the rest. His face froze, his body locked up. All he could hear was a ghost echo - 'Kiri, Kiri, Kiri' - in someone else's voice. A faint shudder ran through his form, slowly growing, reverberating inwards until Kirin was scared it was going to not just crack his armour, but destroy it entirely. He forced his voice to work before that could happen.
"I - That's- um, if you could... not use that," he said. He nearly choked as he forced out a, "Please."
He missed the waiter stumble as Jada fluttered her lashes at him. The tea almost spilled, a fact which may have been as equally responsible for the red flush across his face as Jada's flirting was.
Kirin didn't - couldn't - continue speaking, to explain his aversion to others using that particular nickname. Not even his grandfather got to use that, though it was significantly less disturbing from Kaine Walker's gravelly male voice than it was from lighter female tones. Even with voices not the least bit similar, Jada's rendition was simply too close, too painful. Kirin didn't want anything melting his icy armour. And nothing came as close as living memories of his dead mother.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 6:20 pm
"I - That's- um, if you could... not use that... please."
Her head jerked up, startled by the odd note in her companion's voice, and Jada's smile faded away, replaced with a frown. The flushed waiter was waved away with Jada's plate and instructions to box up the remnants and bring the dessert tray in a few moments. The heiress leaned over the table, not even able to miss the distress in the stranger's voice. "Alright." she said finally, resting her arms against the table. "I'm sorry, I don't think about a lot of these things. I probably should, it isn't very proper of me to disregard things like that." Jada needed to stop being quite so familiar, didn't she? One day she would be in full control of her own stocks, and in a place where she wouldn't be able to so casually disregard the eyes on her. It wouldn't be just her own life affected by careless little actions like she'd been stockpiling today.
She'd always been ego-- well, strike that-- Jada had always been a prideful girl. Why shouldn't she be? Before she'd become a senshi, Jada's life had been narrow, based around gaining praise from the people important to her life. Her mother had wanted her to be accomplished, a trophy wife, and so Jada had worked hard to learn the skills that a social riser would want in his woman. Her father had wanted his daughter to be his heir, smart and strong, as intelligent as she was beautiful. Jada had struggled, dug around in books, magazines on economics and trends. She'd fought to learn to manage people, how to balance 'trophy' with 'competence.' She'd struggled to learn to make allies, friends, and to make sure that she was acquainted with all of the 'right' people. She had always given away the extra things to the 'poor' people, because that was, her mother said, an excellent tax break. It was, her father said, the duty of those with wealth to help those without it. Not everyone of the lower class was a vagrant, as Szelem suggested, and Michael had tried to instill in her a certain sense of what was right and what was wrong, some of which ran contrary to what her mother taught her.
It hadn't really been until she'd seen true pain and terror firsthand that she'd realized there were facets of her outlook on life that were horribly skewed. She had been born wealthy, not entitled. She'd been so thoughtlessly cruel when she was younger, that when others had once given her a look at a face so frozen and unhappy-- the same face as Kirin's now-- she'd gotten upset by them trying to make her feel bad for their issues. She hadn't recognized it as genuine distress, having never encountered anything like it except for the faux distress of a manipulator.
Now her heart simply ached for people who had ever felt something that made them look so very, very sad.
"I won't call you by that nickname if you don't want." she said again, and reached out her hand innocently across the table, palm up. "Pinkie promise." It was a childish gesture, one that she still had to do for her sister, and to her credit, Jada's face wasn't red with embarrassment, nor was there any trace of pity or acknowledgment that she'd seen the other woman's unusual distress. Everyone had their pride. "But you can't call me tiger toes ever again." Her smile was shy, trying to steer the conversation in a direction that wouldn't end in Kirin stomping out of the restaurant and leaving her alone to deal with the creepos still watching them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 6:40 pm
A sad little laugh bubbled up out of Kirin as he reached across the table. He still sounded a little broken, but on the mend. "Deal," he agreed, shaking pinkies and feeling all of ten years old again. "That was one of my more disastrous attempts, anyway."
Jada had just earned herself a hundred brownie points for letting this go. Everyone else pried. His grandfather took it as a sign of relenting. The few therapists that Kaine had tried to force his grandson to see had taken it as a sign of weakness and attacked, leaving Kirin only more angry and defensive than before. This easy agreement... it seemed too good to be true, really, but Kirin decided that just this once he'd accept that Jada had no ulterior motive. After her mother's machinations, Jada didn't seem very fond of the idea of manipulating others.
This wasn't to say that Kirin was letting his guard down! He was just accepting Jada at face value until shown otherwise.
"It's not your fault," he offered, belatedly. "It's a pretty natural shortening. It was just... special." He shrugged. Perhaps that led to the impression that it had been a past lover who'd caused the issue, or perhaps not. Kirin wasn't that fussed on how it was taken. Lord knows that if Jada was curious, she'd find out enough pertinent details by Googling 'Kirin Thompson' and finding most hits for Destiny City instead led to details on Kaine and Alison Walker, with minor mentions of Kirin. (Not mentioning his gender, thank goodness. Just the usual 'survived by her child...' sidenote.)
He glanced over to said creepos again, frowning. "How are they still here?" he muttered. Despite the good food, service here was leaving something to be desired.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:04 pm
The other girl's pinkie was oddly warm, and Jada curled her own around it, squeezing it. "It was pretty bad." she agreed. "And I guess I'll have to pick another nickname for you. I have nicknames for almost all of the friends I've collected so far, and after the adventure we've had so far today, I guess I'll have to collect you too." it was playful, light. Pokéball go? "I think," Jada said thoughtfully, "That of all of them I've used so far, you seemed to like Sugarlips the most, but it could get awful strange. So? What would you like me to call you?"
It wasn't that Kirin couldn't say 'call me Kirin' but Jada would slip again- she knew it. Fallon's nickname wasn't much of one, and Audrey's changed daily. Other friends had nicknames that were derivatives of their first or last names. Why nicknames?
Why not?
Jada looked in the same direction Kirin did, her finger still curled around the other girl's. "Well, they aren't making a fuss, and we haven't complained about them, so they are probably trying to provide proper service." she said finally. The dessert tray was headed their way, and she let go of the redheads hand, slipping away. "We'll just make sure to leave together. They'll probably have a harder time paying the bill than we will anyway."
Oops. Her hand went back to her mouth, almost guiltily. She was being judgmental again.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:27 pm
Sugarlips had Kirin sniggering again. He certainly hoped Jada wouldn't continue with that one. Not that it didn't amuse him every single time, but... "I think people would definitely misunderstand if you did use that one. It's a nice ruse against people like them," one thumb jerked in the direction of their rapt audience, "but I suspect there are people you don't want getting the wrong idea."
Like her mother. Or potential boyfriends. Well, okay, giving out the impression that she was gay would certainly get Jada a lot of male attention, but not from the right sort of males, Kirin thought. Not from anyone Jada would want to keep around.
"Kirin isn't fine?" he asked, surprised. It didn't occur to him that Jada was planning to keep in touch - or to 'catch 'em all', as it were. He didn't see the point of another nickname for someone who was going their own way after the meal was over. Still, if Jada insisted... "I do believe you scored yourself as the reigning nickname champion. Surely you can come up with something that won't send people into fits of laughter or lust?"
He was rather unhelpful at times, Kirin. Ah well. That just made him a more challenging kind of pokemon to collect, right?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:38 pm
That was better. Even if Kirin was faking her smile, it made Jada relax a bit to see it. "I suppose it is fine if I simply call you by name." she said finally, "I mean, it isn't an ugly name or anything. It is pretty distinctive, and a really interesting name for a girl. Were-" she cut off the question, a single light flashing warning in her mind. Maybe asking about the other woman's parents wasn't the best idea. After all, she seemed to have as many issues as Jada herself, just in varied ways. Touch, nicknames, who knew what kind of issues family would bring up. Though the redhead certainly hadn't seemed to have any issues listening to Jada rant about her family, she wasn't sure that digging that far into the life of someone that she barely knew was a good idea.
"I could call you Buttercup." she said finally, stealing the name from the lead heroine of her Favorite Movie Ever. After all, while Kirin looked nothing like her, they had one thing in common.
Fabulous hair.
The dessert tray arrived at last, and Jada leaned over, admiring the desserts. Italians were the best at cooking, she decided. They had the yummiest food of anything. Like strawberries- Italy supposedly was a HUGE exporter of strawberries-- the best food in the world. The tray included Cannoli, Semifreddo, a french-cream filled Sfogliatelle, Tiramisu and a delicious-looking Crostata, filled with three types of berries. There was almond Panna cotta with a strawberry on top, and something really yummy-looking that he called a Zuppa Inglese and the tray ended with little pastries called Zeppole.
"I..." Jada stared at the desserts, face troubled. What a task!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 4:07 am
Jada would not be the first person to call Kirin's name 'interesting'. Whether for a male or a female, it was just a very unusual choice. Kirin was well aware of that. And while he didn't feel up to sharing memories of his mother, there was one tale he could tell. With a quirky smile, he said, "Not named after the animal, actually. Would you believe... after the beer."
Yes, Kirin's mom was a strange, crazy-awesome kind of lady. Or... had been, rather.
"Buttercup?" he mused. He pulled out a lock of hair and examined it. "Makes me sound blonde. Or like your child. Though I suppose the correct phrase to use in this situation is 'as you wish'?"
He arched an eyebrow at Jada. Here's hoping he had the movie reference correct.
When the dessert tray arrived, Kirin stared from the choices to Jada's face and back again. Each dessert was a tiny work of art, so complex that Kirin almost wanted a menu again so he had an idea of what they actually were under all the fancy getup. Another look at Jada's face had him smirking. It seemed she wanted to try everything. "I don't suppose there's a testing platter, or something with several pieces?" he asked the waiter.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 4:22 am
Jada's snicker was a little louder than ladylike. "After the beer? And if you'd had a brother, would they have been named Ichiban?" what kind of a person- male or female- named their kid after a beer? At least if Kirin wanted, she could pretend it was after that noble creature-- the giraffe? Ah well, nothing was perfect in life.
Kirin got +99999 points for her reply, and in that briefest of moments, had Jada not known what Kirin's reaction would certainly be, she could have kissed a girl- and liked it. Instead she clapped her hands lightly. "As I wish. Darn right." She supposed, if that was going to be Kirin's outlook, she should call her Wesley. She did have a very slight figure-- Kirin might manage to look kind of nice if she was pretending to be a guy. Except for that adorably poofy hair.
"I love Cannoli." she confessed, looking from one item to the next. "They'd been my plan for the evening. Buy a few Cannoli, have some tiramisu to get me ready for round 2 at work, and when I went home, comfort food worthy of a long day. Have you ever had Cannoli?" purple eyes went to Kirin, widening at her NEW BFF'S suggestion of a sample tray.
Perfect.
The waiter apologized, saying they didn't have one, and Jada responded with, "Bring us one of everything, then, please." The waiter looked startled, and Jada beamed at him until he nodded, scooting back to the kitchen. "Sample tray!" she told Kirin. "In a sense."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 4:34 am
Well, there had been a boy born in the family. But he hadn't been named Ichiban. And Kirin would just keep that piece of trivia that very close to his (silcone) chest.
In Alison Walker's defense, it had been after her very favourite beer. And perhaps she should not have been allowed to insist that she was fine to fill out the birth certificate right after the birth, sure, she was completely level-headed and unaffected by the drugs. Hindsight was twenty-twenty, as they said.
"Although that would make you Buttercup, not me," Kirin frowned. Oops, some bad logic slipping through there. Dessert was clearly to blame for distracting them both.
Kirin's eyes sparkled at the mention of tiramisu. The unholy invention of the gods: cake and coffee and liquor. There was no better dessert in all the world.
"Only the kind bought in the frozen food section of a supermarket," Kirin confessed to Jada's query on cannoli. "Which I suspect means I have never tasted cannoli, only something bearing the vaguest resemblance to it."
When Jada opened her mouth to order, Kirin was expecting something along the lines of them sharing the two desserts mentioned. He was shocked to instead hear Jada order one of everything. Kirin boggled. Once he had recovered, he said, "That's going to be a lot of takeaway." Or Jada had a tapeworm in her stomach.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 4:01 pm
"I suppose, but Westley isn't a very good nickname. And Calling you Dread Pirate Roberts just takes too long." Jada gave a light little shrug, pulling out her cell phone again, fingers flying over the keyboard as she replied to a text message. There was the little calamari key chain again, dangling over the table, swinging like a little pendulum. "Besides," she looked at Kirin at last, through her lashes, eyes laughing at the other woman. "Do you really want to be Westley to my Buttercup? You'd be required to take it like a man. Westley was very obedient. Well, until he was the Man in Black, then he was a snarky little devil."
She licked her lips, hitting the send button on her cell phone almost triumphantly. "You need to try real cannoli. It is delicious, and creamy, and mmmmf." she made a little noise in her throat, nodding at Kirin. "And sometimes they have chocolate chips in it, or a strawberry glaze you can drizzle on them and ohgod, so good then." Her eyes rolled back in her head dramatically, briefly.
"It is a lot to take home, but I figured you'd like some for yourself. And if not, my mom's pregnant again, and I can just stuff her full of it. It'll keep her mouth too full to try and hit me up for another blind date." It sounded like Jada had a plan. "But if we eat it all, that's fine. You should get the rest of your lunch boxed up." her 'suggestion' was almost an expectation, and her head was already up, peering around for the waiter.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 5:00 pm
Jada seemed to have things all worked out in her head. All the options considered, and the ones she didn't like were quickly discarded. Kirin wondered if things generally went to plan as Jada expected, or if this micromanagement was because things often didn't. He ended up shrugging. It didn't make all that much difference to him either way what he was called, or whether he ate food now or later. It would beat the hell out of frozen dinners or having to cook something simple for himself later on.
"I'll have you know I make quite the good snarky little devil," Kirin smirked. More often in a different outfit, of course, since Kirin relied on ice not snark. Foramen had no such compunctions - snark, swearing, whatever felt like coming out.
"That sounds good," he said of the dessert. "I look forward to trying it."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 8:51 pm
"You? Snarky?" Jada eyed the other girl up and down, from the cute little button nose to the Meadowview schoolgirl outfit she was wearing. "That must be adorable to see." She ducked her head, taking a serene sip of tea, hoping that the other girl wouldn't see the laughter trying to bubble its way out. "I can see why you attracted your fan club, though."
Jada set the tea down, scrutinizing the other woman. Yes, unfortunately she could. "For the first time, I am glad I don't have that cuteness problem." No, she had a much bigger problem. Like the fact the only stalker she'd ever had had broken into her home and tried to kill her. But, details. (If Kirin read the news, she probably had heard about it anyway.)
It took a few minutes to bring out the dessert, and when it came out, it was on a tray just slightly larger than the preview sweets had come on. Plate after plate was slipped into some little cranny on the table, until the two of them were looking at the full assortment of desserts offered by Casa Doro.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:10 pm
"It doesn't work so well in this uniform," Kirin sighed, correctly interpreting Jada's look. Meadowview didn't go in for imposing uniforms. One could hardly call them a step above 'casual', really. White collarless shirt and red skirt. It was barely more complex than a PE uniform. "I attended a private boarding school for a short - very short - period of time. It was much easier to be snarky and snooty and superior when I was dressed the part."
Sometimes casual dress worked. Depending on what Kirin wore. But neither BP's uniform nor any of his own clothes suited snark more than his senshi fuku. There was just something about the gloves and boots and trailing starry fabric that leant him an instant 'piss off' factor. That and the hair - both Kirin and Foramen could pull off some truly epic hair tosses.
Kirin gave a tiny snort as Jada mentioned not having a cuteness problem. "No, I bet you get a whole different breed of guy chasing you," he frowned. "Especially working in an office. Ugh, lechy old guys." The number two reason Kirin didn't visit his grandfather's work place. Of course the number one reason was that Kirin didn't want to see his grandfather. So a moot point. But at least Kaine had stopped trying to force his grandson there, after realising what kind of attention his 'grand-daughter' was receiving.
"At least you look like you're old enough to go out." Despite being nineteen, Kirin did not look the part. Even when he finally was legal, Kirin just knew he'd be getting carded all over the place and being accused of having fake ID. The many woes of being a shorty.
As they spoke, the desserts arrived. Kirin had to move his glass of water to make room, as well as pass over his pasta and ask for it to be boxed up. The waiter left, leaving the two teens staring at enough dessert to feed two families. Kirin's mouth watered, but his mind shut down at the amount of food. "I may never need to eat again."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
