callmeemily | We's goin' on a date, son. (Jason)

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We's goin' on a date, son. (Jason)

To say that Raleigh was nervous would have been the understatement of a century. Nevermind that she saw Jason every day, nevermind that she basically now had a tiny budget item actually set aside for Alfredo because there would be dog biscuits in his future pretty much every day - this was a date, which meant it was different from the other times she'd actually hung out with Jason, and so... she was wearing a dress. She curled her hair, borrowing the curling iron of the woman who owned the boarding house she was renting a room in. She was wearing a black sweater (which had a couple of flour-y handprints on it) and flipflops, and surprisingly...

She wasn't wearing pants. No leggings, no pants, no nothing, which meant that the scars on her leg were actually visible - but she figured if she was going to the effort of wearing a dress... whatever. Whatever, it wasn't like he didn't know there was something going on, at this point.

There's groceries, there's a plan (make dinner, go get Alfredo, go walking for a while), and jesus, she's even wearing makeup. It's like she's an actual grownup, and she leans against the wall of the bakery and for once, she really wishes for a cigarette even though she's only smoked every once in a while and gave them up when she ended up here without an ID and the fact that she doesn't look her age.

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It was a long day at the docks, but Jason managed to rush over to the cabin at the community garden for a thorough shower. He took advantage of everything in the bag Eli had left at his bench, including even a bit of cologne. Thankfully Eli picked a nice, but casual outfit for Jason or he'd end up feeling uncomfortable for the entire night. He left Alfredo at the cabin with a toy and a big bowl of food.

Arriving too early and feeling awkward with himself, Jason spends a few minutes walking along the docks. What the hell is he doing? A date? Raleigh should be dating guys with steady jobs, guys with roots. Jason shrugs off the thoughts. All in all, he's his own worst enemy. And Raleigh made it very clear for even Jason Wright to understand she likes him, everything his past has turned him into. He deserves a bit of happiness and normalcy, right?

He returns to the bakery and knocks at the front door. He chews on his lip, hoping tonight is comfortable for the both of them.

She tugs the door open, and she lights up with a wide smile as she sees him. "Hey," she says with an even wider smile, and she looks genuinely happy to see him. She stands back so that he can go in front of her, so she can relock the door. "You look... really nice."

Raleigh felt absurdly shy, like she hadn't talked to him yesterday, sitting on the dock in the sun as she and Alfredo hung out and waited for the boat to come in. She moves back behind the counter and holds open the door so that she can just... have the lobsters go into the big bin she had sitting on the floor, because it weirded her out that they were alive, even though that was how this worked. "Did you have a good day?" She moves to unpack her own grocery bags, looking at him over her shoulder.

Jason grins when she opens the door and he sees the dress she warned him about. She looks freaking adorable. He steps through the threshold and follows her back to the kitchen. "Thanks. You look really pretty," he admits with a smile.

He drops the lobsters into the bin before leaning against the counter. He owed the captain a few extra hours of work for the lobsters, but it was a fair trade. "Yeah, it was a long day, but good. You run into any annoying customers today?"

Raleigh smiles wider and ducks her head at the compliment. "Thanks." She's glad he noticed, or at least that he said something, because... because. Because she sort of dressed up for herself so she'd not be as weirdly worried about this, but she also dressed up a little bit for him, because she's been called a street urchin by her mother before and that's not exactly what she wants to remind him of.

There's two pots of water already starting to heat on the stove - one that's half her size, nearly, and one that's a little more normal sized. "Me? No - just the usual, except the guy - there's this guy, right? He just sort of really really likes to come in and buy out the last cinnamon rolls before other people. Like, he just gets all excited about it, which is great, but then there's like... sad people, after him."

Shaking her head, and shrugs a shoulder. "People are super weird."

There isn't much to do before it boils, and so she turns around to also lean against the counter, smiling. They'd been studiously avoiding the date subject yesterday, and that's one of the reasons that she finally says something. "I'm really glad you asked me about tonight. I probably would have kept tiptoe-ing around this for... well. Ever."

"Yellow's your colour." Not that he knows anything about colour and complexion and all that, he just thinks the yellow looks really pretty on her. It's nice to see after a long day surrounded by dark gray seas. "Really?" he asks, wrinkling his nose. He'd met a fellows like this one in his past and they always had sad lives. "Does he like taking candy from babies too? He seems like that kind of guy." He nods in agreement. "Weird is a nice word for people."

Jason looks down, grinning to himself. Avoiding the subject until tonight helped him stay focused on work and not getting nervous until his shower earlier. "I'm glad you asked if I was married. I'd kept thinking you just like my dog. Which is understandable, he's pretty great."

"You never know, he could be a secret super villain in disguise, just trying out his... villainy... ways. On small children. With cinnamon buns." She can't not smile, and her fingers sort of creep across the edge of the counter until they brush his, and she's obviously shy, but she's actually reaching out, so that's something, right?

"I mean, I didn't think you were married, unless it was like... just some random thing that you had no say in and didn't even know the person, but I still had to ask. You never know, you might have been long distance... something. With letters." She shrugged. "I just knew that I was single, and.... yeah, I do like Alfredo. You've found the truth of it. I'm in love with your dog, and all of this? It's a sham, to get to him."

Looking over at him, she smiles. "I like seeing him every day," her voice is pitched lower than before, "But I'll be honest, I'm a little glad that it's just us. Don't tell him I said that." She's teasing him, because she thankfully knows him well enough that she can, and not be afraid it's going to go over like a lead balloon.

"If he's super villain material, he should step up his game from cinnamon buns or he's the saddest villain I've ever heard of." He smiles bigger when she touches his fingers and he exposes his palm, holding hers loosely.

He chuckles because the image reminds him of some old movie, going off to war, leaving the girl you love at home, and hoping she'll still be waiting for when you return. "Man, that'd make a really sad story. Fortunately, my life isn't that dramatic." He points a finger at her. "See? You're just trying to steal a man's dog."

Jason's honestly glad there's people here who will look out for Alfredo while he's out on the boats. He trusts Alfredo to take care of himself, but people are mean and a part of him worries about the dog while he's out doing his job. It's comforting to know Raleigh is visiting him at some point in the day, spoiling him like he should be spoiled. "Secret's safe with me. He's insanely jealous."

"Hey, he'd be well-fed. And you gotta start somewhere." She smiles as her fingers thread with his, and she doesn't comment on it but just lets there be that connection even as she leans against the counter.

Laughing when he does, she shrugs. "You never know! Could be somebody you really disliked, or like... you woke up one day on your way here with a wife. It could happen." It's weird that she's okay with Jason considering that her dad did the same sorts of things - he stayed for a couple of years and then moved on, but somehow she thinks he's different. There's this thread to him that's inherantly good that she can't not be drawn to.

The bubble of laughter that comes from when he says she's trying to steal his dog is bright and happy. "He would follow you to the end of the Earth. There is no stealing that dog away from you." She scrunches her nose, and finally (reluctantly) pulls her hand from his as she goes over to the pans on the stove, peeking into the shorter one to see if it's boiling yet, and - yeah. "So, have you boiled lobsters before? I can't remember what you said." She looks over her shoulder at him, because this? This is the one thing that creeps her out.

"He started, it's time to strive for the big leagues or go home. Tough world out there for super villains." It's easy to talk like this and it releases some of his nerves.

"Oh it could happen, I don't doubt that. I just can't imagine that happening to me," he corrects. "My life wasn't that crazy. Kinda dull actually." He moves to stay alive. He has very few rules in his life. Go where the jobs and the money lead you. Only work jobs you feel are on the up-and-up (no more illegal fighting). Keep your head down, but treat people like people. Following those rules, he kept himself fed and mostly out of jail. His overwhelming need to stand up for others landed him in a cell for a night on more than one occasion. But he never felt like he made a family or friends and simply left them. He barely made connections, never settled anywhere for long, so leaving would be easy. Leaving's not easy right now. Not even on his mind actually.

"It's true. He'll just find his own way back to me," he smiles and rubs his head, thinking about Alfredo and how much he loves that damn dog. Jason nods at her question. "Yeah, I can do that."

"Who's going to make you a cinnamon bun once you've started your plan for world domination?" She smiles at him, and he says his life is dull, and she shakes her head. "I don't think it's dull, for what it's worth. It's a life, and nobody's life is dull." She's got these ideas that she's come up with - she's spent a lot of time alone - not just here, but growing up, her mom'd be with Matt and Raleigh'd be working, but she was always a lot younger than the people she'd work with. When she was at school, when she finally wasn't homeschooled, she had her limp and her weird family.

She makes a face when he admits that he's boiled a lobster. "Thank god, it just- it creeps me out." She laughs at the confession, wrinkling her nose. "I know it's stupid - they're lobsters, and I eat other meat, I just... I can't do it. Can you? Do you mind? They should go in now, I just-"

It weirds her out so much she can't even watch.

"Wait, you won't?" He grins at her to show he's joking. "Interesting, my life was interesting. Always. Nothing dramatic or exciting. I guess that's what I mean." Jason can see how much Raleigh must appreciate lives, even the seemingly dull ones, since she was basically uprooted from her own.

"No, I get it," he assures her. "It's...the way it's done, kinda makes you feel bad." He grabs her shoulders and turns her away, positioning her in a corner of the kitchen so she doesn't even have to hear anything. "Stay in your corner." It's not long, and yeah, it creeps him out as well, but after a few minutes, he let's her know it's done.

"You're my hero," she says as she turns around, scrunching her nose because she knows it's silly. It's silly, but he's done the one thing she really, really could not do - the rest, the fishing them out and the getting the meat out so she can do lobster mac and cheese? Not a problem.

She reached for his fingers, and she tugged him closer to her, her head tipped back to look up at him. "This... is nice. Even if whatever... we're actually doing with this doesn't fly, we'll still hang out, right?" Even though everything that she's got pretty much says that it's going right. It is, to use her own stupid term, flying.

"I mean, it's pretty nice from my end so far." She can't stop the stupid smile that just comes out of nowhere as she grins up at him.

Jason looks down at her, smiling as she voices any concerns. "Of course. I like hanging out with you." He's as lost as she may be in this area, but he's comfortable and if Raleigh's comfortable, that's all that matters.

It is flying. Amazingly. He just hopes he doesn't screw this up, but Raleigh seems okay with the weird, long hours of a fisherman and even interested in learning really anything she can. She's open. It's something that drew him to her. So he smiles when she does and bites his lip. "It's nice from my end too. Can I ask you something random?" He chuckles a bit because he's asking now, on their date, but he's comfortable with her. "How old are you?"

The fact that he smiles so much is something she definitely appreciates - it's easy to see when he's happy or not, and there's so much potential in just... Being friends that this.... This, she doesn't even know how good it might be, but if they can at least remain friends then there's nothing to worry over.

Raliegh's eyebrows rise when he asks his question. "I, uh." It's not that she has to think about it, it's got a she's somewhat surprised by it. "Twenty-two. I'll be twenty-three this year." She resists the urge to ask 'why', because she knows why. Her mom told her they'd be checking her ID til she was 60, since she had such a baby face.

"How about you? If we're asking." She smiles and she hopes - hopes that he D doesn't have a wierd reaction to get age.

"Twenty-two," he repeats with a nod. He's okay with it. Especially since she acts a lot older. But she may not be okay with his age. Jason scratches the back of his head and clears his throat. "Twenty-nine. Thirty in December."

She doesn't mind - she'd guessed somewhere around there, and the next question she's got for him - well. "That's what I sort of thought. I mean, the mid-twenties, maybe a little older, it sort of... You don't seem like you're, I don't know, eighteen." She paused, and then there it was. "How old did you think I was? Or worry I was, I guess." She's clearly not overly concerned with her answer - she asks it like she's teasing, mostly because... she is.

"I know I've got one of those faces," she says, to let him off the hook.

He smiles when she seems fine with his age, especially since he does look about thirty. It was kind of stupid of him to even be worried about that.

Jason laughs at her question. "I figured over twenty, especially since you mentioned college. I was more concerned you'd think I'm too old. People can be weird about age."

She makes a face at him, wrinkling her nose. "I think that how old you are is perfectly acceptable. If you were... I don't know, forty-five, I might be wigged out. Or forty. Because then-" She paused. "Yeah, I'm not even going to say what I was about to say, because it's weird." The sentence because then you could be my dad is pretty much never going to come out of her mouth, she'd decided.

This was ridiculous. She felt like she couldn't stop smiling, and she pretty much never wanted to let go of his hand - it was juvenile, but she just liked it. And him. She just liked him.

God, this was embarrassing, not that it'd make her change her behavior. "I should probably start the roux for the cheese," even though that implies her actually doing it while the lobsters cook to their lobstery deaths, she didn't actually move an inch.

Edited 2014-06-14 17:40 (UTC)

He frowns and shakes his head. "I'd creep myself out if I was forty-five and hitting on you." He's happy they're both comfortable with the age difference, not that it feels like one. Raleigh is easy to talk to and mature, and fun to be around. He doesn't feel out of touch with her or way in over his head. He's glad she seems to enjoy a quieter--he was really happy she wanted to have dinner here at the bakery and then go for a walk together versus going to a restaurant or a movie.

Jason pulls her closer, grinning lopsidedly when she mentions needing to start something for the cheese, but doesn't budge from him. He's being playful, flirtatious as his free hand rests on her waist. "I'm sorry, what did you say about cheese?"

"Glad we're on the same page about you not being forty-five, then." She paused, and then- "You're hitting on me?" Her brows rise, because to her, hitting on her - that's different than actually going on a date. That's.... more, and she doesn't hesitate when he tugs her closer, and she tips her head back more, her hand on his chest because where the hell else is she going to put it.

It's the grin, she can't stop how she smiles up at him, and she says her million dollar, I am the smartest person ever, response:

"What?"

Because cheese? Cheese is the furthest thing from her mind right this second. If you asked her to make a roux, she'd probably just... well. Say what, really.

Jason laughs. "I'm not great at it, okay. You probably won't even notice when I'm doing it." But he is, he's hitting on her now, in his own way, pulling her closer and smiling the way he does. And now she seems completely distracted from the cheese. Something he's definitely okay with.

His gaze is focused on her and he glances briefly at her lips. Without realizing, he's leaning closer to her. "Something about cheese, I really don't know," he admits and his bites his lip.

"Oh, I'd say you'd doing just fine," she says, half-distracted by the way that he bites his lip. "It's... I mean...." She just sort of trails off, before she blinks when he says something about cheese.

"Oh- cheese sauce, for dinner. It's okay, it can wait." She breathes the words, because the last thing she really wants to do right this second is move. The lobster's on a timer, and his hand's warm on her waist, so that's pretty much the two important things going on right now.

Raleigh actually has to pull in a breath - to remember to do that. Breathing, it's a thing. "I mean, hell, we could just eat lobster and croissants, at this point, and I'd be pretty happy." She can't stop the way she smiles, and she finally lets her fingers slip from his - so that her hand can find his waist, and not for the first time in her life she actually wishes that she was taller.

He's pretty sure he's smiling stupidly now because of the way she's smiling at him, and it's very clear to him now that she likes him. Of course it was clear before because she said she likes him, but now they're close and her hand is on his waist and there's definitely attraction there.

He chuckles at the way she dismisses the cheese now. "Lobster and croissants...that's a damn good dinner in my book." He's honestly fine with whatever she wants to do for dinner, Jason's just enjoying the contact and feeling closer to her.

"I mean, it's food," she's more distracted than she should be, given they were having some sort of a conversation, and her eyes have flicked down to his mouth and she tugs her lower lip between her teeth like she's about to do something, and then the timer starts to beep.

She blinks like someone's thrown cold water on her, forcing herself to pull back and she turns red as she actually moves around him, for some reason needing to catch her breath even as it feels like her heart's pounding eight hundred miles an hour. "Lobster," she says like that's an explanation, and she is a flurry of nervous energy as she checks them.

Not quite done, but it'll be just another minute or two, and she's realising that yes, she should make the roux or at least melt some butter or something. "Can you hand me the butter?" She holds out her hand for it, and she looks back at him at the last second, her cheeks pink.

Jason's leaning down closer to Raleigh when the timer goes off and he actually grimaces because timing. He clears his throat and pushes off the counter where he had been leaning. "Yeah, of course." He grabs the butter and hands it to Raleigh, catching the flush of her cheeks. He smiles a bit shyly, realizing they were on their way to something before being rudely interrupted.

"Lobster," he repeats after her.

Dumb lobsters.

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