promisebreaker | [RP for globbernaughts]

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[RP for globbernaughts]

[First Date]

Peter was ridiculously nervous. He was beyond nervous. Really. He was half afraid he was going to throw up before the date ever started. They’d only seen each other the once for possibly three minutes while they waited in line for coffee. He’d written his number on her coffee cup and she’d scribbled hers on his arm. She’d texted first and it had kicked off a month long texting spree in which he kept promising her they’d eventually see each other, but their lives kept getting in the way. Most of the time it’d been the Spiderman thing, but there was also her trip to England, a cold that she refused to give to him, finals week for him and a chance to photograph a last minute wedding that he couldn’t afford to turn down.

Tonight posed the greatest chance to actually see each other that they’d had in that month of near constant texting. (He’d already had nightmares about his phone bill because there was a week of constant international texting on it). Peter wasn’t used to dating. His first girlfriend had been Gwen and after she’d died, he’d sort of given up on the idea of dating. Guilt had pushed him into a kind of solitude. He’d gotten used to it a long time ago, but returning to it after Gwen had taken him a while to adapt. Meeting Bethel hadn’t been planned and if she hadn’t texted him first, he would have never pursued it. It wasn’t safe for anyone to be in a relationship with him, which was why he was currently pacing in front of the Lego store, talking himself either out of leaving or into leaving before Bethel arrived. He flip-flopped from one to the other every few seconds. He probably looked a little like a crazy person, scrubbing at his head and then running his hands down his face, leg bouncing every time he stood in one place for long, fingers moving in time to the music piped into his ears by his earbuds.

He couldn’t leave. Not now, not even knowing that Bethel would be safer without him in her life. He’d fallen in love with her early on in their text relationship. She’d defended Spiderman and she’d passionately advocated that the man in the suit was the hero. Even if she hadn’t been funny, smart, geeky and beautiful, he would have fallen a little bit in love with her for that alone. With that decided, he could relax and just wait until she got there.

He’d shown up ridiculously early.

Of course, there was always the question of whether they’d get along as well in person as they did in text messages. Maybe, in person, she’d find him entirely too awkward. Although, he’d spent a good deal of their text messages warning her that he was incredibly awkward in person. It was possible in person that he would find she was an entirely different kind of person than the one represented in the texts. He didn’t really believe that one though. She’d been too honest and he’d seen her in too many moods to think that she wasn’t who he believed she was.

There was also the possibility that she’d figured out early on about his alter ego. He’d been fairly arrogant at first and if she paid any attention to the news, there were probably some things that lined up with some of the excuses for not being able to meet up with her again. She could have figured out that he was Spiderman and she could be in this just to be famous. There had been a girl last month that’d claimed to be his girlfriend in an exclusive interview to a tabloid rag. He’d never seen the girl in his entire life.

On the flip side, if things worked out between them, the Spiderman thing could be a deal breaker. He’d have to leave in the middle of dates, even the middle of the night. He would miss holidays, anniversaries, and birthdays because of Spiderman. That was the easy part of having him for a boyfriend. The hard part was much more dangerous and led to a much shorter life span.

Crap.

He really should have ignored that text message she’d sent him. The first one. He should have deleted it. He should have never sent anything back. He should have and yet part of him was ridiculously glad he hadn’t: the part of him that managed to forget for five seconds that she could end up dead.

Next time (when exactly had he decided there would be a next time?) he would make certain he didn’t arrive early so that he wouldn’t have time to psych himself out. Next time, he would make a return to perpetual tardiness and he would try to explain to Bethel that really was the better option.

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Bethel was late. She was normally late, always late, literally born late, but this time, it hadn't been her fault. She hadn't trusted her car to get her there on time, she hadn't trusted the subway to not get her stuck near a bloke with opressive body odor and so she had taken a cab, which promptly got stuck in traffic. And of course, she had chosen the only cab driver in all of bloody New York who didn't understand the concept of aggressive driving and taking advantages of open spaces. With two blocks to spare, she'd given up and tossed some money at him. She was already five minutes late.

I'm coming, I SWEAR TO GOD. Don't leave. Please!

She ran down the sidewalk, green converse slapping the pavement as she manuvered around pedestrians and old couples taking walks and young mums with prams. Her messenger bag slapped against her back and her perfectly smooth hair was now a windblown mess, but she didn't care.

She was finally getting her date with Peter, a month in the making. Life had kept trying to pull them apart and they had both told life to kindly take a flying leap ans suck it. So finally, they had their first date and Bethel didn't care if she was late, it was still going to happen.

She caught sight of him and waved, a huge grin lighting up her face, even as she ran a bit faster. "Peter!" She didn't stop when she reached him, plowing into him full force and throwing her arms around his neck. She had spent an entire month texting him, talking about everything, from puberty to piano wires, there was no way she would be content with a handshake.

Her text made him smile. It even calmed him down a little. That was familiar and the familiarity helped chase away some of those nerves.

He had his music up incredibly loud. It was the only way to shut out all the noises in the city that his sensitive hearing picked up, but his hearing was good enough pick out his name out of the jumble of background sounds that didn't quite fade even with the loud music pouring into his ears. He turned, a crooked smile spreading across his face. He tugged one earbud out just in time to catch Bethel in a hug, the crooked smile evolved into a full grin. He spun her in a circle before putting her back down on her feet.

It was practically unbelievable at this point that she was here, in his arms and nothing was trying to force them apart. She smelled so much better than he remembered. Her warm weight against him banished all of those worries and concerns. Some of them would return, but for the moment he was incredibly relieved that he hadn't chickened out. He was deeply grateful that he'd returned that first text and he didn't give a damn how many stupid weddings and ridiculous birthday parties he had to photograph to pay for the international texting week. It was worth it.

"Wow. This is real. I mean you're--I know you're real, but this is actually happening."

Edited (he has emotions okay) 2012-11-10 07:39 (UTC)

Bethel was completely and utterly at ease the moment Peter's arms had gone around her, like all the anticipation and lead up had disappeared, taking the butterflies away with them. It was a bit of a strange feeling so she ignored it for the moment, chosing to figure it out later.

"I know, it's taken us forever." She grinned still, giddiness making her bounce a little on her toes, darting forward like a hummingbee to kiss him on the cheek. "Thank you, for waiting and not leaving and for going on a date with me."

She peered at him for a moment, trying to smooth her hair a bit -- now that she was in front of him she suddenly cared that it was a mess and she had worn a Manchester United shirt and jeans on their first date.. "You're cuter than I remembered." Pictures could not do that smile justice. She would have to figure out a way to capture that.

Edited 2012-11-10 07:40 (UTC)

They'd probably both spend a good deal of time analyzing this date, their feelings and actions after the date was over.

He blushed the slightest bit at the kiss on his cheek then deeper when she complimented him. "And you are way prettier than I remembered. Not that I didn't remember you as beautiful, just...like you said." He scrubbed a hand over his hair, sending it going in every sort of direction.

He didn't care what she wore. She looked perfect as far as he was concerned. He'd worn a pair of jeans, tee shirt with a plaid button down over it and converse. He tugged his other ear bud out of his ear, turned his music off and tucked it in his pocket. He had his backpack over one shoulder.

"Oh!" He slid the backpack off his shoulder, unzipped it and pulled out a slightly crushed bouquet of what looked like paper rosebuds...sort of. "You can unroll them when you get home. I printed off a bunch of our text messages and sort of rolled them up into...I was--after finals I had some time and --I don't sleep much. And obviously I don't...arts and craft much. I just...you work in a flower shop, so I didn't want to get you flowers."

Bethel took the paper flowers gently, an expression of happy surprise on her face. He had made her flowers because he... that was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for her. Barring anything, her bouquet of text flowers was the sweetest.

Her hand reached out, curling into a fist around the placket of his shirt, using it to pull her forward until her lips firmly pressed to his. Part of her was screaming that this was highly inappropriate, but she never listened to that part so it was easy to drown out with the feeling of his lips against hers.

She had waited a month for that and he had made her flowers.

To say the kiss took him by surprise was the understatement of the year. He was so surprised that for a moment he didn't respond. He just sort of instinctively physically and mentally flailed. After a moment, he got his bearings enough to figure out that kissing her back would be a good idea.

Once he'd given into it, he just sort of melting into the kiss, one hand going to the small of her back, the other to rest on her shoulder, his fingertips light against her neck. Somehow, despite the fact that this was their first date, it seemed the right way to start things, or more properly, continue things. It was the next step to where ever they were going.

Bethel pulled back with a breathless giggle, cheeks flushed pink and the paper roses still cradled in her arms. "I...I've wanted to do that since you left the coffee shop," she admitted, the blush on her cheeks brightening. "I didn't really mean to do that, actually. I tripped."

She chewed on her lip. Yes, he had kissed her back. He had definitely kissed her back. She was 99% sure that he had kissed her back and she hadn't been imagining the whole thing in some sort of elaborate daydream. No, in her daydreams Frank Sinatra was usually hanging about serendading her and Peter was usually shirtless.

"Incidentally, thank you for the flowers, I love them."

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. He was a little disappointed and confused, trying to decide if she meant it or not. "You didn't mean to do that? The whole...I mean...I'm glad you did. It was--hi."

Waving because waving after a kiss like that was normal and not awkward or weird at all.

"You're welcome. I'm glad you like them. My room mate called me a lot of names. I think he was jealous I had a date."

"No I mean, no, that's not what I meant. I didn't trip, I really wanted to kiss you, but..." She trailed off, helpless and flailing a bit because she didn't want Peter to think she hadn't wanted to kiss him.

She wanted to keep kissing him, but they hadn't even had their date yet so she was confused about her options at the moment. Peter was so sweet and goofy and admittedly old-fashioned, she didn't want to scare him off because she'd spent the last thirty days imagining kissing him. The real kiss was much better than she imagined and she simply wanted more. She told him as much.

"It was really nice and I'd love to keep at it, but," she ducked her head, looking at her scuffed trainers and looking clearly nervous. "I didn't want to, you know, jump you on our first date." A pause. "And your roommate is clearly jealous, the wanker."

"Yeah?" A big grin spread across his face. "I mean---yeah. You know...that was a really great hello...uhm kiss not--" He pursed his lips and nodded, still clearly giddy about the whole date thing but trying desperately not to flip out. "So remember that awkward in person thing I kept mentioning?"

He was old fashioned because he couldn't help it. Blame Uncle Ben, but she was in good company wanting more. He'd spent a good deal of the last thirty days imagining much of the same.

"Actually, I think the jumping me on the first date thing is okay. I mean there was already some literal jumping and that was good."

He held his hand out for hers. "So do you want to go play with Legos and maybe you can jump me some more in between? I mean if you wanted to. Not that I'm making that a condition of our date because that would be...kind of creepy and weird. I'm trying to avoid those things on this date."

"I like that awkward person you kept mentioning," Bethel told him, firmly, reaching out to take his hand. It was true. That awkward bumbling guy was the guy she decided to text, the nerdy smart kid who talked to her about superheroes and heaven and tried, valiantly and futilely, to explain why black holes were still just theoretical -- she simply insisted they were real and that was that. She really, really like that awkward guy. She was also in a bit of denial about the extent of that liking.

And oh his hand was so much bigger than hers, it practically dwarfed it, but it was so nice and warm she was already dreading the idea of letting go. No, she did not want to let go. Hopefully they could remain holding hands for a while, at least until she was hopelessly distracted by building a Lego TARDIS.

"I think jumping amidst Legos sounds... well, it sounds bloody brilliant, actually. Can we play on the giant piano at FAO Schwartz after?

That made him smile once again. The fact that she kept insisting she liked the awkward let him relax a little, be more confident and more of the occasionally snark, cocky guy he could be came through. Texting had been like wearing a mask. It'd given him a freedom that being in person, unmasked usually didn't, certainly not with someone he was still getting to know and he was entirely in denial about how much he liked Bethel. He kept telling himself he couldn't like someone he was on a first date with that much.

His fingers curled around her hand and he appreciated how well her hand fit into his, enveloping it nicely. They could remain holding hands the entire date if she liked and they could resume holding hands after they'd built a Lego TARDIS.

"Sure. I mean you can. I don't really know how to play piano but I'll be happy to sit next to you while you play with it. I can even press keys when you tell me to."

They headed inside the Lego store toward the first display.

Peter's smile made Bathel grin, if only because it was so adorable she couldn't help herself. He was just so... Peter. And Bethel was so fond of Peter. She was in love with him really, but it would be absurd to admit that, before their first date even ended. And probably creepy if she admitted it out loud.

"So basically, I can teach you? Because pressing keys when I tell you is pretty much how people learn how to play." She was teasing, a basis of their texting relationship, something undeniably comfortable about it.

Her eyes got a bit wide when they walked in, like a kid in the proverbial candy shop. "Best first date, ever," she whispered, almost reverent. The nerd fu was strong with this one.

He had that effect on people. For the most part, Peter was a pretty straight forward person, which sounded contradictory when the Spiderman thing was added in, but it wasn't, not really, not once you got to know him. He was deeply fond of Bethel, which would scare him a little later when he thought about it simply because it was so quick and yet they'd had a month of almost constant contact and they'd been very honest with each other (with the exception of the Spiderman thing and even then he was honest when they discussed Spiderman's ideals and reasonings and he'd been as honest as possible, calling what he was doing a neighborhood watch program). So maybe it wouldn't scare him so much.

"Exactly, but I can't promise how much musical talent I have." He beamed a smile at her with the teasing. It was nice because being with her was just like texting her in feel. She was the same person in her text messages that she was in person and that was good as well as something he'd worried about. Sometimes virtual contact was easier than face-to-face contact, but they seemed to be settling into a comfortable kind of repertoire.

"Thanks. I was hoping you'd think so."

Yeah, Peter spent some time here all by himself. It was like Lego Heaven.

"Well I've none at all, but I'm British, we force it into our children until it takes. My dad's not all typical and stuff, but he latched on to that child rearing mandate. I've played piano since I was four." Though she played very, very rarely because it usually just never came up and she didn't have a stray piano sitting around at her flat.

She held up their clasped hands. "You've even the hands for it. Long, strong fingers. Though I could think of something more enjoyable for those fingers to be doing than learning piano." She glanced up at him, looking decidedly devious, tongue poking between her teeth as she grinned at him.

It was kind of magical. Bethel was pretty much in awe of some of the things people could make with Legos. She was really good at making Lego Eiffel Towers and Lego houses, but the giant Lego statue of Atlas in the corner? No, she couldn't handle that. It was awesome. "I feel like Tom Hanks in Big."

"I'm kind of glad I skipped that child rearing mandate. Aunt Mae really didn't care what hobby I picked up, as long as I did something productive. She was really supportive of the photography and let me take apart everything in her house even if I didn't know that I could put it back together."

He looked at their clasped hands when she raised them then went very pink, chuckling almost nervously at that very devious comment. "You'll have to---uhm...you know sort of share sometime. With the whole...yeah." He just settled for nodding and grinning like a doof.

Peter's brain was mechanical enough that with enough Legos and time, he could probably figure out some pretty amazing things. They'd tend more toward building replicas and engineering marvels rather than art pieces. The statue of Atlas was amazing. "Yeah. Always liked that movie. I just wanted to be a big kid, you know?"

"I was very British when we lived in Berwick. Dad let it slide when we moved here because, well, it wasn't England." She had done a lot of stereotypical "British" things when she was a kid. Horseback riding, riflery, pigeon racing, crew, cricket and football. When she'd moved she'd only kept up at soccer and cricket, though that was harder to continue as it wasn't that popular.

Oh there was that awkward boy she liked so much. She grinned even more at his reaction because it was just so perfect and almost exactly how she had pictured it every time she said something overtly sexual to him over text. "I just might. Sometime."

Well they had both Legos and time. "Yes, exactly! There's a place here where we can actually play right? Build an exact replica of the Large Hadron Collider and make Lego God Particles?" She was really hoping she hadn't misheard him say that.

"Why'd you move? And how old were you? I mean it's a huge change." Peter asked. He couldn't imagine living anywhere that wasn't New York City, but then he'd never really been much of anywhere. He'd certainly never lived anywhere else.

It was a very good thing she liked that awkward boy since he couldn't do much about the awkwardness. She ended up making him blush, stammer and flail quite a bit over their text messages. It wasn't a bad thing. "Y-yeah? That'd...yeah. Okay."

Clearly they should build amazing things. "Of course there's a place to build. That's the best part of here. We can build anything you want. I was sort of thinking TARDIS, but Hadron Collider and God Particles works too." He tugged her toward the back of the store where they could build things.

"Dad set up his factory here." She shrugged a bit, she didn't know his exact reasons. She suspected it had something to do with her mother so she never asked. It hadn't been that much a change either, she still wore a uniform to school, except the pompous bitchy girls she went to school with in Manhattan had to fake their British accents when they tried to get with the boys at the sister school. "We moved when I was, ten? Maybe eleven. No, I think I was ten. Definitely ten. I was in sixth grade, but it wasn't so bad, really. I was just as weird and antisocial here as I was there."

She wrapped her free arm around the one of his that was holding her hand, leaning into him a bit with a squeeze. "Okay."

Oh, she could get used to being tugged around by Peter. He was a good bit taller than her so she had to walk a bit faster to keep up with him in general since his stride practically doubled hers, but there was something so natural about him leading her on to some silly adventure that she was happy to go along with. "A TARDIS? Oh I actually love you!"

"We were definitely the same clique in high school, but none of the weird, antisocial girls were half as pretty as you at my high school. You miss it sometimes, right? I mean you sounded pretty nostalgic in your texts while you were there."

He smiled at her when she squeezed his arm. She always managed to make him feel at ease.

"That is incredibly fortunate for both of us. I mean you get me, Lego TARDIS builder extraordinare and I get a really hot, genuinely British companion. Wanna travel through time and space with me? In a very linear manner of speaking."

"That's because I was drinking," she said with a laugh. "But no, I do miss it, I miss my friends and fitting in without trying and proper fish and chips. No one asks about my accent there or tells me they really loved Tony Blair. I was barely there for him, and I certainly couldn't vote so why would I even care?" She shrugged a little, thinking it through properly. "When I'm there I miss being here, and when I'm here I miss being there. So it's sort of a trade, I suppose. I am liking here more lately, though."

She was liking it more because of Peter.

"Very fortuitous, indeed, old chap. You've got a wee lass to keep you company." She made an effort to put some of her accent back into her voice, thirteen years of watering it down disappearing in an instant. He wanted a genuinely British companion, he was going to get it. Usually the accent only got deeper when she was drinking or crying but if she thought about it hard enough she could slip right back into it. "Can I see your spaceship, sir?"

Peter nodded as she talked. he could understand it even if he'd lived in one place his entire life. "Yeah? It grows on you. People are just curious because you're different though. In a good way."

He kind of hoped that was the case, but he didn't want to give himself too much credit too early on.

He chuckled at her accent, ducking his head as he did. "That's the thing. We're going to have to build it. Let's start out with gathering up all the blue Legos.

"I know. I probably don't help it, since I seem to give off a distinctly British vibe, all the tea and TARDISes and... Tony Blair. I couldn't think of another thing that started with a T. The tube, the telly, the Tower of London, treacle tart. Of course, now I think of them all. Utter cock up."

At her slip of swearing, her hand flew to cover her eyes and she stopped, bright pink like a toddler had a field day with her blush. "There's a million kids around us that heard that, aren't there?"

Peter laughed out right at that, not so much that she swore but more her reaction to it.

"Yup, but they're American so they probably didn't realize what you just said."

He crouched down and started putting some Legos together.

Bethel pouted when he laughed, mortification making way for indignation. How rude! Teasing her when she was horrified with herself. She folded herself down cross legged and leaned around, gathering a pile of Legos and picking all the blue ones out of it. Still pouting.

After a moment, she picked up a Lego and threw it at him, sticking out her tongue. She was so mature.

[RP for globbernaughts]

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