tampered | Log; Ongoing

Log; Ongoing

When; Monday afternoon, 9/22
Rating; PG
Characters; Kara

plz_2_b_an_hero
Summary; Kara and Zack meet for lunch.
Log; Kara waited somewhat impatiently at a little table outside Cafe Juliet. Not that Zack was late (because watches could be 5 minutes or so off, right?) but because she was kind of excited about this. Zack seemed like a nice guy. Okay, he seemed like a really nice guy. The odds were that nothing serious would probably come of today but it never hurt to make new friends, right?

She had opted for her usual outfit of jeans and a cute shirt, forgoing her costume for something more casual. Plus she had to wash the costume from the curse yesterday. Sir Integral probably took good care of it but still, someone else had been wearing it all day.

So, she was on the lookout for someone resembling the cute guy she had seen on the network so she could wave him over.

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Zack was a nice guy. Too much of a nice guy, in fact, since his lateness was due to the fact that he very stupidly let his ~~charge~~ employer drag him out much too late watching scary movies in the underground warehouse... after meeting another guy and having a comical scene involving a puppy-eyesing 30-year-old man and a giant pink bunny suit.

Really, the things a guy would be put through for being nice. He was thiiis close to crossing 'bodyguard' off the list of jobs he'd do for hire. At least rolling out of bed and hitting the ground running to get ready didn't do any lasting damage to his already over-the-top hairstyle.

Without the worry of being called on duty, he avoided wearing his uniform, instead wearing a plain black shirt and baggy off-green cargoes. The Buster Sword remained locked in his closet, for fear that Ryuichi would decide it needed to be more sparkly via pretty crayon drawings.

So when he finally came trotting up to Café Juliet, a pefect seven minutes late (even though his handset said five and a half), he had the distinct look of an overexcited puppy trying so hard not to run but not quite managing. At least he didn't trip.

When Kara saw Zack she beamed brightly and waved to him. Not only was he cute but he was built too. Not that skinny guys couldn't be appealing too but, those muscles were enough to make a girl say yum.

"Hey Zack," she said, unconsciously tucking a strangd of her hair behind her ear. She always got slightly self conscious when meeting a cute guy for the first time. She knew by the end of the meal she'd feel completely at ease and confident around him but right now she might be a bit bashful.

Startled, at first, Zack came skidding to a halt before grinning. She waited outside for him? That definitely made things a whole lot easier. He walked the rest of the way, sheepishly scratching the back of his head with a matching look on his face. "Sorry I'm so late. I missed my alarm, and-- Well. You know how it goes. Leisurely morning becomes a mad dash to get ready, and you almost forget your keys, and."

He was babbling. He was going to stop that. And sit. His problem wasn't confidence - it was purely a characteristic excess of nervous energy. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long?"

Edited 2008-09-22 17:53 (UTC)

"But at least your hair looks good," she said, resisting the urge to run her fingers through it. She had seen some buildings that would require less structural engineering to stay up.

"And don't worry, you're not that late," she reassured him. "Not so much that I'm not willing to look past it anyways."

"Are you making fun of me...?" Zack grumbled, crossing his arms and tilting his head. A smile cracked the sulk before it could even begin to be convincing. "Want to go in and order, or talk a bit first. I warn you that I have a terrible habit of talking with my mouth full."

"Not at all!" Kara said, trying to hide the smile that was quirking at the corner of her mouth. "I just want to use my X-ray vision on it to see if anything special is holding your hair up. Or run my fingers through it. Can I do that or will that mess it up?"

Kara's fingers practically itched to run through Zack's hair and she hoped he would let her. Not only because his hair was really... unique but because running your fingers through a guy's hair was kind of fun.

Zack blinked at her, raising an eyebrow, before looking up with his eyes, as if he could see whatever it was she wanted to investigate. "Uh, sure, I guess, if you don't mind getting stared at. Passerby will wonder at the pretty girl petting me, I think."

Kara stood up and stepped close to Zack, flushing just a bit at her nearness to him. But hey, he was hot and she had a perfectly good excuse to be near him and his muscles. Smiling, she reached up and ran her fingers through his hair, close to the scalp.

"Well, it feels like normal hair," she said, running her fingers through again and just lightly dragging her nails along his scalp. "And oh my god you totally have the most gorgeous eyes!"

Zack realized the tensing in his shoulders and his startled bug-eyedness before he noticed the heat in his face. He very rarely blushed, but considering Kara had completely thrown him off kilter (he really hadn't expected she actually would and shit was the red in his face giving off more light than his eyes he wasn't sure he wanted to know) it was kind of warranted.

And true to his puppyish-nature, the petting had him twitching nervously where he stood, stammering, "Th-they're, uh, a mark of my status back home. Formerly. Status. Back home."

Get yourself together, man.

"Thanks?"

Kara felt better about her own blushing seeing that Zack was doing it too. It was nice to know that she had that affect on him. She wouldn't have to be sure not to abuse that. At least not too much.

"They're beautiful," she said, ruffling his hair a bit and stepping back and hooking her arm into his. "So what are we going to get?"

Zack cleared his throat, composing himself along with his hair, a few quick motions that visibly snapped him out of the brain freeze from a few moments before. "The color of the sky, I always say!" he grinned, knowing he was still a bright and embarrassing color but choosing to ignore it. "And that all depends on what they have and what you want."

"Well, you did promise me cake," she said, leaning into him just a bit. It was nice to have this kind of physical contact with a guy and not worry about him getting any weird ideas about it. Alright, so she had totally just met him, but still. He was a really nice guy.

"Anything beyond that is just details."

Zack was more baffled about Kara's behavior than anything, never meeting a girl quite so forward back home.

But really, if he just thought of it like how he thought of him being all cheerfully invasive of personal space, it wasn't so bad. (Though now he understood why Cloud and Angeal got so twitchy whenever Zack was being obnoxious.)

"Details, huh? Well let's go hash them out now so we can eat something," he grinned, partially at her and partially just in general as he strode along with her to the entrance. Being sure to hold the door for her, of course!

"I think a salad is in order," she said as they strolled into the cafe. She had been here several times before but still glanced at the menu. The chicken salad was really good and rather filling as far as salads went.

"So what kind of food do they have on your world, Zack?"

Zack surveyed the menu right along with her, making an absent thoughtful noise. Sandwiches. Sandwiches sounded good. If there was a club of some kind, he'd already have his mind made up-- "Actually, this kind of stuff here looks pretty normal to me."

"Awww, that's kind of disappointing," she said, still secure against his arm and looking over the choices. That was the problem when a place had a lot of good items, it was hard to decide.

"No other universe food or anything like that." Biting her lip thoughtfully, Kara finally made her choice. "Okay, chicken ceasar salad for me!"

Zack winked, a motion that was just as quick to appear as the quirk to his lip. "I'm sure we'll figure out more than enough differences between our worlds. Best to have some similarities to start with, though, right?"

"And a club sandwich," he told the woman at the counter. "Just a water with that. What'd you like to drink, Kara?"

She liked the wink. It was cute. Pretty much everything about Zack was cute. Okay, the muscles were not cute, those were definitely hot. It was a really nice combination, although a little unfair.

"Just water is fine," she told him, already fishing in her pocket for her money. "Might as well go healthy all the way."

Zack reached over to poke lightly at the foraging arm with his own wallet, shaking his head. "Hey, now, I called this one fair and square. Stop that."

He hummed thoughtfully as he dug out some cash. "And it's not because it's healthy. You just don't want to see me on caffeine."

Kara was all set to argue but she supposed that he did have a point. He had called it fair and square. And it was very gentlemanly of him to offer.

"Alright, you can get it this time," she conceded. "And thank you for getting it. You'll let me get the bill next time though, right?"

He laughed, tucking away the change and noting the order number on the receipt to listen for. "Sure, sure, if you call heads on a double-sided coin flip that's both tails."

Zack tugged at linked arms. "Shall we sit? It's probably going to be a minute."

"Yes, let's sit," she said with a nod and followed him towards a table. She was having fun so far, even though it had only been a few minutes or so she was enjoying herself.

"I bet you I can call a coin flip 100%," she said, matter of factly.

Sit, sprawl, it was all the same to Zack. This was of course after he habitually reached behind himself to set his sword aside, a moment of confusion passing before he remembered that he hadn't brought it along.

It was a hasty sprawl. "I know better than to make a bet with someone I don't know the capabilities of," he said lightly, shrugging. "I'm pretty flattered that you're already threatening a second date."

"Oooh, you're smart," she said, beaming brilliantly at him. She was willing to bet that Zack was a really good soldier. Smart and skilled. Kara wondered if he could dance.

"So what do you do when not storming fortresses of ninjas?"

"Well, it's kind of complicated, but I guess I'm just a mercenary, now." Getting into the whole 'betrayed by my employer, imprisoned for several years as a test specimen in genetic experiments, and then gunned down by the employer's military' was a little heavy for a first date, after all.

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