tampered | Log; Ongoing

Log; Ongoing

When; Tuesday Evening
Rating; PG
Characters; Sam Witwicky

not_so_smooth and Rosella of Daventry

primrosella
Summary; Sam and Rosella have awkward hanging outs after a recent conversation.
Log;

Dinner time had never been quite this awkward before. Not that they had even had dinner yet as Sam was just cleaning up from working in the garage, but he knew it was going to be awkward. Or at least he was going to feel awkward.

Of course, he and Rosella had never had dinner before after talking about how they wouldn't mind kissing each other.

"Totally, just... not a big deal," he muttered around his toothbrush. That's right, not a big deal, they were both adults and could totally still be normal best friends after saying something like that. He glanced at his watch. Had he really been brushing his teeth for 7 minutes? He finished and then ran a nervous hand through his hair and headed down to the kitchen where Rosella was finishing up dinner.

This would be totally normal in an awkward sort of way, right?

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Meanwhile, in the kitchen, the kissing conversation was the last thing on Rosella's mind. ...Well, that was what she was telling herself, anyway.

Yes, she had plenty of other things to be thinking about. Like finding a way to stop a wizard from feeding her family to a cat. Or how best to prove to her father that she was clearly the best choice for heir to the throne. Or even something as simple as not burning the food she was only halfway watching. Yes, that conversation was absolutely the last thing on her mind.

Except, of course, for the nagging little fact that she couldn't seem to stop thinking about it.

"Oh, honestly, it's nothing to worry about," she remarked, exasperated with herself. "And it's not as though we haven't had stranger conversations, anyway."

Saying the words aloud made her feel a little better as she reached for the dishware and began to set the table. Perfectly normal, just like always. Absolutely nothing to worry about. She'd just keep telling herself that until she believed it.

"We'll kind find other things to talk about," Sam told himself as he headed into the kitchen. They could talk about anything, they had always been able to talk about anything, hadn't they?

And this kissing thing wasn't a big deal. They weren't avoiding talking about it, it just wasn't worth talking about, really.

For some reason Sam's palms were sweaty and he wiped them on his jeans nervously. Maybe he should check the thermostat.

"Hey," he said to Rosella as he entered the kitchen. See? Just like normal. Sam had this. He was totally smooth.

"What's for dinner? I'm starving because I kissed lunch."

Two glasses. Two napkins. Two forks, two knives, two spoons, just like always. Perfectly normal. Yes, it was going to be just another pleasant, normal dinner in the Warehouse with her best friend. So there.

Rosella looked up with a smile when she heard Sam walk in the door. All right, this wouldn't be so bad. Pretty soon she'd settle into the usual routine of idle chatter, trading jokes, and friendly teasing, and then everything would be back to normal. She'd been worried for nothing!

Of course, then he spoke, and she nearly dropped the plates she was holding.

"...You what?"

It took Sam a moment to realize what she was talking about and realize that once again he had stuck his foot in his mouth.

"Missed!" he corrected, "I missed lunch. Because I was working and thinking about working and not thinking about anything else. Just work. Oooonly thinking about work and noooot about kissing. Damn it. I mean, not that I would think about that for any reason..."

The more Sam talked the more that he wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Or just hide.

...All right, so much for normal. This was going to be a painful evening.

Rosella set down the--thankfully unbroken--plates at their respective places and silently began to consider how to handle the current situation. Perhaps it'd be best if she pretended to be unfazed by the slip. One slip of the tongue was no great concern, after all. The polite thing to do would be to let it pass and carry on as if nothing were unusual.

Of course, given the current circumstances, that was probably easier said than done.

"Well, I hope you're starving for hamburgers," she answered, pointedly ignoring the fumbling. "Will you bring over that cutting board on the counter while I get them out? I sliced up all the usual toppings...well, except onions, since I think we've both had quite enough of those for a good while."

Sam was thankful that Rosella seemed to ignore how much of an idiot he was being, which was really very nice of her. He wondered if maybe she just had a lot of practice since he often said things that he regretted later.

"I love hamburgers," he said with a grin as he went over to get the cutting board with all the topping. "And yeah, I think sans onions will be just fine. I'll be okay if we don't have onions again for a really long time. Stupid deity thing. Are you going to cut off 5% of your hair for them?"

Rosella really did hope Sam was as hungry as he claimed to be, seeing as how she'd accidentally gotten lost in thought while cooking and had ended up making twice as many hamburgers as she'd intended to. Oh, well. No sense in pointing that out, either.

"I really don't understand the point of this one," she admitted as she fetched the burgers out of the oven and brought them over to the table on a serving plate. "All the other ones are meant to make us behave in ways we normally wouldn't. But what's abnormal about cutting your hair? And what could they possibly want with the clippings?"

"I don't know, probably nothing good but I'm going to do it anyways just to be safe," he said with a bit of a shrug. "If you want I can give ten percent and cover your part too."

Sam figured whatever the deities wanted it for could hardly be worse than half of the stuff they'd already been through. Zombies? Gender swapping? All sorts of crazy stuff.

Glancing around Sam noticed that there was a lot of food here.

"Were you expecting someone else?" he asked. "This is a lot of hamburgers that you've made out. Made! That you've made. Lots..."

"No, it's all right, five percent isn't that much. And a few inches lost from the ends won't take long to grow back, anyway. There is a joke to be made about parting hair and parting with hair, though, but I can't think of how it would go at the moment."

She really wasn't thrilled about the prospect of cutting her hair, but then again, she'd done a lot of things that she wasn't happy about and next to a lot of them, cutting her hair seemed like a silly thing to get upset over. It'd grow back, anyway. She did, however, blush a little when Sam pointed out her mistake with the hamburgers.

"No, no company. I was making them and I got a little distracted thinking about...something else, that's all," she answered, once again ordering herself to gracefully ignore the slip. She'd let it go twice, that was perfectly reasonable. No reason to say anything about it...unless it happened again.

"Alright, this is ridiculous," Sam said. Really, just ignoring it was making it worse. That's why he was thinking about it so much. At least he hoped as much.

"I said I would like to kiss you, okay?" he added, gesturing with his arms. "That's not a big deal. I mean, you're beautiful, funny, kind, brave, smart, and just... there's no reason why it should be awkward for me to admit that if we voluntarily kissed I would like it and that I admitted that. There, I said it."

Sam winced a bit since that wasn't quite how he wanted it to come out but he supposed that it was close enough, really.

Rosella promptly let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Oh, thank goodness," she blurted. "I wasn't sure how much more of that I could handle. Honestly."

Saying things like this was admittedly much easier when she didn't have to do it in person, but her determination to resolve the issue outweighed her hesitance and embarrassment, so she folded her arms over her chest a little nervously and continued, "We really are both being very silly, and over something that shouldn't be nearly as troublesome as we're making it. After all, just because neither of us would mind kissing the other doesn't mean we're somehow obligated now to run off and do it!"

Rosella vaguely wondered if perhaps she ought to just stop there, but she was off and running and she figured she might as well get it all out now. "And it's not as though, if we did, we'd have to go off and get married or anything like that. Well, we might if we were back in Daventry, but we're not in Daventry and it's a bit silly to act as though we are because, well, we're not and I already do lots of things here that I likely wouldn't do back at home, and I'm trying to be better about that and kissing is just sort of...one of those things. Sort of."

She paused. "...Did any of that make any sense?"

"It made perfect sense," Sam said, nodding vigorously. He did make a mental note though that if he ever found himself in Daventry he should not go kissing any girls since apparently it was akin to getting engaged.

"I mean, if we did end up kissing it's not like we'd just run up to each other and kiss," he added. "I'd at least have the decency to take you out on a date or dancing or do something special to lead up to the moment."

"No, I should say not! For one thing, that'd be a bit too much like the mistletoe curse for my liking," Rosella agreed. "For another, that'd be a little, well, boring."

She grinned, finally relaxing. "I'm so glad we've managed to approach this like reasonable people. ...And I also hope you're better at kissing now than you were when you were a statue, because really, that was rather awful."

"Hey!" Sam exclaimed, giving her a look of mock outrage even as his face flushed with embarrassment. That was one event he really would have liked to be awake for.

"I couldn't do anything about it. And for your information I am a fantastic kisser, okay!" he added, leveling his gaze at her. "Maybe you aren't so great at it."

It was nice to be able to laugh about that incident now, particularly given how distraught she'd been at the time. And it was even nicer to be back on familiar ground, laughing and joking with her best friend that she wouldn't mind kissing and also who wouldn't mind kissing her back, incidentally.

Rosella met Sam's gaze, equally stubborn, but whether her cheeks were pink from laughing or from blushing, she wasn't quite sure. "Oh, yes, I'm sure you are. Just not when you're a statue," she teased. "But if it makes you feel better? Even as a statue, you're still a better kisser than the frog was."

"Well that's good, at least," he said with a relieved sounding sigh. He was glad that the awkward tension was gone between them, he had hated that. Of course, now knowing that she wouldn't mind kissing him that would be just hovering in the back of his mind. All. Time. Time.

"And with the mistletoe curse I'm sure you've got a lot of practice in," he said. "So maybe it will be better on both ends the next time. I mean, if it ever happens or something."

"Ugh, that awful curse," Rosella answered, wrinkling her nose. "I'll never look at mistletoe the same way again."

She paused, smiling a little, and then continued, "And I'm fairly certain it will be better on both ends next time. ...Supposing there is a next time, of course."

"I promise, if we're both here when next Christmas rolls around we'll keep it to a minimum in the warehouse," he told her.

"Well it probably can't get any worse," Sam joked, giving her a smile. This was probably the weirdest conversation he had ever had, but for some reason it didn't seem too awkward with Rosella.

"Oh, ummmm, on a completely unrelated note... do you guys have Valentine's Day in Daventry?"

She looked thoughtful at that. "We could cut it all down and burn it...and that would serve it right, too, dratted plant." Yes, she was still a little bit annoyed at that particular curse. Just a bit.

"Valentine's Day?" Rosella frowned a little, brow furrowing as she considered. "It sounds familiar, so I suppose we might, but I don't think we've ever made a great deal out of it. It's something to do with Cupid, though, isn't it?"

"That might be a bit extreme for a fungus that didn't really do anything to you," Sam offered. She seemed to really be hating on the mistletoe. He wondered if it ranked above or below the frog prince on the Rosella "scale of things she disliked".

"It's sort of a holiday that's for couples," he said, scratching his head. "I was just thinking, if you don't... you know... if no one asks you to do anything maybe we could do something? Just... you know... because it would suck if you were alone on Valentine's Day..."

Sam winced slight at that, wondering if it came out wrong. Or maybe it came out right and that was the problem. Either way he wasn't sure if he was pleased with how it came out.

"Mistletoe isn't a fungus," Rosella retorted playfully, more to carry on the joke than anything else. "And so long as it's not the magical kind that forces me to do things against my will, I won't mind if it stays."

She wasn't, however, expecting what came next. Particularly given the awkward conversations they'd been having all day, it was hard to tell if Sam was suggesting an outing as friends, or if it were more brotherly concern for her feelings, or if he'd meant it to have a romantic spin. After all, they'd done plenty of things as friends that could also just as easily have been done by a couple. Still, she didn't feel like pushing the issue and possibly sending things spiraling right back into the awkward territory they'd just escaped from, so she decided to take the suggestion at face value for the moment and overanalyze it later.

"Well, it would be rather silly if we were both on our own on a day meant for couples," she said, more to herself than to Sam. "It sounds like a lovely idea to me. What do people usually do for Valentine's Day? Do you think there'll be another ball, like there was for Christmas?" Because really, she wasn't sure exactly what a holiday for couples would entail, but a ball seemed like a pretty safe bet.

"Parasite, fungus, whatever," he said, waving his hands dismissively. Whatever it was it was certainly causing Rosella a lot of grief. Sam supposed if he had to kiss as many random people as she had then he wouldn't be too happy about it either.

"Ummm, I can see if there's some sort of ball or something," he said, scratching his head. "I'm sure something like that will be done. And you know, if someone else asks you to do something you can. I don't... you know, no pressure or anything."

"Well, even if there's not a ball, there's always..." Rosella paused a moment, trying to recall the sorts of things that couples in the City tended to do together. She'd have to make it a point to read up on Valentine's Day the next time she was at the Library--one more item of research to add to her list. "...Er, we could go bowling, I suppose?"

She had noticed, however, that Sam was being very careful to keep the conversation directed toward her feelings on the matter, which was very sweet but rather puzzled her a bit. He made it sound as though spending time with him would be only a matter of last resort. Still...

"Well, then, I'll say the same for you. If something else should come up, go have fun and don't worry about me, all right?" She smiled at him. "I'll be happy either way."

"Bowling would be pretty cool," Sam said with a nod. He wondered if she had ever bowled other than the once when he had planned it. Know his luck (or her luck) she'd probably beat him as badly at that as she did Mario Kart.

"Alright, same for me then," he said before giving her a teasing look. "Although I'm not the one that wouldn't mind kissing several people in the City... okay, wait, maybe I am. But that's different."

"I'm open to anything, really," Rosella admitted with a shrug. "Whatever's usual and appropriate for the holiday. I like trying new things."

She caught that teasing look and narrowed her eyes, playfully annoyed. "There's a difference between not minding the thought of something and intending to do something! Honestly, it's not as though I'm about to run out the door and go kiss all of them. ...And what do you mean, 'maybe I am, but that's different'? You're not getting off the hook that easily. Now, out with it, Sam."

"Well, I'll think of something good then," Sam said with a nod before taking a bite of his burger. Eating would probably make that fluttery feeling in his stomach go away, right? He was sure he was just hungry.

"It's just... it's like..." Sam frowned as he tried to think of how to explain it. "There are lots of girls here that I would like to kiss. Okay, maybe not lots, but several. But only because they're pretty. Not... because of anything else. I don't think I would end up kissing them given the chance unless I actually knew them."

Oh, yes, eating; she'd had a feeling she'd been forgetting something. So she stacked her burger full of toppings she liked and then took a bite, using the time she spent chewing to think about what Sam had been trying to explain.

"Oh. Well, I suppose it's the same sort of thing, really," she said after a minute, and once she was done chewing. "Just because you wouldn't mind kissing them doesn't necessarily mean you're going to. Just that you would because you think they're pretty. And it's not as though you'd really mean for anything to come of it if you did, just that it would be a nice thing to do sometime. Is that what you mean?"

"Well, yeah, something like that," Sam said, scratching his head a bit in thought. The more he thought about it the more he wasn't sure though. The City was full of incredibly beautiful girls but when he really thought about it the number he really would want to kiss was... well, it was limited. Sam wasn't going to put an exact number on it.

"Maybe it's like... there are girls I wouldn't mind kissing," he said, scrunching his face in thought. "And then there's one or two that I wouldn't mind kissing like... on a regular basis. Thing. I should shut up now."

"No, no, don't shut up now," Rosella teased, smiling playfully. "This is quite interesting. But in all seriousness, I do think I understand what you mean, and it does make sense."

And though she wasn't about to say it aloud, she was really quite glad to hear Sam say that, because he was her closest friend and she wanted him to be happy, and if there was someone in the City that he liked...well, she was still a pretty firm believer in the thought that Love Would Find A Way and all that. Which was good! Of course, it also meant that she rather wanted to weasel out their identities and start secretly keeping an eye on them, but that could wait for the time being. ...Or at least until her curiosity got the better of her.

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Log; Ongoing

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