tampered | Dinner for Two: Log: [Ongoing, Closed]

Dinner for Two: Log: [Ongoing, Closed]

When; Thursday night
Rating; PG13ish, maybe?
Characters; Mercy (

bloodcakedarmor)
Summary; Derek and Mercy get set up on a date by Mara
Log;

Mercy was a little early to meet Mara for dinner, so she wasn't surprised that Mara hadn't arrived yet. She was rather surprised when she was led to a small table in a quiet corner, set with candles, and looking very... intimate.

"Are you sure this is the right table?" she asked the waiter and was assured that it was indeed. So, she sat down a little uncertainly and waited for Mara to arrive.

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Reid had told Derek to be here at a certain time and Derek was right on the money time-wise. He walked in just on time and gave his name, glad when he didn't have to wait and was immediately led back to a table. When he saw Mercy sitting there, he arched a brow and looked to the waiter and then back to Mercy.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" He asked uncertainly.

"Waiting for Mara," Mercy said, feeling even more confused. "I was supposed to help her with stuff for the Christmas party. Did she rope you in too?"

She looked at the waiter. "Maybe there should be another chair here?"

The waiter looked mildly offended that she would question his arrangements and assured her that this was exactly as it was meant to be.

"Reid told me to meet him here cause he wanted to talk about something..." He cast a curious glance to the waiter who just shook his head and indicated that he should sit down so he could take his drink order. Derek looked around the restaurant one more time for Reid and then decided he could sit while they waited for the others to get here, something he was wondering if it would happen. This seemed very suspicious.

He ordered a beer and looked across the table to Mercy. "Nah, I uhm... she didn't rope me in."

"Reid? That doesn't make sense," Mercy said, looking around to see if either Mara or Reid had come in.

Derek tapped one index finger idly on the top of the table for a long, pregnant pause. He eyed the candles on the table and then over them to Mercy. And finally he drew a deep breath, smirked, rolled his eyes up to the ceiling and back down to her before shaking his head. "Oh now this is funny." Only not really, just kind of. "You know what this is, don't you?"

Mercy'd been getting this sinking feeling in her stomach that she did. Oh, Mara.

"Yeah, I think I do," she said quietly, not quite able to meet his eyes. "I'm so sorry."

Shrugging, Derek looked down to the dinner setting in front of him. "No reason for you to be sorry..." The waiter brought his beer and after thanking him, Derek took a healthy swig of the carbonated liquid. Then he sat forward and offered her a small grin, having made a decision. "Well we might as well enjoy a nice dinner, right? Not let it go to waste..."

"It's kind of my fault," she started, then shook her head. "Yes, we might as well enjoy it. It'll be nice."

That cast of blame confused him and he stared at her for a lengthy moment with an arched brow as he tried to figure it out on his own. She was obviously just as shocked about this as he was so her taking the blame wasn't completely understandable to him. Finally, he shook his head at her. "That doesn't make sense, Princess. How could this be your fault?"

"I..."

Wow. This would be so much easier if she could just sort of avoid the whole thing. But when you spent just about every night sleeping in someone's arms on the couch, avoidance wasn't exactly as workable.

"Mara has been trying to convince me to..." How to say this without messing everything up. "She thinks we'd make a nice couple. And she knows I... have feelings for you. But I... I don't want to mess up what we have or make you uncomfortable with me so... I guess she..." She shifted uneasily in her seat.

Edited 2010-12-10 20:23 (UTC)

Derek listened to her explanation, his stomach doing a silent rumble thing that felt like it flipped over nervously inside of him. None of that was obvious on the outside though. He was good at remaining calm on the outside though when he felt he had to be. That was one of the things he was good at. "Oh." He nodded slowly, considering everything she had just said.

"She set us up... well, she and Reid set us up." He smirked and shook his head, leaning back in his seat. "The irony... not lost on me."

Mercy nodded, hoping she didn't look as miserable as she felt. At least he wasn't a werewolf, so he couldn't smell it on her and she was pretty good at hiding her body language. Then again, he did know her very well. "I think so, yeah. So, I'm sorry... Though, I'm not sure I get the irony myself."

"Are you kidding? Reid? Genius-boy who gets nervous at the idea of approaching a woman trying to set me up? It's... if you knew our history it's ironic. He knows I can get a date all by myself." Derek answered with another amused smirk. Inside though his mind was reeling with how to deal with this. He liked Mercy. Hell, he loved her. But there was a reason he'd never asked her out. It was the same reason he'd never asked Penelope out back home. Cause as much as you love someone, that doesn't take out the human instinct to make mistakes and inevitably hurt each other. Derek didn't want to hurt people he loved.

"You already picked out something to eat?" He asked.

Mercy nodded. "Right, I see that. Very ironic." And felt even more stupid. Of course he could get dates by himself, just look at him. And if he'd been interested in her, he would have said or done something. Which meant...

She shook her head, looking down at the menu as a good excuse not to meet his eyes. "No. I was waiting for Mara to get here. You know what you want?"

Suddenly, Derek felt like he'd somehow said the wrong thing if Mercy's demeanor was any indication. He quickly went over his words in his head to try to figure out what it was and unfortunately came up empty handed. "Hey..." He reached across the table and placed a hand over hers. "It's okay. I mean really, it's okay. Alright?"

Mercy looked up and smiled at him, even if it was a little sad. It was okay. It would be okay. He'd already given her more comfort and security and caring than anyone she'd ever known and she could be okay with that. And if she couldn't stifle that part of her that wished and dreamed it could be more, well, then just too damn bad for her. She knew all about wanting what she could never have.

"I know," she said quietly. "I just feel guilty about you getting dragged into this. But it's all fine."

"You feel guilty about getting me here for a decent meal?" He shook his head and offered her a smile. He knew it was more than that, but he was trying to get a real smile from her, one that didn't break his heart a little bit. But he guessed trying to get that from her when his own smile was fading too quickly was a little like the pot calling the kettle black.

He looked down at his hand over hers and smoothed the pad of his thumb over her knuckles before pulling his hand back. "Guy's gotta eat, right?"

"I probably owe you a decent meal, given all you do around the house and my poor cooking skills," she said, trying for lightness. "So order up and we'll have a nice meal where other people wait on us for a change."

Derek grinned and looked down to the menu to study the options. "Mercy? I kind of think this is more my fault than yours. You've been... amazing. I mean you're one of the best people I've ever met. And I think I'm... making this harder."

She looked up from the menu, frowning. "I'm confused. Your fault? Making things harder?"

"Yeah... well that whole Hell thing happened and I couldn't sleep and I've kind of been using you." Which he was very much ashamed to admit. "Not in a bad way, I don't think. Just... you make the nighttime easier. And... I shouldn't be using you as a crutch. Things need to get straight in my head after all that happened and I haven't been letting them heal. I've just been putting bandages over it all..." He finally looked up from his own menu at her. "...you-shaped bandages."

"Not like I've been complaining," Mercy said quietly. "And if you put it that way, I've been using you, too for safety and security - my own Derek-shaped bandages. I think it's been letting both of us heal."

"Also," she took a breath, "If we're being honest here... I had feelings for you long before that started." She put a hand up as if to ward off any interruption. If she was going to wreck everything, she might as well get it all out there. "But you're my friend, first and foremost. I'm not ever going to push you for anything else, much as part of me would really like to see what happens. The friendship's a lot more important. The rest..." She shrugged. "It's not like it's affected anything this far and knowing you're not interested... It goes away. I already have more from you than I've ever had from anyone else - more than I ever expected or deserved and it's more than enough."

She'd make it be.

She had successfully shut him up with that, her assessment that he wasn't interested. It kind of hurt actually, which was weird for him. But they had discussed their attractions before and the reasons why he didn't act on them. So now... he wasn't sure what to think. It was confusing. But since she thought he wasn't interested at all, maybe it was a good thing in the keeping from hurting her thing... maybe.

He realized he's been quiet and staring at her for a few seconds now and he looked back down at the menu. He picked up his beer and took a healthy swig from it. "Yeah. You're right. It goes away. And our friendship is important to me too."

"I'd thought after the lust curse - " She bit her lip. "But I guess it was just the curse for you. And like you said, if you were interested you'd make your own date, so..."

Mercy shook her head. "I'm sorry. Again. I'm making everything worse, aren't I? We should just have a nice dinner and pretend I never said anything at all."

He'd said he could make his own dates, not that if he were interested he would, but he let that slide too because she was busily drawing her own conclusions about him in this area of their lives and in the world of relationships and he decided her conclusions were better. It was both sad and interesting to him. Sad, because he loved her and not only did her conclusions feel like a pang in his heart, but also this was taking a step backward in anything that could happen between them. And interesting cause he was one who studied human behavior professionally back home. Strange how easy it was for something to change. It didn't take much. But in the grand scheme of things, this right now was less hurt than could happen later.

"Just a curse." He smirked and nodded. And after a pause, he decided she was right. They should just move on because he felt terrible on the inside after listening to her assumptions. He drew a deep breath and offered her that boyish grin he was so good at in any situation. "So, you ever eaten here before? What's good?"

She sucked at this. All she did was keep putting her foot in everything. She was scared and humiliated and so close to being head over heels for him that she really didn't know how she'd do what she said.

And she had to admit that she'd hoped desperately that he'd tell her she was wrong. That it hadn't just been the curse, that -

But all he'd done was repeat her words back to her and give that little half smirk, half grin and oh damn did that hurt.

She was just stupid. She was so damn stupid it was pathetic.

Mercy shook her head, knowing she wasn't hiding any of this well and feeling even worse because of that. "I... no. I never have, but Mara said it was good."

He noticed she was uncomfortable, upset even, and he knew that that was one of they reasons they needed to move on. That and he was scared that they were about to screw up the close friendship they had if they continued on the topic they had been on. He would give anything not to lose that closeness. So he just continued talking about the food. "I'm waffling between the teriyaki chicken and those honey chicken crisper things. Guess I'm in a chicken kind of mood."

She nodded. "Sounds good. I... have no idea yet. Something spicy maybe."

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Dinner for Two: Log: [Ongoing, Closed]

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