tampered | Action Ongoing Closed

Action Ongoing Closed

When; December 21st Evening
Rating; PG possibly PG-13
Characters; Buffy Summers

whattingawhat & Dominick Cobb

spinorfall
Summary; Dom + Buffy + Dinner=awkward times
Log;

Dinner is a nice break from the insanity that seems to have taken over everything. Dawn has recently broke the happiness spell she'd put on Buffy and that's left her with a lot to deal with emotionally. This provides a little bit of a break from dealing with those things. She knows she can't run from them the way she's been doing lately and she's not. She's really not. It's just a break. Promise, Mom. In addition to all of that, Buffy has been looking forward to the chance to dress up and get to know someone that's already interesting and a lot of fun to talk to. Dom manages to keep speed with Buffy's conversation; it's a feat not everyone can manage so Buffy is a little curious to see how he handles it in person. She arrives a little bit early--not an escape from the warehouse; okay maybe a little one--and gets a table along with a nice bottle of red wine. She likes this moment of having nothing else to do but sip wine and wait for someone to arrive. It's a rare 'nothing is expected of her' moment.

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Dom, for his own outfit, chose a simple black tie, white shirt affair. He's never been one for good dressing (Mal always said he was hopeless), but he figured a simple outfit like this? Couldn't be messed up. Hell, at least he will look better than Eames on every day.

Checking the address he's been provided, Dom once again attempts to remember exactly why he suggested this. He hasn't spent any time with a woman that wasn't for a job in two years...and hasn't had a dinner with one since his wife died. It feels decidedly strange to him, and while he knows she is gone and wouldn't be coming back, there is some small part of him that wonders if Mal would be happy that he's getting out or...upset that he is. Though Dom knows that she would be happy. The Shade...would hate it.

But that's how it should be, anyways. And it wasn't as if it was a date. It's just a dinner, with someone who happens to be of the female persuasion. Dinner with Ariadne would just be that--dinner. So dinner with Buffy could be that, as well.

Steeling himself for the situation, and determined to make himself have a good time, Dom is assured in himself, until he's lead to the table. Buffy looks decidedly better than she does on the small screen...and has dressed for the occasion.

But even as his will to stay flees, he gives a warm smile, putting a hand out for a shake. He can fake it til he feels comfortable again.

Hopefully that happens before the end of the night.

"Good to see you, Buffy."

Yes, it would be nice if becoming comfortable happened well before the end of the night.

Buffy stands up with a smile when she sees Dom heading toward the table. Really, he ought not to feel so anxious. She's not considering it a date either. It's dinner with someone that she enjoys talking to, a friend even. As for the dressing for the occasion, the pencil skirt has been dying to be worn and it's not terribly appropriate in her everyday life. She can't perform a roundhouse kick in a pencil skirt which is sadly what determines most of her day to day wardrobe. This occasion is highly unlikely to require any roundhouse kicks, so pencil skirt. However, there is a stake in that tiny clutch bag. She's hopeful, not stupid. Buffy shakes his hand, grin still big.

"You're not a three inch floating head. That's a relief."

In other words, he looks better than he does on the small screen as well.

"No, I assure you my head is firmly attached to my body. At least for now." A wry smile, and a squeeze of her hand before he lets go, and waits for her to sit before taking his own. He might be many things, but Dom still considers himself a gentleman. A thief, a killer...but still a gentleman.

Picking up his menu, he glances over it casually, but keeps his attention on Buffy, mostly. Food for him has long stopped being about enjoying, but simply about fueling the frame.

"So..." Well. He's already struggling to come up with things to talk about. Wonderful. Well perhaps he should start with the simple things. "I realize I never actually asked, but do you know the others of my team?" Eames, Ariadne, Arthur. It's a good way to gauge how much she might know about him, already.

"It's better that way. Detachable heads can get messy."

It's nice, the gentleman thing. She's mostly decided what she wants already but if she knew that, she'd be pretty sure he needs more Ben & Jerry's in his life. The struggle for conversation gets a smile out of her. The nice thing about Buffy: she can make conversation with inanimate objects, and has before.

"I think I've talked to Eames before but I don't really know any of them. It's great you've got friends here. Sort of helps with the shock and the alone thing since you're...not alone. Really that sounded less short bus and more comprehensible conversational in my head."

And then a pause. Really it didn't take this long for her to notice he said 'team' and not 'friends' but she figures it puts him more at ease if it seems like an afterthought. "What sort of team?"

"I understand what you're saying, but honestly? I'd rather be alone." Dom shrugged, taking a sip of his wine, giving her a bit of a smile and a nod--it's a good choice. He wasn't passing judgement on her being happy that her sister was there, and wanting friends. But out of his team, he was the sole one who deserved to be stuck here--the others had places to be. He could have sorted this out on his own, crawled his way out of the dream, or whatever this was.

He was grateful , but still displeased that they were there at all.

When she asked about the team, she got another shrug. "It's complicated. Besides Ariadne and Yusuf, I've worked with Arthur for years. Eames off and on for about the same time." It was an important distinction. Arthur was a constant in his life. The others, less so.

Buffy nods a little. "There's lots of guilt having in the whole 'glad my sister is here' train of thought. But..." She pauses because from what she can tell, Dom comes from a world where things that are weird are purely human. Vampires, demons and sisters who nearly cause the end of the world not to mention slayers that spend months in Heaven before coming back from the dead, might be a hard pill to swallow. "Home is...kind of a scary place. At least in this scary place, I know she's being taken care of and I can keep an eye on her." Because despite how she loves Willow, Xander and all of the others, Buffy has some narcissistic belief that only she can keep Dawn safe properly. It's part hero complex, part just being a big sister.

She notices that he didn't specify what sort of team it was but she nods anyway. "They were all here before you, right?"

"I can understand that." Dom shook his head slightly, giving her a slight grin. "I don't blame you for the thought, Buffy. Especially if your world isn't...pleasant." He didn't want her to think that he was judging him. If his own world was dangerous--Dom knew exactly what lengths he would go to, to protect his own children. So much of what he had done in the pursuit of freedom had been for them, as it was. Breaking laws, ruining lives. All to get back home, to Phillipa and James.

"And yes, they were." He paused to order a steak, handing the menu to the waiter, before returning his attention back to her. "And we're all from different time periods. Which makes things a bit complicated."

"I think a lot of people here have the same thought. Familiarity and at least knowing what's happening to the people you love sort a wins out over high moral ground. Or something."

She orders some fish and hands the menu to the waiter as well.

"Yeah. I guess that would. I'm lucky, everyone from my world is from the same time period but people have shown up for visitors weekend from different time periods. Last time a friend showed up from years earlier than me. It was kind of awkward."

"I suppose. But at the same time, should it be encouraged?" Dom knew that the topic might veer into something much too serious, but he couldn't help it. "If this place isn't real, the longer people stay here, the longer they allow themselves to be comfortable--the more chance that they'll never leave, at all. And having family here is part of it. Why go back, when you have what you want, here?"

He nodded.

"There are hours between us. But we were in the middle of something...it changes the way we look at each other."

"A sense of responsibility? I don't know. Whether some of us want to stay or not doesn't matter much. There are things to do back home. Miles to go." She took a sip of her wine and shrugged a little. "I can't really be judgey girl though for the people that want to stay. I get the why, you know? Even if I can't indulge in the why."

She twisted the stem of her glass between her fingers and nodded. "Some situations do. It's a whole minute to minute deal-io."

"I think that adds to the complacency, though." Dom caught the rest of his sentence in his throat, however, and looked down. "I'm sorry. I'm not the best at 'small talk'. It's been a long time since I've done anything you'd consider social, away from my work."

Two years, really. Never a break. No time--any 'socialization' was for the job. Only for it. Everything else--it had to be pressed forward, into the mission. To get home. To clear his name. Somehow.

Buffy was a nice girl--the kind that Phillipa could grow up into. He just hoped he got to see that day.

"It's okay. I'm a champ at small talk. Have you--" She stops herself short of saying 'have you met most vampires' and then continuing on with a comment on their intelligence. She picks up after a brief pause. "met most boys? No offense but small talk isn't a guy thing. Most of the time anyway. And yeah...it probably does add to the complacency but it doesn't take a whole city full of un-complacent people get out of here. Just a couple."

She will now make it her mission to socialize him: movies, dinners, general goofing off, that sort of thing. That's far too long for anyone to go without casual socialization in her opinion and no one wants to turn into tall, dark and broody even if they are tall, dark and broody.

Buffy hopes he does as well; he cares and not all dad's too so it appeals to her daddy issues that he wants to see his daughter grow up.

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Action Ongoing Closed

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