Post by Rosie on Aug 30, 2011 8:11:13 GMT 10
Title: Very First Date
Rating: PG
Prompt:#52 - Modern
Summary: Raoul takes Cythera out on a date. For Lisa, whose "former masterpiece" made me rewrite my personal canon. And because it's good to butter up people with whom you're going to stay.
"I think history's really interesting," Raoul lies, but he's ready to say anything to please the pink-cheeked vision, picking her way carefully down the steps outside the National Gallery. He checks himself, knowing how Gary would scorn him calling anybody a vision, but somehow the word is fitting for Cythera.
She smiles at him kindly, and he can't help his own grin spreading across his face. "Isn't it? My dissertation's focusing on the queen's life at court - her social life, mainly."
He doesn't really know which queen she means; he must have missed the point where she explained which period of history she was actually studying. Better change the subject...
Raoul makes an interested-sounding noise (or what he hopes passes as one), and then pauses at the foot of the stairs. "I love those lions," he comments, pointing at the Trafalgar Square statues. "You ever been up on one?"
Perhaps Cythera is aware of his intention to sit close behind her on one of the large bronze guards of Nelson's Column, or perhaps she is just put off by the mass of tourists. Whatever it is leaves her with faint frown lines. "Last spring," she says, stopping on the last stair, so their height difference is not quite so significant. Briefly, he considers kissing her. "Gwyn and I - well, I managed to bang my elbow trying to climb down. Or up. One of the two."
Thwarted in his plans to get closer to her physically, Raoul scuffs his foot into the stone step. "We could... go for a drink, if you want. Or dinner. If you want - I mean, I want to."
Cythera hesitates and then, because Cythera finds it so difficult to say no to anybody, says, "Dinner would be lovely."
Raoul beams, pleased that she chose dinner, because surely that's longer than drinks, so surely that means that she does like him after all?
He doesn't know that it's because she doesn't like him when he's had a drink (or four), which is why she suggested an art gallery date in the first place. He also doesn't know that when, later, he asks her back to his - "for a nightcap, or coffee, or something" - she considers it mostly because she's had a crush on his housemate for a rather long time.
Then she leans up on her tiptoes, and presses her mouth to his. It is just for a fraction of a second, just the gentlest of pressures, but it lifts his heart.
"You're so sweet," she says fondly, partly because Gary has slept with her own housemate, and partly because it's true.
"Do you fancy doing this again?"
She tilts her head, looking at him. He shifts nervously, wondering if he shouldn't have mentioned that time he dislocated his shoulder playing rugby after all. He hoped it would make him sound more rugged, but she looked faintly green when he had recounted it.
At last, years later, Cythera smiles and nods. "Call me," she instructs, pulling her Oyster card out of her bag. "I'll see you soon, then."
She heads off to the tube station and, finally, Raoul relaxes.
Rating: PG
Prompt:#52 - Modern
Summary: Raoul takes Cythera out on a date. For Lisa, whose "former masterpiece" made me rewrite my personal canon. And because it's good to butter up people with whom you're going to stay.
"I think history's really interesting," Raoul lies, but he's ready to say anything to please the pink-cheeked vision, picking her way carefully down the steps outside the National Gallery. He checks himself, knowing how Gary would scorn him calling anybody a vision, but somehow the word is fitting for Cythera.
She smiles at him kindly, and he can't help his own grin spreading across his face. "Isn't it? My dissertation's focusing on the queen's life at court - her social life, mainly."
He doesn't really know which queen she means; he must have missed the point where she explained which period of history she was actually studying. Better change the subject...
Raoul makes an interested-sounding noise (or what he hopes passes as one), and then pauses at the foot of the stairs. "I love those lions," he comments, pointing at the Trafalgar Square statues. "You ever been up on one?"
Perhaps Cythera is aware of his intention to sit close behind her on one of the large bronze guards of Nelson's Column, or perhaps she is just put off by the mass of tourists. Whatever it is leaves her with faint frown lines. "Last spring," she says, stopping on the last stair, so their height difference is not quite so significant. Briefly, he considers kissing her. "Gwyn and I - well, I managed to bang my elbow trying to climb down. Or up. One of the two."
Thwarted in his plans to get closer to her physically, Raoul scuffs his foot into the stone step. "We could... go for a drink, if you want. Or dinner. If you want - I mean, I want to."
Cythera hesitates and then, because Cythera finds it so difficult to say no to anybody, says, "Dinner would be lovely."
Raoul beams, pleased that she chose dinner, because surely that's longer than drinks, so surely that means that she does like him after all?
He doesn't know that it's because she doesn't like him when he's had a drink (or four), which is why she suggested an art gallery date in the first place. He also doesn't know that when, later, he asks her back to his - "for a nightcap, or coffee, or something" - she considers it mostly because she's had a crush on his housemate for a rather long time.
Then she leans up on her tiptoes, and presses her mouth to his. It is just for a fraction of a second, just the gentlest of pressures, but it lifts his heart.
"You're so sweet," she says fondly, partly because Gary has slept with her own housemate, and partly because it's true.
"Do you fancy doing this again?"
She tilts her head, looking at him. He shifts nervously, wondering if he shouldn't have mentioned that time he dislocated his shoulder playing rugby after all. He hoped it would make him sound more rugged, but she looked faintly green when he had recounted it.
At last, years later, Cythera smiles and nods. "Call me," she instructs, pulling her Oyster card out of her bag. "I'll see you soon, then."
She heads off to the tube station and, finally, Raoul relaxes.
Maybe once we'd have seen it during Smackdown!