A walk in... hydroponics? Pudding to follow. [Closed]

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[Bendy-timed to an hour after Luna says 'sure' over here: This Comm Post]

Alex stood awkwardly in front of the gate to the Outsiders' headquarters, holding something behind his back. He'd been there for the past ten minutes. That was not to say that Luna was late. Rather, he just showed up nearly a half hour early.

The recent occurrences on the ship had really bothered Alex. What if something terrible happened, and he had been spending so much time worrying that he'd make Luna hate him or in some other way ruin their relationship that he didn't make his feelings known, and then something terrible happened and he would never have the chance?

He couldn't let that happen. Not to mention, somehow Alex got the impression that he wouldn't have to worry about Luna making any advances on him, like trying to kiss him or something, and even if she did, and he did freak out over it, he got the sense that she would understand.

So after several days of fighting with himself, and a close encounter with the grief many had been going through, and quite possibly his own death, he decided to make the leap.

Now, as he waited and kept reaching in his pocket to check the time on his old data pad that he had in his home world but hadn't popped with, he started wondering how good of an idea it had been. What if she changed her mind? What if she never came?

Who was he kidding? This was Luna of course she would be here. Any moment now she would drift around the corner, looking as serene as ever.

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Luna is lurking just out of his line of sight, actually, though he may or may not have caught a glimpse of blue as she dashed back around the corner, her heart fluttering like a newly caged bird.

He's fifteen minutes early, she thinks, swallowing, eyes rather wider than usual as she stares in front of her, unseeing. What do I do--I need my hair clip! I so want to wear that hair clip, and I wasn't expecting to see him standing there. Merlin, why does he have to be such an anxious person? No other seventeen-year-old boy would be fifteen minutes early! Well, I can't say that, the only seventeen-year-old boys I know are living legends. Harry and Ron would make it a point to be late, though. Unless it was Hermione, she would have a tizzy, and her tizzies are quite unpleasant to witness. Neville would likely be early, but he's Neville. Alex...

"Luna, dear," she says to herself, closing her eyes, "You are very clever. You are a Ravenclaw. There is, most definitely, a way to fetch your hair clip without expiring as a result of severe panic. Which would be silly, anyway. You have stared Bellatrix Lestrange in the eye--Alex Furest is nothing to be scared of. For one thing, he stutters, and for another, he's far too sweet to care whether or not you have a hair clip. Even if it's quite a lovely hair clip. Now think of something, or Merlin curse you."

And she thinks, and very quickly suffers the temptation to roll her eyes--something she has never, and likely will never do--at herself.

Pulling her wand from behind her ear, she takes a few steps back to see her window, and flicks the strip of enchanted wood. The window slides open obligingly, and she says "Accio hair clip!" quietly, waiting the necessary thirty seconds for the hair clip (http://www.carolynforsman.com/img/products/butterflyclip_mini.gif) to zip down to her. Then, she slides it into her hair, holding the blonde curls framing her face on the left side from tumbling into her vision and, wand still in hand, breezes around the corner, looking as serene as ever.

Also, her dress (http://cdn.overstock.com/images/products/L11303461.jpg) is quite pretty, and very flattering to her slim figure, the color off-setting the soft blonde of her hair.

[hack-rat.livejournal.com]

Alex was stuned by her appearance. She looked even prettier than she usually did- something Alex though was quite impossible. He smiled, and then again a little wider, seeing the same sort of butterfly hair clips that Loretta used to where when he had just met her. He always had loved the way their wings bounced and would catch the light. The bright red against the soft yellow of Luna's hair seemed to make each colour even more vibrant.

Alex walks forward to meet Luna. He had to be princely, right? That was what Loretta was always insisting. Proper gentlemen. Proper gentleman... He was about to bow while handing Luna the flower from behind his back, but decided that he'd look pretty stupid if he bowed, and so he didn't. Problem was that his hand was already almost out, and so he turned it into a sort of jerking forward motion, holding the cloth sunflower that he had Rien make for him. The other thing he had planned to be all gentlemanly was to say in a nice, calm, suave voice, "for you," but when he opened his mouth, he found that his voice box had decided to go on vacation. Fortunately, because of the near bow, he was looking down and his hair was blocking a good deal of his face, and perhaps the awkward opening and shut of his mouth would go unnoticed.

[isee-snorkacks.livejournal.com]

Well, that's unexpected.

She blinks at the flower, looking rather blank, her mouth open a bit. Honestly, she's not sure what to make of this situation--Alex looks nervous as ever, and awkward, and there is a sunflower involved, and how does he know that sunflowers are her favorite?

The silence stretches rather long, but eventually she reaches out to take the flower, smiling softly.

"Thank you," she says, twirling it between her fingers, touching the cloth petals. "It's lovely. I don't think anyone's ever given me a flower before."

[hack-rat.livejournal.com]

He kept looking down, holding his hand out, peaking through his hair to see what she was doing. He hadn't insulted her had he? He waited longer, and finally about to apologise when she thanked him.

His blush had began to fade, but as he looked up in surprise the blood rose to his cheeks again. He really found it hard to believe that no one had before thought her worthy of a flower. Wasn't that what guys were supposed to give to girls they fancied? How was he supposed to respond to that anyway? "Yo-ah-er-I-puh-erm-ah" Well, so that was what keysmashing would sound like if it happened offline.

He resisted the urge to reach for his omnicomm and try to talk with that and instead took a deep breath to reign in his tongue and tried again, "Y-you're welcome." Now, that wasn't too hard was it? He smiled as he blushed a bit more, the edges of his ears turning pink, "I-I c-can't see how I c-could possibly be the first ta o-offer you a flower. I-I thought th-that it'd match y-your hair, an' your personality, r-really warm an' open and accepting. I-er- y-you really like it?

[isee-snorkacks.livejournal.com]

Luna's smile widens slightly, eyes glittering as she refrains rather deliberately from laughing at him. The last thing she wants to do is offend him, or make him more nervous, and laughing would be counter-productive to both.

"Nobody's ever had a particularly good reason to give me flowers, or the inclination," she says, twirling the sunflower a few more times before tucking it behind her right ear, reserving the left one for her wand, which she also stows for safe-keeping. There's a noticeable tinge of pink on her cheeks, though it's nowhere near as noticeable as Alex's blush. "It's very pretty. And sunflowers are my favorite."

(Alice has been told to sleep, and is thus curled up in his hood.)

[hack-rat.livejournal.com]

Alex was again surprised, "Th-they are?" Well, that did make sense, in it's own way. He closed his eyes briefly as he smiled and laughed a little bit, "W-well, it looks really pretty on you!" He scratches the back of his head, running his fingers through his hair. He looked past Luna briefly, and then back to her, "S-so, should we get g-going?"

He knew just where he was going to take Luna- a small section of the Hydroponics with these deer-like creatures and several fruit trees. He didn't dare eat from most of them, but one of them was obviously a mulberry tree like the ones in Central Park. The fallen white petals still covered the ground while the berries were ripe, and weren't all eaten by the animals in hydroponics. He was also tall enough to easily reach the lower branches of the tree. He really hoped that after eating mulberries and talking that Luna would still have room for pudding in the sensoriums. He figured that berries were not all that filling, and he had remembered the promise to have pudding with Luna in the sensoriums while he was waiting. It would be the perfect ending to their first date, if he could make it that far without messing it up.

[isee-snorkacks.livejournal.com]

"Oh, yes," she says, smiling up at him brightly. "Daddy and I plant them all around the yard in the spring, and they grow almost as tall as I am before it gets cold again. They're such lovely, strong flowers." Rather absently, she reaches up to touch the cloth petals again, and honestly, it won't be surprising if that flower turns into a permanent fixture behind Luna's ear.

"If you'd like." She continues to smile, waiting for him to start walking, shifting a little on her feet, unused to the feel of shoes closing her toes in these days. She's quite glad Katara's had fit her, though--going barefoot on a date (the words still makes her blush) seems totally horrible to Luna.

[hack-rat.livejournal.com]

"That sounds like a lot of f-fun," he said as he began walking in the direction of Hydroponics. He looked down to make sure that he wasn't going to trip on anything and that his shoes were tied when he noticed, "Y-you're wearing shoes." He tilted his head a bit, "Wh-why's that?"

[isee-snorkacks.livejournal.com]

Ah. That, right there, is a question she had been hoping he wouldn't ask, and there he goes, asking it, with a stutter and a headtilt.

Her face heats almost immediately, her faze flying down to the soft leather shoes on her feet, which are on loan from Katara, which she doesn't much want to tell him, as that would entail admitting that she panicked upon receiving his invitation, which is not a very Luna-ish thing to do at all, and she knows it. Plus, it also involves admitting how much she wanted to look nice for him. Which is embarrassing.

"Well, you see, I outgrew the shoes I had, because I had a rather abrupt and large growth spurt a few weeks ago, and Katara offered to let me borrow these, because being barefoot all the time is rather disconcerting, and one's feet get dirty quite a lot," she says, lifting her eyes from her feet, but making a point to look anywhere but at Alex as she skates around the truth and hopes he doesn't notice. Because she doesn't feel comfortable admitting how desperately she wants him to like her. At all. And she won't. Ever.

[hack-rat.livejournal.com]

Alex nods sagely with a soft "Ah". He was not very skilled at not noticing people doing things like skirting around the truth. "That m-makes sense. Y-you should go an' g-get some shoes from Rein. She c-could make a pair r-really fast."

He smiled, totally oblivious to how nervous he was making Luna, but acutely aware of his own rapid heartbeat and shaking hands- which he was storing in his pockets to prevent her from seeing.

[isee-snorkacks.livejournal.com]

"I didn't know she could make shoes," she says, blinking up at him, her cheeks still pink, though she looks less shifty. "I suppose that would be smart. I can't wear Katara's shoes forever. Well, I suppose I could, but they might get mad and walk away with me..."

Conversely, Luna can see quite clearly how nervous Alex is, though she has next to no clue that she is what's making him nervous--in her mind, he is nervous A) because that is how he is normally, and B) because he's scared of plants, or something, which makes a great deal of sense to her, as nargles can hide in any kind of foliage, and are quite fearsome creatures to contend with. She chooses not to remark on the nargles, though, as she has a feeling that mentioning his nervousness would only exacerbate the situation.

[hack-rat.livejournal.com]

Alex nodded merrily, "Sh-she made mine. Along with m-my clothes. I didn' like the plantsuit, so I w-was happy ta get rid of it. It scares me, the plantsuits, with them being alive an' all. I r-really c-can't imagine shoes getting angry an' walking away on their own, l-let alone with someone inside them."

He would probably just laugh and tell her that he wasn't too concerned with nargles, since he was already contending with wrackspurts, and that he was confidant that she'd know how to get rid of the nargles if any of them decided to jump out at him.

[isee-snorkacks.livejournal.com]

She 'hmm's, eyeing Alex's shoes and jacket.

"I suppose I ought to talk to her, then. I have rather missed wearing shoes, and it's made me so nervous, sleep-walking with no shoes on. It's rather awful to step on something while sleeping. I can understand being skeptical of the plantsuits. I had to wear mine for five months before Stacy let us wear our own clothes without them," she says, smoothing her hands over her dress.

"Shoes have been known to carry their wearers off on a whim. People claim that only happens when shoes are bewitched, but Daddy and I maintain that shoes have feelings and should be treated accordingly, as they are what walk us through our lives, and they never complain about being stepped on. Of course, most everyone thinks we're ill in the head, but they say that about most things we do or say, so we tend not to mind. You know, people at school called me "Loony" Lovegood, but I didn't mind. I just thought it was nice that they cared enough to give me a nickname."

[hack-rat.livejournal.com]

Alex looked down at his shoes. They were already scuffed, and the knots in the laces were undoing themselves again. Still, they had loyally carried him since he got them. "Er, th-thanks," he said down to them before adressing Luna again, "I d-don' think you're loony at all. At the v-very least, it's a n-nice sentiment. W-we really ought to appreciate the l-little things like that, i-if they're sentient o-or not. B-besides, it's n-not bad ta be a little off. It's bad when it k-keeps you from functioning r-right, l-like me.

"C-caring aside, I'd w-wish they'd g-given you a nicer nickname." He'd love to tell off the people that dared call Luna something so mean. She was such a lovely person... "Lovely Luna," he whispered to himself, smiling. That would have been much more fitting.