Katrina "Kat" Cole (katastrophe) wrote in btvsal, @ 2009-11-22 10:45:00 |
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Current music: | 3 Doors Down "Kryptonite" |
Batman vs Superman
Who: Jarrod and Kat (TBC)
Where: Avarice
When: Friday night (November 20)
Obviously, some people hadn't mastered the art of using a telephone. Despite having given Jarrod her number, he'd still cornered her at school to find out if she wanted to meet up at Avarice. She'd been to the club a couple of times and it was okay. The music was good most nights and the crowd was...eclectic. So why not, right? It'd get her out of the house and she could at least tell Harrison she was doing "normal" things. Her brother? Well. She just told him she was meeting friends. Sometimes she got the feeling that the less he knew, the better. She'd pulled the age-old trick of leaving the house in one outfit (a pair of faded old jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt) and stopping at the gas station at the end of the neighborhood to change (into a new pair of fitted low-rise jeans and a strapless red handkerchief top that tied in the back and left most of her stomach and back exposed. Hey, she might be a fighter, but she still knew how to dress like a girl. Her long, dark hair was pulled up into a casual ponytail and a few curls had escaped to frame her face. Tapping her nails atop the table she'd snagged, she sipped her Coke and watched the band on stage. If he stood her up, she was kicking his ass. End of story.
Luckily for him, then, no such thing was on his mind. Dressed in a pair of fancy black pleasted slacks and a black, button-down silk shirt, with leather loafers, a silver bracelet and matching necklace, he looked pretty damn spiffed up. "Wow." He said simply, approaching the table. "Talk about a hell of a sight for sore eyes. And back. And legs. And arms."
Seeing Jarrod so dressed up didn't exactly make her feel UNDERdressed, but there was definitely a marked diifference between them. "Wow. Are you...going somewhere after this?" Sure, there were people around the club who were dressed as well as he was, but there were a lot of people just hanging out all relaxed, too. Not really one to let it get to her, she shrugged it off and grinned at his greeting. "Are you sore? Bad day at practice?"
"First, I just wanted to look good for you. So sue me. Although clearly, you outdid me. A damn BLIND man would notice you in that outfit." He leaned down to give her a little kiss on the cheek in greeting, before sitting down across from her. "And yeah. I had a good practice, dont get me wrong, but I got trapped in a Brazillian guard for like, ten minutes, and by the time I finally broke it, CHRIST were my muscles hurting."
The kiss surprised her, even though it was just...friendly, and her lips parted, but she said...nothing. Which was unusual for her. Not that she was the rambling type, but rarely could she not form a snarky remark when caught off-guard by something. Clearing her throat, Kat was relieved for once when the discussion turned back to fighty stuff. Laughing a little, she leaned her elbow atop the table and rested her chin in her hand. "Makes me sorry I didn't take you up on that offer to watch you. Sounds pretty entertaining."
"I gotta learn to break that damn thing easier. If I wanna get into The Lion's Den, I gotta learn to break a damn guard much easier. It's hard to explain, but their main rivals are a Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu group that excels in that stupid hold."
He sighed, shaking his head. To him, this was very important, obviously. He'd dedicated his life to this, after all. "I'm getting it though. I can feel it."
"Practice makes perfect?" She figured Harrison thought she might absorb all of her fighting skills by osmosis if she spent all her free time leafing through the books he provided. Yeah, she'd logged some actual physical training hours, but...she wanted more. She was just used to doing more and knowing some of what she was capable of, but not her limits, was frustrating. "I could hold you down, if you want me to. And that sounded a whole lot different in my head."
"I can think of much worse ways to spend an evening than having a cute girl try to hold me down..." He admitted with a hearty laugh. "So... thanks for meeting me tonight. I know usually people tend to make plans, you know... IN ADVANCE... but I figured I thought of it this morning, so why not?"
"Yeah, it's cool." She didn't bother commenting on the TRY part of his response to that really stupid offer she'd made. "I like it here and it gets me out of the house. Not...that that's the only reason I said I'd meet you here. I could have just come here. By myself. Or with friends." Crap. She was dangerously close to rambling. And she didn't DO that. "Anyway. What else do you do besides...fight?"
"Embarrassingly, not much." He felt a little self-concious there, as he didn't usually tend to talk honestly about himself much. But there was something refreshingly honest about this girl. "I used to do track, and I was going to go out for football... but then I discovered MMA and I was hooked. Other than my training, I sorta... kinda... collect Batman stuff."
She couldn't help it. Kat laughed. Loudly. "Batman?" she echoed with a cute little grin that seemed to light up her face. "That's cute. And I get it. You're an actiony guy. You...wanna grow up to be Batman. Anatomically correct suit and all, I'd bed. Have you ever actually worn a cape? That's, like, a superhero requirement, isn't it?" God, for her own sake, she hoped not.
"Wow. Mocking a guy on the first date? That's ballsy. Means you either think you're awesome enough for me to like you despite it, or it means you're totally not diggin' me, and just having fun now."
He snickered, making a joke but hoping for his sake that it was merely the first thing, and not the second at all.
"I'm a pretty ballsy kinda girl," Kat agreed. "Without having the actual...balls. Because that would be a problem. I'm pretty fond of short skirts." She pressed her lips together and shrugged before taking another sip of her soda, a small grin breaking free as she eyed him. "I'm not exactly your typical girl. Besides." Her grin grew just a little bigger. "You didn't exactly deny that you wanna grow up to be Batman...."
"Well, I've never had a desire to wear spandex or a cape..." He laughed there, looking into her eyes. "But gotta admit: the whole billionaire playboy, having hot chicks everywhere drooling over you part? Pretty sweet deal."
"Not to mention a pretty sweet little sidekick named Robin." She shrugged innocently and shook her head, but then laughed again. "If it makes you feel any better, I totally used to play with Barbies. Whien I was, like, six." Tucking a wayward curl behind her ear, she leaned forward a little. Closer to him? Well...it was a club. She had to make sure he could hear her, right? "I used to be a cheerleader, actually. Back at my old school. Before I got into the whole...Mortal Kombat type of thing. And I was into gymnastics. That's actually not a bad skill to have."
"At the risk of losing MORE cool points with you... I'm ready to fall over at the THOUGHT of you in one of those little cheerleader skirts, girl." Hey, nothing wrong with honesty, right? "And for the record, there was a female Robin. And I could totally see you as my Robin."
"Oh, I so don't think so. Look at me." She tried to put on her best bitchy, condescending face...but it didn't work when she kept smiling. "I am so not sidekick material. I'm leading lady, baby. I'm...what chick kicked Batman's ass? There had to be one. I'm her." With a little roll of her eyes, she tacked on, "I'd even do it in my tiny old cheerleading skirt."
"Nonsense. Only one person's EVER really beaten Batman's ass. And you can't pass for a steroid-addled man. So let's compromise and say you're Catwoman. Baddest chick in the comics." Somehow, between the smoothness of his voice, the brightness of that smile, and the toned muscle of that physique, he somehow made this comics talk not sound lame and dorky.
"Kat? Catwoman? Cute." He probably hadn't even intended on that. "So obviously you're biased, but come on. Who's REALLY better: Batman or Superman?"
"At the risk of sounding insulting... BITCH PLEASE." He scoffed, shaking his head as if he couldn't believe she would ask something so ridiculous. "Any lunkhead can beat people's asses when they're all indestructible and bulletproof and can fly. Try doing it whe you got no powers, and have to rely on fighting prowess and your brain."
Now, there was an interesting concept. "Woah now. Hold up. I'm sure Superman didn't ASK to be born with super powers. It's not his fault he's just naturally better than Batman. NOT - " she added before he could interrupt, " - that I'm discounting Bruce Wayne's abilities. He could practically buy any weapon he wants and add it to his arsenal. But come on. At the end of the day, he's still a mere mortal."
Wait... she seemed to know more than she was letting on. He grinned there, pointing at her. "You... you like comics too! Don't even try to hide it!"
Kat opened her mouth to deny it, but...what was she going to say? No, I don't like comics, I'm just speaking from experience?!? Yeah...no. Liking comics was...much more believable. "You caught me," she said with a rueful little grin. "Total comic fan...girl...person. That's me."
"See... here's how I feel. If real people had superpowers.... it'd be way different than Superman. Real people would be way more heroic if they did good... because real people have more temptations. I think if there was a real person who had powers, and they used them for good?" He hoped it didnt sound too stupid, because he knew he FELT stupid verbalizing it. "I think they'd be my hero."
For some reason, the way he talked about it made her...uncomfortable. It wasn't like she wasn't TRYING to do good with her powers. But hell yeah, she'd give them up in a second if she could go back to having a normal life. "Soooo...you're saying a real person with super powers trumps Batman?" Her grin faded a little, despite the joke, and she sat back in her seat. "I don't know. I think having super powers would...kind of suck. You'd never really have the chance to lead a normal life. Everything would always be about the greater good and...saving the world and... I don't know." The girl shrugged and tried to wave it off. "It's just not like it'd be a regular 9-to-5, right? No vacations. No leaving someone else in charge of protecting the world while you run off and get hitched in Vegas or something." Okay, the last part was purely exaggeration. But she was just trying to make a point.
"Well face it... it's not like it's gonna happen. But me? I'd love to have powers. To be able to go out and help people... it'd be scary as hell, but awesome all the same." And then he looked at her, grinning comically. "....are you INTERESTED in running off to Vegas and getting hitched?"
"Are YOU?" she countered with a quick laugh. But then she started to think about his words. "Maybe you have a point. I mean. Helping people can't be BAD. But...it's not like the whole Batman thing. What if...." Kat paused and twirled her straw in her drink. "What if what you end up fighting isn't...." She stopped again and laughed. "Wow. Nevermind. I can't een believe I'm talking about this like it's even remotely possible."
"At least we're having fun, right?" He had to tease her a little. "I mean, there's OTHER ways we could be having fun, if you'd prefer them to talking about superheroes..." He made a little show of wagging his eyebrows at her, a boyish grin shining through the dimmed lights.
Well, THAT had the potential to shut her up and put her in her place, didn't it? Okay, not really. "Hey, I already offered to pin you. You just don't want to believe a girl like me could do it. So...I'm going to go out on a limb and say that was your way of asking me to dance. And this is me...saying yes."
Standing, the much taller boy offered her his hand, smiling to her. "Then come with me." Ok, so part of him was hoping it would lead to more. He was still a teenaged boy after all. And damn... she looked HOT.
Kat hopped down from the stool and took his hand, and marveled that...actually...in some ways, this was COMPLETELY normal. And...that really made her smile, though it was one of those enigmatic, mysterious smiles that defied explanation.
He stood behind her, holding her back to his chest (ok, more like he held her back to his abdomen and part of his chest...), and began to sway to the music, his arms snaking around her waist.
All right, so...it wasn't exactly the type of dancing she was used to. And Kat was a good dancer. Really good. So good that she'd choreographed a lot of the cheer dances for her squad. But that didn't mean this wasn't nice. It was true that he sort of dwarfed her. If she were a regular girl, she might daydream about him being her knight in shining armor, protecting her from the big, bad city. She wasn't, though, and knew it was just as likely she might one day have to protect his macho ass as it was that he might be able to help her out. Apparently, LA was full of the fang-type. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. So for the moment, Kat leaned back against his warm, strong body and swayed with him, her hands resting lightly atop the back of his.
He found that he'd been enjoying himself far more than he expected. He came here mostly figuring to enjoy a little time with a pretty girl... but instead found himself really connecting to her. He felt the tips of his fingers resting on the warm, bare skin of her stomach, and felt those butterflies again. Deciding to test the waters a little, he dipped his head a bit, placing a small kiss on the side of her neck as they danced.
The feel of his lips against the side of her neck sent a jolt through her and her heart skipped a beat. This was why she needed to learn to be more alert. What if he'd been a vampire? Well, he wasn't. And like she'd be dancing with a vampire anyway. That was just stupid. She was overreacting, admonishing herself as a way to completely avoid the fact that this boy...this guy...had just kissed her...in a way that wasn't entirely just-friendly. Shy? Not Kat. Innocent? You wouldn't be able to tell it by looking at her. But for as much swagger and, well, ballsy-ness that she could exhibit, she was...one of those "good" girls. Apparently, not all head cheerleaders were sluts. Or maybe that only happened once you reached the eleventh grade. Kat had no idea. What she DID know was that it didn't actually feel so bad. She turned her head slightly and her cheek brushed his, which sent a warm shiver down her spine.
"I know it's normally the girl that says this..." he muttered into her ear, sounding more nervous than one would think this smooth young man could sound. "But I don't usually move this fast. I'm just... God, Kat... something about you just really gets me going. I mean, besides how obviously sexy you are..." What made it feel more odd to him was that being this open, this honest, didn't feel awkward or scary to him, despite barely knowing this girl.
Kat had to laugh when he said it was usually the girl who claimed not to move so fast. She kind of got the feeling if he knew the real her...it would probably knock him - and all his preconceived notions of what girls were like - right on his ass. And...maybe he wouldn't like that version of her so much. "You say that to all the girls you go out with?" she asked, a fair amount of humor in her tone as she almost instinctively rested her head back against his chest. He really was tall.
"No, actually. I try not to say much, usually. Better to seem like a cool, quiet type than talk and let them see what a goof I can be..." Again, he found himself opening up to her, with no regard to whether or not she'd 'out' him as a nervous, fidgety-around-girls type. "You gonna knock me out and pin me down if I kiss you?" He asked before common sense could warn him otherwise.
Did she believe him when he called himself a goof? Well...he DID read comics and collect Batman stuff. But...did that really make him goofy? She shook her head, but his next question managed to surprise her again. He'd...done that a bit tonight. "I don't know," she mused aloud. "Which one are you looking forward to more? Kissing me...or getting pinned?"
"I have this strange feeling that if you pinned me down, it would be a totally UNsexual thing. More like you trying to prove you could kick my ass." Yeah. Tell me he didn't at least PARTIALLY have her pegged already. "So for now? I choose the kiss. And anything that could lead to."
"Anything it could lead to?" Her brows rose at that and she turned around in his arms to look up at him. "That IS moving pretty fast. And a sure way to find out whether or not you liked getting pinned by me." Which she was 100% certain she could do. But that was neither here nor there. "But I guess if you just kiss me...I probably won't knock you out...."
"Probably? Oh well... I guess you gotta take some chances in life, right?" Hey, this wasn't anything serious, right? It was just a kiss. It wasn't like he was asking her to be his girlfriend, or trying to get her into bed... it was just a kiss. But what a kiss it was, as he leaned down, tenderly touching his lips to her own, his eyes closing as he took in her sweet scent.
It wasn't the first time Kat had been kissed, but it was the first time she'd been kissed in a while. Since before her life started becoming a freak show. Just knowing he wanted to kiss her caused a ball of nervous energy to form and swirl in the pit of her stomach. But it wasn't so bad. Maybe a little tentative at first - at least on her part - but her hands settled lightly at his waist. She could feel the warmth of his body seeping through the silk of his shirt and into her fingertips. For a second, she leaned into him, kissing him back as she rose up onto her tiptoes to reach him better. Mental note: she was going to have to start wearing heels if she ever wanted to hang out with him again. And then she pulled back slowly with a faint, "Hm." Even though she looked away, the smile curving her full lips said it really wasn't a bad sound.