Who: Mia and Nick What: On a Date When: Sept 20 Where: The Fair Rating: low
Mia had gone to the fair before when it showed up and it had always been ‘meh’. This time, though, she wasn’t hating it. It probably had something to do with the fact she had someone to enjoy it with - it made the fair ten times better. She got the feeling a lot of things were just better when you got to share it with someone.
They’d ridden several rides so far and watched a little bit of a pig judging competition, but there was really only so much Mia could watch of that before she was bored to tears. Now they were walking toward the midway section where carnies were trying to convince people to play for prizes. “I hate how most of these are rigged.” She meant the games. “Even in Madison.” The Dome had a lot of powers, it could ‘fix’ the issue with carnival games, and yet, most of the time, it seemed to keep it ‘as is’.
Nick’s brain tried to focus on the fair with his wife. He’d enjoyed babysitting Nita the night before, so Hope and Karl could have a fun date night. Besides, given that his niece was just a little over one, the fair might be a bit much.
He had to admit, though, having someone to enjoy such things made the whole fair experience more fun than going with a grumbling Clay. Nick did not think he and Mia were the intended audience for pig judging. Mostly, he just wanted to eat pigs, or occasionally pet one.
“Yeah, I guess the Dome wants us to have an authentic experience,” Nick commented with air quotes and a grin. “Are you going to win me a prize?”
She grinned back, her eyes playful in a way they only shined for Nick. “How many do you want?” Mia liked a challenge and thanks to her upbringing, she was good at a lot of the games. She knew it often annoyed the carnival people, but she couldn’t help it and sometimes people had to win.
Mia paused at an intersection of games. There was Ring Toss, ‘Shoot the star’, and the Rope Ladder game. All of them had large grand prizes and all of them Mia was confident she could ‘beat’ easily unless there was something extra unfair about them. “Have a preference?”
“Oh two should suffice, but really as many as I can carry,” Nick teased back. He squeezed her waist, gently, and briefly rested his hand on her ass, but stepped back to watch her shine, as he knew she would.
“I like the prize for ‘Shoot the Star’ the most.” Because obviously Nick wanted a large stuffed grey wolf as his prize. “But really watching you work your magic suits me just fine.”
At one point PDA would have been hard for Mia, but over the course of falling in love with Nick, it almost felt like second nature now. People who knew her from home would be completely surprised by all of this.
If Nick liked the prize at the shooting booth, then she was going to go for it. She walked up and it was clear the guy at the booth already sized her up as an ‘easy mark’ which suited Mia just fine. She used her blonde hair as an advantage when she could. She picked up the pellet gun like she’d never held a weapon before and asked a few questions about how to play. Her biggest ‘concern’ was knowing how many pellets the gun had so she’d be able to take out the star. The man was about to offer to show her how to hold it, but she pretended to turn the barrel his way by accident which had him dodging out of the way. He even called her ‘little lady’. She managed not to look too amused at his brief panic before she paid him.
At least Mia didn’t look like she wanted to remove Nick’s hand like when they’d first started seeing each other. Not that he partook in a lot of PDA.
He watched, amusement clear in his eyes, but hung back just a little so the guy didn’t think Nick was playing. After all, this game was all Mia. Nick happily munched on some popcorn waiting to see how this all played out for Mia and himself.
Thanks to her training back home, she was able to figure out how many little bullets she’d need and how many she could use to screw with the guy. She did a show of squeezing the trigger and the ‘kick back’ - which wasn’t a lot on a toy gun like this - made her lift the gun up. The man said a few ‘encouraging’ words which were really just sexist, though Mia assumed the guy thought himself as smooth.
Finished messing with him, suddenly her grip and stance changed and she was shooting in a circular motion. The mistake a lot of people made in this game was trying to make a star shape. The goal was to make a big hole and that’s what she did. Once the pellets were finished, she looked up and flashed the man an ‘innocent’ smile and batted her eyelashes. “How’d I do?”
Shortly after, Mia was walked away from the stall and toward Nick with a giant wolf stuffed animal. She had a grin on her face too.
Nick gritted his teeth through the encouragement. Yes, he’d made some sexist and misogynistic remarks in his day, but he’d like to think he’d gotten better since his arrival in town. Besides, hearing those remarks made towards his wife felt especially grating.
He held back a snicker of laughter and when she walked towards him clapped. “My big strong wife won me my prize!” Nick pretended to swoon.
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Mia laughed and ‘threw’ the wolf toward him, though since it was big and she wasn’t extra strong, it was more like a ‘shove’ throw. Once she was close enough, Mia closed the distance to kiss Nick. It was maybe a bit more provocative than it needed to be, but Mia wasn’t about rubbing salt on a wound and she hoped the carnival guy saw every moment of it. When she pulled away, she was smiling though - Mia was having fun. “You say that, but you know if we see one of those strength games, it’ll be my turn to fall all over myself for you.”
“Come on. I want some more food to eat while I watch you win more prizes,” Nick teased as he caught the wolf. He certainly didn’t mind the kiss, and when he pulled away, he gave the man a maybe don’t be yourself in the future kind of look.
“That’s true.” Nick would win his wife a prize as well.