Knox Rodriguez (hard_nocks) wrote in mcdermott_game, @ 2009-10-05 19:09:00 |
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Entry tags: | knox, thisbe, thisbe/knox |
Who: Knox and Thisbe
What: A date!
Where: Nearby park
When: Backdated to Friday, October 3
Rating: PG
Status: Complete
A couple of weeks had passed since Thisbe's birthday, and she'd felt like she was at a standstill when it came to having a date with Knox. It was her own fault, however, because she'd been putting off asking her father for permission. Every time she'd come close to mentioning it, she'd simply lost her courage because she knew that he was going to say no. Dr. Costello believed that trust had to be earned, and Thisbe had not earned back his trust since high school. It sucked, to put it simply, and after two weeks of considering, plotting, and just plain wondering if she should lie to Knox and say she'd gotten permission when she hadn't, Thisbe finally approached him.
It had taken awhile. Dr. Costello had immediately shot down the idea. It took a lot of pleading on Thisbe's part, and she mentioned several times that Knox was an RA. Finally she'd worn down her father, who permitted the date, within reason. And so Thisbe found herself getting ready on Friday night, butterflies of excitement fluttering in her stomach as she considered outfit after outfit. She wanted something that was elegant, but that didn't make her look like she was trying too hard. More importantly, she wanted to look pretty. She was just finishing getting ready when there was a knock on her suite door, and the butterflies increased. Taking a deep breath, Thisbe looked in the mirror one more time before she went over to open the door.
The thing about Thisbe was that he liked her enough to know that he had to do things right with her. Sure, he could have showed up sometime in the past couple of weeks so they could hang or get something to eat, but that wasn't right. Messing around was easy but he wanted to be serious. Of course, if her father had said no, he might have reconsidered. But her father hadn't said no and suddenly a date was a Date. It had to be something worth getting permission for. No pressure.
He chewed an orange tic tac before knocking on the door. "Hello Miss Frisbee."
"Hey yourself," Thisbe said, an easy smile crossing her face when she saw Knox. She stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind her and then turned to look up at him. A moment of awkwardness fell over them, as Thisbe suddenly had no idea what to say. She didn't get intimidated very easily, and Knox wasn't exactly intimidating, but she was suddenly very aware of the fact that this was a first date and she hadn't been on many of those. "How've you been?" she asked, because she hadn't seen him very much since her birthday and she didn't know what else to say.
Knox was suddenly full of a nervous energy and he bounced a little on his toes. Thisbe wasn't the only one aware it was a first date - Knox knew it too and the thing about getting permission to have a first date meant that you expected to have lots more after it. Knox was feeling the pressure. It made him want to smoke. "I'm good. I'm always good. Totally cool, that's me." Could they do the small talk thing later? Knox reached for Thisbe's hand. "Come on, we have to go. Food's getting cold."
"Okay," Thisbe said, unable to help a small laugh as she slid her hand against Knox's. The momentary awkwardness had faded a bit, and she was simply excited. She didn't know what Knox had planned, but knowing Knox, it was bound to be different.
Knox rushed them outside where his truck was waiting. He opened the door for Thisbe and ran around to his own side. "Catering this evening is provided by Harper Cove. Hope you're not sick of them yet. I could eat there everyday. My body is seventy percent cheeseburger. True facts. Anyone who says it's not possible to have your arteries entirely lined with American cheese is wrong. I should be studied by science."
"Who can get sick of Harper Cove?" Thisbe asked, amusement flickering in her eyes as she settled into her seat. "I may work there, but I'm a big advocate of their food. Especially the fries. If your body is seventy percent cheeseburger, mine's at least fifty percent french fries. Just don't tell my dance professors." Her teachers were always pushing her to eat healthy so that her body would be strong and graceful for dance, and for the most part Thisbe did, but she had a real weakness for fries.
"I'll take your secret to my grave," he smiled. Knox turned his stereo on and the cab of the truck was suddenly filled with music loud enough to nearly make the windows rattle. Instantly, he rushed for the volume, turning the sound down to something more reasonable. "Ah, sorry. I like my music loud enough to make your ears bleed. Not everyone likes going deaf by inches. Anyways, I say eat the fries. What the dance people don't know won't hurt them." Not like there was any sign of french fries on Thisbe. She was perfect like that.
"And I say eat the cheeseburgers." Thisbe smiled back at him and then looked down at her hands, noticing that she was fidgeting with them, twisting her fingers together. Chill, she told herself, looking back over at Knox. "So what band is this?" she asked, referring to the music that was still playing through the speakers.
"This is Brand New. That's the name of the band: Brand New. This is their third album, they have a new one about to come out. They're pretty good. Could be great if they didn't take themselves so fucking seriously." Knox could ramble about music all day. "I'd give you the great privilege of letting you change the CD but we're here." Here was a park; grass, trees, jungle gym, the works.
"Cool," Thisbe said, looking out the window curiously at the park they'd pulled into. She recognized it because she used to come here when she was younger, but she didn't think she'd visited in years. She gave Knox a slightly intrigued look before she hopped out of the truck. "Walking on the wild side, are we?" she asked, with a teasing grin.
Knox grabbed the food. "Look who's talking, jail bird," he grinned. "Besides, I'm a crazy man. After this, I have plans to steal candy from a baby." He led them over to the swingset, sitting on the swing and pulling his cheeseburger from the bag.
Thisbe laughed as she took the swing next to his. "It's tough being you, isn't it?" she replied, the teasing lilt remaining in her tone. She leaned back slightly on the swing, hands gripping the chains so that she wouldn't fall. "I haven't been on a swing in ages," she told him, beginning to sway a bit. "My sister and I used to come out here a lot, when we were younger." They'd have contests to see who could swing the highest, and then who could jump the farthest off of the swing while it was still in mid-air. Juliet always won, of course.
Knox watched Thisbe start to swing and enjoyed the view. He scarfed down his cheeseburger in six bites so he could lean back and push his legs out, starting to swing. "Did you have knee socks and pigtails? That'd be a good look for you."
"Oh yeah," Thisbe agreed. "Mary Janes, too - you know, the black shoes with the buckle? I rocked them." She grinned back at him, swinging a little higher. "I bet you were a cute kid, too. Glasses, right?"
"Worse. Braces." He bared his teeth. "You're looking at the most expensive smile in Southern California. My mouth was magnetic, I walked into the cafeteria and everybody's utensils went flying at my head. I almost got forked."
She burst out laughing at that, trying to picture him as a skinny little kid with a mouth full of magnetic metal. "That must have been quite traumatizing," she told him. "But if it helps any, you've got a great smile now." She blushed a little when she said it, and looked down at her shoes, which were carefully pointed straight ahead to help her swing higher.
Knox grinned at her, quiet for once as he concentrated on getting more and more height on the swing. When he was as high in the air as it seemed possible to go, Knox pushed off, becoming airborne as he jumped off the swing. He landed with a thud and a spray of sand. "Hey, Miss Frisbee!" he called, running over to swipe at her arm as she swung past. "Tag! You're it."
She was giggling as she hopped off of her own swing; she hadn't been as high as Knox, but her jump still sent her flying, before she dropped to the ground below. She took off running, not caring how stupid she might have looked as she chased after Knox. She was having a blast, and she wasn't sure if it was because of Knox, or if it was because she felt liberated for the first time in a long time, as if she had no worries in the world, like it had been when she was a kid. "Tag!" she called as she caught up to him enough to brush his shoulder.
Knox tore after Thisbe, feet sinking in the sand. He was grinning like a kid on Christmas when he was close enough to tag her back. He changed directions, making her chase him up onto the playground equipment.
Thisbe followed him; he was faster than she was, but she was determined, and when she caught up to him, she grasped his sleeve, laughing. "Tag!" she said triumphantly.
Knox reached for Thisbe's arm, catching her before she could run off again. He stared at Thisbe, who was smiling with her cheeks adorably pink. They were on top of the playground or jungle gym or whatever and Thisbe looked happy here. Suddenly, the hand on her arm wasn't on her arm anymore but against cheek. Knox looked at her for a moment before leaning in and kissing her. This wasn't what he'd planned on and it sure as hell wasn't the right way to do things when etiquette said he was to wait until walking her to her door. Knox had wanted to do things right but Thisbe looked happy and to hell with impulse control.
To say she was surprised was putting it mildly; Thisbe hadn't expected that he would kiss her. She'd hoped, maybe - a lot, actually, if she were going to be honest with herself. But hope was one thing, and expectation was another, and the fact that Knox was kissing her now surpassed any of her expectations. She felt her heart skip several beats, and at first she almost didn't know how to react, but then the surprise passed, and she found herself kissing him back.
Knox wanted to keep doing this; kiss Thisbe more, get his hands in her hair, explore how it felt. But no. He had to be good, had to get a grip on himself. Regretfully, he pulled away. "That's one way to play tag. I make my own rules," he said, smiling.
"I think I like your rules," Thisbe responded, smiling back at him. Her heart hadn't stilled, and she wanted to pull him closer and kiss him again, but she wasn't daring enough. Instead she just reached out, ruffling his hair sort of affectionately before she hopped down from the jungle gym, landing hard on her feet in the dirt below.
**
Knox was holding hands with Thisbe as they walked back up to her dorm room. The two of them had run around the park for a long time and when they finally got tired of chasing each other like overgrown children, they sat in the bed of his truck just to talk. Now the date was over and Knox could feel some of the pressure to do things the right way lifting. "So, that wasn't so bad, right?"
"Not bad at all," Thisbe said, smiling up at him. She liked the way it felt to hold Knox's hand, liked the security that she got from it. It was different than kissing him, because she liked that, too - maybe even more - but mostly she liked that while this was new and exciting, there was also some kind of safety there. Thisbe didn't exactly linger on the safe side of things - at least, she didn't want to - but with Knox, there was a balance between keeping to her comfort zone while also stepping outside of the box and finding out where that path led her. "I had a lot of fun," she added, squeezing his hand lightly.
The funny thing was that Knox wasn't known for being safe. He had always had a problem with impulse control. Fear wasn't something Knox tended to bother with, skipping it entirely to do what he wanted. Knox, though, was trying to do things right. Be a different person. More RA, less trouble. "Good. We'll do it again. Possibly somewhere different than the park, just too keep things interesting," he promised. "Now, do I get a good night kiss?"
As if he even had to ask. Thisbe leaned in, brushing her lips against his as if it were the most natural thing in the world. It felt natural, and at the same time it caused her stomach to flip with butterflies, and it caused her heart to race. She sort of wanted to kiss him forever, however irrational that might have been. Wasn't being irrational part of the fun, though?
Knox wasn't against the whole kissing forever plan. He was rapidly discovery that he liked kissing Thisbe a lot. He wanted to deepen the kiss, so he did and it felt good. Knox had to pull away after only a second though because he knew it was too easy for him to say all the right things and do all the right things so they could keep going. Knox wanted to know what her skin felt like, what it tasted like but not today. "Okay, Frisbee. I'll see you later."
She nodded her agreement, hesitating for a moment as she contemplated what she could say. Call me, was far too cliche, but she wanted to see him again soon, and she didn't know how to tell him that. Finally she just echoed, "See ya later," and then leaned in. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and a parting smile and then, before she could say anything else that might have been embarrassing, she just turned and let herself into her suite, waiting until she was on the other side of the door and it was closed behind her to finally break into a huge smile. She couldn't wait until the next time she saw him.