Axel King {likes random nudity} (nomoreclothes) wrote in reduxpitch, @ 2016-05-26 17:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | !thread, character: axel king, retired character: ashleigh spinnet |
Who: Ashleigh Spinnet and Axel King.
What: First Date!
When: Thursday 26th May, evening.
Where: Muggle restaurant for dinner and dancing.
Rating: PG
Neither Ashleigh nor Axel had actually used the word ‘date’, but Ashleigh was still fairly certain that’s what this was. Her last date had been in school, and she rather hoped that Axel had better taste than to take her to Madame Puddifoot’s at their age. The problem, of course, was that she didn’t know where he was taking her, which made it difficult to know what to wear. Most of her dancing dresses were a little too formal when, for all she knew, he was taking her for a drink at the Three Broomsticks. She could wear jeans (she did own some), but then what if he took her to a nice restaurant? It was the not knowing that had sent Ashleigh on a mission to the shops before her theatre dance class on Wednesday. A new dress was clearly the only logical solution to the problem and not, in any way, a result of Ashleigh wanting to look particularly nice on her first date in over a decade. So far, she thought, things had gone surprisingly smoothly. She was a little perplexed about where the time kept going when she and Axel were together. She’d seen him twice since their conversation on Saturday but would be hard-pressed to describe what they’d talked about; it had been nothing significant, but she’d been neither bored nor frustrated by that. Both times it had been time to go home before she knew it. There was no logical reason to assume a date would prove any more challenging, so Ashleigh was doing her best to ignore the slightly tight feeling in her chest. Naturally, she was ready a good quarter of an hour before Axel was due to arrive. She surveyed herself critically in the full-length mirror in her bedroom. Her dress was slightly more colourful than she’d usually wear, but she liked the cut of it and thought it would just about pass as appropriate no matter where Axel took her. After checking her shoes, and her make up, one final time she forced herself to sit and pick up her book. Sheer stubbornness forced her through to the end of the chapter she’d been reading but it was surprisingly difficult to concentrate and not keep looking up at the door. When she heard a knock, she was more relieved than nervous. If nothing else, she could stop trying to understand the intricacies of personalised potions. She opened the door with a spell while she collected her handbag from where she’d left it, not actually looking to check it was Axel. “Since you refused to tell me where we’re going, I’m relying on you to at least let me know if this dress is going to be inappropriate. I can change.” Into what, she had absolutely no idea, but changing would be better than looking out of place all evening. He’d stepped inside to meet her and when she finally turned to face the door, he was a lot closer than anticipated. “Oh-” -- Axel was having a lot of feelings. Feelings he wasn’t used to dealing with. On the one hand, he finally had a real date with the girl he was a little in love with. She had feelings for him and she was willing to try a relationship with him. He still felt like he needed to ‘wow’ her, but he wasn’t as worried about it as he might have been. Because he had something else to distract him from that. That something else was named Laurel. Ten years ago, Laurel had been a young, fresh-faced little girl embarking on her first year at Hogwarts. And Axel...Axel had been known to her by a different name, right before he walked out of her life without looking back. And for ten years, he’d hardly had any regrets. He hadn’t allowed himself to feel regret. Because looking back, he still felt like he’d made the right decision. He’d left a toxic environment. He’d supported his brother through a difficult time when their parents abandoned him. His adult life was good and fulfilling, he had real friends, a new family, and love. But after 10 years, the regret of leaving his baby sister behind had returned, and with it came a pain he’d convinced himself he hadn’t had. It had been so easy to assume that she had grown up as their parents wished--a good little purist girl who surely hated everything about her lost brothers. Now that he knew where to find her--which was a confusing place for her to be, but that was a puzzle for a different day--it wouldn’t be so easy to write her off. He already needed to know if she really hated him, if she was able to grow up and be happy and her own person; it would only be a matter of time before he sought her out on purpose to find out more about her, even if it ended in heartbreak for him. He had to know. Laurel Fawley occupied much of Axel King’s thoughts on Thursday, but there came a time when he pushed her aside to focus on another brunette in his life, one he knew cared about him. He owed his sister the time to look into her as an adult, but he also owed Ashleigh (and himself) the best damn date of her life, and that’s what he was going to give her. He’d done most of the planning before running into his sister anyway, so at least it had benefitted him to plan ahead. He knew where they were going, had a reservation and everything, and what he wanted to spend the evening doing. When he showed up at her door, he was wearing something nice, but not formal, mostly because nothing about Axel was formal. He raised an eyebrow as she let him in without actually answering the door herself, and wandered inside casually, waiting for her to finish grabbing last minute things. Only, he didn’t just wait in the doorway or by the couch, he did a very Axel thing and walked up behind her, so that when she finally turned around, there wasn’t much space between them; he wasn’t so close that she didn’t have room to breathe, but was definitely close enough that he was a little bit in her personal space. “Don’t worry, the dress is hot,’ he assured her without really answering the question of whether it was appropriate for the venue or not. It was, but he liked his answer better. Because she did, in fact, look great. Enough that she successfully distracted him for a minute about his other feelings and grin at her as he touched her elbow and leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Ready?” -- “I wasn’t aiming to look hot,” she told him honestly. Ashleigh never aimed to look hot, because she didn’t think she was. She valued her body for its athleticism, for its ability to support her in an arabesque or pirouette, or keep tempo in her theatre dance class. She had never had trouble finding men when she wanted them, but she generally put that down to her (supposedly ‘unfeminine’) willingness to make the first move. What she didn’t say, because saying sincere things about their fledgling relationship was something she was still struggling with, was that she’d been hoping to look beautiful. That, she felt, was more achievable. After all, she was a ballerina - even if she was only an amateur one. She trusted that if her dress were truly inappropriate, Axel would have said something, so when he asked if she was ready, she nodded. Now that he was here her nervous tension definitely eased. It was easy, while waiting, to work herself up that he wouldn’t like the way she looked or that she wouldn’t know what to say or - somehow - that dinner and dancing would prove too much for her despite the fact she’d done both a dozen times before. Even though she’d never actually gone out for dinner alone with Axel, it still shouldn’t have been worth getting nervous over. She’d known him over half her life, she could handle dinner with him in public. It was only slightly complicated by the fact Axel was famous. Even going out with Higgs had somehow resulted in her name (half of it) in the papers. Ashleigh wasn’t oblivious to the fact that being seen in public with Axel was likely to call far more attention to her. She had determined already that she wasn’t going to let it affect how she acted. “Will you at least tell me if we’re going somewhere in the wizarding world or not?” It didn’t really make any difference, Ashleigh was very good at keeping the two separate. Even though she had grown up mostly in the magical world, her perfectionist tendencies meant she’d never had so much as a slip at any of her muggle extracurriculars. Still, that same perfectionism meant she wanted to be prepared as far in advance as possible. -- Well, Axel could have honestly told Ashleigh that she did look beautiful, but he didn’t know she needed to hear it, and didn’t know if she’d think it sounded cheesy. Attractive, on the other hand, that was something he could, and would, tell her without needing an excuse or reason. Even if it wasn’t the thing she was going for. She was clearly trying to look nice for him, and he appreciated it. Even if and when she didn’t, he appreciated it. Basically, he appreciated her body always, and it was nice to finally be able to think so without worrying about being gross or offending her. As for where they were going, well, “I thought a nice, quiet place in Muggle London would be a good place to start.” Mostly because some of the best places to eat were there, but it might also have had something to do with making sure he didn’t get recognizing--thank Merlin he wasn’t the lead like Ken; everyone always recognized him, while Axel, as a member toward the back in all the promotional things, tended to get a little reprieve from recognition when he wanted it. However, that was not something he wanted to leave to chance, not tonight. In the future, perhaps, but not on their first date. It was too important to be ruined by fame. No, tonight needed to be all about impressing Ashleigh, and being romantic and a good boyfriend, without being weird or too much or not Axel enough. It was a difficult thing to balance, especially since his romantic side really was part of the Real Axel, it just wasn’t something many people got to see. It was why he normally might have gotten a flower for his lady, but again, he didn’t know what she would believe was genuine and what she would think was forced, so he opted out. Next date for sure. Since it appeared she was ready, Axel held his elbow out to her, and whisked her out the door and away to the restaurant. Money wasn’t anything he needed to worry about, but that didn’t mean he was going to take her to the most expensive place he knew. No, the place he took her was not a very well-known spot, but had a great menu and wasn’t usually full or loud, as far as he knew. There was a patio on the side, and that was where they were led when they arrived; what the menu lacked in cost, Axel made up in renting the patio out, and having it cleared of everything but one table and two chairs. Speakers set up to play the classical music from inside set the tone. He even pulled out her chair so she could sit. They ordered drinks, he told her to get whatever she wanted, and then the waiter left them alone outside. And he had no idea what to say. So he said probably the most boring thing he’d ever said. “How was work today?” -- It was fortunate Ashleigh had been friends with Aisling for as long as she had, because it had forced her to get used to having someone spend money on her that she didn’t really feel she deserved. If it hadn’t been for that, she might well have felt uncomfortable when she realised that Axel must have booked the patio - because there was no other explanation for the lack of furniture outside on one of the nicest evenings they’d had this year. As it was, she let him pull out her chair without the slightest objection. She was, of course, capable of doing it herself, but she could appreciate the courtesy he was attempting to show. She ordered a glass of wine, then smoothed her napkin across her lap. When he asked about work, of all things, she looked up sharply and raised an eyebrow at him. “Who are you and what have you done with my Jonathan?” she asked. “Are you ill?” Maybe he was nervous. It was an oddly reassuring thought. (She couldn’t imagine why he would be. She knew he’d dated before and surely he knew her well enough not to be surprised by much.) “We both know that I find my work almost intolerably boring. I don’t think I can imagine how little you want to hear about the latest international regulations as to hippogriff manure.” She would never admit it, but Ashleigh had spent odd moments of her day making sure she was prepared with topics of conversation. She had hoped she wouldn’t need them, but it never hurt to be prepared. “I went to see a play last week and instead of having spotlights, they had pools of magical light on the stage around each actor’s feet,” she said. “They could change size depending on who was supposed to be most in focus, and in the last act when one of the characters died, her light went out completely.” It had been a very interesting effect, something out of the ordinary enough that Ashleigh had kept thinking about it long after she’d left the theatre. “Your effects team could probably do something similar,” she added. She was, of course, on good terms with Quake’s stage and lighting team. Possibly she knew them better than Axel did himself. “With different colours, and I think they could be made to pulse in time with the beat.” She’d have to experiment with that, but she’d been just a bit busy with finishing kitchen and spending an unprecedented amount of time not-talking with Axel. It was a topic that was nearly endlessly fascinating to her, but she had no idea whether Axel was actually interested. The waiter returning with their wine was a good opportunity to pause, and wait to see if he would respond or try to move the conversation to something else. -- Axel was extremely nervous, it was true. More so than he’d probably ever been about anything. Of course he’d dated before, he dated all the time. But almost all of those women were new to him, they didn’t know him. He knew he could be charming with them and everything would be fine. And if it wasn’t, then it wasn’t a big deal. Who cared if he never saw them again? But Ashleigh was as different as anyone could ever get. He couldn’t just charm her into forgetting his flaws or the reasons this would be a struggle. She knew him. And he loved her. It just mattered. It was nice of her to call him by another name and start them on a topic he could actually run with, though. Because she was right, he had less than zero interest in any regulation of anything. But a play, something artistic, that he could talk about happily. “That sounds pretty awesome,” he responded honestly. And innovative, too. Ken and the others would probably love having something like that during their shows. Axel wasn’t as much interested in the technical stuff like that, but even he could see the creative uses for a spell like that, and how they could adapt it to their own use. It sounded like it would be fun. For someone who prided himself on not caring, and on always having something to say about everything, Axel just didn’t seem to have that ability that night. He told himself that he’d do better if he could loosen up and relax. So, after they got wine and placed food orders and the waiter left again, he studied Ashleigh again for a moment and made a decision. He stood up and came to her side, held out his hand, and asked (somewhat jokingly and playfully, as was his way), “Can I have this dance, mi’lady?” -- Ashleigh had wondered what they would talk about, but she hadn’t quite expected it to be this difficult. They had always managed to talk before, and had been doing well even since the change in their relationship. Why was a date any different? She could certainly guess. Presumably, it had to do with expectation, and nerves. They had never been on a date before, whereas they certainly had spent time together in Panquake House or Ashleigh’s flat. “Yes,” she agreed, because Axel hadn’t actually given her a great deal to respond to. “It was impressive. I don’t know whether it was all preset to happen at certain times, or if there were stagehands in the wings waiting for cues. Or, I suppose, the actors could have been doing it themselves, nonverbally, but that seems less likely.” She suspected it surprised them both that she was the one talking easily. When the waiter returned, Ashleigh made an effort - for once - to order something more than a salad. Axel knew her eating habits, but it still seemed like she ought to order a full entree, at least, since he’d gone to all the trouble of bringing her to a restaurant. Whether or not she would finish it was a different matter entirely. She was just sipping her drink when Axel stood, taking her by surprise. “Where-” He cut her off by holding out his hand and Ashleigh couldn’t resist the impulse to roll her eyes. “You’re ridiculous,” she informed him. But, looking around, they were alone on the patio and there was no good reason not to dance, other than social convention. Despite her reluctance to do anything unexpected or eccentric, Ashleigh didn’t keep him waiting long. She moved her napkin to the table and stood, taking his hand and stepping easily into his hold. She let him lead her around the empty patio for several bars, her fingers tucked into the material of his shirt, before she spoke. “We are capable of having a conversation,” she said, her voice low. She knew they were, they’d been doing it for years. This was just, somehow, very different. Her chest was feeling tight again, her pulse skipping in her throat. “I seem to remember you were particularly good at distracting me in Herbology. Professor Sprout never could get you to be quiet.” Professor Sprout, much to Ashleigh’s annoyance at the time, hadn’t seemed to try very hard. It was almost as if she found Axel entertaining. -- He spun her around as soon as they were clear of the table, before letting her settle in the circle of his arms, his hands finding their usual place on her body; somehow, he seemed to be far more aware of them, and of her beneath them, though of course, there was no reason for it. Not like, for instance, suddenly having permission to sometimes touch her in a not-exactly-friendship way. Of course it wasn’t that. “I know,” Axel replied, holding her close as he had to work (a little) at getting past the fact that Ashleigh could tell this was different. They both knew it, but that didn’t mean it was supposed to be awkward or weird; Axel himself didn’t really feel either of those things, but he did feel nervous, and he hadn’t wanted her to catch on to any of that. The following dates would be better, he promised himself silently. Less weird, less pressure. Ah yes, then came the perfect opportunity to put a little more Axel King into this evening. “I am quite charming, you know,” he said, grinning to himself. “I presume you’re aware of that, otherwise I don’t think we’d be here.” Which meant, if he wanted to be here again with her, he needed to be more of his charming self, and less worried about mucking it up and not impressing her. So he did a very Axel thing and spun her around again, this time so she had her back to him with his arm around her waist, holding her close against him. His kissed her shoulder through the fabric of her dress. “I didn’t say earlier, but you do look beautiful.” -- The weirdness wasn’t as much of a problem for Ashleigh - she had years and years of experience dealing with her own anxiety and as long as it didn’t become overwhelming, was quite good at moving past it or ignoring it. If she’d known how much Axel was worried about it, she’d have reassured him that his being nervous now in no way meant she wasn’t going to want to do this again. Unfortunately, it was hard for her to think of Axel worrying about anything. He’d always been so different from herself, someone who didn’t care about teachers or homework or what strangers thought of him. That she might be in a different category, that he might actually care about her opinion of him still hadn’t occurred to her. “So charming it took you seventeen years to talk me into a date,” she quipped, the retort coming so easily she didn’t even think about it until after the words were out of her mouth. Then she winced slightly. “Too harsh?” she asked. The new boundaries between them were still uncertain and Ashleigh was struggling with sincerity. It was, she could admit to herself, probably defensive. She wasn’t used to making herself vulnerable and though she had and nothing bad had happened, apparently her instinct was still to make sure Axel couldn’t get too close. At least she could recognise it as counterproductive. What she didn’t know was how to fix it, because no contradictory words were coming to mind. So she pressed even closer, turning her head to lean her cheek against his shoulder for a moment, hoping he would read her feelings from her touch. She would get used to this, she would learn where the boundaries were. It was Axel she was dealing with, he could take a joke. She hadn’t been expecting him to spin her again so soon, but she stepped into it nonetheless, skirt flaring out as she twirled before he pulled her back in. If her heart rate hadn’t already been elevated by nerves, perhaps she would have noticed the way it increased in response to the solid line of him against her back. Her hand rested on top of his and she smiled at his compliment. She hadn’t needed to hear it, but it was nice to know he could appreciate the effort. “Would you rather be told you look handsome or hot?” she asked, partly teasing but also genuinely curious as to what his answer would be. |