There was a certain amount of comfort to be had in the fact that Max hadn't changed. He was still all heart on his sleeve, and the joy that he felt at seeing her was plain in his expression and his enthusiastic embrace. Finding her feet again afterward, Dani was grateful that the trip outside the shelter required sensible, sturdy shoes, saving her from wobbling on heels as Max set her down. It still took a steadying hand on his arm for her equilibrium to return. The action was natural, something she would have done -- had done -- in the past without thinking about it. Yet as she quickly moved her hand away, Dani felt the pendulum swing from the ease of their greeting and back to quiet discomfort. On her part, at least.
“Lunch was fine. I stayed as long as I needed to,” she said, brushing a stray lock of hair out of her face before tucking her hands into the pockets of her jacket. “I had to take a couple of detours on the trip here, but I still know the city well enough that it was fine.” That was twice in a row now that she'd said ‘fine,’ as if saying it enough times would change how she was feeling. Uncertainty didn't sit well on Dani, who was used to being confident in any situation.
Following Max’s gaze over to the building nearby, Dani regarded the abandoned cinema silently for a moment before shrugging. The choice of meeting place didn’t hold any sentimentality for her, aside from the obvious (and inapplicable, in this situation) association between movies and dating.
“No, this location is fine.” Dammit, there was that word again. “I haven’t been to a movie theater since … I don’t know.” She remembered the last movie she’d seen on the big screen, having discussed the topic with Nina just a few months ago, but the exact timing of that outing was lost to her. “It's been a long time, we’ll put it that way. Come on, let's get in out of the open.” Between roaming hordes and wandering ghouls, Dani was more comfortable indoors. After all, she wasn't the one who lived under the open air of a raider camp.
She let Max lead the way as they crossed the barricade of vehicles and approached the cinema’s entrance. A depressing place in its rundown state, with a little mental fixing up it wasn't hard to imagine what it had looked like back in its heyday. Dani found herself wondering whether the lobby had lost that stale popcorn scent all theaters seemed to possess, or if they’d still be able to recognize the smell of past snack food. “What was it for you? The last movie you saw?” she asked, more for the conversation than anything else.