bettle (bettle) wrote in solsticerp, @ 2010-03-14 07:20:00 |
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Entry tags: | corwin, june 19 2009, sen |
Friday - Fast-Food Lunch
Who: Corwin and Sen
Where: The local Jack in the Box
When: Midday
Since Art didn't need to eat, Corwin left him in charge for the hour it took for him and Sen to go out to grab some food and to chat a while. He hadn't really talked to her since Monday and the explosion with Jake, and since he'd had time to chat with Art, he felt like he needed to keep up with her, too. He loved them both dearly, but he did try very hard to keep the time he spent with each equal, when they weren't all three together. He never, ever wanted one to wind up feeling left out, or jealous of the other.
Besides, well, Art didn't have to eat, and he and Sen were both starving by lunchtime. They walked, since it wasn't far, and Corwin tried to spare the van golem-weight when he could.
"So what do you think of Jake giving us five computers?" he asked as they neared the the fast food place. Corwin couldn't often afford sit-down, and since he was planning on visiting Maria tonight at her restaurant, he had to be careful with lunch.
"It is most generous," Sen replied and she didn't voice her thought that perhaps it was too generous. People rarely gave that much without expecting something in return. Of course Corwin had helped Jake and perhaps she was just that grateful. It had also technically been Jake's fault that the shop was the mess it had been so gratitude mixed with guilt? Sen wasn't the person to ask when it came to human emotions, they were all very confusing.
"It is a good thing for us," she stated, opening the door and holding it open for Corwin once they reached their destination. "I do think we could have a good working relationship with her in the future. I quite like her place of business myself." Naturally. A place filled with computers was easily the best place for Sen to be.
"A good working relationship, huh?" Corwin asked, grinning a bit. It would probably be a bit more than that, if Art really did take Jake out dancing... obviously Art hadn't told Sen, and Sen hadn't noticed enough to ask. She'd probably been so busy working with her machines that she didn't think to ask. "Well, we'll see. I don't know what we could do for her, she fixes her own machines... I'd rather settle for friendship. And selling off those machines as I build ones to replace them...." He felt weird selling custom-builds that weren't his. He ducked through the door, feeling a bit weird about that, too, but he was used to it from Sen, at least.
Once inside, Sen surveyed the menu with growing delight. Art's cooking was her favorite, but that didn't mean she didn't love to get some greasy, fatty food every so often. "It's a pity," she said in regards to Jake. "I would love to see to her machines. I could see how a public machine could attract all sorts of challenging problems that needed solving."
Corwin never minded greasy, fatty food... Art might tsk at him, but he loved Jack in the Box, and Arby's, and even McDonalds when he was in the mood. He looked up at the menu, trying to decide on whether to get mozzarella sticks to go with his burger and shake. It really wasn't much of a decision; of course he would. "You could always ask. But she'd probably say no. Jake's really private, I guess-- she wouldn't even let me take her all the way home, Monday. She made me drop her off on the corner. And she could hardly walk, then!"
Sen pulled a face at that. She would have had a hard time obeying that request from anyone and probably would have at least felt tempted to carry Jake the rest of the way. It was, in other words, a good thing it had been Corwin taking the woman home and not Sen. "And did you?" she asked, looking at Corwin questioningly. "Leave her at the corner?" He probably had, he was perhaps too considerate at times.
"It was either that or take her home with me, since she wouldn't tell me which house it was," Corwin sighed. "And I didn't really want to do that. I like her, but I don't really know her that well, and it would've been awkward." Besides, at the time he'd been utterly exhausted, himself, and really not in much condition to argue. "What do you want? I'm paying." Since he was the boss, he was allowed to claim right of paying for lunch.
Sen was not the type to cut back on her eating just because someone else was picking up the tab. She pointed to a couple of dishes, then the extras she wanted and finished up with a large milkshake before she was content with her choice. She waited for Corwin to order, still looking at the menus in case there was anything else she might want.
Not even Corwin could eat as much as Sen, and he laughed a little at her huge selections. "You are the bottomless pit, Sen," he told her affectionately, and made his own order, glancing to her when he was done to make sure she hadn't changed her mind or added something to the list.
Surprisingly enough, Sen was content with what she'd ordered already. It helped that she knew she could always go and order more if she wanted more later. Or pick up something on the way home. Or enjoy whatever Art might have baked recently. Ah, the options were infinite it seemed, just the way she liked them. She simply smiled at his observation, patting his shoulder affectionately. "Thank you, Corwin." It was for the food, but it probably came out odd.
"You're also the only person who'd ever thank me for saying that," Corwin added dryly as he paid the cashier and got back his change-- which wasn't much. He put his hand on hers on his shoulder briefly, then backed them both away from the counter so they could find a table to wait for their food. It'd probably be a long wait. "So has Art told you about, uh, his upcoming 'date'?" he asked once they were seated at the sturdiest of the tables, quietly hoping that Sen's weight wouldn't break the chair she sat on, like he did every time he brought her here.
Sen thought about correcting him but thought better of it, following Corwin and sitting down. If nothing else, the fact she kept some weight on her feet and thigh muscles saved the poor chair a bad fate and it remained in one piece. "Date?" she asked, not getting what he meant by that. She didn't see herself as a sexual creature and Art fell under the same asexual category. No romance, no strange human games. For now she was thinking of a calendar, trying to remember if there had been anything written on the one they kept in their kitchen.
"He asked Jake to go dancing with him some time," Corwin explained. He figured Sen should at least know, even if Art wasn't going to tell her specifically. "I'm not sure when it'll happen, he was waiting for her to call, I think.... He seemed excited about it." And nervous. But Corwin didn't know that he really wanted to get into that with Sen, trying to explain the whole sex conversation. If Art wasn't going to turn out to be like him, he did know that Sen was.
Sen stared at him blankly for a few long moments before commenting. "I didn't know Art liked to dance in public," she said, still digesting the other piece of information. That Art had actually asked a woman out on a date. It was... She wasn't sure what it was, other than weird.
"I don't think it's the dancing that threw me," Corwin admitted with a short laugh. "I don't think Art has trouble doing much of anything in public that'd embarrass someone like you or me, really. But asking out a girl? Now that one's weird, to me...." And asking him questions about sex. And then today finding out about Cordelia having a date with mister author... he was just a little weirded out, in general. And obscurely sad.
"Are you sure it's that sort of a date?" Sen asked calmly, her brain still drawing a blank. It just seemed so... odd. From what she knew of 'that sort of dates' there was sex and general human weirdness she didn't find particularly appealing. There was just no logic to it. She understood people getting together as partners, having children, working together in various ways but that particular outcome seemed a rarity among all the nonsensical activities 'romance' involved.
Before Corwin had to answer, their number came up for lunch. "Be right back," he said, and got up to go grab the tray. The fewer times as Sen could manage to get up and down, the better; it would hopefully keep the chair intact longer that way. He came back a moment later, balancing a very, very full tray with both their meals. "Hope you're hungry, Sen," he told her lightly. He wasn't consciously avoiding her question, he was just... putting it off.
Sen smirked at that. Of course she was hungry. There was never a risk of food going to waste and she knew her own limit too. For a minute she just focused on peeling open boxes and wrapped burgers, taking a big bite out of one and chewing contently. Her question had been somewhat rhetorical, it wasn't as if she needed to know where Art was going with this, though she hoped he wasn't bringing home trouble with his actions. She had read enough and watched enough movies to know that sometimes dates led to all sorts of consequences, not only for the two people involved but their friends and family too.
If Sen wasn't going to ask again, Corwin was going to keep acting like he'd forgotten it. He followed her lead and unwrapped his burger and opened up his box of mozzarella sticks, and got to work showing down. It'd been a long time since breakfast, after all, and he was starving. He could worry about everyone and their romantic entanglements later. At least he knew Sen wouldn't be going anywhere.
"So have you tried out the new machines?" he asked after a few bites, licking a little ketchup off his thumb.
"Not as much as I would have liked to," Sen replied with a shake of her head, licking her fingers free of sauce as well before picking up her burger again. "Archimedes and Fermat had defective capacitors and I needed to replace them. This took longer than expected." That and she'd gotten distracted quite frequently from her work on her computers by a novel she had just purchased the day before but she left that out.
"You should, if just to have a feel for them so we can get them sold," Corwin suggested. "What happened to your machines? I thought they weren't damaged by the sprinklers or Jake's spazzing, or did you only just notice that they were?" He'd feel really bad if Sen's personal machines had been in that mess. He couldn't honestly remember if they were, or not, at this point.
"Oh they're just old," Sen replied with a smile. "They need extra taking care of to run. I will go through all the new ones tonight however, it should all be very standard." She fell silent as a waitress turned up the radio, another warning about fugitives grabbing Sen's attention. "Would you like Art and me to come stay with you tonight?" she asked, then furrowed her brows. "Or is he going out dancing tonight?"
Corwin blinked, glancing in the direction of the radio. "I don't think the dancing thing is tonight," he said. "Jake hasn't called him back yet, I don't think. So probably not tonight." He shook his head. That wasn't even the point. "I'll be all right, Sen. I'll just make sure the house is warded and lock all my doors and windows. Besides." He grinned a bit, reaching up to tap the end of his long, hooked nose. "Who in their right mind attacks a guy who looks like me, and is probably bigger than both of them put together?"
"An insane criminal?" Sen replied without blinking, taking another bite of her burger. She didn't much like when he suggested he was in some way ugly or different from other people in a negative way but what was she going to say? That he was highly attackable? The chair creaked a little underneath her and she realized she'd forgotten to take some of her weight off, doing so again with a little sigh. The problem with fast food places was that their furniture was quite cheap and badly made. "We could watch a movie," she suggested, indicating it wouldn't be only for his protection.
"I'm not sure my couch is recovered from the last time I had both of you over," Corwin joked, putting off giving her an actual answer with another bite of burger. He was feeling a little lonely, what with Art and Jake, and Cordelia and Noah... but he really didn't want to be hovered over all night, either. He chewed, thinking, then sighed a little. "You guys can come over, I think I'd like that, but I want you out before I go to bed... I don't need you hovering over me while I sleep. Last time Art did that, I about had a heart attack when I woke up and saw him there." Since they didn't need sleep, trying to keep them occupied all night in his house was a chore.
"Very well," Sen said, pleased by that compromise. "You will put up wards when we leave," she reminded him before her mouth became otherwise occupied with food again. She would feel better if she could watch over him as he slept but she had already promised to go through the new computers and unless she brought them all to his house she couldn't do both.
Relieved that the compromise went over so well, Corwin nodded. "I will, promise. Maybe I'll make you guys take the van home, so you won't be in any danger, yourselves...." Because a couple people walking home around midnight, or whenever, were liable to be very tempting targets. No escaped criminal was going to know they weren't human-- and they could still be hurt. And he really, really didn't want that, not one bit.
"I'm certain they are well away from here by now," Sen replied. "And if not they will be looking for a place to hide. They are not so insane that they couldn't plot their escape, I'm certain they won't randomly attack people walking outside. You will be at more risk staying at home, where you have food and shelter they may covet." That was logically speaking, who knew what two crazed psychopaths might think.
"Insane criminals?" Corwin pointed out, using her own argument against her. Insanity didn't exactly follow the rules of logic, after all. "You're taking my van home," he added in a more final tone of voice. "If just so I can sleep sound and not worry. You can bring it back in the morning, if you're worried about me needing it. You don't want me laying awake worrying about you, after all, right?" He gave her his best puppy dog expression, though it wasn't really that effective in a face like his.
It might not be effective on most people but it was on Sen. She sighed and nodded, realizing there was no point in arguing. She also wanted Art to be safe so taking the van was a good idea. "I will bring it to you after dawn," she told him. "Or as soon as you wake up if you prefer. I will have looked at the new computers by then."
"Whenever's convenient," Corwin said, smiling over at her and reaching across the table to give her hand a little squeeze. "I'll probably be sleeping late. Or, you know, as late as I can." Late these days really wound up meaning he slept until, oh, eight. Only on rare occasions did he manage to sleep past nine, or so, and usually only on nights when he'd either taken some kind of sleep aid or he'd been up until two or three gaming.
"Give me a call when you wake up," Sen told him, patting his hand in turn even if her hands were a little sticky. It was a little amusing that he would tell her to take her own time into consideration - whenever was convenient. Any time was convenient for Sen when Art or Corwin were involved. Her time was their time, but it was endearing that he would be so thoughtful.
As if Corwin cared about sticky hands. He cared about affection, and he'd put up with just about anything to get it. He gave Sen a warm smile, then said, "It's settled, then. Maybe we can Italian take-out on the way home from work...." And of course, he had an ulterior motive. They didn't have to stay at the restaurant, and distract Maria from her work, but he could at least introduce everyone to each other.
As ever the idea of good food put Sen in a better mood and she clearly liked the idea, nodding at Corwin in approval. "Give Art the night off in the kitchen," she said and stuffed more food in her mouth with her free hand, keeping her other still on Corwin's.
"Even though he might protest," Corwin chuckled. Art loved to cook. The guy was practically obsessed with feeding them. It was sweet, but sometimes Corwin thought a night or two off would be good for him. "It's a plan, then." And, that decided, he did the same thing Sen was doing: eating, and keeping her hand.