InsaneJournal

We obviously can't go anywhere too casual dressed up like this. Where are you taking me?
Who: Shepard, Dani, ft Lara and Sam
What: Date prep and dating
When: 10/5
Where: Croft Manor, fancy restaurant, a beach
Status: Complete
Rating: Rating PG-13


There were very few dresses in Dani's closet. The clothing she preferred tended to lean in a more tomboy direction: Jeans that were tight in all the right places, tank tops, overshirts, and skin-tight vests of various materials. She especially liked the vests, since she always felt a little more wild and - stereotypical as it may be - a little more 'native' in them.

But she'd passed the dress she was currently wearing in a store window down the street from a coffee shop, and something about it appealed to her.

She twitched a finger at the ivory colored fabric. It wasn't the most comfortable she'd been in her life. But she'd added a few of her own twists to it: A native turquoise belt around the waist, knee-high heeled boots instead of sandals. She'd curled her hair and clipped some feathers behind one ear. She'd even bothered with a little makeup.

Dates. Man, she hadn't been on one of those for real in a long time. Hopefully she hadn't overdone it.

"God, you look bloody fantastic," Lara breathed, looking at Dani and wondering if she could get away with a look like that. And thoughts of Sam in one of her slinky party dresses dancing over her head. She squashed them, looking over her shoulder in case Sam would come by with her camera again. She swore the girl was trying to sneak around and catch her thoughts off guard, in the same way she'd been sneaking up on the cats, but she'd yet to catch her, even with how hyper aware her dreams were starting to make her.

"Here...Sam taught me this trick..." She adjusted some of the makeup on Dani's face to bring out her eyes more.

There were actually more dresses in Shepard's closet than Dani, and that was after she'd gotten rid of her ex's. But today, Shepard had that suit, and she had stumbled onto one of Dani's things and she was going to enjoy it.

Her suit was grey in color, tailored for a woman. She wore it buttoned up to her navel and open otherwise, and had a white blouse on underneath it that had the top three buttons undone in a sort of swashbuckler style. She'd done something to get rid of the dye - she'd probably go back at some point, but for now she was her natural color.

She'd come by in a cab, wanting to spend more time admiring Dani than driving, and walked up to the door and knocked.

Lara's bubbles were visible to all eyes, not just Sam's, however, and Dani smirked a bit at the image of Sam that Lara dashed away. She took another look at herself when Lara was done with her, and poked at her reflection in the mirror, "It's so wierd, you being the one to help me get ready like this. I thought for sure it'd be Sam trying to ambush me."

Sam had, in fact, been sneaking around getting film of Lara and her amazing thought bubbles. But she headed down the stairs when the doorbell rang, taking them in twos, then bounced over to the door and opened it.

Camera in hand.

"And here we have the devastatingly hot Commander Shepard, rocking the suit look. She has no idea that we've secretly transformed her girlfriend into a goddess."

"I think she's too busy trying to catch me in embarrassing thoughts." If anyone is going to tell her it's me and only when I'm ready. She nodded at Dani, and couldn't quite disguise the lust in her eyes. The thought bubble didn't help. "She's going to rip that off of you."

"Hey sexy," Shepard replied, striking a pose for Sam. "I thought I was already dating a goddess. That's the right answer, right?" She winked.

"And she's a smooth talker, too, Ladies and Gentlemen! Too bad she's taken!"

Sam laughed, then spun the camera away from Shepard to look at herself, "What do you think, should we go and get the Goddess down here? Maybe we'll even catch Lara in some kind of thought she doesn't think I know about."

The camera was put off to the side for a second, so that Sam could hug Shepard, "Anyway, you look amazing, and I doubt that you two are going to stay clothed for very long. Let me go get her."

She retrieved her camera and snuck up the stairs without waiting for an answer, sneaking slowly down the hallway. She didn't want to startle the occupants of the room.

The camera edged around the corner and into Dani's doorway. Sam noticed a couple thought bubbles and zoomed in on them, raising her eyebrows. "Everyone thinks Dani's hot. Who can blame them?"

"You missed out by a whole week. Threesome offer still open." Tyra said, grinning. She watched Sam go up the stairs, and hey, she could appreciate the view.

"All right," Lara said, trying to dismiss the thoughts without thinking of Sam, which was only partially successful. "Your date is here, now go down there and knock her dead. Figuratively."

"I'm not that hot, you all are just crazy," Dani countered, with a bit of a snort. She gave Lara a hug, then grabbed her purse and a wrap in case it got cold, and headed out of the room.

On her way out of her bedroom, she winked at Sam, "You can still join us some night if you want. I'm sure Shepard already said."

Sam laughed. But she caught herself filming Dani's ass on the way down the stairs, and blushed a bit before turning the camera away, "Have a great night you two!"

Lara's thoughts went from those three all tangled together to her throttling both Dani and Shepard and back again.

Shep glanced up as Dani came down the stairs, her mouth opening but no words coming out. Dani dressed up nice. Really nice. A huge part of Tyra really liked girly-girls. Girly-girls who could kick ass and also act like tomboys? Bonus.

Everything in the Croft household was extremely silent. Dani had forgotten how to breathe the second she'd seen Shepard in that suit. Shepard had forgotten how to talk. Sam was trying to figure out Lara's thought bubbles, and Lara was too busy thinking about strangling people.

It was finally broken when Dani got to the bottom of the stairs and remembered to breathe, "I'd throw you on the ground right here but we did so much work to get me into this."

"Don't need you to strip down to have you." She reached for Dani's hand and grinned at her. She yanked her over, catching her in her arms and kissed her lightly. "You look fantastic. I'm just...blown away. I don't have the words. I don't have enough words."

Dani had some words, but she thought it was waaaay too early to be saying words like that. So instead, she stole another quick kiss, then waggled her eyebrows at Tyra, "I know some words you'll find later tonight."

"God. Lets get going, the cab is waiting." That way she could keep her hands on Dani. Her throat felt so tight, that she couldn't handle it. "God...Dani..."

"God YOU," Dani wanted to run her hands all over Shepard in that suit. She'd gone all out with the thing. It was appealing to sides of Dani that she hadn't previously known existed. And the fabric of it was really, really nice under her fingers.

"You have no idea how sexy you are."

“I have a little idea, but I’m willing to listen to what you’d say.” She got the door for Dani, and slipped in after her. She was going to make sure they both enjoyed this, while Dani was healthy enough to do so. She hoped she could keep her food down.

Most of the side effects of the two drugs she'd started on didn't come in for 5 days or so, so Dani wanted to take advantage of feeling more or less okay as long as she could. There'd be plenty of time to wallow in self pity later.

So she was looking forward to this night out, and hoped they'd plan a few more before her hair fell out, too. She took a seat in the back of the cab and worked her fingers at the shorter hem of her dress a bit, "We obviously can't go anywhere too casual dressed up like this. Where are you taking me?"

Shepard’s fingers threaded into Dani’s, and she grinned broadly when the taxi driver looked in the mirror. She wasn’t the largest exhibitionist but sometimes it was fun. “That’s a surprise. You’ll just have to wait and see. But I promise you you won’t forget it.”

When she set her mind to it, she could do some seriously romantic things.

Just to put their relationship on display a bit more, Dani leaned over and smooched Shepard on the cheek. It left a glistening, shimmery imprint behind from the lipgloss she'd applied, but Dani didn't care.

It was kind of hot, actually, "I don't know, I've had some pretty unforgettable experiences before."

“Public displays of affection huh Moonstar?” She trailed her fingers down Dani’s cheek, stroking lightly. “I think this one will win.”

She had reservations at a pricey French place, followed by what amounted to a moonlet walk along the beach.

"I'm not above a few kisses when people are watching," Dani replied, with a bit of a smirk. She slid a little closer to Shepard and stole the woman's hand away with her own, squeezing it lightly.

Words jumped to her tongue that she knew better than to say right then. She shook her head a bit, grinning, "I certainly hope so. But even if it didn't, I'm never going to forget what you look like right now."

The words might be at the back of Shepard’s mind, but she didn’t want to say them either. Not yet. Maybe not even any time soon. What they had was good and she didn’t want to complicate things, especially with her own house still fucking with her mind. “I feel kind of sexy.”

"You have no idea what that outfit is doing to me," Dani admitted, not bothering to whisper. She smirked a bit, and lifted a hand to Shepard's newly blonde hair, "Like the hair, too. The purple was nice, but blonde is gorgeous on you. Okay, I should stop gushing, I just can't get over how lucky I am."

“We’re both lucky and leave it at that,” she replied, a little arrogantly. She leaned into Dani’s touch, closing her eyes. “I thought I should be an adult again, for awhile. Had to clear the hedges downstairs, though.” She opened her eyes, and they glinted with mischief.

Dani arched her brows so high up that they almost disappeared into her hair. She knew exactly what Tyra was referring to, of course, and the more they talked like this the more she wanted to skip dinner and go straight to dessert.

"Naughty woman. It's almost like you don't want me to eat dinner with you at all."

“We could skip right to dessert,” Tyra pointed out, unknowingly reading Dani’s mind. She laughed, and kissed her cheek, then her lips, lightly. “No. We’re going to this really, really nice French place, we’re going to have soup and decadent food, and then I’m taking you to a special place.”

"See, that's exactly where my mind was going with this, but eating decadent food and then going somewhere special does have some appeal to me. It reminds me of this time I went out to a fancy dinner with Natasha, actually," Dani smirked a bit, then squeezed Shepard's hand and added, "Not that I'm comparing. This beats that, without question. It's just the last time besides some charity gala that I got dressed up this nice."

“You dress up really nice. I love it, you know? You’re badassed and gorgeous, and yet you clean up into this...bombshell. This bombshell.” She stroked Dani’s cheek as they pulled up to the restaurant. It looked like it would cost something like a week of Dani’s old pay.

It did look like a very posh place. The kind of place Dani always felt she didn't quite belong in. She decided not to ask herself how Shepard could afford a date of his caliber and simply enjoy herself.

It was easier to do when she was getting distracted by praise and compliments like this. She ducked her head a bit, "I think I'll need to dress up like this a bit more often. I could stand being called a bombshell again."

“Bombshell, and I could just lick you all over,” Shepard purred in her ear, and then slipped out of the cab. She opened the other door to let Dani out, then slipped her fingers into her lover’s. She walked with confidence and glee.

Not only was the restaurant impossibly fancy, but the smell of the food wafting out of it was almost as intoxicating as the company Dani was in. The way Shepard walked with Dani on her arm made the native woman walk more confidently, too.

"I'm going to get you for that comment later."

And much later, after their meal, Shepard was leading Dani down towards the ocean. It wasn’t the Croft beach front, or really any place that either woman had been before, but Shepard had done her research, and knew they’d be able to enjoy the moon and the water. She squeezed Dani’s hand, wanting to say with touch what she couldn’t say with words.

It was probably too early for words, but it wasn't too early to say things with gestures. Dani squeezed Shepard's hand in return. Her grip wasn't as strong as Tyra's, but she squeezed with all her might.

The view was beautiful. The sky was clear, and the only real sounds were the lapping of the waves slowly splashing against the shore, "I wish..."

She wished a lot of things. Dani shook her head, "I wish I'd warn sandals instead of boots. They're hard to take off and I can't squish the sand between my toes how I'd like."

“Me too.” Tyra glanced at her. She wished for a lot of things, too.