InsaneJournal

Who: Cassandra Cain and Simon aka Raven Darkholme
When: Backdated: Friday, October 19th. Afternoon
Where: A Starbucks
What: An awkward not date
Rating: Mostly Family Friendly
Status: Complete

Cass had only seen Simon twice; the day they met in the gym and when they went out for coffee, but she could already tell that she liked him and that was a problem. It wouldn’t be a problem for other girls, but Cass had horrible luck with guys and the last thing she wanted was for things to end badly between her and Simon. Of course it didn’t help that he was hot and even with his clothes on, she could tell that he had a great body. She couldn’t talk to Jubilee about this cause she knew that her friend would just tell her to bang him and Violet was usually busy doing school work or hanging out with Ray. Of course she knew Vi would drop what she was doing if Cass needed to talk, but she felt bad, putting all her problems on her friends.

The simple thing to do was to not see Simon again until she figured out what to do, but then he’d ask her out for coffee and it was very hard to say no and that was exactly the reason she was currently waiting for him outside Starbucks once again.

Raven watched Cass for awhile. She was in a blonde’s body, and she had been waiting. She wanted to study the girl, decide how to best approach her. Of course, she had every intention of having the milk and then leaving the cow dry, but that was part of the fun.

Shifting, she stepped out into the light and walked up to Cass as Simon.

“Hey…!”

Cass had absolutely no way of knowing what was really going on, so when Simon walked up to her, she couldn’t help but smile and pushed some wavy, black hair behind her shoulder, “Hey. How’s it going?” She was nervous, despite this just being two people getting together for coffee and hoped that it didn’t show too much. That would be embarrassing.

“Pretty good. And you? How’s it going with you?” He ducked his head, clearly nervous himself.

In a way Simon reminded her of Bod when he ducked his head like that and she smiled, “It’s going good. I’m gonna start shadowing my coach when he sees the other girls he coaches, so that soon I’ll be able to do it myself.” She was looking forward to being able to coach other gymnasts to reach their goal.

“That’s pretty cool.” He brushed his hand against Cass’s and grinned a little to himself. This was fun.

Cass nodded, “Yeah, it’ll be fun. I’m looking forward to helping other girls like myself achieve their dream.” As his hand brushed hers, goosebumps ran up her arm and she smiled then gestured towards the Starbucks, “Shall we?”

“Yeah. Lets. Maybe we should get some food. Like.. What do you do for fun? When you’re not doing gymnastics.” It was like he’d changed his train of thought in the middle of his sentence.

Cass was about to respond to the food part when Simon suddenly changed the subject and she decided to answer that question instead, “Not much really. I hang out with my roommate or my other friends when they’re not busy.” Jubilee and Laura were often busy with each other and now Jubilee’s cousin, who has hadn’t met yet and then Logan was busy with work and Velma and Eli, so she didn’t really see anyone aside from Violet on a regular occasion, “What about you?”

“I do a lot of reading, and practicing. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to compete like you, so I need to have something to fall back on.” Simon grinned at her, the expression a little lopsided, but he was trying to give her his full attention.

“Why not?” Cass asked as they walked up to the counter and she placed her order, “You just have to have the drive and dedication.” As far as she was concerned, anyone could compete like she had if they put their minds to it.

“I think I started too late,” Simon said. He leaned on the counter and waited for her to order, before ordering himself. He was just barely inside her personal space. Close enough to notice, but not so close as to crowd.

Cass shook her head in response to what he’d said, not really realizing just how close he was, “I don’t think that has anything to do with it. I mean, some people might think that, but it’s all about what you can do, not how long you’ve been doing it.” She took her drink as the barista handed it over and waited for Simon’s to be done.

“I’m flexible, I’m just not that flexible.” He was joking though, and grinned at her a little sheepishly. He reached for his drink, hand brushing against Cass’s again. He blushed and pulled it away.

Cass couldn’t help her mind wandering ever so slightly at his admission and she bit her bottom lip. He obviously hadn’t meant it the way her mind took it, but could anyone blame her? “You’ll have to show me what you can do sometime.”

“Uhm.” Simon’s ears turned pink and he sucked hard on his drink as if trying to give himself time to think. Inwardly, Raven was howling with laughter.

“I’d really like that.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.” As Simon flushed Cass did as well, “You know what I mean.” She ducked her head, her hair falling in front of her face to hide the blush.

“I do?” His smile was nervous and a little dorky. He couldn’t resist the urge to brush the hair out of her face.

As she felt the heat subside from her cheeks, Cass lifted her head and smirked, “I meant your gymnastics skills. Obviously.” She almost felt like Cass from ten months earlier when any little thing made her blush after having been so sheltered from everything for so long by her dad. "Get your mind out of the gutter."

“My mind isn’t in the gutter. I think yours is.” He gave her a gentle shove in the shoulder, though he was blushing more furiously as he did so. “I’d like to show you my mediocre skills.”

While Simon was extremely cute when he blushed, Cass wanted to get off the subject before she turned so red that’d have to hide her face for the rest of their time together, “I’ll let you know the next time I have the practice space to myself then.” At least she tried to get off the earlier subject, but after she realized how that could have sounded too.

Simon stared at her, then turned and ordered a couple ice cold waters. Once those were in hand he opened his bottle and took a sip. “So uhm. How has it been going with you?”

And of course just his actions caused her to blush again. Jubilee would definitely have gotten a kick out of this, if she were there, “Good. Um...like I said, not too much else going on really.” There had been a few other things Cass had been thinking of lately, but she hadn’t made any decisions past seeing if she could cut it as a coach. After a brief pause, she finally voiced what she was sure he was thinking as well, “Why is this so awkward?”

Jubilee would be wanting to squish them together. Or trying to.

Simon ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know. I really like you. I’m..also really bad around pretty girls.”

“Well I’m really bad around cute guys, so we seem to be in the same boat.” Cass smirked and ran a hand through her hair. She wasn’t going to actually go into detail about her horrible luck with guys. She might not have been sure if she wanted to get into another relationship so soon, but she also didn’t want to scare off Simon.

“Well it’s a good thing I’m not cute then!” That’s right, disarm her with humor. Simon gestured towards a chair. “We should… sit and things.”

Cass gave him a look as if to say, Sure you aren’t. “Yeah, we should sit.” Maybe this wouldn’t be so awkward then.

Smiling, he led her over to the table. This was going to be a long afternoon, but Raven had her claws in. It was just a matter of how long before she got bored or Cass gave in...