Ling Bu is 115% over this. (spiritmonk) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-01-12 21:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, gemma masters, scholar ling |
Who: Ling and Gemma.
What: First date.
When: 1/10.
Where: Pub!
Rating/Warnings: PG-13.
Status: Complete!
Fuck, Gemma was nervous. It was just dinner, yeah, but it was dinner with a gorgeous woman that she very much wanted to put her tongue on later, and besides, dating wasn’t like other social interactions. There were extra rules, and ways to sit, and places to put your hands, and things to laugh at and not laugh at, and above all keep the snorting out of your laugh. She’d guess Ling had never made a twat of herself in front of anyone ever. She didn’t want to be the example of what not to do. So she sat at the bar of the restaurant with a glass of wine, sipping it and praying Ling showed up.
Ling did. She’d gone home from work to put on a cute little black dress on. It was still her style, but shorter than anything she could get away with at work. When she walked into the bar and spotted Gemma, Ling waved, walking over and sitting down. She ordered a glass of what Gemma had gotten, then suggested they go to a table.
Oh, thank God. “Hi.” Gemma smiled, getting up and bringing her glass. “Table’s fine, I just think I got here a bit early. You look bloody gorgeous.” Was that too stupid? She did look gorgeous. “How are you?” That didn’t seem stupid. Fuck, it had been too bloody long since she’d been on a date.
“Oh, thanks. I love this outfit but I can’t wear it to work because judges don’t like thigh.” Ling rolled her eyes. “So stupid and Victorian I can barely stand it. But I’m good, I finished a case with a client I hated, so never have to see him again, yay. How’re you?” Ling hadn’t been on many dates at all, but she wasn’t going to let that hold her back.
“Judges are usually old white men, aren’t they? It’d be distracting.” Gemma smirked a little. “Might help you, and they know it. Good riddance to the stupid client, as well. Me, I’m all right; the old owner sold the bar where I work, but the new owner swore they wouldn’t be firin’ anyone. Moment of panic, but only a moment.”
“I’m usually sitting down,” Ling murmured, rolling her eyes. “And I’m glad they’re not firing you. Though you’re a good bartender, I doubt you’d have trouble finding work again. But it’s still a fucking hassle.” Ling swore like a sailor in her off time; it had started as a kid as rebellion against her aunt and uncle.
“Definitely. Especially since I don’t actually have a work visa.” Gemma looked awkward, but she didn’t think the woman would call Immigration Services. “Girl’s got to eat. Uncle John couldn’t keep me. I’d drive him mad, and his pretty boyfriend couldn’t come over to shag.” She smirked a little more. They got to their table, and she sat down across from Ling.
“Do you want help with that? I could swing it pro bono.” Ling looked at her seriously, not wanting to lose the girl she had a crush on to legal bullshit.
“Oh, I can manage.” Gemma blushed. “Don’t want to take advantage.” And she felt like it would be taking advantage. They really didn’t know each other that well yet - and what if they had a fight or something? That would just get painful.
“If you’re sure,” Ling shrugged. “I just don’t want the first person I’ve had a crush on in ... well, ever, to leave because of the law. I’d hit a bitch.”
Gemma blushed instantly. “ ... Really?” Crush? Already? “I mean. it’d be nice. I just don’t want things to get awkward.” And if they didn’t work out, it’d get awkward.
“I mean, what’s a crush? I think you’re hot and want to know you better. Am I using crush right?” Ling blinked. “I’m probably not. I do that.”
“Close enough by my standards. Just never had anyone be so up front about it.” Gemma laughed. “Rather like it. Most people - especially blokes - will dance around the point and be all silly until you have to guess. It’s nice to hear somebody just be honest. I think you’re gorgeous and smart to the point of it being scary but I still want to get to know you.” Part of her still wanted to scream into a pillow after she actually said that out loud, but she forced herself to be calm.
Ling shook her head. “I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up because my aunt and uncle wouldn’t let me. So ... I don’t know, maybe I feel like I have to cut to the chase?” Ling laughed and ran her fingers nervously through her hair. “It’s just so much easier if you don’t fucking dance around things.”
“Wouldn’t let you have mates?” Gemma raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t make sense, that.” She saw the nervous hair gesture, and it made her want to hold the woman’s hand. Someone so competent and amazing didn’t need to be nervous.
“I had to study,” Ling shrugged. “Fun gets in the way of straight As. I hated being a damn stereotype then.” She still did.
“You strike me as a lot more’n a stereotype.” For one, most stereotypical Asian women weren’t so blunt. Gemma liked blunt. “So. You had a tiger auntie, instead of a tiger mum. What else? Did you let loose at university? I would’ve.” Gemma hadn’t attended university, but she’d been on many campuses.
“You know, I could’ve, but I didn’t? I did a moderate amount of partying, but barfing just always seemed stupid to me, and I hate most people so random sex was right out.” Ling chuckled a little. “Besides, I actually had classes.”
“So a bit of it did stay sunk in.” Gemma laughed. “Getting bad grades would have driven you mad, I’m guessing.”
“Well, yeah, but only because I’m smart. It’s less that I want to overachieve and more that I want to do what I’m capable of.” Ling wrinkled her nose. “People are stupid and I’m not.”
Gemma laughed, but her heart was sinking. She wasn’t anywhere near as smart as Ling. Not by a long shot. So, in keeping with their whole honesty theme, she said it - though she couldn’t look at the woman. “I’m not thinking you’ll be able to handle my company long. Not very bright compared to you.”
Ling blinked. “If you were stupid, I wouldn’t have asked you out, Gemma.” She folded her arms, then reached out to take Gemma’s hand. “Have you been here before? What’s good?”
That got a faint smile - both the statement and the hand hold. “I have been here, yeah; anything that has pasta is good. They make it all here, don’t order it frozen.”
“Oooh,” Ling grinned. She scanned the menu, leaning a little against her date. “Carbs are my reason for living, I swear.”
“I’m actually a bit of a rabbit; I eat lots of greens. Uncle John makes fun of me. But I do like some of the pastas here.” Gemma smiled a little herself, relaxing some. “I’ve spent m’life around pub food; you get a bit sick of bangers and mash after fifteen years.”
“That’s sausage and mashed potatoes, right? Yeah, I probably would too. But I’m Chinese, we’ll eat everything.” Ling had grown up eating offal her whole life, and was totally amused whenever colleagues took her to nice restaurants and she saw it was now trendy.
“Yeah, specific sort of sausages, and then mashed potatoes. Pub food’s all carbs, and I’ve worked in a pub of some sort since I was fifteen. So you get tired of it.” Gemma chuckled. “Chinese ... ‘fraid I don’t know much about your food except what we get in takeaway. I do know that takeaway isn’t real Chinese, though; it’s just what white people can handle.”
“Carbs are my raison d’etre, you know.” Ling turned to Gemma, beaming. “I could take you to good places on our next date, if you wanted.”
Already, she knew there’d be a next date? Gemma laughed. “I like your style. That’d be lovely, if you wouldn’t mind. It isn’t that I don’t like to eat, I just don’t like eating all the same sort of stuff.” And the company would be brilliant.
“You’ll love soup dumplings,” Ling nodded sagely. “Soon you’ll find yourself lurking in every seedy looking Chinese place to get your next fix. I’m warning you now, they’re dangerous.”
“What are they?” She assumed they had soup in them somehow, but that was as far as it went.
“Dumplings with soup in them? Laced with crack, though,” Ling added, giggling.
“Oh, really, that simple?” Gemma was more entranced by Ling’s giggling than thinking about food. “Somehow I thought there’d be more to ‘em.” She broke off to order her food at this restaurant, still thinking about Ling’s laugh.
“Yeah. Even though I know how they’re made, they’re still fucking magic.” Ling didn’t let go of Gemma’s hand to order, or stop leaning on her. Whatever. Let the waiter talk if he wanted.
People had been talking about her for whatever reason for pretty much her entire life, so Gemma wasn’t fazed by it anymore. She didn’t notice anything from the waiter, though, so she could turn back to Ling with a smile. “Are they part of ... whaddyacallit.” She thought a second. “Dimsun? That sort of small-plates thing?”
“They can be, yeah. We could do that if you wanted.” Ling loved food in general, so she was okay with wherever they went as long as there was some munching to be done.
“I’m going to get fat, dating you.” Gemma laughed. “Don’t particularly care, mind!” And of course, sex did burn calories. “I mean. Wasn’t trying to jump any guns, just, this will ... we’ll eat a lot if we keep going out.” Fuck.
“I don’t think you could ever.” Ling just rolled her eyes and then leaned forward, kissing Gemma lightly. “Don’t worry so damn much, woman.”
She hadn’t expected that - this was becoming a theme - but she definitely grinned afterward. “Noted. Old habits do die hard. Blokes are so high maintenance, you start to second guess yourself before you’re done talkin’.” Gemma just smiled again. “That said, I have a feeling this relationship” - whatever it turned into - “is going t’be all about food.”
“Yeah, well, most people are stupid, or didn’t I say that yet?” Teasingly, Ling stole another peck. “Food is good!” She tended to have a naturally high metabolism, so that wouldn’t surprise her at all.
“Forgot.” Mm. She liked those mini snogs. Not too much all at once.
There was a polite throat-clearing over her shoulder, and when she looked, the waiter was there. Gemma was about to blush, but she visibly stopped herself, if that was even possible. Sod it. This was a good date.
The waiter, though, simply gave them their food, wished them a pleasant meal, and left. Gemma raised an eyebrow. “Bloody hell. A bloke who doesn’t ogle or panic when two birds snog?”
“I don’t think he’s ... into girls much,” Ling shrugged. Not that it mattered, especially not when there was pasta in front of her.
“Still. Gay men can be horrible about two girls snogging.” Gemma made a face, but then her attention was diverted. “Pardon me, going to inhale the plate and not give a toss about how it looks.”
“Why should you?” Ling didn’t understand Gemma sometimes, but whatever, she was fun. Plus, too busy eating to talk.
“Was havin’ a laugh. On a date with a bloke, a girl sometimes won’t eat as fast or eat as much because she thinks she has to look dainty. I don’t give a shit.” Gemma explained, before going back to eat.
“Really? That’s stupid.” Ling didn’t understand dating conventions; she’d never paid attention to that crap, ever. She’d always had more important things to do.
“Isn’t it?” Except it sounded more like “Inn’t.” Because Gemma was eating. And making happy noises. It really was delicious, and she’d forgotten, sort of, how to enjoy food in other people’s company.