Kíli could have anything down his trousers. (_kili_) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-04-06 21:47:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, kili, serah farron |
Who: Serah, Kili
What: random coffee shop meeting is random!
When: recently, in April.
Rating: Low, some language, but nothing too outrageously terribad.
Status: Complete!
Serah needed to escape her teenage sister. Because that was just really, really weird. Thirteen year old Lightning was the most bizarre thing that Serah had ever seen, including the pink hair. So she went to get a coffee and work on some of her grades (really she thought she might have been promoted to a teacher without a pay increase and she should talk to someone but didn’t know how).
Someone doesn't need coffee, but he wants it. And so Kili swerved off the beaten track - literally, the car swerved when he saw the coffee shop - and stopped to get some. Thankfully, he actually parked the car, and didn't stop in the middle of the street and get out.
He burst through the door with all the grace of a bolt of lightning splintering a tree to pieces. Without giving anyone or anything a second glance, he bounded over to the counter saying 'ouch ouch ouch' under his breath the entire way, because every joint in his body felt like it was in a vice. And down onto the counter went some wadded up bills, a hand slapped on top of them to smooth them out (it didn't work), right before Kili opened his mouth and asked, "I'd like the largest coffee you've got! With extra coffee! And maybe some sugar in it, because drinking it without sugar isn't very good. Not good. At all. Blech."
And that is how Kili orders coffee. And now we know. And we aren't really better for it, but it is what it is.
"You should try some flavoring," the blonde (okay so her hair was a lot pinker than she wanted to admit) said, staring down at the odd little man. And she wasn't exactly a tall woman. He was short. And really kind of hot. Okay he was really hot. "Like caramel."
He is 5'5 1/2" and that's....it's shorter than he was. He looked over at the girl as though wondering if she was talking to him, realized she was, and then smiled.
"It is a little foofy, don't you think? Adding things into it? What's wrong with a regular cup of coffee, served in a vat?" he asked the woman with the semi-pink hair. "But, since you've brought it up, I might give a try. Once. We're a bit stodgy sometimes with what we like." He glanced back at the person taking his order and said, "Soooo, walnut flavoring, if you'd please."
"And thank you for the suggestion," he added, patting his hand down on the money, making the wads flatter but no less wadded up than before.
"Nothing wrong with foofy. If it tastes good then why should other peoples' opinions matter? Life is about trying new things, not about doing the same old day in and day out! Life needs to be an adventure."
Even if her only adventures were older men and dreams about being stuck in crystal stasis and dreaming about the end of the world. But her sister saved her! She woke up from the crystal and then woke up for real.
Kili brightly smiled back at her, like he thought that was a fantastic way of looking at things. Not the syrup, because that's still a bit froofy. But the adventure part? That made perfect sense to him and someone was speaking his language now.
"I do like adventures and being adventuresome, although that usually ends up with me going to hospital," he confessed, without a trace of sheepishness in admitting it. "It is froofy though! The opinion was my own, so I probably shouldn't have even asked you what you think! I'm giving it a try, regardless. That counts for something, even if there's a huge difference between a cup of coffee and a real adventure of the hack and slash, slaying things variety!"
He was shooed off to one side by the cashier, because that is the world's worst spot to be holding a convo when other people are going through caffeine withdrawal.
“I didn’t have many chances to adventure. Between my sister being overprotective and us being in the foster system.” Not that Serah ever talked about her experiences in that system. “Have you been on a hack and slash adventure? It sounds like something my sister would do!”
"Only in video games and at work," Kili said, brushing that off quickly in favor of something far more adventurous. "In my dreams? Definitely! I've gone out on those quests where you protect merchants and the likes, and I was supposedly on a HUGE quest to go reclaim a homeland and there was a dragon that breathed fire. Really didn't get further than our finding a rather unwilling burglar? I'm sure it'll be more interesting, provided I don't..."
Kili's eyes rounded and he clammed up immediately, before he pointed out the short.
"...provided I don't trip and fall off a cliff."
He was very grateful for the distraction of being handed his coffee, because look! He's showing the nice girl who's talking to him, that he has a cup of coffee. While smiling too much. See it? He's holding it up. Good. He knew he couldn't keep showing off the coffee, so he tried another angle.
"Who're you and who's your sister that likes adventure?" he asked a little too suddenly, and was looking as though he was hanging on her every word.
"That's better than mine." Serah sighed. "I was exploring this temple and then I got turned into crystal...but I managed to tell my sister that she can save the world." She held out her hand. "I'm Serah, and everyone just calls my sister Lightning."
Lightning seemed like an interesting name, enough that he raised his eyebrows at that and at the tale of her dreams.
"Turned to crystal?" Kili took her hand in his and gave it the shaking of a lifetime. "Can't say that being turned into that sounds like a lot of fun. It's a pleasure to meet you, Serah, and I'm happy you're not some crystal monster running rampant."
There was a pause, in which he looked very thinky. He gave her a pat on the shoulder, as it dawned on him what it was. "I'm Kili! At your service. If you need anything wrecked, destroyed, tripped over, fallen upon, or otherwise filled full of arrows? I'm your man!"
"It was like sleeping only not. I could still dream, and all the dreaming was weird." Serah didn't like it. She didn't like the way it felt to be suddenly given this...purpose. That Focus. To be a slave to another being's orders. She didn't say that part out loud though. "I don't think I need anything like that. Except maybe as a lesson to my students!"
"I'm sorry. I don't think that sounds like a good time. I think it's shit," Kili said, the words tumbling right out of his mouth. He brightened up at the mention of students. "Are you a teacher? That's not shit! That's wonderful. I'm an archery person at a ranch where kids talk back me at lot. How do you get them to stop doing that, other than talking back?"
He started drinking his coffee while peering over the cup at her, with both eyebrows raised.
"I'm a TA but the teacher had a family emergency so I'm filling in until they can get a full time replacement. It's a little overwhelming but it's also really fulfilling! Even if the kids are evil geniuses on the first of April." Fifth graders and April fools.
"You have to assert your authority. You're the adult, you're in charge. Be stern but fair. ...some of the kids are scared of me."
"Oh, riiiiight." Kili nodded a few times after he finished an especially long sip. He even managed it without choking or spilling it! "I'm louder than they are, so that helps! And eww. Fifth graders. You've the patience of a saint. Hopefully they get it sorted so you're whatever a TA is again!"
Because honestly? He doesn't know. His brain came up with 'tits and ass' but that couldn't be right if it was in a school setting. Hot for teacher? He. Does. Not. Know.
"Teacher's assistant, I was a teacher in training. I'm still in college myself! But I can balance that and teaching and taking care of my sister. She got shot in the army! But she keeps trying to walk around because she's stubborn." And there came a long suffering sigh of sisterly love.
"Oooooh! Well, I'm certain you'll make for an excellent teacher, someday. Being stern and authoritative and such." He made a face like O RLY at the getting shot. "That sounds like something I'd do! You remind me of my older brother, Fili. He keeps saying 'noooo' and I do whatever it is he's 'noooo'-ing about, and then get hurt, and he fusses. It's what siblings do for one another!"
"The funny part is it goes both ways with us. When I was younger, she'd be the one going 'noooo' and now that she's hurt it's reversed! She's the older one, and she's a bit stodgy and needs to lighten up." She winked at Kili. "I keep trying to get her dates."
Kili sputter coughed into his coffee when the Serah mentioned dates and tried not to drop his cup. He only spilled a little on one hand, and laughed a little, fwipping that hand to one side to get the wet off.
"You'd best look elsewhere! I'm..." Not taken? Definitely! Interested in someone else? Maybe. "...you see...hmm. You couldn't mean me." He was short...er. Than before. And looked like he'd just been blown through a wind tunnel. "I'm not about to do that presumption thing that you might, because no, oh no. I've stopped facerolling into dates and girlfriend land."
And because he liked a redhead with pointy ears that was so so easy to talk to. Cue the sappy smile smeared over the lower half of his unshaven face.
"Oh! Oh don't worry I'm pretty sure you're not her type. You're...." Short. "Scruffy and don't have boobs. You're more my type, actually." She winked playfully at him. She liked them taller but she liked scruffy, goofy and cheerfully adventurous guys. Kili reminded her of a short, dark haired Snow..."But there's someone you're interested in isn't there!"
It's the short. It's going to turn into 'too short' and that was the very intense stare that Kili was giving Serah when she paused like that, and he expected someday to experience the full on disappointment of Tauriel saying 'too short' or 'too dwarvish'. Already, there was that little seed of doubt planted, and he really shouldn't think anyway. Because friends. He had been staring the whole while all very intensely as Serah talked, until the boobs part sank in, and he nodded like that made sense! That was immediately followed by his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Yes, all of that, all after one another! Like a trainwreck of facial expressions.
"...umm, no, not really," Kili fibbed, with a laugh that was a little too loud. After all, friends. That was all there was to that, even if there was a fair amount of like thrown into the mix of things. "I'm simply trying to refrain! It always ends badly. I'm sloooooooooow. It's terrible. Adventure slow, even. Like those slow-mo films of animals eating people on home video, and you know what's going to happen, but you can't stop watching. That's me."
He eyedarted and got to work guzzling that coffee like a mo fo!
Serah raised her eyebrow at the stare, but didn't back down or otherwise dim the smile on her face. In fact, the trainwreck of facial expression made her giggle. He was clearly backpeddling so fast she could see the gears going off course in his brain and the cuckoo going off the clock and everything!
"So you're a walking trainwreck at eight miles per hour?" She asked.
Kili snapped his fingers and then pointed at her, looking like a lightbulb should be hovering all lit up over the top of his head.
"Yes! Precisely. That." He moved the cup of coffee like it was a very slow moving object, and luckily it was pretty much empty. That meant he couldn't spill it on either of them, should it bump into anything. "Oh no. Slow moving trainwreck. What do we dooooo."
He tried to hide an eyedart and failed miserably.
Serah laughed. He was adorable, and it was kind of a pity that his eye was elsewhere. "You're a dork. I'm sure whoever it is is totally into you." She winked again, half expecting him to suddenly derail in a spectacular fashion.
"Oh no, she's not. Not really. Only friends." Then Kili's eyes looked ready to go pop pop and roll across the floor of the coffee shop. He said very slowly, "And you're absolutely right. I am a monumental dork."
“You want her to be more than friends?” Serah leaned forward, then booped his nose with one finger, like she’d just stepped out of an anime or video game.
Aww, that was cute. That was his first thought, until he realized he had his nose poked like some sort of chibi nightmare. Kili leaned back and looked at her like she was off her animated rocker, like anysemi-self-respecting Dwarfone would. He blinked a few times until it registered he had been booped and then looked vaguely protesty.
"I never said that and you shouldn't touch other's noses. Those're sensitive. Someone might sneeze on you." And here comes the dream knowledge that Dwarven noses weren't on the small side and that he was going to be hideous and short. Not to mention without a beard, and that meant he was essentially like a Dwarf who had the equivalent of really embarrassing male pattern baldness. His dream entire existence was fun as hell, but simultaneously cursed to be forever alone. "We've got a nice friendship and who would want to ruin that? I did say somewhere or other that I wasn't going to faceroll into girlfriend land again! I'm holding to it."
"It's a cute nose." It seemed a bit big on his face, but them his proportions seemed a bit weird to her. He was still cute and none of that bothered her though. "Well, I hope it works out for the best then. Feelings kind of...well..." She rubbed the back of her neck and laughed. "When it happens to me it's like being hit by a truck with no warning."
"I don't know about that but it's still stuck on my face, so that's a plus and not a minus. Definitely!" He looked a bit embarrassed but pleased, all at the same time. "I suppose that's what it's like! More or less? I'm certain you'll be hit with a truck again, Serah. You're cute too!"
He simply wasn't sure he was anyone's truck at this juncture, since everything was all a bit...new.
“Thanks, but I’m way too busy for that.” And really, she really just wanted Snow, but she didn’t think he was even around here. It was stupid to pine after a man you’d never met, wasn’t it?
"Do people go about, expecting trucks to hit them only when it's convenient?" Kili wondered, out loud. "I somehow don't think it works that way."
“Sometimes we ignore the truck that hit us and then we end up missing the truck as it drives away, leaving us lonely and unfulfilled.” And somehow the metaphor got away from her.
"......" went Kili for a long moment, staring at her with a very profoundly thinky look on his face. It all seemed to be very deeply and profoundly pondered over, until Kili opened his mouth and pointed out, "If that happened, then the person hitting you didn't notice either and I suppose that's no harm done. Although I'd like to know how someone can ignore that hitting them, and missing it entirely. Aren't things like that rather large, obvious, and going vroom right before they hit things?"
And he would know, because he's driven trucks like that before.
“But what if they did notice and they hit you on prpose, and then they’re sad you never noticed, and then they move on and you both miss out?” Either way, harm done!
"If they hit you, then they're a monumental ass," Kili replied, "because they kept driving by and I've been told that's manslaughter or reckless endangerment, at the very least. They can't be all that sad if they swerve and run you over with their love truck, which aren’t really trucks. They’re lorries. Oh, and especially if it's not convenient at all...which is when that happens anyway. Isn't it?"
“...what are we talking about again?” Serah asked him, blinking her eyes and staring at him like he’d actually just been hit by a lorrie. “I thought we were being metaphorical.”
"...what?" Kili's eyes were wide, like a deer caught in the headlights of a oncoming vehicle. It didn't even matter if it was a truck, lorry, bus, car, motorcycle, or even a bicycle with a flashlight duct taped onto the handlebars. Or a torch that’s gaffer taped to...nevermind. A light was a light was a light, at this juncture. "I think it got all mashed up into some sort of thing, that's now altogether unusual."
Serah laughed again. This man was adorable. She liked him. Maybe not in ‘that’ way, but she still liked him. “It became a train wreck, then?”
"Likely with a bus full of people, stalled out on the tracks," he admitted, without hesitation. No mistake, Serah was cute too...even if she wasn't eight miles tall in comparison to him, and although she didn't have the cutest little pointiest tipped ears, ever.
He looked down at the cup in his hand, as though remembering that he had been holding it. "Oh. Empty." He smiled and wagged it around like he was showing her, with a laugh. "I suppose that's that! I can't risk two cups or everyone around me will find it insufferable, since I'll drive through walls. Followed by leaping out of the car and bouncing off the rubble."
“Are you sure? I’ll buy you another.” Serah Farron. Sower of chaos.
"Nooo, I shouldn't. Thank you for offering though!"
Even if he might seem like an overly eager puppy man, Kili really did keep busy 100% of his waking moments. He had to, otherwise the risk of dangerous things happening would increase by 50%. The only time there was a zero percent chance, was when he was sleeping.
“Well, I thought I’d offer!” She smiled pleasantly. “I’ll let you get back to whatever it is you do. It was nice to meet you!”
"The pleasure was all mine. Here? Take this with you." He threw the cup with surprisingly good aim into a trash bin, and then hugged onto her, giving her a big pat on the back while doing so. "I'm certain you'll be ran over someday, when it's actually convenient for you." Pat pat. Pat a pat pat pat. Drumroll pat.
Serah squeaked and patpatted his back back, with a squeezing hug in the middle of that. “You too! Maybe the object of your affections will see reason!”
"Oh nooo, no no no." PAT pat pat. "Friends. Good friends! That's all."
That's right. Move along, nothing to see there. Nope. He was saving the reckless behavior for things like adventure times, someday. No more facerolling into girlfriend land! He promised himself that, and was stubbornly sticking to it!With an extra dose of stubborn due to onslaught of Dwarvish dreaming.
He let go, but not quite. He had both hands on Serah's shoulders and a smile on his face.
"Are you on that social networking site? You can find me on there, if you'd like to. We can have coffee again sometime, or talk about this or that, through there."
“I’d like that. I have a hard time making friends, and you seem really kind of awesome.” Serah liked to consider herself a good judge of character!
Suspicion set in like maybe that was a warning flag of some sort, and Kili had to ask, "Thank you! Now. Why do you have a hard time making friends?"
Was she insane? Did she stab someone in the foot? No one wants a friend that stabs people in the foot. They could be next. One day, sitting there, chatting, and then BAM. Knife through the foot.
Kili still had both hands on her shoulders, but he turned his head to one side and gave her a lookie loo like she might be highly suspect.
“Foster kid,” Serah explained, like it was the most natural thing in the world. “You kind of have to put up some thorns after awhile just to protect yourself.”
"Oh. OH!" It was as though the hammer of enlightenment had smacked him upside the head. "That makes perfect sense. But, you've got a friend as long as you don't stab me in the foot, and then I'd have to stab you back. That's how it works."
He patted both hands down on her shoulders one more time and looked ready to set out!
"Farewell, Serah! We'll have to meet up again, and talk about your thorns!"
“I promise to never stab you in the foot,” Serah said, solemly pressing her palm over her heart. She was ready to set out too, but she let the short man go first. He looked like he had places to be!