Who: Mike Lane mikelane & Sam Harris inatowel with Minato Namikaze minato & Anna of Arendelle elatedorgassy What: Double Date When: Recently Where: Hibachi House Rating: Low Warnings: Stepford levels of suburbia exist within. Fear the amount of normalcy there is in this log. Status: Complete Upon Posting
~*~
Mike held the door for Sam as they were entering the Hibachi House. They were a few minutes late for their reservation, but he figured Anna wasn't going to mind and Minato? That guy defined laid back. Punctuality was a virtue Mike Lane didn't possess in excess. Projects? Mike could get something built on time every time. He could keep rhythm on the dance floor. Showing up on time for an interview or reservations at a restaurant or even making it to class before the bell? Those were all significantly different stories.
"Doing Doubles does not show my age."
He was older than Sam by enough to make it fun to talk about their age gap, but it was still a sore topic. Mike wasn't ready to be old even though he was ready to be settled. There were too many adventures left to go on before he got old. Mike realized it didn't hurt he was a guy who lived outside his age bracket. Club scenes were generally reserved for co-eds or grad students; Mike fit in perfectly even though he was neither. It didn't take a genius or a degree in psych to know that said something.
"Hey, I think they're already here. Good. We can make the table on time. I already told them in our reservation you're vegan so I got you covered. You're still fine with me getting the steak?"
~*~
"Mhm, sure it doesn't." Sam teased him with a light smile, cutting her eyes over at him. The age difference wasn't a huge deal to Sam. Mike was a nice, chill guy and she enjoyed spending time with him. It could've been the fact that she acted older than her years, well most of the time.
She slipped into the Hibachi House, glancing around the place before looking back over her shoulder at Mike.
"Good, and yeah of course." She lifted a shoulder, "I don't care what you eat. I would never force my lifestyle onto anyone else." Sam loathed people that did shit like that. Just because she lived her life one way didn't mean anyone else had to. "Never worry about that, it doesn't offend me and I'm not going to get all up in arms and preach at you." She nudged him with her hip, and then noticed a guy giving a wave over at them.
Minato was admittedly excited for tonight. It'd been too long since he'd last hung out with Mike, and well, he definitely wasn't opposed to spending more time with Anna. He'd pulled her chair out for her, a little surprised that they'd beaten Mike and his date there. He shifted slightly in his seat, after he'd caught sight of the pair and waved them over to their table. "Looks like they're here, and just in time too." He gave Anna a smile, and then stood to hold his hand out to Mike. "Hey man," he gave his hand a firm shake before dropping his hand, and then offered Sam his hand, "and it's nice to meet you."
Sam shook his hand in return, "Same to you." After dropping Minato's hand, she turned her attention to Anna. "Hey, I'm Sam. It's nice to meet you."
~*~
This was another one of those weird things... Anna wasn't sure what was going on between herself and Mike. Was this a date? Were they dating? But they weren't... y'know, kissing and stuff. Wasn't that part of what dating was? That part? That part she knew, she'd done that part before. But this part was the weird part. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to be doing. She liked Minato, that was sure. And she was getting to know him better, which was good--she didn't want to make the same mistakes from her Dreams, didn't want to fall for someone before she knew him, didn't want to nearly freeze to death again.
Anna's face went bright red when he pulled her chair out for her. That meant it was a date, right? Then she smiled as Mike and his date showed up. She popped back up to her feet to greet Mike with a hug and his date with a handshake. "Hi, Mike! And... hi. I'm Anna," Anna's face brightened considerably when she smiled, and Anna was all smiles right now.
~*~
"Minato, great to see you, man. You're looking like life's doing you good now."
Mike was glad to see his friends. Club kids were one thing, but people who worked the scene? They were another story entirely. People who actually worked the scene for a living got to see the man behind the curtain which ruined the illusion. All the magic was gone out of it for Magic Mike: irony, be they defined. He liked that Minato kept a positive attitude in spite of all things they'd witnessed as the guys who were behind the curtain more often than in front of the curtain.
They were survivors of an urban war, club culture used guerilla tactics which resulted in those who belonged to it having to evolve to survive or get eaten by the world they were determined to infiltrate. It was an interesting conundrum they presented by trying to be a part of the times while also being ahead of time at once. Anna and Sam fit each profile uniquely with Anna being an exacting ideal for the current times and, in Mike's eyes, Sam being a woman ahead of the world by whole eras.
"Anna, it's great to see you. She's got a smile that warms you all the way through, Sam. I hope we get to do this more since I know I need to spend more time with people than wood or I'm going to start becoming some weird guy who whittles his friends out of scraps."
~*~
Sam cast a sideways glance over at Mike, "Yeah, don't do that. I deal with enough psychos as it is." Well, it was one psycho in her dreams but that was one too many as far as she was concerned. Sam took a seat at the table, putting her purse down underneath her chair before she crossed one leg over the other. "In my dreams that is." She looked over at Anna with a small smile, "It's like a bad 90's horror movie in my dreams."
A light smile tugged on the corners of her lips, Anna did have a very nice smile, and Sam could admit that. "But yeah, we should totally do this more often." Sam's social circle here wasn't that big, she had Josh and Lara that she hung with on occasion, but that was about it. In her dreams she had plenty of 'friends', although here she wouldn't actually consider them that. Sure they mourned Hannah and Beth, but they'd been the cause of them disappearing that cold, snowy night.
Minato laughed, and moved to sit back down. "Life is going great. I have no complaints anyway." He didn't really. Life was going well for him, he still had plenty of work to keep him busy, and well whatever was going on with Anna was going well too. At least, he thought so anyway.
"That she does." He replied, looking over at Anna, and Minato couldn't help but smile himself before he looked back over at Mike. "You look like life is treating you well too, but I agree with Sam there, don't start whittling your friends out of scraps. I'm just a phone call away you know."
~*~
Anna flushed deeply as everyone started to compliment her smile. Her lips turned up, her face brightened, and she felt her cheeks burning. The girl was a social butterfly, really, making friends everywhere she went. Happy, optimistic and friendly, she lightened a room when she stepped inside.
"It's good to see you, too, Mike," Anna beamed as she sat back down. "Yes, don't become Geppetto." Was that too childish? Anna was fairly young, and it was just occurring to her that she might be the youngest in the bunch.
~*~
Geppetto was the perfect frame of reference for Anna. Mike chuckled, shaking his head as he considered how he'd wound up in this group. They were a strange mix. He definitely felt a little better after Minato offered to be a call away. Friendship meant something to Mike. He didn't use people and throw them away.
That was his place in the story: being the one they used at night then tossed out with the trash in the morning.
"I will never become one of the psychos from your dreams, Sam. You have the Mike Lane Customer Satisfaction Guarantee on your side."
He smiled at the waitress as she placed a bowl of salad with ginger dressing in front of every person, moving away as silently as she had arrived. Mike liked the idea of being able to blend into the room almost as much as he wanted to be the one at the center of it, commanding all the attention. Sometimes he wasn't sure what he wanted. Other times? He got a good look at the girl beside him and realized he was a lucky SOB for having someone like Sam willing to come out with him, meet his old friends, try to offer him more to his life than he'd been able to manage on his own.
"I also don't think I could pull off Geppetto. I'm not a fan of puppets. Hate the things. Terrified of them really. I am focusing more on focal pieces lately. Different styles of coffee tables. Nook insets. Shelving units. I've done a good bit of business on home bars. That's been fun---except I'm talking too much about wood and furniture and when did I become the boring guy at the party who doesn't have anything to talk about other than their work?"
~*~
"When you became old." Sam replied, leaning forward to pick up her fork and pull her salad a little closer to her. She cast a quick glance over at Mike, giving him a smile and a wink before she turned back to her salad. There it was again, the poking about the difference in their ages. Sam couldn't help herself though, but she honestly didn't care. Age was nothing but a number, after all.
"And good, I like having that guarantee. Cause otherwise I'd have to reconsider a lot of things." She brought her fork up to her mouth after gathering some salad on the end of it and began eating.
Shaking his head with a laugh, Minato leaned over toward Anna. "We'll have to intervene if we see him acting strange, call our own intervention to save him from creating the next Pinocchio." That actually was a scary thought. The OC was a strange place, and he could only imagine what would happen if some random puppet came to life. Shaking his head again, Minato dug into his own salad. "On the topic of work," he spoke after he finished chewing, "I got back from LA not too long ago. A director friend of mine asked me to come do some choreography for a video he was shooting. Didn't take long, the dancers picked it up quickly, but that's the difference between working with actual dancers and not some pop star that has two left feet." He'd worked with plenty of them in the past, and they were so much harder to work with than trained professionals.
"So what do you do, Anna?" Sam spoke up from her side of the table, "Since the old men are talking about work, I figure I should ask."
~*~
Anna was more than willing to listen to Mike talking about wood and furniture. It was inspiring and refreshing to hear someone so passionate about their job--their career. Anna wanted to find something she was so passionate about, something that she could be proud of, could stand behind. So far the only thing that came close was studying art history, hospitality management, and (gasp) business. Maybe some day she'd have enough knowhow to run her own art gallery or museum or something. She knew she didn't want to simply step into a spot in her father's company, may he rest in peace. That was what Elsa was doing, and she was good at it. It just wasn't Anna's cup of tea.
The redhead gave the waitress a 'thank you!' as the woman wandered off, and grinned brightly. It was nice to see someone so good at her job, there, too! And the salad looked wonderful. Anna lifted her own fork and dug in, looking a little sheepish when both Minato and Sam talked to her, and she had a mouth full of salad and couldn't respond. Of course, she'd mentioned to Minato before how proud she was of his job. She couldn't wait to see some of his work in action.
After Sam's question, though, she chewed hard and fast, and lifted her napkin to dab at her lips before replying. "I'm studying over at UCI. I don't really do much outside of school at the moment. I used to work at a Fencing School? Totally random, I know. And I love walking dogs. I do that in my spare time, too." She lifted her fork again. "What do you do, Sam?"
~*~
"I guess I'll have to be really careful not to have you reconsidering too many things. I happen to want you thinking only positive thoughts about me."
Mike leaned over to press a kiss against Sam's shoulder. They were still new, fresh, learning things. He enjoyed being with her more than he could explain for reasons he didn't want to look at too closely. Sam had demons riding on her shoulders who were a lot more menacing than cutting a board too short or rhythmless pop stars or having too much homework. He would never be able to fully understand the world she saw in her dreams, the person she was in them, but Mike knew of the two of them?
He was the lucky one.
"Woah!" Mike was startled when the chef suddenly lit the grill with a flourish fit for a Vegas crowd. "I should have seen that coming. I know, I know. Minato is the one who deals with the pyrotechnics. I'm just the guy who builds the set, okay? Cut me some slack. Sam cuts me slack. I think that's her actual profession: cutting Mike Lane slack."
~*~
Sam jumped slightly at the flame and Mike's exclamation. She'd have blamed it on her dreams, however, she probably would've jumped regardless at this point. Chuckling, Sam shook her head at Mike's antics. "Well, actually I'm a student at Chapman University majoring in Pre-Law. I also work at Shoegasm part time." She gave Anna a small half-smile, "Giving Mike slack is only a hobby." She shrugged with a laugh, and then turned her attention back to the chef.
It was good to see Mike happy, at least, Minato thought he looked happy. In the scene it was all about what you could do for who, and instant gratification. It wasn't about finding happiness, love or anything like that. Minato knew how it was, but he was glad that Mike had found someone now.
He canted his head to the side, looking over at Anna. He had to wonder if maybe he'd found something as well, but it was still too early to tell he thought. Minato knew that he enjoyed spending time with her, but he knew that she had some trust issues. Minato couldn't blame her either, especially from what she'd told him about her dreams.
"Well, someone has to give you a bit of slack, or you know, keep you on your toes at least." He glanced back over at Anna again, "So you worked at a fencing school? That's impressive."
~*~
So this place was like, a show and a dinner all in one! Anna was thrilled (surprised, but happy) when there was fire and a chef appeared to do... chef stuff. She bounced in her chair, eyes wide, then actually clapped with enthusiasm. This was super fun! She'd had no idea this was going to be so much fun!
And watching Mike and Sam was absolutely adorable. It made Anna miss having a boyfriend. That sort of... comfort that one had pretty much all the time. Cuddling up against a warm body, falling asleep in someone's arms? It was super nice. Anna missed it. It was part of the reason she was looking for her "Summer Boyfriend" at the moment. She glanced over at Minato, smiling warmly and blushing a little, then nodded her head at Mike and Sam and mouthed so cute.
She found herself clearing her throat, and then nodded. "Yes, I worked at the front desk. God, that feels like forever ago! My ex-boyfriend worked there, so... he got me the job.” Her face started to fall a little at the mention of her ex-boyfriend. (Trust issues.) She picked it back up again on her next sentence, though. “But the woman who ran the studio decided to close it down when my ex left. He just sort of... left." Anna had pretended they were going to do the long-distance thing for a while, but his emails were distant and few and far between. It took her a long time to realize he'd just... left.
"Anyway, I'm really busy with school at the moment." Besides, she had the Arendelle fortune behind her. Her father had owned a cable television network before his death, and now her older sister was the head of the network... but Anna inherited a fortune, too. She didn't have to work if she didn't want to.
~*~
"I make for a great hobby."
Mike was willing to admit his strengths. They weren't exactly what most would consider the most positive attributes, but what did he care? People who came from money had the luxury of being picky about how they kept themselves going. Guys like Mike Lane had to sell what they had going for them or starve. Getting into furniture as a business rather than a hobby was something Mike had thought would take him far, far longer than it had. He was still establishing himself, but he wasn't that Scene Man Minato had known before.
They were both a little different---or maybe a lot different. Mike supposed it was all a matter of perspective.
Discussion of bad past relationships was right up there with politics and religion in terms of Topics to Avoid; Mike immediately started damage control. He had zero desire to talk about the woman who he'd thought he would marry only to find out he'd been nothing more than her hobby. The word took on a dirty undertone in that context. Life was hard enough learning how to adult without having to figure out how to avoid the landmines in discussions about one's personal failures.
"Dessert! Do you know they actually serve dessert here? We won't have the ability to eat it since -I'm pretty confident saying I can eat you all under the table and I can't finish a full dinner course here- but it's crazy to me they offer it all the same. I'm a cookie monster. Love my cookies. What about you guys?"
He was nearly begging Sam to help him fish their evening out of its downward spiral. She was good at reading him. They should manage to get people laughing again and then? Well, the night was young. They could sit and eat until they had to stop, wait to digest, and box up leftovers before heading out satisfied with a good night out with friends.
All Mike needed was Sam and Minato to be their awesome selves to bail him out of conversation Hell.
~*~
"Psh," Sam reached over to pat Mike's leg, "you're more than a hobby." She shook her head, knowing full and well what he meant to her. She hadn't meant to fall for him, hell, for anyone for that matter right now, but it was what it was. What they were doing, however, was still up for debate but she was happy. Sam figured that was what mattered. His tone changed, and she gave a sideways glance over at him.
Relationships weren't a real topic of discussion for Sam. She'd had a few, though nothing serious, but she knew that someone had hurt him in the past. "Oh I remember. You ate an entire batch of chocolate chip cookies that I made for Christmas." She turned her head to look over at him, brows raised slightly. "I had to make another batch after you left." She nudged him with her arm, "But I'm not one too much for dessert anyway. I do like cookies as well though."
Minato nodded in agreement at Anna as she mouthed the words. Oh yeah, he mouthed back, turning to look back over at them although his attention back to Anna when she began to talk about her ex. That guy also sounded like a douchebag, much like the guy from her dreams. One day he was going to have to ask her about it, or at least see what was what with it.
Right now, however, the topic changed to something else, and Minato shifted, stretching his legs out underneath the table. "I'm more of a cake guy myself. Ice cream cake if we're being specific." He figured if he was going to eat junk that he should go all out. Minato, however, didn't actually eat a lot of junk food if he could help it. When he was away from home, however, it was harder to eat healthy.
"Ice cream in general really is my weakness, but I think you're right. I doubt I'll be able to eat anything else after this." He gave a nod toward the grill, watching the chef for a few moments before he turned to Anna. "You've not got much longer with classes do you?"
~*~
Damn. If Anna had known that she was making everyone sad and awkward... She wouldn't have said anything. But hey, he asked! And she hadn't known it was going to make her sad until she said it. There were definitely still feelings there. Abandonment and deception went hand in hand when it came to her Dreams. And real life, it seemed. So many of those fears and feelings bled over.
"I love cookies." Anna chimed in, finding happiness again. It didn't take her long to flip flop from awkwardness or sadness back to optimism again. She turned to grin over at Mike, then gave her attention back to Minato. "We could share a dinner meal, right? That way we've left room for dessert?" Her attention was on Minato now, giving Sam and Mike a little privacy.
"I'm almost finished. I'm really looking forward to summertime. Having nothing to do but read for pleasure and lounge around on the beach?" She sighed, happily, that smile coming back to her lips and brightening the room again.
~*~
Everything smoothed out as easily as the clouds had started to form over their evening. Mike was glad he was a lucky guy where it came to his friends. They were easy people to be with, spend time with, share with and wasn't that the best part about having friends? Being able to share one's life with them?
People weren't meant to be alone.
"I think we're all looking forward to more time on the beach. I know I am. When I get the new display room set up, get someone to work the counter for me, and have a chance to stop living project to project? Yeah. You better believe I'm spending some more time at the beach. I plan on trying to take someone with me, too. I mean. It's more fun to lounge around with friends, right?"
Mike lightly nudged Sam with his elbow, wagging his eyebrows at her. She'd likely laugh at him. He was older, sure, but there was little mistaking which of them was the more mature.
~*~
Sam did laugh at Mike, and gave a nod. "Oh yeah, it's definitely a lot more fun to go with friends. And you do need to spend more time away from work." She gave him a wink, knowing how much he enjoyed his work, but sometimes all work and no play wasn't good for the soul. "Same here on the almost finished bit. So looking forward to some down time." Although Sam doubted that it would actually be downtime.
She knew better than to think that. Most likely she'd be plagued with more dreams and try to figure out what the actual hell was going on in her dreams. That would be her luck anyway, so she wasn't counting on having a peaceful summer.
Minato glanced over at Anna, smiling softly with a nod. "Sure, we can do that." He gave her a wink and then looked back at the chef for a few moments. He'd try to save enough room anyway, it wasn't as if he wouldn't work it off the next day with his workout. "What are you thinking in terms of dessert?" He glanced back over at Anna, raising a brow.
~*~
Anna could absolutely relate. She spent too much time at school, she was sure of it. Taking eight classes, more than twenty units, was a handful. It meant that she was pretty much always on campus or at the library. The more time she spent away from home, the less like Anna she felt!
"Anything with chocolate." Anna said, giving Minato a warm smile. He was such a great friend! She was so happy to be there with the lot of them. And she'd never been to a place where the chef cooked right at the table like this. It was a fun experience, that was for sure! “I’m really easy to please--I eat just about anything.”
~*~
"I second chocolate."
Mike was pretty okay with anything filled with sugar, but he loved chocolate. It was something he knew could be shared since they could get vegan chocolate easily enough. The only way it wasn't vegan was if it was milk chocolate which shouldn't be allowed to masquerade around calling itself chocolate at all. Liar.
Raising his glass, he toasted, "To friendship and finding fun in the sun this summer."