¡Tink! (tinkhatespink) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-05-19 20:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, frank hardy, tinkerbell |
Who: Tinkerbell and Frank Hardy
When: 3.14...159265359...
Where: Out on a da~ate
What: Pi Day
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete!
Tink wore her Pi Day shirt to school, then to work. She’d made plans with her brothers to make their yearly apple pie when she got home, but when she got text messages from Frank, she changed those. Her brothers totally understood. After all, she’d been talking about him nonstop since her birthday. And, anyway, one of her brothers had a date to raid, and the other was hanging out with his girlfriend, so… man, how times change. A year ago it would have been totally different.
Then she worried. Was she over-dressed? Under-dressed? It was a date, but she was wearing a t-shirt and slacks, with a cardigan. At least it was kinda dressy? She stopped in front of the mirror and checked her hair and everything, growing more and more excited as the end of her shift at work approached.
Frank had been looking forward to seeing Belle all day. So much so that Steve, the light news reporter that usually hid behind three monitors, had noticed the Hardy boy grinning like a cheshire cat. By the third repetition of I have a date and Did I tell you she has the most amazing blush?, Steve had very much regretted looking up and had consequently hunkered down even more than usual behind his wall of technology.
Which also explained why Steve was surprised to see Frank still at his desk, furiously typing on his keyboard, half an hour past quitting time. “Hey Hardy. What time did you say you had a date tonight?”
“Hm? Date? Oh...it’s...” Frank blinked owlishly at his co-worker, his mind slowly rising from the depths of his latest set of Agency notes. What time was his date? He pulled the post-it note with Belle’s name on it from the side of his computer. “I’m picking her up at six. Why?”
Steve raised his eyebrows, pointedly looking at the clock on the wall. “It’s half past five. Shouldn’t you have left- Hey. Is that- is that Klingon?” The reporter thought he vaguely recognized the string of guttural sounds coming from Frank as the other man frantically shut down his computer and grabbed his bag.
Frank was sure he defied at least one law of physics and definitely every speed limit between the station and the Fix-It shop where Belle worked. Thankfully, traffic was not all that bad, and even with a quick detour to the flower shop he managed to arrive mere minutes before the store was set to close. He quickly checked and hand-brushed his hair in the rearview mirror. There was no time to preen, but that did not mean he couldn’t at least be presentable. Frank undid a few buttons of his collared shirt, revealing a plain t-shirt underneath. Hopefully that would look casual enough for a first date, even though his slacks were still on the side of business casual. Well, no time to change now.
Grabbing the single rose (red this time) wrapped in paper and baby’s breath, Frank slipped out of the car. The clock had barely hit six when he knocked on the door of the shop.
Tink was behind the counter when she heard the knock. There was a list of things she was supposed to do each day when she closed up, and she’d been doing it for so long that she had the list memorized. She looked up from where she was closing the safe. Frank’s face was visible through the window in the door, and Tink broke into a huge smile at the sight of him there. He was perfect.ly on time. Cough.
“Hang on!” She called out to him, then twirled the lock on the safe. The last items on the list were to shut off the lights and lock the door. Then she was free to go on their pi day date.
“Hey,” she said, pulling the door open. She flicked off the lights and stepped through, then tugged the door closed to lock it. “Sorry, I just… y’know. Work. And stuff.” She felt a little awkward. And very excited.
“Hey.” Frank stepped back from the door to give Belle room to close the shop. Without the door glass in the way he was able to get a better look at her. She looked perfect. “No, it’s okay.” He could feel a few butterflies dancing about his stomach. He was a little nervous. Frank hadn’t been on a date in- well, since Callie. It could even be argued that he had very little skill at dating back then, much less now. Which meant the probability was extremely high that he was would mess up something. Knowing him, it would likely be something important as well.
Frank cleared his throat, hoping it would clear his thoughts as well. “This is for you.” He held out the rose for her to take. Girls liked flowers. At least that was one thing he knew he hadn’t gotten wrong.
Tink was girly enough to like flowers, and human enough to be pleased that the guy she was interested in brought her one. But the color’s meaning was beyond her. Red meant… love? Passion? Romance? She accepted it with a gentle “thanks,” as her cheeks slowly threatened to match the flower’s hue.
“So, um… dinner? I believe I was promised dinner.” She broke into a teasing grin even through the blush.’’
Frank watched the growing blush with fascination. He couldn’t help but find it absolutely adorable. Adorable, and just a little bit sexy. Dark eyes drifted down to her lips for a moment before snapping back up to her eyes. What was she saying? “Yes! Dinner! And a movie.” Frank mirrored her grin and stepped to the side to offer her his arm. “I promise absolutely nothing fancy tonight.” He teased with a wink.
Tink gave a little laugh. “I think I might be insulted if you assume I want fancy.” She shook her head as they headed to his car, her hand slipped through his arm. He felt warm--his sleeve, even. It was still just chilly enough to need long sleeves, though it wouldn’t be for long. Summer was coming, and that meant short sleeves and tank tops galore.
“Pizza?” Tink asked, slipping into his car. “And a frappuccino?”
“I assume nothing about you, Miss Belle. Except to expect the unexpected.” Closing the passenger side door with a wink, Frank headed to the other side and slid into the driver’s seat. “A pizza pie.” He confirmed with another grin. “And then a diner for some dessert pie. We’ll see about the frappuccino.” To be fair, the diner he had in mind for dessert had a number of different coffee drinks. It was possible that a frappuccino would be one of them. They would just have to find out!
True to his word, the pizza place he took them to was not only the opposite of fancy, but the various arcade games (including skee-ball) also promised a bit of non-fancy fun.
This was exactly the kind of place Tink loved to go. She’d gone to places like this in middle school with her brothers, and then just… never stopped. Perfect date material. “Pizza pie and dessert pie.” She agreed, before climbing out of the car to follow him into the pizza place.
“Skee-ball!” Tink squeaked, wrapping both arms around his. “Please tell me we can play skee-ball!” She wasn’t even thinking about “dinner and a movie” anymore. She was thinking about pie and games. Games!
Grinning at her reaction, Frank looked down at Belle. The way she lit up and held onto his arm made him want to lean down and- Whoa there, Hardy! He had to physically straighten a bit to keep himself from slipping. Asking for a kiss to end the night on her front porch was one thing, but stealing one in the middle of the pizza place’s parking lot was another.
Frank cared about Belle and he wanted to do things right. Cutting the date short to go back to his car and make out was not doing things right. Plus, it would probably give her the wrong idea. He found her absolutely adorable and surreptitiously sexy, but if he pushed things too far too quickly, she might wind up thinking that was all he was interested in. Which was definitely not the case. He had fallen for all of her, mind and body, and it was important to him that she knew that.
Clearing his throat, Frank brought himself back before his thoughts could accidentally melt his grin. “All the skee-ball you can handle - after we eat.”
“Pizza pie and dessert pie.” Tink repeated as they headed into the noisy, busy arcade. It was pretty much the perfect date location ever. It was loud and crowded enough that they were pretty much hiding in plain sight. And it gave Tink an excuse to keep grabbing his arm, taking his hand in hers, dragging him from game to game. But he was right, pizza first.
They moved through the place to where they could be seated for some dinner. Tink shrugged out of her cardigan and hung it on the back of her chair before she took a seat. “Pizza! It’s really important that you get this question right, Frank,” she said, opening her menu. “Because there’s a right way and a wrong way to eat pizza. So… what kind of pizza do you want?”
Frank was also a fan of the arcade, because it gave him the perfect excuse to ‘accidentally forget’ that he was holding her hand as she pulled him from game to game. To be honest, he was just as excited as she was to play all the games. However, there were important questions to be answered right now.
“As a New Yorker, I completely agree with you.” Frank was a little sad he missed the opportunity to pull out her chair, but there would hopefully be more opportunities to do so. He took the seat opposite Belle, arms leaning against the table as he gave her his most serious look. “The correct answer, of course, is a plain style pizza with foldable slices.”
Tink gave a little laugh. "Good answer. Thankfully, you didn't say something like, "I'm a fan of anchovies," or "I think the Japanese have it right when they put mayonaise on pizza." She gave him a bright grin, closing the menu in front of her and folding her hands on top of it. "I'll leave myself completely in your fully capable hands, then, and trust you to make our pizza order."
It was an arcade, so Tink didn't really have high hopes on their pizza. Most of her experience with arcade food wasn't the best. But that didn't mean she wasn't going to enjoy this completely. It wasn't really about the food. It was about spending time with Frank, something that she found she was enjoying more and more as their days together passed. Ever since the kiss on her birthday, she'd found that he made her smile without doing anything. Her heart started to thump faster at just the thought of his dimples. If it was a crush, she'd had those before. That wasn't a big deal. But if it was something more... this was new territory for her.
The waiter came by with two tall glasses of ice water, two straws, then asked if they were ready to order.
The look on Frank’s face was clearly showed his feelings on the matter. “Mayonaise?! On a pizza?” He shook his head. Japanese people may be brilliant when it came to electronics and sushi, but it was best if they left pizza toppings to the professionals. He couldn’t fault her for anchovies, though. Sometimes they were just the thing a pie needed to tie its toppings together. However, considering the location, he wasn’t about to try for an artisanal pizza at an arcade. Maybe on the next date. If there was a next date.
The menu had listed some “New York Style” pizza and while Frank did not believe for a second that it was actually going to be a proper New York pizza, he decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. He ordered that and a pitcher of beer for the two of them. If the pizza was not as good as expected, at least the craft beer would be.
Once they were alone again, Frank rested his arms on the table. He looked up at her, dark eyes catching hers, and completely forgot what he was going to say. She was beautiful. “I… ah... “ He cleared his throat. Small talk. Right. “How’s school?”
Once the waitress left with their order, Tink had her eyes on a machine across the room. An arcade game she was sure she could play from beginning to end on one quarter. Or, well, token. Whatever. She didn’t even notice that Frank was staring at her. Nor did she notice the pause in conversation. When he cleared his throat, she brought her eyes back to his face and broke into a warm smile.
“It’s good. I’m there most mornings, and then work in the afternoons, so… I’m exhausted by the end of most days.” She explained, reaching for the straw. She pulled the wrapper off carefully, squishing it all together and making it as compact as she possibly could. She did this idly, while they talked. “I’m ready for it to be over already, though I’ve got a whole ‘nother year to go.”
“I remember that feeling.” Frank’s grin was a bit lopsided as he watched her. It was obvious that Belle’s attention was squarely on the games behind him. He didn’t blame her one bit. Especially considering she had already had a full day so far. The combination of school and work took a lot out of a person mentally, which was part of why he had wanted to bring her to someplace fun where she didn’t have to think.
“So, now for the real question: what game do you want to play first?” If her attention was already being stolen from him, then Frank figured he might as well go with the flow. Besides, it didn’t really matter what they talked about so long as he found a way to make her face light up again.
That brought a huge grin back to Tink’s face. Her eyes caught on his, and there was a twinkle in them she hadn’t had a moment ago. “Pac Man.” She said, without a hint of irony. “I wanna play Pac Man to start. That’s a good starter. Then we’ll move to the bigger, scarier games. And we have to play pinball and skee-ball, too. Those are required.” Because Tink wasn’t going to be satisfied until they’d played every game in the place.
Frank wasn’t entirely sure that a kid’s arcade had ‘big, scary games’, but he was willing to take a look and see. “Absolutely.” His eyes sparkled in anticipation. He hadn’t played Pac Man in ages and he was looking forward to seeing how many tickets they would be able to rack up. Most of all, he was looking forward to seeing how many times he could make her smile.
Well, that and stealing another kiss or two before the night was over. He was only human, after all.