Who: Leon Orcot and Kara Danvers, featuring Dan Smith What: Leon and Kara go on a blind date When: Backdated to early February Where: The Double Tap Ratings/Warnings: Leon is about as crude as ever, but otherwise low/none. Status: Complete
Leon still wasn’t entirely sure why he’d allowed Liv to talk him into a date of all things. He’d only been single for about a month now, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to jump back into anything. But then, he reminded himself, going on a couple of dates didn’t mean he was jumping into anything new. Besides, the best way to get over something was to just get back into the saddle and try again.
It didn’t hurt that Liv had suggested they meet up at the Double Tap either. The Double Tap was like a second home to Leon these days, and it was comfortable, even if he did usually sit perched at the bar instead of in one of the tables. Besides, they didn’t have a kitchen to speak of, which meant that the date would just consist of drinks. That was a-okay by Leon’s standards.
He already had a half-finished beer in front of him by the time Kara showed up. Was this the girl Liv had set him up with? He hadn’t really expected such a bombshell. But, she was approaching the table, so it had to be her. “Kara?” Leon asked, and then, “Wow, you’re hotter than I thought you’d be.”
Being set up on a date was not what Kara had expected when she’d gone out for drinks with Alex the night before and when the other woman had approached her, she’d been a little apprehensive, but Alex had convinced her that she should give it a try. After all, if the guy turned out to be a jerk and tried anything with her, she could just break his arm. Not that she was planning on it, but she did had super strength and was invulnerable, so she could pretty much take care of herself.
Arriving at the place the other woman had told her to meet Leon, Kara glanced around for a moment before she spotted the guy she’d texted her a picture of and headed towards the table, “Um….thanks..” Kara reached up to adjust her glasses, laughing nervously at what she assumed was a compliment. “You’re Leon, I’m assuming?”
“You assumed right,” Leon said, slipping back into his seat and motioning for her to do the same. “I’m sorry about Liv, by the way. She…” was obviously on some sort of matchmaker brain now, which was less annoying than social media brain but way, way more annoying than football fan brain. “Can get pretty gung ho about this sort of thing. She wasn’t too pushy, was she?”
“Oh, no, it’s okay.” Kara said, sliding into the seat next to Leon at the bar, “I mean, it was completely unexpected, but it’s okay.” That is, if okay meant extremely uncomfortable. Kara wasn’t used to being randomly approached by people wanting to set her up with their friends, so she had definitely wished for a hole to open up in the floor and swallow her at that moment, especially since it had been obvious that Alex had been trying to not laugh the entire time.
“So, um, does she do this often?” Kara readjusted her glasses again as she began to think about what she was going to get to drink.
“She goes through phases,” Leon said, taking another gulp of his beer. It was, probably, the easiest way to describe what went on with her personality changes every month. “I just went through a break-up a month and a half ago, so, you know, that probably has something to do with it too.” Though he didn’t have any doubt in his mind that, even if Alex were still in town, she’d be trying to set up another one of her friends with whoever she could find. That was just how the brains seemed to work.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Kara hadn’t had a boyfriend in quite awhile, but she knew how much breakups sucked no matter what the cause of it was. “So she’s trying to be your wing-woman then?” Kara was glad that up until now she’d never really had anyone try so hard to set her up on a blind date.
“Yeah, something like that,” Leon said, finishing off the last of his drink. He laughed a little. “But hey, I guess I shouldn’t complain about someone who’s that dedicated to getting me laid.” Even if Leon wasn’t exactly looking for that kind of thing himself.
From where he stood at the bar, Dan was observing the exchange between Leon and his blind date without looking obvious. He still wasn’t sold on this whole Operation: Set Leon Up on a Date notion Liv had gotten into her head. Usually Dan tried to be supportive of Liv’s various brains, but this seemed a little pushy. Well, a lot pushy, if Dan was being honest. And of all the places she could have suggested they go, she chose The Double Tap. Not exactly a romantic spot, but at least Dan could watch things unfold and maybe…if Leon needed it…play wingman himself.
Dan didn’t recognize the woman as one of Liv’s friends or colleagues and he wondered who she was. He hoped she wasn’t some random stranger Liv had ran into on the sidewalk, but as the exchange continued he realized, yeah…that was exactly what it was. Oh boy…
But at least things had started well – a little awkward maybe, but that’s what blind dates usually were, right? Awkward as fuck. Dan waited patiently for Leon to wave him over to take his date’s drink order, but that didn’t seem as though it was happening. Then Leon said something about Liv being dedicated to getting him laid and it was all Dan could do to keep from face palming.
Using the excuse of refilling Leon’s beer, Dan made his way to the table. “Evenin’, Leon,” he said as he picked up the empty glass. Then to the woman, “can I get ye somethin’ to drink?”
Well that hadn’t been what Kara had expected Leon to say and it was probably pretty obvious as her brows rose at the getting laid part and it left her unsure of exactly how to respond, but luckily she was saved by the bartender, “Um….yes.” She decided to just be simple and order one of the beers they had on tap.
“Nice timing,” Leon said to Dan as he took Leon’s empty pint glass. Of course he could count on Dan for being there for all of Leon’s refill needs. He had to admit, being at the Double Tap did help take some of the nerves out of the whole thing. It was only after Dan asked for Kara’s drink order did Leon realize that he hadn’t even bothered asking if she’d wanted anything. “It’s on me,” he added after Kara ordered her beer.
“Aye, I’ll open a tab,” he said, eyeing Leon carefully as if to say You had better believe the drinks are going to be on you, Detective. To Kara, he smiled graciously. “I’ll be right back with yer beer.”
Dan prided himself on The Double Tap being something of a dive in which middle-shelf alcohol was as fancy as it got. However, over the years of owning the place, he’d warmed up to the idea of having local beers on tap. Nothing fancy -- none of that mirco-brewery stuff – but some pretty decent beer all the same. He filled up a pint glass for Kara and refilled Leon’s drink and brought them back over to the table. “There ye are,” he said as he placed the glasses in front of them. “Name’s Dan Smith,” he introduced himself to Kara, “I own the bar. If there’s anything else you need, don’t hesitate to ask.”
Before returning to his post, Dan paused a moment to give Leon another look. He would have liked to have said something along the lines of not mentioning taking the girl to bed so soon on, but all he could do with Kara sitting right there was give him a rough pat on the shoulder.
“Thanks, man,” Leon said, taking his beer and taking a gulp of it before turning his attention back to Kara. “So, what do you do?”
“Thanks,” She said in response to Leon’s offer of the drink being on him. Once said drink was set in front of her she thanked Dan as well, “Nice to meet you, Dan, I’m Kara.” It seemed a little strange to introduce herself to a bartender, but it seemed like he and Leon knew each other well, so she felt like she should.
When Dan left and Leon spoke again, she turned towards him again and took a sip of her beer before answering, “I work in PR at Stark Industries. What about you?”
“PR, huh? Sounds like an alright gig. Hope it’s not too rough.” He knew that billionaires normally needed a pretty good PR agent in order to make sure that all the skeezy things they did never saw the light of day. Stark was probably no exception, even if he was on the Network with the rest of them. If anything, that probably just made it harder to cover-up.
He took another gulp of his beer. “Homicide,” he answered in reply to Kara’s question.
“It’s definitely interesting.” Kara said, taking a sip of her beer, “I started as Mr. Stark’s assistant and then he promoted me to PR out of the blue.” When she’d gotten the office-wide email that included her promotion, Kara had been more than surprised. She had not expected it in the least, but the fact that Tony had thought she would be a good fit gave her a lot of confidence, “Oh wow. For the OC Sheriff’s Department? My sister works there.”
“Out of the blue, eh?” Leon said suggestively, more teasing than malicious. “But no, I’m with Irving PD. Who’s your sister though? Maybe I know her.” It wasn’t uncommon for interdepartmental drinking to happen, after all.
Kara’s brow furrowed slightly at Leon’s comment then took another sip of her drink, “Yeah. Mr. Stark has a tendency to do things at random.” There really was no rhyme or reason to the things that Tony Stark did sometimes; Kara had learnt that quickly. “Alex Danvers.”
Leon’s reaction to the name was visceral, and he couldn’t quite help but blanche at it. It wasn’t that he thought that Kara’s sister was his ex-boyfriend, because that would raise all sorts of questions, but the memories the name invoked came unbidden. In a couple of hearty gulps, he finished off his beer, and then said “I don’t think I’ve ever met hi - her.”
Kara couldn’t help but notice the way that Leon reacted to her sister’s name. It wasn’t just the expression he made or the way he finished off his beer, but her super hearing had picked up on the change in his heartbeat at the same time, “Are you alright?” She couldn’t help but ask the question. It was in her nature to be concerned about people and she wanted to make sure that Leon was alright even if he clearly wasn’t.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Leon muttered. He ran a hand through his hair and frowned. “It’s going to sound stupid, but I just broke up with someone named Alex. Not the same person obviously, but…” Well, it still kind of hurt.
“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that,” Now it was beginning to make sense as to why Leon’s friend had been trying to set him up with someone, “Breakups can be really rough.” She reached out, tentatively, and placed a comforting hand on Leon’s shoulder. At least she hoped that it was comforting.
“Yeah,” Leon agreed, and then, before he could stop himself, continued with, “You know, he was my first serious relationship? And then he just up and left. For school he said, but dammit, we have schools here too. I mean, with this place being the fucking Twilight Zone I can’t exactly blame him for leaving but…” Well, Leon wouldn’t have left him. “It sucks, you know?”
Dan wasn’t trying to eavesdrop on the conversation happening at the table. Well, alright, he was, which was making it a little difficult to service his other customers. He filled people’s orders with uncharacteristic quickness and not much conversation. All the while, he kept an eye on the table in the middle of the room, an ear out for what was being talked about.
Things seemed to be going ok. Leon had stopped talking about Liv trying to get him laid. That was a good start. Talking about work...not exactly stellar conversation topics, but hey, at least they were getting to know each other. Then Kara mentioned her sister’s name and instantly the entire mood of the table changed. Dan knew that Leon was still hurting over his break-up, but even he didn’t realize that just the name Alex would set him off.
“Christ,” he muttered under his breath. He handed off the latest order to his customer without so much as telling him what was owed and quickly scooted from behind the bar. He reached the table in time to hear Leon lamenting how Alex had left him. Dan placed a hand on his other shoulder and gave it a squeeze in a way that was meant to be comforting and tell him to shut the fuck up.
He then glanced up at Kara, “would you like a refill?” He asked.
“I’m sure it must have been hard for him to leave,” Kara had been in relationships in the past, but she’d never had a breakup where the other person had up and left so she could only imagine how Leon felt. She was about to speak again when Dan showed up as if out of nowhere, “Um, sure. Thank you.”
“Of course,” Dan reached across to pick up Kara’s glass. He tried to think of a smooth way to shift the conversation away from Alex. Then he noticed the hand Kara had on Leon’s other arm, which caused an eyebrow lift. Most women would be put off to have been set up with someone who had recently gotten out of a relationship and hadn’t yet seemed to move past it.
Still, Dan wasn’t sure if this was such a good idea. He glanced at Leon with something of a sympathetic look. He squeezed his shoulder again before going to get Kara another beer.
“I’ll take another one of those too,” Leon called after Dan, having quickly finished off his beer when Dan turned to leave. Dan was a good friend, and the distraction was enough, at least, to pull Leon out of his lamentations over Alex.
It was hard to say how Leon would have thought this date was going under other circumstances, but as it was, he hadn’t eaten supper and he was on his way to a nice drunk, and so he thought it was going pretty well. He placed a hand over Kara’s. “Anyone ever tell you you’re pretty good listener?”
Kara hadn’t really thought anything of it when she’d put her hand on Leon’s should except that she’d thought he’d needed some comforting. At Leon’s words, she smiled, “Once or twice. Sometimes people just need to talk and if that’s the case, I’ll listen to whatever they need to talk about.” Sometimes people just needed to be heard and Kara was just one of those people who would listen no matter what the situation was.
Leon shot her a bit of a smile. There was a lot he probably should talk about, aside from his breakup with Alex, but nothing that he could talk about. But it wasn’t like dates had to be all talking. Leon wasn’t really feeling up to hooking up with much of anyone; his wounds were still too fresh. But well, that was the whole point of a date, wasn’t it? And he generally liked Kara. She was cute, and she hadn’t slapped him yet so that was a plus.
“You uh, wanna get out of here?” he asked, only a little awkward in his delivery.
Dan returned with two fresh glasses of beer which he placed on the table before picking up the empty glasses. He noted Leon’s hand over Kara’s and the two seemed very deep in whatever conversation had started when Dan had left. Well, now, this was an improvement. Maybe the date wasn’t such a bad idea after all. He gave a smile to both of them. “There ye are,” he said. “There be anything else?”
Kara hadn’t expected anything to really happen on this date, but she was having a nice time, even if they had been talking about Leon’s ex. “Do you have somewhere in mind we can go?” When Dan returned with new drinks she smiled at him and thanked him before taking a sip then shook her head, “No, I think I’m all set.”
“Yeah, I’m good too,” Leon said, shooting Dan a large grin, and feeling pretty good about himself. He wasn’t quite sure how he’d managed to pull this off, but he was feeling pretty good about it nevertheless.
He wasn’t entirely sure how to answer Kara’s question though. Most of the time when he said ‘let’s get out of here’ the woman he’d tried to pick up usually knew exactly what he’d been getting at, and would either go with him or throw their drink in his face. Usually the latter. “I uh, was thinking back to my place?” he asked.
Kara wasn’t one to go back to a guy’s place after just meeting and this situation was no different, even if Leon’s intentions were completely innocent, “Why don’t we go get some ice cream or something and keep talking.” She waited to see what his response to her suggestion would be.
Leon tried not to look too relieved. He wouldn’t have been put out if she’d decided to come back to his place, and he probably would’ve had fun, but there was still some part of him that didn’t want to sleep with anyone else. “Yeah, ice cream sounds good,” he agreed.
Kara smiled, “Alright. Lets go then. I know a place not too far from here.” After taking another sip of her beer, Kara got to her feet and adjusted her glasses as she waited for Leon to join her. This had definitely been an interesting date and if anything, Kara hoped that she’d made a new friend out of it.
Had Dan not been carrying a fresh glass of beer, he would have facepalmed at Leon’s rather graceless invitation for Kara to join him back at his place. He was about to “gently” remind Leon that there were other things he and Kara could do that didn’t involve the obvious implications of that statement, but Kara managed to save the conversation herself. Ice cream was good. And it was probably for the better that Leon not put any more alcohol into his system.
“It was nice meeting you, Kara,” Dan nodded to her as she got to her feet. To Leon he said, “Have some fun, eh. Relax a little.” He clapped him fondly on the arm. “Have a good night you two.”