Gwen Stacy (chocolate_house) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-02-08 21:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, fred weasley, gwen stacy (ghost spider) |
Who: Gwen Stacy and Fred Weasley
When: After he contacted her
Where: Starting at her place
What: A date?
Rating: Low
Status: Complete
Gwen was about to move. She had boxes all over the crappy-ass apartment she’d come to from Jersey, and didn’t feel bad about leaving it in shitty condition. It was a little bit cleaner than when she’d started out, but not by a whole lot. And she was looking forward to buying her own furniture and starting her new, adult life.
She gave Fred this address. If things didn’t work out, or if he was like, a scary stalker dude, he wouldn’t have her address in less than a week, anyway. Just this old, crappy one. Enjoy stalking an empty place!
It was the first time Gwen had been out in a while, so she was kinda excited. Pre-meditated, non-random-encounter, date-like going out. She wore a skirt, since most of her pants were too warm for January in California, and a sweater, and fixed her hair up into a ponytail. Good for anything, right? She had no idea what Fred was taking her out to do, so she wanted to be ready for anything.
The doorbell rang and she jumped at the sound, but gave it a moment before she answered it. Didn’t want to seem eager, right?
Fred Weasley was a lot of things, but a stalker was not one of them. Who even had time for that kind of nonsense? He certainly didn’t. For the most part, he was still trying to get over the fact that she’d basically asked him out in the first place. Not to say he hadn’t called, eventually, but still. She’d slid him her number.
He had to admit, he kinda dug a more dominant type of girl. They usually tended to be more fun, and had that extra bit of sass to them that he liked. He leaned casually against the side of the door frame, waiting for her to answer.
Gwen stepped over to the door, took a breath, and opened it. She gave a smile to the guy from the joke shop. He was a little adorable. She was even more nervous at the sight of him there on her doorstep--even though it was a giddy, excited sort of nervous.
“Hi.” She said, reaching for her purse on the coat rack by the door. “Ready to go? Trust me, you don’t want to come in.”
Fred laughed, giving his trademark cheshire grin. “I’ll trust you,” he agreed, and pushed himself off of the doorway, handing her a little flower he’d picked out of someone’s yard just a block down. It was possibly a weed. Clearly, he was a romantic sort. “Also, hello.”
“Awww.” Gwen said, giving a sound like a girl coming face to face with a puppy chewing on a kitten’s ear. “Thank you,” she said, accepting the weed. “Blazing Star.” It was a beautiful specimen of the five pointed, yellow flower. Of course, Gwen could name the scientific name of the plant, as she’d taken a course in botany while she was at Stanford. She’d learned a lot about the wildflowers in California. Though, she didn’t want to show off her nerd skills. Not in the first five minutes of a date. “I love these.”
“Really?” said Fred, raising his eyebrows and doing a little self congratulatory fist pump. Winning! Tiger blood! Adonis DNA! Or whatever. “Sweet. Well. I mean. Glad you like it.” He half skipped down the steps, because he was fairly prone to random outbreaks of a lot of movement. Fred was naturally hyper. It was kind of a problem.
“I figured we could go out for a bite, before anything else? Sound good?”
“They’re indigenous to the area, so it’s not surprising that you’d find one around here.” Gwen said, though she went a little pink. “Right. Words to avoid. Indigenous. Makes me sound like a poindexter.” She gave him a grin, pulling the door closed behind her and locked it. Then she rushed to follow him down the stairs. “Sounds good. I hope you’re planning on showing me some good places around here. For... whatever it is we’re doing.”
“Indigenous,” said Fred, tossing his head to the side, amusedly. “No. Don’t not say it. There’s nothing wrong with sounding smart. Unless your name’s Percy.” He didn’t even bother explaining that.
He grinned, opening the passenger side of his car door for her. “Of course,” he said, sounding a little smug. “First dates are best for sightseeing. Sorry, lady, no movies tonight.”
Gwen felt her heartbeat skip a little at the words ‘first dates’... since it was exciting. First dates were exciting. She didn’t contain her enthusiasm well as she followed along behind him then slipped into the car. “Good. Movies are boring, anyway.” She added, giving him a grin. She waited for him to climb into his side of the car. “I mean, for dates. You don’t get to talk or anything.”
“Right?” Fred agreed whole-heartedly. It was hard for him to sit in a movie theatre at the best of times (he was just too hyper), but he couldn’t even imagine doing it with someone he didn’t even know. There was no fun in it.
Getting into the car and starting it up, the redhead went on. “There are way better things to do, especially in this city. Oh. Do you like Italian? I know this place. It’s good.”
It was kinda cool that they agreed on so much. Gwen was enjoying this so far, and it’d only just started. “Oh, yes,” she said, giving him a nod. “I like Italian very much. I’m looking forward to seeing all the things you can show me. I didn’t get out much over the last year, stuck at home in my parents’ place. So I’m looking for some fun.” Hopefully Fred could deliver.
Pshhh. Fred was the king of delivery. If he was any better at it, he would work for UPS.
“We’ll wander the town about it,” Fred said, driving and totally fucking keeping his eyes on the road because he was good like that. “That way we can chatter and then do whatever we want at the same time.”
Good thing he was a good driver. Gwen would hate to like, grab the ‘oh shit’ handle or wet herself while they were out driving around. Embarrassing. She let her hands rest comfortably in her lap, not once thinking about grabbing onto something and holding for dear life. “Perfect.” The ‘getting to know you’ kind of date. Sounded good for a first date. “You can tell me your life story, and I can bore you with mine.”
Fred laughed at that, even as they reached their destination (It hadn’t been too far away) and parallel parked like a goddamn pro. “I doubt highly your life story is boring,” he said. Although he supposed, yes, it could have been.
“Well, okay. Maybe it’s not entirely boring. But I dunno, you could be a swashbuckling superhero, or something, and then it’d bore you to tears.” She said, then climbed out of the car to join him on the sidewalk.
“If I was a swashbuckling superhero,” Fred said, even as he opened the restaurant door for her, “why would I own a joke shop?”
"Maaaaybe..." Gwen said, trying to figure out a possible reason. She stepped into the restaurant, grinning at him over her shoulder. "Maybe you lost your leg in a terrible swashbuckling accident, and this is your plan b."
Fred downright cackled at that thought. “If only,” he groused slightly, even as they were shown to their seats (he let her pull out her own chair, he was nice, but then there was going too far.) “Alas, I’ve still all my limbs.”
“Damn. I was hoping for bionics.” She did pull out her own chair (she may not have been huge in the muscles department, but she was strong enough for that) then slipped into the seat and gave him a smile, lifting her menu. “How very disappointing.”
“The menu?” Fred asked, playing stupid. Because he did things like that sometimes, just to mess with people.
“No, the--” Gwen said, looking up at him over the menu. She caught the look on his face, though, and broke into a grin. “Right. The menu.” She added, then glanced back down at it. “I’ll have the gnocchi.” She said, folding her menu and leaning back in her chair. “And a glass of the chardonnay?”
Good thing there was a waiter there!
“White wine for me,” Fred specified like a goddamn pro. “Riesling. And, uhm. The veal?” He didn’t know why that was a question. Except for that he and his brother were more acquainted with microwave meals and crisps than real food.
Orders done with, Fred leaned on the table, resting his chin in his hands. “So? How have things been? Did your brothers get their gifts?”
“Oh, yeah.” Gwen said, grinning. She pulled out her phone and clicked up a picture of the two guys wearing their t-shirts, then passed it across the table to him. “It was fantastic. I wish I could have been there. They loved the presents.” /boring conversation.
“How’s business?” Selling more t-shirts to strange girls for their brothers?”
“Yep,” said Fred, taking the phone and grinning at the picture. Cute brothers. Ron had never been that cute. “You know, that’s kind of my rap. Selling t-shirts. To girls. And stuff.” /boring, awkward conversation.
“So.”
“So.” Gwen repeated after him. “This is the part where you tell me your life story, remember? And then I bore you with my own?” She was bound and determined for it to be... y’know... not awkward.
“What? Oh, right. Yes.” He perked up a little, especially when the waiter brought their wine over. “Well, I’ve got a right huge family. There’s seven of us. Six boys, one girl -- Ginny. You’d probably like her.”
“Wait, what?” Gwen asked, her eyes going wide. “You’re one of seven?” That was fairly unbelievable. But she broke into a bright grin. “Wow. Are you really a puppy in disguise?”
Fred grinned as well, back to confidence and cheekiness. “Oh yes. I’m just one in the litter,” he agreed. He considered it. “It’s hard to say with an uneven number, but I suppose we’re the middle children.”
Gwen reached for her wine. “Wow. And I thought my mom had a brood. There are four of us.” She sipped from the glass and nodded. “Go on, then. Tell me about your massive family.”
It was odd, but talking about his family was definitely an element that Fred was good at. “Well, there’s Bill -- the oldest. I think he’s secretly a hippie. Charlie -- he doesn’t live around here, but he visits now and again. Percy -- he’s. Hm. Made up of complexes.” He grinned. “And then me an’ George, of course.” he sipped his wine a little exaggeratedly, as if he were tired of talking. “Then Ron -- bit of a prat, but he means well. And Ginny -- she’s an actress.”
“An actress? Anything I might have seen?” Gwen asked. It was a little overwhelming to think about how many siblings he had. She wondered if any of them were married with children... that’s a lot of birthday and Christmas presents.
“She works for the Disney channel,” Fred said, listing off a few of the things she’d been in. He probably wasn’t as up to date on it as he should have been. To be fair, it was kind of weird to watch his little sister on tv. “But yeah, no worries. I won’t quiz you on names later.”
Yeah, Gwen hadn’t seen any of those things. Her brothers weren’t quite that young, and she was well past her Disney Channel Watching days. She shook her head a little bit. “No idea. But it’s good she’s getting so much work. She’ll be a big star.” So long as she didn’t go the way of the typical child star. “Good.” She gave him a grin. “Because you know I’m absolutely terrible with names, Alan.”
“That’s all right,” Fred said, sipping his wine with a sage sort of nod. “I forgive you, Rebecca.”
“Cheers.” Gwen said, lifting her wine glass as if in a toast. Then she sipped from it before setting it back down. “Am I now supposed to bore you with my story? It’s nowhere near as interesting as six brothers and sisters. Sister.”
Fred grinned brightly. “Well, we can’t all be blessed with a wild pack of siblings,” he said. “But I don’t expect I’ll be bored. I’m sure you can find a way to make it interesting.”
“Oh man,” Gwen said, giving a little laugh. “Now there’s pressure!” She shook her head. “Um, let’s see. My mom’s a housewife, my Dad’s Chief of Police in New York. I grew up in Jersey with my three brothers.... went to a Science-Oriented high school, then Stanford, then MIT.”
Fred faked a yawn. “No.” he said. “You’re going to have to do better than that. I need some explosions in that story, Rebecca.”
Gwen paused for a moment, then leaned in and glanced around the room conspiratorially, as if she was afraid someone might be listening in. “I’m actually an undercover agent working with the FBI.”
“Now that’s more like it,” Fred said, with an approving nod. Now she was on board and he could dig it.