Alex | Julie and the Phantoms (ghostdrummer) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-02-09 12:59:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ₴ inactive: noah czerny |
Who: Alex & Noah
What: First Date
Where: The Boardwalk
When: A few days after the snowglobe plot ended
Warnings: Flufffffffff
Status: complete
Alex was nervous when he showed up at The Barns to pick up Noah for their date. Finally. Hopefully the city wasn’t going to throw anything crazy at them for at least a few days so they could actually do this finally. First there’d been giant bugs, then a bunch of people disappearing, and finally reappearing with all new people. There was never a dull moment around here, that was for sure.
Thanks to the waypoints, it was easy enough to get to The Barns. He’d spent some time scoping out the city and decided on what he thought was the perfect place for them to go. He knocked on the door, rocking back on his heels as he waited for Noah to answer.
In an effort to look nicer than usual, he was wearing a button down shirt with his jeans instead of his usual t-shirt and hoodie, and he’d made sure to tame his hair.
***
Noah was nervous as well, but he’d had an entire house full of people to talk to ahead of time. But with the anxiety surrounding his friends settled now and the anxiety of his first actual date since dying looming, he felt somewhat relieved that it was a more expected social experience. At least it made him feel more like the teenager he was.
At least it was finally happening and not in ‘is this a good time to go on a date’ limbo.
Noah had done the dating thing before, but he’d been in high school, but his sisters sometimes gave him pointers. He didn’t go with the button down shirt, but he’d picked a shirt that was a little less band t-shirt and wasn’t covered in paint. He’d potentially asked everyone if this seemed like the correct sort of date outfit. And at least he didn’t feel totally awkward about it. His clothing went from paint speckled to skater boy to the couple of suits he wore to the balls sometimes. He didn’t want to wear a polo shirt. But his shirt was longsleeved, purple, and didn’t even have paint or writing on it, so that had to count for something, right?
He opened the door, his stomach fluttering a little as he saw Alex standing there. “Hey.” His fingers itched to reach for his skateboard, but he didn’t. He grabbed a coat and slipped outside, smiling a little before shutting the door. A thousand possible things to say floated up, but he didn’t want to say anything stupid, so he settled for, “You look nice. Now I feel slightly underdressed.”
***
“No, not at all,” Alex assured him quickly. “You look nice.” Honestly, it wouldn’t have mattered to him at all what Noah wore, even if it was paint splattered. He was just looking forward to them actually going out and wasn’t sure if he should mention now or later or never that it was his first real date. Back home, in 1995, being openly out was still fairly uncommon, plus he was always busy with the band.
He cleared his throat. “You ready? I made us a reservation for dinner at The Boardwalk and figured we could play some games after we eat.” It was better than sitting in a movie theater where they’d have to be quiet since they could actually talk to each other.
***
Noah smiled brightly at that. It wasn’t his least fashionable at least. He was glad they were finally getting to go out, too. Especially since the last hanging out was more sad in nature than his normal.
“Yeah.” He liked the sound of the Boardwalk and games after. It had been a while since he’d played any games. They didn’t have a lot of arcade action back home, but he did like them. He considered something for a moment before holding his hand out to Alex. If it was a date, then they could hold hands and it wasn’t really anything that the people here cared about. “It sounds like a lot of fun. Wanna see who can get the coolest prize?”
***
It was a little surprising when Noah held out his hand, but Alex flashed him a quick smile as he grasped it, hoping that his palms weren’t all sweaty and gross. Holding hands was totally a normal date thing and so what if they were both technically dead, they deserved a normal date. “Sure, or maybe we can combine our tickets for something really awesome,” he said.
Most of the time, the prizes were cheap junk, though they occasionally had some nice items that you had to work really hard to win.
“So, uh, everyone’s all settled back in and everything?” he asked, glad that Noah’s friends had all returned and relatively unscathed. The stories about that other Vallo were scary and he was glad that he and the band hadn’t ended up there.
***
Noah was glad that Alex didn’t seem weirded out by holding hands. He smiled a little as he took his hand. “Yeah, that could work, too.” He just wanted it to be fun either way. No matter what they ultimately went with, he’d be happy.
There was a nod. “They’re back and okay. I mean, apparently it sucked there, but at least they had each other. Only I wish it wasn’t so terrible.” He loved his friends so much that he wanted to hug them far too many times. They seemed excited about him going on the date, though. So that was a good sign. “I’d have been super upset about it if I’d been there.” The concept of dying again was not one he wanted to live out, which is why he only ever went to fight things when they were a group.
“How’s everyone on your end? I know they didn’t end up there, but there’s a lot of people that went missing.” And it had been hard. But he started to walk, acutely aware that he wasn’t positive where he was going. “Let me know if I’m going the wrong way.”
***
Alex listened intently to Noah’s response to his question, trying to focus on that rather than the fact that they were holding hands and he was actually on a date. Luke and Reggie had poked some fun at him, but he knew they, and Julie, were happy for him and hoping it went well.
“Oh, uh… yeah, it’s a couple blocks this way,” he said. “If you don’t want to walk, we can get an Uber.” He was used to walking everywhere, but he didn’t want to make Noah uncomfortable.
***
Noah went the way that Alex said. He paused briefly at the mention of an Uber, turning to look at Alex. “Do you want an Uber? I don’t mind walking. I could probably also get Ronan to let me borrow the BMW if you want. We have like a million cars here.” But not his. He didn’t really want his to show up, though. Chances were if it did, it would be in Cabeswater where he left it. He smiled a little. “I’ve walked a lot, though, so it’s not a problem to walk if you want, too.”
They’d walked a long time in Cabeswater. He’d been a ghost then and things had been a lot different. But he didn’t mind walking around anyway. And it was kind of nice to hold hands with Alex and walk. He smiled slightly before starting to walk again. “I’m just happy to spend more time with you however. And it’s not too cold right now.” He paused. “Do you notice the cold much? I don’t think I ever really did when I was a ghost. It was just a thing...that I was aware I should feel.”
***
“Walking is fine,” Alex said with a smile. “And, no, I don’t really notice the cold too much. Of course, I’m not used to it either. Never really spent any time outside of Southern California and it doesn’t get too cold there.”
Ever since returning from the void where they’d spent twenty five years that seemed to only last a very brief time, he hadn’t really given a lot of thought to the normal functions of a human body. Not needing to eat or go to the bathroom or anything saved a lot of time and mental energy.
“Oh, can you drive?” Alex asked. “I actually never learned. Didn’t really have time.”
***
Noah nodded. It made sense. He remembered that feeling. And then the distinct feeling of falling into living and feeling everything. “I’ve never been to California. I grew up in Virginia. We used to have so much snow, but I don’t think there’s still as much there anymore. Which seems sad.” He kind of liked the snow. He wouldn’t have minded more of it.
“Yeah. I can drive. I used to have a red Mustang. But it was the car we drove when I…went into Cabeswater the first time.” He frowned slightly. And then he’d died. “But yeah. I liked to drive fast sometimes for fun. But it’s just one of those things, I guess. Mom used to get so mad at me for it.” He looked sheepish then. “I got into a lot of trouble and mischief when I was alive. The last time I was alive, I guess.” He kept walking forward. “I have a bike for now, but maybe I’ll get a car. I could probably just use the Hondayota. It’s part Honda, part Toyota. I guess I’ll see if I need it here or not.”
***
“That’s what moms are supposed to do, right?” Alex joked. His own had done the same to him before he came out and was basically disowned, something he really didn’t want to think about ever, but especially now when he was on what was essentially his first real date.
Luckily, they arrived at their destination then and he made a big show of opening the door for Noah. “So we have about 45 minutes before our reservation to play some games,” he said. “And then of course we can play more after we eat, if you want.”
The arcade area had a wide variety of games available, from shooting and driving video games, to skee ball. There was also a separate area with pool tables and dart boards. “What do you want to play first?” he asked, deferring the choice to Noah.
***
“I think so, yeah.” He missed his mom. He was fairly certain that she’d have been okay with anything he did now just to have him back, but he didn’t want to be sad right now, so he tried to think of more positive things. Like the fact that Alex opened the door for him and it was super adorable and he felt happy as he slipped through the door quickly. “Thanks.”
He peeked at the arcade games, looking for something simple and similar. “I haven’t played skee ball in a while,” he said after a moment. It was kind of exciting to go play it. Maybe after he could try one of the driving games. They never really worked like the real thing, but he didn’t mind too much. “Let’s try to skee ball first. We have to get enough tickets for something fun.” Even if it was just stupid. It would be like a memento of their date and it would be cute. Ronan would probably tease him a little about it, but he didn’t mind that too much. He only did it out of love. Same with the noogies.
He grabbed for Alex’s hand again and pulled him over toward the skee ball.
***
Alex grinned again when Noah grabbed his hand and went with him willingly over to the skee ball area. He’d planned ahead and gone to the venue to get the plastic cards they would need to play games, so he pulled them out of his wallet and handed one to Noah. Hopefully the band would get some paying gigs one of these days. He didn’t need to spend a lot of money, but it would be good to have a little coming in for occasions like this.
“Is it even an arcade trip if you don’t win cheesy prizes?” he joked. As usual, there were a lot of stuffed animals and he wondered if Noah would appreciate one of those or not. It was a total cliche to win your date a stuffed toy and yet Alex wasn’t sure if he cared about being a total cliche even if Luke and Reggie would never let him hear the end of it.
***
Noah happily took the card. He wondered when they switched over to cards instead of coins. It seemed like a new thing, but he wasn’t going to complain about it since it seemed like fun anyway. He pushed the button, grabbing the first few balls as they rolled down since that was how he used to do it back home. It was supposed to be able to get you more balls and thus you could get more tickets. He rolled it, only getting a ten the first time and frowned. “Well, that did not work the way I meant it to.”
But he nodded at Alex’s question. “The cheesy prizes are the best part.” He studied his face briefly for a moment before rolling again, this time getting a thirty. “That’s better!” It was at least pretty awesome. And before he knew it, he had a pretty good amount of tickets for a first time. “That was fun. Have you played a lot of skee ball before? Do you have a favorite arcade game?”
***
It had been a while since Alex played skee ball, but it came back to him pretty easily and he felt like he got into a pretty good rhythm by the end of his first game. Between them, they already had a decent amount of tickets and he grinned over at Noah, glad that he’d decided on this location for their date. It was better to actually do something, he thought.
Noah’s question made him a bit sheepish. “Did you ever play Mortal Kombat?” he asked. “It was really popular back home and I always waited in line for a turn on the machine.”
***
It was definitely fun to do something as opposed to other things. Not that he’d have minded movies or anything like that. It might’ve been fun to spend time watching movies, but that maybe was something that didn’t let them ask questions and maybe could have been done in his room. He tried not to get ahead of himself and think too much about potential situations where kissing could happen, but he’d thought about it. They’d get to it eventually, he figured, and he didn’t want to rush anything in case Alex was still awkward about it. Hand holding was pretty simple.
“I don’t think I’ve done a lot of it, but we could try it if you want to.” He smiled. “You could show me how to play maybe.” It wasn’t like the romcoms where you got someone to teach you how to do activities like hitting baseballs or something like that, but it could be cute anyway. Alex seemed to really like Mortal Kombat, so he was happy to learn a little more about it. “Maybe it’ll be less popular here and you can play it sooner.”
***
“We can see if they have it after dinner,” Alex said. “It’s not too long til our reservation, so we can play skee ball til then.” That way, they wouldn’t get super involved in something and have to stop in the middle to go and eat.
He grinned over at Noah, pleased that so far, things were going well. He really liked the other boy and hoped that things would continue to go well between them.
***
Noah nodded. He was happy to keep playing skee ball until dinner. They could find Mortal Kombat after and it’d be totally cool. He was glad at least that they were able to get a bunch more tickets before it was time to go eat. “I’m sure you’ll totally kick Mortal Kombat’s ass whenever we get to it.” But he was also aware that he was hungry. It seemed weird knowing that at some point he wasn’t as easily aware of it, but he finally figured it out.
“I guess we better go eat, though. Before we can kick it at Mortal Kombat and show off how awesome we are.” He wasn’t as sure of his part in the Mortal Kombat awesomeness, but he was definitely going to try.
***
Not having normal hunger cues was definitely weird, as was the knowledge that he didn’t have to eat. Alex liked food though and sharing a meal with someone was a nice experience, so it felt right to have dinner with Noah on their date.
“Sounds like a plan,” he said. “And then we can cash our tickets in for cheesy prizes.” That would be momentos of their first date. Yeah, he was kind of a sap.
***
Noah grinned widely. “Yeah! Definitely need the cheesy prizes!” He made his way toward the restaurant, shoving all his tickets in his pockets. Was it perhaps a little haphazard? Yeah. But he figured it was all going to be turned in anyway. If it was a little crumpled, it was fine. Just as long as it wasn’t torn in half or something. Just to be on the safe side, he checked to make sure nothing was torn and it seemed fine.
He let Alex check in for the reservation before they went to sit down. It was probably stereotypical of a place called The Boardwalk to order a burger and fries, but it also seemed like the best thing to order. He loved the burger and fry combo! Especially with cheese. “I hope whatever’s next is like cool? Like maybe a lot of Blink-182 or like I dunno...animals that aren’t trying to murder anyone maybe.” Whether that was likely or not, he didn’t know. Also he was anti-snowglobe. Except he loved them. Which was lame. The glittery snow ones were the best!
***
“That would be nice,” Alex said. “Something that doesn’t involve people disappearing or getting hurt is preferable.” Somehow he didn’t think it was likely, but he could hold out faint optimistic hope.
He certainly wasn’t going to judge Noah for ordering a burger and fries since it was the same thing he was looking at. “It’s also really cool that you like Blink-182. They were really big when I was in high school.” You know, before he died. “I probably missed a lot of good stuff by them.”
***
“I missed so much Blink-182!” He felt the loss of all the things he missed when he was dead. None of his new friends were really into their music, which made sense since they were younger and Ronan tended to prefer bagpipes to anything else. That and Murder Squash, which was one of Noah’s favorites, too. He wished there was more Murder Squash, but he guessed there could only be one song. Otherwise Gansey might have to put up with more music he definitely hated and he was unlikely to be happy about it.
“Like I’ve caught up on them since getting here. I have all the CDs now if you ever wanna listen to them together...or borrow them.” It’d be nice to listen with someone else that liked them. “There’s the funniest song ever on the one album. It’s called Built This Pool. But uh…” He blinked, remembering the lyrics and feeling his face heat up slightly. “You know, it’s the usual crude song stuff that Greenday and Blink liked to do.” Like sing a song that was simply just I wanna see some naked dudes. That’s why I built this pool. “So maybe pick um...a different song if that’s gonna be weird. But the California album’s pretty great in general.”
He cleared his throat after a moment. “What other bands do you like? I mean other than yours obviously.”
***
Oh, man, Alex could talk about music forever. “I’d love to listen with you sometime,” he said, though he was a little baffled by Noah’s slight blush when he mentioned that specific song. He’d have to look it up later and see what caused that reaction.
“I was really into Weezer,” he said. “And Nirvana. God, the day Kurt Cobain died was the worst.” Most people in his life, save his bandmates, hadn’t really understood why that was so hard for him to cope with. “Oh, and Pearl Jam. They’re great.”
It was cool that they could talk about shared interest in music despite being from different worlds and times.
***
“Awesome! It’ll be great!” Cause who didn’t like catching up with a band that you used to listen to when you were alive? “Oh! Weezer was really cool! I liked them!” He had liked a few of the songs by Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but they weren’t his biggest bands. “I remember that. It was super crazy. Everyone was real upset and stuff.” It was weird to know about it. Most of the people in the social circles he was part of didn’t really listen to the same music as him, but Adele had checked in just in case.
“I liked Offspring and Greenday a lot, too. They were super cool. One of the songs was in that weird alien movie! It was kinda cool.” He smiled. “Not band related, but have you ever watched this show Ghost Adventures? It’s kind of hilarious. Like they’re always shouting come out bro at ghosts and sometimes things happen, but I don’t know if they’re real or like...faked. There’s a lot of ghost hunting shows that are a lot funnier now than they probably were before. It’s super funny sometimes. But then sometimes it's real sad. And then sometimes it’s actually scary.”
***
Alex shook his head. “No, I haven’t watched a lot of TV since… being back.” What was the right way to say that? He had no idea. It wasn’t like he was alive again, though he was closer to it here than back home. “It seems like there’s a lot of weird stuff on TV now.” The ads he saw were all for super dramatic shows that were supposed to be reality but didn’t seem very real to him at all.
“Maybe we can watch that together sometime,” he said.
***
That was probably fair. There was a lot of stuff to do that wasn’t TV. It was just that living in a house full of insomniacs sort of gave you a large inventory of things to take up time. He and Gansey sometimes picked things to watch together, too. Still in the supernatural vein, but not exactly Ghost Adventures. “There can be some weird stuff, but some of it’s okay. But there’s also like...Cartoon Network shows and Nickelodeon shows on one of the streaming services. It’s pretty cool. Like if you want something possibly more familiar? I dunno. Most of the time half the house can’t sleep, so I guess I watch a lot of stuff.”
But he nodded at Alex’s suggestion. “I think that’d be super fun. We can laugh at them yelling at ghosts because apparently that’s how to get them to participate. Maybe it just adds a little danger to the adventure. Probably why they do it.”
***
“I feel like yelling at them would have the opposite effect,” Alex said, shaking his head a little. People had weird ideas about ghosts. Then again, until he’d become one, he supposed he had too.
Their server brought their food then and he realized that they’d been talking a lot longer than he thought. Talking to Noah was just easy. He was really glad that he’d gotten up the courage to ask him out.
***
“That is sometimes the case, but then sometimes they just make the dangerous ones angry? I mean...I guess it could still be fake.” There was nothing to say they didn’t have people they didn’t show carefully making things happen in the background. He didn’t get too invested in figuring it out.
Once his food was in front of him, he thanked the server. It was nice not to have to awkwardly pretend not to eat at least. He shoved a few fries in his mouth, trying to chew them before speaking again. “Are you guys planning a bunch more gigs now that Julie’s back?” It seemed like they would be and he knew of the one at the bookshop.
***
Alex shrugged. “Probably, yeah,” he said. “People have offered to pay us, so I guess that could be a thing.” They didn’t need a lot of money, but it would be cool to get paid to do what they loved.
Either way, he was glad they were all together again.
***
“That’s cool! I’m glad that you’re getting the chance to play more.” He liked their music, too. He guessed the guys might not need too much money because they didn’t have to pay rent or anything, but it helped to have money. Noah was going to school which took a lot of money. He kind of wondered where he’d be if he hadn’t died. Probably not in art school. He ate some more of his food and drank some of his soda.
“Besides the arcade games stuff, is there anything you wanted to check out that you haven’t yet?”
***
Almost done with their food, Alex shook his head. “No, I don’t think so,” he said. “We can play games for a couple of hours and then head out?” He would admit he was a little nervous thinking about if he should give Noah a good night kiss or not at the end of the evening. At least he didn’t have to decide just yet.
***
Noah nodded at the answer. It was a good enough plan. Once they were finished with their food, he was happy to go back to the arcade for a bit. There was some Mortal Kombat and he played a few more of the games where he could get tickets. They needed to get a couple of the cheesy prizes after all and he was happy with what he got. It was a fun way to remember the first date. He might get teased, but he was pretty sure it was fine.
The walk home was nice. It was a little darker, but Noah didn’t mind too much. If he’d been on his own, he’d have taken one of the waypoints, but he liked having more time to talk to Alex and the concept of walking and holding your date’s hand.
Once they got back to the Barns, he stopped a little bit away from the house to avoid any potential spying by his friends. Not that he felt like a little distance would really stop them. “That was a lot of fun. I’m glad we got to do it and that we found Mortal Kombat for you!”
***
If he had to say, Alex would call the walking and holding hands the best part of the night. The closer they got to the Barns, the more anxious he got, hoping his hand wasn’t getting all sweaty. He really wanted to kiss Noah good night and thought that he’d be open to it, but was a little nervous that he would be bad at it.
“I’m glad we did too,” he said, not quite ready to let go of Noah’s hand. “Thanks for going out with me.”
He hoped they would do it again.
***
If there were any sweaty hands, Noah wasn’t overly aware of it, but he felt just a little anxious himself. Mostly about whether or not Alex hand enjoyed himself and whether he could expect a noogie the moment he walked through the door. The potential was there.
“Yeah. You set a pretty high standard for dates now, though, so I guess I’ll have to plan something really cool for the next one.” It was half jest and half pointedly mentioning that he wanted to go on another date. Just in case he needed to make that obvious. Even if he didn’t need to make it obvious, he was pretty sure saying it wasn’t going to hurt anything. He hoped.
He was less certain of dating rules and if they applied here or not, but he ran his fingers through his hair with his free hand, not entirely sure if he should ask if he could kiss Alex or not. Then again, he wasn’t sure he wanted to overthink not asking all night either. “Um. So...do we um…” He nearly winced at how awkward that sounded. “Is it like...still frowned upon to kiss on a first date or is that not actually a thing?” It was possible only girls were taught that. That seemed kind of sad, though.
***
Alex was so happy that Noah said he wanted to go on another date that it took him a second to catch up to his question. When he did, he was glad that it was kind of dark outside and hoped it would hide his blush. “I don’t know if that’s a thing or not, but… I’d like to kiss you good night.”
This wasn’t something he had much experience with, but he closed the brief distance between them and pressed his lips against Noah’s, surprised by how soft they were.
***
The look on Alex’s face after his mentioning going on another date was really cute. Noah was at least glad that it wasn’t something that was frowned upon by Alex, so he tried to ignore the heat from his face. I’d like to kiss you goodnight was much nicer to hear than he’d really thought.
When Alex kissed him, he kissed back, letting his hands move to rest on the other boy’s hips. It was nice and definitely something he wouldn’t mind doing again...potentially a lot more times. He was trying not to be over eager about kissing. He knew he’d had more experience with it and he didn’t want to make things awkward. Okay, maybe like one more kiss before he let it go.
***
One - or two - more kisses was perfectly fine with Alex and when he finally did pull back, he didn’t even try to hide his grin. “I had a really good time tonight,” he said, thinking he sounded incredibly lame for saying it, but not really sure what else to say. What was the right thing to say after a good night kiss? Maybe he should have asked Reggie and just dealt with the teasing.
“I guess I should go.” Even though he didn’t really want to.
***
“Me too.” Which was true enough and at least not the most awkward he’d been that night, but he was very cute in that moment. “I’ll get something planned soon. For our next date.”
It was somewhat disappointing that it had to end, but he also knew it probably had to. But they could still text later if they wanted, right? “Yeah. Probably right. Um. But text me when you get home? So I know you made it. I mean, I know you’ll probably be fine because ghost, but…” It was an excuse to text later and not one he was particularly sorry about either.
***
“Okay, yeah,” Alex said, finally letting go of Noah’s hand. “Night. I’ll text you when I get home.”
Maybe he’d get lucky and the rest of the band wouldn’t be waiting for him.