Can't take the heat? (Lucy)

[Tanner Larson]

Considering the fact that it almost hadn't happened, Tanner thought that his "date" with Lucy had gone surprisingly well. They had seemed like very different people at first, but the longer they had spoken, the more the blonde had realized that they had more in common than perhaps either had anticipated. And though the entire night had sort of been a set-up - it was not a real date, but rather it had been arranged thanks to the auction Kiara had held the month before - the pyro felt that they really hit it off. So when Lucy suggested they see one another again, and in a more private setting, Tanner had quickly agreed.

Because of exams and the holidays, it wasn't until early January that they finally got together. By that time, Tanner had moved into his own apartment, which while small still had a nicer kitchen than the dorms. Even better, it was his and his alone, so he knew he wouldn't have to share when the time came.

It was a Saturday in the early evening that they had set their little date for; Tanner had spent more time than usual getting himself ready, showering right before, brushing his teeth and spiking up his hair, and putting on some cologne - just enough to make him smell nice, and hopefully not enough to elicit a snide remark from the feisty girl with whom he would be dining. Dressing himself in a newer pair of jeans that were a navy-ish color and a maroon dress shirt he left casually untucked, he finished off the look by rolling up his sleeves.

Heading into the kitchen, he quickly made sure he had everything they would need to make dinner together (okay, and he'd also bought some stuff to make for dessert, because who didn't like that?) before plopping himself down on the couch to watch tv while he waited. Tonight would certainly be an experiment of sorts. He had cooked with other people before, but never as a real date.

It was a real date, right?

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy was surprised to learn that Tanner decided to move off the dorms. Given how lame her roommates were, she supposed she understood it but she didn't have the means to do something like that on her own. Oh well, she could put up with it. At any rate, the day for when they were supposed to hang out again had come up and she made her way over to his place.

After getting a little lost and thereby making herself a little late, she finally found the door. She reached her hand up and knocked on the door, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket. She quickly reached up and knocked the hood off the top of her head, drawing her tied up hair over one shoulder as per usual. Lucy looked down at her feet, noticing how underdressed most people would think she was. Skinny jeans, a band-printed tank top, some old worn out all stars and a leather bomber jacket. That was good, right?

That was what she always wore, anyway. "Hellooo." She called out, already growing impatient and banging on the door again.

[Tanner Larson]

When Lucy's arrival time came and went, Tanner decided to hop into the bathroom one last time just to make sure he looked his best. It while while he was in there, with the faucet running, that the door knocked. The blonde turned off the faucet, heading out into the living room just as the door knocked a second time. Grabbing ahold of the knob, he swung the door open to find Lucy waiting on the other side.

He didn't consider her underdressed: while he had put a lot of effort into his appearance for that evening, what he was wearing was really only a slightly nicer version of what he normally wore to class, as he was an exceptionally preppy kid. "Lucy," he greeted, his free hand instinctively finding the back of his neck. "Uh, come on in," he added, stepping aside to allow the girl through.

He led her into the living room, which was adjacent to the kitchen. "It's... good to see you," he said, gesturing for her to take a seat on his couch if she wanted. "Um... how have you been?" He asked, trying his best to make plenty of conversation so that things would not get awkward; this was his first time having just one person over to his apartment, so he wanted to make sure it wasn't uncomfortable. "Oh, can I get you anything to drink?"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

As soon as the door opened, Lucy felt oddly self-conscious underneath his gaze. Why? She wasn't really sure. He looked nice and all that, and the definitely wondered if she was supposed to step it up. "Y'dress like that when you hang out at your house often?" She asked, looking at him curiously with a slight turn of her head.

Nevertheless, she walked inside as he indicated that she should. She was led to the living room, her eyes wandering the place for any other clues as to what he was like. People's houses said a lot about them, and all that. "Yeah, whatever." She replied, looking over her shoulder and grinning. "You look as gay as ever," Lucy began, but raised a hand to stop him if he tried to interject. She wasn't finished, "If I were an indie hipster gay dude I'd totally hook up with you, or something." It, in a way, was a compliment. She hoped he'd take it.

"Good. Not much different. I hung out here all freakin' holidays. It gets boring when everyone goes home." Home wasn't an offer for her. She moved towards the couch, running her hand along the back a few times before choosing to sit down. Drinks? Was that even a question? "Always."

[Tanner Larson]

Tanner flushed under Lucy's analytical gaze. He wondered if she liked the way he looked - though, he supposed, if she hadn't, she wouldn't have come here at all. "Heh, sometimes," he replied simply; there was no way he was going to admit that he had tried to look nice that evening just for her, though he supposed it was fairly obvious.

As Lucy gay-bashed his appearance, he rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to say something - not that he was sure what he was going to say - but was interrupted by an addendum by Lucy. "Oh, thanks," he replied with a grin. "But indie hipster? Is that the best I could do?" Not that he had anything wrong with hipsters like a lot of people seemed to, but he was fairly preppy himself so it was sort of like polar opposites. Then again, so were he and Lucy. "You look nice, by the way," he replied with a genuine smile. Hell, she could be wearing anything - or nothing - and Tanner would still be attracted.

He clapped his hands together as Lucy assented to a drink, hopping up off the couch and heading into the kitchen. He had a few liquor bottles he'd gotten from an older friend who worked at the House, which he figured would make entertaining a lot easier even though he didn't drink that much. He poured vodka into two glasses - significantly more into Lucy's than his, since he didn't really like liquor - and then topped off both with seltzer. A chunk of lime was added to both (he wasn't a pro drink mixer, but he'd watched the bartenders enough at the House to have learned a thing or two), and he was heading back into the living room. "I guess it's pretty empty here around Christmas," he offered as he handed her one of the glasses. "Good to get a few days off though, right?"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy raised an eyebrow at his statement, trying to search it for any edge of seriousness before she delved into her answer. "That not your type? I was just guessing." She shrugged at the thought, and then got a little more curious when he said she looked nice.

"Okay. I guess. Unless you're fucking with me." She retorted. Sure, the words had started simple enough until she clued into the possibility that he might be joking. He'd done that once already, she was sure. It had never been confirmed, but she was pretty sure he said things like that just to tease her.

Lucy reached out and took hold of the glass he offered to her. She nodded once; her way of thanking him. The words thank you never really fit well in her vocabulary. "I guess so. Did you get days off from work? Did you stay here the whole time?" As she spoke, she started looking around again and counting how many other doors there were. "Which one's your room?" She asked curiously, looking back to him.

[Tanner Larson]

Tanner rolled his eyes - though lightheartedly - when Lucy accused him of lying with his compliment again; one of the moments he remembered the most clearly from their first (unofficial) date was Lucy asked if he was joking when he had complimented her appearance. It had struck him as odd at the time - perhaps she wasn't used to getting such a compliment? - and even more odd now that she was doing it a second time. "No, I'm not," he replied, lifting his free hand defensively. "I wasn't then, and I'm not now." He wondered if she remembered that moment, or what her lasting impression of their first meeting had been. Apparently not that bad, since here they were now.

Tanner sat down on the opposite side of the couch; he didn't want to freak her (or himself) out by sitting too close, and he figured he could always move towards her if it felt right. Taking a sip of his drink, he relished the fact that he had made it much weaker than he had made hers: he could still taste the alcohol, but much less so than in the drinks at the House, where they certainly weren't shy about it. "Nah, I went home for a few days, just for Christmas and the day after," he replied with a nod of his head; he held the drink in his right hand, extending his left arm over the back of the couch, not wrapped around Lucy but somewhat close. "Actually I visited a friend in Massachusetts first, so it was a busy few days." That had been quite the weekend. "I actually didn't have to take off at all, since I only perform on Thursdays and was only out of town from Friday morning to Wednesday. It was a shit show trying to get two songs together in a day, though."

His eyes widened slightly as Lucy asked where his room was; why would she ask such a thing? Was she expecting to end up there? "Oh, it's, uh, that one there," he said, pointing to the door opposite the couch with a pointer finger extending from his glass. "I've just been here a few days, really, so still kinda furnishing and all that. Pretty happy to be out of the dorms, I gotta say." It sure made having people over easier, and a bit more intimate.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"Well keep trying," Lucy snerked, leaning back in her seat with the intent of brushing it away as best she could. "Maybe one day I'll believe it."

She nodded a few times when he was talking, finding herself genuinely interested in the fact that he decided to go away for Christmas and all that. "Got brothers or sisters, or something?" She asked curiously, tilting her head slightly. She hadn't even noticed the proximity of his hand. "Always figured if I did I would feel more like going back home for those couple of days." She mused on that thought for a second longer before shaking her head and by extension, the thought away.

"Right. Cool." Lucy replied, looking back to where he was pointing. She had her own reasons for wanting to know, and she was a little surprised he shared the information. She took it anyway, looking away again to take a drink from her glass. "The dorms are pretty sucky. One of my roommates gets high like every second day, or something." She didn't know what his name was, but she knew he was a douche. "So all your stuff's in boxes and all that?"

[Tanner Larson]

Tanner smiled, nodding his head with understanding; it was starting to sound more and more like she didn't believe it because she wasn't used to hearing it. Maybe there was a self-esteem issue involved? Tanner knew all about that from personal experience. But that wasn't a fair assumption. Either way, he would be content to continue saying so as long as she would let him. "Deal," he replied simply, sensing that she didn't want to delve any deeper into the matter.

"Nah," he replied, shaking his head as he leaned back slightly into the back cushion, relaxing more and more as they continued speaking. "I do have a bunch of cousins and junk, though. Don't really know them though, so it was all kinda awkward." He laughed. "My dad kept asking me to light things on fire. He's kind of obsessed." As an engineer and someone who was just generally interested in the sciences, the whole thing just fascinated him to no end. "But I got that tv," he added, pointing towards the thirty-two-inch plasma screen television standing on a table on the opposite wall, "so I guess it was worth it."

The boy chuckled; yes, the dorms were definitely awful, especially when one got roomed with someone weird or creepy. That past semester, he'd had one loud and messy roommate, one who was always embarrassing him in public places, and one he didn't really talk to. Having a place to himself was so much better. "Nah, I'm mostly unpacked," he said, "just a few things I need to order to fill the place out." At this point, the walls were still quite bare, and he wanted some more furniture in the living room so he could have more people over, now that he was actually making friends. "So, are you hungry? We could start cooking. Or, I could start cooking and you can keep drinking." Hey, whatever she wanted.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"Only child?" Lucy asked curiously, narrowing her eyes on him. Though really, he already answered that question with his own. She was more or less just processing the information. "Me too." She looked over when he pointed to the TV, an amused and slightly impressed look crossing over her face as she shrugged. "My mum just sent me more winter clothes. Scarves and shit. She's never been outta the country, she just knows it's really cold."

Lucy pressed her lips into a hard line at the thought of her roommates. She was glad she didn't spend any time talking to them, except for the occasional moment where they would move in or she would need to yell at them. She looked back at him, bursting out in laughter when he suggested that they both start cooking. "Nah, you do it." She replied, indicating with the tilt of her head that he should make his way over to the kitchen.

But she still stood up, drinking more from the glass in her hand and wandering around the space. She waited until he wasn't looking before promptly disappearing into his bedroom. Yeeaah, she was gonna go through his stuff.