riverviewlogs | Totally not a date

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Totally not a date

who: Orion Luis & Freya Vaughn.
what: Coffee break, exploring the city, hopefully finding a pizza place to wrap up.
when: February 14th, after exchanging some texts the day before
where: The cafe Ciel just opened to start
warnings: None that I can think of

Since their text conversation Orion has realized what day today is. Ah, yes. He did just invite a girl out on Valentine's Day without thinking anything of it. Of course he did, he's never put much thought into the holiday outside of ignoring it completely - some years a little more pointedly than others, and this year he'd just happened to forget all about it what with arriving in Riverview with such convenient timing.

It was nowhere near February last he checked, why would he even be thinking about this particular holiday right now? Whatever, he needed to deal with it. He needed to handle however this was going to go down, and of course an attractive flirty girl like Freya? Yeah, he wasn't exactly expecting it to go down well.

He might be pacing around the first floor of communal housing debating just how to open up this conversation before finally sending the worst text he's ever had to send. Which is saying something considering his history.

Hey. I just realized what day it is today and if you have other plans, like a date or something that's totally cool. I get it. Maybe we can reschedule.

That didn't come off too desperate did it? Was it arrogant to assume she'd even want to reschedule?

What was wrong with him?

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Freya was getting ready to head out when she received Orion's text. It was early but if she didn't get there early she was going to lose track of the time doing something else and stand the poor guy up. Freya tried to avoid unpleasant situations, like standing people up, more so when she's acquiescing free food in the process.

She stared at her phone for a few seconds before replying back to him.

You're good, unless this was some backwards way of you telling me that you had other plans and forgot? If so that's cool. I have no other plans today besides meeting you.

Except maybe finding a place that sells batteries but I was going to multi-task when we went out and do that then.

That's cool we can find batteries.

Yes, this is the first thing he thinks to reply before realizing he completely neglected to respond to anything else she said.

Which is to say no, no other plans. I mean these are the first plans I made since arriving here. Just this, us hanging out. I am planless, I basically just got here so haven't really talked to anyone else worth making plans with yet, but I figured you're cute. Maybe for the holiday you had a date or something.

Someone please shut him up.

:)

You're too sweet but I've never been lucky with dates.

Which Freya was surprisingly okay with. It was easier being alone.

It's still on then. I'll see you in an hour or so? I don't know what time it is, I need to look, but soon! I'm looking forward to having fun and hey, maybe we can find a valentines sale and use the holiday for something useful like saving money. :P

Really? you? I don't buy that.

His blatant and unhindered bias is showing, he thinks she's attractive and worth taking on a date. Not that he'd ever admit as much out loud, you don't just say that sort of thing to strangers! He's not really big on the whole commitment thing either though, he wouldn't know what to do past the casual dating. This whole experience was pretty unreal for him.

I like the way you think, Valentine's Discount it is. :)

At the scheduled time Orion will be waiting for her outside the communal building, which seemed like the most logical place to meet in order to start their day together. It only made sense that he'd get there first considering he was notoriously punctual and lived on the first floor. He had made sure to dress comfortably since there was going to be food and a run involved if everything went according to plan.

He's cute and Freya can't help but smile at the text before sliding her phone into her pocket. She thought about replying back to him but anything she might have said would make him feel awkward and she liked the sense of familiarity that they currently had. It was comfortable and sometimes, more didn't need to be said.

She had left with the intent to arrive early, got distracted, and then arrived a few minutes late. There was a bright smile spreading across her lips as she ran up to him. "Hi. Sorry. There was someone selling these cute little things and--" Freya lifted a bunny key-chain up for him to see. "Isn't it cute? I got one for you if you want it." She was a fan of small trinkets.

Freya was short, barely reaching 5' in height with messy long blond hair. She wore black paints and a dark blue tank top that showed off the tattoo's on her shoulder blade and arms.

Orion was definitely the king of awkward, so that was a good call on her part. It was unusual for him to be this comfortable around someone, for things to be so easy going, even with Ivy couldn't compare to the casual ease of things with Freya. They were soul mates, "meant to be" but she was worlds out of his league and nothing about their situation had felt meant to be anything but trouble. There was none of that here, no burden, no obligation, no complicated backstory of betrayal and heart break.

He couldn't help the grin when she ran over, she seemed just as excited as he was, which only served to add to both his excitement and anxiety about the day. Orion was nervous around girls and social situations by nature, which meant the better it was going the more spectacular the crash and burn if he messed it up. "Cute," The word was out of his mouth before he could process it, "I mean it's adorable-" He held out his hand to take it and get a closer look, even if he honestly didn't care all that much about cute bunny key-chains. "You don't need to apologize." Honestly, she was barely late, and he didn't mind.

Orion was quick to feed off energy, and she was practically radiating with it. He certainly wasn't complaining, though. The first things he noticed about her had his attention, the size, the messy blonde hair and those tattoos. She seemed so young and innocent, and older all at the same time, he couldn't really place it. "You really like tattoos, huh?" He assumed she was fine talking about them if she was showing them off, although he knew from experience not everyone was open to discussion.

Freya looked up at Orion and felt a wave uneasiness wash over her. Her eyes widened and she began to uncharacteristically stammer. "It is cute. Um... so I got one for you. Because I thought it was cute. And it was on sale so- two birds, one stone. Kind of thing." What the ever loving fuck? "I um... I'm usually a lot later than this so apologizing is second nature. I also thought I was a lot later so bunny apology!" She held up the little bunny key-chain again with a bright smile.

She didn't know what it was about Orion, he smelled human, but she felt comfortable around him. Like he was someone that she'd known her whole life. It felt dangerous and instantly made her a little uneasy. It didn't look like he was aware so maybe it was all in her head. It's best to focus on bunnies.

Yes, bunnies are good.

"Oh, yeah." Freya looked down at her shoulder and arm where the flowers and compass marked her skin. "You know, tattoo's, they all stand for something to me. I travel a lot, hence the compass. That's usually the easiest one to explain." Also the quickest. "The roses and iris's stand for love and the power to believe in ones self."

He definitely doesn't realize that she's uneasy at first and when she started stammering he's not going to figure out the reason. Orion wasn't the most observant person alive, and he also applied his own logic to situations where it didn't necessarily apply. This early on he'd figure maybe she's just more awkward in person, if he was going to attribute it to himself at all it would be more along the lines that he was making her awkward because she realized she didn't want to talk to him.

"Two for the price of one, you really like your deals, huh?" He hadn't exactly forgotten the plan to find a good Valentine's Day offer to take advantage of. Either way, he'll follow her cue and focus on the bunnies. For now.

"Don't worry, time isn't really a big deal for me, I spend most of my time with a species that doesn't realize the watch was invented." Trying to do things on a specific time frame when working with dogs didn't always go as planned, he never minded working a little longer than usual though so it hardly bothered him. "We'll just have to keep our meetings for when I don't have to go to work after." It was a joke, mostly that he'd hoped would ease the tension, even if he figured it made him come off like an idiot.

"They're pretty cool." He has no idea about tattoos really, they were that sort of thing other, cooler people got. "I like when tattoos mean something to the person, you know? When it's personal and not just because they liked the look of it. That's cool though, those are cool."

"I like saving money." She roller her shoulder in a lazy shrug. "It's weird for me to have money." Freya wasn't used to it. She'd spent most of her life traveling from place to place and has never kept a job for more than a few weeks. So far, she was doing pretty good in Riverview and she somehow still has a job.

"Our meetings? Already ready for more?" Her voice was light and teasing. "I like that idea. Maybe I'll fix that habit of never arriving on time." Orion will learn that Freya was either stupidly early or ridiculously late to planned events.

"And thanks! I like them. They were a bit difficult to get but they're all very important to me." She had a lot of tattoo's, including ones that weren't easily seen. "I'll show you all of them sometime." If he ever saw her shift he'd see all of her tattoo's though he'd also see a bit more than just that.

"Ready to go? I know the plan was a walk towards the beach and food but I didn't know what you were feeling. I figured we'd walk in the generally correct direction and if you see a place that looks cute we can pause there and go inside." Freya stepped forward and clipped a bunny key chain to one of his belt loops. "Now we each got our bunny charms." Her's was on her backpack.

"Really? I mean I guess it's kind of weird for me to have my own money... I was in college back home, it was a lot more complicated. Here I just make money and get to do whatever I want with it, which is cool. New, but cool."

At the question he just grinned, shrugging a shoulder. "Sure, why not? You don't think this one's going to be such a disaster we'll never want to see each other again, do you?" That actually wasn't an unrealistic leap for him, but here he is trying to be positive. Things seemed different with Freya and he hoped that it would last, even if the last time he felt this comfortable around someone, it wasn't like this and she disappeared shortly after. "Hey, maybe, but don't change on my account. I'm pretty flexible."

He could only imagine the difficulty came with the pain involved since he had no idea about her being a werewolf. "I think I'm too much of a wuss for tattoos, honestly. You have more, huh? That's cool, I'd love to see them." He might not realize the implication behind those words, but if she's offering it didn't seem like they were anywhere too personal.

"Actually, I considered your idea about the Valentine's Day special. There's a new cafe that just opened up and they're doing a deal for couples." A grin, because to him that was a joke. "I figured we could start there and grab coffee and then wander beachward after. What do you think?" He paused when she clipped the charm on him before grinning again, tilting his head in the direction of the cafe he'd found out about. "Like a matching set. All right, let's go. If I'm not mistaken the new cafe isn't too far."

Freya snicked softly. "If today is a horrible disaster I'd absolutely want to see you again." Disasters are fun. "That said, I don't think that'll be the case. I already know you're cool which is why I was excited to hang out. Plus. Today already started off awesome." She turned and pointed to the bunny key-chain on her backpack. "With bunnies. So let's bounce!"

Get it...

"Pun's aside, a new cafe sounds awesome." She turned and looped her arm in his. "Lead the way." Freya followed at his side, only sliding close when they couldn't walk comfortably side by side due to the traffic on the sidewalk. For as short as she was, she was very skilled at not getting run over though her fail safe was to hide behind Orion and let him be her shield if a tidal wave of people happen to be walking on the streets tonight.

"Tattoo's really aren't too bad." She continued as they headed towards the cafe. "At first it's weird but it eventually feels numb after your adrenaline kicks in. Like hurt numb. I might not be explaining that well." Freya was an engineer, not a writer. "Anyway, I have this one on my arm, the flowers on my shoulder, a tree on my shoulder blade, a heart at the nape of my neck, a humming bird behind my ear, a wolf on my thigh, and a lock on my lower back."

Freya paused and counted on her fingers. "I think that's all of them."

Well, that sounded optimistic on her part, but he's not going to knock it. "Let's bounce." He repeated, as if he couldn't believe she actually went there. He couldn't, but that was neither here nor there. He's almost surprised enough to react physically when she grabbed his arm, but managed to compose himself long enough to get them moving.

"I'm hoping it's as good as it sounds," He might look amused, though. It had definitely been an interesting broadcast advertising it. He definitely wasn't used to someone so short as Freya tucked in closer or dodged oncoming foot traffic, but he was used to walking dogs and that meant being aware of them much lower than where she was now.

He grinned when she described her tattoos, ignoring the pain part. He still didn't think the idea was for him, but that just made it all that more admirable to him that she had so many. "That's definitely more than a few, and they all have some sort of meaning?"

Freya usually aired on the side of optimism. Not because she actually thought that things would turn out well but because it was nice to think that they might. Besides the fact that a positive attitude went a long way in making something work out. Being positive was a win-win.

"Me too." She was also hoping that the cafe had something on the menu that wasn't chocolate. "Where is it anyway?" Freya had started walking in the direction that felt right but she didn't have an idea of where she was going. Most of the food places just happened to be in the same direction from the communal housing, probably by design.

"They all have meanings but some of them are kind of long winded." There were also a few tattoos that she didn't want to explain to him. Like why there was a heart shaped lock on her lower back with a key for every member of her family, their names marked on her skin so she wouldn't forget the last day she'd seen them alive.

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Totally not a date

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