Room 421, Monday Evening, Pre-Date, Unless It's Canceled, Rinoa's Not Clear On That One

[angelo_wings]

There were so many things to stress about, right now, if you were Rinoa, anyway. (And she happened to be Rinoa. That was how these things went.)

Firstly, she kind of had a date. Not kind of. Actually had one. She hadn't told Ariel about it (was she going to mind? she had Bruce, right?) or Squall (who was definitely going to mind, but that was his problem and not hers). And secondly, she was still a boy.

Were dates canceled if you were currently in the wrong gender entirely? What if your date was? What if your date wasn't? She hadn't seen Christian. Maybe he was still a guy.

She wasn't entirely sure what she should be hoping for, at this point. But she got ready anyway, thanks to some fairly nice looking clothes she'd gotten handwavily at the store downtown. She might be a boy for a while, and she might be a boy who had a date in the meantime, so it couldn't hurt to look her best.

Don't mind the fidgeting.

(for the girl-shaped-boy-date, but can be totes open before he shows up, esp if the roomie wants to chat!)

Comments

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

Christian drew a deep breath, took strength from his conversation with Faramir, and ... tapped lightly on the door.

At worst, she'd laugh at him, right?

"It's Christian," he called, accent the same but voice a touch higher-pitched than normal.

[angelo_wings]

One question answered. Either Christian had been practicing his falsetto, or he was girl-shaped.

She opened the door hesitantly. "Hi," she said. "It's me." And in case that didn't help matters, she added, "Rinoa."

And then she did start laughing. It wasn't directed at him, though.

"I'd planned on wearing a dress," she said easily, "but ..."

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

Once he'd realized that she wasn't laughing at him, Christian laughed in relief himself.

"It's all right," he said easily. "You look -- lovely. Just a different kind of lovely than I had expected." Glancing down at his own plain shirt and tightly-belted trousers, he added, "I thought about a dress myself, but I didn't think a date was the time to learn to walk in one."

[angelo_wings]

"I know what you mean," she laughed. "I'm taller than I should be, and I keep bumping things. You have very nice hair, by the way."

He did when he was his usual shape, as well, but there was more of it now.

"Maybe we should postpone the dancing part of the date?" she suggested, offering Christian her arm in what she hoped was a chivalrous fashion. She was new at this side of things.

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

Christian hesitated, but took the arm. He was awkward at this too. "I don't think I'm ready to dance in this body," he agreed. "So -- a walk? Perhaps a stop for coffee?"

[angelo_wings]

"That sounds perfect," Rinoa said, shutting the door behind them and leading her date out into the hallway.

"I feel like I should have brought you flowers," she added. "But I wasn't sure if you were going to show up."

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

"Do I really seem the type to just not show up?" Christian asked, steering them toward the staircase. "I would have telephoned, at the least."

"Though," he added, "I did need a friend to talk me into it a little."

[angelo_wings]

"Normally, I'd say no," she admitted, "but spending two days in the wrong body does strange things to the head. I wouldn't have held it against you if you were -- I don't know. Hiding and hoping everything went away."

It sounded tempting at moments like this, didn't it?

"Which friend?"

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

"No one I'd known especially well," Christian answered. "Faramir. He just -- said what I needed to hear today."

He shrugged a bit. "I never wanted to hide," he added. "People don't get to do this, do they? I'd be a fool not to at least try to enjoy it."

[angelo_wings]

"That's true, they don't," Rinoa said, her mood brightening considerably. "It's like an experiment. We should make the most of it. I can do something pretty to your hair, and lend you a nice dress, and you can ... what's something manly you can teach me?"

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

"Spitting?" Christian joked. "Throwing a ball overhand? Singing the tenor bits in popular songs?"

[angelo_wings]

"All of those," Rinoa decided. "I shouldn't throw like a girl if I'm not one. It's just embarrassing. Oh, and you can teach me to be charming and woo pretty girls, can't you?"

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

Christian laughed. "I think you're already charming," he said. "And -- well, you aren't doing a bad job of wooing me."

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa laughed, too, stopping abruptly on the stairs to give her girl-shaped-boy-date a mischievous look.

"You know, I was going to wait until the end of the date to try to kiss you," she said, heart skipping a bit nervously. "It seemed more gentlemanly."

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

"If the moment feels right, I wouldn't stop you," Christian said. "Your manly charms might be too powerful for me to resist."

Though he did glance over his shoulder a bit nervously, just in case Squall was following them.

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa caught the shoulder glance but misunderstood its origin. Which was surprising, considering that she half-expected Squall to show up, too.

This would be why she hadn't told him. To minimize the chances of that.

She glanced around the stairwell herself and frowned. "Not all that romantic," she decided. "My manly charms suggest we find a bit more atmosphere."

Yes. Manly charms were totally fueled by romance.

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

"Romance is where you make it," Christian protested lightly, but he was obediently following Rinoa out toward the school grounds.

It would be good to get outside, anyhow. His feminine charms were exquisite in the moonlight.

[angelo_wings]

"You can't rush good romance," Rinoa insisted, because she wasn't kidding about being the Bossy dwarf. "Of course I've killed all the spontaneity now. We'll have to see if we can't find the moment again while we're walking into town."

The way that moonlight hit Christian's hair through the trees should help considerably!

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

"It would make it rather hard for the rest of the date to live up to it if we kissed now," Christian allowed, following the bossy girl. "Nothing to anticipate."

He stuck his hands in his pockets in a not-very-feminine manner and asked, by way of casual conversation, "What are your favorite places in town?"

[angelo_wings]

"Unless there was more kissing at the end," Rinoa reasoned. "When in doubt, add more kisses."

It was a strategy that had served her well until now.

"The preserve, for the view, and Il Pollo for food," she added. "Although the beach really should go on that list. What about you?"

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

"That's an argument that sounds like we should try it sooner rather than later," Christian persisted. "I might be new at it, though. I've never kissed a boy."

He added, "The beach, definitely. The record shop. I don't have a favorite restaurant -- I tend to eat in the dorms. What kind of food is Il Pollo?"

[angelo_wings]

Answering Christian's question was going to have to wait, because Rinoa was nothing if not impulsive, and there really was no better response to that first statement of his than to draw him into her arms, fingers brushing under his chin.

Her voice was a low breath. "Never?"

Blame the moonlight, or Christian's feminine charms, but that really seemed like something that should be changed right about, say, now.

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

"Not" -- and being so close to her was making it rather dreadfully hard to think -- "just. yet."

From the way he tilted his head in -- up, really, and that was odd -- he seemed determined to change that sooner rather than later, too.

[angelo_wings]

It was so weird, being on this end. Taller, and leaning down, and kissing a pretty girl instead of a cute boy -- although, all right, she'd done that before, thanks to the sort of things that went on at slumber parties. And the pretty girl was usually a cute boy, just one who temporarily looked like a pretty girl, and more importantly, was romantic and dashing and made her heart flutter whenever he looked at her like that.

Not that either of them were looking, right now, since she was closing her lips over his with a nervous catch in her breath.

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

It had been ... too long. Christian let himself dissolve in the kiss, floating weightless in a way that had everything to do with Rinoa and nothing to do with which body either of them happened to be in. His hands clasped behind her waist, and it would be a long moment before he let her go.

[angelo_wings]

It had been far too long. It didn't matter that she was taller than she should be, or that his hair was longer; she was going to linger here, his lips soft against her own, with that curious sensation of falling that meant she was going to pull him a little closer.

Eventually, she eased back -- not letting go, yet. Leaning her forehead against his to stand here for a moment and drink the moment in.

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

He sighed, resting there, feeling a familiar tingle course through his unfamiliar body. "We need to do that again when we're back to normal."

It wasn't even a question; all his doubts had fallen away in that moment.

[angelo_wings]

"Let's hope that's soon?" Rinoa added, still breathless. She laughed, somewhat giddily, before adding, "In the meantime ..."

Forgive her. It had been way too long, and there was moonlight, and he still had all those feminine charms.

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

"In the meantime?" Christian laughed back at her. "We ... were supposed to go into town."

He wasn't exactly rushing away from her, no. His question was more to see if she had an alternate suggestion.

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa blushed, which had to look odd when she was in this body.

"I just meant I wasn't in a big hurry to get there," she admitted, leaning in for a second time.

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

Christian murmured an indistinct answer that might have been "That makes two of us" as he thought how adorable the blush was, even on a boy. He might have been slurring a bit; he wanted to kiss her again more than he wanted to talk.

Town ... would still be there; if they ended up spending their date kissing outside the dorms, it suited him fine.

[angelo_wings]

It wasn't like anything was going to close in the next five minutes. Was it? Most places were open late. Or they could go to Caritas instead, get drunk, sing with the zombies ...

This is why Rinoa shouldn't try to kiss and think at the same time. One of them always suffered for it. Luckily, in this case, it was the thinking, so now would be a good time to stop that altogether.

[boho-to-be.livejournal.com]

Christian also wasn't thinking. Or at least, not about anything beyond what might happen if he parted his lips a little more, and pressed up on the balls of his feet so he was that tiny bit closer to her....

[angelo_wings]

The result would be a very appreciative noise, muffled by Rinoa's lips (and by Christian's, for that matter) before her own lips parted. The arm around Christian's waist was now pulling him up and flush against her, and she angled her face to deepen the kiss.

So very strange, to be the taller one and with such broad shoulders, but there was something fascinating about it, as well, and more importantly, they were kissing, and that was far more important than any of the weirdnesses around.