First Date

[skybluejeep]

Characters: Stiles and Rapunzel | Closed
Date: October 1
Location: Wood, and then Earth Sector
Situation: Stiles has asked Rapunzel out on something resembling a date. Asti and the rest of Keelai is about to keel over from shock.
Warnings/Rating: Probably none. Rapunzel's a Disney princess, after all. I think there are laws against that kind of thing.

***

Stiles knocks on the door to Rapunzel's suite for the second time in as many weeks. Only this time, he's there to ostensibly take her out to dinner. This is honestly the first time he's asked a girl out for dinner and had her say "YES" so it's a huge, world-shaking deal for him.

He's wearing his jeans, and a Keelai-style shirt in green, with a Mandarin collar. It doesn't suit him, but it's better than the same plaid shirt he's been wearing since he got here, right?

Oh god, please let this go well...

Comments

[watcheslanterns]

"Okay!" She nodded enthusiastically. A party. She'd never been to a party before, unless you counted the simple celebrations she and her mother would have on her birthday.

Thinking of that caused Rapunzel to drift off in thought, even looking sad for a moment. Her birthday had already come and gone, technically. She was eighteen now, and she still hadn't seen her lanterns.

She stopped and smiled once again, putting her attention back on Stiles. "Maybe you could invite your friends? Do they like pizza, too?"

[skybluejeep]

"They do, and it'd be a great way to introduce them to you."

He saw that look on her face, and his heart skipped a beat.

"...Hey. What's the matter? You looked so sad for a second there. Is it my pad thai breath?"

[watcheslanterns]

"Oh, no," she said and shook her head. "It's not you at all!"

She pulled her braid over her shoulder and began absently playing with it. "I was just thinking about home."

[skybluejeep]

He gave her a knowing nod, understanding more than he could show her.

"I get homesick too, sometimes," he murmured. "I really miss my dad. But...I also know he's okay back there, since time is kind of not passing? Sort of? It's confusing and I don't really get it, but.

"Do you just live with your mom?"

[watcheslanterns]

"There was my friend Pascal, too," she told him. "He's a chameleon but he's been there for me for years."

Being so far away from home, Rapunzel was beginning to realize how strange that might seem to others. She wasn't ashamed though. Pascal was family, plain and simple.

[skybluejeep]

"You have a pet chameleon? Oh, that's awesome."

He's never kept lizards or snakes himself, although one year he had a tiny pac-man frog that turned into a not-so-tiny pac-man frog, which his mom then took to the vet to be re-homed. She never had liked feeding it goldfish...

"So you, your mom, and Pascal in a giant seventy-foot tall tower in the middle of a forest. Sounds, uh. Idyllic?"

[watcheslanterns]

Rapunzel thought to protest the idea that Pascal was a pet, but was moved along by Stiles' train of thought. She knew her upbringing wasn't normal, and that only became more obvious the more she met and talked with new people. She knew her mother's intentions had been good, but Rapunzel couldn't help but feel that maybe things weren't as bad as her mother seemed to think.

She laughed nervously, her cheeks turning pink. "It was safe. Comfortable."

[skybluejeep]

"Safe from what? Bears?"

He's trying so hard to keep this light. Hah hah, everything's fine, let's just pretend that this beautiful girl wasn't kept prisoner all her life. He wants to save her, protect her. And he hardly even knows her.

"I don't know, up that high, you run the risk of eagles and hawks flying in, roosting in the ceiling, swooping down on you. Doesn't sound safe to me."

[watcheslanterns]

[She could tell that he was trying to cheer her up and felt bad feeling so down. Besides, even if she liked Stiles, she wasn't sure if she was ready to tell him, or anyone, about her secret. So she smiled, and went along with the light tone.]

We've never had eagles and hawks, though some robins and blue birds would visit from time to time.

[skybluejeep]

He smirks at that again, and waggles his eyebrows at her.

"As long as you're not dressing them up and giving them cutesy names, I think you're okay."

[watcheslanterns]

With pink cheeks she shrugs her shoulders. "Well, I'd only do that with Pascal, really."

Not that she ever made him wear the outfits she made too long. "I think he likes it. Sometimes. Maybe."

[skybluejeep]

He gives her a flat, disbelieving look, before slowly raising one eyebrow.

"Oh, Rapunzel. No. See, this is why video games are so important. They keep you from dressing up poor, innocent reptiles in frilly dresses."

[watcheslanterns]

She pouts slightly. It wasn't as if there had been a huge variety of things to do in the tower. Video games, whatever they were, had definitely not been an option.

"They weren't always frilly dresses." Just sometimes. Most of the time.

[skybluejeep]

Oh god don't pout. He can't resist the pout!

"I'm joking," he says with another little grin. "I'm just teasing you. If you wanna dress a lizard up like a Barbie doll, go for it."

[watcheslanterns]

She didn't understand the Barbie reference, but doll, at least, she understood.

"Pascal would have told me if he wanted me to stop," she told him. She knew it wasn't his favorite activity, but he'd never made her stop.

[skybluejeep]

"I'm sure he would have," he agreed, still grinning. Because...well, why not a sentient chameleon who objects to cross-dressing? They were living on the back of a giant turtle. Anything was possible.

He looked down, and was surprised to discover that his food was nearly all gone. He vaguely remembered eating it. But so much of his attention was on her that it flew down his mouth with hardly a second thought.

"...Guess I was pretty hungry, huh?"

[watcheslanterns]

Likewise, Rapunzel had nearly finished her meal, though there were a few straggling pieces that she was having difficulty capturing with her newly discovered chopstick skills.

"That makes two of us, I think." She laughed a little, because despite the meal being incredibly delicious, she had lost track of it all somewhere along the way.

[skybluejeep]

"I blame the good company," he said, winking at her.

"You ready to go? We can walk off all these delicious carbs."

[watcheslanterns]

"Yes!" She smiles and nods before getting up from her seat. "We just have to thank the cook first, right?"

[skybluejeep]

"Of course. Come on."

He reaches out his hand to hers, to take it. And his heart sort of skips in his throat, because he's never really done that before. God, he hopes she takes it.

[watcheslanterns]

"All right," she replied.

Without a second thought, Rapunzel took his hand. She enjoyed Stiles' company and she trusted him, though he mother would have advised against that. Holding his hand, once it was offered, seemed a natural thing to do.

[skybluejeep]

Yup. Official heart-skippage happening here now.

Giving her a little squeeze, he leads her over to the cook, a large, female Kedan with a very imposing manner. Think Gordon Ramsay, only with three arms. And she gives Rapunzel a very flat 'what on the turtle do you want?' look.

"...Uh. We want to thank you for a lovely dinner..." starts Stiles, giving the woman his most charming and adorable smile. How can you resist this face?

[watcheslanterns]

[While Rapunzel was happy to follow along she shied back slightly at the close up view of the cook. She was far more intimidating than Rapunzel had imagined, and she feared for a moment that this was a bad idea. But she quickly reminded herself of a few other intimidating people from back home and was reassured.]

Yes. Thank you for the food. It was delicious!"

[skybluejeep]

That just gets a nod, and a begrudging smile, very small and hardly noticeable. Then the woman turns away, but holding up one hand in a "wait" gesture.

She pushes two large red-bean steamed buns into their hands, and then shoos them out of her kitchen, still smiling slightly. And Stiles is more than a little gobsmacked.

"...She's never offered me a steamed bun before."

[watcheslanterns]

Wide-eyed, Rapunzel smiled and took the bun. Thanking the cook again, Rapunzel followed Stiles out. She giggled softly.

"Well, there's a first time for everything, right?"