Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - Printable Version
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Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - thedarkwyrm - 11-16-2014
When the waitress returned with their drinks, setting the cold water in front of Alex and the hot coffee in front of Charles, he set down his menu, looked over Alex with a faint grin, then turned to the waitress. "We'll have two of the Sacred Cow burgers, extra everything, cooked medium well. Tell Johnny to do that thing he does with the open flame."
The waitress nodded and collected the menus, sashaying off to the back. Charles looked across the table with a grin. "The Sacred Cow burger is a hefty patty, with bacon, three kinds of cheese, a bunch of topping things, and their special burger sauce. This is the only place on this station where you can get a burger like that made completely out of actual ingredients. Everywhere else, they pre-fab something."
He took a sip of his coffee, and let out a pleased rumble. "And they brew coffee from actual beans. That were grown in actual dirt." He took another sip, then set the cup down with a grin. "So, how'd I do?"
Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - danixiewrites - 11-16-2014
Letting him try his hand, Alex gulped at her water like a woman dying from thirst. Or from embarrassment that, though faded from her skin, still teased at the front of her mind. One eyebrow lifted beneath her bangs at the familiarity in his tone, and by the time she'd set her nearly empty glass back down, the waitress had taken her leave.
He'd nailed her to rights, and that meant she'd lost the first dare between them--not a good trend to be starting. She'd been eating the blandest pre-fab she'd ever experienced since the ship departed two stations ago. Highly unusual for a cruise ship, even for employee fare, so it would've been unlikely he could have guessed that much.
"Gods, don't tell me they've got a file on things I like to eat." She whispered the words, already muffled as she'd covered her face with her hands, her elbows on the table. "I should read all the fine print when I sign up for things, right?"
"Round 1 is yours," she said, lowering her hands and trying not to drool at his description. Maybe it'd been to easy a challenge. He'd ordered the same. Luck? Coincidence? But something told her the man sitting across the booth wasn't one to leave many things to chance. Her palms flattened on the table and her fingers inched toward his mug. "So. First names with the chef? I thought you looked comfortable here. Just how long have you been waiting for your post, anyway?"
And as for the coffee...her thieving fingers attempted to slip around his before she realized what they were doing, stilling when she caught them warming themselves on the toasty surface of the mug.
"Dirt? I disbelieve."
Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - thedarkwyrm - 11-17-2014
"There's no file on your appetites, Alex. You're just easy on the eyes, so I don't mind studying you." The innuendos were getting ridiculous at this point. Charles decided to let them roll off his back, ignoring them all. He wouldn't mind the effect they had on her, though. Her blush really brought out her freckles.
Round 1, she called it. So it was a game to her, then? He could play. "Johnny's first names with anyone who's come here more than once. I've stopped here on a couple passes across the sector, and after I found this place, I've never come anywhere else. I'm sure you'll agree, once you try the food." He grinned. "For this mission, I've only been here a few days."
Her fingers stole over to his mug, and it seemed that she was genuinely surprised by this fact. True kleptomania, then. She really didn't notice as she stole things. He deliberately took her hands for a moment, pressing the coffee cup into them. "Taste it, and then tell me you disbelieve. It's the best cup of coffee for lightyears in any direction."
Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - danixiewrites - 11-17-2014
She hadn't imagined it, had she? Stealthman was definitely flirting. Couldn't spin a compliment like that and be thinking anything else. But given the straight face and the lack of a leer that one would expect following up the sentiment, Alex couldn't presume, so she fired back before thinking better of it, "As long as those eyes are on my backside." Her gaze darted away from him. "Focused on keeping me in one piece."
Perfect. Now she'd given Charles wholesale privs to ogle her ass. She gulped the rest of her water and slid the glass to the edge of the table for a refill that wouldn't help. How were they going to work together if her mouth was on the fritz?
Avoidance?
She'd not run away, but he wasn't the only one who could keep a low profile. As a mechanic, constantly flitting about the ship, busy as a Terran honeybee? Lowest of the low profiles.
It was one solution. She glanced at him again. It wasn't necessarily the best one.
There was always getting the innuendo out of her system.
Oh, frag. He'd been talking. Answering her own damned question. And instead of brilliantly pretending to have been paying absolute attention, what came out was: "I'm sorry, how long?"
A second apology in less than a standard daycycle? It was all Alex could do to prevent herself from slamming her head into the table, seeing if it knocked those senses back into place. Didn't help that she was already off-balance from her Agency's apparent lack of faith in her abilities, the giant gap in her intel stream, the need to rely on an unknown babysitter...uh, partner. Because he, too, wasn't anything she'd expected. Not the bureaucratic, overbearing type--despite the manhandling--but amiable, easy-going...and altogether far too interesting.
Maybe the coffee that her fingers had sought to claim was strong enough to help clear her head. That consideration was short-lived, as he held her hands around the mug and fried a few more circuits. Alex's prickly attitude seemed to deflate at this--her failing, her flaws, her uselessness, not his--and the scowl went all the way to a sad flatline before she obscured the expression with his drink. Which changed everything. She hummed, eyelids shuttering over hazel at the rich taste. "Okay. I'm not sure that counts as round 2, but you're definitely right. Almost as easy as tea," she decided, "and not bitter in the least! Amazing how much better the original, real, things can be." She set it back on the surface between them and slid it his way, the need to abscond with it, or at least to keep it on her side of the table, abated. Alex rolled her shoulders back as she imagined caffeine sinking down to her toes. "Maybe we can smuggle some onboard. I can hide it in the hydroponics." Now she flashed him a quick grin and glanced toward the kitchen, where the waitress emerged with two over-full platters. "Don't know where we'd stick the cows, though."
Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - thedarkwyrm - 11-17-2014
Oh, yes. Innuendo was a very amusing tool to use on her. She didn't even listen to the answer to the question she'd asked. "Just a few days, don't worry. I've been less pleasant places for longer, waiting on less attractive company." Playing it as though her question had been an expression of concern, and not proof of her easily distracted nature.
He grinned softly at her expression as she drank the coffee, casually letting their fingers touch again as he recovered his mug from her. "I can get a bag of beans from Johnny, if you'd like. They don't search security. No need for smuggling or stashing." He followed her glance, looking over his shoulder at the approaching food. "I agree the cows would take a bit more effort."
The waitress set the platters in front of them, thick and juicy burgers with rather more toppings than one would think a burger could safely contain. Rich avocado; crispy bacon; melted cheese, in multiple varieties; grilled onions; various fresh vegetation, lettuce and tomato and such; and over it all, a thick sauce, which looked rather like ranch dressing with an orange tint, and smelled spicy and sweet. Beside the burger was a pile of french fries, and a small pile of onion rings, fried to perfection.
Charles picked it up carefully, fingers wrapped around the bun, holding it all together. He held it up to her for a moment, demonstrating the proper grip, and then bit into it, making a rumbling sound of contentment as he sank his teeth into the delicious, real, burger.
In the time it took him to take his first bite, the waitress had gone and returned to fill their drinks, and gone again.
Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - danixiewrites - 11-18-2014
He had a thing about touching. Manhandling her across half the station, moving her hands where he wanted them--and she had to cut off that direction of thought before it burned atmos like a ship without a grav rig.
"I can't believe you've been here 'a few days' and already know a guy you can score real--actual-real!--coffee beans from. Yes! Of course you must do that!" She pointed toward the kitchen as if to order him to do so immediately, then dropped her hand so the waitress would stop giving her that puzzled look. Thanking the woman, she focused on the food set before her, devouring the scents and the display for a mere beat before digging in with verve. After plucking the onions from where they'd attempted to hide between two crisp slices of lettuce, the meal was on.
Alex scarfed her burger insomuch as a giant, entire-cow concoction topped with the gleanings of a personal garden--gods, so fresh--could be scarfed, chewing like she'd not eaten in weeks.
Which, if one counted flavor and grease and loads of stars-blessed texture as food, she hadn't. And Alex, despite her figure, could put away some good food.
"Gods, this is delicious!" The young woman had enthusiastically plowed through almost half of her burger before pausing to grab a napkin, and as she sent praises to the chef via the waitress, curling her fingers around the fresh, cool refill, Alex caught a glimpse of Charles' food. The whole one bite he appeared to still be chewing. Sheepishly, she looked down at her own plate and swallowed the sip of water she'd been in the middle of. "Oookay. So what, you're...not hungry? I know you left the choice to me, but you could've said something." Her words seemed contrite, punctuated though they were between inhaled, blissfully prepared lengths of fried bread batter that she'd peeled from around the onions.
Alex lowered her voice, her lips twitching into a suspicious frown. "And if you only dragged me here to watch me eat...that's kind of awkward. Should probably be a ground rule or something before we get you loaded up on the Horizon." She paused, a fry midway to her mouth. "Actually. We should probably set several of those."
Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - thedarkwyrm - 11-18-2014
Whatever other attractive qualities the girl across from him might have, restraint was not one of them. As if that hadn't been obvious from her kleptomania. It, coupled with her apparent expectation for everyone to be the same way, was making it difficult to enjoy his burger. He swallowed the bite he'd taken and set the burger down, giving her a look. "I am simply enjoying my food, since it will be the last such meal I get to eat for the foreseeable future." He picked up a small bunch of fries, ran them around the edge of the burger to collect the fillings that were falling off, and popped them into his mouth.
"Don't flatter yourself too much, Alex. However enjoyable it might be to watch you under some circumstances, I take no pleasure in watching you eat like a wild animal." He gave her a teasing grin as he picked up his burger again, taking another bite. He ate at a normal speed now, savoring it but no longer drawing it out. "So that's one ground rule you don't need to worry about. Any others you wish to propose?"
Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - danixiewrites - 11-18-2014
At first, Charles was reasonable. People enjoyed things in different ways; his was to savor, hers was to indulge. But his reassurance that he'd not be eating slowly just to collect data for whatever files his people had on her left a bit to be desired.
"A wild--" Alex stared at him, fought a particularly strong urge to flip him off. Success! Infuriating man. With a smile that should absolutely not be attractive when I'm getting a mad on. "It's not like a buried my face in it and spread it across the damned table," she hissed. "I can do that if you like, but we'd probably get kicked out. And then where would you be?"
She threw up her hands. "Who am I kidding? Probably still sitting there, chumming with Johnny, sipping that starsent coffee and smiling that infuriatingly sexy grin." Sexy? No. Just infuriating. Why would I think sexy? That's...no. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to regain her mealtime bliss, find calm like she'd been trained to, nibbling as slowly on a fry as he had his first bite of burger.
He'd been teasing. She'd actually been warming up to him. Sure, there was a lot of build-up of her particular workplace anxieties, but if she was honest with herself, this time, there was absolutely no reason for her to be riled. Was there? First I'm a thief, then an animal. Of course I should be mad. Damn it. But her brain was whapping an apology around the inside of her skull that, should it escape, would make 3 for 3 since they'd made contact. Because Alex had to make this work. She wasn't stupid. Innocent people were being nabbed from their homes, and this partnership could save those lives.
Why the frag did he push her buttons?
Her hazel eyes suddenly snapped open, wide and round, as if she'd just hit replay and realized which--how very, very many--of the string of words clamoring inside her mind she'd actually spoken out loud. "Oh."
So much for not being hot-headed. She was really starting to hate that file of his.
Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - thedarkwyrm - 11-18-2014
Charles stopped, mid-bite. He swallowed the bit of food in his mouth and set down his burger. He picked up a napkin and wiped his face, then set it down beside his plate. His fingers laced together, leaning forward, resting his chin atop his hand. One eyebrow slowly raised nearly into his hairline. He kept that expression for a moment, then grinned. "Well, it's nice to know you get honest when you're angry, as well as getting a nice highlight on those freckles."
He took a sip of his coffee before continuing. "Since we're going into a covert op, I will endeavor to keep my comments neutral on the ship, no matter how easily they roll off the tongue in your presence." That part was true. He had intended to end that sentence at 'ship', but things happen. "Your short fuse notwithstanding, I will admit that my elocution can come off a bit strong."
He resumed eating, eyes sparkling as he watched her, pausing between bites to ask, "You went into a small tangent instead of laying ground rules. Do you have any, or is your brain temporarily out of service?"
Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - danixiewrites - 11-18-2014
She chewed her way through the rest of her burger at warp speed, rather than dignifying his apparent amusement with a response. Left with only fries and slivers of abandoned onions, she finally shook her head at him, red hair bobbing over her shoulders.
"No, you don't have to. Unless it's part of your cover. It's...my fault," Alex ground out slowly. Not an apology, but a concession. And truth, because she had just jumped down his throat without a good reason, felt bad despite his apparent amusement, and couldn't let him shoulder the blame. If they were going to be working together--if he was supposed to keep her temper in check so she didn't get DEAD--he needed to know how she ticked in action, and that wasn't going to be in a file. It was good he was figuring it out now--though the way things were going she had serious doubts he'd unravel her expected responses before it was time to load up. She kept her voice low, occasionally obscuring her mouth with a hand or a napkin or more food to keep prying eyes from listening in. Lipreading was not one of her skills, but she'd known others with it--or with the tech gizmos to translate.
"Too many things have me off-balance today. Work secrets, you, the giant-ass cargo hold they're setting up for heavens-know-what, too many guards, posh passengers I can't trail after. I'll settle down once things settle in, up here." Alex absently tapped her temple with a french fry, then her face scrunched and she dabbed the spot with a fresh napkin. "Maybe once I get used to you, too? I don't interact much beyond tasking in my position, and usually have a nice delay to rethink what I'm about to say before I press the button to send it home. Also generally, I try to avoid things that bring any attention to my freckles." Which, in his presence, made her feel like they'd be on parade unless she was in the belly of the ship, safely tinkering away.
Ground rules. She would not be baited by the end of that sentence...she wouldn't. Gods, he had to be thinking she was a total flake. Alex glanced around the room, breathing steadily to cool the slight warmth in her cheeks, and dropped her gaze to the remaining fries, wondering if she had room still for them to fit. "All right. One: Don't go off on any extra side missions. Without me. Telling me. I don't like to worry and an extra person to keep tabs on means I will. It makes me...antsy."
Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - thedarkwyrm - 11-19-2014
Charles finished his burger as she talked, which, for the first time, was actual discussion rather than complaints or strange flirtations. It let him chew through the burger and fries, wiping his mouth as she finally began to lay down ground rules. "I'll tell you, for sure. Most of the time. There may be times when I either have no time to contact you and need to follow a lead immediately, or when telling you would compromise you. Outside of those two exceptions, I'll keep you in the loop."
He finished his coffee and set the mug on the side of the table. The waitress came and refilled it as she passed by, barely pausing. Charles pulled the mug back and took a sit of the freshly hot drink. "And in return, I'll lay a ground rule on you. No running off, whether for fun or because you think you have a lead. Tell me first. I'll let you handle what you can, but if it looks dangerous, I'll take care of it myself."
The waitress came with the bill, and he tucked a silver and blue card into it, watching her briefly as she took it to the counter. "Your turn, Alex. What else concerns you?"
Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - danixiewrites - 11-19-2014
"That seems one-sided. 'Sure, except when I don't?' How often do you expect those things to happen?" Alex had to fight to keep the growl from her voice this time. She pushed her plate away with undue force. "I'm not the one cleared for stealth, so I know I'd be a hindrance in those cases. But just...if you're supposed to meet with me and can't. Don't make me wait around without knowing. Please." She might not have acknowledged her tendency to temper-flare, but she did know her tendency to take matters into her own hands. Not a good policy, given that her hands weren't the only ones at stake in a partnership.
Her fingers itched when his coffee was topped off; she curled them into her palms. "I'm not stupid," she said dryly. No matter how it probably appears. "I won't flee at the mere sight of you," she allowed, "and unlike you, I'll send word when I pick something up, once we establish comms. Your access means you'll be able to get a round-about view of where I am by pulling up the tasking in the mainframe. If I'm not checked in on one, I'll be in my room, which is portside and down, 2111K. Nice and easy, no chasing required. How's that?"
What else concerned her? How about the way her brain flipped switches like a warp drive in desperate need of a tuneup with him around? Frustrated, she rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Don't be spying on me. Or sneaking up behind me. I have a wrench, it's heavy, and I do use it...and I don't like surprises." And that was as much by way of warnings as a girl could give for one day.
Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - thedarkwyrm - 11-19-2014
"I will contact you whenever it is at all possible, I assure you." The girl really did have a short fuse. He pushed the coffee across the table to her, smiling faintly. "And I appreciate your ease of tracking. It will make our job considerably easier if I don't have to keep looking for you. I don't yet know where I'll make my base of operations, but it most certainly won't be the room assigned to me."
He chuckled softly as she almost threatened him with her wrench-happy reflexes. "No surprises, no sneaking up, I promise. Spying on you, though..." His grin grew a bit cheeky. "I don't normal mix business with pleasure, but in this case I think I'll have to make an exception." That was a rather flagrant untruth. He mixed business with pleasure quite frequently. It never interfered with the work, though. That always came first. "Come, it's time for us to head to the ship."
He stood and collected his card from the waitress, tucking it into the pockets in his outfit. This time as they walked towards the ship, he, trusting her word, didn't even subtly threaten through body language to touch her.
Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - danixiewrites - 11-20-2014
Alex nodded solemnly, curling her hands around the mug. "Oh, I would hate to inconvenience you."
"Good. Wait. What? Wooooah there, champ." Her eyes widened at his blatant words and she almost sputtered over a fresh sip of the delicious coffee he'd shared. Swallowing, she would have added yet another very firm ground rule, but something stopped her. "Pretty sure of yourself, aren't you?"
Whether it was a dominating belief that she'd probably deserved the tease for behaving like the childish brat her superiors apparently purported she was, or whether it was simply another attempt to let it roll off her shoulders, or whether it was a ground rule she didn't want to have to enforce at all where Charles was concerned, she wasn't sure. She didn't have a chance to figure it out, either, because the meal was paid up, and it was time to hit the dock.
"You got your gear set, or we need to pick it up?" she asked, scooting out of the booth. Her hands lingered overlong on the table, and she stuffed them into her pockets as they headed out. "Ow!" Alex withdrew her left hand in the entryway of the diner, her fingers wrapped around the fork that had stabbed her with its tines. Curious...
She glanced at him, at the fork, then slumped her way back to the table to leave the utensil behind. No way was she telling him about what she guessed, from the feel of it, was some manner of seasoning delivery in her right pocket. If she'd really nicked it and if he hadn't noticed, she was keeping it solely on the grounds that it hadn't attempted to exact revenge on her fingertips.
She noted the cargo hold was locked up tight by the time they arrived, and judging from the pinning on the exterior of the ship, it had been fitted far larger than a cruise would warrant. As they joined the milling crew, humans and xenos alike awaiting pre-boarding, Alex tipped her head toward him and murmured, "Thank you, by the way. For lunch." A small smile. "The manhandling was nice, too." She cursed, and though she didn't look up at him, she remembered his ground rule, and her promise. Rooting her feet and locking her knees to keep from fleeing that particular stupidity, she corrected, "The break from manhandling...frag it anyway."
Impulse Control [Dani & Dark, Closed] - thedarkwyrm - 11-20-2014
"I'm always sure of myself. It's part of what makes me a successful covert agent." He grinned down at her, then chuckled and answered her more mission-relevant question. "Everything I can carry easily is already on me. The rest of my gear was sent up to my room." He raised an eyebrow as she returned the fork that she'd apparently stabbed herself with, then walked with her out of the diner, giving a nod to the waitress on the way out.
"Lunch was my pleasure. As was the manhandling." He grinned again, pulling out his ID and showing it to the crewman on entry duty, who nodded him through with a grunt. After waiting a brief moment for Alex to pass through, he resumed walking with her. He guided her out of the main flow of crew, into a side passage that had branches leading to both the engineering section and the residential floors. One hand fished a piece of paper about the size of a business card from one of his many pockets.
"Here." He jotted down three sets of numbers on it and handed it to her. "Those are the frequencies I'll be trying when I set up my gear. Keep an ear out on them, and listen for rhythmic taps in groups of four. In the meantime, we should avoid meeting in person unless we're making it look like a romantic liason. That's the easiest way to cover why a security guard and an engineer are meeting."