Murr...

[chibi_trillian]

Chibi hates rollover popups.  She especially hates when they're on her instant messenger program right under the fucking menu toolbar.  She should not have to nin-nin-nin her mouse past a rollover popup just to read her mail.

Waugh!  St. Jude City fluffage for Plotbunny_Tiff!  She wanted an Ethan blind date fic, so here it is.  Rated PG at best.  Ethan doesn't even swear.

Ethan drummed his fingers on the table and checked his watch again.  This is the last time I let Leo and Kansas set me up on a blind date, he thought, looking around Valentino’s impatiently.  It was mostly deserted.  Scratch that, it was deserted.  The only people he could see were being paid to be here. 

Valentino’s was an Italian restaurant in the fuzzy border area between District Two and District Three known for its delicious pasta and its surly waiters.  It was, unsurprisingly, a popular date spot.  Ethan had been picking at breadsticks for an hour and a half and growing increasingly twitchy while his date, the mysterious “Mary,” steadfastly refused to show up.

“Looks like you got stood up, buddy.” 

Ethan quit torturing his breadstick and looked up, snapping out the words “What gave you the first clue?” before he quite processed that his waiter was a) looking at him with sympathy instead of malicious amusement and b) very, very cute.  Ethan blushed, and hated himself for coloring so easily.  The waiter looked like he was deciding whether or not to be offended, big brown eyes narrowed, slightly pouty lips pouting a bit more than before.  Ethan swallowed, looked down at his plate, and mumbled, “Sorry…it’s just that my friends set me up on a blind date, and she’s an hour and half late, and it’s been a while since I last when out on a date, so, um, yeah.”  Ethan’s face was turning a charming shade of scarlet.  He could feel the back of his neck burning.

The waiter “oh”-ed softly and, after a moment of hesitation, pulled out the other chair at the table and sat, setting the water pitcher he’d been carrying on the table.  Ethan looked up, feeling very, very uncomfortable.  Ethan’s rapidly-melting brain registered that the waiter really was attractive—a little bit taller and a lot more muscular than Ethan was, with short spiky brown hair, big slightly clueless brown eyes, lightly tanned skin, short nose, a scattering of freckles on his high cheekbones—and that he reminded Ethan of a puppy hoping for a treat.

“Why don’t you order while you’re waiting for her?  She can’t really get mad at you for ordering without her if she’s that late,” the waiter said, giving Ethan the winning smile that usually raised his tips by about five percent.  “You shouldn’t have to be hungry just because your date isn’t punctual.”

“Um…kay.”  Ethan cursed his abrupt lack of eloquence, but his waiter was good-looking and friendly and Ethan was at the moment trying to remember the man’s name.  He’d introduced himself when Ethan had taken his seat, but Ethan hadn’t really been paying too much attention.  He’d been focused on how he was going to get through a dinner involving the messiest category of food in the world without looking bad.  Now, about all Ethan wanted for dinner was his waiter, who most certainly wasn’t on the menu.  “Uh…what’s good here?”

“Oh!  We’re having a special on sausage ravioli tonight.  The baked manicotti is really good, and the shrimp alfredo.  I like the vegetarian lasagna, though.”

Ethan wound up ordering the vegetarian lasagna.

~~~~~

“Ohmigawd, Sarah, he’s so CUTE!  He’s got this long hair that I just want to run my fingers through, and, god, he’s got the most gorgeous grey eyes, and glasses, oh god, his glasses and his hair and his eyes…”  Aaron flopped against the kitchen wall and fanned himself with his menu pad, smiling dazedly at the only waitress (and only other waitstaff) working on this slow Tuesday night.

“You and your thing for guys in glasses.  Do you even know if he likes boys?”  Sarah peeked out the kitchen doors at Aaron’s allegedly cute customer.  He was kind of hot in a geeky way, and he knew how to eat Italian food without getting covered in sauce.  That put him several notches above the normal Valentino’s customer. 

“Um…I kinda get that vibe from him.  That, and I think he was kinda sorta maybe flirting with me.”  Aaron blushed from the collar of his starched white shirt to the roots of his short brown hair.

“Well, what are you going to do about him?  He’s ‘so cute’ and all by himself and might on some remote planet have been flirting with you, so what is Aaron Navare, Waiter Extraordinaire and Hopeless Romantic of the Century, going to do about this poor lonely glasses-boy?”  Sarah smirked as Aaron actually turned a couple of shades darker.

“Uh…”  Aaron looked genuinely lost, and gave Sarah sad puppy eyes.  “Help me?”

“You are hopeless, Aaron.  One day you’ll have to get yourself a date without me and then what will you do?” Sarah said, shaking her head and smiling indulgently. 

Aaron glomped her.  “You’re the best friend ever!”

~~~~~

Ethan sipped his water.  He’d politely refused a wine list—if he drank, he wasn’t certain that he could keep his hands to himself and he did want to come back here at some point in the future.  He’d finished his lasagna without his date showing up, which figured.  At least the scenery had been nice, and he’d never lacked for water or breadsticks.

Ethan signaled for the check, and the waiter brought it over, looking a bit flustered.  Waiter-boy evaporated as soon as the check booklet hit the table, a sharp contrast to his attentive behavior the rest of the evening.  Maybe his waiter had finally figured out that Ethan was ogling him and gotten weirded out.  It would fit in with Ethan’s usual luck in love.  Ethan shrugged to himself and opened the booklet.

Sitting on top of Ethan’s check was a paper crane.  He lifted an eyebrow.  Origami in an Italian restaurant?  It hadn’t been opened up—the final step to turning a crane into a three-dimensional origami model.  Ethan picked up the crane, held a wing in each finger, and pulled.

Written on the crane’s wings were the words, “I get off in twenty minutes.  Want to go get a drink?  Aaron.”

Ethan allowed himself a half smile.  He tucked cash for his check and a large tip into the booklet, with the word, “Yes,” written on the uppermost bill. 

~~~~~

Nineteen minutes after Ethan had left his bill on the table and walked out the front door, Aaron tossed his apron in the general direction of Sarah, shouting “ThanksforcleaningupformeI’lltalktoyoulaterbye!” as he shot out of the restaurant.  Sarah just shook her head and smiled. 

Aaron stepped out of Valentino’s, looking around anxiously.  His mind was racing.  What if the guy had gotten bored and left?  What if he had had second thoughts?  Aaron realized abruptly that he didn’t even know the name of his object of affection.  What if this wasn’t such a good idea after all?

A quiet “Hey,” broke into Aaron’s worried ruminations.  He spun.

His cute glasses-wearing customer was there, leaning against the wall.  He’d walked right past him.  Aaron flushed, feeling like an idiot.

The glasses-guy half-smiled and said, “Hi.  I’m Ethan.  Ethan Asheim.”

“I’m Aaron Navare.  Um…did you still want to go for a drink?”

“Would I be standing out here if I didn’t?” Ethan said a trifle waspishly, and then clamped his mouth shut.  He sighed, and muttered, “Sorry.  Filter between brain and mouth broken.  I keep meaning to get it fixed, but it comes in handy sometimes.”

“No…no, it’s okay.  You’re honest.  I kind of like that,” Aaron said, trying to sound encouraging.  He was rewarded with a full smile from this marvelous creature who went by the name of Ethan.  His heart melted.  It was gorgeous smile.

“Shall we be off then?” Ethan asked, raising an eyebrow.

Aaron nodded, and, after a slight awkward pause, offered his hand.

Ethan took it.  Ethan had nice, long fingers, with some odd scarring on the palm of his hand.  Uniquely attractive, just like him, at least in Aaron’s humble opinion.

Aaron squeezed Ethan’s hand, and headed blissfully off into the night with Ethan in tow.

~~~~~

Ten minutes later, a very grumpy woman stomped into Valentino’s, looking for her blind date.  The waitress made large, innocent eyes and proclaimed that, to the best of her knowledge, no man by the name of “Ethan” had come in here at all tonight.  Then the waitress shook her head at the vagaries of men who weren’t polite enough to wait for two and a half hours when their date got lost, and commiserated about the evils of blind dates, and got the woman to order a cannoli.

Sarah returned to the kitchen to retrieve the dessert, and laughed her ass off in the walk-in where no one would hear her.  Aaron was still going to owe her big time for this one, damn him and his pwease-help-my-pathetic-ass puppy eyes, but the sheer amusement value of Aaron’s cute-glasses-boy’s date strolling in right after Aaron had absconded with him had just taken a chunk off of Aaron’s sizable debt.

Sarah stifled the last of her snickers, and silently wished Aaron good luck.  He had a habit of falling hard for men who were either extremely inappropriate or assholes.  If glasses-boy fell into either of those two categories, and hurt Aaron in any way, shape, manner, or fashion, well then…

Sarah would just have to kick his skinny little ass.

Comments

[alucardblue.livejournal.com]

Oh poor Aaron, found another asshole. Guess sarah is going ot have to kick his ass.

Luv you Chibi.

Oh and write more.

[chibi-trillian.livejournal.com]

Yup. Fortunately, Ethan has a -4 weakness to sad puppy eyes. ^_^