maskormenacelogs | she said shut up and have dinner with me

[ It's stupid, but she's even more nervous about this date than she was about their first one. Not because she's worried about George, but because she's pretty sure that at some point soon she's going to screw this up, and he's going to see that she's not the kind of person he thinks she is.

Well, it'll be fun while it lasts, at least. ]

Hey. I see you found the right house.

[Nonsense, it's not like Sarah has any more dark secrets or literal skeletons in actual closet.]

It was really difficult.

[He gives a dramatic fake sigh, then pulls out the flowers. It's just a handful of thin white roses, wrapped in brown paper and tied with a silver ribbon.

"White roses - innocence, purity, loyalty." But he doesn't know that. He just knew red was too much, and she wouldn't want pink.]

Okay, before you say anything - yes, I'm a total dork, but you agreed to a real dinner, so. Real date, real flowers.

[ For a moment she can only look at the flowers, not sure how to feel. A guy offering flowers before a date, that's like... something that happens in a movie. Not to her. ]

Wow. Uh... thanks.

[ And then she realizes how unenthusiastic that must sound. ]

They're beautiful.

[She doesn't like them, he thinks immediately, and his ears go red. Even after she amends her statement, George is unsure.]

I can just, um, put them down inside, real quick. If you want.

[He shrugs, giving a sideways smile.]

Then we can get going.

[ Oh, shit. Nice going, Sarah. She steps back, allowing him to come inside, but grabs his arm as he moves to walk past her. ]

Hey. I do like them. It's just, nobody's ever given me flowers before.

[ She leans in to give him a quick kiss. ]

[George starts to say something, but instead just reaches out to touch her arm when she kisses him. And when he pulls back, his expression is one of soft surprise.]

Wait, really?

[That's... really sad, and he wishes he could tell her how badly she deserves them without coming off as a creep. Because she does</>. Everyone does. Everyone deserves to have someone care about them enough to bring roses to their door, no matter how dorky the person bringing them is.]

I'm, uh, glad I could change that then.

[He gives her a gentle, sweet smile, and steps away to lay the flowers down on a side table, before offering his elbow to her and gesturing to the door.]

You all ready?

Yeah.

[ Yeah to both being ready and to his first question. She doesn't elaborate, but Vic was just the last in a long string of shitty boyfriends, and none of them were the type to bring her flowers. Maybe Cal, but... Well.

She takes his arm. It's weird how comfortable she already feels around George, doing this, like it's normal. Like they're both just normal people living normal lives. ]

[Shh, they totally are. Completely normal.

George leads the way out of the house.]

It's a little longer of a walk than last time, I hope you don't mind.

[Because he doesn't take the bus.]

I don't mind.

[ She walks most of the time, anyway. ]

We'll work up an appetite, yeah?

Yeah, I think so.

[He slides moves his hand down to grab hers.]

... So tell me something I don't know yet. About you, I mean.

What, and ruin my mysterious Brit vibe?

[ She interlocks their fingers while she tries to decide on something that won't send him running as fast as humanly possible. It's a depressingly short list. ]

Here's something dorky for you. My foster mother is really into birdwatching and she used to bring me along. So if you ever need someone to identify a Barrow's goldeneye, I'm your girl.

[He smiles wide at that.]

Oh man, that's cool. I was never big on the outdoors, but my parents were crazy about nature. I already told you about the whole turkey thing. They were always trying to get me to do stuff like that.

[And in retrospect, he wishes he would have agreed to more of his dad's favorite activities.]

I hated it, but I was trouble. She had to keep an eye on me.

[ Still, she kind of misses it. ]

What about you? Tell me something.

Hmmm...

[He has to think about it for a moment. Most of his life was achingly dull before Seattle Grace, while most it afterwards...]

I used to have this really long, terrible hair. Like, I grew it out for months to try to impress this girl, but I looked like one of those mushrooms from Super Mario. And I wound up cutting it all off with kitchen scissors one day, which was even worse.

[ She laughs. ]

I can't imagine you with long hair. But, yeah, cutting your own never works out as well as you'd like.

It wasn't a good time for me. Hacking it off was sort of therapeutic.

Yeah? Was it the girl?

[ She feels a little bit like she shouldn't be asking about this, but what the hell. ]

[He looks only slightly embarrassed by the question - it was an awful time, but it was so long ago. And now he loves Mer in a different way.]

Yeah. But she's like family, now. We put it all behind us.

[He gives her hand an almost imperceptible squeeze, half out of reassurance that he's all fine, but also out of happiness at being able to talk about his friends. He misses them every second of every day, and it's nice to have a more positive reason.]

She was supposed to get married, actually, right before I... before I came here. I hope she went through with it.

[ Once again she finds herself feeling devastated for him, knowing he'll never be able to go home and tie up loose ends, but she tries not to let it show in her face or body language. ]

Maybe she'll show up here one day and tell you about it.

Maybe.

[He smiles down at her.]

I wish they all could, just for a little while. I don't want my friends in danger, but... I think you'd get along with most of them.

[Callie and Lexie, he's most certain would get along with her. Mer would like her, even if it wasn't mutual, and maybe Cristina would too. But Izzie, on the other hand...]

I think my friends would like you too.

[ Cosima definitely would, and Alison would probably be thrilled to see Sarah going out with a guy who a) has no criminal record and b) is employed. Hell, even Art would probably get along with George for the most part. ]

Yeah?

[He has a little bit of a hard time imagining that, because honestly he's still stunned that Sarah likes him sometimes.]

Tell me about them.

Cosima's this brilliant scientist who gets excited about everything. She's great. And Alison's this total soccer mum, perfect suburban housewife who's always throwing potlucks and running for the PTA and shit like that. Art's a cop, kind of a hardass, but he's really fair. And Helena...

[ Um, maybe she'll hold off on describing Helena for a bit. Just because "is a trained assassin and former religious extremist who will eat literally every food item in your home" doesn't sound very complimentary. ]

[He likes the sound of Cosima and Alision so far, and a cop friend is always good. But he raises an eyebrow at the last bit.]

... Helena?

[ She waves her free hand, wishing she hadn't said anything. ]

That's sort of complicated, I guess. Sorry. I shouldn't have mentioned her.

[ She gives him a smile, though, like everything is fine. ]

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