maskormenacelogs | what i'm really needing now

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what i'm really needing now

WHO: Freddie Lounds & Kaidan Alenko
WHERE: Some bar somewhere
WHEN: Man, idek. After the summer camp fiasco?
WHAT: DATE NIGHT, AW YEAH. Or, at least in Freddie's mind it's date night. Great job not picking up on hints, Kaidan.
WARNINGS: let's be real here, probably none

The problem with dates is that kidnapping ends up pushing them back--especially when your website is dedicated to covering such tragedies/gossip generators as kidnapping. So, after a few days of frantic texts to Kaidan that sorry she couldn't make it!!! work sucked!!!, the date had been pushed back. And hey. People weren't kidnapped anymore, people weren't stuck in space, everything seemed to be going smoothly, knock on wood. The drinking date was rescheduled. And, at least in Freddie's mind, it was totally a date.

Truth be told, she was looking forward to this. She hadn't dated in ages--running a website focused on serial killers ended up eating a lot of time. So this was a refreshing break. And hey, Kaidan was cute. He was kind of oblivious and really kind of dumb, but Freddie found those traits endearing. After all, he was cute. And the fact that he didn't pick up on her flirting only made him look cuter in her mind.

Plus, he had a great ass. So help her if she was a bit shallow.

Waiting outside of the bar, Freddie was wearing a tight olive green dress, long-sleeved and obscenely lacy. Like, the whole damn thing was covered in the dark green lace. Black purse was slung over her shoulder as she fired off a rapid message on the communicator. Hearing someone approach, she looked up, spotted Kaidan, and grinned.

"I won't lie, I'm glad we're finally doing this."

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Oblivious was kind of the name of the game, when it came to Kaidan Alenko. Well, no, that wasn't true. He could be smart -- intelligent and quick on the battlefield. The problem really came down to people. Kaidan could get by, and make friends, but close relationships were the things he just didn't do well. Hell, he'd told his CO his entire life story, unprompted, once. Including the part about having a big enough crush on a girl that he'd killed someone who hurt her over.

There was a reason Kaidan Alenko was so focused on control -- he'd been a teenager, after all.

The problem, really, was that other than a few idle comments, he hadn't picked up on Freddie's hints. Maybe he should have, since she'd mentioned flirting, but he'd -- he always seemed to see those things where he shouldn't, and ignore them when they were obvious. He'd made the mistake of wearing the wrong thing entirely. Freddie was dressed nice, much nicer than he'd dressed -- slacks and a shirt. He was still adjusting to what people considered "fashion" here, and struggling with it. Floundering, actually. He was used to smooth lines, vertical and horizontal, and aestetic that was far beyond anything here, but he had to wash his fatigues sometime, and that meant he couldn't wear them every time. So he'd had to eventually cave, and run out for clothing, which was how he ended up wearing a red monstrosity of a shirt.

He'd still spent longer on his hair than most people would, fresh-shaved, because that was what was appropriate for spending time with a (hopefully a) friend.

He smiled, when he saw her, a little weakly. "Freddie, hi. You look..." well, now he felt like an ass.

"Really good."

As she spotted Kaidan, Freddie couldn't help but grin. Her taste was...dubious itself, so she wasn't as taken aback as others might be at his outfit. It was certainly a 'unique' shirt, but it at least looked nice on him. And hey, he made an attempt. The same couldn't be said about other people who she knew, people who she had a feeling only owned one suit and continued to wear an obscene amount of flannel.

His little awkward smile only endeared him to her even more. Kaidan Alenko was like a puppy. A big, socially unaware, kind of dumb puppy. And really? The more socially unaware he seemed, the more she liked him. They really needed to train those boys better for things like this in the space marines. It made her wonder just how unaware he was about other aspects. Other aspects that Freddie was perfectly fine with now and would be even more fine with after a few drinks in her system.

"You look good yourself," she responded, with a grin. It's not a total lie. His hair looks good, even if the shirt's a little...bright. "So, shall we head on in?"

Well, if she wasn't going to call him out on the shirt, maybe his reputation could be salvaged. It might have been easier for him to pick up on Freddie's obvious intent, were he to actually be paying attention to the signs and signals. But he'd been out of the dating game for... years, honestly. Helping to fend off a Reaper invasion generally did that. Then again, whenever he tried...

Well, he was a military man. Smart as he was, he was still oblivious, not really able to pick things up. "Yeah, sure, this isn't a thinly veiled disguise for an interview, is it?"

His voice, of course, said he was joking, but he wasn't exactly the best at making jokes. Obviously.

"No camera, no recorder," Freddie responded, with a grin, as she opened her purse, briefly moving it towards Kaidan so he could see the contents. Wallet, communicator, some make-up and a little bottle of hand sanitizer, but no camera. Of course, if she wanted to interview him, she could. Freddie knew that with her power of super memory, she didn't need a recorder. But this wasn't an interview. This was two people, getting drinks, going on a date.

"If I wanted to interview you, it would be a lot more formal and not at a bar." Walking over to Kaidan, she made to grab his hands, in an attempt to pull the man towards the entrance. "Come on--let's have a few drinks before any college kids show up and ruin the evening."

"Ah, good to know," he mentioned, before he was tugged along -- alot like the puppy she was equating him to being. He made a slight yelp of protest, but followed, stumbling only for a second, before he caught back up, was walking right beside her. So it was a 'just friends' thing, which was fine with him. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd had drinks just "as friends" -- or anything else -- with anyone.

"Do you really think all the kids are going to ruin things here?" he asked, a little hesitantly. He never thought they got that bad, but... Well, he'd never been to this bar either.

This is totally a date. And really, Freddie believed that Kaidan knew it was a date. She was wearing a date-type dress, she would spend the entire evening doing some heavy flirting--hell, she might even invite him back to her place later for a nightcap. And if certain things just so happened after that nightcap...well, her housemates would understand. They all were adults (or at least close enough to adults that she wouldn't have to explain why Mr. Alenko was spending the night.)

"I don't know about this bar specifically, but generally it seems that college kids always show up at a certain time on a certain night." Freddie had done a lot of traveling for Tattlecrime, occasionally stopping by those small one-bar college towns without even a Wal-Mart in order to snap pics of a particularly gruesome murder. Those were hideous. But, she made do. "You're buying the first round," she added in, giving Kaidan a flirty little smile as she practically pulled him over towards the bar itself.

Thankfully, it wasn't busy. There were a few people in there as well as one group of friends who were having too fun a time, but the noise level was fairly low, all things considered.

"Oh, I -- am?" he asked, a touch confused. He'd thought the intent was for Freddie to buy drinks, but after one, he was willing to go halfsies, but maybe this was a past thing? A culture thing? "Alright, uh, what do you drink?" That really should have been his fourth or fifth sign that perhaps this wasn't just a friendly round of drinks, and he was starting to get the idea that this was something else.

He wasn't stupid, after all. A little slow on the uptake when it came to relationships, but that was more because he'd spent too much time in the military, keeping to regulations, and not acting out -- keeping his nose clean. Freddie could probably see that, he was definitely the type to keep himself above water.

That didn't mean he couldn't appreciate things, it just meant there was a time and a place -- even if that time was strutting into Chora's Den and remarking on the view when they walked in. "We'll just have to make sure to get out of here before they show up, huh? I don't know about here, but in Vancouver, the college crowd could get pretty rowdy -- back whenever I hit shore leave."

"Maybe it's not something that happens when you're from, but typically the gentleman pays for the drinks," Freddie simply remarked, obviously teasing Kaidan. It was getting more and more fun by the moment. "But I'm fine going dutch if you are." There's a pause, where she realizes that he might not know what that expression means (partly because of the fact that he was from the future, partly because of....well, other reasons entirely).

"And as for what I drink, just a martini will do to start with." She slid onto a barstool, effortlessly crossing her legs as she shot Kaidan a little smirk. "If we're still thirsty when it gets crowded, I know I've got a bottle of schnapps back home. We can dive into that."

"Right, Martini," he hoisted himself into the barstool, and got the order going, placing his for a whiskey, something Canadian and a little mid-shelf. If he was paying, he was going to at least treat himself. Bar drinks were expensive enough that he'd prefer to just have a bottle at home, but...the novelty of going out was fun, and not something he was exactly going to turn down.

"Anyway, it really depends on who you're asking out," he waved a hand. "Some people want to go half, and some people want to pay. Sometimes, you ask a woman out, and she decides they're going to pay," he tipped his head, like he was remembering something.

"But I don't mind," he waved a hand, trying to belay any potential protests she had, if he gave her the wrong idea.

"Sounds like you've had a few interesting dates in the past." She looked over at Kaidan, smirking still. Interesting only because never in her life had Freddie tried to pay for the whole tab. Freddie was a firm believer in feminism and women's rights. She also was a firm believer in buying into typical gender roles if that meant that her date would help pay for the drinks. Bars are expensive, yo.

"Maybe we can talk about that tonight," said with a small shrug. "The ghosts of partners past."

"I don't know if that's such a good idea..." he hedged, hands drumming on the bar, until their drinks came, and he offered the bartender a grateful smile. One that said clearly that he was very grateful for the momentary break. "I promise, my love life was never very interesting, I'm afraid. Lots of...failures," he winced. That probably didn't sound good.

He winced, and focused on drinking his drink. "I don't really like talking about it." Untrue, but he didn't think Freddie Lounds would be all that interested in that time he tried to date an Asari, or the whole...thing with Rahna.

Sounded like some of those failures made a very interesting story. But, Kaidan didn't want to talk about it. She could ask Shepard later (and by ask she meant bother) but if he didn't want to talk about it, she wouldn't. Taking her martini, Freddie took a small little sip, coy little smile as the alcohol hit her tongue.

"Hey, better failures than nothing. My love life's been practically nonexistent thanks to the job. And considering our...practically permanent settlement, I have a feeling I won't be doing as much travel as before."

Maybe, if Kaidan was thinking about dates, or flings, or really anything along the lines that Freddie was thinking, he would have picked things up. Kaidan could be dense, when he wasn't really expecting things to work in a certain way. It would probably be better, if he had been thinking about his own sex life, but Kaidan...hadn't really thought about it like that in a while. Been too busy, with an invasion and everything. And well...it was Kaidan Alenko, he'd always been a little different.

"That's...kind of sad?" he paused, eyes a little wide. "Not of you, I mean. It's just...I know that feeling, I've been stuck on ships for years now, it makes it...hard."

Edited (TYPOS) 2014-07-28 07:40 (UTC)

"One of the perks of here, I guess." One of the few, few perks. Most of the time, Freddie didn't like Heropa. Florida was sticky, Florida was muggy, Florida did horrible things to her hair...and the government wouldn't let her travel, the government would brand her unwanted if she took a trip outside of the approved zone, the government gave her headache-inducing superpowers. But, at least because of her forced permanent relocation, she could shop around.

"Still, at least the space marines got rid of that whole single-sex recruitment nonsense, I assume?"

"What's a perk?" he asked, his head tipping. "A bigger, uh, pool?" he didn't know what to say to that. He wasn't...exactly looking, to say the least, not really. That wasn't true, it's just that Kaidan was getting older, and facing the extinction of all advanced life in the galaxy was the kind of situation that put everything into perspective.

"But yeah, they did. A long time ago, actually. There's nothing that suggests anyone can't do the job, and some of the best soldiers I've known were women." His finger tapped against the glass, and he shook his head. "Yeah, some damn good ones."

"The perk is that we're not stuck in tiny little spaceships or tiny little apartments." Not that his spaceship was tiny. Freddie's science fiction frame of references were remarkably few, so in her mind, Kaidan's ship looked like a bastardized version of the Apollo missions, the Millennium Falcon and the Starship Enterprise. "And, even though we've got roomies, we actually have reasonable sized bathrooms."

Which, at least in Residence #12, contained a terrifying amount of Freddie's hair products.

As Kaidan started reminiscing, Freddie couldn't help but smirk, teasing smile on her face. He had known some damn good ones. She had a fairly good idea just what he meant by known (it was sexy times.) And, unfortunately for her, she assumed that Kaidan was thinking along the same lines as her with the women he knew. "I suppose that even in space the basic needs must be met," said with a smirk.

"Hm?" he asked, his head swinging up.

It was confused, beyond confused, and the way his brow knitted said it all, before he shook his head. "Oh --" he stopped, and if he was young enough to flush, he would have turned bright red. As it was, the horror that dawned on his face made it pretty apparent, as did the way he shook his head -- vehemently.

"No, no, nothing like that. She was -- She was a good friend, but we lost her," he gritted his teeth, at that. A wince. Remembering the dead was important, but it was also something that was normally done privately.

Whoops.

There he was, bringing down the mood again.

As the horror dawned on Kaidan's face, Freddie couldn't help but grin, like she had just caught him in the act. She continued to smirk during his denials, ready to tease him some more if needed. But, as he stated that she was dead, Freddie's expression fell. Oh. Well, that was unexpected (as well as a total mood killer.) She took a sip of her drink as if to stall for time.

"I'm sorry about that," she simply responded, with a frown.

He paused, realizing just how bad that had gone. Of course it had gone badly. Freddie didn't deserve Kaidan's mood killer, and he shook his head, fingers drumming on the bar. He hadn't realized that she'd been that into teasing him, but Kaidan was very bad at lying. Earnest and truthful was about the best two things you could say about him.

"It's, it's okay. It was a couple of years ago," he shook his head. Just over two, really. Almost three by now. God, that few years had been where he'd seen some shit, too. "Sorry for uh, ruining the good mood."

"Don't worry about it." Freddie waved her hand, as if to wipe away the lingering effects of Kaidan being an unintentional buzzkill. She was fine with a little bit of mood ruining. After all, she planned for the mood to get sky-high after they had a few more drinks and Freddie put a few more moves on Kaidan.

"Let's just drink to the future and to new beginnings. Not replacing her, but adding on instead." Goddamn that sounded good. Freddie took a rather large sip of her drink, proud of her way with words. Go ego, go.

Kaidan was almost surprised, at that. People didn't often...want to exactly latch on, that quick. Then again, most people knew he was a part of the Normandy Crew, and that carried a certain stigma, too. Oh, they knew Kaidan was no Commander Shepard, but... anyone associated with that particular brand of madness was likely trouble. They'd essentially stolen a ship, after all.

So it was with a hesitant smile, that he nodded -- borderline shy, actually. "Alright, that's...actually pretty nice. To adding on," he offered, lifting his glass before downing it.

The problem, of course, with being a biotic, was that you had to drink a lot to get anywhere.

He downed his drink. That was unexpected. Either Kaidan had the tolerance of an elephant, or he didn't know how potent 21st century alcohol was. Or, alternatively, he was searching for some liquid courage to get him through the night. Honestly, she didn't know. But hell, if he wanted to get drunk that fast, Freddie wasn't going to wait up. So, she took another large sip of her martini, finishing it off. Setting the glass down, she pushed it towards the bartender.

And then she decided to play her hand. Or, at least one of her hands. As she moved her hand back from the martini glass, her fingers brushed over Kaidan's hand for a moment, lingering there, an obvious gesture of affection and hardly an accident. She attempted to trail a finger up to his forearm, before putting her hand back at her side.

"And, as promised, I'll pick up this round," she said with a little smirk. Freddie was mentally debating the pros and cons of shots. Shots were tacky and hardly her style. But hey, it was the fastest way to get drunk.

Kaidan, of course, noticed it, but his eyes slid down, a little surprised. He wasn't stupid of course. The furthest thing from it, actually. Signs like that were hard to ignore, while he didn't pull away, he gave her a look that was far more wary curiosity than it was explicit interest. Was she that much of lightweight?

"Ah, are you sure? I mean, I could pay, or if they're hitting out pretty fast..." he trailed off, like he was trying to hint in a semi-subtle way that he was concerned for her. "We could always take a break?"

Freddie wasn't drunk. However, she wasn't going to end this night on a low note. She was going to sort out how Kaidan felt about her no matter what. At his statement though, she couldn't help but frown. He thought she was drunk. What sort of tolerance did he think she had?

"I'm not drunk," Freddie responded, rolling her eyes. "I know exactly what I'm doing." Which, she hoped, Kaidan would take as meaning that she knew what she was doing when she put her hand on his. She scooted a little bit closer to Kaidan, making eye contact with him. "I don't need a break. If you want something else, however, just tell me."

She was Acting drunk, but then again, when you protested your drunkeness to a relative stranger, they were going to think you were drunk. He watched her, carefully, trying to take in the signs. Oh, he knew what she was trying to get at, and while one drink shouldn't put any person down, he wondered if maybe he underestimated a normal person's tolerance, particularly without any implants or work done.

All he did was hang out with soldiers, after all, and they all had the sorts of implants that made processing alcohol pretty easy. And then you add a biotic's metabolism on top of that...

"Alright, another drink then, wouldn't be bad. You're sure you're alright?" he asked, gesturing and backing up slightly.

"I'm positive I'm alright," Freddie remarked, with a roll of her eyes. This was utterly ridiculous. Was Kaidan really that dense? Or did the future really have no hope for mixed signals? Frowning, she looked over Kaidan.

"Let's just cut to the chase." Since it seemed like he was completely hopeless. Was she really going to have to explain all this out to him? Apparently so. "I think you're cute. You've got a great personality, you're wonderful conversation and you've got a hot butt. I would love it if we spent the night drinking, making out, and then either going back to your place or mine for a little adult time. If you don't want to have sex, we could just drink and make out. If you don't want to make out, we can just drink and be friends." And, as if to prove her point, she waved the bartender over, gesturing for another martini.

"So, what's your choice?"

Kaidan paused, finally catching up that maybe she wasn't drunk.

Which made things more complicated. He wasn't a...first date kind of guy. Kaidan hadn't dated someone in so long for a number of reasons, the first of which being his career. He held his glass with his hands, and nodded to the bartender to bring him another one too. He needed the drink, now.

As much as it really only stung on the way down.

"Wow, that's...flattering. You're...beautiful, and you seem talented --" he looked down at his glass, and winced. Yeah, he was already throwing in the butts. "I'm not looking for a one night --" god, it still sounded bad. "I haven't dated in years for a reason. Maybe it's my job, or maybe I never found the right person, but...I'm in my thirties, eventually I want to...settle down. Not just...make out. As fun and great as it sounds. Being friends first sounds a lot better."

Kaidan Alenko was that kind of guy.

Beautiful and talented? She could take that. However, as soon as Kaidan started talking, Freddie knew that the 'but' was coming. And sure enough it did. After stammering for a bit (which Freddie couldn't help but gently smile at), he continued, dashing her hopes with his words. She couldn't settle down. Because of her work, she travelled from place to place, occasionally stopping off in Minnesota to take pictures of crime scenes before returning back home to Baltimore to write up a murder. Settling down with her white picket fence and 2.5 children just wasn't in the equation.

"If that's the case, then let's just be two friends, having a drink or two. And, of course, if you ever decide to change your mind, give me a ring." That statement was punctuated by a little wink, even though Freddie knew the thought of Kaidan changing his mind wasn't going to happen. Still, she lived in hope.

Honestly, if Kaidan was into anything resembling just having a good time (hah) he would have probably said skip the drinks, and head back to Freddie's place immediately. He wasn't just flattering her when he said she was beautiful, she was. Kaidan was just... kind of sick of being alone every night. Then again, when you lived on a spaceship, that was kind of par for the course, but... ever since everything he'd been through as a kid, and then getting into the military, he'd thought that maybe it would be better to stay away, and then life just...passed him by. Go figure.

He'd thought things through in his head, a lot. He'd hoped that he'd find the right one but...

Well, a damn reaper invasion got in the way of those things. "Tell you what, if I change my mind, or if... if I decide that maybe it's not worth waiting for..." he shook his head. "You'll be the first one I call."

Edited (i wanted more :() 2014-08-05 06:21 (UTC)

"You don't know what you're missing, cowboy," she teased, troublesome grin on her face. That was all she could do at the moment. Flirt and smile and hope he changed his mind. She was certain she could find another one night stand if needed. But Freddie had unintentionally stopped her days of flying to Minnesota on a whim, to explore a case...could you blame her for wanting to find someone special, if only for a night or two?

And Kaidan...he was certainly someone special in her eyes.

As the bartender turned to look towards her, Freddie nodded. "Another martini for me. And I'm picking up his next drink also," punctuated with a nod of her head towards Kaidan.

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