notfaking_it | (no subject)

She wasn't nervous, necessarily, but it had been a long time since Lily had been on a date. She went out and she danced, she had dinner with people she loved, spent time with people she slept with, but all the while -- even with Sawyer, she realized -- she'd never allowed anything to be called a date. It was easier that way. If she never called it a date, no one ever thought they were dating and while Lily definitely wasn't adverse to spending time with the same person over weeks or months or even years, she hadn't had a boyfriend or a girlfriend in a very long time and she mostly preferred it that way.

It made things easier.

But something about Delta was different. She doubted he'd ever assume they were dating without first making sure and although he still seemed to be finding his footing, Lily was sure if she explained things to him, he'd follow them easily.

So she wasn't nervous, but she also wasn't entirely sure what she was doing.

Given that it was her first date in a long time -- and his first date ever, according to him -- she'd made sure to keep things simple. She was dressed in jeans, a pair of black boots and a dark sweater under her jacket when she arrived at his place to pick him up. Pressing the buzzer at the front door, she waited, hands in her pockets, for him to answer.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He smiled when he pulled back again. He might still have no real idea what to do, but some part of him remembered something. Something from behind that big, blank wall.

"That was... nice."

"It really was," Lily agreed, sinking back into her chair, running her thumb against the corner of her mouth. Then she grinned and picked up her beer to take another drink. "Do you remember it? Some part of you? Or is it really like doing it all for the first time?"

"I'm not sure." Now that it was over he felt strangely meditative, almost quiet, as if a kind of tension had been released. "It's... both, somehow. It's hard to explain."

"Then don't worry about explaining it," she said, though she still thought that sounded kind of nice. She liked kissing -- she liked more than kissing -- but the idea of getting to discover it all over again, being the person she was now, it was appealing. "People think too much about explaining things instead of just feeling them."

He was quiet again, considering this. Back in Rapture, all he had been was feeling. Pain, fear. Love. No words for any of it. It had been beyond words.

"All I wanted to do when I got here was learn to speak," he said at last. "But now... I wonder if it really was the solution to everything."

"Words can be wonderful," Lily answered. "And useful, of course, don't get me wrong. I'm not sure how far our entire society would have gotten without language, but there are some things that don't need words." She laughed and said, "I make my living telling a story without any words at all, making people feel things just through dancing. I can't tell someone my character is sad or happy or in love, I have to make them feel it by the way I move."

"I like watching you move," he said, quick and out there before he had time to wonder if it was something he should say. But it was true. And given that it was true, why hide it?

Why think too hard about anything now?

"When we're done here... Do you want to go somewhere else?"

"Absolutely," she said, because she liked him and she was enjoying herself and it seemed that he was, too. "Did you have somewhere particular in mind or did you just want to walk and see where the night takes us?" If he did like to watch her move, she thought going to a club might be an interesting experience, but it also might be the type of thing better left for a second date.

"I don't know." He smiled and shrugged. "I'm just... I don't think I want to go home yet."

She had showed him two new things. He wondered if there was anything else.

Except he didn't wonder. Not really.

"Then we won't go home yet. Even trapped in this city, there are plenty of things we can find to entertain ourselves." She lifted her beer, finishing off the last of her drink before looking at Delta, trying to decide what else they might find to do. A club could be interesting, but it also limited the amount they could really talk and as much as she was attracted to him, she liked being around him for more than just how he looked.

"Have you ever been skating?" she asked. "There's an indoor rink not far from here."