Prom: Dinner with Catseye, Marius, Forge and Jennie

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Before the big dance, Marius, Catseye, Forge and Jennie decide to do a double-dinner-date. The boys meet the girls downstairs



"I swear to god, I need to find a way to have you taken out and shot for
teaching Catseye about swing dancing," Forge said coldly, checking his
reflection in one of the foyer's mirrors. Over his shoulder, he glared at
Marius and scowled dramatically. "Five times this week she's ambushed me and
decided it was 'time to boogie'. Five times!"

He looked back at the mirror, adjusting his bow tie and smoothing down the
lapels of his jacket. "You don't want to know how much convincing it took to
get her to agree to wear SOME semblance of shoes at least to dinner..."

Marius raised his hands in mock-exasperation. "Don't look at me, mate, I've
done my part. Do you know how much pastrami it took to get her to sit
through the fitting? Worth it, though. Means she'll actually be wearin'
something tailored for a change. Truly, Enrique is the master." He made an
infintesimal adjustment to one cufflink, completely unconcerned. "As for the
swing, I want to hear none of it. She wanted to dance, an' it's the only
sort with enough energy to keep her attention. Which wouldn't be a problem
if she discriminated at all between the male an' female roles. Lucky for me
this place has got me used to bein' tossed about, eh? An' stop figdeting,
mate. You look fine."

"I know," Forge said, continuing to fuss with his dinner jacket. Of course
the cuffs were perfectly tailored, the shirt starched, trousers pressed -
everything was as close to perfect as it could be. "I'm not fidgeting, I'm
just checking. I want this to be good, you know?"

"Ah, relax. It's not all like machines. Spontanaeity's part of the thrill
of that astonishin' thing called socializing. Besides, it's Jennie. There's
no stress with Jennie. She's famed for it. It's just two friends goin' out
to grab dinner is all. You'll do fine." Marius pushed a strand of hair away
from his forehead. He could have used more gel considering the amount of
physical activity schedule for tonight, he noted absently, but he'd found
the slightly mussed look tended to get a more positive reaction from the
opposite sex. Granted, he'd be at a dance full of other mutants and his date
for the night was more interested in chasing a melting icecube across the
tiles than anything remotely resembling a makeout session, but that was no
reason to stop trying.

"No stress, right. Of course. None." Forge absently glanced over at the
small box on the end table. He'd been informed a corsage was traditional,
and that when in doubt, white went with everything. "You know, you're
right," he said. "Maybe I am overthinking it, maybe I--"

At that moment, he happened to turn towards Marius and catch a glimpse of
the girls walking down the stairs. In the space of a split-second, Forge's
brain hit a state of utter and complete vapor lock.

"...wow."

The dress was a lemon yellow, with a sleeveless tight bodice and large
poufy skirt covered in yellow ruffles. Jennie hadn't been too sure about
the poofiniess, but Marie-Ange assured her that it would work. Jennie's
hair, back to it's natural black, curled softly around her shoulders. She
also wore one of her mother's (diamond!) necklaces. "Hello boys." She said
in her sultirest voice, giving them a wink and posing a bit on the stairs.
"You ready for this?"

"Oh I dearly hope so," Forge managed to squeak out, gathering the composure
to walk to the bottom of the staircase and hold an elbow out for Jennie.
"You look... just... wow. I'm sure there are words, but I am at a complete
loss for them."

"Ah, if only that were an offer I could accept," Marius sighed, grinning at
Jennie. "Yours is a beauty that rivals the sun, as well as several of the
larger planets. Although" he added graciously to his own date, "Cats is as
ever without peer. Better than borrowin' Kyle's old tux, eh?"

Catseye grinned, despite the obvious desire to bat at the curls of lavender
hair that escaped from the careful arrangement atop her head. "Catseye
thinks the funnysuit is not a too big price to pay for shrimps!" she
chirped, scampering down the stairs. Watching Forge's example, she offered
her own elbow to Marius with a fang-revealing grin.

With a smirk, Forge held the small corsage out to Jennie. "I, uh...
understand it's tradition and... yeah, what Marius said. You look
beautiful," he said awkwardly, face beginning to redden from the collar up.

Jennie smiled and offered her wrist for him to slip it on. She reminded
herself not to count the blossoms on the spray of baby's breath. Her OCD
was being checked at the door for tonight. "Thank you Forge, it's lovely."
She resisted the urge to give him another peck on the cheek for being so
adorable, she didn't want to give her date an aneurysm before dinner. She
produced a small clear box with his matching boutonniere. "Had a bit of a
tip-off," She explained, her OCD could only be forgotton for so long.

Marius politely suppressed the urge to smirk at Forge, considering that the
other boy was really doing quite well for what was unquestionably his first
date ever. He raised his own boutonniere, lavender, like her hair and eyes,
to meet Catseye's approval. "This goes on your jacket," he informed her,
pointing to the sprig of flowers. "You're not to eat it until after the
dance. It's tradition."

Catseye smiled as Marius pinned the flower to her lapel. "MouthyBiteyBoy
and ShinyBitsBoy both look very silly," she giggled. "CountingThingsGirl
tried to put smelly powder on Catseye's face, but Catseye is quick and
escaped! Catseye does not need smelly powder to be prettiest there is."

Grinning widely at the mental image of anyone attempting to put makeup on
Catseye, Forge paused, no idea of how to pin the corsage onto Jennie's dress
due to lack of shoulders or straps, but good lord was that an
incredible view and --

Thankfully Jennie held her wrist up for Forge to slip the small elastic
band around. "So," he finally asked, motioning for the door, "our chariot
awaits."

"Ah, hold up." She tugged at Forge's suit jacket and pinned his
boutonniere to his lapel. "Now we can go. Also," she said to Marius, "You
have no idea how hard it was to get her to sit still so I could do her hair.
I had to let her play with the contents of my jewelry box, and even then it
was a struggle."

"Your sacrifice does not go unappreciated," Marius assured her gravely.
With his eyebrows raised in amusement and a not-quite-meaningful look at
Forge, he held out an elbow for Catseye to hook. "You look very nice.
Definitely the prettiest. I think a reward of many-legged crunchy things is
in order."

"Shrimps!" Catseye reiterated, latching onto Marius with overexuberant
glee.

With a snap of Forge's fingers, the front doors swung open. "Shrimps
indeed. Molluscs of all sorts, beware..."




The dinner. Forge somehow manages to keep from shoving his foot in his mouth and Marius manages to keep Catseye out of the lobster tank.



"'Pick your own' doesn't mean 'straight from the tank,' Cats," Marius
chided as he maneuvered his pouting date back into her chair. "Killing your
own meal is not required. It's one of the perks of fine dining. Besides, you
don't want to go the entire night with your suit wet up to the shoulder, do
you?"

Catseye folded her arms and pouted, pausing only to grab a breadstick and
gnaw on it impatiently while glaring at Marius. "Catseye thinks it is mean
to put crawlyyummythings right THERE and not let Catseye have them!"

Cautiously, Forge patted her on the shoulder, perusing the menu. Why was it
that the nicer the place you went, the more they assumed you'd want a wine
list despite being massively underage? Thankfully the maitre'd had brought
them a pitcher of water instead to salve the awkwardness.

"You look great," he said, turning to Jennie. "I mean, not that I haven't
probably said that thirty times so far, but... wow."

Jennie grinned and patted his arm. "Don't worry, being told I look good
never gets old. You look rather handsome tonight as well. You clean up
good." Jennie opened her menu. "Should we get an appetizer to feed Catseye
right away?"

"Might not be a bad idea seein' the look she's givin' the fishtank," Marius
agreed. "Mind, I could do with a bite myself." Grinning at his suitemate,
the Australian mouthed Relax over his menu.

Forge let out the breath he'd been holding. Relax. Right. He'd barely
realized that his left hand was nearly crumpling the menu. Slowly, he set it
down and took a sip of water. Opening his mouth, he paused before another
variation of "you look nice" could come out. Cocking his head, he smiled. "I
didn't notice your eyes, they've got little flecks of gold around them
like... I am horrible with metaphors, I know." He laughed self-consciously
and shook his head. "I think the blonde hair distracted from that. It goes
well with the dress."

That was the difference between Marius and Forge. Marius could dole out
compliments like they were candy, but always with his trademark smarm.
Forge's compliments were all the more endearing because of his ineptness at
them. Jennie felt herself blush. She looked away quickly and hoped Marius
was too distracted by Catseye's infatuation with her napkin to notice.
"Thanks, I was tired of the blonde anyway. I liked it, but there's so many
blondes out there. I decided to go back to being different. I don't think
I've seen you in a suit before. It looks nice."

"Does clean up well, doesn't he?" Marius grinned, folding his menu closed.
"You should come out of the lab more, mate. Bet between the two've us Jennie
and I could have you out on the scene in no time. Ours are fearsome powers
of well-adjustedness. We have a duty to use them to help our fellow man."

Forge snickered at that. "One step at a time, man. Besides, the
'scene' is scary. I hear there's people out there."

"Aw, people are not so bad once you get to know them. Manny's no so bad,
well, not as bad as he used to be. Although the combination of him
and Marius ends up with almost lethal doses of smarm. You may be better off
staying the lab. I might be better off staying in the lab." She
scanned the menu. Shrimp sounded good. Jennie had a natural mistrust of
fish, growing up in a desert after all. Damn near broke her Grandfather's
heart.

"Ah, give him a break, the bloke just lost his job. Some sort of problem
with the company. Whole department got collapsed. While his smarm is of
course nowhere near as charming as my own, we can grant him some small
degree of kindness." Marius glanced at Catseye, who was regarding the
decorative aquarium with suspect attention. "Any particular kind of shrimp,
or just 'mine'? Only we can order the one sort as an appetizer and some
other form of helpless marine life as an entree."

"Mine!" Catseye chirped, eyes still focused on the aquarium. "Catseye
wants BigShrimps!" She pointed one delicately-clawed finger at the
lobster floating around in the tank.

"Lobster for Catseye it is. Don't worry, I've got it covered," Forge
announced, tapping the menu. "Even after buying Mr. Summers' wreck of
a car, I've still got a pretty good chunk of that publisher's advance
left. Let me get this tonight."

Jennie rolled her eyes. Boys. She hoped that there wouldn't be
massive fighting over the check. "I think I'll go with the shrimp meal.
Even if Catseye won't."

"Who'm I to argue with the man with the million dollar book deal?" Marius
grinned, spreading his gloved hands in surrender. The pricetag to the dinner
hadn't even been something that crossed his radar, but it occurred to him
the gesture might mean something to Forge. Besides, arguing about the bill
was gauche, and he had no interest in ruining the night for either of their
dates. "I'll go for the shrimps as well. Mediterranean scampi."

"Not quite that much," Forge admitted, although he knew the
night wouldn't set him back much. Motioning to the waiter, he set down
his menu. "The lobster in mild cream sauce - yes, the one she's
pointing at, for her. He'll have the Mediterranean scampi. For the
lady here, the shrimp sampler platter. I'll have the grilled seabass,
heavy on the lemon, no cilantro, please."

Taking a moment as the waiter left, Forge leaned back and looked at
his friends around him. "This is great, guys. Thanks. I mean it, I
don't say it enough."

Jennie lifted her waterglass. "Cheers to us then. May nothing blow up,
nobody get kidnapped, go evil, or generally angst tonight."

With a broad grin, Marius raised his glass to meet it. "Absolutely. No
angst, no worries. Statistically impossible as that may be for a high school
prom, we must all strive nonetheless."