Angel & Julian's Date (Backdated to Friday evening)

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Julian woos Angel on their first- and probably not last- date. Also, the ages old question, "What could be better than a limo?" is finally answered. [[Backdated to Friday night]]

The limo was right on time, the night was beautiful, even if it was cold and Julian Keller was looking fantastic in his best suit. Black jacket, matching pants, shining black shoes, a white undershirt and off green tie and vest- combined with his naturally good looks, he might not turn some heads where they were going, but he looked good. He put on his jacket and went out to meet the limo driver, to give him some basic instructions on where they were headed and a time table he could expect. Julian had planned out the evening, he hadn't realized how much he missed doing that until now, and he was certain that Angel would be both wowed and wooed by the events of the next few hours.

Once he was sure the driver had the right information, he headed back inside and waited in the foyer- coat over his arm- for Angel to join him.

For her part, Angel had spent what felt like forever and a half trying to decide on what to wear. She'd eventually made an emergency run out and with her father's amused benevolence, bought a new dress. It wasn't a prom style dress but it wasn't the sort of thing she wore around the mansion, either. Calf length in a pretty aqua color that wasn't too bright, done with her hair piled on her head. Yvette had spent the entire time giggling at Angel's frantic pace but she was glad she'd had someone to share it with.

She hadn't wanted to do the down the stairs thing so she emerged from a side door and paused, eyes going slightly wide at Julian's appearance. "I think my date's hotter than I am!" she said after a minute, remembering to blink when her eyes started to sting a little bit.

Julian turned to her and smiled, taking a moment to take in how extraordinarily stunning Angel looked tonight, "Hey, Firefly, you look...." He paused trying to find the right words, but in the end all that came out was, "...Wow." Julian shifted his coat from one arm to the other and slowly moved to her side, offering his arm. "The limo is waiting, you ready?"

"Limo?" All sense of decorum fled as Angel squealed and bolted to peer out the windows next to the front door. There really was a limo waiting outside and she turned around to grab Julian's hand and tug him out the door. "I've never been inside a limo before, oh my god, that's awesome!"

Her excitement surprised Julian, but only for a moment. He had to remember that the other students here came from some rather diverse economic backgrounds and many of them had probably not grown up with drivers, nannies or private tutors. Still, he was happy that she was so excited and decided to save their destination for the night as a surprise to prevent Angel from going nuclear with excitement. As they exited, the driver opened the door and Julian waited for Angel to climb into the multi-passenger limo; he'd ordered it large enough to fit seven people- which was what his family had used back home- so they could stretch out a little. "You may want to try riding facing forward for your first time, it can be a little disorienting otherwise."

"Are you saying it's like a rollercoaster?" she asked, sinking into the plush seats. Angel didn't need much of an excuse to cuddle up to Julian's side but her eyes were darting around the interior, soaking up everything. Her dad did really, really well for himself but there'd been years growing up where money had been tight as he struggled to get noticed and her mom had struggled to land clients. Even now, she doubted he would have spent money on a limo just for a night out.

Her fingers itched to go wild and press buttons but Angel forced herself to be on her best behavior.

He couldn't help but smile, watching Angel glancing toward the panel of buttons on the console beside her, restraining herself from exploring. The limo started to pull away from the mansion proper and toward the gate and road beyond- where an evening of freedom and fun awaited. Julian pulled his phone of of his inside pocket and looked at the time before setting it in the cup-holder next to right hand. "For someone who's never rode in a limo before, you're showing an enormous amount of restraint. If you wanted to, oh, I don't know, see what those buttons over there did- I wouldn't mind. In fact, one should be for the radio if you'd like some music." He smiled and bumped against her playfully, his right hand picking up the phone again as her attention turned elsewhere. Julian sent a discrete text to the pilot saying only, .

Giggling, she hadn't wasted much time doing what he suggested and pretty much started button pushing the moment the words left his mouth. After causing the window that separated them from the driver to go up and down and accidentally locked the back windows, she found the radio station and selected one that seemed okay. She didn't listen to much music, really, but as long as someone wasn't yelling at her, it was all good. Taking care with her dress, Angel leaned back, completely satisfied. "Man, if we're just going to drive around town in this," she laughed, "I'd totally be happy."

The music was pleasant enough of a choice for her to make, Julian chuckled as he took her hand in his, "We're just getting started, Angel." He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and leaned closer, "You really do look amazing tonight." He gave her a once over, taking time to appreciate her athletic tone and the rather flattering dress, before bringing his eyes back to hers.

There was a faint hint of a blush on her cheeks but Angel had grown accustomed, and enjoyed, some of the lingering looks Julian gave her. "You don't look so bad yourself," she grinned, tugging on the lapels of his jacket. "We're going to be the toast of the town - or at least our version of it."

The limo made a sharp turn on the country road that lead to the airport, bringing the two of them closer together. Out of the corner of his eye, Julian saw the driver raise the partition to give them some privacy. It was getting warmer in the limo, whether that had something to do with Angel's mood or a button she'd pressed- or maybe he was the only one feeling it- Julian couldn't tell. His eyes flashed to her lips a moment before he moved in for a lingering kiss.

The kiss had been unexpected but Angel certainly didn't protest. At all. She pulled away but paused, glancing over his shoulder as her eyebrows rose. "Uh, Julian? Where on earth are we going?" Confusion colored her tone as she looked back at him. "Did they put in a fancy place to eat at the ... is that the airport?" The word ended on a squeak.

The limo pulled up to the gate for charter travelers that led directly to the tarmac, stopping at a security gate. "Um," was all he could manage at first. He gave her a nervous smile, "Remember how I said that we were just getting started?" The gate attendant seemed satisfied and let the vehicle pass. They quietly pulled along a series of hangers, eventually pulling up to a Gulfstream G500 before stopping. "Surprise?" he wasn't entirely sure how she'd react to the plane outside and was suddenly a little worried to find out.

Her mother would have chided her for unlady like behavior - oh, like that had ever stopped her - but Angel's jaw was somewhere in the vicinity of her knees at that point. There was a plane. He was going to take her...

Angel turned around and punched him squarely in the shoulder, though she was grinning. "By 'just getting started', I thought you meant like 'Wait for the first course, it's tasty!'. This is ... Julian." It was way too much and overwhelming but that he'd gone to all this trouble for her?

Mind blowing.

Julian smiled, rubbed his shoulder and nodded as the driver got out and started toward their door. "Yeah, I'm sorry I couldn't get something bigger on such short notice," he winked before could react and chuckled to himself, "Wait until you do taste the first course, it's delicious." The door opened behind him and Julian slid out of the limo, offering his hand to help Angel climb out.

She rolled her eyes and bumped his shoulder with hers as they walked towards the plane. "It'd better be," Angel sniffed, tucking her hand in the crook of his arm as she snuggled closer. "Nothing says buzz kill faster than an awful dinner." She was a girl who put a lot of stock into her food.

He'd planned each course according to the types of things he'd seen Angel consuming- so hopefully it would be to her liking. Julian snuggled back as the stairs were lowered, looking up to see a rather lovely flight attendant welcoming them aboard. He helped Angel up the first step of the narrow causeway and followed her up and into the plane. Before heading into the cabin, he turned to the attendant, "Tell the pilot we're ready to take off whenever he gets clearance from the tower." She nodded, bringing up the stairs and Julian followed into the rather dimly lit airplane.

Angel barely resisted bringing up a small ball of flame in her hand - that, she realized, would probably kill the mood. Also, it wasn't smart to set fire in a pressurized, or soon to be, plane. She let Julian settle her in a chair that she swore she was taking with her it was that comfortable. "You rented a plane?" she repeated, shaking her head, eyes wide. "I'm going to keep going over that part, you know."

"I hope it's to your liking, I'm afraid it's all they had on such short notice," he was, of course, joking- which he hoped that she picked up on from the quick wink he gave her as he took his seat across from her. With the recent downturn in the economy, Julian had his choice of jets to choose from, but he choose this one because he was familiar with it. The Keller's had owned one of the G500 series a few years back, before it became outdated and they upgraded. The crew left the cabin and the stairs were moved away from the plane seconds before it began to taxi down the runway. "I hope this isn't your first plane ride too, Firefly," Julian said with a smirk.

Now she rolled her eyes at him. "I lived in Seattle all my life, I didn't teleport here," Angel laughed, barely refraining from calling him 'dorkface'. That might ruin the mood a little bit but she certainly thought it and it made her grin. "I mean, I've never been in a fancy schmancy plane like this but you are talking to the person who could keep probably keep pace, or at least try, with the plane."

"Something I'm still working on, I'm afraid." He looked back over his shoulder toward the cockpit and then back to Angel. "You'll find this is a bit of a different experience than a jumbo-jet, which I've never been on by the way." The plane began to pick up speed on the runway, "Here we go," Julian said with a smile. He buckled the seat belt around his waist to keep himself from falling forward when they lifted off- it would probably spoil the ambiance if he fell on his date in midair.

If anything, the rumble of the plane made Angel break out into an even bigger grin and she crowded close to the window to watch the take off. Before her abilities, before she fell off the roof and realized she could fly, she'd been neutral about flying. Now she didn't care how she was flying, on her own or because of someone else; all that mattered was that she was in the air.

"So, Romeo," she laughed over her shoulder, "now what?"

*****

Julian swirled the contents of the bottom of his mug around as the plane finished its final pass of the city. The lights over the Hudson were beautiful and the whole city seemed alive and wondrous from on high. 'I am definitely getting Nathan to teach me to fly- and soon,' he thought. One of the crew gathered up the empty plates and other utensils from the table between them and topped off his mug with cocoa. It was blander than the stuff he made back home, but then again they had limited resources in the air. He looked over at Angel, still looking out her window in silence. "Nickle for your thoughts, Firefly."

Angel blinked and then stretched out from where she'd curled up in the comfortable chair. "I think my brain turned to mush from all the excitement!" she said, laughing a little bit. She'd lost her shoes at one point, figuring they were alone and the heels had been bothering her. So she stretched out her feet and enjoyed being shoeless for a minute. "I was just thinking that this was totally awesome and special and ... you really didn't have to do this for me, you know?"

"I'm aware," Julian chuckled, looking down into his newly filled mug for a moment- the thought that he'd have to be in the gym for a long tomorrow to burn off all these calories crossed his mind for a brief instant. "I went ahead and did it anyway though because you're the first person I've been able to be myself around and whom I like." A faint hint of red came to Julian's cheeks and he looked back up at his date; he had not meant to divulge that much, but the words simply flowed out of his mouth before he'd had time to think them over. Before tonight, he'd never known anyone whom he could describe as 'disarming.'

The seats looked big enough to comfortably fit two people; and a second later, Angel was testing that theory as she wormed her way next to Julian on his seat. With another person, or at another time maybe, it could have been more sexual but Angel had spent the last few years being friends with people like Kyle and Catseye. It was more a sign of friendship and comfortableness as she budged under his arm.

Finally getting comfortable, she patted his chest. "That's really sweet and I'm really touched that you're that comfortable around me, because good, that's what friends do, right? Friends plus, or whatever ..." Angel pointed back and forth between them, unsure as to what they actually were but surprisingly not uncomfortable by the not knowing. "I impress easy, you know? Shiny objects hold my attention. But I really appreciate this. This was awesome. I just don't want you to think that, well, you have to keep doing something like this all the time? I like you, really like you, and it's not because you can do all this for me."

"Next time we go out then, I'll just jangle my keys in front of you and call it a night," he expected a jab to the ribs, but when nothing came so Julian simply settled in against Angel. "I know I don't have to do this every time and I would have been just as happy to take you into town for pizza and a movie, but you only get to have one first date and I wanted it to be special...like you." He kissed the top of her head gently, "Not that I expect you to ever see me again after this- the servers were hovering, did you notice that? I mean, it's not like we were the only people up here or something." Sarcasm was a defense mechanism and Julian was trying to fight it, but the battle was not going well. He settled for a moment of comfortable silence with Angel nestled against him.

Angel snickered against his jacket as she hitched her legs up and over his knees in an attempt to not fall off the seat. "I think I can be persuaded to come out with you again," she laughed, kissing him on the cheek. "Trust me, this was pretty special. I'll be talking about this day for years to come. Oh, man, you've totally made yourself girl gossip worthy now."

Julian scoffed, "I'll have you know, I've always been girl gossip worthy thank-you-very-much." One arm around her shoulder, he dropped his other hand to her knee, not expecting to get any further than that tonight- he certainly didn't need Angel spontaneously bursting into flame in a pressurized cabin. "Didn't you read my interview in, um, Cosmo?"

"Oh please, I only read Cosmo for the pictures," she replied, snuggling into his shoulder while she played with his tie. "But now you'll be Xavier girl gossip, you're moving up in the world, Mr. Keller."

"Was that a pun? If so, well done." New York was a blip on the horizon, "Make sure it's good gossip- tell them I had a litter of puppies up here and we ate out of diamond encrusted plates or something." The fasten seat belt sign turned on with a soft chime, making Julian down what was left of his cocoa in a few gulps before setting the empty mug in the cup holder across the aisle. He considered making a 'going down' joke, but he felt that might spoil the mood.

Realizing that she should probably move, Angel grinned cheekily before she stole a kiss as she slid off his lap. She quickly rearranged herself back in her own chair so she could get the seat belt done up. "Liter of diamond encrusted puppies, even?" she asked, wiggling her fingers at him in a little wave as she giggled.

"That's the spirit," Julian buckled himself in as the plane started to descent back into Westchester County. "Make sure to say they could fly too. The only thing better than diamond encrusted puppies are diamond encrusted flying puppies." Within a minute the plane touched down and taxied to a stop with the limo just outside where they'd left it. "I'm glad this has been a memorable night for you, Angel."

"Well, how could it be anything else with diamond encrusted flying puppies?"