Inez and Julian - Birthday Kidnapping

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Julian decides to take Inez out to dinner for his birthday, and they talk a bit about what happened in Malibu and come to a sort of arrangement.



Maybe he should have asked her first.

His palms were actually moist, something that he'd only experienced a few times before and Julian had to wonder why. Possibly it was the fact that Inez could punch a hole through him if she wanted, or it may have been the fact that no one, thus far, knew what had happened between the two of them over break. Part of him wondered what Angel would think of this and another part of him, finally, didn't care.

Dressed down in a sweater and formal pants, Julian waited outside her suite, figuring that she had to exit at some point or another- given that it was her birthday and she did still have to eat. Wiping off his palms on his pockets, Keller leaned against the wall and sighed.

As if on cue, Inez's door opened and the blonde girl walked into the hall, nearly colliding with Julian. Startled, she let out a shrill "Eep!" and jumped back, hands coming up defensively before she did a doubletake at seeing Julian.

"Oh! Hey! Hi!" she stammered out, waving her hands awkwardly. "I was just... didn't see you there... why are you standing by my door? You look nice," Inez smiled. "Is there a reason, or did I acquire a nicely-dressed stalker along the way?"

With a slight stammer, Julian managed to smile- albeit nervously- "Nothing so wicked, I'm afraid." Taking a deep breath, he slowly let it out and smiled more genuinely. "Happy birthday, Nez. Now, if you'd please come with me."

"Oh, birthday. Right," Inez tried to seem nonchalant. In reality, she'd been almost deluged with birthday emails all day, but had been hoping to get something - an email, a letter, maybe even a phone call - from her dad. He probably wasn't allowed, she thought. But now she was eighteen, she could maybe look into finding him if he wasn't allowed to find her.

Pushing the melancholy thought out of her mind, she smiled again and nodded to Julian. "Is this a 'come with me if you want to live' thing? Because yo, I'm not the one who got chucked through a window last week."

The cuts across his back were healing nicely, though it was still difficult for him to dress. "Hey, that was a fluke...it would be like if you had walked up to me and punched me through a wall." Taking her hand he gave a tug toward the stairs down to the first floor. "But you're not getting a choice in the matter either, so come on."

"I... but... I'm not..." Inez protested weakly as she followed Julian, trying not to think too much about her hand in his, fingers intertwined, that afternoon in the beach house - get a hold of yourself, girl! she chided herself.

Sure, she was nervous and second-guessing herself. Perhaps what happened in Malibu was meant to stay in Malibu, but if not... things were going to get complicated.

"So where am I following you to, huh?" she asked suddenly, trying to derail her train of thought.

"It's a surprise," he replied, "can't really tell you until we're there, but it is because of your birthday." Julian hoped she wouldn't mind him not having a private jet waiting to fly them over New York while they sampled gourmet food- but his budgetary restrictions had been extended indefinitely since his parents had arrived home. "I think you'll like it."

Inez's eyebrows raised, but she went along with Julian into the garage. "I... no one's ever done any kind of birthday surprise for me before," she admitted. Most of her birthdays had been spent with just her and her father on the road, or in a truck stop diner - for her tenth birthday, he'd convinced an entire gang of Mexican arms smugglers to sing "Feliz Cumpleanos" over the CB radio while evading Border Patrol agents.

"Seriously?" Julian arched a brow as he opened her door, "That's a shame." Shutting her door, Julian wondered if it was too late to get reservations somewhere better and cursed himself silently as he shut his own door and started down the road. Occasionally he would smile and glance over at Inez, his mind drifting off their conversation and back to the afternoon spent together in her bed. As he was also driving, those thoughts had to be put aside for the moment, "So what did you do for your birthday when you were young?"

"Oh, the usual," Inez replied. "Cake, presents. It was just my dad and me, and we moved around a lot, but he never forgot. We never had a whole lot, but he made sure I always knew it was important. Sometimes when we'd settle somewhere for a few months and I'd go to a regular school, I'd have to get used to a different name and we'd give the school a different birthday. We'd have little pretend birthday parties for whoever I was going to be that time. When I was thirteen, we were in Sedona. I was Inez Booth, and my birthday was on Christmas. How lame was that, yo?"

"That sucks! Though I suppose you get to have birthday cake with your Christmas dinner, so that's kind of cool" Julian laughed slightly, "So you know how to forge documents and, like, con people and stuff?" He hadn't meant to ask that question, it was just something he'd been wondering for a while.

Inez shook her head. "My dad kept me away from all that stuff. He did what he had to so we could get by. It started... well, when I was a baby and my mom was sick, he stole some money to try and pay the medical bills and when they came after him, things just kind of snowballed. I know it wasn't the life he wanted, and he wanted better for me, so he made sure to keep that part of his life separate. I was just kind of along for the ride."

"Sounds like you enjoyed it," Julian said, glad she wasn't offended. "I'm..." his smile faded momentarily as they got into town, "I'm sorry about your mom."

Inez shrugged. "Thanks. I never knew her, so I'm not sure what to miss, you know? It was always hard on my dad, that's why we knew we always had each other."

Determined not to tear up, she looked out the windshield as they pulled into a parking lot. "All right, I give. Where am I being kidnapped to?"

"Well...um...keep in mind, that after the house sort of got...destroyed..." he gulped as they pulled into the Applebee's parking lot. "I'm on a bit of a budget, so I hope you don't mind, Applebee's."

Inez blinked, looked out at the restaurant, to Julian, then back to the restaurant before turning and lightly punching her captor in the arm. "Dude, enough with the worrying about money stuff. I'm a simple girl, Julian. I like simple things. Not so much with the fancy-schmancy ballgown crowd, y'know? Applebee's is awesome."

Letting out a breath that he didn't realize he'd been keeping in, Julian rubbed his arm where she had, playfully, hit him. For a moment his mind wandered back to Malibu, and to Simon, wondering who would win in a fight, Inez or Simon. "Okay, good," he parked and exited the car, hurrying to help Inez out of her seat and offer her his arm. "Would you believe I've never actually eaten here?"

"Welcome to how us common people live," Inez teased, threading her arm through Julian's and leaning her head on his shoulder briefly. "And... thank you. This is a great birthday surprise."

She turned her head slightly to kiss Julian on the cheek. "You're doing just fine."

"Thanks," he blushed, holding the door open for her. Their reservation would be waiting for them and things would be fine. "Glad you like it," he smirked, "because it's on you tonight." With a wink he went on, "I wasn't kidding about those budget restrictions."

Later on...

Some time later, Inez looked down at her second slice of apple pie. She blushed slightly and looked across the table at Julian. "Sorry," she said somewhat self-consciously, "one of the downsides of being all strong and stuff is that it burns a lot of calories. And I had a bit of a workout today, so..."

"Please, I'm friends with Dori...she has to eat something like ten-thousand calories a day in order to keep up her energy." Julian stole a bit of apple pie off her plate with his fork and popped it in his mouth. Swallowing, "Besides, it's your birthday, you're entitled to a little indulgence."

"Indeed I am!" Inez insisted with a laugh, digging into her slice of pie. She swallowed, took a drink of milk, then paused with her fork above her dessert. "Speaking of... what happened back in Malibu? I don't mean the whole you getting tossed through a window thing. I mean..." She gestured back and forth between the two of them with her fork. "Just caught up in a moment, or what?"

Julian was suddenly thankful for the low-lighting in the restaurant, since if it hadn't been there, his blush would have been all the more evident. "You mean...?" he let the comment hang as a grin crossed his lips. "I don't know- I mean, you know I like you and everything. I trust you, and hope you don't think I was using you."

"I know you were stressed out," Inez explained, "but no, I don't think you were using me or anything. You're a really good friend, Julian. And if that friendship comes with, y'know, 'benefits'? I'm cool with that. Really. No big strings attached or anything like that, right?"

Julian blinked, "Seriously?" He was genuinely surprised since no one he'd been interested in had ever acted like this.

Inez shrugged and held up a finger. "One, the obvious. Duh, I happen to like you and you're a lot of fun. Two, like I told you before... I'm not certain how long I'm going to stay around past graduation. I don't want to be one of those girls who sticks around somewhere just for a guy, y'know? I like you, but wherever I'm going has gotta be important to me too, right? And three... you're not exactly uncomplicated with the relationship stuff, yo."

She smirked and rested her chin in her hands, looking across the table at Julian. "Don't get me wrong, you're one of the nicest and sweetest guys I know. But you and Angel... kind of crashed and burned. I'd rather avoid that drama."

He let out another breath that he wasn't even conscious that he'd been holding. "I can't argue any of that," Julian began, "except that in addition to being the nicest and sweetest guy you know- I'm also the most manly and charming." A chuckle after was meant to show that he was only joking. With a wink, Keller put his left hand, palm up on the table, offering it to Inez. "I don't want you and I to end up with any awkward tension between us- but...I'm on board with whatever this is if you are."

"Take it as it goes," Inez said softly, putting her hand in Julian's and giving it a quick squeeze. "Friends-plus, or whatever. But there's something you really ought to know first."

Giving Julian a second to form a response, Inez smiled widely and looked down. "You just put your sleeve in my pie, yo."