Dori <3s Victor: The Asking

[x-squirrel.livejournal.com]

Over the course of the BBQ on the 8th, Doreen attempts to ask Victor out. However, nothing is ever as easy as it sounds. First, an Apple Ninja drops in on the would be couple...((backdated to the 8th))

Doreen took a deep breath. She had been putting this off all day. But she had to get this done, because she knew her. If she didn't ask today she wouldn't be able to. And Vic was RIGHT OVER THERE. By the coolers with the soda in it. She inched over slowly, like there was some invisible force field pushing her back. Why was she so nervous?

"Um. hi," she squeaked when she got close enough.

Victor grinned up at her from where he was flopped on the grass; today's climbing had been more exhausting than he'd realized. "Hey, Dori, what's up?"

"H...hey," Doreen said, tapping her fingers together, "Um... not much. What's up with you?"

Just then, there was a muffled squeak and a half-eaten apple came falling from the tree above them. After a moment, Yvette's face appeared between the leaves, the small spiky girl hanging by her feet from a branch. "Oops, I am so sorry to be interrupting! I dropped my apple..." She disappeared again, only to reappear as she scrambled down the trunk.

Without bothering to sit up, Vic scooped the remains of the apple up from the ground and held it out to Yvette, pretending to look stern. "You know, you're not a very good Apple Ninja if you don't hit your target on the first shot," he teased. "And you don't have to lurk. Pull up a patch of grass," he patted the ground next to him.

Doreen was blushing and biting her lip, "Um..." there was no way she was going to be able to get this out. Especially not in front of Yvette. "Having... a nice time...?" The question was so ambiguous it could've been to either Yvette or Vic.

Yvette sank into the grass beside Vic, eyes glowing briefly. "I am having the very good time, yes," she replied to Dori. "I hope you are also?"

“Yes! Very good times here,” oh that made no sense at all. A way out… that’s what she needed, “Monkey Joe!” she exclaimed, turning around, he poked his head out of a punch bowl. Good, he was actually doing something wrong. Oh gosh, now there’d be fur in all that punch, “Get out of there right now!” she said, exiting stage left. SAVED!

…yet FAIL.

Second attempt is interrupted by a strange blue woman asking odd questions...

Okay. She could do this. Really. Or so Doreen kept telling herself. Deep breath. Wait, was that wet fur she smelled? She looked down at Monkey Joe, who was soaking wet. He looked back up at her. [What?] he asked.

She wrinkled her nose a bit more, [Did you fall in the pool?]

[Maybe.] He sounded huffy.

[You smell like wet fur. Go eat something,] Doreen said, shooing her friend along and looking for Vic and spotting him. By himself.

PERFECT.

"Hi again!" she said brightly, skipping over.

"Hey," Vic said through a mouthful of food. They'd had a good lunch, but he was still starving. He piled more pork on his plate and smiled at Dori. "Having fun?"

"Yes!" she said loudly, "Lots of fun!" Apparently she no longer had volume control. "That's a lot of food," stating the obvious. Why couldn't she just ask? They wouldn't really be alone for long!

"Yeah, it is," he replied. "I got a good workout in today, so I figure I can go a little crazy. Hey, I think we're going to get a game of Ultimate going after a while--you should play."

"I like games," Dori babbled.

Morgan slid into the kitchen, bow in her hand and looked between the two teenagers quickly. She was a little out of breath from running back to the mansion and halfway through it already. They both seemed intact. No extra bits. Just to be sure she asked, "Neither of you has an arrow lodged in you somewhere, right?"

The two teenagers stared at her for a moment, blinking. "No?" Vic answered finally. "Should we?"

The woman grinned suddenly. "No, no, of course not. Why would you? Silly question, really." She abruptly hid the bow behind her back as if that would make them less suspicious of her. Technically she wasn't sure if she had actually hit anyone with that arrow. "You haven't...seen anyone come through with an arrow lodged in them somewhere. Right? I mean, recently?"

Doreen was still wide-eyed when she shook her head, “Um… no. No one with arrows in them at all… should we let you know…?”

The instantaneous look of innocence would have been more complete if she'd started whistling for all the good it did Morgan. "Aye, that'd be grand. You two, y'know, have fun. Cause some trouble. Don't do anything that--don't do anything would do." She began to edge out of the kitchen. Pausing, she cleared her throat. "Might wanna stay out of the woods, too. Uh, yeah. Bye!" Then she was gone.

Never let it be said that Dori doesn't really give it her all. Guest staring the Wave of Death. Now if only she hit the right target. Or maybe it's better that she didn't...

She looked at the assembled squirrels and back over the path that led back to one of the mansion doors. Everyone had to go inside eventually, there were bathrooms in there. Doreen nodded, [Okay. So, you know who I'm looking for,] she had vaguely described Vic to the squirrels the best that they could understand. [Any questions?]

They all started clicking and squeaking at once.

[Do we get food? You promised us food! I want the fluffy white things!] said one.

Oooh oooh oooh oooh we get to stop a big person BIIIIGGGGG PERSON.]

And so on and so forth.

[STOP!] Dori said, her tail fluffing out and then she perked up, someone was coming! She was so frazzled she didn't pay any attention to the scent. [Okay, stop him and I'll be right back!] she had to get the twigs out of her hair so she looked nice. [Just stop them, okay?]

The footsteps on the path were loud and hurried, as if someone was being rushed. A voice could be heard on a cell phone, suddenly drowned out by the chittering of a literal stampede of squirrels and a sharp exclamation of "SON OF A BITCH!", and the sound of someone very-much-not-Victor tumbling off the path and into a bush.

As quickly as they'd swarmed, the pack of squirrels separated and vanished into the grass as Forge's head popped up from the dense foliage, leaves and twigs sticking out of his hair and clothes at odd angles. He glared around and then picked up his cell phone again, seemingly nonplussed. "No, no, I'm fine," he said to the party on the other end, "I just got Doreen'ed, I think."

She jumped out and started, "Would you like to-" she paused and her face just fell, "Oh no! Are you okay?"

Forge just stared at Doreen, then spoke into his phone. "I'll call you right back."

Standing up with as much dignity as he could muster, he fidgeted for a moment, then reached into the neck of his basketball jersey and pulled out a squirming squirrel. Calmly, he placed the rodent on the ground and let it scamper away. "I assume you had a more particular target in mind, Doreen?" he asked flatly.

Doreen looked one step from tears she nodded dumbly, "I'm so sorry, Mr. Forge! Are you okay?!" This was beyond embarrassing!

"I'll be fine, Dori," Forge said, finally smiling and stepping over to the porch. "Really. Score yourself one for taking me by surprise. Hope you get who you're after." With that, he nodded and headed back into the mansion.

Catseye has a problem with some cake...

Victor stood indecisively at the dessert table. There were so many choices laid out that he was having a hard time deciding what to put on his plate. Someone--or, more likely, several someones--had really gone all out for this shindig.

Doreen managed to sneak over right by Vic, "I like the cake," she suggested, putting so very much cheer in her voice.

He smiled helplessly at her. "Which one?"

Doreen blushed, "Um... all of them!" she sputtered, "The chocolate chocolate one is totally the best."

"Sounds good to me," he said, reaching for the serving knife.

"Gak! Mrrft! Halp!" Catseye bounded between Vic and Doreen, grabbing at their arms, pointing to her mouth, which was currently stuffed with a peanut butter and ice cream cake with a hard cookie bottom. She flailed about, tugging on their sleeves, tail lashing in all directions, trying to mime that her mouth was stuck from the peanut butter and she couldn't seem to manage to chew and swallow the cake and now the ice cream was freezing her mouth.

"Oh no!" Doreen said, "Do you want me to go get you some milk!?" she asked Catseye, trying to see exactly what was going on.

Catseye wasn't sure if milk would help, but when she tried to answer Dori she spewed a little cake onto the girl's feet. Getting quite cold and beginning to panic a little, she did what any cat would do in the same situation- she spat everything out of her mouth. Unfortunately, the mess landed all over Vic's shirt.

Victor blinked down at the sticky mess spattered across his chest before it processed that yes, Catseye had just spit food on him. Really cold food, no less. He sighed, torn between exasperation and resignation. "Are there any napkins?"

Sheepish, the catgirl rooted around on the table and offered a pile of napkins to Vic. "Catseye is sososososorry! Catseye put too much cake in her mouth and then it was too sticky and too cold! Should Catseye and Dori help Vic take his shirt off?"

Dori turned bright red and nodded dumbly. Yes... taking off Victor's shirt. Please?

Vic blushed and shook his head, looking down at the smear of ice cream and peanut butter on his shirt. "No, I think I'll just go change altogether. But...thanks. I guess." He still wasn't quite sure what the proper response was, so he simply nodded his goodbye and walked past them, blotting at his shirt as he headed inside.

Another chance is interrupted by the on-going war Between Monkey Joe and Marius.

Doreen took a steadying breath. This day was not going well. Another breath. She could do this. She really could. There he was alone again. It was another chance! She kept tears from her eyes and the wobble of her voice as she walked up, "Hi again," she said, waving weakly, "Having a good time?"

"Yeah," Vic replied, looking at her with some concern. "Are you...are you okay?"

"Yeah," Doreen said, laughing weakly, "I'm fine. Really," she looked around. This time they were actually alone, or so it seemed, "Can I sit down? You don't mind if I sit down next to you, do you?"

"Not at all," he said with a gentle smile. "Did you manage to avoid getting thrown into the pool?"

"Huh? Yeah. No one tossed me anywhere," she said, sitting down. This was going really well so far, "It's been a long day," she admitted.

"It really has," he agreed, stretching; he was starting to tighten up from all of the climbing he and Johnny had done earlier. "There are a lot of people here. I thought I was starting to get to know everybody, but then all these random people showed up and I'm feeling brand new again."

"Yeah, I know, it's... kinda crazy, isn't it?" Doreen asked, scooting in a bit. "So... um, I thought I might maybe sort of kind of ask you something..."

"Sure thing," Vic said easily. "What's up?"

"Oi, Dori! A little help!"

The call was immediately followed by the sudden and unwelcome appearance of Marius, jogging towards them at top speed. His right arm was held at a strange angle, and in a moment they could see why.

For reasons known only to himself, Monkey Joe had fastened himself firmly to Marius' wrist and hand. Moreover, his body had been positioned in such a way that Marius could not release an empty styrofoam plate. Pouched cheeks indicated the current location of at least some of its contents.

"It cannot possibly be for food," Marius said as he panted to a halt in front of them, "for as you can see, none remains. And yet . . ." The Australian turned his arm upside down. Monkey Joe's sole response was to remain affixed to his wrist like an accessory for animal right's abuse.

Doreen looked up and then her jaw dropped, "Monkey Joe!" she said, standing up and running over to Marius, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," she said, as she put her hand on her squirrel and tried to remove him from Marius. At first to no avail.

[What is up with you?! Let go!] she clicked.

[He's evil,] at least that's what it sounded like with Monkey Joe's mouth full, [He stole my food!]

"I'm so sorry, he's normally not like this at all!"

Marius, whose experience with Monkey Joe had thus far indicated the opposite, looked at the squirrel. The squirrel glared back, and pulled it off somewhat better.

"I am beginnin' to consider the possibility that he may be evil," Marius said. "I mean, he keeps stealin' my food."

Doreen finally managed to get him off, "I'm really sorry. I'll talk to him, I swear. I can promise you totally and completely he doesn't have any diseases," how was it that Mr. Laverne and Monkey Joe both thought the other was evil? How did this happen? How did it keep happening, "I'll take him inside for the rest of the night so I promise it won't happen again," she said, her tail dropping. Oh, was Monkey Joe ever getting a talking to.

"No worries," Marius said automatically, but he was slow in turning his back to leave. This time he had been caught off guard, but from now on he would have his eye on that squirrel. Oh, yes. From this moment on, he vowed to himself his only concern would be someone finding out he had a squirrel for a mortal enemy.

Monkey Joe was swearing at Marius as he retreated and Doreen gave him a very stern look, [Why did you do that?! You know that was bad!] Doreen clicked at him, not bothering with English which the squirrel only had a basic understanding of. She looked back at Vic, sad, "I'm really, really sorry. But I'm going to have to go take care of Monkey Joe." Oh, she was about ready to cry right now. But two years of public high school had her very, very good at masking it.

Out of steam, Julian gives Dori friendship and advice. Fate then gives Doreen another chance.

Doreen was standing with her forehead against a tree. Banging one's head into the bark was actually really painful, but this was about how she was feeling. She just... couldn't do it. Maybe she wasn't meant to have any sort of relationship.

She was near tears. This was just crazy. How many more things could go wrong today?

He heard the soft, pained squeaks before he saw Doreen at the tree and hurried over to see if someone was hurt. Seeing his friend knocking herself silly, Julian did the first thing to come to mind and put a TeeKay barrier between her and the wood; then realizing that could probably be even worse, he tried to make it soft. 'Okay, Keller, think pillow, quick!'

Too late. "Ow!" Doreen squeaked, and back away from the tree, a hand on her head. She knew just how to hit wood with her head, having a lot of experience with that. This had stung. "What the heck?"

Julian's face squished up, "Oooh, sorry." Coming around the side of the tree Julian put a hand on her shoulder, "Are you okay?"

"No! No I'm not," Doreen managed, "But it's not your fault. Did you do that? Trees aren't that hard!"

"I didn't think, I was trying to make a cushion, but all I can manage is...well, pretty much steel," Nate had a point about him needing more work on his fine motor skills. "I'm so sorry."

"No... it's okay," she said, rubbing her forehead, "Really."

Seeing how upset she was, Julian opened his arms, offering a hug.

Doreen took the hug, "I can't do it!" she squeaked.

Giving her a tight, brotherly hug, "Whoa, hey, can't do what?"

"I've... I've been trying all day and I just can't ask him, Julian! It keeps going wrong!" Doreen sobbed.

He had an idea, but, "Ask who what?"

"You know, ask him out... like on a date," Doreen said, "It's not working, Julian! I can't do it!"

"Why not?"

“Because….things keep going really, really wrong,” Doreen said. It was like the universe was working against her.

"Oh, Dori," Julian gave her another tight squeeze. This whole situation would be much easier if he knew who it was that she was trying to ask out. "Want to talk about it?"

“I dunno. I’m no good at any of this stuff. I mean, I knew I was no good at it.”

"What stuff?" he asked, letting her go slightly and having a fairly good inkling what she was talking about.

“Well, first Yvette interrupted but that wasn’t so bad, and then this blue lady came by and asked us if either of us had an arrow in us and then I ran Mr. Forge over with squirrels and then Catseye spit cake everywhere and then Monkey Joe decided to attack Mr. Laverne – I don’t know what’s gotten into him - and nothing is going right today at all!”

"Dori, you gotta calm down," he grasped her by the shoulders and leaned forward to look her in the eyes. "So today didn't go well...tomorrow will be better. It's no reason to knock on wood with your head."

“But if I can’t do it today, I don’t know if I’ll be able to,” she said, wibbling. The whole idea of even liking someone was completely new to her.

"Why? What is so important about today?"

“School starts tomorrow, what if I forgot?” Doreen said. She knew how her attention span was.

"How long have you liked this...um...person," she'd never actually said it was a guy and he was at least tactful enough to not make assumptions.

Doreen sighed, “Almost since I first met him.”

"How long ago was that," he shook his head, "doesn't matter, listen...." He paused, waiting for eye contact, "Dori, if you've liked him that long, how could you forget?"

“I really wanted to ask before school though, because Mr. Beaubier said so,” she said, looking crestfallen.

"Mister Beaubier is an old man who doesn't know what dating is like today," Julian said with absolute certainty...he'd never seen the older mutant with anyone after all. "Don't put so much pressure on this Dori, believe me, it's not helpful...do you remember when I went out with Lacy Elritch back in LA?"

Doreen nodded and thought back, “Was she the one that everyone pretty much dated, or was that her sister?” she could never quite remember. Both of the girls had looked a lot alike.

Blushing slightly, "Um, I think that was her sister." Julian let go of her shoulders and slumped down to the ground with his back against the tree. Looking up at the stars, he started to speak, absently. "I thought I was in love with that girl, Dori and wanted to marry her right off. Catseye would call me StupidSilly for that, I'm sure, but, I put so much pressure on myself in asking her out and then when we were dating...I made it fail because I didn't give her enough room." Looking up at his furry friend, "Not that it's the same for guys or anything, but I was so depressed after that I could hardly function."

“Really? …I don’t know how this works at all… I mean, when anyone asked me anything like this back home it was a joke,” and a sick joke at that. “I’m sorry I flipped out.”

Julian smiled at her and shrugged, "It's never the same twice, but if you put too much pressure on things...it will fall apart. Just relax and let things take their course."

“Yeah,” Doreen nodded, “Things will work themselves out, right?” she said, “I think I’ll stay here for a bit. Meet you back inside?”

"Of course," Julian said, standing up and stretching out. "Just...no more knocking your head against the tree," he chuckled and strolled back toward the mansion.

She had to compose herself. Either something was going to happen or it wasn't, like Julian seemed to have been saying. She sighed and rested against the wall of the mansion, not going inside. "This day... so horrible."

The door next to her opened, and Victor looked out, eyes scanning the yard before coming to settle on her. "Oh, hey, Dori. Have you seen Johnny?"

Doreen's lifted face fell in a second and then settled on some expression in between, "Not lately. Why?"

"Oh, we're supposed to leave for the movie soon and I don't know where he is." He stepped out onto the patio, closing the door gently behind him. "You're coming to the movie, right?"

"Yeah... I asked if I could," Doreen said, "I like Tim Burton movies."

Vic brightened at that. "Awesome. It looks really, really good. Did you know he's doing an Alice in Wonderland too?"

"Yeah! It looks really awesome, doesn't it?" Doreen said, cheering up a bit.

"Totally. I can't wait." He glanced at her. "I'm glad you're coming to the movie." She'd seemed upset earlier, but he didn't want to pry.

"Really?" Doreen asked, brightening up.

He smiled at her. "Yeah. I think it'll be a really good time."

Doreen smiled brightly, "Um... then maybe... sometime... you and I, I mean, just the two of us could maybe...um... go to a movie? And get food... if you want. I mean, you might not want to and I'd totally understand that but I'm really okay with it and I thought maybe it would be fun and stuff..."

Oh, this was not going well.

He shrugged easily. "Sure thing." Something caught his attention then and he looked out over the yard. "There's Johnny. See you at the movie?"

Doreen almost collapsed with relief, "Yeah, see you..."