Kyle and Dori (Backdated to Nov. 17th)

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Dori crushes on pesters Kyle about driving and the like. Backdated to the 17th of November

It was hard to track someone by scent, especially here in the mansion where so many smells mingled and mixed together. But Doreen had help. Monkey Joe gave her a look that on a human she would've called a long-suffering one. Doreen rolled her eyes and shook her head, [You're such a brat,] she told him. But it was said with love.

Kyle was in the rec room, at least if her sense of smell was right and Monkey Joe wasn't lying. Doreen took a deep breath to steady herself. She had a statue from her collection in her hands that was going to be a gift because people liked to get things and she remembered he had mentioned being Beast Boy one year for Halloween. So she did the unthinkable, she took Beast Boy (aka Changeling) from her group of Titan's statues and had it with her, firmly in her hands.

Think cute, she told herself. Think cute.

"Um. Kyle?" she padded, barefoot, into the rec room. (Shoes so sucked.)

Kyle was indeed in the rec room, although, he was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of one of the TV's with a headset mic on, a XBOX controller in one hand and there was what seemed to be a stream of endless trash talk coming out of his mouth right up until Dori said his name and then he jerked his head up, looked over at her, and then abruptly got up and touchdown spiked the oversized controller. "Yes! YES YES! Scout is so the best Team Fortress class -ever-. I kick so much ass!"

Then he acknowledged Dori. "Heya fuzzy. What's up?"

"Oh, you're playing a game? Did you win? Uh, I brought you something. Because I like bringing people stuff," Doreen said, slapping herself mentally for how bad that sounded, "Anyway, want to see what I brought you? Then I can watch you play. I like games."

"I just kicked eleven kinds of ass at Team Fortress. Which is only the like third coolest game ever." Kyle said. "So yeah, winning. I totally just stomped like five guys butts." He tabbed the XBOX off with his toe. "And sure, I guess. Is it food?" He was always interested in food.

"No, it's not food, but I can go get food," Doreen offered, and then held out the statue, "This is Beast Boy, you said you were him for Halloween once, so I thought you'd like it. And Team Fortress is awesome and I'd totally love to watch you play."

Kyle took the statue and looked it over with a very confused expression. "Oh, is that who that guy is? Yeah, that was my trainee name too. All I know is that Clarice dyed me green." And it had totally stained everything later that night. "He does kinda look like me if I was green. Huh. What's he do?"

"He's also called Changeling," Doreen said, "He turns into different animals, and they're all green when he shifts into them. He's really cool. He's a member of the Teen Titans, well, it's really just the Titans now, since they're not teenagers anymore."

"Oh, like from that cartoon with the robot guy!" Kyle did remember that, it had been on the TV a few times in the rec room. "So he's like green guy version of Catseye only more animals? Dude, that's kind of a cool power. But you didn't need to give me your statue." he said. "And I know it's yours. It smells like your room."

"Yeah, the cartoon they made. It wasn't so much like the comic, but it was totally cool in its own way," Doreen said, turning the Beast Boy statue around in her clawed hands. "No, I want you to have it. Because it's so cool and you dressed up like him." And she couldn't really afford right now to go out and buy anything.

Kyle frowned a little. "Okay, but if he gets like, lonely and misses the other comic dudes from your desk, I'll let you know." This was just a little weird, he thought, and he had a bad feeling about it. "Or if Manny's sister gets too interested in trying to put dresses on him. She tried to put one on my cat." That lasted all of the two minutes it took for Shamu to go and hide under Kyle's bed.

"That's fair," Doreen said, "Beast Boy wouldn't want to wear a dress," she admitted. Cool! He was accepting a gift, that was good, right? She'd file it under good. "So, I had like, another question," she said, "I really need to figure out how to get my license out here, so I was wondering if you could take me driving?"

Because that would be time alone. And that would be so cool.

"No can do." Kyle said. "New York's a real bitch about driving laws. If you don't have a license already, and gotta get your permit, then only people over 21 with like I dunno how many years of driving can teach you. I can do the basics on the driveway and stuff for you, but regular driving'd get both of us tickets." And Kyle was all about not getting any of those.

Dori looked crestfallen, "Oh," she said. Well, that axed that plan, "Okay. Um... so I have to get a totally new permit? I don't have to take the written test again, do I?"

The poor kid looked destroyed, and Kyle had no choice but to feel bad. Dori was a sweet kid, if sort of overly chipper sometimes. "I got no idea. But I bet the internet could tell you. Or whoever's teaching driving, which means probably like, Garrison or something. Sides, you don't want me teaching you, you'd hafta learn in the station wagon and dude, you've been in that thing. It's like driving somebody's sofa."

"I wouldn't mind driving someone's sofa!" Doreen said, and then suddenly looked horrified by that remark, "I mean, if someone's sofa was actually a car and that car was the station wagon and... you said I could find this stuff on the internet?" She hoped she hadn't just turned bright red.

Stifling the urge to mutter "that's what she said" was a lot harder than Kyle expected. But Dori was such a sweet, innocent kid that he didn't want to make her think he was some kind of ... sex pervert. Or that he was encouraging the crush he was really starting to suspect she had. "Yeah, or in the driver's manuals. Catseye probably still has hers, or Yvette might. Yvette's kinda hard on books sometimes so she might've scanned hers, I dunno."

"Oh, okay," Doreen said, "Well, uh, I guess I'll have to ask them then, huh?" Why did these sort of things always fail when she tried them? They always seemed so easy for everyone else.

"Dude, it's Cats and Yvette. They're the nicest people ever, I'm pretty sure it won't be like an issue." Score! The subject was changed and Kyle was safe. He hoped. "Grab a controller, I'll show you how Team Fortress works. But, seriously, don't get online with it. A lot of the dudes online are pretty much douchebags."

"Oh, I know that I used to play stuff online all the time. It's kinda funny when they find out you're a girl," Doreen said, scrambling for the controller, "Teach me how to play! I promise I'll be like the best student ever!"

Kyle laughed. "Everybody knows girls don't play video games. Girls play with toy horses and uh... Barbies and..." What else did Manny's sister have? Oh, right. "And Dora the Explorer." He almost sounded convincing, if it hadn't been for the laugh. "Okay, so the way this works is that you pick one of these dudes and the each do different things. I like the Scout, because he's jumpy and fast. The Demoguy blows things up, the Soldier's tough but kinda slow, the Spy's sneaky and can change shape, you get the idea, right?"

Dori laughed too, sticking out her tongue at the whole Barbie crack, "Squirrel Girl beats everything," she said simply, "It's canon. In my mind. And stuf. I'll try the jumpy and fast guy first!"