Amara and John | Saturday night

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Amara and John go on their first date.

John was early. He had told Amara that he would be at the mansion to pick her up at 7PM for their date. Yes. Date. John Allerdyce was going on a date with a colleague from work. Not just any colleague. Someone from Xavier's. Someone who was friends with his friends. If he had told Angelo about his dinner plans, maybe Angelo would have talked him out of it. Maybe Angelo would have told him what a bad idea that was because one shouldn't ever mix work with feelings of lust and like and thoughts of buying Amara Aquilla a cupcake every morning just to see her smile. It was ridiculous. So many things could go wrong. It wasn't even funny.

He sucked on his cigarette and blew the smoke out to his left before he straightened up and stepped away from the borrowed car. He ran a hand down his shirt to smooth out any wrinkles, and checked his hair in the passenger window.

Amara was actually dressed already, and had been fussing with her hair for the past fifteen minutes, despite the fact that it looked perfectly fine. She was inexplicably nervous about this evening -- she'd spent time with John before, they'd had dinner together more than once. She saw him all the time at work. Tonight shouldn't be any different than that. Taking a deep breath, she smoothed down a wave one last time before collecting her purse and heading downstairs. About half way down she paused and wondered if she should get changed (... again), but then made herself keep going, right out the door to find John already waiting there, and early.

"Hi," she said with a smile, squashing her nerves. "You're early." She didn't sound particularly displeased by that.

The moment he saw her walk out the front door, John disposed of his cigarette and walked over to meet her halfway. "Hi," he said and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. "I didn't want you to wait. You look great." He smiled and offered her his arm. So far so good. He hadn't tripped over his feet, hadn't forgotten to compliment her and had managed to keep eye contact. "I got us a table at that Turkish restaurant you wanted to try out."

"Thank you," she replied with only the slightest of blushes, taking the offered arm. "You look pretty good as well," she continued, pleased that she hadn't done anything idiotic as yet. -- well actually, she did belatedly remember she should have grabbed a coat, if only because people looked at her strangely when she walked around in winter without one, but then she decided not to bother. She didn't need it, and she didn't want to keep John waiting while she ran back up to get it.

"That's great! I've heard a lot of really good things about it."

People were going to think John was an asshole for not offering her his jacket but he already knew she didn't need one, and since he hardly gave a damn what anyone else thought, he wasn't about to ask her to go grab one for appearances sake.

"I checked it out online. They've got a pretty extensive menu." He walked her over to the passenger side and opened the door for her. On the seat was a single white rose. John almost forgot about that. He picked it up and handed it to her without a word.

"Thank you." She took the rose from him, bringing it to her nose to take a deep breath. She looked up to John, a smile on her face. "You're being very sweet." Not that she was complaining at all, but it was a little unusual for him.

He shrugged, feigning nonchalance. The rose seemed appropriate for a first date.

-----

Once they arrived at the restaurant, the waiter brought them to their table and presented them with their menus.

"Do you drink?" John asked as he perused the menu. There wasn't much of a selection, really. It was just a choice between beer or wine, and if she didn't drink, there was a whole list of non-alcoholic beverages for her to choose from.

"Not to excess," she said with a smile, as she glanced over the wine list. Amara hadn't ever been more than very tipsy in her life, but she was very wary of the lack of control that overindulgence brought. Making a fool of yourself was one thing, her having an accident with her powers was another. "I have enough trouble keeping my powers in check when I'm cranky, let alone being drunk."

"You get cranky?" Oh, he knew very well that she had quite the temper which was probably why he was smiling a little. He wasn't about to forget the time she almost chewed him out because of his movie choice. John was never going to bring up 'The Human Centipede' in a conversation ever again.

"How about we give the Turkish tea a try?" He was okay with skipping the alcohol. He already had a lot to drink last night.

"On occasion," she said with a sweet smile. Amara was pretty sure she was given instructions on what to say or not say on a date, and it's possible admitting to things like that were on the list of things not to day. But Amara had mostly ignored those instructions, since there was no point in not being herself.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," she agreed, then put down the menu. "I don't know how to decide on anything, it all looks so good. I want to try it all."

John smirked. Way to break a guy's bank balance. Not that he would have mind if she could actually eat that much.

After perusing the menu again, he decided to order for them both, making sure they had a variety of dishes they could try out. While waiting for the food to arrive, he made small talk. He asked her about how her studies was going and how everyone else was, but deftly avoided asking her about her training with the X-Men. It was no secret that he didn't like them.

"Any newbies at the mansion?"

Amara didn't mind John ordering for them - she'd just take far too long to decide, and them sitting here for half an hour was not really fun for either of them.

Amara thought about the question for a moment. "There's a new guy called Wade. He's... interesting." Amara smiled at the thought. "He's introducing me to the Golden Girls. He's really fond of the show for some reason."

"The Golden Girls? Really?" John had his eyebrows raised. That was something his grandmother probably watched back when he was still in his diapers.

"Apparently," Amara said with a bit of a laugh. "I'd never heard of it, but he seems very keen to get his Bea Arthur fix." Amara had no idea who that was, but she was about to find out. 

John made a mental note to find out who this Wade guy was. He sounded like a complete geezer. Maybe even an old man pervert preying on the young at the mansion. It wouldn't be surprising. The Professor was keen on taking in the weirdos.

"Are you still in touch with Adrienne?"

Wade was definitely not an old guy. -- okay, well, he didn't look it at all, and Amara had no idea how old he was. And he did seem a little weird, but he also seemed pretty sweet.

"No," Amara said with a shake of her head. "I mean, she was still sending through instructions when I was still working at 64 Square, but no one has really heard from her at all." She frowned a little. "I hope she's okay."

"I'm sure she is." John looked up when the waiter brought their pot of tea over and he asked for an ashtray. He then looked back at Amara. "Okay if I smoke?"

"Sure," she said with a shrug, smiling up to the waiter as he poured the tea. "So what fabulous location is Nathan going to have you jetting off to next?"

John lighted up his cigarette and he placed the ashtray in front of him. "Fabulous, huh?" He let out a bit of a smile. "I'll be posted to a mutant refugee camp in Darfur, Sudan for about a week to oversee the building of a few water wells in the area." It was a project that had been initiated last year due to scarce water supplies in Kalma. Hundreds of Darfuris had fled the violence in their home village to seek shelter at the camp for displaced people.

"I should be back here again by early March if things go as planned." He tapped his cigarette on the edge of the tray and kept his eyes on Amara. "Gonna miss me while I'm gone?"

Amara had propped her chin in her hand as she listened to John, a smile on her face. It was always fascinating listening to him talk about work, since he was so passionate about it without being really willing to admit to it.

"Maybe," she said a little playfully, taking a sip of her tea. "It does mean I won't be nearly as distracted at work. I'm sure someone will think that's a good thing."

John grinned as he sucked on his cigarette; pleased to hear that he wasn't the only one who had been feeling a bit distracted at work lately. Nathan had caught him staring at Amara more than once during meetings. He suspected his being distracted lately was half the reason he was being sent off to Sudan. But John wasn't about to complain. Compared to all the paperwork and research they had to do, he much preferred the hands on approach to dealing with things.


It was almost ten by the time they made it out of the restaurant. John decided that they should take a little detour and take a walk through the park instead of going straight to the car.

"What was life like in Nova Roma? Did you have a lot of friends your age? Non-animal friends?" He was joking. He already got the idea that she hadn't been raised by a pack of wolves.

"Of course I had friends," Amara said with a laugh. "And Nova Roma..." She paused, trying to think how to talk about it. "It's like another world. I mean, we had running water and electricity, and my father had a library full of books from authors all around the world. But we had so little contact with the outside, and we were completely self-sufficient. What we ate, we grew ourselves, we made all our own clothing, furniture, everything. It would have been idyllic, if it hadn't been for Selene." Amara sobered up a little at that, rubbing her hands over her arms, even though she wasn't cold at all.

"I used to dream about leaving," she said quietly, looking up at the stars. "About seeing the places I'd read about in books. Not forever, but I just wanted to see the world. And then I had to leave, and all I wanted to do was go back." She smiled a little sadly. "And now it's gone, or going, and I have no idea what I want to do with my life."

John got how hard it was for her to be away from her home. He didn't think it would be easy for him if he had to build a new life for himself outside of the country. "Hey." He lifted his hand and gently cupped her chin, getting her to look at him.

"You'll figure it out." Honestly, John thought she was doing pretty well for herself considering.

Amara raised her gaze to meet his, blinking a couple of times before smiling slightly again.

"I hope so," she said softly, before getting distracted by just how close he was. She blinked once, unable to tear her gaze away from his.

There really was no point in trying to debate the pros and cons of kissing a girl on the first date. His brain was refusing to cooperate. Also, Amara looking at him like that was making it really difficult for him to take that step back in order to smoothly resume their conversation.

He wanted to kiss her. John brushed her hair back and tucked it behind her ear.

Amara had been in this position before. It was that moment where you knew it was very likely someone was about to kiss you, and you had just enough time to step back and away from it. She knew that because it was what she usually did. She stepped back, and stepped away, that moment broken and made awkward -- or worse, the prelude to an argument.

Except this time, she actually didn't want to step back. Without putting any more thought into it, thought that would talk her out of it, she leaned up to close the gap between them, pressing her lips against his. She wasn't entirely sure what she was doing, her kissing career had mostly involved a couple of clandestine smoothed when she was a teenager, but how hard could it really be?

John already had one hand pressed against the small of her back. He slipped his other hand into her hair and kissed her, slowly. There was really no mistaking how she made him feel. If only his heart would stop pounding at a mile a minute. What was it about this girl that drove him crazy?

Wow. This was. Wow. Amara's eyes had fluttered closed as John kissed her back, her hands resting on his chest before sliding up to sit on his shoulders. Okay, so she didn't have anything to compare this to, but she just knew this was a great kiss. Her heart rate had picked up, there was a strange fluttering in her stomach, she was feeling warmer...

Wait, that part was bad. She broke the kiss unexpectedly, taking a few deep breaths and making sure her powers stayed up under control. She hadn't heated up enough to burn John, but she was definitely a few degrees warmer than she had been.

"Sorry," she said with a blush, her gaze fixed on his chest. "I didn't..." She just blushed harder. "Sorry."

"If you're going to apologize every time you kiss me," John murmured as he tilted her chin up again so he could look at her. "Just so we're clear..." He leaned down and kissed her again, this time, ending it at just the right moment. Before he pulled away, John brushed his lips once against the corner of her mouth and then once more against her jaw line as he trailed his fingers down her neck. If she was getting warmer again, John didn't seem to mind the heat. He'd always hated the cold anyways.

"If I can be honest," he said. "I don't usually do dates. In fact, I never." Probably not the best thing to admit but he wanted her to know the truth. It wasn't as if she wouldn't find out about his wayward behavior if she started asking around, and he didn't want her to think that he was just playing her for a fool. Somehow, that seemed important. It was.

"But I'd like to take you out again." He had only just decided this just now, and as he spoke, he kept his gaze on her. "If you'd let me."
 
Amara was blushing pretty hard at this point, and she was definitely a lot warmer than she usually was. The difference was she could feel it, and she couldn't figure out whether that was because she was actually heating up, or if it was just the effect John was having on her. Either way, he didn't seem to mind, so she relaxed a little.
 
"I don't..." She paused, trying to figure out what she wanted to say. "I haven't really dated much. At all. Not at all, before last year, really." She finally managed to stop blushing, meeting his gaze properly with a serious expression on her face.
 
"But I'd like that." She knew she should probably tell him about the date with Bishop, but at the same time, she also knew this wasn't exactly the right time for it. But she would. Soon. Instead of saying anything more, she leaned up again, brushing her lips against his. Maybe it was very forward of her, but she'd enjoyed kissing him far too much to care right now.