Dori & Julian: You're Dating WHO?

[x-squirrel.livejournal.com]

Dori runs into Julian - literally - on her way back in and lets' the days events out of the bag.

It was dusk when Dori started back inside, humming a song to herself that sounded vaguely like it could have been from an anime or Doctor Horrible or some combination of both. Monkey Joe was on her heels demanding to know what was going on and saying this was why he needed to learn how to read.

But no way was she letting a squirrel learn to go through her email.

Dori was walking on air.

Heading the opposite direction at a dead run, Julian was drenched with sweat. The heat advisory was lifted and he intended to make the most of the hours before darkness took the land. His iPod blaring Scissor Sisters, he barely noticed Dori and EmJay as he barreled around a bend on the path- obscured by tall grass.

The crash that happened when the two met was really unavoidable given Dori's complete lack of attention to anything, even Monkey Joe's loud 'look out' squeaks. When she finally came back to herself a second later she tackle hugged her friend, not caring how hot it was outside. She had avoided over heating by dunking herself int he pound a couple of times. Sans phone, of course.

"Ohmygosh you'll never guess what happened!!!!!!!"

Julian dusted himself off, "You didn't get out of the way before we crashed into each other?"

"No, not that. Though I'm really sorry about that. Are you okay? Anyway, I asked someone out and you'll never guess who and they totally said yes! It's going to be my first date EVER!" Dori squeaked.

The possibilities of who the object of Doreen's affections happened to be ran through his head, "That one guy you've been ogling at the comic book store every Wednesday?"

Doreen laughed, "No. Not him," though that guy was kind of cute it was a completely different story there. Since he was never going to guess she figured she should just spit it out, "I asked Kyle out! He said yes!" she had only been wanting to do that for the better part of a year.

Julian raised an eyebrow, unsure if she was serious. But the happy puffyness of her tail and the silly grin on her face spoke volumes. "Kyle?!"

"Yeah!" Dori was giggling now. She really couldn't help it, "He's cute, smart, funny and great and I guess I just had to be eighteen first," funny how that worked.

"Kyle?!!" Julian's other eyebrow raised, "you can't be serious!"

Dori paused in her giggling for a moment and gave Julian A Look, "Why can't I be serious? I'm not joking or anything, I really did ask him out. And he really did say yes. Well, I guess it wasn't asking since I did it over email but he still said yes."

"Because he's an asshat!" Julian's expression turned angry as his face flushed.

"What? Why would you think that? He's like one of the nicest guys ever," Dori said. And in a lot of ways he was just like her when it came to the stuff they had to deal with, so that was ever better. It met they could really understand eachother and he was hot and they had almost made out in the Danger Room. And if she had the power to rewrite history they completely would have.

"Dori, he's had it out for me from my first damn day here!" Julian started to pace across the trail.

"He has?" Doreen asked, falling into step behind him. She could have easily outrun him or taken off in the other direction but she didn't want Julian to be upset. He should be happy, right? "I didn't know that, but he's never been mean to me and this will be the first date I've ever been on. Like ever!"

Julian faltered, Dori's tail was depressed- she looked sad, and the puppy-squirrel eyes she was giving him made it impossible to not want to comfort her. "Yeah, but...ugh, why him?!"

"Because I like him," Dori pointed out, "And I'm pretty sure he likes me. And... I don't have to be worried about how I look, you know? Because he gets it and it doesn't matter."

Julian's brow furrowed, "You're really excited about this, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Doreen said, looking back towards the mansion for a moment, "I really like him. And he's at least attracted to me. I've been able to pick up that much, you know?"

Julian sighed, "I need to finish my run, but if he ever hurts you, he's going to be thrown from his bedroom into the lake."

Dori gave Julian a quick hug, "You're still totally my BFF," she noted, "but you don't have to worry. He's not going to hurt me. And if he does, you can throw him into the lake. Promise."

Julian nodded curtly and without a word, headed off down the path- his head now filled with terrible mental images.