xp_logs | LOG: Bobby & Terry

Bobby decides to surprise Terry with a date. It goes...awkwardly.

Bobby Drake took a deep breath as he let his legs swing out from the door of the car he had borrowed from the mansion's garage. The whole way into District X he had been doing his best to convince himself that this was a good idea, and that he wasn't just crazy. But at the same time he was fighting the nerves in his stomach that reminded him of being a boy in high school again. But as he walked up the sidewalk to the building before him, he couldn't help but realize that the person behind the door, the person who he hoped would be the recipient of the flowers behind his back wasn't some girl he had just met at the coffee shop, or even a prom date he was hoping to make out with in the limo afterwards. This date seemed like it had much higher stakes. And the butterflies were quickly changing to bats in his gut as he reached out and hit the call button on the doorway.

It took a moment for the intercom to buzz to life before a familiar accent flitted through the receiver, "Hold on a minute, will ye?" A camera light blinked on and off, and Terry's slightly more bewildered voice sounded out again. "Bobby? What ar--Never y' mind..." It went muffled, then dead as the front door unlocked to let him in. He did not get very far up the steps before she made it out to the landing to watch him ascend with a slightly worried look on her face. Still dressed from the office in a collared shirt and pencil skirt, she'd lost both jacket and shoes and her toes wiggled a moment before she took a step toward him. "What are y' doing here? Is everything alright?" she asked all in one breath, her words rushing together.

"Well, I told you that I was going to give every effort to make this work right?" With a wry smile, Bobby pushed out the flowers from his hand towards his wife, his death clutch causing them to tilt slightly forward. "This is me... making an effort."

Terry stuttered to a stop, staring at the flowers for a few seconds before her brain caught up with his words. "Oh. Oh!" she said, in a kind of mild amazement, closing the space between them and gathering the flowers up between her hands. "Thank you, Bobby," she breathed uncertainly, then moved the flowers out of the way to step in and up to brush a kiss against his cheek. "They are lovely, to be sure."

Bobby forced a crooked smile as he turned to the side, gesturing towards the car with his shoulder. "And the surprises aren't done yet." He turned his face to the side. "How long has it been since I took you out on a proper date Mrs. Drake?"

Terry's brows rose at that and she looked past him to the car with her mouth hanging open. "Are ye serious?" she breathed, her accent clotting her tongue and rendering her words near indecipherable. From almost no communication to a surprise date? She looked at him a moment with the question clear in her expression, then stepped back a step and shook her head, turning her body halfway back toward the door. "I... uhm. Let me be getting changed first?" She was almost to the door before she looked back at him over her shoulder and asked, "How should I dress?" The flowers hung upside down at her side, her other hand on the frame.

"Just like this." Bobby reached forward and grabbed onto her hand with a smile. "It wouldn't be us if we didn't do things impromptu, right?" It was true, Bobby and Terry's whole relationship seemed to be in the spur of the moment, being highlighted by their marriage in Vegas. But her return had been just another surprise in a long line, and one that he was sure wouldn't be the last. He was sure that her going to dinner in her lounge clothes won't be even half as wild as some of the other happenings in the future. But unfortunately, all of his thoughts about surprises, didn't prepare Bobby for one, as he completely missed the step down from the apartment building, stumbling forward, and pulling Terry's hand down with him.

Terry was braced, pulling against his hand as she protested "Let me get shoes o-aaahk!" Pulled off balance, she stumbled with him, her knees buckling so she sat down hard on the step he missed, tangling legs and arms together and sliding until they hit the bottom. She laid there for a stunned moment. At least some things had not changed, no matter that she might not have missed Bobby's notorious clumsiness.
Bobby stayed on the ground for several seconds, rolling onto his back, and staring at the sky while he collected his thoughts. Real smooth Drake... was the first one that he couldn't get out of his head. His first real date in years had started off swimmingly, but he couldn't help but hope that it was just a bit of rust he could shake off quickly. "You ok Red?" He still couldn't bring himself to look towards his wife, but at least he could attempt being a gentlemen.

"Oof," was his answer. Terry slowly rolled over and pushed up onto her knees. "One of these days, you will be breaking one of our heads, Bobby Drake," she finally replied, amusement and exasperation bleeding in equal measures into her voice. "Owwww," she added as a whine, rubbing at her tailbone region while she slowly tried to climb to her feet.

Bobby was able to slowly roll up to a knee and make his way over to her, offering his hand again as a crutch to hopefully help her get to her feet. "Maybe you should get those shoes. It might give you some time to recover from your bruises." He smirked. "And for me to recover from my bruised ego."

Terry took the hand and hauled herself the rest of the way up. "I'm not sure I can survive your recovery," she teased back, matching his smirk. She limped her way back up the steps and disappeared into the apartment without even inviting him in, so he had no way of keeping track of her while she went ahead and changed. A few minutes later, she returned, dressed in a thin, belted sweater and jeans, shoes already on. "Okay, bucko. How's the ego?"

"We'll have to see at the end of the night." Bobby offered his arm out of her as he turned towards the car.

"That is if we make it alive t' the end of the night," Terry snorted, leaving his arm alone as she headed for the car.

*************

Unfortunately the trip to the restaurant had done nothing but continued to crush the ego of the would be Don Juan. Noticing that they were lat for their reservations, Bobby had attempted to get to the small place quickly, and managed to get speeding ticket along the way. Oh, and the reservations he was trying to make apparently were never written down, costing drake another $50 to the hostess in order to save face. But as they were at the table, Bobby was doing his best not to break down with his head in has hands as he forced his eyes over the menu at his wife. "Well, at least I haven't broken anything yet... right?"

With each minor disaster, Terry seemed to grow more amused. At least she had the grace to stay quiet, but nothing could suppress the growing gleam in her eye, nor disguise the way she had to keep biting her lips. She had almost broken down and told him she'd have been fine with hot dogs from the street vendor and a walk through the park when he started haggling with the hostess, but his dogged determination kept her mute. She dropped the menu flat and leaned forward, elbows on the table. "Just m' heart, Bobby," she said, trying for levity.

Bobby grinned slightly. "Well I'll do my best not to damage that any more for at least one night, right?" He turned to his menu for the first time since he was calm enough to read, when for the first time he realized that his first glance at the menu wasn't confusing, it was because the entire list was written in French. That's what he got for listening to other members of the mansion when asking for a dinner selection. "So... um... what looks good to you?" He hoped his wife would take some pity on him, or else he was going to select his meal by the long standing tradition of ehni-meani-mini-mo, and hoping he didn't wind up eating an insect.

Terry grinned broadly. Her tourist level of french was good enough to pick out some safe sort of dish, thick with sauce and bread, but she was feeling capricious enough to let him flounder a bit. "Well, I was thinking the andouillette or maybe the foie gras."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Bobby couldn't help but feel the sweat starting to appear on his brow. "I was thinking about the..." He ran his hand over his mouth so the next words were muffled. "For Grow..." Swallowing the lump in his throat, he tried to keep on. "Myself, but I don't know if it's... um... fresh here?" He couldn't help but make the end sound like a question.

"Mmm. I am not sure how fresh you would be wanting that to be." Terry curled her hand against her cheek and challenged him to go on with her look.

"Well back at the Keep I used to have them make it for me fresh from the..." He swallowed again. "Sea?" No that didn't seem right. "Prairie? Mountain Range? Barbe?" Yeah, this was going real well too.

"Oh? Grow a lot o' duck livers there, do they?" Terry asked, still looking at him in that knowing way.

"Yes. It's a new fad, growing duck liver in the sea and making sure it's... you know... plump... Very hush, hush research, I'm not really at liberty to talk about it all that much." He quickly reached forward for his water, dumping a large gulp into his mouth. "Is it hot in here?"

Terry snorted and leaned across the table to pull his menu down and point at a dish she was fairly certain he would prefer. "Glad to know you have not lost the gift o' blarney, Bobby," she said dryly. She left her hand on his menu and ducked her head to catch his eyes. "Do I really make you that nervous, mo chroí? " she asked.

Bobby let the menu fall to the table before shifting his hip to the side, giving himself a bit of an edged look. "Well it has been a while Mrs. Drake, but let me remind you, that I'm still the one in control here, and you're the one who should be nervous." It was at the moment that Bobby chose to cross his arms over his chest and lean backwards in his chair. It was also at this moment that a waiter was walking by behind him. As Bobby's chair hit the waiter in the gut, the soup in his hand toppled over, landing directly on Bobby's head. He only jumped slightly before resuming his look towards Terry. "Oh, and I meant to do that..."

"Is that so--" She started to ask before the soup went toppling. She clapped her hand over her mouth and looked at him, eyes wide. Then she picked up a napkin and offered it across the table to him.

Bobby took the napkin and used it to wipe the liquid off away from his eyes before licking the dripping soup off of his lips. "Hey that actually isn't too bad." At least there's one problem solved. Slowly he turned back to the waiter. "I'll take whatever it is I'm wearing, and the lady can have whatever she wants."

Terry snorted and turned her attention to the waiter. She shrugged and placed her order, then looked back at her husband. "I should just take you home and lock you in the bedroom, with the way your luck has been running t'night," she drawled, her accent a sleepy splash on the words.

"We'll still have to see where tonight goes." Was all that Bobby could add. But at this point, he wasn't too hopeful.

There 's not too much more trouble that they could get into sitting at a table. Not too much more conversation that was safe either. The small talk and banter poked at and skirted near topics, but by the time they left, Terry was even more confused about Bobby than ever.

*******

As they approached the apartment again at the end of the night, Bobby pulled the car over to the side. As he shifted the transition into park, he slowly moved his hand into his pocket as he let himself fall back into his seat. "Well... at least that was an interesting night." No dressed in an Xavier's Institute sweater he found in the trunk of the car, replacing his stained and most likely ruined shirt, Bobby's head was still spinning with all the awkwardness of the night. "I hope your first date back in the States wasn't too much of a disappointment."

Terry narrowed her eyes and looked sideways at him. "It was fine," she said shortly, putting her elbow on the window and cupping her hair as she pulled it away from her face. She sat there a moment longer, then pinched her lips together and turned in her seat to face him over the gear and center console. "Did you enjoy it?" she asked bluntly.

"Did I enjoy it!?" Bobby's initial reaction was one of shock. How could he like it? Never in his life had he ever been through so much ridiculousness, injury, and humiliation at his own personal expense. But in the end, the thing that was in his eyes wasn't how he felt due to his actions, it was Terry's reaction to him. Her laugh and her smile, two of the things that drew him to her in the first place. And as that thought crossed his mind, he couldn't help but chuckle as his eyes fell to the floorboards. "You know what, I actually did."

Terry exhaled and seemed to melt a little into her seat, relief softening the corners of her mouth into a small, fond smile. At the end of it all, what would make or break their relationship wasn't how graceful they were. It was how much fun they could have together. "Good," she said, folding forward to offer him a kiss.

Bobby leaned forward towards her, but stopped himself just in front of his wife's lips. "So does this mean that I'm actually going to get a second date?"

"I am tempted to be telling you no, just out of simple fear for your life and limb," she murmured slyly, eyes nearly crossing as she tried to focus on his too-close face.

"But what's life without a little bit of danger, right?" Drake pushed his head to the side as he did his best to focus as well. But at the same time he made sure not to move his lips forward, seeing if Terry would make the first move.

Last time Terry made the first move, she remembered, she sent him scrambling. She pulled back just enough that she could look him in the eye, trying to gauge the possible reaction if she tried it again. "Sure, and isn't yourself in enough danger just walking down the street?" she teased, lifting a finger to underneath his chin for the space of a breath or two before she dropped it and leaned back in her seat. "But if you are wanting to risk it again, I might be persuaded to," she said, wistfulness tugging at her voice.

Bobby quickly thrust his own chin forward, catching her own lips with his. But he made the kiss very brief before leaning back into his seat, and crossing his arms behind his head. "What's life without just a little bit of a risk?"

Terry's eyes lightened, then narrowed as she crinkled up her nose and leaned her shoulder against the seat back. "Not ours, to be sure," she mused, then twisted in her seat and put her hand on the car door.

Bobby thought about stopping her, but instead just sat back in silence. He had already tempted fate one too many times for the evening, and for the first time, seemed like things were going in a positive direction. He wasn't going to mess with that one.

Terry flashed a grin at him, then hauled herself out of her seat and out of the car.