"do we?" Her question rung out loud for a second, then she paused, both mentally and physically.

Did he...

Looking up, she quietly stumbled onto the hidden meaning laced between his words.

"A-ah, yeah, sure. You're right." Her eyes returned back onto the phone. As she eased into a walk, her speed increased naturally, all while the nerves of the situation pricked at her cheeks. "The, um, cab should be out ready for us in 10. Just in case your, um, curious."

Her old stomping grounds?

A small chuckle tickled the back of her throat, but she retrained herself enough to keep it at bay.

"Perfect! Let me just grab my sweater then." With a small skip to her set, she set off towards the door, eyes set straight for the black sweatshirt she had hung up on the rack.

"What're you working on, by the way?" Idle chatter carried her from the rack back to the table. Her phone distracted her eyes, but her attention was still well within his grasp. "I've heard plenty of good thing"

She was timid, but wasn't at the same time.

To put it simply: she was when she was around him. Only him. No one but him (and the 50 other guys she had a crush on prior to him).

"There's this Thai place in Slateport I always go to," she suggested, her face puckered up in thought. "Or maybe we could get sushi?"

While the gears in her mind churned, she manuevered back around the table, right up to the small bookshelf they had pressed up against the wall. There she slipped her rolled up schematic - a project left for another day.

She turned back to him.

"What do you think"

Dinner?

Her heart lept out of her chest.

"Food would be great," she nodded, her hand naturally moving to pull back her hair behind her ear. "But, um, could we maybe get non-cafeteria good?"

Cordon was great, but he could only do so much with so little.

Slowly, Rory approached the tabletop once more, gently peeling off the schematic from it's surface and rolling it up for the next day.

"I'm fine," she squeaked, small and meek, like a mouse scrunching away from a hungry cat. 

"I just-" before she could finish her sentence, Vallen's calloused hand reached for her forehead. The rough touch of his skin sent a spasm of heat where he laid his hand. Embarrassed, the tornado of emotions sent Rory scrambling out her seat. 

With fridgety movements she moved towards the opposite side of the table. 

"I'm fine!" This time, the repeated words were a lot more strained. "Just frazzled from working all day."

A light of interest sparked in her eyes, loud and bright, with the heat of fiery passion. She turned to look back up at him.



In an instant, she went off on a 5-minute spiel, answering both his question and much more than he could've ever asked for. Throughout all of it, she'd get jittery with excitement, sometimes hopping a bit in her seat, or using her hands to make wildish gestures to emphasize her points.



All to end with a simple,



"If that makes sense."



It was then she finally noticed the sheer proximity of their faces, and... just their faces! Nothing else. Certainly not their lips. Again, she turned, this time in the opposite direction. Blood rushed to her cheeks as she used her hands to shield her face.

ana fell

She was one of the young, budding electricians rocket had at their disposal. Rory would know, as she spent the better half of the day digging through the organization's ol phone book, looking for anyone with even a lick of knowledge with electronics.

Because, while she double majored in both electrical and mechanical engineering, the ladder was much more enjoyable than the former. So if she could only grab some brain cells of another...it would make all the difference.

So, here she was, hair neatly pinned up in a ponytail, wearing a crop top and shorts, ready to take that first step forward.

"Hello...?" her voice carried out into the emptied room. It was where the woman was supposedly at work, but of course, there was always a chance she misread the schedule.[/blockqquote]

brown eyes.

The nickname ran a shudder down her spine.

"No," She shook her head. Slowly, Rory was internally gathering the courage to meet his gaze. It was hard, but with enough self-motivation, she was finally able to make the leap.

"I was just fiddling with an idea..."

Sketched out on the schematic was a barebones outline of a kyorge-inspired jet-powered boat. Eraser marks could be seen skidded down the sheet, each one signaling one of her many spurts of muse, or her doubts of inferiority.

"Nothing crazy."

Like a puppy, the door's casual opening sprung the woman to life, invigorating her with the sweet bliss that was the love of her trusted roommate.

"That's why I love you~," She chimed back, stepping into the all-too-familiar room. At this point, it had almost become a second therapy room for her to indulge in. Somewhere to feel completely safe in. The number of little factoids she'd told annalise henderson in here within the year they already spent together... It was enough to drive most women mad. So, the fact that it didn't, was a complete green flag on Ann's part.

She took the same place on the ground as she always had, her fingers instantly going to work on the carpeted floors, plucking, pulling, and brushing each strain of woven rope until the nerves came rushing back to her.

"Ann!" A squeak/squeal combination erupted from her lips. In an instant, her face lit up with a red tint to it, causing her to immediately throw her hands onto her face, in an attempt to mask the embarrassment. Roughly, she shook her head. "Pineapple is NOT my man, okay?? We're just, um, friends!"

 The bar reeked of old men and spilled alcohol. It wasn't an unfamiliar stench, with her growing up around it and all, but there was something so alluring with the idea of not smelling something so vile, that it made returning all the more miserable.

Hands clutching tightly onto the strap of her purse, she gave her surroundings a quick lookover before creeping further into the bar, well aware of the possibility of lingering slobs.

"@calhoun ?" She called out. "You in here?"

He had to be-- this was where he picked to meet up (despite her pleas to go to somewhere more normal).

"Come out already or I'm going to leave!"

A dirty lie. Honestly, distance HAD made her heart grow fonder for her family, and so, ever since she moved out earlier that year, she had made it a point to come back every other week or so. Just to catch up.

There weren't many things Rory was talented in. Besides her knack for engineering, she often found herself struggling to explore new hobbies outside the mathematics field. Poetry, for example, was something she took great interest in, but when it came to writing her own...

Yikes.

So, she kept to what was already written. The same could be said with literature. But, beyond these two mediums of leisure, there laid one more that she sought out whenever life became far too stressful to endure: shoujo manga.

Full of cutesy, heartstopping moments and squeal-worthy men, the genre was exactly what she needed after a long week at the office. Especially when it came with the comfy delicacies of a nearby cafe.

Sighing, Rory placed the manga she was reading face down onto the table, as she need a small breather before continuing. The main character had just fallen over and the two main love interest had immediately offered their hand to her -- a classic, yet always a satisfying moment in any shoujo title. During this short break, her eyes lazily scanned her surroundings, popping from person to person, and shelf to shelf. It wasn't until they found themselves noticing a particularly cute pinkette snuggled up near the corner of the cafe that they took a moment to pause.

She's cute, she thought to herself, a small smile playing on her lips. I wonder what she's read...ing...

Both of Rory's eyes blew up into two plump balloons as she noticed the very title that rested in that cute woman's hands. It was the same book she had been obsessing over for the past two months, and yet, had failed to find another person who'd read it.

I should go up to her...

This thought was immediately curtailed by another one, much louder than the previous one, screaming at her to reconsider. It'd be weird, annoying, and just overall bothersome to her.

For the next few minutes, these two sides would battle with one another, beckoning for Rory to listen. Anyone (especially Luka) may even come to notice that during all of this she would be stealing quick peeks from over her book.

Ceri Glynn ? With Team Rocket?

Flustered, she allowed the other woman to take her hand but did nothing to show a similar sense of enthusiasm. What was she doing here? Working with a terrorist organization, no less? Her tongue went numb in her mouth as she mulled everything over.

"It's..."

Speak Rory, Speak.

"It's good to see you, too..."

She slowly retracted her hand back to her side, eyes laced with a mixture of both concern and utter confusion.

"I just recently joined," She smiled, sheepishly. Bringing her hands clasped together behind her back, she nervously balanced her weight by the balls of her heels.  A bad habit of hers. "How about you? I, I didn't think I would see you around here..."

Rory gnawed at the insides of her cheeks.

Normally, it wasn't too difficult to have a conversation with Vallen. If anything, it was too EASY at times, which further added to his charm. But that was only when she was emotionally PREPARED to speak to him.

Talking to the love of your life who doesn't know he's the love of your life takes a lot of work. And, without doing some staring back at the mirror motivational pep talk, there wasn't much courage to scrounged up at the knack of time.

"Um, no, actually. They're Lionel's." She gave a nervous chuckle, as her eyes kept glued to the half-finished schematic. "Oh! You don't know who he is. Um, he's actually a part of my new team. Great guy-- you should definitely meet him..."

By the time she dared to look back up, he was already gone and out of sight.

"busy?"

A sharp squeak piped out from her throat. Driven by surprise, her hands had knocked over all of her pencils from the table.

She let out a deep breath.

"Not really..."