The Dreaded, Much Anticipated Event...

[grandtheftmecha]

Who: Katina and Viral
What: Manipulated into a date by Alex.
Where: A Mediterranean restaurant, because... Alex again.
When: Christmas Day
Warnings: Shouldn't be any worse than the usual between them.

Katina knew she'd have to get some sort of payback on Alex. Getting her to agree to a blind date while she was half drunk... there was no honor in that! Ignore the fact that she hasn't gone on a single date in, literally, years.

So she walked down the sidewalks of Tokyo dressed as nicely as she had been in a long time. Tan slacks, burgundy blouse, simple black fashion boots, and a gray coat to keep out the cold - all someone who was used to Michigan winters needed here. She knew what the restaurant looked like and about where it was, and Alex had told her she'd know the guy when she saw him, whatever that meant, and she rounded the last corner, the restaurant just down the...

street...

is that...

I am KILLING that woman when I get back tonight.

Comments

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

Viral was waiting outside the restaurant, dressed in clothes much better than the rags and bandages he normally did, but it's difficult to find clothing to accommodate his unusual hands. He managed to find dark slacks, an off-white shirt, and an over sized sports coat that fit well enough.

This was so annoying... but humans were much easier to deal with when you humored them. Show up at this restaurant dressed nicely or you will never have a moment of peace again. The note on his door might have been an empty threat, but Viral didn't want to take that .... chance...

Viral stared down the street, and his mouth twitched.

"You have got to be kidding me."

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Katina hesitated. For a brief moment, she considered retreat, no matter how much she loathed the concept.

No. No way. Running from Viral? And then having to deal with Alex? No way in hell.

Her face was set as though preparing for battle, and she made her way down the street towards her... ugh... date. "...cat," she addressed him.

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

"... Monkey." Viral nodded in reply, his movements stiff. "The look on your face tells me you're as annoyed by this turn of events as I am."

An awkward moment of silence followed, the sounds of the street around them continuing, oblivious to the stare-down occurring nearby. Viral mentally vowed revenge on whoever decided that this would be funny. Ugh, no way was he going to lose face in front of Katina. He was in this as long as she was.

Viral turned sharply, and pulled open the door with a little bit more force than necessary. He bowed his head, expression still sharp. "After you."

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Katina sighed after a moment. "Yeah. And I know the culprit, so we can deal with her later." She wasn't sure how exactly, but she'd think of something, dammit.

She kind of... stared as he opened the door for her. Feigning chivalry? He wasn't completely uncivilized. Katina glared as she walked through the door. "...thanks."

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

Another uncomfortably silent moment passes as they wait to be seated. The silence continues until they are actually given a table.

"... " Viral hesitated. He'd never been on one of these date things... being an artificial construct created by the spiral king for the sole purpose of oppressing humans wasn't exactly the correct social structure for this... not that he would let her know that. But, Viral had no idea what he was supposed to say.

"... I suppose now is where we make idle small talk and pretend to be interested in what is said."

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Silence. That was good. That kept Katina from having to actually talk, avoiding a hate-filled rant aimed at Alex, Viral, the restaurant, people in general, aliens, or the reason the sky is blue.

Fortunately, they were seated fairly quickly, keeping Katina's bad temper to a minimum for now. She caught the hesitation, but it's not like she didn't know how bad Viral was at casual conversation. "...small talk. Not exactly my strong point."

She drummed her fingers on the table. "We could talk about how many ways we're gonna gut Alex for this I guess."

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

"Heh... I can think of a few things, but probably not the best thing to discuss in detail around witnesses." He indicated the other patrons in the restaurant, one or two of which were giving them an odd look.

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Katina glanced around the restaurant. "Huh. Yeah I guess. Threatening to murder our allies probably doesn't make us look any better." A waitress arrived; Katina ordered Greek moussaka because... well, what the hell, and ordered beer with it. "If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't give a damn what anyone thinks. Though they're probably just staring at your fucking huge mitts."

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

Viral pretty much ordered the first thing he saw that had fish in it, not really caring about the details, and his own alcoholic beverage to match.

"Feh, how charming. I'm just distracting them from how creepy your eyes are."

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Katina blinked a few times. "Creepy? My eyes? You... you have fucking cat eyes. You're the only guy in this whole twenty-million-something person city like that." She refrained from making a scene, but only barely. "Hell, people might just think I'm weird and put in a red contact because it's Christmas!"

She settled into a comfortable glare waiting for a retort of some kind.

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

"..." Viral still stared at Katina, but it was clear something else was going through his head. He folded his arms and looked away. A second too long later, Viral continued.

"Must be great that you can fit in one day of the year." There was a hidden bit of bitterness behind those words.

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

...ouch. Katina looked away too, more glad than usual when her drink arrived to provide a distraction. He sounded as stand-offish as usual but... dammit, she wasn't sure whether to be more worried if he was offended, or if he wasn't and she thought he was. Why should she care anyways?

Probably because standing out was a lot nicer when it was on your own terms. "...sorry," she murmured barely audibly through a sip of beer.

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

what. Must have imagined it. Best to pretend the whole topic never came up.

Viral focused intently on his own drink, searching again for something to say, and allowing the silence to once again grow to awkward proportions.

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

He didn't hear it? Oh well. Cats are supposed to have good hearing, not her fault at all.

Katina glanced up at Viral while he was looking away, fooling no one but herself into thinking that it was hard to tell that was she was. Why do I notice the cat thing so much anyways? Why don't I call him shark or... fuck I don't even know what the hell those hands are supposed to be.

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

Call it selective hearing. Viral wasn't very interested in exploring his feelings right now. His eyes flicked back to Katina, catching her in her 'subtle' look.

"What? Don't tell me you're concerned about me."

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Well okay, if she was caught then she was turning it into a glare. Take that. "Concerned? Pfft. I was just wondering about those hands. You've got cat eyes and shark teeth, but what are your hands supposed be? Sloth hands?" Honest about what she was thinking? ...sort of.

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

"You can't tell?" Viral held out his hand and flexed his claws. "Want a closer look?"

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Katina 'hmphed,' reached out, and grabbed Viral's hand roughly, yanking it towards her and turning a critical eye on it. "And if I do?"

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

"Wh-geh!" Viral was made to sit up as he was pulled practically across the small table. He scowled, resting his chin against his one free hand. ".... Never pegged you for the touchy type."

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Glare again. "I'm more of the punch you in the face for being a smart ass type." People were staring again; even if the two weren't loud Viral had drawn initial attention with his... beastliness, and holding hands wasn't usually a prelude to physical violence on dates.

The waitress finally arrived with their orders, a hopelessly out of her league teenager. "H-here's your... meals." The poor girl forced a smile. "You'll have to... stop holding hands for a moment... so there's room..."

The mental circuits connected, and she quickly let go. And was that a slight blush? Why would I blush? No reason for that. Stupid waitress getting all scared of Viral.((Because Katina is not intimidating at all...)).

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

Viral sat back down, folding his arms again. Was... why was she blushing? ... Must be the alcohol.

He watched the waitress set down their food intently, only causing the poor girl to start shaking and scurry off with only a tiny "enjoy your meal!"

To fill the silence, Viral wasted no time in starting on his food. "... good." He muttered.

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Katina dug into her food with only just enough table manners. "Yeah." It really was, for all that she wasn't too into the eggplant, but she had a hard time giving it much attention. "So, uh... fish, huh?" she asked, trying to hold off the next awkward silence.

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

"I'm a cat and a shark. Would you expect anything else?" Viral thoughtfully chewed before continuing. ".... What the hell are you eating?"

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

...well that made more than enough sense. Katina swallowed her bite. "It was called... moosakky or something. Lamb and eggplant with a bunch of seasonings and other veggies." She picked a piece up with her fork. "I just picked it cuz I haven't really had lamb before."

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

Viral scowled at Katina's food. "Seems like a lot of pointless and useless things surrounding a waste of meat." He took another bite of his fish, clearly avoiding the 'useless' vegetables.

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Katina held a lump of the eggplant on her fork, gesturing at Viral. "I apologize for needing more than meat to stay in good shape. Most of us monkeys aren't pure carnivores."

She brought her fork to her mouth before noticing the missing eggplant that had been sent across the table.

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

The eggplant in question seemed to have more velocity than expected, as it caught Viral off guard right between the eyes. Or it would have, if he hadn't ducked and allowed the offending piece of food hit one of the few people left in the restaurant instead.

"What the hell was that for?!" Viral growled, ignoring the slightly upset gentleman behind him.

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Katina glared over Viral's shoulder at said gentleman. "Ah screw off, it was an honest mistake." The honesty of said mistake was probably debatable, but that would require debating it with Katina.

The staff seemed nervous.

"And as for you," she turned her attention back to Viral, "it would have been a lot funnier if you wouldn't have ducked. Especially because it was an accident."

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

The gentleman seemed to consider confronting the two, but only for a moment, before deciding he liked his face where it was and hurrying out the door with his date.

"Sorry." Viral showed his pointed teeth in a forced smile. "Next time I'll consider the comedic timing of the moment instead. Just for you."

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Katina kinda felt sorry for the couple, but with what she had to put up with she wouldn't bother feeling bad. If this ruined their night then they sucked anyways.

"You should. I don't get nearly enough laughs out of your suffering as it is."

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

"Heh. Sorry to disappoint yet again." The smile he had said he wasn't sorry. At all.

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Katina huffed a little as she ate more of her food, though in a slightly better mood, and washed it down with the rest of her beer. "Have you actually been sorry about anything you've done since I've met you?"

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

"..." He fell silent. Viral's face darkened, and his eyes continued to stare Katina down.

"I don't regret any of my actions. I only regret the situations they created."

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Katina sighed, matching Viral's stare. "You were literally made to kill, and look at you... fighting alongside humans, eating in a damned human restaurant, and it's something you chose. Meanwhile guys like the Titans have their heads so far up their asses that they'd rather let us all die than admit that they're wrong."

She toyed around with her fork, eyes traveling down to her plate. "Far as I'm concerned, you're more of a man than most human soldiers I know."

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

"Heh. Thanks." Viral smiled, and this time it was real. "I'll try to take that as a compliment."

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Katina kinda smiled for realz too. "You're welcome... because it was. For once."

Katina swallowed the last decent chunk of her dinner, changing the subject. "We should probably finish up and leave, the staff's suffered enough for one night..."

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

Viral looked to one side and spotted the cowering serving staff at the back of the restaurant. He also noticed they were the only two customers left.

"Hn. If we're the scariest thing they've seen, they're lucky."

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Katina gave them a sympathetic wave. "It's our job to keep the scary things away, so I guess we're doing it well."

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

"I guess."

Their meal finished, and the bill split, the two started on their way home. Another slightly awkward moment goes by in silence.

"... As much as I wish to have words with whoever decided this idea was a good one, I could imagine worse things to do with my time."

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

Katina walked awkwardly beside Viral, trying to keep a bit of distance without getting in people's way or stepping in slush. "I might want to just maim them instead of killing them."

[mr-catshark.livejournal.com]

They reached the base, and even more awkwardness was piled on top of the situation.

"Well. Let's not talk of this day again."

[grandtheftmecha.livejournal.com]

More awkward silence.

"Yeah, I can live with that." Katina gave Viral a punch on the arm that could be considered friendly despite how hard she hit him, and turned to walk away. "Even if it wasn't the absolute worst date I've had."

...so what have all those trips to the bar with him been then?