Friday Night ----- for bolliknickers

[mancunian_lion]

"...You're terrified of women --"

"Bollocks. Completely baffled maybe, but not terrified."

If there was one thing Gene Hunt prided himself on, it was not the absolute, indisputable fact that he was completely incapable of feeling terror in any form though he still made sure everyone in his department knew, it was that should even a modicum of self-

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[bolliknickers]

She'd been the one to ask him out, this time. Now, as she changes clothes for the third time, Alex wasn't quite sure what the hell she was thinking when she'd done that. A bloody 'soft' moment, perhaps, as the bloke in question would have put it...

He wasn't her type. Not by a long shot. He was, in fact, the sort of bloke she generally found completely repellent. And yet...

He'd saved her life more times than she could count and he had even (against every feminist impulse she'd ever had) made that seem somehow thrilling. The way he could just literally sweep her up off her feet seemed somehow sexy rather than patronizing. He'd proven himself to be kind on more than one occasion and he was, ultimately, the only solid thing in an increasingly shifting world.

Oh, as a psychologist, she knew very well that there was no rationalizing attraction or lack thereof. But still...

With a sign, she changed out of the super-short gold lame dress. That would only invite 'dressed like a tart and in command of a handbag' comments again. The grey dress with the large red belt would have to do. It looked great on her and it was neither too fussy nor too slutty.

And not a moment too soon.

Outside the window, the cabbie leaned on the horn and she stuck her head out. "Be right down." They had agreed to share a cab and let the mighty Quattro have the night off, too. She grabbed her cardigan coat and handbag and headed down the stairs.

Alex slipped into the backseat beside her DCI and gave the address to the steakhouse before turning to him with a smile. "Hi."

[mancunian_lion]

Gene took a moment to look her up and down as she climbed into the cab, blue eyes roaming appreciatively over the dress she'd chosen. If he recalled correctly, that was the very same dress she'd been wearing when he'd attempted to stamp her arse... Until they'd been so rudely interrupted by Price, of course. He knew there was a reason he'd never taken to that woman aside from the fact that she was a thieving, leeching, blood-sucking lawyer.

"You look nice." The compliment came with a generous helping of incredulity, coupled with a raised eyebrow. Maybe not as slutty as he might otherwise have liked but she had said that they were going somewhere posh... Posher than Luigi's at any rate. He supposed it actually was quite nice to think that she'd made that sort of effort, even if he was flattering himself by thinking she'd had him in mind. But then, in a dress so form fitting, chances were she didn't have any knickers on, so maybe it wasn't a complete waste either...

Only then did he realize that he might just have been staring for a bit too long and quickly turned his attention to the outside world as it flashed by.

[bolliknickers]

Alex chose to be generous and overlook the incredulity. "Thank you," she smiled. (And, if she were being entirely honest with herself, preened slightly under his unabashed attentions.) "You don't scrub up too badly, either, Gene."

He turned to look out the window and she followed suit, the lights of London dancing by as they made their way through the city. She loved the capital at night, always had. As a child, it had seemed almost magical, the interplay of light and shadow, the old buildings and the modern, dirt and glitz.

Even as an adult, watching the Millennium bridge come into being while Molly was a small child. The London Eye. And now, back in the heart of New Romantic London, for all the crime and ugliness... oh, she was a London girl at heart.

"I love this city," she murmured, reaching for his hand.

[mancunian_lion]

"Could be worse," he replied, turning back to her, letting her take his hand in her smaller one. "Even though it's filled with a buncha mouthy Southerners." The small smirk at the corner of his mouth was enough of an indication that he had a particular Londoner in mind.

Gene, however, didn't much care for it. The rules down here were different and so was his power to manipulate them to his liking. As much as he loathed to admit it, he wasn't so much the sheriff of this city than he was simply the deputy, the monkey to the organ grinder. He suspected that if circumstances had been different, had Sam not gone and chucked himself into the river and had his wife not decided she was sick and tired of him, he'd still be in Manchester, keeping the streets clean with Tyler at his side.

But that was all in the past now. Now, he had Alex...

[bolliknickers]

"Oh, you're getting to love us, really," she smiled faintly, not missing the allusion one bit. Alex interlocked their fingers as she shared a slice of the city's appeal that she thought might resonate with him: "Seriously, though -- look out the window. Look at the lights, the buildings. The Great Fire of London, the Blitz -- didn't topple London. 'Un-bloody-breakable', Gene."

It wasn't too much farther to the restaurant -- but it was out of East Fenchurch's district, and that had been a deliberate choice on her part. Someone else's beat. A place where they could try -- for all the good it may do them -- to just be people for a little while, not just coppers.

[mancunian_lion]

"Love's a bit too strong a word. Tolerate, maybe." He did as he was instructed, looking out of the window of the cab, eyes roaming over the old brick buildings, the black railings, the lampposts that looked like they'd be better suited in a Victorian-era film. He understood the appeal but it simply wasn't Manchester.

"Let's hope so, eh? Rough times ahead." His smirk was gone now, expression darker, solemn. Even if he wasn't entirely at home here, he'd still fight for it, to keep the people there safe. It was his duty as a copper. "If it doesn't all come toppling down round our ears, we just might be able to pull this off."

[bolliknickers]

"I think we've got a fighting chance." Her voice was a whisper and she turned back from the window. "But not tonight. No fighting tonight. It's not our district -- not our problem. Tonight we're out for dinner."

The taxi stopped and Alex paid the driver before slipping out of the cab to stand on the street by the red brick building. Once she knew he was following, she headed inside. "Table for two, name of Drake," she greeted the hostess.

[mancunian_lion]

He did follow her, but a step or two behind, eyes slightly narrowed. He held his tongue until they were clear of the hostess' earshot before finally voicing his annoyance.

"I know you said no fighting, Bols, but unless you actually let me play the fella for the evening you're gonna have a bit more than just a tiff on your hands." The whole thing smacked of pride and testosterone but Gene had never claimed he was anything other than an old-fashioned sort of bloke. "Who's s'posed to be wining and dining who?"

[bolliknickers]

And, god bloody help her, she'd gone native enough to find that actually fairly charming. A genuine smile broke out across her face and she laid one hand on his arm. "I asked you out, so I suppose -- modern woman and all -- I rather thought that I was treating you tonight."

[mancunian_lion]

"Unless you expect me to slip into a skirt and start calling meself Sheila, Bols, I fear you're very much mistaken." He pressed a hand to the small of her back, stepping closer. "I better not see you reach into the handbag for anything other than the powder for your nose for the rest of the night." With that, he gestured for her to go ahead of him, though perhaps it wasn't quite as gentlemanly as he intended given that it came on the back end of what could not be mistaken as anything other than an order.

[bolliknickers]

She was definitely adjusting to his old-fashioned ways. If he'd pulled that when she'd first arrived, Alex would have railed at the implied sexism. In the intervening time she'd spent with him, though, she'd come to realise that it was his way of being an upstanding bloke. Perhaps even his version of 'gentlemanly'.

"Yes, Guv," she said simply, letting the hostess lead them to their table.

[mancunian_lion]

"Good." He was quick to follow after her, though he didn't reach out to pull out her chair or help her with her coat. There were some things a proper bloke simply didn't do unless he was an absolute tosser and reaching to do either would certainly have Gene looking like one. Just because she was a woman didn't mean she was completely helpless.

He did, however, remain standing for a couple of seconds longer than was necessary, waiting politely for her to be seated before he followed suit. He took the opportunity to look around the place, to take in the sort of people that came here. They were a little more middle-class than he was used to but it was comfortable nonetheless, with just enough pomp and circumstance to make sure that he'd behave himself. This certainly wasn't the sort of place anyone came to get absolutely bladdered and end up taking a piss on the front step of one of the buildings across the street. Gene thought it best that he keep these particular thoughts to himself.

"You come here a lot then, Bols?" Though he had trouble imagining with who, given that, like him, she spent most of her time at the station. Unless she knew more Thatcherites than she let on...

[bolliknickers]

"Actually no," she sat down on the chair, spread her napkin on her lap and took up the menu. "Only once or twice," when I was a little girl, "but enough to remember they had wonderful steak, hence the invitation."

As if she had the time to go gallivanting off more than this. When she wasn't at the station or sleeping, she was most likely with the CID crew in general and Gene in particular, getting sloshed at Luigi's.