Dinner and a Show

[shoot4theface]

Rien was coming over. She was coming over, and they were going to watch a movie. And eat dinner. It was like a date, even more like a date than going to the phaser range and teaching her how to shoot

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[no_more_acrylx]

Rien had used the time to paint her nails. Just a pretty pink. Nothing slutty like a Romulan whore or anything. Her mother had taught her better than that.

When the door opened, she smiled up at Travis. He looked a little red in the face, not like angry but maybe he had gotten some bad news or rushed to meet her.

That was actually kind of a nice thought.

He moved to let her in and Rien surveyed the room out of self-protective habit. It was almost identical to the room she shared with Chapel except it was... messy. And a little smelly. Like it didn't get a lot of air.

It wasn't too bad though and she was being polite.

She smoothed her nervous hands down the front of her skirt. "How was your shift?"

[shoot4theface]

"Shift? Oh." Travis blushed. "Um, it was okay. Boring. But it's good that nothing happened. How was your... How are you?"

[no_more_acrylx]

She fidgeted. "I'm okay. One of the doctors we don't like came in, Chapel told me, and made a scene so I'm glad I wasn't there for that. I just had to give vaccinations to Engineering."

The room was kind of plain, not much in the way of decoration or personal effects. She had kind of been hoping for a picture of the farm Travis had mentioned.

"Are you, um, hungry? Or do you want to watch the movie first?"

[shoot4theface]

"I'm always hungry," Harris said. "But not in like a freakish way or something," he added hastily. "Just I got a fast metabolism, is what my mom used to say. And that I grew like a weed, but I stopped that a couple few years ago, so that's no excuse anymore."

He cleared off the top of his and Park's little table-cum-desk thing as he spoke - oh, there was that fourth sock - and sort of shined it a little bit with his sleeve.

[no_more_acrylx]

Rien trailed after him, waited until he was done cleaning off the table and then moved into one of the little seats. She and Chapel had the same chairs. They were Chapel-sized - Rien was comfortable in them but she didn't like to bounce around much. She couldn't picture Travis fitting in one.

"If you were always hungry, you might have some sort of parasite. Doctor McCoy might be interested in that because he is always interested in unusual things. But it's probably better if you don't have a parasite because they're pretty gross. Or you could have an eating disorder. A lot of people who don't look like they have an eating disorder do have them. We treat them all the time."

Rien ignored the sock he had pitched over toward the little door that had to be the bathroom.

[shoot4theface]

He didn't fit in the chairs very well. Which was why he always sat in them backwards. Gave him something to lean on a little bit and squashed him in less. He spun the other chair around and settled into it.

"I don't got any parasites. I'm just big." He shrugged. "Gotta eat a lot to keep up muscle tone and what-all, I guess. What did you pick?"

[no_more_acrylx]

Rien fluttered back up out of her chair and over to the replicator. "I didn't forget. I thought you might like pizza? I think pizza and movies go together." She should have thought of that while he was cleaning the table. Still, entering in the order gave her a chance to admire her nail polish. She hadn't bitten her nails or anything, even though she was nervous in the halls on her way over.

"You are big. I don't know anyone else who's so big. I didn't mean you had parasites or an eating disorder, though."

[shoot4theface]

"Pizza's the best. I like pepperoni, but I'll eat any toppings you want. And I didn't guess you did, I was just saying." He shrugged his broad shoulders. "I don't know anyone else as big as me, either. My brothers aren't, and my dad's a little guy, really. All the tall came outta my mom's folks, but she's real skinny. I got, like, you know, bulk."

There were people on board who were about as tall (and one or two who were taller), and people with shoulders about as broad, but nobody who could match Harris exactly for weight and size. Which was part of what made him valuable in a fight, beyond his reflexes and skills with a gun. He appreciated the edge it gave him, even if it did mean he had to duck his head in some corridors and stuff.

[no_more_acrylx]

She added pepperoni to the order and waited for it to materialize. It was a little cramped in the delivery window but she was kind of proud of remembering all the codes right - it smelled amazing. "Chapel and Bones both like Hawaiian pizza. But I don't like pineapple. Pepperoni is my favorite, too."

The pizza went in the middle of the table and then she turned back for plates and napkins. "I look like my mom a lot. But she doesn't have..." She trailed off. There really wasn't a nice way to say her boobs and ass had been kind of a surprise for the whole family when they developed.

[shoot4theface]

"She can't be as pretty," Harris said artlessly. Then, his brain catching up with his mouth, he ducked his head in embarrassment, fiddling with a little scab on the back of one hand while Rien finished getting the pizza.

"I like pineapple okay," he mumbled. "But it's better in cakes than on pizza."

[no_more_acrylx]

Rien blushed scarlet and almost dropped her slice of pizza.

"Well, you can have my pineapple if, um, we ever share pineapple."

That was definitely forward.

"Are you okay? Did you hurt your hand?" She was, even if she felt like an idiot right now all red-faced and queasy from the compliment, a nurse after all.

[shoot4theface]

"Huh? No, I'm okay. It's just a scratch from messing around with some of the guys at the gym earlier." Messing around meaning brawling. But it was a friendly brawl. No knives or anything.

He picked up his pizza and tore off a bite. It was good, and it kept his dumb mouth busy for a minute, which was better. But then it was real quiet, and that wasn't so good, he didn't think. He swallowed. "I thought maybe we could watch this movie my sister used to really like. It's an old movie, from back when they did those cartoons that're flat. Mulan. You ever seen it?"

It wasn't a very manly choice, but it did have cannons in it. And it was funny. And he thought Rien might like it.

[no_more_acrylx]

As long as he wasn't avoiding Sickbay. That wouldn't be any good. That would mean, possibly, that he was avoiding her. But if he was avoiding her then he wouldn't have invited her to watch a movie - well, she had invited him but he wouldn't have accepted her invitation to watch a movie and they certainly wouldn't be doing that in his quarters. Well, they were still eating but they were going to watch a movie.

Rien made herself dizzy sometimes.

"I haven't seen that one - my parents didn't like old movies. They said history is dead. But I've read a lot about old flat cartooning and did you know Mulan was a real person?"

[shoot4theface]

"Really?" Harris, already in a pretty good mood, brightened further. That was really cool. "I didn't know that. But in the movie she has a dragon, though, so that part probably isn't real. But I like him. He's funny. Anyway, it's a good movie, even if it's old."

[no_more_acrylx]

She forgot about her pizza - she wasn't going to eat the crust anyway. "I had a book that talked about how Mulan was a real person and then there were all of these legends so I think maybe the movie combines the two? Like, it acts like the legends are real, too? There are a lot of dragons in Chinese stories. I like them."

Rien had a lot of enthusiasm. She kind of sparkled with it.

[shoot4theface]

Harris would have been happy to talk about dragons with most anyone - dragons were awesome - but listening to Rien talk about dragons was the best.

"That makes sense," he said. And then, because he really was pretty much always willing to eat, he pointed at her crust and said, "Are you gonna finish that? I mean, if you are, that's good, but if you don't want it I'll eat it."