Dinner and a Show
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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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?"
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"You want to watch the movie now?" he asked. He held in a belch. "I figure we can move one of these chairs for you, or if you want you can sit on my bed. If you want me to, I'll sit on the floor and you can have it to yourself."
He had remembered the way she'd reacted when he touched her unexpectedly, and the way she'd earnestly asked him not to lock the door. He sort of knew what happened to most women who joined up, and he could put two and two together and come up with four, sometimes.
He didn't want her to worry that he would do that to her. He didn't. Lots of the guys did, and he knew it, but it just hadn't ever been something he wanted to do. He liked fights that were closer to even.
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He got up and went to his bed, pulling the blanket as straight as it was gonna get before sitting down on the lumpiest part of the mattress. His mother had raised him to be considerate of guests. He picked up the remote from the nightstand.
"Ready when you are."
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Oh, she was up against his pillow. "I'm sorry - do you want your pillow?" It kind of smelled like him. It was nice.
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Which was unusual in Rien's experience. Was he just pretending. He might just be pretending but still, if he was just pretending it didn't make any sense because he was still teaching her to shoot and he'd left the door unlocked and he was going about it all wrong if he was going to make her let him touch her. It was confusing.
But he was nice. Rien pulled the pillow into her lap for something to hold on to and smiled at him. "I'm excited. I like movies. I'm glad we're going to watch one."
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He knew he was smiling all goofy, and that made him feel like a dumbass. Well, like more of a dumbass. So he started the movie.
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Rien wasn't an obvious crier but she did leak a little bit when Mulan embarrassed herself in front of the matchmaker.
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"It's okay," he said. "It gets a lot better."
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"I don't think I could cut my hair off like that."
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He looked at Rien with concern. "We can stop the movie if you don't like it. But it does get funny, though, I promise."
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He looked so concerned. She didn't think too much about it before she patted his big knee lightly. Though when she realized what she was doing she pulled her hand back fast. "Sorry."
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And then he had to stop thinking about how he didn't mind real hard, or he'd embarrass himself. Luckily, the movie was at the part where the dragon started calling the horse a cow, and it always made him laugh.
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"Have you ever had mushu pork? It's so good."
Instead of rubbing the pads of her fingers against her nail beds, the habit she had developed to comfort herself, she rubbed her thumb against the fingertips that had touched him, however briefly. That had been nice. She might do it again.
Not, like, right now though because there was a lot going on in the movie. Kids really could process a lot more than people gave them credit for, or at least Disney used to think so.
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