Fly Away to a Cafe

[halfbread]

Who: Everyone who wants in!
What: The V-Day Café! (Yes, that's what we're going with, no, you can't make WWII jokes.)
Where: The Big House
When: Valentine's Day, mostly evening but various times
Warnings: I have no freakin' clue, it's probably going to depend on individual threads

At 6:00 sharp, the doors are officially open on the first ever Camp Half-Blood Valentine's Day Café. The two biggest rooms on the first floor of the Big House have been turned into dining rooms, one decorated in a much more traditionally "romantic" oeuvre for couples and the second into a relaxing place to hang out just among friends. Both rooms are serving the same menu, and both have a good number of tables set up to accomodate visitors. As people finish eating, the waiters and waitresses will roll around a dessert cart for people to make selections from. Enjolras will be incredibly reluctantly providing serenades in the romantic dining room with some assistance from Cosette, while Chiron's boombox has been borrowed and tuned to the local pop station for the casual dining room. Have fun, everyone!

Comments

[lefthandedgenius]

There are a few moments where her grip tightens in his hand, but she never actually falls. Once they're situated on the overlook and she's pressed against him, she wriggles her hand between them and points up at the sky.

"Look." she whispers. "You see those three stars? That's Orion's belt. And there..." her pointing finger strays up and to the left Canis Minor," down and to the left, like a vee, "Canis Major."

Lydia looks up at those stars like they're the most beautiful things in the world.

[ensared]

Instinct would have him slide his arm around her, but he doesn't. Gale is content to just be close to her for now, looking up at the sky with curious eyes. His father has shown him some of these things before, but it's been a good, long while and by now, he's forgotten a lot of it. It's interesting, endearing really, to watch Lydia point out all the constellations like this. There's a light in her eyes as she does, one that has nothing to do with her powers as a daughter of Aphrodite, and Gale finds himself fighting not to fall into it, directing his eyes instead to follow where she points.

"You like looking up at stars, huh?" he asks simply, looking up at them with mild interest. "I haven't really stopped to look at them since my dad died."

[lefthandedgenius]

"I like everything about the stars." she says, her gaze still tilted back. "How they're created. Their heat. Their light. The way the move, and they live and they die. I want to study them."

It takes her a second to process what he just said. It diverts her attention from looking at the stars to looking at him while he's looking upward at them.

Her hand fits into his, squeezes tight. "I'm sorry." she says. "I know it's not the same, but you can look at them with me anytime you want."

[ensared]

"I wasn't saying it as a bad thing," Gale assures her, not taking his eyes off of the stars she'd pointed out as Canis Major, one of the brighter constellations in the sky. "I just haven't gotten the chance."

It's not a lie - being the man of the house meant he's had a lot to worry about, and unfortunately, stars had never made the short list. But maybe now, knowing that his family is safe and sound without him, there will be more time to slow down and appreciate things like this.

"I'll have to take you up on that," he decides finally, squeezing her hand in return.

[lefthandedgenius]

She likes observing him when his attention is occupied by other things, she finds. Such as the stars.

But there's also on so much observation one may indulge in, and while Lydia has a decent amount of willpower, she also has less inclination to curb her instincts if she feels occasion calls for it. She's unencumbered by inhibition, and that's why she rises on tiptoe and presses her mouth to Gale's throat, leaving the softest nip before kissing it. In a way it's more intimate than their previous kisses.

Making out with Gale under the stars? A perfect way to end the evening.

[ensared]

Inhaling sharply, he turns to look down at her, wondering if he shouldn't be surprised. Lydia is the daughter of the love goddess, after all, and they did just go on a date, even if neither of them had expected it. They are still on that date, if he looks at it that way. They're still together, and Gale is finding that he likes to be with her more and more. He likes her, and they've all but confirmed that it's not a byproduct of her powers.

What's one kiss, when they've decided that? The mistletoe from a few months ago - that happened as friends more than anything, friends who simply trained together. This is very different, as Gale leans down to catch her lips, somehow more intense and yet more tender than it was then. It's slow, not quite reaching passionate, though there's a hint of the fire he holds deep in his heart. It's not easy to get him to open up, but once Gale does, he doesn't bother holding back, and Lydia will discover that soon enough.

It's a good thing, though. He remembers that even when it was just for the mistletoe, that she makes her mother proud with the way she kisses, the memory lingering for a while afterward. One more like that, with a little more meaning behind it, would be an unquestionably good way to wrap up the night.

good ending?

[lefthandedgenius]

Lydia seems to think so. She can't tell if they spend a minute or ten or twenty kissing under the stars, but it's okay because she really doesn't care. But when both of them have finally had - if not enough, then at least, enough for now, it's close to harpy hour and she spends the walk back to the cabins with what she desperately hopes is not a foolish grin on her face and another kiss once they're in front of Cabin Ten. Wisely, her siblings inside, if they are watching, do not offer up the usual hoots and hollers. Goodbyes exchanged, promises made to spend time, and she's back inside, back against the door and smiling dreamily.

Only then does she realize she still has Gale's tie draped around her neck.