The Not-so-abandoned Warehouse: Friday Evening

[badassprodigy]

Barry was not nervous.

Correction: Barry was not admitting to himself that he was nervous.

Which is why he had made sure the big screen monitor was functioning in perfect honor about a dozen times in the last half hour. He also made sure the snacks he had purchased (various types of chocolate) were in perfect organized order and had tested the popcorn button on the microwave about five times to make sure the popped vs un-popped kernels was a good ratio.

To sum up: Barry was totally nervous.

At some point someone was eventually going to show up but until then he was trying to make sure that everything was perfect.

[For one and potentially others!]

Comments

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa? Was... also nervous. She was pretty sure this was something beyond two friends getting together to watch a documentary about inclement weather, but they hadn't explicitly stated as such, and if this was some sort of slightly-more-than-friends thing she had no idea what she was doing.

None.

So she'd dressed in what was a fancy dress to everybody else, otherwise known as her everyday attire, and was looking maybe a touch nervous as she approached the warehouse.

Admittedly, it was a warehouse. Not exactly known by and large as a terribly romantic setting. Elsa told herself a few times that she could probably relax, and then knocked on the door.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry froze for a second and wondered for the 350th time if everything was perfect.

You know, outside of having a date in a warehouse filled with futuristic equipment and weaponry.

Barry took a deep calming breath and slid the door open and try to give Elsa the impression he was calm.

"Oh! Hey! Hi. Come on in!" he said with an awkward wave of his arm. "I got food."

Yep. Totally nervous.

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

The nervousness didn't go unnoticed at all. In fact, it pretty much confirmed that this was most certainly two friends doing slightly-more-than-two-friends things, maybe, perhaps, and Elsa needed a moment to duck her head a little and smile.

Also nervously.

"Hi," she said, a little shyly, reaching up a hand to self-consciously check her hair. It was still perfect. Of course. "Food? Should I have brought something? I've never made plans like this before..."

You know. To watch Sharknado in a warehouse like the truly romantic kids all did.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Oh no! Nope. Nah. Nope," Barry said quickly. "I just thought you'd like food. I know I like food when I watch a movie. You know. Candy. Popcorn. Soda. Well I don't drink soda but you might like soda so I got some soda. Do you like soda?"

Barry winced. "Shit. I'm fucking rambling."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Maybe a little bit," Elsa replied, smiling all the same. "I haven't really had soda before. Why don't you drink it?"

Should she drink the soda? He'd gotten soda for her, was she obligated to drink it? What if it was terrible? He'd gone out of his way to get it! For her!

Evenings like this really needed some sort of manual.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Barry!" Kathy yelled, kicking open the warehouse door and marching in. "You are in so much trouble!"

She'd meant to come over a lot earlier, but her pre-Baltimore nap had lasted longer than she'd intended. Oops!

"I know for a fact that you're the reason Pam and Carol are dinosaurs right now! This had better not last past the weekend, or I swear to god, I will rat you out as soon as the Dean so much as looks at us for an explanation!"

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Shit. Really? Now?!

Barry stood up and scowled at Kathy. "They'll be fine. Get the fuck out."

And then because he realized he was acting this way in front of Elsa...

"Um. Please?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy's jaw dropped. "Did you just tell me to--"

And then her eyes slid to Elsa and she gasped. "Oh my gosh! That's--you're--In the warehouse?!"

Really, Barry? Really?

"I'm so sorry for interrupting!" she squeaked. "I didn't know this was a thing. That was happening. Now. Here." Really, Barry?

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Kathy? A thing?" Elsa looked slightly like she had just realized that she'd spent most of the evening swallowing live frogs or something. "We were - what thing?"

They were just watching Sharknado! Awkwardly!

"I mean, we are doing a thing, but what sort of thing are you thinking?" A beat. "Wait. The dinosaurs were you?"

[the_merriest]

From high above in the rafters came the sound of someone disabling most of the warehouse's security systems.

"It is so cute that you keep locking me out," a very amused-sounding voice chirped. "I mean, seriously? Like I can't shut down your encryption on my own alarms. And yet you keep trying! Gold star for perseverance and all that."

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Seriously?! Seriously?! Now of all times?!

Barry stood up and glared at Rikku. "I send you updates on the security code through encrypted e-mail on a weekly basis! Don't you fucking even read them?!"

[the_merriest]

"Is that what those are?" Rikku asked. "Because you've been sending me weird gibberish for, like, months now? And I have to delete it in case you're actually trying to, like, crash my firewall and install some kind of trojan on my laptop. Which you're so not going to do."

Rikku had now stepped into sight, and was clearly going to continue this conversation ... except.

"... ohSinareyouonaDATE?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa wasn't shrinking down into her seat a little, that was purely your imagination.

"Um." Well, this was an interesting evening, wasn't it? "Hi."

What else was she supposed to say, here? Not that she was slightly intimidated, honest.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

Joker was in a mood. When all you knew was that someone had a lab in an abandoned warehouse, and there was a fucking abandoned warehouse district, and walking from one warehouse to another was both slow and painful, and you had been super fucking pissed at the start of the journey... Yeah.

So there was a short little man yelling in a tall voice, "BARRY FUCKING WEENIE, where the FUCK are you?!?!!?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

By this point, Elsa was just going to turn a look in Barry's direction.

"You're popular this evening."

Sometimes, you just had to state the obvious.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Shit!"

Barry let out another groan and headed to the warehouse door and slid it open to see Joker screaming for him.

"Really? You too? Jesus Christ."

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"'Me, too'? Really? What is your fucking damage, Barry?!?! I mean, seriously, tell me, because how the hell could you possibly think that was okay?!?! What is wrong with you?!?!?"

Joker's face was damn near purple, and there was a little red light flashing in the air above his wrist to warn him about his biometrics. A lot of that was from the walking, though.

[raspberryturk]

Just when you thought it was safe to get back to watching Sharknado...

"Yo, Rookie! Don't suppose you've seen Rikku anywhere tonight?"

Yeah, Reno had come in through the back door. He had a bag of cat food tucked in one arm that he was busy unloading into one of the cupboards that he'd set up for Rikku's long hauls on their side of the warehouse, and he was already making himself comfortable, reaching for a beer from their fridge.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry paused the movie and let out a weary sigh. Seriously.

"Rikku's not here, Boss," He said trying to hold on to his temper. "She left a bit ago. And I'm trying to have a nice date with Elsa. Elsa? Reno. Reno? Elsa."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"It's a pleasure," Elsa said, in that somewhat dubious tone that suggested that she was not actually half as pleased as that statement suggested. "It's certainly been an interesting one so far."

Never a dull moment, really.

[raspberryturk]

"Oh, huh. Lookit that." Reno contemplated the two kids sitting on the couch in front of him before shrugging and cracking open his beer. "You got condoms? Rikku an' I keep ours in the drawer across from the table, yo."

A beat.

"Speakin' of, don't fuck on the table."

Another beat.

"It ends badly, yo."

He was doing you a solid, here, Barry, warning you before you accidentally killed her or something.

After ALL the interruptions were done...

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry was exhausted. This was so not the way he wanted the night to go.

"I'm sorry," he said earnestly. "I... Yeah, I have no words for this."

Re: After ALL the interruptions were done...

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa bit her lip, trying to figure out just what in the world to say in the wake of what was possibly one of the most randomly frustrating good evenings of her life.

"It's not your fault," she offered, ignoring, for now, that some of those interruptions absolutely had been. "I could tell right away that you'd put a lot of time and thought into getting things ready for tonight, at least."

They had been off to such a great start!

Re: After ALL the interruptions were done...

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Thanks. I just wanted everything to be nice," he admitted slowly.

He paused for a second to contemplate how exactly to phrase the next part.

"Look, the other day Kathy had a thing with Anders and she left it not knowing how he felt or if it wasn't even a date," he started. "I don't want you leaving here without knowing that I like you. And if you can forget the more horrible portions of this evening, I'd like to take you out on a date again. If you're interested. I'll understand if you... want nothing to do with me after this evening."

Re: After ALL the interruptions were done...

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

There was a brief moment in that where Elsa's brain caught up on 'Kathy had a thing with Anders.' She made a mental note to talk to one of them about it personally, though. Here and now, there was...

Well...

First and foremost, she was bouncing a chocolate off of Barry's forehead, mostly because it was resting closest to hand.

"Don't talk like that, Barry," she said, only sort of actually scolding, even while her ears tinted pink. "Tonight was off to an excellent start, and when people weren't breaking down your door to yell at you, or telling us about the structural integrity of various locations in the warehouse, I was having a wonderful time."

She let that statement sit on its own for a moment to percolate before continuing.

"I like you too," she continued, and if that ladylike part of her wouldn't let her actually call him stupid, it was certainly heavily implied. "And I would certainly like to have a second date. Just so long as it isn't here, and doesn't happen to fall on a day when you've decided to play god with somebody's genetics as a prank."