taxonomites | 006: [Location: Hyperion Hotel] Like the Prom, Only with Legal Alcohol Supply

006: [Location: Hyperion Hotel] Like the Prom, Only with Legal Alcohol Supply

Party time!

Cordelia, clad in her chosen outfit for the night, made final rounds inside the hotel to make sure everything was perfect. The decorations were subdued and classy - thanks to both Dawn and Fred, and even the garden was opened so that those who wished to step out and inhale the fake Taxon air could do so. There were tons of wine, beer, scotch, vodka - and if Doyle's selections weren't enough, there's a hatch conveniently behind the refreshments table.

The hotel lobby was cleared of all the furniture, so that the mingling and the dancing could take place more comfortably. If people wanted to take a tour of the hotel, they were welcomed to do so save for three rooms: Fred's, Angel's, and Wesley's office. For not-so-obvious-but-quite-sentimental reasons.

[OOC: This party takes place after the Liar Liar glitch took effect. Mingle! Threadjack! Interrupt! Have fun!]

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He was pretty amazed, himself, that he hadn't stepped on her toes yet. He'd done that enough to the unfortunate girl he'd gone to prom with. As long as they kept dancing at this slow, steady, non-complicated pace, though, he should be okay. It was when people wanted to try out fancier things that he started falling over his own feet and taking his date down with him. ...not that this was a date, but he wouldn't mind if it was.

Kirk laughed, taking the opportunity to slid his hand from her hip to the small of her back, drawing her in closer to him. "Remind me to tell you about the time I drove an antique car into a canyon."

Buffy was quite content to not be doing fancy things of any description, as she wasn't much of a dancer herself, though she enjoyed it. She was certainly enjoying dancing with Kirk right now, and didn't object to the closeness, or his touch. In fact, whatever the opposite of objecting was, she was that. She slid her hand a little further along his shoulder, so the tips of her fingers almost brushed his collar.

"...You're not kidding, are you?" She laughed, incredulously. "Oh, I'll definitely be asking to hear that anecdote at a later date. There may even have to be popcorn involved."

He laughed again and shook his head, blue eyes darting to the side for a moment to where her hand now rested. "Sometimes I wish I was, but I did indeed drive a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray into a canyon."

Are you out of your mind? That car is an antique! You think you can get away with this just because your mother is off-planet?

Kirk shook off the memory, gaze darting to the others on the dance floor and around the room in general. He turned his attention back to the girl in his arms. "I don't think we're helping quiet those gossip rumors any." ...which didn't come out the way he wanted. "Not that I mind them -- or want to stop dancing or..."

Just stop talking, James. Sometimes you shouldn't speak.

"Aaaand I'm betting it wasn't yours." She half-stated, half-questioned, wearing an amused smile.

Her eyes followed his and then widened worriedly at his observation. "Oh, god, you're right, I forgot." Which was true, in the space of their conversation her self-consciousness had taken a momentary backseat. It all came flooding back now, however, resulting in a mess of words, as she tensed up. "But I don't mind them either-- or, okay, no, I do mind them, but more for the viking-sized privacy invasion than the you thing. Or the me thing. Or the both of us thing. Not that there's a thing-- but not that there isn't, either! This really isn't coming out right. I don't believe that you have space syphillis?"

Neither of them should be allowed to speak. Ever.

"Not really." Which was true. The car had been his father's -- Frank just wished it was his -- and he'd destroyed it to prevent Frank from selling it. It probably wasn't the best way to go about stopping his step-father from making money off something he'd been told time and time again his dad had loved, but to his twelve-year-old mind, it seemed like the most sure-fire method.

She'd forgotten and he went and brought it up. Smooth, James. Real smooth.

In attempt to cover up such a folly, Kirk drew her closer to him, close enough to whisper in her ear, "How about we agree to ignore everyone and those rumors?"

"I could definitely agree to that." She assented, in a voice not much above a whisper herself, as she relaxed again, the worried look melting into a smile. She was very aware that there wasn't a whole lot of space between them now, which wasn't helping her resist the impulse to kiss him. The fact that they were surrounded by people, despite their new agreement, did help, however.

With an effort, she brought her mind back to what they'd been discussing previously. "So, you'll umm... tell me the unabridged version of the car story another time, right? With dramatic descriptions."

Them being surrounded by people was about to be remedied as the song changed to one that was more upbeat, one that Kirk decided he would rather not try and keep up with given his poor dancing skills. He drew back, but kept a hold of her hand, looking at the doors to lead to the gardens. Didn't seem to be anyone out there, as far as he could tell.

He returned his attention to her. "I could tell you right now if you don't mind moving off the dance floor and getting some fresh air instead."

"Actually, some oxygen might be nice right now." She nodded, casting a glance in the same direction Kirk just did. Buffy didn't have any desire to dance to this song either, and she really was feeling quite hot, so outside seemed like a good plan.

After navigating off the dancefloor, she was happy to let Kirk lead her by the hand to the gardens, and she took a deep, steadying breath once they got there, scanning for a bench for them to sit down.

Successfully locating a bench, Kirk led her over to it and took a seat, only then relinquishing the hold he'd had on her hand, even if he hadn't really wanted to let it go. His hands instead went to his throat, where he worked to free the bow tie from his collar, pocketing the thing when he did and undoing a few buttons so he could breathe easier. It was one of the many reasons he hated wearing a tux.

"It was my dad's car," he explained. "My uncle used to tell my brother and I about how much he loved that car and how he refused part with it, even going through the trouble of making sure one of the neighbors could start the engine once in a while when he was off-planet. My mother remarried this jerk named Frank when I was three. She was off-planet...pretty much most of the time and shortly after my brother left, Frank got it into his head that he was going to sell Dad's car. So, my twelve-year-old self thought the best way to stop Frank from doing that was to get rid of the car. I originally intended to hide it somewhere, but then Frank saw me taking off with it and the cops got involved and I drove it into a canyon instead."

Kirk shrugged, despite it all, and grinned at her. "Otherwise known how I ended up spending two months in juvvie." ...otherwise known as the start of his recklessness and his issues with authority and following rules.

Buffy watched him engaging in battle with his bow tie with some sympathy, her own hands clasped in her lap, idly. She cast a glance across the garden, fleetingly thinking how pretty it was, remembering that Angel owned it, before returning her attention to the present, and Kirk.

She listened to the story, her expression appropriately disapproving with regards to the 'jerk named Frank'. She felt sorry for Jim's younger self, for the obviously quite difficult childhood he'd had. Rather than address it though, (she figured it was probably a sore subject, and as the proud owner of a great many daddy issues herself, she knew she didn't love talking about them) she instead observed:

"That's... quite an impressive thing to get sent to juvie for." His grin was a little infectious. "I have to ask though-- as I can't help but notice that you're alive and not all smooshed-- how did you get out of the car in time? Did you pull an Indiana Jones?"

The young captain laughed and grinned, leaning in closer as if he were about to whisper some prized secret. "You could say that. I just happened to open the door just in time to jump out and grab the edge of the cliff and pull myself up so I didn't go down with the car."

"Wow," she said, attempting to envision the scene. She of course wasn't oblivious to his closeness, in fact it was a little distracting. The 'wow' was shortly followed by a laugh, mostly at herself.

"I seem to use that word a lot around you."

Kirk reached out to tuck a stray strand of blonde hair behind one of her ears, perfectly comfortable being his charming self now that they were away from the prying eyes of others. He settled that hand on her shoulder and leaned in even closer as he said, "Well, I could say the same about you, Buffy -- but most of those wows are said in my head."

Kirk was beyond charming, and any reserve or witty reply Buffy might've had simply melted away in the face of his words, and his hand on her shoulder and the leaning in... which she echoed, lifting her own hand to lay on his shoulder, as she tilted her head to kiss him softly.

It seemed that coming to this party had proved to be worth it after all, for Kirk had been expecting to either stand around all night making with smalltalk that he barely had any interest in or possibly located the source of alcohol in the room and focus on entertaining a few glasses; he didn't expect to run into her here (though, he supposed he should have), nor did he plan on things going in this direction. Usually when he went after girls, he did so pointedly with a plan of how to go about it having already been put into motion -- not like this. Whatever this was between him and Buffy sort of just...happened, without Kirk really realizing it was and without him trying to make it happen. Which, if he was being completely honest, impressed the hell out of him -- not that she didn't impress him enough already. He hadn't been lying during that glitch (of course), he really did think the whole slayer thing was pretty damn neat, even if he had a hard time wrapping his head around the idea of vampires, demons, and things to that go bump in the night.

The kiss she gave him was welcomed and happily returned as the captain brought up both of his hands to cradle her face in his palms, kissing her with a deliberate slowness and tenderness.

By contrast, Buffy never really went after guys. In her life she'd had exactly three serious relationships, and very little outside of that. It had been a very, very long time since she'd liked someone in the uncomplicated way that she liked Kirk-- so long that she'd almost thought she'd forgotten how. And it wasn't just that he was charming and gorgeous (though that was a factor), he was also intelligent, interesting and... a good, compassionate person. There was no way she would be kissing him right now, without that last factor.

However, she was, and enjoying it a lot, her other hand lifting unconsciously to loop around the back of his neck. The slowness was perfect, she didn't feel at all pressured, so when she did eventually pull back for air, it was with a smile.

"...I promised myself I wouldn't say 'wow' again."

There were people back at the Academy and in Iowa would have burst out laughing at the notion that James Kirk was a good, compassionate person. That image was his own doing, something he'd worked into place, for as he'd told Sylar: It's easier to act like a jackass and a moron than to show that you're easily hurt or that you understand things a lot better than people would ever think of giving you credit for. But, life wasn't easy and wasn't always going to go his way. He'd been jolted pretty hard into that realization that he needed to stop acting like that reckless kid that drove a priceless antique car into a canyon when Nero imploded Vulcan.

Leap without looking, but take a good look around when you land. So far, things looked pretty good from where he was sitting.

"Wow," he said for her instead, unable to stop grinning like an idiot. "We're going to end up abusing that word."

"And yet, strangely, I don't mind." She replied, looking extremely happy herself. She really hadn't planned any of this at all, or made any effort to engineer the situation, and she was still a little surprised by it.

"In fact, I hope we do." She added, as an afterthought, already weighing up whether she could feasibly stay out here much longer kissing Jim, before she'd inevitably have to face a grilling from Giles/Dawn/Xander about her whereabouts.

Kirk, too, was wondering how long he could go without Uhura wondering where the hell he'd gone off to and came in search of him, which would surely earn him a lecture from her about indulging in his womanizer ways here -- which, oddly enough, wasn't the case in this situation. Buffy'd managed to catch the captain's eye in a way he was starting to think wasn't possible for him.

He took both her hands in his and said, "So do I." ...which meant what he thought it did, right?

Edited 2009-08-27 15:55 (UTC)

Buffy took that as an affirmation that they both wanted to continue in this vein of wow-inducing activities and therefore spending time together/seeing each other, and was a little scared to attach anything more formal to it, in case that wasn't what Kirk meant, even if she knew she liked him a lot, and wasn't interested in anyone else.

"I'm glad." She said, brushing her thumb across the back of his hand and leaning in to kiss him again, briefly. Briefly only because of the aforementioned concern. "I should probably get back." She sighed, reluctantly. "It's either that or the joys of the Inquisition."

They could attach something more formal to this later when they'd better sorted out what exactly it was, Kirk decided. There was no need to press that now and potentially ruin the 'wow' of the moment. He was perfectly happy continuing to spend time with her, especially now that it involved kissing.

And he reciprocated the brief one she gave him, nodding in agreement as he stared down at their hands. "I should, too. I stay vanished too long, my communications officer will probably start searching the city for me, thinking I'm wandering around drunk off my ass somewhere."

Buffy pretty much agreed with that policy- they could have that particular conversation another time. In the meantime, or rather now, she got to her feet, still with her hands in his, for the purposes of gently encouraging him upwards. She laughed a little at the theoretical possible assumptions of his communications officer.

"Once more into the breach, then?"

With obvious reluctance, Kirk stood, keeping hold of her hands as he leaned down to steal one last kiss. He let go of her hands and instead offered his arm in a very gentlemanly manner. "Shall we?"

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006: [Location: Hyperion Hotel] Like the Prom, Only with Legal Alcohol Supply

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