talk to me}Tango/Taidan{even if I can't talk back

[purple]

She had to think about that one for awhile. "Probably Paris, France. It's always been a goal of mine to stand on top of the Eifel Tower, plus the food is amazing," she said. Then Tango began to ponder what question she would ask him. She had to step it up a bit from "Where are you from?" "What's your favorite food?" she asked, which was hardly much better but at least a smidge more personal.

[lari]

"I don't think I could pick a favorite; I love anything Italian," Tai said. He glanced at her, trying to think of a good question. He came up with some good ones he'd save for later, but decided to go with a more general question. "Do you have any hobbies?"

[purple]

"Well, I write, and I don't mean just on the whiteboard. I like to write stories and poems and things like that. I'm really good at it thanks to my insignia," she said. It was already getting harder to think of questions for Tai, and this was only the third one! There were a million questions out there, a million things she could ask, and yet she couldn't think of a single one. "What do you like in a girl?" she finally blurted, and immediately flushed a bright red.

[lari]

Taidan smirked, but was mentally kicking himself. He was going to ask her that question, but she took it from him! Oh well, he'll use it anyway. He thought about the question, though it was hard to answer. First, he thought of all the things he didn't like. The girls that spend all their time making themselves pretty. The slutty girls that only cared about sex. The clingy girls. The girls with the attitudes. Then he thought of the opposite of all that. "I like girls that don't care too much about looks and are serious about a relationship. I like independent girls who are really sweet and caring. And, as I've found out today from you, I like girls that blush." He smirked at her, glancing at her almost always red cheeks. "What about you? What do you look for in a guy?"

[purple]

Tango's blush increased at his last comment and then increased some more at his question. What did she like in a guy? What had appealed to her about the guys she'd dated in the past? True there hadn't been very many of them, but there had to be something there that she liked. What did they have in common? They were all kind, and they were lighthearted, easygoing guys who knew how to make her laugh. But why had the relationship ended? That was all important. She didn't want to list something that had turned out to be a fault as something she liked. One had moved away, nothing there. One time it was a mutual desire to split, him wanting someone more outgoing, her wanting someone more intelligent. The last she'd dumped because he didn't listen to her enough. As much as she had to listen to other people, she appreciated it when people listened to her.

"I like guys who are sweet and understanding and....guys who're smart, but not like a total brainiac, just someone intelligent enough to carry out a conversation and not need an explanation of every topic above an eighth grade level. I also like someone who knows how to have fun but also how to listen when it's important. Even though I tend to be shy, I like guys who are a bit friendly," she said, then added, mostly as a joke, "and cute doesn't hurt either."

"When did you get your tattoo? And why?" she asked, trying to steer the conversation away from the embarrassing topics.

[lari]

Taidan, still grinning from the answer she had given him, looked down at his tattoo on his chest, shaped like a cross. His smile was sad at the memories. "It was like a little reminder for me, that God's always there with you. Despite a lot of people's personal opinions, saying that people... like me shouldn't be allowed to have holy symbols tattooed on their body, I think it's helped me through a lot, because I tend to verge of the path a lot." He blinked a bit, surprised that he felt tears in his eyes.

Taidan looked at the sand for a moment, regaining his composure, before looking back up at her with a wide grin. "What is your most important possession?"

[purple]

Tango reached over and grabbed the whiteboard, holding up for him in answer. "It's my voice...most days. I'd be lost without it," she said. "But this," she added, tapping the quarter around her neck, "is my lucky charm." She hadn't missed the wetness in his eyes or the implication that he thought he was a murderer for what happened to his brother. She was sorely tempted to use one of her questions to ask him why he thought so badly of himself when it wasn't his fault, but she couldn't pluck up the nerve to do it. It was only her fifth question, after all. Maybe she would save that one for the end, when she knew him better. Maybe she would never ask at all.

"Where do you go to escape?" she asked instead.

[lari]

"To escape? I never really get much of a chance to, but usually I come here," Taidan said, motioning to the lake around him. It was sad that this place was pretty much all he had. His thumb ran over the back of her hand slowly, helping him relax a bit.

He considered what his next question would be. He could stick with something simple, or go with something else. After debating on the question, he decided to step it up a notch. "If I were to ask if you wanted to go on a date with me, what would you say?"

[purple]

Tango blushed furiously. She didn't even try to speak for a long minute. She knew nothing but stutters would come out if she did. What would she say? The answer, she realized, was yes. She wanted to say yes, to tell him that, but she was afraid too. What if he didn't like her that way? But then why ask the question? Just to mess with her? But he didn't seem like the type to do that. If she said no, would he be upset? Disappointed? Perhaps. She could just not give him a straight answer, saying something about how they just met and then move on to her question and change the subject. But she knew she'd feel bad about that afterward, she knew. There were so many things that she never said because she was too shy or afraid. Still blushing like crazy, she made up her mind. "Yes," she said simply and then rather than ask her next question, she waited for him to respond.

[lari]

"That's good," Taidan said, looking down to hide his proud beam. He wanted to run and jump in the lake to blow off all the new found excitement he just got. He settled with a couple mental fist pumps and a mental happy dance. It took him a moment to regain his composure. Looking back up at her with just a normal smile, he asked, "Well, then would you like to go on a date with me this weekend? Oh, and that doesn't count in my twenty questions, I hope." Not that he'd mind losing a question in trade of a date with her. That is, if she said yes, which he was almost positive she would. Not to sound conceited when saying that, but since she already said yes, the only reason she would say no now would be if this weekend was bad timing or if she was just playing with his heart strings. But she wouldn't do that, he hoped.

[purple]

"I'm tempted to say no, just to burst your ego, but that would be too mean," she said, "So yes, and it doesn't count as a question." It was hard not to jump around in excitement, but Tango managed to contain herself. She moved on to pondering her next question. "What's your idea of a perfect day?" she asked, not sure where it came from but unable to think of anything better.

[lari]

"A perfect day would be located in some random town were I've never been before. Somewhere new, fresh. The perfect day, there would be no school or work. And it'd be a great time to relax." He was extremely happy, since she was going on a date with him.

He was planning out all his questions in his head now, so he could use the information for later reference. Because what he's going to ask will be needed at some point. "If you could skip any one of your classes, which one would it be?"

[purple]

"Probably math. I'm not very good at it since there are practically no words involved, and on top of that the teacher is boring," she said. Tango looked down at their intertwined hands as she tried to think of her next question and blushed. She knew they were only holding hands so that she could talk, but now that they were going on a date soon it felt like it meant something more. "When's your birthday?" she asked now, simply because it was the first thing that popped into her head.

[lari]

Taidan had to think at the answer. It was early spring, and his birthday was... when was it? "June 18th," he finally answered. Was his brain losing him? He blamed the fact that all he could focus on was his hand in hers. "And when's your birthday? I better start planning the present now, because it's going to be the most epic thing you could ever imagine."

[purple]

"It's April 13th," she said. Her birthday was pretty much always in the middle of spring break, which was awesome because she didn't have to go to school on her birthday, but bad because no one was ever in town that week for a party or anything. She added, blushing, "You don't have to do anything for my birthday, really." Unlike some girls who said they didn't want anything for their birthdays/christmas/whatever but actually wanted something and just didn't want to sound greedy, she meant it. "What kind of music do you like?" she asked next.