[PRP] Definitely a (real) date (Oliver & Horace)

[Melancholies]

The hardest part was picking out what to wear.

Now, this was very obviously (not) a date, but even practice had to be done with the intent of it being the real thing. It was how he treated his rehearsals with music, and god dammit it'd be how he'd treat his fake dates too. Except, part of him wondered on the legitimacy of it. I mean, they had kissed, and Ollie kind of liked it, and he knew Horace liked it too, so wasn't that the basis for like... some crunchy stuff? Well, whatever.

He never dressed like he did in his instagram pictures other than the sake of his selfies, but today was a little different. He felt cute and he wanted to be cute so you know what? ******** it. Self confidence was a commodity for Oliver Beaumont, at least as far as looks were concerned. He liked cute clothes, but his face was a little bulky, his nose a little big, his jaw a little defined and he thought it clashed too much with femme styles of clothing. There was a reason his head was blocked out in every picture. Also he had unsightly bags and his eyebrows were starting to get overgrown again and ugh he was totally overthinking this, don't chicken out.

Suffice to say that the shirt was rather droopy; it clung weakly to his torso, the cut for the collar wide as it showed off his shoulders, medium sleeves dripping off of him like water. His belt was cute, his pants more like leggings than anything, and his toes were painted in delicate spring greens against the open-toed brown sandals he'd decided to wear. His fingernails matched this, actually, though his thumbs had little flower designs on them. Yes, okay? He spent a little too much time fidgeting around anxiously. It's fine, it's normal, it's just fake except for the fact that it might not be.

Patience Oliver, patience. He was pacing around the door, and Chai in turn was pacing around his legs. One wrong move and he'd kill the both of them whenever he'd fall over. Every few seconds or so he pulled out his phone, made a disgruntled sound, and then shoved it back into his paw-print patterned bag. He paused in the window and the faint reflection he saw there. Was the necklace too glitzy? Was the ring too much? (They were both silver, nothing fancy at all, calm down Ollie).

The Semblance of Unity

take this dumb tag

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Even Horace, whose fashion could (at best) be described kindly as colorful, knew he had to dress up for a nice date. Not-date. Thing. To that effect, he'd tried to at least coordinate - dark orange pants, the pinkest sneakers he owned, purple socks with little music notes all over them, and a striped teal shirt.

He wasn't late, Horace reminded himself. He was good, he was punctual, he had flowers and a gift. Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door to the rhythm of 'shave and a hair cut, two bits'. This was just for practice right - so why was he so nervous? Why was he smiling kind of idiotically?

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Ollie startled when the door sounded—why wouldn't he? He was an anxious wreck 50% of the time—and quickly rushed over to investigate. Horace would probably hear the dull thud on the other side, but it was just Oliver struggling to tip toe up to the tiny view hole. You better not laugh at me! he pinged at the fishbowl glimpse he had of his definitely-platonic-not-date. What if he kind of wanted it to be a date though? He'd never been on a real one... sure, the other Elliot took him out to dinner a lot, but...

He shook his head, no weird sad thoughts. Practice made perfect. He needed to make sure his etiquette was up to par.

Very slowly the door started to crack open, revealing one bright-eyed and (thankfully not actually) bushy tailed Oliver Beaumont, his look almost owlish. Was he blushing, or was that blush he was wearing? Even if he was, it was the only sort of cosmetic he was wearing...

"Um." He blinked awkwardly—shyly—"Hi, Horace."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace was readying his witty retort when Oliver opened the door and the words kind of flew out of his head. Ollie was wearing the sort of things Horace had only seen glimpses of on his instagram and the effect was... it was something else. He almost gaped.

Then he broke into a smile. "Wow. You look-" Amazing, adorable, so cute. Was he blushing? Oh, wow. "-great." Another beat. "Hi, Oliver." He leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. This was just practice.

"These are for you." Then he held out the succulent and daisy bouquet and a box. The box was tied with a seafoam green ribbon and about the size of cuf bracelet.

melancholies

see below for box contents yeaahhhhh

show spoilerhide spoiler

lol it's washi tape.
one roll had little cats on it that look like chai, the other roll has a music staff on it that ollie can doodle notes on

 

[Melancholies]

There was a whirlwind of activity (actually, it all seemed to happen pretty chronologically, but this was Oliver), and it left him momentarily overwhelmed. There were the thoughts that couldn't be anything less than genuine, and when he went to speak there was the kiss, and then when he went to speak again there were these gifts being offered out to him. It was kind of dumb (really dumb), but his eyes lit up almost immediately, the blush on his face just a little pinker, his expression absolutely enchanted.

Would it be rude if he went to put these inside? He wasn't supposed to cart these around, was he? What exactly constituted proper date procedures? He'd never been on a real one. "Y-You...?" His voice cracked a little and then he got completely embarrassed, except he followed up with a bubbly little laugh as he accepted the flowers and the box. "You didn't have to... to do that. This." He instinctively went to smell the flowers, but there wasn't any real scent to be found. It made him smile.

"Oh um, you can step inside for a second while I put these up." He peeked over the tops of the daisies. "I don't want them to wilt..." Am I supposed to open this right now? His eyebrows scrunched up at the little box. He was pretty sure he was supposed to open it... so he shrugged the bouquet in one arm and went to picking the wrapper off the box with a peculiar gentleness. "I like to save the ribbons." He said without being prompted, "Um. When they're nice and I get them as gifts I like to use them in my scrapbo—" The box popped open and his eyes got positively starry.

"Oh my gosh Horace." Oh no he was smitten, "This is so cute, look at this, it looks like little Chai kittens..." He was cradling the tape in his hands. Ollie liked gifts, but he especially liked practical gifts. "You didn't have to..." He was repeating himself, totally taking a step forward. Without missing a beat (or perhaps letting hesitation get the better of him) he tiptoed up to return the kiss on the cheek.

Practice. Totally.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Do have to," he murmured, feeling utterly enthralled but how Oliver was reacting. If he got these kind of wonderful reactions, then he definitely, absolutely had to do stuff like this. Open it. But Oliver already was. Horace was kind of nervous about the gifts - he'd read about washi tape, but never had even seen it before, really. It was kind of cute how Oliver was even going to save the ribbon and Horace entertained the notion for a bit that he'd get part of a page in one of Oliver's scrapbooks. It made his chest feel a little funny, but then his attention was drawn back to the man in question.

He couldn't stop the sort of dopey smile that crossed his face when Oliver kissed him on the cheek, too. "I couldn't find one that looks like Nosey, but I'll keep looking." Maybe he'd find one with Pascal-like dogs, too. He smiled widely, touching his hand briefly to his face - where Oliver had kissed him. "I'm glad you like them, Oliver. Go drop the flowers off and we'll head out." Because if he followed Oliver inside, things would happen and they'd never leave. Or he'd want things to happen, and he wasn't sure which was worse.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Okay, okay." He was still smiling as he vanished inside, and after a few beats he was back outside. "Chai really wants to come too, but I told her she has to stay and watch the house." His key was jingling as he locked the door, a number of accessories hanging off of the main clip. Most were cheap sparkly things like plastic stars and cat charms, but there was a... weird... looking eye... that had been fashioned into a key chain. "I would've thought stuff looking like Nosey would've been easier to find, since she's a black cat and all." Chai had more complex patterns.

Either way.

"Sorry about that, I just really didn't want the flowers to wilt." His earlier anxiety seemed to be miraculously gone, or maybe that was because he was learning to be comfortable around Horace? "So um, where're we going? I need to make sure I have every step planned out so this practice event goes off smoothly." Oliver you dork. "The kiss was okay, right? I should've asked first... I mean, I know you did it first, but I don't want to pull any surprises on you."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"A very important job for a very important cat. Maybe we should pick her up a treat on the way back. All the tape I looked at with black cats had the wrong color eyes; it didn't seem right. But I'll get you some when I find it." He grinned, watching Oliver lock the door. The sparkly stuff was expecting, but the eye was kind of weird. Cute and sparkly and kind of weird could describe Oliver anyway.

He shook his head and crooked his arm for Oliver to take if he wanted it. "This kiss was fine," he said, feeling his ears burn. More than fine. "You didn't get shocked, did you? And are you gonna be okay with a car ride?" He ignored the question about where for now, if only because that would change depending on if Oliver was okay with cars. Also, because he was kind of distracted, thinking. ]Wanna kiss him, but I shouldn't.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

The eye was weird, if Horace ever asked about it, but the eye also sharpened his sight, brought things into a better focus. Yes Horace, he saw that blush, hard to tell as it was. The keys were dropped into his bag unceremoniously. "No, I didn't get shocked. You would've known." He trotted down the first few steps from his apartment door. "But I mean, it's okay if you do. I mean, you're still trying to get better at it, right? So I'm not going to be impatient with you."

The bag was slung over his shoulder. "The car's fine, just don't hit any potholes like last time and I won't have to scream." He gave him a snarky kind of smile. "But um," he scuffed the pavement with his sandal until he thought better of it, "I trust you, so it's okay."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Yeah, but I don't... don't want to shock you, you know?" He looked a bit embarrassed... a lot embarrassed. But he also was glad that some people seemed to understand, a bit, even if he'd never talked about why he was like this.

Horace opened the car door for Oliver, then crossed to get his own door. "I won't hit any deliberately. Plus, if you feel anxious, you can just grab onto me a bit." He grinned at Ollie, even if he was actually feeling kind of touched by the fact that he trusted Horace. Getting in, he started up the car.

"I'm serious, though, tell me if you start feeling anxious."

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"I know you don't. I'm just saying it's okay if you do, so try not to feel too bad if it does, yeah?" Oliver flushed a little, "I was only asking because..." deep breath, "I'm still a little self conscious, that's all." He clambered in with no problem at all.

"But I'll keep that in mind, yeah. Thanks Horace."

The car ride was casual, Ollie kept talking about the little nuances that happened during his day, told him about this dumb fat dove he saw at school earlier and about all the weirdos that stopped by the 4th wall. "Seriously, I don't even know why I work there half the time." He paused, "Actually, I literally don't. I sort of showed up in this universe with it, which I guess isn't bad, having a job is good even if it completely clashes with my interests. I don't get the comic-book-anime thing." He sniffed. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to ramble again."

"How's Nugget been by the way? I meant to ask." He blinked, "Do you like... keep him in the house? Oh, are we here?" He turned to peer out the passenger side window, his attention bouncing all over the place. It seemed like an... ordinary place, actually. The casual approach?

"Um, so before we go in though. I did say I've never actually done a date, right?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace tried to send a mental wave of reassurance at Oliver, but it probably got mixed with appreciation and squishy sentimental feelings. Once in the car, Horace was content to lsiten to Oliver talk, adding in bits here and there, hoping Ollie got a picture of the fat dove.

"Have you tried an anime or anything? Maybe a music themed one?" Horace drummed his fingers on the wheel and turned off the car. "Yeah, Nugget has the Nugget Closet. Wanna come over and see it some time?" Another beat.

"I kind of thought something really fancy might make your nervous." He shot Oliver an almost shy grin. "Does this mean I'm your first?" Wow, awesome. That was kind of startling, though. "You can just... be yourself - that's what dates are about." He got out of the car and circled around to Oliver's side, offering him a hand if he wanted it.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"It's cute you gave Nugget his own closet..." He took Horace's hand as he hopped outside. "I'd like to meet him sometime, actually. Warg familiar seem really smart. I'm almost kind of jealous you can have a companion like that..." He gave the hand a squeeze, apparently reluctant to let it go.

"Honestly, I'd be happy anywhere." He gave him a small smile right back, only his was obviously shy. Awesome? Are you excited? His eyes got a little shimmery. "I can try being myself. I just get worked up. Like, what are you supposed to talk about on dates?" He puffed his cheeks a little, "Just... normal stuff? Then what sets a date apart from a normal outing?" He shook his head.

"I guess it's just about spending time with people you like, right? Anyway, I've been to fancy places before." He laughed a tiny bit, "But I don't mind this sort of scene either. C'moonn." He tugged on the arm. "Oh uh, tell me if I start overstepping my boundaries, okay?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace shifted his hand a bit, sliding his fingers between Oliver's. He was gaining a new appreciation for hand holding and hands, although he still found he didn't want to even shake hands with most. ...He didn't think about it too hard. "Nugget needed a place to have his own. And yeah, I want you to meet him, too. He'd like you." Of course I'm excited. His smile grew a bit. I'm here, with you.

"Hmm... what sets a date apart..." He finagled the door open. "It's the intent, I guess, the feeling involved. Plus, well, the holding hands and potential for kissing and playing footsie under the table." He huffed out a small laugh. "I don't think you can really overstep, you know." Oliver could probably murder a man and Horace would help him bury the body. Perhaps that was an exaggeration... I told you that you look really cute, right?

A waitress approached them and Horace nodded to her. "Hi Wendy," Then, to Oliver: "You want a table or booth?"

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Footsie?" Oliver's eyes got wide, "I see, so it's the physical contact..." He tapped his chin again, "The... the intimacy, I suppose." But then the lines between platonic and romantic were a little blurry for Oliver Beaumont; maybe he was just overthinking this? He supposed hanging out with Jamie was a lot different than hanging out with Elliot (or Horace for that matter), and the same could be said for all the other people he knew. How weird.

Did you? He looked up at Horace wordlessly, I mean, you can keep telling me if you want. He gave their locked hands a gentle, silly squeeze.

"Booth seems more comfy." He thought about it, "But table seems like it'd be..." Closer? Hmm... "Oh, what if we sat on the same side of the booth? Or is that too much." It's prolly a little corny, huh?

The Semblance of Unity