capeandcowllogs | (no subject)

(no subject)

WHO: Penny and Billy
WHERE: A park with a duck pond
WHEN: Noon, May 1
WARNINGS: None... maybe some angsting...
SUMMARY: A picnic lunch
FORMAT: P

A picnic was such a perfectly simple thing. A blanket, a basket of food, a patch of grass, a sunny day and a friend. Penny had all but the last, and the last was expected any minute.

She was looking forward to seeing Billy. Exploring the city and time with Arnold had kept her busy, but once she had a moment she had asked Billy to meet her. She was still finding her feet in this place, and had no routine to speak of yet, although she was planning on making sandwiches for the homeless again tomorrow. Maybe they could arrange to do laundry together...

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Billy had taken the advice of everybody else about talking to girls. Get her some flowers, be confident, hold her hand, smile, don't worry about impressing her, things like that.

Smiling, he walked up to Penny, boquet of flowers in his hand. "Hi!" he said, mentally freaking out. "I...uh..." Be confident, you can do this! "I got these for you. They're the same color as your eyes...well, almost." Was that a compliment? Did it even matter? He gave her flowers!

He was getting better at this thing already.

Her smile was dazzling even in the noonday sun when she saw Billy coming, and got even brighter as she reached up to accept the flowers.

"Oh, Billy, that's so sweet! Thank you!"

She could feel his nervousness, but really, that was neither unexpected nor something she particularly needed powers for. It was just Billy being Billy. Poor guy, still feeling awkward with her even after all this time they'd been friends.

"Come sit," she said, opening the picnic basket. "I have some options..."

"You're welcome," he said, nodding at Penny. Thank you Tabby! He walked over towards Penny, looking at the picnic basket. Wow, she really did have options. That was kinda cool. She planned for everything.

"Hey, do you have tuna salad? Or what about roast beef? I'm fine with either."

"Yep!" She reached into the basket and pulled out a sandwich wrapped in wax paper and marked "TUNA" in crayon. "I've also got chips, apples, pickles, cookies, water, soda... what would you like?"

She looked up at him and smiled, brushing a lock of hair out of her face and tucking it behind an ear. "Come on... sit down..."

"Uh, chips, pickles and soda please." Man, that sounded delicious. He smiled at Penny, nodding as he sat down.

"Thanks so much for making this. It looks great." A pause, while he fiddled idly with a strand of grass. "How're you doing? Settling in well?"

"No problem at all! Thank you for having lunch with me."

Penny took out a turkey sandwich for herself, as well as some chips, an apple, and a bottle of water.

"I'm finding my feet," she said, twisting off the bottle cap. "I found a homeless shelter that needed an administrative assistant... doesn't pay much, but I'm living in the MAC, so that makes it easier. And I've met some really nice people here. A couple people helped me make sandwiches for the homeless one day. And I've... kinda met a guy."

Ah, that blush...

"You're welcome," Billy said, smiling at Penny. Opening the soda, he drank some of it, listening to Penny. Working at the homeless shelter...that really was her. He smiled slightly, nodding at her. However, it took everything in his power not to spit the soda out when she mentioned that she 'kinda met a guy'.

'Kinda met a guy'. What? Are you serious?! It never was good when she 'kinda met a guy' unless that guy was him which it wasn't. His jaw dropped, but then he quickly formed that into a cheesy little grin.

"Heh. That's awesome. What's his name?" Penny's guy, you were so in trouble.

She looked at him a little funny. The emotions she was feeling from him were... odd. There was surprise, of course, but something else, too... a flash of jealousy? Had he had difficulty meeting people here? He was shy... maybe he was lonely...

"His name's Arnold," she said. She chuckled a little, pulling the crust off of her bread and tossing it to a lurking duck. "Funny thing, he actually reminds me a lot of you. I even met him in the laundromat."

Arnold...what kind of a dorky name was Arnold? Granted, it wasn't like Billy was any better.

The fact that Arnold reminded her of him made Billy a little bit angry. Great, so she had found a replacement him. Despite his dweeby name, Arnold probably had muscles and a much better sense of humor. He was already building an idealized version of Arnold in his head.

"That's really great. I'm so happy for you, Penny." Nails, meet leg. Billy was digging his nails into his leg to keep from saying something completely stupid and lame. She liked Arnold! God? Why?

Something was wrong. Really, really wrong. The force of the anger and hurt Penny was picking up from Billy made her feel sick to her stomach.

She set her sandwich down slowly, her mind racing. What could she say?

"Billy? What's wrong? What's going on?"

Billy took a deep breath. He wasn't going to tell Penny that he liked her. Of course not. That would be stupid. It would...he just wasn't ready yet. Besides, she liked someone else. He just wanted her to be happy.

"Nothing," he said, faking a forced smile. "I'm fine. Nothing's wrong with me." Yeah right.

"It's just...I mean, are you sure that this guy's okay? You thought Captain Hammer was pretty cool and we all know how that turned out..." The dick. He took a bite of his sandwich, concentrating hard on it.

She lifted her eyebrows.

"You think I have bad taste in men?"

Was that it? Was he just being protective of her? She couldn't tell. But one thing was definitely sure. He wasn't telling her everything.

"No!" Oh nice job, you insulted her. Billy laughed slighly, rubbing the back of his head. He felt awful now also. Great.

"It's just...you can't be too careful, ya know?"

Or too paranoid. But that was a whole different story.

He was worried for her.

She shook her head slightly, and touched his cheek.

"Hey," she murmured. "It's okay." She smiled, and sent him a soothing thought as she brushed her fingertips over his cheek. "Thank you for looking out for me."

The soothing thought reached Billy. Suddenly, he felt calmer and more relaxed. He kind of liked this. It was actually kind of nice.

"You're welcome," he said, a lot less agitated and nervous now. All thoughts of beating up Arnold flew to the back of his head. He'd do that later. Right now, he wanted to enjoy a picnic. So, he took another bite of the sandwich.

"This is really good."

Huh... it worked. She could feel him calm down, and she was able to take a full breath herself.

"I'm glad you like it," she said, picking up her own sandwich. She took a bite, and leaned against him with a contented sigh.

"Yeah," he said, smiling at Penny. He ate some more of the sandwich.

"The City can be really weird, but it can be really nice sometimes, you know? I mean, I don't think we could ever do something like this back home." And by 'really nice' he obviously meant 'devoid of Captain Hammer'.

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