1964-07-29 - It's the Soup!
Summary: Lorna and Kaleb go out to dinner.. and it's drugged.
Related: Dinner with Erik/ Dadneto the previous night
Theme Song: "White Rabbit" - Jefferson Airplane
lorna kaleb 


===
As it turns out dinner with Lorna's father, while heavy topics were discussed, went all rather well. Enough so that Kaleb had one flower delivered to the school with a card that simply read:
'L- Sorry you were late for practice. Would like to make it up to you. -K'.

Yes he called her on the phone and yes there were other students there making ooOoOooohhh noises at her for taking a phone call from this guy with mottled gossip all his own already. Because that's what teenagers do; learn to levitate things and gossip. But he did offer to take her out to dinner about someplace he got a tip on that does Italian and was near the downtown area. Hey, he called back and he even brought the car up.

*

Lorna had figured out a means to tuck the little rose up into her air. Her accompanying outfit a white backed dress covered in matching red roses. It hugged her waist and spilled out at her hips in a flourish, ending at her calves with a lacey chiffon underneath. Her shoes were like wise a matching red with little flowers on the buckle, with a low heel.

So when the car came to pick her up, she was all fidgety nervousness, a smile on her lips that pulled wide as she got in.

It would seem Lorna was in fairly high spirits.

*

Kaleb always looked sharp, though today he seemed to put a bit more thought into it. Mr. Banks let her into the car as he always did giving her a warm "Good evening, Ms. Dane". Kaleb was always pretty relaxed, though this did not stop his heel from bouncing conveying any small hint of nerves that he might have. A shadow of a grin appeared slowly as she got in and sat down. His valet (Actual valet, not Jay) was given a nod which prompted the door to be shut and the car to take off to downtown.

He pressed lips lips together and handed her a tall ring box that opened like an oyster. "I got you something beeeecaus…look I'm bad at this part open the box." He really was terrible at that whole words thing. Inside the jewelry box wasn't a ring but a homemade tiny peanut butter cup with frosting on top to make it look like a cupcake with little bead sugar sprinkles on it.

*

Lorna grinned at Kaleb as she spotted him and leaned forward to peck him on the cheek lightly. She sat back, and looked down at the box as Kaleb pressed it into her hands. She arched a brow, but when she opened to reveal a little sweet she squealed and grinned at him. "Oh Kaleb, that's so cute! Thank you!" She clapped a hand over her lips as she flushed.

"Sorry about the squeak."

*

Kaleb grinned in spite of his best efforts to be, ya know, too cool for that sort of thing when she kissed his cheek. She squeaked? She apologized? Amazing. His eyebrows arched slightly and he lifted a hand with a quiet chuckle, "Nah, it's alright. There's squeaking and then there's rattling an entire apartment complex. It's alright." But they were alone on the drive and he smiled at her joy at such a simple tiny thing. With a laugh Kaleb gestured with his finger for her to take it. "It's summer. You leave it in the car and it'll melt you might wanna eat it now. Soooo I take it your father didn't leave you a note saying 'Please never talk to that young man again. It was lovely seeing you. Dad'." He licked his bottom lip thoughtfully and nodded to her, "Good. I'm, um, I'm glad. Actually."

*

Lorna giggled softly, and picked it up to nibble at the sweet treat at his urging. She flashed him a grin, "Nope. My father liked you. You two share very similar feelings on several political issues. I already got chided by Pietro and Crystal about not quote 'dating your father' from them when I mentioned it. And I mean, whatever. I think it's important to know your beliefs and hold fast to them. No matter what people say to you." She smiled gently then.

"Of course, I mean, it helps that I approve of the civil rights movement and equality for everyone and stuff." She colored faintly. "And the fact that you didn't run off after meeting him? Oh you've totally got brownie points for that."

*

Kaleb stiffed a grin and tilted his head to the side, though his ears turned slightly pink o the top. "Well I'll take that as a high compliment. You respect your father right? I fail to see how this is a bad thing. I mean no one's perfect, but he's done so much for our people and meeting him was," He sought out a word and looked back to her, "Helpful. Gave me a few things to think about that I haven't before." He laughed shaking his head maybe as nervous as a Miller gets anyways admitting to her in that blunt way that was like a sledgehammer to a church window. "I never had a small sit down dinner like that before. My family never did anything like that. Sooo that was… pretty far out. Thank you. For inviting me.

*

Lorna rubbed her upper arm in thought as he spoke about he father and she nodded. "Yeah, I adore my father. He means everything to me. I love my adoptive parents, don't get me wrong.. but there's something.. special about him. Immediately I felt that I could trust him. That before we knew we were even related? I knew there was a bond there. It was like.." She exhaled a breath, her gaze turning skyward in thought.

"It's like how in stories the hero meets someone that will change their life? It was kind of like that. But different.. Now that I think about it, it was likely something to do with our polarities. Mine is the opposite of his. So I guess, I just always felt safe and good to be around him." She shrugged and glanced to Kaleb, biting her lower lip.

"You've .. wait, you've never had that? That's all I had growing up. Granted my adoptive family is smaller than my biological family… we have family dinners whenever my father comes to town. He loves them. And he always cooks. You.. you're welcome to come Kaleb anytime you want."

*

Kaleb shrugged and said "It's not common where I come from. Dinner to me always felt like how they talk about job interviews. Just listening to our parents, mostly dad, discuss big things. Kellan and I would try to tell them what was appropriate and acceptable to hear. That was well and good Kellan and I would let them know what we wanted and it was arranged and I'd see them again in a couple weeks and that's sort of how it was." He shrugged and watched her. He squint and shook his head with a relaxed smile, "Your eyes are like way super green right now. I did have a weird question for you though." The car crawled at a pretty decent pace through the city to the waterfront.

*

Lorna flushed, her hand pressing against her cheeks as he commented on her eyes and she blinked repeatedly at him. "Huh? What? Really?" She tilted her head to the side. Then after a moment's consideration to his tale she reached out for his hand and gave him a silent, gentle squeeze.

"You're always welcome to our family dinners if you want, Kaleb." She flashed him a smile. Then as he wanted to ask a question she paused, "Hmmm? Ask me what?"

*

Kaleb wasn't particularly mourning his childhood. His emotional range was not so vast. She dropped her hand into his and he caught it and held it digging for the words. Nope. Wasn't a words guy so with all of the grace of baseball through a church window he was just out with it, "I'd like to know if you'd consider going steady with me." He paused and nodded a few times matter-of-factly, "We discussed it and I think there was a sort of…de facto arrangement or… something. But I'm officially asking you." He paused and just boggled at her, "I don't ever do this so this is about as eloquent as that's going to get short of me employing a soapbox." And this time he left solidarity and mutant rights out of it.

*

Lorna grinned as he spoke and shuffled over in the back seat to snuggle up against him. "Of course, silly." She exhaled a breath, seeming more than a little pleased with him bumbling attempt to confirm that they were in fact, 'Going steady'. "I more or less agreed already."

She shifted her head back and glanced over him again. A hint of color crossing her cheeks. "I mean, I like you Kaleb. A lot. You're way more sweet and thoughtful than you give yourself credit for. You're smart and you're protective over those you care about. And since that's such a limited list? I feel even more … blessed to be counted on it." She flashed him a smile, clapping her other hand over their entwined ones.

*

Kaleb wasn't nervous in a way of thinking she'd say no as she was in the car, but maybe it was the part of him that wanted to be an architect that made him check all of his drafts and blueprints for technical accuracy. "Correction," Yes he let her hold her hand and he took damn good care of that hand, sparkles and all, while he had it. "I am super selective on what I waste time giving a care about. And you're just… different than any of the girls I ever dated growing up that I pretty much didn't want to, because they're all the same and soooo unforgivably stupid. Paper smart? Sure, but they all just feed the problem. I like… this. And you." He blinked at her and confessed, "I still think you have shit taste in men, but I'm willing to take a win on that one."

*

Lorna giggled softly, her cheeks still hot with a pink blush spread over them. Not helped by the red in her outfit. As he spoke she bit her lower lip, and glanced down at her hand entwined with his own. "It's okay. My sister would agree with you previously. She hated my last boyfriend on pricipal that he was dating me. Of course, you've already got my father and brother approving more or less of you. So that's pretty good. Don't take it too personally if my older sister isn't quite so.. approving. She doesn't like anyone outside of the family that I've know." She mumbled, glancing side long at him.

Even as the car slowed. She leaned in closer, and after a sharp inhale of breath leaned in to peck him on the lips. Or as near as she could get.

"And besides, I think you're pretty great."

*

Kaleb tried to tell her that he wasn't overly worried, "I mean your sis-…ter…" He blinked and sat wide-eyed for a moment as she brushed a kiss to his lips and pulled away. He could hear his pulse in his ears and it was…super annoying. His free hand went back to her cheek, and pulled her face back to his kissed her provided she didn't punch or slap him. While he didn't particularly care for people and he felt no need for human contact it didn't mean he didn't concede exceptions. Besides, he did not that he was not of the mind to do anything half-assed, and Mr. Bannks could wait a moment withthe damn door. He sat back and stopped holding his breath and noted to her, "We're um, we're here." And with that popped the handle letting his Vallet do the rest.

*

Lorna turned a deeper shade of pink as his hand reached out for her cheek and tugged her back in for a kiss. She didn't pull away, or slap him at all. In fact her eyes fluttered shut from a brief moment, and as he sat back, her heart was racing in her chest. Her breathing short as she blinked green eyes open and looked back to him. She bit her lower lip, dragging it between her teeth as she considered him.

"Oh.. uhm.. yeah.." She whispered. She didn't move until he popped the handle to the door and the valet opened it. She glanced down, trying to hide the grin on her features along with the fierce blush. She cleared her throat, and took his hand to step out of the car.

*

Kaleb stepped out offered her the hand and waited. He dropped her hand into the crook of his elbow and felt for a moment pretty on top of things. He didn't like people, sure, but he liked /his/ people, and he was one, but evidence to take meticulous care of his things. It was short but it was a good talk and that seemed to strike the tension from his spine. "This place kept getting recommended by who I dunno, BUT… we'll try something new."

His driver took off with the car, and in true fashion of his arrogance having no bounds he told the doorman, "Miller; Kaleb Miller. You have my table." And while that shouldn't in a normal world do anything, as per the custom the host at his podium was happy to fall over himself making the wait non existent and a very nice table appear as it was needed. Kaleb never asked why people always gave him whatever he wanted or why his name inherited got him past a ridiculous number of locked doors. Why question what is working? It was Italian today, and that was good enough for him.

They were shown to the second floor mezzanine overlooking the waterfront,and further to the right the industrial district, but the water at night was quite something all the same

*

Lorna tucked her frame in close to his, still smiling an exoberant amount as they made their way inside. She couldn't help the grin that still tugged at her lips as she walked along side him. Her eyes were only for him. That is, until they made it up the second floor and the view was shown to her. It wasn't as breath taking as the taller views he'd shown her, but the way the lights glittered over the water had her pausing to look down the way.

"Oh Kaleb, it's beautiful." She murmured, and squeezed his arm as they were shown to the table.

*

Kaleb hadn't seen it yet either and was duly impressed "Yeah it is. I get why they charge so much for this bit of real estate." His head swiveled around. It was quieter up here than downstairs and he did a good job of blocking the sound fairly out of the room. In hindsight he'll look back on this moment and decide that it was probably not his best and brightest idea. She wanted to be close and he wasn't going to push her away. Like he confided to Vic he figured out he didn't want to, which was groovy, and neat, and he was actually enjoying this.

The chef came up as they watched the waterfront to introduce them to what was going to be made tonight and found out from them if they wanted beef or veal for their meal and the other extras. They had a busy kitchen and he'd have it brought up for them soon.

He considered the water, squint at it and looked abck to her, "We should totally go out dancing after this. Could even call Kellan and see if he and Vic are home. I think Jay's out." And he was still sporting a bit of a fading black eye from the last time they had a bro to bro chat.

*

Lorna smiled back to Kaleb, giving his hand a squeeze as she looked out at the water that danced with the glow of lights. "It's like stars, if you go out into the country, the sky looks like that. With thousands of twinkling lights all over. Only.. I guess it's more so." She shrugged and as she moved to settle in her chair, she ordered the veal.

Another glance was spared for the water and she sighed, her cheek propped up by her free hand as she considered Kaleb across from her. "We should go dancing, I love dancing with you." She murmured, her eyes glittering with amusement. "We can invite Kellan and Vic, I'm sure they'd have fun. Especially if we go some place a little more hip and less on the fancy scale."

*

Kaleb warmed a grin. When he found an element he could feel contained to that he understood he wasn't so bad. His robotics feature on his emotions was powered down a bit and he genuinely enjoyed himself. It generally happened discussing music or architecture and, as Maximus found his Achilles heel old alien ruins. This, though, seemed to finally get him to enjoy this time with their chips on the table. That she was as excited for music as he was helped and no short amount of time was spend deciding next week they should totally go to England and see the Beatles.

She joked about inviting her father but the kid wasn't shy about doing so and called her bluff on that one. He drank his wine which, also in retrospect he probably shouldn't have. Or maybe it was something with the mushrooms in the soup but he was feeling pretty fuzzy headed. He tried to tell her, "Yeah they got a totally different way of dressin there. It's super wild. I think you'll really dig it but we'll hafta… have to do shopping. That's why it's important to go for a couple…day." He winced and rubbed at his left ear uncomfortably. "I keep pulling tone with my ear. This is ridiculous. I should get um… Scott yeah? Make me headphones t'math…match his sunglasses."

*

Lorna enjoyed herself as she listened and joked with Kaleb, constantly finding excuses to reach for his hand when she could. She found herself yawning though before she even finished her soup, her eyes feeling oddly heavy and slowly her arms started to weigh down as if they'd been covered with lead. As if she'd just gotten through a training session with Scott and her father back to back. But it hit her hard. Like a freight train at full speed.

Her brows furrowed as she found herself propping her head up and her eyes slowly starting to close repeatedly.

She struggled against it hard, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

And then Kaleb's head dropped to the table and she had a moment of realization. Something was wrong.

Her stomach twisted and she struggled to reach for him. "Kal-eb.." She tried to push herself from the table. Tried to get up from her seat and go to him. She slapped her soup away in a confused rush, that left her aching as she slowly lost control over her limbs. Her family always had a high metabolic rate.. unfortunately, her's was never as high as Pietro's or Wanda's. And the usual measure of drugs in her soup were enough.

Lorna collapsed back against her seat, her eyes slipping shut even as her mind fought to hold onto panic that simply wouldn't get her heart beating enough to keep her wake and aware.

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