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Who: Bail and Ben
What: An official date
When: Saturday evening
Where: A delicious pizza parlor
Rating/Warnings: NSFW cuz they ~~might~~ discuss the sex, and ~~might~~ do the sex

The reason Bail chose this restaurant was two-fold. One, because the pizza here was phenomenal – very much your classic New York Style pizza with the classic toppings options. Not that Bail was opposed to experimentation with his pizza, tonight just needed to be simple. It was elegant without being black tie.

He also picked this place because the booths had high backs and the lights were dim and it was the prefect amount of privacy for two people on their first “official” date.

They’d seen each other throughout the week a few times for lunch. And Bail couldn’t remember the last time he texted this much to one person.

He also didn’t remember the last time he was this excited for a date.

He arrived first and ordered water immediately when he sat down.

Then he waited, nervously (for god knew what reason? They’d already spent the night together, just sleeping, but still).

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Ben had done just a little research into the place their first (official) date was. That meant he showed up dressed in what was truthfully much more typical dress for him, regardless of what Bail had seen.

A pair of pressed black slacks, and a button-down shirt, that just happened to be a rich, vibrant, blue cuffed back to the middle of his forearms.

It didn't take him long to be led to Bail and given his own glass of water. "Hey. Sorry if I'm a bit late. Traffic was.... New York, honestly. Have you ordered?"

He wasn't nervous, exactly, but there was just a tiny bit of reserve in these first moments. He'd loosen up.

When Ben showed up, Bail found he didn't miss the skating pants- Ben looked as wonderful and inviting as always.

"You're fine." He passed over the menu. Everyone in New York City understood New York City traffic.

"I haven't ordered yet. Did you want your own pizza or did you want to share? Did you want to order wine?"

He slid into the booth and took the menu when Bail offered it to him, with a low murmur of thanks. "Let's share, with the understanding that if there are leftovers they are yours."

It was said more lightly, as he settled into himself a bit more, or worked on it. "I definitely want the wine. Unless it's terrible here, in which case I would hope you'd have already said something." He wasn't a heavy drinker but he liked wine.

"Alright," Bail said, inching a bit closer as Ben settled in more, not even fighting the smile spreading on his face. "First question then- What kind of wine?"

He smiles a little at Bail inching closer, and just plain smiles at Bail. He does however take his eyes off his date to look down at the wine list to see what the options are. He scans them quickly and - "Sangiovese."

Edited 2020-06-14 00:56 (UTC)

When the server dropped off Ben's water, Bail placed the order for wine.

"Next question," Bail said. "Anything but Hawaiian. If that's what you want, I'm buying you your own pizza."

"We can argue about whether pineapple belongs on pizza or not some other time." He really does not want leftovers to deal with, thank you. "You pick a meat, I'll choose a couple of vegetables."

Bail shook his head while smiling. This was getting easier the longer they sat there.

"I pick classic pepperoni. It goes well with the Sangiovese."

It was getting easier for Ben as he remembered just how comfortable he tended to be with Bail, and stopped thinking 'date' specifically. It was a date, he wasn't treating it like it wasn't, but Bail was at the front of his mind rather than 'date'.

Still excited and happy, though. "Bell peppers, then." Yeah yeah, just one but pepperoni would cover a lot. "I'll throw arugula on mine but you don't need to deal with that." Especially since it was a raw addition to finished pizza.

...What he'd normally do eating his own pizza did not need to be discussed. He held his hand out for Bail's.

Bail looked at Ben's hands quizzically. But he took Ben's hand anyways.

The server came back just then, took their order- arugula on the side.

"Alright, how was your day?"

He could have just asked how Bail felt about public displays of affection, but this was just as telling and it didn't interrupt the flow of conversation.

"It was really good, actually. I jumped out of a plane and then went out for pancakes with Anakin. I didn't die and the pancakes were great."

He was going to pay for this tomorrow.

Asking about this: public displays of affection, in this way: just asking for Bail's hand, in public , was just fine in Bail's opinion. He liked verbal communication in a lot of things. Sometimes nonverbal was just fine, too.

"I was not expecting that answer," Bail said, honestly, raising an eyebrow. "Do you skydive often?" And he wanted to know who Anakin was, he wasn't jealous, just curious.

He wanted to know about Bail's day but he knew that was going to get a reaction and wanted to leave room for it. He laughed a little at the reaction. "I do not, and have never been before. I might go again in another year. It was fun, but a little too much excitement for me. Anakin's done some stuff that scared him for me, I felt like returning the favor was fair - though he doesn't know that and won't."

Bail is speechless for a moment as he tries to unpack all of that, his mind turning over the implications. He couldn't help but think this was kink related.

But okay, he could be calm and rational about this. For one thing, he's pretty sure Ben wouldn't just boldly talk about sexual exploits with another person unprompted... But Bail did also ask how his day was... Surely that wasn't a blanket invitation to just... On a date, even?

"Hold on- first, start with-" no, this needed to be a question, not accusatory. "Who is Anakin?"

Ben was nowhere near adventuresome enough to jump out of a plane as a sex related exploit with anyone.

"Anakin is the friend I met in the park and that I have some shared memories with. Well, so far a shared memory - I have more memories of him than he has of me, mostly when he was a child. He was my student then. Now he's just a good friend that I do some ice skating for physical therapy with."

Edited 2020-06-14 03:01 (UTC)

This created just as many questions as it provided answers.

Bail is a bit- no more than a bit relieved that Anakin was not a past partner. And he was glad he didn't act on that pang of jealousy he'd been feeling.

But, still, jumping out of a plane?

"Why did you jump out of a plane for him? I'm not quite following that part."

"He was a good enough friend to make himself uncomfortable to share something I loved with me." He could have probably made it a bigger deal or more complicated than that, but he didn't see any reason to. "He loves skydiving."

Bail mulled over the question a moment before asking, "What do you love... that is comparable to skydiving?"

"Skating." He smiled, just a little and tightened his hand on Bail's in a silent show of... reassurance? He could tell that, if nothing else, Bail was confused. "He grew up in Arizona and lost one arm not all that long ago. He has no experience, his balance is off and I think he's pretty understandably afraid of falling and hurting his other arm."

Bail cannot help but chuckle a bit, softly.

"If those things are comparable to you," Bail said and grabbed his wine glass to take a drink. and he resisted the urge to take more than a standard drink. There was nothing wrong with Ben liking skydiving, Bail was probably reeling more at the way the got to the conclusion.

"I'm glad you enjoyed the experience. And... that you didn't die."

"There are a bunch of different ways I could draw comparisons, some of them even making skating more dangerous." He took a drink of his wine, too. "But the really important part is that I didn't die, I had a good time and.... I might do it again in a year, once I've had some time to work up my nerve again. There are more fun ways to remind myself that letting go of control can be rewarding."

Like, oh, actual kink.

"How was your day?"

Bail's mind didn't go to kink this time. He was just enjoying the fact that Ben was smiling because Ben's smile was captivating.

"My day was nowhere near as exciting as your day," Bail said. "I spent it with Franklin, mostly doing yard work. I worked, Franklin rolled in the sun."

"I don't know. This is New York. Having a yard and doing work in it sounds exotic and exciting to me." It was - kind of true? Kind of not. He wasn't mocking Bail, and he was a little envious of the yard, but mostly it was just gentle humor, tease, and remembering how very, very much he enjoyed being in this man's company.

Bail laughed. "You're right. Very few people in New York have a yard."

Just then their pizza arrived with a side dish of arugula.

The good thing about their not-a-date-date was that they'd already gotten the embarrassment of how to eat with your hands in front of each other out of the way.

Well, Bail assumed they were eating with their hands because that's how New Yorkers ate pizza.

Edited 2020-06-15 05:05 (UTC)

Having a yard wasn't the first indication of Bail's financial status, but it was a pretty clear one. Which translated to Ben being aware but not necessarily to Ben giving it any real thought.

Not at this stage, anyway. Some of that was, weirdly, just a sense of... confidence within himself. Not all of it, but definitely some.

He did not use silverware for his pizza, though he did use it to move some of the arugula onto his pizza before folding the slice in half to eat.

"My parents yard in California is enormous. It's one of the more surreal things about going back to visit. I can't even blame that on being used to New York. Most places I've lived or even visited their yard would qualify as a small public park, just by virtue of being inside a city."