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I. CHOCOLATIER DU MONDE - (OPEN)
It didn't take too long for Kyle to find a job in the city. He wasn't entirely sure if this one would last, given that he was hired for a seasonal trial period, but it meant doing something kind of cool and getting paid for it, so he couldn't complain. Working at a gourmet chocolate shop meant giving people things they actually wanted for prices they were already willing to pay. He didn't have to sell anyone on things they didn't want and had the added bonus of rarely dealing with agitated customers.

Of course, with Valentine's Day around the corner, the shop was busier than ever and most of his shifts were spent on his feet helping people. He was mostly grateful that they didn't do deliveries and that every transaction was straightforward and in-store. Plus he'd already been able to sample most of the flavors and could actually able to recommend some. Which is why, when the next customer was up, he immediately offered them a smile and a sample of the dark chocolate orange creme.

"Try this."

II. CAFE - (CLOSED TO ALEX)
Kyle couldn't help but wonder why Alex had asked him out on Valentine's Day. The girl seemed adamant in shutting down every attempt at flirting and diligent about insisting on their inability to ever progress. Which he was fine with if that's what she wanted, but the mixed message was more than a little confusing. There was a part of him that wondered if maybe she was oblivious to the day. Even still, she had to have a reason for asking him out to coffee then. Luckily, his new job at the chocolate shop provided a convenient excuse to bring her a gift without making a big deal out of it.

"Hey," he greeted her with a smile, taking a seat before she could even offer. Kyle set the small golden box in front of her. "Here, I got these for you. I figured you wouldn't like the heart box, so I went simple."

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"That's good. Re-adapting." That's what he'd called it, re-adapting to civilian life. Alex couldn't help but feel a tiny pang of envy. She wanted friends, and places to hang out. But Nikita had given her everything she needed to start a new life somewhere far away, safe and boring and normal, and Alex had chosen this instead.

"Do you have to go back to work?" She knew she shouldn't blow off her bounty hunting side mission - tonight would be the most likely time to find her target lonely and willing to follow her into a dark alley with his guard down - but part of her really wanted to let him go, catch him another night. If Kyle was free, she thought, maybe they could spend the rest of the day together, being friends and hanging out.

He chuckled and nodded. "Re-adapting, that's right."

Kyle forgot he'd told her about that and was somewhat surprised she remembered it. It probably sounded a lot more boring than it actually was and he almost wanted to defend himself just to prove he was interesting. Luckily, Alex moved on and seemed content enough with the idea that he was as boring as he seemed. Although he couldn't help but take her question as a potential excuse for her to leave.

"Later, yeah. My shift starts in a few hours." He took another sip of his coffee. A more polite man might offer to end their meeting if she had places to be, to give her the easy out. Kyle didn't often like making things easy though. "Do you want to come with me to check out Regent's Park? It's a little cold, but the gardens are supposed to be awesome."

Alex's smile showed in her eyes almost before the corners of her lips turned up. It was a small smile, one that didn't completely do justice to how excited she was at the prospect of going to the park, even in this weather. "Yeah. Yes, I'd love to."

She took another drink of coffee. There wasn't much left, but she paid for it, so she wasn't going to leave before she'd finished it.

Kyle's face showed his surprise at her immediate agreement with the idea. Even though they'd become a little more comfortable with each other in the last few weeks, he'd still expected her to be awkward about the invitation before possibly refusing it entirely. His shock quickly reverted to a smile as he tried to play it off. "Cool. Give me a minute to finish some of this coffee? I need the caffeine."

"You need that much energy to eat chocolate all day?" Even though she was eager to go, she'd let him have whatever time he needed. There were only a few sips left of her coffee, which she quickly drank.

Kyle's smile falters for a second as he's caught off guard by the question. He chuckles as he recovers, taking another sip of his coffee to buy him the extra few seconds. Finally, he dons a vaguely forced smile, "Late night. Didn't get much sleep."

More like rave turned massacre, an escape with a new friend, and then spending most of the night on edge and having some nightmares about his old tours.

Kyle's reaction doesn't completely make sense to her. She was only joking, but the way his smile falls, even if only for a second, seems serious. And when it comes back, the smile is definitely forced.

Alex puts the box of chocolates in her jacket pocket and gets up to put her coffee cup in the plastic bin set out for customers' dirty dishes. In the few moments she has to herself, she debates whether she should ask him about his fake smile or not. Ultimately, she decides against it, but when she gets back to the table she can't help it. She's curious, and a little worried about him. "Are you okay?"

Kyle takes a long sip of his coffee and stands as Alex is returning. He gives her an easier grin when her question catches him off guard again. Damn it. If she's worried about him, he's obviously doing something wrong. He pauses for a moment, dropping his head and thinking, giving her question proper weight. Then he nods, lifting his eyes to her as he dons an authentic smile. "I'm good. Last night.. I didn't sleep too well. That's all."

He gives her a pointed look as he says it, enough to emphasize without overdoing it. Either she'll follow what he's saying and realize he's talking about nightmares or she won't and hopefully will have missed the look entirely. Kyle doesn't need to tell her about the rave to admit he's a little shaken up.

Before she has much chance to respond, he moves over to put his half-full cup in the bin, buying them both a few seconds to breathe. Then he returns with the same soft smile, tilting his head towards the door. "You ready?"

Alex watches him carefully, not trying to catch him in a lie but just genuinely concerned that something's wrong and wanting to help. When he explains and gives her that look, she nods. She can guess what he means, and she knows what it's like to have nightmares that keep you awake. "Okay."

She returns his soft smile with a matching smile of her own, her genuine enthusiasm for their trip to the park coming through more strongly now.

"Yeah, let's go." She moved quickly towards the door, then turned to make sure he was coming with him, grinning over her shoulder at him.

Kyle follows her to to the door, his smile widening at her almost childlike enthusiasm at going to the park. He slides his hands into his pockets as soon as they're out the door, walking along beside her towards Regent's. Thankfully, the soldier has a damn good sense of direction.

Ever one to lighten the mood and distract from his problems, Kyle opts for a complete change of subject. "So what's your favorite color? I'm thinking like, purple or maybe green, but I could be way off."

Alex pulls a pair of gloves out of her pocket and puts them on. She shrugs, still grinning at him. "I never really thought about it. Blue, I guess."

It's a painfully mundane topic of conversation, but she likes it. It's exactly the kind of question she can imagine a guy who's just a clerk asking a girl who really did used to work in marketing, the kind of boring question that got asked on every first date since the beginning of time. Not that this is a date.

"What's yours?"

"I don't know that I have one," he replies with a laugh, as if realizing the truth of the words as he says them. Kyle hasn't really thought about it much either and almost immediately regrets the stupid simplicity of it. Not that he knows what else to talk about her while trying to avoid prying into her past, family, and lack of job. "If I had to choose: Red."

He supposes there's something morbid about that.

Alex doesn't really associate the color red with bad things. She just smiles and says, "We're opposites." Blue and red are kind of opposites, as far as Alex, who knew very little about color schemes, is concerned.

She's pretty sure that they're only a couple blocks from the park when a woman walking a dog passes by. The dog immediately waggles its way over to Alex, sniffing her enthusiastically and trying to jump on her with its tongue lolling out. The woman apologizes, swearing up and down that the dog doesn't normally accost random strangers, but the dog doesn't stop until Alex finally tells it to sit.

"It's, uh. It's okay. Dogs just like me," she says awkwardly as she disentangles herself from the animal's leash.

He takes her at her word on it, having no read idea. It makes sense after so many rounds of the military's perverse version of Capture the Flag in Basic, with red versus blue. He's about to make a comment about how opposites attract when he's distracted by the dog nearly assaulting Alex.

Kyle shifts towards Alex, naturally protective, even though the dog isn't that large, before noticing she has it under control. When it sits, he crouches down beside it, petting the dog and helping Alex to disentangle from its leash. The dog pays him no mind, but he has no reason to think anything of it really. He speaks to the dog in a ridiculous pet-voice, like you do. "Hey, buddy. She's pretty, isn't she? Yeah. I think so too. But attacking her isn't the way to go, is it? No, it's not. No, it's not."

He looks up to Alex, smiling. Once she's untangled, he asks her in a normal voice, "Are you okay?"

Edited 2016-02-20 01:06 (UTC)

Alex notices Kyle moving in front of her, and she appreciates the gesture, even if she can take care of herself. And even if the threat weights about thirty pounds and mostly just wants to drool on her. She finally gets free of the leash, the dog's owner still apologizing, when she hears Kyle call her pretty. There's nothing she can really say to that, and no reason why she should say anything, so she just stares helplessly at the back of his head. She's trying hard to keep this platonic, and he's not helping.

"I'm fine. We should go." She reaches out for Kyle's arm, to pull him along. She just wants to have a nice day at the park.

But the woman, who seems not to have heard Alex speak - she's old, and maybe she is a little deaf, but Alex is pretty sure she had to have heard that - coos, "Aren't you a handsome couple. How long have you two been dating?"

Kyle doesn't fight Alex, standing as she tugs at his arm and offering a smile to the woman. He's not sure why she seems so eager to get away, but he figures it has something to do with their limited time frame or her having places to be later. He's about to say goodbye when the question comes. Not one to waste a golden opportunity, his smile widens and he wraps his arm around Alex's waist.

"That's sweet of you to say, ma'am. We've been together, what?" He looks to Alex, flashing her a wide grin in good humor. "Six weeks?"

His gaze back to the woman. "Time really flies."

Alex doesn't want to make a scene. The easiest thing to do, she decides, is just to play along until the woman goes away. She wraps her arm around Kyle's waist and leans her head on his shoulder, putting on a relatively convincing smile as she looks up at him. "Five or six sounds right."

The woman looks absolutely delighted, and she looks like she's about to say something else when Alex cuts in. "We actually have lunch reservations. It was really nice meeting you, ma'am."

She tries to subtly maneuver Kyle away.

"I'm sorry to run, but it was nice meeting you," he adds. The woman is enchanted with the pair of them as she continues on her way, Kyle and Alex strolling easily away from the woman and her dog. He can't help but smirk at the exchange, glad but not surprised that Alex went along with the white lie.

"I think you made her day," he teases as they turn the corner and disappear out of sight of the woman.

Alex wants to ask why Kyle lied, but he's already answered: it made the old lady happy. She can't argue with that. Once they turn the corner, she drops her arm from around his waist and moves away, just enough that they aren't touching anymore. It's a lot easier to simply drop the act like it hadn't happened than to admit that she kind of enjoyed it.

She glances down ruefully at the fur clinging to her pants and the damp spots from the dog's drool. But she doesn't want to address that either, because that would just be drawing attention to the fact that dogs tend to be very clingy and submissive around her.

"We're only a couple blocks away, right?" she says, opting to change the subject entirely.

Kyle's arm hovers only a split second longer than her own before dropping away as she sidles back to her own space. He returns his hands to his pockets, unperturbed, and exhales a deep breath specifically for the sight of his breath in the air. He glances over and his eyes follow hers to her pants, which is why it's almost surprising that the words that follow aren't related.

"Yeah." He nods forward to where the lower corner of the park begins a couple blocks ahead of them. "Have you ever been?"

Alex is grateful that he's willing to drop it. She looks over at him and smiles, much more genuinely than before, and shakes her head. "I walked by it once or twice, but I've never been in."

It doesn't take long to get there, and Alex is stunned by how different it is once they're through the gate. She hasn't been in a real park since she was a little girl, when her father used to take her to the old heritage gardens in Moscow or Izmaylovsky Park to let her get lost under the trees.

The trees here are bare, but there's a light dusting of snow on the branches and on the ground that makes the whole place look like something out of a picture book. She stares, open-mouthed, until she spots a small bridge through the trees, and walks towards it. It goes over a little stream, which spills down over the rocks and past bushes and rushes and the trailing branches of a willow tree. In the summer, she imagines, it must be bright green, but even the winter, the ice and snow are still beautiful.

"It's gorgeous." She grins at Kyle.

Edited 2016-02-21 03:47 (UTC)

Kyle walks along with her easily, finding the whole thing comfortable and familiar, as usual. Alex is simultaneously a mystery and an old habit, intimately familiar to him and entirely unknown. The more he sees of her and gets to know her, the more he's subconsciously dismisses the dichotomy to err towards a favorable opinion.

He follows behind her as she rushes ahead in her enthusiasm, wearing a very genuine smile at her enthusiasm. His eyes travel between watching her, exploring the landscape and appreciating the beauty on his own. There's a dome somewhere with flowers inside that he's hoping to bring her to, the rest of everything still reminiscent of winter.

"Keep walking, Winslow. There's a lot to see." It's teasing, as Kyle doesn't even begin to move until she does. He wants her to enjoy her time while he appreciates the distraction.

"Shut up," Alex says dramatically, giving him a playfully exasperated look before turning her attention back to the stream. She could stand there all day watching the water crash over the rocks and little icicles form and melt, but she knows he has to get back to work, and if there's more to see she wants to see it all.

Somewhat reluctantly, she leaves the little bridge behind, heading deeper through the trees into the park. Maybe it's this place, which makes everything outside it seem very far away, maybe it's the fact that she can still feel the warmth of his arm around her waist, maybe she just ate too much chocolate or drank too much coffee. Whatever it is, even though she knows anything romantic between them would be a huge mistake, she likes him a lot, and here and now she wants to make sure he knows that.

"I'm really glad I met you." She turns to face him as she says it, stopping in the middle of the path. It's a little stilted - it's not a sentiment she's used to expressing - but it's entirely sincere.

His smile briefly widens at her playful retort and Kyle has to focus on not staring at her. It's hard when there's little to distract from her and she's such a great distraction from the things he probably should be thinking about. As if in direct defiance of the thought, he pulls his hands from his pockets, running his fingers along a branch to feel the snow and start embracing the cold.

He stops short when she turns to face him, not worrying about something negative and yet not at all expecting the words that do come. Kyle twists his head enough to give her a teasing side-eye, smiling even as he does. "Thanks?"

Not wanting to discourage her though, he immediately drops the facade and gives a sincere smile instead. "I'm glad I met you too."

She's not sure what else to say or how to respond when he reciprocates. In fact, she's a little flustered by how happy she is right now, so she turns away with an awkward smile that she can't quite suppress and keeps walking.

"What else is there to see?" She can't imagine anything better than this. There aren't any other people on this little stretch of path, and it feels like they're completely alone in the world.