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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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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.

Kyle's hands clench to fists at his sides after she turns and he has to physically restrain himself for a second to keep from kissing her. His fingers loosen and he continues on a moment later as if nothing at all is amiss, because truly nothing is. He picks up the extra couple steps to catch up and walk beside her again, shrugging.

"I thought this was the park but the greenhouse garden, but I think this is the one with the zoo," he admits, pointing off to what looks like an enclosure in the distance and not at all embarrassed by the honest mistakes. "I think it's pretty small. Do you have time?"

"I'm not the one who has to get back to his job tasting fancy chocolates," Alex teases, falling easily into step beside him. The zoo sounds amazing. She hasn't been to one of those since she was a little girl either, and she didn't know there was one in this park.

She walks quickly, but still can't help staring around at her surroundings. In the distance, she spots a partially frozen fountain, dusted with snow. Just like the bridge, it looks more like a picture book than something she could really walk down the street and find. "It almost doesn't look real."

Kyle smirks at her playful jab, shaking his head in mock exasperation. It wasn't at all what he had planned, taking her to see the smelly and caged animals rather than the beauty of the winter gardens. He hopes she doesn't mind the sub par plan before realizing he's not sure why he doesn't want to disappoint her. Maybe it's the reminder of Monroe. Maybe it's something else.

"You should take some pictures," he offers. Although he doesn't take too many himself, it seems like the thing that people do more often that not. As if on cue, a couple near the entrance begin lining up a selfie. He smiles at them as he moves to the ticket window, sliding his card forward. "Two adults."

It's one thing to have his number in her phone, it's another to have pictures of him, or worse, of the two of them together. The couple taking selfies look like they're having a lot of fun, and she feels a momentary stab of envy, but she knows there's no sense dwelling on it. Fortunately, him buying tickets is a distraction that Alex quickly takes advantage of.

"It's okay, I can buy my own ticket." She reaches into her pocket to pull out the cash. The less this feels like a date, the better.

"Too late," he flashes as smile back at her, the teenager inside the ticket window having already accepted his form of payment. He takes it back and then the two tickets not a moment later, returning the card to his wallet and offering her one of the tickets. "You can pay next time."

It's not a big deal to him. Kyle places little priority on money beyond having enough himself, freely sharing with anyone he deems a friend without a second thought. Of course he would pay on a date, but that doesn't mean he won't pay for his friends for things too. Especially when it leads to another meet up at some later time.

If she makes any attempt to offer him cash, he'll begin walking towards the Zoo entrance with or without her. Otherwise, he'll wait until she's ready and then follow along with her.

Alex frowns at him, but puts the money back in her pocket and takes the ticket, walking with him to the entrance. There's a sign for an aquarium, and straight ahead she can see a large monkey hanging out of a tree, but instead of rushing off towards one or the other, she stops by a map.

The zoo is a lot bigger than she would have thought, and she doubts they'll have time to see everything.

"They've got butterflies," she says enthusiastically, looking over to Kyle.

Kyle looks over the map over her shoulder. He nods with a widening smile at her suggestion, her continued enthusiasm contagious. That she wants to go for the butterflies first, of all things, only serves as a reminder how little he knows about her. Maybe it's the way Alex continues to surprise him at every turn that already has him strangely enthralled by her, even as he knows he needs to keep some distance.

"Butterflies it is." He turns to begin in that direction, trying to figure out roughly how much time he'll need to get back in his mind as they walk. Should be able to see a few things. "As long as we see the bats before we go."

"I wouldn't have thought you were a bats guy," she says as they walk. She actually hadn't thought about it, and doesn't know what animal she would associate him with, but if she had to pick it wouldn't be bats.

It's a short stroll to the butterfly enclosure, which turns out to be shaped like a giant caterpillar with a glass body. It's extremely cheesy, but Alex kind of likes it.

Inside, it's like a greenhouse, much warmer than it is outside, and all the plants are green and thriving. Hundreds or maybe thousands of brightly-colored butterflies flit through the air. Even at the height of summer in Russia, she'd never seen so many in one place before. She grins, moving further into the enclosure before glancing over her shoulder to see whether Kyle's enjoying this as much as she is.

"I told you I was stationed in South Africa, right? There are more than fifty different species of bats down there. Some guy in Johannesburg told me there are almost a thousand species of bats in the world, which is a quarter of all mammal species. Think about that, how cool that is." His voice conveys his genuine admiration of the animal as they enter through the thick plastic curtains into the caterpillar-shaped dome.

The sight is definitely engaging. His parents took he and his sister to a place not unlike it in Toledo once, though the one here is more fun and arguably better kept. Kyle smiles in response to Alex's grin. He can't help it. He holds his hand out near one of the butterflies who ignores him for a few seconds before flitting away. It's kind of fun to see them all.

"Check this one out." He crouches down to admire a large butterfly curled up between large leaves. His wings are a moth-like and dull brown. When he leisurely flaps, however, the insides are a brilliant, iridescent blue. "Best of both worlds."

Alex doesn't think that's especially cool - she was never one for science - but she likes that he thinks it's cool. Every new thing she learns about him makes him feel more familiar, more like she has a complete picture of who Kyle is. It makes everything about him even more comfortable than it already is.

She crouches next to him, admiring the butterfly. Very gently, she reaches out one finger towards it, and instead of flying away, it lets her ease it onto her finger for a few seconds before it flaps back to its leaves.

"My mother used to take me to catch them in the summer." Even if she can't tell him her mother's real name or where they really went to catch butterflies, she wants to tell him something true about herself.

Kyle glances over to her, then watches her carefully pick up the butterfly. Graceful patience compared to his own broad strokes. He stands and straightens to his full height after it flaps away, reaching his hand up into a small cluster of several flapping around. A few flap at his hand, landing for a split second before moving on. He withdraws his hand again.

"What did you do with the ones you caught?" He can sort of picture a young Alex, running through a generic field, chasing after butterflies. There's no doubt in his mind that she was good at it. She has the patience, determination, and grace to be.

"I let them go," she says with a shrug. Her mother had asked her whether she wanted to keep them and pin them to a board, like a real butterfly collector, and even offered to buy her a case to keep them in, but as a child she hadn't been able to kill even a butterfly.

Alex found a huge blue caterpillar inching its way up a tree, and put her hand flat against the trunk so the caterpillar would crawl onto her palm, then holds it up so Kyle can see it. "Thanks for bringing me here. This is really neat."

He's somehow relieved to hear her say that. The idea of pinning butterflies never sat well with him, like stuffing dead animals. A little hypocritical, given he used to catch fish to eat on occasion, but details details. Kyle moves over beside her to admire the caterpillar. He very carefully reaches out to pet the little worm, accidentally bumping it and dropping his hand.

"Any time. I like playing the tourist sometimes." Not that the zoo is especially touristy, but he does want to see things like the Eye and the Sky Gardens. "You're always welcome to come."

Alex is carefully returning the caterpillar to its tree when a huge pink butterfly lands on the side of her face. She tries to roll her eyes to see it, but all she can see is the corner of one of its wings, flapping slowly. She reaches up to see if she can get it on her hand, but it flies away.

"I haven't done any of the tourist stuff," she admits, turning back to Kyle. With everything else going on, visiting museums and landmarks hasn't seemed important or like a good use of her time. But she's having a lot of fun, and if Kyle's with her, it would definitely be worth the time. She grins at him. "I'd love to come."

Kyle tries to cup a hand and catch the butterfly as it flies away, failing utterly. This is why he likes bats better. He gives her a smile and a nod at her agreement, glad they're already making future plans. The soldier needs more friends. Without thinking, he reaches down to grab her hand and pull her ahead, wanting to move on to the mini waterfall area he head about.

If she resists or as soon as they get there, either way, he'll release her hand and move forward to stick his hand under the water.

Alex is surprised when he grabs her hand, but she doesn't resist. She runs after him to the waterfall, and pulls her hand away from him when they get there. It's one thing to grab hands to run, it's another to stand in front of a waterfall holding hands. That would be way too close to dating territory for comfort.

She splashes her hand through the water, watching as butterflies circle around them. She could stay here all day, but she knows he has places to be, and she really should make an effort with her side project. "You wanna go see the bats?"

Kyle's mesmerized by the water, both the feel of it and the sound. It isn't until Alex speaks again that he realizes how absorbed he was and pulls himself from his reverie. He gives a quick smile to hide his distraction, looking almost regretfully back at the water before nodding. "Yeah."

He wipes his hand on his pants to dry it a bit before stuffing it back into his pocket. Kyle leads the way out through the plastic flaps to the outside, not realizing how warm it was inside until he hits the chilly exterior again. It makes him shiver, even though he's not that cold. He glances back to make sure Alex is with him before tilting his head in the direction they're meant to be going.

Alex puts her gloves back on as soon as they get outside. She walks along with Kyle in easy silence, feeling much less awkward about her inability to do small talk than when she first met him.

It's a lot darker in the bat habitat than the butterfly enclosure. The bats are mostly hanging upside-down from tree branches, one or two are gnawing away on watermelon or orange slices.

"Okay, bat guy," Alex teases, "what kind of bats are these?" She spots a placard explaining what kind of bats they are, and moves quickly to stand in front of it. "No cheating."

Kyle waits a few seconds for his eyes to adjust as Alex dives ahead. He follows a moment later, stepping up to the enclosure and staring at all the little guys. Adorable, really. He wouldn't mind having some as pets again.

"Uh.. fruit bats." He laughs at the guess, knowing nothing beyond some eat fruit and some eat insects. Oh and that one snout-nosed one. The rest all blur. "I used to watch them. In some areas, there were insects everywhere. You'd look up at night and see the swarms, like another set of stars. And then the bats would dart through them like missiles, grabbing 'em out of the air. It was awesome."

"Look. Come here." He beckons her over, pointing at one dangling and nomming at a piece of banana. "Look at him, how they hold on and eat.. We had a few fruit bats as pets at one of our camps. I mean, they were free, but they always came back and we'd leave food out for them."

It's his turn to be enthusiastic and childlike.

Alex watched him stare at the bats, listening to his story and trying to picture it. It's good to see him happy. He's the farthest possible person from that tense, panicking guy who forced his way onto her bench, and even though she doesn't really care about the bats, his wonder at them is infectious. It's all she can do not to kiss him right then and there.

After a few moments, she catches herself staring at him rather than the bats, and turns her attention to the animals. It is impressive that they can hold onto a tree branch and their food at the same time, she'll give them that.

"They're really cool." She may not completely see the appeal of bats, but it's important to him, so she means it sincerely.