Still planning on finishing Here To Stay tonight, so stay tuned for that, but wanted to get this little extension of the end of Nuke Kids on the Block out, too! Just a little oneshot here.
Their lips separated after a minute or so, both of them chuckling. "So uh," Paige said with a smile, "regular restaurant?"
"Regular restaurant," Walter agreed quickly, grinning.
Paige grabbed his hand. "Come on."
Walter was going to ask her if she wanted to change first, but she was leading him in the opposite direction of their car. "Everywhere is going to be booked," he said.
"Not the small places," Paige said, stepping neatly over a puddle.
"You want to go to a small place?"
She turned her head toward him. "I want to spend time with you. Just you. End of the day it doesn't matter where. Okay?"
He smiled. "Okay."
The moment lingered, and Walter wondered at how his life had changed so drastically in the past couple of months. When he told her at Happy and Toby's wedding that he'd been in love with her since just after they had met, he'd been telling the truth. But now he was allowed to love her, without holding back, without having to show it in ways that could be interpreted as the general care one showed a friend.
Now he could see the love for him in her eyes. Her hand was often entwined with his and it seemed she loved kissing him as much as he loved kissing her. When she stayed over, he got to hold her, end the day skin to skin and wake up the same way. Sleep was when a person was most vulnerable; a person also gained vulnerability without their clothes, and instead of being afraid or uncomfortable, Walter craved that experience with her. And she seemed to love it all every bit as much.
"Here we go," Paige said, stopping and pointing to a sign less than a block ahead. "See that? Quarter Jack's Diner. Open twenty – four hours."
"Diner?" Walter raised his eyebrows. "If that's what you want."
"There's no fermented fish, sorry to disappoint," she said, "but I'm sure we'll find something on the menu to your liking."
"Do they have fruit punch?" Walter asked, teasing. "Because if so you're really biasing this experience."
She swatted him. "What I know they have is no dress code, so they won't deny us entrance due to the suspicious semi solids all over us."
"That does tip the scales significantly in their favor."
They entered the diner, the wooden door turning out to be much heavier than it had appeared to be. "Good evening, folks," said a cheery waitress with an eighties hair style. "Oh dear, what's happened to you? Are you both all right?"
"Oh yeah," Paige said, "you know what they say, three kinds of mayonnaise never killed anyone."
Walter was pleased when Paige burst out laughing at the exact same time that he did.
The waitress, whose name tag said Lori, looked completely and utterly confused for a moment, and then she clapped her hands together and laughed along with them. "Classic," she said, shaking her head as if she knew exactly what they were talking about. "You folks can sit at any of those red booths in the back."
"Thank you." Paige smiled at Walter before they maneuvered past the tables to reach the area that Lori had pointed out. "This one good?" She asked Walter.
It was near the kitchen and in a corner. "Perfect," he said, gesturing for her to sit down first. "Take two, huh?" He joked.
She grinned, then extended her arm out on the table. "Hold my hand?"
He slid his fingers around hers, reaching across with his other hand to grab a menu and hand it to her. "You've been here before? I assume they have some sort of sea food?"
"You and your fish," she teased, flipping the menu open. "They have a sandwich with cod in it, I think."
"Did you know that there are some studies that suggest that the fatty acids in fish oils can help regenerate nerve cells? A diet that includes fish can reduce a person's chance of dementia by up to forty percent."
Paige tipped her head. "Is that why you eat fish so much? To preserve your intelligence?"
"Well, I do find fish delicious, but the health benefits certainly do play a part," Walter said. "To be honest…" he trailed off. He didn't like talking about what he was about to blurt out. But she likes honesty. And you trust her. "Losing control of my brain, my memory…it's a fear that I'm usually able to push down, but it's there. When I was in that car accident and my brain wasn't one hundred percent, I kept thinking about what would happen if I somehow never got it back. And so, you know, if a food I like happens to have benefits that are specific to me, then that's just an added bonus, right?"
"Can I get you folks started with something to drink?"
"Actually, I think we're ready to order," Paige said. "We both want chocolate milkshakes, no cherry on one. He'll have the cod sandwich, and if you have some fish oil you can put in the side cup thingys?" Lori nodded. "Great. And I'll have the California Chicken salad, go light on the teriyaki."
"Okay. And sides?"
"Fries?" Paige asked Walter, lifting her eyebrows. He grinned. "Fries," he said to Lori.
"Okay. Sounds perfect. I'll get those shakes right out for you."
"Was that okay?" She asked.
"Absolutely," he said. "It sounds delicious."
"Good." She smiled. "You uh, you know what else I'm looking forward to?"
"Hmmm."
"Getting to spend time with us and Ralph. Alone with you is…is wonderful." She squeezed his hand. "But while three's a crowd is the saying, when the third person is him…" Paige shrugged. "Happy going along to get churros and to museums, eh, all the time, a little much. But when it's the two of us and Ralph, it gives me a…it gives me a good feeling, Walter. A really good feeling."
One time, Megan had told Walter that sometimes when she smiled she could feel it through her whole body. Walter hadn't had a clue what she meant by that. But times like these made him begin to understand. "Yeah," he said, smiling at her. "Me too."
"But that doesn't mean I always want Ralph to be there," she said, raising her eyebrows again. "Some nights, like tonight, I want him at the sitter's playing that game of Risk that they've had going for a year and a half so I can have you all to myself."
"I'm certainly not opposed to that."
Lori reappeared as if out of nowhere, the two milkshakes in hand. "Who gets the cherry?"
Paige raised her hand off the table. "Me."
"Your meals should be ready in a few minutes, we are down an oven so it's taking a little longer than expected and we apologize profusely for the inconvenience," Lori said. "Are you sure you don't need…anything else?"
Walter knew she was referring to extra napkins or towels for their stained clothes, but Paige gave her a cheery smile and told her no.
Paige plucked the cherry off of her shake and set it on the napkin. "I eat it last," she said at the cock of his head. "At least in restaurants. I eat it first when we go through drive through because I'm afraid of part of it sucking into the straw and making me choke."
"Interesting. Is it true that people who can tie the stem in a knot with their tongue are good at kissing?"
"Among other things. That's what they say, anyway. I've never been able to tie it, though."
"It's quite easy in theory," Walter said, "but I've never been able to, either."
"Well, that must be flawed science, then," she said, a corner of her mouth turning up. "Because I can testify to your kissing skills. Among other things."
"Oh, same to you. Absolutely." Walter nodded rapidly.
"Look at us, debunking pseudo – science," she said with a playful grin.
"That can be our side gig," Walter joked.
"I like it. Oh," she added, "we need to get the pie thing they offer here for dessert. It's really good."
"Pie? Because it's Quarter Jack's?"
"Wait, what does that have to do with it?"
"Isn't that a nursery rhyme?" Walter asked.
"I…I don't think so…"
"No, it is, uh…little Jack Quarter ruined a pie, something like that?"
Paige burst into giggles again. Walter grinned, not in understanding, but at how easy her laugh seemed. "No, Walter," she said, putting the hand that wasn't in his over her mouth to compose herself. "That's little Jack Horner. And it goes he sat in a corner eating a Christmas pie, then he stuck in his thumb and pulled out a plumb, and said what a good boy am I?"
"So the pie was ruined. My version applies."
Her smile grew from amused to warm. "I love you."
He lifted their hands, kissing hers gently. "I love you, too."
"You know what I really like about us?" Paige asked. She continued without giving him a chance to answer. "We kiss each other with fish breath and we go on a date covered in spilled food."
"And neither of us believe in that cherry stem nonsense."
She grinned, snapping her fingers. "Exactly." She flexed the fingers on her other hand, and Walter released it as she stood up. "The bathroom is over that way," he said, gesturing.
"I'm not going to the bathroom," she said, circling around to his side of the booth and scooting in next to him. "She said it's gonna be a little bit before the food gets out."
Walter smiled as she cuddled up to him, tucking her head into his shoulder. He shifted his arm around her, reaching for her hand again. "This across the table business is overrated," he said.
He couldn't see her face, but he could tell from her tone that she was smiling. "Agreed."
"Although that is a prime set up for other things," Walter mused. "Such as looking into your eyes, seeing your smile…"
"You can do that when the food gets here," Paige said, squeezing his hand. "Until then, I want to cuddle with my boyfriend. Just a little preview for later."
Walter leaned his head to the side, resting against hers. "Best of both worlds."
The fingers on her free hand lazily drummed on his leg. "Yep."