Rude walked into the WRO laboratories with two discs in his hand, looking for someone who could correlate the information about Geostigma on them to make sure it could never come back. He wanted to hurry up and get back to his lunch break. There was a new bar that Reno had found, and they were planning to check it out. He finally saw a woman staring intently at two screens. He walked over to her and cleared his throat.

"Excus…" Rude got his wind knocked out of him as the woman suddenly elbowed him in the chest with some force.

The woman spun around quickly with an embarrassed look on her face as she saw Rude. "Oh, I'm sorry about that, but you shouldn't sneak up on people!"

Rude waved his hand to indicate he was okay as he got his breath back. Then he noticed she only had one eye, but she was still pretty.

"What do you want?" the woman asked, returning her attention to the monitors.

"I need the information on these two discs correlated." Rude explained as he picked them up off the floor.

"I'm busy, can you come back later?"

"I need this done as soon as possible."

The woman sighed in frustration. "Tell you what, I'll make you a bet. We'll arm wrestle and if you win, I'll do it. If I win…"

"I'll take you out to dinner." Rude interrupted her, intrigued by her offer. Why would a lady scientist think she could out arm-wrestle him?

"Fine." She typed a few keys on the keyboard and the movement on the screens stopped.

Sitting down at a small table facing each other, Rude made a big deal of flexing his muscles before he put his elbow on the table. The woman just quietly sat down and put her elbow on the table as well, grasping Rude's hand with a surprisingly firm grip.

"You can quit now and I won't hold it against you." Rude said, a slight uncertainty nagging him as he felt the strength in her grasp.

The woman grimly smiled and shook her head in refusal of his offer. "Ready when you are."

Rude left the lab moments later, rubbing his arm. Once the woman was sure he was gone, she uncovered her arm and patted the machinery.

"Thanks again, old friend." she said before she resumed her experiment in peace.

***

Rude was almost to the door of the WRO headquarters when he heard his name called. Turning around, he saw Reeve walking towards him.

"I thought that was you. What are you doing here?" Reeve asked.

"We had some information that needed to be correlated properly." Rude answered.

Reeve noticed him rubbing his arm. "Did Shalua trick another one?"

"Huh?"

"She's one of our top scientists, one eyed with a bionic arm."

"Bionic arm?"

"Yeah, sometimes she'll have it covered, and tricks people into accepting arm wrestling bets to get what she wants."

Rude frowned. He didn't appreciate being made a fool, but a thought occurred to him. "What else can you tell me about her?"

When Rude finally arrived at the bar, Reno was on his second drink and his first course.

"What took you so long?" Reno asked.

"Making plans for my dinner date." Rude replied as he sat down in their booth.

Reno almost spit out his drink. "Date? Who?"

"Some scientist over at WRO."

Reno shrugged. Brainy intellectual types never interested him. Full breasts and long legs did. Like that blonde drinking a cocktail at the bar.

"Enjoy your dinner, I'm going to finish enjoying my lunch." Reno stood up and threw some gil down to cover his part of the bill, then approached the blonde. After a few moments, she and the brunette next to her stood up, and Reno paid their bill before they left with him.

Shalua was in a hurry to leave the lab and go home so she could sleep and come back in the morning. After she signed out and headed outside, she heard her name called. Surprised, she turned to see the man she arm-wrestled with earlier walking over to her, holding a bouquet in his hands. When he got close enough, she saw that it was poppies. How did he know her favorite flower?

"You ready for dinner?" he asked as he handed her the bouquet.

"What?" Shalua was totally confused.

"That's what you get for winning the bet earlier, remember? I take you out to dinner."

"Oh!" Shalua blushed. "Don't worry about it. Enjoy your night."

"No, you won fair and square, and I'll stick to my word." He held out his arm for Shalua to take.

She stared at him and then blushed more as she decided to come clean and send him on his way. "I cheated, the bet's off. You don't have to take me out to dinner."

"Cheated?" The man seemed surprised.

"Yes. I'm half-machine, see?" She exposed her bionic arm.

"Well, then, you can take me out to dinner to make up for it."

"You're not leaving til I agree to dinner, are you?"

"Nope."

Shalua sighed and took his arm, hoping she could get this 'date' over with quickly.