This is the first of ten oneshots that I wrote for this pairing when I was bored and had writer's block. Some are weird, some are fluffy, some are angsty, some are my crap attempt at humour.

Enjoy!


Introduction

"Um … hi." She peered at the silent boy beside her, caught between trembling with nervousness and twitching with annoyance; this was the fifth time she had attempted to introduce herself. "Excuse me? Hello?" The thick, smoky atmosphere of the pub made her want to cough, made her light-headed and slow-witted. Not really that different from normal really, she thought wryly.

"Hey."

She waited for him to say something else, even if it was a demand to know what she was doing. None came. Wrong-footed, she fought her tongue, leaden with nervousness, into the speaking position again – only to say something that would have been far better off tucked neatly away in her head, or so she reflected afterwards.

"Oh, ok. Um. Hi. Um …"

"You gonna say something, or stand there like a goldfish?"

"Um …"

"Be a goldfish, then." She watched miserably as he walked away to the bar without a backwards look, and wandered back to her chair in the corner where she berated herself for the loss of her one chance, for coherency that was the first thing to go when nerves struck.

Ten minutes later, a glass of lemonade – how he did know that she didn't, wouldn't, couldn't drink? – slid to a stop just in front of her. She looked up and met his eyes hesitantly.

"Well? Thanks'd be nice. Salima, isn't it?"

"Yes, that's me. Thanks, Kai."


I'll be updating once a week to give me time to write more sets-of-ten oneshots for different pairings (already chosen). This seems to me to be a great way to wriggle past my writer's block - I might even get the inspiration back to update a fic after a month or two!

Review? Though I can't expect much with this pairing. xD