They knew each other.

He knew instinctively that she would like the corsage, the candlelit dinner. She knew she would have to push, or else she would never get close to him, and that he was incredibly uncomfortable, only pretending when he paid her compliments.

She had let him choose the venue on purpose, in the hopes he would choose a place he liked, and she wasn't sure if she was touched or disappointed when he was so obviously out of his comfort zone. He wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad sign when she insisted on driving herself to the restaurant and meeting him outside.

In the stilted silence over the clink of silverware against dishes, they both wondered if paintball might not have been the better choice.

He believed what he had told her: "What I am is what you need. I'm damaged." He knew her well enough to know why this was plausible; she didn't know herself well enough to know this wasn't the case, or rather, she admired his intellect, his perception too much to let a statement about someone's personality go without consideration.

He believed what he had told her, because he didn't believe himself worthy of any actual admiration. He was old, misanthropic, an asshole who didn't try to hide it. A genius, sure, but that had always come easily to him. He wasn't anything special; everyone else was merely an idiot.

But she was nice, good. Gorgeous, when she wasn't drowning her figure in a lab coat (and even when she was). She wasn't stupid. She didn't have to settle, and he didn't want to see her settle, to know she was settling.

She didn't know him well enough to know she needed to convince him she wasn't settling. That intellect, passion, drive, bravery, compassion… that she loved all of those things about him, and didn't care what shell they came in. She didn't know him well enough to realize he was capable of doubting himself. She caught a glimpse-"I'm damaged"-but then it was too late, and she was already mostly retreating, tending to her own wounds, realizing she had pushed too far.

They knew each other, but not like they needed to.