Claudia made her way down the stairs after getting off of the phone with Todd. As soon as she entered the dining room, she was struck by the heartwarming scene of her dysfunctional "family," forced together by circumstance but thicker than blood, gathered together at the dining room table.
Claudia walked up behind Pete and wrapped her arms around his neck in an awkward attempt to hug him from behind. "Thank you." She whispered in his ear. Pete smiled and reached up to gently squeeze her arms, happily accepting the kiss that she pressed to his cheek.
Claudia moved to take the seat next to him and Pete immediately started to make a plate for her, choosing only her favorites without much thought, a feat that never ceased to surprise the younger girl.
"I take it you called him." Pete said as he handed the plate to her. Despite trying to suppress a smile and appear nonchalant, Claudia couldn't keep the large grin from forming on her lips as she nodded.
"And…" Pete prodded, though he already suspected the answer.
"And… we have a date tomorrow night at the diner. Happy?"
"He's taking you to the diner?" He asked in an incredulous tone.
Claudia looked up at him with a confused expression on her face. "Yeah… what's wrong with the diner? We eat there all the time."
"He should be trying to woo you, Claud. He should be taking you to the finest restaurant with cloth napkins and waiters who come over to refill your water glass far too often and…"
While Pete ranted, Claudia simply rested her head on her head and nodded at him with a smirk formed on her lips, her eyes softly sparkling.
"…and he should pull out your chair for you and, I don't know-"
"Are you done yet?" She finally cut in with a cheeky smile. "You're starting to sound a little like Artie with all this old fashioned speak… I mean, did you really just use the word 'woo'?" she added, ignoring the affronted "Hey" that came from the other end of the table.
Pete rolled his eyes and got up from his seat to collect the plates; Claudia immediately got up to help him and followed him into the kitchen. "I'm just saying you deserve the best, okay? Your first date should be something amazing, something you'll always remember. Todd should be pulling out all the stops with you, not shelling out 10 bucks for a bowl of chili and a turkey sandwich!" As he spoke, Pete pulled out a tub of Neapolitan ice cream from the freezer and grabbed two spoons from the drawer. After handing one to the red-head, he turned the tub so that the vanilla side was next to her, knowing that she preferred it to chocolate (Only Artie ever ate the strawberry ice cream in the middle, no one else would touch it with a ten foot pole. In fact, they usually left a thin strip of chocolate and vanilla on either side of to ensure that they never had to taste the unnaturally pink flavor). Claudia smiled at him and sunk her spoon into the cream colored dessert.
"I happen to like their chili." She said with a mock pout after she swallowed her bite. Pete sighed and leaned over the counter to grab some ice cream for himself.
"You know what I mean so stop making fun of me."
Claudia smiled and walked over to the other side of the counter and pressed a kiss to his cheek, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I know what you mean, but I want to take this slow, Pete. Ease into it, you know? And right now, that means that we go to the diner, and we keep it casual, and we kinda feel each other out before we dive in to the over-priced restaurants, okay? He's not snubbing me or disrespecting me or whatever other word you want to use. We're 22; the diner is as fancy as we get on a first date."
Pete nodded and wrapped his own arms around her, pulling her close and dropping a kiss on her forehead. "Okay. As long as he picks up the check and pays for as many extra onions and glasses of highly caffeinated soda that you want." Claudia just laughed and buried her head in his chest. She had to admit that it felt nice to have someone be so protective of her, so invested in her happiness. Joshua had been like that when she was younger and, in some ways, he still was, but there's only so much he could do from Switzerland. Pete had become her official, on-site big brother and she couldn't be happier.
A/N: okay guys, I finally managed to get another chapter. I know it is very short, but I wanted to get something up. This may feel like the end, but I have a few ideas still floating around in my head inspired by subsequent episodes, so you may see another chapter popping up in the near future.