AU Seven: "I swear I'm wearing this Batman costume because of a dare."

[AKA: The one where Lily and Cain meet at a poetry reading.]


"What are you wearing?"

"It's a suit jacket." Will gestures to his clothes with a raised eyebrow. "Thought that was kinda obvious. What about you, Lils? What's all this?"

Lily rolls her eyes, as they push open the door of the small coffee shop, already starting to fill up with people, many of them clustered around the make-shift platform set up at the front of the room. "A person who doesn't give a damn."

"I thought you would be all about this sort of thing."

"It's a poetry reading. Not exactly my type of thing."

"But we're supporting Zac!"

"Oh, yeah, right. Like he supported us when we entered Experiment Factor last year."

"He's already apologised about a gazillion times for not being there."

"I still don't believe him."

"Whatever. I promised Eve that we'd be here, anyway."

"Why?" Lily pulls a face. "I don't even like the guy! Neither do you!"

"Eve does!"

"So that means that we have to suffer too?"

"She's my cousin. Family sticks up for family, right?"

"I wouldn't know. I've only got Abe, remember?"

"That's true."

"Will! Lily!" Eve is standing in the corner of the room, by the counter, waving them over eagerly. She passes them both coffee, when they reach her. "I thought that you two weren't going to come."

"Yeah, well, you know us," Will replies, too cheerful to really sound all that realistic. "Zac's biggest fans. Right, Lils?"

"Yeah. Sure. Whatever you say." Lily shakes her head at him, choosing to take a seat beside Eve, tapping her fingers against the counter. The momentary peace is short-lived, however; suddenly, before she realises what is happening, the sleeve of her jumper is drenched in her cup of coffee, as it gets knocked to the side by another customer.

"Wh - Great." She looks up towards the source of mess, eyes landing on the person next to her, dressed up in a tacky-looking Batman costume, complete with a paper mask that has a cartoon face printed onto it. "Thanks for that."

"Sorry, sorry." The Batman mask is lifted away. "Wasn't looking where I was going."

"I got that." Lily raises an eyebrow. "Um, what's with the costume?"

"It was a dare. Zac thought that he was trying to be funny. Maybe it was to distract from the fact that his poetry is so terrible." He nods towards the platform, where Zac has just emerged, a pile of papers in his hands. "I'm Cain, by the way."

"Lily."

"Hey, guys," Zac says through the microphone that has been set up for him. "Thanks for coming tonight; your support means a lot. Anyway, this first poem was something I wrote for a special someone." He winks in Eve's direction, before nodding to the drummer beside him, who starts tapping out a beat. Will and Lily exchange glances, before Lily taps Cain on the arm.

"You fancy a coffee? Preferably somewhere else?"

"Really?"

"Sure. Besides, since you just spilt me a coffee, I figured that you owe me."

Cain snorts, his lips turning upwards into a smile. "In that case, that sounds like a good idea. We should make a break for it whilst we still can."

"Wh - Hey!" Will protests, looking disgruntled at the fact that he's now going to have to listen to Zac's poetry on his own. "You can't just leave me here - !"

"Have fun!" Lily waves at him over her shoulder, quickly making her escape by weaving her way through the small gathering and out onto the street.

"So -" She turns to face Cain. "- where do you want to go, now that we've left Zac's biggest fan engrossed in the poetry?"

"But what about the costume? I'm not exactly going to blend in whilst wearing this."

"Here." Lily swipes the mask from his head, pulling it on herself, peering through the two eye holes. "See? Now we'll both stick out like sore thumbs."


I'm not sure where that went, but we ended up here. I just love Lily and Cain being cute dorks. Plus, Zac seems like the type to write bad poetry.