word count: 1436
notes: read mark of athena. wanted to write stupid fic. so many stupid fics. there's no telling how many stupid fics i'll write. guess the line that brought this up. guess it, and then judge me horrendously for using it as a starting point. also oops its been like, what? 3 or 4 months? haha.
Octavian was not making a face of absolute disgust. He was far above such things. And he was not considering feeding the food to the nearest hungry stray dogs either – or, in the case that no strays were around, the nearest hungry dumpster. It was just… this was not at all what he had expected. He glanced up from the food on the table to his da- to the redheaded girl who had dragged him here. She had no problem with eating, hell she seemed almost happy about it, but that was to be expected since she had chosen the place.
She looked over a slice of grease-laden cheese pizza, silently asking what his deal was, why he wasn't enjoying the lunch as much as he should.
Octavian looked away from her, across the street and into the park. There were groups of people standing around, lots of people. Quite a few of them had dogs, and some of them were playing with ducks in the pond. It was very boring to look at, but it'd have to do because Octavian was not going to spend this entire lunch staring over the table. And the urge to not stare had nothing to do with the fact that, from where he was sitting, Rachel Dare's eyes were a brighter green than normal.
It was almost excruciating to look at her.
So he didn't. He settled for watching the mortals play their silly games with their dogs and hoped for at least one of them to fall into the pond to make the scene more interesting.
"Octavian."
"What?"
"Are you gonna eat or what?"
One of the couples across the street were getting very into their goodbye kiss. It was disgusting.
"I don't eat pizza, Rach."
"You're… kidding, right? Everyone loves pizza."
"It's greasy and disgusting, and it can't be healthy."
A little girl and her dog pranced into the park. The girl, even from this distance, looked a bit mischievous. Maybe the dog was her guide.
It was another minute before he realized that there was no noise coming from the other side of the table. No slurping drinks or scraping utensils as she snatched up another slice of pizza. None of the rusting of fabric as she moved and brushed against the loose cloth spread over the table. And not a single word. Octavian looked away from the little girl and her dog and straight into the bright green eyes he had turned from in the first place.
Rachel Dare was staring at him, her face nearly expressionless. The corners of her mouth had slightly pulled downwards, but it was the look in her eyes that caught his attention. It was fiery, challenging, and it was somehow one of the most frightening things he had ever seen. He wondered if it would be exaggerating to say that at that moment everything around them had slowed. He was sure his heart had never jumped into his throat and beat so hard – at least not at the same time.
It took a great amount of work just to ask "…What?" More work than he would ever admit to having put into it.
Rachel tilted her head. "What's so interesting at the park over there?"
That really should have been an easy question, but Octavian was positive that if he answered this wrong he would be in a lot of trouble. Too bad that the only response he could think of was, "Nothing" and that, probably, wasn't what she was hoping to hear. Probably.
He really had no way of knowing.
Rachel Dare was too mysterious for someone so awfully goofy at times. It was unnerving.
"Nothing," Rachel repeated slowly. Her eyes narrowed, flickered over to the park and back to Octavian. "If it's nothing, then why have you spent the whole time we've been here staring there?"
"I-" He stopped, throat constricting and making it hard to breathe, like hard coils of steel had spun around his neck. Octavian had a bad habit of not thinking before he spoke around Rachel. It usually included him saying whatever popped into his mind first and that was something that he did not like – especially in situations like right now, when he had been so close to saying "I didn't want to look at your eyes". Not only would that have been incredibly embarrassing, there was a high chance it would have sounded like an insult.
And the last thing Octavian wanted to do was insult Rachel Dare. So, instead, he said, "I was hoping to see someone fall into the pond." It wasn't exactly a lie, so maybe this irrational need to- …habit of telling the truth around Rachel would accept it and not dog him with guilt for the rest of the day.
Rachel frowned. She blinked once, then twice, and snorted. "…Are you serious?"
Slowly, Octavian nodded.
"Why?"
He was silent. She looked slightly less like she was going to throttle him, although Octavian was sure that would still be an option if he didn't fix… well, he wasn't sure. There was something to fix. He knew that much, otherwise she wouldn't still have that glint in her eyes that terrified him to the bone.
And that was certainly one thing Octavian would never admit to anyone. He hardly ever allowed himself to even admit to being afraid, and here he sat, nearly shaking with the effort to not piss her off even more. "I… thought it might make the park more interesting to look at."
"If it's boring, why are you looking?" Rachel cast another glance at the park, then whipped back to Octavian, pinning him to the seat of his chair with one look. Logic was pushing that Rachel was probably confused about his story, and he should understand that, but all Octavian could think about was if all girls were this frightening or if it was just her.
If it was just her, Octavian would really like to know why he was seconds away from fleeing the scene.
"No… real reason," he said, his voice quiet.
The frown still on her face deepened and, yes, he could see a bit of confusion working into her eyes. …which he still could not look at for too long. Something about the way the light hit her made all the shades of her hair stand out in stark contrast with the green of her eyes and it was just a little bit too much. He understood, vaguely, that all he was doing was staring at her and not saying anything. The silence between them was lasting way too long, and his answers to her questions were pathetic.
But, gods save him, now that he was looking at her, right at her – right into those beautiful eyes – he didn't know if he wanted to look away or not. He didn't even know if he could anymore.
It was a few seconds before Rachel grinned at him. And it lit up her eyes even more.
"You're kind of bad at this date thing, aren't you, augur?"
Octavian's eyes widened. He blanched and, hurriedly, fished for words. Unfortunately, the only thing that he managed to get out was, "It… it's not a date!" Really, he was automatically mad at himself for not coming up with anything better, and even angrier that his voice had apparently shot up an octave to that level that the other legionaries liked to tease him about. The fact that Rachel had instantly erupted into laughter was not helping. "Why- Will you please stop laughing?"
Rachel managed to choke back her laughter for the time being and, beaming now, said, "Of course it's a date, augur. I'm not stupid." She shrugged, her red hair bouncing over her shoulder.
Octavian fidgeted in his chair and tried to ignore the sudden onset of nerves twisting in his stomach. He didn't say anything to confirm or deny the whole 'date' matter, and Rachel shook her head. She picked up her abandoned pizza slice and set to work on devouring it, and Octavian let his eyes wander back across the street. It was just as boring as it had been minutes before, but at least the sight of it was helping his nerves settle down. Underneath the table, Rachel nudged his leg with hers and he glanced back at her.
"Still not eating your pizza?"
He frowned. "I told you it's disgusting."
