A/n- Back to the Modern/Basketball AU! This story follows up from the one where Rutger asks Roy if it's okay for him to ask Lilina out, and involves him doing so, that's all you really need to know from the last one. Enjoy!
The Commission Files- File #a1276 Cars & Crushes
Characters: Rutger, Lilina
Based on: a commission by VidalRalph on Twitter
The bell rang to signal the end of the school day and Rutger got up from his desk and slowly started to walk to his locker. Usually he couldn't wait to get out of this place, but today he was lingering because he had something important he wanted to do. It had been about a week since he told Roy about his intentions to ask Lilina out on a date and today was the day he was going to do it. So his slow walking had two purposes, to make sure Lilina would be at her locker when he got there and to give him some time to think about what he was going to say and get his confidence up.
"Just keep it simple, just like Dad told me to." Rutger said to himself as he continued to make his way to the lockers. "Make your entrance and clearly state your intentions with confidence, don't beat around the bush." Not many people ever saw Rutger being this nervous and lucky for him no one was really paying attention to him to see it either. And even if he didn't know it just yet, he really didn't have any need to be nervous, but it was the past trauma of having to go to school in Bern for a few years that was making him second guess everything. Eventually though he made it to the lockers and he saw Lilina there standing in front of hers, putting the last of her books away for the day.
"Should I tell her she looks cute?" Rutger wondered to himself as he saw her. She was in her cheerleading outfit because along with being one of the stars of the girl's basketball team she was also the head cheerleader because she was just that talented. And she was wearing her outfit because the team had a free period at the end of most days and liked to use it to practice.
Lilina saw Rutger walking closer to her and her eyes lit up and she gave him a smile as she always did. She was about to greet him but he did something surprising. He got pretty close to her and put his hand on her locker near her head, leaning in a bit as well. It was a pretty confident looking maneuver and she couldn't help but get a bit warm in the face, but she quickly countered with her own confidence, crossing her arms under her chest and resting her left leg against her locker as well.
"Hey." Rutger said in a tone that gave a sense of familiarity, a tone that Lilina wasn't used to him using recently, but one she had really missed from the old days back in middle school.
"Hey yourself." Lilina replied back with the same tone and a smile. "What's up? You've got the look that you need to talk about something."
"I do actually." Rutger confirmed, hoping that Lilina couldn't hear his heart beating out of his chest or see the sweat drops that were starting to form on his temples. "So remember last week when you offered to help me clean my car out? Something about taking half the money we find as a labor fee?"
"I do believe I said something to that effect." Lilina answered in a slightly teasing tone, knowing that if this was all he was wanting it would be a bit silly to be this serious about it.
"Well, I was wondering if you had the time to do that today." Rutger continued. "And then afterwards we could go see a movie together and get dinner as well, just the two of us."
"Just the two of us?" Lilina pondered, trying not to laugh at how hilarious this situation was feeling to her. Never in a million years would she think Rutger would ask her out on a date in this fashion. But she had to appreciate that he was trying, putting in the effort to show that this was important to him, that she was important to him. "Like a date?"
"Yes, like a date." Rutger confirmed.
"Well, I'd have to call my parents and see if it's okay if I say out tonight, but yeah! I'd love to spend the evening with you like that Rutger." Lilina told him. She considered teasing him by leading him on a bit, but she figured that would be a bit mean all things considered and she didn't want to get off on the wrong foot with this. When she confirmed that she was okay with going on a date Rutger let out a huge breath he had been holding and his whole body looked like a huge weight had been lifted off it.
"Thank Elimine." He said under his breath, though he was so close that Lilina could hear it.
"What? Did you think I was gonna say no or something?" Lilina asked him with a smirk. "I'm just finally you got the clues I was dropping that I like you like that. Or should I say got the nerve up to confirm the clues."
"The second one, for sure." Rutger confirmed, his speech patterns getting a bit less formal as they usually were. "Wait? You've been waiting for me to ask you? Why didn't you just tell me then?"
"Because, I knew that this was a decision that you needed to make on your own when the time was right." Lilina told him. "If I tried to rush things then it might not go as smoothly, or at least that's how I felt, and I didn't want to have to put you through that after everything else. This way we can both be confident with how we feel and move on with our path together instead of having to second guess each other all the time."
"You're really smart and mature, you know that?" Rutger said, half as a complimenting statement and half as a bit of a joke to chuckle at, which Lilina did.
"Well, someone has to be in our friend group." Lilina teased him back.
"So, let me ask this, when did you start feeling like this?" Rutger wondered.
"Oh, about a week after you transferred." Lilina replied simply. "I would say I was surprised you couldn't tell since even Roy kind of figured it out eventually, but, well, you know, we had other issues to deal with at that point in time."
"Drowning in self pity and paranoia can really cloud your awareness huh?" Rutger joked, even if he was still working on those issues currently. "Well, it's good to have that cleared up then."
"Yeah, so don't worry about being nervous or anything around me, I want this to work out between us, and if for some reason it doesn't we'll still be friends." Lilina assured him. "Okay, I need to go change into my regular clothes and call my parents to tell them what's up, where do you want to meet up?"
"I've got my car parked outside, just come out when you're ready." Rutger answered. Lilina nodded and walked off to get changed. But before Rutger could leave as well he was stopped by someone else.
"Easier than you thought huh?" It was Roy, who apparently had been watching that whole scene go down.
"A bit, yeah." Rutger admitted. "By the way, you knew?"
"Of course I did, I may be dense when it comes to romance, but I'm not that dense." Roy joked. "You two have fun though, I'm looking forward to hearing what happens." And with that Roy left as soon as he came by, allowing Rutger to walk out to his car and pull out his phone since he needed to call his parents as well. He decided to call his father since he knew he would be home.
"Hey Rutger! How's it going? Did she say yes?" Mark asked curiously as Rutger assumed he would.
"It's going fine, and she did." Rutger confirmed. "So I'm not gonna be home until late, if that's still alright."
"Yeah, totally, just make sure you get Lilina home whenever her curfew is, I really don't want to get an angry Hector phone call tonight, I've got some important work to get to." Mark confirmed.
"I'll be sure to her home in time." Rutger noted before giving a bit of a pause. "Any tips you have for me?"
"Just be yourself, as corny as that sounds." Mark noted. "Lilina likes you for the way you are, just act like you usually do, slightly trying to push the boundary for romantic stuff here and there to see what she likes and doesn't like. And it doesn't hurt if you tell a girl she looks pretty of course."
"Should have figured that was the advice." Rutger replied with a sigh because of how simple it sounded but how hard it might be. "Alright, she's coming over to the car so I need to go, see you tonight."
"Or will I?" Mark teased, the two thoughts being either Hector kills him for dating his daughter or they end up doing something a bit more intimate. Rutger had no response except for a slight blush before he hung up and put his phone away.
"Elimine damn you." Rutger said to himself before unlocking his door and letting Lilina get in.
"You're looking a bit flushed." Lilina noted when she sat down and buckled her seatbelt. "You feeling alright?"
"Just got off the phone with my father, for better or worse." Rutger replied. "Letting him know what was going on, and of course he had to tease me a bit."
"Sounds like him." Lilina said with a smile. "But I'm letting you know right now, you aren't getting that lucky tonight since my father is in town. Speaking of, he said he wants me to be home by 10, that's good with you right?"
"Yeah, 10 works for me." Rutger replied before winding back the first part of that statement and realizing what Lilina had said. "Wait, rewind, what did you just say?"
"I said because my father is in town that we need to hold back a little bit." Lilina replied simply. "Or am I reading into this too deeply and just assuming how fast you want to take things?"
"I, uh, I honestly hadn't been thinking about it." Rutger admitted. "I kind of just wanted to see how things went first and go from there. I wasn't expecting you to be so forward about it either."
"Well, the way I see it, we know what our parents did with each other, we know how to be safe about it, and we understand the consequences as well." Lilina noted. "But if you don't feel comfortable with it just yet, we can take it slower."
"It's not that I'm not comfortable with it, I just kind of thought I was gonna have to work for it a bit more, that's all." Rutger admitted.
"Rutger, I like you." Lilina stated firmly. "I've liked you for a long time and I've had to wait a long time to tell you, and you know how I get when I have to wait for things. Of course I expect you to treat me right and everything, but I already kind of know you will after everything we've been through over the years. I don't want to have to wait any longer and I don't want you to have to worry about thinking I'm gonna freak out or stop you from getting closer to me, so this is me telling you that. You've already worked for it, more than you give yourself credit for."
"Huh, I guess I never thought about it that way before." Rutger mused. "Well, that does make things a lot easier for me, but still if I do something that you are uncomfortable with, please tell me, I don't ever want to make you feel uncomfortable or like I don't care about you, not again."
"Believe me, I will." Lilina replied confidently. "But I doubt you will, I have all the confidence in you, enough to cover what you lack for now."
"You're amazing, you know that?" Rutger commented, kind of just blown away at the moment.
"I try, because it's you Rutger." Lilina told him.
"Well, I appreciate it." Rutger noted. "Oh, and you look very pretty in that outfit, love the long socks."
"Yeah, my mother got them for me, some Ilian traditions die hard." Lilina replied with a chuckle and slight blush. "But thank you Rutger, coming from you that means a lot. So, I take it we're gonna do the car cleaning first?"
"It makes the most sense, there is that car wash place right next to the theater that has the coin operated vacuums, so I figured we'd go there first." Rutger confirmed. "Most of the movies start around the same time, which one were you wanting to see?"
"I was thinking we could go see the new Spider-Guy movie, the one where he travels through all the different Outrealms and meets other versions of himself." Lilina suggested.
"You might be the only girl I know who actually likes superhero movies." Rutger teased.
"Hey, blame my father for only having DVDs of those when I was growing up." Lilina teased back. "But wouldn't it be cool if we could travel to other Outrealms and meet other versions of ourselves? Maybe in one you're a lone traveling swordsman and I'm a mage who flings spells back and forth like it's nothing."
"Hm, I think I like the sound of that." Rutger mused. "But that's not much different than you now, you can use magic just fine today."
"Yeah, but back then magic was more powerful and had more uses than nowadays where technology has kind of given it a back seat." Lilina noted. "I just think it would be cool to be like the legends we read about in history class, that's all."
"Well, if anyone could do it, it would be you Lilina." Rutger replied genuinely, getting Lilina to give him a smile. "Alright, let's get going, we don't want to waste too much time just talking with each other do we?" So with that Rutger started the car and they drove off to the car wash. It didn't take too long to get there and when they did Rutger parked next to the vacuums. "Luckily for us, I brought some trash bags to get rid of some of the bigger stuff. I figure we can stick them in the trunk for now and I'll get rid of them on trash day."
"Yeah, that's only a few days away so it shouldn't stink up your car that much." Lilina noted. "Speaking of that, I have some air freshener in my gym bag that you can spray around. I mean unless you don't want your car smelling like flowers that is."
"I'd rather it be that then stink." Rutger replied. After that they got to work cleaning the car up and even though they had been joking they both found some money as they did. "Ooh, I just found a twenty!"
"And I just found a ten!" Lilina said showing it to Rutger. "Looks like dinner is on you tonight, as an alternative to my labor fee you see." She added with a smirk.
"Sounds fair to me." Rutger noted. Soon enough though the car was clear of the big mess and Rutger put some quarters into the vacuum machine and started getting all the little food bits and dust off the seats and foot rests. Eventually it was nice and clean and the two of them looked around to make sure everything was good before high-fiving for a job well done. "Thank you Lilina, this was much more fun with someone to help out. I'll try better to keep it like this from now on, promise."
"You better." Lilina teased him. "If we're gonna be making out in the back seat I don't want to get random chips and food in my hair as we do so."
"Oh, so that's why you wanted me to clean my car out huh?" Rutger teased back. "What if I want to make out in the front seats?"
"With the gear shift in the middle?" Lilina questioned.
"Fair point." Rutger admitted before pulling out his phone and checking the movie times. "Well, looks like we finished just in time, the next Spider-Guy showing is in 20 minutes. Do you want snacks or should we skip since we're doing dinner afterwards?"
"How about we share a popcorn and a drink so we don't eat too much?" Lilina suggested. "I'll pay for it since you're taking care of dinner."
"Sounds good to me." Rutger noted. So they got back in his car and drove to the theater, got their tickets and snacks, and sat down to watch the movie. As usual there were a ton of previews, the only one that really caught the couples attention was one about a teenage detective and her diliquent looking boyfriend who could summon ghosts to fight for them. Soon enough the lights dimmed and the movie started. Rutger slowly put his arm around Lilina's shoulder and the two of them watched intently as the story unfolded. It was a really good movie with a nice mix of action and emotional moments, you could really feel it when Spider-Guy or one of his friends took a beating or got hit in the feels with a dilemma between being a hero or being selfish. Of course there were a few times when they both went in for a drink or both put their hands into the popcorn bowl, but that didn't really stop them from enjoying the movie. Now maybe if the movie wasn't as good they would have started making out, but that wasn't the case.
"Remember, we need to stay for the after credits scene since this one is a two part movie." Lilina whispered as the movie was winding down.
"Of course." Rutger whispered back. So the credits started to roll and they stayed to watch what happened afterwards, which was a great cliffhanger for the next part. After that they stood up and stretched before making their way towards the exit. But before they did they ran into some people from school.
"Fir! Noah! How are you two doing?" Lilina asked as she came up to them. Eventually Fir and Lilina got to talking so Rutger figured he would try and talk to Noah.
"Didn't peg you for a superhero movie type of guy." Noah commented before Rutger could say anything.
"I could say the same for you honestly, but yeah, my father really got me into comic books and stuff when I was younger and I'm starting to get back into them recently." Rutger noted.
"That's fair, I only really came because Fir is into them." Noah noted. "Not that it wasn't a good movie, but it was her turn to choose what type of movie we went on for our date. Though isn't Roy usually with you two? I know he loves movies like this."
"Yeah, usually." Rutger noted. "But, uh, this was a date for me and Lilina as well."
"Oh, well good for you two." Noah replied with a small smile. "I hope things work out for you." Rutger nodded and eventually Lilina and Fir got done talking and they all ended up leaving the theater together since they had parked next to each other by accident.
"Fir seemed like she had a lot to talk about." Rutger said as he put his seatbelt on and started his car again.
"Oh, you know, the usual stuff with her, following in her mother's footsteps as a martial artist." Lilina noted. "She asked where Roy was and I told her we were on a date, stuff like that."
"Huh, Noah asked me the same thing." Rutger commented. "Didn't really seem too put off by it either. What about Fir?"
"She didn't say much about it." Lilina replied. "Come on, it's not like we're so different looking for a couple or anything Rutger, other than you being super tall."
"Touché." Rutger said back. "So, dinner? I was thinking about going to that ice cream place near the library that also serves burgers and hotdogs. Or do you want something more fancy?"
"No, burgers and ice cream sounds great to me, especially after that popcorn." Lilina commented. So they made their way to the restaurant and got a light dinner. Nothing really happened while they were there, they just sat and talked some as they ate. When they were done it was about 9 and it would take about 15 minutes to get Lilina back home. And she knew that of course. "Take a left into the park here real quick, I want to sit out near the fountain for a bit."
"Sure thing." Rutger said doing as she asked. He parked the car and they got out and started looking up into the sky as they sat near the fountain. "Full moon tonight." Rutger commented. "You don't have to worry about me turning into a werewolf or anything, trust me."
"Well even if you did I'd have a way to calm you down." Lilina assured him, scooting a bit closer.
"Oh, and what would that be?" Rutger asked, getting a bit closer himself, realizing where this was going.
"Something like this." Lilina replied softly before reaching up and tenderly kissing Rutger on the lips. She knew he wasn't going to be able to kiss her goodnight because her father would be waiting at the door, so she was gonna let him do it here.
"I don't know, I might need more than one to calm down." Rutger said afterwards, moving in to kiss Lilina again. He was super surprised with himself, able to give such a smooth line after getting kissed like that, but later he would chalk it up to inheriting his parent's ability to practically be smooth on command. The second kiss was a bit more passionate and lasted longer, but the both of them knew that this wasn't the time or place for more so they pulled back and stopped.
"Maybe kissing you wouldn't work, now I'm all worked up." Lilina commented as they held hands and snuggled up to each other.
"Think of it as a cliffhanger for when we have more time, like the movie." Rutger noted, getting Lilina to laugh again, a sound he loved to hear each and every time.
"Well, Part 2 better come sooner than later." Lilina teased. "But being a bit more serious, thank you Rutger. This was a wonderful date and I would love to do something like this with you again whenever you'd like."
"Well, thank you for accepting, it's really gotten a huge weight off my shoulders." Rutger replied. "So, just so it's clear if people ask, we're together now? A couple?"
"Yes, we're a couple." Lilina confirmed. "And hopefully it stays that way."
"I know I'm gonna do my part." Rutger commented. "And also, since I know it's going to come up eventually, right now I'm not comfortable being like my parents were/are, I might be in the future but for now I just want it to be you and me."
"I wouldn't say I'm ready for that either." Lilina admitted. "Not that I'm not interested in the future, but I'm with you. We need some time for just ourselves before we can decide on whether we can trust each other with other couples. But I appreciate you bringing it up instead of beating around the bush."
"Yeah, well, we're in an interesting situation and I figured we should be open about talking about it." Rutger noted.
"I agree." Lilina replied before they went silent and sat together comfortably for a bit. Eventually though they had to leave so Rutger could take Lilina home, and he did so, getting her there five minutes before 10. He walked her up to the door and they held hands again as they looked each other in the eyes.
"See you at school tomorrow?" Rutger asked.
"Yeah, as long as I'm not sick or anything." Lilina replied. "Thank you again Rutger, I really enjoyed myself on our date."
"I did too. I hope we can do it again sooner rather than later." Rutger agreed. Lilina was about to say something else before the door to her house opened up and her father Hector was standing in the doorway with his arms crossed.
"Father, how unsurprising that you're here to greet us." Lilina teased him.
"Just making sure he's not trying to kiss you goodnight or anything." Hector teased her back. "Your mother has something she needs to talk to you with, so could you go see her?"
"Sure thing." Lilina said ducking past Hector into the house, leaving him and Rutger by themselves.
"Mr. Ostia." Rutger said politely, trying to sound confident.
"Thank you for bringing Lilina home on time." Hector told him. "I mean I expected you to, being Mark and Lyn's kid and all, but I appreciate it. Keep it up and I'll start going a bit easier on you two, but start mistreating my daughter and you'll find that business in Bern isn't the worst thing you could have gone through."
"I completely understand and respect that Mr. Ostia, you're looking out for your family." Rutger replied.
"Good man." Hector said patting Rutger on the shoulder with a wry smile. "Now get on home and get some sleep, you have school tomorrow. Oh, and tell your folks I said hello."
"Will do." Rutger said with a nod before turning back and getting into his car. He just sat there for a bit thinking about what had transpired today. And he was genuinely happy. He asked Lilina out, she said yes, and they had a great time together. They even kissed! Twice! This was working out much better than he had expected it would, but he knew that he had to keep working to keep it working between the two of them. And work he would to hear that laugh and see those smiles.
"I wonder if this is how Mom and Dad felt after their first date."