Daniel Sousa - Date Night

[womanofvalue]

Ever since the party at Magnus' mansion and her conversation with Peggy, she's been singularly focused on one single thing. Her job search has fallen aside, the self-defense classes have only received a paltry amount of attention, and she's been glad that not much has come up to require her with Reese's project. Her birthday is in a matter of days and there's only one thing that she wants. It's time for her to tell Daniel the important truths about the time in between them.

She's sent him a proper postal invitation to dinner, but has followed it up with text and email just to ensure that he doesn't miss it. She's found herself a perfectly suitable blue dress that's equal parts modern and vintage and the heels match her lipstick perfectly. These are the easy parts, of course. Setting up plans is child's play for a spy like Peggy, but what matters is the part where she has to now execute the plans.

That involves her feelings and being honest about them. She'd struggled with that even back home to the point that she'd let her actions speak for her, but if she wants anything to happen, she needs to do something here. Near eight, she sits herself at the table she's reserved in her dress and her loose hair and a mission in mind.

Now comes her challenge in convincing Daniel that in the time between them, things have changed, and for the better when it comes to the two of them.

Comments

[ssrsousa]

Winning the lottery couldn't feel this good. She was looking at him with the kind of expression any man would be glad to see, but he was especially glad, because it was her. He'd been attracted to her from pretty much the first moment she'd come walking into the New York office, although he'd admit at first it had mostly been physical. It wasn't just that anymore. It definitely wasn't just that.

"Well, we're gonna have quite a few new ones to make, because I haven't really seen anyone in, uh, about three years," he admitted. That wasn't to say he hadn't had dates, at least before Bastogne, but afterwards things had kind of dried up in the romantic department.

[womanofvalue]

"You and me, both, excepting the one dance I had in Los Angeles with Dr. Wilkes as part of an undercover investigation," she notes, giving him a long look. "I think there is something I want to be upfront about," she admits. "This is nothing to do with the differences in time, though, but rather, my own past."

"I never told you, but I was engaged to be wed, in '39," she says. "I was eighteen and young and I thought I was doing the right thing, but it wasn't what I wanted so much as what was expected of me. His name was Fred and I haven't seen him since the war began. He was also the last man I dated."

[ssrsousa]

He wasn't quite sure how that information fit with what everyone thought they knew about Peggy and Captain Rogers, but he wasn't about to bring up Captain Rogers right now. It was Peggy's story to tell, when she wanted to tell it, if she wanted to tell it.

"More of what your mother wanted you to be?" he said understandingly. "I was seeing someone all the way through OCS, but eventually, having a fella in uniform wasn't as romantic as it'd been at the start. Hard to stay in touch when mail might not arrive for months."

It hadn't been her fault or his. It just was, and Daniel didn't resent her for it at all.

[womanofvalue]

"I was working as a codebreaker, I thought that marrying and having children was all that I could do," she says. "His name was Fred and he was a decent man, but my brother wanted me to go into the field on his recommendation." She stares down at her plate, summoning up the courage to talk about this. "I wasn't going to," she admits, swallowing back the lump in her throat.

"Not until they came with the letter, telling us that Michael was missing in action, presumed dead." They never found him, but some part of her still lives in hope that he'll turn up, possibly without his memory to explain why he wouldn't just come home. "After that, there was really only ever Steve," she admits, "and even that was never really anything more than a very serious crush that amounted to one kiss." She was in love with him, to be sure, but it hadn't been dating, not in the least.

"What happened to your girl?" Peggy asks, smoothly easing the topic away from herself.

[ssrsousa]

He winced at all of that, especially her brother being MIA, presumed KIA. He was lucky that his little brother hadn't had any kind of telegram sent about him. Daniel's telegram was hard enough on his parents. If his brother had been wounded or killed, it would have been too much.

He briefly put his hand across the table to squeeze hers, since this couldn't be easy to talk about. It'd answered his questions about Captain Rogers, though, and he suddenly didn't quite feel so much like he was standing in the man's shadow.

"Nothing really. She stopped writing, and a while after that, my mae told me she'd gotten engaged to a guy who was 2-B - worked at the Navy Yard."

It had hurt, but not as much as it might have. Honestly there hadn't been much time for hurt. There was barely enough time for life.

[womanofvalue]

She doesn't let him retract his hand, sliding her thumb over his knuckles in a slow, careful motion, learning what this feels like, too. For all that she might have some months on him, she really barely got to explore anything with him, apart from a few touches to his hair and, of course, that one amazing kiss. "I'm sorry," she offers, "but at the same time, I'm not. If she hadn't been so blind, I never would have had this chance," she says frankly.

Eventually, she needs her hand back for food and allows her thumb one last brush before she retracts it to finish her dinner, setting the plate aside and sipping her wine when it's done. "Part of me is grateful you won't have to endure my mother. She can be a bit trying," Peggy notes wryly.

[ssrsousa]

Her hand was warm and soft in a way that showed she took care of them, but there were callouses too. Peggy Carter knew how to use her hands. She would never have been content to sit and be a good little housewife, not forever, even if her brother hadn't been KIA. She would have done her damnedest to do everything right, but she wouldn't have been content.

"She wanted a fella who wasn't on the other side of an ocean. I don't mind that she went out and found it, not anymore," he admitted. All of that felt like it had happened almost to another person. He could divide his life neatly into before and after he'd been hit.

They both maybe needed a little time after that series of topics, so they sat back and finished their respective dinners. The last bite was as good as the first, and he wiped his mouth contentedly when he was done.

"Ah, you never know. She might show up tomorrow," he teased Peggy.

[womanofvalue]

Peggy can't help the wide-eyed look of mild shock when Daniel suggests the possibility, taken aback by the prospect of her mother suddenly here. Her mother doesn't even know what she does, the prospect is a terrifying one to her. "As much as I would like you to meet her, the confines of this place are a bit too cramped for me to want that to happen," is what she says, letting out a soft huff.

"Your parents sound lovely, though, I think it's a shame you haven't got them here," she admits.

[ssrsousa]

Peggy's reaction was pretty close to what he'd expected based on what she said before about her mother's expectations of her, and he chuckled at it. It'd taken him awhile to be willing to tease Peggy because he'd always been concerned she'd assume he wasn't taking her seriously if he did. Now he knew her sense of humor was as well-shaped as the rest of her.

As for his own parents, he missed them a lot, and he didn't see a reason to hide that, especially from Peggy.

"It's Holy Week, so if she was here, my mae would be worrying about making sure she had all the ingredients for the folar. Somehow she always managed it during the war, even with rationing," he chuckled. HE'd never understood how she did it, but every year she did, and every year he heard about it in a letter. Sometimes the letter got to him in June, but that was fine.

[womanofvalue]

"Are you going to go to church?" Peggy asks, curious whether that's one of the traditions that Daniel follows or if it's simply something that his parents might, given his mention of Holy Week. "I do have a little bit of a surprise for dessert," she confesses, when he brings up food. "I know it's my birthday dinner, but I couldn't help buying it, just in case things went well."

"You talk so fondly and well of your family's food, I wanted to give you a little bit of that back," she says earnestly.

[ssrsousa]

"Of course," he replied, although he knew that wasn't something that anyone could just assume about anyone else. The war tended to increase a man's faith or totally destroy it, so Daniel counted himself lucky that it hadn't really changed his much. He'd done some yelling at God, but he kept going to Mass, too. Things had really changed with the Mass, but he liked the parish he'd found, and he couldn't say he minded not speaking Latin or seeing girls as altar servers.

"And here I was gonna suggest we have some cheesecake since it was your birthday," he noted. "Guess we'll have to have two desserts."

[womanofvalue]

"I don't see why we can't have both, it's a special day," she says, arranging her fork to be ready for dessert (she'd asked the waiter to bring out the box she'd bought, after). "It's not every day that you get to turn twenty-seven, now is it?" she says cheerfully, sometimes forgetting yet that she's still as young as she is, seeing as she's practically old hat for some things that young women have beaten her to, but marriage and motherhood are secondary goals for Peggy.

Right now, she'd be happy to enjoy a career and pursue a relationship with the man in front of her. "What sort of cheesecake did you have in mind?"

[ssrsousa]

"I'm not the cheesecake fan here," he demurred, and smiled briefly at the waiter as his dinner plate was removed. "And actually I don't even know if this place has it. I was just gonna suggest it in case they did."

He wasn't really sure how old he was in this place. It'd been nowhere near his birthday in New York and then he'd arrived five days after it should have occurred here, not to mention the decades in between. Maybe he'd just decide to celebrate the right day and add a year like Peggy was doing.

[womanofvalue]

"Caramel, with a bit of sea salt," Peggy says, closing her eyes and thinking of that sweetness and the sharp little bursts of salt that it would provide. It's a combination she's only tried for the first time here, but now that she has, she can't imagine anything more delicious (though, death by chocolate does still stand to compete). She turns to the waiter and asks if they have it, though it seems they don't.

"Any cheesecake is fine, then, and coffee," she adds, "with the box I brought." Resettling her napkin in her lap, she gives Daniel a fond smile. "I want to thank you for a lovely night."

[ssrsousa]

He was going to remember that. Caramel with sea salt. More caramel, so more for her than for him, but he'd remember that for the future. There might be a day when cheesecake was required.

Her smile was warm and caring and he couldn't believe he was here, with Peggy, with that smile. Her statement about thanking him reminded him though, and he pulled a small wrapped box out of his pocket and pushed it across the table.

"I wasn't sure if I would end up giving this to you tonight. I wasn't really sure how this dinner was going to go. I - I hope you like it."

Inside the box was a silver pin that he'd found at the festival a few weeks ago. He had liked that the securing pin could be removed completely in case she needed to use it for something, especially since he'd also asked for a sharper, pointier pin end.

[womanofvalue]

She stares at him with a furrowed brow, because she'd been the one to invite him here and hadn't expected anything of him beyond his mere presence. Still, as she reaches out to take hold of the box, she eases back to open it slowly, her eyes softening as she takes it in with a fond smile that makes the corners of her eyes crinkle. "Daniel, it's beautiful," she raves, taking it out so that she can stare at it in the light, focusing on his face past it.

"Help me put it on?" she suggests, moving her chair slightly towards his and extending the pin as she brushes her hair back from her shoulder to give him a place on her dress' bodice to pin it.

[ssrsousa]

Relief that she liked it warred with concern that she wanted him to help her put it on. That she wanted him to help her put it on her bodice, which would mean being pretty careful about where his hands and fingers brushed.

Still, he'd defused bombs, so surely he could help a woman put a pin on her dress, even this woman.

He leaned forward and took the pin from her, then placed it high on her bodice. He didn't want to prick her with the securing pin or seem like his hands were lingering too long, so he had to be careful, but he had it placed quickly enough. This close to her, he could smell her perfume. It wasn't quite the same perfume she'd worn in New York, but it had the same kind of fragrance.

"There. Looks good."

[womanofvalue]

Peggy watches him without blinking for a single moment. Even if he does end up stabbing her with the sharp end, she's certainly had worse and doesn't intend to let on that there's any pain. She bows her head forward a little, inhaling the soft smell of the product he's using in his hair now, feeling nostalgic for the Brylcreem from before, though this will do just fine.

Easing back, she smooths her fingers over it and studies it happily. "It will go with everything I own," she says, with true delight. "I love the design, does it have a meaning?"

[ssrsousa]

He hadn't expected her to like it quite this much, but he'd felt like it would suit her as soon as he saw it, so apparently there was a reason for that.

"Not that I know of. There were some that had meaning, but I think that one's just pretty," he shrugged. "The lady selling them said it could be a pin or a hair doodad or a shawl pin. I can't really picture you wearing a lot of shawls, though."

[womanofvalue]

"Not unless I have cause to," she concurs, which might sound as though she's making a reference to hickeys, but in her case, it's far more likely that she's bruised up from an unexpected attack that's happened and would need to cover up as a result of this.

She can't imagine wearing it in her hair, but she knows that it will go with nearly all of her clothes and give her a reminder of him. Pressing her palm flat to it, again, she gives him a fond smile and doesn't move the chair back. "How old are you?" she asks, as the thought occurs to her. "At this moment, now?"

[ssrsousa]

"Ninety-nine," he replied deadpan. "At least by this year's calendar. Look good for my age, don't I?"

He was glad to be here, now, in this moment, but Darrow as a whole was just strange sometimes. His birthday was just one of those things.

Maybe he should decide that he was 29? Or maybe he just wouldn't have a birthday for a year and a half by his own mental calendar. It wasn't like he much cared about his own birthday.

[womanofvalue]

"If we're going by the current year, then I am positively spry for my ninety-six years old," she dryly notes with an amused look on her face, fetching through her pockets to ensure that she can pay for the dinner, seeing as she's the one who's invited Daniel out and she feels she ought to be paying for it.

"You look rather excellent for your ninety-nine years," she says, reaching over to slide her fingers through the hair at his temple. "Barely more than a few greys."

[ssrsousa]

He actually did have one or two grey hairs, which he didn't even remember growing in, but there had been awhile where he hadn't really been focused on his appearance. It hadn't been important in comparison to everything else that had been going on.

He smiled warmly at her, more warmly than he might have before tonight. He was allowed to flirt with Peggy now, even encouraged to do it.

"Got a thing for older men?" he suggested. "Guess that works out alright for me."

The waiter came back, so he sat back on his side of the table. If the dessert was as good as the dinner, he was gonna enjoy this.

[womanofvalue]

Peggy gives a thoughtful hum as she settles into her chair, arranging her napkin in her lap again as she opens the box of portuguese pastries to divide up, setting some on his plate. "Just a particular older man, at this point," she says with a very clear look that informs him which man that might be. She gives an even happier sound when they arrive with a slice of new york cheesecake and two forks.

The only thing missing is the coffee. "Would you like a cappuccino?" she asks, as she orders one. "I think I've already doomed myself with the sugar, I might as well add a strong drink."

[ssrsousa]

"Just coffee, thanks," he told the waiter, since he still preferred good plain coffee to all the fancy drinks they had here. He didn't mind the fancy things, but he liked good coffee more. Bad coffee was a different story.

"What'm I gonna need to do to get the location of this Portuguese bakery out of you?" he asked. He hadn't found it yet, but he hadn't been looking, either. Most of the time when he got a craving for something sweet he went over to the Yeselevskys' store and got something from them.