Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side sim: The lunch date

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side sim: The lunch date

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side sim: The lunch date

It was one of Roman’s days off, and normally, he spent those working anyway, but not today. Today he had surprise plans, because it was Rand’s day off, too. Roman had spent the morning planning, setting it up. In the observation lounge, he set up a seat by the window, where he and Rand would be able to see the stars of space while they ate. And that needed preparations, too. He had the cook make Rand’s favorite food, to be ready and warm by lunch. He’d owe the cook big for that, Rand loved shepherd’s pie. Everything had to be perfect. It was going to be their first public date, the first time they were together away from the privacy of one of their quarters, usually his. He was… a little nervous about it, but more because he was worried about how Rand would feel about a public date than how he felt about it. After he’d gone to sickbay with Rand for the check-up for her ankle, he was sure most if not everyone aboard knew anyway. Randy knew. It was time for this. And it was time to go and get Rand herself.

And so, dressed in one of his button-downs and a pair of black slacks, his appearance neat and tidy as usual, he stopped in front of the door to her quarters at 11:50. Hesitating just a moment, as he wondered if Randy had the day off as well, he knocked on the door. Not his usual nighttime soft knock but a harder, louder knock, to be sure she heard, she wouldn’t have been expecting him. Then he waited for one of them, preferably Rand, to open the door.

~ Roman

Rand was enjoying a very lazy and slow morning. Her parents had forwarded a new script to her. It was amazing and inspiring. It was a part that now, after joining Star Fleet that really appealed to her. Probably something Rogers would like to see as well, but Rand would never accept. No one in those circles knew where she had disappeared to but they continued to try and contact her through her parents. Randy was across the room listening to her read lines with different inflections and pace and move about with the story.

The knock at the door brought her up short. So much for a day off. Today she was wearing a simple but some what traditional dress. A soft peach color top and brown skirt trimmed at the waist and hem in her clan’s tartan colors. Recognizable from the approved sash the she often wore on her uniform. She opened the door, surprised to see Roman standing on the other side. She looked very nice and certainly not for work. Randy peeked around the corner to see who it was, but then disappeared. Rand smiled up at him. “Hi.”

Rand

Roman smiled when she opened the door, momentarily distracted from his personal mission of luring her down to the observation deck. “That dress looks nice,” He complimented. Movement caught his eye in the background, he could assume that was Randy. He pulled his attention back to what he was doing. Too long and the food he had prepared and ready to go would be cold, and that would ruin the presentation of his lunch date. “I’d like you to come with me, I’ve got something I need you to look at. It can’t wait.” If it were work related, he’d be wearing his uniform. Unless it were some kind of emergency. But with the look he was giving her it wasn’t likely to be work related. It was his Robin Hood look from the day he’d admitted he loved her, a somewhat mischievous smile and little effort to hide what he thought of how she looked.

~ Roman

“Thank you…” But was paused from blushing at his compliment by his insurance that she go with him. He had that mischievous look on his face. The one that usually meant he knew exactly what she was thinking and he liked it. But she had no idea what she’d done to illicit that look from him, but it gave her butterflies. “Oh…uh…o..okay.” She was just a bit flustered not having expected him. She glanced at the dress she was wearing, not usually something she wore around the ship. He said it couldn’t wait so she stepped into the corridor. “Is everything alright?”

Rand

Roman nodded reassuringly. His goal wasn’t to worry her. He took her hand and led her to the lift. “It’s something good. I’m hoping you’ll like it…” He hid the nervousness he felt as the lift took them down to the correct deck. When the lift arrived, he led her to the table he’d prepared. There was a tablecloth neatly over the table to make it look nicer. The food he’d had made was set in place and covered to keep it warm. For her, shepherd’s pie and for him, fish and chips, prepared British style, and a black tea with honey.

Rand always liked holding his hand and didn’t think much of it until the passed another officer on the way to the lift. She didn’t pull away but it did make her squeeze his hand a little tighter for a moment. If the other officer noticed he didn’t seem to care. She followed him off the lift onto the observation deck. Rarely was it empty because the view was spectacular.

The table was considered the best in the lounge, because it had the best view out the ship’s observation window. As always with their dates, he pulled her chair out and waited for her to take a seat before taking his own seat.

~ Roman

She took in the table and the food and smiled. It was sweet and surprising. A lunch date, and not in either of their quarters. She wasn’t sure what to say or maybe she did, but she wasn’t sure her voice would cooperate and stay at a quiet if her nervousness got the better of her. She sat when he pulled the chair out and was thankful that the table was situated so they could both look out, backs to the rest of the room, and their faces didn’t reflect in the glass. The Shepard’s pie looked amazing. “I… didn’t know Cook had the ingredients to make this. Thank you.” She looked around again, remembering to breathe so she didn’t blush so hard. “It’s all lovely. I thought maybe the snake ate Nibbles when I saw you on the other side of the door.” She was joking a little. The look on his face had been enough to tell her it was nothing so terrible.

Rand

He grinned. “If Mr Wyvern had the chance to eat Nibbles, I’d have a lot of officers to write up.” He said, meaning for that to be possible everyone on duty would have to be failing to do their jobs in his eyes. “I owe a couple of people a big favour for making that possible,” he admitted, shaking his head. “Especially the cook for pulling it off on such short notice.”

~ Roman

Roman wasn’t wrong. If Mr. Wyvern managed to get Nibbles something was very wrong. “If that happened, paper work would be the smallest headache you’d have.” Rand new how much he hated paperwork. She knew of course nothing had been wrong because of that look on his face, but this wasn’t what she was expecting. Honestly, if she’d had to guess a new animal for him to study had arrived and he couldn’t wait to change into his uniform. The idea that Roman owed favors, because of something he did for her sent warm shivers over her. “Cook likes musicals. I might have one you can give him.” Rand kept track of small details like that. Not necessarily to trade favors, but it didn’t hurt. She looked out the window. “We used to navigate Earth by the stars. I wonder what our ancestors would say about us traveling amongst them?”

Rand

Roman almost groaned at the thought of it. “Do you know how much paperwork that would be? Write ups for everyone involved, paperwork for any injuries caused, paperwork for the loss of Nibbles as a lab specimen, probably Mr Wyvern too. It’d be endless!” He complained. If he did have a new animal to study, he might’ve forgotten to change into his uniform but at the moment he barely had space for the animals he had.

Rand glanced over at him, eyes dancing and laughed. Which drew a few glances their way. Rand was a quiet and serious person when on duty, and with the exception of Roman, no one in the observation lounge had spent any time around her off duty. She grinned, “Yes, I do. I also know how long it would take to get it all done too.” All day because Roman would put it off as long as possible.

And then he shook his head. “Save it for the next time you owe him, I’m sure I can pay back my own favours,” he said. He appreciated the offer but he’d done this for her, he didn’t want to make her pay back the favor he’d used to do it. “I don’t know. I’m sure they’d be impressed though,” he said about her last comment. The lounge around them was getting busier as time went on, the tables around them filling up.

~ Roman

Rand nodded. She didn’t mind letting him go through her collection. She knew Roman well enough now to understand why he declined and to not get anxious over it. The lounge was filling up and she had to remind herself that people really didn’t care what she was doing and as long as she didn’t think about it, her anxiety bubbled in the background and left her alone for the time being. Besides she liked spending time with Roman and that made it easier. She was also very glad Cook made the pie ‘personal’ size as he put it. She’d never eat anything bigger. She grinned a little, “They would probably think we are gods or witches.” She sipped at her drink before continuing. “As a child I memorized all the constellations. I knew where they were in the sky no matter what time of the year. What surprised me the most, was the first time I saw them from orbit, they looked different. The perspective just from Earth’s surface to outside the exosphere is so dramatic.”

Rand

Roman nodded. “The first time I went to space, what got me was the expanse of it, how small Earth suddenly looked…” He’d already finished his tea and he still had half his food left. He’d liked hearing her laugh, even if it was about how awful at paperwork he was. He seemed to hardly notice anyone else around them. He was either looking at her or the view.

~ Roman

“I guess I expected at least the view to look familiar. And it was immediately strange and foreign. There was nothing familiar, even the moon looked different. And then I looked out the other view port and Earth was so small. Home always seemed so big…” She had felt ashamed. Compared to the reality of how big the universe was and small Earth was in comparison, and her even smaller…the fears that chased her to join Star Fleet were suddenly insignificant. Good things came from it though. It had driven her to work harder and be one of the most sought after officers in the yeoman corp. And she’d landed on the Sentinel. And now she was having lunch with Roman. So good things had come from it.

Rand