basic_powers | Seattle Summer Showoff

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Seattle Summer Showoff

As they exist from the narrow door of the linen closet for his apartment, Dinah will see two doors down the hallway to her left. One has a biohazard sign hanging from it, and the other is part-way open, enough that one can see the window and bed inside. There's a couple of photos hanging from the wall, one of Beauford and a blonde young woman laughing with the lights of a carnival in the twilight background, and one with Beauford and a reddish-brown haired man in a repurposed tan flightsuit, grinning in front of a college graduation ceremony.

To her right, she'll see that Beauford was infact not exaggerating at all about the shoebox size of his apartment's kitchen, as there is only a tiny island seperating it from the small living room. There's a well-used black futon and coffee table with a little black laptop on top of magazines and comic books. Against the wall there's a shelf with a flatscreen tv, several videogame consoles and a dvd/bluray player. Light filters through the curtain outside and Dinah can likely see the door out of the apartment with three bicycles hanging from hooks beside it on the wall, and pannier bags for the bikes hung with coats and hats from the coat rack.

It doesn't take much guessing to figure out that the blue and gunmetal bike is Beauford's from the homemade welds and adjustments given to it.

"Welcome to my humble bachelor pad...I'd give you the tour but this is pretty much it."

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"Mmmrrrmph."

He's not saying any more at the moment, that second flauta is making it's disappearing act with guac and sour cream.

By the time he's finished that, Beauford is looking up to check the signs along the street before grinning and picking up the pace again.

When he stops it's inside of a small doorway, and a bustling, busy, and brightly lit little italian restaurant. The inside has lots of wooden cushioned booths in the back, and regular eating tables near the front which, as Dinah can see, are occupied with people and food.

...we're not going into how it smells when the door opens. That's just cruel and unusual gastronomic teasing punishment.

If Dinah wasn't in the act of licking guacamole off her fingers, she'd be melting at the smell. As it is, she's merely grinning and already eyeing the food at the nearest table.

"OK, this place looks adorable."

"They know how to bring in their customer's eyes..." Beauford grins, looking at one of the pizzas before a waiter comes towards them.

"Anywhere you two would like to sit?" Their waitress, Kelly, by the nametag, smiles at the both of them. "Table or booth?"

"Booth please..."

Kelly is cute, Dinah thinks in passing - or she certainly goes to the effort of looking cute. There are pink streaks in her pigtails and she's about half a head shorter then Dinah herself. On the way to the booth, Dinah spends no small amount of time looking at other people's plates.

"I already have no idea how I'm going to choose," she tells Beauford. "Do I want shrimp or calamari?"

"I think the question you want to ask is 'do I want an appetizer' or 'do i want to go for a big pizza'?" Beauford grins, nodding at the menu.

"The seafood pizza has shrimp, squid, octopus and mussels... Then again there's the cajun pizza that has alligator meat on it, with black bean sauce, spicy peppers and sausage..."

Dinah stops in the restaurant, and stares at him before she realises what she's doing and hurries towards the booth.

"...Can I have both?" she pleads.

"I don't your mom would forgive you if you didn't bring home leftover take out from this." Beauford chuckles, Dinah's really eating some holes in his pocketbook.

"Alright, both, and how about breadsticks, mushrooms, and calamari rings for appettizers?"

"Sounds good to me," Dinah says, nodding her approval to Kelly, who makes a quick note of their order and disappears to get water.

"My Mom already thinks you're the most amazing guy in the world who doesn't wear spandex," Dinah says when they have more privacy. "Every time we defrost a meal, she asks me when you're coming over next."

"Aw well shucks...you're gonna give me a swelled head with all this fancy complimentin'." Beauford grins, slipping into a more country accent for a moment before Kelly returns with a basket of breadsticks, dipping sauce and water.

"Can I interest you two in something to drink? We've got sodas, beers and wine..." She asks brightly.

"If you've got Wheat Monkey Ale I'll have that..." Beauford replies.

"Sounds good, I'll try that too," says Dinah, always willing to learn a new taste. She grins, grabbing her water as soon as it's touched tablecloth.

"Well, you're not getting credit for this. I'll say I was in Seattle with the boys. It's make more sense than visiting you with no time to fly out."

"Ofcourse," Beauford smiles, wryly thinking already of that conversation with Dinah Snr. "Don't want her getting suspicious."

"Speaking of frozen meals, how's the supply at work holding up?"

"Not badly," Dinah says. "The sweet stuff disappeared within days and no one's admitted to it."She blames J'Onn and Hal.

"And the high calorie specialist meals have been a huge hit."

"Heh, kinda figured those'd go over and go quickly." Beauford chuckles as their tall pilsner glasses of beer arrive. "I'm guessing the resident oreo addict is to blame for those homemade ice cream sandwiches making their great escape."

"I figured you guys burn through a lot of calories during work, so hey...An army moves on it's stomach."

"Yeah, him and Fly Boy," Dinah agrees. "He has no excuse, he just likes helping himself to sweet things.

"Some of us burn more calories than others, of course. But we marked some meals out especially for the bottomless pit, and he's much happier."

"Let me guess, the bottomless pit makes short work of the pastas and riceballs, doesn't he?" Beauford chuckles as their appetizers finally arrive.

"Just let me know when you get down to about 2 meals a person either at home or at work, and I'll totally jump at making another batch for you guys."

"I will," Dinah assures him. "That might be closer than you'd think, because we've been talking about expanding our ranks."

"Really? I think we better start thinking up some good excuses...or at least see if it's okay for me to crash out on your couch to make a marathon of cooking this time." Beauford's eyes just about light up at the prospect, as he works his way through some calamari rings. "How big of an expansion are we talking?"

"Just one," Dinah says. "With a cocksure attitude and a Robin Hood obsession. Flyboy's a big fan."

"Ha, you're going to have to tell me all about this new guy on the way back, meantime...your mom was a detective right?"

The mushrooms, calamari and breadsticks are nearly gone...which is good because Kelly and another waiter are coming out with two pizzas on serving stands towards them.

...And that spicy seafood pizza looks delicious...mozzerella...and the cajun pizza has mild cheddar and parmesan on it.

"Would either of you care for some fresh-grated parmesan on your food?" Kelly asks, holding up a little device.

"Yes please," Dinah says, leaning back so Kelly can grate the cheese over her pizza. To Beauford, "yeah, she was. I think it annoys her that I'm way more physical and less cerebral than she was. As if she'd want me to be an exact clone anyway."

"Well...I don't think she wants you to be an exact clone...maybe she's just trying to get you to avoid making some of the mistakes she did." Beauford muses, nodding to Kelly for more parmesan on the cajun pizza.

"They were some big mistakes too."

Dinah pauses, and eyes Beauford when he says that. She doesn't say anything for the minute or so it takes for Kelly to apply cheese and leave them to their food in relative privacy.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asks.

"......in her shoes, looking back at the blackmail....I think she beats herself up over it in private for having gotten caught. By someone who wanted to go after her."

There is no way in hell that Beauford is going to tell Dinah that her mother KNOWS about Milliways. But there's nothing saying that he can't get Dinah to thinking about talking about it with her mother.

"She just wants you to learn to be careful with what you say or do about certain things."

"Oh, right," Dinah says, relieved that her Mom wasn't holding back on something bigger than that which she told Beauford but not her.

"Well, we've stopped keeping secrets at work. That led to more problems than it prevented. I should have followed her example there; teams don't work without trust."

"I think any relationship has trouble working without some level of trust in it..." Beauford smiles, just a little sadly. "Then again, look at my track record..."

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