Against All Odds [Amelie, Valentine's]

    Glancing around, the teen found himself watching various Digimon interacting in the club. Was it rude to people-watch like this? Er. Was it really considered people-watching? Digi-watching? Could Digimon even get drunk? Judging from a strange, bear-like monster staggering away from his seat, Asher could only assume that it was a possibility. Either that, or that was one unfortunate Digimon!

    Absent-mindedly fixing the sleeves that were rolled to his elbows, the redhead let out a sigh. This was probably an awful idea! He was going to keep telling himself that until his date arrived, and he knew that! After all, he wasn't actually all that desperate for romance! And, one-night stands really weren't his thing! Women had a tendency of unnerving the poor teen, more than anything! But, surely, someone was coming here with hopes of some romantic outcome, right? Asher had to just keep telling himself that he hadn't really met a terrible Digimon-related person yet! Even Alicia, who was a little too high strung for Asher's comfort, wasn't a bad person!

    Staring at the ceiling, briefly, the young man was snapped from his thoughts when a familiar voice managed to break through. "Amelie?" Was that his heart stopping from embarrassment, or was it skipping a beat? Probably embarrassment! Or concern that one of them might be a stalker. It was hard to tell, some days! "Something like that!" Yeah. He was probably looking like a stalker. But, there was no way he could have rigged this to spend the evening with Amelie! Or, uh, could he? Certainly not with his current standing of intelligence! But, maybe someone else would have been capable of such a creepy feat! "Maybe, it's fate! Stuck dealing with me forever, or something," he joked, as a slightly nervous grin slipped across his lips. It was probably a love spell. Those were totally real, after all.

    Best not to make that sort of joke. It was already weird enough that Asher would sign up for a blind date! Not that Amelie could actually judge him for it. She did this, too! At least it was someone that Asher was somewhat comfortable with! This night couldn't go nearly as bad as anticipated, now!

    As for what to do now? Well! Asher hadn't really thought too far ahead, since he was busy second-guessing himself for the duration of his wait! "Well, depends on what you like," he started, smile becoming notably more comfortable as he spoke. "There is dancing," he commented on one of the more obvious options, while making a small gesture at several monsters on the dance floor. Then, he continued on to add, "we can go someplace else," which he had no suggestions for where else! "Or you can sit down," he hummed, making a gesture at the seat next to him. The grin remained on his lips, as the ex-actor added in a final bit on his last suggestion, "they do have Wasabi beer here. And I vaguely remember this agreement we had..."

    Surely, Amelie couldn't expect that Asher would act too much differently, when faced with her being his date! Though, honestly, this was probably one of the more ideal situations! Considering the young man's aversion to dating, and discomfort around most women in general, someone that he already knew was kind of perfect! On a more romantic level, though? Time could only tell on that one! He was already trying to remind himself that this wasn't just two friends meeting up for a random occasion!

    And, having met this person before, Asher was also aware when she was matching his joke with one of her own! Was this night just going to dissolve into the two of them constantly teasing one another? Really, that wouldn't be so bad. Maybe not so romantic, but Asher couldn't really tell if the girl would have thrown that idea out the window the second that she saw him!

    Smile lost some of its nervous composure, at her bit about the date. "Well, I'll have to keep that in mind next time," he hummed, playfully. Next time? Was that a jab at a 'second' date idea? Or, just to reference for future girls that were dumb enough to agree to a date with him? Maybe it was just too soon to tell! "It would be a lot of effort to make sure that you signed up for this blind date, and nobody else! You mean that kind of effort doesn't impress a girl?" No. That would actually be kind of weird. And, by kind of, that meant extremely weird! "I doubt I'd have picked a nightclub, if I was planning on inviting you out," he admitted, a little more quietly. This didn't actually seem like the type of place that he'd expect Amelie to go for!

    Luckily, Asher didn't see the Venusmon. It probably would have creeped him out! Then again, he wasn't really paying attention to anyone other than his 'date' at this point! He could only imagine that Amelie was the one regretting how this got set up, now! Would this even really count as a date? Though, since she had sat down, the redhead could only imagine that she was somewhat accepting of this fate!

    Giving a snicker, the ex-actor shook his head. "Hey, if my date gets drunk off of one wasabi beer, I can't be at fault for that!" Especially since she was probably going to spit out the first sip and refuse to touch it for the rest of the night! "Think! If you hadn't shown up, I would have forgotten about it!" But, since he was sitting in a place with drinks, and Amelie just so happened to show up, there was no better way to jog his memory! "Then,
you'd never find out if you like wasabi beer." Let's face it. Nobody probably liked wasabi beer.

    Catching the bartender's attention, the drinks were soon brought over to the duo. Being in the Digital World, it didn't seem that anybody actually cared about checking ages. After all, half of the Digimon in the room were probably less than two years old, as far as humans went! Ugh. That thought made Asher feel old. He didn't want to consider that any further!

    Yellow eyes flickered to the drinks, giving a thoughtful, "hm." He took a brief second to think about his word choice, before returning his focus on Amelie. "You look really pretty." This was almost immediately followed by, "but, you always do." Sure, he was pretty good with flirting at random times. But, for real, and on a date? It was hard to say! Then again, was that second part weird to say? It wasn't like she only looked pretty tonight, after all!

    Not that he'd let Amelie dwell on that compliment too long, as the redhead was quick to alter focus! "So, do you want anything else to drink, in case you need to get rid of the taste of this one right away?"

    Maybe it was normal for Asher to be like this with everyone! Or, these two had just kicked things off on the right foot. Sure, Asher tried to play around with a lot of people that he didn't know particularly well, but it didn't always work out that way! As far as this becoming a date, though? Asher probably didn't see himself making much complaint on it, unless it made things awkward in the future! Then again, going on a date with another spirit user was dangerous enough, without damage to potential friendships being on the line! After all, one wrong move could easily turn into Amelie turning into... whatever it was that she had, and reacting horribly!

    But, that wouldn't happen! Hopefully.

    Giving a playful hum, the redhead glanced to the side. "I don't know if I'd call it confidence. After all, getting you to sign up for a second blind date might be kind of difficult!" After all, who was going to enlist in a million blind-date events? Actually, Asher had to admit that he didn't know Amelie well enough to be sure that she wouldn't! But, that would be an awfully big gamble! Not that the teen had any idea of how to make a blind date situation like this!

    Now, a "hmm," escaped from the young man, as he pretended to think about date locations for a moment. A smile shifted to a playful smirk, before answering with, "if this goes well, you could always find out next time!" Oh, come on! That couldn't be fair! Asher had no way of knowing if this date would turn out! And, he didn't want to sound too hopeful that it would! Then again, was he hopeful? He hadn't really thought about it. He'd have to wait until this night progressed more, to decide how he even felt on the subject!

    On that thought, the redhead hummed a curious, "ever been to an amusement park?" It seemed like most kids would have been to one at least once! But, Asher was from California, and he hadn't lived too terribly far from one! Was that too childish, though?

    Maybe it was easy to think Asher was legitimately that innocent! "I only suggested the one, though!" Terrible defense! But, it was the best he had! As for consolation? "If you get too crazy, I'll just carry you out of the club." Amelie surely didn't mean 'bearing the weight' in a literal sense! But, Asher was going to take it there! "As long as you don't run off with a lion-man or something, anyway." After all, nobody wanted to really fight with a lion to get a drunken girl back. He'd probably do it! But, it wouldn't be fun!

    Right now, though? Right now was funny. Trying to suppress a snicker, the redhead focused on his drink. He wanted to say it didn't smell awful, at the least, but... well. It did. Beer and wasabi, as a combination, certainly didn't seem sweet on the nose. Though, the young man had to admit, he wasn't actually a huge fan of the smell of either to begin with! Amelie was right, this was probably going to be awful. Hopefully worth it, though! In the least, saying that they'd tried something new or weird!

    Just like it was weird to receive a compliment back. Certainly not in a bad sort of way! More, unexpected! Sure, it was the appropriate response to such a thing, but it didn't mean that the teen had anticipated it! Lips shifted to a softer smile, while he took a moment to glance up at the lights. Ugh. He was blushing. He could feel it! Don't be awkward! Looking back to the drinks, he gave a slightly-too-quick, "thanks," to at least acknowledge the statement, before moving onto the task at hand.

    The bartender had returned, hearing discussions of drinks to be had, taking note of the first request, and paused, waiting for Asher's response. For a second, eyes shifted to the bar, as if he hadn't expected a need to answer this as well. Why ask a question, if you don't have an answer, yourself? Ah well! It didn't take more than a second to decide, "I think I'll get a white russian." Considering there was no fuss made by the bartender, only a nod and backing away to get the required items, it seemed that they wouldn't have to wait too long for a replacement once the beer was decided to be awful!

    Now, Asher lifted his own glass, flashing a small grin. "Cheers." And, despite knowing that there was no way this could end pleasantly, the ex-actor brought the glass up to his lips, waiting to make sure Amelie would follow suit before he took a drink.

    Okay, Asher may have difficulties talking to women sometimes. But, one thing he knew very well was that if a girl smiled that much, it meant that the guy was walking into a trap! For this reason, the teen had to try to watch his words notably more carefully for the next few moments! Otherwise, they might get held against him! "Well, wouldn't make much sense now, would it?" After all, they were both on an unplanned date together! "Unless, you want me to ask you on a second date right now." Which, would be weird even to Asher! Well, maybe especially to Asher! Faux cocky comments aside, he wasn't actually thinking about that quite yet!

    "Unless you want to make this 'officially' not a blind date," he hummed, playfully. Putting on his best 'serious' tone -- which wasn't too difficult for an actor, anyway -- he began with, "hey, I know this is sudden, but," the redhead paused, for dramatic effect, "do you want to go on a date? Right here? Right now?" For a second, he'd wait to see if Amelie had a response before selecting an appropriate fake response! Or, genuine? Tough call!

    Though, it looked like an amusement park could have been a hit. Unless it turned out Amelie suffered terrible motion sickness or something! "Never?" Asher's response could have easily come off as surprise! Or, was it excitement? After all, the concept seemed fun enough! "I've gone to a few. But! It's always a little different!" After all, it depended strongly on what place he was at, and who he was with! Company always made the trip, after all! "I've heard there are a few around Tokyo, but haven't had a chance to check them out."

    It was a good thing that the two were capable of keeping these subjects so light. Otherwise, Asher would probably have a much harder time with this date! Then again, he had been expecting things to go terribly, and definitely to have a complete stranger sitting by him! At least he didn't have to worry about dragging a drunken stranger out of a nightclub! "It can't be that bad, right? Unless you need, like, five drinks to wash it down." Oh, words spoken far too soon! Now that the beer was in front of him, he could easily say that it looked that bad!

    The redhead was far less concerned about how bad it theoretically would be, though! Because, they were only seconds from finding out! After glasses tapped, he placed it to his lips, pausing briefly to make sure that the brunette wasn't going to back out. Color him surprised! She didn't hesitate! Nor did she hesitate to show her distaste! Trying not to laugh with the glass between his lips, the teen took a proper drink of the substance. For a moment, several different degrees of quizzical expressions crossed over his face, before shaking his head. Oh, that was just plain weird!

    Giving a small cough, and squinting one eye, he swished the liquid in his glass. "It's not that bad!" Asher gave a small snicker, lowering his head to look into the glass. Who the heck thought this was a good combination, though? "Not that good! But," now, there was a pause, as he finally fully processed the tone and expression that his date was giving. Oh, she really hated that, didn't she? For several seconds, Asher tried to suppress a grin, taking the moment of composure to set his glass down.

    As soon as it made a soft clink of hitting the table, though, he found himself laughing. Not subtly, either! Managing to force a breath into his chuckling, the young man rushed to say, "I swear I'm not laughing at you. I swear!" Except, he totally was! "I just never thought you'd hate it that much!" But, it was bad! Asher just had a decent tolerance to terrible foods! He knew better than to laugh at his date, though! Regaining his breath fully, one final snicker escaped his lips. "Am I going to have to get you flowers or something for making you try that?" He'd probably have to buy her an entire greenhouse after laughing like that! The spirit user would be pretty lucky if she didn't try to walk out on him now!

    Luckily, Amelie wouldn't have to wait very long for a different taste! The bartender had finally brought over their drinks! Maybe that would save her taste buds!

    As far as the redhead was concerned, he was trying to avoid thinking about how this night was going to end. With legitimate romance not being his strong suit, and the fact that this was Amelie that he was sitting with, it was confusing enough to try to think from moment to moment. He didn't really want to consider exactly what would happen, if he said something to make this date go sour. Would they stop having a friendship? Or, uh, whatever this was? Were they actually friends? Asher didn't know. Often, it was hard for the teen to tell who to consider friends, and what people were just acquaintances. While tonight was clearly an exception, Amelie seemed like she could sit pretty decently on the small list of friends.

    With that thought, he had to wonder what tonight was going to do to affect it. Maybe, there was good reason to actually become nervous for this date! Shoving the strange thought pattern away, the young man tilted his head, echoing Amelie with a, "hmm?" of his own. Oh, come on. She wasn't actually going to draw this out, was she? Not that it was likely to reject someone, after essentially convincing them to ask her out! That would just be rude on so many levels!

    Judging from the almost cocky smile on the redhead's lips, he didn't seem too worried about the concept of being rejected. In fact, the way that Amelie was playing the situation was kind of cute. Kind of. Like that smile at the end! "I don't know if it'd be hypocritical, or just mean," he chuckled. It wasn't like there was any skirting around the fact that it would be extremely unkind to reject someone after asking them to put themselves out there! Not that any of this seemed to be a legitimate concern!

    With all of the times that he was already ignoring caution signs going off in his head, he may as well add another one to it! Who needed clarity on friendship or dates? If this date ended up horrible, and he had a chance to salvage friendship (acquaintanceship^?) with amusement parks? Sure. That seemed like a great plan too. Best not to think too far into it! "Sounds like fun!" Until he gets stuck in a ride that pretends to be an elevator. Or until they learn that Amelie might be unable to handle rides because of fear of heights. But, hey, amusement parks have fun food stands. So, there was always something!

    And, amusement park food was way better than Wasabi beer! After this, Asher was probably never going to be able to convince Amy to try weird foods again! But, how was he going to play off his laughter? Laughter had a great way of making it really difficult to think of a convincing lie, impromptu. So, why not just go with a really bad one, instead? "It-- must just be the beer," he grinned, trying to regulate breathing. "It's just funny that--" Okay, yeah. Nobody was going to believe anything about this beer was funny. It was just gross.

    "--No, it's you. I'm totally laughing at you," the ex-actor admitted, shifting back on his seat. While the laughing had subsided to a small snicker, it was obvious that he still found the situation humorous. This was why people didn't take the teen anywhere! "I want to say I'm sorry, but I really wish I would have taken a picture of the face you made." And that was why Asher shouldn't be allowed to take women on dates. "You sounded so upset, but the face you made was so cute." Was it a bad idea to call the date you just laughed at cute? Or was that something that might save him? Time would tell. Either way, it was probably best to avoid getting Amy to make that expression a second time in one night!

    Now that he could breathe, though, the conversation could continue at a relatively normal pace! Yellow eyes widened, innocently, in a form of 'puppy eyes.' With a slight disappointed tone to his words, he drew out, "not even one hint?" Not that he deserved any hints! Either way, after a few seconds, he began to smile again, and tapped his fingers on the table. "I'll think of something." Though, without any hints, Amelie might have a reason to be concerned about what the young man could think of. Especially in someplace as weird as the Digital World!

    Watching Amelie take a drink of her (decent) beverage, the teen clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth and gave a nod. Well. If she drank the entire thing at that rate, he was probably going to end up fighting with a lion for her later on! Though, it was probably the brunette's attempt at removing the strange aftertaste of wasabi mingling with beer. Then again, Asher's thoughts would make him a hypocrite, since his drink from his own beverage wasn't particularly tiny. Good thing he hadn't vocalized it at all! Lowering his glass to the bar again, the redhead took at glance at the remainder of the beers. "At least if they were ruined, you wouldn't have to worry about food being gross," he pointed out, playfully. That was the best worst-way to look at things, ever! Maybe everyone needed some sort of silver lining!

    But, with that little event out of the way, Asher had to loop to a question that he had been thinking since the girl had walked up. "So, what made you decide to sign up for a blind date?" While he debated on going back to the whole 'setting the blind date up to get a date with Amelie' joke, the young man decided that it was already a little worn out. And that it would be really creepy if Amelie started believing it! So, for once, common sense was keeping that idea at bay!

    Head tilted, musing over the idea of a mean Amelie. Hmm. Nope! He couldn't really imagine it! At least, not in earnest. "What, you want me to be sad?" Matching the joking tone of his date, the redhead gave a smile. "Maybe you are mean!" Ah, an even better way to impress a date! Call her mean!

    Though, between calling her mean and making her try wasabi beer, Asher probably wasn't hitting things off too well! The laughing just couldn't be helped. It was a really good thing that Amelie was such a good sport, wasn't it? Otherwise, this date would have probably already ended on a bad note!

    But, smooth with words? Asher hadn't really thought of himself as such, before! At least, not when he wasn't attempting to be! Which, wasn't very often. "I mean, I could have lied," he admitted, with a hum. "But, isn't honesty the best policy, or something?" Yeah, that wasn't a very good save. But, it was better than pointing out that nothing he said was going to be believable through a laughing fit! "Glad it could be entertaining, at least!" Entertainment was kind of what Asher was for, wasn't it? After all, he was literally raised to be entertaining!

    Being called awful on a date was probably a bad thing, normally, too. But, the young man didn't take it to heart. Instead, he flashed a grin. "I'm pretty sure I could be way worse!" Somehow! He wasn't really positive what could make him truly the worst at this point! Maybe, by offering a pet rat for a gift? Hm. Best not to test that. Asher didn't really want to know what rats looked like in the Digital World, anyway.

    In fact, Asher was apparently so terrible that he didn't even take a picture of Amelie being grossed out! What had been a playful grin shifted to one that was far more mischievous. "Well, I'm sorry I wasn't considerate enough! I'll have to start documenting all your expressions!" Except, not really. Because, that would be really weird. "I'd hate for you to miss out, you know?" See? Asher was a totally sweet person! Who was definitely not going to fill his phone with pictures of Amelie!

    Yeah. Asher was insanely lucky that he was talking to Amy, instead of most other people. He probably wouldn't be able to get away with comments like that to a total stranger! Then again, it wasn't like the teen never pushed his social boundaries, anyway!

    "Hmmm," the redhead hummed, thoughtfully. What was he going to have to come up with for a gift? This might end up falling under the inquiry of 'what pushes social boundaries' also! Asher wasn't so sure, yet! For the time being, Amy only seemed particularly interested in having her drink. Which was going a little too fast!

    Subconsciously not wanting to fall too far behind, the young man took a drink of his own beverage. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea for either of them! But, it would surely be fun! Even if Asher had to wonder how many drinks either of them would have the tolerance for!

    But, if they couldn't taste anything, it would certainly make it easier to consume alcohol rapidly. Which was probably more of a bad thing than it was good! "I guess that's fair. But, then you could 'enjoy' anything you didn't like, too!" Still a terrible way of looking at it! Asher liked his tastebuds, too, after all! Giving a fake pout, the redhead glanced away. What? Him? Be a reason for Amelie eating gross stuff? Pssh! Okay. Kind of! "I have no idea what would give you that impression!" At least it hadn't been an agreement on eating crickets or something! Even Asher wasn't that brave!

    Taking another drink, he'd listen to Amelie's reasoning for the blind date. Giving another hum at the response, the ex-actor debated if he found this a sufficient answer. It wasn't like he could say it was a bad answer, regardless! Everyone had their own reasons for things! A small snicker escaped at the last part, feeling the need to rebut with, "hey, now. Maybe you're the stalker!" Even if Asher was the one that usually approached Amelie in public places! But, today, Asher had arrived first! So who was to say? Or, what if they were secretly stalking each other? That would make things pretty complicated!

    Expression was soon to shift to blank. After a couple of blinks, it slowly altered to a somewhat sheepish smile. "You know, I didn't really think about fans," he admitted. Oops. What was the worst that could have happened, anyway? Okay, probably a lot of things! "Guess I don't always think things through!" Well, that was a given. Anyone that knew Asher would know that! "You've got me there, though. Blind dates really aren't my thing." Or dates at all!

    "But, I've never been on a blind date." While this was probably entirely unsurprising, it seemed like an important detail! "And my relationships in California were kind of," he paused, realizing that there was no way to finish the sentence without it sounding bad. But, it would be worse to leave a sentence half-finished! "Picked for me. Not like a blind date isn't pretty much the same thing, but there's some choice in it, I guess." After all, Asher signed up for a blind date! He didn't always plan for his mom to drag a girl into the house! And standing up and walking out of a restaurant if you don't like how the person acts or looks is far more frowned upon when a parent is involved in the setup! Okay, this topic was starting to feel a little too deep. Time to find a better way to answer this! "Plus. I've only seen blind dates on TV. And they looked like fun." Of course he'd use the cop-out response like that, to try to make it sound better! "So, why not see what they're actually like, right?"