2019-08-26 - Headshot

They enter the Pizza Kitchen, mostly cleaned up from paintball and starving. Magnolia is still in her cargo pants and dark blue t-shirt ('NOT PHOTOSHOPPED' written in cyan text across her chest) with light paint splattering in the opposing team's color (and some of her own team's). Her hair is up in a high ponytail that shows off the warmth of her smile. She's got her hand hooked lightly in Kevin's front pocket as they walk, tugging him along. "Come on, loser. I'm buying."

"Loser?" Kevin protests. "Look," despite having washed his hands and face quite a lot at the park, there are still traces of blue paint in his hair --and streaked on his pale blue button-up shirt, "just because my girlfriend shot me in the face right at the start doesn't make me a loser." His khakis have mostly escaped unharmed, although even they've got a few speckles. Still, he seems to be in pretty good spirits. "You kicked some ass out there, Lia. Your sudden but inevitable betrayal notwithstanding." He pauses a bit as they get to a booth, a hand at her back guiding her ahead of him so he can sit down after her, "How is it you've got the awesome t-shirt and I'm in business casual -- painty business casual."

"Loser," Magnolia repeats like he needs the confirmation. She's grinning at him so bright and fierce that it lights up her face and brightens her already bright blue eyes. "You so got spanked out there." Then she tucks in close against him, and she kisses his cheek before she gets tucked down into a booth. She stretches out a bit before she settles in, and she crosses her arms loosely on the table while she looks aside to him. "Thanks. I'm sure you would have done pretty spectacular too if that spunky blonde hadn't taken you out. Are you plotting revenge?" Then he's admiring her t-shirt, while also bemoaning his own clothing choice. "Seriously. What were you thinking?"

Kevin slips into the booth seat beside her rather than across from her, "I did not get spanked." Beat pause, "I got headshotted. Ask me later if you want to know the difference." There's a bit of mischievous heat to that suggestion, although it fades to a blush pretty quickly. Gathering the tatters of his oft-tattered dignity, he adds, "I'm way better with a controller." Leaning over to give her shoulder a nudge, he adds, "I was thinking that I was going to be working, not getting pelted with paintballs." Another pause, and his hand wraps around an imaginary microphone, which is directed her way, "So, Miss Jones, after your stunning and complete victory, how are you planning to celebrate?"

"Hey, you want to challenge my definition of being spanked, we gotta do that exclusively in the privacy of our separate but still often-shared domiciles." Magnolia's own words bear the same heat of mischief. Then she is leaning her shoulder more readily into him while plucking up a menu from the table's vast quantity of them. She slides it between them so they can both look. "Always come prepared, Kevin. Tear-away khakis that reveal your Captain America costume underneath." She winks to him before she is being fake-interviewed, and she grins wider. "Pizza, and probably sneaking my boyfriend into my apartment so he can make pancakes in the morning."

"Look, you're talking to a word guy. I don't think you want to challenge my definitions of works." Kevin pauses for effect, "'Cause I'll spank you." The mental image she conjures takes him a moment to process, "I... I don't have tear-away khakis or a Captain America costume." He sounds vaguely disappointed by this. "Plus, wouldn't it be really disappointing if someone tore off their clothes to reveal a Cap costume and then got headshotted right away?" His own grin spreads to match her incandescent smile, and he laughs easily, "I'm told that the traditional answer is 'I'm going to Disneyland,' Miss Jones, but I have to say that I'm in favor of the unconventional 'pizza, boyfriend, and pancakes' strategy. I might even go so far as to say that it's brilliant thinking like this that won you the match. I do have to ask you though... have you considered waffles?"

"Uh huh," is all Magnolia says to the threat of spanking. Then she starts to laugh at that well-known look of Kevin trying to process something that visually is interrupting his senses. She grins at him almost knowing where his mind is going. She waits for him to come back from it, hand propping up her chin. Then she laughs at his assessment, and shakes her head. "Maybe it would have distracted the enemy team and you would have gotten a better chance of not getting 'pwned' in the first round." She is jovial in her jesting, and she even leans in to invite a kiss to her lips, though she'll take kissing his cheek if he doesn't catch on fast enough. Then she tilts her head thoughtfully. "Hmm. Waffles you say? You did leave the waffle iron over last time. So, might as well make use of it." Then she's grinning again. "Waffles." She considers the menu. "So... pineapple or no pineapple?"

"Look, no one says Pwned anymore." Kevin considers that, "Unless you're saying it ironically. Were you saying it ironically?" He doesn't give her a chance to respond immediately, matching that lean to sink a kiss to her lips that starts light, but immediately has him turning his head and leaning tighter. He clears his throat and straightens up a moment later, "Sorry. We were saying. Waffles. Dad asked where the iron was. And wait, are we already getting to things as dangerous and important as pineapple or no pineapple on pizza? I don't know if we're ready for that." Without actually hesitating, he continues, "Pineapple only goes on pizza if it's accompanied by Canadian bacon. At least, that's my opinion. What's yours?"

"I don't know. How do I say something as stupid as 'pwned' ironically?" Magnolia says this after the kiss, which lengthens and softens and she is giving into it with a little hesitation. She's melted against his side by the time they both slip away, and she is smiling warmly. His words cast a warm amusement through her, and she nods slightly. "Yes. We are. So you better have the right answer." And he doesn't. "Shit, Kevin... really? Pineapple? Gross. I don't do pineapple off a pizza either, so maybe that's the problem." She squints at him. "I'll try not to judge you, but you keep the pineapple on your side of the pizza." Then she considers the menu. "Meat or no meat?"

For a moment, Kevin is relaxed and comfortable, having missed the hesitation. "Wait? You don't do pineapple at all? Come on, Lia, that's just wrong." He shakes head, "Next gaming session, I'm bringing dried pineapple. We'll start easy." Her next question has him drawing back a little, narrowing his eyes, "Wait... pizza comes without meat? I'm starting to feel like this is a minefield I'm walking through here. So why don't you just let me know where the mines are, and I'll tell you which ones I'm going to jump gleefully all over, okay?"

Magnolia just snorts, and she tucks in easier against Kevin -- their hips touch and their shoulders do, and it's comfortable and quiet. "Look... the spiny bits are bad enough, but its too sweet and I hate the syrup it floats in." Canned pineapple only it sounds like. Her laughter returns and she nods. "Alright. How does sausage, pepperoni, and garlic sound? Extra garlic?" Now she's giving him a challenge.

"Spiny... bits?" Kevin leans back a little -- keeping his hip against hers but drawing his head back -- "Syrup? What the hell kind of pineapple are you eating? No, sorry, this is wrong. We're picking up a bag of dried pineapple on the way home." He leans back in, slinging an only-slightly-stained arm around her shoulder and leaning in to press a quick, hard kiss to her temple, "Sounds great, since we'll both be eating it. Lark might not like it so much if she's going to be there when we get home." Is he searching for information? Or actually thinking about what her daughter might not like? "But I certainly won't care. Maybe just stick with regular amounts of garlic, even if we won't be smelling it on each other's breath."

"You're pushy," Magnolia says casually to Kevin. Then she's captured up in his arm, and she leans into the kiss with a smile. That smile does not fade when he agrees to her order, and it only simmers a bit at the mention of Lark. "She likes you, you know. She says you're a funny conundrum and she hopes that you let her watch Star Wars because I told her not until she was 10, and then she pulled up the Common Sense Media website and it says 7+, and she's about to turn six, so obviously that means she's basically seven." This all rambles off the tongue easily with the usual Magnolia swiftness. Then she smiles to him, tilting her head. "She would like you to come over more often even if you prefer having slumber parties with Mom."

"Pretty sure you'll push back if I go too far." Kevin pauses then, drawing back just a little to look worriedly at her, "You will push back, right? If I push too far?" He sounds suddenly worried there, "I'm really not trying to be pushy." Lark's description of him, however, has him blinking, "Wow, she knows the word conundrum. And... um... she might even be using it right, depending on what she actually means." The mention of watching Star Wars, however, causes him to frown, "So... I'm not going to show her Star Wars if you say she's not old enough. I'm really not that dumb." Usually. "And A New Hope would probably be totally fine. Or Phantom Menace, if you're not going to do it in Machete Order, but the problem is that right after that comes Empire or Clones, and 6 is waaaay too young for either of those." And there he's rambling too. That, might actually be a dangerous similarity between them. "Even an awesome six like Lark. And yeah, she's a cool kid, but I really do prefer slumber parties with Mom. Wait, what was the other term you had for them? Mommy's Night In? No, that's not quite it." Thankfully, there's the waiter to stall him from rambling more. The young man stalls when he sees the paint speckled all over Kevin and some on Magnolia, blinking in surprise.

Magnolia just props her chin in her hand, fingers curled lightly against her cheek. She listens to him ramble through, her smile gaining in intensity with each syllable. Then he's getting deep, deep, deep into the appropriate order and viewing age of Star Wars, and she is about to laugh outright before the waiter descends on them. She smiles at the young dude, and waves her hand slightly. "Paintball." She nudges Kevin's knee with hers. "Large pepperoni, sausage, and extra garlic -- " Ha! " -- and two beers." She orders a hefe and lets Kevin put in his own. Then when the waiter moves off, Magnolia looks back at him with a slow, easy smile. "Mommy's Night In works." Before he can get himself going again, Mags leans in and presses her lips to his in another slow, soft kiss.

Kevin stalls out when she watches, listens, and smiles at him. "What?" He laughs at the nudge and the order, "Whatever you've got on tap." Clearly he doesn't have strong opinions about beer -- or he's distracted by the little blonde curled next to him. He opens his mouth to respond to her agreement, and then she's leaning up to kiss him, and he smiles against her lips, the arm around her shoulders tightening. One hand even disappears under the table to rest on her thigh, although it slips away when he straightens up. His eyes narrow, "You're trying to butter me up to make up for shooting me in the face, aren't you, Lia?"

Magnolia enjoys the kiss tremendously, allowing it to occupy them for a long moment. Then she's coming up for air, and there's a little smile on her lips as her blue eyes search his at this close distance. "I am. I mean, it was an amazing headshot, and I'm glad you're not a revenant, but I'm also making sure there's not later retaliation down the road." Then she presses a lighter kiss to his nose and lips with a lazy smile. "Forgive me?"

Kevin snorts at her self-compliments, but then allows, "Yeah. It was pretty badass. I didn't know you were that scary with a gun, Lia." He starts to lean in, only to have a kiss pressed to his nose -- and then a more standard one on his lips. It stymies him for a moment before he laughs, "We'll see. I mean, shot me in the head, doesn't like Hawaiian pizza..." His hands, one at the back of her shoulder and the other in front of her, weigh matters. "The gamer in me says I should make you complete a quest for me to forgive you."

The compliment on her badassery has her grinning a moment, and then she offers a sober, accepting nod. "I mean. You aren't wrong." Then she settles down against him, tucked under his arm. "Dad would have wanted it, so I did it." It's a somber, quiet moment that passes quickly so she can laugh at the idea of being given a quest. "Oh yeah? What kind of quest did you have in mind?"

"Your Dad would have wanted you to shoot me in the face. I'm feelin' the love already." Kevin doesn't even appear to have heard the l-word, so he doesn't get embarrassed. He's too busy grinning goofily, "Weeeeeeell..." he quickly follows that up with a shake of his head and a nudge of his side against her shoulder, "I don't know. Maybe the Quest for the Forbidden Soft-Serve. With the required steps of 'Ordering,' 'Paying,' and 'Eating Sexily.'"

"I mean -- maybe? I don't know." There's a little flicker of emotion there before she shakes it off and instead props her chin in her hand again to listen to him possible quests. Then she is laughing once more, shaking her head as she does. "Kevin -- you know it would be better if I got something on the way home because then we can play what-happens-to-the-drips game instead." She presses a kiss against his cheek just in time for the waiter to come back with their beers.

Kevin's eyes go wide behind his glasses at the suggestion, "We can do that?" He sounds like a puppy who's been told that there's a whole back yard that they can go into too. The wide-eyed look transfers up to the waiter, and then he clears his throat and takes the beer set before him, "Oh yeah, thanks." The kiss on the cheek helps. Looking back to Magnolia, he holds up one finger, "Once I suggested that, once, and I got told that it was way too messy. That it would be horrible to clean up."

Magnolia gracefully waits until the waiter has moved on before she flashes Kevin a wider smile. "Oh, baby... that's what a shower afterwards is for." She sneaks in another kiss against his cheek before she whispers into his ear, "And you got to make sure not to get the drips anywhere where it's hard to clean up." Then she picks up her beer to have a sip, looking away innocently.

Poor Kevin. He had just brought the beer up to his lips when Magnolia leaned in to whisper. Smart Kevin. He had not yet begun to drink. He sputters and holds the beer out as the sudden motion sets it foaming a little, but not quite enough to run over. His eyes stay wide for a moment longer, and then narrow in thoughtfully. "And here I thought you were worried about not having ideas. That's a great idea. You'll have to get me a list of no-nos before we get back to your place." Offering out his beer to cheers, he proclaims, "We have a Quest of Forgiveness."

Magnolia's laughter returns -- bright and warm -- and she is squeezing his knee gently. She gives him a moment to recover before she clinks her glass with his, adding casually, "It'll be a short list." At least now she has a quest that doesn't involved a cursed ring.

Kevin brightens still further, "And then, we can both work on getting the blue off. Or the red in your case. Plus, the clean-up you said was so important." He spreads his free arm to his side, "See? Couldn't work better." He glances toward the pizza oven briefly, "I mean, the only downside is, now I'm wondering if we can get the pizza to go. But that would probably be a bad thing, wouldn't it? Overeager, totally distract-able... that sort of thing?"

Magnolia narrows her eyes briefly, but her smile does not fade. "The clean-up is very important," she offers after a heartbeat. Then she is glancing beyond him toward the waiter before she gets up a little out of her seat. She digs out her wallet so she can pull out her debit card. She waves down the waiter, and the young guy comes back over with a kind of nervous look. "We need our pizza to go, and just go ahead and put the bill on this." She hands him the card, and off he goes with some bemusement. Then Lia looks back to Kevin. "Answer acceptable?"

Kevin grins brightly and broadly in the face of those narrowed eyes, "You don't scare me, Magnolia Jones." Beat pause, "Okay, you only scare me a little." When she goes for her wallet, he opens his mouth to protest, then carefully closes it, sitting back in his seat, "Thanks, Lia." He nods at her response, the smile returning, "Yes. Definitely yes. Also, don't worry, since you bought dinner, I'll totally put out." He winks one bright eye, giving her another nudge, then lifts up his beer in a little salute and takes a big swig, lowering it to say, "Guess we'd better knock these off to."

"Yeah, I better scare you at least a little. I'm scary." Then Magnolia is crossing her arms in front of her once again, leaning into her elbows and forearms. She rolls her eyes dramatically at his winking comment, and she smirks over at him. She doesn't comment until she's taken a good chug from her own pint glass, smacking her lips together lightly before she asks, "If I had made you pay for dinner, would you have still put out?"

"Yup." Kevin has no shame about this fact. "So really it's not so much about buying dinner as it is about the company." He cranes to look at the progress of the pizza, but can't tell which of the pies in the oven is theirs. Instead he takes a more moderate sip of his beer -- he's driving, after all -- and then turns to look at her, "So Lia, what's your absolute best memory since graduation?" He holds up one finger for a moment, adding afterwards, "And yes, there miiiight be an ulterior motive behind the question."

Kevin's all moderate, and Magnolia is reliving her college years -- oh, wait. She first was a community college kid with no dorm and living at home and then finished her degree off-campus. So, instead she just swallows another third of her beer down and casts a glance toward Kevin at his question. "Since high school graduation or college graduation?" Now she takes a sip.

Kevin's brows go up as she drains off huge chunks of the pint at once, chuckling softly, "Damn, Lia. You must've been a serious hit at parties." Because the party life is over by their age, of course. Well, and her with a daughter. The question in return has him blinking, considering, "Uh... both, if they're different." He shrugs helplessly, grinning over to her and settling back just a touch, his arm still around her shoulders but now his hand behind her neck so he has room to listen and consider her response.

"I had my moments. Not in high school though except when Mark dragged me to one of the jock parties, and then I basically felt like a zoo animal first on display." Dating Mark was not exactly a walk in the park, apparently. Magnolia takes another sip from her pint glass before she shrugs a bit. "They're different. After high school? It was getting top scores in my last criminal justice class and getting honored by the prof. After graduation? It was Lark and I moving into the apartment above the office." She looks down at the glass, turning it slowly in her fingers.

The mention of Mark causes Kevin to grimace a little, but the grimace fades quickly at the description, turning into a disgusted face, "Ugh. Toolbag." Then he settles in to listen, taking a sip as he does. There's a nod at the first part and a grinning, "Teacher's pet." The second one softens Kevin's expression, and the fingers of the hand at her back scritch lightly, "Lia..." He leans in to press a slow kiss to her temple, "Okay, that's the sweetest, saddest, most wonderful thing I've heard in forever." His hand slips farther around her shoulders, bringing him back close to her, "Why was that such a happy memory for you, babe?"

Magnolia takes the kiss to her temple with a little fluttering breath. Her eyes close, and she settles into it for a heartbeat. She rests close against him as she says, quietly, "Because it meant we were just us... no more Edgar. We were somewhere safe and it meant we could actually live our lives without being scared all the time. You don't know what it was like, seeing her scared when things got bad." Then she shakes her head. "Sorry. This is probably not the memory that you were trying to tease up." She gives him a tired smile. "After high school was over, it took me a while to find happy memories that didn't have him involved. We met when I was just starting school, so he's kind of involved in... everything until we moved into the apartment."

"I don't," Kevin admits. His brows are furrowed, concerned and even a little hurt by the idea of the little bird scared. And then at the tough, lovely blonde woman close against him scared. "Jesus Christ, Lia." His other hand comes up to her cheek and he turns her closer into her if she's willing. "It's not, but it tells me a lot about what made you you. And I kinda like the you that you are, even if it took a lot of hurt to get there. I'm glad that's such a happy memory for you though."

If Kevin is hurt and concerned for Lark being scared, Magnolia is furious. She looks up briefly toward him at the continued comfort, and she smiles fleetingly. "She was getting old enough to understand... he started to turn on her when she would get upset, or question, or even try to cling to me. That's when I knew we had to get out." She rubs slightly at her opposite knuckles. "Look, I go to a therapist and everything. I don't do really good talking about this, but... we're okay now. Lark and me. Really." Then her lips twitch a bit with a small smile. "Yeah. It was the start of happy memories."

Of course Magnolia doesn't cling, and Kevin backs off as she rubs at her knuckles, slipping back slightly and taking another slug of his beer, "I know you're doing well now." His fingers squeeze at her shoulder again, "I'm glad it was the start of happy memories. Really." He smiles a little softly as he leans back in his seat, "I like seeing you smile, Lia. And I like the idea of you and Lark living with a whole lot of smiles."

"Me too." Magnolia smiles lightly toward Kevin, and then she slips her hand down across his leg to squeeze at the space above his knee. Then she presses her lips to his cheek before she rests her forehead gently against the side of his head. "You're part of those happy memories, too, Kevin. Just so we're clear." Then she looks up at him with a little glimmer in her blue eyes. This is just as the waiter comes by with the boxed pizza. Magnolia finishes off her beer before she nudges her hip against his. "Cm'on. Let's go home."

Kevin flexes back at that squeeze and smiles at the kiss on his cheek, "I'm working on it. On being some of those happy memories." The glimmer causes him to turn toward her more fully, but before he can close the distance, the pizza is here, and he jumps slightly, looking up at the waiter with eyes wide behind his glasses. He's nudged, and he scoots out of the booth and offers out a hand to her, "So is it chauvinistic of me if I offer to carry your pizza home?" He offers up a bright, boyish grin, "Because I'm totally going to do it, if it isn't chauvinistic."

"I'm going to make you carry the pizza, so you're just going to have to deal with it -- chauvinistic or not. You're just going to have sweat over if you're being a jerk or not." Then she's heading for the door, but not before hooking her fingers casually into his back pocket while her head comes to rest against his arm. "Take me home, Kevin. We can eat pizza in bed."

Laughter follows her words, and Kevin nods, scooping up the box, "Good. I can handle being a little bit of a jerk." Bracing the side of the box against his hip, he curls his other hand around her shoulders, "We'll have to try the ice cream trick later." He flexes against the hand in her pocket too, turning them carefully around to back the door open, then turning again so they can walk toward the door. "Just to be clear... we're talking about sex, right? Or are we actually talking just eating pizza on your bed?"

Magnolia's smile redoubles as she settles in closer to him at the arm around her shoulders. She squeezes his butt gently at the flex under her fingers, and then she nods soberly. "Yes. We're talking about sex, Kevin. But -- also eating pizza in my bed."