Summary:Dinner between Kelly and Roy is interrupted by the Dogs from Hell. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Having got the gumption to ask Kelly out on an evening together, to just hang and get to know each other - a sorta date! - Roy was inclined to pick the place. His decision leads the pair into Soho, and a downstairs location. Ringing the doorbell, Roy turns to look at Kelly. "This was one of my haunts, once upon a time." he explains to her. He doesn't say during /which/ time that was, but when the door opens, he's hoping she'll be surprised.
The sound of piano jazz comes from behind the door, and the ambiance is small and intimate. He's led her to the Tomi Jazz bar - an infusion of jazz music and Japansese food. And it's immediately obvious why he suggested they go early - it's first come first serve and there's already spots at the front that are claimed, with more people coming. They were about to get in line when someone calls out. "Roy!"
Glancing up, Roy grins. "Senri!" he replies, quickly embracing the man and the two of them speak in rapid Japanese to each other. After a few moments of conversation, he's leading Kelly to a seat up front. And he glances aside to her in amusement. "I told him that you'd play tonight." He's clearly teasing. Maybe?
Kelly Dehaven has dressed up, as much because she's going out, which she doesn't do much, as because it's any kind of date. Or is that just what she's telling herself? She has a white top with long sleeves and of course gloves, along with a black skirt and heels. She's wearing makeup, which she doesn't normally do to work, or else she wears minimal makeup there and a smattering of jewelry. Her hair's done up, leaving her neck bare except for some of her hair that's escaped. Probably on purpose.
The location gets Roy a dubious look, and when her brows go up it's clear she was surprised. While Roy chats up his friend, Kelly's head tilts to the side a bit and there's the slightest narrowing of her eyes in concentration. Japanese isn't one of the languages she knows and, knowing that Roy speaks it (apparently pretty damned fluently) might be cause to pick it up.
Kelly's look of concentration is broken by his return to English and she gives him a startled look. "What? Noooo. I haven't played in forever and I was strictly a sheet-reader." Jazz takes a certain kind of skill she's never had incentive to learn.
He did dress up. Red long sleeve dress shirt, with black buttons and a thin black tie. A pair of black slacks and black leather shoes. No glove, Kelly can see the black metal that makes up his artificial arm as the pair of them are led to the table. "I was teasing." he offers as he pulls out the chair for her to take a seat, before he moves to take his own seat. "I didn't ask. Do you like Japanese cooking? How do you feel about seafood?" comes the curious question as he settles in.
Up on the small stage, a trio is already playing. It's warm and easy Jazz, just loud enough to be heard, without drowning the conversation - but making them have to lean nearer together to carry on the talk. Probably planned by someone to bring them close together as they talk. "Did I tell you that you look amazing? Because you look amazing."
Kelly Dehaven looks instantly relieved as Roy admits he was teasing. While she's done speeches on her research in front of a few hundred people before, she has a lot more confidence in her work than in her ability to impress people with her artistic skills. Art is such a subjective field.
Roy's gallantry gets an amused smile and exaggerated bow of her head with thanks as she sits down. "I'm from the Bay area, so both Japanese and seafood is a win. 'Japanese cooking' can be something of a misnomer sometimes. They'll bring you food and make you cook it yourself!"
Setting her arms on the table so she can lean on them and in towards Roy, she grins at him even as her cheeks color a bit and her gaze drops to the table. "You clean up pretty good yourself, Mister Harper." Looking around she gives a wistful little sigh. "It's been forever since I went out for, well, fun." She admits.
"Good. You want to get the Cod Roe Spaghetti. Just trust me on it." Roy says as he grins towards the woman, before turning his attention to the band. "I grew up in Washington State." he says, a lift of a brow at her admission in growing up in San Fran. "On a Navajo Reservation. They took me in after my father died - my mother died when she was having me." he explains.
"Dad was a ranger, he gave his life making a fire break that saved the reservation. They saw raising me as their solemn responsibility to thank my father for his sacrifice. Guess that paid off, huh?" he adds dryly as he shakes his head.
Kelly Dehaven *does* give Roy another of those expressive Looks. "Cod Roe, hmm? Well, if you fail me with your recommendation, I'll just have to eat your food." She warns him.
That he's also from the West Coast gets a soft laugh and a shake of her head. "Always amazing when people need to cross the country to meet each other." When he mentions being raise by Navajo, she squints at him a bit. Maybe it's the red hair, but she wouldn't have placed him as being Navajo. The squinting turns into a small wince at the loss of his father, and then that leads into a look of mild rebuke at the self depreciation. "Aren't you currently working a case that will end up in lives saved?" She points out. "I'd say yes. It paid off."
"Yeah." Roy muses. "Though it seems that people are still going to be idiots about it. I mean, no room to talk here." he admits with a shake of his head as he glances down at the candle that burns between them in the small glass globe. "But yeah. Roads less travelled or something like that." comes the chuckling comment. As they're talking, the waiter comes over to the table. He's a burly one. Bearded. If it wasn't for the waiter outfit, he'd be out of place.
"Would you like to hear the specials?" he asks, turned towards Roy as he asks. From her vantage point, Kelly can make out part of a tattoo - part of a pit bull with devil's horns. Her intelligence briefings had told her that was the tattoo of the group 'Dogs from Hell', which is the same group that Roy had gone up against the other night. How did they know he would be here? Roy did mention this was one of his favorite haunts.
Since they're close enough, Kelly leans over to bump Roy with her shoulder as he starts to stare into the candle flame. Anything she might have said gets aborted as the waiter comes over and she leans her chin into a cupped palm as he talks to Roy.
Her gaze travels down and snags on that tattoo. She does one of those 'thinking' squintfrowns of hers, head tilting over to one side a bit as she runs the image through her memories and then blinks as it comes to her. Kelly looks over to Roy, green eyes gone wide with alarm as she tries to think of how to tell him without being exceedingly obvious. Oh, to be a 'normal' telepath!
Thinking quickly, Kelly reaches for her water, a tendril emerging from her wrist and hopefully out of the 'waiter's sight to knock over the glass globe and then disappear as she tries to set the table on fire.
This is definitely not a 'date'. Because if it was, it would have to be an awful one given she's trying to light their table on fire.
As Roy was looking up towards the waiter to say, "No, I already know what we're ordering…" that's when Kelly disrupts the moment as the candle tips and lands on the tablecloth. As it erupts in flames, there's a panicked look from the redhead as he's reaching for his water. "Kelly?!" he asks her in utter confusion, worry filling his features.
The waiter is startled, and decides to make it his moment. Reaching for a knife in his belt, he brandishes it. "Die, Harper!" he yells, preparing to run it into the archer. And it drive straight down - and suddenly stops.
Roy's right arm - that artifical arm is brought up as a shield, and the blade is driven into it, where it sticks. "I am so not paying for the repairs on that!" he calls out as he kicks out at the waiter to knock him back as he twists around to get to his feet and try to pull the knife from his arm. It's wedged in there though, as the man reaches for a gun at his waistband. "Just not your night." the waiter grits, ignoring Kelly as a non-threat.
Kelly Dehaven is a non-threat! Unless you're a research paper. Then she'll research the heck outta you.
As her attempt to create a distraction just prompts the baddie to action, we are reminded why Kelly would make a terrible spy. The scientist scrambles to her feet and off to the side. As Roy's attempt to pull the knife get him nowhere and the baddie is going for a gun, Kelly pulls a knife from up her sleeve. Well, it's actually out of her arm, but it looks like up her sleeve. "Roy!" She tosses the knife his way before ducking for cover.
She's also making a call back to SHIELD, to let them know there's trouble and to send backup. Because that's part of her training. Call for help. Damnit, she's been trained to be a DiD. Damsel in Distress.
Catching the knife in a fluid motion with his left arm, it's all reflexes. Kelly can tell that much. Roy's hand snags the knife from mid-air and redirects, a hard throw that strikes the biker in the hand that had the gun and knocks it away. The waiter screams and grabs at his hand as Roy steps forward. One foot slams into the instep of the waiter's foot, as he's bringing around his arm for a punch.
But the waiter brutes his way through it. Grabbing Roy, he lifts him off the ground and slams him into the table. There's a whuff of breath from the archer, as the waiter turns on Kelly. "You shouldn't have gotten involved, bitch." he growls, reaching to grab the knife that was in his hand.
You know what clothes for a nice night out aren't good for? That's right, a fight. After stumbling a bit, Kelly kick off her heels as she takes cover behind a table. Which isn't even overturned or anything yet. It's terrible cover!
Wincing as Roy's slammed down, Kelly's attention turns to the waiter with very wide green eyes. Her heart is pounding and her alarm is very real. Her gaze turns down and she reaches out to grab the tealight globe on this table and throws it at the waiter. While she's aiming for his head, it sort of sails off over one of his shoulders and she grimaces. Ugh.
Kelly slowly backs away, keeping her attention on the waiter as she works her gloves off. She obviously didn't take Witty Banter 101. No room for electives when you're grinding for a PhD before 25.
The biker ducks the tealight globe as it's thrown at him. "Really? That the best you got?" he says with a sneer. He looks like he's about to enjoy hurting the woman, when a voice sounds out behind him. "That's because she wasn't aiming it at you, you big ape!"
Turning around - just in time, Roy slams the globe against the man's head, using his left hand for the globe, and right arm to smash them between both of his ears. Dropping the man to his knees, Roy drives his knee into the man's chin, knocking him out-cold.
"…Kelly?" His first thought is of her. Is she okay? His green eyes search out, trying to find her, to make sure that she's okay.
Even though the violence is only happening *near* her, Kelly ducks, dropping into a crouch and putting her arms over her head. What good does that do? Well. It makes her feel better, OK?
As the waiter hits the floor with a *thud* and Roy's calling her name she straightens up a bit, peeking over one of the tables. Green eyes dart around and then she pops up a little higher, looking around for the bad guy. Finally, she gets all the way to her feet and can see him on the floor and she breathes a sigh of relief. "Oh. Oh good." She looks back at Roy, brow furrowed. "Are you OK?" She looks fine, if a bit mussed up. She points towards the door. With both hands. "I called for backup!" Even though she never touched a phone.
Old Roy? He'd grab Kelly by the hand and they'd run like hell. But he has to be responsible now. Taking one of the fabric napkins, he sets his knee into the middle of the man's back and hog-ties his hands behind his back, before rising to his feet again. His shirt's torn and ruined. There's a small leak of fluid from the arm where the knife went through his arm.
"Yeah.. I'm okay.." he looks to her. She's okay. He's reminding himself of that as he goes over to help Kelly to her feet. "We'll wait for them to get here. Guess.. well, I guess I stuck a little too close to home on that last bust." he mutters, and looks to Kelly in apology. "I guess that's the end of tonight?" His heart's racing and his cheeks are flushed as he looks at the woman.
Kelly Dehaven blows out a breath of relief as Roy says he's OK. "Oh good." She looks at his arm that's leaking fluid and then at his ripped shirt. "Are you sure?"
She puts her chrome-like hand in Roy's and lets him help her up before picking her way over towards the hogtied guy so she can retrieve the knife she gave Roy. Touching it with a finger, the knife goes liquid-like and flows back up and into her arm with a bit of a ripple over her skin. Then she glances around. Damn. Where did she put her gloves?
At the question, she looks about at the minor mess. "Well, I wouldn't be surprised if we're asked politely to leave, and the SHIELD might decide they want to debrief us for ten times longer than the incident took…"
Roy glances to Kelly, especially when she folds the knife back into her - he didn't have time to realize what she had done. And without thinking, he steps into her, one hand cradling the back of her head, and flat out kisses her on the mouth. Sure, she may smack him for it. But it's the only way he knows how to say thank you to the woman before he's stepping back, considering her statement.
"Let's get out of here, then."
Kelly Dehaven is caught by surprise, so maybe he'll forgive her for the lack of reaction. It was also quick. As he pulls away she's still standing there looking a bit shell-shocked with those wide green eyes. He's managed to make a bit of a mess of her lipstick.
It takes a few for his words to get through to her, and she blinkblinks then before focusing back in on him. Then she's pointing. At the guy that's out cold and at the door. "But don't we need to wait?" She hasn't done any fieldwork, so 'what to do when you're attacked by the bad guys' is out of her wheelhouse.
Roy gets out of getting smacked, though.