Sam and Venus' Date

Sam Robertson (Redux)

Venus Sedgwick (Lagoon)

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee

Birthday cake? Venus picked up the cream-colored glass container of the candle and brought it to her nose for a whiff, but immediately grimaced and pulled away "puh, ew!" These food-inspired candles were never good– they always smelled like a dishwasher after high tea and yet people kept bringing "cookie dough" and "hot chocolate" into their homes. Venus put the cap back on the candle and set it back on the shelf. Her heeled boots clicked against the hardwood of the store as she traveled further down the shelves and scanned the labels. Jasmine, roses, firewood, tobacco, vanilla bean, spiced chai, and finally her one and only– sea breeze. The blonde picked up the candle and sniffed under the cap, closing her eyes smiling to herself at the sweet-but not-too-sweet and refreshing smell.

Venus walked up to the register and set the candle down next to the other three candles she'd already picked. Her roommate had been dating some guy who happened to be a smoker the faint acrid smell of cigarettes around the apartment had been driving the blonde neurotic That apartment was her shrine of soft textures, polished wood, aesthetically rustic warmth and the first thing she wanted to smell as she walked in was herbal sweetness. "Will that be all?" Asked the cashier in that overly-friendly tone that Venus ate up. "Yes, thank you" she replied with her equally practiced retail smile and handed over her card.

## bitch whipding | Sam | Flora

Sam hadn't woken up until late afternoon, the past few days finally catching up with him. Thankfully, he'd made a pretty swift exit to the nearest bus stop after his discomfort last night, leaving headquarters entirely rather than hiding in one of the spare rooms for a while, as was his original plan. Not exactly ideal - he'd been quite enjoying seeing everyone together up until then - but much better than the alternative.

He'd groaned almost instantly when he'd read the forums - this wasn't the first time Eleanor had pulled something like this, so he shouldn't have been surprised. Well, there were worse people he'd could've ended up paired with. At the very least, she wouldn't be too critical if he didn't put a huge amount of effort in.

A quick change of clothes and wash later, and he was on yet another bus over to Eaux Claires. By some miracle, he found his scooter still chained up to the same lamppost, exactly how he'd left it however long ago that was. If that had been back in Pembina, it would've been covered in crudely-sprayed dicks, if not gone entirely. It was in more than good enough condition for him to ride it over to the promenade.

It too a while to hunt down the shop Venus was talking about, Sam not being too familiar with this place at all - he could probably count the number of times he'd been here on one hand, if he cared enough to remember. When he did finally track it down, the first thing he noticed was the *smell*. It hit him as soon as he walked in, and as much as it would hurt his street cred to admit it, it wasn't entirely unpleasant. This was exactly where he'd expect to find Venus even if he didn't know she was there already, and sure enough, she was already paying at the till.

He walked nearer to her, giving a wave, standing to one side so as not to look like he was waiting in line for the cashier.

November 2, 2018

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee

Venus went through the motions of the transaction with pleasantries and giggles, wrapping her finger around the twine handles of her shopping bag without noticing Sam had arrived. It wasn't until the cashier's eyes flickered to the side and she followed her stare thats he noticed him standing there. "Ooh!" Venus jumped, startled, but fell into a laughter to dispel the awkwardness of it. "Hi Sammy" she beamed, stepping out of the way to let the next customer get to the till. Now that she was actually talking to the size-shifting hero she realized the struggle of finding *what to say.* Sure, they had never had the chance to really get to know each other and when they did talk Venus monopolized the conversation.

Even then, it was odd for someone with her ease for chatter to feel stumped.

"Check this out" she said as she paced towards the exit of the store, digging through her bag to pull out a pear and jasmine candle that she thought was a weird enough combination to incite conversation. "It's really good, it's like-" she sniffed it quickly and then placed the glass jar over Sam's face like an oxygen mask "see what I mean?"

## bitch whipding | Sam | Flora

"Hiya!"

Sam would be lying if he'd said that Venus's smile hadn't made him feel a bit better, only having to slightly fake his own. The awkwardness of it all on her side was quite simply lost on him. Of course, they had never talked a huge amount before, but he hardly thought of her a stranger. More a... strong acquaintance.

He paced alongside her, standing roughly the same height. The candle being shoved in his face was something unexpected, but again, not unwelcome. The smell was odd, that much was true, but after a second or two actually came across as quite nice. Although, admittedly, he still didn't quite understand what all the fuss was about.
"Oh, um, wow. Yeah, that's pretty nice." There was a - perhaps slightly too long - pause as he considered what to say next. What else *could* he say about candles? "So, uh, do you go there often then? Buy a lot of candles?"

November 5, 2018

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee

Venus shook her head as she placed the candle back into the shopping bag and pushed the door to the store open "no, not for candles. I usually order mine online but I thought I should come in and try something new." The cold air outside nipped at the tips of her fingers and her cheeks but she had grown used to it by now. "I do like this place, though" she admitted, having no reason to deny that she came to the mall more often than any person should. It was a nice walk with cute stores– a great place to get distracted and treat herself to distract all the hardships of day to day life. Instead of thinking about hero work she could come here and make a mission out of finding a new keychain.

"Do you ever come by?" She asked for the sake of conversation, already knowing the answer was most likely negative. Sam didn't seem like the type of person to find indulgence in vapid affairs. "

November 6, 2018

## bitch whipding | Sam | Flora

Sam was only half-listening to her response; he hardly expected such a dull question to really have any particularly interesting outcome. Instead, he was focusing on the weak crowds of people pottering around the mall, the bright colours standing out against the largely grey city. Even the air seemed to be imbued with a nicer scent than normal, although perhaps that was just the after effects of having a candle up his nose. It wasn't that bad here - a part of him was wondering why he hadn't been here before. Other than his total lack of interest in shopping, of course.

Her question took a moment to process, his mind elsewhere, leaving yet another extended pause before he replied.

"Oh! Um, no. First time I've been here." He made direct eye contact with her and smiled, in an attempt to convince her he'd totally been listening the whole time. "It's quite cool though, I can see why you'd like it." There was yet another pause while he desperately scrambled for something to say next, during which he scanned her up and down.

"You look nice, by the way. I don't think I've ever really seen you outside HQ." At the same time, he spotted a fairly innocent excuse to escape a night of shopping, or at least delay it. That would have been more convenient a few seconds ago. "Say, should we pop in there for a bit?" He gestured towards a coffee shop that had just materialized around the corner, quickly pulling his hands back into his pockets to protect them from the cold.

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee

As much as Venus felt at home in this place it wasn't really doing much to liven her date with Sam. She felt bad that he'd gotten stuck with her instead of someone who could ensure a good time like Ana. His compliment landed perfectly in this moment of self-doubt "thank you! That's so sweet" her smile spread widely on her face and her demeanor perked. "I don't think I've ever hung out with someone from the forum outside of headquarters" she said, thinking back to past interaction "at least not just for fun."

Venus followed Sam's gesture to find that he was suggesting they took a break in a coffee shop and her happy expression instantly fell from her face. Pop into a coffee shop? Pop into en establishment full of sugary drinks and doughy food she couldn't fit into her diet without adding thirty minutes of cardio to her gym routine? Pop into a sit-down that would force her to find a way to be interesting? "No" she said plainly, looking over back at him. "We should..." her eyes scanned her surroundings for something else to do. Had they been sixteen years old maybe the mall would've been a decent spot for a date, but unfortunately that wasn't the case "leave. We should leave." She gave a little shrug as if to say 'sorry, not sorry' and smiled once again "how did you get here, did you bring your bike by any chance?"

## bitch whipding | Sam | Flora

"O-oh?" Venus's response was entirely unexpected, to say the least, his eyes involuntary widening slightly. The two of them had stopped dead, Sam just processing what'd happened for a brief second. He'd thought he'd made some progress with breaking the ice by mentioning her appearance - although, for what it was worth, he hadn't had to lie about it - but he could tell that he'd totally fluffed that up by mentioning the coffee shop. Even so, he'd assumed she was the kind of person to just go with it anyway, just out of politeness, but apparently he'd totally misjudged her.

Thankfully, she didn't seem particularly offended, so that was something at least. "Well, scooter, but yeah," he replied amiably. Where was she going with this?

November 7, 2018

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee

"Mhm, yeah" he nodded, brushing past the fact that she had no idea what separated a bike from a scooter. "Lets go back to my place, I want to drop these off" she stated, holding up the shopping bag full of candles. Had the weather been better and had she not worked a shift today she would've been open to taking a walk and enjoying the outdoors, but right now all she could think about was fluffy socks. "Where did you park your bike?" She asked, already taking Sam by the elbow and beginning to walk towards the main street where she assumed he had left his scooter.

## bitch whipding | Sam | Flora

Sam found himself being practically dragged around by Venus, who'd apparently already decided what they were doing. He just blinded nodded along with her suggestion. "It's over here..." He didn't bother to correct her a second time, instead just politely steering her in the direction he'd parked in.

As they approached it, what she was actually planning finally clicked in his mind. It wasn't something he normally would have had a problem with, especially considering the circumstances, but there was one minor issue - he'd never actually had a passenger on his scooter before. The idea of having someone else riding with him - someone who couldn't shrink to almost nothing at the first sign of being in an accident - was terrifying. Someone else's life in his hands? No thanks!

Of course, there was no way he was going to let her know that.

A second, almost equally embarrassing, thought occurred when she was able to lay eyes on it. He didn't think she'd actually seen it before, and the fact she was calling it a 'bike' probably meant she wasn't expecting to ride on a second-hand, slightly banged-up glorified moped. Blushing slightly, he pulled out his keys, and opened up the very unaerodynamic storage box that was perched on the back of it, which usually was full of pizzas. He turned to her, trying to hide his misgivings about this whole situation.

"You can, um, put your stuff in here if you like."

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee

Her boots click clacked against the frosty ground as they approached the street towards the spot Sam pointed out where his scooter was parked. Venus looked over the vehicle and gasped "oh my gosh you have a Vespa?" Along with her partial knowledge of scooters, she tossed her shopping into the pizza carrier without minding the sound of glass candles colliding against each other, eyes still glued to the scooter.

"It's like, you know like in all the movies how people ride these in Rome? It's like that except Kanora Clau is cold and disgusting" she nodded, glancing at the seat and wondering how the hell she was supposed to climb on it while her verbal stream continued to pour out. "Did you ever see the Lizzie McGuire movie as a kid? Ruined me, absolutely ruined me- anyways, theres that Vespa scene in it- I think I have, hm where are they?" Her attention was captured by the contents of her purse as she dug through it to find her gloves.

Along the way Venus found a chapstick she took a moment to apply and a Hershey's kiss she handed over to Sam with a curt "here" and no further explanation. Finally, the leather gloves emerged: "important. I've been able to keep my hands hydrated all winter and I am *not* about to give in February." Her hands wiggled into the glove as she approached the scooter "do I just... sit on it?" Something about it having two wheels made her suspicious it would stay upright.

## bitch whipding | Sam | Flora

"I mean, technically it's not-" Sam cut himself off, both realizing that he was about to say was a bit pedantic and that Venus probably didn't really care. Besides, she seemed to regained her ability to spew her usual verbal diarrhea, something that he was quite thankful for - as long as she was still talking, all he had to do was listen, which was a lot easier than actually engaging in conversation.

As she talked, Sam took the time to pull his own keys out his pocket, inserting them into the ignition in preparation. There was more than enough fuel for now, although he'd probably have to stop somewhere tomorrow. Before he could get any further, Venus had thrust some chocolatey into his hands, and appeared to be searching for something. "Um... thanks." For now, he just pocketed it, not entirely sure if that was for him or if he was supposed to hang onto it for her while she was apparently ransacking her own purse.

He sat down on the front of the scooter, sliding on a woolly hat, and giving her a vaguely agreeing nod when she started talking abut her moist hands or whatever. "Oh, yeah just... sit behind me, and put your feet on those little bits there." He pointed at the footholds with his free hand. "If you don't think you can keep balance, just put your hands on my shoulders. Just tell me where to go once we start moving." He hoped he sounded more confident than he actually was - he'd pretty much just repeated what his uncle had told him that one time he'd ended up riding with him.

Once Venus was onboard, he would turn the key, allowing the scooter to buzz into life. From there, he would start off, taking things slowly (and perhaps slightly wobbly) at first.

November 10, 2018

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee

There was no graceful way to go about sliding her herself over the seat and between Sam and h pizza carrier so Venus simply rose her leg as far up as her skinny jeans would allow and did her best. She squeaked out the tiniest "fuck" when her foot harshly landed on the other side and touched her lips in shame of swearing gratuitously– swearing was usually reserved for when she was drunk or angry. "Okay I'm- umph- I'm settled in" she announced once she had her purse secured with the strap across her body, her feet were perched on the footrests, and her hands were resting on Sam's shoulder knowing full well she couldn't just *balance* her way home.

The moment the scooter buzzed to life her manicured nails dug into Sam's shoulders from her tightening grip and remained that way as they wobbled and took off. "I'm in Downtown" she said loudly, fighting the environmental nose of the engine and the wind. "Do you know that bakery that does the cronuts? On that same block."

November 11, 2018

## bitch whipding | Sam | Flora

A quiet chuckle was all Sam allowed himself when heard Venus let out the world's tiniest swear. He'd normally be more amused, but the last thing he needed right now was the universe smiting him with karmic justice.

Of course, that thought alone was enough to incur its wrath. He'd be lying if he said he minded having Venus this close to him, but he *did* mind having her fingers practically burrowing into his shoulders. His teeth gritted together as he endured the pain, trying to focus more on driving.

Eventually he managed to relax a little, the scooter becoming more stable as both its speed and his confidence increased. For once, he actually knew where Venus was on about - admittedly, he'd only ever been there once, but that was enough to know where he was going.