fandomhigh | Computer Lab, Thursday morning

Computer Lab, Thursday morning

There were two options, as far as Dinah was concerned, when you were having a crappy week: dance and throw a party. Or find someone to beat up. Option #2 was currently being explored.

crimeseen:... so that's all Raven told me about him.
willschoolyou: I know I've heard about this church before.
willschoolyou: Hang on. Let me do a search.

Dinah was now trying to find out how many times she could spin her chair before Barbara got back to her.

[open!]

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Jak had been looking for Dinah for a while, after he'd failed to show up to the reserves due to ~~mun fail~~ Daxter chattering his ear off over the phone about how much he sucked for getting him into trouble not once, not twice, but three times (let's not talk about the third time) that weekend.

He'd also been in the computer lab at least twice since. Not that he was, you know. Anything like that. He was playing it cool. Which would explain why, after knocking, he kind of leaaaned back in the doorway. Oh, hey. Hadn't seen you.

And that would not be Dinah falling off the chair, nope. Thud.

"Jak! Hi!" So. Not cool. Let's just go for a good recovery, okay? Dinah climbed back up on the chair and tried to ignore the rising tide of pink on her face, and hoped the breathless thing didn't sound too air-headed. "How's it going?" Why was she nodding? She didn't know. She just was.

But he wasn't running away so, yay? Also, looking kinda laid-back. Not stressed. That was good.

It was... probably a bad thing to laugh, right? No laughing. This was Jak, manfully repressing the wanting to laugh. A bit. Yeah.

... He was going to deal with it by pushing off and away from the doorway so he could pad into the room properly. He held up a thumbs up. Fine. Everything was awesome. Uh. He rubbed the back of his head. Totally.

A hand gesture clearly spelled how about you? Right.

"I'm good," Dinah said, still nodding, then bit her lip and said, "Well. Mostly. Some friends left the island. So. Not the best week ever." She looked over at the computer, where Barbara's IM window was still at rest, and made a face, then looked back at him. "Did Mr. Samos and Daxter get home okay?" See, talking was still fine. Even if there had been mortal embarrassment at the end of the weekend there.

Yeah, sure, they got home fine! ... In one piece, anyway, and Dax had been complaining all the while, so Jak was pretty sure he was fine! Which was all translated into a curt nod and a shifting of his stance and another manful attempt not to rub the back of his head again.

So...

He tilted his head and-- oh, right. He took another step forward to lean his hand on her shoulder, or try to, anyway.

Dinah's face lit up when he made contact 'cause hey, so much easier, and also, not keeping his distance, yay! Hopefully that last part didn't get through entirely. But, I'm sorry Barbara and Helena were so threatening! It wasn't you, it's just the way they are. Exasperated affection there, then a tentative, Mr. Samos wasn't mad at you for anything, was he?

It's Samos, Jak said, with a mental shrug, because that explained pretty much everything. No, seriously. It did. Every single thing. Uh. I'm fine.

Even if he hadn't been completely sure Helena hadn't been out to eat him, or something. Yeah. Dax didn't hit on you again?

Nope! Dinah laughed out loud and reached up to squeeze Jak's hand. I didn't see him again, did you guys have fun catching up? And I'm glad Mr. Samos was okay. I took him for ice cream. He seemed to like it. She gave him a tentative smile, relief that he was back around coloring her thoughts and said aloud, "I was just helping a friend out, doing some computer research, but. We could play a game of Pac-Man while I wait for the results?"

I, uh. Back of head rub. Back of head rub, man. Kinda got him gremlin bit. But he was fine. Yeeep. Uh. Pacman's good. Uh, Dinah?

... And this would be the point where Jak realised he had no idea how to do this, so he was just going to lean onto his hip and shoot a look at the computer like it had all the answers. Yes.

"Ohhhh noooo." Dinah's eyes got huge, imagining a gremlin-bit Daxter, and she asked, "He didn't go around hugging everyone did he?" Wait, he'd do that anyway, if they were girls.

Yay Pacman! But at Jak's mental tone, Dinah looked up at him, worried. What?

He's going to say my family's crazy and we can only be friends! No wibbling! Do not wibble!

Here was Jak, trying mostly not to think about Daxter gnawing on his head and making weird noises, which meant that inevitably, that was exactly what he was thinking about. Uhhh, he continued. Strong, Jak.

Be really, really strong.

You do meals that aren't lunch, right?

Smooth, man. It even had the requisite leeean required.

Which completely distracted Dinah and cracked her up, giggling over the back of her chair at that image.

Wait, there was a question in there.

"Sure?" Dinah asked, not getting it for a minute, still giggly. Then wait. Leeeeaning. Oh. Oh oh oh! "Yes?" Make that sound like a question. Not like you're already saying yes!

And we're gone next week, he plowed on. Never a guy of many words, Jak, So... Friday?

There. It was out there. With just as many words as needed, and absolutely no surplus, uh. Pacman? ...Not on Friday!

It's a good thing Dinah kept the squee internal or Jak would've been deafened. Friday's good! I have no other plans for Friday! She managed to get the glee down to a beam and said aloud, "So, yeah. Um. Where? Did you have some place in mind?"

She reached over and handed him one set of controllers. "Pac-Man is awesome." Get a grip, Dinah. "And I'm going to beat you at it!"

Uhhh... Okay, Jak needed to get a grip on all of this back of head rubbing he was doing, because it so wasn't cool. He dropped his hand and settled it on his hip. Figured we'd grab a place in town, he returned, then fell silent.

For a few beats.

...Cafe Fina's pretty good.

... Yeah, he was lucky he tended to have other people to do the talking for him.

A date! A real date! With Jak! Just as cool as Jak, Dinah said, "I like their muffins. Liir brings them in to rehearsals." Still happy. Almost happy enough to spin that chair. Well, definitely happy enough, but not going to that. "So. Yeah. We can do that." The buzz was settling down a bit, enough that Dinah could send, I'm really glad you asked me out back to him. And grin a little at how awkward he looked.

He wasn't awkward. Please. Although at that bit, he did visibly relax, and the I'm totally relaxed, honest posture he'd been trying to hit became a lot closer to reality. Jak leaned a little more onto his hip, and shrugged with a slight smile. Cool, he said, then finally snagged the other chair and sat down. With the controller.

Dinah grinned and bumped his shoulder with hers, then fired up Pac-Man. "Muahahahaaaa."

Much better than the guy just doing a "see ya Friday" and leaving her to stress out over it. Much.

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Computer Lab, Thursday morning

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