[sub][h3][center]Archie and Natalie[/center][/h3][/sub][hr]
Natalie checked her phone, more to check the time than to look for messages. Still, she couldn’t help but do that too. She was standing at the entrance to the mall, looking out at the crowd, scanning them. She shifted weight from one of her feet to the other. It was one minute past the meet time, so he should be here any second. Generally speaking, the whole... the evolution of the past few days had been unnerving to say the least. Knowing that his time on the station (and potentially his time left alive) was limited. Archie had spent most of his life doing what most people his age were doing, moving along through school and extracurriculars at the normal pace and for the most part the beginnings and endings he had experienced had been fairly uniform among his peers.

Life wasn't like that, now. He was leaving soon and he knew it, but everyone around him? They expected for life to carry on in that relative normal that it had always been. They expected to see him in the crowd as one of those normal faces and while they might not ever recognize his absence, it was... grounding. To be leaving when no one else was. To know that there was an end to all of this on a horizon that no one else was facing. Archie could see her now, shifting idly. She looked the way he felt inside, like a coiled spring ready to release at any moment. Like she was waiting for something to happen to release all that pent up nervous energy. Archie stopped a few paces behind her, and having learned his lesson from Lynn, cleared his throat. "[i]Heu-[/i]" he started, his voice cracking. He stopped, and tried again. "Hey. Hi. Hey Natalie. Nat. Hey Nat."

"Hey," Natalie answered. She looked scared, and a little manic, but still managed a warm smile at seeing Archie. She turned to face him and her cheeks flushed. "I don't care what we are to each other officially, or if you want to call it a date or not, or whatever. I just...wanted to spend some time with you before we do this. I'm not smart, and I don't have any connections. There's nothing else I could do right now but wait, and I don't want to waste the time we have."

Archie hummed thoughtfully, and approached her again so they were standing only a few inches apart. He allowed his hands to float forwards and took her hands in his own, interlocking their fingers easily as if they had done it a thousand times before. "I like you just the way you are." he said, genuine as she ever was.

"Truth be told one of the reasons I wanted to wait was to spend a little time with you, too. I... I'm not sure if I'll end up coming back with you. If we come back at all. When I left Colington Island, it was on short notice and I had a lot of things I wish I would've been able to see through. I don't have as much of that these days up here but... I don't want to regret not saying anything while I had the chance, neither."

Natalie looked down at her hands, which were holding Archie's, and blushed again. She looked up, and chuckled with nervous energy. "This mood's getting a little serious, but I suppose we can't avoid that. Still, I want to have fun today, but...maybe we should talk first, so we can focus on relaxing and letting our hair down later. So, what did you want to say 'while you had the chance'?"

"Walk with me."

It was easily spoken, but the request carried weight. The two began walking down the path together as Archie had many, many times before. It had only been a short time they had been here, somewhere between six months to a year, but there had been so many life changing memories. Most of them unfortunate, but they forced a growth in the group- for they had seen each other stripped raw and broken by the forces around them.

"I'm no good with words," Archie began, his eyes looking down at the ground ahead of him while he walked. His hand squeezed Natalie's. "But I care about you. A lot. When we promised each other we'd look out for each other... I dunno. I'm glad it was you."

"Yeah," Natalie answered softly, as she squeezed back and looked straight ahead. "I'm glad it was you too. You're the only one who could possibly get how I felt. And even though I'm not scared of myself anymore, I still want you to look out for me and stop me if you think I'm ever going too far. I trust you with that. And I care about you too, as you already know."

“I think...” he said, pursing his lips, choosing his words as he spoke. “I think we have a lot to say and do, and we won't have time for all of it.” He said, his face falling into a small, sad smile. The kind that was conveyed through the eyes more than the body. “If you had to pick some things, what would you go with?”

Natalie thought for a second, then smiled. "We don't have time for a proper date, and it's not the right mood either. Maybe we should just have dinner and then go for a walk. Talking, all the while. We should just tell each other everything. Everything we hold back, or keep secret, or don't like to talk about."

"I'd... I'd like that."

There was thinly veiled hesitancy to Archie's tone, but whatever was bothering him didn't seem to hold him back much in agreeing. They walked together in relative silence- the pregnant type that's not quite comfortable but wasn't awkward enough to comment on. Archie, despite his few gifts when it came to disarming tension, was more than capable of sniffing out a good meal. Perhaps it was his incredible senses guiding him like some sort of primordial guardian angel, but the Italian dine-in they ended up in seemed like a nice enough stay.

"You'll be disappointed if you're looking for anything big." Archie commented offhandedly, without looking up. Natalie however, looks more surprised by the fact that she had broken their (fascinating) non-conversation about literally anything with such candor. He pauses for a moment, as if chewing his following statements like gum, before continuing. "Almost everyone we're friends with has had some really bad things happen to them. And like, yeah. Losing your parents young isn't exactly fun and waking up to the town hunting you isn't great but..."

Archie shifts uncomfortably in his seat, and dips his menu. "I just don't have much to hide. I don't have any juicy secrets. I wasn't shot in the back or a child soldier or..." [i]Or experimented on.[/i], he insinuated, allowing his voice to trail off. "I'm just a guy."

"I don't know what I'm looking for, to be honest," Natalie answered truthfully. "I don't want to pry if the memories are painful. I just...want you to know that I'm not scared of opening myself up anymore....I want us to have fun today but I don't know how to....talk to boys. I have no idea what the rules are, if there are any rules. I'm sorry."

Archie mulled over her words for a moment, surprisingly thoughtful compared to his normal disposition. "Well, a good place to start would probably be to not apologize for not knowing where to start." he said, offering her a small smile. "There's a saying. All's fair in love and war and all. No real rules just- well, dad always said to do right even when the other person's not looking. Don't sneak, he said. Something about how sneaking means you're doing something wrong."

For all their talk, despite being in an Italian joint, Archie's eyes gravitated towards the 'French Fries' option on the menu. Greasy, American food, and Archie was sorely missing home right about now. "Hey, you ever had a burger or fries? I would hulk out for fries right about now."

Nat smiled, and shuffled her feet under the table adorably. Archie's reassurances had gone appreciated. Nat leaned over to look at Archie's menu. "I used to. I think I was fifteen the last time I had a burger and fries. Let's get some!"

And they did. For the first time in a long time, Archie and Natalie shared a nice evening where something miraculously went smoothly. No gunshots, or explosions, or cradle robbers, and no lizards in sight unless one counted Archie's heart monitor, but that only went off once when his food came.

It was nice.
[hr][right]Written with [@Silver Carrot][/right]