This doesn't look like planning a date to me (Cecil)

"Huh?" He shook his head. "Oh, right...I, uh...haven't been in one of the booths before either. Not used this, so..." Cecil turns his attention to the room, before a smaller display catches his eye - a tablet display attached to a stand on the table. "I'd...guess this."
Looking it over, he starts poking at the display to see how the interface works, turning his attention to Nadia once he thinks he has it. "So...you can look up songs with this. Once you've found something, you can queue it up to play, and it'll start on the screen there." He gestures to the TV mounted on the wall. "I'd assume that's what it's there for, anyway...there's a lot of tracks here. Some...surprisingly obscure stuff."

Nadia leaned forward, watching Cecil move his fingers along the screen. She smiled. She actually knew some of these songs now, thanks to some of the research she'd done. It didn't like there was much in the way of the old stuff on her cassettes. Some of the Beatles Classics, one or two Monkees songs...There was a Moody Blues song though....Just one. But that was enough, she thought. There were plenty of songs she knew. And if she exhausted those, or perhaps just to see if she could - she'd try some of the songs she didn't know. Maybe they had versions with lyrics so you could hear how they were actually sung by the original artists....

"Should I go first? Do you have any songs you know you want to sing? Wait. Cecil..." Nadia stood up with one of the wireless microphones that were hung next to the TV. "You've been here before, haven't you? but just now you said you haven't been in a booth. What did you do here, then?" She asked, curiously. No doubt, he'd been brought here like he had been today, with someone else.

Cecil froze. Logically, he knew that he didn't really have any reason to hide anything...but the little voice in his head that was panicking about everything screamed at him that if he gave Nadia the full story, she would find some way or another to drag him onto that main stage once again, and that was one thing he really couldn't stand to do right now.
...he did not have a remotely convincing lie for this scenario, though.
This stood to be interesting after what he'd said about the main stage earlier.
"...someone else took me here once. They had a voucher for free snacks and a go on the main stage, and so I ended up getting pulled up there for a duet." He pauses, for a moment. "Also, I find out this place has really good nachos. Might be worth trying some."

Nadia's interest was piqued. "So you Have Been on the main stage!" She pointed her microphone at him accusingly. "You lied to me!" She narrowed her eyes at him. "They do duets?" She jumped topics, lie forgotten for the moment. She wondered if she could pull Cecil up onto the main stage for a duet....That sounded like loads of fun.

But... she rose an eyebrow. "I bet it terrified you, and they forced you to do it, didn't they?" She asked honestly, deflating a little. "I think I've forced you to do quite enough with me for the time being, so I won't ask you to do something that embarrassing with me. Not unless you're comfortable with it, anyway." Nadia crouched back down and fiddled with the touch screen until she found her song. That was when a knock at the door brought their drinks. A lemonade for Cecil, and Ice Tea for Nadia.

She took a sip before smiling pleasantly at Cecil again. She was starting to feel like she couldn't not smile.

Cecil held up his hands in surrender as Nadia's tone turned accusatory, a nervous chuckle and a wild-eyed look marring his features. His hands slowly came to rest once more as her attitude shifted again, and he found all he could really do was shrug. "It was...scarier after I got up there, honestly. I think it was some confidence building thing...I can't say I remember the best right now."
He took a sip from his lemonade and paused as the words stuck, before picking back up again. "...honestly, this is harder than that was. At least then, there was little risk but my own dignity...and, well...it's hardly like there was much to lose there."

Nadia made a show of flipping through songs, even though she knew very well which one she was going to pick. She was trying to nonchalantly finish this conversation before she started singing. The fact that this was somehow scarier than that piqued a bit of worry in her, settling in her stomach. She glanced at him as she flipped through the songs.

"Is there something to lose here?" She asked, and the innocent way she asked it made it clear she had no idea how this could go wrong for him. It was supposed to be fun - exploratory.

Cecil fidgeted in place for a couple of seconds, before finally looking over to Nadia. "There's feelings involved in this. Significant, important ones. That makes it easier for people to be hurt, disappointed...and so on. You think things about me that it shouldn't even be possible to. And...I really don't want to prove to you I was right before, because then I have to remember that everything it hurts so much to think of is right too."
He swallows. "...I can't say I'm doing a good job at maintaining the illusion right now, though."

Nadia stopped flipping through the screen. Hm. How to convince him that there was no way he could possibly disappoint her...She set the mic down for a second and twined her fingers together so they formed an arch on the table. Resting her chin on her fingers she said "I spent my whole life without even knowing how to be the opposite of disappointed. The fact that you're here is enough for me, and nothing you can do or say or sing will disappoint me."

She returned to her flipping. "Better?" She asked, teasingly. She knew it wasn't, but she wanted to say it. Then, considering something else he'd said, she slowed. This time she didn't look at him. "And um...What feelings do you mean?"

Cecil nodded, taking a little sip of his lemonade. "...a little." He still felt anxious about it all, and that wasn't something that would leave him so simply. Expectations both impossibly high and abysmally low mixed together in his mind, demanding the best of all things and predicting the worst.

He looks somewhat confusedly at Nadia as she finds herself uncertain about feelings, and he finds himself forced to mull things over. "...you kissed me, Nadia. You kissed me, told me I make you feel real where nothing else has, and that whatever you do, you'd prefer to do it with me. That...kind of suggests, something..." He swallows. "Romantic. Even, even if it isn't - and why would it be? Those kind of feelings, for me? That's ridiculous! - you've made it clear that I'm special to you somehow. Somehow. It's all something I can barely comprehend, let alone accept...and something I can't afford to ruin no matter how inevitable it seems."

Nadia set the microphone down again, thinking. He was the second - third person to tell her that those feelings she felt were romantic ones. She didn't have anything to balance it against. It still seemed like it was too early in their relationship to feel those kinds of things. And yet they were on a date right now. She looked at him, just a side glance. His blond hair was framing his bashful face and he was looking as uncomfortable as ever. Did he feel the same way? Could he? Did it matter?

They were here to sing songs and have fun, but, she found herself wondering. "How do you feel?" She asked simply. She couldn't remember at the moment if she'd asked him that before. She did a lot of talking about how she felt, and he did a lot of talking about how much he hated himself. Yet he held her so close in the hallway...The memory of it fluttered in her chest like caged bees. But...what if it was all because she pushed him. Just because she felt things, didn't mean he did. It was a bit early for that kind of thing anyway. In the end, she was happy just to be here, regardless of circumstance. "You know, it's okay. You don't have to answer that." She said with a smile. "That's an unfair question, isn't it?"

She wasn't used to feeling self conscious about things. This...this was strange and new and..."I found a song." She said finally, Finger hovering over the button for a minute. What if he answered anyway...

How did he feel?
Ever since the night he spent with her, things had gotten complicated and uncomfortable and impossible to fathom. There were little feelings like earlier that were pleasant to hold onto, but was that because of some emotion of his own that he'd yet to grasp onto, or was he just attaching some fantasy to the acts themselves? Did it comfort because it was an easy escape that he could latch onto, or because there was something more genuine to it that this was a side effect of? Did it even have to be just one of those things?

Was...he just using Nadia for some crazy, escapist fantasy?
He really, really hoped not.

"I...don't think I could give you an answer anyway." He laughed bitterly as he slumped back into the seats of the booth. "I'm not sure if this is truly something I want with you, or some fantastical delusion you provide that I find easier to cope with. It's just a lot of questions...a lot of them if it even matters what the answer is when either way it's only ever going to cause problems if it continues."

He looks over to Nadia, smiling wryly. "Don't mind me though. We're supposed to be enjoying ourselves, aren't we? I'll just shut up and let you sing while I try and wrap up this pity party I'm throwing myself over here. The guests are getting kind of rowdy, anyway."
He leans forward. "I'm listening, this time."

Nadia listened as Cecil told her basically everything she'd just thought to herself. Except...an escapist fantasy? She thought about it for a few moments and decided that she still didn't care. This was supposed to be a fun exercise in new experiences, not a pity party for either of them. And she had just indulged him and made him sink back down into his pity again, for a question she knew he couldn't answer with any certainty. That was on her.

So it was distraction time.
This was one of the more obscure songs that was on the list. It was a song she'd downloaded onto her new music player, as well. One of many she'd found on the internet and downloaded with a computer at the Inn.



As she stood to the sound of the Violin, she turned to face Cecil. And suddenly, an audience of one was more intimidating than an audience of 500. She'd perform on stage in a heartbeat, but looking down at him suddenly there was a lump in her throat.

So, blushing, she turned away. The song started with her facing away from him. As one might expect, her voice was light, and she hadn't been prepared to sing. But by the time she got to the refrain, she was singing along with the song in spite of herself. It was kind of scary, being listened to by him, but it was also exciting. She finally turned to face him, swaying lightly with the music and tapping her feet.

And, she sounded good, too. She needed refinement, of course, and nervousness fringed the words, but the voice itself was kept in good tone for the most part. By the time the song was over she was bouncing a little bit still, the flush in her face had spread to her whole body as she let herself get excited.

"Here." She said finally, taking a breath, "Your turn."

As Nadia stood to take centre stage, Cecil's attention rest firmly on her. A brief sense of something familiar struck when the music started and Nadia found herself struck nervous and hesitant. The feeling that struck him on the main stage with Gabe now played out before him in another person, and in this moment he saw what it looked like from outside.
He couldn't interrupt. All he could do was try and remain supportive, and show he was paying attention. So that was what he did as the song played out, even when a slight red tinge developed as her focus turned to him.

He smiled warmly as he took the mic from the girl. "Th-that was good." He winced inwardly as embarrassment decided to strike the moment he sought to speak, making his words stutter despite his best efforts.
Shaking his head, he flicked through the track selector until he found a familiar track. Suddenly feeling tense as he remembered what he was doing, he swallowed down his hesitance and set the song to play, bolting to his feet before he could hesitate and back off.


Strumming strings played a mellow tune in the room, backed by a static beat and light electronic sounds. Cecil could barely speak as the lyrics started, the words dying in his throat, expectation weighing on him.
So, he shut his eyes, and the world was gone.
Slowly, his voice returned to him, forgetting where he was as he focused on the familiar track, softly singing the lyrics left ingrained into his memory. His voice was a little rigid as he sung, unable to let go of the tension that pervaded his being, but he wasn't bad either. His voice shifted to more closely mirror that of the original singer, and even when he struggled to hold a note, there was a clear expression in his voice that conveyed feeling even when musicality faltered.

As the song ended, he slowly sat himself down, placing down the microphone and burying his face into his hands to take deep breaths. After a little while of this, his eyes came up to peek over his fingers, eyes opening to gauge the girl he'd had to blind himself to the presence of to manage this.

Nadia snatched up the microphone as soon as Cecil set it down. "That was a good song for you." She said, cheerfully, smile pervading. She was sitting on the table, sipping her drink, when Cecil lowered his hands. He'd done really well, and had to close his eyes to get it out. But Nadia didn't want him to feel embarrassed, so she didn't bring attention to it. Instead, she gave him that small, sweet smile when his eyes landed back on her and said "See? Nothing to be embarrassed out. It's just you and me having fun, right?"

She sipped her drink again as she picked another song. "This is that band I told you about! I have all their albums on cassette. Finding it all on the internet for my new music player is exhausting."



Embarrassment replaced by enthusiasm, Nadia sat on the table facing Cecil as the song started, swaying back and forth, and nudging him slightly with her socked feet - Cecil probably hadn't noticed she'd taken her flats off to get more comfortable - At key moments where the song sang "The other side of the life."

When the song died down, she set the mic down and sat next to him, taking another sip of her tea. "I wanted to play that song for you when we built our fort, but..." She trailed off, mouth curving up into a small smile as she looked up at him. "You're turn."

Cecil found that he couldn't quite reply just then. Not for lack of trying, but all the effort in the world doesn't save you when you're running on blank. So instead, he just nodded back, and took up his lemonade again as Nadia picked out her next song, not quite able to meet her gaze.
Surprisingly enough, this got no better when she opted to seat herself on the table facing him, gently nudging him as she sung her song. A light flush came to his face as he tried to find out how much of his face he could hide in a glass of lemonade, occasionally looking her way but always failing to keep looking.

As she sat down, Cecil finally managed to meet her gaze with a meek expression on his face, an awkward smile on his face. "Yeah. Things got kind of sidetracked, didn't they?"
Shaking his head, he starts to flit through the tracklist again. For a moment, he pauses on one, nearly deciding to move on and find something better...and then a thought strikes him, and a wry smile comes to his lips. He queues up the track with a dry chuckle, and his eyes flick over to look sideward at Nadia. "Stop me if this sounds familiar - you might have heard this from me before."


He picks up the microphone as electronic noises sound out once more, and as the beat comes in his leg starts to move in time with it. Soon, he's gesturing with his free hand as he enunciates each lyric, a dry humour to his features as his head bobs along to the music he's singing to.

He swaps the mic for his lemonade as teh lyrics come to a close, leaving the music to fade off as settles back into the seats. He takes a deep breath, and looks over to Nadia, taking a small sip of lemonade and trying to wrap himself up in the wry humour he felt before self-consciousness can set in again. "A delightfully cheerful number, don't you think? Maybe I should do birthday parties." He lets out a small chuckle. "But, seriously...this sound familiar to you at all? Or am I the only one miserable enough here for this to have any remote resonance?"