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Charlie got there early to get them a table (even though the place isn't exactly jam packed tonight) and has been nervously looking over the menu. There sure was a lot of fish involved in sushi and not the kinds she knew a ton about.
She's dressed a tiny bit more formally than usual (somewhen off screen she had a trying on clothes montage with the Ratbones), wearing a pair of tight black jeans and a t-shirt of a raccoon on a motorbike. Her jean jacket is over it and she is furiously fiddling with the buttons on the sleeves.
Wren appears a few minutes early, but not so early as Charlie herself. She's dressed up a touch, too, in a dark leather jacket and a fine little grey cap that lends some old-fashioned charm to the look. She doffs both as she gets to the table, wearing a plain white button-down beneath the jacket and smiling brightly at Charlie as she arrives. If Charlie happens to get up when she gets there, she'll be sure to hug her- otherwise she takes her seat and grins. "Sorry about last night. I hope I didnt get you in trouble at work." If she notices the fidgeting, she doesn't say!
"Oh, no, really don't worry about it!" Charlie says, eagerly accepting the hug. She's extremely touchstarved and the hug makes her a little woozy with joy. "We only have one employee in the store at a time and when it's me I pretty much have free reign. As long as I don't, you know, mess anything up."
She looks down at the menu again and admits, somewhat nervously, "you might, uh, have to walk me through some of this. I've never had sushi before." She says the word sushi a little funny, like she's only ever read it and never actually heard it.
Wren doesn't know how starved Charlie is, but surely enjoys the hug anyhow, beaming quietly at how delighted her friend seems to be from the lingering little embrace. "I'm glad to hear it- when people started looking, I worried I was getting you fired. Really relieving to know otherwise!"
"Sushi," Wren gently corrects, though she pronounces the first syllable barely at all- it's almost "s'shee". "And you can't really go wrong. All sushi is good here. If you have any favorite seafood, aiming there is a good idea- but let's start with avocado rolls, so you can get used to everything else without the fish involved?" She pauses, looking at the table. "Would you like me across or beside? Some folx are picky."
This might be the hardest choice of Charlie's life. "Um." She pauses for a minute. "Whatever you think is best? And, um, I don't really have a favorite seafood. Everything back home is pretty much just undefined fish." She's firmly decided to pretend that she has any idea what an avocado tastes like. Her pallet is extremely unrefined.
"Okay!" The waiter comes over when signalled, and she orders briefly, an avocado roll, a crab roll, and a tuna roll. Familiar flavors, she thinks. Given her own choice, she settles down beside Charlie, unabashedly hip to hip. "So, we'll start with the avocado roll since there's no fish on it- and crab and tuna are pretty familiar, right?"
She shivers again. Partially from Wren's mantle, partially from the contact. "Definitely," she lies. "So, um, how have you been? Good, I hope?"
"I've been good, yeah! Met another new girl from our club. You should meet her, she teaches dance and she's about as new to town as you are. Pretty quiet day since we spoke otherwise." She buys the lie without question- of course Charlie's had crab and tuna, right? She shifts, re-settling her wallet in her pocket and nudging against Charlie meanwhile.
"Oh, cool! I always wanted to do ballet as a kid. Maybe I finally can," she smiles her trademark smile for a bit before hurriedly looking away. This was a sinful amount of contact. "You ever dance?" she asks, desperate to think about something else than Hell.
"Oh! I like dancing. I'm not super good, and I don't think I've ever danced with someone else. I do bet that Adela could teach you ballet, though. She seems crazy elegant. You'd like her!" She beams, already planning to introduce the two. The avocado roll arrives, all wrapped in seaweed with rice and avocado inside. "Here we go! You don't have to use chopsticks, it's just traditional. Fingers are fine!" She shows off, snagging a segment and dipping it delicately against a little dish of soy, popping it into her mouth.
"Oh, thank heaven for small mercies," Charlie says with a relieved smile on her face, "I spent like 10 minutes before you got here worried I'd have to figure out how to use these." She mimics Wren perfectly, except for at the end when she tastes the avocado and it takes everything in her to not make a face and spit it out. People paid money for this? Willingly?
"Oh, honey," Wren offers with a wince when she catches Charlie teying so hard to be brave. "You don't have to eat it if it's not agreeing with you. Do you want a drink? I can get this to go and we can just go someplace else? I know good burger and fried chicken places within a block or two of here." She clearly feels awful the moment she sees how miserable Charlie is.
Charlie blanches. "No, no, no! If you like it here, I'm more than happy to try the other stuff! I've had tuna salad before and it wasn't that bad!" She looks down at the awful roll in front of her. "I might even like it if I try it a second time!" She tries to blot out the memory of its taste. It's what she imagines drinking gasoline would taste like.
"Charlie."
Wren's voice is gentle. "I like it here because my friend is here. I will like any other place she is just as much. You can't stand the avocado roll. That's alright. Let's try the crab roll- it's cooked- and if it doesnt fly, we get burgers. Okay?"
She blinks a few times. "C-cooked? You mean the tuna's going to be raw? Is that legal?" Her brain runs through Leviticus. There had to be something about that. "I-if you're sure. I don't want to make you eat somewhere you like less. And crab is supposed to be really good right?
"It's legal, and safe, and I think it's tasty. But you don't have to find out." One of her hands rests over Charlie's briefly, tryinv to be reassuring. "I'll get to eat all this anyway later. Let's go get cheeseburgers and french fries instead, okay? And a nice soda to wash out the avocado taste?"
Charlie's brain goes on red alert. Hand contact! She nods, too startled to even speak for a second. "I'm still paying though," she says, taking out her wallet. It has a surprisingly large amount of cash for someone with a part time job that doesn't pay great. "And I'd kill for a Dr Pepper."
Wren squeezes Charlie's hand and gestures for the waiter, summoning them to package the sushi to go. "Well, thank you. I suppose the burgers will just have to be on me!" And probably less expensive. "Thank you for not bailing the moment you didnt like the meal. I would have been pretty bummed if I ruined your night."
"What, no! A night with you could never be ruined!" Charlie cringes. Why can't she just be normal for five seconds? "S-sorry, that, um, came out wrong? I mean I really like you." Shit shit shit reverse reverse. "I mean like you as a friend and, um, uh, I like talking to you more than I hate avocado?" she manages to squeak out.
Wren suppresses the urge to laugh at Charlie's rambling responses. "Oh, gosh, you have no idea. Trust me, I am perfectly capable of ruining an evening. But I appreciate your faith in me," she teases. And then it's all she can do not to turn red right alongside Charlie.
"So... for future reference," Wren offers carefully. "Every time you correct like that, you kinda... prove that what you said the first time is what you meant. Just- so you know for the future."
The sushi comes back and Wren takes the doggy bag, then stands, turning to offer Charlie a hand up, smiling reassuringly. "Come on- burgers await."
Charlie goes extremely red. She's pretty pale (especially in her mien where she's marble white) so it's extremely noticable. "I, um, golly. Oh, um, I don't. I mean. Um." She stands up on her own, her right hand rapidly tapping on her side. "Burgers? Let's, uh, go." She starts quickly walking away, as if she's trying to outrun her anxieties.
Wren can't help but grin at the unavoidable flush, though the avoidance of her hand dims the smile a bit. She drops the limb and steps back to make more room for Charlie to stand easily, and follows, working to keep up with the taller women's pace.
It immediately becomes clear that Charlie doesn't know where she's going, so she falls back to let Wren lead. "Are you from around here? The city I mean. Not, uh, this neighborhood?" She's still really flustered and the rhythm on her side is more than a little erratic. She catches herself doing it and grabs her hand with her other. "Sorry, um, it's a nervous habit."
"No, I moved here. I wanted someplace where I could be myself. someplace where I didn't have to worry about who I used to be, or- how little like her I was." Wren explains. As Charlie falls back into lockstep, Wren gravitates to her right side, and when Charlie reaches to grab her own hand, Wren tries to intervene with her own, aiming to simply, gently, hold her hand. "You don't need to apologize. If you don't want to be doing it, just put your hand in mine. I don't mind, it's super normal here. What about you?" Wren asks, looking up at Charlie. "Where are you from?"
Charlie reluctantly takes Wren's hand, briefly flinching as she does, remembering every sermon on how homosexuals were going to bring down society. "Oh, man, I'm from nowhere. Blue Run, PA. Nothing there but abandoned mills. And, um, my, uh, fetch."
Wren's fingers are small, and warm, and tipped with tiny little sharp nails that she carefully keeps them away from Charlie's marble-like skin. "Mine's back home, too. I went back home, but..." Little shoulders roll up. "She was a better daughter than I was. My parents liked her more. I couldn't bear to take that away and shove myself back in its place. Besides. It's dangerous around us, so they're safer!" Not much of a bright spot, but she's trying. "And I get to meet cool people here. I'd never have met anyone if I'd just stayed home and tried to fit back into my old life."
"Same here, actually. Mine's a better daughter than I could ever be. She's straight for one." Charlie's grip gets weird when she says that, her hand trying simultaneously to break free and stay attached. "My life back home really, uh, really wasn't great. I don't know if I would go back even if she wasn't being a better me. Mom would probably think I was the devil now or something." Her left hand reaches up to tug on her halo, the wires on it bending painfully.
Wren's hand tightens when she realizes Charlie's struggling. It's not unbreakable, but it's meant to be reassuring, welcoming. "Well, that's just because she can't see you properly. You're clearly more of an angel than she is if that's how she treated you." Wren's voice has a tiny chill to it. "It's not important who your family loves, it's important to love them. The only reasons to disapprove are selfish and you deserved better. There's nothing wrong with you, Charlie- there's something wrong with her. You know that, right?" Her thumb shifts slowly, trying to offer some measure of soothing affirmation.
"I, um..." and theeeere go the waterworks. Getting called an angel certainly didn't help, that word immediately rocketing her mind back to chastisements after a slap and time spent as a toy. She's not exactly a dignified crier, within seconds she's blubbering and sniffling. "Th-thank you, but I'm really not as good as you think I am! I'm really selfish and- and-" she pauses for a second to messily wipe at her face with a sleeve. "I'm s-so sorry right now for crying like this. I'm so gross. Sorry."
Wren pauses, blinking in surprise up at the taller woman as she breaks down, eyes jittering a bit as she tries to figure out what to do. She pulls- of all things- a handkerchief out of her pocket and reaches up to mop gingerly at Charlie's cheeks, shaking her head. "No, no, you're fine, don't apologize. It's not gross, it's just-" She smiles gently. "It's human. It's alright. Here- you should blow your nose, you're going to get your cute jacket all messy."
"I don't think you're selfish. I think you think you are because somebody told you so. nothing you've done has seemed the least bit selfish to me. Come on. Clean up, and we'll go sit down and have a nice burger and fries and a Dr. Pepper. Or his cousin, Mister Pibb, if we're not lucky."
She takes it and mops up her face, turning away to blow her nose with some dignity. She was human. She was human. It helped to hear, especially when she was caught thinking about herself as a toy, a thing to manipulate and use. She bites her tongue to keep herself from telling Wren exactly how selfish she is, how she's taking advantage of Wren by holding her hand when she's got a crush on her and doesn't even know if Wren's gay to reciprocate. She manages to not blurt it out, adding another tick in her mental selfish list.
"Th-thank you," she sniffles, her crying mostly done and her breathing returning to normal, "but I think you might be a little crazy. Mr Pibb is like way better."
Wren turns and keeps watch while Charlie blows her nose, chuckling quietly at the accusation of insanity. "Sorry, I just guessed since you said Dr. Pepper earlier. I prefer lemon-lime stuff, personally. I'm not crazy, I was just pandering." She turns back as Charlie starts to sound normal again, smiling encouragingly and offering her hand again. "Ready to continue our journey?"
"Most places don't have the good stuff," Charlie says, forcing a smile back onto her face, "let's go." She nods. "Let me pay you back for the handkerchief though. I feel bad making your stuff all gross like that."
"How are you gonna pay me back, exactly? Three cents for taking up space in a load of laundry, or like a dollar for a fresh hankie?" She laughs, shaking her head. "It's literally what they're made for. If I didn't want pretty girls getting them messy, I wouldn't carry them around," she chides gently. "So no feeling bad. You can feel proud that you did exactly the right thing with the hanky, or feel better now that you're cleaned up, but feeling bad just doesn't make any sense if you think about it, now, does it?"
Charlie stops dead in her tracks. "Y-you think I'm pretty?" [Internal Gay Screaming] "I, um, wow. Gosh. Are you? Um. Wow. You're pretty too?" She squeaks out, her hand anxiously scratching her cherry red face.
"You don't?" Wren learned a long time ago how effective it is to simply take someone's appeal for granted and let that do the convincing. "And as for me, survey says- ding ding ding! Looks like they would also have accepted "handsome" and "hot"," she quips, marching along like a pretty angel threatening to blush hard enough to pass out is everyday and normal. "You should see me in a suit."
"I, um, you, uh, wow. A suit? That's... jeepers." She practically trips over her own feet when she says that. Charlie is easily bullyable. "Do you, um, I mean. Okay, feel free to not, um, answer this question if its too personal, but, um, are you... gay?" She says the word gay kinda funny. Not just from the accent that is out in full force now, but she says it almost like a bully in a locker room. It's a weird way to hear it from a queer person.
"Yeah, I'll wear it next time," Wren reassures. "Even if I did have to size it using children's sizes."
The way Charlie asks the question has Wren pausing to face her, scrunching her face a bit. "Gay's not quite right. Queer? Definitely. Aren't you? Why'd you say it like that?" She doesn't seem hurt, just... super puzzled.
"Say it like what?" Charlie asks, genuinely confused. "Is this an accent thing? I mean, I am, uh, gay? It's a thing I have to live with, you know?" Charlie looks around, suddenly very cognizant of everyone on the street who could remotely be looking at her. This is the big city, she reminds herself. People are far less judgmental here. And its not like anyone on the street knows her.
"Well... you just... said it funny. Not your accent, the inflecti-on..." Wren trails off when she catches the bitterly visible guilty look around. "... Charlie? Do- you think being gay is something you have to- live with..?"
"Well, yeah?" Charlie's hands involuntarily clasp together, wriggling fingers over each other to keep them moving. "I mean, um, it's a sin, right? Leviticus 20:13 and, um, that and all." She winces. This date is going very very poorly. "Sorry, sorry. I'm, uh, trying to do better about this. Being gay is fine. It's fine." she mumbles the last part under her breath, like it's a mantra.
Wren steps to the side, to stand in front of Charlie, reaching to take both Charlie's hands in hers and look up at her. "Charlie... Christ also said the only two commandments he cared about were love for his father, and love for each other. And that's the more recent edition of the holy word, if you're taking it all seriously. Who taught you all the old testament fire and brimstone stuff without amending it with what the namesake of the religion brought later? Love isn't a sin."
She squeezes Charlie's hands gently and repeats herself. "Love's. Not. A sin. And you're not wrong or broken for liking girls, or guys, or both, or neither."
Her brain flashes back to all the sermons she sat through about this topic. The time her church group protested the county library for having a copy of "Heather has Two Mommies". The things she heard gay people called. "Um." Charlie tries to start, pausing before she can even get a real word out. "You're right. I'm sorry, it's just, um, it's just hard to get all the stuff mom taught me out of my head sometimes. Are you, um, Christian?"
Wren shakes her head. "Christianity wasn't real big where I grew up. But I've studied a lot of things, including religion, because I know that where I live now, there's plenty of people who think like your mother. Which is ridiculous," she asserts, staring quietly into Charlie's eyes, "Because if any of those protestors have decent lovers, we're not doing anything they aren't."
"I do get it, though. How you're raised- it stays with you. It's hard to shake. I just- it's important to me that you don't think you're a sinner. That you don't think I'm one because I think you're pretty."
"N-no! You're not a sinner! You're great! A g-good person. You're really nice to me," she stops and sighs, her sentence getting away from her. "Deep down, I know I'm not a sinner either," she lies. She puts some real heart into this one. She's a sinner through and through, but she really doesn't want a great person like Wren to know that.
Wren steps closer. "It's... okay. It's not something you can just... change. That takes time." Her eyes stay on Charlie's. Hers are big, soft. Like fawn's eyes. There's no judgment in them. There's worry, and sadness, and acceptance, and knowing, but not judgment. "You're a good person, too. Bad people don't think they're bad. The very fact you do is proof you're wrong." She keeps quiet. They're being left to their own devices. Just a couple having a bit of a breakdown. It happens. "I'm... not going to stop trying to show you that you're not a sinner. I want you to like who you are. And accept who you are. Can I keep trying? Until you do?"
Tears are welling up in the corners of her eyes again. She sniffles a little, trying to hold them back and nods lightly. "If that's what you want to do," she says. Her eyes seem a little conflicted here, but for once she's not lying. "C-can I hug you again?" she asks, trying to put a smile back on her face.
"Wouldn't offer if I didn't," she murmurs, giving Charlie a soft little encouraging smile. "Of course you can. Whenever you like. Hand holding, too. You shouldn't be afraid to share that even just with friends. So that's a really good place to start, don't you think?"
She hugs Wren, as hard as her one dot of strength will allow. She then goes to take Wren's hand, but is interrupted by her stomach growling. "Oh, um," she giggles nervously, "I, uh. The avocado roll was the first thing I ate today. I, um, I could really use that burger."
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