Ayla

i forgot to post this, woops 😅

- leon

Despite the fact that Leon was very much there, and very much on time, Ayla still felt tense. She'd thought the anxiety was from the idea of her being late, or him being late, or any of the many things that could've possibly gone off the rails, but it was less of the catastrophizing and almost... giddy? That wasn't the word- excited seemed better.

Ayla did her best to give Leon a bright smile; to pretend like she hadn't been pacing around like a crazy woman for almost fifteen minutes.

--Hey! It's... good to see you

He hadn't been too concerned with rushing or anything, knowing they pretty much had the rest of the day to hang out. Or however long Ayla wanted to stay for. He'd hate to keep her if she had other shit to do.

——— " Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long, by the way. " After all, he hadn't been as anxious as her to get to the meeting spot and was trying to be on his best behaviour for once, so he'd only really left his last class once the bell rang. Granted, he pretty much made his way straight over after he'd changed out of his uniform into something more comfortable, à la his vaguely punkish attire. He gestured with his head away from the school, " Ready to go if you are. "

And as they started walking together, Leon had noticed how close she hovered by him. He didn't really mind or think much of it. It made sense, skittish as she was, to kinda cling to him while he led her to the game center where she'd never really been before.

If anything, he was just glad she seemed so excited about this. Leon wasn't very expressive himself, but he could say he was looking forward to it too. Not many would be jumping for joy to hang out with him so he sure wouldn't expect that, other than maybe a few of his bubblier friends, but the look on Ayla's face was kind of different than that. Softer. It stirred something warm in him.

——— " Anyway, I've been meaning to ask, " Leon began, looking over as he walked, " Didja wanna do anything after we hit the game center? Like, I mean, we could grab something to eat if you're feeling it. My treat. There's a couple other things we could do around the area too. Pretty sure there's a park and a library a little further down, or we could window shop-- There's this dumb souvenir shop that always has the corniest shit. ...I dunno, I'm spitballing. "

Her voice fell off for a few moments as she chewed on the inside of her cheek. She could ask, the worst that Leon could say was no. "Could we go to the park? The weather is nice, and I think there's that little café right by it- I might be wrong though..."

She pondered his question for a moment before ultimately drawing a blank. What did she like to do? It sounded a little pathetic to admit she didn't have any normal hobbies, and even fewer things that could actually suffice for a hangout activity.

"I like reading, but as for the bar games, they could be my thing. I haven't found out yet."

As easy as it was to just exist in silence with people, Ayla found herself actually wanting to keep talking with Leon. It was a little bit dumb, but all of this already seemed the slightest bit unwise. He had just laughed off all of her fumbles. Either she had lucked out and met someone who was just as socially unaware, or she had lucked out and met someone who didn't care that she was socially unaware. And with the charm that Leon carried, it was unmistakably the latter. Either way, she was lucky.

"So you've been to the game center before? What do you like?" She had a vague gist of the place. Darts and pool, and whatever else a game center might have. "Or y'know, what else do you like?"