And then you start thinking... (Attn: Artemis)

Fourth of July? Was it really? Artemis thought about it, but found he couldn't quite remember. He remembered the melons. He also remembered thinking it was all pretty funny. Well, technically he still thought it was pretty funny. He just couldn't swear what day it was. There was no help for it, he had to laugh at himself.

"Fourth of July sounds good. I couldn't say for certain that it was though. I was a touch intoxicated at the time."

Letting out and exagerated sigh, Artemis gave her a playful poke in the ribs for the dancing comment. He saw how it was going to be. Ham it up one time for a girl and you would be reminded of it for the next millennium. He would hate to see what would happen if he made her mad. Vampire women were apparently like human women only with more time to gloat. And rub it in. Hold a grudge. There was also the total havoc on his senses. And of course rendering of his brain to mush. Yep that about summed it up. Pak was so cute when she does that.

"Well I was going to mention that getting the movie would require moving as well. This was before I remembered how gifted you are. And telekinetic too."

She had rarely used explosives in her… diversions. And while Pak had no idea if it had been the fourth or not, it did seem like an appropriate way to celebrate that particular holiday.

Between the sigh and the poke, which caught Pak in a ticklish spot, she wound up pulling herself into a ball and laughing again. And while she would be able to hold the dancing over Artemis’ head for a very long time he also now knew she was ticklish. It would have to be a fair trade.

Perfectly willing to accept flattery she again kissed his cheek before making sure both glasses were again full and returning Artemis’ to him.

“Full points for that, but don’t you think it should be my line?”

Somebody, somewhere was probably very worried that both she and Artemis were both telekinetic, but that was their problem not hers.

Pak was absently rifling through her DVDs and struck but the full realization that she was a geek. Who else but a geek would keep Kill Bill shelved with Finding Nemo (which she would deny owning or blame on a manic phase) The Seven Samurai, and Gosford Park; not to mention the standard geek fare of the Matrix and Monty Python. With any luck, this little quirk in her personality would go overlooked.

Deciding that subtitles were just as easy, if not easier to ignore, than English; that and black and white movies had more ambiance. It was easy enough to turn out the lights, and load the movie. OK so The Seven Samurai wasn’t your typical date movie, still it was nice to be able to take care of all that without losing one’s place, so to speak.

“You don’t speak Japanese do you?”

Artemis accepted the glass with a smile. The comment about whether it was her line or not caught him a bit off guard. That meant thinking about his talents. Or her thinking about his talents. Could lead to a discussion of his talents. A display of talents? He had many talents. And why was it exactly he always managed to end up in the gutter when he was with her? Artemis was beginning to think he should just give in and take up residence.

After considering the question briefly, he decided a non-answer was probably best. Time to deploy the standard laugh, smile, nod, drink some wine response. This routine had gotten him out of trouble a few times. It had also gotten him into trouble a few times too. The smile and nod was not a good thing in a noisy bar or club when you couldn't really hear or understand what was being said. A mental change of subject was probably a good thing about now. Artemis decided to content himself with waiting to see what movie she came up with.

"Japanese? No, in all my lessons with Mai, I never managed to learn her language. Although there was this one phrase that was either a battle cry or Japanese for 'In coming'. The rough translation is that Artemis was about to be in trouble."

Smiling at the memory, he thought about those lessons. He had been a very good archer when he was alive. After years of lessons with Mai, his skills far surpassed anything he could have imagined. And that was without the added advantage of telekinesis. Pulling himself back to the present, the Japanese question intrigued him.

"So what movie have you selected for us?"

Mai was one of Anantyna’s elders wasn’t she? Of course she could be dead wrong about that as well. Either way it didn’t sound like they had been lessons in cultural diversity, it sounded like being attacked and Pak was rather curious about that.

“Being confronted with a battle cry is hardly conducive to linguistics. Do I dare ask what you were doing, although you seemed to have lived through it.”

Life, undeath, it was all relatively interchangeable and it was just uncomfortable and odd to refer to yourself and others sitting next to you in the past tense. Pak paused momentarily, what a morbid thought.

Pak mentally gave the DVD player a smack. She really ought to get a new one this one had taken to occasionally making funny noises, although a good 'thunk' seemed to fix it; at least temporarily.

Her head settled comfortably on Artemis’ shoulder, relaxed for maybe the first time that evening. Her ideas about Aishe were placed on hold and that was a good enough answer for now and the general ‘damned it there is a cute guy coming over’ jitters and passed as well, even though he was still there.

“The Seven Samurai. I haven’t seen it in a while though. Someone told me they made it into a western… I think.”

Part of the reason Pak had settled on that particular movie was its length, it was not short. The bit about it being a western, she was fairly certain she’d heard that but where or when she couldn’t tell you. Not that it mattered, she wasn’t fond of westerns.

What was he doing? Though she meant it innocently, Pak had no idea how awkward a question that was to answer. Before even addressing the issue of the lessons, there was the admission that he had in fact been Anantya. The general first response was suspicion. The "Oh my gosh it is an Anantya spy come to ruin us all!" response. Artemis typically waited for this to pass and the realization of just how old he was to sink in. This tended to lead to the "Wow you are so freaking old you pre-date Evenhet" response. Artemis didn't mind attention when it was for one of his inventions or for some manner of mischief he had created. No, he didn't mind it when it was earned, but when it was for something superficial or out his control like previous clan and age, it tended to make him feel awkward and uncomfortable.

Once you got past the introduction and moved to what he was actually doing, the matter got even more complicated. He doubted that his anger management classes, murdered wife, or 1500 plus year quest for revenge were appropriate topics of conversation on a date. Of course it was his own fault for bringing up Mai in the first place. And in all fairness, Pak had brought up the prospect of children. The thought that Pak had started this downward spiral into inappropriate conversation made him smile. Someone other than Alfarinn to blame things on could be a good thing. With a small chuckle he kissed her softly on the forehead.

"They were Mai's lessons on how to become a better man. And I did eventually learn to duck or step to the side. So I suppose I got the gist if not the literal translation."

Listening as Pak explained the movie selection, he to took a moment to scan a mental list of things he had seen or heard about. He came to the conclusion that he didn't know a thing about this movie. In fact he had never heard of it. Clearly it wasn't a dance movie of any sort. The dancing circle that he tended to spend time with, and feed upon, had never mentioned it. This turned out to be a good thing, as Artemis realized he was pleased with the prospect of experiencing something new with Pak. Although he wasn't quite sure how much of the movie would actually register.

"I am sure that is you liked it well enough to own a copy, then it must be good. Although if I hear the battle cry, don't be surprised if I duck out of reflex"

He pretended to try and hide behind her, before smiling and giving her a gentle squeeze.

See now it was that kind of vague response that jus begged for follow up questions. Pak tried to balance it out, ask the questions ‘And just what were you doing taking lesions with Anantya’s elder?’ and ‘Why exactly were you needing to be a better man?’ or cut Artemis some slack. Both had their merits. Trying to quickly debate the pros and cons, that whole exchange at the Creation Ball regarding Sorin chose to pop into her mind right now. That was just odd and certainly wasn’t helping.

Ultimately Pak decided not to decide and smiled sweetly while leveling a very inquisitive look at him. It would his decision to talk or not she’d save her prying for the second date. Even if she had to haul him, out of the lab by his hair to get him to that one. For all her promises it turned out Pak couldn’t let it slid completely.

“You are being distracting. Did you know that?”

Letting him be distracting Pak giggled at the prospect of random ducking. As the movie started out with the proposed attack on a village Pak wondered exactly how serious he was being. There was plenty of shouting in Japanese to be had, surely some of it had to sound similar to Mai’s charge.

“I promise to defend you from the Samurai, but you’re on your own with the bandits.”

It surprised the hell out of Pak but she pulled herself into Artemis’ lap, doing her best to look menacing and defensive, it almost worked. Something about being a smallish Asian woman generally made people wonder if you know Kung Fu or something like that and that added to her menacing factor.

“I make it a point not to defend any one from bandits until at least the second date.”

The look from Pak had not been lost on Artemis. He knew he would have to explain everything eventually. He just didn't want to do it now. For the most part, the evening had been very pleasant. The last thing that was needed was a discussion of his past. Sure Pak was old enough not to be surprised by the fact that he had had a wife. But the fact that a part of him would always love and miss her might take some explaining. That in turn would lead to discussions on what happened to her. This in turn would lead to .... Sorin. If anything could kill a mood on a first date, that would do it.

Fortunately for Artemis and his tendency to brood, Pak did not seem too intent on pushing this issue at the moment. Even more delightful was that somehow he managed to end up with a lovely Asian woman sitting on his lap. Artemis decided he was going to like this movie, even if he didn’t see much of it.

“Now who is being distracting?”

Grabbing hold of the glass in his hand with his mind, he gently floated it to the table. Lifting Pak slightly, he shifted her to a more comfortable position on his lap. This also made it easier to playfully hide behind her at random times during the movie. Artemis knew better than to respond to the actual battle cry when he heard it. That would provide his mischievous date with too much ammunition. Still ducking in response to random words to add a bit of confusion, certainly had merit.

Wrapping both arms around Pak, he was prepared to execute his devious plan. That was before his caught the mention of a second date. He didn’t bother to suppress the grin.

“Does this mean we are watching this movie on the second date too? That is certainly fine with me, so long as you promise to sit on my lap again….For protection of course.”

She’d told herself she’d let it slide and she would. If nothing else, of late history lessons tended to be, emotional at best and down right depressing at worst. They were already lucky that the initial reason for their date tonight hadn’t killed the mood and Pak wasn’t going to risk it.

Now that they were both comfortable and after watching the wine return itself to the table, Pak decided that, either Artemis had an unsuspected passion for classic Japanese films or she was more interesting than the wine. Pak decided to be flattered and almost missed the distracting comment.

“I should hope so.”

Of course, she looked perfectly innocent as she said that, but was thoroughly pleased with herself.

With Artemis’ arms around her she almost, remotely possibly considered watching the movie. Well not really, after all, she’d seen it, of course at the rate they were going Artemis wouldn’t have seen it and it would be a plausible second date as well.

Pak very nearly blushed, an odd thing she never blushed, but in fact did get just a little pink. Oh, she was very probably going to pay for that.

“Well if it’s for protection I think it can be arranged. Unless of course you can think of something better?”

That was a blatant attempt to see if she could get Artemis to blush as well.

There was a slight color change, and Artemis found he was quite pleased with himself. He would probably never see it again, but he did at least see it this time. Add that to the fact that he had discovered she was ticklish as well, and he would say the evening was turning out in his favor. Although she still used the Creation ball against him, and now had the duck in response to Japanese battle cries. He would definitely have to work on swinging the tally in his favor, but somehow he doubted she was going to make it easy on him.

Sure enough, she had to go and say something like. Still, it was a very open question which left him lots of room for mischief. He could be a good boy and give a nonchalant answer, but then she would wonder what aliens had abducted him. Artemis decided he didn't want to disappoint her or cause her any undue concern. Chuckling, he whispered in her ear.

"If that arrangement doesn't suit you, I am sure that I can come up with a few inventive ideas."

It was a very good thing Pak had already had her momentary laps of control because that little quip would have either caused her to blush again or dissolve in to giggles. Even composed, she had to take a sip of her wine to buy some time.

This was very probably going to get worse before it got better. Of course, she sure didn’t want to be the one to spoil it, where would the fun in that be?

“Will said inventive ideas require tools?”

For a brief moment, she considered being good, but it didn’t last long.

“Or additional hardware?”

Given their respective lines of work it could be taken at face value, but probably wouldn’t be.

Well this conversation was going downhill fast. The first thing that came to Artemis's mind was the part in a particular movie where the main character was asked if he could hammer a nail into a two inch board with his penis. Of course he was of the opinion that he could, but that was probably not a discussion he should have at the moment. He let out a strained chuckle. If he didn't change this train thought soon, he was going to shift the position of the pretty Asian woman sitting on his lap. After running the words "Dalai Lama" through his mind a few times, he thought he would be O.K.

It was the "Additional Hardware" that was his undoing. He started laughing and couldn't stop for what seemed like a long moment. When he finally pulled himself together, his eyes were still watery with amusement.

"Well love, I always make sure to be properly equipped, but if there are some additional hardware items that you think might be of use, I am certainly open to the suggestion."

Wrecking havoc was always highly entertaining, this was better. Pak grinned wickedly at her success as Artemis laughed. They should have tried this un-chaperoned date thing a while ago.

She carefully sent her wine back to the table before sliding her arms around his neck.

“Rather like a Boy Scout?”

She wasn’t having much luck thinking and was quickly giving up. The only thing she could think of when he asked about hardware was the random odds and ends she generally had stashed about and that wasn’t sexy at all. Some people had leather, Pak had motherboards.

“How much suggestion do you need?”

One eyebrow quirked upwards as she baited him.

Oh she was going to be difficult. Figures he would fall for an intelligent and witty woman. No simpering brainless twit for him. Nope that would be too easy. Laughing he gave her a gentle hug and a kiss.

"Well --entertainment-- is generally subjective, so I would need some guidance on what would keep you.... Entertained."

At this point Artemis figured that a slight change in subject might be wise, but he didn't have it in him to be serious and he certainly didn't want to kill the playful mood.

"Although if the movie selection is any indication, I would say you liked screaming Japanese. Hmmm. Maybe I should arrange for you to have lessons with Mai."

It was mostly a jest, but it did bring an important point to the forefront of his thoughts. His 'mother' and his teacher were both Anantya elders. Come to think of it, his enemy was too. Though he was Evenhet now, he would never be able to fully separate from Anantya. If things continued to go well with Pak, this aspect of his life would affect her too. At some point she would have to meet the 'family'. He wasn't sure how he felt about that, or how she would feel about it. The best thing to do would be to ask, the question was how. Artemis was fairly certain that asking, 'Would you like to meet my maker?' was not the way to go. Could just be him, but there was something a bit off about that question.

"How would you feel about meeting Morrigan some time?"

Cheater! She was supposed to be baiting him, he wasn’t supposed to turn it around on her. Looking very serious Pak let this one be a draw, mostly, and leaned in to return his kiss.

“Solitaire, doesn’t work.”

Hey look there was a movie on. She’d rather forgotten about it, and turned to look at the film for just a second before deciding it really didn’t matter. On general principle she did nudge the volume down slightly.

“Will said lessons be personal growth or linguistics?”

The next question brought her up a little short. First there was the question of who Morrigan was, which took a second but Pak thought she put it together. Odd that Anantya would come up more than once this evening, even indirectly.

The second question was how she related to Artemis, that one Pak couldn’t sort out. Although she could only surmise she was important to him. Deciding she could be either nervous or curious Pak went with curious, it was more natural.

“I wouldn’t say no, it might be nice. Any particular reason why?”

Artemis couldn't help but laugh. Memories of his own time with Mai came to his mind.

" Well with Mai, lessons tend to be a bit of both. Just be sure to wear padding and a helmet."

His smile became a bit more nervous as he found he could not judge her reaction to his question about Morrigan. He tended to be very blunt and say what came to mind. Even when he did try to apply a filter, Artemis had a habit of getting to the point without much lead up. He was beginning to wonder if he should come with a warning label. Artemis was relieved that she didn't say no and didn't ask him out right if he was crazy.

" Morrigan would be my maker."

Yep, he definitely needed warning label. 'Warning: Capable of making a situation awkward without prior notice'

"She is family and very big part of who I am now....."

His speech trailed off a bit and he resisted the urge to shrug. Artemis wasn't sure how to finish the conversation without making the awkwardness worse. He liked Pak and wanted to spend more time with her. That typically meant opening up. He didn't want various aspect of his life to be an unpleasant surprise for her. Not that he was doing a great job of smoothing things over now. In general, he wasn't sure how to put what he was thinking in a way that made sense to anyone other than him. He just hoped she got the gist of it.

Pak looked rather cross-eyed at Artemis. Padding and a helmet didn’t sound promising. She wasn’t above throwing things or crawling around on the ground when the situation warranted it but anything that required a helmet, she’d just as soon hide under her desk.

On second thought maybe that would be the safer option, at least one knew what one was getting into when safety gear was required. His maker was an Anantya elder. She could deal with that, she just hadn’t been expecting it, and had to keep herself from asking multiple questions.

Pak found she was weighing her words very carefully, but didn’t want to pause too long.

“Quite a family.”

Giving this piece of his family tree and the references to the older clan Pak reasoned Artemis had started out as Anantya and therefore might possibly be older than Evenhet. Nothing wrong with an older man, but apparently they had a lot to talk about.

“In a good way, or you wouldn’t be asking me to meet her.”

Pak smiled reassuringly. She wouldn’t be sitting in his lap ignoring a movie if she were going to be intimidated by family or history.

Artemis was silent for what felt like a long time. Perhaps too long. Clearly he should give up and crown himself the king of awkward. Feeling that he should do something at this point, Artemis gave Pak a reassuring hug and a kiss on the cheek. He couldn't help but smile at the delicate way she commented on his 'family ties'.

Artemis was having a hard time focusing on a proper way to respond. He was not yet drunk enough to think straight. Reaching with his mind, he pulled his glass of wine to him. Finishing the glass, he let it drift slowly back to the table. He wanted to return to the lighter mood they had moments before, but somehow 'Some people keep their skeletons in a closet, I keep mine in Anantya' didn't seem like the correct response. Thinking about his 'family' did bring a smile to his face.

"Indeed. We are quite a family. Though we haven't made it to the status of 'Adams family weird' yet. I don't think Morrigan would appreciate me sending her a sheep dog and naming him 'Cousin It'."

"That seems much more appropriate to this side of the family."Â?

Pak was still trying to work out his relations. When he finished his wine, she thought he might be as well. That seemed like a very good idea, that or a clove. But a clove would have required her to move, Pak did have a few manners regarding that particular bad habit. Rather than move she settled for nibbling on her lower lip, if she wasn't careful she's draw blood so that was given up rather quickly.

Family could be complicated couldn't it?

The mood of the evening seemed to be all over the map and Pak decided against fighting it and just let things go where they may.

"So I should be on my best behavior for said visit?"Â?

She made use of her best perfectly innocent expression. Pak didn't break that one out too often, just in case it were to become slightly unbelievable. Of course, there were some people who might say that it ready had.

Despite the light tone she took this all rather seriously, slightly confused but seriously.

Artemis smiled and gave Pak a playful tap on the nose.

" No probably not. She knows me and she knows Alfarinn. So, it is not likely that she would believe it. She might though. You could always try."

Artemis looked at the pretty Asian woman sitting on his lap. Thinking about all of the mischief he had gotten into in the past, he had to grin. Nope, Pak was pretty much guilty by association. It was bound to be an interesting evening if and when the two women met. Quite a bit would depend on the moods of both of them. Perhaps he should bring Alfarinn for backup? Artemis decided to abandon thoughts of offering Alfarinn as a sacrifice to the women in his life. The man was useful to have around when you wanted to get drunk or play prank. Having another reasonable suspect in the clan always good thing. Thinking of his friend put Artemis in a lighter mood, not all of his history was bad.

" A thought has occurred to me. Should I worry that you have that innocent look so well practiced?"

She should have realized she was walking into trouble given that Morrigan would already know Artemis. Pak finally gave up and giggled, rather cheerfully accepted any judgment her association with him would have.

“If first you don’t succeed… blame some one else. I should be able to blame a few things on you, at least the first time.”

Trying to salvage something of her saintly reputation Pak made an attempt to stop giggling and straighten up, with a moderate degree of success.

It wouldn’t do to give away all her secrets or ruin her mostly harmless reputation on the first… second… whatever… date. Time enough for that later.

“I can’t think why you would worry about something like that at all, unless you’re feeling guilty about something recently gone awry?”