[FIN] Theoretically Speaking

[BlackFireKitsune]

Seraphine made a noise of agreement to what Nate had said as she leaned back a bit in her seat. It was always enjoyable to hang out with him, given his personality and sense of humor, but it was also nice to talk to him because his opinions - and how he voiced those opinions - usually differed quite a bit from Rosie's and Luke's opinions. An idea suddenly struck her, and since their previous topic had ended, she deemed it an appropriate time to switch tracks. "Hey," she started hesitantly, her eyes narrowing a bit both in thought and indecision over if she should even bring this up in the first place, but did so regardless. "Random question," because she couldn't very well ask Luke or Rosie this because that would be way too awkward, "but have any of your really good friends dated each other?"  

[Suudonym]

Juggling two different jobs, it was rather uncommon that Nate got a day off, and when he did he was always quick to remember how incredibly boring it was to have nothing to do all day. Fortunately Sera was free as well this time, so he didn't have to spend the day replaying a game he'd already beaten three times or whatever other pitiful activity he would have found to fill the time.

"Uh." Random question indeed, and he raised an eyebrow in response. "Yeah. Couple years ago."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Oh okay good, so he had had a similar experience. Bolstered by this news, she opened her mouth to forge ahead, but found she hadn't actually thought this far ahead just yet. She shut her mouth with a thoughtful frown, then opened it a moment later to ask, "Did you ever see it coming - like was it really obvious, or was it a surprise, or something?" Random and now slightly awkward, but a little too late to go back now. The conversation would probably go better if she just up and said 'hey so my two best friends are dating and now they're engaged and it's kind of weird' but she didn't exactly feel like saying that just yet, for whatever reason. She wasn't even sure what the reason was, just that she didn't want to.  

[Suudonym]

"Uhh... I don't know if it was a surprise like 'wow, holy crap,' but it was surprise like 'lol what, that's random,'" he shrugged, thinking back on the conversation, as long ago as it had been. "My buddy Will was asking all of a sudden if me and Ash had a thing going on," even if Sera didn't remember the names, he assumed the context would be enough, "saying that he was trying to be considerate of us but he really liked her and it was driving him up the wall watching us do nothing." He waved a hand dismissively. "Told him it was a misunderstanding, so he went for it and bam: two best friends dating."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sera did indeed vaguely remember the names - something about Ash being a muffin and could drink him under a table, but she didn't remember anything specific about this 'Will' guy - and nodded as he spoke. So, Will and Ash had dated, so Nate did understand. Sort of - it was still a different-sounding situation, but still similar enough to count. At least, in her opinion. "So.. how did that go..?" She asked slowly, unable to help her curiosity if they got engaged like Rosie and Luke had. Nate had never said one way or the other before - she didn't even know any of them had dated before now - so she really wasn't sure. Oh, but he said it happened a couple years ago, so maybe they didn't...? Or maybe they did.. Giving the thought up in mild frustration, she instead made herself stop thinking and just wait for Nate to respond one way or the other.  

[Suudonym]

"Well, Ash went off to college, and they were fine for a while, but Will had no sense of ambition or any goals or anything. Didn't care about getting a job or going to college or nothin'. Ash majors in math so you know she's going places, and she eventually got tired of it, so they broke up." A shrug. "There was probably more to it than that, honestly, but that's what I know about it." He lifted a brow dubiously. "...Why the sudden interest in my friends' love lives?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

A thoughtful hum accompanied another thoughtful frown as she considered his words. Well, that certainly made sense, and went along fairly well with what she already knew of relationships - all except Luke's and Rosie's, which was still dissimilar. They lived together and did a lot of things together, and they were both ambitious, so she couldn't see the same thing happening to them as what happened to Will and Ash.

Nate's sudden question drew her attention though, and after a brief and mildly confused look, she dropped her gaze rather awkwardly. "Oh, um," she began but stopped, trying to think of how best to reply to that. "Well, Luke and Rosie suddenly started dating and everyone else was like 'well s**t it's about damn time' but I was kind of the only one who was surprised by it," the brunette explained, raising her hand to push a few strands of hair back after they'd fallen in her face. "And then a few weeks later they were suddenly engaged, so..." She trailed off then, intending to try and think of a way to continue but found none, so she simply left it instead.  

[Suudonym]

Nate stared for a moment, processing the information he had been given. "Uhhh. Well. I can't really say it's especially common for people to decide to get married after dating for three weeks," he said carefully. Man, usually when people started talking marriage after dating for a month it was because they were creepy obsessive psychopaths with no firm grasp on reality - or at least that was what he had come to understand from anecdotes told online and from movies and television. "What, is she knocked up or something? 'Saving honor' or whatever it is?" Even that concept was pretty outdated by now, though.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The question surprised her, and it took her a moment to recover from her surprise before she shook her head firmly, "No, there's no way she is." Absolutely no way - but then, she'd thought there was absolutely no way Rosie would ever actually date anyone, or at least, not before Sera herself did, because her blond friend had never even shown an interest before. But then Rosie had surprised her then, so why wouldn't she surprise her with something like this, too? But no, she still couldn't see that as any sort of reason for them being engaged.

"No, it's just... Kind of strange," she admitted, confusion entering her expression as she frowned down at her knees. "Like... From what they both told me, they had really strong feelings for each other for so long before finally talking about them, and they barely even knew what dating was and even insisted that it didn't even matter, but then they got engaged because of some s**t with Luke's dad at his birthday party back around Christmas, so I don't even..." She trailed off again with another frown before switching tracks, "I guess it's genuine feelings and stuff? Like I can't imagine it's not, for them, but it's still kind of..." She searched around for an appropriate word and could only come up with, "Odd? No, not odd, but like... Not what I was expecting like... ever. Unexpected's a better word, I guess," the brunette ceded with a shrug. She wasn't really that great with wording things like this.  

[Suudonym]

Nate propped up his elbow to set his chin in his palm, listening with a skeptical expression. "Your friends sound ********' weird," he decided. He shrugged deeply. "But whatever makes 'em happy, I guess. s**t, who am I to judge, right?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"You mean ********' awesome," she corrected, leaning her elbow on the arm of her chair and pointing at him emphatically with one finger. "I'm the only one allowed to call them weird. But," the brunette continued as she leaned back again, "they do seem happy. Or happier than usual, anyway." Or in Luke's case, happy at all sometimes. Who was he to judge... Who was she to judge? Was she even judging? "It's still kinda weird though, like..." Her brow furrowed as she frowned thoughtfully again. "Like... did anything ever change for you when your best friends were dating? Was anything ever different or awkward or anything like that?"  

[Suudonym]

Yeeeeaaaahh no he meant ********' weird, but whatever. He shrugged lightly. "Not really. I mean, they held hands sometimes when we were walkin' around someplace, and they usually sat beside each other, but when we were hanging out things were pretty much the usual." He frowned contemplatively and shrugged again, "Well, sometimes I'd call Will to make plans to hang out or something and he'd already be doing something with Ash, or vice versa, but that wasn't anything new or anything - not like we'd never had scheduling conflicts before."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Ah, okay," she replied, leaning her chin in her hands as she thought on that. He didn't seem like it had bothered him... "Maybe I just think about things too much," she thought aloud with a sigh and a light frown. Maybe she did - it wasn't as if they did anything that much different, really. She was just thinking differently. Were they thinking differently? "I don't think we've ever really had scheduling conflicts before.."  

[Suudonym]

"Well, not everyone handles it that well," he suggested. "Like the dating parties themselves, I mean. You get your insanely jealous girls that won't let the guy be friends with chicks anymore and the clingy guys who prioritize their girl over their bros every time. If you get shut out and they don't wanna listen to reason, there's not much you can do about it."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

She blinked once or twice and lifted her head to look at him when he spoke next, almost surprised at the things he said. The thought of being shut out, of being left out and let go as a friend again as she had before, by the two people she was closest to, turned the blood in her veins to ice for a few moments. No, no; they wouldn't ever do anything like that, she didn't need to worry about that, that wouldn't happen. Not ever. "They're not like that," she said instead when she'd forced herself to bury even the possibility of that ever happening ever, "they don't... really do anything different, I don't think, but it's just weird because it's still different, even though.. it's... s**t, I don't know," Sera gave up as she threw her arms into the air and slumped back in her chair. How could it be different but the same? That was such a blatant contradiction that even she had to acknowledge it, and yet she still didn't know how to think about it. This was ridiculous. She was ridiculous.