losthunter | Dancing, Drinks and Drag ((Jim, Verity)

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Dancing, Drinks and Drag ((Jim, Verity)

Hunter has been looking forward to this night for a long time. He has a table booked at his favorite Drag bar. He is looking forward to dressing up, and enjoying a few drinks with two of his favorite people. And he is sure that both Jim and Verity will enjoy a night out on the town.

Right now, Hunter is waiting in his New York apartment, where he is going to meet up with both Jim and Verity. It is the best place to get together, before heading out to the bar. Both Jim and Verity know his PINpoint coordinates. And besides, they don't have to navigate the Drag bar trying to find Hunter.

Tonight, Hunter is wearing a long gold dress. It is designed to show off his arms. And has a long exposed back. The look is completed with an elaborate head piece and deep, rich make-up that flatters his whole look.

He is excited to have Jim and Verity show up and to see their outfits.

[recommending a post order of Hunter/Jim/Verity]

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It is tame flirting, and she knows it, but she is who she is. She's the tame mommy friend in the group: dinner parties, wine, and tricking supergeniuses into letting gods out of boxes. Nothing to write home about.

"Then I won't ask what your favorites are and will surprise you," she promises with a smile. She might already be having ideas. (She's having ideas.) He's much safer not letting her know when his birthday is, because there would be cake, and that would be terrible.

"They're not common in American cuisine when we're from, outside of foodie circles, but they're getting more popular. I take it they've had a resurgence in the future?"

"And I was never in a foodie circle." Hunter notes softly. "A typical supper when I was a child and teen was take-out food. And there are not a lot of places in New York that include edible flowers in their take-out menu."

Speaking of food, their main course arrives. The waitress serves them each, smiling at each one as she does. "How are your drinks? Anyone need a refill?"

"Oh yeah," Jim says, nodding in response to Verity's question. "Funny story, when the Vulcans first visited Earth and started learning about our culture, they thought the flower centerpieces in restaurants were appetizers, so it sparked an edible flower revolution, I guess. Had to make the alien visitors happy, and then it just kinda caught on with everyone else."

Jim's had a lot of experience with takeout, especially during his three years at Starfleet Academy in San Francisco. It's not really allowed to live in San Fran for so long and not hop over to Chinatown for dim sum or noodles every so often, never mind all the other assorted regional and extraterrestrial cuisines on offer. "I don't know if that's better or worse than all the sweet corn I had to eat growing up," he says to Hunter with a grin. "Corn's great but it's everywhere."

Hooray for food arriving! Jim gladly takes custody of his plate, and smiles back at the waitress. "Sure, I'll have another one."

Poor Hunter. But then, this is why she feeds him so much: she knows what he'd be eating otherwise. "To be fair, New York has some of the best take-out in the world." Anyone who wants to say otherwise had better be prepared to fight her. "And the variety's hard to beat."

Jim's story gets an utterly delighted laugh from her. "Well, I'm glad people have come to their senses on that score." And she makes a mental note: no corn.

She takes her plate and thanks the waitress quietly. "Water, please."

He has been learning different recipes and cooking for himself more these days. But he is never going to turn down any food prepared by Verity.

"I loved the sushi places, in particular."

The waitress nods her head at Verity's request. "Sparkling, mineral, or citrus-flavored dear?"

Edited 2017-08-01 02:41 (UTC)

It's good to get that kind of laugh out of her. Jim hasn't had enough laughter in his life in general, and more is always welcome. "Any other unconventional ingredients you're a fan of using?" he asks curiously, as he begins to dig in to his meal.

"Um... citrus, please."

She waits until the waitress steps away again before continuing the conversation. (The laughter is much appreciated from her side of things as well.) "Mm, sushi. I think I know where I'm taking Matt for our next date night."

Ver doesn't dig straight in, taking time to appreciate the meal with her other senses before tasting it. "Unconventional ingredients... well, honestly? I'm not even sure what that would be anymore, half the time. Vanilla salt?"

Hunter smiles. "I am so going to make both you and Matt a sushi platter. I have been learning how to roll my own sushi. And would like to treat you both."

All this talk about food... it is a good thing that he has a meal to start eating. And the show on the stage is great entertainment.

After the opening number, where all the Drag Queens performed together, they separate into duets and solos. Each one taking a little time on the stage. Right now, there is a Drag comedian, who is making the crowd laugh with some of her crude jokes.

"Vanilla salt?" Congratulations, Verity, you've found something he's never seen. "Is that a dessert thing?"

The conversation is an interesting contrast to the show, in his opinion. While most of his attention is on Verity and Hunter, the jokes in the background keep the mood relatively light, letting him enjoy the meal and the company without too many distractions.

"Oh yeah?" Hunter gets an encouraging smile. "We'll be thrilled to try it, and of course to tell you how fabulous everything is." On that point there is no doubt.

Ver glances at the stage occasionally, but it doesn't interest her much. All that glitters, as they say. "It's great with desserts, yeah, but I use it in savory dishes too. It balances the acidity in tomatoes beautifully, and it's lovely on fish. I'll make sure you have a chance to try some."

"I had the opportunity to try out a few new vegetarian barbecue dishes, when I had Jim and some of his crew members over for supper. I think I did an okay job, considering it was my first time preparing a meal that included a Vulcan among the dinner guests." Hunter notes.

"And we had talked about doing a big pot luck sometime, with more of his crew members. You should join us for that," Hunter knows that sometimes it is food that brings people together.

Huh. Vanilla with tomatoes or fish is a new one on him, but he's nothing if not culinarily adventurous. At least, that's how it comes across, anyway. And he's heard of weird food combos like that coming out fine, like tomato soup in chocolate cake. "Looking forward to it," he answers, intrigued despite not being able to picture just how that might taste.

"You did great," Jim says, giving Hunter an encouraging smile. "Though on that note, just in case Spock's ever invited, let me warn you ahead of time, enough chocolate gets Vulcans wasted," he adds to Verity with a slightly sheepish glance towards Hunter. Somebody forgot to tell their dinner host that, before the aforementioned dinner party. Turned out okay, though.

If Jim likes new and unusual things to eat, he's in for a treat with Ver. But he kinda already knew that. He's very close to full-on friendship status with her, and if nothing else, her friends will never go hungry. "Good." Her smile is brighter and more open now that they've got steadier common ground.

"No pork, vegetarian, limited chocolate. I can deal." Indeed, she's taking this quite seriously. They can practically see the mental notes being taken. A potluck means a lot of new people, but she can handle that. "Sounds like fun. I promise not to bring too many things."

The waitress comes by with a second round for Jim and Hunter, and a citrus-flavored water for Verity. She does a courtesy check with the table, before moving onto the next table. It is a good crowd for the night.

There is a four-person Drag group that is now singing, off-stage, as they weave in between tables. Every now and then, they sit with a customer and sing to that person.

"I have also been slowly adding to Jim's library. We both share a love for the written word. Especially poetry."

Now that he's got his second martini, Jim finishes off the first one. He's steadily working on his main course, completely undistracted from this by the conversation at hand and the drag show splitting his attention.

"Verity actually helped me find that volume of Vulcan poetry I've got. There's this little shop in the Nexus, not too far from the market. How are the cooking experiments going, by the way?" he asks, raising his eyebrows at Verity. She sounds like she's got a good handle on the whole 'food should taste good even if we have to do unconventional things to it' thing, so he's interested to see what she's come up with.

"You know, Matt first pursued me with poetry," she admits quietly. Then she sips her water, half to hide a little smirk when Hunter mentions the poetry. Better to let Jim explain how she already knows.

"They're going well. So far, everyone likes what they've tried, and I'd know if they were lying." And how. "I think the leading favorite so far is the Vulcan spice tea cake. Would you like me to bring one?" And maybe something with those plums he liked.

Jim totally gets her food philosophy. Food should taste good, smell good, look good, and be plentiful whenever possible. Soon he'll learn just how much effort a woman with too much free time will put into these things.

"Vulcan spice tea cake? Wow, put me down for one of those."

Hunter enjoys the fact that they can all bond over food. And that they are bonding over food while eating food.

"Sure, I actually haven't had one of those before either. I've spent more time trying to get traditional kreyla right than doing a variety of stuff," Jim admits.

Oddly, despite talking to her a couple of times now, he hasn't yet heard about Verity's inbuilt lie detector, so her mention of knowing if people were lying earns a slightly puzzled, questioning glance. But in not asking outright, he also leaves enough of an out that she doesn't have to say anything about it if she doesn't want to explain.

"It's good to respect traditions. Especially if you're friends with someone to whom those traditions are important." Is 'kreyla' the Vulcan name for the tea? She'll have to find out.

The look is noted but not immediately answered. Ver glances around again to make sure nobody's going to overhear (the loud and distracting show helps them avoid that problem), and takes her time measuring her words. Then she sets down her fork and lifts her gaze to meet Jim's. "You're a man of science, so I understand if you don't want to believe me. I've been cursed with the ability to always knows when something isn't true. Yes, magic. No, not on purpose, my dad was just careless. No, I can't turn it off."

Hunter reaches over the table, to gently place his hand on Verity's as she explains about her curse. He knows that Jim has experience a lot of magic, since coming into the Nexus (and Hunter's own experiences with Kendra are part of the reason why). This is her curse to explain. He will just support her as much as he can.

Verity's eventual research will tell her that kreyla is a type of Vulcan bread, often sweetened and used as a breakfast item. Jim's more comfortable baking than trying to do anything too complicated, but Earth-made ovens just don't tend to be as hot and dry as the desert stone ovens that they're intended to be baked in.

The captain doesn't interrupt or object, even if he couldn't see how serious this is to her, which he does. When she's done, he pauses a moment to make sure he's got all that, before he responds, truthfully, "I believe you. I've seen enough magic to know that it's real, and that's actually one of the more... straightforward curses I've heard of so far."

Verity may have ideas about how to make that work. Like a pizza stone.

A grateful glance darts Hunter's way and her hand turns over under his to take hold. She's told the story dozens of times, but it never gets easier.

Jim's ready acceptance is a relief, which is written plain on her face. "Thank you. And I apologize in advance for all the times I'll infuriate you with it. And it's okay if you have questions about it. I'd rather people just ask than try to sneaky-test me."

"It was the fact that we both had a curse affect our lives that bonded Verity and I together. The first time we met."

"And then I got to know this beautiful woman, and loved her even more."

Oh. Well, put that way, Jim can definitely see how a friendship developed between them so easily. That's a hell of a common ground to have.

He really only has one major issue to address at the moment, while they're on this subject. "So if classified information ever comes up, or something else I can't talk about, giving you the cover story would not just be pointless but pretty rude."

Hunter gets another grateful look, this one longer and coming with a smile. "Thank you." He's always been too kind to her, she's sure, but no point looking that gift horse in the mouth. Besides, he's got great teeth.

"I'd prefer if you just told me it's classified. I can respect that," she answers Jim before warning, "But I also know the difference between can't and won't." And boy doesn't that just make morning runs with Samus all the more interesting?

As a small consolation prize, she offers, "You can also tell me to back off. I know that sometimes I'm not great at knowing where the line is."

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