Storm Warning

[Beau LaRoux]

Storm Warning

Prom.

Beau had gotten the notice after everyone else, and for good reason for a change. He hadn't exactly been on the main part of campus. He'd managed to land a spot on the security squad, somehow, and he wanted to make sure he was pulling his weight. The girls he worked with were tough as nails, some of them practically military, and Beau didn't want to be the one holding everyone back. Which meant training, more than he'd ever done, which was why he'd been at the arena, his phone off, and had only gotten the message after things had started. Someone had sent him a text with a simple question:

who u asking to prom, man?

and the answer came immediately to Beau. He knew exactly who he wanted to bring to prom, exactly who he wanted, needed even, to share the moment with. He couldn't think of anyone else that could possibly fit in. So he didn't really care that it was getting a little late (just a little though; the sun dipping down and people settling in after their respective long days). He didn't care that he'd practically ran to the dorms from some distance out, arriving tired and wiped out and almost falling at the foot of a dorm room after he'd knocked on it. He didn't care that he was dressed in a t-shirt and a pair of jogging pants, both of which were practically soaked with his sweat despite the cool Montana weather.

No, what Beauregard Luke LaRoux cared about was asking Elizabeth Edison to prom before anyone else.

He just needed to try and get his breath back first, somehow, maybe, hopefully, probably. He could swear it was harder than normal though. Couldn't imagine why. Not like he was nervous or anything; he'd taken a girl to prom last year. Not Liz though. They'd each had different dates.

"Jus' say you're goin' as friends," he mumbled between puffs of air, "jus' as friends. Happens all the time. Don't wanna ruin the moment on some date we won't remember ten years down the road," he took a deep breath, swearing that he heard the door open. Beau unfolded himself, wanting to look Liz in the eyes when she finally opened the damn door.

200th post with Beau, btw

[Elizabeth Edison]

Prom was coming up and like most of the girls she had spoken to, Elizabeth was very excited about the event. Really, who wouldn't be? People get to dress up, they get to dance their asses off and probably make out with a couple or five people besides their own hand.

The first person she had in mind to go with her was obviously Beau. There was no question about it. But at the same time, after she thought of him, a string of other people came to mind. Why oh why did these things only allow just one person to be invited?

And as she thought of all the people she wanted to ask, she realised that the only person she wanted to ask her was Beau. She kept giggling every time she heard the door being knocked, thinking it was Beau asking her to prom. But most of the visitors were for her other new roommates she had yet to properly meet.

The sun was setting and she was pretty sure Beau wasn't coming so she dressed down for the night in a black tank top and her blue checkered boxers and plugged into her music player, listening to her music library. Half the songs were actually Beau's recommendation, which led her to think more of the male blond.

Abandoning her music player, she went to the kitchen to fix herself a sandwich. Just as she was about to eat, there was a knock on the door. She grumbled a little before bringing over the plate that held the other half of her turkey bacon and ham sandwich over to the door to put the one she had been holding down.

Answering the door, her eyes widened at the sight of the boy she had spent the last few hours thinking about. "Beau! W-what are you doing here?"

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau looked up, and couldn't help but think this was unfair. So he hadn't exactly been expecting Liz to be lounging around dressed in "going out" clothes or anything, and it wasn't like he hadn't seen her dressed exactly like this dozens of times before. No, the not fair part was that despite all that, she still looked pretty enough to make his mind skip a few times, like a record you'd put down that needed to get into the right groove. He coughed into his fist, straightening as best he could. He tried leaning on the door, and managed more or less to stay in the same place. At least the smile was quite genuine, as he met Liz's eyes, noting.

"Hey," he managed. He took another breath, licking his lips. He'd done this before, done it lots of times, had even asked Liz out... okay, not on a date, technically, but this wasn't a date... technically. This was just the two of them heading out to one of the more important nights of high school and all. "So," he said, he shifted, "I---well, heck," he let out a breath, "I kinda ran here when I heard 'bout prom an' all. Figured I'd ask you before someone else did, an' I wanted to beat them to it," he paused, realizing that the truth had just kind of come tumbling out (about damn time, Beau). He shifted then, moving his hand to rub the back of his head. Sweat met his touch, and he winced a little, letting out a long, low breath before continuing:

"So, like, I figured we could go. Together. Like as dates. But as friends," he said the last in a hurry, the hand shifting so he hit the door a few times. "Since we don't wanna screw prom up an' all." Yeah, that was what he'd practiced, right? He totally didn't sound like an idiot. Yeah. definitely.

[Elizabeth Edison]

When the boy leaned on the door, Elizabeth's lips went a little slack. For some odd reason, every time anybody did that, a part of her got a little...uneasy. Her cheeks burned a little and she quickly shook it off. "Uh...hi." She gave him a twitchy smile.

As he rambled through his reason coming here, Elizabeth's eyes lit up and her whole body seemed to come to life. All the waiting she had done was finally coming to fruition.

When he finally got to the part where he asked, she wanted to come out and say yes immediately. But she was cut short when he said they were to go as friends. Her smile froze and the grip she had on her plate tightened a little.

"Oh...um...as friends. Okay. Yeah. Maybe we should like...get a big group of us? I mean we don't have to ask Jess and Derek since, you know, they're obviously dating now. But yeah. Group date!" She widened her smile, feigning excitement. She was blabbering, she realised that. But she had to mask her disappointment somehow, right?

[Beau LaRoux]

Not another group date. The thought dashed through Beau's mind before he was really even aware that he was, well, thinking that much about it. She didn't sound that excited about the idea either, so he just had to find some way of working around it.

Thankfully, Beau could talk before thinking things through, which has been proven time and time again. "Nah, we don't wanna do that," he said, attempting to sound casual and not at all panicky. He crossed his arms, leaning a little more against the door. "They'll jus' bail an' stuff. 'sides, that ain't how this whole thing works. You gotta get a pretty dress an' I gotta dress in a suit an' it's gotta jus' be the two of us," he nodded, feeling like that should totally work as an explanation. He tried shifting again, mostly just squirming while making eye contact with Liz. "You know, gotta do this right. Hit all the notes an' stuff. Plus, we're a duet," yes! A music metaphor! Beau could so do a music metaphor! "We don't wanna toss anyone else in there. They'll mess it up. Gotta make sure this goes good an' all, be a story to tell our kids someday an' stuff."

Okay, so there might have been a slipped in hint that the our was less "yours and mine" and more "our" as in the two of them producing children together, but that was totally accidental and reading into things, obviously.

[Elizabeth Edison]

Elizabeth looked at Beau, tilting her head a little in curiosity as he went into explaining why it shouldn't be a group date. She was definitely confused then. Sure, she didn't want anybody else with them, even if they were going as just friends. But wouldn't it look less like a date thing if they went as a group?

She did understand the music metaphor but it still didn't make her feel any less of a dweeb being butthurt over the fact that Beau wanted to go just as friends.

Blinking at the 'our kids' part of his ramblings, she mentally kicked herself in the head before she could think of what she wanted that to mean.

"Okay. Alright then. We definitely need it to be epic." She nodded, even though now she had to cancel the making out part of the whole prom experience. She couldn't make out with a friend. That would just make things weird. And the fact that Beau wanted to go as friends was an obvious statement as to where she stood with him.

"Uh...have you thought of what you'll be wearing? Or do we just clash our outfits?"

[Beau LaRoux]

"Heck yeah, it's gotta be epic," said Beau, who was definitely not thinking of very specific, lip-involving ways in which they could reach that classification. And Beau's mind, which apparently wanted to one-up Liz's despite his good boy upbringings, kindly reminded him that most people were going to go home from prom and crawl into someone else's bed. Actually, crawl probably wasn't accurate, and that same overactive imagination that Beau just seemed Fated to have painted a very vivid picture of a very excited, smiling Liz jumping into his bed.

Though a weird question jostled him out of such thoughts, even though it was, weirdly enough, related to where his train had been taking him. "Uh, I jus' figured I'd be in a suit or somethin'," he admitted, shrugging. Beau again found himself rubbing the back of his hand, now pushing off the door a little. "Don't got but the one up here, an' it's black, though I reckon I could rent somethin' that would look better with you if ya wanted. You'd look good in jus' 'bout anythin' though," he meant it, though he knew that it was something that most anyone would say. He needed to try and play catchup: "Though that don't mean you shouldn't go all out an' all. Get a pretty new dress an' stuff. 'sides, if you're gonna be my date, you gotta knock 'em dead," he added a wink, grinning at that, again convinced that he'd somehow managed the minefield of this conversation without detonating anything, when he'd likely just lost a limb or two.

[Elizabeth Edison]

Beau's enthusiasm had Elizabeth smiling. Maybe it would just be a fun outing. Just one of their date nights but just fancier. Besides, seeing Beau in a tux, how could she pass it up?

"Well, yeah, of course you'd be in a tux. Duh." She rolled her eyes with a little grin. The grin grew bigger at the compliment and she felt her cheeks heating up. She tried to stop herself from getting too excited about it. This was his thing, flirting. It came naturally to him and she needed for it not to effect her too much.

"Oh I'm sorry, are you aiming to be prettier than me at the dance?" She raised an eyebrow, teasing him. "Because that is definitely a challenge if I ever heard one. I will knock your socks off, Swampy. Bet on it."

[Beau LaRoux]

"What? Ya mean that I'm not the pretty one?' asked Beau, feigning offense. "I thought that's what everyone always said about us! Man, I don't know if I can go on, all my hopes an' dreams are shattered."

though there was definitely one very strong one standing there now, one involving Liz all dressed up as pretty as she could manage, looking downright radiant in the light or something. He really wanted to see what she'd do to "rise to his challenge." In fact, his memory was literally having troubles coming up with that. This was one of those drawbacks that came when you genuinely thought a girl was pretty dressed as down as Liz was right now. Beau literally could not quite imagine how a fully prettied up Liz would look, at least not right now. Which was just stupid, seeing as he'd seen her at prom just last year; you'd think he'd remember.

"Yeah, you're gonna wanna at least try," agreed Beau, nodding with feigned seriousness now. "You ain't gonna wanna look back on these pictures a few years from now an' go 'gosh, I wish I'd just looked a little prettier that night. 'course if you're too pretty I'll have a heck of a time makin' sure everyone knows you're with me for the evening. we'd probably have to kiss or somethin', an' we both know how that'd turn out," okay, so it was said as a joke, sort of. kind of. not really.

It was permission to kiss her at prom.
And it was obvious.

[Elizabeth Edison]

Elizabeth rolled her eyes at Beau's dramatics, thoroughly amused. She wasn't even going to entertain the absurd idea that anybody talked about them at any capacity.

Unaware, as always, that Beau was having some sort of fantasy about her, Elizabeth was having her own. Seeing Beau in a form fitting tux, waiting outside her door, with his usual charming smile. She needed to get a grip on herself.

"Jesus." She laughed at his insistence on her having to look good. The idea of kissing her best friend was definitely appealing but she wasn't dumb. Beau was just joking. So she forced a snicker and shook her head. "You and your head. Where. Where is your head, Beau." She snorted and punched him on the shoulder.

"Okay. So will you be coming here or do I meet you at the auditorium? That's where it's going to be held, right? And...I'll tell you what colour I'll be wearing when I get the dress. Gotta get the right corsage and everything." She smiled, though a little forced.

[Beau LaRoux]

"Head's on prom an' everything that's required. Gotta make sure we do it right," insisted Beau. He wasn't even sure what parts he was joking about and which he was serious about any more. Could he talk Liz into maybe kissing him just a little? He knew that she loved quite a few people, was affectionate and all that stuff, but he didn't know whether or not he should cross that line. They hadn't until now. But he wanted to just sort of cross it instead of continually walk up and down it smiling at one another.

"Comin' here o' course," Beau said, nodding. "Gotta escort you to the dance an' all. Since I can't pick ya up in a limo like I oughta, I can at least make sure that when you walk in, it ain't alone. 'sides, knowin' you, you'll look so pretty an' start smilin' and I'll have to fight through your crowd of admirers to get to you. I want you all to myself for this," he said that last with far more sincerity than he meant, his eyes looking into Liz's, the smile fading for a few moments. He let it hang for a bit before coughing, adjusting himself.

"I'd better get changed an' stuff," he said, shifting his feet then raising an arm to take a whiff, wincing, "was practicin' an' all, but I wanted to make sure that you didn't go acceptin' someone else's offer," he grinned at Liz as he lowered his arm, nodding. That one was at least halfway serious. At least.

[Elizabeth Edison]

If Beau asked for a kiss, Elizabeth would be a fool to say no. He didn't have to convince her too much either. 'Just 'cause' was a good enough reason for her. She knew it would make it even more clear how she felt about him but she wasn't going to pass up the chance to kiss the boy.

She nodded at his plan and laughed at his prediction for the night. Like she was even going to entertain anybody else that night when she had already been asked by the person she thought of first. "You always have me every other night, Beau. This isn't going to be any different." She reasoned, though it was a little sad she felt upset about that fact being true.

She laughed genuinely finally when Beau took a whiff of himself. Since he had come, his smell was the last thing on her mind and now that he had unwittingly made her aware, she couldn't help but laugh even more. "I'm glad you asked. I was hopin' you would. I don't think going with anybody else would be as fun as going with my best friend." She grinned before waving him off.

"Take a long shower bro. You stink to high hell." She teased, chuckling behind one hand and waving him off with the other.

[Beau LaRoux]

"Well, yeah, but this is totally different,' insisted Beau. He didn't explain, didn't say why it was different or anything. He just left it. Surely she'd figure it out. at least she seemed happy about it, though Beau was pretty well convinced that she wasn't nearly as happy as he was. I should kiss her. Not now, ain't right now, but later. At the prom. Jus' kiss her an' tell her how I really feel. Prom will be right. Yeah, definitely.

Beau nodded, mostly to himself, though he realized that he was working with what she said. Worked with his sniffing thing too. So he chuckled, grinning wide at his best friend. "Yeah, yeah, I'm off," he said, taking a few steps back. "Gotta get clean an' all. So you can jus' think about that,' he teased, winking. He backed up a little more, just managing to stop before he hit something. he then turned and headed down the hall, humming along to himself, his heart and mood higher than it had been in a while.