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Dominic can't help but drum his hands against the table, idly fidgeting with one of his dreads every so often. The jitters thrum through his body, and he can't stop tapping his foot—he hasn't been on a date in ages. Sumaya, his best friend in the entire world—even if she denies it—insisted that she had a perfect girl for him to meet. She grinned with all her teeth, wiggled her eyebrows, and pointed out his type—catgirls. Sweet, pretty catgirls with soft ears and fidgeting tails, smiles with fangs and eyes that look adorable when dilated.
He insisted to Sumaya that she had to stop making him sound like a weirdo—Sumaya just snorted and said he was a weirdo, but that she knew someone who he'd love. So Dominic's here now, in this café with his hands unable to stop fidgeting and his chai latte starting to cool, left on the table. He had to consciously remind himself to put his headphones away, because that's bad form on a date, but he also gets so oversensitized on the bus if he doesn't have sound drowning out the chatter and engine. So they're shoved into his bag, because Dominic doesn't know when this mystery date will arrive, but he wants to impress her, okay? He can't be…lost in his own world.
In fact, he's so focused on the table—he's moved onto twisting and twining his fingers together, hidden beneath the table on his lap, he's nervous but he doesn't want it that obvious—well, Dominic nearly misses the clearing of a throat behind him. Actually, he does miss it, but he gets it the second time.
He turns his head to see a woman—a tigerwoman, she's gotta be at least six feet tall, probably even taller in her wedge-heeled combat boots. Her skin is a golden orange, softened in the dim lighting of the café, and her hair is a rusty apricot color, a little frazzled and messy but in two braids. Her rounded ears add another couple of inches to her height, and the stripes on her cheeks and forehead are dark and defined. She's wearing glasses, square and big, and she adjusts them with a claw, probably more out of habit than necessity.
Dominic needs to, well, consciously remind himself not to stare at her with a gaping jaw.
The woman's flannel sleeves are rolled up to her elbows, and when she waves at him, the muscles in her forearm tense and Dominic can only think, oh damn, she could snap me in half with those.
"Ah, hi," the woman says. Her voice is this raspy thing, a vocal fry with a hint of a tigress's growl, and Dominic is hit with the sudden realization that he would love to hear that voice much, much more. "Are you Dominic? Sumaya said I could meet you here—"
"Yes! I—yes!" Dominic stammers out, standing up a little too fast and hitting his knees against the table. He winces and catches the wobbling paper cup right before it tips over, and he smiles sheepishly at the woman. She smiles back, a little hesitant, and when she moves to sit down, Dominic pipes up, "I, uh—I can get that for you!"
He hasn't been on a date since high school, but his mother was always the type to tell him to treat a lady nicely, so Dominic tries not to fumble too much as he pulls out the chair for his date.
"Oh." The tigress blinks, and she fixes her glasses again. Dominic twists his fingers together—was that insulting? Oh, god, he hopes that wasn't insulting, he just—wanted to help? Wanted to impress. He's just—a little crazy, maybe, because he wasn't expecting her when Sumaya told him he'd be meeting a cute catgirl librarian, but he's also so not disappointed. He can't ruin this. He can't. "Thank you."
"Yeah, uh—no problem," Dominic says, returning to his seat and trying to—act normal? He's always been a little too—well, too much for people. "I didn't catch your name."
The woman sits down and tugs at her braids, doesn't seem to realize she's doing it. "I'm Lily. Sumaya told me about you!"
"She told you about me?" Dominic repeats, a bit wary. Sumaya is—Sumaya. She probably told this unbelievably attractive woman all the worse things about him already, like the time she met him in fifth grade because he lost his favorite skateboarder toy and started crying and she found it and returned it to him, or that he kept switching his major throughout college, from anything between game studies to ecology, or that he still cries whenever he leaves his mom's house because he has to leave his mom's cat behind, and he loves that fucking cat. It could be anything. It could be everything. This could already be unsalvageable.
"She told me you're wicked smart!" Lily says, and her pointy canine teeth peek through her lips when she smiles. It's adorable, but it also makes Dominic's brain spiral, because he can just imagine those teeth sinking into his skin and—and he needs to calm his shit. "And you're so—cute!" A blush appears on her cheeks, and she ducks her head down. "I mean, like—human men are usually so hesitant with me, and it doesn't help that I'm, like, a giant—" she smiles sheepishly again, but there's a hint of hesitation to her, a worry. "So, uh, I knew you'd be shorter than me, but you're just—I could just pick you up and hug you like a teddy bear!" she gushes.
Oh my god, please do.
Then Lily's eyes go wide, and she hides her mouth behind her hand. "Sorry! That's—that's probably weird to say on a first date, I just—I just don't think before I say things sometimes—"
"I wouldn't mind that," Dominic says right away. "Like. At all. If you want to carry me I would be all for that, haha, uh—"
They both go silent. Dominic drums his hands on the table. "...I'm gonna get you a drink. Do you like chai lattes? They serve really good chai lattes here."
Lily perks up. "Ah, sure!"
The date goes—shockingly well? Way better than any other date Dominic's had, where girls usually lose interest in his rambles and his hyperfixations and his fidgeting. Lily talks about her job—she's a librarian but she focuses on archival work, and she knows everything about their weird little town's local history, and her face lights up when she gets the chance to talk about it, her fangs poking out cutely and her eyes dilated and excited when she does.
She even follows his every word when he talks about his life—that he works as a coder at the moment but he really likes drawing and making his own characters, that he's started a comic but he's still too shy to share it, and Lily listens to him and gets excited about his passion, gushing about how she'd love to see his work.
And Dominic is hot in the face when the date is over, a smile tugging his cheeks so much it's making his face sore, and he feels like he could swoon when Lily leans down—she's an entire foot taller than him, holy shit—to kiss his cheek. She giggles that cute, raspy giggle and tucks her hair back, and she taps her number into his phone and saves her name with a heart beside it.
When it's over and he's back home, Dominic is in such a haze he doesn't quite register how fucking lucky he's just gotten. It hits him like a truck when he receives a text from Lily <3 the next afternoon asking if he's free for another date soon, and he excitedly agrees.
Lily sends him a picture of herself smiling, her eyes shut and her teeth pricking through her lips, and Dominic is so excited he has to bury his face in his pillow and try to withhold an embarrassing squeal. He's so excited. Sumaya was right, Lily is perfect, and he can't wait to see her again.
(Sumaya's also going to be texting him constantly for details, now, and Dominic's in such a good mood he doesn't even blame her.)