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He was not looking forward to this night. Varian got so close to cancelling so many times, but Raps insisted that it would be fun to "meet new people" and when that didn't get his spirits up she scrambled to tell him how great the food was instead. He eventually agreed to give her a shot, but he already knew he would not be having a fun date.
He didn't have anything against the girl - he'd never actually met her. Her name was Riley and that's really all he knew, not at all enough to hate her. This just really wasn't his thing. He didn't want to date someone he'd never even spoken to, and he didn't particularly want to talk to a stranger all night anyway. But he promised he'd go, and he'd be as nice and open minded as he could.
He'd been given her number, just in case something did go wrong, but after introducing themselves they'd avoided talking entirely. Rapunzel insisted that there was no point to a blind date if you got to know the person first. A stupid rule, but he and Riley agreed to keep everything a surprise for when they met.
It was such a stupid, bad idea. Trying to go date someone you've never even had one full conversation with. (Because he did not count seven messages as a full conversation!) But he wouldn't cancel on her when they were so close to meeting.
He finished getting ready and sat down on his bed awkwardly. Still almost two hours to wait, the restaurant wasn't far enough away to leave that soon, so he picked up his phone. Nuru, Yong and his little groupchat was going insane, they both knew he was not looking forward to it.
"Can you say you're sick?" Nuru asked, as if Varian hadn't already tried.
"I'm already ready to go, might as well just do it." Was Varian exaggerating how bad it was? Absolutely. But his friends were equally dramatic, so none of them really cared or noticed it.
Ruddiger had noticed Varian sitting down and scampered over to sit on his lap. He'd have to brush off the fur on his legs before he left but for now he sat absent mindedly petting him.
"I'm sure you'll have a great time! Maybe you'll get a fun surprise idk." Yong messaged this time. What could really be surprising about this? He'd never met Riley, she could be the loveliest person ever and he'd still be uncomfortable. There's only really a few ways a date like this can go.
The three of them talked until Varian had to leave; they only stayed talking about the date for about four minutes before gradually losing their topic.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
After about an hour of standing outside, he was starting to think she wasn't going to show up. He was there perfectly on time - a little early when he first arrived - and he was stood completely alone. Rain had started to pitter around him and he cursed under his breath before speed walking to cover himself under the restaurant's awning.
The large glass door clicked open next to him and a blonde boy came out to look at him, leaning against the door to keep it open. "You've been standing out there a while, are you coming inside?'
"I'm uh- I'm waiting for my date. Sorry I-" Varian was quicky cut off by the man snorting unsubtly.
"Sorry for what? Come on." He stepped back inside, moving his arm out to hold the door for Varian. "It's raining, you can wait inside."
It was starting to rain pretty hard, might as well follow the attractive guy that seemed to work there. He let himself get led inside, now awkwardly waiting with this guy at the front of the restaurant.
"So you're waiting for your girlfriend?" The guy - probably a waitor - asked idly, picking at his nail polish as he did. He'd walked behind the podium used to greet customers and leant across it.
"Just a blind date." He blurted it out the second the blonde stopped talking. Why did he do that? It caught his attention though, not that Varian cared. But having his green eyes so focused on him made him strangely nervous. "So.. not really."
"Wow you corrected me very quickly, didn't you? Not interested in her then?" The teasing tone warmed Varian's cheeks so fast. Once again, why did he do that?
"Just not.. I'm not a fan of misunderstandings. That's all!" He continued to smirk at him, seeming like he was really enjoying how flustered he had gotten.
"Really hairstripe? Doesn't seem like that's all."
"Look, I don't even know your name, what is your problem?" The waitor lifted an eyebrow and tapped the little name pin on his chest with his nails.
"Right there." Hugo mocked. That's what the little tag said at least. "Nice to meet you. Do I get to know your name too, or am I sticking with nicknames?"
He hesitated, but apart from him being annoying he had no reason to hide his name from the boy. "It's Varian." Hugo hummed in response and seemed to be thinking about his name way more than he needed to.
"Yeah, no I'm sticking with hairstripe, thanks." Varian laughed quietly. Hugo nearly froze for a second, but snapped back to joking before Varian could say anything. "What, you want something else?"
"Hm, what else you got?"
"Freckles?" Varian thought about it and shook his head, the blonde stared at him silently for a few seconds before suggesting, "gorgeous?"
He knew his face had gone fully red now, he chose to ignore it. "Absolutely not." Laughing as he spoke, showing no actual anger at the suggestion.
Hugo shrugged. "Not like you've got a girlfriend."
Varian rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, still half smiling. "Do you have nowhere better to be?"
"Nope. All yours right now."
They spoke for a while, Varian didn't know how long it had been but the rain had died down a lot, barely there anymore. Talking and teasing had become flirting and bonding. And he was honestly trying to stay calm and platonic for the sake of his date but was she even coming? Plus Hugo was right, he didn't have a girlfriend.
The closest thing to a partner right now was someone he hadn't ever met or spoken to, who was currently running super late to the date he was already so nervous about.
The pair separated briefly when another customer walked in, and Hugo had to go show them to a table and take their order and all that shit. So Varian checked his phone for the first time in a while.
It had been two whole hours since the last time he'd looked. Riley wasn't coming at all was she? He never really wanted to go but that still hurt. At least he showed up - and he would've at least told her if he hadn't!
He refreshed his messages, checked the internet connection, even checked if anyone else had said something about where she was. But there was nothing.
Why couldn't she have said she wasn't coming after the first hour? At least then he could go eat by himself. Even if he could ignore all the other little upsetting details, he'd gotten so hungry waiting for her to not show up.
He'd missed their reservation by a lot already, but it wasn't very busy. If he could get to Hugo again he could ask about staying to eat there alone at least?
As if he could hear his thoughts, Hugo wandered back over to where Varian was stood. "What're you frowning about?"
He put his phone back into his pocket. "I've been stood up."
"Aw shit, sorry." He sounded and looked more sympathetic than Varian would've expected him to be. "Are you sure she's not just late?"
"Three and a half hours without any messages?" Hugo winced and nodded slightly. "I know I've really missed my reservation but could I maybe-"
"Yep, let's go get you some food." He smiled calmly at Varian as he interrupted him, gently pulling him along by the wrist. Hugo put him at a two seated table and handed him a menu, saying he'd come back for him in a few minutes.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
After choosing, ordering, and waiting for his food, Varian finally saw Hugo come over to him with two plates. He smiled at him as he set them down, one in front of Varian, and one by the opposite seat. Before Varian could question the second plate, Hugo had already slid into the chair.
"Are you eating with me?" He asked quickly, not being able to hide the hopeful tone. He really wanted to keep talking to him.
"Well you got all dressed up and ready for a date, I figured I'd give you one." Internally, Varian was melting. He'd just assumed the hot waiter was bored at work, he never thought he'd actually like him.
But they ate together, they talked for ages, they laughed, and flirted, and eventually Varian didn't even remember he was meant to be with someone else right now.
He ended up having way more fun than he expected to. He liked talking to Hugo; he really just liked Hugo in general. A lot. Varian couldn't think of another person he'd connected to so quickly before - even with Nuru and Yong, it took a little while for them to understand and actually enjoy knowing eachother.
Their food was long finished, and their plates left on the table - Varian's waitor was far to distracted to take them away, and the others seemed to know not to interrupt their little impromptu date.
Eventually, their night did have to end. It was starting to get really late, but more importantly, the restaurant needed to shut for the day. One of Hugo's coworkers - a tall man that Hugo referred to as "Cyrus" - came over to tell them to clean up soon. So the blonde took their plates away, and after a little while, came back to walk Varian out.
"Wait- I need to pay for that." He quickly blurted out. Hugo laughed quietly and gently grabbed his wrist, stopping him from walking back to the table.
"Already paid for, don't worry about it." He smiled and Varian couldn't help but smile back.
"Oh. You didn't have to do that."
"I wanted to." His hand was still on Varian's wrist, it slipped down slightly and he tightened his grasp, holding onto his hand properly now. For the final time that night, Varian let himself be dragged along. And Hugo took him outside of the restaurant, before dropping his hand.
"Well gorgeous, not sure about you but I had a fun night." Hugo stated hopefully. Varian smiled at him as brightly as he could.
"Yes! I had a great time. Thank you." Hugo chuckled softly and looked away, fishing a little folded up piece of paper out of his pocket.
"And if you maybe wanted to go out some time, I'd love to do this again?" He was quieter than he had been the whole time Varian was there, he nervously held out the paper and Varian took it.
Quickly unfolding it, Varian saw what must've been Hugo's phone number, it was clearly written very quickly, but he could still thankfully read all of it.
He quickly looked back up to Hugo, wide blue eyes happily locking back onto his green ones as soon as he realized what he was holding. "I'll call you." It felt like he was in a shitty romcom, and he was sure Hugo could hear how exited he was.
He looked so relieved as he nodded and stepped back to the restaurant's door. "You'd better." He teased, winking before he walked over to the door.
Varian waited for him to leave; after Hugo looked back at him for the last time today, waved quickly, and disappearing inside, Varian finally went home.
Not nearly the date he'd expected, but much better. He ran his thumb over the dried ink on his paper scrap. He'd talk to Hugo again, as soon as he could. He smiled to himself peacefully. He'd see Hugo again really soon.
He had a lot to tell his friends about. But that could wait. He couldn't be bothered to check his phone just yet, so he simply walked home, paper in hand, content to walk alone, thinking about the amazing hot waitor at his new favorite restaurant.