Searching for the balm of healing, tags Mew.

[Bree Marcus]

"I would love to borrow your books, Mew. I will take very good care of them. I am very careful with them," Bree assured him. That was one of the things her Dad had been very particular about.

Bree smiled at Mew for she had no idea what rpgs were as she had no experience with any games except chess. "I would enjoy learning to play, whatever rpgs are," she said and then looked out the window as she continued on with her story and what she really needed.

"Well I haven't told you the worst part yet. After my mother died, my father became much worse. He got angrier faster and he didn't hold back on punishment. Sometimes I couldn't go to school because he had beaten me so badly I couldn't hide the damage. And then he started coming to my room at night after the servants had retired... At first it was because I reminded him of mom and he missed her so badly. But I wasn't her and he got angry when I disappointed him. He began to hurt me even more. I won't go into details, but now I am terrified to date... that's where I need help. I need to discover that being with a male isn't necessarily a punishment or painful. I will understand if you don't feel you can do this."

[Bartholomew "Mew" Fischer]

Mew tried to keep his attention on the road as Bree confessed. This situation was just as uncomfortable as the one with Phil, although this time because he found it so outrageous that anyone would use their daughter the way her father had used her. At the end of her story he took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Bree. That those things happened to you, I mean."

He turned into the Barnes and Noble parking lot, driving slowly until they reached the end, away from all the other cars. "So. Ummm. Does this mean you're asking me out?" He glanced over at her from the corner of his eye. She was beautiful; he'd been shocked the first time he realized she even knew his name, let alone his address. He'd still not considered her as a possibility, dismissing her simply because she was a cheerleader, but she seemed very sincere -- and he didn't think that even Aly Durrand would stoop so low as to use sexual assault to toy with a guy's ego.

"I mean," He explained, clutching the steeringwheel as though it were the only thing anchoring him to reality, and turning brighter and brighter red as he proceeded, "If you are, then this would be our first date, right? I mean, sort of. I mean, if you are I guess that I mean I'm saying yes."

[Bree Marcus]

Bree turned back to look at Mew and it was clear she was surprised and happy as well. "Yes... this would be our first date since you're agreeing. I would be proud to date you, Mew. I think you are a great guy," She said sincerely and reached out tentatively to stroke his cheek with trembling fingers. "And you can ask me out too if you want to. I am not ashamed to be with you so we don't have to hide this."

Bree felt if anything Mew would be worried about making moves on her and she wasn't sure she could do that herself. "Let's go look at books and you can show me the fantasy section. I don't think I have ever gone to that part of the store. Magic and dragons do sound very appealing though. I think I might enjoy reading something with wizards." It sounded like the games she played as a small child, before she was very quickly forced to become an adult.

[Bartholomew "Mew" Fischer]

So today was destined to have a happy ending, after all. Of course, if Phil hadn't had his outburst, Mew would doubtless have brushed Bree off; she was nice, but he had still been holding out hope. Now he was only hoping he could salvage a friendship, and anyway, she hadn't said she was desperately madly in love with him; she'd said she needed help overcoming her aversion to relationships. And he wasn't madly desperately in love with her (attracted to, sure) but she was pretty and she was sweet and he needed to get over his own disappointment, so dating was mutually beneficial. And maybe, if they managed to hold together in their neediness, their fledgling efforts would bear romantic fruits.

"Umm, okay. I'm, umm, really glad. That we don't have to hide it. That would, ahhh, kind of suck." He admitted. He hadn't even considered that she might want to pretend she wasn't dating him after asking him if he wanted to; only now that she'd mentioned it did he begin to grow uncomfortable. This was almost as ridiculous as Maggy's relationship with Tyler -- although, come to think of it, Tyler was friends with Bree, so maybe the whole lot of them were really closet-nerds, who wanted nothing better than to fantasize about rescuing damsels or being rescued.

"Umm, so do you want to start small, or go straight for the epic, multi-volume series? Because if we're starting small, we could go with, say, The Hobbit. There's magic and dragons for you, and, umm, lots of influence by myths and Beowulf and stuff. But I dunno, there are bunches of stories to choose from, we'll ummm we'll just see, I guess." There were a plethora of books he would loved to have recommended, but he wasn't yet sure which style of fantasy Bree would prefer. Perhaps she would be one who enjoyed diversity, but on the other hand she could favor high fantasy or maybe urban fantasy (actually, he had difficulty imagining her preferring that particular sub-genre) or maybe gas-lamp fantasy...There was so much variety within the genre!

[Bree Marcus]

Unaware of Mew's doubts, Bree slipped her slender hand into his. This she could manage, hanging with Sloane and Tyler had brought her to the point of hand holding. That was one of the reasons she had some hope of healing through this relationship with Mew. Starting in easy steps was better definitely. "I'm glad too. I have spent my whole life hiding, I don't want to do that anymore," she said sincerely.

Bree grinned and nodded. "The Hobbit sounds good. I enjoyed Beowulf. I even saw one of the Lord of the Rings movies. I had to pretend I was shopping, but I still got to see it." At the time she felt horribly guilty, but now she was glad that she had a little bit to base her choice off of.

"Mew?" Bree tugged him slightly so that they stopped a ways away from the store. "I don't want to dredge up stuff, but can we talk a moment about what happened at the park? I will back off if you're really not up to it?"

[Bartholomew "Mew" Fischer]

Mew could feel his face flush when Bree took his hand. Somehow that brought home the fact that they were now dating, when they hadn't been moments before. "Then we'll see if we can't find a nice box-set, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and then go from there. And like I said, you can borrow mine, too. Umm, actually, you might really want to consider that for the longer series, instead of spending money on them. Cause, ummm, that can get a little expensive to start off series before you know if you'll like them." He reasoned; he never minded allowing his friends borrow his books, and if Bree was going to be his girlfriend then he ought to extend the same courtesy to her.

"Oh." He tensed when she brought up the park, stopping obediently though not turning to look at her. "There's ummm there's not really anything to say, is there?" He asked unhappily. "I mean, if you're asking if I agree with Phil, I don't, but Annie shouldn't have...she shouldn't have....it just wasn't right, she should have stopped before things got out of hand." He insisted. He would still faithfully take Phil's side, no matter who asked, because while he completely disagreed with the other boy on the issue of homosexuality he happened to think Annie should not have used the opportunity to out Phil against his will. It was her stubborn resistance to Phil's hints that she should cease her line of inquiry that had lead to the outburst in the first place.

[Bree Marcus]

"Oh... no I didn't think you agreed with him. I just wondered, well... I wondered if us dating would cause a problem between you and Phil... I don't know how close you two are and it's not really important to me... well in a way it is. I just want to safeguard my heart if you're already in love with someone else," Bree confessed. She knew it would be easy for her to really start to care for Mew. He really was a sweet person and intelligent, maybe not genius, but he was serious and that she found really attractive. She felt uncomfortable broaching the subject, but really people that date should know that sort of thing. She looked up into his eyes and didn't flinch. She wasn't judging him at all. People were people after all and if he could still want to date her after what her father had done to her, then she could certainly date him even if he also found other boys attractive.

[Bartholomew "Mew" Fischer]

"Oh." Mew was relieved that Bree didn't expect that he agreed with Phil, but he was surprised that she would ask what he felt for Phil after they'd established a fledgling relationship. "Ummm, it shouldn't cause any issues, I mean, we're just friends, and he doesn't really date anyway, and ummm I'm dating you so that's...I mean, he can't say anything."

That somehow didn't seem like the most reassuring response, though, so he tried again, "Ummm, yeah, I really do like him. But that's not, ummm, it's not going anywhere. And I guess I didn't want to admit it, but he did that for me. So ummm, I guess I'll have to get over it. And...umm...if you're worried, I like girls, too, so you don't have to worry about that, and you're pretty so it's not like I ummm I can't like you. Because I think I can focus on you and not on him, so ummm, I don't know. Is that okay with you?" Maybe it wasn't entirely fair to have agreed to date her when he liked someone else more, but that someone else was never happening.

He took one tentative step toward the bookstore, "Sorry. Maybe that's not the best basis, but ummm, I guess we can help each other get over things?"

[Bree Marcus]

Bree smiled, it was obvious that Mew was being sincere and that is all she needed. If he wanted to date her and was trying to get over Phil then that was good enough. She grabbed his hand again and moved to his side again, lifting up to kiss his cheek.

"I think its a good beginning, as long as we are honest with each other. When this no longer works for either of us then we tell each other instead of dragging it out. Okay? If you find someone better for you, then it would hurt more to find out some other way," she said, as they walked into the store. It was semi-crowded, but everyone was engrossed in their browsing or shopping as the case might be. She allowed Mew to lead her to his favorite section with widened eyes as she tried to take everything in at once. "Mew? Is there any kind of book that will teach me how to play the games you guys do?" She was afraid of looking really stupid in front of his friends since he had invited her to play with them.

"Oh! Will you be my date to my brunch Saturday morning? It will be a great opportunity to show we're together now," Bree said, her eyes shining with no hidden agenda visible in her green eyes.

[Bartholomew "Mew" Fischer]

"Umm, which games? The MMOs or the table top? I mean. There are for both, but with the MMOs it'll probably be easier if I just show you." It was also more fun that way, trying to help someone who'd never played before understand the controls and the hot buttons and the goals of the game. "And tabletop you can download most of the rules and character sheets you want for free in PDF form from Wizard's website, so you should probably do that first. If there's a manual you end up using lots, then I can see buying it, but they're not cheap and you don't wanna carry all those books around. Unless we venture out of DnD into some other tabletop, then I guess if it's something more obscure you might wanna buy it. Ummm, still, you'll get used to it, everyone'll help you figure out the rules. Because there're house rules and stuff, too, and then some rules depend on what setting or whatever." That might not have been the best explanation, but he was confident that Anderson and the others would be more than willing to help Bree acclimate.

"Anyway, let's grab some Tolkien," He scanned the shelves until he found what he was looking for, then pulled it down and handed it to her. "Box-set okay with you? Once you're done with that, maybe try Dune or ummm The Redemption of Althalus or something."

He nodded in acquiescence when she requested he be her date on Saturday. "Yeah, of course. Should I get there early and help set up?"