As Erik slipped out of his jacket, Janelle had to once again mentally praise his tailor for the fine job they'd done on his outfit for this evening. The jacket itself was warm and smelled like Erik and and she sighed happily, sleeves slipping slightly over her hand as Erik once again grasped her hand in his. She wouldn't be cold for a while now...at least until her legs decided to protest.

It seemed that the openness Erik had displayed inside the restaurant wasn't a fluke and slight tension Janelle hadn't realized she was holding flowed out of her, leaving warm contentment in its place. This story sounded almost idyllic, even if there was an undercurrent of struggle in the way he spoke about shortages and everyone sharing a room. Russia was one place her parents had never taken her, favoring the more trendy European hot spots to places with rich and complicated histories. Janelle had never argued or been particularly interested in anywhere else, now she wished she'd asked them to explore a bit more.

Erik asked if she was okay and intoned that he hadn't intended to upset her in the restaurant earlier. Squeezing his hand, Janelle looked up at him as they walked, "I wasn't really upset..." she said, trying to puzzle out exactly what she wanted to say.

"I've never had anyone make me feel so...validated before." she admitted candidly. It was the least she could do after everything he'd done and said already, "Generally people roll their eyes and remind me of all the things I have to be thankful for..." she trailed.

"You listened to all my silly complaints and not only took me seriously, you told me I wasn't silly."

She shrugged, pulling her eyes away. "It was a lot...but yeah, I'm okay. I'm sorry I ran us out of there."

That said, Janelle actually glanced at where they were, "Where are we going anyway? I hope you have a plan because I've just been following you."

Erik considered himself a rather eloquent speaker for a person of speaking in a non-native language. With all of his vast understanding and eloquence his response came out in a exsuitie and eloquent. 

"Oh."

Taking a moment to realign his worldview as he came to terms with the fact he had overwhelmed someone with kindness. The feeling that blossomed in his chest and stomach felt weird and felt obligated to downplay it. "I have never been one to dismiss other's challenges offhand. Listening is a learned skill and I have about 5' worth of incentive to keep me glued to your every word." But she had called herself silly again. Erik wasn't entirely certain if it met the criteria that required him to kiss her given the complicated wording and even more complex situation. For a moment he pretended not to hear it. 

"I figured we would get to the car I brought before your legs got cold. After that I am unsure as my plan was to take you home after, but dinner IS over a earlier than I expected." It was then he finally stopped walking and pulled her to him gently. The food left on the ground a moment as he slid his free hand around her waist.

"I do believe Ms. Jennings that I promised I would do something very specific if you made it sound like you were trivial in any way. Calling your complaints trivial certainly meets that criteria to me." Ok it was probably borderline of his requirement, but staring at her face he didn't care. His intent made clear he moved in slow to give her plenty of time to register and break it off or even knee him in the family jewels if he was being too off base.

If she didn't, she was in for one doozy of a kiss. Despite what he had said he didn't go full on face eating snog. Getting them both comfortable with the experience and his own relative lack of before delving into a good old passionate kiss that bypassed french by the end and would probably have to be called Russian just to match Erik's particularly home nationality. 

Erik seemed to be surprised by her words and for a moment Janelle considered treating him to a dose of his own medicine as they made their way down the street. He'd admitted to her that he didn't think he was a bad person, but he almost seemed confused and unsure when good things kept happening between them. Maybe she was the one who needed to issue the next moratorium on self deprecation.

As for their plans for the rest of the evening, Erik's idea seemed good enough, but Janelle was going to let him take it from here. He had the car, he was going to drive (considering she didn't even have a license) and she was certain whatever he decided would be just fine.

They were still holding hands and when Erik stopped he used their point of connection to pull her close and she leaned into him as his arm snaked around her waist. There was only one place something like this went and Janelle looked up, eyes slightly wide to confirm her compliance, even if it was a bit of a surprise. Erik's words sunk in though, and the redhead started to tell him that she'd only mentioned her complaints being silly to emphasize how well he'd handled it...but she was silenced by the kiss.

Whew, that was a kiss. A few moments, or minutes, or hours later found a very breathless redhead opening eyes that had slipped closed at some point.

The chilly weather had brought early fall to the streets of New York, but a tree near the couple had apparently failed to notice the weather and had burst into bloom, random pink petals from its flowers drifting down towards the sidewalk. One such petal landed on Erik's shoulder and Janelle reached up to brush it away with a slight giggle, cheeks pink and heart racing.

"I don't know how that's supposed to dissuade similar behavior in the future." she said, then nodded upwards, looking with her eyes, but not yet stepping away. "I guess you surprised me."

The distinct lacking of breath Erik found himself in had nothing at all to do with how much air he had left in his lungs. His heart beat like a frantic drum and Erik found aftermath quite pleasing if a bit disorienting. His eyes glancing upwards as a pink petal fell behind her and a grin slipped onto his face. Now he didn't feel quite so jealous of that boy she kissed in middle school. 

At her words he hmmed with a silly smile on his face as he thought and looked down back at her. "Maybe the memorable moment will serve as more of a reminder that even if I am not around to catch you when you fall, I promise to help you back up?" Hoping he phrased that right in English. For the first time in a long time he felt the English being his second language made it difficult to put his emotions into words. Then realizing with a bit of self discovery that even if his first language was English they would be hard to convey all the same. It was far easier for him to put on a face and play a role then to be so deeply honest about anything. It was far easier to let it roll off his back like water.

He smiled at her and wondered what she thought of the extra warmth that permeated the air around him. "Shall we get to the car or would you like to stay like this a bit longer?" Unable to help another grin from briefly spreading across his face as he looked at her. 

 

Erik spoke and Janelle just shook her head slightly, still looking up at him with cheeks pinker than they had been all night. Erik was just so nice to her, and for the first time she could remember, Janelle really believed everything he said. It was empowering, and validating to stand there with him in the street.

The thought actually made her giggle a bit and she let her head fall forward for a moment to rest against Erik’s chest. They were in the middle of the street.

As if he could hear her thoughts, Erik asked if she thought they should move and Janelle lifted her head to look up at him again. Truth be told, she was anything but cold at the moment, and moving wasn’t something she really wanted to do.

Still…

”I suppose we’d better go.” she said on a small sigh, taking a step back. ”You never know where there’s a lonely old lady in her apartment, peeping down, ready to call the cops on two shameless kids in the street.”

Pulling Erik’s jacket a bit tighter around herself, much cooler now that they were apart, Janelle held out her hand for him to take once he’d reclaimed the food from the ground.

”Lead the way.”

As she rested against him he wrapped his arms about her in a gentle embrace. His heart still thumping wildly in his chest. The sudden inactivity let the annoying negative part of his brain tell him she was far too good for him in just about every possible way. With the equivalence of a sledgehammer he banished the thought away, it was sure to pester him later. For now he was dedicated to enjoying his evening out with the best woman in the world.

A sly smirk appearing as he looked at her before a bark of a laugh escaped at the sudden mental image. "The thing to remember about old ladies is that they were once young ladies at some point and are just jealous. Plus we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of shameless." 

Quickly moving to retrieve the food and upon seeing her sudden chill put a hand about her waist and walked closely with her. A bit brisker then he would have liked, but he was trying to be considerate and get her out of the chill. He lead her to a higher end german import and fished out a fob to unlock it and opened the passenger door for her. "Don't get too excited I am just borrowing it for the evening." Joking regardless of the fact her parents probably owned at least a few cars that were even more expensive. Helping to ease her in like a gentleman before going around to get settled into the driver's seat, their leftover placed into the back seat. Starting it up and quickly moving to get some heat going for her.

"There we go. Where to? The mansion?" He got the car going in that direction. 

There was truth in what Erik said, that all old ladies had once been young ladies who were now simply jealous. Or lonely Janelle couldn't help but sadly thing. Loneliness was the absolute worst, and the redhead couldn't have really blamed those hypothetical old ladies if they were hypothetically jealous. The redhead couldn't help but think what a great kiss that had been, even after such a significant amount of time had passed.

As for the rest. Janelle didn't try to hide a smirk. Perhaps they hadn't scratched the surface of scandalous, but much more kissing like that they'd definitely be heading that way. Well, now her cheeks were all flushed again and there was no way Janelle was voicing that thought, so she simply nodded her head in acknowledgement of Erik's points.

It was cold when they finally started to walk, colder than it had felt all evening, and Janelle leaned into Erik's side as much as their pace would allow as he led her to a car that he had apparently borrowed. Again, the sheer amount of effort that he had put into this date made Janelle warm to the tips of her toes. As she climbed into the passenger seat, Janelle mused over the fact that she didn't really know a thing about cars or how fancy this one was. The fact of the matter was that her parents didn't drive and the cars they rode in were the generic black kind that really didn't seem fancy one way or another.

Erik climbed into the car and got it running and Janelle continued to simply watch him doing all of the things that people do when they drive. He asked if she wanted to go to the Mansion and she nodded, "That would be fine." she said, watching out the windshield and passenger window as they made their way through traffic.

"I don't think I've told you thank you for tonight." she said, turning her head to study Erik's profile as she spoke, "It might just be the best one I've ever had."

His eyebrows crept up on his face as he concentrated on driving and gave a little chuckle before sharing the joke. "No pressure at all then to make sure you don't change your mind." Chancing a smile in her direction at a stop light. "Your welcome and thank you yourself. I have to admit to thinking your just being nice just a little though. It has been an emotionally charged night. Thankfully in mostly good ways." Smiling mostly to himself at the thought. He did however spare glances in her direction whenever he could. Who wouldn't? She was very nice on the eyes. "I don't want it to sound like I am backing out, but are you sure you want to be my girlfriend? I can only promise to try and be a good boyfriend and that it is probably not going to be without its pitfalls." Making sure to sound perfectly calm and conversational. Honest was the policy between the two of them and he would keep true to it the best he could. He knew there was times it probably wouldn't be the easiest relationship ever.

Janelle smiled back as they idled at a stop light and shook her head in the semi-darkness of the car. "I'm being serious." she said, "I meant what I said before. As...intense as things may have gotten, I've never felt so validated...and this was just the first official date!" Janelle thought about joking that Erik had set the bar pretty high for the future, but it seemed wrong to joke just now...

At least until he spoke again.

Janelle had to chuckle as she looked over at Erik after his little speech. It was an advantage of sitting in the passenger seat that she didn't have to watch the road and could watch him instead. "I'm starting to understand your frustration earlier. Stop talking down on yourself or I'll have to resort to desperate measures." Janelle didn't elaborate because she was bluffing and had no idea what she'd actually do.

"Besides...If I wasn't sure before that kiss, I'm absolutely sure now." There. She'd said it, and her cheeks were going to burn right off her face. Hopefully that would settle that though and they could move on with the evening.

Erik smiled despite his usual tendency to keep himself a mask. One of the big reasons he had wanted to date the amazing redhead was for that fact alone. Her unknown little validation that it was ok for him to let down his guard, even just a bit. He was genuinely happy she was happy with date despite how emotionally overwhelming the whole situation had ended up. 

Her own comment made him laugh and softly before shrugging. Ignoring the pink tinging his cheeks that the gloom thankfully covered as his mind wandered slightly on just what Janelle's idea of desperate measures might be. "Not so much talking down on myself as just acknowledging that coming from such vastly different backgrounds there are bound to be some cultural friction." The fact he came from another country as a criminal and was dating a rich girl meant that was the understatement of the century. They may as well be from different ends of the galaxy. 

Given her glowing review on his kiss and his surprisingly limited experience in that department he found himself flushing as well. "Well, I have been wanting to do that for some time now. I also can't wait to do it again!" Shooting a roguish grin in her direction once it was safe. She was of course in his biased opinion one of the best looking women he had ever seen. It left him more than a little paranoid in wondering when his luck would run out. 

Finally after making his way through NYC turbulent traffic the mansion was finally in view and fast approaching. "There she is."