"Scrubs is a fantastic show." And Walker... that had to be Texas Ranger. Noel didn't feel too terribly out of place talking about episodic shows. "I don't know why, I especially like campy old shows and movies. The more serial shows are... rough."

He plated the fish and suddenly, despite the lack of side dish and bread, it was like a restaurant.

Like a... date. He even held her chair.

It wouldn't hurt her to take it, but she took the other chair instead. He was the one with the hurt toucas. She didn't need the help.

"I don't mind just fish... I don't think." She had to qualify lest that statement start to sour in her mouth. She honestly didn't know. It didn't smell terrible. Noel poured tea for herself and made a motion for the Ranger in case he wanted some too. The wine, she decided to leave to the Ranger, who clearly knew much more about these things.

"Well, I guess, here's to getting an extra ten years." She held up her tea and a rumble of thunder loud enough to rattle her chair sounded. Things were picking up out there, not that they had anywhere else to be.

I can understand that.” Ranger said. While he would never say that he liked campy shows he didn’t watch serial shows in general. ”It’s easier t’ watch episodic shows when y’r busy, overseas, ‘r unable t’ focus enough on what each character’s doin’ week t’ week.”

Noel’s response to Ranger pulling out her chair… Was to take the other chair. Fair enough. The pulling out of chairs for women you were not on a date with had largely fallen out of favor. Ranger took it in stride and simply sat in the chair. On his injured posterior. He grimaced slightly as he sat on the hard chair.

Hardwood looks nice as a chair, but without a cushion it left much to be desired.

Noel poured herself a glass of tea and motioned for Ranger to have some if he wanted. ”Thank y’.” Ranger said taking the tea and pouring himself a glass. ”If y’ decide y’ do want somethin’ with it… There’s plenty of raw vegetables.” Ranger shrugged.

Thunder rumbled outside as Noel made a toast. The sky anger shoot the cabin and the furniture inside. They were in for quite the winter storm. Ranger lifted his glass, ”To an extra ten years.” He clinked his glass to Noel’s before drinking in delicious tea.

Ranger set his glass down and then reached for the wine and bottle opener. He deftly opened the bottle and poured himself a glass and then offered the bottle to Noel. He held it ready to pour, "Wine?"

Another crack of thunder. The lights dimmed for a moment. Ranger wondered if there were candles in the cabin, just in case.

"TV doesn't taste. That's why I like it." Books didn't taste either, but books were somehow more lonely. Noel scraped out a bite of fish and tried to psyche herself up to try it. It was just a fish. And there had been ample amounts of butter involved. How bad could it be?

>"...There’s plenty of raw vegetables.”

An ominous roll of thunder accentuated his offer. Yeah. Noel felt about the same way.

"Please, I'm an adult now. I only eat vegetables when they come with what I ordered." At least veggies could be eaten raw, but Noel tended to avoid them and any other fresh ingredients to cook considering their quick spoiling rates.

She started to lift her fork and hesitated for a moment when he offered the wine. So far as she remembered, alcohol hadn't jumped up and knocked her silly just after one drink. And, as an added benefit, in her recall the Ranger had been the one who'd been there the last time she drank. Her notes made it sound like alcohol was a normal part of how they did things. A part of who she was now, and a result of being in a trustworthy environment.

She slid her glass over so he could fill it. "Yes please." And that was trust right there.

No more delays. Salmon in. Noel cringed a bit around the eyes. It wasn't... terrible. But it was food. She tried a second bite before she might think herself out of it.

"Last time I asked you to lie to me to test if that paint thinner stripped my tastebuds. Old me has a whole chart on efficacy so I guess we hammered that one out pretty thoroughly." And no amount of alcohol seemed to work. That was a point against alcohol, honestly.

...She was still gonna try the wine.

Ranger laughed. Noel’s view on vegetables with meals was on par with his own. And it meant that for as many times as Ranger was called on to cook while they were at the cabin, there would be little to no vegetables. ”Fair enough.”

Noel accepted the offer of wine. When she moved her glass over, Ranger poured. Like his own glass, it was quite the healthy serving. Normally a serving of wine in five ounces. Ranger poured to at least 7. ”There y’ are.”

From reading the notes, Ranger knew that alcohol was ineffective at negating the bad taste aspect of her power. Noel also knew that Ranger wasn’t the type to just lie about things. From her own admission though, Noel did not drink as a matter of keeping control. Ranger saw the accepting of the drink as a sign of trust. She was willing to lose a little bit of control around him.

Ranger took a sip from his glass of wine. It was… Nice… Wine had never been his cup of tea. He gravitated more toward beer and whisky but that didn’t mean he couldn’t appreciate wine to a small degree. Perhaps it would work better paired with the food. He took a bite of the salmon and rinsed it down with the wine.

Much better.

The salmon was good. Ranger felt he had done well on such immediate notice. He looked over to see Noel cringing a little around the eyes at the salmon. Fish isn’t for everyone.

Noel brought up their last meeting, from their current memory timeline. How she tried to drink and he would lie to test it. It was a good time. Noel continued and said that she had a whole chart on the topic.

”Oh? What works the best?” Ranger asked before taking another bite of his salmon. If alcohol didn’t help much, Ranger was interested to hear what did.

Thunder rolled again. The lights flickered. There was a bright flash through the windows and thunder shook the cabin. The lights went out… and stayed out.

It looked like it was time to find those candles.

There was a moment where the pair sat in the dark before Ranger’s mutation activated. His eyes changed. The blackness slowly faded away as Ranger’s vision returned. The room was illuminated not by visual light but by the heat of each object.

Lightning flashed through the windows and the brief moment of dim light made Ranger’s eyes shine like an animals at night, but red.

”I’ll find some candles.” Ranger said before standing up. His tuchus relieved to not be sat on anymore.

The tea was fine for a drink without sugar. It did not make the fish any more palatable, though. She took another bite anyway.

> "What works the best?”

"No alcohol, hot sauce, or citrus worked. Temperature burns are apparently locally effective, but only for food." She had burned her tongue all in an attempt to not taste. Future her was in some ways a badass, in other ways totally pathetic. Trying to avoid the ambient flavors of the city, she could understand to a degree. They were annoying. But only just annoying. It didn't really hurt her. What did hurt her was a severe lack of personal brainspace. She only had a few years that were hers.

Noel took a sip of wine and it was light and refreshing for what it was. She would not have chosen it if left to her own devices. Just like she wouldn't have chosen fish... except somehow she'd been the one to choose them both tonight. "I guess I was pretty desperate to not take in memories if I was willing to--"

Lightning must have struck the house, the boom that kicked in after was so loud, Noel felt it in her teeth.

She froze in place and listened for all she was worth while she waited for her eyes to adjust. Another flash that caught the Ranger's eyes like a bad camera shot. Red. Not glowing, just an abnormal catch of the light. She frowned at the pitch blackness that was only sometimes punctuated with a bright flash.

"What are you lightning proof too?"

Noel took another sip while she waited on the Ranger to make good on his promise of candles. She could hear him rummaging around like normal movements. He didn't seem to be having any trouble without the lights.

"Oh and he can see in the dark." She tipped her glass up, but found it empty so Noel fumbled her way to the bottle for seconds.

Alcohol, hot sauce, citrus, and burning. It seemed like Noel had tried everything short of taking medications to get a lack of taste side-effect. Ranger didn’t off hand know of a drug that did that but he was confident he could watch an hour of tv and would catch one on a commercial.

Noel went to continue, mentioning that she must have been desperate to not take in memories but was cut off.

As Ranger rummaged for candles, Noel asked if he was lightning proof.

”Not sure. Not lookin’ t’ find out.” Ranger said as he opened a drawer and sifted through its contents. He seemed able to not be cut or stabbed easily, perhaps there were other things that didn’t damage him.

Noel commented on his being able to see in the dark.

”Been able t’ do that f’r a year or so now. The first time… Oh it hurt like hell.” Ranger paused a moment as he remembered the first time his ability to see infrared activated. He felt the structure of his eye change. The growing of tapeta lucida in them. They break down and form every time his power is used, but only the first time hurt. Perhaps his eye still stored the structure just not where it would eye shine. ”Comes in useful when I make nighttime HALO n’ HAHO jumps.”

Checking inside a linen closet, Ranger found several candles. Wide and of various heights. He grabbed a few. After he set them on the table and went to the kitchen to grab a lighter. He had seen one in a drawer while searching for the candles he went to grab it.

”That’s better.” Ranger said as he lit the candles. He fumbled around blindly for his chair in the moment his eyes vision went dark as his eyes returned to using visible light. The red eye shine fading away with the power.

Ranger set the lighter to the side. ”Sounded like the house got hit. I’d imagine the cabin’s power’ll be out f’r a long while. Good thing it ain’t hot outside.” You can always add more clothes and blankets to get warmer but people start yelling and throwing things if you take off your clothes to get cooler.

Well now she actually wanted to know if he was lightning proof. The eyes weren't sounding like a very fun reactive property... adaption? Did this make the Ranger a type of adapted? She puzzled that over as he managed the candle situation.

"Did you do a lot of jumps?"

Light flared in the form of a lighter and finally Noel joined the land of the sighted again. With the only source of their light being from a few squat candles and one taper, the walls felt closer and the evening felt more like deepest night. She also saw that she'd poured an even heftier portion wine into her glass than the Ranger had. The danger of pouring in the dark.

"And lucky we don't need wifi or tv." She added to the temperature comment. It was quite chilly... for Texas. That meant the worst they were up against was rain. So long as they had a roof that wasn't going to be an issue. Noel had been hoping they could just chill and watch a movie, though.

Noel paused again with her next bite of fish just moments from her mouth. Was that... cinnamon?

She set it down and turned the candle labels around to face her direction. She had to roll her lips together to keep from laughing.

"Ranger these are scented candles. Pumpkin spice. Beautiful day? What even...? And... this one." Okay. So she couldn't hold it in any more. She devolved into laughter and turned the brownish one around for the Ranger to see the label for himself.

Smell My Nuts: Banana, toasted coconut, and hazelnut.

”It’s how I normally entered non-permissive environments. If I had a nickel for every time I jumped int’ Russia. I’d have a classified number of nickels. Not t’ mention operations in Colombia, Romania, an’ North Korea.” Some of the operations were for the US government, some for the Kabal, and one was to settle a score for Lenna.

No temperature control, no tv, no wifi. Ranger would checked his phone. One bar. ”I’ve got just enough signal t’ maybe do somethin’ on my phone.” He turned on some music to punctuate his point before setting the phone aside.

The storm carried on outside but light had been returned. Ranger went to take another bite of fish. He had just put it in his mouth when he saw Noel pause. He cocked his head as he looked at her. She was turning the candles to face her.

Now Noel was holding back a laugh.

Because they were scented candles. Pumpkin Spice, Beautiful Day, and Smell My Nuts. Smell my nuts. Noel was laughing and Ranger joined her with a guffaw. It was too ridiculous. Of all the candles to find in the linen closet, he had to find that one.

”What… Who… Why would someone name a candle that?” Ranger finally said after he wrestled enough control of himself to speak. He picked up the candle and looked at the label. ”I cain’t see words when I’m in the dark. I can only see the heat ‘r sources of ultraviolet.” The former a more common occurrence than the latter.

As if she didn’t know it before, Noel knew for sure now she was completely out-classed. Besides the fight-truck lifting and knife-proofing there was a set of night eyes and experience. Ten years less than before still left him with plenty. He had skills beyond what God gave him. Finding candles in the dark wasn’t one of them, but on the scale of relative usefulness that was easily forgiven.

> ”What… Who… Why would someone name a candle that?”

There wasn’t much that was going to get Noel to eat dinner now. She’d snorted her wine. Ohhhhhh that kind of burned and set off a whole other round of laughs.

”I dunno, but it doesn’t smell bad at least. I wonder if we’ve tried strong smells to block taste. Maybe a long shot, but the senses are related.” Beautiful day, being the odd man out as far as scents got pulled toward Noel and blown out. She took a big whiff of the wick smoke as it smoldered its last. That was much more pleasant than a cottony linen cleaning soap smell. Everything else seemed at least like it could live in a coffee drink together.

Taking out a candle dimmed their overall lighting, but they were performing rocket surgery. Just eating, or in Noel’s case just drinking.

”Is that what you were playing on the train?” She mentally struck musical taste from his list of positives. ”You just gotta play into stereotypes don’t you? At the wedding, too, huh?” In fact, she remembered getting a dance lesson… maybe she wasn’t completely useless.

Noel stood and offered her hand to the Ranger.

”I think I remember you saying that you didn’t get to dance enough. You’d do it every day? Something like that.”

Noel snorted wine. So dinner was going well. The snort set her off laughing again and Ranger couldn’t stop a second round either. Luckily for him, he hadn’t tried to take a drink at the same time. Their food was better not covered in dually applied nose wine.

“I dunno, but it doesn’t smell bad at least. I wonder if we’ve tried strong smells to block taste. Maybe a long shot, but the senses are related.”

It made sense. As a child Ranger would sometimes manage to force down food he didn’t like by pinching his nose closed. It worked fine, until he unpinched his nose and took a breath. It never made him not taste the food though, it simply muted the flavor. The taste equivalent of frosting a window.

Noel blew out one of the candles and she went to take a big whiff of it. Why not test it now? A small lie to test the waters. ”I walked a mystery mile ruck on a broken foot.” Ranger said. He had never broken a bone in his life, sprained yes, broken no. That particular event happened to another soldier in selection a few years before him. A ruck march was that day and the distance was not announced. The soldier wrapped his foot and rucked for fifty miles. At the end he lost skin removing the wrap and had to be taken to the hospital. He was not removed from selection and continued the course later that year. He passed selection and made it into Delta Force.

It wasn’t a monster of a lie, like stating Nashville made good music.

Noel brought up the music. “Is that what you were playing on the train?”

”It was. I have years of music t’ catch up on.”

“You just gotta play into stereotypes don’t you? At the wedding to, huh?”

Ranger smiled. ”Not my fault Texas has the best music.” Between Texas Country and Stevie Ray Vaughn who could disagree? Other than Yankees of course, but those heathens wouldn’t know culture if it slapped them on the face and said, ‘Hey! I’m culture!’

Then something incredibly surprising happened. Noel stood up, offered her hand, and said, “I think I remember you saying that you didn’t get to dance enough. You’d do it every day? Something like that.”

There was a beat where Ranger looked at her. She had just made his day.

”Something like that.” Ranger said as he took her hand and stood. He then poked at his phone. It was the middle of a song, that wouldn’t do. He sent it to the next song in the shuffled playlist. A live recording of Reckless by Aaron Watson.

Ranger smiled. A good fast song to dance to. They were a little short on room which meant more jitterbug than two-step. He held her hand in his and place his other hand on her back. Then he waited for beat one and started in. He grinned like a fool. Dancing truly was his favorite past time.

Ranger blurted out a fact about himself, but between the candle smoke, the wine, the salmon, the pumpkin spice and "smell my nuts"... Noel had no idea if he'd actually done what he said he did. That had promise, but it wasn’t the kind of testing that made her feel better. The real test would be for the memories. There were plenty of ways to trick her truth-sense.

So she asked him to dance. She hadn’t expected his face to light up that much, for him to practically jump at the chance. It was endearing in the irresistible way that puppies were cute and the sky was blue. How did this man not get to dance every day? He even swapped the song. It was still country, just more peppy.

"Wait. Is this different?" How was she stepping on her own feet, now? She remembered the lesson from last time and she was almost sure this wasn’t the same. Or, it was possible that her feet weren’t working quite the same after a glass and a half on a near-empty stomach. The fact that it had been a few weeks, ten years, and a faster pace were only further compounding the issue.

"You- you’re cheating!”

”Same step as last time.” Ranger said to Noel. Jitterbugging used the same step as two-stepping but relied more on spins, twirls, and other swing style movements than simply moving across the dance floor.

All that was necessary was to remember the dance lesson he’d given her at the wedding and then follow his lead on twirls. So obviously Ranger was cheating… ”Always cheat; always win.” He moved his arms to signal for Noel to twirl out, ”The only unfair fight’s the one y’ lose.” It was a common saying from his military days.

Jumping straight into jitterbugging might have been too hasty, Ranger considered. He could always slow it down. Make it more of a two-step with some jitterbug to ease her into it. That or burn off the wine.

She questioned him, but he had an easy answer. It was the same step, but he wasn’t above cheating. So far as she could taste, that was true, but how did one “lose” in dancing? Maybe… by not participating? Last time she had been too tense for proper twirling. She may have done it, but she hadn’t felt natural. This time Noel elected to go with the flow, loose her goose, and otherwise not be an absolute prude with too many reservations.

Turns out inhibitions are important. When they are lowered, things sometimes get sloppy.

With a single swing of her free arm, Noel managed to slap both the wine bottle and the taller, tapered candle off the table. They met somewhere on the bounce and a splash of blue fire sprayed across their legs and the wooden cabin floor.

Noel reacted quickly, letting go of the Ranger and grabbing her glass so she could splash it spectacularly onto the burning floor to put the fire out. That was the idea. But it would have worked better if she’d grabbed her iced tea like she’d meant.

Now there was fire on the Ranger’s jeans, the floor, her own jeans… it was everywhere enough that even after she did grab and splash the tea, that all she managed to do was extinguish the few spatters of fire licking up the back of the couch.

”We are so not getting our deposit back.” She started to try to pat the Ranger down and extinguish his pants before it was the actual cotton that started to burn and not just the alcohol, but realized that slapping him on his already wounded buttock was really not going to fly.

Now they were cooking with gas. Noel rolled with it. The previous time that Noel and Ranger had danced she had been stilted when twirling. This time Noel went for it.

…

And knocked the wine and a candle over and set both their pants on fire in the process. Also the cabin floor. Noel went for a glass of wine to put it out, which only compounded the issue. So it was more like they were cooking with wine. And what they were cooking was themselves.

Ranger moved. Quickly. He ripped the rug off the floor, flipping the coffee table that sat atop it in the process. Fire needs three things to burn; a source, fuel, and oxygen. Ranger used the rug to smother the flame. It was not the best possible fire blanket and was only slowly putting out the fire.

It was at that point that he felt something patting his jeans. He turned to see Noel as the source of the butt patting. It was then that he realized two things. One: his own pants were on fire. Two: Noel’s pants were on fire.

Dealing with the flaming pants seemed more immediately important. The floor was still burning but it didn’t look like the wood had caught yet. It was just the wine sitting on top. Worst case scenario the couch was a casualty and the floor was blackened on top.

”Y’r pants!” Was all Ranger managed to get out as his mind was focused on protecting the pair of them. He made a snap decision based on the rate the fire had spread across Noel’s jeans and dropped the rug. The rug would likely eliminate the fire, but compressing the rug around Noel to smother the flame would drive the fire hot material into her skin.

Ranger reached forward, took hold of her jeans, and ripped them.

In response to the demand for strength to tear denim like it was tissue, Ranger’s muscles grew as his power enhanced them. The sound was surprisingly loud as the pants split apart straight down one leg. He then shifted one of his hands and the other tore straight down the other leg. Once he had the shredded burning jeans in hand he tossed them into the fireplace.

From there, Ranger ripped at his own jeans. He was still wearing boots so he couldn’t drop them down and pull them off like usual. He grabbed at the seams running down the side and tore them apart. He threw them into the fireplace with the same motion that made the final rip. His skin didn't even look pink from the heat of the fire.

Her pants? No his pants! Oh. Wait. Yeah. Her pants, too.

But the Ranger had a plan, apparently. He grabbed her pants and pulled so forcefully that the fibers shredded in a loud double hreeeeet sound. He turned away too fast for Noel to do anything except cling to a chair to keep herself upright. The Ranger may have been crazy strong, but so was the denim. The force of it nearly yanked her off her feet, and Noel was just caught in the middle.

He gave himself the same treatment, but either his legs were crazy strong too or ripping bodices jeans didn't quite have the same effect on the Ranger. Noel was done. More than done, she stupidly watched a smoulder of smoke from under the rug where the floor fire had once been.

Those were not tearaway pants.

Until they were.

At least her legs were safe? Noel inspected what pants she'd been left with and realized that they were basically just a denim chastity belt.

She was just so completely shocked at the whole thing.

"Are- are you okay?" She wasn't sure if she wanted to slap him or jump him. Maybe she should just go walk walk out into the rain...