“I don’t normally do anything on this day because of all the crowds but I figured you could use a break from the walls of your room.”
Lily blushed. "And, right again. You are making a habit of it." she chuckled.
“So you’ve never been out on Valentines Day before?”
Lily shook her head as she picked up her glass. "No. Apparently, it takes a lot of courage from a guy to set up a Valentine's date." she grinned "But I know you have faced things that were almost as frightening as this, so. Cheers." she clinked her glass against his "I appreciate it."

Streak raised his glass and clinked on hers. “Well, to be honest, I’d rather take a mission to asking a girl out any day.” Streak said after he’d taken a sip from it. “See that’s where you’re wrong. The date’s the easy part. The hard part is asking the girl. Which is why I didn’t give you an option tonight, otherwise this might have been like every year before it.” he smiled at her over the glass. As a random thought or maybe a little less random than it seemed he asked her, “Do you know what you want?” Shawn had spied the waiter heading towards them once again and he figured that he would get their mind on food so that they could stop being interrupted by him for a bit.

Lily grinned as Shawn explained his side of the dating experience. She suspected it was a big deal for guys, asking a girl out; she was secretly glad the only thing she had to do was to pick the one she wanted to go out with and say yes. One of the few things girls got away with easy.
“Do you know what you want?”
"Yes" she answered absent-mindedly before finding her way back to the moment "Oh, you mean food. Umm, no, not yet." she picked up the menu to skim through it, and hide the blush. There wer all kinds of food, mostly Italian; she took her time going over the list before she settled for the kind she liked (and hadn't eaten in a long time): seafood.
"We used to go out for dinner with my parents every friday" she explained once the waiter took theit orders and left "It was kind of a family tradition. Dad said you have to try every food, at least once." she chuckled "In some cases, one try was one too many."

Now it was Streak’s turn to blush. He didn’t expect an answer like that from any girl, but least of all from her. She was, after all, a girl who’d been to more etiquette classes than he’d been to restaurants. Shawn picked up his menu and quickly scanned through it until he found out what he wanted. After they had ordered the waiter left them alone to go back to their talking.

Streak couldn’t help but listen to her. She always had something interesting to say, especially if she wasn’t really paying attention to what was going on. “Maybe now it’s time to start a new tradition.” Streak said picking up his wine glass and taking a sip. “Although I won't make you try anything you don’t want to.” He was going to leave that up to her interpretation, however, it was mainly meant in the context of their conversation and eating out. “We hardly ever ate out except for on special occasions like birthdays or just whenever my parents felt like it, which wasn’t very often.” It was apparent that he led a completely different life than what he was brought up in. a life of fast cars, lots of fights, and mutant powers did that to people though.

“Maybe now it’s time to start a new tradition. Although I won't make you try anything you don’t want to.”
The blush seemed to be going back and forth between the two of them. Lily buried her nose in the wine glass and took a sip before she looked up again.
“We hardly ever ate out except for on special occasions like birthdays or just whenever my parents felt like it, which wasn’t very often.”
"Yes, but you had siblings" she pointed out, as if it was the same thing as eating out in fancy places "When I was little, I always wanted a sister. When I grew older, I thought an elder brother would be nice" she chuckled "I never got one, who knows why..."

“Having brothers and sister’s isn’t the same thing.” Streak said looked back at her. “That sounds like an issue that you should ask your parents about. Of course if you did have a brother or sister then they wouldn’t have spent as much time making you perfect.” Shawn was going for making her blush. Mainly because he figured the more she blushed the better time she would be having, and the less she’d be thinking about any troubles.

“Of course now that you’re out of their house who knows if they will want another kid to raise and be just like you.” Streak said. He sat back in his chair and relaxed in her presence. It was something he hadn’t been doing much since they had gotten back. Of course her lack of siblings could explain why she liked him so much. He has a bigger family, and that’s something she always wanted; or it could just be his good looks, the real reason he’d probably never know.

“That sounds like an issue that you should ask your parents about. Of course if you did have a brother or sister then they wouldn’t have spent as much time making you perfect.”
Lily laughed and blushed at the same time. Shawn was really doing everything he could to make her enjoy the date. She couldn't really blame him for that line. She had to admit it was good to hear a compliment like that.
"Or teaching me how to make people think I'm perfect" she added with a wink.
“Of course now that you’re out of their house who knows if they will want another kid to raise and be just like you.”
She grinned at that. "I doubt they could present me an older brother" she mused "And having a baby sister now... it would be like having a child instead of having a sibling." she smirked "You can't hang out with someone who is more than twenty years younger than you..."
Or, you can, but that would be called babysitting.

"Or teaching me how to make people think I'm perfect"

“Ok now you’re just being arrogant.” Streak said playfully. “Well ya know adoption is always an option, though it might not work since you’re an adult and if they wanted him to be older than you it would make things odd. In fact, I can hear the conversation now. ‘Sir, we know you’re 25 but our daughter would really like an older brother. How would you like to become part of our family?’ And the guy would just be weirded out. But it would be funny.”

“Right, baby sitting. Blah. It’s like the boyfriends worst nightmare. So I guess it’s best that you’re an only child. Besides you have a room mate at the mansion don’t you? How’s she doing?” Streak asked. He hasn’t seen her room mate since he met her the first day she was there. But then again he didn’t usually see them much after he finished with their mansion tours.

"‘Sir, we know you’re 25 but our daughter would really like an older brother. How would you like to become part of our family?’ "
Lily laughed. It did sound weird.
"Yeah, I guess I just wanted a big brother to look after me. I might settle for a boyfriend instead." she smirked into her wine glass.
"Besides you have a room mate at the mansion don’t you? How’s she doing?”
Lily wrinkled her nose. "Callie? Actually, I have no idea. I haven't seen her since we got home. She... might have just moved into another room or something..." she sighed "I haven't really been meeting people in the past few weeks."

“Oh well I’m glad to know I’m at least good enough to settle for.” Streak said mockingly to her as he too took another drink from his wine. “Ya I kind of gathered that you hadn’t been seeing many people since we got back, especially since I haven’t even seen you for a few weeks.” Shawn wasn’t blaming her but it was curious that her room mate hadn’t been around since they got back. Maybe she even left while they were gone. Streak was about to say something more when the waiter came back bringing their food.

Oh boy, they’re heading down that road again. That was the entire thing that he was trying to avoid. He knew all about what she was going through. There was no way he could imagine Jewel understanding how long it’d taken him to get back to living a normal life. That’s why he was so eager to help out with this mission. Although she’d grown up differently than him and led a much more sheltered life, so the transition to normalcy may take her longer than it took him.

Food arrived, and they were back to where they began. Lily sighed as she set down her glass. "It's all right, you know" she smiled, reaching out to touch his hand "We don't... have to avid it. I needed some time, to deal with things. Probably more time than others." she added. It was true. People went about their own business once they arrived back into the Mansion. Not everyone disappeared for weeks. They didn't need to, or they couldn't, because they had responsibilities. Either way.
"I'm all right." she smiled "Especially since you showed up today."
She turned back to her food. She hoped admitting that she was all right (or at least working her way towards that state) would make the awkwardness go away, and let them enjoy the rest of the date.
The food really looked good.

Streak smiled as she touched his hand. It was nice that she was attempting to be ok, even if it was just for the date. Shawn waited until the waiter had left before he started talking. “You really have no idea what happened the first time do you? Even though Romania was bad, America’s camps were worse. Now I’m not trying to make light of your situation but just understand that the time you took was really not that long in comparison to others like when I was in the camps here.” Streak told her.

The young man chose his words as carefully as he could because he definitely didn’t want to start a fight with her. Shawn gave her hand a gentle squeeze before letting it go and beginning to eat his food. “Besides… all things considered, it was actually a pretty calm and successful rescue mission.” He said just before he took the first bite of his food.

“Besides… all things considered, it was actually a pretty calm and successful rescue mission.”
Lily nodded. "Yes, I know."
All in all, he was right. They did the rescue missions well, got many people out of the country into (relative) safety; they managed to put an end to the whole crazyness, more or less, and they all survived, and came home (or stayed behind to help with the rebuilding). In the book of X-men missions, it was a success. Even among others who had been in the camps, Lily was one of the luckiest ones.
It didn't exactly help her mood.
"Baptism by fire, huh." she smirked, looking down at her plate "I'll get used to it."
Shawn was just trying to help. In his own way. He deserved a real smile.

Streak was fairly confident that what he'd just said didn't make her feel any better. "Sorry. I don't really know what to say to make you feel better about it. I guess I've just made it a little worse haven't I." Streak said looking down at his food. This was really not turning out the way he'd planned it. Then again, things rarely went as planned for very long. Streak thought for a second. Finally he said, "You don't have to get used to it. Hopefully none of us will have to go through that again." he was sincere about that; however, he needed to think quickly about how he was going to dig himself out of the hole he'd created with his last comment.

Lily shook her head. "It's okay, Shawn, don't worry about it." she smiled "I was the one that wanted to be part of the X-team. I still do."
She was silent for a while; they were almost finished with their food before she spoke again.
"At least I know now what we are fighting against." she mused "In my whole life I never had to face things like.. what happened in Romania. Now I know. And I don't want it to happen again."
She was serious about that. If they could do anything to stop any other country coming up with the same insane idea, she wanted to be part of the plan.
But not tonight.
"I'm serious. Don't worry" she smiled "You already did everything I need to feel better. Thank you."