Gina - 1st

Allen smirked and led her deeper into the fair. Lights whirled with the flowing rides as people squealed in delight. "I dunno, it's a lot, usually what I got Maggie. Always needed that many, she'd get mad at the rigged games and stay until one of us won...And then I'd come home, put a bow on the thing, and give it to her as her birthday present so my parents didn't guess...Always was when it was in town..." he happily reminisced. Getting back onto track, he continued, "That and the rides can be several tickets a person...You were eyeballing that Ferris wheel, right? We've got all sorts of games...Face painting, caricatures, booth games, rides. Take your pick, really."

"So? What about it? It's not like I said I wanted to go on it or anything like that!" She protested, as they walked passed rides with screaming people on them, some of which just by looking at them made Gina dizzy. She didn't know why people liked things like that, it just made her sick, and she didn't trust the way these rides were built all that much either. "I mean...we can, if you want." She added, referring to the Ferris wheel. "Let's just...do whatever. Ah, what's the first thing you and your sister would do when you brought her to the fair?" She asked hoping it would give them an idea of something to start with.

Allen stared at the girl for a moment. He wasn't used to deciding what they were doing, his sister's dominating personality often chose that for him. Though he knew that she most definitely wanted to go on the Ferris wheel (and likely nothing else, judging by the shifty glances she was stealing at the other rides), he figured they should start with some basic games. "Um, we could start at the booths, break some plates, knock over some bottles? Shank some water balloons with darts," Allen started, looking down the aisle of booths, identifying each game as he glanced down the line.

Looking around, Gina glanced at a booth that had targets and guns to shoot them with. "Pfft," Gina swiftly put a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter. She couldn't really imagine Allen shooting at ducks or anything else for that matter (she especially couldn't imagine him actually hitting the things). She looked up at him a bit skeptically before she brought her hand away from her mouth and smiled at him while pointing in the direction of the booth. "Bet I'm a better shot than you!" She exclaimed, knowing quite well she would most likely be the one winning, what with all her practice at shooting real guns.

Chuckling, Allen returned, "Well, you probably are." I'm probably not better, but I bet she thinks I won't hit a thing...This will be fun. Walking over to the duck shoot booth, he paid the man two tickets to cover them both for three plays a piece. As the man at the booth explained, the goal of the game was to simply to hit moving ducks with targets, avoiding all other objects that fled across the moving panels behind him. Smiling, Allen picked up the shotgun at the table and brandished it. "Shall we get started? Ladies first."

"Have it your way." Gina replied as she took a gun herself. It was so light compared to all the real guns she was used to holding, even her chest had a lightweight feeling now, unlike when she held a real gun. It didn't come with all the responsibility and respect that real guns needed when it came to using them. She wasn't planning to take anyone's life with this cheap thing. She positioned the fake gun and aimed at the ducks sliding by. Bang! Bang Bang! She shot at the yellow things until her turn was over. Granted, she wasn't exactly perfect at this game. In the beginning it was simple and she hit the little yellow ducks spot on, gradually missing them as the game went on. After the game was over she turned to Allen gloatingly. "All right, science boy. Beat that."

As Allen properly held the gun, his numb left arm protested as it was forced upwards, shoulder aching as the muscle stretched. He had forgotten about this completely. Cringing, he realized that this was for the better. He couldn't just let his shoulder heal like this or he'd have a more limited range of movement. Slightly frustrated with his fingers, which were refusing to properly wrap themselves around the gun, Allen managed to force them in some working order and rattled off three quick shots, hitting the first two and missing the third. Slowing down, he fired off the rest of his shots, missing by wider margins than the preceding ones, occasionally hitting one. Arm shaking, he carefully placed the shotgun on the counter. Turning, he smiled through his discomfort. "All factors considering..." he twitched his fingers, curling them slightly. Improvement. "Beat you? No. Did I surprise you though?" he asked with a childish grin, pleased with himself regardless. He hadn't shot a gun in years, but he still hadn't entirely lost his small bit of skill, bum shoulder or not.

"What's surprising is that you could even find the trigger." Gina teased. "Buuuttt...I guess not even the experts could pull off shooting very well if they had a shoulder like yours." She added, giving him the benefit of the doubt. I wonder when it was that he first held a gun. She thought, quite clearly remembering her first time. Her father was the first person to ever hand her a gun, she was still a little girl, and it wasn't loaded of course. He taught her how to aim properly and how to load the thing. The first time she actually shot a real gun was at her mother and brother...she wasn't great at it and she only nicked them the first few times, which made it difficult, and it also most likely prolonged their pain before she was able to actually kill them with the damn thing. It wasn't till after that accident and a lot of practice that she was able to get better.

Allen smirked. He had done well enough to impress Gina, never thought he'd see the day. Better check the core temperature of hell while he was at it. "Hey," Allen began, seeing the girl's expression dim. Wait, he didn't know where to go from here. "Stop fantasizing about my surprising masculinity!" he joked. Okay, he was expecting no less than a stray smack, but hopefully that would cheer her up. More content for the I-don't-want-to-talk-about-it folder, he was sure. Nervous, Allen continued jabbering, hardly missing a breath, "Now come on, this nice man wants to give you a prize before we head off! Let's pick something not so...shoot-y this time, alright?" Allen presented her with the cheesiest of his smiles despite the radiating ache in his shoulder, uncomfortably heating his entire body. He didn't know if he could play this anymore, not tonight, but if she wanted to continue playing, he wouldn't mind.

"I think you're the one whose fantasizing here!" Gina laughed as she was handed their prize. Two rubber ducks: one dressed as a bride, the other dressed as a groom. She put them away into the pockets of Allen's jacket that she still had on. With all the people around it made her feel a bit warmer than she would have liked, but if she were to take it off she felt like she would be a bit more exposed than she was comfortable with. "Alright, let's see..." Gina looked around while started to walk forward, grabbing onto Allen's arm in an effort to drag him along with her. "Hmm..." Walking away from the booth Gina attempted to find something that involved less effort. Bright colors from up ahead caught attention and she realized it was a face painting booth. She glanced at Allen and smirked, she imagined him with his face painting...in a girly fashion-things such as butterflies and rainbows appeared in her head. "We can get face painting done!" She exclaimed, pointing at the booth, then in a lower voice added, "It'll be a good disguise too." She winked, figuring they must have lost whoever was chasing them by now-for good this time.

Allen grinned, mission successful. As the man handed Gina the prizes, he tried to refrain from blushing. I guess he thought we were a couple...which I suppose was the goal to begin with... When the girl grabbed him, he made no effort to resist her efforts to pull him forward. "Face-painting, eh?" he echoed. "Fine, but I get to pick yours." This would be fun, he could go something uncharacteristically girly or something better suiting...Still debating, he kept pace with his companion.

"Huh? Oh, all right! But you better pick something good!" Gina compromised as they headed towards the booth, "So what are you gonna get science boy? The periodic table or something...?" She teased.

"My face isn't nearly large enough for that..." he returned in all seriousness. Besides, why would you need a periodic table if you'd already basically memorized the thing? Let alone on your face, that hardly benefits anyone...The font on the reference sheets was always too small to read anyway. Even an arm tattoo would be impractical. Then there was always the issue of significant figures versus decimal points...

Snapping back to reality, Allen finished, "What? You pick mine. I pick yours. Seem fair?"

Gina looked at him skeptically, "I was just kidding, geez..." she muttered, wondering what on earth it was that he was thinking about. "All right...well...let's see...what are you going to pick for me, then?" She asked, hoping to base her decision on his, that way if he picked something utterly horrible she'd be able to get revenge.

Now at the booth, Allen glanced at the board of designs in front of the face painter's chair and immediately made his selection. He could have gone with something totally uncharacteristic and girly for his own terrible amusement, but he decided against it. A cool dragon design (that functioned dually as a mask) seemed to suit her more and would help disguise them further. Making his way to the painter, he handed her the appropriate amount of tickets for the two of them and whispered his selection to the woman. Allen turned to the girl and said, "Now, now, it wouldn't be fun if I told you. Pick something, anything for all I care and tell this young lady before we start."

Looking at the selections, Gina figured Allen was up to no good with this concept of his. She glanced over the design for girls, and desperately tried to hold back her laughter at how ridiculous he would look. She copied him and told one of the women the design she picked-something that involved bright pinks and purples around his face and involved a unicorn.

She placed herself in one of the chairs after she was done explaining and waited to be painted on. The paint was cold and smooth as the lady stroked Gina's face with the paint brush. It bothered her that she wouldn't be able to see the design until it was finished. Glancing over at Allen, she tried to hold back her smile so as to not disrupt the pattern of the paint.

Watching Gina's stifled smiles, he knew that she likely picked the girliest design imaginable. Maggie could never resist doing the same... Ah well, as long as she had fun with it.

As the artist finished, Allen commented, "Don't bother showing her. Let's wait until the end." Admiring his selection and the artist's skill, he added, "It's very fitting." Once the chair was free, the scientist plopped down into it and removed his glasses, setting the thick lenses on his lap. Completely and utterly blind, Allen watched the artist's palette and saw a blurry line reach down for the pink. Oh, this was going to be good.

"Whaddaya mean, wait for the end?" Gina called out to him, looking around for anything that showed reflection. The only reflective surface she saw was Allen's glasses, which he would most likely notice if she were to take them. She waited impatiently for him to finish, she crossed her arms in front of her and tapped her foot. All the while his words 'fitting' circled around in her head.

Thankful that the woman was mindful of his glasses and had done the bit with his nose first, Allen waited for the artist to finish, trying to hide his own grin. He would be impressed if she could top some of his more embarrassing face paintings. Once she finished, the woman handed him her mirror with a smirk. Placing it face-down in his lap, Allen put his glasses back on and stood, quickly spinning the mirror to face Gina. After all, she should see hers first.

Looking in the mirror, Gina saw the blue colors around her eyes, in the shape of wings. On her nose was painted the body of a dragon, it was quite cute, actually. It was pretty as well. She gave a small smile, and lightly touched the edges of her face so that she wouldn't ruin the paint. It's very fitting. "All right, your turn." Gina smiled at Allen, taking a step back from the mirror to indicate that she was done looking at her reflection.

Pleased that Gina seemed to approve, Allen spun the mirror back to look at himself. It took him a moment to comprehend just what it was he was seeing: a unicorn on his nose with what could only be explained as multi-colored wings surrounding his eyes. He was a unifly? A buttercorn? There was a name for those flying unicorn things, right? Something like that. Sputtering, the scientist broke out into a hearty laugh. "Oh my gosh, this is great," he cried, eyes pricking with tears. "I didn't know if you could do it, but this was one of the best!"

Gina cocked her head to the side, not quite sure what he was going on about. At least he was happy though, rather than angry or embarrassed like she thought he might be. "Well, I'm glad you like it." She glanced around thinking of where they should go next when some people walked by with food and a burst of tasty smells headed in her direction. She tried to remember what kinds of food fairs often had, there were curly fries, Indian bread, funnel cake...they all sounded good. "Since we're here and this is a fair, we should get some food! That is the best part after all..." She mentioned as she thought about what she wanted.

After returning the mirror and thanking the artist for a job well done, Allen turned back to Gina with a mad grin. "Food, fantastic idea." Ripping a few more than half of the tickets from the stack, he shoved them in his pocket and handed Gina the rest. "I think you'll be fine with this...Whatcha hankerin' for? Fried, delicious abominations? Or something more...normal..." Hmm. I could go for a fried candy bar... As the smells wafted past him, Allen started deeper into the fair in hopes of finding the central food court.

"Everything! I haven't eaten since who-knows-when! Plus all that running didn't help any." Gina walked along with him, not wanting to get separated from the crowd. It's not like they had cell phones on them to find each other-that would be too risky. They didn't have a meeting place either...thinking about this, Gina reached out and held Allen's hand so that she didn't lose him, besides they were trying to look like a couple. "Something fried would be good, think I'll get some curly fries to start with." She added in an effort to keep both of their minds off of whatever deeper meaning their hand holding might entail.

As Gina's hand slipped into his own, he jumped slightly, recovering with a longer stride. Part of him still felt a bit uncomfortable when others touched him without prior warning, but he managed to brush past it. Squeezing her hand slightly, he pressed forward until he found the large cluster of food stands, leading the girl through the crowd. Searching the stands, he caught the objects of both their desires and made his way to the curly fries stand. "Here we are, m'lady."