sayshazam | Date With Isabelle

Date With Isabelle

The date was getting off to a horrible start. The only good part of it was that Isabelle hadn't arrived yet, so everything up until that point didn't exactly matter. Still, it would have been nice if things had gone a bit more smoothly.

The plan had been for them to make dinner together. Billy was pretty sure he saw that in a movie or a TV show or something and thought it was a pretty good idea. After way over thinking what to make he had settled on calzones, which were apparently just pizza's folded in half. The good part was that you could make the dough beforehand so the "making" part was just filling the dough with whatever you wanted.

The bad part was that dough was really dang hard to deal with. He had ended up getting dough and flower all over himself and the animals. So after his first failed attempt at dough he'd washed all three animals and locked them in another room before trying again. His second attempt at pizza dough was slightly less of a failure but still nothing like pizza dough. The third attempt somehow ended up worse than the first and he started freaking out.

After desperately calling around to three different pizza places one finally agreed to deliver him some crust dough once he explained what was going on and the person on the other line stopped laughing. He had just enough time to get everything set out by the time Isabelle was supposed to arrive he didn't have time to clean up. He thought about running into the shower but was worried that she'd right the doorbell when he was in there.

Fortunately he had told her that it was a casual dinner they'd fix together at his place and then a semi-fancy evening out. He knew enough from dating Steph that it was really important to let a girl know that sort of thing so they could dress accordingly. He had a feeling though that she wasn't going to show up with an apron on and a light dusting of flower like he was currently sporting.

It could only get better from here on out, right? Because no matter what happened at least he'd be with Isabelle.

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Isabelle isn't used to casual dates. With Meliorn it'd always been like he was trying to one up her, dress more over the top than her, wear more eye makeup, take her somewhere fancier than she could have thought of herself. Isabelle doesn't like to be beaten, so she'd spent hours in the past deciding what to wear, how to do her hair. Jace had made endless fun of her for it, and in the end Meliorn had dumped her anyway, so what was the point in it all?

But Billy tells her it's a casual dinner at his place and somehow that makes it even harder. Isabelle never has a problem with clothes, but tonight she can't work it out. Everything seems either too under-dressed or too over the top, and she can't strike a balance. It's a good thing she moved out of Alec's apartment otherwise he probably would have thrown something at her head by now.

In the end she settles for this. It's probably a little too close to dressy, but she figures it can't hurt to look nice, and he had mentioned going out later. At least this way she covers her bases. She's surprised to find that she's a little nervous. With other guys she knows what to expect, but Billy is something else, and she wants this to go well. It takes her so long to get ready that she realises she's running fifteen minutes late when she happens to glance at the clock. Already this isn't going well, so she quickly throws on a pair of her more modest heels and races out the door.

The cab to Billy's is quick, thank the Angel, and when she hurries up to the door and knocks she can only hope he doesn't mind her being a little late.

Billy had only freaked out a little when Isabelle was late. The first thing he assumed was that she had backed out of the date because she regretted saying yes. He didn't think Isabelle would really do that but his brain told him that he didn't deserve to go on a date with someone like Isabelle so of course she would cancel. At one point he took out his phone to text her and then put it away, trusting that she was just running late.

When there was finally a knock at the door Billy let out a huff of breath and felt himself relax. It had to be Isabelle, she hadn't cancelled after all.

"Coming!" he called, racing for the door before he stopped suddenly and raced back the way he had come and grabbed a bouquet of flowers on the table. He still had bits of flower on his face and apron, although his nice jeans and button up shirt were relatively clean.

Opening the door he started to say "hi" but the word didn't quite make it out of his mouth. Billy had every intention of saying the word but once he say her his eyes went a bit wide and the same smile he always got when he saw Isabelle plastered itself on his face; the one that was half in awe of her and half a goofy, lopsided grin.

"Wow," he finally managed to say. "You look amazing. I, uh, I got you these?" he said, handing her the flowers as he stepped aside to let her come in. "I know roses are traditional or whatever but I saw those thought of you. Because their shape is kind of a bell?"

Billy has flour dusted over his cheeks and he's wearing an apron, which is more cute than it has any right to be. She can tell he's panicking just a little and she feels bad for making him wait, but then he smiles and she supposes it must be okay.

"Hi," she says, taking him in. He's wearing dark jeans that cling to his hips in a way that she likes, offsetting the flour. She wants to tell him he's adorable, but the jeans make her want to say something else entirely, only she knows he'll blush right to his hair. "Thank you," she says instead, taking the flowers off him and putting them to her nose to smell. They're gorgeous and she's suitably impressed. "You didn't have to buy me flowers." She appreciates it all the same.

The nerves come back in a rush when she realises that this really is an honest to god date, and not just hanging out with Billy like she normally does. She doesn't want to make a bad impression, but she also hasn't had a lot of experience dating like this. Things back home tended to go a very different way.

"Maybe not but I just... really wanted to get you flowers," Billy said, hoping that didn't sound lame. He didn't have enough money to buy her jewelry or anything like that (which would have been way over the top for a first date anyway) but he wanted her to have something and flowers were pretty traditional.

"But come in, I have an apron for you. I promise we're not doing anything really messy, but just in case..." he said, gesturing to her outfit while at the same time trying not to stare at it. Not that there was really just one place he would stare, every part of her looked amazing. He tried not to think too much about going dancing later and how should would be moving and- and best not to think about that too much.

"I thought we could make calzones? They're like folded over pizzas. We just pick our toppings and put them in the oven. They're really good plus an awesome way to find out if someone hates olives or something."

Isabelle follows him inside, glancing around his apartment. She can tell he's done a brief tidy up for her, which is sweet, but otherwise it looks the same as most of the apartments in Darrow. He was right when he said he hadn't really gone out of his way to decorate, but Isabelle thinks maybe she'd done too much at her place, and besides, she's used to the Institute. Decoration wasn't really a thing, there.

She hasn't had a calzone before, but she likes pizza, so she's in. It sounds simple, which is good, because she doesn't want to scare him off with her cooking abilities. Isabelle likes to tell herself that she's a good cook, but she's watched Alec and Jace throw out her homecooked meals one too many times to really believe it. "What if I said I hate olives?" she asks, curious. She doesn't, but she's intrigued. "Would you boot me out the door right now?"

"Well, I guess everyone has at least one flaw so that would be yours," Billy said with a bit of a smile. It really wasn't that big of a deal but he liked complimenting and joking with her. It was really easy to do with her and he liked that. He didn't have to try to be someone or something else to have fun or make Isabelle like him.

"Plus it means I wouldn't have to share so there was more than me. Plus if we, you know, if we did this again then I'd know."

"Well," she starts, setting her handbag down on his kitchen table and turning to face him, "you're in luck, I like olives. You'll have to try a little harder to find my flaw." She's not convinced that there's only one, she knows she has them. Isabelle plays a tough game but not all of it is completely the truth, and she knows that. She just hopes she can keep up the charade with Billy a little longer.

"I plan on doing this again," she tells him, just so that it's out in the open and clear. She likes Billy and she can't imagine any way this date could go so wrong she'd never want to see him again, so it's an easy choice to make. "Don't you?"

"I guess I'll just have to spend lots of time around you then," Billy said with a grin as he handed her an apron. It wasn't like he really thought that she was perfect, he knew that no one was, but that didn't mean people couldn't be incredible. He was pretty sure that Isabelle was incredible and there wasn't much she could do or say that would change that.

"Really? I mean, yeah, I'd like to do it a lot. I just didn't want to assume you felt the same way. But I'm glad you do," he said, grinning even more as he felt less nervous but way more excited. "Hanging out with you is... it's easy? I can just be me and you actually like that."

Isabelle smiles at the apron, taking it off him and tying it around her neck and waist. It doesn't go with her outfit but she finds she doesn't care. Ducking out of the kitchen for one moment, Isabelle goes back to her handbag and digs around for an elastic so that she can tie her hair back. Finished, she turns back to Billy.

"Okay I'm ready," she announces, following him back into the kitchen. Calzones aren't something she's cooked before so she hopes Billy knows what he's doing, but it doesn't sound terribly hard. Alec would say she'd manage to ruin it regardless, but Isabelle is confident that even she can do this.

"Of course I do," she says in response, shooting him a smile. "I think it's easy too. I don't get that with a lot of people," she says with a shrug. "It's nice."

"Good. Then we'll- we'll do it again," he said, grinning sheepishly before rubbing the back of his neck. Hopefully that didn't mean every time they'd have to plan something like this but maybe just hanging out and calling it a date would be good sometimes too? Or maybe he should just focus on right now and not daydream about future dates with Isabelle.

"So, this is pretty easy," he said, pointing at the four small circles of pizza dough that he had rolled out. Well, they were mostly circular. They were definitely circular-ish. "That's where all the ingredients go. We just take whatever we want and put it on half of the dough then fold them over."

As he spoke he got the different toppings, or he guessed they were technically fillings, out of the fridge. Olives, pepperoni, peppers, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, marinara sauce, onions, tomatoes, and some spinach just to have the pretense of being healthy.

"Did Alec warn you about my cooking?" she asks suspiciously when he assures her how easy it is. She eyes the circles of dough a little warily. This looks easy enough, and she's excited to try it, but she also doesn't want to send Billy running. Isabelle knows exactly how Alec feels about her cooking but she doesn't mind forcing it on him because it amuses her; this is different.

"Most things he says about me are lies," she jokes, even though she knows Alec wouldn't ever seriously say anything bad about her. She eyes the assortment of ingredients that Billy's pulling out, a little impressed. There's a lot of food. Isabelle pops an olive into her mouth just to prove the point about liking them and winks at him.

"What first?"

"Really? Because he said you're the fun sibling," Billy said. Not that he didn't think Alec was fun, Billy really liked hanging out with him, but he could see how Isabelle was more... traditionally fun. The kind of fun most people liked to have. Weirdly, it wasn't really that sort of stuff that Billy necessarily liked about her.

He liked how brave she was, how she helped people when they never even knew that. He liked how she laughed and the way she smiles with her whole body. Billy liked how she was tough but still kind. Also, he liked how she was really, really hot.

"And you can put whatever you want first. I don't think it really matters? Maybe the ricotta cheese because everything will stick to it?"

"Well, that part is true," she amends with a laugh. She can picture Alec saying it, all gruff and self-deprecating, so she doesn't even think Billy is making it up. Alec has a habit of talking like any of his other siblings are more exciting, more interesting, more worth being around than himself, and it has always upset her to hear, but now she has Magnus on her side. If nothing else she knows that Magnus will delight in showering her brother with compliments.

"Okay." Isabelle nods seriously and starts to crumble the cheese over her dough, licking the excess off her fingers.

Billy kind of stared as Isabelle licked the cheese off of her fingers. It was probably a completely innocent thing for her to do but she looked really... hot doing it. Which was ridiculous because she was just licking some cheese off her fingers. Blinking and shaking his head Billy turned back to his circle of dough.

"I- uh, he also said you're more trouble," Billy said, giving her a bit of a smile. "Okay, maybe he just implied that. But I think it's the sort of trouble that's also fun."

"Have I steered you wrong so far?" she asks, raising an eyebrow. She can't think of anything she's done that's led Billy to something he might regret. She continues spreading her calzone with toppings as she talks, watching him out of the corner of her eye.

"Alec tells everyone I'm trouble, but really in Darrow I'm mostly boring."

"No, I've liked all the steering so far," Billy said, although he wasn't sure exactly what that meant but it sounded good.

"What? You are not boring. Take it from the guy who just goes to school, works, and trains in magic and fighting that you are not boring because then I would be even more boring," Billy said, grinning at her. Isabelle seemed like the least boring person in the world. "And I don't mind being boring but I'm not gonna be really boring. So you just have to be exciting."

"I don't think training in magic and fighting as a secret superhero count as boring," Isabelle laughs, nudging him. "That's just about the opposite."

She doesn't know how often he goes and fights crime as Shazam, but she does know that he's been doing a bit of training with Magnus. Anyone under Magnus's tutelage definitely has potential otherwise he wouldn't bother, and Isabelle also knows that Magnus doesn't let anything be boring. She'd almost like to watch it, if she thought they would let her.

"That's exciting for me, yeah. I don't know if it's that exciting to hear about though. Plus you've seen Magnus do magic so it's not like you'd be too impressed by the stuff I can do," Billy said. He kind of liked that though, because it didn't mean she would like him just because he could do something interesting. Not that there was a problem with a lot of other people thinking he was interesting just for that.

"But you find me exciting and I'll find you exciting and we'll probably be okay, right?" he asked, bumping her hip with his. It was playful and silly and maybe kind of dumb but HE WAS TOUCHING HER HIP WITH HIS HIP AND THAT WAS AWESOME!!!

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Date With Isabelle

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