Steps

Step 8: Draconids

It had been raining all week in Central City. The clouds simply refused to leave. And while Leah normally loved the weeks where it rained non-stop, this week was an exception. Luckily, the clouds had finally decided to head out late last night, leaving the ground to dry out in the sun for a day.

The Draconid meteor shower was happening this week. And while she might have been able to see maybe one or two meteors from her balcony in the city, Leah knew her chances would be far greater out in the countryside. The only problem was that tonight Cisco was supposed to be coming over to watch a movie. At this point, she knew he wasn't going to cancel on her, though she wished that he would. It wasn't necessarily him she was trying to avoid; on the contrary, she was actually learning to tolerate him and his... extraverted personality. They had been have 'movie night' for a few weeks now. She was actually starting to feel a bit more comfortable around him. But tonight, she wanted to be alone.

Leah sighed. There was no avoiding it at this point, and she knew it. She had made sure she'd texted him earlier telling him to dress warm. The fields got cold at night, especially now that it was October. Central City always seemed much colder than home. So much colder.

There was a sudden knock at the door. Glancing around for Nova, she walked to the door and began undoing the latch. It looked like Nova was going to stay wherever she was, so Leah opened the door.

"Hey there..." Cisco looked her over. "Princess Sparklefists..." He lazily smiled as he attempted to hold in a laugh. Why had he- she looked down at her sweater. Captain Marvel. Oh.

"That's Captain Princess to you," she deadpanned. Wait, had she really just said that? She spun on her heels and headed back inside, attempting to hide the blush rapidly consuming her face. A quiet laugh came from behind her.

"So, why'd you tell me to dress warm today?" She heard the door click quietly.

"Because today," she spun back around to face him, keys in hand, "we're going somewhere."

"I thought we were gonna watch that one movie?"

"We are, but we'll watch it when we get there." Ok, so that may have been a lie. He could watch it if he wanted. She had packed her laptop and the movie. Her eyes, however, would be on the sky.

"Oh." He stared at her for a moment. "Ok. So, where exactly are we going?"

"You'll see." She headed back towards the door. "C'mon."

He followed her down the stairs and to the parking lot. "So, which one is you?"

"The orange Honda Fit." She walked over and unlocked the doors. He gave her an odd look. "What?" She climbed in the car. He followed suit.

"Really, where are we going?"

"Middle of nowhere." A small smile graced her lips. She pulled out of the parking lot.

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She needed this. Driving down long country roads, no traffic, no traffic lights. It made her feel at home. It made her feel free. City traffic sucked, and she meant that.

Cisco had been awfully quiet since they left the Central City limits. She figured by this point he would have commented about something... anything. She was beginning to realize that being quiet for too long was very.... out of character for him. His silence was beginning to bother her. Glancing over briefly, she saw that he was reading something on his tablet.

"What are you reading Cisco?" She saw his head pop up out of the corner of her eye.

"Huh? Oh. Umm... just an article."