Chapter Text
Prompt from cwjhunt: Candela and Blanche are following Sparks date to see if it goes well, they have 'pretend' to like each other to keep the act up to fool everyone else and be on a date. What happens next?
*
“How many?” The hostess didn’t look up as she asked.
Candela stepped forward. “Table for two.”
Beside her, Blanche was leaning to the side, trying to keep an eye on Spark and his date.
“Ummm…” The hostess frowned, flipping to the next page on the clipboard. “Yeah that might be a bit of a wait. All of our standard seats are taken, unfortunately.”
Blanche leaned forward. “And what about, ahem, non-standard seats?”
Candela frowned as the hostess flipped to another page. She’d been to this restaurant a couple times over the years. She thought she remembered something about a special table, but she couldn’t quite place it.
“I didn’t realize you were here on a date,” the hostess said. “Sorry about that. Yeah, actually, it looks like the booth is open. No reservations til nine. As long as you finish eating by then, that would be fine.
Candela’s eyes darted to Blanche, whose expression was bordering almost off the edge if their usual inscrutable look. If Candela didn’t know better, she’d say her friend seemed almost… nervous?
“Uh yeah,” Candela said. “Totally a date.” She slung an arm around Blanche’s stiff shoulders. “This is my datemate, actually.” They had to keep an eye on Spark. He’d been mooning over this guy for ages when the cute trainer randomly asked him out.
The hostess didn’t seem to care one way or another whether or not Candela was lying. “Right this way then.”
As soon as she turned around to lead them to their table, Blanche hurried forward, out from under Candela’s arm. “I’m your datemate?” they hissed.
Candela shrugged, her long strides keeping pace with Blanche’s clipped pace. “We gotta sell it somehow,” she said. “I know you wanna keep an eye on Spark just as much as I do.”
Blanche glanced at her sharply, but their witty retort immediately died when the hostess led them around a corner and the two of them caught sight of the special booth in question.
“Oh,” Candela said. “You’d think I’d have remembered that.”
The ‘Carousel of Love’ looked exactly as corny as its name implied. A giant pink heart formed the backrest. Even the table was shaped like a heart. Above the booth, the words ‘Carousel of Love’ were spelled out in neon letters.
It was also visible to almost the entire restaurant, although they’d approached from the other side so Spark hadn’t seen them.
“Here you go,” the hostess said. “Your waitress will be with you in a moment.” She set the menus down and left.
After a beat, Blanche looked flatly at Candela. “I’m not sitting in that.”
“C’mon Blanche, you gotta,” Candela said. She grabbed her friend’s arm and tugged them toward the booth. “Now we can spy on Spark on his date. This is important stuff here and if we’re gonna do it, we have to go the distance.”
Blanche permitted Candela to tow them into the booth. “I suppose,” they said, “though I’m beginning to regret agreeing to this venture. Moreso as it continues.”
“That’s the spirit,” Candela said. “Now what does this do?” She’d found a small remote attached to the side of the booth with two arrows on it. “Let’s see…” Pressing one arrow, she was surprised when the booth started to turn.
As the ‘Carousel of Love’ booth slowly spun around, it turned them to face the other half of the restaurant.
Candela froze when she caught sight of Spark. He was sitting just one table away from the booth on the other side.
Blanche hissed, “Turn. It. Back.”
“Trying. Trying.” Candela jammed the other button, but the booth seemed determined to finish its full rotation before going the other way.
Blanche started reaching for the remote. “Candela, give me that.”
“No, I got it, I got it.” Looking closer, she finally saw a third button, between both arrows. Right as the carousel started to rotate back the other way, she pressed it.
Immediately, it stopped moving. So that was useful, except the booth was facing Spark’s side of the restaurant and 100% exposed. He hadn’t looked to the right so far, but it was just a matter of time.
Blanche was in the middle of saying, “Okay now press the button to have it rotate back—“ when the booth started playing music, an absolutely obnoxious, saccharine tune that seemed to be a bad edit of an old classic. Played with the sound quality of grainy music box.
Candela saw a vein pulse in Blanche’s forehead.
The jingle was also fairly loud.
Candela whipped her gaze over. Spark was starting to turn toward them.
“Get down,” she hissed, dropping to her side so the table hid her. When Blanche didn’t react fast enough, Candela dragged them down with her.
“What are you doing?” Blanche whispered, trying to grab the remote out of Candela’s hands.
“Trying to turn the booth back around,” she whispered back, yanking the remote back from Blanche and jamming one of the arrow buttons.
“Give me that!”
“No!”
Somewhere in the scuffle, they ended up crammed halfway underneath the table.
“Hey, lovebirds, can I get you some drinks?”
Blanche froze and winced. The booth had turned all the way back around just in time to reveal the waitress. Candela just popped up and grinned. “Uh, yeah. Yeah…” It was clearly going to be a long night. “I’ll have a whiskey sour. Fireball if you have it.”
“Sure thing.” The waitress turned to Blanche, who was wincing as they extricated themself from beneath the table. “How about you, hon?”
“Ice water is fine,” Blanche grated.
“Sure thing,” the waitress said. “I’ll be back in a few to take your order.”
“Okay, thanks,” Candela said. As soon as the waitress was gone, she turned back to Blanche. “Okay, so if we turn the booth like, halfway around, then press the music button, that should stop it in a spot so we can see Spark, but still be able to duck back before he sees us.”
Blanche’s eye twitched. “I believe I’ve had enough of making a public spectacle of myself for one evening,” they snapped.
Candela frowned. “Aw, c’mon darling, you’re not having fun on your date?” If Blanche really wanted to give it up, they didn’t have to.
To her surprise, Blanche blushed slightly. “We’re not on a date,” they said, quieter. Before Candela could react, Blanche snatched the remote out of her hand. “But if we’re doing this, we’re doing it right. I’ve determined the optimal partway-point for observing Spark and I’m going to press the button. Deal?”
Grinning, Candela kicked back and started paging through the menu. “Deal. Let’s see if Spark's date is going any better than ours."
This time, Blanche didn't correct her.