A Sight to See

Draylen pulled his headphones out automatically when Nathaniel tapped his ear. He was going to take them out anyways, but he stuck the ends down his shirt to hold them, turning his iPod off and smiled up at Nathaniel. The British man had an oddly shaped package with him, and he tilted his head to the side. "Thanks!" he said happily, taking the gift from him, even more curious when he squeezed it, met with not much resistance, the object inside obviously squishy now that he had it in his hands. He slid his hand under the edge of the paper, ripping it open to see what was inside.

Normally Nathaniel wasn't one to stick around when someone was opening something from him. Automatic urge to walk away in case they expected more and didn't get what they expected. He worked to keep his eyes on Draylen and not look at the ground or at the car. "I thought the irony of it might be interesting in it's own way, so there you have it," he explained as the other male opened the pillow. He looked curious and confused enough, he didn't seem to have a clue what it was.

Draylen looked at the pillow in his hands, his face brightening once he saw what it was. "That's SO CUTE! I LOVE it! Thanks Nathaniel!" he exclaimed, hugging the pac man ghost shaped pillow with one arm, stepping forward and going up on his toes to wrap the other around his boyfriend, grinning broadly. "This is so epic!" he laughed, looking down at the pillow that was currently sandwiched between the two men. It was a perfect presant, as far as he was concerned. There wasn't much Draylen needed, and he wasn't picky, but he loved it.

Nathaniel was very pleased with Draylen's reaction to the gift, he had thought it mildly comical that it was a ghost, something Draylen could sense and see, but it was cute. He had wondered if Draylen would be afraid of it if he saw one of them as real. "I'm very happy you like it," he said, returning the hug. He gave Draylen a small kiss on the cheek, actually quite proud of himself for choosing the right thing for his boyfriend. If Dray wasn't able to see ghosts, Nathaniel really wasn't sure what he would have been able to get him. "So, you want to check out that new ice cream shop, right? We can go in one car if you like?"

Draylen smiled even brighter at the arms around him, and the kiss on his cheek. He let go after a moment, lowering himself to stand on flat feet instead of his toes. "Yeah, sure" he said, shaking his hair back from his green eyes. "I'll put my ghostie in my car so I don't lose him or something, and we can take yours, since it's already running. Sound good?" he asked, pulling his keys out and hitting the button to unlock the car, the lights on the vehicle flashing.

"Yeah, that sounds good. I can take you back here so you won't be in a hurry to get home if you like," the British male suggested, getting back in his car and shutting the door. He cleared some things out of the passenger seat and tossed them in the back. Nothing important, a little bit of garbage from his brother sitting in his car though. He was glad he had made a rule for only his brother that he couldn't eat anything messy in his car. Leland was unfortunately a messy eater.

"Okay, thanks" Draylen beamed, opening his door and sticking the pac man ghost pillow inside, closing the door and locking it, not wanting to take any chances with that being stolen or something. Teenagers stole things like that for laughs, he knew for a fact. He walked over to Nathaniel's idling car, opening the passenger door and getting in, sitting on the newly cleared off seat. "Alright, good to go?" he asked, doing up his seatbelt.

"Of course," he said, getting the car going and heading for the exit. "Err, I may be incorrect with my directions. I could use some navigation." Directions weren't his strong point, even though he had been living here long enough to get the idea. He had always liked taking people places with his car as long as he had the money for gas, or they gave him some, but his directional sense was not so great sometimes.

"Okay. Turn left, and just head down there. It's not far, and it's on the right side" Draylen explained, looking out the window as Nathaniel drove. He loved to watch out windows, which was his one downfall while driving. He always needed to remember to pay attention. "I wonder what this place is like. I've heard it's good though" he was hoping that was an opinion he could trust. He did love his ice cream, and so he was hoping his decision to try this place out would be a good one.

Nathaniel repeated the directions in his head once and looked to where he'd be going. No problem he figured. "Majority opinion is more or less accurate to follow," he agreed, "though I haven't heard of this place yet." How many other students did he really talk to though that didn't involve the school subject? He didn't really try he figured. It wasn't really worth it since he'd never see these people again. "I'm up for some ice cream," he said, wanting to at least give something new a shot. He almost didn't care what he got, as long as it didn't have cinnamon in it. His brother spiked a drink with it once, and he hadn't been a fan of it afterward.

"Yeah, I normally listen to what other people say about things. It usually turns out in my favor" Draylen nodded, watching other people drive by out the window. It was maybe a three minute drive, so they wouldn't be in the car for very long. "I'm always up for ice cream" he grinned, feeling a bit like a child by saying that, but he was nineteen today, so he could act as childish as he wanted, in his mind. There were a few things in life that he couldn't get enough of, and those were ice cream, lollipops, Adam Lambert, and cake.

"I plan on trying something new," he said, finding the place and heading for it, taking less than he thought he would take, even if that hadn't been that long to begin with. "Might as well start off with a new thing in a new place, right?" he reasoned, shutting the car off and getting his seat belt undone. "I'm buying," he claimed as he got out of his car. He didn't often out himself to pay for others, but Draylen was fine.

"Mmm, me too" Draylen agreed, wondering what flavours of ice cream they had there. He unbuckled his seat belt once they were parked, opening the door and hopping out, closing the door behind him. "I can pay for my own" he shrugged, having money on him, and he was probably going to get some from his family today. He didn't want Nathaniel to have to pay for him, especially since he had no idea how much this was going to cost. Some places were ridiculously overpriced these days.

"Not likely," Nathaniel declared, "because as you've heard, I already put claim to paying, therefore you won't be spending your money here." He could hide the money from Draylen if he had to. "I came prepared today to go where ever you wanted and pay for us. Preparations of mine don't often go unused." He flipped his bangs to get them out of his face. Places like these when they first opened usually had displays out of examples they could eat. He would more or less likely need his glasses just to read them though. Ice cream labels when they were in the glass were really tiny.

Draylen stuck his tongue out at Nathaniel in response, sensing that he was losing this battle. He blinked slightly, a bit surprised by this new revelation, but he smiled brightly and laughed. "That's so sweet" he said, hopping up onto the curb. This birthday was turning out to be awesome already, and it wasn't too late in the day. He looked through the glass doors into the brightly decorated ice cream shop, that had a few small tables, and wasn't very crowded, which was always a good thing.

Nathaniel inclined his head, always uncomfortable with acknowledging compliments. He appreciated them like any other person, he just had a harder time showing he enjoyed them. He looked inside the shop, checking out the nice new things around. This place could get popular if they were good, and then they'd need a bigger place. It was technically his second official date with Draylen since he considered their other casual outings as hanging around. "After you," he said, grabbing a door and presenting it open for the other male.

Draylen noticed the way Nathaniel simply tilted his head, and he laughed a bit. He could tell that the Brit wasn't big on being complimented, or at least showing it. "Thanks" Dray grinned, laughing at the connections his mind made with that alone. "I feel like I'm in an old movie, with the hot British gentleman holding the door open for me" he laughed again, knowing it would normally be the pointless heroin having the door held open for her, not another man, but he liked this much better. He stepped inside, looking around.

"Your old movies have British men holding doors open for someone else?" he asked, confused. He followed him inside, more or less asking rhetorically, but still confused. He didn't really need an answer since he didn't sit down to watch t.v. much. "It smells good in here," he commented, inhaling the scent of the food items around them. The Brit looked at the objects in question, seeing the usual things that went on ice cream and different cones. Waffle cones were good, very filling. He might get someone with one of those and something different. "What to choose..." he pondered as he searched for something eye catching.

"Well it seems like every old British movie my mom has contains a hot British man holding open the door, and saying something like that" Draylen explained, and his mother watched quite a lot of old British movies. "Yeah, it does" he agreed after taking in a big whiff of the place. "That's always the hardest part with yummy food. Never know what to get" he sighed, walking up to the freezers that lined where the counted would be at any other kind of store, and he leaned down to examine the different flavours, bending to read the labels.

Following Draylen's example instead of just looking at the colors, Nathaniel reached for the glasses in his back pocket, taking them out of the case and putting them on, pushing them up with his middle finger to adjust them. Ridiculously tiny labels that his dyslexia didn't like in the least. Some of the classic flavors were available, and some new ones he hadn't heard of. Some of them were obviously for children, like Superman, or Blue Moon. They looked cool enough anyway. "At least no one's behind us telling us to bodge up," he said, debating between a few choices he hadn't heard of.

Glancing up for a moment when Nathaniel reached into his pocket, Dray smiled slightly, watching the other put the glasses on before he looked back down. He hadn't seen the reader with his glasses on before, but he liked the way it looked. Some could pull the look off, as Nath could, but others couldn't. "Yeah, always nice to be able to take our time" he agreed, looking over the flavours. He was in the mood for something chocolatey, but something different. He was eyeing one called 'Everything Chocolate', which looked like it had all kinds of things shoved into the chocolate ice cream, but he wasn't sure if that would be his final decision.

Nathaniel was looking at the vanilla ice cream with chocolate chunks, along with streaks of chocolate and caramel streaks in it. Mackinac Island fudge looked like a treat itself, but maybe there were things that could be added to it just to try things. Strawberry anything would obviously not taste good on this. Maybe some nuts or something. "Find something you like?" he inquired of Draylen, wondering what the other had on his mind. The person at the counter looked like she was used to this. She was eying Draylen as he was distracted with the ice cream labels. Nathaniel slipped his arm around the other male to throw her off.

Draylen looked at a few more flavours before Nath spoke, and he looked up and nodded, pointing to the chocolate one. "Yeah, I'm looking at that one" he said, tapping the label through the glass. He didn't know what he would put on it, but it couldn't be too hard to decide. He looked back down to the ice cream, glancing back up at Nathaniel and smiling when he felt the arm around him, not having noticed the girl at all, not even looking at her to see her reaction to this kind of thing before back to the ice cream again, forming his order in his mind.

Without looking at his target of spite, Nathaniel returned to reading labels, deciding that he was going to get Mackinac Island Fudge with whip cream, chocolate sprinkles, and nuts. He didn't really know how to get crazy with toppings, just things that he was in the mood for. It sounded good anyway, and from what he imagined, it probably tasted good in a waffle cone. "Ready when you are," he told Draylen, glancing up at the woman who had looked away from his boyfriend now.

Draylen decided on his ice cream, and looked at the different things he could get on it, making a face as he thought. "Hmm, I'm ready" he said a moment after Nathaniel said that he was. He looked up at the girl as well, smiling, completely oblivious of the silent battle she was having with his boyfriend. "You wanna go first?" he asked, looking to Nath, not particularily caring what order they went in. All he knew was that he was going to get the Everything Chocolate ice cream, with rainbow sprinkles and chocolate chips.