Title: Lunch Date

Author: tarotgal

Fandom: Wolf's Rain

Rating: G

Pairing: uh, past-Hubb/Cher

Disclaimer: Yeah, so I don't own these characters or the universe. This is just for fun, I promise!

Summary: Short ficlette in which Hubb and Cher have a lunch date to discuss Hubb's side case about the wolves.

Notes: The sneezes are based off his sneezes in the original Japanese version, as I've not heard him sneeze in the English one yet and thus don't know which I like better ;-)

Lunch Date

     Hubb lifted his eyes to take in all her loveliness. Just after the divorce, he had needed to train himself not to look at her all the time the way he used to. But that had been more or less easy to do since they hadn't seen much of each other, what with the separate residences and separate lives bit. By now he had perfected the art of watching her without seeming as though he was constantly looking at her.

     "What's wrong with you today?" Cher asked, and he snapped his head down to the file that sat between them at the table, pretending to be interested in the manila folder.

     "Why do you ask?" He poked his fork at his lettuce, not sure yet if he actually felt like eating any more of it. "Am I ruining the date?"

     She rolled her eyes. "This isn't a date. You wanted to discuss the case and the only time I had free was lunch today, remember?"

     "Yes," Hubb agreed. "But I also remember offering to buy."

Cher nodded and pulled her hair nervously behind her ears and shoulders. "Because I am here to help you. It's a favor," she pointed out. He seemed to want to leave it at that. "I asked about you because you've been scratching and sniffling your way through the soup and salad," she replied.

     "Have I?" He froze, realizing his other hand was indeed raking fingernails against the side of his neck. Come to think of it, he was feeling pretty stuffed up. How was it that she noticed this even before he did? Unless of course she'd been checking him out this whole time as well. "Been watching me that closely, have you?" he asked slyly. "I knew you couldn't resist such a devilishly handsome--"

     "I've been watching you because I don't want you sneezing on my food," she said firmly, but softly. She looked thoughtfully down at the file as well. "It's that fur you found, isn't it?"

     He nodded. His allergy to dogs was as good a reason as any. Could be someone's perfume or a group of birds right outside the café window for all he knew. But now that he thought about it, it probably was that fur. He'd been running tests on it all morning, trying to come up with more than Cher's computer and coworkers at the lab had managed to. But it seemed all for naught. There was nothing to cross-check it with to prove that it really was a wolf's and not just a dog's. "I won't sneeze on your food," he reassured her. "I'm not really feeling all that..."

     But even as he said it, he felt a tickle in his nose. He closed his eyes, patiently waiting for it to build or go away. One or the other. It sat in his nose tickling, going nowhere in particular. It intensified, but had no intention of letting him sneeze. "One or the other," he whispered under his breath.

Cher looked at him quizzically, and he shook his head.

     The sneeze decided just then that it would indeed make an appearance. He pulled out one of his handkerchiefs and buried his nose in it. He took a few hot breaths through the thick blue fabric, then closed his eyes. The sensation was strong, too strong to fight. But at least he wasn't going to sneeze on her food. "huh-HEHShhhh!" he sneezed.

     "Not feeling all that sneezy, are you?" she said with an amused smile as she finished off her salad.

     He shrugged. "It snuck up on me," he said, his words muffled through the fabric. "Though I don't quite understand," he said, looking around. He hadn't been near the fur in at least an hour. There was a soft flush to Cher's cheeks. Had Hubb not been an expert in every bit of her appearance, he might have missed it. "You weren't..." he started to inquire, then his jaw dropped again, the tickle in his nose intensifying again. "HEHHShiii" He caught the sneeze expertly in the hanky and bending forward only a bit at the force.

     "I was inspecting those new samples you gave me, just before I met you for lunch," she admitted. He was scratching his neck again, fingers probing and lashing out beneath his collar for itches which had snuck down there. "I didn't know it would be a problem."

     That was always it for them, not knowing what was going to be a problem until it was a problem, and then not knowing how to solve it. "It's all right," he said, taking his hand out from beneath his shirt to wave it dismissively in the air. "It's not a problem... hohh..." He broke off, green eyes watering, nose tickling. "HEYShhhh!" He snuffled into the handkerchief. The tickle in his nose was getting worse with every sneeze, rather than better. "hehh..." he breathed leadingly, hoping that if he could just get one strong sneeze out, it would hold the rest off for a while. "hehhhhh... HEHSHAHHH! HEHShhhhhh!" His plan, it seemed, had worked. For the time being, at least.

     Hubb lowered the handkerchief with a swipe at his nose. He took a few gulps from his glass of water and then looked up at his ex-wife. "Not quite so devilishly handsome this, I'm sure," he said with a sheepish smile.

     "Maybe we should reschedule this lunch date," she suggested, looking both sympathetic and guilty about this.

     Despite his miserable-ness, he grinned charmingly. "A date is it?"

     She sighed and shook her head with a smile. Luckily the waiter approached to take their plates and deliver their main courses. And luckily his nose behaved through most of the food and discussion. And because he was watching her so closely, he noticed the flicker of concern in her eyes every time the allergy struck up again, however. Well, that was a start, wasn't it?