A 100% Platonic Dinner

Jazz peeked down at her phone for what was probably the twelfth time in the past twenty minutes, tapping her foot on the sidewalk and doing her utmost to look as casual as possible. She was waiting for somebody, a boy she had talked to on her stream, and before that who she had gotten immensely flustered in front of at school. From her body language, it seemed that she was waiting on someone who was horribly late, but in reality she herself had showed up half an hour early. It was just a friendly meeting, right? Even so, she had her doubts that he would actually show, and every bit of that uncertainty was apparent on her face.

They had settled on a middlingly pricey Mexican place, not anything mindblowingly expensive but certainly not the sort of fare you'd find at Taco Bell. Her anxiety for a social outing was nothing new, but something about this felt different. An intense excitement that this was somehow special, despite how much she wanted to deny it.
@Kada

Even though she had no tangible reason to be so freaked out before Deacon even showed up, the tightness in her chest just kept on building as it often did. It wasn't even like this was a date, but that did little to calm her. Digging her phone out of her pocket one final time, she was actually in the middle of typing out a cancellation to the demon when she heard his nonchalant greeting.

Understandably startled given the context, the bear girl fumbled her phone and just barely managed to clutch it against her belly before it smashed into the ground. Her eyes were wide, the same shakiness from their first meeting present as she looked up at him like a deer caught in the headlights. Letting out an obviously forced laugh, she locked her phone and stowed it away, brushing some hair out of her face and returning his wave.

"A-ah, hey there. Uh, I didn't really expect you to be here yet." Taking in his relaxed demeanor, however, she did manage to settle down just a smidge, offering a faint smile and stepping closer to properly stand in front of him. Jazz had dressed up notably nicer than she typically did, wearing a flowy white and orange dress along with corded leather sandals, fresh sea green polish on all her nails. She was actually wearing her hair down for once, as well as light makeup in an even more rare occurrence. "...I, ah...like your outfit. You look really nice."

Ohhh man. As Deacon could surely have surmised, Jazz was not at all prepared for the sudden level of smoothness he dropped on her. The bear girl gave a sharp, shocked little inhale when he pulled her in close, staring up into his eyes and attempting to stammer out a reply before instead looking down to ger feet and nodding rapidly. Her already rose tinged cheeks flushed noticeably darker, one hand instinctively going up to her mouth so she could gently chew on her thumb nail.

After a brief moment of recovery, she cleared her throat and looked back up to him with an unsure, albeit genuine smile. "I, a-ah...yeah. I'm pretty hungry too." She led him into the restaurant, unconsciously leaning into his hand while they were taken to their table. The contact felt good, even though it was unexpected, and she notably took an extra couple seconds to break away and take her seat. "S...o. So. Um, right, the uh...I'm usually kind of indecisive when I go out somewhere, so maybe you can suggest something for me?"

Admittedly, Jazz wasn't the most well versed when it came to Mexican dishes, so she was relieved that Deacon seemed to know what he was doing. When he scooted his way closer, she once again unconsciously acted to reciprocate his action, inching her own chair almost imperceptibly closer to his and leaning in to look at the menu with him. Entirely unperturbed by the price, she nodded and smiled at him.

"Ah, yeah! Putting together our own stuff is kinda like a little...um, dinner minigame, huh? Or, well. Y'know." She giggled at the way she framed it after realizing it was just a smidge goofy, reaching for a tortilla chip from the basket between them and crunching it. There was salsa available as well, but she made a point of avoiding it since their server had informed them they only had the especially spicy variety on hand.

Realizing she was leaning towards him even after agreeing on their food, Jazz straightened back out and resorted back to her rather obvious tell of nervousness, toying with her hair. She was equal parts freaked out and excited, finding herself having a genuinely nice time just being around Deacon. "W...ell. Uh...anyway! So, did you do anything interesting, um..today?"

Jazz naturally rested her chin in her hands while she listened to Deacon talk about his day. She had never been very athletic herself, but did actually enjoy watching a few sports with her family from time. Just as she was opening her mouth to answer him however, she felt the sudden light pressure around her ankle, inhaling sharply and tensing up just a bit.

It didn't take her more than a few moments to realize what the sensation was, and after that set in she relaxed into the unfamiliar contact fairly easily. Chewing her lower lip gently for just a second, Jazz then nodded and flashed another smile, albeit a bit more shy than her last and accompanied by a notable blush. "Y-yeah, of course I'll come to your game! Um, I've meant to check out our teams anyway. My brother used to play rugby, so it'll be nice to have someone to come out and support again."

Of course Jazz felt no reason to mention just how much her relationship with her older brother had deteriorated since then, not wanting to spoil the mood. Moving her foot around gently, but not pulling away from his tail, she looked back to the salsa and gave a nervous laugh. "Anyway, how can you deal with something so spicy? I feel like I'd probably die, it's hot enough it almost makes my nose tingle."