bella notte {tag: analise}

[KEANE HUGHES]

It was 5:45 P.M. and Keane was anxiously waiting at the entrance to the park of the Graces. Was he dressed okay? His hair didn't look bad, did it? He sighed, reaching up to attempt to flatten an ever-present cowlick. Of course it did. His hair always looked like he'd just gotten out of bed, regardless what Keane did to it. One thing was sure - Keane was nervous, mentally rambling to his self and reviewing what he knew about his date.

Analise Nicotra, age eighteen, from Italy, high school senior, beautiful, funny, slow on the uptake, easily embarrassed, insecure, quirky, talented.

How long had it been since he had last gone on date? His junior year of college, probably - a full two years ago...

Getting old, Keane?

Look who decided to show up... Keane grimaced as he leaned against a pillar of the gate. "Look who is talking." He said, mildly irritated. Thalia had been up to something, but no matter how hard Keane tried, he couldn't figure out what. "You're a full two-thousand years older than I am, Thalia..."

The muse protested, but Keane did not hear her as he checked the time again. 5:51 P.M. It was almost time....

[ANALISE NICOTRA]

CALIFORNIA GIRLS

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Analise looked at her reflection in her full length mirror, wondering exactly what she should wear. It was summer in Hollywood, California, which meant that the weather would be far from cold. That, of course, was rather unfortunate, seeing as her favourite outfit for a first date was a pair of dark washed jeans and long sleeved sweater. First dates were for making impressions, and Analise knew exactly how she wanted to meet the person who she was going to start dating. She wanted to show him that she wasn’t going to ‘show him what she’s got’, as her cousins told her to as often as they could. No, that was not the impression that she wanted to make.

Instead, she wanted to make herself look presentable. Like her mother, she knew that modesty was the key to winning a guy over. You had to play hard to get, or you’d get nothing at all. Nobody liked knowing that they could have everything they wanted right away. Right? Analise questioned herself for a few seconds before deciding that it didn’t matter now. Summer was for lighter clothes. Summer was for fun. And that was just the way she was going to dress. For fun. Picking a light, summer dress and a white camisole for underneath.

She looked at her watch. Oh, shiz. Its five forty. I’m going to be late. Shiz. Shiz. Shiz. she thought, pulling the dress over her head. After fastening the bow on the side, she pulled her hair up into a bun. She was going to be late, and she didn’t have time to do anything else, like put on make up. Analise rushed out of the house, and made her way to the park. Looking around, she bit her lip. Analise had never met Keane. This was a blind date. So how was she supposed to know what he looked like? She would just have to wait and find out.

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TAG?! KEANE WORD COUNT?! DOES NOT MATTER! –hides- NOTES?! I LOVE YOU OUTFIT?! HERE! CLICK ME!. CREDIT?! credit to laurenxcore of caution 2.0. don’t steal or i’ll send the wolves after you

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[KEANE HUGHES]

Keane's heart leaped into his throat when he saw Analise walk around the corner. She was wearing a cute summer dress and looked absolutely fantastic, taking the irritation at Thalia off of his face immediately. Keane's nerves took a hold of him for a moment as Analise looked around anxiously, obviously not recognizing or noticing him.

He swallowed his anxiety, praying to any god who was listening for help, and with a sense of finality, straightened his jacket and approached Analise.

"Analise," Keane said, a broad smile on his face as he drew closer to the girl. "It's good to finally meet you - you look great!" He gave her a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek as a greeting.

I think this is my cue to leave you two alone. Thalia commented wryly. Have fun, use protection, blah blah blah.

Keane mentally thanked the grumpy muse for her consideration. It would have been awkward for Keane to enjoy the night with a third party making comments in his skull, especially if the third party was attracted to the masculine gender...

[ANALISE NICOTRA]

CALIFORNIA GIRLS

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[size=1 Analise looked around at the people around her, wondering which one of the men, if any, were Keane. She had seen his picture before, of course. She wasn’t that stupid. If she were going to go on a date, she had to know what the man looked like before she dated him. Analise knew that Keane had dark hair and pretty eyes; but that was about it. She remembered his hair looking messy, but figured that it was just in that one picture. Nobody’s hair was that messy all of the time. It just didn’t work that way.
If it did, it would be defying gravity, she thought. Analise smirked at her thought, tucking an imaginary stray hair behind her ear. Her fingers tugged at her camisole, which was already in its proper place, pulling it a bit higher. She was nervous, and that was putting it lightly. It wasn’t every day that she went on a date. It was even less often that Analise went on a blind date. She trusted strangers, sure. She wasn’t a xenophobe. But trusting strangers was one thing; dating them was another.

After being greeted with a slight squeeze of a hug and a kiss on the cheek , Analise’s smile grew a bit. She returned the favour, and listened as he spoke. “Analise! It’s good to finally meet you – you look great!” he exclaimed afterwards. She bit her lower lip and looked at him. He seemed to have a momentary look of gratefulness cross his face before she saw him grinning again. “And its wonderful to meet you as well. You look very sharp yourself. I’m glad you recognized me; I do have a horrid memory. My apologies.”

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TAG?! KEANE WORD COUNT?! DOES NOT MATTER! –hides- NOTES?! I LOVE YOU OUTFIT?! HERE! CLICK ME!. CREDIT?! credit to laurenxcore of caution 2.0. don’t steal or i’ll send the wolves after you

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[KEANE HUGHES]

"And its wonderful to meet you as well. You look very sharp yourself. I’m glad you recognized me; I do have a horrid memory. My apologies.”

Keane laughed, "No worries, Analise. It's perfectly normal." He was anxious to get the night going - his nerves were already wound tightly enough that his boundless wit was beginning to fail him, and the last thing he wanted to do was call on Thalia for help.

Okay, stop it, Keane.

He relaxed, taking a breath in, then looked again at the lovely Analise. "Shall we?" Keane asked, taking her hand in his.

Everything would be fine.

[ANALISE NICOTRA]

CALIFORNIA GIRLS

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Analise looked at Keane, a slight smile on her face. He looked nice enough. He was approximately her height, and like her, had dark brown hair and eyes. The only difference between her shoulder length, wavy hair and the one on his head was that, well… Analise didn’t know how to say it and not sound insulting. It was messy beyond compare. If she hadn’t thought better of him (and she did try to give him the benefit of the doubt; he did seem like a decently nice guy, if she were going to be honest with herself), she would have guessed that he had woken up right before coming to the date.

If he had, Analise would be a bit disappointed. Sure, she’d been on disappointing dates before. There had been the guy that took her skiing on winter break in Colorado, who left her to buy everything on her own, after telling her that he would gladly pay before they had left the airport. There had been Onion Boy, who smelled worse than anything she had ever met. And then, oh, there had been worse. She didn’t want to remember them, no matter how bad things went with Keane. Not that things would go bad with him. She wanted them to be good. Analise bit her bottom lip. She was going to have to think positively, before things all went downhill.

Analise looked up at him again. He looked happy, and was laughing. That was good, right? He was laughing for a good reason, not because she looked and sounded ridiculous…right? She was flustered. He was going to be a hard one to figure out. “No worries, Analise. It’s perfectly normal. Shall we?” Before she could agree (or protest) to going forth with the date, she found her hand in hers. “Thanks, Keane. I just, er, want to warn you though. I’m really nervous about this. I haven’t gone on a date with…a decent guy…in a few months. So…just wanted to let you know. Sorry. I’m just. Flustered?” she offered, cocking her head to the side slightly after finishing her small rant.

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TAG?! KEANE WORD COUNT?! DOES NOT MATTER! –hides- NOTES?! I LOVE YOU OUTFIT?! HERE! CLICK ME!. CREDIT?! credit to laurenxcore of caution 2.0. don’t steal or i’ll send the wolves after you

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[KEANE HUGHES]

A few months? Keane mentally sighed. Was he the only one who hadn't been dating for a few years? It wasn't that he would not been able to find a date - it was that he had been focusing on his work and focusing on escaping the far-reaching clutches of his parents. Keane guessed that the last outing he had was with Christina. She was a nice girl, beautiful, influential, intelligent, and things with her would have gone farther had Keane not found out about his parents little game. Though he introduced himself as Keane and neglected to mention his family's posterity, somewhere in the date Christina called him Kingston. It threw Keane off-balance, and he connected the dots that outlined the date. It had been a series of fortunate circumstances - their restaurant had accidently overbooked, leaving Keane without a reservation, but they had graciously, a bit too graciously, offered the pair use of the VIP room as an apology; Keane's car had the air let out of his tires, so he had to call a favor from the family, and of course they sent the limo against his specific instructions... The Hughes family, in their usual intrusive manner, had set it all up, and at this point in time Keane couldn't be sure whether or not Christina was just another player in their little game or not.

That was long in the past, and Keane had already moved on. What was important now was this moment, the feeling of Analise's hand in his, and the next hours. He smiled softly at the girl, speaking with a slight tease in his voice. "Oh, good, then I'm not the only nervous one." Keane took as step forward, turning around to face Analise and gently pulling her hand towards the park entrance. "Are you ready?"

[ANALISE NICOTRA]

CALIFORNIA GIRLS

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Analise chewed the inside of her cheek while he talked; it was one of her nervous ticks that she had picked up in the past few months. As time went on, she found that she picked up more and more of these habits. In a music hall with her parents for a charity event, she found herself tapping her foot as she waited in line. Before speaking, she licked her lips, and looked off to the side. Absentmindedly, in class, she played with her hair around her fingers. She wasn’t the only one that noticed either.Her mother pulled her aside one day, a bit of annoyance staining her expression. “Analise Elisabeth, darling, are you alright? You seem a bit…” Her mother paused, seeming to look for the right word, “nervous. Anxious. Out of place. You’ve been acting a bit different lately. Are you sure you’re alright?”

Time after time, Analise tried to tell her mother that she was fine. She called her friends daily, texted like a maniac, and went out on dates (either group or romantic) like every day could have been her last. Her mother wasn’t convinced; she still thought that her daughter was beginning to go absolutely insane. It seemed that there was nothing she could do to change her mother’s mind. It was only after about a month or so of Analise giving up and just acting ‘however she damned pleased’ that Mrs. Nicotra finally gave in. Ever since she had found herself back in California, the nervous ticks were returning. Quite often, nowadays, she found herself twirling and braiding her hair. It wasn’t because she was trying to style it. No, Analise was very nervous. She was afraid that her friends wouldn’t remember her, that everything would be harder now that she was back in a fully American lifestyle.

And now? Now she was biting off the inside of her cheek. The copper penny taste that she knew far too well swelled in her mouth. Keane mumbled something about not being the only nervous one, making her smile. It was nice to know that she wasn’t alone in this adventure. Having a friend go along for the ride was always a reassuring thought. “Yes, I’m ready.” she answered him, walking towards the park entrance with their hands interlocked. “So. Keane. That’s quite the interesting name…” she offered, trying to start a discussion.

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[KEANE HUGHES]

"So, Keane. That's quite the interesting name."

Keane flinched internally as he thought of what her next question would be. He hadn't actually bothered to change his name to Keane, so legally he was still Kingston Hughes. That, and those pesky letters his mother wrote him every month, were the only thing that tied him the the Hughes family and their "legacy". Once before, Keane had filled out the paperwork and gone to the office to deliver the papers, but he ended up sitting in his car in the driveway and staring out the window instead. He just couldn't do it. It was his name, not just something he could sign away like trash.

Keane laughed, a quiet sound in the dusk air, and shook his head. "As far as I know, I'm the only Keane ever... It seems that no one spells it K-E-A-N-E." He glanced over at Analise, her brown hair glinting in the light of the streetlamps as they began to turn on. "So," Keane began, hazarding into the silence. "How did you get your name, Analise?"

[ANALISE NICOTRA]

CALIFORNIA GIRLS

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Her smile remained on her face, though she was beginning to doubt herself. Keane seemed very nice. He showed up on time, wore decent clothes, treated her like she mattered, and gave her compliments. The only thing that he forgot, she smiled to herself, was to put a quick comb through his hair. Even so, it looked adorable on her partner of the evening, and she doubted she would have him any other way. This was the way that they had originally met (in person, anyway), and that was the picture that she would always have in her head when she thought of him. It wasn’t a bad image, either. If Analise were going to rate him, she would definitely say that his first impression was an eight or nine.

There was, of course, the small problem of age. On her last birthday, Analise Nicotra turned seventeen. As her birthday approached, she couldn’t help but get more and more excited. Keane, on the other hand, was far from her age. He was twenty three, going on twenty four. On the grand scheme number line of things , these ages were relatively close. However in the meantime, they were six to seven years apart from each other. Analise pushed the thoughts out of her head. First came the date; then she could think about relationships later. That was how things worked, right?

“As far as I know, I’m the only Keane ever. It seems that no one spells it K-E-A-N-E.” He looked at her, seeming to be cautious about his words before jumping out with them. “So, how did you get your name, Analise?” She had to think about that one. It had been years since she last thought about the origin of her name. To the best of her ability, she tried to give him a satisfying answer. “My mother always liked the name Annalissa. But my father didn’t want my name to end in A, Lord knows why. So they made it Analise as a compromise.” she answered, happy that she remembered the basic facts.

“So, is Keane a nickname or something? How’d you get an unusual name like that one?” she laughed, hoping the feeling of an awkward silence would finally begin to break away. She squeezed his hand.

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TAG?! KEANE WORD COUNT?! DOES NOT MATTER! –hides- NOTES?! I LOVE YOU OUTFIT?! HERE! CLICK ME!. CREDIT?! credit to laurenxcore of caution 2.0. don’t steal or i’ll send the wolves after you

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[KEANE HUGHES]

“So, is Keane a nickname or something? How’d you get an unusual name like that one?”

Persistent. Very persistent. The happiness Keane got from his hand being squeezed was rapidly sapped away by Analise's question. "Erm, I used to insist that my elementary school friends call me K. E. and eventually they just started calling me Keane. I'm the one who chose the spelling..."

[ANALISE NICOTRA]

Analise wondered why he was getting so uptight and strange. She had only asked him a few questions pertaining to his name. She didn’t see why he was getting all strange about things. His name was something different; she could’ve sworn that she had never heard the name ‘Keane’ before. Yet, she did know that some people were really weird about their names. If Keane didn’t want to talk about his, she could just change the subject. That was, after she asked him another question or two. She just wanted to get to the bottom of this strange predicament.

“Erm, I used to insist that my elementary school friends call me K. E., and eventually they just started calling me Keane. I’m the one that chose the spelling.” Something seemed pretty fishy about that story, if she said so herself. “Oh. That’s really cool. My friends didn’t really have a nickname for me. Well, they sort of did. They called me Ana, short for Analise. Is K.E. short for anything? Are they your initials?” she asked, batting her eyelashes a few times to increase her ‘I’m innocent’ face. She wasn’t going to give up until she got to the bottom of things, and that was that.

[KEANE HUGHES]

Keane sighed to himself. If this was going to go anywhere soon, he would have to just tell Analise the truth. The entire truth, and stop avoiding the real question. He glanced over at his date, opening and closing his mouth briefly as he tried to formulate an intelligent answer. It wasn't working.

"Um, well... Okay, so K. E. is the intials for my first and middle names, which are rather odd in my opinion and I don't know what my parents were thinking." Keane was rambling now, pushing ahead through all sense of sanity with a determined feel. He WOULD explain, whether it was embarrassing or not. "They named my brothers Robert and Samuel - ordinary names - and even my sister, Christina, has a very typical name. They decided to saddle me with a very formal sounding name instead of a traditional one." Keane took a breath in before continuing on his suicidal rant. "My full name is Kingston Edward Hughes, but I go by Keane. Only my parents and Thalia call me Kingston, and Thalia only to ann-" He shut his mouth quickly; he hadn't meant to mention Thalia, but the muse's name slipped out without much thought.