It&#39;s a love story

"More Booze!" Dōjima cheered, batting her eyes at the waitress headed in their direction. "I swear, if he's fallen in and drowned, I'm leaving him here. I'll find other company for the evening."

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"Looks like there's plenty of company to be had," the redhead mused, glancing around the tavern. "Still, we better hope he didn't fall in. I ain't fishin' him out, either."

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"At least we'll get to mock him for it," she joked, placing a new order, and this time requesting food.

If they were going to keep drinking, she needed protein.

"Besides, the only company I'd be enjoying is my cat hogging the bed," Dōjima admitted, shrugging. "Wow. I feel so old and boring."

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"When did you become a cat lady, anyhow?" Reno raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Never figured you to be the type, yo."

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"Just in the last week. She used to be my big sibling's," she said, taking a long drink of water. "There was a rescue mission, and death, and then not-death, and now she can't have the cat at her new home. So, I inherited Alea."

"I have a fluffy, affectionate, very zen cat." Dōjima looked at Reno and grinned. "I'm just full of surprises."

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Romeo's attempts to find the men's room had taken him to the kitchen, the rooftop garden, the small courtyard with a dumpster in it (beside which a scraggly man spent five minutes trying to sell him cheap cocaine), and the ladies' room before he reached his destination.

It was possible the staff was having fun giving bad directions to the drunk American.

Finally he made it back to the table. "You are," he told Yurika, coming up behind her to nuzzle her neck. "Have I missed any plans for world domination?"

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Yurika squeaked in surprise as he startled her, then giggled and tilted her head to allow him easier access. "Yes. World domination via flaming hedgehogs that are not-edible. The revolution will be televised."

"That took ages, did you fall asleep? I'm not carrying you back to the dorms."

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Oooh, more neck. It needed to be kissed before he slid back onto his seat.

"I think I found every room in this place except the one I wanted," Romeo confessed. "And if either of you wants any sort of pharmaceutical from someone who looks like he hasn't bathed this year, there's a chap who set up shop beside the dumpster out back."

"Flaming hedgehogs sound like remarkable TV, actually." He leaned forward in his seat, clearly curious about this turn of things.

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She pouted slightly as he took his seat, but was quickly distracted by the arriving drinks and food. Foooood. "I'm not buying anything from the man at the dumpster," she announced, grabbing a kotopita. "I'd like to remember Greece, thank you."

"We were comparing differences between animals," Dōjima explained. "His hedgehogs are large and light things on fire. Please tell me your world does not have giant flaming spikies? The idea of animals with powers is absolutely terrifying."

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Food was an excellent thing. Romeo took a piece of mint-scented lamb before answering.

"Animals don't have powers at home any more than people do, and hedgehogs are the size of my hand and cute," he declared. "How would they light something on fire, and why? Reno's world is terrifying."

Edited Date: 2008-05-06 02:04 pm (UTC)

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"See? That's what I said!" Dōjima said, sticking her tongue out at Reno. "Straaaaaaange world. Don't ask me, my hedgehogs are wee and cute and not pyrokinetic."

"Oh, and we have to find Red here a penguin."

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"Never said my world wasn't nasty, did I? Hedgehog pies ain't even the nastiest shit we got out there. They're pretty tame, compared to most of the crap runnin' around nowadays, yo. And as for the penguin..." Reno gave a drunken shrug of his shoulders, "Rude'd love a little Turk-bird of his very own."

He had himself a good laugh, then, smirking and knocking back the bottle for another good swig of delicious licorice-y nastiness.

Which, all things considered, wasn't a wise move with his feet on the table and the chair leaned backward like that, and a good deal of the rest of the contents of the bottle were lost in the subsequent cartwheeling of his arms needed to keep him from toppling over backwards, chair and all.

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Romeo got a bad case of the giggles at that, though he at least had the decency to try to put a steadying hand on Reno's back.

"Is it time to cut you off?" he asked. "Or did the floor try to rise up to grab you?"

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Dōjima had no decency, and just whipped out her cellphone to take a picture of the flailing as she cracked up. "Alcohol-abuse! Quit spilling!"

She had priorities.

Edited Date: 2008-05-06 05:32 pm (UTC)

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Okay. Reno's feet were going to be going on the floor now, and he was going to clutch the bottle to his chest and catch his breath, wide-eyed.

"What a waste of some damn fine booze, yo."

The poor, poor ouzo.

"I'm good, I'm good to keep goin'! Cut-off ain't for a long while from now, trust me."

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"Licorice-flavored. It deserved it," Romeo said, shaking his head.

Then, as he drained the last of his glass, he added. "Though it might be growing on me."

He signaled the waitress for another bottle -- no sense in bothering with mixers at this point. "A pet penguin would be awesome." Not that he had the first clue what to do with one, but it would be.

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"You waste it like that again, I'm taking it into protective custody," Dōjima warned Reno, sliding some of the appetizers in his direction.

"Where would we get a pet penguin, anyway?" She looked around the tavern, almost as if she expected one to appear. "I don't even know what penguins eat."

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"Ain't it obvious?" Reno downed the last of the bottle, and then made a grab for the finger-foods. "Penguins eat bacon."

It was, after all, the logical answer, in the face of the conversation they'd been having.

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"If they don't, they would," Romeo said, "and fish and ice cream and polar bears." Was that backwards? He didn't care, as he took a mouthful of ... something.

And promptly made a face.

"I think they sent out a salt lick instead of food."

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"Meze is usually salty," she said, piling some taramosalata on her bread. "Not a fan of seafood?"

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"I like seafood," he protested, spreading a bit of the ... thing on pita and holding it for her to bite. "See, try. It just tastes like salt."

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Well, he was holding it out so temptingly...

"I do like salty," she deadpanned, giving him a nice view of her cleavage as she leaned in for a bite. "And I'll try anything once."

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"Only once?" he asked, almost innocently, as he slipped the bite into her mouth.

The enhanced view was a wonderful thing, and Romeo took the time to appreciate it thoroughly.

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Dōjima nipped lightly at his fingers before leaning back in her chair to lick her lips. Yup. Salty. "I didn't say only once. Reno, did you hear me say only?" she asked, smirking at Romeo slightly. "Don't put words in my mouth."

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