The Blue Squid, Baltimore, Thursday Night

[not_every_mage]

Anders had chosen this bar carefully. He wanted one where there would be a minimal chance Kathy would feel compelled to break up a fight, which left Pogue Mahone and anything in its neighborhood off the table. (Anders was a bit sad he couldn't introduce her to the wonders of potato nachos.) The place he brought her to instead was larger and bright inside, with countless TVs showing the playoffs for something or other. But it was clean, and the waiters seemed inclined to leave them alone, and that was enough.

"So," he asked Kathy, once they'd claimed their booth, "how do you want to start this? Beer's traditional, but we could get something stronger if you just want to get drunk fast."

[OOC: For one. NFB due to distance.]

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy approved!

"And you said you didn't know if you had any kinks," Kathy teased. "Especially if every time they looked at you, they smirked and played with it?"

Kathy also was developing a thing for smirks. Go figure.

"Denial and expectation can be fun to play with."

[not_every_mage]

"I didn't until I started talking to you!" Anders protested. "You made me think about things. But yes,the expectation would make everything better."

[spin_kick_snap]

"And the waiting," Kathy agreed. "Heightening everything up to a fever pitch until it just all finally breaks loose and you just have to pounce? That's the best. When there's no room to think, just need."

Oh. Her drink was broken again. That was very sad.

[not_every_mage]

Blink. Blink. Blink. Anders' brain was also broken.

"I love that," he finally said, after weighing the pros and cons of fleeing to the loo. "The whole world except you and your partner could go away when it'slike that, and it wouldn't even matter. You'd never notice."

[spin_kick_snap]

She would feel very sorry about all the brain breaking tomorrow, Anders. Really.

"Exactly," Kathy said, clapping. "And by that time, even when you're done you're not done because you've been so needy for that long."

[not_every_mage]

The waitress came by just then, which was excellent timing in that it kept Anders' brain from dribbling out his ears. He jabbed a finger at something on the cocktails menu, something bright-colored and fruity, and waited for her to go away.

Once they were (mostly) alone again: "Yes, and anybody who gets to sleep with you is a very lucky man," he said. "Or woman, if you change your mind about that."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy held up two fingers so the waitress would know that she was getting drinks for the both of them, then turned back to Anders. "Thank you!" she said, beaming. "I hope that they agree. And you know what? I wish I were attracted to girls! There are more of us in school than there are boys. And we're all...soft and pretty, you know? Though there's something to be said about hot and hard and heavy..."

Where had she been going with this again? The soft fuzz over her brain was making it hard to keep track of the thread of conversation.

[not_every_mage]

"That's why I can never decide," Anders told her, bobbing his head in a slightly blurry nod. "Boys are lean and muscular and strong< and have fantastic arms, but ... breasts. And girls are prettier."

[spin_kick_snap]

"We are prettier," Kathy agreed. "But the sensation of being filled--"

OH MY GOD, KATHY. WHY WERE YOU STILL TALKING!

...Oh right. Pretty drunk.

"Hi!" she said merrily to the waitress who'd returned with their drinks. "Your hair is very pretty. You're very pretty. Because we're girls and girls are pretty!"

The waitress just gave Kathy the patient smile of someone well-used to dealing with drunk patrons and handed their drinks over.

[not_every_mage]

The whole exchange sent Anders into a gale of laughter. "She thinks you want her," he decided. "She has pretty hair,and she thinks you want her. Should I go ask for her number for you?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Noooo!" Kathy said, turning red and hiding behind her hands. "I just wanted to tell her that she's pretty! Nooo, it's okay!" she called after the waitress. "I'm distressingly straight! Ask all the girls at my school!"

She was tempted to send Anders after her to explain. Because that would surely help.

[not_every_mage]

The waitress had fled behind the bar, possibly never to emerge.

Anders finally broke from his laughing to pat Kathy's arm consolingly. "It's all right. I'm sure she appreciated the compliment."

[spin_kick_snap]

"But she does have pretty hair," Kathy said, because it was very important that Anders know that. "It's all...long. And pretty. You have pretty hair, too. It's very soft. I like when I get to pet it. Can I pet your hair, Anders?"

You know what Kathy needed? To drink more of her new drink. Absolutely.

[not_every_mage]

"If you really want to," Anders said, loosening his hair from its band. He took two wobbly steps to sit next to her, smoothing his hair down to his shoulders as he did. "Maker, have you ever even seen it down before? It keeps getting longer."

Hair did that when you didn't trim it,yes.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Hair? Growing? That's so weird," Kathy agreed, happily running her hand over his hair. And cuddling up to him; she was a cuddler by nature and drinking only brought that out more.

Though she didn't cuddle so closely that she was out of reach of her drink. That would be unreasonable.

"I always wanted to be blonde when I was little," she said. "Blonde with curls. Do you think I could pull it off? Would I still be pretty? Anders, am I pretty? I think I'm pretty, but maybe I'm just being arrogant. Would I be prettier if I were blonde? You're pretty. And blonde. And your hair is very soft. You may be prettier than our waitress, even though she's a girl."

[not_every_mage]

"I'm handsome, not pretty," Anders protested drowsily. (Being cuddled and drunk brought that out in him.) "You're very pretty. But you shouldn't be blonde. It'd look weird."

He sipped his neon drink then reached to play with her hair too, if she'd let him.

"Ezra's pretty," he said. "And Dante. And Isabela. But Nathan has the prettiest magic eyes."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Dante and Ezra are prettier than me," Kathy sulked, letting her head rest on his shoulder. "And Isabela--I just look at her and think 'boobs.'" She giggled. "Boobs, boobs, boobs, no pants. Maybe I should wear no pants. Except I already wear tiny skirts. And I don't have the boobs for no pants."

That made complete sense, yes.

[not_every_mage]

"Boobs are nice," Anders informed her. "No pants is nice. If you didn't want to wear pants I would support you. Pants are stupid."

He was, of course, not offering to give up his own.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I've got good legs," Kathy said, raising hers up high enough that her knee was pressed against her shoulder and her toes her pointing up to the ceiling. "So I could not wear pants. But I already wear skirts! Would anyone notice if I just didn't wear anything?"

YES KATHY. MANY PEOPLE WOULD NOTICE. LIKE THE POLICE.

[not_every_mage]

"I think I can see your underpants," Anders said, too distracted by the pose to answer the question. (Which answered the question in its own way, one might say.) "Kathy, are you trying to show everyone in the bar your underpants? It's okay if you are. I don't mind."

The alcohol had turned Anders into a lech.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Why shouldn't I?" Kathy asked, tossing her hair. Oooh, that caused the room to spin. Weeeird. "They're really cute underwear. They have little straps and bows on the back. Wanna see?"

Apparently, alcohol just made Kathy shameless. She wasn't even trying to be coy or flirtatious--she just had really cute undies and was excited about the chance to show them off.

[not_every_mage]

"Yes," Anders said immediately, before the ramifications kicked in. He belched quietly against his hand before continuing. "I mean, I'm sure they're very nice, but no, because I'm dating somebody and that means I can never ever look at anybody else's underpants. Even if they're probably pretty. Why didn't you want to show me your underpants a thousand years ago when we were both single, Kathy?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Because I was stupid and stupidly hung up on a stupid guy who was like a decade older than me and probably just thought I was a stupid kid the whole time," Kathy said, frowning. "I mean, sure, Fandom thinks we're...gonna get married?...I think?...in like twenty years? But then, Fandom also thinks I'm gonna have a baby with you and with Ezra, so whatever, Fandom is stupid. But I totally had a mirror fantasy about you back in March if that helps any."

It didn't, Kathy. It so didn't.

"But it was okay. I checked to make sure it was okay with Nathan in the fantasy and it was. Because I am consy--conscious--conscientious."

[not_every_mage]

"You weren't stupid," Anders insisted. He'd gone back to trying (and mostly failing) to braid Kathy's hair. "You were devoted. Hopelessly devoted. It's romantic, is what it is."

He frowned. "A mirror fantasy? Like, watching a mirror while we're doing it? I'd get distracted."

[spin_kick_snap]

"It's romantic if it works," Kathy declared. "It's stupid and pathetic if it's one-sided."

Which it had been, so...

Then she was shaking her head, which likely didn't help Anders' braiding any. "No, no, an evil mirror fantasy. Did I ever tell you about that? With Skinny? No, not Skinny. What was his name? Gaunt. Yes. Him. I had an evil mirror that supposedly showed me the future. Except it wasn't the future. It was just what I wanted to see. Like me yelling at my Dad. And also pretty boys having sex with me. Which was a different fantasy."