Ready?
Rorschach shouldn't have been able to get away with serving any sort of alcohol to any sort of minor, but Kuga Natsuki had always been good at slipping outside the rules, and, considering some of the other things that got ignored about the place in the name of preserving a useful neutral ground, the Police were hardly likely to make a fuss over the matter.
"You shouldn't do that, you know," Yamada - even she didn't know his personal name, and he'd been working for her ever since her first fumbling efforts to learn more about her mother's death. "It's bad for your liver."
She smiled. "You do it."
"I don't have nearly as many years left as you do."
"I'm going to need the courage, shortly." And that was enough banter - their relationship had always turned around the axis of business, not friendship, though certainly both were present. "Which options have you eliminated?"
He slid a flash drive over beside her coaster. "All of them. Either he walked out on his own, that 'patron' of his whisked him away to Never Never Land, or SEARRS has him."
Huh. Not hard to guess which of those options was most likely. "He wouldn't leave. Not without at least saying something."
"I didn't think he sounded the sort," Yamada agreed, and Natsuki gave him a thankful smile. She knew how valuable support could be.
They chatted a little, set up another meeting, and then she finished her drink and walked out.
Shizuru was waiting for her, perched across the back of her bike. "I didn't know you'd be coming here," Natsuki told her.
The older girl put on a deliberately-false hurt look. "You're not happy to see me?" she asked.
'And what's wrong about it, anyway? Evil's in harm, not desire, and most people don't switch-hit only because they're not honest enough to admit that they can. I hardly think she deserves to be punished for being better than that... Besides, the only real reason not to, if you do actually feel attracted to her, is that the conventions and established rules of society would dissaprove.
'You don't strike me as the type to be weak enough to let that stop you.'
She had scowled and glared at something well away from his face. 'It'd be humiliating enough with a boy...'
'It's not like anybody ever said love was easy,' he had pointed out.
'Hmph. Does Mai know you keep saying such scandalous things?'
'Our first date was... interesting, yeah.'
"Of course I am," she murmured, and leaned down to give her a quick, almost furtive kiss before starting to fish through the saddlebags for the spare helmet.
Steady.
Ja, -n
(Go!)
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
Rorschach shouldn't have been able to get away with serving any sort of alcohol to any sort of minor, but Kuga Natsuki had always been good at slipping outside the rules, and, considering some of the other things that got ignored about the place in the name of preserving a useful neutral ground, the Police were hardly likely to make a fuss over the matter.
"You shouldn't do that, you know," Yamada - even she didn't know his personal name, and he'd been working for her ever since her first fumbling efforts to learn more about her mother's death. "It's bad for your liver."
She smiled. "You do it."
"I don't have nearly as many years left as you do."
"I'm going to need the courage, shortly." And that was enough banter - their relationship had always turned around the axis of business, not friendship, though certainly both were present. "Which options have you eliminated?"
He slid a flash drive over beside her coaster. "All of them. Either he walked out on his own, that 'patron' of his whisked him away to Never Never Land, or SEARRS has him."
Huh. Not hard to guess which of those options was most likely. "He wouldn't leave. Not without at least saying something."
"I didn't think he sounded the sort," Yamada agreed, and Natsuki gave him a thankful smile. She knew how valuable support could be.
They chatted a little, set up another meeting, and then she finished her drink and walked out.
Shizuru was waiting for her, perched across the back of her bike. "I didn't know you'd be coming here," Natsuki told her.
The older girl put on a deliberately-false hurt look. "You're not happy to see me?" she asked.
'And what's wrong about it, anyway? Evil's in harm, not desire, and most people don't switch-hit only because they're not honest enough to admit that they can. I hardly think she deserves to be punished for being better than that... Besides, the only real reason not to, if you do actually feel attracted to her, is that the conventions and established rules of society would dissaprove.
'You don't strike me as the type to be weak enough to let that stop you.'
She had scowled and glared at something well away from his face. 'It'd be humiliating enough with a boy...'
'It's not like anybody ever said love was easy,' he had pointed out.
'Hmph. Does Mai know you keep saying such scandalous things?'
'Our first date was... interesting, yeah.'
"Of course I am," she murmured, and leaned down to give her a quick, almost furtive kiss before starting to fish through the saddlebags for the spare helmet.
Steady.
Ja, -n
(Go!)
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"