Chilly Boulder Ice Creamery, Saturday late afternoon

[gobrooke_urself]

Come almost evening time, Brooke and Tabitha were still at the ice cream place, both on their second sundae. Try as she might, Brooke hadn't been able to get any sort of booze mixed in with hers, even for as much as she thought she deserved it

Comments

[itsjustlanguage]

Hoshi decided to be brave and take the kidlets for ice cream, especially since Yoshiko was apparently from some kind of ice planet. The dorms were too hot and stuffy for her.

[satokids]

Yoshiko peered over the counter at all the different flavors, her antennae twitching with excitement. "Wow! I've never seen so many. We only get strawberry and vanilla on Enterprise. Once, Uncle Travis took me on his family's cargo ship and they had chocolate!"

[itsjustlanguage]

"Do you think Toru would like some ice cream too?" asked Hoshi, who had Toru balanced on her hip since he wasn't as fast at walking as his sister. The time she spent taking care of Reizo had paid off.

[satokids]

Toru gurgled and clapped his hands.

"I think so," said Yoshiko. "Who doesn't like ice cream? It's so nice and cold!"

[itsjustlanguage]

"Do you spend time with your daddy on his planet?" asked Hoshi, trying to get the attention of the clerk who was staring at Yoshiko as if he'd never seen an alien before.

[satokids]

Yoshiko shook her head. "My daddy's dead. I never met him," she said.

[itsjustlanguage]

So she was going to be a widow, apparently, thought Hoshi. "What about Toru's father?" she asked, looking at her son's unusual forehead ridges.

[satokids]

"We're not allowed to talk about him," said Yoshiko. "I heard Uncle Jonathon talk about him once, though. He called him a damn son of a..."

[itsjustlanguage]

"I think I get the picture," said Hoshi, cutting Yoshiko off.

[robinthefrog]

"Hoshi!" Robin hopped up in the air and waved to get her attention. "Hi Hoshi!"

[itsjustlanguage]

"Hey Robin," said Hoshi, smiling. She had Toru balanced on her hip, and Yoshiko was eating her ice cream and looking at Robin with wide eyes.

[robinthefrog]

"Oooooh! You got kids today too? Hi!" he beamed at the children. A part of him noted that neither appeared to be part frog.

[itsjustlanguage]

Hoshi was still trying to figure out just what her kids were. "Yeah, they showed up this morning. I have no idea what to make of it," she said.

[satokids]

"Hi," said Yoshiko, who had no problem with shyness. Her antennae stood up as she looked at Robin.

[robinthefrog]

Robin's attention was drawn to the antenna when they moved. That was pretty cool. "I'm Robin. I'm teaching Hoshi how to speak Frog."

[satokids]

"Oh, cool!" said Yoshiko. "Mama, you didn't tell me you spoke Frog!"

Toru gurgled. No, he was not trying to speak Frog.