CELEBRATING THE HOLIDAY EVERYONE LOVES TO HATE*

[first_seventhe]

Fandom: taking back Valentine's Day since 2008!

So last year bottle-of-shine had a Kissing Battle. The last edition is here (EDITED TO ADD: this is the old battle, not the current one!). It was a lot of fun and might be known around FF-fandom circles as the best Meme ever**.

Pretty much everyone I know is stressed about something, too, so this round of the

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FFVII: Reno/Rude/Elena

[deadshrimpblues]

It was a little-known fact that Turks, in addition to being accomplished assassins, arms dealers, and assholes, were also fairly competent magicians. Set a bottle of Gongaga Gutrot in front of one and it would vanish in the blink of an eye. Give it to three of them, and the speed at which the stuff disappeared became downright supernatural.

The Blue Note was Rude's favourite place to go for a drink in Junon. Since it had been his turn to pick on this particular trip, that was were they were. The place was packed, excluding the area around the Turk table; people practically tripped over their own feet trying to give the three a wide berth. Not that the occupants of said table noticed - they had arrived at 7, and both the big and little hands on the big neon wall-clock were now angling towards 12. Several empty flasks of various sizes had appeared during that time; it looked like they were building a fort in the centre of the booth with them.

A frightened-looking waiter brought another full bottle, left it on the table, and scuttled back into the crowd like a frazzled cockroach. Elena was the first to break the cap on this one; she tipped the booze back with a flourish that set her comrades to cheering. Several patrons glanced back at the trio and edged further away.

The bottle was passed to Reno. He took a drink, slopped half of it down the front of his suit (the Turks were on a first-name basis with their dry cleaners; they got rid of every kind of stain, didn't ask questions, and were tipped handily for the discretion), and handed it to Rude. Rude was much neater about his imbibing, but still managed to finish off half of it in one long, quiet pull.

Reno wiped his mouth on his sleeve, ran a hand through his hair, and leered cheerfully at Elena.

"Hey, 'Lena," he slurred, trying desperately to focus both eyes on her face, "if we're all drinkin' from th' same bottles, does that mean me n' Rude just indirec'ly kissed you?"

Elena pondered this, rubbing her chin in a drunken mockery of thoughtfulness.

"Nahhhhhh. I think it means you n' Rude just did, though! Or maybe ... maybe all three of us are makin' out!!"

The thought tickled her so much she nearly fell out of her chair, cackling hysterically. Her comrades joined in, but it was an alarmed kind of laughter that soon petered out into a strained silence.

Rude was the first to break the pause. He coughed, cleared his throat, and spoke with perfect enunciation.

“... Time to go home, then?”

The screeching of three individual chairs being hastily pushed back was all the answer needed.