Cowboy Night
WHO: Schuldig (colpevole) ; Axel (fireveins) ; those who show up (full list to come!)
WHAT: Cowboy Night!
WHERE: The Warrior Princess
WHEN: Friday night
WELCOME TO THE WARRIOR PRINCESS.
[ooc: Hey guys! This is an open thread, and the reason I'm putting it up now is so that everyone who wants to participate will have a chance to do so at their leisure, and work ( Read more... )
WHAT: Cowboy Night!
WHERE: The Warrior Princess
WHEN: Friday night
WELCOME TO THE WARRIOR PRINCESS.
[ooc: Hey guys! This is an open thread, and the reason I'm putting it up now is so that everyone who wants to participate will have a chance to do so at their leisure, and work ( Read more... )
"I must have missed the day they had that in," he said, playing along with the joke, and taking a sip of his drink.
He'd grown so used to faking interest in conversations in order to gain a business advantage, it had been a long time since he'd initiated one just for the hell of it. Well, they said Italy was supposed to be relaxing.
He was fairly certain that "they" weren't talking about Reggio Calabria when they said that, but to each his own. It wasn't exactly the sort of place most people would find relaxation, but Crawford had made a tidy sum from selling weapons and the like to the city's men-about-town. He found money relaxing. He wouldn't call himself comfortable, exactly, since his ambitions rarely allowed him to rest at whatever position he'd carved out for himself, but it was a nice place to be in.
His eyes followed Badou's movements out of habit, a life spent of reading people by their vices, their personality tics. Except he wasn't having a business meeting, and he didn't exactly need to analyze Badou because he wasn't looking to profit from him. Though it did give him more of an idea as to what exactly was happening, with the bartender and that outgoing Italian.
"You really ought to step in," Crawford said mildly, indicating the pair of redheads dancing. "I think they're very close to violating some sort of public indecency law."
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Maybe it was because they'd spent so many nights before this one sitting in not-quite-such-close, but still close enough, proximity-but Badou felt as though there were things that it was all right for him to leave unsaid. Not just idle chitchat about the weather, but important things. Things like "Thanks for…" well, for whatever it was that Crawford had done at the moment that he'd slid one seat over and decided to take part in their round of introductions.
He liked that. And he liked Crawford. Liked him in that sense of rapport and affinity that people sometimes called chemistry. It was funny how just a few short words could move him from nonchalant indifference to actually liking the guy. But whatever, the point was that he knew that Crawford was watching him, and it was all right. He didn't mind. And he didn't feel like he had to put an act on, either.
What he hadn't realized, as he'd turned a little to watch Schuldig dance with Gojyo, was that the discomfort that had begun to blossom earlier when the pair had leaned across the bar to kiss was going to assert itself again with such a vengeance watching the two of them on the dance floor.
Shit. What the hell was his problem? They were just dancing. And it still wasn't any of his business. Get over it, right. Except it wasn't really the dancing, it was the touching, and Gojyo bare-chested, and the kissing and the audience, and then Gojyo's hand on the front of Schu's pants and… It was just him, right? Feeling like this was a little too close to watching the opening of one of those movies of Schuldig's that he always made it a point not to watch.
It was Crawford's voice that broke into his thoughts. Again. Damn. Talk about starting a pattern. But this time the release wasn't so instantaneous. Him? Step in on that?
He took a drag on his cigarette and exhaled in a laugh that sounded tenser than he would have liked. "Ha. Yeah. Said I was a fearsome hunter, not a nimrod looking to throw himself to the lions."
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Crawford wasn't normally the type of person to draw comfort from such things, but he knew when to make an exception every now and then.
He turned his head just slightly so that he could watch Badou out of his peripheral vision. Perhaps it was something to do with…him. His quiet and his endless smoking and the practiced motion of his fingers, reaching for yet another cigarette. Crawford could appreciate a routine. And he did, apparently, he appreciated the one they'd established between them. Not speaking, not exactly acknowledging one another, but existing comfortably in the same space nonetheless.
It made him feel a strange companionship for the other man. One Eye. Badou.
Crawford stretched his arms out, turning away from the dance floor to lean them against the bar. His drink was slowly becoming 'his empty glass', which always put him in a bad mood.
"Well, chalk it up to American rudeness," he shrugged, smiling sharp now, like some kind of predatory animal. A lion himself, perhaps. "But I personally am getting awfully thirsty."
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That smile meant that his new compatriot was planning something. Badou wasn't sure exactly what, but hey, they were on the same page here, right? And that was what mattered. Besides, Badou really was a natural follower if he had someone around worth following. He liked having someone around worth following; he'd even put up with a lot of shit sometimes for the sake of having that person who wanted to take the lead. It was sort of comforting: it simplified things when all you had to do was decide that you were with someone.
He turned from the dance floor back towards the bar and took the last swallow of his own drink. "Yeah," he said cocking his head a little to eye the empty glass and then glancing over at Crawford. "Yeah, I see what you mean."
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He smiled. Now that was a good show.
Gojyo resumed his seat and sipped on his beer, a smug look on his face as he decided to leave his coat off for now. He had no doubt that he was sweaty, his ponytail hanging limp at the base of his neck and his cowboy hat cocked sideways, but this was his testament to how awesome a dance that had been.
Neroli dancing with Surefire.
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