spin_kick_snap | Baltimore, Sunday Night

Banzai rarely patrolled Sunday nights, taking the night off to rest and prepare for the upcoming week, but since she'd bailed on patrolling on Friday, it seemed only fair to make up for it tonight instead. Crime around the club and various campuses would be lower, but there were still plenty of drug deals, muggings, and various other, more dangerous crimes for her to stop instead. And it wasn't like Banzai was going to miss spending extra time manhandling drunk idiots into cabs and breaking up fights in alleys over stupid bullshit the participants couldn't even remember four steps away from the club itself.

The Ukranian mafia had all but vanished from the city over the past few months; apparently losing the Butcher was enough to convince them that Baltimore wasn't worth the effort. In a way, Banzai almost missed them; they were good practice for when she'd be going up against the Seventeens in LA eventually. Patrolling around Stanford (if she got in, please God let her get in) probably wasn't going to be all that much effort, so she was already making plans to portal down to LA proper at least once a month to get in a proper patrol.

Spotting Jewels, one of the working girls that was part of Banzai's loose confederation of informants, Banzai swung down from the rooftop to land on light feet nearby. Always good to check in, see if Jewels had heard of anything going down, make sure that no one was bothering her, pass along money and supplies to stay in Jewels' good graces, all that good stuff.

It felt good to get out and patrol. For all her speeches about wanting to do good for the people around her and make the world a better place, Banzai had to admit that the real reason she ran around in rainbows with a bokken on her back and rope darts in her belt was a lot more selfish. What could she say?

She loved this.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

spin_kick_snap

The server looked at them like he was half-expecting them to go running out the door as soon as his back was turned, a dine and dash making up in quantity what the bar lacked in expensive foods. "Expecting friends?" he asked.

Kathy just shrugged, giving him another friendly smile, then dug her debit card out of her wallet. "I think we need a card to open a tab at the bar?" she said innocently, not wanting him to spend time dithering over them when he could be getting their order in. "We'll settle up with cash at the end, but let's get one started at least."

Go. Take her money. Bring her food. Compensation in exchange of goods and services, stat!

From:

rebelseekspizza

Dante dug around his pocket until he got his wallet, opened it up, and showed a couple of twenties. "Seriously, we want this amount of food. Big eaters."

He threw the guy a wink. Mostly because he could.

From:

spin_kick_snap

Kathy threw Dante an amused look. If his flirting interfered with getting her food in a timely manner, she'd shank him with a beer bottle.

Not that she was thinking about any possible effect all her smiling might have on the poor guy. That was different. She was just being friendly.

Whether it was the money or the wink or all the smiling, the server relaxed and nodded, giving Kathy a grin and returning Dante's wink. "Then I'll see what I can do about getting you both what you want real quick."

From:

rebelseekspizza

"Thanks," Dante said, shoving the wallet back into his pocket. He settled back in the booth, stretching his legs out. "Keep forgetting how you just turn into a black hole on nights like these."

From:

spin_kick_snap

"I might have gone a liiiittle overboard tonight," Kathy confessed. "I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish everything by myself." In which case, she figured Dante could hoover down the rest. "But I'm starving. Like, it's gone past the point where it hurts and now it's just this dull ache." She mirrored his pose, lounging on her side of the table. "I didn't grab snacks before I left the island and now I'm paying for it."

From:

rebelseekspizza

"All the superheroing, none of the prep."

Dante nudged at her leg with his foot. It was more an amused tap than anything approaching footsie. "I gotta tell Anders to start sneaking magical Mars bars into your bag or what?"

From:

spin_kick_snap

Shut up, she wasn't blushing, it was the weird lighting in the bar.

"Does he have magical Mars bars that he's not sharing?" she countered. "Because that's the more important conversation to have."

From:

rebelseekspizza

"I dunno, I haven't asked him," Dante mused. "But he works at the magic shop, right? On an island full of teenagers?"

From:

spin_kick_snap

"I think most of the stuff they sell is, like, incense and old books, and newts eyes and stuff," Kathy said, trying to remember the last time she'd stopped by to visit Anders at work. "Definitely no candy bars, which is a severe oversight."

She wanted magic candy, dammit!

From:

rebelseekspizza

"Huh."

Dante looked thoughtful.

"Guess the wizard community's not getting hip with the times," he said. "No wonder the Magic Box isn't a franchise yet."

From:

spin_kick_snap

"They need to look to Barry Plodder for ideas," Kathy decided. "Now there was a magical community that understood snacks."

Their server was back with their beers, which he set down in front of them. "Ummm, anything else you wanted?" he asked. "Either of you?"

Dante look what you started with your winking.

From:

rebelseekspizza

He couldn't help it, okay?

Dante smirked up at him. "Nah, we're good for now," he said. "But thanks, man. I'm sure we'll think of something later."

See? Couldn't help it.

From:

spin_kick_snap

At least he hadn't inflicted the sex smirk on the poor boy. Then Kathy never would have gotten her food.

"You are doing that deliberately," she accused in a hiss after their server had wandered back towards the kitchen. Oooh, maybe their nachos were up?

From:

rebelseekspizza

Pfffft.

Dante took a swig of his beer. "Doing what?" he asked.

From:

spin_kick_snap

"You know very well what," Kathy said, grinning as she grabbed her beer. "Next time he comes around you're just going to happen to be making very lewd gestures with your bottle, aren't you? Poor kid--" who was older than they were "--doesn't stand a chance."

Edited Date: 2016-03-14 08:43 am (UTC)

From:

rebelseekspizza

"Oh, please," Dante said, "I'm not doing anything lewd to the bottle, that's creepy as fuck."

But the sex smirk wasn't out of the realm of possibility if he got bored, nope.

From:

spin_kick_snap

"See? This is why I don't flirt with strangers," Kathy said, taking a decidedly unlewd swig from hers. "I have no idea how it's supposed to work and so I fall back on puns and awkwardness instead."

Much like their first meeting!

From:

rebelseekspizza

"You always wind up stuck on the hows," Dante said. He shrugged, taking another sip from his bottle. "That's the problem."

From:

spin_kick_snap

"They're a pretty important part of actually doing something," Kathy pointed out. "Knowing the best way to achieve a desired outcome is the first step towards getting that outcome."

From:

rebelseekspizza

"If you wanna obsess over a best way, sure." He gestured towards the kitchen with his bottle. "You were flirting with him too."

From:

spin_kick_snap

"I was not!" Kathy protested, taken aback. "I was ordering food! There's nothing sexy about ordering hamburgers and fries!"

Yeah, there was a reason Kathy stayed ignorant of the crushes people had on her until they were explicitly mentioned. She was really, really bad at this.

From:

rebelseekspizza

"Oh, c'mon," Dante said, "You were smiling at him."

See, that was the thing with Kathy. She usually knew well enough what she was doing as long as she wasn't thinking about doing it. Knowing 'the best way' would just get in the way.