milliways_bar | (no subject)

There is a girl, green-eyed and far too wary, that is Looking back.

She has coffee, but she isn't drinking it.

He's far too interesting (and dangerous).

Heero raises an eyebrow at her, as if to ask why she is staring at him.

The answer is, of course, likely because he is staring at others. Nevertheless...

She just shrugs a little, and her eyes don't leave his.

X-23 is good at that.

Heero shrugs back, and glances away, as if to find something else more important. He's still keeping himself aware of her presence, though. He merely wants to see if she keeps paying attention to him.

She does.

It's entirely possible that her plan is to wait him out.

X-23 is very unskilled at making friends.

This, they have in common.

It's two, maybe three more minutes of silence, before he gestures at her with another look. This one says: 'would you like to join me?'

Maybe he's not so bad, after all.

She considers this for a minute or two, then stands, pacing over to his table.

She doesn't make noise when she moves.

And she crouches in her chair instead of sitting.

She is still watching him, too.

This is unlikely to change.

Heero offers her a brief hint of a smile, before his expression adjusts back to 'poker face'.

"Do you have a name?" he asks.

She thinks about this, too.

Then she nods.

"X-23."

Beat.

"Or Laura."

"Laura," Heero repeats. He deliberately uses the latter - the former sounds like a codename, and if he's getting the right vibes off of her, he senses that it would be a good idea to avoid those.

"My name's Heero."

She feels more like X-23 than Laura, most days. But Laura is the name her mother gave her, so--she'll learn to get used to it.

"Hello."

Some niceties she remembers. Just not many.

"You were staring at me," he says, the statement an observation rather than a accusation. "Why?"

X considers how to answer this.

"You were watching."

Another former soldier (SOLDIER?) in the bar.

Also sitting at a table, but not really caring at all to give anyone Looks. He does happen to glance over and catch the Look.

Huh.

Heero considers the ~~overly large, possibly an object of compensation~~ sword. He then considers the general attitude that Cloud is giving off at the moment.

Not someone that seems likely to be a danger at the moment. But worth keeping an eye on.

Heero does so, without making a secret of it.

Okay, so that guy is definitely looking at him, now.

Right. A bit irritating, really.

There is deliberate looking in return, now.

~~But is it deliberate Looking in return?~~

Heero shrugs at him, and takes a sip of his drink, which is set nearby on the table. He doesn't glance away.

Perhaps he's just bored, now.

Cloud proceeds to look at him for a moment longer, then turns away - back to his own business.

Perhaps Heero is bored, but Cloud most certainly is bored.

Well, then maybe Heero is bored, because he finds himself at Cloud's table a moment later. Leaning on it with one hand, he studies the sword from a closer perspective.

"They let you in here with this?" he asks, eyebrow raised.

Cloud looks up briefly, then scrutinizes Heero for a moment before finally nodding.

"Yes."

"Interesting."

Heero studies it some more, before looking at Cloud.

"It doesn't look practical."

"It does what it's supposed to," is simply all Cloud says to that.

It hasn't let him down in all the battles he's fought thus far (and it's more or less at quite a high count).

The Look is less frightening when you've seen it directed at everything from breakfast cereal to terrorists, to yourself. (The last very often.)

"Look what the bar dragged in." Duo pauses in front of him, looking vaguely pleased with himself for not apparent reason.

"You look pleased with yourself," Heero comments, because this is not something that he will let pass by. "Did you have something to do with the bar's decision?"

Likely not. But at least he'll have someone to blame it on.

"Hah! If I had some secret bar connection," and here he wiggles his fingers, 'ooooh magic'- "I would use it to get you here a lot more often than once in a goddamn blue moon. I would abuse that."

He would abuse that all night long.

"It's not as if you do not see me at home," Heero observes. "I do not see what the difference is."

"What, you don't want to see me all the time?"

Duo grins, wondering if Heero recognizes that for the loaded question it is.

Heero gives him a Look.

Clearly, he does.

A look of his very own! It's practically a proposal.

Duo plops down in the chair across from Heero, and studies him carefully, hands folded under his chin. "Hi."

Another look in return, questioning what the first one may be proposing.

"Hello," Heero says.

"Sooo, since you're here, are you sticking around for dinner? Or just sitting there being a grouchy lump? Not that you're not adding to the scenery and doing us all a public service just by sitting there, but..."

Heero rolls his eyes upward, for a moment. "I'm not grouchy," he informs Duo. "I'm merely not talkative."

A pause.

"Dinner would be fine."

"This is a change how? I mean, you don't usually glare at the whole room like they hacked your administrator password unless something is up. I'll get to the bottom of this, never fear."

Duo kicks out his feet in front of him, and props them up on another chair.

"What d'you feel like?"

"Whatever you like."

Heero doesn't tend to be careless about what he eats, at least not for the last few months. This is likely a sign of grouchiness, too - despite the fact he's been denying it.

"Pizza?" It's something they both like, after all. Sort of comfort food. Besides, who doesn't like chatting about their day (or woes) over pizza? And maybe beer.

"But if you don't tell me what you want on and pick a drink, I'll get fish put on it." A dire threat indeed.

This earns Heero making a Face. "No," he says. "Pine-apple or mushrooms." No fish.

At least it got an actual reaction.

"Little eyes looking up at you-" Duo cracks up and heads over to the bar, apparently placing their order.

He makes a 'something to drink?' gesture at Heero.

"Water," Heero tells him.

While considering revenge for that 'little eyes' comment.

He comes back with water for both of them, and a bottle of beer for himself. Then a quick scamper back to the bar for steaming hot pizza and plates. Vegetables and mushrooms abound. There is no sign of any fish.

He contemplates mentioning something about fish living in water, but doesn't want to get said drink dumped on his head. So Duo just applies himself to a slice of pizza, and doesn't even talk with his mouth full.

Heero eyes him suspiciously, and after he's taken a bite of his own slice -

"You're behaving too well, now," he says.

"You want me to misbehave?" Duo says, sounding over dramatically incredulous. "I am just humoring my partner 'cause he's had a bad day. Even though he won't tell me what's up. You got any advice for someone in that situation? I hear you're the go-to guy."

"Misbehave if you like," Heero says. "Acting out of character is not going to help."

So he falls into an exaggerated sulk instead, picking at a piece of what is probably zucchini. "Man, you are just no fun sometimes."

Heero raises an eyebrow. "When am I ever fun?"

Good question.

"I can think of a few times," Duo says. He tries to smile suggestively around a bite of pizza and just ends up with sauce on his nose.