milliways_bar | (no subject)

"Yup." It comes out in a sort of exasperated sigh. Hyde looks over his shoulder at Spike and raises an eyebrow, then indicates the pile of change with some disgust. "Does this look like enough to buy a cup of coffee to you?"

Spike looks over at the pile of change and shrugs. "Don't know, but didn't they tell you the first drink is always on the house?"

Looks like Earth money. Smells like Earth money. "And if it isn't and the house doesn't oblige, I'll buy you a cup. No big deal." He extends his hand. "Spike Spiegel."

"I already had the first drink, man," Hyde mumbles. Then he smiles and briefly shakes Spike's hand. "I'm Hyde."

"Good to know you."

He takes a look at the kid. Yeah, he looks old enough.

"Smoke?" He offers him a cigarette.

Hyde brightens. "Mindreader. Hell yes, thanks." He plucks the cigarette from Spike's hand and puts it between his lips. "Gotta light? Zippo's at home."

He tosses Hyde a pack of matches picked up from a bar called The Raving Lunatic on Titan. Because only crazy people would be at a bar on Titan anyhow.

"Talk to me, Hyde. How'd you end up here?"

Hyde reads the pack. "The Raving Lunatic. Good name." He grins at Spike a bit and lights up deftly.

Takes a few good puffs, then exhales a thin stream of smoke straight up into the air, staring at the ceiling. "Well, I walked through the front door. It was supposed to be my friend Forman's basement, but it's obviously not." He looks back at Spike and raises an eyebrow - to punctuate his point.

"Obviously." He nods and flags down a passing wait-rat for two coffees. The wait-rat makes nice and brings cream and sugar, just in case, although Spike drinks his coffee black.

He rests an elbow on the bar and surveys the room. "Damn, it's getting crowded in here. When I first got here, there weren't anywhere near this many people."

Hyde doesn't bother with cream and sugar. He's got his cigarette, he's got his coffee, he's a happy boy. He holds the cup in both hands and brings it up to his mouth, inhaling the aroma and the warmth like he's been cold for hours.

"Oh yeah? Guess I'm adding to the pollution, then. What's the matter, don't like the human zoo?"

"Nah, it's cool. Just noticing."

He takes a one-Woolong coin out of his pocket: must have been in there from the ship. For a moment he examines it, then tosses it up into the air and catches it again, deftly. "So, what do you do, Hyde? Besides find yourself at the end of the universe?" He glances at the clothes, the boots, the belt buckle. He's got a pretty good idea how Hyde spends his time.

Hyde's eyes follow the movement of the coin. He's still all huddled over the cup of coffee, the cigarette smoldering between his fingers.

"I make fun of my friends."

That makes him laugh. "Honorable pastime... you cold or something?"

"Hey, someone's gotta do it. They deserve it." He shrugs. "I am cold. I don't get it. You're not cold, are you? It's freezing in here, man."

Spike shrugs. "Move over by the fire, Hyde. It's one of the basic laws of physics: burning things keep you warmer. And if there's nothing hot nearby, find yourself a girl... if that's your thing."

He would never presume. Well, hardly ever.

Hyde grins, then suddenly cackles in a wicked sort of way. "'If that's my thing,' he asks..."

Then he shakes his head and the cackle goes away. "Or I could just drink my coffee and stop whining." He takes a long gulp, then nods. "Better."

"Coffee's a great vice. Socially acceptable and everything. Plus it makes a great prop: almost as good as a smoke."

He stabs out the cigarette in a nearby ashtray, then leans back on both elbows, surveying the bar populace. "So, what do you think of the place so far?"

"Alcohol's a great vice, too, if you're the right age. We're lucky to have so many socially acceptable vices, right at our fingertips." Hyde smirks, taking a drag as he looks around.

"I think the place is pretty bitchin'. Hot chicks and free beer - who can beat that?"

"Hyde, my friend, you've got a way with words."

Spike toasts him with the coffee cup and hands him the mostly-full cigarette pack; it says Marsboro in black letters across the front. "Here, keep the pack if you want. I have more."

Hyde toasts back, taking the pack. "Words're all I got, man. Well, that and my charisma, but that's sort of invalid on most guys."

He stares at the pack. "Thanks. Marsboro?"

"Uh... yeah." Probably not Hyde's brand, he realizes.

Well, what the fuck, might as well explain. He points to the matchbook. "That bar? It's on Titan. One of Saturn's moons. I'm from..." he nods to the big picture window. "Out there."

Hyde gulps. "So. You're from Space, too." Maybe he'll get a straighter answer out of Spike than he did from Chiana. "From some distant planet?"

"Born on Mars, traveled the whole Solar System back and forth. You can't see that from here, though. You can't see anything familiar from here."

He feels around in his pocket for another cigarette and comes up with one. It's a little crumpled but it'll do.

Hyde takes a drag, remembering his own cigarette, which is nearly at an end. "The whole Solar System. Well holy fuck, that's cool. There's so much cool here I don't think I can keep up with it all."

"It's cool when it's new." Spike trades the Woolong coin for his lighter and fires up that crumpled cigarette. "But when you grow up with it, it's no more exciting than anything else."

Hyde shrugs. "I could see that, but to me it's unspeakably cool. Like it's so cool that it might explain why I'm freezing." He sips his coffee.