milliways_bar | (no subject)

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[OOM: Just before: It's a very clear, very still night.]

Lily Evans comes into Milliways, heads straight for Bar, and goes upstairs a moment later, room key in hand.

Some hours later, she comes back downstairs and takes a seat at the bar. She gives the key back and receives strong tea and toast with marmalade in exchange.

Lily smiles.

"Thank you, Bar."

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From a stool or two over, Rachel notices the exchange and smiles a little. It takes a moment of inner debate to actually say something, though. It's probably welcome?

"It's always kind of weird when I see her be nice to someone," Rachel comments idly, smirking more than smiling now.

--though it drops when her coffee suddenly disappears from the counter.

"Hey!"

"Really? She's always been perfectly lovely to me."

Though, knowing what she knows about Bar's origin, Lily isn't exactly when Rachel's cup disappears. Black's never really been one to let an insult go unredressed.

"Bar? Could Rachel have her drink back, please? I'm sure she's sorry."

See, she might have accepted if Lily hadn't said that. Whether the mug would have reappeared is a non-issue as Rachel quickly 'corrects' the situation.

"Seeing as I didn't say anything insulting, no, I'm not sorry and you can keep the coffee." She turns in her stool a little, more toward Lily and shaking her head. She's been in Milliways too long - Rachel is actually amused by what just happened. "Thanks for the effort, though."

Lily eyebrows move toward her hairline a little.

Americans.

"Suit yourself, I guess," she says, with a bit of a shrug.

Rachel would actually be hard-pressed to think of another of her friends who would abandon the drink in favor of not-apologizing. And every one of those friends would have rolled their eyes at her reaction.

But she is indeed American.

To Lily's eyebrows and commentary, Rachel can only shrug.

Guess they've not said all there is to not say about that, then.

Bit of an impasse, isn't it?

Lily picks up her tea and takes a sip.

It's kind of hard to know what to do next when you feel like your last attempt at being nice was more or less flung back in your face.

Edited 2011-08-29 03:20 (UTC)

It takes a moment or two of awkward silence before the insult occurs to Rachel, enough so that she realizes she'll have to break the silence or alienate someone by accident.

"...she does things like that. Take back drinks, or refuse them until I run a Happy Hour. So, like, I appreciate the effort but I'd rather skip the coffee than be a little more in her debt."

"That just hasn't been my experience with her at all," Lily says.

"But that's between you and Bar.

"Sorry I got involved."

Next time she won't.

The next awkward silence includes Rachel staring at Lily, understanding the rest of the mood. Not the silence, but the insult. Realizing how her refusal was taken.

Getting irritated because that's not how she meant it.

"It's fine. Thanks."

Lily nods.

She's not entirely sure what she's supposed to say here.

Trying to help didn't work.

Apologizing for trying to help doesn't seem to have worked, either.

She's not at all sure that Rachel is going to welcome a question like 'so how have you been?' at this point.

Which leaves her with ...

"Um.

"Sure."

About this time, as Rachel is trying to decide on a graceful exit that doesn't show the supreme awkward of the situation, a mug of coffee reappears in front of her.

Hot and fresh.

Rachel looks at it for a moment before cracking a smile, glancing at Lily again. "You're at magic school, right? Is a sentient bar with moodswings totally normal?"

"Very little at Hogwarts is 'totally normal,'" Lily says, with a bit of a smile.

Or even, you know, mostly normal.

"The paintings talk.

"And I was once lectured by a showerhead, though not at school."

So, yeah. Sentient bar ... different, but not really all that different.

Edited 2011-08-30 00:49 (UTC)

[OOC: I'm sorry, sudden invasion of RL. I'd understand if you wanted to drop this.]

"A showerhead?" There's an amused smile, sharing the oddness of it, though it doesn't quite reach her eyes. There are some places you just shouldn't be lectured and naked-places are one of them, surely.

"That must have been, um... surprising."

[OOC: RL has the nastiest habit of doing that. I hope you've beaten it back to its own borders.]

"That would be one word for it," Lily says, wryly. "'Disconcerting', 'unsettling', and 'a little bit creepy' would work, too. It was not my favorite moment in the Wizarding world, to be sure.

"Wizards don't always leave well enough alone, you know?"

[OOC: Jeez, apparently I haven't. I'll keep up the good fight.]

"Sounds like technology," Rachel admits with her nose wrinkled.

Then, "Well, not the shower part. But leaving well enough alone."

"I guess if you're good at something, the temptation to keep trying to improve it, even when it doesn't need it, is hard to resist."

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