(no subject)

[not_his_pa]

William wants today to be over and when he finds the Bar, he allows himself a sort of smile. Last night he had horrible dreams of gunfights and Katya becoming a tiger and attacking him before she was shot down as nothing's really worked today.

He's been in town dealing with supplies and bargaining and feeling you and stupid, because all he can do is insist on what he knows is fair. Just because he's young and his father's son, everyone thinks he'll take what he's given and he's been trying to show that he won't but every time its a fight.

His new gloves are in his pocket and he's still not sure what he can do to thank Michael for them, they're more than he expected. As he enters, he hears a shouting match and winces at the noise. He makes his way to the counter and orders a root beer and just stares at it for a while.

Comments

[katyafeline]

"Such a heavy drinker." Katya muses - clearly she's always been two stools down, sipping her vodka and generally looking innocent.

Really!

Even if she wasn't there a minute ago.

[not_his_pa]

"Still have work to do, need to ride the fences and can't drink too much,"

He glances over at her and back at his glass, he doesn't want to say the wrong thing to her.

[katyafeline]

"Bah, you can always stay the night." She scoffs cheerfully, ignoring his discomfort with aplomb.

[not_his_pa]

"Yeah, I could,"

Though he's not sure he'd have any better dreams and takes a good long drink of his root beer.

[katyafeline]

She throws a peanut, pinging it off his forehead.

"Da." She nods, solemnly.

Though she has a handful of peanuts to spare, so perhaps not so solemnly.

[not_his_pa]

The peanut ends up in his drink and he laughs, its a little shaky,

"Did you mean for it to do that?"

[katyafeline]

"Nyet - just lucky and talented." She smirks at him, readying another peanut. "I could try two for two?"

[not_his_pa]

"Yeah, I ain't goin' to drink it now."

[katyafeline]

She snickers and mutters something about picky Americans as she lines up her shot with unnecessary care.

A second peanut pings off his forehead, courtesy of one Russian Other.

[not_his_pa]

If he was at home, he would but this is Milliways and he's glad to have her laughing at him.

Also there's a neat pinging from the glass the root beer's in, "Can you get it in without hittin' me?"

[katyafeline]

She blinks at him limpidly.

And smiles a moment later.

Somewhere in there a slightly chilly peanut has ended up in William's bottle.

[not_his_pa]

His smile stays and he rattles the bottle, "Bar, can I have a glass of vodka and another for Katya?"

The root beer and bottle disappear as his glass of vodka appears. He doesn't really know if he should say anything about what happened or almost happened but this feels more like things used to be.

[katyafeline]

He's being awkward.

She doesn't entirely know what to do with awkward humans. Other than wipe their memories and set them back in their lives, because that's sort of her default when things get weird, but.

Since that isn't an option, she accepts her drink and watches him.

[not_his_pa]

Her watching is unnerving, but he doesn't know how to make things like they were before.

She left and changed and then he messed everything up even more so he takes a shot of vodka before saying,

"I ended up in another world by accident when everythin' was comin' apart, wasn't here for the worst."

[katyafeline]

"Da." She nods, "I asked your girlfriend. If you were not, I would have thrown you out the door when it opened, whatever was behind it."

[not_his_pa]

"You saw Thalia at the battle?"

He hadn't known about that but Annabeth said Thalia was doing fine in their world.

[katyafeline]

"Da." Again, still watchful. "It was before the lobsters."

ALL the lobsters. All of them.

[not_his_pa]

"Oh, Annabeth told me she got through to their world, ain't seen her since before everythin' started,"

Apollo told him Thalia had things she had to do so he's been keeping her in the back of his thoughts.

[katyafeline]

She nods, but she doesn't have much to add to that. She's met the girl all of twice, and she hadn't been screaming (either time), so that is a point in her favor.

[not_his_pa]

"Um, things are goin' pretty well at home. We'll be drivin' the stock to Contention soon. I'm thinkin' of askin' for some help from here cause only way we can afford extra hands is with what I earn here."