(no subject)

[cottoncandypink]

It's quiet this evening, like it is most evenings. Until the door opens.

No, not that door. The back door. And it doesn't immediately open. There's a good thirty seconds of frantic scraping and rattling around before whoever is on the other side manages to convince it to open through sheer determination.

It is not a person who walks through, but a dog with a stick. And it's not so much a stick, as it is a 20-foot tree branch dragging snow and mud and all manner of other muck behind it as Buster wrestles it through the door. It's his new favourite stick! He wants to take it home!

His human has other ideas, as he can be heard shouting from the other side of the bar, "PUT IT BACK!"

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[iprotectyou]

Baze sits at a nearby table, cutting up strips of brown craft paper. A pitcher of ice water sweats near his left elbow, along with two glasses, one of which he drinks from periodically.

When he spots Buster, he breaks down laughing.

"You silly animal," Baze says, fond exasperation threading through his voice.

"I bet your human would love to praise you for bringing in that stick!"

[cottoncandypink]

Sure enough, Wilford is shouting from where he was having a few drinks at the bar.

Buster manages to get his branch about halfway through the door before it gets stuck. He barks at it a few times in indignation before leaving it to come say hello to Baze.

The back door is now wide open, and there's an unruly, snow-covered tree branch in the way for whoever winds up having to deal with it.

[iprotectyou]

Baze holds his hand out to Buster, and scratches him behind the ears when the dog reaches him.

"Oy, Wilford! Your dog did something stupid again!"

[cottoncandypink]

UGH UGH UGH. Wilford throws his newspaper down against the bar and gets up to go deal with his dog's idiotic mess. He lets Buster wiggle around and slobber all over Baze, because he has to get rid of this damn branch before somebody shouts at him and threatens to take his dog away again. He gets it mostly out the door, and then slams it shut, not caring about the next person who tries to go out there only to get greeted by a face full of fuck you.

"Why?" he demands as he stomps over, glaring at his dog.

His dog does not care. His dog never cares.

[iprotectyou]

Baze snickers at Wilford's obvious distress and irritation, because Baze is, at heart, twelve years old.

"Haven't managed to train him up right yet, have you?" Baze says, continuing to cut up small, rectangular slices of craft paper.

[cottoncandypink]

"You can't teach stupid," Wilford says.

Indeed. Look at the big ball of stupid in evidence.

"What are you doing now?" he asks, noticing Baze's latest art project.

[iprotectyou]

"Sure you can! It just requires more patience than you have," Baze teases, sticking out his tongue, because again, Baze is twelve.

"I'm cutting up pasting strips for my fireworks. You need to glue strips of paper to the outside of the spherical aerial shells in order to make them work properly. It's a rather intensive process."

[cottoncandypink]

"Oh, I used to do that," Wilford says. "We'd take those little baby fireworks and cut them open to collect the powder, and then pack them all into a film canister. Made a nice, big noise."

He heads back over to the bar to grab his beer and his newspaper, and brings both back to watch Baze make his firecrackers.

[iprotectyou]

Baze is content to cut up the craft paper with Wilford watching. If the larger Jedhan had any objections to being watched, he'd do this up in his fireworks workshop.

"Yeah, I've got a workshop and everything. I'm planning on making a fireworks show for mine and Chirrut's birthday party--which you're still invited to, by the way."

[cottoncandypink]

"When's that again?" Wilford asks.

He was probably told, but he's got a memory like a sieve when it comes to things that don't directly affect him.

[iprotectyou]

"The seventh day of the second month," Baze says, eyeing two slips of craft paper and trimming the second one to match the first.

"I doubt Chirrut will want to see you, but you can hang out with me when he's not."

Said with a small amount of teasing. Ahaha.

[cottoncandypink]

"That's right before New Year," Wilford says, reaching down to pull his dog under the table where he'll hopefully stay out of trouble.

He rolls his eyes at Baze's quip.

"He's still not over that?" Jeez, the guy can hold a grudge.

[iprotectyou]

"I thought New Year's was January first," Baze says, cocking his head to the side. He looks even more like a giant, lost puppy without his armor.

"Is that not the case on your Earth?"

Then Wilford says the second bit, and Baze frowns.

"Do you honestly expect him to just get over it? You haven't exactly apologized or taken responsibility."

[upwiththisiwillnotput]

Bernard reaches down to pat Buster on the head.

"Good dog, put it in his living room."

[cottoncandypink]

Buster can't get the 'stick' through the door, so he leaves it. Good thing too, because Wilford's shouting the roof down from across the bar. Except now the door is wide open and letting all the snow in.

[upwiththisiwillnotput]

"Have you tried getting up out of your chair?" Bernard mutters.

[cottoncandypink]

When it becomes clear nobody else is going to fix the situation, Wilford grumbles loudly and gets up to do that. The branch is big and unruly, so he barely manages to get it all out the door before slamming it.

If someone steps outside and gets a face full of fuck you, that is not his problem.

[upwiththisiwillnotput]

"Temper." Bernard says. "He was just bringing you a little present."

[cottoncandypink]

Wilford notices Bernard over there muttering insults.

"You say something?" he asks.

At least have the balls to speak up.

[upwiththisiwillnotput]

"I said he was just bringing you a little present." Bernard says.

"What's the point at ranting at him? He can't help being stupid."

He offers Wilford a cigarette to shut him up.

[cottoncandypink]

Wilford takes the cigarette, because he never turns down free anything.

"He's not bringing me a present; he's being an idiot."

He looks at the dog. The dog is currently trying to swallow its own foot.

[upwiththisiwillnotput]

"Still smarter than Manny." Bernard says, lighting his cigarette and offering Wilford the light.

[cottoncandypink]

Wilford accepts the light and sits down. "Who the fuck is Manny?" he asks.

For a moment, he wonders if Bernard is referring to Mandy, but it doesn't seem very likely, so he dismisses the idea.

[upwiththisiwillnotput]

"That living beard who works in my shop, remember?"

[cottoncandypink]

"Oh, right."

Wilford doesn't remember. It was almost 15 years ago.

"Shave it off then."