milliways_bar | (no subject)

Lilly's standing there, in a good mood. She smiles at the purple-haired girl.

"What up, sai? Great perfume, it smells just like roses."

Anthy gives Lilly a look of wide-eyed confusion. She has no clue what the first three words of that were supposed to be.

"Perfume?"

"The rose smell," Lilly explains. "It's awesome."

"Oh." Anthy's still puzzled -- did Lilly just call her a weapon? -- but she smiles anyway. "It's not perfume. I was just out watering the roses."

Lilly smiles back.

"Hey, cool. I didn't even know we had a rose garden here."

"It's out in the greenhouse," she says, glancing at the windows. "A cup of tea, please, Bar?"

A small china cup of tea appears, and Anthy carefully spoons a little sugar into it. "Oh -- I'm Anthy Himemiya."

"Hi Anthy... Himalaya," Lilly manages. "Lilly Kane, deadneptunecaliforniaearth2005."

She looks at her cup.

"So. You drink tea too, huh?"

"You're from Neptune?"

Anthy is intrigued. "You're a space alien?" Earth's kind of hard to hear, squished between California and 2005.

"-- Yes, I drink tea." Anxiously: "Should I not . . . ?"

Lilly laughs.

"I'm not a space alien, Neptune's just a town on Earth. And you can drink tea if you want, I just prefer coffee. Ever had a frappucino?"

Anthy looks just a little disappointed.

Then confused again. "A frappucino? No, I don't think so. What is it?"

Lilly smiles.

"It's like a coffee milkshake. Bar has them, you should try one. So, Anthy, what world are you from?"

She makes a noncommittal noise at the idea of ordering coffee milkshakes, and says, "I'm from Earth, of course. Houou, in Japan."

"-- You're dead, you said?"

Lilly nods.

"Yeah, for about a year and a half now. Milliways is the best part so far."

"It's a nice place." Anthy is vague. "What's it like being dead?" Also, good at totally non-morbid conversation. Yes.

"Boring," Lilly replies truthfully. "I spent a year and a half as a ghost in my hometown, and except for the occasional dream talk, it was the most boring thing ever."

"That's too bad," says Anthy, whose sympathy is mediocre at best. "But how is Milliways better? It's very quiet here."

"People can see me, talk to me, and buy me drinks. That is a three hundred percent improvement on ghosting," Lilly replies.

"Is Milliways better or worse than your world?"

Vague again: "Oh, I don't know."

"Was it better being alive?"

Lilly blinks. That was... direct.

"It was better than being dead in Neptune by a hell of a lot. Being dead here is okay, though."

Anthy blinks back. "You don't miss your home, though?"

A pause, and then, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry."

Lilly shrugs, and smiles.

"Whatever, not like I don't do it to enough people. So yes, I do miss my home."

Anthy smiles back and busies herself with the tea for a few moments, stirring in milk.

"At least your family might show up here -- it's happened before."

Lilly blinks again.

"Well, if my brother came, that would be great. If my mother showed, decidedly less cool, seeing as she may have killed me and all."

"Oh." Anthy's eyes widen. "I'm sorry."

"-- 'May have'? You don't know? Weren't you there?"

Lilly laughs in spite of herself.

"Yeah, I was there, but for whatever reason, I don't remember it. I just remember lying by the pool and then waking up over my dead body."

"Oh dear." She takes a sip of tea, still wide-eyed. "That must have been odd."

Lilly laughs again.

"Yes. Very odd. Oddest thing that's ever happened to me, up to and including Milliways, really."

"How long have you been here?"

Lilly thinks.

"About three weeks, actually. You?"

There's a pause. Anthy's not used to thinking.

"About a year, I think. It's hard to keep track. Have you met many people?"

Lilly nods.

"Yeah, except the vast majority of them are British and drink tea. Which isn't bad, you know, but a girl craves variety. How about you, lots of friends here?"

Another pause. "No, not really."

That's an understatement. Anthy drinks some more tea.

Lilly looks puzzled. Anthy seems direct, but nice enough. And she smells awesome.

"Well, I don't know why that is, but I'd be happy to hang out with you. Oh, you should come to the karaoke party Meg and I are throwing. There are fliers up."

"Meg told me about it . . ."

She smiles apologetically. "But I don't like parties very much."

Or karaoke, but mostly parties.

Lilly looks disappointed.

"Really? That's too bad. Just too many people for you or something?"

"I don't like crowds." More sugar for the tea. "I'm sorry -- I'm sure it will be a lovely party. But . . ."

Lilly shrugs.

"Hey, if you don't like crowds you don't like crowds. You can always watch some of it from far off, too. People will be singing embarrassingly, it's fun to watch."

Anthy smiles and ducks her head. "I suppose so."

"You like parties?"

Lilly grins.

"Hell yeah. I used to be famous for my parties, even."

"Oh?"

She'd starting to relax -- Lilly's not the first perky girl to invite Anthy to a party at their first meeting, but she's not coming off much like Nanami, apart from that.

"That sounds nice." Anthy is famous for her conversational skills.

Lilly smiles.

"Yeah, it was. So if you don't like parties so much, what do you like to do?"

That's a tough question.

Anthy frowns in thought, and finally comes up with, "I water the roses."

Lilly nods.

"Sounds cool. Can I see these roses sometime?"

"Of course." She beams. "The greenhouse is just out back; you can't miss it."