[locked] i dare you not to quote cindy lauper

[brobeforehos]

When; 20th May, evening/night
Rating; A for Alcohol
Characters; Mae Crawford (brobeforehos) & Robert Chase (intheblanks)
Summary; Chase is a girl, which apparently is exactly the missing ingredient to get Mae to invite him to a night out. (Warning for girly cocktails.)
Log;

She arrives later than she'd like, and not quite because of her work shift ending when it does - she's entitled to some free days, the Library being as whimsical in its staff's schedule as it is in its services in general, so she's taken this one off because the curse called for it. There was a crisis to solve at home with Clary, and afterwards a visit that she keeps trying to reason with even now.

But, half past eight or something close to it, she shows up at his work, making a beline for his office. If he's going to go dressed in his(her) scrubs, then she'll wear her work clothes too - which are, granted, not very different from her every day clothes, save for her T-shirt not sporting a clever line on it today. Such class, she knows.

Still with such class, she knocks before stepping in. "Hi, sorry I'm late."

Comments

[chasesskirt]

"I've never had a problem with rude women" he clarifies, and if there's something salacious in the tone - well, it sounds more innocent in a higher pitch.

Obligingly, she gets a beaming smile. Chase's forced grins look surprisingly alike on both male and female faces. "What's the appropriate level of enthusiasm? Do we link arms and skip?"

[brobeforehos]

No, the innocence is just a myth invented by women to get away with being capable of as much salaciousness as men. She grins at the clarification, though; an advantage to him being in a female body right now is that he's less taller than usual and it's easy for her to reach out and pinch his cheeks at that forced grin.

"Relax, miss Colgate. We walk. But you are welcome to link arms if you want to."

[chasesskirt]

"Well not if you're going to assault me." He makes a show of rubbing his cheek as the walk, until they're through reception and he needs the hand for pushing open the swing doors.

"Do you know how many people I had do that the other day? I'm getting a bruise."

[brobeforehos]

He's so melodramatic about a little pinch to his cheek, until she remembers the old ladies and the pink handkerchief and pink seems to agree with you; by the time they're out through the swing doors, she feels slightly warm in the cheeks.

Doesn't stop her from putting up the sympathy act and patting his shoulder - at level! How novel! - before finally opening her mouth. "Want me to kiss it better, dearie?" Funny how she doesn't sound like an old caring granny.

[chasesskirt]

"Any time you like." The response is smooth, coming back without the least hesitation - because he wouldn't hesitate any other day, and today he expects her to follow through even less. So why not flirt. It'll be a nice image to look back on later.

[brobeforehos]

Well, he's in for a surprise; in hindsight, if he gets the idea that she does this because he's a woman, she'll just laugh so loudly when he opens up about it (if he does), but she'd get where he'd be coming from. Still - it's not like she doesn't like, or wouldn't want to. She likes him as her friend, too, and it's very strange to have a friend who can be a grown-up but act like a sassy teenager at the same time.

According to her most recent history, as he's neither in the closet nor secretly a demon, he'd not be her type at all. Except Mae has a type, and it goes like this: show some kindness, make her laugh, be a little cute. Check, check, check.

She makes him stop in the middle of the street, one hand on his arm, and tugs him back a bit before reaching up to cup his cheeks in both hands. "Come here, you traumatised baby." She leans up, and presses a kiss to the cheek she just pinched.

[chasesskirt]

Let's be honest here, she doesn't have to lean up very far. Perhaps it's the speed, then, the relative lack of distance, that leaves Chase blinking for a moment after she drops back to her heels.

There's something a little maternal about the act which, Chase being Chase and internally a hideous mess of conflicting associations, he registers as interesting rather than chaste.

So he raises his eyebrows, the familiar sea-shade of his irises half way to being smothered by black. And nods. "Let me know if you ever want to smack me in the mouth."

[brobeforehos]

Yes, yes, he has very pretty eyes, that hasn't changed. And how ironic is it that this very same day, when Carla leant in to 'tempt' her, Mae pulled away, but right now she feels tempted to not? She draws in breath through the space between her teeth and takes a step back.

"Would hate to ruin such a pretty mouth," she ends up answering, and it translates badly, so she shakes her head and hooks her arm through his. "Come on, let me buy you a drink for your troubles."

[chasesskirt]

Mae, Mae. Still such a tease. He hesitates a moment, trying to figure out if her small show of reluctance was just that - a show - but if nothing else the moment has passed. He lifts his arm to accommodate her elbow.

"See, this is the kind of thing I expected. So, where are we headed?"

[brobeforehos]

"At the absence of my usual hunting grounds, we'll go to a bar." Because still no raves in the City, but she thinks slowly, she's outgrowing them. Better to a bar, she can actually order drinks legally now.

[chasesskirt]

You're walking him through the square, Mae. A bar hardly narrows the options down - though you could drag him to a rave if you wanted, you'd just lose all respect for him if you let him dance there.

"I wonder how many of us are spending the day running up massive bar tabs under assumed names."

It's tempting.

[brobeforehos]

She can tell - look at him, being all up for stirring up trouble. She grins a little, and bumps her hip against his as they walk.

"You might have it easier than I do at this point. Unless you want to hit a bar neither of us have before..."

[chasesskirt]

"Oh they'd track you down in a minute." Little miss rose tinted follicles. And that in a city where pink isn't actually an impossible natural shade.

She does have a point, though, "Is there a bar you haven't hit before?"

Because if there's one he doesn't remember being in, it's a sure bet he has.

[brobeforehos]

She stands out in a crowd, so what; sometimes it's not the best thing. Today, strangely enough, she'd like to be able to blend in.

"I don't go to the shadier part of town, but I don't really feel like looking over my shoulder tonight, so."

She'll just take Chase to the closest and most generic bar whose name we'll all pretend to know, because I don't know bars.

[chasesskirt]

Lux it is. Less rough and ready than the Coliseum, more space than the Blue Light, and the piano player seems to have been fired in favour of a Bowie greatest hits CD. Ask nicely, and they'll even put umbrellas in your drinks.

"Which is the shadier part of town?" he asks, holding the door for her out of a habit way too ingrained for a curse to erase. "Underground?"

[brobeforehos]

Yes. Lux it is. She knows how to ask nicely. They're getting those goddamn umbrellas. Or Mae will, whichever.

"So I've been told." It's cute that he can't brush off the gentlemanly behaviour - she tries to think if it's strange as well, but only ends it there: just cute. "Thanks."

[chasesskirt]

"It's not so bad." He should know, he lived there a full month, way back when. He still keeps a weekly free clinic in one of the shadiest parts. "Half of what's down there's more afraid of us than we are of them. Of course, the other half will eat you as soon as look at you..."

[brobeforehos]

It figures he'd be defending it with half the intention, having lived there - of some of that part of his life, she knows. "Honestly, that can be applied to any part of the City."

And doesn't she know it.

[chasesskirt]

"Exactly. So, nothing to worry about. I'll go down with you sometime, if you like." And he'd pitch a fit if she went alone, but just ignore the hypocrite in the corner over here. Oh, there's a bar menu? Oh good.

[brobeforehos]

She's been on far more dangerous dates. (And by dates, we mean of course friendly outings.) She knows social convention would have Mae sitting accross from him, but she takes a seat next to him because he's warm and tiny and pretty, and intimidates her sometimes but in ways that don't make her think she should run out the door.

Today, that sort of feeling is a blessing, apparently. "I suppose we could explore the underbelly of the City together one day. Everyone else seems to be doing it. What are you having?"

[chasesskirt]

"Do they? I didn't realise it was a tourist trap."

It's news to him, although there's always the occasional heroic new arrival planning an expedition to the clock, something he can only ever roll his eyes at. There's no use explaining it's been done before. He runs a finger down the menu and stops somewhere familiar, leaning in to show her. Grey goose.

[brobeforehos]

"Not so much a tourist trap as a hero's dream come true. And this place has been full of the type, mostly." She should talk. Of course there's a difference between the type of heroicism she does, and the 'I will fight even though I'm bleeding everywhere' type.

She leans in closer to look, pursing her lips. "You do realise you have to mix it with a soft drink, yes?

[chasesskirt]

"Soft drink?" You'd think the concept was alien to him: that she'd just announced they were having moonjuice cocktails. "I was thinking some rocks and a lemon."

[brobeforehos]

She smiles that smile that says she's pretty much going to get away with murder soon. "You said yes to girls' night out."

[chasesskirt]

That smile is a dangerous thing, Mae. Chase's pout, however, is also something to be reckoned with. "We could just have bought juice boxes and sat in the park."

But sigh, she wins control of the drinks menu. "All right. Adulterate it in your preferred manner."

[brobeforehos]

It'll be a deathmatch of expressions, then.

One she wins rather easily. "We can take juice boxes to the park when people aren't undergoing transformational crises." With a small laugh, she slides out of her chair, and picks the menu out of his hand. "I'll go order."