Getting that retraction

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

It wasn't that Sunshine couldn't take a joke. This particular brand of humor bugged her a little more than it would've somebody who hadn't grown up in the small restaurant business, where that kind of rumor could actually shut a place down. But she knew that wasn't likely to happen here. The real issue was that, having grown up with two younger brothers, she believed that when someone played a prank on you, you pranked back fast and hard enough that they'd never attempt such a thing again.


Accordingly, after the lunch rush on the day after the tabloid's publication, Sunshine called Tim back to the kitchen.

"I asked a couple of boys - do you know Kira and Setsuna? - to come by this afternoon, but I may need to duck out for a minute. If they do show while I'm out, do you think you could bring them back here to the break area," (a corner of the kitchen she'd furnished with a few chairs, books, and a little vase of flowers), "and make sure they stick around till I'm back? I'll leave a few pastries out and you can give them anything they want to drink."

(The pastries would be perfectly fine, of course. She'd never actually doctor her food. But she did kind of wonder if they'd be suspicious of it.)

Comments

[creepyboy.livejournal.com]

"Hey," Tim nodded towards them as they came into the kitchen. "Don't know if you remember me Kira, but I'm Tim. How're you doing Setsuna?"

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Tim! How are you doing? You work here?" Setsuna asked in a way of greeting, sounding a little more relaxed. "Where's Rae?"

[creepyboy.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Tim answered Setsuna. "I'm the waitstaff. And I'm doing alright. Rae said she had to step out for a bit, but you're welcome to hang out back here, and eat pastries until she gets here." Tim gestured to the break area. "It is nice to meet you when both of us are sober."

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

"Oh wow! Food!" Setsuna said in surprise, staring at the pastries. "I didn't think she'd want to feed us...." Maybe Rae wasn't mean when she was upset, after all?

[grumpy-sunshine.livejournal.com]

A pack of cigarettes. Perfect. A good mix of impersonality (because really, Sunshine didn't want to go rooting through the kids' personal stuff) and something they wouldn't want to lose. She didn't imagine it was all that easy to find smokes around here, considering there wasn't even readily available alcohol.

She removed one cigarette thoughtfully, then tucked the pack into her jacket pocket.

[creepyboy.livejournal.com]

"It is what she does for a living here," Tim remarked, taking a pastry of his own and nibbling. Waitering was hungry work. "Not a problem. For what? That tabloid thing? I think Rose was planning to light something on fire with them. Did you insult her in it? I don't believe she'd spit in the food, and if she did, she probably would have warned me not to eat it." Tim blinked an thought about it for a split second. "Not at all, we discussed your arrival, got to talking about my friends here at the park, Rose and Kon, I know you know them, and then she had to go run an errand. What have you two been up to? And would you like something to drink?"

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

Tim didn't have to say anything for Setsuna to scold Kira with, "Senpai, Rae wouldn't do that. She's far more upfront than that." Or at least, that was how Setsuna perceived her. "Besides, who the fuck would want to keep track of all of that 'But what if they wanted us to think that' shit? You made my head go in circles, like that obnoxious guy from The Princess Bride."

He wasn't even, in the slightest, suspicious about Rae's lack of presence. She'd show when she was ready, Setsuna decided. "Err...drink. I guess some milk would be nice. Got any here?" Setsuna told Tim, giving a light smile.

[creepyboy.livejournal.com]

"Milk and iced tea," Tim nodded, and poured each of them their glasses, bringing them to the table, along with a glass of milk for himself. "The Princess Bride? I think the girls forced us to watch that. The logic was interesting, however circular in nature." He smiled in remembrance of Young Justice days. "If I remember correctly though, they kicked us out midway through the movie." Tim frowned slightly at the word Setsuna had used. His conversational for anything more than crude insults Japanese wasn't the strongest. His insult Japanese was strong though, criminals did like to yell bad words when getting arrested. "Senpai...older colleague? And what kind of trouble? Swimming naked in the lake again?"

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

"Thanks for the milk," Setsuna said taking his glass. He meant it -- he needed something to wash the pastries down with.

To the comments on the movie, Setsuna laughed, once again sounding far more comfortable than he had when entering. "I'm pretty sure I watched it with Sara, but I don't remember any longer. Hey, Senpai, have we been kicked out of any movie theatres?" Setsuna's memory really was that bad. He did remember being kicked out of a few clubs, though.

Older colleague got a little chuckle out of the kid as well. "Well, it works in a school setting too. Like...." he had to think of the word, but then happily said, "older classmate. But Kira-senpai is also my mentor. It works that way too, because I wouldn't call just any of my older classmates senpai, unlike some people." Setsuna took the words of respect very seriously and hardly gave them out, whereas everyone else gave them all time for politeness. "But trying to say mentor that is also an older classmate in English is ridiculous, so I say senpai."

When the swimming was mentioned, Setsuna nearly choked, but quickly recovered to say, "Hey, that incident didn't cause any trouble." He should only speak for himself, though.

[creepyboy.livejournal.com]

"The fight scenes were unrealistic," Tim shrugged. "The girls didn't like when I started to critique them, Bart was bored, and Kon was making remarks." Just like in most movies the girls forced them to watch.

"So...my oldest adoptive brother, since he is my mentor, would be senpai? Whereas my middle brother would not, as he's mostly just a mentor in the way of what he does, don't," Tim fingered the light scar along his throat that Jason had given him.

"Well that's good," Tim noted Kira's blushing. He might need to be hit by a clue by four with his own relationships, but he could tell there was something between the two. But it wasn't his place.

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

"Well, I don't know about you, but if I want to see anything realistic, I'm not gonna bother watching a movie," Setsuna said with a light laugh. "I don't remember the movie too well. Just that it was fantasy."

To the question on a senpai, Setsuna said, "Well senpai works, if you feel that way." Setsuna couldn't see the scar -- it being so light and Tim not very close -- but the gesture with Tim's fingers bothered him a bit. No, someone who did that sort of thing wasn't a senpai. Not in Setsuna's book, at least.

Setsuna as well noted Kira's blushing, but failed to get it. "Senpai, you okay? It hot in here to you?"

[creepyboy.livejournal.com]

"It wouldn't have killed them to at least sort of obey the laws of physics," Tim replied stubbornly.

"Dick used to be a great guy," Tim smiled. He missed his brother, the way he used to be a lot.

"How's the tea?" Tim questioned, trying to let Kira off the hook. If Kira was wanting to look at Setsuna naked, that wasn't his business. "I haven't talked to Kon, how was the lake?"

OOC: Correct journal...

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

"How many movies actually do that?" Setsuna asked, looking amused. It wasn't so much that he disagreed with Tim, but that he didn't see the point in watching movies for realism.

At the whole thing about Dick, Setsuna frowned and asked, "Used to be?" very concerned, and suddenly forgetting why they had stopped by in the first place.

When Tim asked about the tea, Setsuna looked at Kira closer and cleared his throat. "You're blushing again...." And suddenly it was making a bit more sense.

When the lake was brought up, though, his attention switched at once and he frowned. "Nothing but a dead end (http://community.livejournal.com/dizzy_land/187442.html?thread=10956082#t10956082)," the kid said with full disappointment.