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RP: YSS Eucharis [Post Mission 20 Sidestories] Hanako's World - On Leave (JPs)

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At a Seedy Bar near the hotel

The bar wasn't the most up and up place she had ever seen in her days, Something more that Bors would drag her into then a bar Misato would select, but she wasn't picking at that point. She was more plowed then serviceable at this point. Since the dinner party she had been drinking fairly regularly. Which was why she found herself walking into this scuz bucket of a bar looking to buy in baulk and wonder back off to her hidy hole she had found along the coast.

The door to the off-the-path establishment hit the wall with a bang as Sienna entered, taking in the scenery. Her brow furrowed as she took stock of the patrons and the dingy atmosphere; it was a stark contrast to the rest of the polished-looking resort, probably maintained for the maintenance and service staff more than for the guests. In a strange way, it was somehow comforting to her to be here. The dinner party and pampering had been a fantastic escape, but in truth, it had quickly felt like a dream that her mind kept trying to wake up from. It wasn't that she was tired of the luxurious experience, more that she felt like she needed a stark dose of reality to remind herself that she wasn't dead and in some warped version of an archaic heaven.

"You can't drink, the doc says I'll show him." Bors mumbled to himself from his seat at the far end of the bar. "I've had my chest blown apart and I was back on my feet the next day... then again that was after a bit in the tube but same difference." He didn't notice the newcomers walk in, his mind engrossed on the events that transpired less than 48 hours ago as he polished off another whiskey before ordering another one.

Natsumi followed Sienna into the bar. She had never been in a place like this and was not sure what to expect. She blinked, trying to adjust her eyes to the much darker interior. "So..." she looked around the establishment, taking in all the details. "You go to places like this?" she asked, then spotted Bors sitting on a stool. "Oh hai!" she waved her arms as she called for the attention of her roomie.

Misato straghtened up and tried to look at least sober before she opened the door and walked in. The air of stale beer and a light undertone of something that might have been old vomit hit her nose. With a determined stride she marched up to the counter and gripped on tightly to keep herself from falling over. "Mister Bartender I would like to order a few bottle of your finest liquors."

The tender looked over at her and shrugged before going back to pouring a whiskey for Bors. Who Misato hadn't noticed.

Sienna shrugged to Natsumi with a nonchalant expression. "Not always by choice," she replied. "It's more what I'm used to, but that probably sounds stupid to you." She followed the Neko's gaze over to Bors at the bar, shrugging her eyebrows when she noticed him. "Guess he's the type too," she murmured.

"No, it doesn't, just different" Natsumi replied and shrugged. "Where do you want to sit?" she asked.

"Well," Sienna said, looking at the Neko and nodding her head towards Bors. "Your buddy looks lonely over there. Maybe we can go make fun of what he's drinking."

"Okay" she smiled and changed direction, moving towards where Bors was sitting.

Sienna led the way, moving through the crowd towards the end of the bar. One of the patrons who let his eyes linger on her for too long was treated to a withering glare that dared him to say or do something, and immediately he went back to minding his business. As she neared Bors's seat, she lightly shoved her shoulders between two men chatting in her way, and waved to the bartender, pointing at the beer tap over the din of the crowd.

The sound of Natsumi saying 'hai' caught his attention, the hell are they doing here he thought as the bartender put down a new glass of booze in front of him.He acknowledged her with a nod and a slight wave with his good arm, the other one bandaged and in a sling under his leather jacket.

Natsumi did her best to keep up with Sienna as she forced her way through the crowd. It took her a few moments longer to get through since she did not want to push her way around. "Hi Bors!" she said as she finally got there.

Sienna caught a glimpse of Bors's wounded arm in her peripheral vision, and looked it over with a sideways look and a raised eyebrow. She wasn't sure how that had happened, but she didn't ask. The bartender set a glass of pale-looking beer overflowing with foam on the bar in front of the young Nepleslian woman, which she picked up and took a long drink from without taking a seat.

"Look what the cat dragged in," Bors chuckled as he took a sip of his new drink, "The high life back at the hotel gettin' to rich for ya? Or did you just decide to go exploring and find some adventure to go on?"

"Trying something new" Natsumi replied and settled onto the stool next to Bors. She eyed the menu and decided on something to drink. She ordered a beer, figuring she should try what the others were having

One of the men who Sienna had shoved between started laughing at a joke or story the other had told, and his sudden movement caused him to bump Sienna from behind. She managed to keep her beer in the glass, but glanced over her shoulder with a mildly annoyed look before taking another drink and turning her eyes back to Bors. She shrugged at him indifferently, and coughed quietly. "Call it keeping myself grounded," she replied. "I figure y'all will be kicking me to the curb one day, so I should probably keep from getting too comfortable."

"Fair enough, though it's more the ShoSho's decison than mine for kicking you to the curb." As he went to take another sip of his drink the man who bumped into Sienna bumped into him, causing his drink to slosh a bit in his glass and almost spill. Taking a breath he settled the urge to take the pistol that was under his jacket and set it on the bar in front of him as a challenge of sorts for anyone to try and darken his mood any further.

Natsumi frowned, "Why would anyone be kicking you to the curb?" she asked as her drink arrived and she tried it with a small sip.

Misato was getting pissed that the bartender was ignoring her. She was starting to sober up and realize that all the crap she had dealt with the other day wasn't just some obnoxious dream that hazed in the back of her head. She knew she needed more booze ans soon or she would have to go back and start solving all her problems far sooner then she wanted. She was about to yell but then she heard Bors's voice. As she looked over she saw him, and also the terrible two... Natsumi and Sienna. She really hoped that she could have come here and not been seen by any of them.

Sienna gave Bors a dubious look, then raised an eyebrow at Natsumi with a wry smirk, her beer hovering tilted in front of her lips. "You don't think they're gonna let me just hitch along with you forever, do you?" she asked rhetorically. "Even if Hanako is a princess, there's gotta be someone with more pull than even her. Besides, it seems like the jury's still out the popularity of my presence." She took another drink finally, and caught sight of Misato over the rim of her glass. A slight tingle ran through her system. Hopefully there wouldn't be any repercussions from their little misunderstanding before.

"Hellos." Misato smiled, before trying to get the bartender's attention again. "What brings you three here on this day, the day of my drunkeness?"

"Speaking of princesses, I see you've been enjoying yourself for a bit. there Misato," Bors said over the crowd when he noticed the blue nNeko trying to order a drink,"And I wouldn't blame you for milking your ride for all its worth Sienna, I'd run this stroke of good luck as long as I could if i were in your place."

Sienna guffawed with a grin at Bors. "Who says I ain't?" she replied, taking another drink. "I'm just saying that when the time comes I'd rather not spend days on end pining over cushy beds, hot showers, and food whose names I can't even pronounce."

"You never know..." Natsumi commented to Sienna and shrugged, then took a long drink from her beer.

The men behind Sienna bumped her again discourteously, and the irritated look on her face returned again, although they didn't seem to notice or care. She pushed a few steps away from them to give them room to bray and hee-haw., and turned her attention back to Natsumi with a quizzical expression. "Maybe not," she agreed, "but things can go either way, you know. It's best not to get your hopes up. You're disappointed less that way."

Natsumi shrugged, "Well either way, I think you will end up somewhere nice" she said and took a long sip from her drink

Sienna grinned in dark amusement, shaking her head as she looked out of the sides of her eyes at Natsumi with a shrug of her eyebrows, raising her beer glass to her lips again. "Guess we'll just have to see," she replied, although she didn't sound very convinced that Natsumi was right, and took a drink.

The snowy haired neko shrugged again and took another sip of her own drink. She glanced at the other two, both seemed to be a little put out. "Aree you guys okay?" she asked, then frowned and got up. "Uff, I'll be back in a sec" she said and darted off to the ladies. She sometimes wished she had been created with an older model Neko body that did not require trips to the bathroom.

Sienna smirked. "Misato looks drunk again," she said, then looked at Bors. "And what's the story with that?" she added, motioning to Bors's wounded arm.

Misato glared at Bors with the princess comment. She nearly started yelling at him about it, but the thought got lost when Sienna and Natsumi started talking too. She was pretty sure they were mocking her but wasn't quite sure enough to make something out of it.

Bors looked down at his arm, thankful that Sienna or worse his roomie or partner in crime didn't see the bandages underneath his shirt or else he'd have some real explaining to do, "Had a run in with an old acquaintance, things didn't turn out so well." The Nepleslian finally said after deliberating on the subject for a moment.

Sienna eyed Bors with a flat expression, her eyebrow raised, and stayed silent for a few seconds, in case he wanted to add anything. Hearing no further explanation, and not particularly interested in digging one up, she shrugged and raised her glass to her face again. "Guess the other guy was less lucky, then?" she said with disinterest, looking into her glass just before taking another drink.

"You could say that, then again that goes with your definition of luck as well." Bors said dryly, "But yes as the cliche goes, you shoulda seen the other guy." With a low chuckle Bors mirrored Sienna and took another healthy sip of his drink.

Misato heard the words and the bandaging and his favoring the arm finally sunk into her booze and sun addled mind. "Bors! WHAT HAPPENED!!?" Suzume drunkenly nudged Sienna out of the way and grabbed his bandaged arm to take a look. It didn't register that she most likely hurting him quite a bit.

Bumped again, Sienna grunted as she wobbled her glass to the side to prevent any of the beer from escaping. Thankfully, by now, her glass was nearly half consumed, and it wasn't such a trick to do so. "Yeah, don't mind me," she quipped sardonically, and stuck a finger in her ear, wiggling it about as if to try to restore hearing where Misato had just shouted right next to her. She watched the grey-skinned Neko snatch Bors by his wounded arm, her eyes flicking up to Bors as her smirk preceded the ensuing storm.

With a grunt of pain Bors yanked his arm away from Misato and accidentally hit himself in the chest, dead center on one of his other new wounds. After a slew of curses tumbled out of his mouth, he looked at the grey Neko with a deadpan face and slightly narrowed eyes, "Was just taking care of some old business, nothing to worry yourself about. You know me anyway I'm a magnet for trouble."

"Who did this to you..." She reached under her jacket as she scanned the bar around them, as if the party might still be around. "Tell.. me now, or I'll kick your ass for calling me princess..." Her voice was drunkenly dark. She was sobering up by the second now, the lack of booze input was catching up to her.

"Even if I did tell you, you wouldn't be able to find him." Bors said into his glass, "Well you might but he's not in any condition to do anyone harm, let alone do anything." With a thud he set his empty glass down and motioned to the barteneder for another round, "So I'll take my chances with you trying to kick my ass...princess."

"I don't know... Your not telling me something..." Misato eyed him, trying to figure out what he had left out. "Will the Shosho be yelling at me when this all comes to light?"

"It won't, so no." Bors said plainly, nodding to the bartender as it refreshed his drink before taking another sip.

Taking her finger she poked him in the side of his head, re-poking at each syllable, "There is more. Isn't there Mr. Bors ..." She giggled a hair before returning to her serious face.

Smacking her hand out of the way with his good hand, Bors looked at Misato out of the corner of his eye,"There is but this is one thing that I'd rather keep personal, like to keep some of these skeletons locked in their closets and forget that there even there."

Suzume poked him once more, before dropping onto a stool next to him. With her arms crossed she started moping, "That's not fair... you get to hide things. All of my things are all known by the whole crew..." Her powerful poute was fired at him including a pushed out lower lip.

"Welcome to life," Bors said, unfazed by the powerpout,"It also helps if your things are a private manor that are somewhat easy to hide."

"Like what... the fact you were a runner for some crime lord..." Suzume had forgotten he had told her that in private. "Or the fact that you are being an ass to someone who wants to help you, or the fact that you are hurt and there might be someone out there looking for you. Geezz you would have thought by now you would have trusted me." She threw her arms up dramatically and reached for his drink, slamming it down quickly.

Bors froze mid sip when the Neko hit he nail on the head first swing, he didn't even notice when she snatched his drink. After a few moments he regained his composure, flagging down the bartender yet again for another drink, signaling this time to make it a double. "Tell the whole fething world why don't ya," he grumbled, looking over his shoulder hoping that no one heard Misato's outburst of his previous occupation,"Shits caused enough trouble for me these last few days, don't need you dredging it up and telling the whole bar about it."

"I don't care... This wouldn't have been a problem in the least if you ever stopped acting like the big bad Bors has,is, andwill continue carrying the whole world on his shoulders. There is a big reason for me trusting you in combat... I know you have my back.. but now... not so sure if you can trust me" Misato's voice trailed off in the end, as she watched another friend get pushed away.

As Bors started to retort, the rowdy individual behind him once again bumped into him, this time sloshing some of Bors drink out of the cup and onto his hand and part of the bar top. This was the straw that broke the camels back, inhaling sharply through his nose Bors slammed his glass on the bar before getting off of his stool and turning around to tap the man on the shoulder. When the man turned around with a stupid looking drunken grin, his jaw was greeted by a haymaker. Bors metallic fist landed with an audible crack, before the man flopped to the ground. Staring down the mans friends as the nervously pulled their friend away, Bors turned his gaze towards Misato. "What if I do act like that? What are you gonna do about it?"

Misato frowned and stood up, gently and carefully taking off her jacket and holster, and handed them to Sienna, "If you would be a dear and hold this for me love..." She turned back to her stool. It was a blink of an eye but she sent it sailing towards Bors. Not letting it much time to hit she barreled in tackling him to the ground, growling the whole way. "You have friends, you over grown child," Each word was punctuated with a half powered punch. Even drunk Misato knew she would have killed him with a real hit from her.

Sienna took the jacket and holster in her free hand, and tossed them over her shoulder without argument or expression. Aside from taking a few steps here and there to avoid being in the trajectory of a flying glass or errant punch, she did and said nothing as Bors and Misato squared off with one another, an exasperated and yet somewhat smug smirk on her face. She polished off the last quarter of her pint and reached between two patrons behind her to slide the empty glass back across the bar, and ordered another before turning back to watch the fight as if it was a televised sporting event she was only mildly interested in. By the time it got serious, Sienna had gone from being amused to actually feeling some degree of pity for the Eucharis crew. It amazed her than anyone ever accomplished anything on that vessel; emotions were always near or at the boiling point, usually over things that didn't amount to much of anything relevant or at least something a soldier should have difficulty coping with, at least in her view. And it seemed like nobody aboard had any idea how to handle conflict, or adversity, or generally anything not going their way. Weakness at its finest. Her next drink arrived; she picked it up and put it straight to her lips, taking care to stay clear of the brawl lest she find herself drawn into it. She knew better than to get between two animals fighting.

Bors grunted as he hit the ground as a pain dulled from the booze he had drunk washed over him. "Look who's talking" Bors said as he sent a punch towards Misato's solar plexus, as he used his bandaged arm to try and block. "Least I go and solve mine before going and getting schnokered!"

Falling backwards from the hit and trying to suck air, Misato wasn't sure what he was babbling about. She sent a halfhearted kick at him as she tried to get back up.

With the neko off of him, Bors rolled over and got to his feet, barly avoiding her kick as he stood up. Quickly stripping off his jacket and sling so that he was in his plain black tee shirt, he took up his regular street fighting stance."Aww is kitty angry?" He said mockingly as he motioned towards her to bring it on.

Rolling over Suzume pushe herself up and glaired at him. A littlw worried at the fact he just pulled the sling off. She shook her self out and bounced into the ready stance she was programed with, weight on her rear leg, fore leg resting jsut a hair past should with forward. her hands up and opened. "Not yet... Insulted at how much you have disapointed me..."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Bors said as he swung at her head with an opening jab, twisting his weight into it to get some more force behind it. He knew that she had an advantage over him in more ways than one, seeing as she was built for combat but Bors didn't fight fair and didn't care about that too much.

She let the blow land. Her head was snapped around before reterning to look at him. There was a little trickle of blood rolling down her chin. She sighed and let her weight fall forward to her front foot as she swung her arm around to lock around the arm he just hit her with. Locking it she shifted back around twisting it.

Bors clenched his teeth as his arms was twisted away from him, though fortunetly it left him an opening. With a qucik twist he brought up his leg and put his boot to her chest.

Gripping his wrist tightly She felt the impact and let it push her back. Her grip pulled him along, right into the falling punch she threw as she hit the sticky bar floor again.

As Bors caught the hit with his torso, he felt one of his stiches pop followed shortly by a warm wet feeling of his blood oozing out of the freshly open wound. Crap He thought as he collapsed his kick into a knee and planed it firmly on Misato's chest as they hit the ground. Pressing his positional advantage he took another swing at her face with his free hand, which happened to be the bandaged one. As he swung Misato could see the slowly growing pinpricks of red on the bandaged arm as it streaked towards her face.

Laying there she saw perfectly and clearly the blood his arm, and the now growing wet spot on his chest. She let the strike land again laying there unmoving, closing her eyes. She was done, there wasn't anything she could do. If she fought back anymore he would be hurt beyond what he had tried to hide from her, and It wasn't like he could do anything serious to her.

Bors watched Misato go limp when his last hit connected, and recocked before letting another punch fly for good measure. Wrenching his good arm from her grip, he pushed himself to his feet steadying himself before staring down at the prone Neko below him. He slowly realized the throbbing pain in his left arm as he felt the all to familiar warm wet sensation running down it, and the little drops of blood that were falling off of his metallic fingers and splattering onto the grey Neko's cheek. He stumbled a bit as he turned around to get his jacket and sling back from where he had tossed them earlier, and soon collapsed face down onto the floor after taking a couple steps forward knocking himself out as he head made contact with the ground.

Sienna couldn't help but chuckle when the pair went out like light bulbs, shaking her head as she took another long drink. Stepping forward to Misato's limp form, she squatted down and set her glass on the floor next to her, then lifted the Neko's left arm up just enough to thread it through the loop on her holster and tie the jacket sleeve around her shoulder. She then picked her beer back up and gave Misato a lighthearted pair of pat-slaps on her cheek, still chortling quietly.

It was this time that Natsumi got back, well it had taken some few moments to force her way through the crowd back to where her friends were, just in time to see the end of the fight between Bors and Misato. "What the hell..?" she yelped as the last few blows landed and both of them went down. Natsumi forced her way over and checked on both of them. She muttered a whole bunch of Nepleslian curses she had learned from Bors when he swore in his sleep.

"Why were you two fighting?!" she demanded as she checked Bors, he was bleeding. She ripped several lengths of cloth from his shirt and pressed them to the most serious looking wound to try and stop the bleeding. "What's wrong with you two?!"

When she heard Bors hit the deck and Natsumi start growling at her, Misato opened her eyes and looked over at Natsumi. "Quite a bit... Thought I think the key here is getting him back to the hospital he escaped from. Look at his wrist." She stiffly pointed at the medical bracelet on his wrist. "He was going to hurt someone... better me than others." Suzume's hand rubbed her jaw a bit.

"Sorry Sienna, I know we have done nothing but paint the crew as idiots... Well I guess we are..." Suzume frown and looked down at herself as she sobered up.

Natsumi glared at Misato, then went back to working on Bors wounds. "Damnit, you almost killed each other," she hissed and scooped Bors up in her arms, lifting him as easily as one might pick up a child. She accessed the network and located the hospital as she stood up. "Misato, you're going to the hospital to get checked out too" it was not a request. She hefted the infantry man and started out the door, the level of anger in her red eyes was enough to get the crowd to get out of her way. Once she was outside she kicked in her gravity manipulation and zipped off quick as possible towards the hospital.

Misato got up shaking her head a bit to clear it. "Sienna you want a ride... I got a bike out side." She motioned at the door. "I doubt you fly... Unless you have been hiding something from us all."

Sienna let out a low whistle as Natsumi hefted the bulky Bors out the front door, eyebrows raised and eyes transfixed, obviously impressed by Natsumi's display of strength. She had known by now that Nekovalkyrja were impressively strong, but to this point she hadn't seen it displayed outside of power armor, and inside of those mechanical suits it was to be expected. Misato's question drew her attention back to her, and one eyebrow twitched at her in a sly response. She stared at the grey-skinned catgirl in mild wonder for a moment. Misato was proving to be one of the most inconsistent people she'd ever met; one minute she was falling over herself, the next she was rip roaring angry, and then all of a sudden she acted as if nothing was wrong. "No, I don't fly," she responded. "And if y'all are leaving I guess I could use a ride."

"Well come on... I'm worried about him." She motioned to the door before heading out herself. "He was high strung at dinner then I saw him hurt today... Did he tell you anything about what happened?" Suzume hoped maybe the shared culture would have caused Bors to open up to Sienna, cause apparently bleeding together wasn't enough.

Sienna balked a little at her suggestion. "What, you think he's gonna pour out his heart to me?" she replied, and nodded her head towards a man and woman talking across the room. "He doesn't know me from that jackass in the corner. Y'all are the comrades in arms; whatever he didn't tell you, I guarantee you he didn't say to me."

"I'll have to believe you, before I would have thought he would have confided in me.. but now I don't know.. I was hoping, though." Suzume gave a sad smile before climbing on the bike. "By the way, I'm sorry about the dinner I didn't mean to startle you. I really didn't."

"Hm," Sienna grunted as she looked at the bike dubiously. The outside air exacerbated the alcohol-induced buzz she was feeling, and it was obvious she wasn't too thrilled about being in such close quarters with another person, or even sure her equilibrium was up to the task of balancing on a hoverbike. She climbed on anyway, taking a moment to figure out a way to sit without sitting on the Neko's tail, straddling the bike and tenuously holding the sides of her waist. "You ask me," she continued, deflecting the apology, "y'all are the most sensitive bunch of soldiers I've ever met."

Misato's tail had a bit of a mind of its own, wrapping around Sienna's waist, as it it was a seatbelt. "Yeah we all are..." She fired up the bike and shot into the air towards the hospital. "But you know... for the sake of disclosure, for a civvy your kind of tight-arsed, I mean hell, the world's your oyster and you seem to try to push it away."

Sienna tensed severely and her eyes widened as the tail snaked around her waist. Automatically she noted that Misato's neck was exposed and an easy target for a forearm; Neko or not, it would be a quick incapacitation. Before she let herself react, however, the bike zoomed into the air, making her quickly grab onto Misato's waist for dear life on reflex. It was then that she realized what she was doing with her tail, and she reluctantly allowed it. Perhaps it would be better that way. She wasn't drunk, but she was tipsy enough to doubt her stability on the vehicle.

She laughed derisively at Misato's statement. "The world's my oyster, huh," she reiterated, her voice laden with sarcasm as she held on, the wind whipping her hair against her forehead. "Yeah, I've had the good life all right. I almost feel sorry for y'all, cooped up on that bucket, exotic food, warm beds, dinner parties, just about any kind of entertainment you want. I don't know how you stand it." She shook her head with another scoffing laugh. "But you're right about one thing, my ass is plenty tight, not that it's any of your business."

Leaning into a turn she shot down the back alleys trying to avoid the local law enforcement and traffic lights. Misato chuckled at the response she got, "Oh hell, I hate those things. I was made to fight, not to be a social butterfly. I'd rather be stuck somewhere fighting for my very existence then being pampered. But I didn't choose to be created nor programmed to do what I do. I just am...."

She maneuvered the bike for a moment in silence as she thought how to continue. After a pause, she spoke up again, "I like you, you're good people, seem to want to help people even though you try not to show it, the one quality I care for. Though I think you are expecting us to change everything we are to try to screw you in some way." With a shrug and another tight corner she continued. "But if that's your thing, I guess it can't be helped. Though all you got to do is ask around here."

Sienna's grip tightened and loosened in cycles as the bike wove through the cityscape, playing hell on her inner ear in her mildly inebriated state. She furrowed her brow in dubious surprise at the Neko's conclusion, but she didn't bother arguing or questioning it. "What exactly is it I'm supposed to ask you for?" she asked, semi-rhetorically.

"'You like to ask a lot of questions of a brain damaged neko, don't you," Misato grinned, glad she was facing forward. "You have kept an eye on a friend of mine, turn around is fair play, wouldn't you say?"

Now Sienna was lost. "What the hell are you talking about?" she asked.

"Natsumi." Simple answer to a simple question, Suzume loved the balance there.

Sienna smirked as they banked into another turn, making the pit of her stomach tingle. "Dunno what you're getting at with that," she replied. "She's made me her pet project, seems like. And yes," she added, "y'all do ask too many damn questions."

With a laugh Misato retorted the best she could. "I have asked exactly two questions of you today, One: Do you want a ride. Two: Wouldn't you say? But your are right two might have been tooooo many questions." She laughed a bit more as she shot the bike down another tight alleyway.

Sienna rolled her eyes. "Just drive the damn bike," she replied.

With a few last chuckles Misato continued on. "To answer your question, anything, if it is in my power to give it's yours. Like you said I have no need to worry about my next meal or sleeping location. Hell you know we Neko don't have wills? Oops that was another question."

Now Sienna was intrigued. She doubted that Misato knew what she was saying, or was just spouting off hot air due to her intake of booze, but it was worth leaving on the table nonetheless. "I'll keep that in mind," she responded.

"Be sure to, I wouldn't want you in a bad way, and find out i could have helped. I'm an ass, not a Mishu." She smiled as she brought the bike in to the hospital parking. "I'm sure Natsumi is going to be wondering what took us, but I wanted to get a chance to talk." Misato didn't explain she took a fairly round about way to the ER, that would have pissed Sienna off too much.

Sienna simply stayed silent, holding on for the rest of the ride.
 
Beach - Another Day

Sienna had spent much of the afternoon with Natsumi perusing the shopping district again, getting educated on Yamataian fashion. There was a lot of variety in what she saw, some of it prudishly modest, and some of it ridiculously brazen, but almost all of it falling under the purview of what Sienna considered "impractical." Every time they had entered a new store, if she had still never seen a luxury resort such as this one, she would have found herself wondering just what kind of life Yamataian women led that made choosing what areas of their body to call attention to among their most crucial daily decisions. All the same, however, she couldn't deny that she was enjoying herself, even if the thrill of being dressed up like a somebody at Sune's dinner had involved far more annoyances than she'd realized it would. They had eaten lunch at one of the open-air restaurants along a main road, a quaint little place that tried very hard to make itself look like it was a dinky little hovel when its flatware and the cooking appliances Sienna caught glimpses of when the wait staff breezed through the kitchen door gave away the fact that it was in fact long established and thriving. She had stayed with something familiar and simple -- a basic turkey sandwich with fried potatoes -- but it had tasted absolutely heavenly.

The sky was starting to become awash in reddish orange, as the daylight started to fade. The pair had made their way out to one of the beaches at last, something that Sienna had been secretly dying to see ever since they made planetfall. Natsumi had talked her into buying a solid black two-piece swimsuit, with a bikini bottom and a full coverage halter top that showed almost no cleavage and covered a small portion of her upper midriff. She still wasn't terribly thrilled about parading around in public wearing so little, however. While she had relented to the Neko on the swimwear, she had insisted on at least wearing a pair of short denim shorts with it, even though they covered only a little more than the bottoms themselves. Her shoulders, belly, back, and legs were still exposed, but at least she didn't feel quite so ridiculous.

The hot sand between her bare toes sent tingles up her spine as they finally walked onto it, enhanced by the gentle evening sea breeze tousling her loose hair and the sound of the little waves washing ashore. She couldn't help the smile that spread over her face as she closed her eyes and took in the rest of her senses, letting the quiet tranquility take her away.

Natsumi smIled as they finally set foot on the hot sandy beach,clad in her flashy red and white striped bikini she had bought the last time the Eucharis had been here. It showed more of her pale skin than Sienna's new black bathing suit did, but it did not bother the neko. Modesty was a lot different with nekos than humans.

"And we've finally made it!" she announced, pushing her aviator style sunglasses up onto her forehead. "Pretty, isnt it?" she grinned and took in the white sandy beach and sparkling blue sea.

If only you could see it through my eyes, Sienna thought, smiling as she took it all in. "That's putting it lightly," she replied, and looked over at Natsumi. "But then, I guess y'all see things like this all the time."

Natsumi smiled. "No, not all the time" she replied. "I've spent most of my life aboard the Eucharis, not on planets," she said.

"Yeah, but y'all come here every year, I thought," Sienna answered with a raised eyebrow.

"I've only ever been here once before," Natsumi said. At the moment she did not remember if she had actually told Sienna how old she was.

Sienna furrowed her brow as they walked, glancing Natsumi's way from time to time. "I'd figured you'd been with the ship longer'n that," she said.

The snowy haired neko nodded. "This is my first posting after i was created and trained. About two years now," she answered.

With raised eyebrows, Sienna looked over at the Neko with fresh astonishment. "You're only two years old?" she asked, intrigued.

"Yeah," Natsumi grinned. "Created in a hemosynth tube, programmed with all the basics and then sent to training," she shrugged. This was all natural to her.

"Huh," was the only reply that Sienna could muster, her expression now morphing into one of puzzled curiosity. No wonder Natsumi seemed so optimistic, even naive all the time. She hadn't been alive long enough to really know any better. The Eucharis was all the Neko ever knew. At first she found herself feeling some degree of pity, but it wasn't long before she started to realize that such innocence could almost be called a gift. If Nekos had the ability to reason, think, and feel the way humans did, she wondered at whether or not Natsumi was aware of just how incredible her position could potentially be. But probably not, she deduced -- if the Neko was as youthfully untainted by life as she thought, it stood to reason that her naivete would prevent her from truly appreciating it. It was an unfortunate double-edged sword, a gift that you could either have and be completely unaware of, or fondly remember only after it was lost.

Sienna looked back out at the ocean scenery spreading out before them, running a hand through her hair. "And they program you to like walks on the beach, huh?" she asked wryly.

"Oh that part I decided on on my own," Natsumi said. She looked out on the sea. "Fell in love with the sea the first time i saw it," she grinned.

Sienna's eyes remained locked in a wistful trance out at the setting sun over the water. "Can't say I blame you," she agreed quietly.

Natsumi watched the sea in silence for a few moments. "Maybe when i decide to leave the service I will move to a place like this on the coast," she smiled.

"You mean retire?" Sienna asked, looking over at her. "They build you to be a soldier, then they give you the benefits of being human?" she continued, but fairly quickly realized what she'd just said, and even if she wasn't yet fully convinced that a Nekovalkyrja was quite the same thing as human, Natsumi was clearly much more than just a machine. "I mean, ah," she added, trying to backpedal. "Well... you know."

"I think I get what you mean. Yes they make us, then after we serve a required term in the military we have the option to retire if we wish to," Natsumi explained. "If I will when my term is up or not I dont know. This is the only life I've known and so far I have liked it," she said. "Not the fighting, but being out amongst the stars on a ship."

A smirk pulled one corner of Sienna's mouth upwards as she looked back out at the water again, slowing to a stop with her toes just on the edge of the surf. The sand felt funny as the gentle whoosh and wash of the waves eroded the grains from beneath her feet, making her shift her balance from time to time. "Funny," she answered, her voice somewhat distant. "I've been on ships almost my whole life too, more'n ten times longer than yours. When y'all found me on Urtullan, that was the longest I'd ever been in one place.

"And I've hated every second of it," she added, finality in her tone.

"Guess it depends what things were like on the ships you were on," Natsumi shrugged. She had no idea what most if Sienna's past was like, she just knew what little she had been told. "Still, hopefully you are getting some good experiences now?" she inquired with a grin as she looked back at her new friend.

"Heh," Sienna chuckled, looking down at her toes, watching the warm salt water lap across her feet. She looked up at Natsumi from beneath her brow. "That a trick question?"

"Not at all," she smiled. "Just, well," Natsumi paused a moment. "I know things have not been easy for you and I want to make sure you have better times now, you know.. It's what friends do for eachother," she smiled, more sheepishly this time.

Sienna looked up at Natsumi's last statement, staring in wonder at her for a few silent moments, and tucked her thumbs into the waistline of her shorts. She tilted her head and opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out immediately, so she closed it again and sighed, looking back out at the water. "You're still trying to 'fix' me, aren't you?" she observed flatly.

"Fix?" she asked. "No, just be friends with and hopefully help have a good time," Natsumi answered truthfully. "I don't think theres anything broken in you... just you needed a chance for something better than when we first met you," she said.

The Nepleslian grinned again. "'Have a good time,'" she echoed, amused. "On a warship. If you'd said that to me before we got turned loose on a no-holds-barred luxury vacation, I'd'a laughed." She shook her head as she watched a distant marine animal break the surface of the waves and crash back to the water with a foaming splash before disappearing again. Then she sighed a long sigh. "Look," she continued in an explanatory tone. "It's like I said. It ain't that I don't appreciate what you're trying to do. But it's only a matter of time before I'll have to be moving on, you know? Unless y'all get me killed before then, of course." She drew a pattern in the sand with her big toe, letting the water erase it. "Either way, getting attached to things, or people..." She trailed off and paused for a second before looking up, her eyes distant. "Well, it's just asking for trouble."

Natsumi frowned and planted her hands on her hips, fixing suddenly stern and determined eyes on Sienna. "I know nothing lasts forever and eventually you or I will move on to somewhere else," she said. "But that is no reason to forsake attachments. There is nothing wrong with making friends. They are still friends even when far away. Like it or not, I am your friend, Sienna, and not much is going to change that," she said with conviction. "So you'll just have to deal with having a friend for life, however long that is."

Although she was visibly surprised by Natsumi's sudden determination, Sienna's eyes hardened when the Neko argued with her, and she levelled her gaze back in return, not looking away for an instant. The faint hint of grateful understanding that was peeking through in her face vanished beneath a cold, blank expression as she stared, letting Natsumi finish her tirade. When she was done, her eyes narrowed, almost too little to even notice. "Why?" she replied coolly. "Why do you care if we're friends or not? What difference does it make to you either way? I'm dead weight to y'all, just a hitchiker that you haven't had the chance to dump off yet. So what's the game? Why so set on making me happy?"

Natsumi's eyes narrowed just as much."There's no game," she replied. "Why does it matter? Because you helped us a lot, we would probably not have made it off that planet without your help," she said,

"Oh, don't patronize me," Sienna scoffed with a disdainful look. "Y'all stepped in a pile of shit, which just so happened to be my back yard, and I just happened to show up first. So yeah, you shoulda been watching where you were clomping those fancy boots of yours. But don't try to tell me I was the only one who coulda pulled your asses out of that mess."

"Hey we were invited in by the leader of that city on good faith, how were we supposed to know his cronies were going to pop up and make a mess of things?" Natsumi replied, "We came with peaceful intentions, we did not start the problems," she grumbled.

Sienna almost laughed out loud. "No, but you believed the slug," she retorted. "And look where it got you. You didn't start the trouble, but you damn sure asked for it." She put her hands on her hips and turned away, taking a few steps from the Neko, wading slightly into the water, letting out a heavy sigh. "That same blind trust is also what nearly got us all a permanent parking spot on the dreamworld. Eventually that kind of dumb optimism is gonna catch up with you, and damned if I'm gonna let y'all take me down with you."

"No one ever said exploring space and new worlds was safe!" Natsumi responded, "We have to believe the new people we encounter have the possibility of being friendly and worth trusting, if we don't we will never become friends with anyone new, or, would have never trusted you to help us on that planet. Then where would things be? We would likely be dead and you would still be stranded on that world!" she snapped. "I trusted you then, without knowing you because it seemed like the right thing to do and it worked out pretty well for all of us!"

"No," Sienna hissed, whipping back around to face Natsumi, striding purposefully back towards the Neko with a gait that almost suggested she'd walk right over her if she didn't yield. "It worked out for me," the Nepleslian continued, pointing sharply up at herself to accentuate her point as she came to a stop inches in front of Natsumi. "I didn't help y'all out of some misplaced sense of charity. I was after a ride. And I got it because I had something to offer. That's how deals work. You don't just believe, you don't trust, you don't give the benefit of the doubt. You aim to get what you want knowing full well that the other party is after something too." She eyed the Neko up and down derisively. "Yeah, you took a gamble trusting me," she continued. "But if y'all had half a brain, it was only because you didn't have any other choice. And I knew it. Exploring new worlds ain't safe, I get it," she said. "But you don't have to just take everyone at their word. That's why y'all ain't gonna last long. You're weak. You're stupid," she spat.

Natsumi glared back at Sienna, crossing her arms and standing her ground. "No," she stated. "I do not think it is stupid to be trusting of people at all," she responded."I think if we are going to get anywhere we have to trust people, be careful yes, but we have to trust, if we do not then things just don't go well for a lot of reasons. You trusted us just as much as we did you. If you did not you would have never just let us take you away on our ship. What if we had been tricking you, huh? If we were not being truthful we could have just as easily put you in a much worse situation than you were already in. No you trusted us. All that stuff about how deals work is just so you can save face and keep your tough exterior to the world," Natsumi hissed.

Sienna's eyes narrowed to dangerous-looking slits. "Don't you pretend like you know me," she growled in a low, threatening tone. "Or how much worse I could have it. You're Star Army. There are rules for you, things y'all are accountable for. There's nothing y'all woulda done to me that woulda been worse than living in that shithole, waiting for my turn to be a shell for one of those parasites. Don't insult me by thinking I wouldn't know the difference."

"No!" Natsumi said again. She was not going to relent on this. "You obviously don't pay attention to what others think of us, how Yamatai is the evil empire out to conquer the galaxy and subjugate all other worlds under our rule by any means neccesary" she said flatly. "And I think I've been able to get to know you pretty well, Sienna" she said. "I know you well enough to see how scared you are of losing people that you wont take the risk of getting close to those that want to be your friends, even if the benefit way outweighs the risk!" She poked her right index finger at the taller Nepleslian.

Indignant, barely-contained fury flashed in Sienna's eyes as she reacted to Natsumi's prodding, swatting her finger away. "Frak you!" she barked, her eyes wide as she glared down at the Neko menacingly. Her words were animated, wild, dripping with venom as she ranted back in uncharacteristic emotion, and her backwater accent was more evident in her anger than ever. "You're frakking two years old. You ain't known jack shit outside of that luxury yacht you're stationed on, you said so yourself. Your whole short life you've been an Imperial stooge, seeing the universe through their rose-colored glass." She clenched her jaw as she pointed back up at herself again. "You ain't seen what I seen. You got no idea what's out there when you and your happy-go-lucky band ain't lookin'. And yet y'all think you can fix it all. Everybody wants to be like Yamatai, you say, they just need to be graced with y'all's good will.

"You're damn right that everyone else hates you. I was raised to hate you. Y'all are so convinced that you've got all the answers to everybody's woes, and it just burns you to think that someone might have good reason to disagree. But calling y'all an evil empire?" she continued, scoffing. "Please. That's just giving y'all too much credit, you ask me." She paused for a second and stepped back, taking a long, labored breath, forcing herself to calm down.

"I don't give a damn what Yamatai's agenda is," she said dismissively, waving her hand as if shooing away an annoying insect. "Y'all can gallavant about trying to solve everyone's problems if you want. Conquer the whole damn galaxy for all I care. In the end, not a damn thing will be different." She turned to face out to sea, looking back over her shoulder at Natsumi. "All this?" she said, motioning with a sweep of her arm out towards the water. "And this?" she continued, pointing back towards the resort. "You can kid yourself all you want. But none of this is real. The universe will always be one big shitstorm of people killing one another. Yamataian, Nepleslian, cyborg, human, alien, people. Don't matter. People are conniving, self-serving, violent animals that will step on each other's throats if they think they can gain something. You can dress it up however you want. Pass your laws. Build your resorts, flag your territory, spread your goodwill. Do whatever you think you need to do in the name of civilization. But nothing will change." She stepped forward, intently staring Natsumi down from the side of her eyes, and pointed firmly at the ground with each slowly delivered word. "Nothing. Ever. Changes."

Natsumi put her hands back on her hips again, her red eyes locked on Sienna's. "I cannot believe people are evil and conniving," she replied. "Yes, there are bad people out there but that's not everyone, haven't you figured that out yet?" she demanded."No one has asked anything in return of you here. no one has pushed any agenda on you or forced you to do anything against your will, hell Sune set you up with enough money to allow you to live comfortably anywhere in the empire for several years without worry!" Natsumi stated. "And you still think all of this is just a dream you are going to wake up from? Only way this is all going away is if YOU make it all go away." She pointed back at Sienna again."I know im only two and i have not experienced what you have, doesn't make me any less of a person than you, like you I did not choose where and when i was created or what i was created as. all of us are the same that way even if we were started differently."

Natsumi looked back out at the sea, she did not want to be mad or argue anymore, but she had to get through this, she knew Sienna had a lot if anger and frustration to deal with.

Sienna bristled and her face turned red. She opened her mouth and held a rigid index finger pointed accusingly at Natsumi by her jaw, but no words came. She could only sit there and fume in silence, her jaw working as if she were a mute trying to stammer. She wanted to argue, wanted to point out just how naive the Neko was being, but she had no words. She felt like Natsumi was simply too childish and innocent to comprehend just how wrong she was, but whatever the reason, she simply didn't know what to say in response. Finally she closed her mouth and drew a long breath through her nose, and looked away to the horizon. "Things like this.... don't happen to people like me," she said quietly, keeping her face turned away. "They just don't. Yeah, I'm benefitting from sticking around. And maybe I don't know what y'all are getting out of it. Hell, maybe you don't either. But that doesn't mean there's not a reason."

Natsumi let out a breath. "Sometimes things like this happen," she said, more calmly. "I know myself, I know my Shosho, and I know Sune. None if us are after anything in return. You helped us in a time of need and this is our gratitude," she said. "And as for me, I thought you could use a friend and you know, I like you, you are a really nice person deep down under all the negativity and thick armor you have built up around yourself, you just have never been given a chance before."

She took a breath and continued before Sienna could get a word in. "Don't think we are just going to dump you somewhere or that we are using you or want something from you or that I want something in return from you." Natsumi looked back at Sienna."If we didn't want you around we would have left you behind ages ago. If I did not want you around I would have never stopped you from running off on thedreamworld, especially when the drugs made you want to go so bad it turned you violent."

That last part stung. A pang of guilt struck Sienna, and she folded her arms across her chest. As much as she didn't want to own up to it, Natsumi had a point. Maybe she didn't speak on the rest of the crew's behalf, but the Neko was far too transparent to be able to hide any sort of ulterior motive of her own. And if she had managed to somehow fool her all this time, she couldn't imagine what Natsumi felt that she could gain from her that would be worth standing up to the beating she'd administered. But knowing that her suspicions didn't make sense only confused her. It flew in the face of her entire life's experience thus far, but then again, so did everything that she had been given over the past few days. Her intuition told her that Natsumi was telling the truth; the Neko simply didn't have the capability of keeping up a smoke screen with that much conviction. But she simply couldn't shake off the fear that it was just another elaborate web of lies, and Natsumi simply wasn't privvy to it. Having no response, she merely stood there, her back to Natsumi, staring out into the water.

"I know you don't want to believe this or trust that we do not expect anything in return. There is no game, no trick, no plot against you," Natsumi said, any trace of anger or frustration had left her voice. She watched Sienna to see if there was any physical sign of a change in her mood.

"I know it's not easy to believe all this after everything you have been through, I just hope someday you will realize that this time things are exactly as they seem."

Sienna still remained silent, and for a moment the only sounds around them was the surf, the avian cries, and the faint thrum of activity from the city. Her eyes stayed vacantly transfixed on the distant horizon across the water, arms folded, letting the gentle breeze calm her. Natsumi couldn't help her ignorance, but it was becoming apparent that in that innocence was a genuine desire to do good, whatever it may be. She simply couldn't wrap her mind around that kind of purity; she had never known it. There was so much childishness in the Neko's mind, and yet, she couldn't ignore the fact that with it was a certain clarity that was beyond her comprehension.

"I left home, if you can call it that, when I was fourteen," she said quietly, still facing away, her voice sounding as if it were far, far away. "I was sick of the hiding, the rhetoric, the revolutionary crap. It was all pointless bullshit to me, and I wanted nothing to do with it. It wasn't my war. All I saw was people killing people over frak-all.

"I drifted for a long time," she continued, "doing odd jobs for quick cash and moving on to the next. I met someone during that time who seemed to be in the same situation as me." Her lower lip quivered just a touch, and she took a long breath. "He helped me, found me better work, taught me how to better fend for myself, to be a better survivor. I learned so much from him, but not just skills." She looked back over her shoulder at Natsumi, then down at her crossed arms, turning slightly to face her at an angle before looking back out to the ocean. "He was a good companion. We had each other's backs, got each other out of several scrapes, you know? We trusted each other." A wistful smile tugged at her lips. "Plus, he was just great to be around. Funny, smart," she continued, then gave the Neko a meaningful look. "Good looking," she added.

The expression on her face slowly darkened. "We hopped from system to system, never staying in one place too long to get noticed or attract the wrong kind of attention. It was the only life I knew anyway, so I never felt like I was missing out on much, I guess. We wound up in Urtullan eventually, after buying our way onto a junker heading further out into the rim.

"I don't know how or when, or how long before we got there, but someone made him an offer," she continued, her voice flat. "You probably noticed that labor in Urtullan was a pretty valuable commodity." She paused as her throat double clutched on her. Swallowing, she sighed shakily and kept her eyes turned away. She quickly wiped them with the back of her hand. "Well, you can figure out the rest," she concluded. "From then on, I knew it had to be just me."

Natsumi could see the anguish in Sienna's face. This was probably the first time she had ever talked about this with anyone before. "I'm so sorry, Sienna," she said softly aftera few moments. "That's a terrible thing to have gone through and I understand how that would make it hard to trust anyone again."

Natsumi looked Sienna in the eyes. "I promise you thatas long as i am around that something like that will not happen again. I mean it when I say i am your friend and want nothing but to be your friend."

Sienna sniffed, cursing herself for the show of weakness, and tried to compose herself. She couldn't believe she had just opened up that way, and hoped against hope that she wouldn't regret it one day. In a way, it did feel cathartic to speak of it to someone else, and wondered if it would be equally liberating to confess more of her troubled past. But she knew in her heart that she had already made a mistake, and couldn't allow herself to make it worse. Maybe Natsumi was trustworthy after all, but it would be incredibly stupid and hypocritical of her to just give her everything she needed to exploit her. She unfolded her arms and pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, blinking the mist out of her eyes before she looked back up at the Neko with an artificially hardened look. "I didn't say that to make you feel sorry for me," she snipped, almost sounding perturbed at her pity. "So don't."

"I know you didn't," Natsumi replied. "But keeping that kind of thing bottled up cant be good." She knew Sienna had just given her a big piece of information about her past. "And don't worry, I wont tell what you told me to anyone. Its good to have someone to confide in and I will never tell anyone anything personal you tell me just as much as I know you would do the same for.me," she smiled at the Nepleslian woman.

"But you don't," Sienna replied, her voice still edgy, but softening again. "You got no way of knowing what I'll do with what you give me." Lowering herself to the ground, she sat in the sand on her backside, pulling her knees to her chest. "I didn't tell you any of that because I trust you. I told you so you'd understand."

"I know you won't do anything bad with whatever I tell you," Natsumi replied. "I know you are a good person, just have been having a rough time." She sat next to Sienna, hands resting on the sand behind her as she reclined a little. "Sienna, you do not have to make me understand anything, I do already," she fell silent for a little while as she looked out onto the sparkling sea. "I may not have the experiences you do but I know what it means to be a good person and how to treat friends right. I don't think what you have had to go through is right and the way you were treated was not right," she glanced over at her "I know its not possible to get over a life of hardship but I can at least be the best friend i can to you, not because I want you to owe me anything, but because i want to."

Sienna sat in the sand, pondering Natsumi's words. She still had her reservations, but she still couldn't imagine what kind of value she could have to the crew that would be worth this amount of determination to win her friendship. She watched the waves continue to lap at her feet and trickle up to her hind end, soaking through her shorts. The sun was starting to dip below the horizon now, bathing the entire scene in a hauntingly beautiful orange glow.

She sighed again, not taking her eyes off of the water. "I don't know," was her only reply, now sounding more lost than upset.

"Well, you have plenty of time to figure things out," Natsumi smiled.

Sienna doubted that. But she decided to humor her anyways. "Yeah," she reluctantly agreed. She stretched her legs out in front of her on the sand and leaned back on her hands, and the two sat in silence for another few slowly passing moments.

"So do they let you get in the water here?" Sienna asked evenly, breaking the silence.

"Of course" Natsumi grinned and pushed herself back up to her feet. "The water is nice and warm, wanna go in?" she asked and held out her hand for Sienna.

"May as well see what the fuss is about," she answered without expression as she looked up at Natsumi's hand. Accepting it, she hoisted herself to her feet. "We're about out of daylight anyway."

Natsumi held onto her hand tight and ran into the water, dragging her toward the sea, water splashing around their feet. Natsumi laughed as she waded into the warm sea.
 
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The concept of a sidewalk cafe was just... weird to Sienna. Sure, it made sense if the "cafe" in question was little more than a kitchen and a refrigerator, whose only available dining space was outside on the curb. But in a place like this, it seemed unnecessary, even silly. Natsumi had pointed this place out on their walk back to the hotel from the beach, mentioning that she remembered their food was good, and their drink prices were reasonable. After the emotionally draining conversation from earlier, it didn't take much convincing to have a stiff drink.

After they had been sitting out there for over an hour, the charm was starting to become apparent to her. The wait staff didn't seem to care that they were still in their swimwear and shoeless, and the nighttime cityscape had a pleasant ambiance to it. It was kind of intriguing as well to watch the different kinds of people walk by, wondering where they came from, why they were here, where they were going. Sienna had let Natsumi order all of the food, and they had spent their time so far picking at a wide variety of tapas and little hors d'oeuvres, but the drinks never stopped coming. After a while, she quit knowing or caring just how long they'd been sitting there.

Sienna was fighting to hold the gulp she'd just taken in her mouth, her cheeks puffing slightly as she pursed her lips to keep from spraying foamy beer all over the table in uproarious laughter. Her eyes were scrunched up and her face beet red as her shoulders shook, one of her hands covering her mouth and the other holding onto the table as if she might fall out of her seat at any time. She swallowed and gasped for air, waving her hand in front of her as if begging Natsumi to cease her actions, tittering with laughter while she fought to regain her composure.

Natsumi was laughing hard, her arm half raised to take a drink from her own beer, which she could not yet. "Yeh," she giggled. "Happened just like that for real!" she said before Sienna could try to argue the event in which the neko had been describing. She set her glass down to keep herself from spilling the amber drink all over herself or the table. She grabbed up another snack and chomped down. It was an effort to chew and swallow while laughing so much, but she managed.

"Ohh," Sienna sighed between bursts of laughter, having finally managed to swallow her mouthful of beer, leaning forward and pushing her forehead into her hand, propped up on the table. "Ohh ho ho... that's too much," she cackled, shaking her head. After a few more seconds of getting a hold of herself, she sat back up, still with the barely suppressed ear to ear grin, chortling in erratic pulses, and signalled to the waiter with her nearly empty beer glass. "Kinda makes me wonder what woulda happened if it were the other way 'round," she added, knocking back the last bit of her drink, and slammed the glass down on the table. "So!" she said definitively, clapping her open hand down next to it. "I gotta hand it to you, this place is pretty great." She flared her eyes just a bit to accentuate her statement as she continued grinning.

"Yup!" Natsumi grinned as she drained her own glass and put it with the other empties in the collection she and Sienna had been gathering. The small table was littlered with empty glasses and plates. There were enough glasses that one could no longer tell which were Natsumi's and which were Sienna's. "If it's one thing I keep track of," she hiccuped, "it's a place with good food!" she then burst into another fit of giggles as she again thought of the story she had just told.

Sienna chuckled again, raising her eyebrows and nodding in agreement. She looked around at the dwindling number of people sitting at the tables around them, none of them seeming to be paying the slightest bit of attention to their hem-hawing and carrying on. A hiccup of her own caused her to convulse slightly and her eyes close halfway for a moment, but she otherwise was unfazed. "So, a Naykowul... Nayko-wulkur..." she began, struggling with the pronunciation of Natsumi's model name, then wrinkled her nose and tossed her hand towards her as if throwing her a wad of paper as she gave up entirely. "She-bot-clone," she said, changing course, "that has a penchant for making friends, finding munchies, and getting the shit kicked out of her by doped-up stowaways." She leaned forward, narrowing her eyes as if attempting to be serious... poorly. "I gotta know, though. From what I hear, that timid little medic had to shoot me to get me off of ya. How much punishment did I take before I quit?"

"Well, don't let anyone tell you you can't punch," Natsumi replied as their new rounnd of drinks arrived. She quickly scooped up her new glass of beer and went to work on it before continuing on. "Broke my nose and bruised me up pretty good. Lucky I heal fast," she said, then took another long sip.

"Hah!" Sienna replied with a self-satisfied chortle. "I know. I saw the aftermath. Sorry about all... y'know," she continued, her actual apology trailing off slightly as she motioned to her own face halfheartedly with a limp hand as she looked over Natsumi's, as if expecting to still see signs of her assault. "Don't think I ever actually said so."

Natsumi smiled. "You have nothing to be sorry for," she said, "You were out of your senses and under the influence of drugs." She took a sip again. "Wasn't your fault."

Sienna shrugged, leaving the matter at that. "So what did it take to stop me?" she inquired again with a tipsy grin, hovering her new drink in front of her lips as she looked across the rim of the glass with droopy eyes. "Aside from being shot, I mean. I just wanna know how I measure up to clone soldiers, outta curiosity, you know. Ain't anyone can say they beat up a Yamataian trooper."

Natsumi turned bright pink as Sienna asked how she had stopped her. "Um," she took a long drink from her glass, draining over half of it. "Well, I had to do something to catch you off balance... um...so," she took another sip, finishing her drink. "So, I kissed you." She looked at her glass, wishing there was still drink in it.

A bit of the beer immediately went down her windpipe as Sienna took a drink just before the subsequent shocked hiccup which followed in reaction to Natsumi's revelation. She looked across the table, sputtering and coughing, hoping that the Neko was just messing with her. Judging from the way the normally pale officer was flushed a practically luminescent pink, she had to have been serious. Sienna felt her own face get hot as she stammered dumbly. "Y-- You did WHAT?!" she barked, much louder than she'd actually intended, and looked just as surprised at the volume of her voice as the people milling around their outdoor table. Immediately an embarrassed, sheepish grin ripped across her face as she turned her own shade of crimson and hid her eyes behind her palm, shrinking her shoulders down slightly. "You did what??" she asked again in a comically exaggerated, hoarse whisper, peering across the table from underneath her hand. She wasn't sure if she was upset or wanted to fall down laughing, but one thing was certain: she was certainly beyond astonished. "You mean, like just a quick peck, or--?" she continued, trailing off and leadingly raising her eyebrows as if unable to finish the sentence.

Natsumi blushed bright again. "Well.. um....You were very heavily affected by the hallucinogens, so... had to be more than a quick peck," she replied.

The Nepleslian woman blushed furiously as she hid her eyes behind her hand, slouched over on the table, and her shoulders started to heave up and down in uncontrollable laughter. Eventually she leaned back in her seat, red-faced with watery eyes, continuing to laugh, although the look on her face made it obvious she found the revelation just as embarrassing as she did funny. "Ohhh hell," she mused between cackles. For a few seconds she seemed to have gotten a hold of herself, wiping the tears from her eyes with her free hand, only to burst into laughter again.
"Well, if you were wanting to catch me off guard, I bet that did the trick!" she said, still laughing, and looked sheepishly across the table, although it was difficult to keep her eyes on Natsumi's. Had she not been slightly intoxicated at this point, she wasn't sure she'd have found it so humorous. "Was it at least a good one?" she joked.

Natsumi blushed bright again, but then smiled. "Well, I don't have the most experience kissing, you know... " she looked back up at Sienna, "but i guess it must have been. Stopped you cold," she then started giggling. "You should have seen your face!"

Sienna continued to laugh for several minutes more, still beet-red and teary-eyed. Once she finally regained control of herself, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, still giggling and chortling occasionally, and downed the rest of her current beer in one gulp, waving at the server for another even before she'd finished. "Damn," she blurted with a gasp as she slammed the newly-emptied glass on the table, and coughed to clear her throat. "I'm almost scared to ask what else happened y'all didn't tell me about while I was, er... gassed."

Natsumi shrugged as she accepted another full glass from a waiter. "Not much else, really," she replied and took a long sip. She was glad Sienna was taking it all in good stride. "You were pretty sober for the rest once we got back to medical and treated," she went on, then smiled. "Interesting times you get to have while tagging along with us."

"Heh, 'interesting,'" Sienna repeated sardonically, still grining and shaking her head as the waiter added another glass to the small collection that was amassing on the table. "So far I've been drugged, shot at, lit on fire, tazed, smeared in alien goop, and now you tell me, sexually assaulted," she said whimsically, picking up her beer and hovering it in front of her face as she looked wryly at Natsumi. "Tell me again how y'all improved my situation with your rescue?"

Natsumi turned bright red and hid her face behind her glass of beer. "Well, all things considered...it could be worse..." she said sheepishly.

Sienna cackled and nodded in hearty agreement with heavy eyelids, leaning a little too far to one side in her seat as she drank. "Yeah," she mused, setting her new frosted glass down. "Ain't no doubt about that. Your skipper probably has all manner of wacky ways lined up to get y'all into trouble already."

Natsumi took a very long drink from her cup, then set it down, giggling. "Oh I'm sure things will continue to be interesting for you as long as you decide to stay with us" she commented and leaned back in her chair, stretching out her arms over her head.

"Yeah, I don't think me hanging around makes much difference in that department," Sienna replied, her voice slurring as she leaned back in her seat. She looked at the people around them with half-closed eyes, a mischievous look on her face. "But for now, I think I might need to jump the next guy I see just to re-establish myself after finding out my last kiss was from a girl," she added, giggling.

"Oh?" Natsumi asked, raising her eyebrows as she took a long drink from what had to be at least the sixth cup, maybe more, she had lost count. She set the now empty glass down and reclined in her own seat. She was really feeling the effects of so much alcohol now. Her cheeks were rosey and she watched everything with a bit of a glassy eyed look. She could of course immediatly snap out of her drunken stupor at any moment via the wonderful advanced technology built into her body, but for now she just enjoyed it.

"Uh huh--" Sienna replied, only to have her lazily-voiced response abruptly cut off by a violent hiccough. Her knee jerked at the diaphragm spasm, knocking against the table and rattling the empty glasses, very nearly spilling the contents of their current drinks. She sputtered and laughed at her involuntary action, shaking her head at herself as she scrambled to catch her glass a couple of seconds later than she should have if it were actually in danger of tipping over. Leaning forward on the table, she continued to giggle around another gulp, then cleared her throat and put on the best all-business face she could conjure up after however many drinks they had already consumed, scanning the people around them for a suitable target. "So whoooo's the lucky guy," she mused as she looked around, unable to keep from grinning, swaying slightly in her seat.

"Whoa there, spaghetti!" Natsumi giggled as Sienna bumped the table. She grabbed at the glasses closest to her, keeping them from going over. "Um..hmm," she followed Sienna's eye line around the collection of people. "I dunno," she shrugged and laughed. She could not claim in any way to be any good at picking out guys.
Leaning forward on her elbow, drink steadied in her hand, Sienna eyed some of the men that were seated just inside or on the patio tables, most of them with groups of varying sizes. As her eyes hovered on each one, she wrinkled her nose and shook her head in a finicky manner, being far more picky than she'd originally made it sound. Almost all of them were flawed in some way; too short, too thin, too weak-looking, too timid. She took another long, lazy drink of her beer as she surveyed, growing slightly more dismayed with each passing moment, until she finally spotted a suitable target. Still drinking, she reached across the table and patted around on the table, missing Natsumi's arm several times before she found it and tapped it eagerly to direct her attention at the statuesque black-haired man in uniform standing at the bar inside, his back turned to them. "Mmf," she murmured around a mouthful of beer before swallowing it, barely keeping herself from spilling it on her lap as she set it down to the table. "In there, looky," she continued. "Give him a second to turn around, but from back here, the view's pretty damn good."

Natsumi looked where directed, spotting the uniformed man. "That one?" she asked, whispering like this was some kind of top secret operation. She let her red eyes linger on the man, waiting for him to turn around to see what the other half of the guy looked like. "What do you wanna do?" she asked.

Sienna looked back across the table at the Neko with a devilish grin. "If his front half looks as good as the back, you just watch and learn," she told her, choking off in a hiccough again, then cleared her throat. She stayed with her eyes locked on the military man, expectantly waiting for him to turn around. When he finally did, the grin on her face spread. She was rapidly approaching being drunk, but not so much so that she wasn't aware that her eyes may not be in top shape. But what she saw pleased her greatly. The man looked at least as tall as her if not a few inches taller, with a firm-looking and masculine jaw, broad shoulders, and hands that looked exceptionally strong. She looked back at Natsumi, waggling her eyebrows.

Natsumi glanced back and forth between Sienna and the man. She grinned back at her friend. "What's the first move?" she asked. She was now totally out of her element. She could navigate a starship with her eyes closed, or blast a snub fighter at ten thousand kilometers with an aether cannon with one hand tied behind her back, but approaching a guy, she had no idea how or what to do.

Sienna slammed back the remaining contents of her beer glass and rose to her feet, although she made sure to test her balance for a second before she went inside. It wouldn't do to be stumbling over herself on her attack run. With a look at Natsumi, she picked up one of her empty glass, and told her "Watch this."

The Nepleslian woman, her shoulders back and her chin in the air, strode confidently into the cafe and made a beeline for the bar as if she owned the place, or rather, owned the entire city block. Swaying her hips ever so slightly, she walked up right next to the uniformed, dark-haired man, and placed the empty glass down on the wooden surface next to him. Ostentatiously she looked the man over from head to toe, letting him see her foxlike, approving smirk before she met his eyes. She flipped a lock of hair from her forehead with a brush of her hand. "Hi," she said in a pleasant voice, with a barely tangible hint of sultriness. "First time here?"

The soldier looked back at her with raised eyebrows, making it entirely too obvious that he was consciously trying to keep his eyes from wandering over Sienna's body, but bowed politely to her nonetheless. "Yes, madam," he answered, collecting the drink he had ordered from the bartender. "My first visit."

"Ours too," Sienna answered back, nodding out the window towards where Natsumi was sitting, then waved her empty glass at the bartender. "I'm Sienna."

"Kazuo," the soldier replied, bowing again. "You're Nepleslian, if I'm not mistaken? I'm surprised to see one of your kind here."

Sienna chuckled with a raised eyebrow. "I won't bother finding some reason to be insulted by that," she chided. "But you look kinda lonely over here. Wanna join us?"

Slightly surprised, but pleasantly so, the soldier smiled wolfishly back at her. "I would be honoured," he said, and motioned towards the door with an outstretched hand. "Please, after you."

Sienna gave the soldier a sly come-hither look, and went ahead of him as asked, resuming her confident gait that dared those around her not to notice. As she approached the sidewalk tables, male target in tow and walking as if she didn't care if he followed her or not, she looked at Natsumi with a cocky grin and winked. Immediately the soldier moved to pull her seat out for her.

Natsumi grinned at Sienna. She was not sure how she had done it, but the man was now there. She smiled warmly, "Hi," she said and leaned back in her chair. In the time Sienna had been gone a new drink had been delivered for the operator and she quickly grabbed it and sipped at the beer contently. She was not sure what was going to happen next, it would be interesting for sure. She had spent a lot of time showing Sienna things she liked to to here, now it seemed it was time for her to learn a few things from her friend.
 
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