Dropping down in a seat directly across from Natsumi, The Nepliesian knocked back a swig form the bottle she had thankfully gotten from Victory. She looked at I over to the White haired grumpy demon before her. "So miss grumpy pants, do they issue those to you, or is there a special Yamataian grumpy pants store that you shop at?" she grinned and slid the bottle across to Natsumi.
Natsumi, who had been poking, uninterested, at her food with her chopsticks, froze as Stark took the seat across from her and spoke. The starship operator had no immediate response for her, but eyed her with her big red eyes. She did not know if the Neplaslian was trying to be funny or what, but the offering of the drink was a friendly gesture.
The snowy haired Neko accepted the bottle and took a look at it, something from the Nepleslian rations in the hold. Opening it, she poured a decent amount into her glass, which was now devoid of soda, since, unlike her disinterest with her food, she had been thirsty and drunk the soda right up. Her glass now containing a good measure of the alcoholic drink, she passed the bottle back to Stark.
"Thanks" she said finally, quietly, and took a long sip of the new drink.
"You're are most welcome... Oh do you buy only when they are on sale or do you get a bulk price on the grumpy pants?" Tony grinned back before trying to get the food to her mouth with a pair of chopsticks, and failing causing one of the little vegetables to be flung at Natsumi."Sorry.. um.. I guess I need a fork..."
Natsumi saw the difficulty Stark was having with the chopsticks. She reached across the table, taking Stark's hand with both of hers, adjusting her hold on the chopsticks, so that the Nepleslian soldier was holding them correctly.
"That might help" she suggested, letting Stark's hands go and picking her own chopsticks back up.
"Might..." Tony fought and this time got a piece of meat to her mouth without causing it to drop from her grip. "So I though all you nekos were mind reading, happy, bouncy, bubbly creatures. If so why are you sitting here all by yourself being mopey and grumptastical?"
"We're not always happy" Natsumi replied and took a long sip from her drink. "Whats it matter to you anyways?"
"Cause it does..." Tony took a sip from her bottle of boozamahole and looked across the table. "I'm an observer and a exchange officer..." She took a minute to try for another piece of meat before speaking, "Plus one shouldn't be down... when there are things to be positive about."
Natsumi shrugged. She didn't see anything to be positive about and, though did not voice this opinion. Instead she picked up a piece of meat skillfully with her chopsticks and ate it.
Giving up on being polite Antonia Stark lifted the plate up and started using the chopsticks to slide the food into her mouth. After chewing for a few moments she continued. "It's not like your dieing or stuck on a crappy assignment. You get real grub everyday, and not crappy rations. Fancy beds, not hard mat racks. You all even have carpet in your ships." She pointed at the deck with her chopsticks.
Natsumi shrugged. All that stuff was common place in the Yamataian military. "That's not why I'm unhappy" she said flatly and looked down at her plate. She really did not feel like spilling her heart out in the wardroom with the entire crew there.
"So if it an't the grumpy pants... and Not the lack of fancy fluffy living. Then what is it? Am I raining on your parade on the bridge?" Tony leaned back in her seat and pushed the half eaten plate forward away.
Natsumi frowned, setting her chopsticks down and folding her arms over her chest. "Why are you so curious?" she asked.
"Cause.. Why do you look like a demon of lore?" Tony smiled sweetly and took another swig of her drink. "But I do want to know... And either I get it nicely from you... or you will learn how obnoxious I truly can be... And I have pancake syrup and rubber duckies in my bags."
Natsumi raised a white eyebrow. "What?"
Leaning forward and dropping her voice to just above a whisper, Tony spoke firmly. "Tell... Me... Or... I'll... Get... The... Syrup... And... Duckies..."
"And do what with them?" Natsumi replied.
"Wow... your a pain in the butt arn't you... well good thing... so am I." Tony smiled again, took and drink and slid the bottle across the table. "So out with it, why are you sitting here in the corner being mopey."
"Not your business" Natsumi replied, taking the bottle and pouring a bit more into her glass before sliding it back and taking a drink.
"So? Why not? You've been growling at me since I took my seat on the bridge." Tony frowned for the first time since she sat down.
"Because you're taking my job" Natsumi replied in a low voice. "I'm the gunner on the Eucharis" she snapped out, then drained her glass entirely, blushing bright pink.
"Then I'll request to fly the boat... I never came here to replace you..." Tony looked across the table with a soft smile.
"Thats my job too" Natsumi replied sourly. "Then why did they send you here?" she asked.
"Because of some hope our two peoples playing nice for a few years... I can request to be shipped back home if that is what you would like. Might have a few cargo ships needing a driver. Or I can ask to be transfered here to the grunt brigade..." Tony shrugged. sadly.
Natsumi sighed and put her head in her hands. She didn't know why she was being mean to Stark. She knew the Nepleslian had not been sent with the express intention of taking her work away from her.
Taking another sip of her drink, Tony leaned back and sighed. "Though it's going to be hard to shoot my rifle with a space suit on... but I can adapt."
Natsumi rubbed her eyes and picked up her plate. "I don't think I'm hungry anymore" she said and quickly deposited her dishes to be cleaned and rushed out of the wardroom, her eyes red and brimming with tears.
With a sigh Tony got up and tossed her dishes on the counter... "I'll be back for it.. or I'll eat a ration bar or two from my bag..." She told the mess staff before heading off to follow the white haired neko...
Natsumi was quickly making her way down the passage, towards her cabin, where she could have some solitude.
Tony being pretty spry wasn't far behind... "So I'm just a bad guy here, come to destroy your happy little verse?"
"Leave me alone!" Natsumi said back, turning around to face Stark, taking a couple steps backwards as she continued her momentum away from the Nepleslian. As she stepped, her foot caught on a combing and she tumbled backwards, thwacking her head none to softly on the deck.
Tony stood there for a moment. and looked at that child like girl before her. She finally saw the girl that had lost a lot the past month. She walked forward and knelt next to her. "I'm sorry... I'm not trying to replace anything here. I can't, it's your ship."
Natsumi rubbed the back of her head and cringed from the pain shooting through her skull and bit her lip. She uttered a string of curses that she had learned over the time she had spent as Riko Bors roommate. He swore in his sleep and she had picked up quite a few colorful phrases along the way, which she now put to use.
"And Now you're speaking a language I understand." Tony smiled before dropping down to seat nest to the neko.
The neko glanced over at Stark, her vision still full of stars. "Huhh?"
"Where didja learn to speak my home language? All those good punctuation marks and everything... here lean forward let me take a look." Tony gently placed a hand on Natsumi's head and pulled her handkerchief out with the other. "Nasty bump you got there..."
Natsumi winced from even the light touch. The spot was pretty sensitive. "My previous roommate was Nepleslian" she replied and gave no protest to Stark examining the bump on her head.
"Oh were they?" Stark smiled before pulling the bottle of Wiskey out from a thigh pocket. "Well this bump can only be solved with one thing... Ample application of the great ethanol molecule." She grinned and passed the bottle over to The while haired daemon.
Natsumi looked at the bottle, slowly accepting it and taking a long drink from it.
"So who were they? and did they die?" Tony was pretty blunt about it, though after her love died she became a bit callused.
"No, they didnt die" Natsumi replied. "They were assigned elsewhere, so left the ship.. along with all my other friends" she finally said and slumped against the wall, taking another long drink from the bottle.
"So you're going to be angry at the world cause your friends left... Never again will another friend be created. No... Enemies and people to be around that's it... You are most right... I was shipped thousands of light years from my home to join a ship of a previous enemy... Just to be your demise..." Tony paused for a moment thinking. "Didja love one of them?"
Natsumi blushed bright red. "No!" she said immediately. "I just miss them, they were my friends and now they are all gone"
Tony just sat there silently for a few moments, slowly thinking it all over. "Well you could ask for a transfer... But then who would be here to teach me how to use these weired non-button controls?"
Natsumi shook her head. "This ship is my home" she replied and sighed, wiping her eyes.
"So it's yours, you won't leave it, but no one else can be here too?" Antonia laid her head back onto the bulkhead.
"Thats not what I said" Natsumi replied and frowned.
"Well, there are two things I know... Flying and shooting... And you don't want me there touching your ship."
"And how would you feel if I showed up out of the blue when you were on duty on one of your ships and was just given your job?" she snapped back.
"I would have continued to do my job, that is Service to my country... If I get displaced to do something else, I deal... But your only having to share your duties... Guess that means you don't need to be at the helm all day long..." Tony sighed, she wasn't all that good with touchy feelly stuff.
Natsumi pushed herself back up, struggling to her feet. Her head spun, still dazed from the bump a few minutes earlier and she tumbled back over, uttering another string of curses.
"Ahh the holy language of our Lady... Goddess of the Musics..." Tony smiled and stood helping Natsumi up again... "Think maybe you need to head to the medbay luv'."
"Might be a good idea" Natsumi replied, slumping against Stark and concentrating on moving her feet to propel herself forward in the right direction.
"Booze and bumps... Always leads me to the med bay.. I got this metal plate in my hip cause of a party just like that." Tony leaned in close, "You wanna feel?"
"Why do you have a metal plate in your leg?" she asked, a confused look on her face. "Could just fix it with the hemosynth tank"
"Not a Neko, not a Minkan... Just a standard Nepleasian. Only way to fix us is patch and replace... Oh we heal but it taks us months to heal a broken hip..." tony smiled and pointed at the lower right butt-cheek area that hid the small piece of metal.
"Oh" Natsumi replied as they moved along down the passage towards the medical bay. "That's no fun" she added. "Does it feel strange? To have a piece of metal in your leg?"
"It does when i fall on my butt. or when you get a guy to... well sometimes it does..." She grinned and poke Natsumi in the side.
The neko squeaked as she was poked. "Hey" she poked Stark back.
"You're a bit cute when your flustered you know that." Tony poked the white haired neko again as they walked.
Natsumi turned more pink. "No more poking!" she replied, with a retaliatory poke.
"EPP! IT"S ON NOW!" Tony wasn't a neko nor did she have a ID-sol for a father but then again Natsumi wasn't that heavy. So she picked her up and held her tight as she started tickling the ship's weapons monkey.
Natsumi yelped and squirmed as she was squeezed and tickled. "Hey!" she managed between giggles. She struggled her arms free of the hold and tickled Stark back.
"Hay is for Equines!" The red head giggled as she continued tickling her and poking her fleshy sides. "You can't giggle now... your mopey pants will overload..."
Gasping for breath and laughing. Natsumi threw her arms around Stark in an attempt to pin the Nepleslian's arms and hands and stop the tickling, and held on tight.
The grip held her in just the right position, Tony glanced down and leaned over and planted a kiss on her lips.
Natsumi froze. She had not been expecting this and did not know how to react. True, she had done this to people twice, once as a dare in a party, second, to distract someone, but no one had ever kissed her before. It was quite nice, a distant corner of her mind mused. Her whole body relaxed and she closed her eyes, pressing back, just a little.
With a mused mind Tony halted her forward march and held the girl tightly. 'Damed Nekos must project hormones..' She grinned and just enjoyed the kiss, she was totally sure though she was going to get smacked at first.
Natsumi enjoyed it as well and tightened her arms about Stark again, holding onto her as they kissed.
Breaking the kiss, Stark whispered into the fuzzy ear of Natsumi, "Your rack or mine?"
Natsumi's ears twitched at that and she turned and even brighter pink. "Um...yours" she said without even thinking.
With a grin Tony carried the white haired neko to her cabin tossing her lightly on to her bunk, She pulled a old used sock out of her pack and hung it on the exterior of the door before sealing it and turning back to Natsumi.
|||Scene fade to black... insert nasty sounds here...|||
