A bar on the mainland- Saturday evening

[notconflicted]

It had been months since Sia had been able to go out unescorted (even Jessica technically served in a professional capacity), and she only had to go to a whole other galaxy to do it. And the reason why she was here was pretty unexpected after all these months.

She found a table- not the bar since she didn't really want to deal with a bartender as a third party today- and sat down to wait. She wouldn't say she was nervous; maybe wary of how things would go? But if they'd gotten to this point they'd probably be fine.

And if not, she was already in a bar.


[For one!]

Comments

[suitably_heroic]

"You just don't respect the noble tomato," Atton informed her as he returned with two blessedly yellow drinks and set them down.

[notconflicted]

"Not when I'm drinking it," she said, taking her drink to have some other taste there. "Thank you, that's better."

[suitably_heroic]

"There are many drinks in the world, but you can never go wrong with a margarita," Atton said, sipping some from his own.

[notconflicted]

"Says the man who just made me drink ketchup."

At least she could rag on him like normal.

[suitably_heroic]

"It's not ketchup," Atton said, pulling a face. "It's tomato juice!"

Beat.

"Drink your booze."

[notconflicted]

Sia actually laughed a little- a tiny bit- taking a drink. "Was the first one not supposed to have any alcohol in it?" she checked.

[suitably_heroic]

"I didn't want to get tipsy on the first drink," Atton said, shrugging. "So sue me."

[notconflicted]

"That makes sense," she decided after a moment. "Though I feel like I should tell you that you have nothing to worry about with me."

She didn't want him to feel like he had to be that guarded.

[suitably_heroic]

"I'm not worried about you," Atton said. "I'm worried about this going well."

[notconflicted]

"That's actually what I mean," she said. "I don't want either of us to be on guard around each other."

Granted, she absolutely was, at least a little. But she didn't want to be.

[suitably_heroic]

"Yeah, but we probably shouldn't be drunk, either," Atton said.

[notconflicted]

"No, but that's when you just take a very long time to actually drink," she said.

[suitably_heroic]

"I think not drinking too much alcohol probably works better," Atton said, eyeing his drink. "So you said you had questions, plural."

[notconflicted]

"I suppose now it'd be hypocritical of me to say that I'm not sure it's a good idea for me to actually ask them," she realized.

[suitably_heroic]

"You led with that earlier," Atton pointed out. "I'm still game."

[notconflicted]

She took a moment to mentally brace herself, and asked, "Why didn't you want to talk to me in all that time?"

That was the nicer-to-herself version of the question.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton sighed.

He rubbed his forehead as he sank back into his seat.

"The honest answer? Because I don't know how to handle this."

[notconflicted]

The obvious question: "Handle what?"

[suitably_heroic]

Atton took a big gulp of his margarita. Okay: maybe he did need alcohol for this.

"You and me have too much history to just... empty out our coolant pumps and that's it," he said. "But I'm not... equipped to do more, Si. It was... it seemed easier to just avoid the conversation."

You know. The one they were having right now.

[notconflicted]

Yep. Glad they were in a bar for this.

"Quite a bit of that history involves you telling me how not interested in me you are. Unnecessarily, at times. That's not news," Sia said. "I would have preferred to hear that over being avoided."

[suitably_heroic]

"Yes, I spent our entire time in high school doing that because you were like sixteen and I was 21, not because I wasn't interested in you," Atton said. "Space!"

He wasn't sure why that came out so exasperated.

[notconflicted]

Sia blinked, because that wasn't something she was expecting to hear... ever.

And then, after a moment, "Whatever the reasoning, it was effective. And it doesn't matter now anyway."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton shrugged. "Matters here," he said, taking another sip of that drink.

[notconflicted]

"Why?" she asked.

[suitably_heroic]

"We slept together and you don't think it's relevant that the feeling was mutual?" Atton said, blinking.