A bar on the mainland- Tuesday night

[notconflicted]

Sia wasn't entirely sure it was the best thing for her to be here, and not just because she was worried about taking a night off from her nonstop terrible job for once. It was just that she and Atton had not had a great year, relationshipwise, and then there'd been an added depression-inducing complication with terrible timing when Sia already wasn't sure how to navigate things yet. She didn't like feeling unsure.

But she was deciding that was background. They were friends, and she worried about him, and she was at least a reason to get him out. Off island, even, to a bar they'd been to before, where Sia asked, "Are you going to roll your eyes if I ask you what I'm drinking tonight?"


[For Atton!]

Comments

[notconflicted]

"Of course I would choose the civilized fancy drink," Sia decided. "Unlike your brute coworkers."

[suitably_heroic]

"Well, if you warn me up front the next time you visit Caritas, I'm going to go dig up something crazy for you," Atton promised.

Look, he needed some banter for a while to get his bearings back.

[notconflicted]

"It might be a while. We'll both have to remember," she said, sipping her drink, and managing not to make a face. It could be worse.

[suitably_heroic]

"Aw, I bet your steel-trap of a memory is better than mine," Atton said. "Me, I forget where my socks are the second I take them off."

That was a lie.

[notconflicted]

"Well, you are getting up there," she said lightly. "That's to be expected."

He wasn't, and it wasn't.

[suitably_heroic]

"Don't remind me. I'm going to be on the wrong side of 35 soon enough," Atton sighed, and took another sip of his drink.

[notconflicted]

"And how far away is that?" Which May be reminding him but there'd also been some funky time stuff.

[suitably_heroic]

"Six months," Atton muttered.

[notconflicted]

"It's really not going to be that bad," she told him.

[suitably_heroic]

"How would you know?" Atton groused. "I'm old."

[notconflicted]

"You certainly sound it at the moment," she said, and sipped her drink. "You still look good and can walk around unassisted. That's important."

It was just so easy to tease him.