filleauloup | Abandoned Warehouse District, Saturday Evening

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Abandoned Warehouse District, Saturday Evening

There were easier ways to go about acquiring a pet, really, but for one thing, Éponine would feel much better about not hearing the litter of stray kittens mewling pitifully every night outside her window. For another, she'd been raised to understand that if you could get something without having to pay for it, you avoided having to pay for it, and she still saw nothing wrong with that approach to life. She also found the idea of rescuing small animals from the streets vaguely appealing in some way that she couldn't articulate.

Having rounded up a crate lined with a towel, a can of tuna, and a flashlight, and then spent most of the afternoon prowling around her section of the warehouse district to determine where the cat and her kittens were, she was ready to put her plan into motion.

It really did seem like an excessive amount of work and planning to do to acquire a pet, but she suspected it might be worth it. Besides, as far as laying extensive plans to accomplish something went, this wasn't even close to being her most elaborate.

[OOC: For the cat-rescuing accomplice!]

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Éponine burst out into a half-bewildered laugh. "Yes, yes, exactly all of that. God, why d'you think I still can't quite believe this place is real?"

Kenzi snickered, and pulled her feet back as Gothika the Black attacked her toes. "So it's not just microwaves and electricity and running water?" But no, she got it. "I seriously thought this place was gonna be a prison camp. Why would they send me somewhere nice?"

Éponine nodded her agreement as she dealt with getting a forkful of chow mein into her mouth. "You'd think," she said through the mouthful of food, "that it was like some kind of reward, and what kind of sense would that make? There had to be some mistake, hadn't there?"

"Too late for them to take it back now!" Kenzi snickered and picked out a pepper to eat with her fingers. "Or like, consolation prize, maybe? 'We know you were living on the streets, here's an awesome place where if you live on the streets, it's still pretty cool?' Heh."

If she ever found out that the Light Court had set her up here, she'd have to send them a fruit basket. After she yelled at them about manipulating her.

"What made it super-weird for me was meeting Bo again about ten minutes after I got off the bus here."

And now Éponine looked envious, even if she tried to hide it right away.

"So you knew each other before?"

"For like, an hour, a month before." Kenzi put down her fork for a second to gesture as she talked. "So, one night, I'm going through bars, picking up wallets, keeping moving, right? And this skeevy guy buys me a drink. I'm all 'sure, right, I'll go somewhere with you just for one lousy drink', but I suck it down, and then I leave, right?" She grimaced, pointing towards the door. "The dude follows me into the elevator-- have you seen those yet?" she interrupted herself. "Little tiny rooms, um, like dumbwaiters? Go up and down tall buildings?"

"No, but I think I've the idea. Do go on." Éponine twirled her own fork to punctuate the request, the slight twist of her lips suggesting that she had an idea where this was going.

Some things didn't change with the centuries, at all.

Not even a little. Unfortunately. Although this story was one of the happier exceptions....

"So, he gets in with me, I'm all, whatever, and then I start getting woozy. Can barely see straight. Bleeeah. And it's not helping that he's all up on me, breathing on my face, wanting a kiss, and I'm thinking, 'oh shit, he doped the drink! I'm so screwed!' Just about literally." Kenzi paused to take a drink of water. "The elevator's still going down, and the doors open on a lower floor, and there's Bo. She'd been the bartender in the lounge I was in, right? And she saw what happened, and she was worried. So she ran down like three flights to stop the elevator car to check on me."

Éponine's expression had gone from suspicious to sympathizing to slightly incredulous as she followed along. "Worried about a complete stranger?" Everyone in the modern world was clearly out of their mind, she decided. Clearly. But her curiosity overrode her disbelief, and she burst out, "Well, then, what happened after that?"

"So she gets in the car with us, right? And asks if I'm okay, and I say sure, but I mean, I could barely stand, so. Clearly bullshitting." She grimaced, then had to grin hugely. "And she starts hitting on the guy, who is alllll about that, because she's wearing a tiny skirt and these great boots, and hey, she seems like she wants him, which, you should've seen this perv. Could not believe his luck. Over forty, pudgy and sweaty and just... yeah." Annnd here was the point to gloss over events a bit. "Long story shorter, Bo knocks him out-- she is one strong chick--"

Before he dies, but shyeah, like anyone would miss that guy. "And by this time I'm on the floor 'cause my legs aren't working, so when I make pathetic noises, she rolls her eyes, picks me up, and takes me back to her place to sleep it off on her couch."

Éponine's attention had wavered a bit through this portion of the story, or so it seemed; she'd started staring past Kenzi, unfocused, and it took her a second or so to remember herself.

"And when you woke up, you weren't missing anything?"

Look, she still wasn't going to assume the best-case scenario.

"Nothing! I know!" This had shocked the hell out of Kenzi too. "Even the wallets I'd lifted! Bo wasn't there, she'd bugged out, so I was freaking, but you know, my bod wasn't messed with, I still had all my clothes on, all the wallets were there-- Although she'd clearly looked at them," Kenzi added. "I thought I'd dreamed the whole thing! Except I wasn't home, you know?"

Éponine snorted. "As if not being home would stop me from thinking it! I've had some of my oddest dreams when I fall asleep in strange places."

Which was beside the point, and she seemed to realize it.

"That was the last time you saw her before you came here?" she guessed.

"Yup. Two months later. I got to the welcome picnic-- they do one every term, and half the time, the new kids pig out on food they've never seen before," Kenzi said in an aside. "I try to lift her wallet, and she turns around with a big ol' SECURITY label on her shirt, and we both kind of lose it with the whole 'did you follow me?!' thing." She grinned, taking another forkful of rice. "Which, no. Just a cosmic coincidence."

She pointed her fork at Éponine. "Best person I know. Crap with money. Or looking out for herself. But still a great person."

Edited 2013-06-24 02:34 (UTC)

"I remember her," Éponine said abruptly, as she made the connection. "From the dungeon. She looks after the children --" she said, as if she were that much older herself -- "at the school, doesn't she? She was so worried about not failing them by not making sure they were safe."

She broke off, staring down at the tabletop and humming vaguely as she frowned in concentration.

"I -- yes, I think she meant it," she concluded in a surprised but pleased tone.

"Yeah, her," Kenzi confirmed. She nodded at Éponine's comments, smiling a little. "That's my best friend." And wasn't there a lot of pride in being able to say that? "She has an office at the school. So she can keep an eye on stuff, if things attack or whatever." She gave Eponine a considering look. "It's so strange."

Edited 2013-06-24 03:22 (UTC)

"I think it's lovely," Éponine answered, her voice still a touch distant. "To have a friend like that."

The kitten she'd picked out came over to paw at her leg and mew, curiously; she looked down at it, speculatively.

"I think I may have a name in mind for you, my good kitten," she informed it.

"It is. But still strange." Kenzi picked up her glass again, watching Éponine over the rim. "What's the name?"

"What d'you think?" Éponine asked the kitten, leaning down and extending a hand for it to sniff. "Alouette -- d'you think that suits you?"

She assumed that the kitten licking her fingers with a raspy little tongue was not trying to say no.

"Alouette-- gentil alouette--" Kenzi paused and didn't finish the little song. "Lark?" Hey, no reason to talk about plucking its feathers off when Éponine had just gotten it!

"Indeed it is." The kitten batted at Éponine's hand with a paw and hopped away, then leaped back immediately; she let it pounce on her hand. It was a strange choice, all things considered, and she couldn't say why it had seemed like a good idea, but it just did. "Well now, I think it might suit you after all. How you do flit about!"

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Abandoned Warehouse District, Saturday Evening

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