01-12-06

Characters involved: Lily, Keita, & Vansinnig.

Halyard Tavern: Main Room

The sturdy wooden door of the tavern is very good at keeping the weather out... though tonight it seems to be going above and beyond the call of it's meager duty. Three heavy knocks sound on it, along with a muffled complaining. "Kei? Kei! Ms. Keita!" The familiar voice of Lily leaks under the door. "S'bloody cold." The voice curses moodily.

Keita was heading for the door at the knocks. At 'Ms. Keita' she just pauses. "Miss Keita?" she mutters, shaking her head. "Miss Keita." She reaches the door, throwing the latch and pulling it open and stepping aside. Peeeeeer. "Miss Keita? What's this 'miss' business?"

As soon as the door is even slightly cracked, Lily attempts to shove herself in. The doe steps just past Keita, urging her to shut the cold out behind her. The doe, already decked out in a full length coat, a hat that covers both ears, and mittens, looks miserably cold. "I must'ah locked mahself out. M'ah fool. Miss? Huh? Oh... jus' gettin' yah ah'ttention." The doe shrugs, her form shivering slightly. "Y'know... ah business term. Callin' yah Ms. Keita seems proper if m'workin'."

Close the door she does, leaning back against it to watch the bustling and chilled doe. She can't help but smile. "I think 'love' or 'deah' works just fine for business terms." Then again, it's possible she's biased. "What were you doin' out there, anyway? It's bloody freezin'."

Lily rolls her eyes, but leans in to plant a peck on the side of Kei's muzzle anyways. "Yeah yeah. I'll keep tha' in min', /luff/." Realizing that it really isn't doing much good anymore, Lily sheds her mittens into her pockets, then the cloak which is promptly tossed on a coat hook. "Is it? Well, I had no idea!" She says sarcastically, going to wrap her arms around one of Kei's. "I was takin' ah lil' walk. Nothin' wrong wi' tha', hmm? Now, c'mon... m'cold. Le's go nearer t'th' fire. I'll carry you?" The doe offers with a huge grin.

It's Keita's turn to roll her eyes. She shakes her head. "No, I'll walk, thanks. Don't like bein' dropped on m'head." She grins, starting to limp towards the fireplace. "Good walk, anyway?"

Lily trails just after Keita, her lip protruding out in a pout. "Well fine. I'll jus' be all worthless back here." She grumbles, though happily bats at Kei's tail all the way to the fire. "I 'pose. On th' beach. I like makin' sure there h'aint 'ny hordes o'verminy types out there."

Keita wiggles her tail, entirely for Lily's tail-batting benefit. "Aye, well, if you're wantin' to carry me all the time, the leg I've got left's goin' to start feelin' worthless, too." She smirks, stopping at the armchair nearest the fire. She sits on its arm and leans her crutches against its back. "Sit! Relax. No more cold walks fer you, verminy hordes or not."

Lily snuffles anyways. "Well phoo on yah good leg, I say. Wot sorta mate m'I if I can't e'en sweep yah inta mah arms, huh?" She complains and scoots to plop herself down into the seat of the chair. The doe leans over, trying to sneak her arms around Kei's waist. "Wot? Yah joking righ'?" Underneath her knit cap, her ears twitch indicating that, if free, they would rise in surprise. "An' why bloomin' not?"

Keita laughs and lifts Lily's cap off of her much-twitching ears. "Quite simply, love, because I like my bunnies whole 'n' not riddled full o' arrow holes." She smoothes the fur on the other's ears out. "Also not frost-bittin'. 'Tis equally bad, that."

Vansinnig snorts harshly, clumping down the stairs, leaning against the wall heavily, careful not to rip any of the barely healed wounds open. Bleary eyed, he stares at the two, smirks, then tries to move back upstairs. Tippy-toe, tippy-toe. Not much luck. His weight and girth, not to mention the fact he's wearing metal on his soles, he makes only slightly less noise than when he came down.

Lily looks a little rebellious at the notion, her rear wiggling in the chair. "Well, yer bunny /likes/ her walks, thankya very much." The doe says with a firm nod. "An' how m'ah supposed t'warm up wi' yah if I'm not cold in th' firs' place, huh?" She points out. The sound from the stairs causes Lily to pry herself from Keita, spinning in her chair and peeking over the top of the chair. At the sight of the badger, the doe slips down in the chair, looking slightly more than scared. A paw reaches out and goes to wrap around Kei's wrist.

Keita turns around at the noise, as well, looking with squinty-eyed curiosity towards the sound. She sights the badger too, and though her usual thought with Lily there would be to avoid the meeting of those two at all costs, seeing Vansinnig out and about on his own makes her forget all that. "Oy, ya bleedin' stripedog! What d'ya think you're doin' weatherin' those stairs by yerself?"

"Leave me 'lone, woman! I c'n make it," Van barks out half-playfully. He heaves a slight grunt halfway up the stairs, then sighs. "Wellp, 'at's that. I can't move no further. Bah. I feel like a kitten." Sittin' on the stairs, he grumps something out under his breath, stands back up, and moves down the stairs again. Then, like an old man, he arrives at the bar. "Where ya keep th' whiskey, eh?"

Lily is plastered down in the middle of the chair seat. Her ears, save for the black tips, blend right into the back of her head, since they are so slicked back. "He's gonnah kill me." She mutters to herself. The doe slowly moves to peek around Keita, a scared squeak emerging as he comes back down stairs. "Wots he still doin' 'ere?" Lily hisses angrily to Keita, her grip growing tighter on the other.

Keita snorts at Vansinnig's words, and then again when he stops on the stairs. "Honestly, Van..." She shakes her head, and it's only then that she looks down at the hunched Lily. Her ears drop at the hissed question. She makes a gesture behind the armchair that he can't see and shakes her head minutely. "He's barely just movin' around yet, Lil'. Look-it him... he c'n barely walk right." This is all murmured back. Then, louder, to Vansinnig. "On that shelf - jus' there, yeah." She points.

Vansinnig bends down momentarily, then his arm pops up, two whiskey bottles his one paw. "Got it." Groaning, but trying not to groan, he pulls himself up, his chest heaving in exertion, his eyes squinted. Then, glancing about, he tries desperately to look like he's on laboring just to get a drink. Moving over to a chair, he puts the bottle cap to his lips, then, without thinking, bits off the cork and spits it out. Taking a long guzzle, he sighs. "Mmmm. 'sfine." Chuckling harshly, he glances over at Lily, whom he can barely see. "Mmm, I think I 'member you."

Lily's eyes narrow. "Don' mattah none. Th' Long Patrol doesn't try t'kill somebeast fer no bloody reason! They protected our town an' got it back fer us! Now yah housin' their enemies. /My/ enemies!" Lily growls back as quietly as she can. So much for a romantic evening. As he acknowledges her, the doe whimpers as if on que, scrambling to cling as much as she can to Keita, no matter how mad at the other she might be. Keita is still protection against the badger in her mind.

Vansinnig flicks his ears at Lily, eyeing her from across the room, a few words coming through. He growls angrily in the back of his throat. "If'n ya don't mind, don't disgrace me or yerself by whisperin' and hidin'. If'n ya have somethin' ta say, say it where I c'n hear it." He grips the whiskey bottle so hard it cracks. Still some strength in him. He swigs some more. "'Sides, it ain't polite."

"We've been ovah this, Lil'..." Keita's voice is soft, but dead serious. "The patrol's enemies aren't mine. I've got m'own mind, 'n' I make it for m'self. If you can't accept that he's m'friend, then..." Her ears flick, and she looks up at his words. She looks, if anything, embarrassed. "Van, she didn't mean anythin' insultin'..." She hehs, softly, looking between the two and at Lily, almost pleadingly. Please be okay with this, the look says. "Why don't we all three of just have a drink? I'll cook us somethin' up for dinnah."

Vansinnig sighs into his bottle, his ears flicking again, his eyes denoting something between anger and a hint of sorrow. Mostly anger though. "I didn't start nothin'," he growls. "An' I got m' dinner, right 'ere." He lifts the bottle. "I thank ya for it, Keit."

The growling, cracking bottle, and harsh words don't help Lily's situation. Barely listening to what Keita is saying, the doe tries to work what to do out in her mind. "Then... wot? Leave? Gladly." Without giving response to the drink and dinner suggestion, the cold doe slips out of the chair smoothly, landing on the floor on all fours. She makes a dash for the door, trying to grab her cloak off the hook without looking in the direction of the badger. "Goin' fer ah walk." Nevermind that she has just gotten back from one.

"Wait!" Van glances at Keita, then back to Lily. "I'm gonna only say this once, unnerstand?" He growls and shifts a little. "I'm.......sorry." Then quickly, the badger mutters swiftly. "But beyond 'at, it's up to ya to do somethin' bout it." He tips the bottle to his lips. "I ain't grovelin'," he mutters harshly.

Keita grimaces, twisting up and off of the arm of the chair, grabbing her crutches as she goes. She limps for the door, but it's really just no contest. She stops short, her leg swinging for one last step and settling. Honestly, she's not sure what to do or say. Vansinnig saves her from having to decide, however, quite nicely surprising her into silence.

Vansinnig shoots Kieta a "don't-look-so-surprised" glance.

Lily pauses, standing still with a frown planted on her face. She slowly, so slowly in fact that it's hard to tell she's moving at first, turns to face the badger. Lily eyes him for a moment, gives him a stiff nod, and slips her cloak back on. "M'goin' on ah walk." The doe mutters again, turning without letting her eyes graze over Keita. The door is opened and Lily slips out into the snow without another word.

Vansinnig growls a little bit after the door closes. "Seasons help ya, Keita," he mumbles just before he swigs at the bottle again. Setting it down, he stares into space for a moment. "Well, 'at was m' first try at change. Didn't go so well, did it?" He half-smirks. "Pity."

There's something resembling real hope at that stiff nod of acknowledgment, but it dissolves at Lily's words. She droops on her crutches, and only turns to limp back Van's way once the door closes behind the other doe. She smiles wryly at Vansinnig. "Actually... I think it went pretty well. I'm gonna bet her leavin' has more t'do with her bein' in a pisser at me than how she felt about what ya said." Down onto a stool she drops, holding her paw out for the whiskey bottle. "Or mayhaps she's just goin' to think it ovah. Who'm I kiddin'? I c'n nevah tell what's goin' on in that crazy head of hers." She scruffs at her headfur, sighing the sigh of anyone dealing with the scorn of woman. "How ya feelin'?" Pause. "... And thanks. Fer sayin' what ya said. Means a lot."

Vansinnig uncorks the other bottle he had taken, and hands it to her. "Means a lot? Ta who? I feel like a blasted fool an' twice a kitten." He glugs at his bottle again. "I remember...wot it was like ta be in a relationship, ya know. I remember these, er, ups an' downs, if'n ya will." He heaves a profound sigh. "I'd cherish 'em, if'n I were you."

Keita takes the bottle, and for once ignores her usual policy and drinks directly from it. She coughs, ducking her head for a couple of seconds. She's an ale girl, if anything. She sets the bottle on her thigh, looking down at it. "... Aye, yeah. I do. Sometimes I don't think she understands me a'tall, though. I wondah that she doesn't hate me s'much as she hates her vermin. What the hell, though," she says as she looks up. "She's a deah. I'm a suckah, long gone 'n' all that. What c'n ya do?" She smirks, not unhappily, and lifts the bottle for another swig.

"Only thing ya can do." Van chuckles lightly, the alcohol having no apparent effect on him. "Keep tryin'. Try yer heart out. Try until ya die." He swigs again, before lifting the bottle and swirling it in the light, just to have something to do. "Notice, I didn't say until yer mate dies. No. I'm still tryin' in a sense, ya know." He grunts, shifting his weight and setting the bottle down. "An' this poison of a drink ain't helped me bear th' weight for a long time." He rubs his headfur, leaning forward.

Keita nods, and nods again. It's worth a second nod, after all. This time she sets the bottle down entirely. The voice in her head constantly complaining about cutting into their profits has returned. "I don't try hard enough - mayhaps that's m'sin. I know it is." She leans an elbow on the countertop, covering her face with her paw. Rub-rub-rub. Her words are slightly muffled. "How long since she passed?"

Vansinnig stares off again, his eyes unfocused. "Didn't know I was s'pposed to keep track, but mayhap about seven seasons." He sighs, then smirks. "Bu' sometimes, she's just by m' side. I like ta think so, anyway." Hmming softly, he swigs at the bottle once more, emptying it. "Tis a hard concept...ta think of someone loved gone. But, age-ol' apathy seeps its way in." He snorts slightly. "I hate that th' most, I think, not feelin' anything."

Keita gives her eyes one last, good rub and drops her hand. "Aye... it does set in." She offers him a wan smile and stands, getting her crutches up underneath her. "Think I might... go 'n' see if I c'n find her. All righ'? There's a small room offa the kitchen, just back there, with a cot. Sleep there fer the night? Don't want ya goin' up those stairs by yerself."

Vansinnig sighs once more, his eyes finally drooping shut in the chair, Keita's voice lost. Settling himself more comfortably, he smirks, giving off a short laugh. "Definitely...hate th'...feelin'." He goes into a light doze then, his snout drooping slowly to his chest, his breaths somewhat labored, yet full and deep.