fandomtownies | Ching Tai, Thursday Night

"Here good," Xander answers, nodding. And trying not to notice that they're back to monosyllables, which always bodes... weird.

It could be he's a little distracted by the unexpected blue, but mostly it's just the... everything, that's got him nervous and fumbly as he slides into the booth and almost knocks one of the water glasses over.

"Close call," Bridge remarks, reaching out to steady the water glass as he sits down. "So, um, how's life in Xanderville been? Since, you know, it has been so long since I saw you last. On Tuesday."

Xander snickers. "Life in Xanderville for the last couple of days seems to have pretty much consisted of people having a sudden burning interest in how life in Xanderville is going. Or at least the particular section that's getting lived as we speak. Plus random slime and wa--" He stops, and points to the glass he lamost knocked over. "That stuff, attacks."

"I think meddling in other people's social lives is a pastime for, like, half the school," Bridge says with a grin. "I've... actually managed to avoid the 'stuff coming down from the ceiling' thing. For which I am grateful."

"Given how many people got gotten in the common room last night and who was talking to them when they did, I'm guessing my slime-age was less Random Act of Supernature and more Deliberate Act of Echolls," Xander answers while reaching for a menu. "Which he managed to do while meddling in other people's social lives; I was seriously impressed with the multi-tasking there."

"Gah," Bridge says. "What causes it, anyway? The slime, I mean. The," he gestures vaguely at the water glass, "I figured out when it happened to Anders right in front of me." He pauses for a moment, "and will it even happen outside the school? Or is it like that crayon thing I heard about?"

"I..." Xander is oddly formal in his answer. "...am unaware whether it'll happen off school grounds. But I'm not about to test it to find out." He grins, and writes down 'I don't know' = slime trigger on the napkin in front of him, sliding it over to Bridge.

"Cool," Bridge grins. "Maybe I'll test it. Later. Some time that is not tonight. For tonight, I think food is a better idea," he says, and waves over an NPC waiter so they can place their orders.

"Just on the plate, though," Xander adds, as he points his ~~vague and handwavied~~ order out to the waiter. "Or cartons. Not picky as long as it's not airborne."

He's totally not basing his dietary choices tonight on the things that are least likely to stain his shirt or cause him to make funny noises/faces while slurping them. Except kinda.

"So, no food fight then?" Bridge asks with a grin. "Darn." He adds, placing his order as well.

"Well, we could," Xander says thoughtfully, "but I get the feeling management wouldn't be real happy with us."

The waiter gave him an amused, but definitely confirmative glance as he walked away.

"Plus it'd make for an awfully sticky movie-watching experience."

"Okay, yes. You have a point. Stickiness would be a bad idea," Bridge says with a laugh.

The joke is there, lurking like a lurky thing. There's always a lurking joke in his head. But this one can just continue to lurk, thank you.

"Not on the first date, anyway."

Xander really, really wishes he had a better lurk-filter. And possibly that he still had his menu. And possibly that creamed corn would fall from the ceiling right about now.

Bridge blinks. And then laughs.

"See, I wasn't gonna say it, this time? And now I don't have to."

Xander notes that the world did not in fact end due to his having made that joke, nor has his head even spontaneously combusted. Though he reaches for his water glass just in case. As a preventative measure.

"Glad I could oblige."

Bridge beams.

And then frowns thoughtfully as something occurs to him.

"Do you know what movie's playing tonight?"

~~"One that, ironically, neither of our players have seen."~~

Xander takes a drink, then glances down at the table. "I, uh, should know that, huh. Bad date. No cookie. Did check to see if the theater had a website, but I couldn't find one."

Bridge shrugs. "Oh well. We'll find out soon enough, I guess. And actually, since we're having Chinese food, you *do* get a cookie after all. So it all works out!"

Xander, still recovering from world not ending after he'd actually said the word 'date' twice in a row now, in its actual conetxt, while actually on it, grins.

"So what earthshaking events have gone on the the Land of Bridge since that long-ago Tuesday when last we met?"

"Anakin's teacher from back home gave us a guest lecture in ACJ today," Bridge says. "It was, well... definitely interesing."

"Yeah? I heard he was here for Parents Weekend. I was kinda laying low back then, since that was when Darla first came to town, so I didn't get to meet him. What's he like?"

"Pretty cool, actually. Had a duel with Anakin using pens. Officer Lion-Girl asked him out, even."

Xander blinks. "Jaye--- has the very, very, very good drugs, and has never been known to share."

After a second, he adds, "Tell me he didn't say yes?"

"I think, actually, technically, he did," Bridge says, remembering the conversation. "Well, he said if he's not otherwise busy, really."

Xander snickers. "Otherwise busy... like, in another galaxy, say? Smart answer, dude. Charming, yet committment-free."

"Exactly," Bridge grins.

"Pen duel sounds cool. I mean I assume they were using the mind-whammy thing and not just, you know. Fingers. which would be kind of funny too, but a little weird for a teacher."

Bridge laughs. "Yes, they were floating the pens. Although now I sort of want to see them do it the other way."

The waiter comes by then and drops off their dinner.

"Oh, hey, food!" Bridge says, pointing out the obvious.

"So it is." Xander picks up his fork, then puts it down and picks up the chopsticks, studying them. "Complete with compact stakes in case we get attacked by weetiny vampires. That was thoughtful of them."

"Weetiny vampires? Maybe they could team up with the weetiny snowmonsters in bunny suits, then."

And then, 'cause he's totally smooth with the whole 'casual subject change' thing, he asks, "so, d'you think you're gonna stick around for summercamp?"

Xander pauses in the act of bringing a piece of chicken to his mouth with his weetiny-vampire-hunting equipment. "After graduation? I'm not sure I knew we could."

He's been trying not to think about graduation, really, since he talked with Sam about it in class. For all he brought it up as a distraction from what had really been distracting him at the time, it's... yeah.

"S'what I heard, anyway," Bridge says with a shrug. "Open to all current students, is what Zordon said."

"Huh." Xander absently finishes the food-related action he'd stopped himself in the middle of, and chews thoughtfully. Except not so much thinking about chewing.

"I hadn't - well, obviously I hadn't thought about it. I don't kn--" He stops himself, and rolls his eyes. "I'm not sure? I mean it's not like home has been swallowed by the earth while I've been gone or anything; Buffy seems to have stuff in hand. And, uh... seriously not gonna be missing my family, if that doesn't sound completely jerklike."

"I'm staying," Bridge says quietly. "I mean, I could go back, but there's still no Academy HQ, and my parents are on tour with the orchestra all summer, so, yeah..."

"They're musicians? That's--" Completely in another realm from anything anybody in his own family ever spent a summer away doing. "--cool."

Xander stirs his rice. "I miss the gang back home, but... not like they're not gonna be there when I get back if I wait a couple more months." Which is a tissue-thin fiction of safety they tell themselves when they're actually in Sunnydale too, so maybe he can be forgiven for sticking with it here. "I'll have to think about it."

Bridge pokes absently at his own food.

"I think it'd be cool. If you stayed," he says, smiling shyly.

Xander's plate is really not as interesting as it suddenly might seem to be to the casual observer. "It...could be, yeah."

"So it's... something to keep in mind, maybe? When you're thinking about it?"

Xander nods, not entirely looking up in the process. And finishes his food in a silence that's... well, it's thoughtful, rather than awkward, at least from his end, which is probably good?

"Last showing at the theater's at nine," he says eventually. "Might be time for fortune cookies and skedaddling? Or possibly moseying; I'm a little too stuffed for skedaddling."

"Moseying, for sure," Bridge says, flagging down a waiter so they can get the cheque and their fortune cookies.

[Psst. Over here.]

Ching Tai, Thursday Night

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