[Ching Tai, Sunday evening]

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

Alec held the door for Jaye as they stepped into the restaurant, then asked the waitress for a table for two.

"How many more places do we need to visit before I've had the full tour?" He asked with amusement, as they waited to be seated.

[ooc: Alec and Jaye's thread locked to them, otherwise open for all of your Chinese culinary needs]

Comments

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

"What was your job again?" Alec smiles. "Movie theater or something, I think I heard."

[fates_jaye]

"Uh huh. Concessions stand on weekends, when they remember to open the place," she says. "Technically. In reality I stand there and make sure the Junior Mints are up to code. Responsibility and all."

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

"Are you actually fired, or is your boss just crazy?" He remembers the broadcast, yes.

[fates_jaye]

"He's just crazy," she says. "I think I'd probably show up anyway- if the place is open- out of boredom and amazement."

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

Alec snickers, and the waitress shows up just then to provide them with their dinner. Alec smiles at Jaye, not yet digging in. "Do you like working?"

[fates_jaye]

"Heh. No," she says, going for her napkin to put it over her lap. "I do it because I have to, and because the alternative is being financially tethered to scary people." Jaye tilts her head a little. "Any ideas for what you want to do? I mean, not super soldier, but..."

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

Alec shrugs, mimicking the placement of the napkin and trying not to be too obvious about it. "None. If I go back to Seattle, there's not a huge job market anyway - I'd probably end up a clerk or maybe a bouncer or something."

[fates_jaye]

"Nothing wrong with that," she says, picking up her fork and going for her food. "If you go back?"

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

"Dean seems kind of set on dragging me back to wherever he's from," he says, snorting lightly. Alec digs into his own food then, finally, avoiding the subject for a moment at least.

[fates_jaye]

"You've got time before you graduate anyway," she says, shrugging, and trying to remember if she knows where Dean's even from. "It isn't like you have to decide on anything right this second."

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

"Nah, not really worried about it, either," he replies with a quick smile. Alec looks over momentarily, eyeing the chopsticks alongside their meal. "Do you know how to use those?"

[fates_jaye]

"Not well," she says, but breaks them apart to demonstrate. "You just kind of hold them between your fingers, like so, and kind of spread them so you can pick up a piece, and-" Pretty much immediately, the piece of chicken falls back onto the plate, with Jaye looking at it like it did something wrong. "And then after about twenty times of failing, you pick up your fork instead."

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

Alec laughs and tries them with moderate success. He finally puts them down, looking a bit confused at why it doesn't work as well as he'd hoped. "Yeah, fork is much easier. Less embarrassing."

[fates_jaye]

Jaye watches him with a smile, and goes back happily to her fork. "I've developed a theory- right this second- that the Chinese actually use forks and chopsticks are a secret way to embarrass tourists that just really took off."

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

He grins and pokes at his rice with his fork for a moment. "I think your theory has merit. They probably have cameras in the corners just to watch customers pick at their rice in frustration."

[fates_jaye]

"It really is impossible to get all the rice with those things," she says. "Between this and the coffee conspiracy, I could write a book. And by the way, the White House totally got a glare for their future coffee-hoarding."

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

"Right, you were in DC today," he says, cocking his head. "What was the trip for, besides glaring at the buildings?"

[fates_jaye]

"Anakin and Veronica put it together for the Photography and Flight classes," she says. "I spent most of the day trying to take dirty pictures of the Washington Monument."

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

He snickers. "A day well spent, obviously," he says, and has a bit of lemon chicken.

[fates_jaye]

"I do what I can. Anything good happen here?"

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

"Went to the beach, hung out," he said, smiling. "Nice slow Sunday."

[fates_jaye]

"Worse ways to spend your time than getting tan lines," she smiles back.

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

"I think I'm getting freckles," he says, unsure if he likes the idea.

[fates_jaye]

"Really? Where?" She's totally looking.

[x5-alec.livejournal.com]

"I think on my face," he says, motioning in that direction. "And maybe my shoulders." Now he looks even less sure, under Jaye's scrutiny.