Tuesday Evening, The Park, Near the Duck Pond

[the_merriest]

Rats. Rikku had heard rumors about polar bears, but she'd had class, and then cheerleading, and then she'd been stuck doing other things and now she finally got to go looking and that's when she remembered that ... she had no idea where you'd go looking for polar bears.

So much for that?

Rikku was in the park, looking around hopefully. Well, if nothing else, she could feed the ducks, right?

(Very open!)

Comments

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

Jamie had just came back from the Kwik Stop and was loaded down with snacks of salty goodness.

"Hey, Rikku," Jamie said with a wave. "What's the good word?"

[the_merriest]

"Oooooooh," Rikku bounced, noticing his haul. "I'm gonna hope it's 'share.' Share would be a nice word."

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

Jamie tossed a bag of Doritos towards Rikku. "Here. The orange dust on the chips will be hidden on your outfit. Plus it's filled with nacho goodness."

[the_merriest]

"Yay, nachos!" That ... required more bouncing. Like everything in life. "So have you seen any polar bears? I heard there are some but I haven't seen any yet."

Hey, she was a desert girl, polar bears were new.

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"Bears? Nope," Jamie replied as he opened a bag of Cool Ranch. "But if Lions and Tigers show up? You wearing the blue gingham dress and I'll pretended to be the dog."

[the_merriest]

"We should start skipping!" Rikku grinned. "Or that weird little dance thing they did, you know the one? When they'd sing about going off to see the guy who was gonna fix it?"

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry, I'm way too masculine to skip. Can I saunter instead?"

[the_merriest]

"It doesn't work right with a saunter," Rikku frowned. "Can you skitter? Gambol? Sashay?"

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"I used to be able to sashay but then I got this trick knee," Jamie said shaking his head. "Now I can only sash."

[the_merriest]

"What sorts of tricks can your knee do?" Rikku grinned.

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"It does Jerry Lewis impressions," Jamie said very very seriously. "And if you rub it the right way it'll open a portal to a magic land where Unicorns frolic and it rains lemonade."

[the_merriest]

"Are the Jerry Lewis impressions any good?" Rikku asked. These were very important questions, here. "And is it easy to get back from the magic land? I mean, unicorns and lemonade are awesome, but I think I have class tomorrow."

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"Well it only works on nights where the moon is blue," Jamie replied. "And it's easy to get back if you don't mind rubbing my pinky toe. The knee however is a horrible impressionist. I swear he sounds more like Dean Martin."

[the_merriest]

"Maybe you should tell everyone your knee is a very good Dean Martin impressionist, then," she mused. "And all this leg-rubbing sounds like it'd get you in trouble with Reno and me with Temari. So I guess it's okay that the moon's pretty yellowish tonight."

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"Hey, I rub my own knees sister," Jamie joked. "I don't want any nacho cheese dust on them. And If I say he does Dean Martin impressions it'll get even with my by going out at the wrong moment."

[the_merriest]

"You'll get nacho cheese dust on them anyway," she said, nodding to his open bag of Cool Ranch. "Only it'll be bluish and stinky and not classic orange. Orange goes way better on knees. He goes out? The least he could do is take you along."

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"My body parts can be a little rude at times," Jamie replied. "And there's nothing wrong with my Doritos. They are hip and fresh. Blue and stinky are the new fashion I tell you."

[the_merriest]

"If I were your knee, I'd be way madder about you making me blue and stinky than about you calling my impressions by the wrong name," she noted.

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"If you were my knee then Reno would be humping my leg and wow that would be sooooo awkward."

[the_merriest]

This required a lot of blinking.

"He'd have to crouch," she decided, finally. "To hump your knee."

It was ... better than ... not saying anything?

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"Just as long as he's good with dinner and a movie first," Jamie replied. "My knee doesn't put out on the first date."

[the_merriest]

"What if he promises to call afterwards?" Rikku giggled. "Pretend he remembers your knee's name?"

[multi-madrox.livejournal.com]

"My knee doesn't play like that," Jamie said. "It's gots to have teh lobster and steak dinner and dessert before it'll put out. It's a bit of a diva."

[fh_beasties]

There was a bear in the park. A large, white, hairy bear and it looking very peaceful as it wandered.

This changed when it spotted Rikku and it went bounding over to her.

[the_merriest]

"Oh!" Rikku gasped, then began clapping her hands excitedly. A bear! It really was one of those polar bears!! "Hi! Hi! Oh my gosh, you're adorable!"

[fh_beasties]

The bear blinked, because they rarely got that sort of reception, then it grinned a gape mouthed bear grin and bounced on its front paws. It could get used to people being happy to see it!

With another bounce, it pulled a bottle of delicious ribbon branded cola from nowhere and offered it to her.

[the_merriest]

"For me!?" Rikku said, reaching out hesitantly. Eyes dancing. "Really? I can share."

Polar bears ruled.

[fh_beasties]

The bear pushed it into her hand with a shake of its furry head and gave an encouraging growl. Well, it was a growl that was meant to be encouraging, but it was still a bear growl, so the encouragement part of it might get a bit loss in the bearness.

[the_merriest]

Rikku somehow had no fear of bears. ... Well. No fear of bears that were white and chipper and offering her ribboned cola drinks.

She cracked the bottle open and took a swig. "Ooooh, it's good," she said. It was, too! All sugary and cola-y and yummy. "Can, uh."

She blushed. "Can I ... get a hug?"

Look, how many times was she even going to see polar bears again? It couldn't hurt to ask.

[fh_beasties]

The bear's eyes widened and it scuffed its paw on the ground bashfully, then glanced up at her and gave a tiny nod.

A very shy tiny nod and it was good thing polar bears couldn't blush.

It reared up on its back legs and held out its front paws.

[the_merriest]

Rikku bounced forward happily and wrapped her arms around the bear, squeezing lightly. Uh. Carefully, because she didn't want to spill her drink, and because she really didn't want to accidentally hurt a cola-giving polar bear. Even though he looked like he was probably tougher than a little squeezing would damage and all that.

"Thanks," she grinned. "You're awesome."

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Polar bears freaking ruled.

[fh_beasties]

The bear hugged her back, being very, very careful himself, because humans were fragile and the last thing he wanted to do was accidentally crush her.

Especially after she'd been so happy to take the cola drink.

[the_merriest]

She loved the cola drink. Big fan. Was going to buy more for her room.

She let go of the polar bear, with a somewhat reluctant sigh, and saluted.

"Good luck handing out drinks!"

[fh_beasties]

It grinned again and dropped back to all fours before lumbering away.