fandomtownies | Caritas; Wednesday [07/03].

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Caritas; Wednesday [07/03].

Well, if anyone had forgotten that the Fourth of July was coming up, all they had to do was take one step into Caritas. Granted, Summer had come to expect this kind of excess from Tino, but what really got her about all of this was that he hadn't even gotten it from her store. He'd ordered it online. On Amazon! Oh, the insult! Oh, the injury! Oh, the degrading slavery to capitalist bullshit just to save an easy buck or two!

However, Summer found she couldn't really argue with him about it once he pointed out that, really? It kind of was the American way. And then waved a flag at her before handing it over, and going to make Summer really nervous about putting sparklers on all the tables in the lounge.

Featured Cocktail
Firecracker Martini

Featured Jello
Obligatory Patriotism
Cherries and Cream
American as Apple Pie
Fishy Spicy Sichuan Jello Noodles

Caritas is open!

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Stark looked around the bar at the decorations and just shook his head a little at all of it. But there were more important things to do in the bar than admire(?) Tino's aesthetic choices.

That was why the next thing Stark did was lean over the bar to kiss the bartender in greeting. Maybe that was going to be the new normal.

The consistency of the over-the-counter greeting kiss was, of anything, a good assurance of the improvement in Stark's confidence, so, yeah, Summer was more than pleased to accept it beamingly.

"Hi, Stark," she said. "How's it going?"

It was like being consistently content was good for him or something!

"Hi," Stark said with a grin. "Going well so far. The squirrels weren't too terrible this morning. And now I'm here for jello and a drink and no noodles, thank you."

"Are you sure?" asked Summer, who would absolutely be setting out one of those little cups of fishy, boozy, spicy jello noodles (look, she was proud of how she'd interpreted the dish into a jello shot, okay??) along with the others, although she would definitely be saving it for last. "The shape of the noodles means that it slides down the throat real easy and everything!

"I'm glad the squirrels weren't too terrible, though," she added, and, shots in place, she went to go mix his cocktail. "I'm still trying to decide whether I just go with them or bust out some pepper spray if they show up again on Friday morning."

"I'm very sure," Stark told her, grinning.

But he'd try it if she asked him to. Because he was just so far gone.

"I don't need anything sliding down my throat this evening. And...I would enjoy seeing you fend off the squirrels."

His grin grew wider. "Or we could hide somewhere they won't find you?"

"Mmm, well," said Summer, with a disappointed little mewl of a pout, "guess there goes the rest of my plans for the night, then."

And she'll just leave Stark on his own to try and figure out what that could have possibly have meant.

"And you really don't," she informed him. "It's embarrassing for everyone involved, especially spectators. But....if what you mean by 'somewhere they won't find me' is 'literally anywhere that's not here', you have my attention, sir."

Stark cocked his head at that, and after a long moment of consideration decided perhaps he could come back to these supposed plans later in the evening.

"We could go away again," he suggested. "Somewhere, anywhere. I know we just did but...somewhere. Without squirrels. Your ship doesn't usually have squirrels."

The disco balls of last weekend had reminded him of another jaunt into space, after all.

"Or we could do that another week, if they bother you again?"

"If they bother me again," Summer decided, "we're definitely making Thursday night-Friday morning planet hopping a thing. My ship is absolutely a 100% squirrel free zone."

God, she hoped no one listening was going to take that as some kind of challenge. No one needed to clean up that kind of mess.

But, as she sat down Stark's Firecracker Martini, she considered him for a moment, found a soft smile drifting to her face, and leaned over to kiss him again.

"We really should fuck off to space again for real sometime soon," she said. "If not next week due to squirrel avoidance, then maybe once we're all settled in with the new session of workshops. You had a chance to look over the schedule yet? Anything catching your eye this time?"

Perhaps Amaya could create some squirrel traps to set around the ship, just in case? She might enjoy the work!

He kissed her back, letting his eye close as he did.

"I didn't think of anything to teach myself, this time," he said, once he'd opened his eye again. "Paintball, of course. Your class, of course. Ignis's class would be interesting, but..." He shrugged a little. Ignis didn't have to ever like him but he did hope that someday he might be able to make things right between them.

"Are you taking anything? Anything that might interefere with, ah, 'fucking off to space'?"

That word still felt odd in his mouth. Frell rolled off his tongue so much easier!

Frell was almost as ridiculous as poo doo (almost), but hearing Stark actually say 'fuck' was always a treat for Summer.

"Paintball," she said. "Obvi. But actually, funny you mention Ignis' class, because I was actually thinking of signing us both up for that one, actually."

Frell was a perfectly acceptable word! But Stark felt the same way when he got Summer to say frell, actually.

"Were you?" Stark asked, picking up his drink now to take a sip. "It sounds very interesting and I know he's good at what he does and it would be fun, with you."

"Everything is fun with me," Summer reminded him sweetly, and wholly unnecessarily, but it gave her a chance to look all cute and bat her eyelashes at him a little. "And, I don't know, it just sounded like it could be, you know, a really cute...couple-y thing to do."

And if he was still on the fence after all that cuteness, she was pretty sure that last line would finally shove him off.

Besides, it might be good for finally getting him and Ignis to get over that whole almost-killing-Ignis'-girlfriend thing that was, like, literally pretty much a thousand years ago! She wasn't going to say that part, though.

"Everything is more fun with you," Stark agreed.

And he felt a little thrill, which he wouldn't be admitting to right now, at the idea of things being 'couple-y.'

"We should do that then. If you promise to try and help me escape if he tries to do away with me in some far-off location?"

Stark was kidding. Mostly.

Summer opened her mouth to say something, then stopped and shook her head.

"You know," she said, "I was going to say, no, you have nothing to worry about, that man is a consummate professional, he wouldn't do anything to a student, but then I remembered that Goose was his student, too."

Ahem.

"But don't worry," she assured him. "I'm sure between me and Liliana, you'll be safe from incurring too much of his wrath."

Stark's mouth twitched at that but he tried to cover it with another sip of his cocktail.

"I'm quite sure I'm safe from that sort of behavior from Ignis."

There was a whole AU daughter who was proof he was decidedly not but shhh.

"But it's good to have a little reassurance I probably won't be stabbed while drinking."

Probably.

"I just...I don't want to be a problem for him. Or for Liliana. Or you."

Awww, maybe this was finally the catalyst to open the path to their unexpected and epic romance wide open! Maybe just getting a little too wine-drunk in those fine Spanish vineyards...

"Well," Summer told him, "I can't speak for Liliana or Ignis, but I have a feeling if it was an issue for her, she'd just spend the whole time ignoring you like you don't even exist, and if it's an issue for him, he can just suck it up because it's his damn job. But, you know, him and me are still tight, I can totally talk to him about it. Or at least give him a warning so he can prepare. Either way, Stark, trust me. It won't be a problem."

If anyone tried to make it one? She'll make sure they're the ones with the real problems.

A tryst amongst the vines that turned to something more...

"I love you," Stark told her with a soft smile. "Thank you. I'm sure it will be fun. And worth it."

As long as he didn't get stabbed.

Hell, even if he did get stabbed! Just think of the stories, Stark!

"I love you, too," Summer said, returning that smile softly before it slipped into a grin and a shrug. "And, hey, you know what? If it blows, we can just skip the rest of it and have our own little wine dates instead, but better, because, like, we'll do space wine. So suck on that, Scientia."

They would be good stories.

"We could do both," Stark pointed out. "Maybe we should go back to your spa again for space wine and...pampering?"

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