A constellation of tears on your lashes

[shotup]

WHO: Roy Harper & Laura Kinney
WHERE: Dallas BBQ Restaurant
WHEN: Friday night
WARNINGS: Discussion of non-con/abuse.
SUMMARY: Roy takes Laura on an ill-planned date and talking happens.
FORMAT: Tagger's choice.

Their brief encounter at the auction left Roy with more questions than answers about Laura, though one thing seemed certain: she didn't at all strike him as the roller rink type. It took a little thought, but he'd come up with the barbecue place as an alternative, figuring that there would be good food and tasty frozen drinks, and if they decided to go elsewhere after dinner, it would be a fine preamble.

He'd arranged to pick her up at 8pm and had arrived casually dressed in jeans and a plain red teeshirt. He seemed laid back, much like the establishment. It was busy, but not overwhelming, with the smokey scent of babyback ribs wafting through the air and the laughter of college kids tipsy off daiquiris filling the room. It was fun, and Roy sincerely hoped it would translate to his evening with Laura.

"You gotta try this one drink they've got," he said, pointing to the list of frozen options on the menu.  "It's called Miami Vice.  It tastes like how being on a vacation feels."

Comments

[shotup]

"Why's that?" His eyes flicked up to the sky for a moment before settling on Laura.

[girlverine]

"I run a dojo," she said. "Mostly for children, volunteer classes for children that cannot pay, and pay classes for children that can. ...It takes up a significant portion of my time."

[shotup]

"So you can't take a night off?" He was teasing, a little. After all, she was here with him now, wasn't she? "Tell you what, some night when you're not busy, I'll take you out to Long Island. It's quiet out there and you can see the stars better than you can from here."

[girlverine]

"Not often," even with Jessica helping her with the paperwork, Laura was usually at work later than she should be, probably.

His offer startled her though, and she frowned at him. "I...why?"

[shotup]

Roy frowned back, though there wasn't much genuine about it. "You like the stars, right? You like stars, I like stars. We should check out the stars sometime."

He then gave her a look that seemed to say 'duh'.

[girlverine]

She couldn't exactly argue with that, she was just surprised by the offer. Finally she shifted a bit, turning her gaze back to where they were going.

"Okay."

[shotup]

He seemed satisfied with this result and it wasn't a moment or two later that they at last reached the entrance of the park. It was quiet and dark, not nearly as heavily populated as the surrounding streets. But it had nice benches and foliage and a few decorative statues. Typical park things. Nothing too fancy.

"You wanna sit down?"

[girlverine]

Laura shook her head. "No, let's keep walking," she was feeling a bit restless now, and walking a circle around the park might help.

"How long have you been in the City?" Small talk, strike!

[shotup]

"Since December." He kept in stride with Laura, drifting nearer to her again, absently. "Not nearly as long as you though."

[girlverine]

"Most people have not been here as long as I have," she was probably somewhere in the middle, towards the 'long stay' at this point.

She paused suddenly, looking at the park. "This place can be dangerous at night." Not for her, but...in general.

[shotup]

"Guess we'd better be on alert, in that case." He didn't worry much about danger. Roy knew he could handle himself. But it was odd, her mentioning it like that, because as if on cue, he noticed a few shady looking individuals congregating near one of the fences. He had to do a double take, but he could almost swear he saw a gun sticking up from one of the men's waistbands.

"Keep an eye on those guys," he said in a hiss as they walked along.

[girlverine]

Laura sniffed at the air, her green eyes narrowing as she watched the men without breaking her stride. "They are drug dealers," she decided after a moment. It didn't mean they wouldn't cause trouble, but maybe they wouldn't want to risk their stash.

[shotup]

That didn't sit well with Roy. His own battle with chemical dependency and later career in drug enforcement left him feeling particularly strongly about the use and trafficking of illegal substances. He wanted nothing more than for those punks to get busted and go to prison, but he didn't want to cause a scene here with Laura.

"What should we do?" He finally offered, letting her decide.

[girlverine]

She frowned at the group, then at him, then back at the group.

"I can handle them if you would prefer to wait."

[shotup]

"And let you have all the fun?" He nudged her, nodding. "Come on."

[girlverine]

Laura nodded, but didn't move, her green eyes narrowed as she considers him for a moment, her hands still stuffed into her pockets. Finally, she either saw what she was looking for or gave up searching, but she turned away. "You go that way," she indicated one way around the gathering of dealers before she turned and moved in the other.

[shotup]

Roy nodded and followed her command, moving silently and with practiced stealth through the park and around the dealers. They seemed distracted by themselves enough that so far he could pass by them unnoticed.

[girlverine]

Laura didn't need to hide, moving further along the path and then suddenly vanishing as she grabbed a lower branch and vanished into the trees that circled the park.

Forty seconds or so later she was crouched on a branch above the dealers, watching them silently and waiting to see where Roy had positioned himself.

[shotup]

Roy stayed on the ground, quietly watching both the men and Laura until he saw that she'd disappeared up into the trees. Using this as his cue, he cleared his throat to draw their attention.

"Hey man, you holdin'?"

It'd been years since he'd gone out late looking to score, but when it came down to it, he was still pretty good at playing the part of the junkie.