Description: Wing calls Aranha up to meet at a beachside restuarant to discuss both the upcoming King of Fighters and what happened back in Taizhou. Included, Wing blushing like a mad woman and Aranha blissfully ignoring it.
This place is a far cry from the hell from whence she came.
Tap, tap, tap.
The sun is bright and warm today, making it a perfect moment to be seated outdoors at this beachside cafe, the wood-floored patio overlooking children at play in the sand of Sound Beach. Pleasant music mingles with casual conversation among friends beneath the shade of multicolored umbrellas; sunlight glimmers off the tops of the restaurant's glass-paneled patio tables.
Tap, tap, tap.
Wing Xiaoping, Queen of the Streets, is stronger than before, tougher in both mind and body. She has faced those who would have taken her life, and taken life herself. Fierce, relentless, she has found a kind of real conviction, of a higher quality altogether than her boorish, aggressive nature. And she has found friends. True friends.
Tap, tap, tap, goes her little foot upon the wood.
She is fearless.
"Ugh..."
She is /nervous/.
The Chinese thugette -- clad in, of all things, a slim white and green sundress that actually doesn't look half-bad -- has twisted her pretty face into a humiliated grimace as she is forced to regard the empty bowls before her. There are four. They are large. She got here early, okay? A little too early. Okay, way too early. Then she got embarrassed, then she got mad for getting embarrassed, so she decided, what the hell, she's hungry, he won't be here for a while, who cares, but then, oh god, she ate so much, admittedly she can really put it away, but the waiter better come soon before he sees what a total pig she is--
"Gh..."
Oh, no.
"Sh... shit."
She spilled some black bean sauce on the front of her dress.
It's cool. It's cool. Who cares, right? Who cares. This is business.
This is business.
And then in comes Keith Mason, Aranha, Dancing Spider, and few more nicknames. If there was one thing he didn't expect, it was to summoned by his, as much as he will try to deny it to himself and others, friend. Considering what he received in his mail, he has his suspicions about what it is about. Even if he's wrong, it would give him the opportunity to have some questions answered.
Aranha, clad in a jeans and a light gray button down shirt has foregone the bandana mainly because he's still washing Wakamoto's nerve agent out of it. The only thing pointing to his normal fashion sense, is the Oakley Thumps hanging low on his nose as he clances around until he catches sight of Wing in her unusual attire. And that black bean sauce... Not that he's gonna call her on it or any attention to it.
"Hey, Wing."
He pauses for a moment before he sits down. "What's up?"
Oh, well.
"Hey, man."
Wing smiles, looking vaguely abashed but otherwise relaxed. Who was she kidding, anyway? This kind of realism may seem a little surprising coming from a girl with her ego, but it only goes to show how she's matured. Only a year ago, she would have taken it out on him -- though, to be fair, she might still take it out on someone she respected less. Speaking of which--
"You missed my birthday, you know."
She waggles her finger as she casually stacks her dirty (though devoid of food) bowls with the other hand, quirking her eyebrows at her erstwhile associate.
"Left sweet sixteen behind. Bet you're sad, aren't you." She idly waves that hand in the air, but soon she's grinning again, a friendly expression that nevertheless manages to look uncomfortably feral. (She's still a little new to expressions of non-sadistic mirth.) "I'm a grown woman now. Well, almost. Aheh... heh..."
And she was doing so well.
"Uhh, anyway," she continues, totally gracefully -- she looks down to examine her folded hands, but that just makes her see the stain, so she looks up to his eyes again, looking only faintly frazzled -- "I bet you didn't get one of /these/." Abruptly she produces from the Wu-Tang emblazoned backpack by the side of her chair (dresses are one thing, purses quite another) a white letter with an opened blood-red seal. "Guess who's bad enough to attend King of Fighters. Yours truly."
She waves it more or less in his face, grinning again.
"They'll be calling it Queen of Fighters when I'm through."
"Your birthday? You never mentioned it but happy belated."
He takes a few moments to let his eyes go over to the stacked bowls, hoping she isn't expecting him to pay for this. In fact he's already comparing her stomach capacity to one of his former team mates already.
Grateful that he brought his wallet just in case, he attempts to divert his mind from that particular topic, "You're about the same age as my little sister."
He watches her reach into her Wu-Tang backpack and produces an invitation, and his suspicions are confirmed.
"I got one too. Congratulations are in order though."
What he doesn't say though is that when he got his invite, he got a bigger surprise. The fact that he didn't hear anything from his team mates in Rude Awakening. The people who knew what he had done in the past and stuck by him in spite of it thus earning his loyalty apparently didn't get their invites or if they did, they chose not to respond to them. Both of which are sad thoughts to the capoeirista.
In spite of it all he wears a smile for Wing, it was a moment to be happy for her rather than sad about the fate of his team.
It's a bit of a one-two punch.
Being compared to Aranha's sister does unquestionably make Wing's face freeze, her smile becoming brittle and awkward as her eyes dart furtively. But there's no way she can let him see her like that; she may not be good at /hiding/ her emotions, but for the sake of her pride, she can push them aside. "I... I bet your sister's cute," she manages, perhaps surprisingly not opting for a retort. "D, didn't know you had one, man. That's cool. I always kind of wondered what it'd be like to have siblings. Just have a few lame cousins."
And Grandpa, but, well-- ha! Wouldn't he just keel over if he heard about /this/!
Strangely, the prospect of revenge against the old man, which she nurtured for so long, seems vaguely irrelevant to her now. She hasn't even thought of him in a while.
Yeah, of course you got one," she says easily, relaxing again as she slips the letter back in her backpack. "And thanks--" But while Wing is not the most sensitive of people, so to speak, even she can detect a wistfulness in Aranha's gaze. His congratulations seem sincere (that's the one thing she /is/ sensitive to: potential mockery), but his mind seems elsewhere.
And it occurs to her all at once that he /is/ older than she, that he's experienced much more, that he's wandered this world for much longer. Who is he remembering? What has he left behind? What has he endured such that the prospect of King of Fighters doesn't excite him? Taizhou, yes, but-- even then, he seemed so experienced--
That's how she came to respect him, rather than loathe him.
That's how she--
"Well, uh... I guess I'd better... cut to the chase."
Wing's enthusiasm seems to have faded a little, but her eyes are clear.
"Do you already have a team?"
Her smile appears, but wavers slightly.
"Might surprise you to know that, uh... I don't..."
Does this team exist? Aranha is a bit slow to answer when he considers the fact that he hasn't heard from them in awhile. It was almost as though they vanished from the face of the earth.
"Had."
He had to face facts that it was possible that things got busy for his team mates. Rylee probably got a deal in a wrestling federation, and Tessa's workload in Strolheim probably incresed, Tiffany probably was getting a heavier course load and Naerose was probably finding ways of stuffing her face though he personally had hoped that she wasn't joining a Blackjack-like entity as a means to do so.
"To be honest, when I received the invite, I was hoping it would revive my team. It didn't. But if you're asking if I'll join your team, I'll do it."
Wing blinks, and actually bites her lower lip.
The normally boisterously self-confident girl feels a little crestfallen.
"Yeah... I understand. Well--"
Wait, what!?
"Y-You will!?"
Suddenly, the Queen of the Streets perks up /significantly/, her dark eyes widening and brightening, her thin lips breaking into an unabashed grin. She really has changed: she doesn't seem embarrassed at all to so openly reveal her pleasure. There's clearly no need to pretense with Aranha anymore. Except, uh, for the kind of pretense that, you know, doesn't make their friendship super awkward. Which she could clearly use some more work on.
"Yeah! Yeah, you will!" she chortles, though the egotistical assertion seems more good-humored than anything. "Thanks, man. That's exactly what I wanted to hear." As though it weren't already obvious. "I, uh, didn't even think of a name or anything, though."
She puts her elbows up on the table and leans her chin into her folded hands.
"I don't suppose you want to be known as 'The Queens of the Streets'."
She grins widely.
"So, uh, who else do you think would be a... good candidate?"
Because Wing has so many friends. So many.
In Wing's happiness to have him on the team he manages to put aside his lamenting the fate of his old team. Plus the formation of this new team gives the Dancing Spider something else to think about.
Even before she asks the question of who else his wheels are spinning. "Well there's... No, he refuses to learn from his mistakes. Well there's... No. How about.. no. She's on a team. How about.... No they have a team as well. Dammit."
Wing hardly seems dismayed.
"Ha ha ha! Don't worry about it. We just have to get out there and make a show of ourselves," she quips merrily, taking a pleased swig from her soda. Her, uh, very grown-up soda. "I bet if I just start punching random people in the street, someone will turn out to be a worthwhile teammate. Don't even sweat it."
Still grinning, she places her cup down on the table. She's even forgotten about the stain on her new dress. Not that she bought it especially for-- look, seriously, it was a birthday gift from a cousin. One of the less lame ones. "Come on, let's eat," she says cheerfully. "Today's on me."
Whoa!
"Good thing you agreed!"
She really /is/ in a good mood. And apparently hungry, still.
She extends a hand in an effort to flag down a waiter, though doesn't take her sparkling-eyed gaze from Aranha's own. "So, Aranha, you have any plans for today? I thought I might hang out at the beach for a little while. Can't remember the last time I did that." Her grin quirks a little. "You, uh, you wanna maybe join me?"
She was going to mention she's already wearing her swimsuit, but--
Even she knows he might just get up and run if she did.
Aranha smiles at his friend's enthusiasm but unfortunately he feels as though it's his duty to be at least somewhat of a wet blanket in this case. "We're probably better off letting people know upfront that we are recuiting. Less confusion that way."
Aranha shakes his head to the negative. "I don't have any plans however, I'm curious about something. What made you call me Keith while we were in Taizhou?"
"You're no fun."
Wing is chortling to herself. It's nice that Aranha is able to realize when she's not joking. And, you know, tolerate her being a mild sociopath.
"I--"
And then she blushes.
Considering how many awkward moments she's already endured so far, the would-be Queen curses herself for the heat upon her cheeks, and out of sheer pride refuses to avert her gaze, keeping her eyes on her friend and ally even as her face tightens with embarrassment. "Oh... uh... I, I guess I did do that, didn't I?"
She fishes for an answer. What a question! Her mind is whirling.
"Jeez, I can't even-- when was that? Before I punched that guy out the window, right?" Someone seems to have gotten over it. "Yeah, I saw your full name on the PDA when I was skimming the participant profiles. I never knew before, so I guess I just-- I mean, in the heat of the moment-- you know, it was kind of a-- well, not that I was /scared/, but..."
She just trails off.
"Can I, uh..."
The younger girl knits her brow.
"/Can/ I call you Keith?"
"My name being Keith, is public knowledge. I have no problem with you calling me that. The curiosity came from seeing, or rather, hearing the sudden change. But... Yeah."
Though part of it comes from vanity, another part of is because he wanted to know what the ninjas knew about him and whether or not it posed a danger to him.
"I'll head to the beach with ya, on one condition. Could you let me stop at my place so I can pick up swim trunks? And while this isn't a requirement, I'm damn curious about what type of info they have on me."
"Wh--"
Oh, wow. Uh.
"B-Back to your place?"
That's just mean, Keith.
"Y-Yeah, sure, why not?" Wing manages, heroically maintaining her composure, all too aware how transparent she must be, or at least assumes she must be. "It better be an impressive place, though. I've got high standards," she, well, frankly babbles, just to have something to say while her mind finishes reeling.
They're teammates now. She's got to get it together.
Damn-- damn--
She's still such a kid.
"Heh..."
It's that thought more than anything that helps Wing regain her composure. That's something she absolutely won't accept. She's a gangster; a real tough girl. She believes that with all her heart, and probably always will. After Taizhou, she's mature enough not to avoid recognizing her own immaturity, so to speak. That means she can't countenance it. Every time Aranha embarrasses her -- it's his fault, you understand -- she tries to learn. Because she can't continue like this. She's a woman -- a leader.
"I know what you mean."
A grown-ass woman.
"I think I kept the PDA," she says, squinting slightly as she reflects. "Do you mind if I pick it up some other time and we go over it again? It's probably just the public stuff," she adds, "but I wouldn't know. I'd never looked you up until we were already at Taizhou." Amazing, considering how much she hated on him.
She /could/ go back to her place too. But, uh, it's such a nice day, right? A day to think about more pleasant things. To forget about Taizhou, and celebrate what little good came out of it. What little good. Though, for Wing--
"Those guys are history, though, right?"
She smiles warmly, her confidence brimming once again, with genuine affection.
The good may have outweighed the bad.
Log created on 00:23:13 10/12/2010 by Aranha, and last modified on 11:57:11 10/12/2010.