Afternoons and Coffeespoons

[somerandomhippie]

Katy sighed, for no apparent reason, as she tugged on her boots. She was back home. That was good, right? Wrong, according to her energy level. She was restless, fidgety, longing for adventure-- after hanging around the Venia for a while, you got used to constant action, constant adventure. So, Katy had decided, after hours of pacing, that she might as well pace somewhere a little more interesting, and with a friend. Her boot finally on, she grabbed a bag and trotted to Natalie's door.

"Nat?" she called, as she knocked. "It's Katy. You busy?" Talking while knocking was a habit she had developed early on-- might as well let someone know who was at the door. That way, in case she already had plans, or people, or nothing at all (and wanted it to stay that way), it was already dealt with.

"The weather is superb, and I haven't given you a tour of my home planet yet. Care to join me?" She peeked up through the eyehole, even though she knew she would never see a thing through it. It was just more fun that way. "See the sights, see the depths, meet an honest-to-God street vendor with honest-to-God food. Unless I'm talking to a door, in which case that would be rather pointless. Not that they're bad company, they're just a little one-sided and tedious. No offense, your door is as lovely as mine."

Her phone buzzed. Shft tkn, gud 2 have u bck, the text read. It took Katy a minute to try and decipher it, and grinned. She had good bosses. "I've got all day, too, she added. "Yes? No? Maybe so?"

[Natalie Blake]

It had been a few days now since Natalie had found out about her father's death, and she'd spent the majority of that time either curled up in her room. While the pain hadn't lessened any, she was starting to learn to cope. She was also starting to get a slight case of cabin-fever. Being cooped up on the ship was doing nothing for her recovery, what she needed was a little time out.

And Katherine, angel that she was, showed up with an offer that would give her just that. However, the fact that Natalie had been asleep at the time when Katy came knocking didn't help matters at first. Knock. Natalie pulled the blankets up over her head. Knock, chatter, knock. She added a pillow. Chatter, knock, chatter, knock, tour--wait, tour?

Sitting up, Natalie listened to what Katy was saying now. She'd gone on to something about her door. Shaking her head, the blonde woman sighed and stumbled over to her closet, hastily stripping out of her pajamas and tugging on some proper clothes. Biting her lip, she contemplated what had once been her father's leather jacket for a moment before pulling it on over her t-shirt.

"All right, all right," Natalie laughed a little hollowly, traipsing over to the door and opening it as she pulled on her favourite sneakers, "You can stop conversing with my door, I'm here." Getting out with Katy would be good for her. If there was one thing her best friend was good for, it was for cheering someone up. Working up an at least mostly-genuine smile, she grabbed her bag and shut off the lights. "So you're going to show me the town, are you?"

[somerandomhippie]

Katy managed to pop away from the door before Nate opened it, looking rather roughed-up. Poor thing. She was privy to the fact that her dad was gone, which must have been hard for Nate. He was a good guy, from what Katy had heard. But, being stuck inside wasn't going to do Nate any good. Even if she didn't cheer up, she'd be up and about, which was the important thing. "Good," Katy grinned, slinging a quick hug around her friend's shoulders. "Your door is horrible company."

Leading Nate out the door, she grinned quite happily. "Exactly!" she beamed. "I've been digging through the local newspapers, and I've made up a whole stash of stuff. Here--" She dug through her bag, unearthing various newspaper clippings and lists, stuffing them into Nate's hands. "Oddest shops, vintage places, best bars, best street vendors, theatre listings, galleries, concerts, et-cetera." She spread them out in a fan, beneath her friend's nose. "Where do you want to start?"

[Natalie Blake]

It was hard for Natalie not to laugh at Katy's exuberance as the brunette woman whisked her out the door. With a flourish Katy unearthed a wad of papers from her bag, shoving them into Natalie's hands for her to examine. "How long have you been planning this?" she asked, laughing a little incredulously as she flipped through the different lists and articles.

She'd only managed to give them a brief once-over before Katy had snatched them back and began fanning them under her nose, as if she were trying to tempt her with a platter of delicious smelling food. Snorting, Natalie grabbed a slip of paper with at least a dozen hastily scrawled store names. Most of them sounded rather peculiar, which meant that hitting them with Katy would no doubt be hysterically amusing.

"Let's try one of these places first," Natalie suggested, dangling the paper right in front of the brunette's face. "You just can't go wrong with some of these names."

[somerandomhippie]

Katy simply shrugged at Natalie, who looked a little overwhelmed. "Eh, only a couple days," she said. "I had a lot of time off, and I needed to clean out all my old newspapers." It had taken a little more effort than that, but hey, Nate needed it. She was a friend, and friends were there to make you laugh incredulously. Plus, it wasn't like she wanted to sit at home herself. Going out with Nate was always a treat.

"Sounds like a plan!" she chirped, blowing on the paper for fun, then stuffing the rest back into her bag. She scrutinized the paper. "Let's see-- how about Mysticism and Magic for Dummies? It smells great in there, and the bumper stickers are hilarious." Bouncing down the stairs, she looked around, finding the subway map. "Ha! We have five minutes until the express leaves! Did you bring your running shoes?" She grinned at her blonde friend. Today was going to be one of those days.