A Small Bar in Lucca, Tuesday Evening

[suitably_heroic]

"This'll do okay."

The bar was small and cramped, but it had seats outside - one of which Atton dropped himself into. This was one of these weeks where the lines between what he did and what he pretended to do were kind of blurred, the practical side-effect of which being that he'd already had one or two drinks before coming here.

Which... probably explained why he'd been stupid enough to ask Sia to come along with him. Whatever. What was done was done, and at least out here he could always just stalk off (or better yet, make her stalk off) if he really didn't want to deal with any of it any more. "I take it you'll want something neon."

[[ for that girl ]]

Comments

[notconflicted]

"Are you judging?" Sia asked, settling into a chair. Honestly, she was more inclined to order something neon if he was, because theirs was a unique relationship.

[suitably_heroic]

"Only a little," Atton said, shrugging. "About a picometer."

[notconflicted]

That wasn't as fun. "Do you have any other recommendations?"

[suitably_heroic]

"They say the wine's pretty good out here, but I haven't really tried it," Atton said, shrugging one shoulder. "Your call."

[notconflicted]

"Let's go with that, then," Sia said. "I doubt it's often I get to see you try something new."

[suitably_heroic]

"All right." A week's worth of vacation and... okay, a lot of drinking... made Atton less generally contrarian than usual. He slid out of his seat and went inside, returning a few minutes later with a bottle of wine and two glasses. "Here we go," he said, setting them down.

[notconflicted]

"Sometimes it almost worries me when you go along with things without an argument," Sia said, but she was smiling a little.

[suitably_heroic]

"I can talk to people without arguing with them," Atton retorted, pouring wine into both glasses. "Just not with you."

[notconflicted]

"Obviously I'm special that way," she said with a nod.

[suitably_heroic]

"I'd go with 'obstinate and infuriating', but sure," Atton said, flopping back in his seat. "Whatever. I'm not in the mood to argue today."

Though god knew how long that would last.

[notconflicted]

"We might have to find something normal to talk about then," Sia warned, picking up her glass.

[suitably_heroic]

"If you've got any suggestions, I'm all ears," Atton drawled, sipping his wine. "Eh. Not bad."

[notconflicted]

"All right then. How's your trip going so far?" See, normal.

[suitably_heroic]

"I don't remember most of it so far, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's been pretty good." Okay, that was a lie - he'd been drinking a lot, but not that much.

But who cared?

[notconflicted]

"That's impressive, given it's only Tuesday," she said evenly. "I guess then I shouldn't ask what else you want to do here..."

[suitably_heroic]

"Make sure I don't remember most of the rest of it," Atton volunteered. He glanced over towards her. "How about you?"

[notconflicted]

"The exact opposite," Sia said, sipping her wine. "I'd like to see as much as I can, maybe spend a day being incredibly lazy on a beach somewhere."

[suitably_heroic]

"Like you could manage 'lazy' for more than ten minutes," Atton said. "Bet you've got some book lying around."

[notconflicted]

"Laying on a beach isn't lazy if you have a book?" she asked.

[suitably_heroic]

"Nope," Atton said.

'Cause that was how it worked.

[notconflicted]

"What if I slept instead? Technically that is doing something," Sia pointed out.

[suitably_heroic]

"No, sleeping is pretty much the apex of nothing," Atton said. "Eyes closed, ignoring everybody, not learning or accomplishing anything." Beat. "Sleeping's great."

[notconflicted]

"What if I were to just lay there, staring out at nothing?"

Apparently vacation kept Sia in a good mood.

[suitably_heroic]

"That would work as 'doing nothing'," Atton said, sipping his wine again. "If you manage that for more than an hour, I'll buy you another bottle of wine."

[notconflicted]

"Done." It'd drive her nuts, but she was stubborn enough to do it.