RP:Happy Looks Good on You

Summary: Leo and Lita share a brief discussion of life's changing tides and how to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Lita is in a good mood as she breezes through the front door of the Jolly Roger. "Leo!" She calls out, fixin' to wake the dead with all her shouting, uncaring for any conversations she might be interrupting therein. She lifts a finger to point accusingly across the room at the pirate and pads barefoot towards the bar, slapping the palm of her hand atop it. One of Cal's clove cigarettes is tucked behind her ear and she moves it from betwixt raven curls to rest between her lips, dark eyes scanning the bar for a match before giving the pirate a why-the-hell-is-there-never-a-light look in frustration before the kretek is tucked between her fingers again. "Duel this Sunday." She says finally. "Sunday." As if he might not have heard her a second before. She's both excited and terrified. She adores Mahri to pieces, she'd found a kindred soul in her. Woman also scares the sprites out of her on a good day. As if just realizing that Tessa is present at all, Lita glances sideways at her, blinking slowly.

Leoxander just finished off his third glass when Lita arrived, immediately noticing the volume and dare he think… joy(?) in her tone. An eyebrow raised at her approach but she couldn’t quite fool him with that entrance since he’d known her quite a while now. Once again, Jee or ‘Grim’ as Leo seemed to call him, barked that horrible roar-bark until the pup caught just a look from the pirate and planted his butt to the floorboards in feigned innocence. Chee was bound to have attempted to follow Mahri, whether she was still around or had snuck off in her departure like the rogue she was, but he couldn’t leave his brother and his ‘dad’. “I’ma take a shot in the dark an’ bet you mean you an’ Mah since I ain’t on the roster. That’ll be a helluva show.”

Quintessa noticed the hint of suspicion in his eyes but she didn't point it out. She was used to those looks every time she was this generous with invitations to her demesne. She puts the butt of her cigarette out on the ashtray and parts her lips to speak yet again. “You’ll definitely see me there, and…” She looks over her shoulder once more, “If you see Khitti, do not tell her you saw me, in fact-” She picks up her cigarette butt and places it in her pocket. “I was never here.” With a cheeky smirk and wink, the hexblade takes a step back, the runes on her boots activating to manifest a deep purple portal right under her feet. “See you soon, Captain.” And with that the spooky woman gives a flirtatious wave to Lita and disappears into her portal, the hole closing and vanishing with a loud ‘pop’ as she exits.

Lita snaps her fingers into a pointing motion at the pirate. Smart on the money, this one. Lita might have been pregaming. Pre-celebrating? Semantics. She leans over the bar far enough to snag a glass and a bottle of whiskey, none too picky tonight as she sees fit to help herself. The pup at Leo's side gettin' looks catches her attention and she lofts a brow at it. There's a joke there, she knows there is. And while she keeps it to herself, the corner of her mouth edges up in a grin. Luckily there's the distraction of Tessa dropping through a portal in the floor and Lita’s not sure if that means she needs to drink more or less. She pours herself a glass. "I'm excited." She says finally to Leo, as if this is some secret between them. "Who you got money on?" She asks, sipping her drink. "I won't be offended, you can tell me."

Leo shook his head a bit after Quintessa had made her exit, taking the last drag from the end of his smoke before he stubbed what was left against marble, as well. “Yeah, that’s the last thing I bloody need is to run into Khitt or Khitti an’ piss them off…” Half murmured to himself and the only other one remaining in the common room. Well, it was a warehouse shell, so it was all pretty much a common room. Lita might notice most of the back corner had been cleaned out, and he motioned with his empty glass toward the crates of tattooing supplies boxed and ready to be hauled down the street. “Meant to head over to the shop with those today but Mahri was here. An’ then that one…' With a look toward the floor where the portal popped out of sight, “Showed up out’a the damn night. Not sure if she’ll be prowlin’ the island for now but I’ll do what I can to keep tabs on’er if she does.” While Lita poured her glass and hit him with that question, he just smirked, setting his glass down to brace his hands on the edge of the back of the bar. “No, Ace. You ain’t lurin’ me into that. I practically got’a live with you both.”

Lita offers a shrug. "Can't blame a girl for tryin'." She says over the rim of her glass. And then, "I won't tell Mah, though." She offers a playful wink as she takes a drink, lowering the glass back to the bar as she eyes the boxes he motioned towards. "Told Cal you'd be in and out. He's, well, I don't know if he's ever happy about anything, exactly, but he'll stay out o' your business if you do 'im the same. Got the room upstairs mostly cleared for excess supplies and the like." There's also a small bed up there, a desk, a wash tub. She'd lived there more than the beach house after Hanan's passing. "I'm sure the place needs some updates but can't say I've been inclined to it. Feel free if you want." Hell, it had taken her how many years now to make any changes to the villa? "Just leave the violin hung up, yeah?" It was a pretty hand carved ivory number. "Meri hung it way back when, so it stays."

Lita idly sticks a pony sticker to the underside of the bar mid-conversation. It probably has glitter. Lora would be proud.

Leo didn’t exactly need to ask for a key. Even if she wasn’t present and the doors were locked, she could be sure the rogue would find a way around such safety precautions. Though the idea of Lita needing any measure of ‘safety’ was a bit humorous. “I ain’t plannin’ on rearrangin’ the place but I might bring Lora’ with me tomorrow. You got her wantin’ more ink an’ I lost a bet, but we’ll see what kind’a time we got.” He took a glance toward the twin maned wolf pups who were curled up on top of those aforementioned crates, bored, wanting to run out into the night or back to the ship but patient for their adoptive sire. “What’s wrong with yer dragon friend fixin’ up the place a bit? I’d bet my best brass he’d dance for the excuse to see more’a you.” He wasn’t prying too intently, and he purposefully used the ‘friend’ term for a little sensitivity shown. It was curious how their relationship timeline seemed to criss-cross each others’ in time spent alone and a chance taken on another, and yet they never seemed to touch. But Leo could relate to the wound his former nemesis and fellow Captain had left as a scar on the heart.

Lita probably would have made Leo a key if she bothered to keep the doors locked on a regular basis. Cal had no shortage of crew in and out of the smuggling tunnels beneath the shop at all hours and if she wasn't with clients, they were usually buggin' her about one thing or another, or just lookin' to complain about the rogue (Cal). "I'll let Cal know you'll be by. Don't recommend lettin' Lora wander out the back without you." The back door, which was not the back of the building at all but built a few feet in and led directly to a staircase into the cavern below. Cal kept his crew mostly in check but there were no promises for the sorts they ran with. Not that Lora couldn't handle herself, but she also seemed prone to gettin' spooked. Lita snorts a bit of a laugh at Leo's mention of her dragon friend and she does appreciate the sensitivity. She wasn't even sure what to call him yet. Something that didn't make her sound like a teenage girl would be nice. She takes another drink of whiskey. "Oh, he's been around and seen plenty." She clarifies, though that was probably more than she needed to clarify. "The beach house needed it. And it was time for a change, been lookin' at the same walls for too long." She was still talking about the beach house probably. "Shop's different though. It was somethin' I built up when you were gone even and something Meri helped me keep alive and, I don't know, it's this whole other part of me that I wanted to be better than whatever the hell else I was failing at, y'know? And for whatever reason it's still standing." But it was still a part if herself she wasn't ready to share. Except she'd offered to let Leo moonlight, so she's probably not talking about the shop, exactly. Girls are complicated. She finishes her drink with a sigh and leans her elbow on the bar, resting in her chin against her palm, eyeing him a certain kind of way. "Be lyin' if I said I didn't see things goin' differently at some point." She taps her index finger against her temple. "Happy looks good on you."

Leo gave a similar snort of a half laugh in return when she clarified while also taking note of her warning. Loravelle wasn’t the ‘wanderer’ he was to venture into back rooms on a whim, but undoubtedly the rogue would take precautions with her. Nodding along with her reasoning of that need and feel of some success, it was when she fixed that certain look that he decided he needed one more refill, and so did she, emptying the bottle between both glasses before he picked up the empties to set them in the sink behind the bar. The glass cracked when he tossed it into an open, empty barrel, both pups abruptly raising their head but settling back with yawns that rolled their tongues and showed off growing canine fangs. “Trust me, I woulda been last on the list to think I’d end up here after the past couple turns.” He faded to a more quiet state for a moment as he studied the whiskey in his glass, then swallowed a gulp of it. “Still feel like the bottom’s gonna give way any moment, but I s’pose that’s gonna take some time, yet. Happy never seems to last long for us, does it?” Blue eyes met the dark stare of his friend and neighbor.

Lita watches him refill her glass, something she's seen him do a hundred times over before and it still feels important. She traces the rim of her glass with her index finger. "Don't think we're built for it, is all. Maybe those that have it for so long aren't strong enough to fight through the not having it." She lifts her glass, tilting it towards him in thanks. "Or maybe that's a crock of shyte." She grins as she takes a sip. "You know what's really f-ed?" She glances away from him briefly. "I kind of hope that slightly terrified feeling never quite goes away. Just the edge of it. Like just knowing that I could still up and leave, just run. Because I've done it before. Because I know how. Because I'm damn good at it. Better than staying, that's for sure. But if that's ever not there..." she meets his gaze again, biting at the inside of her lower lip for a moment. "Don't think I'll know what to do with that."

Leoxander was quiet, as he often was in a thoughtful or even nervous state. He studied Lita a moment, looking in a random direction away like she had, then took another drink from his glass but only after murmuring. “An’... I’m due to marry her.” There was no running after that. At least, he figured as much, because he’d never been married. But the thought of putting Suoxin through that pain made his own stomach ache a bit. There was no running in that sense for the rogue, once he tied that knot. “You better figger it out sooner or later, Ace. I saw the way that man looks at you. Then again, I’ve seen others look yer way like that. I d’know, are we fug’n crazy or jus’ bloody hopeless?” He downed the rest in his glass and set it down empty with his jaw tightened for a moment before he finally returned his gaze her way.

Lita can't help a laugh when he mentions being fit to marry Lora. "I think she's good for you." And he was good for her, too, though that was a different conversation to be had. "Don't think you would have brought us all back together without her. Think we've all been a little lost. 'Bout damn time we all found our way home." Figuratively at least. As crazy as it feels just now, inviting Xiem to the solstice festival to meet Leo and Lora felt the closest she'd ever been to inviting a significant other to meet family. She wasn't one to flaunt her relationships, always preferring to keep her private life just that. "I like this one." She says under her breath when he mentions other people having looked her way. She was used to people looking. Not so used to them sticking around. "You're hopeless. Gettin' hitched and all. So guess that makes me crazy. You know what, I'm okay with this."

Leo relaxed when Lita laughed. He liked that sound from her. “Yeah… she is.” He agreed, leaning forward to rest some of his weight on folded arms on the bartop across from her, all his ink bleeding through the worn but fitted fabric of his ‘wifebeater’ style shirt. He’d put some weight and muscle on to make that happen, rather than ribs showing indents framing his abdomen, and that was thanks to their family, too. Eyes raised through blonde that Mahri had regrown with her druidic abilities toward Lita, mellowed, nodding again to her when she admitted those words in an undertone. “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst…” He repeated the phrase Quintessa had uttered not too long before, then leaned forward to kiss Lita’s cheek. “I gotta get back. I’ll be droppin’ by with your supplies tomorrow.” Leo didn’t bother to lock the doors much anymore, and he trusted her to do so if she found it necessary, but once he grabbed a bottle to head back to the ship with, he planned on making his way out. He would, of course, be followed by the twin pups that were immediately alert as if they understood the rogue's words.

Lita reaches a hand out to squeeze his forearm gently, her thumb arcing across bare skin as she tilts her face up slightly into that familiar kiss. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. The irony of the words he offers are not lost on her. She's not as sold on this whole relationship mess thing, maybe, yet. But it felt good to have him back around in her life. So even if that worst did happen maybe she wouldn't have to run so far as Venturil this time. "I'm gonna stay a bit." She says, glancing over her shoulder as the pups follow him towards the door. "Promise not to break much." Probably.