[h3][color=ed1c24]Amaranth Desire [/color]and [color=8882be]Lorena Negasi[/color][/h3] As the two girls hopped off the airship to Vale, Lauren favored the man standing at the exit hatch with one final, defiant pout. She had been the subject of suspicious glares from the moment they had boarded, and they had been difficult to BS an explanation to Amy, observant even in her bemused state. They probably hadn't flown, but the important thing was that they had gotten to the city without even a whiff of an incident. So what was there to brood about? Crossing her arms and tucking her hands under her arms, her pursed lips gave way to a wide, cheerful smile. The energetic bruiser of BASL fell back into step with her teammate as they adopted a comfortable place off the dock and down a sidewalk. Vale was cozier than any place she'd ever been in its eponymous kingdom - especially around the evening time, when there was no worry about being jostled for just enjoying a walk with a girl. [color=8882be]"So what are you feeling?" [/color]she asked Amy good-naturedly. [color=8882be]"Pharmacy or food first?"[/color] [color=ed1c24]"Food. Not supposed to take Ibuprofen on an empty stomach... And I didn't exactly have a full lunch,"[/color] she said, smirking at the girl walking with her, her mind flashing back to the half sandwich Negasi had brought her in armory. [color=ed1c24]"How'd you feel about Mistralese?"[/color] [color=8882be]"Dope."[/color] Truth was, Lauren was easily swayed by fancy words like tortellini, rigatoni and caprese. The extent of her knowledge in tonight's area of cuisine had been bacon pizza for dinner for the first 19 years of her life. But with four years ahead of her and the first mission of her life just around the corner, it was no time for BASL's most boisterous member to get cold feet. [color=8882be]"Think I might know a place, actually. My brother took me before he went off for his job. Few blocks from the park."[/color] She was kind of enjoying the lazy pace, honestly. It felt nice, if unfamiliar, to not be so hyperkinetic. And a look on Amy Desire's face besides one of pain was always appreciated. [color=8882be]"I could eat the table by this point, girl,"[/color] Lauren sighed longingly, as though she was already imagining the heady taste of mahogany. [color=8882be]"I'm really high protein. Beacon's eating schedule has my body all outta whack. I'm more sluggish."[/color] [color=ed1c24]"Beacon's schedule has my sleep cycles all out of whack."[/color] Amy's normal routine had been 6 hours shifted from that of ordinary people--rise at noon, go to sleep at 4, and shifting to ordinary had her falling asleep in morning classes and laying awake in bed at night with insomnia. Thankfully, things were starting to align again, and math was no longer extra sleep time. Her grades were improving, thank the Lord. [color=ed1c24]"Let me know when we're getting close. I'll try to look less down and out."[/color] [color=8882be]"Aaaah, who's worrying about it? You look fine." [/color]Lauren asked jovially. Nonetheless, she let Amy have her time to pull together, and for a couple blocks the boxer walked alongside her teammate with the hands in the pockets of her short jacket and her head lifted towards the brisk autumn wind. She'd spent a good while in Vale, but something about the temperate breezes here always seemed to perk her up, leaving her with a wide smile and a flush in her cheeks. She looked to her right over at Amy again and thought about fixing her hair. It had been bugging her since Armory. Buuut personal bubbles and all that. [color=8882be][i]Right-o.[/i][/color] Lauren tended to forget that not everyone got as comfortable as her. One of the things she'd been warned about by Ozpin. After a brief fit of jaywalking and another block or so, they had reached the restaurant that Lauren had recommended only to find that the place had a line nearly out the door. Luckily, after Lauren had realized the amount of waiting it would take for them to eat ([color=8882be]"Oh, this won't do at fucking all"[/color]) and a text to someone she described as [color=8882be]"this guy Sloan helped out on the wait staff,"[/color] they had maneuvered their way towards a table for two against a window. When seated and confronted with drinks and wine lists, Lauren had stared at the menu of expensive wines like a gazelle who thought that she'd spied a famished leopard from the corner of her vision. [color=8882be]"Uh...just a soda for me,"[/color] she requested. [i]Oh man, I sound like such a bum.[/i] Well, she was...[i]kind[/i] of a bum, but...Amy didn't need to know that! [color=8882be]"I don't...uh...drink stuff that could pay my tuition."[/color] [color=8882be][i]Oh, fucking suave, Negasi.[/i][/color] [color=8882be]"So...uh...your fight today was different!" [/color]she chirped, once the order for breadsticks and drinks had gone off. [color=8882be]"Ben's hits have a kick like a jackass, but I made sure to get enough vision back that I could watch."[/color] [color=ed1c24]"Soda for me too."[/color] Normally, Amy would have offered to buy some wine for herself and Lauren, but mixing alcohol and drugs was not a good time. At Lauren's fight comment she sighed and studied the menu for a few seconds before responding with a slight smile. [color=ed1c24]"So you saw me flub our best chance at a team victory?"[/color] [color=8882be]"Well, if we're gonna be reading into things, we didn't get a single team victory in a class period where two teammates actually fought. We fucked up the [i]unfuckable.[/i] So technically...you and Sangue came out better than we did!"[/color] Grinning from behind the thin black menu, Lauren's eyes roved over entrees and specials. [color=8882be]"Think I might spring for a..."[/color] [color=8882be][i]Don't say pizza. Don't say pizza.[/i] "...I'm feeling a calzone." [i]Much better.[/i] "And a garden salad."[/color] She set the menu down and pushed it to the end of the table with a casual flick. She shrugged out of her leather jacket and draped it on the back of the chair behind her, crossing her arms over her bare abdomen and trying not to slouch. [color=8882be]"I mean, it wasn't a bad fight," [/color]she said reassuringly. [color=8882be]"There were some [i]bad[/i] fights today. You just had...stuff going on, I s'pose. Happens to everyone."[/color] [color=ed1c24]"Probably chicken alfredo for me,"[/color] she said, then bit her lower lip. [color=ed1c24]"No, it wasn't a bad fight... But I let personal feelings get into it." [/color] Amy tossed the menu down and put her head in her hands, crimson spikes sticking through her fingers. She sighed, then reached with one hand to pull the shoulder of her shirt back over her bra strap, grimacing at how poor the male uniform fit her. [color=ed1c24]"In my... old life, getting personal feelings involved never ended well for anyone. I... I could have killed Diamond, I think, and--that worries me. I can't let myself get that out of control again..."[/color] [color=8882be]"Oh."[/color] Lauren raised her chin up from her chest and tilted her head at the exhausted half-Faunus before her. She was fidgeting with the school uniform and staring at the table as though she could find Diamond's face in the pattern on the tablecloth. [color=8882be]"...[i]Oh.[/i]"[/color] So she had a thing for Diamond. That explained a lot. Cleared up some stuff. [color=8882be][i]Oh.[/i][/color] [color=8882be]"Well...like..." [i]Yeees, Lauren. Seal the deal. Soon everyone in Beacon will learn to fear your vague advice![/i][/color] [color=8882be]"I don't know much shit about most shit, okay? But I know feelings. They're my Semblance." [i]What the--no no no, VAGUE advice, Lauren! Don't speak from the heart![/i] "And I know that...sometimes, when I feel like crap...it's other people that pull me outta my funk. They give you the bad, but...they give you a lot of the good, too. So you were a stripper. So Diamond has a pencil neck. There's a lot of stuff about [i]me[/i] that I hope you guys will never find out. But...we're all training to be Huntresses now, right? We all gotta give a little bit of a crap about other people, or we wouldn't be here. So locking up the bad juju in your head and your heart only means that if you ever slip up, it could, like...cause more problems down the road, right? Better to just be a real person and take the good and bad as it comes. And you [i]are[/i] a real person. A pretty cool one, too."[/color] Noticing Amy fidget with her bra strap, the newest member of BASL reached behind her back and pulled the leather jacket off her chair, draping it under Amy's feathers. She gave her teammate her most mature and cheerful smile to go with it. [color=8882be]"Hey...sorry it didn't work out with you and Diamond."[/color] It was only half a lie, but still more of one than Lauren Negasi was used to telling. Most of the time. [color=ed1c24]"I wish a stripper was all I was, Lauren. I'm not ashamed of what I've done, but..."[/color] She searched her mind, just too make sure- [color=ed1c24]"I'm not ashamed of what I've done, I had to do it. But if I waste this chance and have to go back to it... Then I will feel bad. Because I didn't have to."[/color] [color=8882be][i]This is the kind of conversation a girl needs more than a soda for.[/i][/color] She might have to spring for a little wine after all. [color=8882be]"Look. You can't tell anyone this - I mean it - but...I lied about how I got to Beacon." [i]LAUREN NOOOOOOOOO[/i] "I didn't really fail the entrance exam. Instead I, uh, I stole cars. Half my life. I never even qualified for Signal, so I had an, ah, excess of free time. Couple months ago was my last steal. Lifted a sports car in Downtown Vale and nearly drove it into a nightclub trying to shake the cops. Chase on foot went on for almost another hour before I finally got myself got. When my brother wouldn't bail me out, I uh...I got a little low. I thought my life was over. But I guess Ozpin had his ear to a scanner that afternoon, because after another few weeks I found myself in an airship to what I thought was a prison." "Instead, this quiet old man tells me that I'm officially enrolled in Beacon Academy. No firearms or vehicles for 500 days, no thoughts of trying to weasel out of my higher education, but it was freedom. I thought I was going to spend my twenties in a correctional facility, and instead I'm sitting here just a few days later with a total dime and a huge fucking calzone coming my way. So get that chin up, buttercup, because I'm only saying this once."[/color] Lauren clasped her hands and rested her elbows on the table, grinning at the half-Faunus stripprostitutress-in-training. [color=8882be]"They don't throw people out of Beacon. You're graduating or you're dying - and I've never heard of four people who have such little idea of when to give up and die. And unlike your choice in girls, that stubbornness [i]kiiiiinda[/i] leaves you short on options."[/color] Lauren grinned wider, tilting her head to the left without breaking eye contact. [color=8882be]"Breadsticks!"[/color] Amy put her hands on either side of Lauren's clasped fingers and smiled, squeezing slightly. She could hardly judge- she'd been a thief too, after all, though not to the degree the girl sitting across the table was. [color=ed1c24]"Thanks, Lauren. BASL against the world, huh?"[/color] [color=8882be]"Course it is, doll. Birds of a feather--"[/color] Lauren stopped and tilted her head. [color=8882be]"...That's not racist, is it...? Uh...us girls gotta stick together. Yeah. That's better."[/color] Amy dropped her hands back to the table, making a mock [color=ed1c24]"oof"[/color] with her lips. [color=ed1c24]"Figure of speech, Lauren. Nice diversion though, especially considering Ben is a guy."[/color] [color=8882be]"So I've noticed. I like to make him think I haven't, though."[/color] Lauren's teeth scraped her bottom lip and she grinned wider, pulling her own hands back as well to grip the rim of her glass and pull it in for a sip. [color=8882be]"Haaaaven't exactly had my eyes on him. I'm not Cap's type."[/color] Amy raised one eyebrow. Lauren beamed. And the other eyebrow went up. [color=8882be]"Yeeees?"[/color] [color=ed1c24]"You going to make things explicit or nah?"[/color] [color=8882be]"I [i]could,[/i]"[/color] Lauren teased, breaking a breadstick in half and chomping happily on one end. [color=8882be]"Can't say I'd mind getting a little explicit with ya, ifyaknowwhaddImean,"[/color] she added, after finishing off her first breadstick with a slight dab of oil, garlic, and pure mischief. [color=ed1c24]"Mmmmm... Well, breadsticks and chicken alfredo is a little below the going rate for racists..." [/color]Amy smirked, winking slightly. [color=8882be]"Is there aaaaaa 'I just cheered you the hell up' markdown?" [/color]Lauren asked hopefully through a long drink of soda. She found herself grinning more and more. She'd counted herself lucky to end up part of Bastille almost from the jump, and almost a hundred percent of that was thanks to the people. And half of that was thanks to this...this... [color=8882be]"Babe,"[/color] Lauren said, returning fire with a wink of her own as she set her glass down, [color=8882be]"gimme tonight to impress you. Just 'til we're back at Beacon, I promise. I [i]might[/i] be able to surprise you if I try my hardest."[/color] [color=ed1c24]"No discounts, but--"[/color] Amy took a long drink from her soda, a smile going from ear to ear. [color=ed1c24]"I'll let you turn it in for a chance to impress me. Be forewarned, I've been dated by millionaires before."[/color] [color=8882be]"Been [i]dated, huh.[/i]"[/color] It was at that fortunate moment that the food arrived, and Lauren Negasi dug into her calzone with gusto before either girl was in the mood to frame a reply to the jab.