A sketchy bar, Baltimore, Friday Afternoon

[soniaroadsqueen]

Dante had found them a great bar. Dingy, grimy, and cheap. In what Ringo was pretty sure was one of the worse parts of town. Despite the time of day, they weren't the only one's there. There were also the sorts of people you might expect to be in a sketchy bar on a Friday afternoon.

People who Ringo wasn't even paying attention to. "Is whiskey the best way to do this?" she asked, glancing over at Dante. "That's what you usually have, right?"

She probably shouldn't be getting drinking advice from Dante, but it wasn't like she had anyone else to get it from anymore.

[ooc: Expecting one.]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

The upside of shitty hotels like this was that Dante didn't even have to put on any semblance of his usual rough charm on the guy behind the counter. The man looked incredibly disinterested, even as Dante put in for a room, got some keys, and walked up the stairs with it.

He didn't come to a stop until he was inside; then he sat down on the bed. Silently.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo followed him in, not saying anything on the walk to the room. The blood from her cut foot disappearing into the unidentifiable collection of smudges already worked into the carpet. She set her ATs down just inside the door. Then she glanced over at Dante and turned to hop up to sit on the rickety table set in the corner. Fortunately she was small enough that it didn't just collapse under her.

She also sat in silence, not quite looking at Dante.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante sat there for a while.

He ran his hand through his hair.

"You should clean out that cut."

[soniaroadsqueen]

The silence had gone on just long enough that it took Ringo a second to process words. She glanced down at her foot, pulling it up for closer inspection.

"Yeah. Probably right." With a grimace she hopped off the table and walked slowly toward the bathroom.

She turned on the hot water in the bathtub and waited for it to actually heat up.

[rebelseekspizza]

They should probably, you know, talk. Some more.

The idea made Dante get up to dig around the minibar. No more booze for Ringo, but he was snagging a bunch of these tiny bottles. Opened one up, took a swig, and then walked over to the bathroom.

No reason. He wasn't worried.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo glanced up as she sensed his presence in the doorway. She'd tossed her ruined socks into the tiny trash can in the corner of the bathroom, and now was sitting on the lip of the bathtub with her feet stuck under the running water.

Her voice was soft. "Hey." Because what was she supposed to say?

[rebelseekspizza]

"You chilled out yet?" Dante asked, parking his shoulder against the doorframe.

Yeah, that was all he had.

[soniaroadsqueen]

That was a tough question to answer. Ringo took a deep breath, her face stiff as she nodded.

"Yeah. Sorry about that."

She was not going to cry. She was definitely not going to cry.

[rebelseekspizza]

"You said," Dante said, with a vague motion of his head. "You really can crash here."

Just don't try to take his head off again.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"I don't know. I, um, maybe it's better if I get some space."

Ringo's voice was tight. Stupid lump in her throat.

She was not about to cry, okay?

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante sighed.

He wasn't going to hug her. Not even in a 'loudly saying he wasn't going to, and then doing it anyway' way.

Instead he tugged some toilet paper off the roll and offered it to her without a word. Look, they didn't have tissues.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo glanced at it, then her expressionless face cracked a bit. Her lip curling up in something like amusement.

"Probably more sanitary than trying the towels," she allowed, reaching out to take the offered paper. Her hands were still shaking slightly, but she had it under enough control that it didn't keep her from actually managing the hand-off.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged expressively.

Whatever fountain of words he'd spit out on her earlier seemed to have drained most of his reservoir. "Probably," he said. "I can leave you alone."

Wasn't like he cared about what drinking alone meant.

[soniaroadsqueen]

She started to nod, rubbing at her feet under the running water, but then a thought occurred to her and her head snapped back up.

"You okay?"

Kinda late on that one, Ringo.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante was silent for just long enough to make the first sentence out of his mouth sound every bit as stupid as it was. "Nothing a couple of drinks and getting laid later can't cure," he said.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo sat there silently for a few long moments, the water just running over her foot as she looked at Dante.

There were a lot of things she could say to that, but ultimately she settled on an utterly neutral "Uh huh."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged.

He took a swig from his tiny bottle. Turned around, and vanished back into the bedroom.

He was doing super well.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Yeah. Ringo could tell.

She let him go, and finished cleaning her foot. Then caught some of the hot water in her hands and scrubbed at her face. Hard.

No crying.

She finished, then stepped into the doorway, careful of how she set her weight on her cut foot. "So. Food?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"There's a pizza delivery menu on the desk," Dante said.

He was spread out on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

[soniaroadsqueen]

She watched him for a couple of seconds, then walked over to pick it up. "What do you want?" she asked, pulling out her phone.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Meat--"

Dante winced at himself. Nope. Not doing the memory thing.

"Whatever's got the most cheese on it."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Extra meat, extra cheese, then?" Ringo was already dialing the number, figuring Dante could object or just eat whatever ended up getting delivered.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah, sure, whatever." He just hadn't wanted to order the Meat Lovers.

Fuck, if Kathy had ruined that pizza for him, Dante was going to be... even more pissed than he already was. Because fuck her, she didn't get to do that.

"Maybe get two."

[soniaroadsqueen]

She nodded and put in the order. Then she walked across the room to hop back up onto the table.

"They say thirty minutes." She wasn't sure what else to say, so she left it at that for the moment.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante sat up.

He watched her for a while, trying to cobble together what few of his words remained.

"I know you're hurting too," he said finally. At least about Ringo, he could go a mile further and feel something other than anger.