raspberryturk | A Zoo on the Mainland, Tuesday, After Classes

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A Zoo on the Mainland, Tuesday, After Classes

Okay. It had been... a week. To say the least. It was only Tuesday and Reno already wanted it to be over, already.

But that wasn't going to stop him from making an ass of himself in public. After all, so far as public outings went, some things were practically sacred.

"Think they'll let me take home a penguin if I ask real nice?"

[For the partner in crime! NFB for being all mainlandy and stuff, woo!]

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This prompted a bout of staring. Wide-eyed, somewhat baffled staring while Reno attempted to wrap his brain around what he just saw.

And then, when his brain was good and wrapped, when he'd processed that he'd just witnessed Doji going "ooo ooo" like a monkey, that was about the time he started laughing.

And damn, did he ever need it.

"Oook oook, huh? Just like that?" Hell, if she was going to waggle her fingers at the monkey, he was going to have to one-up her and scratch his head while he made those noises. Good, now his armpits. If people thought that his chocobo impression was impressive, they'd clearly never seen Reno do 'monkey.'

Secretly, Yurika was pretty much just a giant dork. Not that she would ever admit as much to anyone at school. Not in a thousand-million years.

Besides, she had an ulterior motive.

She cheered him on, one hand discreetly dipping into her purse and pulling out her phone, flipping it open with a speed born of practice and grinned wickedly.

"Say banana!"

"Wha? BananOHSHIT! Doji, put that away!" And now, the big red ape that was Reno was making a dive for that phone. "You figure you don't got enough blackmail photos on me already? Really?"

Yurika squealed and darted backwards, trying to hold the phone away from him. "Can a girl ever have too many blackmail photos?" she laughed. "Oooo...hey, I might have gotten a good one..."

"Dammit," Reno grumped, and yes, he was giving up on the game already, crossing his arms again and... Well, it was probably safe to call it 'pouting,' yes. "That wasn't even the best I can do. Bad enough you're snappin' photos of me bein' a dick, you couldn't let me warm up a little so I was at least doin' a good job of it?"

Dōjima pouted right back, sticking the phone back in her purse. "I was trying to catch the spontaneity of the moment," she informed him. "Don't be cranky, it was cute!"

"If you really want me to catch your 'dickish' side, you can go back to making monkey noises, and I can take more pictures..."

"Eh, don't bother," Reno decided, pausing a moment to blow a raspberry at the rather amused monkeys before making his way on to the next exhibit. "I'm wearin' the suit and everything, might as well save your drivespace for me doin' my best 'penguin' instead, yo."

Priorities!

"You gonna waddle and quack at them for me?" she asked, skipping after him to catch-up. "I can get video on this thing, you know."

"Eh, we'll see. What kinda booze do they sell at the zoo, anyhow? Might take a few pints, zoto."

Poor Reno. He was going to have to muster up a waddle and some quacking without help, alas.

Dōjima stared.

"They do not sell booze at the zoo," she said slowly, watching him warily. "There are kids here and stuff."

Reno mused on that for a moment. And then grinned and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small flask.

"Well then, good thing I brought my own, yo."

... What?

Dōjima groaned and swatted at him. "Put that away," she hissed, "before you get us tossed out! You couldn't have put it in a water bottle or something like a sane person?"

Reno gave his shoulders a shrug and pocketed it again.

"How was I supposed to know? Drinkin' laws on the mainland are different from the ones on the island, and the ones on the island ain't nothin' like the ones on Gaia, yo."

Drinking laws? On Gaia? That would be the day.

"There better be somethin' around here good to drink, then, 'cause it's been a shitty week, I need it, yo."

... Yes, he'd even settle for soda.

"We'll get some sodas and pour whatever-the-hell you have into it, how's that sound?" she asked, glossing over the 'shitty week' part for the moment. When he wanted to tell her, he'd tell her.

Or she'd get tired of him dancing around the subject and hit him. One of the two.

"Besides, you didn't think my water bottle was full of water, did you?" she teased. "Really, Red, I'm hurt."

"Aw, man. Next time, I'll go with vodka," Reno pouted, shoving his hands in his pockets. "See, you gotta warn me about these things, Doji. I suck at followin' the rules."

Heeey. That thing was making a face at him. Hi, stupid little cute thing!

Reno was maybe a wee bit attention-deficit today.

Just a wee bit.

He could be ADD all he wanted today, that was the entire reason Dōjima had brought him to the zoo - so he could make faces at all the animals.

"Even if I warned you, you wouldn't follow the rules," she pointed out, leaning on the fence to read the little infoboard-thing. "You'd just break them a different way."

"Well, where's the fun in havin' rules in the first place if you're gonna just follow 'em?" Reno was now climbing up the fence himself to get a better look. They were like... elephant pig ugly-nose things!

He wanted one!

"You fall in there and that thing eats you, I'm gonna laugh," Dōjima threatened.

Yeah, so, the sign said they were vegetarians. Reno didn't need to know that.

Reno offered her a wry sort of grin over his shoulder.

"Yeah, well, I need the exercise," he decided. "The only thing that's come close to kickin' my ass in the longest time is the snow that hit the island today. And some flyin' spinny sharp shit, but that's normal."

Well, it was.

"Think they'd put up a decent fight?"

"I'll kick your ass in a game of Scrabble, but only because I'd cheat and use Japanese," Dōjima announced, looking between the tapir and Reno. Hrm.

"I think you could take it, but it might bite off your hair, first."

"Hey, if you wanna cheat and use that wacky-assed Wutai babble of yours, then I'm allowed to spell things however it is I think they sound right," Reno decided, reaching forward with one arm to wave it at the tapir.

The tapir, who clearly dealt with idiots like Reno on a daily basis, snorted and resumed snuffling about in the dirt. Bah. Humans.

"Wrestle starts with an 'r,' right?"

"With a 'w', like 'Wutai' and 'Woo I'm gonna kick your ass,'" she said cheerfully. "You know, I think it's laughing at you."

"I'd love to see it do any better," Reno pouted, jumping back down off the fence. "At least I got a high school education goin' for me, here."

More or less, anyhow.

"Talkin' about- how are you doin' on your magical journey to grad? Any plans afterward?"

No reason.

Dōjima was many things; stupid did not make that list.

"Same way it was going when I started here," she answered, keeping her tone light. Hi, little tapir. "I'm hoping I score a job as a TA or somewhere in town so I can stay for at least part of the summer, and then I'm off to the STN-J. I'll have to head to Japan a few times between now and then; evaluations, apartment hunting, that sort of thing, unless something comes up that Juliano wants me to do."

Reno nodded. Totally casual, sober sort of nod. Cool. Cool.

See? Totally cool.

"Always good to have a plan, yo," he replied, reaching into his pocket and fingering at a mostly-blank business card that had been handed to him a while back. He couldn't help chewing over the notion that passing it on might get in the way of those nice, polished plans. Maybe he'd hang onto it. At least until they talked some more. "Sounds like you got it mostly figured out, huh?"

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