Leon Orcot (under_arrest) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-12-31 20:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !partner thread, leon orcot, riza hawkeye |
Who: Riza and Leon
When: Mid December
Where: Baxters Bakery
What: Friends having a chat
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete
Riza had suggested meeting up for a coffee because she wanted to see how Leon was getting on now that his brother had returned to his parents. And she knew that if they were at the shooting range they’d get distracted. Besides it was nearly Christmas and Riza was partial to the coffees and cookies they had at Baxter’s.
Entering the bakery she found a table and sat deciding they could order once he arrived, she was sure Izzy wouldn’t mind coming over to take their orders. She knew the girl had spotted her when she came in.
Leon’s habits before Chris had come along had consisted almost entirely of working and drinking (usually by himself, sometimes with coworkers or at a bar). Since Chris had come around, Leon had found himself with a bit more of a social life, with a bigger, closer circle of friends than he’d had before.
Now that Chris was gone, Leon mostly reverted back to work, come home, drink and work, and pass out, but it was good to shake things up sometimes. Even if he completely loathed the weather they were getting.
“Hey, Riza,” Leon said. He sat across from her, and started taking off his winter clothes. A heavy winter jacket, a toque, a scarf, his gloves. Some people would claim it wasn’t that cold, but Leon had spent his whole life in Southern California and he was pretty sure every time he stepped outside he was going to freeze to death.
Or he was just over dramatic. One of the two.
“Hey” she greeted, smiling a little as he began to remove his outer clothing before she could say anything though a wolf whistle from Izzy filled the air as she came to take their orders it was followed by a wink and a chuckle before she went away again to get their drinks.
“Finding it a little cold are you?” she asked him, “I take it you aren’t a fan of the snow?”
Leon flushed a little at the wolf whistle, though he did turn to wave at Baxter’s kind of cute barista. “If I was a fan of the snow I’d move up to that frozen wasteland known as Canada,” Leon grumbled. He frowned thoughtfully. “Though, I hear they’re having a warm winter because of that El Nino. Maybe that would be the lesser of two evils.”
Riza couldn’t help chuckling a little bit as he blushed and then began moaning about the weather. “It won’t last, from what I hear this sort of thing happens every now and then. Unusual weather and strange things I mean” while she wasn’t a fan of the cold it didn’t bother her too much. “You get too cold stop by my shop, I have heaters out the back for cold sensitive plants”
“Yeah, it’s snowed the last couple of years,” Leon sighed. “I thought it was some climate change bullshit for a while there, but word on the street is it’s because of everyone’s favourite website.” The sarcasm practically dripped off his voice. When the network wasn’t giving him strange dreams, it was giving him tits or trying to freeze him to death. He didn’t think he’d ever run into anything that annoyed him half as much as D did in the dreams, but it seemed like the Network was determined to take D’s place.
“Climate change can only explain so much” Riza said, “But it’s not always so bad, it gives us some good things” Though Riza had been lucky in that so far she’d escaped the less appealing things the county had thrown at people.
There was a time when Leon would have vehemently declared that there was no good that had come out of the network, but he wasn’t so sure about that anymore. Apart from the friends he had made on it, he couldn’t even complain much about his dreams anymore.
Well, okay, that was a lie. He could complain about his dreams, and D in particular, until he was blue in the face, but he was a little quicker to smile the days after he had dreamed. “Maybe if you squint,” he snorted instead. “I guess it could be worse, but I’d rather do without the randomly being turned into women or cowboys.”
“Well yeah I don’t think anybody particularly wanted those things” Riza said, but that was just how this place was. After all she wouldn’t have ever chosen to have her nephew stab his therapist in the shoulder, but it had happened thanks to the crazy things that was thrown at them.
“But they are sent to try us as they say and I think we have the ability to handle them”
“That’s a rather optimistic way of looking at things,” Leon said, smiling a little. “I guess it’s true though. Everyone seems to be sticking around even with all the bullshit.” The Orange County was Leon’s home. It was where he had grown up, where he worked, where he planned on dying. But sometimes he had trouble figuring out why some of the others, especially those who had just moved there, stuck around.
“How else can we look at it?” she asked, “We all have lives and businesses here we can’t go giving up just because a few strange things happen and we dream of other lives” Most people who moved there did so because of work or school so it wasn’t always easy to simply move away again.
“A few strange things,” Leon scoffed. “That’s the understatement of the century.” She was right, of course. Leon hadn’t even had many close personal ties when he had first started dreaming - apart from his brother, which was a temporary arrangement - he didn’t have any family in the Orange County, and he hadn’t really had any close friends back then. “How’re your nephews doing, by the way?”
“Understatement or not we’re both still here” Riza said refusing to let him see everything as negative. “They’re good. Al is always steady but currently I think even Ed is settling down more. I hope so anyway, I trust that they aren’t hiding anything major from me”
“They’re teenagers,” Leon laughed. “They’re definitely hiding something major from you. Or, at least something that teenagers think of as major.” It hadn’t been so long ago that Leon was running around hiding things like girlfriends and crummy math grades from his parents. “I’m glad to hear that they’re doing alright though.”
“Well as long as it’s teenage major and not major major I will hopefully be able to handle it” Riza said, though she wasn’t truly as confident in her parenting skills as she projected. It hadn’t ever been something she thought she would experience but she couldn’t let the memory of her sister down. “Are you doing alright?” she asked him now he was on his own again.
“Dandy,” Leon said. “It’s a little quiet sometimes and I’m not exactly used to that just yet, but it’s good getting back into my old routine.” Of working, drinking, and sleeping. It felt more lonely now than before Chris had come, which was strange because with all the new friends he’d made, by rights he should feel less lonely, but he knew the feeling would pass eventually. “I can barely take care of myself, so it’s kind of nice not needing to worry about taking care of a child on top of that.”
“Well if it ever gets too quiet you are always welcome at ours” Riza offered, “I’m not the greatest cook but it’s passable. Don’t listen to Ed he just has a vendetta against vegetables” she added with a grin. She thought he would get used to a new routine again just as he had when Chris had arrived but she didn’t like the thought of him being lonely so wanted him to know he did have somewhere to go should he want it.
“Sounds like Ed and I are on the same page,” Leon said, breaking out into a bit of a smile. “I’m not much one for rabbit food myself.” Though, D had fed him some remarkably good vegetarian dishes in the dreams a couple of times. Leon hadn’t even realized what he was eating wasn’t meat until D and the restaurant owner had told him. “I’d love to come over for dinner sometime. I’d invite you over to mine sometime, but the only food I’m actually good at cooking is barbeque.”
Riza laughed, “I should have guessed. Well no encouraging him, he’s awkward enough as it is” she warned him, “You’re welcome anytime. And don’t knock a barbeque, lots of people don’t have that skill you know”
“Hey, I’ve got this not-quite-horrible role model thing pretty much down since Chris came,” Leon grinned. “I’ll make sure to eat all my peas and carrots, no worries there.” He couldn’t help but snort at her next comment. “No kidding. I’ve been to some downright horrible barbeques in my day. You’d be surprised at how many cops don’t actually know how to work a grill.” He and a couple of the other cops who actually knew how to cook a burger had learned a few years ago that they had to do the cooking at the cop shop bbqs if they actually expected to eat some good meat.
“Thank you, it's appreciated” Riza said with a grin, not that she'd actually been worried. Nodding she hummed her agreement, “I can imagine. The regiment I was in was a little like that, they could hit dead centre of a target from nearly a mile away but knowing how long to leave a burger on a grill seemed beyond them” she smiled fondly at the memory though.
Leon snorted. “Well, I guess we can’t all make great burgers. Which is a shame, given that burgers are the greatest American invention of all time.” As far as food went, there really wasn’t anything better than biting into a nice, juicy burger with all the extras.
“That I kind of have to agree with” Riza admitted, there was just something about a well done burger that you couldn’t beat and when done on the barbeque it was even better. “But we’ll see what else I can rustle up to tempt you” she grinned.
“I’m a simple man, Riza,” Leon said. “It’s not that hard to find food that’ll tempt me.” He had somewhat of an aversion to sweets - they’d never been high on his palate, and his dreams had soured him to them even more - but Riza didn’t seem the type of person to serve cakes and pudding for supper in lieu of real food. She wasn’t D, after all. “If you guys’ve got a back yard, maybe I can come by and grill some steaks up or something. After this snow fucks off.”
Riza definitely believed in real food, she liked a sweet treat every now and then but it couldn’t beat a good meal. “We have a flourishing back yard, with a pretty decent grill too. You’d be more than welcome to use it. After the snow disappears” she agreed with a grin. She had to admit she wasn’t a fan of the cold weather either.
“It’s too bad Chris is home. He’d probably enjoy something like that.” He hadn’t meant to think of Chris, but a backyard cookout was the type of thing Chris would enjoy, even if he was a few years younger than Riza’s teenagers. He shook his head a little. “But it’ll be a good time regardless. You can cook the rabbit food and I’ll take care of the real food.”