Who: Neena and Yondu What: Rogue Mistletoe! Also Yondu is blue, oops. When: Mid December, during the Mistletoe shenanigans. Where: Neena’s Bar, The Inferno Warnings: Adult, for cursing and alcohol. Status: Complete!
Yondu opened the door and stepped into the Inferno already annoyed at his week, and it was only Wednesday. The bounties had been few and he'd been outsmarted by one that, despite the speed of his Yaka arrow, Yondu couldn't quite pin down. His quarry eventually got away, no thanks in small part to his backup arriving with some serious firepower. Yondu wasn't quite as perfect as he was in the dreams - but he was damn close. He'd have to practice more. Tomorrow. Today was for drinking.
He snarled at a patron who sat at the bar who was giving him a dirty look. Sure Yondu wasn't dressed all neat and proper like this guy was - slim Jim pants, a thrift store 80s t-shirt, and a flannel shirt he was sure the Brawny Towel guy wanted back - but he knew Neena didn't kick him out for being rough around the edges, and he appreciated that. “Whatcha lookin’ at, boy? Ain't never seen no bounty Hunter b’fore?” And he leaned in and got in his face just to watch the man squirm. Yondu snickered and sauntered towards the rear end of the bar, grateful 'his’ stool was free. He sat down, flicking out the long Ravager jacket he wore so he wouldn't sit on it.
“Evenin’, darlin’.” He said to Neena, his Southern drawl cutting off the last consonants of each word. “Miss me?” He grinned, grateful his image inducer hid his true visage - he had dagger like teeth and blue skin in reality, and when he smiled it was rather intimidating.
"You're lookin' particularly snarly today, Yondu," Neena replied, grinning at him. The guy down the bar looked like he'd nearly peed himself, and the idea amused her - potential mess aside. She poured him the usual and slid it over to him, glad to see a friendly face. "I think that guy's gonna leave a trail on the floor when he leaves tonight. I love it when you scare the shit out of people. No, seriously! It makes my day. And I did miss you!"
Her week had been a shit show of dreams or memories of a past life or whatever the fuck people were calling them. Strange mutant crap and bad scientists poking at her was enough to make her skin crawl. But having some of her regulars in the bar always made everything better. "You got a good story for me today?"
“I'll take that as a compliment,” he smirked, nodding a thank you for the drink before downing the shot of whiskey. He raised an eyebrow at Neena when she showed appreciation for his barking at the Brawny Towel Hipster, but saw she really meant it and grinned. “Glad I could be of service,” and he slid the glass towards her for a refill.
Sighing, Yondu ran a hand over his nearly bald head. Well, technically it was bald but the image inducer Doug had hooked him up with made it look like he had a really close shave - the kind of “high and tight” he used to wear in the Marines. “Sorry, didn't catch 'em today. Bastard got away. Even with the arrow.” He muttered the last part, forgetting he'd never told her about it. He'd posted it on the Network but he had no idea if she'd seen any of them.
"I meant it like one," Neena quickly replied, while pouring him a refill. She slid the glass back to him and tried not to look too disappointed that he hadn't caught his prey that day. Yondu had some of the best bounty hunting stories, so far he was always getting up to all kinds of adventures. But the mention of the arrow caught her ears, and she arched a brow at him.
"What's this about an arrow? Are you taking up archery now? I guess that would add to the challenge of it, but I prefer my trusty old pistol, personally. Or, I guess, a taser. When you can't leave any marks." She hated when you weren't allowed to leave any marks. Some people deserved to be shot in the knee.
Shit. Now he had to explain the arrow. Hopefully he'd keep his mouth shut about his appearance at least. Dream Yondu liked to shoot his mouth off, even if he did so selectively (it was how he was able to keep his men in line, balancing between boasting and death threats) but here in this world Yondu was mostly a quiet man. Unless of course he was lit from too much booze.
He chuckled. “No, darlin’, I ain't no archer.” He shifted and reached down, procuring the Yaka arrow from his holster at his hip. Holding it up between them he said, “A little gift from the dreams.” The arrow was nearly the size of a traditional one, but was metal with clear parts. The arrow head was practically a work of art. It was definitely something technological, but while inert it was just something cool to look at.
It was definitely something cool to look at. At the heart, Neena was a gigantic weapons geek. She wasn't one to flail over cool looking things, but she definitely stopped what she was doing to bend down and give it a once over. The arrow didn't look like any arrow she'd seen before. She wanted to take it in her hands, poke it with a finger, but she knew better than to do both. "That is... honest to god the coolest thing in this bar right now. And that's saying something, considering I go into work packing my coolest pistol every day and you're wearing that cool as hell trenchcoat."
Neena tilted her head to one side and restrained her hands from moving towards the thing by placing them flat on top of her bar. "So these dreams give you presents. Okay. But how do you USE that thing? I don't see a bow anywhere around."
Yondu had started to get to know Neena every time he dropped by the Inferno. They talked shop lots (who was the better shot, who had the better chase story, etc.) so he knew she was a woman who loved her guns. So he was half surprised she would be interested in an arrow; he could tell by the hungry curiosity in her eyes she wanted to really check the thing out.
He chuckled at the compliment. “Why thank you, Neena.” He smirked and held it out to her. “You can touch it, it don't bite. I can't exactly show you how it works here, it's too...well, crazy soundin’ to explain. Might make the Hipster shit himself to boot. You got someplace a little more private?” He figured what the hell. She was the first person to be thoroughly impressed by it, it'd be kind of nice to show off.
"Would it be so bad if that hipster shit his pants?" It was a valid question in Neena's book. The kid was so uptight that a good shit couldn't really do any harm in her opinion.
She glanced around the bar. It wasn't the busiest night in history and she had plenty of staff. There probably wasn't any need to watch everyone in it like a hawk, and besides? She really, really wanted to watch that thing in action. How did it work? What was its accuracy like? Bows worked completely different than pistols. Neena'd tried a crossbow a few times and she still couldn't hit anything with it. "Fuck it, you know what? Come with me."
Motioning with her hand, she headed down the bar and opened a door that lead into the back. "Come through here, I have a little loading area out back, kind of a private parking lot."
Yondu followed her after downing his second shot. “Ooh, behind the scenes tour, huh? Lucky me.” He joked. Once they were out back, he glanced over his shoulder a moment to make sure no one was coming before looking back at Neena. Stepping forward he said, “Hold out your hand.” He held out the arrow, motioning that he wanted her to hold it.
Neena's eyebrows rose, and she held her hand out. "Are you really gonna let me hold it?" She'd never have thought he'd let the fancy arrow out of his own hands, and felt extremely honored to get this chance. Hopefully she didn't screw it up by fumbling the thing and dropping it into the snow.
Though thankfully, it wasn't really snowing heavily that night.
Yondu chuckled, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he did. “I trust you. You pour my whiskey, after all.” Taking a step back, he rolled his neck and shook out his shoulders, as if somehow he needed to for the job. He didn’t, of course, but when he summoned the arrow, it was always a bit of a light show.
Pursing his lips, he whistled, and the arrow glowed red at the neck and along the rear where traditionally feathers would be, and at the back end tip. It levitated immediately but gracefully, lifting from Nina’s hands at first, then twirling in the air like a dancer, all while Yondu’s whistle warbled low.
Then he changed his pitch and he whistled sharply, and the arrow shot from Neena’s hands and out into the falling snow, whipping around in quick arcs and turns, a red trail of light left in its wake that faded slowly. Yondu let it fly high and low, making breakneck turns with it before whistling it back into the holster at his hip.
“That’s how it works.” he said proudly, hands on hips. “Ain’t no bow. Just a whistle.” And his fin, but he was leaving that part out since Neena couldn’t see that. “And this baby can pierce just about anything. In the dreams it flew straight through hulls of ships with metal several inches thick - went through ‘em like butter.”
Neena had made one half-hearted attempt to grab the arrow back out of the air when it levitated out out of her hand. But then it twirled and shot off, and she dropped her hands to her sides and stared. Her eyebrows raised again, and she followed the arrow's path with widened eyes. There was nothing she could see that made the arrow 'go', and she had no idea how anyone could watch the light show she'd just been privy to and not be impressed.
Whatever made the arrow fly, it was clear that Yondu had fine tuned, expert control over it. She was still blinking her eyes when he finally spoke, explaining how it worked.
"Jesus..." She finally replied, then let out a low whistle of her own. She didn't expect that to make the arrow fly, she was simply that impressed.
It was an incredibly compelling feeling, the level of impressed with him and his arrow that she was. Neena found herself walking closer to him, and closer, until she was directly right up in his personal space. One of her arms draped over his shoulder, in a way that was more familiar than she would ever be with her other bar regulars, but Yondu was special. Very special. He really did deserve a kiss for showing off like that, she decided.
She had no idea that there was a sprig of evil mistletoe hanging over them, or that compelling people to kiss each other was a thing Orange County even did. All she knew was that she needed one, desperately, and before he could argue about her lips being so close by, she pressed hers right up against his. Neena was no slouch when it came to kissing people, and when she decided to do it she fully committed. Yondu was getting treated to the best kiss she could manage, and she really hoped he kissed back.
Okay, so Yondu had hoped Neena would be impressed, and her expression clearly showed it. But what he hadn't expected was her follow up look, one he'd seen countless female companions in the dreams wear in his presence.
“Uh, okay, I'm gonna take it you're impressed...” and before he could say anything further Neena’s arm was slung over his shoulder and he felt her fingers along the back of his neck. A small thrill went through him then - in this life Yondu hadn't been in a position like this for a damned long time. “Um...I guess now would be a good time to ask if maybe those shots are on the house?” She was looking into his eyes with a hungry need.
And then it happened. Her lips were pressed against his and without thinking Yondu's hands went to her waist, pulling her close against him. He couldn't describe the overwhelming feeling he suddenly had, but he definitely didn't want it to stop. She was appreciating him for being a badass and he felt the same way about her; who didn't love a gun toting, weapons enthusiastic bar tender who happened to be hot? He returned the kiss hungrily, deepening it while wrapping his arms around her, vaguely aware of the snow falling softly around them, but completely ignorant of the magical mistletoe floating above.
Yondu lost track of time. When they both came up for air and the consuming desire started to fade he wondered briefly: had that kiss lasted a moment? A minute? A few minutes?
“Well that was um...wow.” And he grinned like an idiot, like some high schooler who'd just been kissed for the first time. Because damn, Neena was a helluva kisser. With the fading of the mistletoe effect another thing had suddenly vanished, however: Yondu's mirage. His image inducer had suddenly glitched and he was full alien before Neena: blue from head to toe in his human clothes and Ravager jacket, red eyes, a short red fin on the top of his head to match, the same stubble on his face, and the gnarliest teeth imaginable. And he didn't even know it. “You treat all your favorite customers this way or am I just special?” He joked. The feeling of how awkward this moment had been hadn't quite hit him yet, and part of that might have been the two shots of whiskey on an empty stomach.
It had been a hell of a kiss, the kind where someone could easily lose an hour, and Neena felt extremely dizzy as she pulled away. She couldn't quite brain the words to answer him about the free shots or anything else, and she let out a half-giggle snorting noise before really taking a look at him.
Him, in all of his... blue... glory? Neena blinked her eyes a few times, slowly. "OKay I know it's been awhile since I kissed someone like that and maybe it's just that we kissed so long you went cyanotic from... the top down..."
Neena wasn't sure if finding out about Aria being a blue alien made this easier or more difficult to process. Yondu was definitely blue, that was for sure. There was no denying the blueness. It was right there. One of her hands ran up into her hair and tugged just slightly. "Do you KNOW that you're blue? Because you are really, really blue. And there's a tiny mohawk deal going on. That's not hair. Jesus, am I hallucinating now?"
”What?!” Yondu said in his raspy voice, and took a look at his hands. They were Smurf blue. “Aw shit! What’n’the hell..” Cussing under his breath he swatted at and fiddled with the image inducer on his wrist that had been hidden behind the sleeve of his coat. For an instance the human hologram flickered back into place but then vanished entirely.
Yondu sighed (or was it a growl?) and looked over at Neena apologetically, insofar as much as his fierce visage would allow. “Now I know this is probably freakin’ you out a bit,” though really she was taking it better than he expected anyone to, “But thanks to the dreams I turned into an alien. Dream me is a blue alien. Some kid on the network built me this here image thingie so that I could look human and still hold down a job.”
"So... Okay..." Neena took a deep breath, and then let it out. She'd noticed while Yondu had his mouth open to speak that his teeth looked like a bunch of tiny thorns, and she ran a hand along her lips to check for marks. "... That must make necking people kind of interesting?"
Or maybe where he was from in the dreams, all the girls just had tougher skin? Would getting bit like that be hot or just scary? Neena couldn't decide, and she kind of hated that these were always the questions that immediately came to mind when this sort of stuff happened. "... No hey... I'm fine, you've been a blue alien guy in my bar this whole time. Just... sitting there, knowing you were a blue alien. But that's probably self defense. There's no knowing what happens when you tell your bartender that you're actually blue..."
She was mostly mumbling to herself at that point.
Yondu had to take a moment when she made the remark about necking, and had to chuckle, his eyes crinkling at the corners the same it had when he was human. “I wouldn't know. Not here anyways. In the dreams all the ladies I've been with weren't human.” Heck, there was a place in the dreams that was literally a pleasure planet with sex droids, so. He'd also almost said 'Terran’, the word everyone from the dreams used to refer to people from Earth. It was a habit that was growing on him thanks to the dreams.
As Neena started babbling, Yondu took a step forward, extending a hand. “There ain't no way you'd've believed me if I told you. And if I rolled up as is fairly certain you'd think I was some sort of crazy fella.”
He took a breath and sighed, running a hand over his red, flat fin. “I should probably go, I gotta get a hold of that kid to fix this thing.” He was also starting to feel a bit bad about not telling Neena about all this, and then up and kissing her. Granted, it really felt like something had compelled him to, and wondered if the OC was messing with them again.
Despite everything, Neena hadn't minded the kiss. It definitely felt as if there'd been a strong compulsion to do it, but she had no idea where that had come from and she didn't mind it.
She was still stuck in her own thoughts when Yondu extended his hand, a mixture of good ones and bad ones, but she came back to herself as she noticed him fidgeting and talking about leaving. "Yeah... no, you're probably right. Look, Yondu..."
Neena trailed off, unable to quite find the words she was looking for, and then finally indicated a gate attached to the nearby fence. "Sure, you should probably leave through there. That way you're not walking through the bar like that. It's not- It's for your own protection. Or maybe the protection of anyone who tries to fuck with you. I don't need a bar fight on my hands."
He’d raised an eyebrow waiting for her to finish her sentence, but when Neena trailed off into an awkward silence he knew it was definitely time to go. He nodded as she pointed at the gate he could just see through the falling snow.
Yondu chuckled, pointy teeth clearly visible as he did so. “Yeah, I don’t think the hipster would last long anyways.” He lingered a moment longer, looking at Neena as if perhaps he wouldn’t ever come back, which, a part of him was considering doing - especially if the image inducer couldn’t get fixed anytime soon.
Then he remembered the drinks. He procured his wallet out of his Ravager coat and pulled a well worn twenty out of his equally as aged wallet. “For the drinks.” And he took her hand and put the bill in it before starting for the gate. “It was some damned fine whiskey, Neena. Thanks.” And he headed out into the snow, his Ravager swagger in full form. He extended a hand up in a goodbye without looking behind him and headed out of the gate, glad the snow and darkness hid the frustration on his face along with most of his monstrous appearance.