(no subject)

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

Time: August 8, 2000
Place: In the gardens, then the pool room.
Status: Public- Shadow, Pepper, others
Summary: Shadow mopes, then gets invited to play pool.

Shadow went beyond the regular part of the gardens and found a bench secluded off behind several thick rose bushes. He resisted putting his head in his hands, because it seemed too maudlin and cliché, instead leaning forward and putting his elbows on his knees.

He stared morosely at a tree, feeling like shit. A part of him was disappointed in the way he had acted at the bar… but truthfully not a very large part. How else was a man supposed to act when suddenly faced with his wife’s murderer?

His thoughts drifted to another time when he’d been reduced to such rage for Laura. This one had ended better than that… the others had fought back physically (and one with a knife) and hadn’t had a small pregnant woman to come to their rescue. Shadow had paid the price for that… the price now was at once much less and yet, in a way, heavier.

He missed Laura. He missed the life they had had together before the robbery and he missed, too, his dreams in prison, when he had known that she was waiting for him.

He missed his rock solid belief in her love.

No. He wasn’t going to let anger with Loki ruin the peace he had made with that, and he wasn’t going to sully his memories of Laura with jealousy. He had forgiven her. She had loved him. She would have been there for him when he came home- she’d told him that she had broken it off. It had just been a fling. She had needed someone. She’d been alone and lonesome.

You were alone too, a small voice whispered in his mind. Shadow quashed the thought.

Comments

[playswithboys.livejournal.com]

Pepper applauded appropriately after the trick was done. She'd seen that one a few times, but never so well performed. She really wasn't sure where the coin had gone that time around. Impressive. "Ah, so you are a wizard. I might have known..." She snatched the coin from him and turned it over in her hands a few times.

"Would you be willing to teach that to me sometime?" she asked as they started walking again, heading toward the front door.

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

Shadow grinned shyly at the applause, secretly proud to be able to impress someone with his tricks.

"Sure, I could teach you," he told her, reaching forward to open the door for her. "I'm still learning myself, from books mostly, and sometimes I try to make up my own."

He let her lead the way, as he hadn't been down to the basement yet.

[playswithboys.livejournal.com]

Pepper is sort of surprised when he opens the door for her. First of all because she's not used to men doing things like that for her, being such a tomboy through her youth, and secondly because she was constantly surprised at how much of a gentleman Shadow was. She just wouldn't have figured a big lumbering guy like him for that kind of behavior. "Thanks," she said ducking inside, and waiting for him to follow.

"So that's why you worked in a library: all the coin trick books," she joked on her way through the lobby, finally reaching the staircase further back that led to the basment. "But you makin' up your own? That's fantastic! So then we'll have to pick some time during the week where you can teach me. That sounds like it'd be brilliant."

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

"You've found me out," Shadow answered, chuckling. "I needed to work there so that I could have them long enough to actually learn anything."

They made their way down to the basement and found not only a very nice pool table with a good selection of cues and a comfortable looking couch but a mini-bar as well. Shadow went looking for a beer.

"Can I pour you anything?" he asked Pippin.

[playswithboys.livejournal.com]

Pepper walked over to the rack and picked a pool cue, grabbing some blue chalk from the edge of the billiard table while Shadow went over to the mini-bar. "Still actin' the bartender, even when you're off duty, eh? All right then..." She thought for a moment, then told him, "Well, seeing as you are the bartender, I bet you usually pick the right drinks for people. Got that special sixth sense? You pick it." Pepper liked letting people chose drinks for her a lot. It let her try new things.

She started pulling all the balls out of the pockets and sending them to one end of the table so she could set them up. "You want to break, or should I?"

((edited pour vous, my dear ;D))

[classic-palm.livejournal.com]

“Well, normally people just tell me what they want...” Shadow joked, chuckling. He took two glasses from the shelf and considered the fairly impressive array of alcoholic beverages before him, glancing at the red-haired, freckled girl at the pool table before making his choice.

In response to Pippin’s question he pulled out his handy 2p coin again and held it up. "Call it," he told her. "Winner breaks."

He flipped the coin.

[playswithboys.livejournal.com]

She grinned. "Well, isn't that borin'. Good thing I usually dun't know what I want, then. More fun for you." Especially when she was little. She'd been that kid who always changed her mind about what she wanted for dinner five times.

"Tails," she said automatically. It was her favorite side to call, she never knew why.