Lil and Cammie

[x-diamondlil.livejournal.com]

A giant and a scorpion walk into a bar...


The bar was filled with bikers, leather and the smell of old beer and cheap cigarettes that no one ever quite put out. Cammie stopped in the door and took a deep breath. Sure she wasn’t three hundred pounds, sweaty and otherwise huge and disgusting but she felt like she fit in here.

“Ahh, the smell of a good time. You smell that Giganta? That’s a good smell,” Cammie said. It was also the smell of free cash and a good fight. It had only taken the cab an hour to get them here.

"How the fuck did you find this place?" Lil asked, green eyes raking the room. Not that she had a problem with the bar - she'd worked in worse - but when Cammie had suggested a night of alcohol pounding, the giantess hadn't expected to end up in a pit. Dressed in a pair of tight denim with a dark purple, midriff-bearing halter beneath her leather jacket, she fit into the crowd... or would if she didn't stand inches above most of the men in the room. The blonde stared one of the bikers down as she started toward two empty stools and jerked her head for Cammie to follow.

“Would you believe the yellow pages?” Cammie said, following. She did have a fake ID for bars and the like. Not that she felt she needed one. She didn’t get drunk, but she could taste the bite on the liquor, even if the other flavors never came through quite right. So she liked that much about it. “Actually, I have been to New York before. It was just years ago,” Cammie said. “I’ve been just about everywhere really. Well, everywhere in the States and Canada.”

Lil raised a brow at the younger woman. She was going to get her ass handed to her if anyone ever found out about their trip even if Cammie was in no danger. "The yellow pages?" she snorted then gave a nod to the tender. "Any kinda whiskey. Straight up."

“You can find anything in the yellow pages. Don’t you watch those commercials?” Cammie asked, eying the patrons more than what was behind the bar. “I’ll just have what she’s having,” Cammie said cheerfully and then said quietly to Lil, “You may want to check your glass when you get it, I don’t think they wash the dishes here.”

The taller woman continued to wrinkle her nose. Okay, maybe the places she worked hadn't been this bad. "I'll do that," Lil promised with a half smirk. For as bad as a place as it was, the company - at least, the company she'd come with - was decent and the green-haired girl was doing a good job of putting her out of her bad mood. "You see any interesting characters around? Besides us."

“Generally speaking I think we’re the most interesting peeps here,” Cammie said looking around and did it without looking too conspicuous. “I see a few easy marks. Both for picking or starting something,” she said simply. “We could even make it a joke. Two mutants walk into a bar… Though the version I’ve always liked best,” she said as the whiskey and the shot glasses showed up, “Is ‘two men walked into a bar. You think one of them woulda seen it.”

"Don't suppose the crowd here'd take well to Muties," Lil growled under her breath to her companion. "Don't seem mind the tits though." There was a decent mix of looks shot in their direction running the gamut from lust to disgust. "Dunno if I'm up to smacking anyone around for no reason yet."

Cammie took her shot without even flinching, “Don’t worry. Five minutes and they’ll give us a reason and I’ll be up a few dollars. So maybe I’ll even be able to pay for the drinks,” if they didn’t take out the bar tender too. Some places those guys fought just as hard as the rabble.

She looked back over her shoulder, sure her clothes weren’t meant for showing off her form, but yeah there were guys looking. Just no guys she’d be interested in killing some time with nakedly. Oh, she was just itching for this. “Or I can go out there and start something and take the waiting time down to two minutes.”

Throwing back her own drink, Lil motioned for another. "Not that I don't appreciate it, but I'd rather not get arrested and then deported for starting a bar brawl. They give us a reason, you bet your ass I'm in but we aren't gonna be the first to throw a punch, got it?" While she'd brought an underage girl to a bar but the giantess had to draw a line somewhere. Scott would not be happy if he had to bail them out of jail.

“Fair enough. But I think the guys that are glaring at us aren’t going to let us drink in peace,” Cammie said, picking something unidentifiable off the bar and sticking it into her mouth. “Trust me, you won’t get arrested and deported. Cops show up, I know at least two back doors out of this place,” she had looked for them when they had come in. “Besides, something tells me this isn’t the type of place where they call the cops,” Cammie said smiling and getting another shot of her own. She could drink all night and all day and not even feel so much as buzzed.

"Well, when one of them swings or makes a grab for one of our tits, then we'll pound them." It wasn't the cops she was afraid of; it was Summers. He found out about this, her ass was gonna be on a plane back to Canada which meant she'd have to face not only Maddy but Heather and Mac as well. Still, Lil missed the action of the bar scene. Maybe a brawl wouldn't be so bad.

“Shouldn’t be too long,” Cammie promised. Getting Lil deported was the last thing on her mind. As was getting Lil in trouble. This was about getting Lil something to punch. And getting her something she could hit that would stay down. Some practical use of her new training. Cammie downed another shot as a guy about three times her size, but not anywhere near as tall as Lil walked up and leaned against the bar.

“You girls,” it came out slurred, “don’t belong here.”

“Wow, that’s the most unoriginal line I’ve ever heard.”

"Also one of the rudest," Lil added, tossing back her shot then slamming the glass upside down on the bartop. "Where is it we do belong, sweetcheeks?" she asked the man with a dangerous smirk.

Oh, here it is, Cammie thought grinning brightly ear to ear and making contact with big tall and ugly. “’Freak show,” he said and she grinned wider.

Cammie looked back at Lil, “Oh, can I? Please? Or should you?”

"We'll teach him some manners in a minute, sweetie," the giantess chuckled as she leaned back against the bar, still eying the man. "You don't get outta your trailer park a lot, do you? We're hardly freaks. A tall blonde and a girl who's a little too fond of the color green?" Lil clicked her tongue and shook her head.

“So fond of it that she dyes ‘er fingers?” the man slurred. Cammie could smell the booze on his breath but didn’t inch back at all. She was gauging how much force she could put into a punch from this distance.

“Yeah, slave to fashion, don’t ya know. All the cool kids are doing it,” she said happily. “Or you could be right. Either way.”

"Could be. We could be freaks. Or she could just have a fetish for bodypaint," Lil said with a shrug then started cracking her knuckles. "Either way, you sure you're man enough to handle the both of us? Two women at one time seems awfully ambitious of you."

“Or, you know that edible latex stuff,” Cammie said grinning at the guy. “But say you’re right and I am a freak, I’ll repeat what my friend said, you really think you can take us?”

The drunk looked back and forth, and Cammie could almost hear what he was thinking. She was in this situation so many times. Sure, Lil was tall, but tall people happened. And yeah, Cammie was obvious about it tonight but she was tiny and defenseless. And he had buddies to back him up if the other looks were any indication.

“Yeah. Yeah I can. You’re just a coupola girls.”

Lil's eyes went wide with amusement and feigned shock. "Did you know that, Cammie? That we're just a coupla girls? Damn. I wish people would tell me these things beforehand. Oh, well." Golden hair swung back and forth before the Canadian gave an exaggerated sigh then turned and punched the drunk with a powerful right cross to the chin.

The drunk was totally human and crumpled to the ground, this of course got his friends going. Cammie happily slid off her bar stool, “Yeah, imagine that. I’ve always wanted to be a coupla girls,” she said happily. Hitting the first of the bikers to reach them. Drunk guys were great. They never seemed to get that you could floor their buddies in a hit or two.

"Ain't so bad," the taller woman agreed, smiling at the man on the floor. With her back turned Lil didn't see his buddy pick up the stool behind her. Not that mattered. When the biker swung his weapon into her back, Lil barely flinched but it got her attention. "That's really the best you can do?" she laughed. One arm shot out and she grabbed the guy by the collar to haul him closer with feet dangling off the ground. "Ain't nice to hit a lady. Not smart either, especially when she can hit you back twice as hard."

“Who said these guys were smart?” Cammie said, from the center of quite a few of them. The bartender just looked on, this must’ve been normal. Well, except for the part where the bikers were getting their asses kicked. She ducked a swing from another biker and grabbed one, a younger one, by the chains on his leather jacket, pull him in close enough to touch.

The guy Lil was holding stammered, “What the fuck… you ain’t a lady…”

"Also dumb to insult a lady when she's handing you your ass," Lil told him with a smirk before tossing him over the bar. "Idiots. Are men all this dumb?" she asked to no one in particular as she grabbed a bottle of beer, took a swig then broke it over a fourth drunk's head.

“All the men I’ve met,” Cammie said brightly. With the exception of maybe one or two. Of course, the one guy she had thought was worth more than men in general had died. That thought soured her mood and she took it out on the crowd around her, a quickly thinning crowd, with her powers. People were either writhing in pain after she hit them or all out vomiting.

Cammie, dealing with her group of guys, barely caught the sight of one guy rushing Lil with a knife. She wasn’t worried that it would hurt Lil, but she felt obligated to warn the idiot, “Hey fucker, that’s a bad idea!”

With an almost feline grace - more panther than housecat - Lil spun into a low crouch as she heard Cammie's shout. "Oooh. Bringing out the hardware. Too bad your brain ain't as sharp as your blade," she snarked, wiggling her fingers to beckon him closer. Lil'd barely broken a sweat and her smile hadn't faded at all; maybe Cammie had been right - all she needed was a night of smashing people instead of things.

The man rushed Lil. As far as he concerned the knife would work out better than his friend’s chair and he lunged. One of these two at least was going to bleed.

Shaking her head again, Lil took a quick step to the side to dodge while grabbing his wrist then twisting it behind his back in one fluid move. "You put a hole in my jacket and I'm gonna get pissed," she growled, adding more pressure to his arm. Green eyes flicked to Cammie. "How you doing?"

The other green-eyed girl was buried in a pile of bikers, but grinning. Well, by pile four or five of them with a few more looking at her warily and the rest of the bar not caring. “I’m doing great. I’d offer to help, but I think you got it!”

“Augh, lemme go!” The guy Lil was holding on to was swearing and trying to get free, dropping the knife in his struggles. No one had pulled guns yet, but Cammie just credited that to them not having the time.

"But you're the one who asked for this dance," Lil purred in his ear, kicking the knife away from his feet. "Tell you what; I'll go easy on you though. Might only cut off one of your balls." A dark chuckle and she sent him flying over the bar, crashing into his friend who was just staggering to his feet again and sent them both to the floor. "You don't mind if I cut in, do you, Cam?"

“Oh, go for it,” Cammie said, “There’s plenty here for both of us,” she chirped in the middle of a crowd. She may have made sure someone’s thrown drink hit another group of people.

Because more people was great. She was having a fun time, “Might as well clear ‘em all out.”

The Amazon surveyed the scene, Cammie vs. The Men in an all out brawl, then gave a one-shouldered shrug before jumping in with a wide smile. Much better than sitting back at the mansion, trying to think her problems out. Cracking skulls was a wonderful distraction.

----------

The air had the nighttime bite in it as Cammie and Lil waited for the cab on a bench a bit away from the bar. Cammie was grinning, lounging back in the wooden and uncomfortable seat and was scuffed up. She, after all, wasn’t invulnerable. Lil however, if it wasn’t for the rumple in her clothes, you’d never be able to tell the older woman had been in a fight.

“So, what did I tell ya?” she said, looking over at someone she might just start calling a friend. “Best way to get out just about anything.”

Sucking on one of her cigarettes to help clear the buzz from her head, Lil smiled at her companion. "One of the best ways," she slurred slightly. Cammie may not have felt the effects of the alcohol they'd consumed but the giantess certainly did. "Sex is up there, too. 'Cept I'm not getting any of that right now so fighting's the best I got."

“Thought you said you had a man,” Cammie returned. She may not have gotten drunk, but over the years she had developed a habit of watching other people while intoxicating. It was always amusing in its own right, “One tall enough not to be scared off by the thought of you in heels.”

"Man. No sex. Sex-like stuff but no fucking," Lil told her while staring at the glowing tip of her cigarette. "Still married to the shithead I love which makes getting laid difficult." She frowned then, knowing she'd heard those words from someone else but couldn't place who. "Don't wanna fuck things up by... well, fucking."

“Ah. Gotcha. What’s the shithead think of you bein’ all the way down here then?” Cammie asked, “If ya don’t mind me asking questions. I mean, you can tell me to fuck off.”

One shoulder rose and then fell heavily as she took a long drag then released the smoke into the night air. "Dunno what he thinks. Haven't talked to him. Each made a call to the other but only ended up getting machines. I hate machines. Really fucking hate them. 'Specialy his. I'd break it if he couldn't fix it again in like a minute."

“So what, neither of you have tried calling each other back since? Or at all after that?” Cammie returned. “No one likes machines, but generally if you really wanna talk to someone you think you’d try calling back later.”

Lil shook her head. "Not what I meant. Maddy's gotta big machine. A fucking robot and that's what caused a lotta the problems between us. It started fucking with his head and he started acting like a junkie needing a fix when he wasn't in it - that's why I hate machines. 'Cause one stole my husband." She flicked the ash off the end of the smoke then frowned as she stared at an invisible spot on the street. "I don't wanna talk to him 'cause it ain't gonna make it better."

“If he’s a junkie he needs to fix it himself,” Cammie said with a dead certainty. “It really ain’t easy, but if it’s like you say, he has to fix it himself. He hasn’t bothered to call ya back since the other night? I say times come to live your life. If you tried to help him, tried to stick by it and he still won’t quite. Good riddance, you know? Least you tried,” she said. And then muttered, “’Least you had the chance.”

"You don't walk out on someone who's sick," the blonde woman said, more to herself than to Cammie. It was an issue that plagued her over and over since leaving their house. "You're supposed to help them. I tired and he doesn't believe he's addicted to it. Says he's fine... so I left." Lil ran the back of her hand under her nose then tossed away the cigarette. "S'not good riddance. Not if you still love them. All that bullshit about it's better to have love and lost then never loved at all is complete crap."

"Tell me 'bout it," Cammie muttered to the last and then shrugged, "Hey, I'm not saying what to do. I'm saying what I would do. And I don't normally do the right thing. You try, he doesn't, then zoom. Serves the guy right, really."

Lil's hair swung back and forth as she shook her head, a drunken frown on her lips. "Seven years shouldn't come down to him being stuck to a robot and me in a separate country." She'd been thinking about it too much. What to do. What she should do. Call him back? Go back and give it one more chance with both of them back in the Flight Program?

"I still love the asshole. And he called - I dunno why he called other than to wish me a happy anniversary but it sounded like there was more so maybe... maybe something's changed?" Lil knew it was foolish to hope. It only lead to more pain.

“Well, here’s a simple question for ya. Has he called back?” Cammie asked. It seemed simple enough. Any idiot could remember an anniversary. It was remembering the little things or calling for no reason that she had always treasured. After all, she only had memories left. She shook her head. She had to stop being emo, it would drive her nuts if she let it.

"He told me to call him. If I felt like it." It was the way they were now, neither one wanting to take the lead or be the first to make an effort that went beyond a 'call me.' Back and forth. Back and forth. "I dunno if I wanna call him. I dunno what he was gonna say if it was to tell me he wants a divorce, do I really wanna hear that?"

“Well, it’s better than wondering. I mean, you know what the worst he could say is,” Cammie said with a wave of the hand. The taxi was taking its own sweet time. She figured it would, it was the middle of the night, for one. And must be a bar night for the other. “You’re going to spend all this time wondering afraid if he says he likes a robot better. You should just call him back. At least, I would. But I’m the type of person who rips off the band-aid too.”

Green eyes shifted to where the younger woman sat. "I haven't had need for a band-aid since I was eight," Lil finally said after several long moments of silent, not wanting to continue on the topic. "But you look like you need some. How you gonna explain yourself to the people back at the mansion?"

“Show off. And I dunno. Rabid squirrels? An over enthusiastic dog? That I felt like hanging out in the spin cycle? Who cares,” Cammie said waving it off, “I’m not bleeding bad enough to worry about it. I’ll just smell for a couple of days. More than usual. I needed to blow off steam, and this worked great. Worked great for you too,” she said, smiling at the blonde widely.

Lil nodded and a ghost of a smile cam back to her lips. "Yeah, it did. A good bar brawl's a lot better than just sticking it to a punching bag. Still, I don't want you to get shit from Scott or anyone 'cause of the scratches." And in turn, she didn't want herself getting any shit from anyone. Especially Scott. "Make sure whatever excuse you come up with is a good one?"

“No one will be able to wring the truth from me. Either way, it’s not their business, it’s mine,” Cammie said. “And I’m not dead, and no one there is going to wake up in the morgue. And I’ve gotten worse from my training sessions with Mr. Claws. That guy is fucking insane.”

"Logan?" Lil laughed. "Insane but fucking good at what he does. I took lessons with him from the time he and Marie showed up at Beta until I got married. He'll grow on you. Little rough around the edges but he knows his shit which means you're gonna have to learn what he's teaching you or you'll never stop eating the mat." She knew that one first hand. "Besides," Lil continued with a shrug, "they're are plenty of worse guys to end up pinned under."

“Yeah, but normally if other guys try to pin me, I can get them off of me one hit,” she said. “You took lessons, huh? Anyway to kick his ass that you know about?” Cammie asked, only half serious.

"Not really. Between my powers and my height, my techniques are way different than anything that would work for you. Unless you try to distract him, that is," Lil added with a naughty smirk.

Cammie laughed once, “I don’t want to know how you define ‘distraction’ here.”

"There were a coupla times during classes that Maddy had a reason to be angry with me," she admitted. "Not that anything happened; wouldn't have been right with out situations and all but I had a crush on him. And he knew it so it made for some interesting lessons, that's for sure."

“You have the strangest taste in guys,” Cammie said, sticking out her tongue. “Seriously, a total nerd and a hairy small guy with hand claws?”

"I like a little variety," Lil told her with a little shrug. "Maddy's... Maddy. He is what he is and I love him but you show me a man who is a man and hello. Strong arms, powerful, practically dripping testosterone." She waved a dismissive hand. "I'm done. Get me a new pair of panties and lock me in my room for being a naughty girl."

“So, that’s what your new boyfriend’s like? The panty melting kind of guy?” Cammie asked, still grinning. She could get behind a guy who was actually a guy.

"Tall, dark, handsome with biceps the size of your head. Ex-cop who works for Snow Valley now. Teaching me how to use a gun to supplement all my hand to hand stuff," Lil explained then frowned. "Huh. Bishop with guns. Logan with self-defense. Maddy with Beta in general... Apparently, I just got hot for teachers."

“Didn’t some moldy old band write a song about that? Hot for teachers?” Cammie teased.

Lil shrugged. "Fuck if I know." The giantess pushed herself off the bench and cracked her neck. "Where the hell is that cab? We coulda been halfway back to the mansion by now if we walked."

“Ah, fuck the cab. The cabbie likely got lost. He had the thickest accent I heard when I called,” Cammie said looking around, “I’ll call ‘nother one,” she said, pulling out the mansion issued cell phone. Every time she pulled it out she almost had the urge to call her parents.

“Thanks. By the way. For the night out. If my friends didn’t have a habit of dropping dead, I’d say you were one.”

"I'm the one who should be thanking you," Lil told her with a shrug of her own. "I needed to get out and you knew it. And between the two of us, I don't have any plans on dropping dead soon." The nagging idea of going back to Canada surfaced again but the blonde swallowed it down. "Not saying I wanna end up a victim of some kinda curse, but I'm always up to cheating fate if you wanna slap label on me."

“We’ll see. My friends don’t tend to fare to well, then again, I haven’t really tried the friend thing since I left home more than once or twice,” and that’s how she found out staying around her could make people sick. “Maybe we can give the friend thing a go. And hey, I know what it’s like. One look at you the last couple weeks and I kept thinking to myself: Giganta needs to go out and hit things. It fixes about anything.”

"It helps. Dunno if it's fixed anything - none of those drunks were my husband," Lil pointed out. "But it's definitely helped. And for what it's forth, I don't make or keep friends that often or easily so it'll be a two way street between us."

“No, they weren’t. But yeah… two way streets are good and they’re better with cabs,” Cammie grumbled and for a moment paid attention to the phone, “The guy at the company says he should be on his way. Shouldn’t be more than a couple of minutes. Only sucky part of the night, eh, Giganta?”

Falling back onto the bench, Lil gave a nod and a brighter smile. "So far. Here's hoping neither of us find it sucking a whole lot more once we get back to the mansion."