Doug, Laurie, Kyle & Dori

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Doug and Laurie stop by the local sushi restaurant after training and find Dori and Kyle already there.



"Food." It had been a hard class, and Doug was drenched with sweat despite the air conditioning inside the jiujitsu dojo he and Laurie both studied at. He was so sore he hadn't even bothered to change out of his lightweight uniform pants, merely taking the jacket off and stashing it in his workout bag. All he had the energy for was monosyllables. "Food good."

"Sushi good, Dojo torturous?" Laurie replied, a warm smile touching her lips at Doug's monosyllables. "Only a few more steps and rice and fishy goodness shall be ours!"

She might have added an evil laugh to the end of that, it seeming like an appropriate moment for such a thing but paused as Doug opened the door. It wouldn't do to scare the poor girl whose only crime had been to work that particular shift.

At the far end of the restaurant, a pair sat at a four-top, the male half of the couple with his legs sticking out from under the table, bare feet visible, and the female half with her bushy tail curling slightly over the back of her chair. "No, seriously, it was like twenty stories of climbing, and I've got Laurie on my back, and no kidding elevators trying to take us out." Kyle was clearly mid-story, gesturing with his still unwrapped chopsticks. "And the whole thing, because I dunno, those dudes hate... guys with girlfriends? I never did get the entire story behind those guys."

"Quentin and Milan are Forge's and my archnemesis...es. Arch-nemeses. Which I know is the right way to say it, but it doesn't -sound- right, y'know?" Doug had spotted Kyle and Dori from the host stand, and rather than get a separate table with Laurie, he'd indicated to the hostess that they'd sit with their friends, since they already had a table big enough for the four of them.

Dori waved as Doug and Laurie walked over, a wide grin on her face, "So, my boyfriend carried you around?" Dori asked Laurie with a grin on her face, "I'd say something here but it'd be completely horrible. And yeah. Welcome to crazy story and fish time,"

"I'm just glad any video footage of it was probably wiped. Not the most elegant of ascents I've ever tried to make," Laurie replied with an answering grin, dressed much as Doug was, and feeling the same level of exhausted. Master Lee was not known for going easy on his students, and she often thought he was even harder on the black belts, being more practiced as they were. "I swear it was around that time I started keeping a list of 'Laurie's Rules'. That one brought about 'Laurie's rule # 1: Never stay at a technologically advanced hotel unless you've checked for crazy people who have a vendetta against one of your companions first.'"

"I thought rule number one was that you should never go anywhere with me alone. Elevator from hell, dude who turned into a dinosaur, twice!..." Kyle suggested. "The rest is just like, grown outta that." Normally he'd blame Forge, but it wasn't fair to blame a guy who wasn't around. He also thrust the order sheet and tiny pencil at Doug, with a "order, dude. I never remember half of what this stuff is or which of it we can eat."

"I forgot that one, that is entirely number 1 then, 1a can be the hotel one," Laurie said, giggling as she took a seat and glanced over Doug's arm at the menu he'd been given. "I'll have the tuna rolls."

Doug was already busy with the tiny pencil, marking off several selections. Tuna rolls had already been marked off, as he was more or less familiar with the eating habits and preferences of all his table mates. He also marked a few other items with a satisfied hum, and made a few extra notes in the margin in tidy Japanese kanji. When he was done, he handed off the order sheet to their server and leaned back in his seat. "At least Master Lee didn't turn the heater on."

"Why would someone turn a heater on while practicing?" Dori asked, raising an eyebrow while popping another spring roll in her mouth. she couldn't have much meat, but the vegetables and the rice in the spring rolls at least off set the meat so she wasn't getting too much of it. And Japanese restaurants had a lot of vegetarian options.

"Fire nation." Kyle said, by way of explanation. "They do that kind of thing." He had started picking apart one of the rolls with his claws, eating the parts he liked, and leaving mostly a pile of cabbage and other vegetable-y parts on a plate.

"We studied jiujitsu for many years," Doug intoned solemnly. "But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked."

"Legend of Korra is better," Laurie noted with a grin, knowing that this would set off a fierce debate at the table. "Although Teen Wolf is what all the cool kids are watching these days."

Dori giggled, "Teen Wolf is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. Avatar forever! And I like them better, but you know, everything did change when the Fire Nation attacked."

"Hey now, Derek is not lame. He's the alpha!" Laurie exclaimed, pulling her chopsticks apart as she arranged her little soya sauce bowl and took one of the little packets of wasabi from it's holding dish. "Also, how can you hate a show with a town that appears to have only one shirt between all it's guys. Did you see Jackson's shower scene?"

Doug snickered. "I can't take that show seriously at all. I mean, Derek practically takes every opportunity to mention that he's the alpha. Even when it's a total non sequitur. 'What do you want on your pizza?' 'I'm the alpha!' 'What do you think about the new Doctor Who?' 'I'm the alpha!'" He paused and cocked his head. "And I was about to say something about Doctor Who, or Sherlock, being much better shows. Wow, that was pretty meta-riffic of me, wasn't it."

"If I admit to watching Sherlock so that I can make my little monsters do a compare on TV and movie versions versus the novels, because that is no shit my favorite thing to assign to them, do I still lose cool points for watching nerd shows?" Kyle asked. "Because lets be honest, everything changed when the fire nation attacked. I mean, when I started dating Dori."

Dori giggled, "I like you even more when you talk nerdy," she pointed out, "Because that's when everything changed. You know, when the fire nation attacked." Or he started talking nerdy. It was time for a random hug! Here, she attempted to tackle her boyfriend. Because why not.

"Do you two need a room?" Doug asked with a raised eyebrow. He would not be a buzzkill, he promised himself. Maybe if he kept reminding himself it'd work. Because he was suddenly acutely aware of being the only single person at the table. Oh, Laurie's beau wasn't there, but still.

Laurie laughed as Kyle gave Doug the finger and she reached over to poke him in the side. "If you're going to be a grumpus, I'll start calling you Grandpa, Doug."

"You kids get offa my lawn!" Doug proclaimed in his best Grandpa Simpson impression. He cheerfully gave Kyle an answering finger, just as their server arrived with several plates' worth of sushi. "Thank god," he murmured. "Much longer and I might have started eating the table."

"Everything changed when Doug ate the table." Kyle said, without inflection. "And I thought I was hungry..." and he and Dori had already done significant damage to a plate of spring rolls too. As the server sat down plates of rolls and sushi and various sushi-esque things Kyle was never sure what category they fell in - did the seaweed salad count as sushi, or just generic Japanese food, or what - he rearranged them automatically, putting the plates that smelled like they'd hurt to eat them closer to the non-super-taster side of the table. "Death food on your side, non-deathy on my side..."

"You wouldn't want to eat the table," Dori pointed out, picking up a roll with a pair of chopsticks, "Splinters in the mouth HURT. Trust me," she would know. She had to chew on stuff to keep her teeth at some sane length, "Oh, when they bring the rice balls can I make Doug and Laurie fight an Agni-Kai to see who gets the most?" Dori said perking up. Joking.

Mostly.

"Because I can actually firebend," Doug replied, sticking his tongue out at Dori. "And if there's no firebending, then it's not really an Agni-Kai, just your regular old sparring session in the dojo." Which he and Laurie got matched up in a fair amount of the time.

"Only if you don't destroy my bra like you did last time we sparred," Laurie replied, pulling a pair of chopsticks apart before using them to pick up a tuna mini maki. She popped it into her mouth and chewed enthusiastically.

"Whoa, too much info, people. Way too much info." Kyle raised both hands in a warding-off gesture. "Seriously, do not want a 'and everything changed when Doug killed Laurie's bra." moment here.

It was a sparring match," Laurie noted with an eyeroll. "Aren't teachers meant to hang up their dirty minds when they get their little teacher hat?"

"Right, because that's ever going to happen." Kyle said, with a snort, and then continued expressing his opinion of Laurie's statement with another raised middle finger while he put food in his mouth.

At Laurie's responding stuck out tongue, Doug shook his head. "We are all -shining- examples of maturity at this table." He gathered a large portion of wasabi with his chopsticks, and then poured soy sauce over it with an anticipatory grin of how the first bite was going to taste.

"I'm an adult!" Dori said, rice sticking to her mouth, and her tail twitching happily, "Sitting with the big kids."

"Do people do that, i mean like, make the kids sit separate?" Kyle asked. "Because I'm the only grandkid my grandparents have. There never was, like, a 'sit at the kids' table' thing for me. And now I'm taller than everyone I'm related to, so it'd be just silly."

A pained look came over Doug's face at the mention of family gatherings. Memories of his sisters needling him at Thanksgiving dinner, followed by the blank expression on Katie's face as Emma had... He bit the side of his lip hard, trying to distract himself with the pain. "Yeah, it happens," he said.

"So glad I'm an only child of only children," Laurie noted, picking up another sushi nagiri and popping it into her mouth. She chewed thoughtfully for a moment before swallowing. "Not that having siblings wouldn't have been cool, but I get the feeling trying to date when you've had a mutant child is difficult. At least, it is around here. I keep telling Mum she needs to go into the city, where people aren't complete asshats."

Dori tilted her head to the side, unlike her, Laurie looked totally and completely human. There wasn't any reason Laurie's mom wouldn't be able to find a date if she really wanted to especially if she was pretty the way Laurie was. Of the two girls at the table, Laurie looked more like the stereotypical California Girl than she did. She bit her lip slightly and said nothing, stuffing her mouth full of a ball of rice, her cheeks puffing out.

"Mmmf mmf muggh," she managed.

"Translated, that's "Dude, you're a passer and your mom's human, don't be hatin'." Kyle said. "And penalty fish for forgetting some of us have freaky feet and you know, have a hard time not having people be asshats to us at the gas station, much less dating." he snagged a piece of Laurie's sushi, and popped it in his mouth and a moment later, went red in the face and swallowed it whole. "And it all changed when the fire nation attacked my mouth. Holy shit what is that?"

"That would be confusing my plate for Laurie's in taking your 'penalty fish', dude," Doug said with a wide grin. He bumped at Laurie with his shoulder, sensing an incipient case of 'oh god I put my foot in my mouth I'm such an asshole' in the way her shoulders drew inwards. "It's fine," he told her quietly, knowing that Kyle and Dori would hear anyway. "Don't go wallowing on us. Lesson learned, move on."

Laurie let go of the breath she'd been holding, letting her shoulders relax back with a smile before handing Kyle one of her non-fire nation sushis.

"I'd offer to have one of Doug's as well but I don't feel that guilty about the foot in mouth." Laurie said with a slightly wobbly smile that got stronger as she let the embarrassed feeling pass. "I hear wasabi changed the day the fire nation invaded."

Kyle made the pain-free sushi disappear into his face, and then once the rice and vinegar and salmon had done their best to ease the burning, chugged down his glass of water. "Seriously man, what is -in- that? Because effing ow." The corners of his mouth still burned. "Stealth ow. Like fire nation ninjas, like what's her face, who pokes people in the nerves and then they can't move."

"Ty Lee," Doreen offered, "She made the whole chi blocking thing possible and you know, helped the Fire Nation invade," she said giggling, still munching on her rice, "This is the best lunch conversation ever because the Fire Nation invaded! And everything changed."