http://x_scarletwitch.livejournal.com/ (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
xp_logs2004-11-20 06:00 pm
x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com) wrote in xp_logs2004-11-20 06:00 pm
Backdated to the 20th.
Wanda meets up with Haroun in a little pub not far from her apartment. She's then treated to what exactly ails her friend and gives him advice on how to make it up to Alison. Unfortunately, their good time is interrupted by an even better time. Bar fight!
Wanda entered the bar--a little hole in the wall place that served some of the best fish and chips this side of the river. Or so said Jacob, the bar's owner. It was only two blocks from her now closed apartment and she had been a frequent customer over the years she had lived in London. She and Haroun had agreed to meet up for dinner since the place had smelled too much like cat for his allergies likings. A few minutes of shouted welcome's and Jacob's flirting, she was finally able to slide her way through the crowd to the little table he had grabbed. "You look...absolutely miserable," she commented, settling down. Her regular meal would be over soon.
Haroun was staring at his now absolutely room-temperature pint of Guinness. "That's because I am." he told his beer. "I'm an idiot. A complete idiot. The heir to the kingdom of idiots." he moaned. "OK, so we got into it a little. She's fucking _hurt_ and I couldn't just sit on it until she was better to talk about it like mature adults. Nooo, I have to go shoot my fucking mouth off."
Ah, so this is why he'd been such a pleasure to be with the flight over. "What did you do?" It was fairly obvious that he had done something wrong with Alison. It was the what, not the who, that was not so clear. Pillowing her head on her hand, she settled in. With Alison and Haroun together, or together as far as she was concerned, there was no other motive than to give him a helping hand. He was taken and that was the end of it.
"I went in to talk to her." he said. "That's a good thing. But then she tells me that she's taking Jono as her new teaching assistant for Music. This I am not happy with. I tried to point out the risks, I tried to point out the dangers - and I got obnoxious about it." he said morosely.
"Protective is good but there is a fine line between it and overprotective," Wanda pointed out. "It is risky, I'll give you that. But...you do not need me telling you where you went wrong in that conversation. How did she take you coming to London?"
"Umm, I didn't exactly tell her about it. From Maddy's email, I'd have to say 'extremely badly' sums it up quite nicely." he grumped. "I needed to get out, to get away before I tore her a new one. She's hurt, she doesn't need that kind of additional stress in her life. So I threw a quick note up on the Staff board, grabbed you, and now here we are."
"You didn't tell her?" was the only thing she could squawk out. Face palming, she was only vaguely aware of Jacob bringing over the meal himself. With a murmured, "Looks like you could use a drink, luv" and a peck on the cheek, he simply dropped off the bangers and mash and went back to mix her a drink. "~Idiots, I am surrounded by idiots.~ If I had known...ugh." Peeking through her fingers, she glared at him, waves of female indignation rolling off of her. "You are apologizing, correct?"
"Profusely." he said with fervent agreement. "The moment we get back and jetlag is not kicking my ass, I will go make my apologies." he said. "Damn, why the hell do I feel this bad?" he asked rhetorically. "It's been, what, a few weeks? And already she can rip me in half with a look."
"She has you but good, my friend." Pausing to dig into her dinner, Wanda waved the fork at him. "You may want to go even if jetlag is kicking your ass. Apologetic and pathetic in the same vein would go very well together. And why did you order a drink? I did not think you did drink. Speaking of drinks, Jacob you are a saint." Taking the offered Guiness from him, she took a deep sip and sighed happily.
"I have no intention of actually drinking it. It's a test." he said, looking at the Guinness. "I would really like one. Oblivion sounds pretty good right now." he admitted. "But I can't. Not as a Muslim, as a faithful man." He barked out a laugh at that. "Faithful. Hah! And yeah, she's got me good. Grabbed me in places I thought were long-since cold and dead - and no, not _those_ places, Wanda. Plastic, remember?" he said with the ghost of a grin. "Seriously - it's only been a few weeks, and I already know that I'm where I want to be."
Really, this was turning out to be a day she wished he was real from the waist down. Kicking him would bring her no satisfaction. Were all men this dense or just this particular one? "It sometimes happens that way. Minutes, weeks...sometimes years. It all depends on the different couple." She snorted at the look he gave her. "I may be a die hard flirt, Haroun, but I have had my share of relationships outside of that." Picking up her own drink, she used it to gesture at his. "And why tempt yourself when you can simply by pass it altogether?"
"What's the point of temptation if there's no chance of failing?" he said dryly. "You want it? Take it. And when all the shit went down, and I had the time to sit down and think about it, I was pretty much a giant ass." he said. "Inexcusable. You don't say the things I said. You just _don't_. Wounded, healthy, it doesn't matter."
"Everyone makes mistakes, Haroun. The fact that you realize you messed up and that you want to make it up to her goes to show that you are not an...well, okay, you probably were a giant ass but you can fix those mistakes."
"Oh, it's salvageable - if she wants it to be." he said. "And that's the thought that keeps me staring at that beer. What if she decides "Nope! He's an ass, not dealin' with it, fuck him." She makes me feel, Wanda. Do you have _any idea_ how rare that is for me? I've had to be very very cold for a long time. I'm out there putting my ass on the line _every day_ for our people. Now here comes Ms Rock Star, and all of a sudden all I want to do is protect her from the Big Bad World. Go out and fuck up the people who make her frown. All that macho stuff." he grinned.
Wanda grinned back at him. "Well, show Alison how much you wish to make up for being an ass. Do you know how you're going to apologize because, really, that is a big part of things. Flowers...gifts. You are in another country and she probably likes gifts. In fact, I know she does, especially right now."
Haroun winced. "Ow, my credit rating!" he said in an odd little-boy whine. "But yeah, I think a small little "Look, I'm an idiot, forgive me please?" gift might be in order. Shit - what does she like? You _have_ to help me, Wanda. Bonds of sisterhood, the sorority of womenkind, all that stuff. Help a brother out?"
She laughed at that and nodded. "Me, turn down shopping? You must be insane. But yes, I will help. If for nothing else than the Bonds of sisterhood and to renew my place in the sorority of womenkind." As she was reaching for her glass, she heard a shout from the table next to her. Paying it no mind, it was a bar after all, she grabbed for her beer.
Right as something...no, someone came flying into their table. Food and Haroun's beer went flying and they both cursed, ducking the knives and utensils. "What the...Christie?!" Shocked to see the petite, long time waitress curled up in the mess of the table and food, Wanda glanced up and cursed again as the table next to them stood up, glaring at the blonde at their feet. "Oh, this did not just happen..."
Haroun shot up to his feet, to investigate the barbaric louts who were shoving the nice waitress around. "You did _not_ just do that." he muttered under his breath, approaching the visibly intoxicated people at the next table. "Excuse me, gentlemen." he said very politely - never a good sign with him. "Did you just assault the waitress?" he asked. "That was dumb." he added, then slugged the guy who tried to grope the waitress and sent her spilling to the ground.
After helping Christie over to Jacob, who simply grinned and mouthed "No bloody powers this time", Wanda turned back, hands clenched. "My pub, my friends, you stupid idiots." Reaching over she grabbed the one about to go after Haroun for slugging the 'leader' and pulled him back, jabbing him hard in the ribs with her free hand. A knee to the nose as he bent double sent him sprawling on the ground at her feet.
Haroun was very clearly enjoying himself - he had a wide grin on his face that lasted until one of the members of the generally-escalating melee punched him full-on in the nose, stunning him for a second. He recovered in time to take a pool-cue to the head, which dropped him like a sack of rocks.
"~Shit!~" Dropping her shoulder, Wanda slammed into the back of the guy with the pool cue, sending him stumbling into a near by table. Shouts and curses suddenly escalated as that table emptied to join into the suddenly bar wide brawl. Really, she could not help it and a wide grin spread across her face. Oh, this was going to be fun. "Haroun, get your ass up!" she shouted, ducking a beer glass. Grunting as she took a shot to the ribs, she returned the favor with an elbow to the side of the head.
Haroun staggered back to his feet, blood streaming from his obviously broken nose. His grin never left his face, though, and he seemed to be having the time of his life as he dealt out pain and worked out some frustrations. He was gleefully handing out what sounded like complicated insults in Arabic to his various sparring partners, most of whom took it fairly badly.
"Ouff!" Wanda found herself with her arms pinned by someone behind her and a big, rather ugly man coming at her with a closed fist. "Did he not tell you it is not polite to hit a woman?" she asked, taking full advantage of her long legs and Russian steeled boots as she snapped her leg up, the move vicious, connecting with the solar plexus. As he suddenly emptied his stomach, she pushed backwards, slamming the other one into the bar. "Much better."
Haroun looked over to Wanda, and waved to her jauntily before snapping a kick that folded a combatant like a dishrag. "Just what I needed!" he told her as he took another man's head and rammed it into the wall with more force than was strictly necessary.
"Much agreeing over here!" she shouted out. She heard a whiff as something passed over her head and turned in time to toss up hands as another one slammed a bar stool into her. "That hurt, you little bastard." Reaching over, she grabbed the legs and slammed back against him. Twisting, Wanda was suddenly the one holding the stool and he simply now had splinters in his hand. With practiced ease, she flipped it over so she was holding the seat and slammed the stool upside the guy's face. He dropped with a thump.
"Now that is how you do it." Turning, she cursed. Haroun was distracted by beating someone's head into the wall and had not noticed someone approaching with a broken bottle. Snarling, she reared back and tossed the bar stool as hard as she could.
Haroun didn't even see it coming. The barstool winged him in the side of his head as it flashed past his head, but not so much that the effect on the man with the bottle was undone - he hit the ground with a very satisfying thump indeed. "WARN ME NEXT TIME!" Haroun shouted at Wanda, and then winced as he took a vicious shot to his kidneys.
"SORRY!" Unfortunately, the distraction cost her and she turned around to a solid punch to the face. "~Motherless son of a bastard!~" The man apparently decided to press his luck and reached in as she bent over slightly. One hand over her eye, the other one snaked out and grabbed him solidly by the crotch. "Teach you to hit. A. LADY!" She twisted sharply and the man screamed, trying to back up quickly. Letting go, she returned the punch for a punch and was rewarded with a nice crunchy sound.
Haroun, who saw all of this going on, winced in sympathy for Wanda's latest victim. "Ow!" he said, as he swept out another kick to knock one man into another, then he picked up another pool cue to start laying about energetically. “That’s just not _right_."
After nearly catching a bottle to the head, twice, Wanda was beginning to realize that more and more people were joining in on the fight. And...well, damn it. Apparently Haroun simply did not bother to look around when he was fighting someone. There was someone trying AGAIN to hit him from behind. Grabbing a bar stool, she didn't hesitate. "HAROUN, DUCK!" and then she let it fly.
Haroun instantly dropped to the ground - allowing the barstool to fly over his head and smack the guy with the bottle. "Ladies and gentlemen, she CAN BE TAUGHT!" he said with a happy blood-smeared grin as he spun his pool-cue around to deal with another attacker. "This is getting a little out of hand..." he said as he fought his way over to Wanda's side.
Bumping up against his back, she sighed. It was fun but this was silly. "You're right. It must have been a bad night. England lost to Ireland in soccer, probably. Looking for an excuse to fight. Not like us, not at all." She pulled Haroun out of the way of another pair doing the punching tango. Blinking, trying to get the blood from a cut along her forehead out of her eyes, she grimaced as she ducked another punch, settling for slamming her head into his chin. "Ow."
Haroun took a second to mop the blood off his mouth and chin. "Guess so." he said. "Keep your guard up!" he told her, a second too late to keep her from being slugged in that same eye again. He repaid her attacker by kicking him into the gut, then kneeing him in the forehead when the man folded. "All right, time to go." he told Wanda.
It was indeed getting exceptionally crowded, Wanda noted, barely ducking a thrown...was that one of the stuffed mallards from the wall? "Someone's going to get hurt...more!" she shouted back at Haroun, grimacing as he bumped her in his own attempts at dodging.
It probably would have gotten worse but someone decided it was high time that it ended. "All right you lot!" Not a very heroic war-cry but when combined with the shot-gun the wiry barkeep kept hidden being locked and loaded, it certainly had an effect on the crowd.
Haroun was just getting into a wonderful exchange with a bar patron who had quite clearly taken a year or two of lessons at the English equivalent of a McDojo when the barkeep made his feelings clear. Haroun polished off his playmate with an elbow to the nose, and then looked around for Wanda. "Nice duck." he told her.
Grinning over her shoulder at him, she let herself relax as Jacob started bullying the worst of the patrons out the door. "Thank you...oh, you look like shit," she commented and then blinked. "Ow."
A few minutes later and she found herself sitting next to Haroun on the floor of the pub, leaning against the old wood bar. A bag of frozen carrots threatened to fall off of her face but she didn't care, it felt good. "Oh, we are so going to hurt in the morning."
"Yep." he said with a huge grin on his face. "And speaking of hurt..." he said as he pushed his nose back into its proper shape, the only sign of the pain he was in was his white knuckles and the line of sweat that just popped out on his brow. "Tomorrow, I think, we go shopping. Something nice and non-contact. What do you buy when you want to tell your would-be girlfriend that you're an idiot, anyway?"
Wanda rolled her eyes at that display, wincing at the movement. "Lots of shinies," she said, thinking about it. "Especially with _your_ 'would-be girlfriend'. Roses would not make the trip back but something gold would. Bracelet or necklace. Rings right now are simply right out."
"Gold..." he mused as he contemplated his possibilities. "Well, I am not made out of money, but a small simple something should be inside my budget. I send a good part of my paycheck home to my family." he said with a shrug. "Most of it, come to think of it. Will have to adjust that - women are expensive habits." he said with a laugh.
Lifting the bag from her face for a second, she looked at him and smiled. "You to, hmm?" she asked. "Glad to know I am not the only one who does send money back home." A giggle escaped. "We women are not truly that expensive, not with the right gifts and treatment, anyway."
"Is that so? Dated many women, have you?" he teased with a grin. "You have a point, though. Doesn't need to be expensive if it is heartfelt. Doesn't London have an excellent jeweler’s row or something? I seem to remember something like that. I think I have an Idea." he grinned, then turned to the barkeep. "I know it's against your civic duty to stock ice, but I could really use some..." he pleaded.
Wanda waited until her friend had dropped over a small bag of ice, cursing in a friendly sort of way. "Not many, just one," she replied cheerfully, shrugging. "I found out that it's not my thing. But yes, they do have a great jeweler's row. London is a fantastic place for shopping."
"Fair enough." he said, applying the ice to his face with a sigh of relief. "Oh, this should not feel this good." he said. "Gotta admit, while this is gonna be an expensive little trip, I feel fantastically better now.
"You and me both," she replied, slumping bonelessly against the paneling. "We should do this again sometime."
Wanda entered the bar--a little hole in the wall place that served some of the best fish and chips this side of the river. Or so said Jacob, the bar's owner. It was only two blocks from her now closed apartment and she had been a frequent customer over the years she had lived in London. She and Haroun had agreed to meet up for dinner since the place had smelled too much like cat for his allergies likings. A few minutes of shouted welcome's and Jacob's flirting, she was finally able to slide her way through the crowd to the little table he had grabbed. "You look...absolutely miserable," she commented, settling down. Her regular meal would be over soon.
Haroun was staring at his now absolutely room-temperature pint of Guinness. "That's because I am." he told his beer. "I'm an idiot. A complete idiot. The heir to the kingdom of idiots." he moaned. "OK, so we got into it a little. She's fucking _hurt_ and I couldn't just sit on it until she was better to talk about it like mature adults. Nooo, I have to go shoot my fucking mouth off."
Ah, so this is why he'd been such a pleasure to be with the flight over. "What did you do?" It was fairly obvious that he had done something wrong with Alison. It was the what, not the who, that was not so clear. Pillowing her head on her hand, she settled in. With Alison and Haroun together, or together as far as she was concerned, there was no other motive than to give him a helping hand. He was taken and that was the end of it.
"I went in to talk to her." he said. "That's a good thing. But then she tells me that she's taking Jono as her new teaching assistant for Music. This I am not happy with. I tried to point out the risks, I tried to point out the dangers - and I got obnoxious about it." he said morosely.
"Protective is good but there is a fine line between it and overprotective," Wanda pointed out. "It is risky, I'll give you that. But...you do not need me telling you where you went wrong in that conversation. How did she take you coming to London?"
"Umm, I didn't exactly tell her about it. From Maddy's email, I'd have to say 'extremely badly' sums it up quite nicely." he grumped. "I needed to get out, to get away before I tore her a new one. She's hurt, she doesn't need that kind of additional stress in her life. So I threw a quick note up on the Staff board, grabbed you, and now here we are."
"You didn't tell her?" was the only thing she could squawk out. Face palming, she was only vaguely aware of Jacob bringing over the meal himself. With a murmured, "Looks like you could use a drink, luv" and a peck on the cheek, he simply dropped off the bangers and mash and went back to mix her a drink. "~Idiots, I am surrounded by idiots.~ If I had known...ugh." Peeking through her fingers, she glared at him, waves of female indignation rolling off of her. "You are apologizing, correct?"
"Profusely." he said with fervent agreement. "The moment we get back and jetlag is not kicking my ass, I will go make my apologies." he said. "Damn, why the hell do I feel this bad?" he asked rhetorically. "It's been, what, a few weeks? And already she can rip me in half with a look."
"She has you but good, my friend." Pausing to dig into her dinner, Wanda waved the fork at him. "You may want to go even if jetlag is kicking your ass. Apologetic and pathetic in the same vein would go very well together. And why did you order a drink? I did not think you did drink. Speaking of drinks, Jacob you are a saint." Taking the offered Guiness from him, she took a deep sip and sighed happily.
"I have no intention of actually drinking it. It's a test." he said, looking at the Guinness. "I would really like one. Oblivion sounds pretty good right now." he admitted. "But I can't. Not as a Muslim, as a faithful man." He barked out a laugh at that. "Faithful. Hah! And yeah, she's got me good. Grabbed me in places I thought were long-since cold and dead - and no, not _those_ places, Wanda. Plastic, remember?" he said with the ghost of a grin. "Seriously - it's only been a few weeks, and I already know that I'm where I want to be."
Really, this was turning out to be a day she wished he was real from the waist down. Kicking him would bring her no satisfaction. Were all men this dense or just this particular one? "It sometimes happens that way. Minutes, weeks...sometimes years. It all depends on the different couple." She snorted at the look he gave her. "I may be a die hard flirt, Haroun, but I have had my share of relationships outside of that." Picking up her own drink, she used it to gesture at his. "And why tempt yourself when you can simply by pass it altogether?"
"What's the point of temptation if there's no chance of failing?" he said dryly. "You want it? Take it. And when all the shit went down, and I had the time to sit down and think about it, I was pretty much a giant ass." he said. "Inexcusable. You don't say the things I said. You just _don't_. Wounded, healthy, it doesn't matter."
"Everyone makes mistakes, Haroun. The fact that you realize you messed up and that you want to make it up to her goes to show that you are not an...well, okay, you probably were a giant ass but you can fix those mistakes."
"Oh, it's salvageable - if she wants it to be." he said. "And that's the thought that keeps me staring at that beer. What if she decides "Nope! He's an ass, not dealin' with it, fuck him." She makes me feel, Wanda. Do you have _any idea_ how rare that is for me? I've had to be very very cold for a long time. I'm out there putting my ass on the line _every day_ for our people. Now here comes Ms Rock Star, and all of a sudden all I want to do is protect her from the Big Bad World. Go out and fuck up the people who make her frown. All that macho stuff." he grinned.
Wanda grinned back at him. "Well, show Alison how much you wish to make up for being an ass. Do you know how you're going to apologize because, really, that is a big part of things. Flowers...gifts. You are in another country and she probably likes gifts. In fact, I know she does, especially right now."
Haroun winced. "Ow, my credit rating!" he said in an odd little-boy whine. "But yeah, I think a small little "Look, I'm an idiot, forgive me please?" gift might be in order. Shit - what does she like? You _have_ to help me, Wanda. Bonds of sisterhood, the sorority of womenkind, all that stuff. Help a brother out?"
She laughed at that and nodded. "Me, turn down shopping? You must be insane. But yes, I will help. If for nothing else than the Bonds of sisterhood and to renew my place in the sorority of womenkind." As she was reaching for her glass, she heard a shout from the table next to her. Paying it no mind, it was a bar after all, she grabbed for her beer.
Right as something...no, someone came flying into their table. Food and Haroun's beer went flying and they both cursed, ducking the knives and utensils. "What the...Christie?!" Shocked to see the petite, long time waitress curled up in the mess of the table and food, Wanda glanced up and cursed again as the table next to them stood up, glaring at the blonde at their feet. "Oh, this did not just happen..."
Haroun shot up to his feet, to investigate the barbaric louts who were shoving the nice waitress around. "You did _not_ just do that." he muttered under his breath, approaching the visibly intoxicated people at the next table. "Excuse me, gentlemen." he said very politely - never a good sign with him. "Did you just assault the waitress?" he asked. "That was dumb." he added, then slugged the guy who tried to grope the waitress and sent her spilling to the ground.
After helping Christie over to Jacob, who simply grinned and mouthed "No bloody powers this time", Wanda turned back, hands clenched. "My pub, my friends, you stupid idiots." Reaching over she grabbed the one about to go after Haroun for slugging the 'leader' and pulled him back, jabbing him hard in the ribs with her free hand. A knee to the nose as he bent double sent him sprawling on the ground at her feet.
Haroun was very clearly enjoying himself - he had a wide grin on his face that lasted until one of the members of the generally-escalating melee punched him full-on in the nose, stunning him for a second. He recovered in time to take a pool-cue to the head, which dropped him like a sack of rocks.
"~Shit!~" Dropping her shoulder, Wanda slammed into the back of the guy with the pool cue, sending him stumbling into a near by table. Shouts and curses suddenly escalated as that table emptied to join into the suddenly bar wide brawl. Really, she could not help it and a wide grin spread across her face. Oh, this was going to be fun. "Haroun, get your ass up!" she shouted, ducking a beer glass. Grunting as she took a shot to the ribs, she returned the favor with an elbow to the side of the head.
Haroun staggered back to his feet, blood streaming from his obviously broken nose. His grin never left his face, though, and he seemed to be having the time of his life as he dealt out pain and worked out some frustrations. He was gleefully handing out what sounded like complicated insults in Arabic to his various sparring partners, most of whom took it fairly badly.
"Ouff!" Wanda found herself with her arms pinned by someone behind her and a big, rather ugly man coming at her with a closed fist. "Did he not tell you it is not polite to hit a woman?" she asked, taking full advantage of her long legs and Russian steeled boots as she snapped her leg up, the move vicious, connecting with the solar plexus. As he suddenly emptied his stomach, she pushed backwards, slamming the other one into the bar. "Much better."
Haroun looked over to Wanda, and waved to her jauntily before snapping a kick that folded a combatant like a dishrag. "Just what I needed!" he told her as he took another man's head and rammed it into the wall with more force than was strictly necessary.
"Much agreeing over here!" she shouted out. She heard a whiff as something passed over her head and turned in time to toss up hands as another one slammed a bar stool into her. "That hurt, you little bastard." Reaching over, she grabbed the legs and slammed back against him. Twisting, Wanda was suddenly the one holding the stool and he simply now had splinters in his hand. With practiced ease, she flipped it over so she was holding the seat and slammed the stool upside the guy's face. He dropped with a thump.
"Now that is how you do it." Turning, she cursed. Haroun was distracted by beating someone's head into the wall and had not noticed someone approaching with a broken bottle. Snarling, she reared back and tossed the bar stool as hard as she could.
Haroun didn't even see it coming. The barstool winged him in the side of his head as it flashed past his head, but not so much that the effect on the man with the bottle was undone - he hit the ground with a very satisfying thump indeed. "WARN ME NEXT TIME!" Haroun shouted at Wanda, and then winced as he took a vicious shot to his kidneys.
"SORRY!" Unfortunately, the distraction cost her and she turned around to a solid punch to the face. "~Motherless son of a bastard!~" The man apparently decided to press his luck and reached in as she bent over slightly. One hand over her eye, the other one snaked out and grabbed him solidly by the crotch. "Teach you to hit. A. LADY!" She twisted sharply and the man screamed, trying to back up quickly. Letting go, she returned the punch for a punch and was rewarded with a nice crunchy sound.
Haroun, who saw all of this going on, winced in sympathy for Wanda's latest victim. "Ow!" he said, as he swept out another kick to knock one man into another, then he picked up another pool cue to start laying about energetically. “That’s just not _right_."
After nearly catching a bottle to the head, twice, Wanda was beginning to realize that more and more people were joining in on the fight. And...well, damn it. Apparently Haroun simply did not bother to look around when he was fighting someone. There was someone trying AGAIN to hit him from behind. Grabbing a bar stool, she didn't hesitate. "HAROUN, DUCK!" and then she let it fly.
Haroun instantly dropped to the ground - allowing the barstool to fly over his head and smack the guy with the bottle. "Ladies and gentlemen, she CAN BE TAUGHT!" he said with a happy blood-smeared grin as he spun his pool-cue around to deal with another attacker. "This is getting a little out of hand..." he said as he fought his way over to Wanda's side.
Bumping up against his back, she sighed. It was fun but this was silly. "You're right. It must have been a bad night. England lost to Ireland in soccer, probably. Looking for an excuse to fight. Not like us, not at all." She pulled Haroun out of the way of another pair doing the punching tango. Blinking, trying to get the blood from a cut along her forehead out of her eyes, she grimaced as she ducked another punch, settling for slamming her head into his chin. "Ow."
Haroun took a second to mop the blood off his mouth and chin. "Guess so." he said. "Keep your guard up!" he told her, a second too late to keep her from being slugged in that same eye again. He repaid her attacker by kicking him into the gut, then kneeing him in the forehead when the man folded. "All right, time to go." he told Wanda.
It was indeed getting exceptionally crowded, Wanda noted, barely ducking a thrown...was that one of the stuffed mallards from the wall? "Someone's going to get hurt...more!" she shouted back at Haroun, grimacing as he bumped her in his own attempts at dodging.
It probably would have gotten worse but someone decided it was high time that it ended. "All right you lot!" Not a very heroic war-cry but when combined with the shot-gun the wiry barkeep kept hidden being locked and loaded, it certainly had an effect on the crowd.
Haroun was just getting into a wonderful exchange with a bar patron who had quite clearly taken a year or two of lessons at the English equivalent of a McDojo when the barkeep made his feelings clear. Haroun polished off his playmate with an elbow to the nose, and then looked around for Wanda. "Nice duck." he told her.
Grinning over her shoulder at him, she let herself relax as Jacob started bullying the worst of the patrons out the door. "Thank you...oh, you look like shit," she commented and then blinked. "Ow."
A few minutes later and she found herself sitting next to Haroun on the floor of the pub, leaning against the old wood bar. A bag of frozen carrots threatened to fall off of her face but she didn't care, it felt good. "Oh, we are so going to hurt in the morning."
"Yep." he said with a huge grin on his face. "And speaking of hurt..." he said as he pushed his nose back into its proper shape, the only sign of the pain he was in was his white knuckles and the line of sweat that just popped out on his brow. "Tomorrow, I think, we go shopping. Something nice and non-contact. What do you buy when you want to tell your would-be girlfriend that you're an idiot, anyway?"
Wanda rolled her eyes at that display, wincing at the movement. "Lots of shinies," she said, thinking about it. "Especially with _your_ 'would-be girlfriend'. Roses would not make the trip back but something gold would. Bracelet or necklace. Rings right now are simply right out."
"Gold..." he mused as he contemplated his possibilities. "Well, I am not made out of money, but a small simple something should be inside my budget. I send a good part of my paycheck home to my family." he said with a shrug. "Most of it, come to think of it. Will have to adjust that - women are expensive habits." he said with a laugh.
Lifting the bag from her face for a second, she looked at him and smiled. "You to, hmm?" she asked. "Glad to know I am not the only one who does send money back home." A giggle escaped. "We women are not truly that expensive, not with the right gifts and treatment, anyway."
"Is that so? Dated many women, have you?" he teased with a grin. "You have a point, though. Doesn't need to be expensive if it is heartfelt. Doesn't London have an excellent jeweler’s row or something? I seem to remember something like that. I think I have an Idea." he grinned, then turned to the barkeep. "I know it's against your civic duty to stock ice, but I could really use some..." he pleaded.
Wanda waited until her friend had dropped over a small bag of ice, cursing in a friendly sort of way. "Not many, just one," she replied cheerfully, shrugging. "I found out that it's not my thing. But yes, they do have a great jeweler's row. London is a fantastic place for shopping."
"Fair enough." he said, applying the ice to his face with a sigh of relief. "Oh, this should not feel this good." he said. "Gotta admit, while this is gonna be an expensive little trip, I feel fantastically better now.
"You and me both," she replied, slumping bonelessly against the paneling. "We should do this again sometime."
no subject