#foreshadowing for the cat cafe grand prix subplot lol

[meadowmines]

OC-Tober/Tojoctober Day 18: Drink

[An evening at the Grand ft. Aoyagi, Chiba, and Shiori]

If he's being honest, Aoyagi preferred the atmosphere at Sunshine. It was smaller, and quieter, and cheaper. Still, he feels better knowing his money isn't going into that Kanzaki shitheel's pockets anymore.

"I mean," Shiori says, "we knew he was a turd after the whole feet pic bandit thing. You told us he was a turd."

"I did say that," Aoyagi says, wiping his chilly hands with a nice warm towel. "In so many words, even. So you're likin' it here a lot better?"

"Oh hell yes." She stops there, with that look on her face like there's more she wants to say, and then she sighs. "I feel so bad for Yuki-san, though. Of course she wanted to try and fix everything but... God, I'm being a downer. On the clock, even! Sorry, guys."

"Aw, don't sweat it." Chiba knocks back about half of whatever he's drinking and his gal (whose name Aoyagi can't recall at the moment and he's too embarrassed to ask) pours him another. "You can always come vent at us off the clock. Oh, speakin' of--" He waggles an eyebrow in Aoyagi's general direction. "Shiori-chan was just tellin' us all about the hot date she went on last week. That didn't work out. Maybe now's yer chance to--"

"Oh, leave him alone!" Shiori swats at him with a menu, but she's laughing and not in an on the clock way, so it's all good. "What can we get you to drink tonight, Amano-san?"

"Jack and Coke, hold the Jack," Aoyagi says. "And whatever you want." Chiba's eyes light up and Aoyagi cuts him off before he can even start. "Nobody's talkin' to you, I meant Shiori-chan." Chiba and his gal both laugh about that, because that's just how it is with this bunch.

"What if I want champagne?"

Aoyagi grins. "Did I stutter? And one of those fancy fruit platter thingies."

Shiori winds his arm into hers and plops her head on his shoulder. "See, this is why all the girls love you. You spend lots of money and you don't get drunk and obnoxious. Unlike some people at this table!"

"So whatcha been up to tonight, Amano?" Chiba says in a transparent-ass effort to deflect. "Ain't like ya to be runnin' all over town on a work night."

"Eh, this n' that," Aoyagi says. "Ojisan bought me out for the night, told me to go get a hooker or 'a Nintendo' or whatever, y'know, like he does."

"Like he does," Chiba echoes with a knowing nod. He swore up under the old man, after all, he ought to know.

"Checked out the competition," Aoyagi goes on, and Chiba's gal perks up.

"Oh yeah," she says, "Neko Lovely? I went in there last night! It's... okay. Pretty inside. Super expensive, though."

Aoyagi nods. Expensive, and all the food is shitty prepackaged snacks in overpriced vending machines, and the cats are all purebred and for sale, and--as the sobbing manager told him in confidence--the owner gives every appearance of being that Kanzaki shitheel's cat cafe counterpart. "Yeah, 'expensive's' just the tip of the iceberg," he says. "Made me mad enough to go lookin' for a fight. And then some jackass boosted my wallet--"

"What!?" Shiori exclaims. "You just ordered a fruit platter! And champagne!"

"I got it back!" Aoyagi rolls his eyes as the rest of the table busts out laughing. "Gawd! What do ya take me for!?"

"Hey," Chiba says, gesturing with his glass, "at least ya got yer fight."

"That wasn't a fight," Aoyagi snorts. "Dude went down off one hit. From me."

"Welp." Chiba empties his glass and does not quite slam it on the table. "There's always our civic duty. Think I saw a couple fun ones on the board earlier. How 'bout you, Shiori-chan? Wanna help us clean up some trouble later? Yer shift's just about up, right?"

"Oh, you bet!" Shiori beams. On the one hand, Aoyagi always feels weird about Shiori coming with them on stuff like this. On the other, she's a card-carrying Civic Association member, she can do her thing in perfect safety from the sidelines, and, well... there's a certain former purveyor of feet pix out there who's probably still checking under his bed for her every night. "My favorite customers on my last table of the night and mayhem after work. This is the life.*

"All right, then..." The waiter brings Aoyagi's Jackless Coke and fancy fruit platter and pops the champagne for whoever's going to drink it, and Aoyagi lifts his unleaded glass. "To mayhem."