#this one took... so much less time than the last two. huh/lh

[roxie-roo]

Day 10: Friend

The sun was high and the sky was a brilliant blue. Mid-afternoon in the village that resided below Stratos and its grandiose floating islands. There were four of them in the outside seating of the tavern. Of course, there was Joel, without a chair, they'd all agreed he didn't need to break one. The god of thunder had a hand of cards, and was eying them with such an intensity the others weren't sure they'd ever seen before. Then there was Sausage, along for the ride purely for fun of it all. He sat near Scott, the two of them managing quiet conversation as to not distract the two currently playing this little betting game. There was a small stack of valuables on the table, gold, diamonds, emeralds, a few iron ingots, all ready for whoever won this last round. Scott leaned over towards Sausage, playful smirk on his face as he gestured towards Joel.

"You think he's got it this time?"

Sausage could only smile and shake his head in response. "We may never know, he seems pretty confident. Maybe he's got it."

"Full house!" The gossip was stopped momentarily as Joel slammed his hand down and beamed, cockily leaning back and eying his opponent with all the practiced arrogance of a fool who truly thinks he's won. This was, after all, his third game in a row with this opponent, surely he's got it down by now, right?

There was a laugh from the other end of the table. Jimmy, his current opposition, raised an eyebrow as he leaned back in his seat, looking over his cards once again. "Full house, huh? That's pretty damn good..." He commented plainly. That didn't seem to deter Joel, though, Sausage and Scott were watching the sheriff by now. He wasn't usually that calm. Unless he had something up his sleeve.

"Better than you, isn't it?" Joel laughed, arms folded over his chest. "Go on, 'Tim, what've you got?"

"Oh, not much.." Jimmy snorted under his breath. "Jus' a royal flu-"

"Thought so, nothing as good as this!" Joel hardly gave him the time to finish, didn't even process what Jimmy had said at first.

But it hit him, a bit too slowly for the spectators' liking, but it hit him. Jimmy was just sitting there, one leg crossed over the other and a calm smile on his face, though there was a glint of competitive fire in his eyes.

"Wait. What?" Joel blinked, almost forgetting what Jimmy had said. It was then that the blond took his hand and lightly threw it down onto the table, allowing everyone to see that he in fact, had a royal flush hand.

"Hah!" The sheriff cheered, hand curled into a fist excitedly. "Read 'em and weep, boys!"

"What?!" Joel nearly shouted, incredulous about the situation. "How- I- what?!" He stammered, then his head hit the table with a groan of frustration.

Jimmy snorted. "What's th'matt'a Joel? Y'ain't nev'a seen a winnin' hand three times in a row?"

"That's it." Joel huffed, picking his head up from the table with a pout. "I'm done playing."

"Aww,, querido.." Sausage tried his best to keep from laughing, hand against his shoulder somewhat comfortingly. "It's okay.. Lo atraparás la próxima vez, gran bebé..."

And for all of Joel's lack of knowledge when it came to Spanish, he could understand that last part. "I'm not a big baby." He grumbled.

Scott, meanwhile, didn't bother to hide the boisterous laughter, head tossed back and hand in front of his face to shield his eyes from the still glowing sun. "Oh my- that was just priceless! I never knew gods could be such sore losers!"

"Well, when y'play as cocky as he did, his bluff was pretty damn easy to call.." Jimmy shrugged, though his face turned just a slight bit red upon hearing Scott's laughter.

Eventually, Joel was over his loss and the four of them played something else. Scott brought out Uno, and then finally was Joel able to get a win, which he promptly bragged about. Jimmy didn't mind.

It was nice to have friends. It was nice to put the past behind them and just move on for once.

Holding grudges was so tiring.