Stand in The Rain

Aspen Virgo stood outside of the famous night club in New Rome, The Tipsy Toga. It had been a long month to say the least with everything that had happened. Her leg had returned to fully healed after her quest, but she wasn't sure if she could say the same for her heart. The legacy of Jupiter didn't spend a lot of time at bars or pubs since she got back in January and had been old enough to go.

This time in particular she had been invited out by a few people in her cohort to come have a good time and to get her mind off of everything. Still to this minute Aspen couldn't believe she had said yes; no one really could. Her head was tilted up looking up at the sky as the rain fell and hit her face, it was a nice change considering her face had been so flushed from all the shots she had slammed back. If you asked the centurion if she were drunk she would tell you no, but she'd also be lying.

The fresh air was good and honestly, Aspen wasn't sure if she was even going to go back in at this point, she wasn't sure of a lot of things at this particular moment but it was one of those moments where she finally felt somewhat okay. The legacy wasn't too aware of her surroundings so when she heard someone come closer to her she jumped and her head looked to who it was. "Oh, hi Luke." Said as her heart rate started to go down a little from the little scare. "I didn't think you came out to places like this. Did Eli drag you out?" She said the last part in more of a joking tone.

On a normal Friday or Saturday night, usually it would have been Eli to drag him out for drinks. Minus the dragging part, he was usually a willing participant of the oldest Virgos plans. But considering it was a week day and not the weekend, Luke was here alone. He normally saved his partying for the weekends, but tonight he just wanted to get out of his dorm room, annoying roommates. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to go into the Tipsy Toga yet, it just happened that his walk had taken him past it.

He was surprised to find Aspen here though, she wasn’t one to go out drinking. “Are you drunk?” He asked, ignoring her own question. Great, just his luck, finding his best friends sister outside of the tipsy toga, drunk. This could end in so many different ways...

Aspen's eyebrows knitted together a little in irritation of the boy in front of her. She had just asked him a question and he had completely sidelined her with his own question, one that she felt was a little rude. The legacy crossed her arms and didn't say anything back for a good while. She could feel the rain hitting onto her skin still and each drop was making her feel more awake and aware of everything that was going on.

"Nooo, I'm not drunk." Aspen mumbled a little bit still slightly agitated before her arms relaxed a little and she spoke again, "You ignored my question, I don't like being ignored Luke." Aspen said and she was almost tempted to tell him that she had weapons and she knew how to use them. Her mind had also wanted to mention something along the lines of 'I know where you live' but she didn't go there just yet with the threats.

Luke laughed seeing the younger girls face contort into a different expression. She was definitely very drunk, but he figured she wasn't aware of that fact yet. Or maybe she knew, and this was just the type of drunk she was. "Well if you must know, Eli isn't with me," he told her. "You going back in?" He asked, nodding toward the door. Though he figured going in might be a bad idea for Aspen to go back in, she was already drunk enough. He'd feel bad if something happened, if she got even more drunk. Not only that, Eli would kill him. "Or are you planning on going home?" He added. He didn't really care if she found his questions annoying. It was raining out, and he hadn't brought a real jacket with him, cause there wasn't actually supposed to be any rain tonight. It hadn't been in the forecast at least.

The brunette began to try and catch the rain drops in her hands as she had them now cupped out in front of her. She didn't pay a whole lot of attention to Luke, that was fairly standard though. He was one of Eli's friends and Eli was annoying, so by association it made Luke annoying. He started to talk about if she were going to go back in or if she were going to go home and at that point she gave him an annoyed look, "I'm not going home." She stated bluntly, and she meant it. Aspen Virgo was dead set on staying where she was and she would fight Eli if she had to. She couldn't have her swords in New Rome because it was customary that you didn't have weapons inside the walls, but if she did, she could slice him easily.

"I might go back in, but I might go to Denari's and get a deluxe cheeseburger and a milkshake...Yeah that sounds good." Aspen said trailing off with thoughts as she began to wander off in the direction of Denari's as she began to mumble something about getting fries.

Luke rolled his eyes. For starters, Denari's was in the other direction, and the drunk girl was going in the exact opposite way. Unless she wanted to make a huge circle, but in this weather he doubted it, the rain was cold, and it wasn't just drizzling anymore, it was starting to come down faster and a bit harder than before.

He followed her, taking a couple larger steps to catch up with her. "You're right Denari's does sound good right now." He told her, "but one problem, kid. The restaurant is that way." He smirked, pointing over his shoulder. "I mean, unless you want to be soaked by the time you get there, then I guess we can go the long way."

Aspen had started walking off in the direction that she knew Denari's was. It was the best diner in town and it had anything from burgers and sandwiches to eggs and french toast. Sometimes Aspen had spent a little too much time at Denari's because it was just always there and always open no matter what. The legacy heard Luke as he caught up to her and he started to be smug with mentioning that they were going the wrong way.

The brunette shook her head as she was coming up to the alley that she'd normally take. "Nope, I'm not going the wrong way." Aspen said as she began to make a turn down the alley. "I know where Denari's is like the back of my hand, I could get there with my eyes closed." She said as she continued to walk down the path, "This is one of the many shortcuts that exist in New Rome."

Luke wasn't about to ask her why her shortcut took them in the direct opposite of where Denari's was. When literally, the place was just down the street from where they had just been standing. However, it still didn't take them long to reach the restaurant, and when they reached the door he opened it for them, letting her go in first. What was he supposed to do in this type of situation anyway? Luke didn't make it a point to hang out with the younger siblings of his friends, for obvious reasons. It was weird.

When they had finally arrived to Denari's Aspen would have made a comment about how she knew how to open a door for herself, but she was too focused on wanting to get seated so she could order her burger and be done with it. Aspen also knew it would be highly bratty of her to complain about the door being held open for her, and her mom did raise her to know that it would be rude for that to happen. Once they were seated and given menus she kept looking at everything on them. "There's too many choices." She mumbled as she flipped through it trying to decide if she wanted the burger or if she wanted french toast and bacon now. After a few moments she told the waitress that she wanted french toast and bacon with a strawberry milkshake on the side.

"You know, I'd be fine on my own, I don't want to keep you from whatever you were going to do. I know I'm probably the last one you want to hang out with." Aspen said as she took a sip of her water that was on the table.

"Yeah sure." Luke said, he was already here and honestly he was also hungry. Plus if he left now, the only food he'd have in his dorm room would be ramen. And the ex-centurion had eaten ramen consistently over the past week and now that he was about to get some real food, he wasn't going to pass it up, even if it was getting food with his best friends little sister. He looked through the menu, and ended up ordering a burger and fries, with a large soda. Once the waitress had taken both of their orders and had walked away, Luke glanced up at the younger girl.

"Still feeling the drinks, or are you completely sober again?" He asked, seriously. Which was a new thing for him. So she better not be rude, he was trying.

Aspen continued to drink the water, she hadn't realized how thirsty she had been before now. In her mind it was as if water had been this big gift given to them and there was nothing better than that. She had chugged the water practically and honestly was beginning to feel a little more sober than she had been previously. She wasn't looking forward to that though, she knew that the headache would come after and it would be dreadful.

"Eh, a little. It'll be better once I get some food... And the milkshake." Aspen replied in a more serious tone than she had before. Aspen didn't mean to always be rude and bitchy, but a lot of the time she couldn't help it. "Were you going to go into the Tipsy Toga, earlier?" she asked.

Luke nodded, he understood the routine of being drunk then the pain of being sober and regretting everything in the morning. “No. I was just taking a break from homework,” Luke told her. “What brought you to the tipsy toga anyway? It’s not usually your place to be.” Like asked, unless things have changed since the girl came back home. Luke never remembered Aspen as the partying/drinking type. He wondered what had brought on the sudden change.

The waitress had come by again to deliver Luke's soda and Aspen's milkshake. At that point Aspen had been dying of thirst still and she immediately went straight for the strawberry milkshake in front of her. There was so much sweetness in it that Aspen felt like she was in heaven for a brief moment, that she almost didn't hear his question.

"Some of the people from the third had asked if I wanted to go out to the Tipsy Toga with them to get my mind of of things." Aspen admitted. It had been quite some time since the loss of Christian, but ever since therapy she had been doing a little better and functioned in general as a human being a whole lot better. "What kind of homework do you?"

Luke took a sip of his soda before he answered, "The crappy kind of homework. Essay, due tonight by midnight." He said, "and don't even think about saying something about procrastination, cause I already know." He added, he really shouldn't have waited till last minute. But hey, sometimes you just never learn. It was an easy essay anyway, he knew the moment he got back to his dorm tonight, he'd be able to knock it out in twenty minutes and still have a good half hour before midnight.

"What type of things have been on your mind?" He asked, carefully. He felt like he might know the answer though.

Aspen was looking around Denari's, it wasn't particularly busy, but it wasn't dead either, there were a few people in the place at various booths or tables. When he mentioned his essay being due at midnight she looked around and saw the clock before she spoke up, "It's eleven right now." She said plainly looking at the clock,but it wasn't her essay so she didn't care that much.

"Do you have a major yet?" She asked just as their food had been brought over to them, and Aspen was more than excited to have the french toast in front of her, it was so much better than waffles or pancakes. "Just centurion stuff and quest stuff, nothing too bad." Aspen replied to his own question, she didn't like to go into detail about her feelings, not when she was working on trying to move passed them.

He nodded at her answer. "You're right it is eleven." But honestly he didn't care right now, "criminal justice major." He told her, taking a bite out of his burger. He didn't care about his essay right now, because this was the first actual real meal he's eaten in a while. And Luke had always tried not to be that type of college student that cared more about his grades then his health. He needed real food right now, so therefore the essay and his professor would just have to wait. But then, maybe he was just lazy. He didn't care either way. "Aren't you retiring soon?" He asked, least that's what he had heard.

Aspen had grabbed her butterknife and fork and began to cut into the french toast to try and grab a few pieces to eat. When she heard his question about whether she was retiring soon or not, she took her time a little bit with eating her food before her mouth was clear to begin talking again. Aspen knew that if she didn't act with good table manners her mother would somehow know and drag her by the ear to some sort of work shop about it.

"I retired for about five days before I came back. I realized I went about it wrong and that people still need me, so I came back. I don't know when I will retire, I'm going on twelve years this year. I guess I'll take it one day at a time." The legacy said with a shrug of her shoulders and began to eat the bacon she had on her plate.

"Damn twelve years? I could barely do ten." Luke said, sticking a couple fries in ketchup. Not finishing all of his ten years of service wasn't something he usually talked about. Usually he just joked about it, cause that's the only way he knew how to handle it. Really, he had done nine and a half years. "How are you eating french toast and bacon this late at night?" He asked, the idea of breakfast this late at night didn't seem so appetizing. Well the bacon was understandable, bacon could be eaten at anytime of day or night.

"Yeah, almost twelve years. I find the older you get the faster time flies by and the more you have to do the faster it goes." Aspen said with a shrug of her shoulders. In some aspects it really didn't feel like she had been in the legion for twelve years. It was hard to really think of what it was like not to be in the legion, Aspen had just joined so early that it was her whole life at this point and it was difficult to imagine her life without it.

"Breakfast is suitable at any time of the day. French toast will always be acceptable for me to eat at any hour." The legacy said with a grin on her face as she returned to drink her milkshake. "I originally wanted a deluxe cheeseburger or something, but I couldn't pass up on french toast." Aspen admitted.

"So what made you want to do criminal justice?"

"There is a time and place for breakfast, Aspen Virgo. And that time is after the sun comes up, and before noon. It's why Mcdonalds only serves breakfast till noon... duh.." Luke said, taking another bite out of his burger, "you should have picked the deluxe cheeseburger, it's way better then the french toast. Besides that's not real french toast, go to France for that not here." He added.

Then he had to think for a bit, why did he choose criminal justice? He was pretty sure he only picked it because he didn't want to get stuck in some undecided major, and then not be able to figure it out once his four years of school were up. "Well, you know, the best kind of person to catch criminals is a criminal, so I figured it was perfect for me."

Aspen shook her head as Luke began to ramble on about how there is a time and place for breakfast. She would disagree and she found that his point about it would backfire on him. She continued to eat the french toast that she had before speaking, "Luke Avery, tsk tsk, if you were a real McDonalds fan you would know they have breakfast all day now, so breakfast can be any time you want it to be." Aspen said in a more matter of fact way.

The legacy continued to eat the food in front of her as she listened to him talk about why he chose the major he did. She raised her eyebrows a little, "What kind of criminal activities have you done, that make you think you qualify for such a position?" Aspen challenged while a smirk was plastered on her face. The food was definitely help Aspen sober up, but even when she was really drunk she had a good amount of consciousness in her.

"Good thing I'm not a Mcdonalds fan. That place is horrible for you, I'm surprised your mom even lets you eat there." Luke countered, smirking. He took another bite of his food, and waited till he had swallowed and taken another drink of his soda before he thought a moment. Most of the stuff he had done before he had gotten to camp had been small, seeing as he had only been nine. Mostly pick pocketing. He had pick pocketed an officer once, at one of his mom's reward ceremonies she had dragged him too right before she retired from the Army. Surprisingly, he hadn't been caught that day.

"I stole Mr. Davenports car once." He finally said, it had been one of his biggest moments of thievery while being at camp. It was also his last, not because he got caught, but because three weeks later he had been chosen to be the next Centurion. After he took up the position, he tried his best to stay out of trouble. "I did a lot of stealing when I was younger, also robbed a gas station once."

The brunette shrugged her shoulders when he mentioned that McDonalds wasn't that good for you. Aspen of course knew that she would never hear the end of it from her mother about how bad it was, but did that stop her? Not really. She didn't have McDonalds that often anyways, she just knew when they got breakfast all day because that was her favourite stuff on the menu besides the junior chickens. "I don't eat there that often, besides I mostly eat there when I go out on a quest or something and have to go through the drive thru." Aspen admitted.

The moment he began to talk about the things he had done she sat back in her seat a little and she crossed her arms over her chest with a big smile on her face. "That was you that stole his car? He was beyond furious, that was hilarious." She said shaking her head a little remembering the fit that Michael Davenport had when his car had gotten stolen. "What was the motive behind robbing the gas station?" She asked as her arms relaxed and she finished up the french toast she had.

Luke finished his burger, then moved on to finish his fries. "Yes it was me, and it was the most stupidest and most greatest thing I've ever done. But I would never steal Mr. Davenports car ever again. He never found out it was me either, so don't say anything, got it?" He told her. At the time, Luke hadn't actually known it had been Mr. Davenports personal car he had taken for a joy ride that day "The gas station, I was just hungry." He added, finishing the last of his fries.

"I wont tell him, no one needs an angry old man after them." Aspen said with a bit of a laugh. She finished up her milkshake just as he had finished up his burger. To be honest, Aspen wasn't sure if she was going to be able to hold down all the food she had eaten, so far everything seemed fine and there was no risk of her throwing up, but she wouldn't call it victory yet.

"You made me think you stole money out of the cash register or something. Did you just still a bag of chips or something?" Aspen asked him in reference to the gas station being robbed. She didn't know why, but she felt like the words robbed and gas station in one sentence meant a much higher type or robbery, but it turns out she was wrong.