carefully executed maneuvers (bendytimed before clone plot) [closed]

[encourage]

Time was difficult enough to figure out on ship when she was having a good day. The mild hangover she'd had this morning (drinking water and forcing herself to down slop from the mess hall had kept it mild) had morphed into a milder headache and light sensitivity that had mostly faded by the time she'd picked up her omnicomm and run across Lash proposing some kind of celebration.

It was in the sensoriums, which was anything but good in Sakura's general opnion, but as she stared down at her omnicomm yet again, she had wondered if it would be a decent distraction to keep her mind off the stupidities of last night and early in the morning. If nothing else, given that she wasn't expected in MedBay today, it would fill in some time before she heard back from Marco. So she'd gone. What was there to lose?

It was only later, after she'd excused herself from the sensoriums and everyone within them, that she realized why she probably hadn't heard from monkey boy. Staring at the desk in her room, she looked between the omnicomm she'd just set down and the one that was on top of a book.

The slow realization that the omnicomm she'd thought had fallen out of her pouch last night hadn't fallen anywhere. She hadn't had her omnicomm with her. She'd walked off with someone else's omnicomm from where Marco lived. With her luck, it was probably Marco's omnicomm.

Sakura shouldered her satchel once more and raced down the stairs. If anyone was around to see her, she probably looked amusingly out of sorts, still dressed for the beach and heading back out within minutes of finally getting home. It didn't take long to make her way over to his residence, relying on shinobi speed to cut down on travel time. She came to a stop at the front door, running her hand through her hair to get it to calm down before she knocked. Best to get this started. By now, she owed a few apologies.

I am never drinking again.

Comments

[livestoannoy]

At least this time it wasn't someone randomly appearing through the window. Except Marco wasn't expecting it to be Sakura. Sure, she's rambled on about 'plans', but since she'd been drunk as hell at the time Marco had assumed that she wouldn't even remember them, let alone try to follow through. He hadn't even gone storming after her to demand his omnicomm back after she'd decided to just walk off with the thing, because he figured she probably had a massive hangover right now. He'd probably just get punched in the face.

So when he opened the door to find Sakura standing there, for once not wearing her usual gear, he spent a moment just blinking at her in surprise. "Barbie?!" he said, incredulous.

[encourage]

Pending he'd have caught up with her initially. Sakura offered him the omnicomm as she helpfully pointed out, "You're late. Is this yours?"

Managing to gloss over ninety percent of what had gone on early in the morning for now, if she knew she needed to get an apology out sooner rather than later. Talking with Marco for too long would probably leave her in no mood to apologize. He had that talent. "I seemed to have picked this up somewhere between the Drunken Dragon and home last night."

[livestoannoy]

"Wait, I'm late?!" Marco protested, staring. "You seriously expected me to turn up for plans you made while you were completely smashed? How the hell do you even remember anything you said?!"

He looked down at the onmicomm, scowling a little. "Yes it's mine," he said, grabbing it from her.

[encourage]

"I was --" She was already losing the battle with irritation, and forced herself to calm down. He was more or less in the right to be angry with her. She had come in through a window at some unsanctioned hour of the morning and/or night, while entirely drunk, and then jumped back out. Not to mention the other things she'd said while she was an uninvited guest.

It was remarkably rude on her part. "Look, I'm really sorry. I was out of line, and I don't know what got into me." She crossed her arms over her chest after he'd liberated her of his omnicomm, feeling a bit defensive. "There's next to no one who doesn't eventually remember what they do and say while drunk, and alcohol doesn't excuse me from being responsible for myself. I said tomorrow, and I'm here tomorrow."

So there.

[livestoannoy]

"Right," Marco said, not quite sure he believed her claim that no one forgets what they say while drunk (all those people he'd heard talking about blackouts and not remembering what they'd gotten up to while drunk couldn't be wrong, right?).

Fuck, that meant they were having their date now, weren't they? But he hadn't even thought about where they might go yet! Damn it, what the hell was he supposed to do now...he fixed his eyes on the way Sakura was dressed. It wasn't her normal gear, and it looked like she had a swimsuit on underneath her t-shirt. Oh man, had she already decided where she wanted to go? "What, were you wanting to go swimming or something?" he said, unsure.

[encourage]

"Huh?" For a moment, she wondered why he asked. Then it clicked. "I was at Lash's beach party. I was surprised you..." she trailed off, cheeks coloring. "Right. I had your omnicomm."

He apparently hadn't gone stealing someone else's to browse the network for what was going on. She doubted he'd sound so unsure if he had.

[livestoannoy]

"What beach party?" Marco repeated. He didn't know this 'Lash' person, but there was a beach party and he missed it?!

And to be honest, he was a little upset that Sakura hadn't asked him to go to it with her. (A beach party would have made an awesome date! Not to mention he wouldn't have had to try and figure out where the hell to go then.) "You could have asked me to come!"

[encourage]

"To the sensoriums?" Sakura pulled back, brow furrowing. "If I'd known it meant so much to you, yes, I could have. But I didn't know. Why anyone thinks the sensoriums are so great is beyond me," she said with a frown. "It's not like you're really even swimming when you're in there. The sun's fake, the sand's fake, half the swimsuits are fake, and someone wished up a bottle of mustard for the refreshment table."

It was the pinnacle of absurdities in her opinion. "You didn't miss much," she offered, kindly neglecting to mention any of the parts that she figured Marco might actually have counted as missing out on.

[livestoannoy]

Marco rolled his eyes. "Who said anything about the sensoriums? Hello, it's a party? And it's not like Stacy has much in the way of real beaches. Yes, let's just ask her to pick up an entire ocean for us the next planet we come, shall we?"

He couldn't help his mouth quirking into half a smile at the mention of mustard on the refreshment table. "See, I could have gotten to see people expressions when they tried to drink mustard. I am so blaming you for this."

[encourage]

"I'm fairly sure the only one who tried actually like it," Sakura pointed out, slowly uncrossing her arms. "She might have been the one who asked for it in the first place." Starfire's tastes were none of Sakura's business, if she secretly wondered if Faiza hadn't been right in her estimation as to why mustard. Then again, who knew. Maybe it was as simple as a matter of taste.

"The ship at least has real water. Does a beach only count if it's on the sea?" She raised an eyebrow, calling that estimate into question. "As a life-long river goer, I object to your narrow-minded thinking."

[livestoannoy]

"Most rivers don't have beaches," Marco pointed out. "And what were you doing spending all your time swimming in rivers? Don't ninjas have pools?"

[encourage]

Sakura narrowed her eyes, not bothering with a retort. He had no idea what ninjas did or didn't have. He had very little concept of her world altogether, and she wasn't in a mood to try and explain how and why it was different at the moment.

She could correct one belief, on the other hand. She stepped forward, grabbing his arm and tugging him out the door. "You don't need a beach when it comes to rivers," she pointed out, "And any sandy embankment's more than beach enough. Come on. I know what we're doing."

If he was just going to stand around talking about how much better his world view was, she wasn't interested. Besides, it wouldn't be much of a date. Sign up for hours of having someone else tell you about how wonderfully backward you were?

Shoot her through the foot first, please.

[livestoannoy]

Marco blinked as he found himself being tugged along. "Wait, you really do want to go swimming?" He turned his head around to look back at Cassie's house. "Hey, I need to at least grab some swimwear first!"

What, did she expect him to just jump in fully clothed?

[encourage]

Apparently she did. "What, your clothes won't dry?" she asked innocently enough.

[livestoannoy]

"My house is right there!" Marco protested, waving at Cassie's vanishing house. "And jeans aren't exactly designed for swimming in."

[encourage]

"So don't swim in them," she said, rolling her eyes. Really, what gave? "If I give you any more time to complain, you'll end of finding some other reason to not get moving." Her faith in him would be heartening (sarcasm), if her lips didn't turn up at the corners after her announcement (teasing).

"Besides, there's something else I've always wanted to try."

[livestoannoy]

"Hey, I can get moving!" Marco said, petulant. "But you know, normally it's nice to give more warning than, 'Hey, guess what? We're going right this minute!' And no, you turning up in the middle of the night drunk does not count as a warning."

Marco eyed her, not sure if this 'something else' was a good thing or a bad thing. "Try what?"?

[encourage]

"Maybe on Earth," she said nonchalantly, if it was probably not too different back home. Sakura had just never exactly hit past the spontaneous "date" that meant someone else was paying for her food. "We ninja prefer to be spur of the moment."

She finally let go when he asked what they were trying, positively grinning. "The train! What else?"

[livestoannoy]

"You have got to be kidding me," Marco said, dubious. "What about for your missions? Don't tell me you guys all just wing them and don't plan at all."

Marco was less that impressed. Sure, he'd never used the one here, but a train's a train. They're all the same. "That's it?"

[encourage]

"Did you really just compare a date with a mission." She looked back at Marco, disbelieving. "Marco, you get paid for missions. You know what a paid date is?"

She refused to let him dampen her enthusiasm. "Maybe they're old news to you, but I've never been on a train before."

[livestoannoy]

Marco spluttered. "I was talking in general!" Oh man, he was already failing at this dating thing, wasn't he? Fuck, this is why he needed a plan, at least then he might not be sucking so much...

But they'd arrived at the train tracks, and Marco hoped that at least might help distract him from the fact that this conversation had turned seriously awkward. "So you guys don't have trains in your world?" he said, latching onto the first question that came into his head.

[encourage]

Sakura was surprised into laughing, shaking her head as she pulled out her omnicomm. They'd have to stop the train here, but the tracks were already rumbling with one bearing down. "I know you were," she relented, "So relax, all right? It'll be fine."

Weirdly, reassuring him that the date he'd wanted in the first place would go fine actually made her think it would be fine. Focusing less on the implications that might not even exist, and instead aiming to have fun.

Punching in codes she'd never used before produced a most interesting result, as the train that would have sped by slowed down and came to a halt. "That's so cool." Sakura cleared her throat, moving down toward the door that opened for them. "Nope! Or maybe we do, in some part of the world I've never been to. Travel was by foot, cart, wagon, or boat, depending on where you were trying to go. Sometimes a mixture of all four."

She was looking around the interior of the train, eyes widening enough to show she was trying to take it all in.

[livestoannoy]

"Right," Marco said, swallowing. He needed to...stay cool. Not freak out so much. She was laughing, right? So it couldn't be all bad. Sure, he was probably laughing at him, but that's better than her getting offended or deciding to storm off or something.

"Okay, being able to stop the train by omnicomm is kinda cool," he admitted. "You can't do that with the ones back home. You have to go to an actual station and wait there."

He didn't know how long she was going to look around, so Marco just picked a seat and folded his arms on top of the seat in front of him, resting his chin on his forearms and watched her take things in.

[encourage]

The train started again, forcing Sakura to brace herself against the seats a few feet in front of where Marco had settled down. "Wow, that's... smooth," she said, for lack of a better descriptor as she adjusted to what felt like a motionless interior, after starting back on route.

After a few minutes, she wandered back to where Marco sat. "Your trains were like this?" she asked, looking past him and out the window. Semi-familiar and familiar landscape flew by. "This is so effortless."

[livestoannoy]

"Compared to horses and boats and wagons, maybe," Marco said. "Cars are usually smoother. They sway less, for one. But yeah, the trains back home are pretty much the same. If you guys don't even have trains though, I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and guess that you've never been in a car either."