The Icklest Koala, Thursday Night

[the_merriest]

Cabins! You know, Rikku had missed campfires so much. You could make s'mores and mountain pies and hot dogs and then you could all sit around chatting and watching the fire and how awesome was that? Severely awesome.

So Rikku had piles of goodies and pie irons and sticks and she was having a grand old time. And the Icklest Koala campfire? Was so, so open to anyone who wanted some campfire food. Mmmmm, campfire food.

(OOC: I have not had a mountain pie since the fourth of July, woe! OPEN CAMPFIRE IS OPEN.)

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[withoutverona]

He blinked back at her. "Because of her dad, Rikku. It seemed a way for her not to go home, if she needed one."

Mildly irritated, he added, "I'm not actually in a hurry to be married a second time, you know." Well. Not that much of one.

[the_merriest]

"No," Rikku said quickly. "Of course not. Totally."

Since he proposed and all. Totally reasonable assumption that he didn't want to get married again.

"Did, uh. ... Did she freak out?"

[withoutverona]

That got the slightest of imperceptible smiles out of Romeo, who was otherwise occupied lighting his marshmallow on fire. "I just meant I wasn't planning. It just .... came to mind."

He glanced up at her. "She didn't, actually. She very firmly let me know it was not a helpful solution, but she did it without calling me an idiot."

[the_merriest]

"That's good," Rikku said. Trying not to sound as relieved as she felt. "I just mean. You know. That's a kinda huge step. Very sweet. And helpful. But if she was nervous about dating, I mean. She might be the type to get all panicky about it, just, BAM, out of nowhere."

[withoutverona]

"I'd never done it before," Romeo said almost casually, pulling the blackened marshmallow out. "With Juliet it was more like ... she made it clear she expected to be wed" -- at least if Romeo wanted anything interesting to happen --"and I was too lovestruck to argue."

He put the sweet in his mouth and added, "I have no idea how I would react, were I on the other end."

He would say yes.

[the_merriest]

"Sometimes that happens," Rikku said. "The lovestruck thing. I mean, I'm guessing. I've never ... asked, or been asked. I mean, I crashed a wedding once. 'Cause Seymour kidnapped Yunie, and was gonna force her to marry him? Which is seriously gross since he was dead and all."

Well. He was.

"I don't know how I'd react, either. I think ... I'd be flattered? But ... you know. Dojima's always been kinda nervous about the whole dating thing, so I would be worried that she'd flip out. It's kinda cool she didn't, right?"

This was an attempt at a silver lining.

[withoutverona]

"It is cool," Romeo had to agree. "Except now she has to go back and be her father's little pawn and how can marriage be worse than that?" (Montagues: Going from zero to emo in no seconds flat.)

But he wasn't that upset, so he considered her story and asked, "Was he like the zombies at Caritas?"

[the_merriest]

"No, he was ... he just didn't stay dead," she said, giving a light shrug. "Sometimes our dead don't ... move on. They turn into monsters. Or if they're really strong-willed, they still look like themselves, they're just kind of bending things around them. It's something to do with pyreflies. My world's ... kind of not like this one."

Understatement of the year, right there.

"Maybe she doesn't want to be anybody's, just herself," she added softly. "She can find a way out of it, and be ... yours, 'cause she wants to, not because she's gonna be yours instead of his."

[withoutverona]

"So death in your world means more than one thing," he summarized as he reached for another marshmallow.

It was into the fire before he felt ready to answer the rest of what she said. "I want her to be her own too," he all but whispered. "Girls aren't, in my world, not really. And not in hers, either. The more time I spend here, the less I understand that."

[the_merriest]

"It's complicated," she said, which ... could really have been intended for either of their discussions. "And ... I know you do. And she does, too, I bet. And I'm sure there are other ways to help her. Not that you asking wasn't helpful. It'll be okay, yeah? We can ... do we need to go beat her dad up?"

She wasn't above that sort of thing. Really.

[withoutverona]

"It wasn't helpful," he said flatly. It would be if she had said yes, but she hadn't. "A nbice thought, at the most."

"And no. For one, the man all but goes to the bathroom with armed bodyguards; for another, it would serve only to make things harder on Yurika."

"Not that I wouldn't do it had I half the chance."

[the_merriest]

Rikku shrugged, watching the fire. "Nice thoughts are helpful," she said. "I mean, she knows she's got options, now. She knows you're always gonna be there for her. That means a lot."

She shook her head. "And if you do decide to go after him, call me, 'cause I'm in."

[withoutverona]

He nibbled the charred edges off his second marshmallow as he thought about this. "I would do anything she asked," he resolved. "I hope she knows that."

With a sight smile, he added,"We wouldn't go with out you, especially as you've yet to see Tokyo."