2019-11-14 - A Drink at the Fire Pit

Sutton sits down by one of the fire pits with her feet up on the stone ledge, tipped back in a chair with an orange-scented Old Fashioned in hand. Every now and then, she sips from the little cocktail straw tucked into it, a spiral of orange rind tipped across the ice in the top of her glass. The blonde is dressed in a warm, dark green sweater, a pair of jeans, and ankle boots. A dark fuzzy blanket is across her lap, to keep her knees warm (they're ripped jeans!). She waits with a chair next to her.

Mae makes her way down to the fire pits clad in a pair of baggy black sweat pants and a large black hoodie. She is carrying a very large glass filled with what might be a strawberry daiquiri, with gummy fish in it. She spots Sutton and walks over to settle next to the blonde, shooting a grin in her direction. She gives a tug of the blanket, glances around and sighs. "It's nice out here, despite the weather. Damn rain. How are you doing, babe?" She asks, taking a sip of her very bowl-like drink before she sets it down somewhere safe.

Sutton shifts her blanket over a bit to share with Mae when the dark-haired dancer joins her on the lower deck. "Do you have gummi candies in your drink?" The blonde sounds maybe a little jealous of that. "I like it here. I'm friends with one of the bartenders, which is how I found this place. There's just something about oceanside fire." She looks over sipping her bourbon-y drink, and then reaches over with her free hand to touch Mae's arm. "I'm okay. How are you?" She wiggles the edge of the blanket to encourage Mae to tug it over if she'd like to share. It's easily big enough.

"I do." Mae gives the drink a look, grinning widely. "I asked for the drink with the fishes, but then I asked them to make it with something strawberry instead." She leans over and bumps Sutton with her shoulder, keeping her lean for a few beats. "I agree, it smells lovely out here. Rain, sea and the fire. The combination is pretty evocative." She takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "I'm doing okay. Better now with a drink." She scoots a bit so that her and Sutton are snug together, pulling the blanket over her legs. "Worried more about you than me. Got the butter out of your hair, babe?"

"The drink with the fishes and strawberry instead. Looks pretty good. I went — bourbon to keep me warm." Sutton gives her glass a little swirl, the ice tinking merrily. She leans into the shoulder bump. "It took me a couple rinse and repeats once I was sober enough to get into the shower without falling." Again. Falling again she means. "A cuddle and a good sleep go a long way." She drums her nails lightly against the glass. "Have you experienced many of those weird waking dream things? Where you're dreaming, but also if you get hurt there, it's real?" Left turn!

Mae drives a motorcycle so she's used to sharp turns. She nods toward Sutton, frowning as she answers quietly. Her eyes shift around as if trying to pick out people in the shadows. "Twice, since I've been in town. Once.." She takes a deep breath, almost as if she wanted to make sure she still could. ".. I fell into a puddle, and .." She shakes her head to banish that thought, folding her hands in her lap. "The second time, masks at the place I was staying at came to life and tried to murder me and two friends while I was wasted with the flu. It was.. fantastical." She tilts her head to give the blonde a level gaze. "I figured .. maybe I was delirious, but.. when two other people have the same experience, can you claim that really?"

Sutton takes a sip of her drink while Mae answers. She watches her face, hazel eyes dark even in the firelight. "Twice." She blows out a breath. "I think.. I've been in... four? Maybe four? I only have flashes of one. And I don't even know if that really happened." She will if she ever goes through all the videos on her phone, but she hasn't done that yet. "Okay, so a violent one. I had a couple of those, but I didn't get hurt in any of them. People around me did, though. People I saw in these dreams have come to me and mentioned them, so it definitely happened. Not just something in the water, which is what I first thought."

"I try not to think about it, but it's always there in the back of my mind, like little whispered warnings." Mae slides an arm around Sutton's shoulders and gives her a squeeze. "So you mentioned germs, lysol and a few other things last night and you said it made you pass out on your grilled cheese? Are you okay now?" She takes her arm back after that brief side hug and reaches two hands out for her fishbowl drink. She slurps from the straw, disturbing a few of the gummy fish. She plucks one out of the frozen abomination and tosses it into her mouth. "Also.. you get any closer to figuring out your man problems, babe?"

Sutton laughs when Mae brings up the grilled cheese again, leaning into the arm offered. She sighs. "Yes? Sort of. I was feeling a little ill at first, but better today. Earlier someone from the dream chatted with me about it, so clearly it happened for them too." Which was awkward. She doesn't say it, but her face does.

"No, no closer to resolving that. I keep getting these texts to come home. I don't know how to answer them. Everything I say he turns back to how good we are together. We're good at sex. We're good at fighting. We're good at our jobs." She rests her glass on her knee. "We're bad for each other. I was enabling and I need to stop. You can love someone but not want to see what they're doing to themselves, and that's fucking painful man." She rubs her sternum and takes another drink. "The first man in my life in this town is the one I'm staying with, who takes care of me, and half the time, I don't know how he feels. We also can't fight, because..." She shrugs. "We just can't fight the way I'm used to. And I don't know what he wants."

Mae nods at Sutton, setting her glass back down on the table. She holds out both hands, taking the blonde's hands and tucking them under the blanket with hers. "Answer from your heart, first off. That's really the only way to deal with something. Honesty and truth are pretty important. I keep trying to be honest to Dylan, even if I hurt him." She wrinkles her nose and leans against Sutton, resting her head down on her shoulder. "Why can't you fight the way you're used to with the first man?" She lets her hazel eyes shift up to the paramedic's face as she tucks in to get cozy. "Is it .. bad for you?"

Sutton takes Mae's hands and gives hers a light squeeze. She takes a breath, catching the scent of Mae's shampoo. She leans her cheek against her hair, and looks at the fire. "My heart can't get past all the sex. I think I'm needy and broken. My other half died on me and I retreated to an angry, booze soaked place. The first person here to really look at me and hang out with me, and text me to check up on me, then show up and drink with me was Alistair. I fight with my hands and he's got all the combat training of a buttered egg noodle." Forgive her, she's hungry. "I will never put my hands on him like that. I throw stuff when I get mad, though, he could probably dodge stuff." She laughs. "He won't even yell at me. Fucking English." Says the woman with half an accent herself.

"The other one it's all fucking and fighting. He doesn't talk to me. When we're buzzed and hot and heavy, it's fire. When he can protect me with his body, he's there. When I'm sober and terrified, he hasn't been. He says to me he'll do better, but I don't think he knows how deeply —" She takes a breath. "I think I need a partner, not an addict who can't even promise me he won't try to take his own life again." Saying it out loud, it sounds like a simple decision, doesn't it? Except for all those messy fucking feelings.

'So tell me, Harry.." Mae begins, her voice quiet as she watches the fire flicker in front of them both. ".. are you confusing lust with love? Or have we not thought about that? I often have that problem myself, honestly." She frowns and turns her head slightly so she can make brief eye contact with Sutton. "You know, I think most women are needy, at least, I wouldn't say they're all broken. Needy, yes. So I don't think that you're a bad person for having.. feelings." She winces and glances down at Sutton's hands, her thumbs running over her knuckles. Combat training of a buttered egg noodle. That gets a thought, and she almost offers up a rebuttal, a 'have you ever tried to punch a buttered egg noodle? sounds difficult' sort of rebuttal, but she doesn't. Instead she nods in understanding.

"Well, only you know what you need, and what you'll take. You have to figure it out firmly, and you gotta make some choices." Mae blinks when Harry speaks of suicide and the other dark things going on there. "Babe..." She begins, taking a deep breath. "There are times in your life to be selfless, and times to be selfish, and when it comes to letting someone stay in your life or not? That's when you have to be selfish. Gotta think of what is best for you, because if you're always trying to nurture like you said last night, you're gonna never get out of that cycle."

She waits a few moments, thinking to herself, before she adds. "If you wanna fight, you can beat the shit out of me if you don't mind me occasionally fighting back. Hell, I can introduce you to Poe, always spoiling for a good fight, he is."

There's a silent moment of consideration from the blonde. "Maybe?" Confusing lust with love is easy to do. Sutton sighs. "I mean, I have an open heart. I love people. I don't know when the line becomes relationship love versus love for a very good friend. Would my life suck if you died. Do I think about you when you're not around. Does it hurt me to think of you in pain. I think all those things are love."

"I mean broken in that... I used to be balanced and in control. Now, after Eli, I start to have feelings for someone and I get really attached. Fast. I mean, it's happened twice, and I always have had a problem with professional distance." She swallows, nods. "I already know I can't get dragged into that hole again. I... something happened not too long ago and I realized how risky my behavior has gotten. I think I came really close to dying." She knows she did, more than once. "That's not ok." She squeezes Mae's hands and leans in to wrap her arms around her in a hug. "Girl, I'm not gonna punch you. You're gorgeous and sometimes I get angry and go for the face." She pauses. "I saw Poe fight at Kelly's. I'd be happy to punch him."

"Loving people is a good thing, and yes, that is where the waters get pretty muddy. It's hard to know if it's love because someone is dear to you, or love because you can't do without them." Mae gets wrapped up in the hug, sliding her arms around Sutton to squeeze her back gently.

"You used to be balanced and in control, you lost half of you. Now the balance is gone. Somewhere in.. " Mae's fingers gently tap over Sutton's heart, eyes narrowing. ".. there, is the ability to be balanced and in control. It won't be an easy thing to find, or to cultivate, but the ability is in there." She goes quiet, listening to Sutton before she speaks again. "Harry, have you ever let yourself grieve? Have you ever just let yourself go, let those feelings that you seem to have firmly bottled up inside of you out?" She leans back a bit, hazel eyes meeting hazel. "You can't move forward if you don't let go of the past. You're never going to forget your brother. You're never going to not feel pain when you think of him, but there was more than pain there. You gotta reconcile those feelings and let yourself feel, so you can let yourself go forward." She huffs out a breath. "Sometimes, when you don't forgive yourself and others, you dig yourself deep .. so that you can feel that pain and be reminded of it." She goes quiet then, watching the blonde for a few minutes before she carefully changes the subject.

On the subject of Poe Little. "Well then, once we get you feeling better, why don't we set something up so you can work out some of those feelings?"

Sutton really isn't likely to forget him when he's haunting her. Maybe it's here when she decides he needs to be put to rest, or maybe she'd already decided, some time ago. Maybe she'll realize it in a few days, hours, weeks, but the thought is in there now.

"No. Vodka's remarkably effective in that regard." Avoiding. "So I'm going home to try to do what I couldn't do the day we buried him." It probably won't work. She glances down at one of Mae's tattoos, tracing that line visually. "... To start. Try to start." She nods, listening to what Mae's saying. All of it makes sense. All of it feels true. "You're right. I know." Hearing it said aloud is important. Her eyes are shadowed by her lashes for a while.

Silence reigns in the flickering light, then Sutton takes a slow, deep breath, and looks up again. "Poe definitely looked like fun." She means he looked like he could take a punch. "Thank you, Mae. That's a lot to think about." She reaches up to flick a few strands of pale hair out of her eyes. "Honesty is the best way to go. Avoiding it only throws in more problems, resentment, confusion. Did you talk to your roomie yet?"

"Well, babe.. if you ever need arms to hold you so you can cry and rage against what happened to your brother. You text me. No judgement, I won't take sly photos of your ugly cry. I'll hold you, and let you have it out." Mae says, her eyes following Sutton's down to her ink. "No matter how right I am, it's not an easy thing to do. I get that. Letting go is hard, period. Something in us always tries to hang out, no matter what."

"Poe is also a good guy, talks too much sometimes, but he cares." She chuckles softly, turning to press a gentle kiss against Sutton's temple. "We came here to drink, not to think. I think somewhere along the way we got it confused." She nods about talking to Dylan. "We talk all the time, and while Dylan doesn't have a lot to say at any given time. He wants me, and we .. we understand each other for the most part. I wish I was better at explaining why I'm wired different, but I'm shit at it." She wrinkles her nose and shrugs. "I told him that he better tell me if this is hurting him, but I don't think he will."

Sly photos of her ugly cry. Sutton smirks at that. "That's a lovely offer, pet. Thank you. I haven't done the crying. I'm not sure what will happen if I do, but I know it'll most likely end in irresponsible sexual behavior, more liquor, and a massive headache." If she holds true to pattern, that is. "Letting go is... yeah." Sucks.

"The best thing about good guys who can take a punch is that when they talk too much, you just pop them in the mouth." She seems pretty cheerful about that prospect at least. "Maybe I should get Joey in the ring." Joey Kelly has those traits too. He could be fun to knock around. "Fish out one of your fishies. Are they booze soaked?" She tips her head up and presses a return kiss to the apple of Mae's cheek. "Thanks." Her drink is a little bit diluted by slowly melting ice, but she doesn't seem to mind, sipping anyway.

"He probably doesn't want to burden you with his feelings. I think I have one of those. Maybe I should go home and beat him with a pillow until he asserts himself."

"Better to be irresponsible with someone you trust." Mae says, grinning over at the smirk on Sutton's face. She takes the kiss on her cheek, that faraway look on her face suggesting that maybe she's thinking about Sutton giving Poe a nice right to the jaw. She picks up her big glass, slurps from the straw for a few moments before her inked fingers dip in, pulling out a gummy fish. She holds it out toward Sutton. "I think they are, they're potent at least."

"I think he wants to protect me from his feelings, and that's okay. As long as he's being honest when he does talk about them." Mae isn't always sure that he is, but Dylan is a fantastically bad liar.

"My offer holds, irresponsible sexual behavior or no." She takes another long slurp from her drink, wincing as it gives her an ice cream headache. "Gah, the only thing about frozen drinks that I hate so much."

Sutton reaches over to take the gummi fish. Slippery lil suckers. She grins and tries to get it into her mouth without dropping it. "Mm. I'ma try that drink next time." She just got herself a boring Old Fashioned. Still good on a winter night. Would be better with ginger infused honey. She mms again, watching Mae. "I hope... that he's at least honest enough to keep from hurting and stewing in that. I know sometimes it takes time to come to a decision. I'm in that boat now. Or maybe I already know what I have to do and I know it's going to hurt to do it."

"Put your tongue on the roof of your mouth and rub it around for twenty seconds. Usually thaws that right out." Sutton's put down a lot of margaritas in her time. A lot. "Offer noted and stored in the Bad Decisions/Good Decisions bank. Maybe we start with brunch and work our way down."

Mae is watching the fire, not realizing that Sutton is watching her. "I hope that he's honest too, because if he's not? It'll just crumble faster, and I asked him for what could constitute a pretty big commitment thing, which.. of course.. confused him." She looks over at Sutton then, eyes serious. "You got people who care, sounds like some people who care an awful lot. You just.. lean on them a little bit, it helps you get through some of the rougher times."

She screws up her features, eyes squinted shut as she takes the advice offered. When she opens her eyes, and there is no pain, she gives Sutton a thumbs up. "Thanks babe."

"I don't think I've ever had brunch before, it sounds fancy. Do I have to dress up for it? I mean, I have a lot of dresses that have been dying to be worn, and I don't go out on dates much so.." She winks at Sutton and gazes at the drink, still half full. "My eyes might have been bigger than my sobriety."

"Yeah, I think so. Just chill and love the people who love you. Zen out and eat some french fucking toast." Sutton kicks back in her seat, pulling the blanket up a little, and drains another sip of her bourbon, a lightly vanilla, orange-tinged burning delight. "Gonna go home and let mum cook for me and talk some sense into me. I'm gonna get such a talking to." Jesus is she.

"Naw, it's just some crap between breakfast for normals and lunch for everybody else. Stuffed french toast and mimosas." Mm stuffed french toast. "We can put on dresses and be fancy, though. I heard the B&B might be a nice place to go. Haven't ever been. Plus the guy who told me was ODing at the time, so... uh, you know. Grain of salt." She glances over at that drink and makes a gesture with her hand like bottoms up.

"I prefer waffles. Crispy edges, you know?" Mae shares, shifting her ass so that she's pressed closer to Sutton, sharing the blanket more. She doesn't comment on the mother thing, her eyes scanning the coast instead before she turns listen to what brunch is. "Mimosas are a yes. Substitute waffles for me and I'm in. I think we should dress up and be fancy though. I can get my hair done, buy a huge fucking hat. We can take pictures."

She makes a face, staring at Sutton for a few beats. "Harry, I don't think you have a boring life. I think you might need one for a few weeks though, calm all this shit down. You know?" The gesture is made and Mae finds herself leaning forward to claim the glass. Her lips wrap around the straw and she starts to suck. Every so often she pauses to massage the top of her mouth with her tongue, but she drains half of the glass within a full two minutes, setting the drink on the bench next to her. "Fuck me. I feel that."

"Waffles are good too. You can have a waffle if you want a waffle. Brunch covers all breakfast and lunch foods." Sutton finishes her drink with a long sip, swallows, and sits back to enjoy the burn. About half a glass ago, she started feeling warmer. Bourbon is the best for that. "I should buy a new dress anyway. My last one got ruined in all the bloodstains." That's what her life is, definitely not boring, more... carnage. Which is what she signed up for at work, not in her private life. "I'm pretty sure brunch was invented by people who wanted it to be socially acceptable to drink before noon."

"Just make sure you can still stand before you try to stand." She watches Mae drain her drink and sits up. Sutton yawns and shakes her head. "Damn you, hangovers. I hate that alcohol makes me tired and I end up needing all the sleep."

Mae was thinking of waffles, fruit syrup and mimosas. She was in a great head space, breakfast foods are her jam. They're often the jam of people who can't cook for shit, because breakfast foods are easy. Then Harry comes along and knocks all her breakfast dreams down like a toddler having a tantrum. Bloodstains? Fuck. She glances over at the blonde, eyebrows raised slightly. "Elucidate about that." Yes, Mae said Elucidate. She's not a college student, but she reads between sets sometimes in the back room of the Cabaret.

"How do I make sure that I can stand before I try to stand?" This is a serious question. She picks up the drink, she's determined now.

"If you can sit up straight without wavering, that is step one. If you can do that, try getting to the edge of your chair without sliding out. Step two. If you can then stand without feeling dizzy, hand on your chair, Step three. Only then do you let go and attempt to walk." So really Sutton meant make sure you can stand before you try to walk. She's had a couple of drinks too, just she only had this one while Mae was sitting here.

Oh wait, we're elucidating again. "Uh... oh. So I was in a bar on an almost date and it got sucked into a Dream. Dream cops shot up the bar and my cop date and he almost bled out. I was trying to hold as much of his blood in as possible, and I was wearing a hot ass grey dress. Also the graze to my arm bled quite a bit down the side, so that sucked." Gray Harbor! This is probably why she hasn't been on a proper date yet since living here. Depressing.

"That's a lot of steps. Let me finish this monster and we'll see what fucking goes on." Mae is slurping again, her eyes on Sutton as she drinks. To her credit she doesn't spit out her drink, or make any kind of disbelieving noises. She just continues to drink, and suddenly little fishies that might not have been seen, are seen now. She plucks one up with her nails and eats it.

"I met with Javier after that happened, we had coffee. You know, I thought he was hiding something about how he got hurt." Mae didn't realize it was ghosts he was hiding. She sets down the drink, takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "You're gonna have to walk my ass up the steps, probably."

"Yeah, he generally defaults to hiding things." Sutton pulls the blanket off of her lap, then moves to fold it, rolling it up neatly. She runs her fingers through her hair, flicking blonde locks into a mussed do. "It took him a while to heal from that one." She doesn't say it was so similar to watching her brother die that she had major issues for weeks after. Still sometimes she wakes up in a cold sweat. "Eat your fishies and we'll see about these stairs. Then it's Lyfts for us and I'm heading back to Bayside to beat the truth out of someone." She pauses. "With a pillow."

If she stays in this bar any longer, she's going back drunk, and that will not lead to pillows fighting.

Mae stares at the fishes. She wants to eat them, she paid too much for this drink. It doesn't seem like she can manage it. Sutton's sudden movements and snap to a different subject draws her gaze, but she lets it go. If the blonde wants to talk about whatever is on her mind, she knows how. Mae doesn't try the steps, She uncrosses her legs and stands up, standing still to see if she wobbles. To her complete amazement, she does not wobble. "Huh." She leans down to pick up the rest of the drink, ready to drop the nearly empty glass off at the bar.

"Beat him gently babe, last thing you need to do is start on your own anger management journey with the guy who makes you toasted cheese." She pauses, hazel eyes cutting to Sutton. "This is the toasted cheese guy right? Not the palate cleanser." Nicknames are gonna need to be used at some point. Just for sanity.

She sticks out an arm, toddles in Sutton's direction and links up. "C'mon Harry. You text me about brunch. You buy a hat with a flower or a feather. We'll do that damn thing."

There's a grin from the blonde when Mae's mystified by her ability to stand. "You seem good." She stands there waiting to see if the woman wobbles, though. "Mhm. You're right, and I'll be careful. Soft pillows only, no winding up more than 90 degrees." No winding up to smack him so hard he stumbles back and goes over the railing to the living room. "Toasted cheese is the best. Almost as good as eggy sandwiches. Yeah, toasted cheese. Palate cleanser... I haven't seen him in a while, actually. I do have a gift for him though.I should text."

Sutton links arms with Mae and leads the way to the staircase up. "Pics and Instagrammed brunch. It'll be fancy and delightful. So be sure you wear cute shoes too. Do you wanna invite anyone else?

Mae gives two thumbs up again, a cheeky smile follows shortly thereafter. "If you break something, you can fix it at least." She mutters about the angle of pillows and bumping someone over railings. "Remind me again, never to piss you off. We've had this discussion before, but I need more than one reminder, mostly because.. I forget shit."

She considers and then shrugs toward Sutton. "I don't care who comes with, ask people if you think they like fancy brunch. Then we have to book the fancy place. As long as we have waffles, I'll put on some fuck me pumps, a nice dress and a hat and behave for an hour or two."

Sutton laughs softly, "Too true. I can brace you up while we wait for the good painkillers to arrive." She leans in to make sure Mae's supported. Sometimes those boozy drinks just slam you when you're busy trying to walk up some stairs. "You'd have to really piss me off for it to be scary, and then only intentionally mean pissing me off would be scary. I'm easygoing." Except when she's not.

"I forget shit too, no worries there, love." She mhms. "Oh, I don't have anyone in mind for brunch, just if you do, why not. I'll see if the B&B does that." Now what was that place called. "The Strangled Duck doesn't sound right, but it's something like that." She's probably unaware she muttered that last bit out loud. "Do we have to behave?"

"Again. Not pissing you off. I can't work in a brace. I mean.. I could, but I doubt I'd get any good tips that weren't pity tips." Mae leans against Sutton, one foot at a time, thank god she had the presence of mind to wear sneakers to this firepit drinking thing. She glances over at Sutton. "Harry, you're not making me feel better. Don't worry, I'm already scared of you."

"You call them, and I'll pull out dresses and plan on being a princess for a day." She pauses at the name of the B&B. "Did you just say the Strangled Duck? How do they get anyone to want to sleep there with a morbid name like that?" She winces, and takes another step up, they're two away from the regular old floor.

"We don't have to behave, I'm just throwing that out there as an option. I do better when I don't have to behave, honestly." Mae is not a simple woman.

"Aw, Mae. I never hit a woman unless she hits me first." Sutton's words are soft. "Rarely happens, but it happens." She leans in against the dancer and the two make their way up to the upper level and the bar just inside the door. "I did, but I don't think that's right. It's something descriptive with a bird of some kind. Somebody told me once, but I was only half paying attention." Less than half, really, but at least she remembered there is a B&B in this town. "I do remember it being something weird and wondering why people would ever go there."

"Small towns. It's just local color." Or something. "So we'll set out to behave and see how it goes. No pressure, no plans. Best way to go about it." She hums a soft sound. "Hat shopping. I can do this." Holiday plans are always better with other people. "Maybe we'll get lucky and hit a themed event." She missed most of the Halloween stuff. And then she dumped her bike.

"Mmm, probably best if we keep the claws in babe. I slap for foreplay, and you're trying to get untangled." Mae suddenly finds all of that very funny, she giggles softly as they traipse towards the exit, maybe it's the talk about the B&B, or maybe she's just finally pleasantly tuned in, her drink hitting the bloodstream. "Eh, we'll go have brunch there, it will be glorious. Maybe we'll be careful with the mimosas. Maybe."

"You do me a favor, Harry. You call me tomorrow, let me know how you're getting to Seattle so I don't worry. If it's the grilled cheese dude, don't knock him ass over teakettle with a pillow tonight, be a little gentler. Catch flies with honey or some shit. Only hit him when you feel the urge to use the duct tape, you know?" She considers and then adds. "You mean, like a Snow Queen's thing or something? Wouldn't it be amazing to have brunch there while they're hosting a pageant or something?" She snorts softly, pulling out her phone to check to see if her request for a Lyft went through.

"I usually don't sass unless sass is required." Sutton shakes her head, "Foreplay never untangled anything but my willpower. Claws either." She snorts at something to do with that, leading the way in toward the bar proper. Where most of the sane people stay during the fall and winter months. Where it's warm. "I will. I'll call and let you know." She smiles then, a soft, genuine smile. "Thank you. Thank you for asking that, for... I." She clears her throat. "It means something to me that you did. That you do." Ask. "Yeah, exactly like that. An autumn themed tea or ... I dunno. Harvest cookies or something. Festive."

"Oh, the only way I'm getting anything out of the Brit is to beat him into submission without actually hurting him. His people only respond to interrogation techniques. He has generations of sarcasm and puns on his side. I have no choice but to deploy alternative methods of coercion. Seriously, he's a fucking vault." She says that like it's intensely annoying. "It's annoying." See? Annoying.

Mae keeps her lips pressed together, she runs on sass and body glitter. She makes a face, trying to figure that whole thing out while leaning against the bar. Her phone pings, but she's lost in a daydream about sass and claws, so it has to ping again before she gives it a look. "Harry. Girl." She sighs and glances toward the blonde, her answering smile bright. "If you won't let me drive you, then I wanna know you got in okay. You got a lot of shit ahead of you. Take one step at a time. Plant your feet firmly, and remember.. french toast, mimosas and maybe behaving is in your future." She makes a face at tea, tea is not brunch. She sees a cucumber sandwich and it's getting thrown at the nearest thing to her left.

"Can't you use sexual torture or something?" She's at a loss how to beat someone into submission without hurting him. "You could just ask him the same question until he cracks and answers it." She scratches her nose and shrugs. "I haven't had to use those kind of techniques. Somehow I get answers."

There is a beep outside, and she finally swipes and looks at her phone. "Fuck me, I think that's mine." She points a manicured finger at Sutton. "Text me. Don't get arrested."

Sutton stands, taking a breath while Zoiya deals with that pinging phone, while she gives that little pep talk to the blonde. She nods. She slides her hands into her pockets. "Yes. All of those things. Feet planted. Eyes forward. Dinner with mum. Facetime with pop." A memorial. "I might just take the train. It's an extra two hours, but nobody has to fuck with a car." She brushes her fingers through her hair, and leaves a few strands sticking up.

"French toast and mimosas." She says that like a touchstone to the future, something to look forward to with company.

"No, he goes nonverbal. Men do that. I talk. I talk a lot. The pillow will work. And if it doesn't, I'll sit on him and refuse to let him pun or make a sarcastic remark without a titty twister." She's twelve. Her methods of persuasion are those of a twelve year old. To be fair, she promised never to put her hands on him in anger. Her options are limited. "If I do get arrested, will you post my bail?" Well, great, now that's on her mind. "Just kidding. No cop in Seattle will hold me once they see my last name." She blows a kiss to Mae. "Be safe out there, girl. Talk soon."

"Yeah, I got a nest egg. Swear to god Harry, if you get arrested you better make it good. Fuck.. I love a good story."

Mae is out the door, surprisingly spry on her feet.

"I solemnly swear to make the story a good one." Sutton replies, watching after the dancer to make sure she's in her Lyft safely before she, herself, makes her way out the door to stand at the edge of the lot and wait for her own ride.