Content warning: Drinking, mild sexual references.

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"I'hm shooooo sick of it!"

Violet slams her tankard down on the table, booze flying out and raining down in small speckles from the force of the impact. "I'm just shick of it - all of it, you know? All of it..."

She trails off and slumps forward, bangs hanging down in front of her face. She's quiet for a moment or two before suddenly sitting straight up again, as if she's been struck by lightning, and raises her glass up high into the air. "Meidri! One more over here, pleashe!"

"Are you sure you should be having another one?" Kanchal raises an eyebrow in her direction and sips his beer somewhat judgementally. "I've never even seen you drink before."

Violet taps her temple several times, smiling smugly. "It'sh just fairy beer," she says, as if this is a complete response to his statement. "It tastes really good, like drinking juice, but there's flowers in it, too."

"Yeah, but it's still alcohol, though," he insists. "You know that, right? Just because it tastes sweet doesn't mean it won't get you drunk."

"Pretty sure we're past that point by now," Stunk says, nursing his own drink. He sets down his tankard and pops a slice of fried potato from his plate into his mouth. "She was already on her second one when we came in."

Kanchal squints his eyes slightly. "So if she order another one, that'll be her fourth. Don't feel any responsibility for that at all, do you?"

"What? Why are you making it sound like it's my fault?" Stunk asks incredulously.

"I'm just saying, you don't care if she spends all night drinking, huh?" Kanchal turns his head over his shoulder and calls out to Meidri. "Cancel that last order! Don't bring her any more."

Stunk scoffs and munches on another potato. "Hey, drinking all night never hurt me. Let her do what she wants."

Violet bangs her fist weakly against the table. "Yeah! Lemme do what I want!" she agrees, leering at Kanchal. She takes a huge gulp of her drink, as if to spite him, but splutters and coughs a few times, spilling some on her shirt.

"Oh, for the love of - knock it off," Kanchal snaps, snatching her drink from her hand. He pushes the plate of potatoes over to her. "Eat something and calm down, will you?"

"Oi. I was eating those," Stunk says, pointing at the plate. Kanchal ignores him.

She glares at Kanchal petulantly, but does what he says, morosely munching on a potato slice.

"What are you all spun up about, anyway?" Kanchal asks. She narrows her eyes but says nothing. "Fine, whatever. Don't tell me. None of my business."

"Thought you said your family was gonna visit or something?" Stunk offers. Kanchal stares at him blankly. "What? I listen sometimes. Don't look at me like that."

Violet sinks down in her seat, brows furrowed. "My mother," she says miserably. She says nothing else, but her tone is immediately understood.

Kanchal softens slightly and pushes her drink back across the table. She takes the mug gratefully in both hands and takes a small sip.

"I hear that," Stunk says sagely, reaching across the table for another bite. "You couldn't pay me to spend a day with my old man if I didn't have to."

"Hm, hm. Family can be difficult sometimes." Kanchal nods in agreement, crossing his arms. "Must have been a really bad visit, huh?"

That question earns an an embittered groan. "I don't know," she says harshly, and then her voice breaks slightly as she adds, "I didn't think it would be."

"...Sorry. We don't have to talk about it." Kanchal taps his fingers awkwardly on the table. "My bad."

The three of them are silent for a moment, and then in a quiet voice, Violet asks, "Where's Zel?" Stunk and Zel glance at each other.

"I don't know for sure-"

"I think he had something going on today-"

They start talking at the same time, and then both stop once they realize they don't have anything helpful to say. Violet takes another silent sip of her drink. They look at her for a few moments, as if waiting for her to respond poorly, but nothing happens. With a small sigh of relief, they lean back in their chairs.

"Fine! Whatever!" she shouts suddenly, startling them. "I don't care! Why should I care where he is?!" She gulps down the last of her drink in one go and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. "I don't care! He can do whatever he wants! It's not like we're dating or anything!"

She falls forward and her forehead hits the table with a loud thud. "Why should I care!" she says again. "He's stupid! What do I care about a stupid, dumb elf anyway...!"

Kanchal pats her back awkwardly. "Come on," he says, trying to cheer her up. "I'm sure we'll see him around soon..."

"Whatever! I don't care... I don't even like it here," she says hatefully. She folds her arms on the table and hides her face, voice muffled. "Whatever! I'll just leave and never come back and he won't care anyway, and I won't miss him, and I won't miss this stupid gross town anyway...!"

Kanchal grimaces, hesitantly stroking her back. She lets out a sob and he pulls his hand away, uncomfortable.

Stunk extricates the plate of food away from her and Kanchal glares at him, but he pays no mind. "Thought you were getting used to it here?"

"No! I hate it here!" she snaps, still muffled. "Everyone is so gross! And everybody just does whatever they want all the time!"

"I dunno. I think it's pretty nice to do whatever you want," he says evenly, propping himself up with one arm. "Weren't you trying to get better at that?"

Kanchal leans over to him. "What are you doing?" he hisses through gritted teeth, but Stunk just waves him off, motioning for him to stay quiet.

"Doesn't matter," Violet mumbles, "I don't even care... I don't want to be like you guys... always going to gross places and doing dirty stuff... you just want an excuse to be perverts." She spits out the last word with uncharacteristic venom.

"Mmhmm. I see." Stunk looks at her, still facedown on the table. "Zel, too?"

"Yes! Especially him!" She explodes at the mention of his name, shoulders tensed. "He's the worst! He acts like it's okay to do stuff like that! And he talks about it like it's normal when it's not! And he's stupid and dumb and I never wanna see him again!"

Her shoulders slump and she falls still. Stunk stares at her for a few moments.

"Did your old lady come to visit and start complaining about everything?" he asks casually. Kanchal blinks at him in surprise. "I know my dad would complain every time I did something he didn't like. Telling me to stay away from places that he didn't agree with. Now it just pisses me off, but it used to bum me out pretty bad."

Stunk pauses for a moment, but she doesn't say anything. He continues. "He would tell me to stop taking jobs in small towns because the people couldn't pay well. Tell me that I'd get robbed if I stayed there too long. Never thought to ask me if it felt good doing something for someone just 'cause."

Violet slowly lifts her head off the table, her eyes wet. She sniffles. "I bet the first thing she said wasn't even about you," Stunk says with his arms crossed. "Already complaining about the red light district and all the perverts walking around before you could even tell her 'hi'."

Violet wipes at her eyes and sits up, fidgeting with her hands. She sniffles again. "I haven't seen her in months," she says. "And I was like - like, I wanted to tell her about everything I've been doing... and everything she said was just so..."

She trails off, resting her chin in her hands, and sighs. "She just wouldn't listen... kept telling me to come home, telling me to keep to myself, not to talk to anyone... then she started asking me if I remembered this guy from my village. If I wanted to get engaged to him. Like, what? I don't even like him...! The guy is a total jerk...!!"

She pinches the bridge of her nose. "And I tried to tell her I wasn't interested, that there was someone I sort of liked... and she kept pestering me and making me feel so awful..."

From behind her comes the tell-tale tapping of claws on wood, and Meidri stops by the table just long enough to drop off a glass of water and to rest her hand on Violet's shoulder for a moment. Violet takes the glass in both hands and takes a long drink. "I don't even know where Zel lives," she says. "And we don't go out together. And we only see or talk to each other if we're both in the bar... my mother would be so ashamed of me if I told her any of that. And I had to keep lying and dodging her questions and it just... made me feel so bad."

She stares into her glass, rubbing the sides with her thumbs. "I guess maybe it's just different for elves, 'cause they live so long," she says, "but I feel like I just want things that he doesn't... and I can't even do the things that he does want." She squeezes her eyes shut. "I don't think he would even care if I stopped coming here..."

"Hey, now," Stunk interrupts her, "that's not true. Where did you get an idea like that?"

"Yeah. That idiot really likes you, you know," Kanchal says.

She fidgets with her glass, unconvinced. "Why hasn't he...? I don't know... why doesn't he want to see me more?"

"Have you ever asked him to go out with you before?" Kanchal points an accusatory finger in her direction, and her already pink cheeks flush darker.

"N...no," she admits, taking a drink and looking away from him. "Th-that's not... a girl shouldn't..."

"Oh, don't give me that," Stunk interrupts, waving his hand. "Men like a woman who'll make 'em feel special. If a girl says she wants to see more of me, you bet I'm gonna make some time for her, you know what I mean?"

Kanchal leans over the table. "Not only that," he says. "Sometimes you gotta spell things out for him. Elves look at things real differently than the rest of us. Once I told him that a guild I had my eye on was shut to new members for a whole year, and he didn't understand why I was upset. He just told me to wait. Like, a whole year? Come on."

"Right?" Stunk agrees. "For all we know, elves don't go out until they've known each other for a decade. You gotta give him a push." He sits back. "Zel's a good guy, you know. If you tell him you're upset, he'll try to fix it. He's just a little dense sometimes."

Violet lets out a long sigh. "Ughhh... I can't just get away with waiting for it to fix itself, can I?" she asks miserably.

"If you can wait five or six years, sure," Stunk says with a shrug. "But if you want results now, you gotta act."

She sighs again. "Maybe you're right..."

"Or you can always give up and go to Incubus Road instead," he says with a laugh, and her face turns bright red. "Bet those guys would show you a fun time while you're making up your mind."

"D-Don't make jokes like that!" she squeaks, her anger coming off more as humiliation. "F-fine, whatever! I'll talk to him..."

She heaves one last sigh. "...Thank you guys," she says. "You're smarter than I'd like to give you credit for, I think..."

"What a backhanded compliment..." Kanchal mutters.

"Well, it's what we do," Stunk says smugly, motioning with his tankard. He takes a drink. "All we ask is that you let him write a review once you two actually bang."

"Not a bad idea actually," Kanchal agrees. "I'm sure a lot of people would be curious to read about that..."

"Knock it off!" Violet snaps, her face blazing red. "F-Forget about that compliment! You don't deserve it!"

She jumps to her feet and scrambles in her bag for her coin purse, dropping several gold coins on the table in a huff. "You sobered me up," she says haughtily. "I'm going to bed now!"

She stands there for a moment, fists at her sides. Her blush darkens once more. "A-And when you see Zel, tell him I need to talk to him! Okay!"

With a final huff, she stomps across the tavern and up the stairs to the inn. There's the quiet slam of a door closing, and Kanchal chuckles to himself. "Ah, youth," he says, "what a wonderful thing. It's hard, but there's nothing else like it."

"Oh, stuff it. You're, what, a couple years older than her?"

"Oi, you're forgetting how cynical I am. That's gotta count for a few extra years, don't you think?"

Meidri eventually comes to clean off their table. With all the dishes cleared away, the two of them meditate on the last important question of the evening.

"I mean... a week, max, right? Once they start going out for real?"

"A week? You're giving her a lot of credit. Take it from me, she's not gonna wait that long to put out."

"I dunno, man, you heard the way she was talking..."

"I'm not saying she's aware of it! But it won't take a week. Trust me. I've got an eye for this sort of thing..."

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