[[Ice Skating]]

[queenspeedy]

Things were weird.

Those three words could sum up Thea's Darrow experience. Weird-scary, weird-silly, weird-crazy, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that they were weird, and that the one person who seemed to make them feel normal was her tall, magic-wielding friend. Which was strange in itself, but Thea had stopped questioning those things. It had honestly felt as if forever had passed since she had normal friends who weren't there just because of her last name and what they wanted.

Molly couldn't care about any of that. She had her own family issues, and they were utterly unlike anything Thea experienced. It was possibly what brought them together -- that their lives were so different and yet they understood what it was to be both a warrior and completely shaped by who their parents were.

Today was going to be as normal a day as either of them could hope -- Darrow willing. Ice skating up at Kagura couldn't go that wrong. Thea strapped on her rented skates and grinned up at her friend. "Who do you think is faster?"

Comments

[queenspeedy]

"It's doing them a favour," she agrees, hooking her arm through Molly's. She looks around at the food stalls lining the font courtyard of Kagura. "Uhuh. Really really nicely? In that special Molly way?"

[thewinterlady]

Molly gave her serene smile. "Look, I can't be blamed if they see a pretty girl and for whatever reason they can't remember anything they did or said while they were looking at her." She said loftily. Fae charms weren't something she used very often but this place didn't play fair very often so why should she? "Besides, the distribution of wealth in a closed environment is extremely important. Or something. We're really doing everyone a favour. And us."

[queenspeedy]

"So this is an anti-capitalism, anti-patriarchy sort of plan? Re-distribution of the wealth to shake up the status quo?" She laughed at that, knowing that at one point she had been wealth, society and everything it entailed. "I've used my pretty girl wiles a time or two, but I don't think mine are as good as yours might be. Just saying."

[thewinterlady]

"Your wiles are awesome. I just cheat." Molly said with a laugh. She knew Thea had been wealthy and privileged back in her home universe, but Thea never seemed to show it, at least not to Molly. "You can deal with the suppliers, though. You know what that whole side of things looks like. I'll just turn them into frogs and that might not be good for continued supply." She couldn't turn anyone into a frog, obviously, and Thea knew it, but she did have a short fuse when she knew she was being deceived. Considering a certain amount of deceit in business was par for the course, she figured it would be better for Thea to handle that.

[queenspeedy]

"Uhuh, I see how it is. You get the glamorous excitement of bamboozling the bank managers, and I get to go blind reading over stock lists," she teases. Honestly, it's not something she minds. She's surprisingly good at running a bar, something she discovered in Starling. It was a relief to find something she was good at, other than being a dilettante, something that had gotten old roughly around the time she was kidnapped by Slade.

"Of course, you're not considering the most important things," she says seriously, pausing dramatically. "Nachos or chilli fries?"

[thewinterlady]

"Excuse me? That's not even a choice. Chilli fries." Molly said, turning them towards the right stall and grinning. "And then boozy hot chocolate. I haven't forgotten. I am all about the chocolatey goodness."

[queenspeedy]

"Somebody's an alcoholic," she says with a sing-song voice, even though she's looking forward to a hot chocolate with baileys herself. Lots and lots of baileys. "Chilli fries it is. You find a table, I'll grab the food."

[thewinterlady]

Molly gave Thea a nudge and did as she was told, finding a table that overlooked the rink. She settled and waited for her friend to return.

When Thea came back, food and drink in hand, Molly was stifling a laugh as a guy, clearly trying to impressed a girl, swaggered onto the ice. "Thea...this guy. You've got to see this."

[queenspeedy]

She's balancing the food and drinks on a tray, setting it on the table without spilling anything, a feat she's particularly proud of. Thea looks up just in time to see a guy try to skate backwards only to land on his ass. "Oh man. He needs to go back to skating 101. Flirting 101, too."

[thewinterlady]

Molly laughed and took her food and drink, tucking in hungrily. "He does!" She said, blowing on a hot bite. "I'm a virgin and I've never dated, but I know for a fact that would not work on me."

[queenspeedy]

"You're a... Seriously?" Thea hisses it out, leaning close so no one overhears them. "Never?"

[thewinterlady]

"You look so surprised." Molly said, chuckling. "I know it's rare but it does happen that you can get to twenty five and not slept with anyone." She said and it wasn't mean spirited. She was somewhat used to the reaction. "I was brought up in a Catholic house and then I fell 'in love'," she dropped airquotes around it with her fingers. "with my mentor while I was studying magic. Then I got taken to Faerie and then here. I haven't had a lot of time to date." She gave Thea a smile.

[queenspeedy]

There are times that Thea wonders what it would have been like to have a parent (either one) who was religious. What would her life be? Would Ollie and her father have vanished? But it's not a path she got to take, and she's not big on what-ifs. "Molly. We have to get you a date."

[thewinterlady]

Now Molly blushed furiously. "Uh...I kind of had a bit of a date last night. Well...you can't really call it a date. I...I kissed him to get him out from under the mistletoe spell and then things got really heated and we ended up going to my room to make out." She rushed it out and then cringed at how bad it sounded. "Okay that wasn't meant to sound as high school as it did."

[queenspeedy]

Thea grins, leaning even closer and resting her chin in her hand. "Uhuh. Sure you didn't. So does mister make-out have a name?"

[thewinterlady]

"Will Graham." Molly said and nudged Thea. "And don't look at me like that. I'm not fifteen. I just...guys don't come on to me, you know?"

[queenspeedy]

That's something she has a hard time believing. Molly is tall, gorgeous, and all the things that guys should like. "Or maybe you don't meet the right guys. Who know, Magic mistletoe might have been better than any dating network."

[thewinterlady]

"I definitely don't meet the right guys." Molly said and laughed, munching a few more fries. "Magic mistletoe is a great name for a dating network, actually." She nodded and then shrugged. "But I'm glad he got stuck there."

[queenspeedy]

"Maybe we can start that after we start the bar," she posits, leaning back and grabbing her drink. "But until then, what else? Are you going to see him again?"

[thewinterlady]

Molly smiled and nodded. "We're going on a date in a few days. I think we both kinda needed some time to decompress." She gave Thea a smile. "He's really in my head. Like, behind my defences, magically speaking, kind of in my head. No one gets in there, but he just...is."

[queenspeedy]

"Huh." She gets that, and it's something that she doesn't exactly want to admit. It was how things with Roy had been. Their differences hadn't mattered, and her walls had come tumbling down around him. But he'd kept secrets from her too, so many secrets. It made it harder seeing him when she'd gone back to Starling, and now she wasn't sure what she'd do if he was here. "That's good. I'll have to book in a post date debrief for the next day."

[thewinterlady]

The flare of frustration and sadness was hard for Molly to miss. Her friend had always been tight-lipped about her life back home, opening up gradually as they got to know eachother, and Molly hadn't ever pushed her. She knew how hard it was to trust, and even when you did, how hard it was to talk about certain subjects.

"Of course. Like I would leave anything out. I'm going to have questions too so, you know, be prepared for too much information." She said, trying to wipe away the hint of gloom coming from Thea.

[queenspeedy]

"Suddenly we are planning a club, a dating site, and a relationship guru service?" She laughs at it, Molly's efforts obvious, and welcome. Thea sips at her drink and nods. "Honestly, I'm not the best to give advice. I dated the wrong kind of guy, a lot. And when I found the right one, his secrets got in our way."

[thewinterlady]

Molly nodded. She might not know about dating or sex, but she knew people well enough to know that they could hurt you without even trying at times. "Hey, I am literally a virgin. Any advice is worth it's weight in gold as far as I'm concerned." She said, smiling gently. "And the right one must have been good for a while, right?"

[queenspeedy]

"He was. I kinda thought he might be again," she admits, unable to keep the longing from her voice. She wishes so much that Roy were here, that they could have another chance. "But that's another world. Literally."

[thewinterlady]

Putting her drink down, Molly reached out and hugged Thea to her, arm around her shoulder. She wasn't a particularly tactile person, but the ache coming off her friend deserved comforting and Molly could do that. "Thea..." She said, and let the moment of sympathy stretch, before she smiled and nudged her shoulder into Thea's. "Maybe we need to get you a date." She said, hoping to break the tension a little.

[queenspeedy]

There aren't many people that Thea feels comfortable being that close to, something that had only exacerbated since training with Merlyn. But Molly has moved past that line, and she doesn't freeze or pull away from the hug.

She laughs, nudging Molly back. "Maybe we do. Or maybe we can focus on you and this mystery bar we're going to open for a while."

[thewinterlady]

"Let's do that." Molly said with a laugh. "We need to figure out what we're going to call it." She said thoughtfully. "I'm not good with names."

[queenspeedy]

"Not Verdant," she says, thinking of her bar back in Starling. She misses the place, both incarnations about it. "That was Ollie's name anyway. We'll come up with something. Less... Green."

[thewinterlady]

"'Verdant'?" Molly asked, eyebrow raised. "Yeah I think we can try for something a little more us." She said with a chuckle and then thought about it. "I mean...it's kinda beat up, but the bones are good. Little bit like us. Are we going to keep it that way? Industrial?"

[queenspeedy]

"Absolutely. Bare, and strong." She likes the image, she likes comparing it to the two of them. "We'll figure it out."

[thewinterlady]

"I like it." Molly said. "Now we just have to figure out everything else that goes into it. Like music. I have no idea what the music scene is like here. Or anywhere really."