OTA

[logan_echolls]

His knuckles connected with skin, and for the first time in days, Logan felt alive.

He honestly couldn't remember what the fight had started over, but it had begun in a bar and spilled out onto the street in a matter of moments. He wasn't winning, Logan was sure of that, but he honestly didn't care. Even as he crashed to the pavement and the other man's boot made contact with his gut, Logan only laughed through the pain.

His lip was bleeding, and his cheek was already bruised- Still, the fight wasn't slowing down at all, and likely wouldn't end until someone stepped in- Or one of them stopped breathing.

Comments

[hardertohide]

"Well, then. Here's to finding a good place to hide," Dutch stated, and drank to that. "What are you studying, anyway?"

[logan_echolls]

"I was studying law, but- I don't think that's going anywhere," Logan admitted. "I'm thinking I might drop out."

[hardertohide]

"How far into your studies are you?" Dutch asked curiously.

[logan_echolls]

"Less than a year," Logan shrugged.

[hardertohide]

Dutch laughed at that. "Yeah. Run for the hills while you still can." She grinned, amused. "How old are you?"

[logan_echolls]

"Eighteen," Logan shrugged. "Legally an adult, right?" he laughed.

[hardertohide]

"And you don't even need fake ID here," Dutch remarked, amused and all the happier about having stopped Danny earlier. He probably hadn't realised how young the kid was, any more than she had. She'd have given him at least five more years.

[logan_echolls]

"Didn't need one in Neptune either. Cash tended to be way more convincing," Logan snorted.

"What about you?" he asked.

[hardertohide]

Well, that was definitely a one-percent kind of remark, but Dutch let it slide on account of the shit turn his life seemed to have taken. "I've never needed fake ID to get a drink either," she answered, with a smirk. "Breasts tended to be way more convincing," she echoed his phrasing, but she knew what he was asking. "I'm 28," she finally answered his actual question.

[logan_echolls]

"You don't look it," Logan replied, not that it mattered. Age had never meant much to him.

[hardertohide]

"It's all the alcohol," Dutch assured him wryly. "Keeps a girl looking young and fresh." Or possibly he was full of shit, but honestly, she didn't really care. She liked the way she looked, and that was all that mattered to her.

[logan_echolls]

"I wasn't being smart, I'm just sayin' You could pass for younger, that's all. It's not important though. Age doesn't mean shit where I'm from. California has this thing where no one looks any certain age... They just look plastic. ...You look real though. It' nice," he shrugged.

[hardertohide]

"Thanks," Dutch told him with a smile, then frowned without losing the smile, and purposefully added, "I think." She was pulling his leg rather than anything else, just like with her previous words. Sometimes her sense of humour could be a little abrasive, but she was warming it up for him right now, because he seemed to honestly not want to offend her, and that was its own sort of endearing.

[logan_echolls]

Logan only shrugged, falling silent again as his mood shifted once again. He looked tired and sore, and as he slumped in his seat, he looked even younger somehow.

[hardertohide]

He looked every bit the sullen teenager just then, and suddenly Dutch had no problem believing that he was eighteen. "Are you gonna get into another fight if I make a quick trip to the loo? I like this place." Which was her own way of asking him not to.

[logan_echolls]

"I don't think my knuckles could take another swing anyway," he said, his own petulant little way of agreeing to stay out of trouble.

[hardertohide]

That put another smirk on Dutch's lips before she slid out of the booth. What could she say? She liked his style. She was back a couple of minutes later, and greeted with the sight of the food he'd ordered. She stole a chip as soon as she was within reach, and washed it down with the last of her beer. "Refill?" she offered, since she was standing. And, well, she had said the second round would be on her.

[logan_echolls]

"Yeah, thanks. ...I'm kind of all for getting shit faced tonight," he sighed.

[hardertohide]

"You'll want something stronger, then," Dutch told him with a smirk, and walked off to the counter. She came back a few minutes later with a couple of cocktails in lowballs, smelling strongly of whisky and something spicier. "Here."

[logan_echolls]

"Thanks," Logan replied, holding the glass up in toast, then knocking it back in one go.

It burned in the best way, and Logan closed his eyes for a moment as it warmed him from the inside out.

[hardertohide]

"That's the spirit," Dutch approved with a grin, and only drank half of her glass in one go. "D'you want to go dancing, Logan?" It was a Tuesday night, but there were always places to dance in London. There was a bar just two streets down whose music wasn't too shitty most of the time.

[logan_echolls]

"I don't dance, man," Logan laughed, offering a smile and shaking his head. "Seriously, that's not something you ever want to see."

[hardertohide]

"Everybody dances when they're - shitfaced," Dutch grinned, absolutely undeterred. "And now you've got me curious."

[logan_echolls]

Logan laughed again, then shrugged.

"Alright. You get me drunk enough to dance, and I'll go dancing with you," he agreed. "Though I'm telling you right now, it's your own damn fault if you end the night with broken toes."

[hardertohide]

Dutch downed the rest of her drink, then smiled at him. "I've got steel-toed boots."