[Out of Milliways: Suite 132]

[slayer_fray]

Melaka Fray has faced vampires, demons, stone giant knights, thousand foot-long snakes, gunslinging wizards, the SuperDrain of doom, and Indiana Jones before his coffee.

Now she may have faced her match. The one thing she can't defeat. Brought into the flat by Lilly, Mel's facing the greatest challenge yet.

Dance Dance Revolution

Comments

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Indiana Jones before his coffee...

...in he comes, bearing his mug. It's very empty. Given the uncaffeinated state of affairs, it's entirely reasonable that he heads straight for the kitchen without much more than a grunt for the frenetically dancing slayer. He doesn't pay much heed to what she's actually doing until he's poured himself a large measure of coffee from the pot.

Why start your own pot when Lilly often has one already brewed by the time you get up?

After a gulp and a satisfied ahhhh, he opens the fridge and starts nosing around. He opens a few cupboards as well, once it's been established that the chilled food stuffs don't really tickle his fancy.

"Got any... oohh... toaster strudels! Perfect."

[slayer_fray]

Mel doesn't acknowledge Indy. She's concentrating too hard on the dance and the rhythm, her brow furrowed.

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

Indy takes the focused indifference as an invite to relieve the girls of their breakfasty snacks, and loads up the microwave with the last two in the packet. Once the appliance is monotonously humming away, he leans back against the counter and finally observes Mel in action.

It's rather perplexing, and certainly quite curious behavior.

So, naturally, he moves closer to get a better look. Barefooted, he toes the dance mat curiously, somehow managing to avoid the pounding slayer feet. The TV screen registers a whole host of misses as he investigates.

[slayer_fray]

The interference no only annoys Mel, it throws her off her game, and she misses a lot herself.

"Hey..."

Then somehow her feet become tangled, and she trips over Indy's foot, landing heavily on the ground.

"Great."

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

Indy looks down at her flatly and quite unapologetically. "I thought you slayers were supposed to have amazing balance."

[slayer_fray]

"I do have amazing balance," she says irritably, kicking at the mat. "S'not my fault that game's so hard."

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

He frowns. "This is a game? It looks like torture. Little electric shocks come out of the mat that make you jump around like that, right?"

Surely.

[slayer_fray]

"No. S'a dance game," she says sulkily. "Supposed to jump on the colours in order. I'm just really bad at it."

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

Shaking his head in bemusement, Indy offers her a hand. "Aw. It's ok. You excel at so many other things. One failing is accep—"

The beep of the microwave finishing cuts him off. And he's off to recover his food without helping Mel up, a finger of hold that thought being the only thing he leaves her with.

[slayer_fray]

Mel stands without his help, which she wasn't intending to take anyway.

"Hope you left some for Lilly," she says, kicking at the mat again.

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

Since his back is to her, the shifty look is concealed as he plates the hot pastries.

"There's always something left for Lilly," he says fondly.

[slayer_fray]

Mel grins and joins him in the kitchen, grabbing a carton of milk as she does so.

"So how's tricks?"

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

Indy hides the empty packet of strudels in the bread bin while she's reaching into the fridge. "Oh. You know. Tricky."

"Gimli finished my new sword the other day."

[slayer_fray]

"Oh really? Rocketship. I didn't know you had someone working on a sword for you."

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. I'm teaching him to read and write English, and he forged me a proper sword in exchange. It's a beauty."

"I've just got to find someone of my standard to spar with now."

[slayer_fray]

"What's your standard?" Mel jumps up to sit on the breakfast counter with a glance at the crossed swords over the TV. Neither of them are puely decorative.

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

"Reasonably proficient, but still pretty amateur compared to say... Arithon, or Alanna, I expect."

He takes a bite of the cooling pastry.

"Arithon's been coaching me for a month or two. Definite improvement, but nothing to write home about."

[slayer_fray]

"Well, Lilly's learnin'," Mel points out. "Pete's been teachin' her.

"I never did learn any technique. Just swung it at people."

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

"Oh." He winces. "That'd be no competition though."

[slayer_fray]

She shrugs.

"I prefer it that way. With my scythe, anyway. Unpredictability gives me an edge."

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

He pats her shoulder. "That's nice, Kicky. But I meant sparring with Lilly."

[slayer_fray]

She blinks, snapping out of a thoughtful mood.

"Figure she's too good for you?"

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

"No!" he blusters. "It's just that she'd probably use her femininity in an unfair way, and cause me to make mistakes. You know, like being all cute and seductive."

"Or she'd wear something which distracted me."

[slayer_fray]

Mel smirks and shrugs.

"Gotta use the weapons available to ya."

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

"How did I know you'd come down on her side," he says with an eyeroll.