Out In The Cold

[Alonzo K. Ruxton]

"Well this was FUN!!"  Keefe said with a smile as his words slowly began to slur together. "We need to do this AGAIN some time... Only NEXT time I'LL be ordering the things... the thingies that you drank... Those thingies... ya those."  Keefe smiled as though he remembered the word, though in reality he didn't. Looking over to Lasair Keefe noticed the man didn't seem as happy as he did, "Why aren't you happy?"  Keefe asked looking at the man with a confused face.

[Lasair Landevier Lupen]

Quickly putting on an overly large, outrageous grin, Lasair looked at Keefe. “I’m having a jolly old time. And of course we can do this again. It’d be lots of fun,” he chuckled as he spoke, remembering at how quickly the boy had turned from sober to wasted. Probably only had a small buzz in between. He’d have to be more careful with what he drank next time. But of course Lasair couldn’t tell him that NOW. Perhaps tomorrow.

[Alonzo K. Ruxton]

Keefe smiled at the mans comment, good he was happy! Looking around Keefe notice the area looking familiar, "Hey I know this place..."  Keefe said as he looked at everything as though he hadn't seen it in a long time, when in reality this was the street his house and art shop were on. They Just happened to be at the end of the block, but with the way Keefe was walking that may take him a bit of time before he would be able to get there. 

[Lasair Landevier Lupen]

Slowing to a stop, Lasair looked around, trying to figure out if any of the buildings were belonging to Keefe. What did the kid do again? Art or something? Lasair couldn’t quite remember which didn’t help the situation. “Hey, Keefe,” he said, trying to get the boy to focus a little. “What’s the name of your shop? What’s it look like?” he asked slowly, really hoping he’d be able to answer the question. If worse came to worse, he’d have to let the kid crash at his place, and his parents wouldn’t be too keen on that.

[Alonzo K. Ruxton]

"Mine's the pretty one!"  Keefe said with a smile as he pointed to the windows of the other shops, "It the one on the corner. It's got nice big pretty windows! It's got lots of Pretty pictures in the windows too!!!" Keefe said as he looked at all the shops, he wanted to go into them all! "Hey let's go into one of them!! Let's go buy stuff!"  He said with a smile as he continued to look at everything.

[Lasair Landevier Lupen]

The pretty one. So he probably had a lot of art in the windows. There were a couple art shops in the district, but knowing how Keefe was new to town and all, it couldn’t be any of the ones Lasair had visited. Great, he was looking for a shop that he’d never seen before. What a fun challenge. Continuing down the street, he tightened his hold on the taller-but-younger man and made sure to keep moving. “Sorry, they’re closed. But we can come back tomorrow. Hey, what’s your favorite kind of art?” he added the question in to help distract him from the negative answer. Stay positive. A happy drunk is so much easier to handle than a sad or mad one.

[Alonzo K. Ruxton]

"OH OH!!!! I'll show you!!!!"  Keefe said with a large smile, completely forgetting about his earlier question. Weaseling out of Lasair's grip Keefe raced ahead to his store, surprisingly without tripping or stumbling. Once there he grabbed the keys he left in his left pocket, the pocket where he always kept them, and jabbed them into the door, missing the key hole at first. Finally getting it in on the second try he unlocked the door, pushed it open, and shoved the keys back into his pocket. He rushed inside behind the counter and into the back room.

[Lasair Landevier Lupen]

“Well…that was a lot easier than I expected it would be.” He laughed to himself and followed Keefe into his store. At least he hoped it was his, seeing as he had the key. Lasair made a note to himself, just ask the kid about art next time. Walking through the door he looked around, wanting to make sure Keefe didn’t pass out with the door wide open or anything like that.

[Alonzo K. Ruxton]

Carefully walking back to the front of the store, Keefe set a large painting down of what looked to be the head, or rather really close up, face of a zebra. The painting was in all different shades and tints of white, black and grey, other than the bright lime green eyes of the creature. "This not only was from a rare art curator who went town to town, this was also the fist painting I ever bought."  Keefe said with a proud smile, happy of this piece of art. Most people hate it due to the odd angle, and closeness of the zebra, the odd and un-normal color of the zebra's eyes, and the fact that it was a zebra.

[Lasair Landevier Lupen]

He couldn’t help but smile at seeing the odd painting, as it brought up a memory Lasair had involving one of the creatures. “It sure is…stripey,” he replied, stepping forward to grab Keefe’s shoulder. “Hey, aren’t you getting tired? You should head to bed.” Glancing around, he spotted some stairs in the corner. He probably lived above his shop like most people did.

[Alonzo K. Ruxton]

Keefe hadn't thought about sleeping but now that Lasair brought it up, Keefe could feel it in his bones. "Ya.... maybe a little."  Keefe said as he motioned with his hands, acting as though he was squeezing something small, like a grape, rather close to his face. "Why are you?"  Keefe asked as he looked over to the man, "I have an extra room if you need. I could get you some blankets and pillows..."  Keefe trailed off as not only exhaustion from the night but the ending results of the alcohol were beginning to kick in.

[Lasair Landevier Lupen]

“No, I can get home. Why don’t you head up to bed though? I’ll let myself out,” he replied, glad that the mention of sleep made Keefe suddenly very tired. He was probably the kind of drunk that believes everything you tell him, which is the funniest kind of drunk there is. Smiling still, Lasair turned back towards the door, but didn’t walk out it just yet.

[Alonzo K. Ruxton]

"Ok, if you insists."  Keefe said as he turned to the man with a smile, "But I can at least say good bye at the door, it would be rude if i didn't!"  Keefe said as he walked over next to the door where Lasair was standing. "Tonight was fun."  Keefe said as he rubbed his eyes some, "We needed to do this again."  He added with a smile.

[Lasair Landevier Lupen]

“Sure, we can do it again,” Lasair smiled and stepped out the door. He began to walk away, but turned to look over his shoulder as he did so. If Keefe came out to follow him, things would get confusing all over again.

[Alonzo K. Ruxton]

Keefe watched as the man stepped out the door and turned the corner to leave. Keefe put a foot out just to wave goodbye to the man one last time before stepping back in, closing and locking the door, and heading up to go to bed. Today had been one fun day for the young artist.