[Laughter] Playing Hooky [Shrill X/Catwalk]

[Ruriska]

It would probably have been a normal day for Catwalk - at school, classes, doing other kid related things, etc. Until she passed by an open window and heard a very loud ‘pssssst - hey! hey you!’ and when that failed, a head popped up. “Lieutenant!”

Shrill X grinned, hooves curled over the windowsill. She had been trying to be clandestine but it wasn’t really her style. “Ditch school for a bit. I need your help.”  

[Chrystali]

Psst.

Catwalk dutifully ignored the hissing call, mostly because she was certain it was not for her. The babben had to get to work-- er, school, and had little to no time to spare on jokers and layabouts.

But a familiar mohawked mare popped up and Catwalk stopped in her tracks, stunned into brief silence (which was rare and gave her enough pause to actually hear what the other had to say). "Birdy!" she finally exclaimed when she found herself again, "I'll be danged. Yeah, sure, anything for the fearless leader."

Without any consideration for consequence, Catwalk veered off the familiar path to school and started to push items together to reach the window Shrill was at. There was work to be done.  

[Ruriska]

Shrill X leaned further out the window, belly against the sill and helped Catwalk climb inside. A couple of hooves under the arm did the job and then they were both standing inside a lounge messy room.

“Thanks, kid,” she said, idly scratching the back of her neck as she looked around at the discarded remnants of a very good night. “This isn’t my house by the way. Can’t remember the guys name but we had a good time, so I don’t think he’ll mind us here.” If he did, it was bad luck because he’d staggered off to work earlier and apparently forgotten Shrill was even in the house.

“You had breakfast yet? You hungry?”

Chrystali

 

[Chrystali]

She had no qualms as she was helped up, allowing herself to be lifted and maneuvered into the room by the adult that she only knew by nickname. There were no warning signs or flashing red lights, only a calm sense of 'oh yes, this one, she didn't irk me.' "Take from it what you can," she remarked in a sort of airy, dispassionate note. Dalliances. Another thing she didn't understand. Age be damned. Sniffing at the air and deciding it wasn't overly offensive (as bachelor pads could be), she trotted around the immediate area, looking for anything of interest.

"Mm?" She glanced over, pausing thoughtfully. "Sure, if you need my strong legs for help, I could probably stand to eat." And then Catwalk grinned, a brief and cheeky expression, before she continued rooting around.

Hm! She snagged what looked like a nice silk dress shirt off the ground and stuffed it in her book bag. "That'll make a nice bird cravat," she murmured more to herself than Shrill, mostly content with her one find but still looking. Just in case.

Ruriska

 

[Ruriska]

“I dunno ‘bout your strong legs but let’s get you filled up. My own tank is empty,” Shrill X said as she made her way into the nearby kitchen, passing through the entrance and making a beeline for the fridge.

Much to her disgust, there was barely anything to work with. Some old Chinese takeaway, a block of cheese, some milk that smelt a bit iffy and a bag of mixed vegetables that had seen better days.

“My dad’s got a bird,” she said as she moved to the cupboard, having slightly more luck in the dry stores with some crackers and a tin of tuna. “He’d look pretty good in a cravat.” Shrill was not about to mention Catwalk’s apparent penchant for stealing clothes. Good on her.

Chrystali

 

[Chrystali]

"Thanks," she said, the word still awkward to say out loud. Catwalk so rarely said thank you, let alone in a genuine capacity. She kinda liked this Birdy character.

Still looking around the immediate vicinity, she nodded to the words without looking over. "Yeah? You like your dad?" A pause. "If so, I could probably make one for him. You're cool enough for that."

Ah! She zeroed in on what looked like a...bangle? Cuff? It was fairly wide-set for a foreleg and circular and looked a bit more feminine than not, but it was hers, then, tucking it in with the shirt. "How about a crown, too?"

Ruriska

 

[Ruriska]

The question stumped her for a moment. She’d spent a lot of her life complaining about Lullaby but when push came to shove, there could only be one answer. “Yeah, he’s cool. I like him.” Even if he drove her mad with his nagging, it all came from a place of caring.

As Catwalk rooted around for more things to appropriate, Shrill X cracked open the tin of tuna and smeared some onto the crackers. She popped on in her mouth and chewed. Not ideal but it would do for now. “‘S good,” she mumbled around her mouthful. A bird with a crown? Now that’d be cute.

Chrystali

 

[Chrystali]

A small, almost missable giggle escaped the babben, watching the adult just help herself to the goods and making the best out of what she had. It wasn't necessarily funny, but the whole situation - Birdy eating tuna and crackers while Catwalk herself hoisted some items to create attire for a bird belonging to Birdy's dad - was utterly ridiculous.

She cleared her throat, giggling a little again, still trying to tamp it down. "The food or the c-crown?" No one would believe that this even happened. Catwalk wasn't certain she wasn't having some sort of fever dream. "You gotta do better than that, Birdy, that canned stuff is rotten. He doesn't have like, high class cheese whiz or s-something?"

Catwalk covered her muzzle with a hoof, grinning like a loon.

Ruriska

ily and my favorite disaster child

 

[Ruriska]

“Crown,” Shrill X answered, shoving the chewed mix of tuna and cracker into the side of her mouth in order to talk properly. “This food ain’t anywhere close to good. This is the kind of thing,” she stopped to swallow, “you eat to stop from starving and that’s ‘bout it.”

She laughed, already preparing another one. “The only thing high class this guy has got is your presence in your house and he doesn't even know about it.” With a flourish, she offered Catwalk one freshly tuna smeared cracker. “Would you care to dine with me?”

Chrystali

!!!

 

[Chrystali]

"Wh--why didn't we go to a diner or something, then?" The giggles still gripped her in the form of a slightly shaking wither or firm press of lips around a smile, trying her darndest to keep it in. Catwalk damn near succeeded until she heard Shrill laugh, coaxing a soft one from herself. Once the cracker was offered to her with all the pomp and circumstance of caviar, she fairly lost her very small amount of control over the situation.

Throwing her head back, she fully cackled, trying to cover her mouth but the sound was out, loud and gleeful. It wasn't a malicious situation or even overly funny, but it felt like laughing over poor food choices was the natural and right thing to do. At least, it expressed some visceral part of her horror in a way words could not.

"Nnmgh, I shouldn't -- " she snickered as she flounced over to Shrill, accepting the cracker with a singular chomp. It took only a few chews before she fully wrinkled her muzzle and jerked her head back, forcing herself to swallow the food before it was ready to be. "Ppfgt! Ugh, Birdy! You owe me a nice meal after that!"

She was still laughing, but now actively wiping her mouth with her foreleg, making soft 'blech!' noises and sticking her tongue out.

Ruriska

<333333

 

[Ruriska]

“That’s my girl,” Shrill X crowed, as Catwalk destroying that cracker with one big chomp. She was grinning from ear to ear, delighting in the youngsters laughter and feeling accomplished. You didn’t get a laugh like that out of Catwalk every day of the week!

Her own burst of laughter was loud and exuberant, unmistakably Shrill as she lost it over Catwalk’s reaction to the food, that wrinkled nose was gold.

“Yeah, yeah! Don’t worry, I’ll make it up to you. Heck, we didn’t go to a diner because we’re here to-” she began and was forced to stop, turning on the spot, one way and then other in slow confusion. “Yeah, ya know what, I can’t remember why I dragged you in here.”

She snorted, pushing her hair back with her hoof only for it to spring back forward again instantly. “Well, let’s go then. Gotta wash out the taste. Ready for some decent food, kiddo?”  

[Chrystali]

It felt good, that simple moment of laughter over stolen food and baubles in a stranger's home. Ah, life had some strange twists to it.

Catwalk scoffed when Shrill confessed not remembering why they were there, but she was hardly rankled by it. She'd gotten some good new material to work with and a project to boot - and she wouldn't turn down a free meal, not with this delightfully crazy woman.

"Please and thanks," she said around her tongue sticking out to further impart her displeasure of the morsel devoured. "You lead, Birdy." Adjusting her pack, she adds amiably, "And tell me about your dad and his bird over lunch, too!"