Tan Colored Hat Manes.

[GhothaAyala]

"Don't tell me you wanna wear one of those chief." The sharp freelancer noticed his gaze. "I heard stuff about people dressing up like things they aren't supposed to be." The teasing could not be more obvious, we need to do something about your hair though. She said rustling it with her hand as they walked, she then caressed his cheek with her hand. "At least you shaved."

Suddenly her expression changed, her eyes grew to twice their said and her mouth made an 'o' shape followed by the accompanied sounds. "Talking about that..." Dayayra was already laughing and had not even started her story. "I was on escort right?" She barely managed to get the words off without laughing. "And our wing got paid, so we stopped at Porto Novo for a few drink and then continued to Canaria." By the point she had to lean on Thomas, her laughter not allowing her to keep up. "We wen't to the bar and... And... One of the guys picked up this girl right?" It took all of her willpower to be able to finish that. "That was no woman."

By that point she burst at the seams. "I don't know how drunk he was but that beard was too damn obvious." The security officer shook her head as she tried to act normal in front of people. "I mean, she also had broader shoulder than you and all, the face was all messed up."

Before Thomas could comment on that Burgos gave him a backhanded slap in the chest, a light one to get his attention. "I want that..." She pointed at a pizza parlor, specifically a screen showing a slice of pizza being separated from the rest with the cheese clinging to it. "I'lll pay for it before you get any ideas." She glanced him a warning look. "What's it called again?" She tried searching through her memory but the name of that particular pizza came up on the screen. "Pizza! I don't know what that is but it looks good. I wanna try it even if it kills me."

Leading the way she stepped around a street vendor selling PDA's on the sidewalk, just to make sure she was being followed she turned around but the remembered that it was a bit too early for dinner. "Unless you don't have the room for it... We could always do something else." The freelancer pocketed her hands and waited on a reply. "Don't wan't you getting so fat that you can't fit into your seat."

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[Thomas Cromwell]

I scoffed at that remark, "I dont think some pizza is going to kill me." I opened the door for her and made a gesture for her to go threw. "So you have never had pizza huh? I remember my fist pizza party...." I trailed off right after that party my father was killed, not a story worth telling any way.

We got in line at the counter apparently she wasn't the only one wanting pizza, I took the time to explain to her right quick the basic idea of a pizza, toppings, and different sizes, or that it could be bought by the slice. All the while my phone was going off in my pocket likely that annoying supply guy again, i was just happy to have put it on vibrate.

When the line finally got to us i ordered a half and half, meat lovers on one side and what every she wanted to toss on her side, i figured it would save some time. While she was busy picking toppings i waved my hand over the sensor, my embedded chip automatically debited my account for the food.

I am sure i would catch some flack for it latter but, i couldn't let the girl pay, call me old fashioned but that's just how i am. That funny mentality that she had that every thing came at a price, was different to be sure. besides this felt to dateish, you could call it an automatic reflex.

After she was done picking i directed he to a small table in the corner by the window, pulling the chair out for her to sit, she gave me a funny look before sitting like i was going to pull it out from under her or some thing.

I sat down in the other chair across from her, "So tell me you have never had pizza, never had chocolate what did you eat growing up?"

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[GhothaAyala]

Part of her wanted to stab him with a toothpick but if she had not done it by now she doubted she would soon. It had taken quite some getting used to but she was getting used to it... Kind of... Not really.

Her nose and all her senses was really more interested in that delicious smell in the air than his question, she snapped out of it though and managed to answer. "Uh... Kappa... Mui... Celadons." She then glanced at Thomas who had a clueless look on his face. "Well... Kappa is a cereal much like rice except it grows in..." She tried to use her hand to outline the shape. "Thingies that look like..." Dayayra did as if she was gripping that invisible figure but it ended up looking like an obscene gesture so she settled for the closest thing. "Corn." She smiled proudly at her successful explanation.

"Mui's are some breed of Ostrich, just dumber and they can kick your chest open." She then paused to think how to describe the Celadons. "And the last thing is like the love child of an ant and a beetle on steroid. It's native to Canaria and about the only thing that will allow itself to be eaten without killing you in the process."

"And then there's snails and fish and that sort of thing." The woman crossed her arms over the table and let her nails tick away at the wood.

She was fully expecting another question when a warm steaming pizza came into view. "Enjoy." A woman old enough to be Thomas's great grandmother said in an unconvincing tone.

"And you get to eat this eh?" The freelancer shook her head almost drooling over the pizza. "How do I do this?" She looked under the staple of napkins for cutlery but did not find anything. "I reckon you don't use a shovel for this eh?"

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[Thomas Cromwell]

This was to much trying to watch her eat this pizza was to funny. I tried to stop it but tit was no use, i bust out laughing. After a few moments i was able to compose my self, "Here its easy." I picked up a piece of the pizza and took a bite, making to sure that she could see the way i was holding it. "Be careful its hot, don't want you to burn your mouth."

A quick look around the room told me she was drawing some stares and there where some whispers as well. She all was seemed to be able to draw attention to her. Some people thought her odd or maybe not all there. I couldn't help but enjoy it and maybe find it as one of her better points.

She had manged to get some sauce on her cheek some how, chuckling i reached over to wipe it off. "Hold still you got some on your face. I swear i cant take you any where." I said lightheartedly. "So tell me how do you like it?"

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[GhothaAyala]

The warning came too late for her, her tongue could not handle the heat but decorum dictated that she could not spit it out but feverishly fanning her open mouth was just as bad. She willed herself to chew the hot pizza and swallowed quickly ending with relieved sigh.

"Hot..." She whistled. "Thanks for the warning Sherlock."

The sudden move from Thomas caught her of guard, she pulled back out of his reach but all he wanted was to help her safe face since she apparently needed adult supervision.

"It's pretty damn good." She said already taking another bite, CitlaTzin did make sure to let it cool off before hand though. "I could eat this everyday." She said as soon as her mouth was empty but it didn't take long before she took another bite. "I've seen what you all eat at the dinner in Trenton. This is so much better." She propped the crust of the pizza into her mouth which took a while longer to chew. "Why don't we have this up there?"

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[Thomas Cromwell]

'Well..." Taking a bite out on my next piece, "The frozen stuff isn't neatly as good, and it hard to get all the fresh food up there." Taking a drink to wash down my last bite, my mind turns over the question. "Speaking of the station, how are you getting along with every one there?"

I kinda all ready knew the answer but i wanted to see if she would be honest. I doubted it.

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[GhothaAyala]

She had her mouth full when he shot her the question, she chewed first and then had a drink herself before answering with a shrug. "It's going..." She said in an unexcited tone. "I guess these guys ain't used to having a foreigner on the team." She was now beginning on her last slice of pizza while Thomas was halfway through his second.

"Nothing I won't live trough, I got a thick skin you know?" She wanted to reassure him that she would be okay because knowing him, he would do something about it and that will only make her look... Weak. In the atmosphere of intimacy they had going on she decided to confide with him, they where after all friends, so it was only natural.

She brought a napkin to her mouth before continuing. "As the new girl I reckoned I had to like earn the respect and all..." Another shrug. "Standard..." The napkin turned into a ball of paper that was being idly passed from hand to hand. The next scene was a poor impersonation. "Sooooo... Jack got spaced and I saved him and distracted a gunship while flying around with a defective thruster while the transport made it to safety?" The freelancer snickered. "Good grief."

Dayayra slouched in her seat and gave the chief a dismissive wave. "My old crone did teach me a whole lot in that regards ya know? Cuidate de la envidia mija." Of course he did not understand so she elaborated. "Looks like there's nothing more obnoxious than bein' lucky and some fools envy you for that." She nodded sagely. "It doesn't bother me, after all, envy is like drinking poison and waiting for the other guy to die." She delivered the last statement wrapped in a reassuring smile.

"What about you partner?" She turns the attention towards before he can go too far down that road she is trying to avoid. "You've surely had to deal with similar stuff when you first started with USI. Coming from the navy and landing in the middle of all these - She air quoted - hotshots?"

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[Thomas Cromwell]

I smiled at her, she had a very unique way of looking at things that was for sure. I must admit i had never heard that saying before. Noticing i was falling behind so i picked up my eating pace. I thought about what she said, and the best way to answer. "Not so much, i was once like them, navy's full of there kind. As you get older you normally get more tempered."

I mulled over there idea of calling her out on lie, but decided to bite my tongue for now. It seemed the more i worried the angry she would get with me. She didn't seem to care to much about talking about her past. My mind flicked to some thing different a brief idea that I immediately discounted, she didn't seem the type to enjoy it so I moved on.

I finished my side of the pizza a quite hung in the air as my mind turned idea after idea over. Man i sucked at this, talking was never my strong suit. So how i felt i was letting her down, "So what does a girl from the omegas do for fun?"

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[GhothaAyala]

One of her eyebrows climbed up her forehead as she tried to imagine a less strict and humble Thomas, she wondered how he looked like when he was around her age and add an over confident personality to him. It didn't work like she thought it would.

Meanwhile she had finished what was officially her half of the pizza, she was full, but still wanted more. As discretely as she could Burgos eyed his half of the pizza but knew that to steal a piece from under his nose would be hard. Then there was the question to walking back to the ship with a fifteen months pregnant belly.

While the Chief finished his half she entertained herself watching the hustle and bustle of the street from behind the window, the sun was setting but between the buildings not much of the red light made it. She briefly tried to recall if the New York system had a red light, at that moment she could have bet money on it but her memory showed her a few pictures that proved otherwise. She did remember seeing a red sun somewhere but could not recall where it was, it was silhouetted against a green nebula that she also failed to recall.

A question brought her back from her day dreaming. Dayayra only half heard the question and had to replay it in her head twice before answering. She felt at ease around him and despite not usually being so open him asking her questions somehow made her... Happy. She didn't realize how friendly she was getting around him lately.

"I don't know what other girls do but I used to play volleyball when I was like..." She held a hand above the floor to the side. "This tall." She made a vague guesstimation before crossing her arms and leaning into her seat. A smile appeared on her face signalling that something was coming up. "I really liked that and would have kept doing that if I hadn't beaten some girl with a broomstick." She waved a hand dismissively before he could ask. "It's a long story that I'll save for one of them boring moments while we out in space. All you need to know is that my ma talked me into it."

"That about the time I started hanging out with - She air quoted - My own kind." Her eyes lost focus as she went down memory lane. "At first I thought their music and parties sucked but I kinda grew to love it." Her eyes focused back to Thomas. "Ever heard of a Zoner and a musician? No, all they have is what they grab off the net coming from whatever is closer, in my case Bretonnia." She could barely contain her embarrassment at what she was about to say. "I've always found it kinda uncomfortable to rub myself on a stranger like that."

Collecting herself the freelancer continued her tale. "Lot of the settlers from Crete where actually musicians too, and what they brought was totally different. They made their music with real instruments and not with computers. Drums, guitars, pianos, trumpets all mixed to make something that was fun to dance to and clean." She hesitated for a second. "Well you could dirty dance if you wanted to." She kind of opened he didn't catch the hint behind that. "So yeah, I can dance..." It was her time to show off a bit. "I'm pretty damn good at it too." She said with a smug smile that quickly went away. "Except that it doesn't mean anything around these parts."

"Before I knew it I was pretty absorbed in it and I also did a few things with music myself, played a few times with a band. It was fun." She tapped on the table as a way to explain what she did. "Mostly percussion, I was learning to do something on a guitar but that was about the time I got a ship and making money in space sounded a lot more interesting at the moment... So..." She concluded without a proper way to conclude.

A short silence settled in and Dayayra thought she could also show some interest like he had just done with her. "I heard ya'll military mean kick each other asses for fun, or steal each others pay checks with poker games and all. What did you do when you had a little bit of downtime? Cause at Trenton the other thing you do besides work, is sleep."

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[Thomas Cromwell]

I pondered the question she had put to me, "Well i can say I am guilty of having played poker quite a bit back in my younger days and i suppose i did trade blows with a few guys as well. That said i haven't done either in a long time."

I finished my drink and called for a refill, "Once you get up a few rates the type of people you around changes a lot, you spend more time at formal events then poker games and bar brawls. Last event i had gone to was at the Admirals Grand Ball, far more formal uniforms and women in dresses and dancing then any thing."

I thanked the waiter and took a drink, I smiled to my self as i thought about the last event i was at. I had in my older age taken quite a liking to such events, all the women in the beautiful dresses and the good music, food wasn't bad either, though I all ways did feel a bit out of place given that he rarely had a companion to accompany me.

I glanced over at the small freelancer that was stretched out in her seat in front of me, I smiled to my self again imaging the envy i would have garnered to have had her on my arm at one of those events. No only was she very pretty but would even have been considered exotic. Then the thought of her at a formal event made me laugh out loud.

She gave me a funny look, i waved my hand dismissively, "Just had a thought was all." All this reminiscing made me just have to check and see if there was going to be any such events around here any time soon. I pulled out my PDA and taped in to the local cortex and started digging threw event listings, "So i guess to answer you i don't do much more then work and sleep any more, and get hammered with you at bars in the middle of no where." I added a chuckle to that last bit.

My PDA pinged back a listing of a few upcoming events that fit the bill. I just might have to go to one. The setting sun told me we should get a move on. "So are you ready to go on and see what else we can get in to?"

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