Happiness is a Hot Chocolate

[Guest]

Now, it mattered very little what the weather was like outside, hot chocolate was always needed, Quincy thought. Which is why she had taken up one table at a café in the Central City, with a large mug of hot cocoa on the table and a small piece of chocolate cake to go with it. Lot of chocolate? You bet! And it was just the way Quincy liked it. She had discarded her jacket to reveal her shirt underneath, a neat blue button-up blouse that may or may not be missing the first two buttons since she never bothered to sew them back on. Her pants were simple dark blue jeans and her boots were black, and with only a minimal heel. It was a bit cool in the café, but hey, that's what the hot chocolate was for.

The café was quaint and had a homey feel to it, filled with burgundy and unpainted wood, with nice heavy drapes and the aroma of coffee and pastries filling the air. It wasn't all that full of people, however: CC could count the other patrons with her fingers and still have a few left over. Just as well, too much commotion always made it difficult to enjoy the little things in life.

With a happy sigh, CC warmed her hands on the surface of the mug and carefully sipped some of the milky, chocolatey goodness inside.

[Guest]

Ike had been in this cafe for a short while now, trying to work off a nightmare of a head ache caused by a night of drinking. He was wearing his usual attire, which meant that his morning hadn't gotten off to the best start. It was all going alright until he'd gotten into a cafe down the road, where due to his 'bartender' sort of clothing, one of the staff mistook him for a new member of the staff. Normally this would be alright, but when you have heard it enough times in your life already, and when you have a friend who continuously ridicules you for your sense of fashion, it can get a little tedious. That plus the extremely bad headache, meant that it made him grumpier than usual. Fortunately Ike hadn't received this reaction in this cafe. Not yet anyways.

Ike came strolling out of the bathroom. About to walk back to his table for one. When a waitress behind him, obviously carrying some drinks, walked up behind him and said

"You must be the new guy the boss told us about. Hear could you take this for a second."

A vain popped out in Ike's head for a second. Was this really happening again! He turned around slowly a used his arm wave away the misguided waitress.

"Look, I don't work here so you can-" Ike was interrupted by the sound of smashing glass, he wasn't aware of how close the waitress was behind him, and when he wave his arm, it collided with the side of the tray, causing the tray to leave the young waitresses hands and the two drinks to fall off onto the table they were next to.One of the glasses smashed but the shards didn't go very far, however the orange juice in both glasses now covered the table. The tray however hit a mug of hot chocolate causing the mug to knock over and its contents spill out. Ike's eyes widen when he saw that not only a hot chocolate was ruined but a piece of chocolate cake was covered in hot chocolate and orange juice.

crap Ike thought this is all my fault as well

Ike's eyes drifted to the waitress who was now cleaning up the table, to the person who was sat at the table. He hadn't actually looked at the person who had just had their morning drink ruined by Ike and it was in fact a girl. Or more like a woman. She seemed like she was in her early 20s. She had striking silver hair and dark blue eyes.

I suppose its my duty as a gentleman to do something about a mess I created.

Ike dragged an empty seat over to the table that was being dried down and sat opposite the woman

"I'm sorry miss, for the trouble," He said tried to give his best 'sorry' smile " I'll replace the items that I seemed to have ruined. A hot chocolate and some chocolate cake right?"

He ordered the items, and turned back to the woman.

"You might not want to talk to me, but the name's Ike."

He thought he should introduce himself, so that when she threw the verbal abuse at him, she would at least use his name.

[Guest]

The bar's doors suddenly opened, crashing in came a figure in a black long coat. The figure abruptly stood up and started darting from side to side, causing the whole bar to turn their attention towards him. He had a strange hat, the native to Drachma "shapka-ushanka", a black coat and a pair of black gloves. The figures eyes stopped on one of the adjacent tables. The coat, the hat and the gloves quickly flew away, behind the very table he set his sights on. There were two people sitting at it - just what the man needed.
As the clothes flew off - the figure became a beautiful young man, wearing a purple elegant suit, white gloves and glasses. Within the next few moments the young man took off his glasses and jumped towards the table and on an empty seat near the two. They were a white haired woman, which was quite beautiful in Loki's standards, and a blonde guy, which looked okay too.
As soon as Loki was in position he spoke, making it so that the pair could hear him. Only the pair:

"You guys know me, okay? Pretend that I'm a friend of yours - I'll answer all your questions later!" - Loki put his hands on the table and put his head on them, to make it seem like he was here for some time.

After a few minutes, or even less - a pair of guy entered the bar. They looked like trouble and a few people looked them over, while they in turn where looking over the establishment. A few moments passed, in total silence, excluding the quiet chattering, and they turned away and left. Seemed like whoever they were searching for was gone.
As they did Loki lifted his head and turned around to see if his hearing was correct. Of course it was and those guys were gone now. Then Loki turned his head back to the table, sighed deeply and smiled.

"Whew - thought I was a goner for sure! Thanks that you guys didn't give me out. I'm in your debt." - just as the young man said these words the waitress came over and brought the things that these two ordered. She also gave the blonde guy an unfriendly stare it would seem. Loki smiled again, talking in an upbeat tone, full of joy. - "How 'bout I treat you guys? It's on me!"

[Guest]

Mmm, nice and warm! CC smiled and set the mug down, ready to dig into the slice of that delectable chocolate cake. However, she paused when she heard something happening at the next table over, and started to turn her head towards it. Almost immedietly, she jumped away from her chair, startled by the loud clatter and crash, giving a squeak as she did. She wasn't fast enough, though, and smatters of orange juice and warm chocolate hit her shirt and her pants: not that she got soaked, but you could see that something got on her clothes.

As CC was still staring at what remained of her snack, the waitress started to clean it up while apologising. CC gave a smile and grabbed a napkin, drying her hands from the specks of liquid as she sat back down, the chair mercifully free of any drinks.

When a man sat down opposite of her, CC blinked at him a few times as he talked.

"Huh? Oh, yes, hot chocolate and chocolate cake." She wanted to tell him off for setting the Great Drink Avalanche in motion, she really did, but...
"It... It's okay, it is not like you did it on purpose, yes?" She gave a reassuring smile, slightly wincing at her accent in her head and proceeded to dab at the specks on her shirt with a fresh napkin. She was about to tell him her name when the doors flew open and someone, a young man it appeared, made her way to their table and sat down, asking them to play along. CC blinked at him, then turned to look at Ike. "A-ah...?" She looked at the new arrival again.

A few minutes later, whatever threat there had been seemed to have moved away, and the new arrival promised to compensate for the cooperation. His cheerful mood was contagious, and CC found herself beaming brightly at him, both of the men actually.

"That would be very kind of you!" Eught, that come out sounding 'tat vould be'. She really needed to work on that. "I am Quincy, but please call me CC!" She chirped at Ike, holding her hand out to him for a shake.

[Guest]

Ike just watched the events play out in front of him. He could help but smirk a small bit at the new pair. When the waitress came with the cake and hot chocolate, she gave Ike an unfriendly look, which Ike understood. He really wanted to make it up to her for causing her so much trouble. However before he could give a "sorry" look she'd taken off before he could even attempt to.

The woman introduced herself as Quincy, but preferred to go by the name CC. She held out her hand, and Ike gladly accepted the hand shake, making sure to be alot more careful seeing as she was lady.

"CC, huh, that's an interesting name. Your accent as well, drachman i suppose?"

The hand shake finished and Ike turned his attention to the new guy, who was awfully well dressed for a morning stroll.

"If you're really gonna treat us then, you might as well get the formalities over with" Ike said smiling.

"I'm Dr Ike Harvard."

[Guest]

Loki watched as the two introduced themselves and shook hands. So they weren't really together here or anything. Loki was submersed in though and almost instantly forgot about the thing that the girl - Quincy, had a slight Drachman accent. As the blonde guy turned to him, Loki came out of his trance and listened to his name. So he was a doctor - quite interesting.
Loki smiled like a child - he was that happy... with a few things actually.

"Waaai! How insensitive of me - I'm Loki, Loki Dragunoff." - Loki smiled to both the man and the woman and continued. - "I'll order something off the menu if you don't mind. Angela!" - Loki clapped and called the waitress by name. As she looked back to see who was it that called her, she had a look of surprise on her face. As 3 seconds passed she finally recognized the one who called her.

"Ah, Loki! Welcome, welcome. I'm sorry for not recognizing you at first. You want to order something?" - the waitress came closer with a smile.

"Ah yes-yes. I'll take some scotch whiskey and a banana pudding, please." - Loki winked to the woman as he finished speaking.

"Ok, I'll bring you your order in a few moments. So..." - the woman made a pause. - "Will you be preforming today too?"

"Sure - I'll preform after I finish my order." - Loki smiled at the waitress again and turned back to the table. He looked straight at Quincy - it was what people would call a "staaaare".

[Guest]

CC shook hands with the man and nodded a bit in agreement to both of his assesments.
"Well, yes, I had trouble pronouncing Quincy as a child." Plus everyone thought it would be cuter to call her CC when she was a toddler. "And yes, it is Drachman. I have not managed to get rid of it yet." Only a year of knowing Amestrian language and all! She turned to Loki, smiling. Hee, he seemed energetic!

"Pleasure to meet you, Loki, and you as well, Ike." She smiled as the new portion of chocolate cake and hot chocolate was brought over to the table and quickly spooned a small chunk of the chocolate cake into her mouth. Mmmm, there we go, things are all sunny again! "Ahh, the universal pick-me-upper~" She mused and ate another spoonful of the delicious, delicious cake. She paused when she felt someone staring at her. Ah, it was... Loki. CC blinked.

"So, you are a performer? A musician?" She paused for a moment and the turned to Ike and pointed at her cheek, slightly unsure. "There is... Something on my face?" Well, she knew her shirt was stained, but she was sure nothing hit her face. For a good measure, she picked up a fresh napkin and dapped her face with it, trying to see if something really was there.

[Guest]

Ike looked at CC with a sense of boredom while she checked her face for some chocolate or something. Ike thought about saying, 'no there's nothing on your face',

but that would ruining the staring time, Mr Dragunoff's staring time that is. Ike thought as he turned his attention to the man who was most likely also of drachman origins (the surname being the big giveaway), and seemed to be 'interested' in CC. Ike couldn't help but feel as if this guy was a bit extravagant. Sure he'd known him all of 2 minutes, but, he was wearing a purple suit. Who wears a purple suit and isn't slightly weird. Ike gave a mental sigh, leaned back on his chair and looked up to the ceiling.

I can see this rapidly turning into an awkward situation. But i guess, I have the time to go through with it, you never know, it might be interesting. I am quite bored.

Bored was an understatement. Ike hated the morning and mid-day because there was not much to do. The bars weren't open, and his working hours varied. The only thing he could do to relieve his boredom at this time is play tennis, but he wasn't equipped for a 2 hour tennis session.

[Guest]

Loki was still staring at the woman named Quincy, that wanted the two men to call her CC. It was a weird name, but Loki had seen many weird things already to be surprised or baffled that easily.
The young man exhaled loudly and answered CC's question - the one addressed to Ike:

"Nooo... there's nothing on your face, except the very beautiful face itself." - It was true - perhaps Loki did a lot of flattering remarks before, but this time it wasn't a lie. He liked the way this girl looked. And she was almost a complete opposite of Loki in looks, if you don't count the gender difference. Loki smiled in a funny way, arching his brows and grabbed the glass of scotch-whiskey that he ordered. It was brought together with the previous order. - "To a good meeting." - the alchemist made a "clank" sound with his tongue, which was just like a real sound of clanking glasses and started drinking. He emptied the glass in one go and put it back on the table.
He exhaled loudly once again:

"Haaaah! And yeah - to answer your previous question - I am a performer, a singer, in fact. They call me "The Magnificent Loki" here in Central. I used to preform at a lot of bars, you may have even seen or heard me before, it's hard not to notice me, desu ne?!" - Loki ordered an another drink and turned his attention back to the pair. - "What about you? What do you do for a living? If that's not classified, of course. Hahaha!"

[Guest]

CC blinked at Loki and his compliment. Her face then broke into a good-natured grin, light blush on her face. She always was a bit self-conscious, like most women were, relly, so it was always pleasant to hear that one wasn't horribly displeasing to the eye.

"Ahh, that's nice of you to say, Loki!" Wow, Amestrian folk sure were nice! CC nodded her head and ate more of the chocolate cake as Loki drank his glass empty and proclaimed himself the Magnificent Loki, a singer. CC smiled politely, though slightly embarrassed of the fact that she really had no idea who this guy was.

"Ah, I'm sorry, but I have only been in Amestris for a year or so." And she had not gone out a lot during that year. Not in the usual sense people say 'going out', in any case. Ah, what did she do for a living.

"Um." Underground cage fights. "I am between jobs at the moment." She took a drink of her hot chocolate. "Though, I take whatever job I can get, so..." And by that she meant she'll take whatever opponent tossed her way for some quick and relatively painless cash.

"Ah, you said you were a doctor, Ike? What kind of doctor, if I may ask?"

[Guest]

Jobs? Really, we're talking about our jobs... Ike gave an mental sigh. This topic of conversation was probably one of the ones he loathed the most, as well as being strangely frequent. It seemed that everybody was interested in what other people do for a living. However Ike did not tell people that he was a top member of the biggest criminal organization in Amestris, because he knew that people will always judge you in some way for that. So he always lied about it, and used the same lie every time.

"I'm a physician that specializes in internal medicine. Nothing special." Ike stated. It was a giant lie, but thanks to the help of Kidato, no one but him and the agency knew.

"I basically deal with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases."

Now that Ike had got that out of the way. He searched his memories of any performer called 'The Magnificent Loki' but unfortunately he didn't recall anybody going by such a name. Although he didn't doubt his words, he might be praised so much as to be called magnificent. And then there was CC, who was basically unemployed at the moment. That must be rough, being unemployed.

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