Catch of the Day

[Xander]

As Avis crawls into the van she notes many familiar objects. Movie projectors, movie reels, Aspen's tonfa, among other familiar miscellaneous objects. Nothing registered as alive or thinking to Avis except for herself and the people she could see outside the van.

There wasn't much room in the van with the miscellany packed into the back, so Avis had to climb into the drivers seat to make space for Star.

Outside the van, Star notices that cars are starting to line up behind the van and him. It seems a van parked in the middle of the road around dinner time was a slight obstruction.

[Star]

Were you supposed to just hop in?

Maybe. That's now how he did it. Because Smileys' People. But Arrow, yo. All, like, confrontational.

After a moment of silence, he walked his bike closer. If there'd been anything of importance, he'd have known just how important by the volume and duration of obscenities that roiled out of the open door.

Seriously, though? An 'All clear' wouldn't have hurt.

The sound and warmth of cars piling up behind him started to get his attention. Dude. Seriously?

"Hey!"

He yelled inside the van at Avis.

"Let's just leave this thing and call the cops!"

Why not? They hadn't done anything wrong. Because victimized.

His hand tightened slightly on the pistol. If anyone was hiding in there? That probably got their attention.

[Avis]

"We can't!" Avis called back to Star, a note of panic in her voice. "They've got our shit! Like, they fucking robbed us! We can't just leave it. We gotta, like, drive it back. Then unload and dump it, right?"

What the fuck? Who the hell had broken into their place and stolen their stuff? Aside from dead men, that is.

[Star]

"Seriously?!"

Quick mental inventory.

"Are my bonsais in there!?"

That shrill sound? Pure. Outrage. He didn't even ask about The Bag. So muchly annoyed. Deep breaths. Get a grip, yo. He was yelling about trees in the middle of a street. Whatever. Sacramento, right? Per. Capita.

"Okay. Okay. Right. Ummmm. So. You're designated driver?"

He snickered. Avis. Stolen vans. Get it?

[Avis]

"Probably not! Just valuable stuff," Avis replied, scooting back over the seats and then hopping back down to the street.

"Look, you drive the van back. I'll walk your bike." She didn't wait for a response, and instead jogged the few steps over to grab the handle bars of the death machine. "You're right, the faster we get out of the road, the better."

[Star]

"Wait, what?"

No she di-int.

"Maybe they're valuable to me? Like, little inspirations. Seeds of life, blossoming and cultivated. Shaped with care and purpose. Verdant reflections of everything I want to be!"

A laugh accompanied his dismount.

"Seriously, those were really hard to find. Those things don't grow... okay, yes, they do. But you know."

He waited until her hands were full of the bike, then reached around to fit the helmet over her head.

[Avis]

"No-no," she protested quickly, "I meant like shit you can sell, not like..." she trailed off, finally realizing that he wasn't actually offended.

This fucking day.

"Just get in the---van before some road raging asshole runs us over," she ordered, pausing when the helmet slid over her face.

[Star]

He gave her a lopsided grin instead of the quick peck he wanted to.

Come on, girl. It's not twenty-four seven serious. There's laughs, too. Him? He was pretty much kind of cracking up at the helmet on her to walk the bike.

"I'd be kind of surprised? If they could sell anything in my room," he admitted. "Like, if they could do that, they should be on that, what's that show? The one where they go to junk yards?"

It wasn't just rambling. He used the time to pull Zoey's gun out of the bike and pocket it with Avis' body blocking the action from the onlookers.

Nod-nod. Serious time.

"Okay. I'll do a U-turn and see you there."

The helmet. The shoes. Adorbs, yo.

[Avis]

"Good luck. Looks like a difficult spot to bang a U-y," Avis called back, voice muffled by the helmet once again before she maneuvered to the side of the bike and then started jogging with it across the street to where she could get it up on the sidewalk, or at least into the bike lane.

Thank god 4W was close by. Motorcycles were ridiculously heavy for how easy they looked to ride. Especially in the movies. Those lying bastards.