one track mind

He narrows his eyes as the guy mentions something about money in the pockets. “You sure you’re sober enough to be giving away your money? I’m really gonna take it y’know?” He digs into each pocket to confirm that there was indeed money in there. Damn, way to make his night. “Don’t expect me to pay you back though I don’t really have any money.” 

This guy was starting to look alright in his book. He even brushed aside the teasing as something harmless. “Nah.” HOMRA’s base was his only home now but he couldn’t just sleep in a bar all the time. Well he was sure he could but he’d already gotten flack for being a freeloader. 

Kougami watches the boy rifle through his jacket, pulling out the three twenties he hadn't spent at the bar and a crumpled five that looked a little damp at the corner. Kougami guessed that was probably from when he spilled a little beer earlier and ended up shoving his hand straight into his pocket afterwards. He was giving a kid beer-stained money.

He almost felt like a pimp.

“Thank god, someone who recognizes piss for what it is,” he sighed, but he raised the beer to his lips and took a long swig anyway. After setting the bottle back down against the bar-top, his hands already a little unsteady from his ‘pre-game’ session, Adachi turned back towards the other man and tilted his head towards the bottle of whiskey that now sat on the countertop between them. “But good, I’m glad you like whiskey. If you’re here to finish this with me, there’s a chance I may actually be able to stagger home tonight instead of crawling under a park bench and blacking out somewhere.”

He still held one unlit cigarette in between his fingers, and as if just realizing this fact he reached into his suit-pocket. It took more fumbling than may have seemed necessary, but after a few seconds he managed to withdraw his lighter.

Feeling a little more laid back, Kougami elbowed Adachi lightly in a form of camaraderie. "Kougami." he replied. He downed the whiskey before deciding to get more loose-lipped about his situation. Besides, if they got into a fight tonight, Kougami was more than 80% sure he could hold his own. Adachi was practically gone.

"It's been rough, lately." Kougami says, brushing his hair back from his forehead. "A lot's... happened.  Or not happened, I guess. It's just a lot of waiting around that gets boring quickly. I think I -- " Kougami stops abruptly, narrowing his eyes, God, he can't figure it out. His deductive skills hadn't been put to much use lately -- or at all, actually -- but he just knows this isn't just a guy.

When Adachi staggered into his favorite dive-bar in Baja, he had only one goal in mind, and that goal was to get so wasted he wouldn’t even have the mental capacity to remember his job anymore, let alone be able to think about. It had been a particularly brutal day at Prava PD, and the young detective and his boss had already spent a good portion of the evening drinking. However, while his boss had a young daughter to return home to at the end of the night, Adachi had no intention of stopping his quest for alcohol just yet. So here he was, completely out of place in a dive bar with his suit and tie. The hardest days almost always seemed to end up with him making his way to Baja one way or another.

It seemed that there was one bar-stool left open at the bar, although it was on one of the sides next to the wall. The seat was one from the end, and it looked like the guy who was sitting next to the wall was more than content to keep to himself. At least, everyone else seemed to be leaving him alone.

“Whatever,” Adachi muttered under his breath. With the graceful maneuvering that only a man already many beers into the night could pull off properly, he sidled his way through the packed tables and made his way towards the bar. After claiming the unoccupied bar-stool, he withdrew a pack of cigarettes from the pocket of his suit and tossed them unceremoniously onto the bar-top in front of him. It was an absolute miracle that you could still find a place in Prava that would let you smoke indoors, but the police tended to stay well-away from Baja’s shittiest bars unless there was a call. It was a whole other world here, and Adachi absolutely adored it.

“Barkeep!~” Adachi shouted, swaying slightly on his barstool as he beckoned the bartender over. “Bring me and this guy here some whiskey, and none of that rail crap. Oh, and a round of beer too.” Had he not been a regular, he might have gotten his ass kicked for being so flippant about his order, but the bartender simply rolled his eyes and got started on their drinks.

Kougami had money, but there was nothing materialistic he craved. Television didn't matter to him, neither did clothes or anything else. He liked to read, sure, but it was too much of a hassle to have to go out into polite Pravan society where police were always hounding places like shopping malls and mega stores that sold the books he liked.

So Kougami stuck to bars and places around Baja that were good at letting people blend in and mind their own business. Which was exactly what Kougami was doing tonight, sat alone at the bar with his fourth beer in hand. It wasn't the best tasting stuff -- and smelled even worse -- but it got the job done. And as he raised the brown bottle to his lips to take the last chug of it and probably head out for the night, a man slid onto the stool beside him.

He was lively and something about him rubbed Kougami in a weird way. He watched the man as he ordered, talking like he'd been here dozens of times, and not getting decked by the bartender for running his mouth about the drinks. Anybody and they would've been on the ground nursing a bloody nose, that Kougami was sure of.

"Whiskey's good." Kougami said, nodding and deciding that maybe he wasn't going to head out for the night. It wasn't a new thing, people buying him drinks, guys or girls. Most of the time they wanted sex and other times they just wanted to feel important enough to buy a guy a drink. Kougami didn't get that vibe from this guy which settled his nerves a bit -- but not by much. "The beer is piss." Kougami said. "I'm sure of it. But I've had worse tasting beer in my life."

A police officer shouldn’t smoke and a police officer with a daughter really really shouldn’t smoke but once he had started it was too late.  The best he could do was limit himself to a few a day.

Kougami states it as fact. If it were anybody else, it'd probably come out a little self-deprecating or a little bitter.Kougami just... knows that he doesn't know what's best. For anyone. But it doesn't stop him from trying his damnest to help anyway.

One of the burlier guys narrowed his eyes at the intruder. “What the hell do you want? Tryin’ to play hero or something?” He asked, apparently boosted by the snickers of his friends. “We’re just teaching her a lesson, that’s all.” Ryuuko felt like punching him again, but doing so would probably result in definitely breaking a bone…if she hadn’t already, of course.

"These jerks were causing trouble in the arcade on my shift." She explained, keeping a careful eye on them, even though she was speaking to the guy that had just appeared. "I asked them to get out, and this is what happened." Most of the time, she definitely could hold her own. She’d have to start working out or something.

The leader of the rowdy boys had apparently decided he didn’t like the look the newcomer was giving him. “Oi, you wanna fight too?” He snarled. “Bring it on!” Ryuuko snorted, glancing off to the side. “Big talk from someone who got their nose busted by a girl.”

The girl didn't look like she was going to take any of their shit though and that, Kougami assessed, was why she was cradling her hand like that. Favoring it towards her body as she talked big game. Apparently she was well on her way to settling things before Kougami ever came along.

He laughed, though it came out sounding like a huff of breath.

"Might as well back off now." Kougami said, tensing at the way the guy shifted his feet ever so slightly into a stance of attack. Kougami was ready when he threw all of his weight at him, grabbing the guy's arm, twisting and bring himself around to the guy's back. He leaned forward, keeping tight hold on his arm as he whispered into his ear.

"I don't like you." he breathed harshly, twisting and twisting until the faint popping noise began in the man's arm. The man was howling, practically oblivious to Kougami's whispered threats. "And if you think I'm gonna go easy on you now that I've got you, you're as stupid as I thought you were."

With a sick pop! that man's arm twisted out of the socket. Kougami brought his leg up, kicked forward into the man's lower back and sent him flying into the curb.

When Kougami turned, the man's buddy was already heading off in the opposite direction like the punk Kougami knew they were. For a moment, Kougami felt the adrenaline pumping in his veins and he could feel how different he was when he was hyped up like this, looking for the next fight. A crazed smile found its way to his face.

"Been far too long by now," Kougami says, giving the shittiest of reasons. "Plus, it's a bit of a keepsake."

Kougami knows that probably doesn't make sense and he doesn't know why exactly he's being so cryptic. Kougami, despite his appearances, is an open book when it comes to his past, his future, and his life in general. He's not ashamed and he never will be. He is who is, and the people he met along the way were who they were too. Especially Sasayama.

Kougami decides he's had enough of the cigarette for once and scratches it out on the sidewalk, pushing the half-smoked cigarette back into its packaging to smoke another day. 

For a smoke outside a shady convenience mart, this sure was turning into something like a confessional.

Yata practically rolled his eyes. “I’d say you had a problem with him then.” He hung his head, shoulders slumped forward. “Whatever, man.. Damn..” Yata sighed and decided to just stop letting it get to him. Like he said, whatever, it wasn’t his problem anymore. Only problem he had was the night was kind of chilly and he was now without one article of clothing to shield him from the cold.

He was trying to let it go anyways but the guy just had to ask that question. Heat rose back into Yata’s face, nostrils flaring as he looked back up at the other male with a glare. “I was just trying to DIFUSE the situation! C’mon, man, how pissed would you be if you were just try’na enjoy your drink and some asshole— OH WAIT, THAT DID HAPPEN. TO YOU. SMART ASS.” 

Now that that was finally out there he sighed once more, this one much heavier than the last. “I spent all my money on that soda. You know how hard it is to find italian soda that cheap? And now it’s a damn stain—” He pinched at the spot on his tank top once again for emphasis. 

Kougami puffs out some smoke, watching the kid shiver. It's not a thought that he second guesses as he slips out of his hoodie and hands it to the boy.

"Spills happen." he says in response to the kid's talk about expensive soda. "There's a couple twenties in the pockets if you want." Kougami says, stretching out, and liking the way the breeze felt on his now exposed arms. He feels less stuffy and confined.

Kougami smiles. It's teasing. "Need an escort home, kid?"