Appleseed Fan Fiction ❯ Untold History ❯ Bars and Broads ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: Appleseed is the brainchild of Shirow Masamune and belongs in part to Geneon, Manga Ent., TOHO, Seishinsha, Seinsha/TBM, and Appleseed Film Partners. Twiknham only retains intellectual rights for this unique story-line and the original characters introduced herein and receives no monetary gains from this work. Please enjoy.

Chapter 5: Bars and Broads

The basketball game went a long way to relieve tension between the Commander and his team. However, Briareos slacking up and treating them like professionals did most of it. Within two weeks, the eleven of them were acting like a squad. It hadn't taken long for Briareos to explain that using seniority terms like Sir and Commander on the field would get him killed. As a result, they all talked informally, as if they were all the same rank.

 

When Saturday night rolled around, the entire team headed to the local bar. Yoshi's was a rowdy place, more bar than drinking establishment. At one point, Yoshi had been to the West and had brought back pool tables and even an old-fashioned pinball machine. The evolutionary cave-man equivalent to Pachinko, that single machine made more money for the old man than the weekly entrance fees on female mud-wrestling night.

 

The local garage metal band Waffled was slinging guitar riffs and rusty vocals around the room like weapons, but Yoshi still noticed when the doors opened. He put a kind smile on his face and got ready to greet his newest customers when he saw who stepped through. After they had all entered, the smile was genuine. Boy would Yoshi have a story to tell his friends on poker night.

 

Eiji watched the bartender as he made his rounds. It was obvious the man was making sure his other customers were satisfied so that he could devote his entire attention to his new clientele. A grin slowly appearing on his face, he almost missed Seto's scowl.

 

“What's so funny? Since you're the only one who can read lips here, you need to tell us what's being said.” At Eiji's confused look, Seto sighed. “The love birds, what are they saying?”

 

That was the very private nick the guys had given to Deunan and the Commander. Despite two weeks of bonding, those two still fought like ex-lovers. Eiji looked over and frowned thoughtfully. Finally he turned back and tapped an empty glass left by the last occupant.

 

“You're kidding me. They'll fight over anything won't they?” At Eiji's smile, he grumbled. “Who's winning.” A raised eyebrow was all the confirmation he needed. “Good for her. Let the dog sweat.”

 

Turning away from Seto, Eiji waited for their bartender to arrive.

 

Deunan and Briareos were having a heated debate about the use of AI controlled weapons in a war against the hybri-borgs. When Yoshi came around to get their drink orders, they both barked `Asahi Dark' and went back to arguing. As Yoshi walked around the table to start taking the other team's orders, Deunan stood up and folded her hands over her chest.

 

“You are on something if you think that frontal attack techniques will work with these monsters. Stealth and jungle warfare are the only two strategies that will allow us to kick their asses.” She glared at the man who was still only three or four inches below her.

 

Briareos was holding back a grin. His team was awesome. He was actually proud to have each of them assigned to his command. In some way, each of them had a weakness, but their group dynamics outweighed their weaknesses by much more than the sum of their parts. Deunan was a spitfire though. Just to egg her on, he glared. “I've had two years hot-team experience with these hybri-borgs and you think you know more than me?”

 

“Experience doesn't make you smart, it just means you're lucky as hell.” She leaned closer and poked him in the chest. “How you managed to get out of Old Tokyo without your ass in your hand, was sheer luck. How the military raised you to Commander without checking your mental capabilities truly scares me.”

 

He grabbed the hand touching his body and yanked her back into her seat. “Our beer just arrived. Sit down, drink the spoils of your personal war, and tell me your brilliant ideas for warfare strategy.” Passing her one of the mugs, he waited for her to take the first sip.

 

Yoshi smiled and worked his way down the table. When he reached Eiji, Eiji thanked him for the beer and smiled as the older man finished handing out drinks and headed back to the bar. Yoshi watched the couple at the table. He found it hard to believe that the man they'd dubbed as Stonehenge was actually making time with a slip of sexy femininity that was hardly tall enough to reach his chest. He made his rounds, but was surprised when the tall grunt who had thanked him earlier was waiting at the bar upon his return. He grabbed a rag and started wiping a small moisture spot on the bar. “Can I help you?”

 

“I need one more of these please.”

 

“Okay.” Yoshi poured the beer out of the tap and handed it to the tall man. After receiving the money, he noticed the man didn't leave. “Is there anything else?”

 

“Yes. How long have you been deaf?” Eiji smiled in a very non-threatening way, but Yoshi wasn't falling for it.

 

“I'm not deaf.”

 

“Yes, you are.”

 

“How do you figure that?”

 

Suddenly Eiji pointed to a hideous scar in his throat that the older man had missed. “I have no vocal box, but you understood me and didn't comment on it. That tells me you read lips, and you couldn't hear that I can't speak.”

 

Yoshi frowned.

 

“Oh, don't worry, I won't spill your secret. I just want to know how to read lips better. I'm going into combat and if I get separated from my interpreter, I'll need to be able to read what my teammates are yelling to each other. I'll even pay you, this isn't blackmail in any way. If you're not willing, I'll accept your decision, but I sure would like the help.”

 

Yoshi smiled, his gregarious personality again coming to the front. “Tell you what son, you come by here on your leaves, we'll figure it out together. If you can handle that bone crushing metal that everyone likes, I'll have you eavesdropping at forty paces in three easy lessons.”

 

Eiji held out his hand. “Deal.” Yoshi shook it and they both smiled at each other, the bearers of secrets indeed.

 

-----

 

True to his word, Briareos paid for Deunan's drinks. She was quite tipsy when they left the bar. Walking with one arm around Peta and a wildly pointed finger waving at Briareos as she continued to pontificate on stealth tactics, she made it back to the barracks. The guys were valiantly trying to hold in their laughter, but it was a mostly losing proposition. Peta flopped her into her bed and threw the covers over her mostly unconscious body before going back outside and letting his breath out.

Shunichi was curled up on the ground, tears of mirth streaming down his face while he tried not to laugh loud enough to wake his teammate up. Peta looked over and wondered how Shunichi's face could look so red under the security lights. Smiling, he finally let it loose. Chuckling quietly, he shared a look with all of his teammates.

 

Seto spoke first. “I about died when she tried to put the Commander in a chokehold to show him how evasive tactics would be preferred over straight fighting.”

 

Peta smiled and looked over at the man in question.

 

Briareos grinned and scuffed his shoe in the gravel. “Yeah, she's pretty funny. Definitely worth the price of three beers.” Suddenly his gaze turned sharp. “Will she be workable tomorrow?”

 

“Yup. Wax in, wax out.” Ryoma smiled and started towards the barracks.

 

“What?” Briareos was the one that who voiced what everyone else was thinking.

 

“Just something my dad used to tell me. If it's really hard to learn something, but you remember it forever, it's rock in, rock out. However, if you learned quickly and forgot it quickly, it was wax in, wax out. Drinking for Knute is wax in, wax out. She gets drunk quickly and gets over it quickly. She'll never feel it tomorrow.”

 

Briareos nodded. “Good, it's a full day for us. Get some sleep men.” Proud that he could say that without a spitfire glaring at him, he smiled as he turned towards his own bed. She was pretty funny tonight, and those tight breasts squeezed up against his arm as she tried to stranglehold him weren't hard to deal with either. Wondering if she'd ever see him as more than her commander, he let the night swallow him up as the barracks swallowed the last of his team.