#ruby and leo

[roaming-leo-roman]

E-Mail >> Ruby

To: [email protected] From: [email protected]

Sbj: <empty>

Hey there sweetheart!

You were right about the coffee, been off my horse for days I'm so jumped up, can't stop drinking the stuff ;)

[roaming-leo-roman]

Tea and Conversation || Leo & Ruby

rubysatoshi:

Ruby’s head turned, the doctor frozen with her arm jammed into the shelf when she heard the heavy Texas drawl. It took her brain a moment to catch up with what the ‘bobcat had said, not entirely familiar with the lilt and sway the words took off of Leonard’s tongue. Drawing her arm back, the doctor smiled at him, smoothing her hands over her t-shirt and jeans.

She looked mostly like what Leo had seen before, though there were minute differences. If nothing else, her hair was damp and her skin was flushed from exertion. After an hour and a half of muay thai practice, Ruby had showered and run to the grocery store before it could close. Her skin was still warm and the smell of the peppermint-neem soap that the gym stocked in their locker rooms lingered around her. Mixed in there was the nonallergenic detergent she used on her clothing, and the mint of gum she was chewing.

"Thank you," The doctor’s hands closed around the box, holding it before her. It took her a moment to realize she’d met Leo before and recognition blossomed openly over her face. Offering her hand out in greeting, Ruby looked over the man. He was tall, but then, when you were 5’4, everyone was tall. "Oh-! We chatted online! I remember now. I’m Ruby. Ruby Satoshi."

"Thanks again for rescuing my tea. I’m not a big tea drinker, but I can’t get enough of this stuff. It’s like liquid crack. Maybe my gateway drug to other teas." She smiled, glaring down at the box in her hands. "It’s expensive for what it is. $8 a box, but it’s worth it." 

"How about you?" Leaning over, Ruby picked up her grocery basket and placed the tea inside. Her eyebrows raised as she looked into Leo’s grocery basket and she nodded towards the beer. "You into tea, or is the local pale ale more your thing?"

Leo took the other's hand, lifting her fingers and kissing her knuckles politely. Taking the moment to take in that odd combination of scents that immediate brought up images of the gym. She had been working out, enough to have warranted a shower after ward.

"Yeah, we jawed a lil'. pleasure t'make yer official acquaintance Ruby" he added with a charming flash of teeth.

"Yeah 'fore ya know it ya'll be gettin' in to the hard stuff like green n' chamomile..." he teased, chuckling lightly. The sound was quiet and deep in the back of his throat like a secret.

He shrugged at the price, jutting his lip out comically in attempt to look unaffected. "Ain't no harm in a lil' self indulgence now n' then..." he admonished.

He laughed as Ruby examined the minimal contents of his basket, reaching in and pushing aside the beer to reveal the reddish can of his preferred beverage. "No ma'am, I'm a coffee man through n' through. It's perfect out on the range 'fore rustlin' up them doggies..." he joked.

"Beer'll be my reward if I be behavin' myself all week."

[rubysatoshi-deactivated20140611]

Tea and Conversation || Leo & Ruby

Ruby’s eyes narrowed. There it was. The clerk hadn’t been lying when he said that they still had a box of Yogi Non-Caffeinated Chai. Only, some butthead had pushed the last box of it to the back of the shelf. She couldn’t complain; the fact that there was a natural grocery store in Pickens that carried her favorite brand of pretentious organic tea at all was a godsend. She just wished she didn’t have to be a monkey to get at the stock. Most of the clerks filled the stereotype of loveable, dirty hippie. They were chill, approachable, overqualified, and completely negligent about restocking. 

Walking over from the opposite side of the aisle, Ruby set her basket down. The shelf was just higher than her shoulder, meaning it was going to be a stretch. Pursing her lips, the doctor gripped the edge of the shelf with one hand and tried to reach the tea with her other. The stiff paper corner of the box grazed her fingers, but she couldn’t quite get a hold of it. Pushing her shoulder against the aisle helped her get another few milimeters. For a moment, it felt like she would get it, but the force of her grasp made the tea box spin further back on the shelf.

"Are you serious?" Ruby muttered under her breath, eyes narrowed into a squint as she stared down the aisle. "C’mon, you lil…square….bastard,”

[roaming-leo-roman]

Leo pulled the brim of his baseball cap down a little further, the halogen lights worsening the pain in his head. He detested grocery stores, everything smelled like vegetables and floor cleaner. Just because it was a naturalistic market didn’t mean that had changed, it just meant that the cleaner was vinegar instead of pine-sol.

He wandered the aisles slowly, his steps measured and easy like the lope of a tom cat. He collected only the essentials; beer, bread, shaving cream, and especially coffee. He bit his lower lip, teasing the flesh lightly as he concentrated, attempting to remember which brand it was that greeted him from the cupboard every sleepless morning.

"Blue… no maybe green…" he murmured, the colours of the cans blending together inside his head as he attempted to recall what the label looked like at least.

The cursing caught his attention. He looked up, seeing a familiar figure he could only recognize from photographs and from passing crowds. The ‘cat smiled, grabbing a random can and tossing it in his basket before edging his way up to Ruby quietly.

"C’mon darlin’, nearly broke my heart. Thought I’d done some wrong to ya’ll…" he laughed. "Din’t realize was the lil’ bitty box that’s got ya’ll twisted up."

He reached up, plucking the offending tea from the shelf and offering it to her with a slight nod. “Ma’am… guess this’ll be my chance to introduce myself proper, Leo Roman.”