The Six Nights of Dustmas and the Lonely Cat [Non-Canon][Open]

Q looked over to the man in the mask. "I take it you like your alcohol strong." He said taking a sip of his scotch.

Zwei slid up his mask to reveal his mouth and downed 5 of the 6 shots in several seconds. He turned his head as he was greeted by a familiar voice and nodded before taking the final shot then sliding his mask back to fully cover his face. "Hello Matt!" he smiled as his voice showed no signs of even being tipsy he did have quite the resistance to alcohol after all. He looked across the bar to see a familiar Girl. He smiled again as he greeted her "Hey Fei...ain’t seen each other in a while eh?" he laughed as he handed one of his bottles to Matt. "This is what Dustmas is about...being with your friends!". He turned to the unknown man who spoke to him for a moment "Any alcohol is good alcohol" before turning back to his friends.

"To true." Q said taking another sip.

Matt takes the bottle from Zwei, smiling. He takes a long drink and nods his head. "You got that right Zwei. About friends and alcohol. I don't have that many friends here though..." Matt looks at the others sitting at the bar. He laughs. "Well, it looks like I'll just have to make some new ones!" Matt turns back to Cheshire. "What's got you down, Ches?"

Cheshire's reply was another grunt. "Another."

The barkeep doesn't immediately give Cheshire the glass. "Okay man you've come here plenty of time and ordered everything that had seafood or chicken in it on the menu one time or another," the barkeep states, "You've come here enough times for me to know that you shun alcohol like the devil. So why in all heck are you ordering your fifteenth glass of catnip tequila!?"

"Just. Give. Me. The drink," Cheshire grunts. The barkeep sets another glass in front of Cheshire and starts cleaning glasses, shaking his head in dismay.

Ron walked down the snow covered sidewalk in deep thought. His team each having done something or other for the holiday. He figured Chiu was with Viola, but he didn't know what Declan or Gersemi were doing. Earlier he was thinking of this and the fact that he didn't have a way back to his home village while he was in his dorm alone. He decided that he should take a walk through Vale.

He was thinking about the snow. He had only seen the season of winter twice before this winter, but already he had come to love the snow. In his village he had helped the little children with making snow forts each year. Now he was thinking, I don't see why people think it is cold, temperature doesn't matter as long as the spirit of the holidays is there. And snow is definitely in the spirit of the holiday. That much I know, even if I have only seen two years of it.

Ron falls back into the snow just in front of the restaurant specified earlier. That last thought having lead him to a more serious one. I still need to figure out where those 15 years of memory went. It might be easier if I had friends, but none of my teammates seem to care that much about friendship. With these thoughts still in his mind Ron falls asleep, perfectly warm in the snow, in front of the restaurant's door.

As he stared outside, he couldn't help but notice in the background someone had collapsed outside the door. Hunter called over a waitress. "Excuse me, miss, but can you hold my table for me? I'm going outside for a few minutes." Getting up and donning his hood, he walks outside to see who had collapsed next to his motorcycle, Drifting Ronin. At first Hunter doesn't recognize the boy, but he soon realizes it's a fellow classmate, Ron Rogue of Team Roar--no, they combined with a different team. What was it, again? War Dogs?--knocked out facedown for some reason. Using his shoe, Hunter nudges his shoulder.

"Rouge. Hey, it's Thợ Săn, Team SaiNTS leader. Get up, War Dog. You're gonna get hypothermia if you stay out here."

Ron stirs in his sleep. "Mmph." he grumbles. He slowly sits up rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He looks up at who woke him from his nap. Wait! Nap? But I've only meditated for the past year or so. Then again, I haven't done that since my teammates left a couple days ago. Anyways what was this guys name, there's no way I can pronounce what he said. I think it was Hunter.

"Yeah, uh, thanks Hunter. I guess I haven't rested enough the past couple days. I didn't realize it until now. Sorry if I was in your way." Ron said realizing his mistakes.

"Just get up, Rouge. Need a hand?" Hunter extended his arm. "Come inside if you want. No need to sleep out in the snow."

Ron grabs Hunter's outstretched hand and pulls himself up. "Sure, thanks!" Ron says.

Walking back inside, Hunter removes his hood and shakes it a few times, causing the snow to fall off. He walks to his booth and calls over the waitress again, saying "Excuse me, can I get another drink?"

"Sure. What would you like?"

"Get me a warm Bev with extra peppermint and cinnamon, please." He sits down as the waitress writes down his order.

Ron walks in after Hunter, brushing the snow out of his hair. He follows him to his table and sits across from Hunter. When Hunter orders he just says, "I'll have the same." Since he doesn't know what the restaurant has. He leans back trying to remember what he was thinking about before he fell asleep.

"So. No exploring the town with your team, Rouge? Or are you afraid of crashing a bike again?" Hunter was looking outside, not facing Ron.

The barkeep comes back delivering another plate of fish tacos and chicken wings setting it in front of Fei. He then places a glass of catnip tequila in front of Cheshire and walks away shaking his head.

"Holidays. Cheer. Blegh!" Cheshire grunts with a sour look on his face. "Just another holiday for those pricks to show off their girlfriends. Who cares about that noise anyway! A lonely Dustmas is just as good. It's better! I don't have to waste my time drifting around in the cold with some lady or spend truck loads of lien just to make her happy and smile...."

Cheshire seemed to be so deep into his own world of depression that he does not realize he was talking out loud. Cheshire's head plants into the count again as he grumbles out loud but his tone appears more depressed then angry this time.

".... I am forever alone...."

"You have a short view on life I take it?" Q said sipping his scotch.

Ron frowns at Hunter's tease about the bike, "That only happened once." he said. At Hunter's first question he realized what he had been thinking about before he fell asleep. He was now a bit depressed as he said, "The rest of the team is out doing something or other, and I couldn't get a ride back to my home village. What about you? You're a team leader as well, right?" he asks.

"Leader of the SaiNTS," Hunter replied, still looking outside. "No idea where my team is, either. Shem is probably with Indigo, Kait might be torturing our team mascot with catnip, and Nigrum, he isn't around much. Speaking of Nigrum," He turned and faced Rouge. "Back when you were a part of Team RAWR, two of your teammates were an Alex Broyles and a Chiu Fong Wong, right?"

"Yes, that is correct. Chiu is the only one who is still at Beacon, she joined me in the merger into Team WRDG," Ron answers. "Why?" he asks.

"Heh." Hunter chuckled. "I actually met them, along with Nigrum, on the way to Beacon, a few days before Day 1. It's one hell of a story."

"What do you think of them?" Ron asks thinking I wonder why they never talked about it. An adventure is always an enjoyable thing to tell and listen to.

"Well, Alex was a bit of a mystery to me, but I know he's trying to do the right thing. Everyone was on a train to Vale, and some ambassador was on it as well. Alex train hopped, trying to save the guy's life. I think Nigrum is an agent of some sort, since he also was train hopping to meet the ambassador, but he did so to deliver some messages of some sort. I don't know what they were, though. And as for Chiu..." Hunter readjusted himself in his seat. "What do you have to say about her?"

Without thinking Ron quickly replies, "Untrusting, angry at the world, and secluded." He sighs and finishes with, "But I'll have to deal with that until we're more of a team."

Nodding, Hunter says, "Seems accurate enough to me. That's about what I thought when I met her on the train. From what happened on there, she's distant, deadly, mad at everything, and willing to leave me behind to die." The waitress interrupted him, showing up with two steaming mugs. "Your Bevs." Hunter took his and thanked her before returning to Ron. "But still friendly to some degree."

Ron thanks the waitress and then asks Hunter the part he was really interested in, "So what did happen on that train ride?"

"You want the nutshell version of the story?" Hunter tested the heat of the Bev; it was a bit warm for his taste.

"Sure, maybe I can ask Chiu later on the entire details, but for now the nutshell will work." Ron said. He started to sip at his Bev, liking the taste of it.