Room 512, Thursday evening

[gobrookeyourself]

Brooke was currently torturing herself. Namely, she was surfing the websites of the stores she used to shop and designers she liked and it was resulting in a sort of occasional whimper as she once again remembered she couldn't have any of it. She was beginning to wonder if she could sell blood at the clinic. Yeah, it had been gross and she'd felt all light-headed afterwards last time she did it, but she'd spent way less money on drinks, and clothing was an investment.

This is what she was doing at least until Rock of Love finished downloading.

[Open.]

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[gobrookeyourself]

"Egg-sitting and bored," she said, waving him in. "How about you?"

[withoutverona]

"I just recovered Felix from his nurse," Romeo said, pulling an egg in a tiny paper suit out of his jacket pocket for Brooke to see. "But I am not so bored, at least not at the moment. I went to the gun club this afternoon."

[gobrookeyourself]

...Of course the egg would be named Felix. It wasn't like it was even a common name, but of course. "You're in the gun club?" she asked, eyebrows raised. At least that was a good distraction from the ex's name.

[withoutverona]

"I am now," Romeo allowed, trying to think of how to explain this. "I did not mean to join, but at home ... it is not exactly safe, where I am from, or at least not for all. I go armed there, and I ought keep in practice while at school."

[gobrookeyourself]

Brooke's eyes widened slightly. "Not big on metal detectors out there in California?"

[withoutverona]

"I believe there was one at the airport," Romeo answered. He closed his eyes, considering whether he wanted to keep going down this path.

Apparently he couldn't help himself, because the next words out of his mouth were, "I love my home, but it is senseless there -- deaths are caused by no insult stronger than a family name."

[gobrookeyourself]

Ouch. Brooke frowned, trying to imagine that. "That's gotta suck," she said quietly. "Where I come from, that'll just get you into a fight in class."

[withoutverona]

Romeo snorted. "A fight that stayed in class was called a good day," he told her. "The Capulets -- the other family in the vile feud -- had their own school, but still things erupted."

He shook his head. "At least I am out of it."

[gobrookeyourself]

"Good," she said, meaning it. "Very glad to have you away from the place that requires firearms."

[withoutverona]

"Leaving was hard, but I think I am glad too, now," Romeo said. And he was, mostly, though the idea of never being able to go home still choked him. "So no one carries guns, where you are from?"

[OOC: ... and I go to bed.]

[gobrookeyourself]

"Not that I know of," she said, being pre-season 3 shrugging. "Mostly people use their fists and words and that's enough, without the police needing to get involved. Mostly."

[withoutverona]

"Police rarely come before the trouble is over anyhow," Romeo shrugged, uncomfortable with the whole subject. If fists and words were enough in Verona ... well, he wouldn't be there. "As an utter change of subject, how is your egg?'

[gobrookeyourself]

Brooke retrieved Suri from her little pillow in order to show her off. "Very stylish, I must say," she grinned.

[withoutverona]

Romeo grinned right back. "Namine dressed Felix, but I must admit I think your egg has the better look," he told her. "Did you make that?"

[gobrookeyourself]

"And like six others," she admitted, making a face. "I got a little bored."

[withoutverona]

Romeo's eyes were bright. "Good for the egg, then, but was there nothing else you could find to occupy your time with?" His tone left little doubt that he could think of a few other possibilities.

[gobrookeyourself]

"Well, I could," she said, and don't think she didn't try, "but I think that'd be a little scarring to the wee one and babysitters are so hard to find on short notice."

[withoutverona]

"And the babes are a bit new -- unhatched, in fact -- to begin scarring them," Romeo nodded. "At least it was only a week."

[gobrookeyourself]

"And then our lives resume normalcy," she nodded. "Thank god."

[withoutverona]

"Or what passes for it here, at the least," Romeo said.

Realizing the conversation was winding down, he stepped back toward the door, hesitating just before leaving.

"I might kiss you goodnight, but we ought not traumatize the eggs."

[gobrookeyourself]

Brooke was halfway tempted, being the queen of self-restraint that she was, but. "Don't want them spilling to the teachers," she said with a smile.

[withoutverona]

"Of course not, especially as we would be being unfaithful to their other parents." Which Romeo didn't actually think would bother either Barney or Tink, if the eggs could even tell them, but it was something to say to salvage his ego. "See you in class, and sweet dreams to you and the egg."

[gobrookeyourself]

She had to smile. "You too. Night."