Request fill for Alenas. More fills on the way and request are still open be they words, quotes, kinks, song, and so forth. Comments and Kudos appreciated.

The expression had been around for ages, how to tell right away what sort of underground district you were in without having to rely on hanging street signs or otherwise negligible government mandated signs. You knew by the local drinking establishment. From the center and spreading outward it started from the higher class lounges, then the local dives of varying sanitation, and finally the seedy institutions where drinking was second to other business fronts. It held weight as an expression and truth leaving it to be said time and time again.

Mihai held a variation of it, a cross up from leaving the city proper and old country. He too held some profound tug toward such places despite not being a heavy drinker. Heine surmised that his profession of professional gopher to Kiri did not keep him around the restaurant often enough to enjoy any benefits from it. That or it being his place of work diminished what joy he may have gotten from it. There was some reason because he did not go himself, he dragged them along and paid out of his pocket.

Drinking did not mix with Heine making the effort null. Any suggestion of buzz was burned off and the rate of consumption to get that far was stupid high. He went anyways drawn in by charisma or there lack of.

Badou left half an hour ago and the rate of conversation cut in half as well. Mihai filled the remaining half putting a drain on a bottle of vodka and sound advice he sought to handoff to these youngsters. Not his words, but the age and past gaps filled in blanks.

"You're all too young for this amount of baggage." His speech did not slur throughout the venture, Naoto once setting up an interesting note about how much he spoke rather than how he spoke. She was convinced in part it was an excuse to talk more out of concern than the alcohol talking.

She was probably right.

"It's not something you choose." It was the same answer with different words, her gaze fixated on the clear liquid swirling about her glass. Sober thoughts did not generally include wonder at how vodka was more liquid than water somehow failing to cling to the sides of her glass.

"Perhaps not." Mihai answered as Heine rolled his shoulder. Far from defeat, he spoke again with greater depth. "Smile more often. Otherwise the world ends up killing you." He snapped a sip back and leaned over eyeing the younger two. "That and vodka."

Such sageful wisdom it earned a dry laugh and smirk.

"And I, I am not young enough." He stood from the table and gathered his coat. "Kiri is surely on to me by now, so I must bid you two farewell for the evening." His chair slid in tapping against the wooden table, his hands stuffed inside his coat and warm smile over his bearded face.

"You're leaving the bottle?" The words were blurted out by Heine use to the tendency for Mihai to take what remained back to Kiri's, regularity taking a different set of tracks.

"Be young and somewhat cheerful. Frowning brings more wrinkles than smiling you know." Then he left, none to fast, but fast in a way to avoid a response. It made Heine furrow his brow and shot his gaze to Naoto whose conflict of wonder was ongoing.

"I'm not drinking the rest of it." Correction, she was aware and being quiet until the look. A low groan was released and glass refilled. He was the clear as effects went, yet he was not ecstatic about finishing the bottle out of obligation. Why not pour it out? Pass it to a patron too drunk to care?

"And I am?'

"No, but I don't see either of us taking it for later." The analytical study of her glasses contents was gone, the clear glass and contents taken in a short sip. She did not believe in few weeks time a tolerance could of been lifted from the few times she did drink. No change in the burn hitting the back of her throat and spreading about her stomach for certain.

"Then why bother with it at all?" Any social etiquettes were removed when Mihai left. They did not need to drink anything or bother with it.

"Obligation. I think." Those rare to be filled in the presence of intended audience. Naoto went for another sip keen on the calmness about her nerves brought on by the few drinks taken. Plural may have been an overstatement, she drank in opposite to a humming bird to keep her head about herself. Fuyumine would have disapproved anything to the point of excess.

"You don't know why." What remained in his short glass was shot back and pointed toward her. "Your tolerance level is showing." The tone betrayed what was heard, a consciousness effort to remove any suggest it was a taunt and instead denoting something.

"I'm not drunk." She bit back defiance in favor of coolness. Clear thoughts and clear liquid did not mix.

"No, but you are buzzed."

"How so?" This was childish, emotions getting the better of her and clouding judgement. She snapped her jaw tight and slid her glass away.

"Forgetful, talkative, hostile, and flushed to name a few." His face maintained stone. None of those were without reasonable doubt, but reaction would tell him for certain in the name of entertainment.

"Unfair." She started staring him down with a look of dissatisfaction. "Denial makes you seem right and accepting does the same. You're trying to corner me."

"Might be. You didn't answer though." He was smirking now.

"A little." She reached back for her glass sipping at it. "Otherwise you're intolerable."

"Touche."