"I want a sombrero! And a taco! And an eeeeeegg rooooooll!" Su bounced up and down in the co-pilot's chair, kicking her legs as her hands danced maniacally in the air above her. "I wanna get drunk! And hook up with a red-head!" Mari couldn't help but laugh at her first mate's zeal. The woman was inordinately pleased at the prospect of aging another year, a thing that most everyone did automatically without needing much encouragement or congratulations. But not Su. "It's gonna be my birthdaaaay! And I want to paaaaarty!"

The question was where exactly Mari could possibly ever locate that laundry list of requests. A sombrero, a taco, an egg roll, a redhead and booze? Maybe she should just dump Su with Starwind and let him figure out the rest?

No, she could never do that to the poor pirate.

Unless... No. No. It was too cruel. But, wait, how could she have forgotten?! There was only one place wretched and bizarre enough to contain all those things, and more.

Kowloon.

Formerly Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Well, the end of the universe as it had been known when it was built. Now it was more accurate to call it the restaurant at Frogstar World B, the restaurant that had until recently been believed to occupy a temporal anomaly that allowed you to view the end of the universe. As it would turn out, it was merely an elaborate hologram broadcast just beyond the venue's many expansive windows. What folks wouldn't do to make a buck. When the news had broke, the owners merely chuckled, shaking their heads - you didn't actually believe it was real, did you? - before stripping and refurbishing the whole thing, creating an overly elaborate Polynesian themed cantina in its place. Volcanos exploded beyond the windows, hula girls swayed carelessly under palm trees, and nude natives swam through crashing waterfalls. Robotic wait staff rolled between tables with heated carts, pushing strange approximations of old-timey ethnic food on diners. And most importantly, the liquor flowed.

Not as lucrative as the end of the universe, but it drew enough of a certain element. Like Su. Still kicking her legs, still waving her arms, but this time shrieking for a cocktail from the bartender as they settled into their booth at the restaurant. "...and I want it in the coconut that looks like a monkey!" Su bounced excitedly, her elaborate hat slipping from her head to dangle down her back. As Mari righted the oversized accessory, the younger woman seized her enthusiastically around the neck, happy thanks squealed into her ear. And that's when Mari saw him. Sitting at a quiet table for one, tucked under a faux palm frond. Casually smoking as he gave a lopsided smile over his drink.

Korben.

Or more specifically, her former superior, Major Korben Dallas. She hadn't seen him for the better part of six years. Not since she had left the Alliance. Back then he was all polished boots and neatly pressed wool, same as her. He had threaded in and out of her life since she had joined Academy, always several steps above her from the time she had first set foot into summer space camp to the moment he was promoted to Major. He was damn good, and he knew it. The perfect soldier with the perfect job, the perfect skills, the perfect everything. He was everything she had wanted to be, and for a time everything she had wanted, when she had worn a uniform. The last place in the 'verse she expected to find him was all the way out here, nursing something Mari was fairly sure was strong enough to be flammable, even topped with an innocuous umbrella.

His eyes raised to meet hers, and he cast her a smile she would have killed to be on the receiving end of back in her Alliance days. His eyes were hazy with drink as he looked her over slowly, like a cut of meat. Mari chuckled, realizing suddenly that the man had no damn idea who she was.

Good. It could stay that way.

"Who you makin' eyes at, Cap?" Su flipped up her ridiculous hat, pressing her cheek against Mari's to follow her gaze just as Mari tried to turn away.

"No one, just some-"

"Well hellooooooo there, Mr. Drinkin'-Alone-No-Lady-In-Sight." Su whistled loudly. "Not a redhead, but he'll do in a pinch, hey?" The girl was on her feet in half a heartbeat, smoothing the front of her sundress and tilting her hat at a rakish angle before scooping up her cocktail.

"Uh... Su? I really don't think... you want... to... fuck." Mari tried to stop her, but her argument fell on deaf ears as Su ignored her, sauntering over to the table and flouncing down next to the man before he knew what hit him, his gaze snapping from Mari's to take in the grinning outlaw at his side. Mari sighed, tossing back her bourbon and flagging down one of the robotic servers to order another, doubling it for good measure. The bartender didn't waste any time, a neat glass of amber liquid placed in front of her as she cradled her head in her hands. With a sigh, she lifted the small toothpick umbrella. "Always with the umbrellas, here." She scowled at the bits of fruit for soaking up her overpriced bourbon before popping the stem into her mouth, pulling one of the bourbon soaked pineapples from it with her teeth just as a loud cackle sounded behind her.

"Soooooooooo... this is Mari!" Mari turned, eyes wide and umbrella hanging from her lips as she looked up to find Su dragging Korben across the restaurant and back to their table. "Mari, Korben. Korben, Mari." Su released his arm, letting him settle himself into their booth before flopping down beside him. "He's now officially invited to my birthday party." Su winked boldly as her lips seized upon her straw, striving to make it seem like a dignified action.

"Pleasure." He unconsciously echoed Su's wink, a slow smirk spreading over his face as he brought his drink to his mouth once more.

"I'm sure." Mari's mind suddenly spun with questions she didn't know if she wanted to ask, so she pushed them to the side, sliding a cigarette out of the pack on the table and dropping it between her lips instead. She inclined her chin toward Dallas, and he obligingly lit the end, his eyes lingering on hers as she took a deep drag. A loud slurp broke through the moment, Mari's eyes flicking to Su's across the table as she blew the smoke from the corner of her mouth. The look on the girl's face was unmistakable.

MY birthday, Cap'n. But outwardly Su only giggled, clapping a hand to her mouth.

"Sorry! Ignore me. Tell us about yourself, Korben."

He shrugged, taking a deep drink from his glass. "Not much to tell. Drive a cab Earth-side. Takin' my requisite two weeks planet hopping."

"Oh, c'mon." Su purred, leaning into him. "I know there's more to you than that. I can tell."

"Can you?" Mari and Korben spoke at the same time, eyes meeting once again as their faces lightly creased with amusement. When he spoke, it was to Mari, the birthday girl all but forgotten as he related a story Mari already knew too well.

"Well, used to be military. You know how it is, bustin' my ass, climbing the ranks. Get's boring, though, day in, day out, always marching to someone else's orders. Retired. Drivin' the cab gets me out of the house."

Mari nodded thoughtfully. "A man like you can't stay tied down too long, huh?" She let a lazy smile crawl across her face as her belly warmed with her bourbon. "More of the love 'em and leave 'em type?" He chuckled low.

"I guess you could say that. If that's the type they're lookin' for."

"Oh look. It's Wash. I better go say hey." Su's dry, flat voice summoned Mari's attention for the briefest of moments. An eye-roll, a shake of her head, and Su was gone, lost in the bustling crowd of androids and humanoids. Korben watched her swaying hips go a moment before turning back to Mari, leaning in closer as he signaled for another round.

"And you, Miss Mari? Why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself?" His gravelly voice danced up her spine, her shoulders shrugging with the pleasure of this possible conquest, so long vaunted in her mind. For the first time in her life, she had the upper hand with him, and he didn't even remember who she was.

"Captain Mari, actually." she corrected him casually as she took a pull from her cigarette, letting the smoke unfold in the space between them. "Well... that brazen lass is first mate on my ship – the Genrou. We run trouble more often than not, though we try to stay right with the law best we can. Not easy with a girl like that wrapped up in the operation."

"I can imagine."

"I bet you can. You look like you've seen your fair of... exploits since your days in the Alliance."

"I guess you could say that. Always looking for some new excitement, though." That was it. She refused to play this game of cat-and-mouse any longer. Mari had never been a girl to play games with her men, even ones she'd played subordinate to in her formative years.

"Korben, would you like a tour of my ship? I think you'll find it very... exciting."

"I think you may be right, Captain Mari. I think you may be right." he grinned as the ordered drinks appeared at their elbows.

"Cheers."

At the bar, Su shook her head, turning her gaze from the pair and mournfully returning to her monkey-headed beverage. "Happy Birthday to Su, I guess..."

"Is it your birthday?" A voice came from her side. "How lovely. Shall I buy you a drink? Gin and tonic, perhaps?"

Her grin had already returned to spread wide across her face when Su turned to her new friend. "Why not? Name's Su."

"Ford."

"Lovely."

Somehow, Mari found herself on Su's side of their once shared table, Korben's hand sliding over her thigh as she downed the last of her drink, the liquor making her bold, and just a touch stupid, as her fingertip traced a scar on his arm. He leaned in close, his own voice clumsy with drink. Rumbling in her ear and setting the hairs on the back of her neck on edge. "So, Mari... about that tour." A wicked grin crossed her lips as she swallowed the last burning drop, tongue darting out to sweep the lingering traces off her lips.

"Silly me, how could I forget." Mari purred, tossing a fistful of bills on the table before pulling Korben up after her by the front of his shirt. She had enough presence of mind to try to scan the bar for Su, but she couldn't find the girl anywhere. Not that she looked terribly hard, what with Korben's breath tickling the hair behind her ear as he followed a bit too closely, his hand reaching for her hip in a delightfully inappropriate way as he followed her from the restaurant and into the sprawling docking port outside its doors.

Su was a big girl, she could find her own way back to the ship.

"So where is it?" She felt his lips graze her ear as she scanned the lot, looking for her much-loved rust bucket of a ship and finding... nothing. Nothing at all. Just an empty space where Genrou had once been docked.

"No." Mari whirled in place, checking the row forward and the row behind. "Oh, I am going to KILL her!"