Veser was never very big on plans, at least when it came to making them. If someone would take their time to invite him to things, sure he'd go, but other then that his day was open for….whatever. Hanna and the rest of the gang hadn't been hanging out lately, for whatever reasons the workload for Hanna seemed to be picking up (Veser had mentally guessed it was due to the up coming spring solstice, but said nothing), Toni was working two jobs, Worth was….well…in his cave, and Conrad was never very big on hanging out with people in the first place. The Zombie didn't even come into the equation, he was always with Hanna, and really didn't seem interested being anywhere without him. A single though of Ples ran across the young mans mind, but it vanished almost instantly. They where not friends, and the older man hardly joined them for anything, only on special occasion or if the gang happened to run across him.
So that meant that there wasn't going to be any phone calls from anyone today Veser didn't really mind all that much, cause hey, more time for him to do his stuff, but it did make things a bit…boring. So after a few hours of watching TV and surfing the web (during this time he made an attempt at watching porn but it wasn't really stream correctly and they where all saying things in German so it ultimately failed) the fey lifted his ass out of his chair and journeyed to the nearest coffee shop. It was chilly, spring had yet to come to the fair city he resided in, and giant chunks of snow that the plows had smashed on street corner where hardly melting, looking like giant frozen turds. His nose and cheeks where slowly tinted pink from the wind hat nipped at them, causing Veser to pull his coat around him. Normally he would have just worn his signature hoodie but it was too chilly to wear it today, and he really didn't feel like freezing his ass off.
Melodies formed in his ears, the volume mildly loud, so passerbyers could hear it, but not loud enough that they could sing along to the worlds. He bobbed his head slightly to the beat, barely paying attention to the world around him. It was late afternoon, the sky a pasty grey with smears of white here and there. By the time Veser made it to the coffee shop, his nose and ears where completely pink, and he was silently cursing himself for not wearing gloves but was happy to be in the warmth of the store.
The coffee shop was located on the outskirts where the slums meet the nicer part of the city. Veser had only been there a handful of times with Hanna and company, but never really thought to go by himself before. There was nothing really different about it, it had plain drinks, overly complicated drinks, and pastries that looked good but would seal your organs. Veser ignored this, ordering some cake and a cup of coffee.
"Size?" the woman behind the counter asked, turning towards him, hand outstretched to the cups so she could snatch it up as quickly as possible.
"Medium," he muttered, refusing to say the overly fruity name the store had renamed medium to sound more modern. The woman rolled her eyes, but put together his order as quickly as she could. Veser chewed on the side of his mouth while he waited, scanning the café for an open seat. It was pretty slow today, a few couple sat around, some guy with a laptop was hammering away at the key bored, another male was covering his face with his open newspaper, a few teenagers giggling over nothing…..
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
The hell?
Veser looked around, trying to find the coocoo clock, but only found sleek digitals clocks on the walls.
Tic.
Tic.
Tic.
Another scan, but he couldn't find the sores of the ticking. The woman handed him his foods stuffs, which he gruffly took, and wandered into the seating area.
The ticking only got louder as Veser went further in, passing the man with the laptop (Veser snorted when he saw the man was playing D&D) and almost spilling his coffee on one of the teenage girls heads when she leaned over to flirt with him (he didn't catch most of it, he was too busy laughing at laptop guy). The man with the newspaper took no notice of the younger man, shaking his paper a little (why people with newspapers did this Veser didn't know) but enough to make out his face. Half moon spectacles, scruffy graying hair, along with that constant ticking….
He should have known it was Ples.
"Hey," the Halfling greeted the older man with a grin, plopping down onto a leather chair across fro him, sinking into its cushion. Ples jumped a little, stammering nonsense while adjusting his glasses and blinking. Veser only grinned wider, showing off his rather pointy teeth.
"G-good day Veser." Ples greeted him, trying to straightening himself out, cheeks slightly flushed from embarrassment. The greeting cause him to blink, looking slightly puzzled at Ples words.
"You remember my name?" He rose one of his eyebrows, surprised. They never really talked when they all got together, Ples usually chatted with …. or Worth, sometimes Toni (and Hanna, don't forget Hanna) but like Conrad Veser never got the vibe he wanted to have long conversations with the guy. That had to do more with his age then Ples's personality, but the young fey thought nothing of it.
"Of c-course," Ples stammered, looking at him like he had three heads. "Why wouldn't I?" Veser could only reply with a shrug, not having an answer himself.
AN: Alright so some of you may have seen this on Deviant Art. That's because I posted it there. XD It's funny, I requested to have HINABN as a subcategory and I don't even think to post my story until like, two months later. Pfft. Oh well.