(no subject)

[spoke]

Dead on my feet, and I never made it to the zoo. >.<

It's been awhile since I got that lost.

And for once, it isn't bothering me at all.

Thinking while driving seems to be fairly productive, except for the having no way of taking notes. But I figured out, between one rambling thought and the next missed offramp ( :P ) what caused my freaking mood swing.

And the annoyance of not having been able to write things comes out in that I don't know how to describe what I was thinking, which was of course perfectly clear and even lyrical while I was driving. ...I suspect this is an illusion caused by the lack of writing materials, somehow related to the way people dying of thirst are supposed to imagine water. ;p I get home and can write only to find the words what I thought they were, someone else gets a mouthful of sand.

Closest I can come to it is - I would rather be depressed about the quality of the writing than work out a plot problem, so I focus on the thing that I don't like without even thinking maybe something else is wrong. And downspiral from there.

This happened - was it yesterday? The last piece I wrote for the crossover, I noticed this, but I was moving so fast and the answer hit me so quickly, there wasn't time to slip and fall into it. This time, not so much. Didn't even realize there was a problem until I was in the car, and then the rest of it started coming to me. ....what I've been doing to myself, and what to do next with this story, I mean.

However. Dead on my feet. And while I'm tempted to make a stab at it now? I know better, I really do.

This, I thought I had posted before I left - and I'm just going to stick it up anyway, since I don't think there's anything here that needs changing.

The resturant looked crowded and too noisy, in Seto's opinion. Not that that was going to deter Mokuba in the least, but he had to try. One more time. "Why are we here, again? We could have the chefs at home anything we wanted." And what was that expression supposed to mean?

"Because I don't want to eat at home! And I know some kids from school who told me about this place? It's supposed to be really good!" Mokuba was just able to look over the counter top and wave. "Table for two, please!"

"Sir?"

Great. The idiot was actually looking at him, as if he hadn't heard. "I'm sorry, do you have a hearing problem?"

"Seto!" Mokuba frowned up at him, and smiled at the guy as he showed him to a table. And hissed under his breath, "That was rude!"

It was easy enough to counter by continuing to frown, but he couldn't help a slight twitch when he heard Mokuba's reply. He clenched his teeth on the reply 'He started it'. He was not going to sink to that level. "Mokuba. You shouldn't put up with disrespect that way."

"He didn't mean it like that, Seto."

"Yes he did."

"Seto!"

***

"Okay. No offense Mai? But I forgot how you drive." Honda's hands were clenched on the side of the car, while Yugi waited for him to move. "And I don't think I can move now."

"Honda, ya moron!" Jounouchi leaned over from the front seat and punched his shoulder from the front seat. He wasn't the only one laughing when he had to scramble back. "Looks like you're moving fine to me!"

"Boys!" Mai interrupted as she got out. "Can take you it take outside the car, please? Get scuff marks on the leather and you'll have to deal with it." The wink that accompanied that put a grin on Jounouchi's face that actually did get everyone moving. With various degrees of smirk and amusment.

"Hey, I can deal!" Jounouchi started babbling as he caught up with Mai, and something he said made her laugh at the same time Anzu punched him. Yugi looked back at them maybe a little more seriously than was necessary before he caught up.

Shuu watched all this with a little confusion, before getting out of Seiji's car. He elbowed Jun when the kid came around. "Anou... are they always like that?"

"I don't know!" Jun rolled his eyes as he caught Shuu's meaning. "Okay, I've heard a lot of rumors about the blonde lady. She shows up a lot, but only when she's in town."

Seiji walked past him. "Shuu. Stop thinking about the woman and pay attention to what's important."

"Seiji!" He frowned as he caught up. "You're never gonna learn to relax, are you? There's more to life than fighting random demons."

Jun sputtered. "Shuu?!"

Seiji had one of those not quite smiles of his as he responded. "And that would be women, would it?"

"And food, my man! And food."

***

The first thing he noticed when the new group came in was how the staff straightened up. Rather the way his employees tended to react when he came in, so he looked over out of curiosity as to who was running this ...place. Typically loud Chinese guy, no real surprise there...

"Seto?" Mokuba turned in his seat, following his big brother's gaze. "Oh no."

"I don't believe this." He muttered, hand clenching on the chopsticks.

"Oh man. Seto!" Mokuba was looking back and forth between him and them, now. "Just ignore them, Seto? Please ignore them?"

Taking a deep breath, he looked away. None of them seemed to have noticed him anyway, except perhaps Mazaki. Like she'd say anything. "Alright, Mokuba. But as soon as we're done eating, we're leaving, understood?"

He sighed, clearly disappointed. But he knew what was likely to happen if they stayed too long as well as Seto did. "Okay, big brother."