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riptide_asylum) wrote2009-10-04 05:57 pm
riptide_asylum) wrote2009-10-04 05:57 pm
Entry tags:
"At the Zoo with Marie Blue" (Crack, 1987)
Title: At the Zoo with Marie Blue
Rating: PG 13
Summary: A family outing to the zoo, and a new friend...
At the Zoo with Marie Blue
"Marie Blue? Pleased to meet you." Cody shook the pretty brunette's hand, noticing as she turned to Nick how her hair, shimmering in the sun, suddenly looked lighter. Almost blonde. He squinted, and once again her hair was shining brown, just the way he liked it.
She turned back to Cody and dazzled him with her smile. "Sorry for my appearance. I didn't have time to change after supercross, but I promise you--"
"Super...cross?" Cody squeaked.
Marie's smile widened, and Nick stepped closer to his partner protectively.
"It's just a--a stupid hobby," she laughed, shaking her shining blonde tresses out. "Something to keep me occupied when I'm not at the airfield."
Nick leaned away from Cody. "Airfield? Your boyfriend fly?"
Marie shot him a saucy moue. "I wouldn't know. Don't have one. But I do have a Bell 212-GR I helped my dad rebuild. I could...take you up some time." Her eyes raked over Nick's athletic, denimclad form, head to toe. "Maybe when we get back from the zoo?"
Nick's confused reply was lost in Murray's excited exclamation. "Sure! Let's get moving. Wow, I can't wait to see the spider monkeys!"
"They always were your favorite, son," Murray's father rested an affectionate hand on his son's shoulder.
Inside the zoo, Marie stopped to chat to a pretty little girl eating an ice cream, and Murray grabbed Nick and Cody's arms. "I told you you'd love her!" he hissed excitedly. "Marie's just wonderful. She and Melba and I used to have so much fun when we were kids."
Nick stopped cold in his tracks. "Wait a minute. You tellin' me that chick knows Melba? Oh no way. No, no way."
Cody grabbed Nick's arm urgently. "What? What's wrong?"
Nick grabbed Cody's arms through his thick cream sweater. "Don't you remember the last time one of Melba's friends came to visit? By the time we got all the macaroni out of the salon, we barely had time to get over to Leon's to raise bond!"
Murray considered. "Well, I admit Cherie was a bit...wilder than I remembered her, but you have to admit, her rigatoni was fantastic."
Nick stared at his partner, openmouthed. "Yeah, but we wound up eating it in jail, Murray. In jail!"
Cody made various soothing noises, to no avail.
"No way, man. No way. I am not having anything to do with any more of Melba's...crazy..." Nick trailed off as Marie emerged from the reptile house, dressed in a low-cut tank-top and cutoff denim shorts. "Friends."
Marie walked up to them in a manner Cody would later describe as a sidle, but Murray would insist was more of a sashay. He'd also insist on demonstrating, but the less said about that the better.
"Oh Nick! Nick! You seem so tense!"
Cody looked at his partner expectantly. "Well," Nick began, "I guess you could say I'm a little...concerned, maybe, that you and Melba--"
Marie slid round behind Nick's back and, dropping her peach Esprit beach bag to the concrete, reached for Nick's neck. "Oh Baba! Isn't she a hoot! She taught me everything I know about giving neck massages!"
Nick's hands fell numbly from Cody's sweater.
His neck certainly felt better after Marie's skilled fingers had finished their nimble progress, and by the time they'd finished their tour of the city zoo, he was starting to think he'd been too harsh in judging Marie.
He and Cody had both been amazed by the way the animals had seemed to like her, even the normally aloof big cats jumping down from their sunny ledges and rolling and playing by the bars like oversized kittens. The only thing that had marred the visit was the huge timber wolf, who'd wagged and bounced like a dog at Murray and Marie, but had taken a sudden, violent dislike to Cody.
Nick had kept a friendly arm across Cody's shoulders for a good ten minutes after that. Right up until it came time to visit the snakehouse. Nick recoiled unhappily from the picture of the smiling serpent which adorned the door, shaking his head emphatically. "You guys go on," he said, spinning away, trying to ignore Murray cheerfully recounting Melba's prank with the toy snake.
He walked rapidly away to look at the hyenas in the enclosure next door, their distinctive laughing bays drowning out Murray's giggles.
In the snakehouse, Marie pointed out which of the varieties were poisonous and which harmless. "She isn't even looking at the signs," Murray hissed in Cody's ear.
But Cody was glad when the tour was over and he could rejoin Nick outside. All that slithering flesh made him deeply uneasy.
"Who wants to see the llamas next?" Marie asked them all excitedly.
Murray drew in a strangled gasp of anticipation and clapped his hands over his mouth.
"Thought so!" Marie sing-songed happily. "Did you know llamas make excellent guard animals? They have a natural instinct for protecting their flock, and can be trained to stand watch over sheep and goats, too!" She and Murray headed briskly off in the direction indicated by the signs.
"Looks like we're off to see the llamas, Nick," Cody groused softly.
"Guess so," Nick answered. "Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll spit."
A snack in the zoo's cafeteria soon restored everyone's spirits, though. Cody eyed his cup of coffee with disfavor, but Marie spoke first, placing her cup on the table with a decided clink. "This coffee is atrocious," she said calmly. "Let me see what I can do."
In moments, with the judicious use of her smile and her tank top, she'd obtained a new pot, black as the ace of spades and with enough caffeine to melt the spoon. Murray, with the ease of long practice, hastily steered his parents back to the old pot, and they smiled tolerantly as Cody poured for Nick from the new pot.
"Wow, Marie, you really know how to make a man a coffee," Nick exclaimed appreciatively.
Marie pushed her hair off her forehead with her forearm. "Oh thanks, Nick." She gave him a wicked grin. "Wait til you taste my barbecue sauce." She finished stirring her coffee and sucked the spoon dry with a soft hiss.
Nick froze as Cody spewed coffee across the table, splattering Murray in the process. But one look at his best friend's wide and worried blue eyes pushed all thoughts of spoonplay from Nick's mind. He dropped his hand to the small of Cody's back, then lower, to the hem of the sweater, up and under, til his fingertips grazed Cody's skin, light and reassuring. Cody looked over seeking more. Nick gave him everything he had, a decade of love and friendship and something beyond the two, all in one look. Cody's soft exhale was imperceptible to everyone except Nick, who felt it in the slight loosening of muscle against the balls of his fingers.
Nick looked back at Marie. "I do appreciate the offer, Marie, but you know, I think we're all set with the recipe we have."
Cody grinned, his shoulder bumping into Nick's. With a mute look of thanks, he resumed drinking his coffee.
Marie's gaze turned ice cold, and the metal spoon clattered against the melamine countertop. "Fine. Suit yourselves. If you two...men...prefer inferior cooking, you're welcome to it. I'm just saying, you think you might've had filet mignon, but honey, it looks like chuck from here."
Cody gulped, and Nick blew on his cup of coffee with a pleased grin. "Some men like chuck. They like it a helluva lot."
Murray's mom quickly intervened, pointing over Marie's shoulder. "Oh look! Over there, what are those two baboons doing?"
Everyone spun to look, and Cody went scarlet as he realized that the two baboons, so far from playing were indulging in a very personal moment. He quickly grabbed Murray's arm. "So, Boz, didn't you tell us those spider monkeys had been proven to be very intelligent?" he tried.
"Oh, sure, Cody." Murray's brow cleared, the frown he'd been regarding Marie, Nick and Cody with disappearing. "Why, they're smarter than dogs, and nearly as smart as dolphins. In fact, I used the dissected brain of a spider monkey extensively in my research for building the Roboz."
Cody's blush paled to green, but Marie perked up immediately. "The whole subject of AI fascinates me," she said, and Murray's mother nodded approvingly.
That topic of conversation carried them through the remainder of their snack, with Cody concentrating hard on the sound of Nick's breathing instead of the working of the monkey, human or robotic brain, a subject he preferred not to think too much about.
They walked slowly back to the cars, Nick's arm again loosely around Cody's shoulders, and this time Murray walked in step with Marie. As they got to the gate, Marie saw the little girl she'd been talking to earlier. Tired and grumpy, the little one was sobbing.
"Come on, Murray," she cried, and together they rushed to a nearby balloon vendor. Their combined antics and a cherry red balloon soon had the wee one giggling away, and her mother thanked the two profusely.
"Oh, I'm glad Marie had a good time," Murray's mother said, turning to Nick and Cody. "I told Murray she wasn't a suitable date for either of you, but you know how he gets!"
"Well yes, I do," Nick said, at the same time as Cody said "He does get a little overexcited but he's a great guy!"
Murray's father chuckled. "He sure is. We're very proud of him." He watched fondly as Marie and Murray walked back towards them.
"Hey guys, Marie suggested we should go eat at that fancy restaurant on the High Street, you know, the one that serves frog's legs?"
Cody turned green again and Nick hastily made their excuses. Mr Bozinsky wasn't nearly so polite, holding up a hand and shaking his head. "Now kids," he admonished them, "you know what that fancy foreign stuff does to Mother's digestion!"
"Oh... sorry, Mom, Dad." Murray hung his head.
"Never mind," his mother said with a smile. "You two go on and enjoy your meal. Me and Father have been looking forward to a tasty stack of pancakes from Pancake Joe's all day!"
Nick and Cody traded a smile, and Nick slid his hand lower down his partner's back. "You feel like steak for dinner, Cody?" he asked.
"Sure do." Cody's grin was blinding.
Later that evening, George Bozinsky sat back from the table with a satisfied groan and patted his stomach. "Well, Mother, those blueberry pancakes are nearly as good as yours, but not quite."
Susan Bozinsky smiled back at him contentedly. "You sure know how to woo a girl with words, Father." Her smile widened to a grin. "Marie's cooking never stood a chance, though."
"That's for sure." George chuckled and stood up from the table. "That son of ours might be a genius, but he's always been one for missing what goes on right under his nose."
A few blocks away, Murray chewed his frog's leg in fascination. "Very tasty!" he commented. "Something like chicken. You'd expect that fish would be more in that line, really - "
"You would." Marie leaned closer, picking up a frog's leg off his plate and holding it out to him. "Try another."
"Well, sure." Murray took it from her hands with a small smile. "So tell me, how'd you get on with Nick and Cody? Do you think your friend - what was her name again?"
"Terry Crew."
"Terry - do you think she'd be interested in a double date on Saturday? I could - "
Marie laid a hand on Murray's arm. "You know," she said quietly, "I don't think that would go so well. For me, I much prefer the company I have right here."
"Oh! You do? That is..." Murray blushed. "You DO!"
Back at Pier 56, Cody swallowed his last mouthful of steak, savoring Nick's barbecue sauce. "That was great," he sighed, and Nick toasted him with his chilled imported beer.
"Sure was." Nick leaned closer, and Cody felt his face growing warm.
"Is anyone watching?" he murmured.
Nick glanced over his shoulder. The pier was empty except for a camera crew and three production trucks. "No-one important," he said with a smile, and kissed him.
"CUT!"
Rating: PG 13
Summary: A family outing to the zoo, and a new friend...
At the Zoo with Marie Blue
"Marie Blue? Pleased to meet you." Cody shook the pretty brunette's hand, noticing as she turned to Nick how her hair, shimmering in the sun, suddenly looked lighter. Almost blonde. He squinted, and once again her hair was shining brown, just the way he liked it.
She turned back to Cody and dazzled him with her smile. "Sorry for my appearance. I didn't have time to change after supercross, but I promise you--"
"Super...cross?" Cody squeaked.
Marie's smile widened, and Nick stepped closer to his partner protectively.
"It's just a--a stupid hobby," she laughed, shaking her shining blonde tresses out. "Something to keep me occupied when I'm not at the airfield."
Nick leaned away from Cody. "Airfield? Your boyfriend fly?"
Marie shot him a saucy moue. "I wouldn't know. Don't have one. But I do have a Bell 212-GR I helped my dad rebuild. I could...take you up some time." Her eyes raked over Nick's athletic, denimclad form, head to toe. "Maybe when we get back from the zoo?"
Nick's confused reply was lost in Murray's excited exclamation. "Sure! Let's get moving. Wow, I can't wait to see the spider monkeys!"
"They always were your favorite, son," Murray's father rested an affectionate hand on his son's shoulder.
Inside the zoo, Marie stopped to chat to a pretty little girl eating an ice cream, and Murray grabbed Nick and Cody's arms. "I told you you'd love her!" he hissed excitedly. "Marie's just wonderful. She and Melba and I used to have so much fun when we were kids."
Nick stopped cold in his tracks. "Wait a minute. You tellin' me that chick knows Melba? Oh no way. No, no way."
Cody grabbed Nick's arm urgently. "What? What's wrong?"
Nick grabbed Cody's arms through his thick cream sweater. "Don't you remember the last time one of Melba's friends came to visit? By the time we got all the macaroni out of the salon, we barely had time to get over to Leon's to raise bond!"
Murray considered. "Well, I admit Cherie was a bit...wilder than I remembered her, but you have to admit, her rigatoni was fantastic."
Nick stared at his partner, openmouthed. "Yeah, but we wound up eating it in jail, Murray. In jail!"
Cody made various soothing noises, to no avail.
"No way, man. No way. I am not having anything to do with any more of Melba's...crazy..." Nick trailed off as Marie emerged from the reptile house, dressed in a low-cut tank-top and cutoff denim shorts. "Friends."
Marie walked up to them in a manner Cody would later describe as a sidle, but Murray would insist was more of a sashay. He'd also insist on demonstrating, but the less said about that the better.
"Oh Nick! Nick! You seem so tense!"
Cody looked at his partner expectantly. "Well," Nick began, "I guess you could say I'm a little...concerned, maybe, that you and Melba--"
Marie slid round behind Nick's back and, dropping her peach Esprit beach bag to the concrete, reached for Nick's neck. "Oh Baba! Isn't she a hoot! She taught me everything I know about giving neck massages!"
Nick's hands fell numbly from Cody's sweater.
His neck certainly felt better after Marie's skilled fingers had finished their nimble progress, and by the time they'd finished their tour of the city zoo, he was starting to think he'd been too harsh in judging Marie.
He and Cody had both been amazed by the way the animals had seemed to like her, even the normally aloof big cats jumping down from their sunny ledges and rolling and playing by the bars like oversized kittens. The only thing that had marred the visit was the huge timber wolf, who'd wagged and bounced like a dog at Murray and Marie, but had taken a sudden, violent dislike to Cody.
Nick had kept a friendly arm across Cody's shoulders for a good ten minutes after that. Right up until it came time to visit the snakehouse. Nick recoiled unhappily from the picture of the smiling serpent which adorned the door, shaking his head emphatically. "You guys go on," he said, spinning away, trying to ignore Murray cheerfully recounting Melba's prank with the toy snake.
He walked rapidly away to look at the hyenas in the enclosure next door, their distinctive laughing bays drowning out Murray's giggles.
In the snakehouse, Marie pointed out which of the varieties were poisonous and which harmless. "She isn't even looking at the signs," Murray hissed in Cody's ear.
But Cody was glad when the tour was over and he could rejoin Nick outside. All that slithering flesh made him deeply uneasy.
"Who wants to see the llamas next?" Marie asked them all excitedly.
Murray drew in a strangled gasp of anticipation and clapped his hands over his mouth.
"Thought so!" Marie sing-songed happily. "Did you know llamas make excellent guard animals? They have a natural instinct for protecting their flock, and can be trained to stand watch over sheep and goats, too!" She and Murray headed briskly off in the direction indicated by the signs.
"Looks like we're off to see the llamas, Nick," Cody groused softly.
"Guess so," Nick answered. "Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll spit."
A snack in the zoo's cafeteria soon restored everyone's spirits, though. Cody eyed his cup of coffee with disfavor, but Marie spoke first, placing her cup on the table with a decided clink. "This coffee is atrocious," she said calmly. "Let me see what I can do."
In moments, with the judicious use of her smile and her tank top, she'd obtained a new pot, black as the ace of spades and with enough caffeine to melt the spoon. Murray, with the ease of long practice, hastily steered his parents back to the old pot, and they smiled tolerantly as Cody poured for Nick from the new pot.
"Wow, Marie, you really know how to make a man a coffee," Nick exclaimed appreciatively.
Marie pushed her hair off her forehead with her forearm. "Oh thanks, Nick." She gave him a wicked grin. "Wait til you taste my barbecue sauce." She finished stirring her coffee and sucked the spoon dry with a soft hiss.
Nick froze as Cody spewed coffee across the table, splattering Murray in the process. But one look at his best friend's wide and worried blue eyes pushed all thoughts of spoonplay from Nick's mind. He dropped his hand to the small of Cody's back, then lower, to the hem of the sweater, up and under, til his fingertips grazed Cody's skin, light and reassuring. Cody looked over seeking more. Nick gave him everything he had, a decade of love and friendship and something beyond the two, all in one look. Cody's soft exhale was imperceptible to everyone except Nick, who felt it in the slight loosening of muscle against the balls of his fingers.
Nick looked back at Marie. "I do appreciate the offer, Marie, but you know, I think we're all set with the recipe we have."
Cody grinned, his shoulder bumping into Nick's. With a mute look of thanks, he resumed drinking his coffee.
Marie's gaze turned ice cold, and the metal spoon clattered against the melamine countertop. "Fine. Suit yourselves. If you two...men...prefer inferior cooking, you're welcome to it. I'm just saying, you think you might've had filet mignon, but honey, it looks like chuck from here."
Cody gulped, and Nick blew on his cup of coffee with a pleased grin. "Some men like chuck. They like it a helluva lot."
Murray's mom quickly intervened, pointing over Marie's shoulder. "Oh look! Over there, what are those two baboons doing?"
Everyone spun to look, and Cody went scarlet as he realized that the two baboons, so far from playing were indulging in a very personal moment. He quickly grabbed Murray's arm. "So, Boz, didn't you tell us those spider monkeys had been proven to be very intelligent?" he tried.
"Oh, sure, Cody." Murray's brow cleared, the frown he'd been regarding Marie, Nick and Cody with disappearing. "Why, they're smarter than dogs, and nearly as smart as dolphins. In fact, I used the dissected brain of a spider monkey extensively in my research for building the Roboz."
Cody's blush paled to green, but Marie perked up immediately. "The whole subject of AI fascinates me," she said, and Murray's mother nodded approvingly.
That topic of conversation carried them through the remainder of their snack, with Cody concentrating hard on the sound of Nick's breathing instead of the working of the monkey, human or robotic brain, a subject he preferred not to think too much about.
They walked slowly back to the cars, Nick's arm again loosely around Cody's shoulders, and this time Murray walked in step with Marie. As they got to the gate, Marie saw the little girl she'd been talking to earlier. Tired and grumpy, the little one was sobbing.
"Come on, Murray," she cried, and together they rushed to a nearby balloon vendor. Their combined antics and a cherry red balloon soon had the wee one giggling away, and her mother thanked the two profusely.
"Oh, I'm glad Marie had a good time," Murray's mother said, turning to Nick and Cody. "I told Murray she wasn't a suitable date for either of you, but you know how he gets!"
"Well yes, I do," Nick said, at the same time as Cody said "He does get a little overexcited but he's a great guy!"
Murray's father chuckled. "He sure is. We're very proud of him." He watched fondly as Marie and Murray walked back towards them.
"Hey guys, Marie suggested we should go eat at that fancy restaurant on the High Street, you know, the one that serves frog's legs?"
Cody turned green again and Nick hastily made their excuses. Mr Bozinsky wasn't nearly so polite, holding up a hand and shaking his head. "Now kids," he admonished them, "you know what that fancy foreign stuff does to Mother's digestion!"
"Oh... sorry, Mom, Dad." Murray hung his head.
"Never mind," his mother said with a smile. "You two go on and enjoy your meal. Me and Father have been looking forward to a tasty stack of pancakes from Pancake Joe's all day!"
Nick and Cody traded a smile, and Nick slid his hand lower down his partner's back. "You feel like steak for dinner, Cody?" he asked.
"Sure do." Cody's grin was blinding.
Later that evening, George Bozinsky sat back from the table with a satisfied groan and patted his stomach. "Well, Mother, those blueberry pancakes are nearly as good as yours, but not quite."
Susan Bozinsky smiled back at him contentedly. "You sure know how to woo a girl with words, Father." Her smile widened to a grin. "Marie's cooking never stood a chance, though."
"That's for sure." George chuckled and stood up from the table. "That son of ours might be a genius, but he's always been one for missing what goes on right under his nose."
A few blocks away, Murray chewed his frog's leg in fascination. "Very tasty!" he commented. "Something like chicken. You'd expect that fish would be more in that line, really - "
"You would." Marie leaned closer, picking up a frog's leg off his plate and holding it out to him. "Try another."
"Well, sure." Murray took it from her hands with a small smile. "So tell me, how'd you get on with Nick and Cody? Do you think your friend - what was her name again?"
"Terry Crew."
"Terry - do you think she'd be interested in a double date on Saturday? I could - "
Marie laid a hand on Murray's arm. "You know," she said quietly, "I don't think that would go so well. For me, I much prefer the company I have right here."
"Oh! You do? That is..." Murray blushed. "You DO!"
Back at Pier 56, Cody swallowed his last mouthful of steak, savoring Nick's barbecue sauce. "That was great," he sighed, and Nick toasted him with his chilled imported beer.
"Sure was." Nick leaned closer, and Cody felt his face growing warm.
"Is anyone watching?" he murmured.
Nick glanced over his shoulder. The pier was empty except for a camera crew and three production trucks. "No-one important," he said with a smile, and kissed him.
"CUT!"