Prologue: A Promising Start

"I've always heard that the best way to learn a language is to live it. There's nothing for it, we shall have to move to Paris. Of course we'll need to invent a teleporter so we can get to school every day, but how hard can that be?" Connie waved a hand in negligent dismissal of the potential problems with her solution, having fun with the cheesy melodramatics.
The smile dripped off her face when she realized exactly what vehicles her two new friends were leading her towards. Connie looked down at her skirt, then up at the motorcycles, then up at Aimee and Nils with a wry little smirk. "Well. This is going to be interesting."

"Ah, gay Pair-ee. It'd totally be worth the millions invested in teleporter research." She laughed along with Connie and Nils as the walked up to the parked bikes.
"It certainly will," Aimee mumbled under her breath before catching herself. She coughed to cover it, looking between her bike and Nils'. Aimee smirked as she sat down on her Harley, offering a helmet to Constance.
"It'll be fine, like riding side-saddle. Nils, we're sushi bound, right?"

Nils couldn't help but laugh at Connie's reaction. "Oh, don't worry too much. It's not as awkward as you might think."
He indulged in a loud coughing fit to cover his laughter at Aimee's response. He didn't think it would be kind to laugh openly under the circumstances. "I will see you two there. Try not to have too much fun out there, girls." He donned his own helmet as he spoke, mounting his bike with a smile.

Connie accepted the helmet with a quirked half-smile. "Secure sounding, that is not. Guess I'll just have to flash a lot of leg at passers-by." Buckling on the spare brain bucket, she hopped onto the enormous Harley behind Aimee. Making sure both bags were zipped up, she kept them safely between her front and Aimee's back while she tentatively held on the smaller chick's hips. How did such a little lady handle a beast this big, anyway? Going purely by physique instead of personality, she would have assumed Aimee and Nils were fucking with her by switching bikes. Which they might be doing anyway. No, bad Connie! Be nice, give the new people the benefit of the doubt!

Aimee revved the bike, louder than she should have, but the short yip from Constance made it worth it. She wheeled around to point out of the parking lot and gave Nils a sidelong glance. Winking, she sped out onto the street, laughing as the wind caught her hair.
"I am not noticing this girl's hands on my waist, I am not noticing this girl's hands on my waist," Aimee muttered to herself, low enough Constance couldn't hear. She smiled at Nils as he pulled up beside her, racing back towards Northgate.
"Guy drives as crazy as I do," thought Aimee as they pulled into the parking lot behind Kyoto. "This semester's looking up."
Aloud, she said, smiling, "You guys ok?"

Nils noted with amusement that Aimee was content to let Connie squirm a bit. She did seem to be having fun with it, at any rate. The wink was all it took to get Nils to race her all the way there, noting with no small amusement that Connie seemed terrified the whole way there.
He pulled up next to Aimee with a smile. "Oh, man, we need to ride together more often. That was ridiculously fun."
He turned his attention to Connie. "You alright?"

Connie was breathing heavily and trembling all over by the time Aimee stopped the bike and she managed to pry her hands off the crazy little lady's waist. Had she really been squealing that much? How embarrassing. She took off the helmet and pouted at the two of them. "You guys suuuck!"

Aimee brushed her hair back and favored Nils with a appreciative smile in return.

"Not too shabby driving yourself. I'll be sure to take you up on that."

She laughed at Connie's comment, giving a devious grin and replying," Actually, madame, I can state unequivocally that I do not, but I'll think about driving slower next time you need a ride. Maybe."

Gesturing towards the restaurant, she began walking down the sidewalk.

"Shall we? Raw fish sounds delish."

Nils busted out laughing at Aimee's response to Connie's remark and decided to join the fun. "Well, not that it's anything to you, but yes I suppose I do. Quite well, I've been told." He responded to Connie with a wicked smile.
He followed Aimee down the sidewalk, still laughing a bit. "Food sounds lovely indeed, I could eat a horse, although my sister would murder me for it."

Constance was not exactly sure how to respond to any of this, nor was she precisely certain what the hell they were talking about. Loathe to let anyone else in on these facts, she simply threw her hands above her head in an melodramatically arrogant and dismissive fashion with a hearty "Bah!" while they walked.

"Humbug on her. Any animal has the potential to be delicious if properly prepared." She held the door open for the others and looked pensive. "How that came to mean 'raw' on occasion, I am not sure."

"Well, some things are positively delectable in the raw, Constance. I think they just realized fish was one of them." Aimee smiled wickedly as she entered the restaurant, winking at Connie. "Now we benefit from some person's culinary bravery."

After they'd been seated, Aimee looked over the menu, surreptitiously doing the same to Constance. She grinned at Nils when he caught her, but covered it by asking, "So, I'm just curious, but what brings an international man of mystery like yourself to A&M of all places?"

Nils suppressed a laugh at the blatant double entendre. Aimee definitely knew how to flirt. He flashed her an amused grin when he caught her eye, she was definitely going all in with Constance, looking her over intently.
He did laugh at the question. "I'm hardly a man of mystery, Aimee, just an Air Force kid that got hauled all over. I lived in Texas for most of high school, and both of my parents came here. They wanted me somewhere they felt was safe when they had to ship out again. And I kind of like it here, certain dangers nonwithstanding. I did get a wicked black eye my first week here, though. My parents were so furious, dad threatened to come beat the guy up himself." Nils laughed at the memory. "In general though, I like it here, so I stay. I'll probably head back to England for grad school, though."

Sometimes Constance wished she could turn off the analytical portion of her brain. She was tallying up the odd comments and kept coming up with Alternate Sexuality for both of them. She just wasn't positive they'd meant it that way and didn't want to say anything. This was College Station, after all, and people did tend to get offended. How to proceed was weighed and measured in the work of a moment. Connie shrugged and smiled. "True. Beef is surprisingly delicious too if it's a fine enough piece." There, a very mild double entendre that could easily be taken at face value.

She looked disapproving on Nils' behalf at the story of some asshole punching him, but chuckled at his dad's protectiveness. Fathers were awesome like that. "That's pretty cool, I didn't know England had our type of grad schools. Do you know what you're gonna study?"

Aimee giggled at Connie's comment, responding, "Woman knows how to eat well."

As Nils mentioned the black eye, Aimee growled under her breath. "Good on your dad. A&M is great, but its got its share of homophobes. Least I mostly get appreciative looks. Sorry sweetie." Aimee patted Nils' hand.

"Shame we're losing you over the pond again in a few years, then."

Nils smiled widely at Connie. "It is quite a wonderful treat indeed." He replied, laughing a bit. The innuendos had come around full circle. It was always so lovely when that happened.
Nils nodded. "Yeah, but I've been in Texas long enough to get used to it. I can defend myself reasonably well if I have to, and I know the campus well enough to avoid getting cornered." He shrugged, thinking the matter not really worth fussing over.
"I haven't decided for sure yet, the compatibility of schooling not always being what it should be on opposite sides of the water. I really hadn't started making any plans yet, seeing as I actually just found my major last semester." He smiled at Connie. "I'm in Philosophy. It's a far cry from where I started out, but I am quite fond of it. The Theatre, it seems, just wasn't for me."

"Theater to Philosophy. Huh. I wouldn't have pegged you for those, but that fits remarkably well." Pity that theater hadn't fit, he seemed so comfortable with melodramatics. Aimee would have been a decent fit for theater too, but not as good. Definitely some sort of performance art, though.

Connie did not think about that whole self defense and cornering thing. If she let herself acknowledge it then she would have to think about the whys and wherefores and then she would have to do something about it. Just because he kept saying things that added up to Alternate Sexuality did not mean that she had to let it color her opinion of him. It would be too much of a shame if he was completely unavailable, he was such a cute beanpole.

When the waitress arrived, Connie did not feel like indulging in culinary peculiarities. She felt like having cooked food. Miso soup, beef fried rice, iced tea no lemon. Maybe some fried ice cream later.