vdistinctive | At the docks, then out to sea, Sunday

The colors from the previous days were still holding, if maybe slightly more muted, Fandom's magic slowly fading but still managing to hang on for another day.

Seemed like a good omen as any for a wedding that Eliot still couldn't quite believe was happening.

Eliot's boat wasn't big enough for all their guests so they had "rented" (long story) a well-appointed yacht for the day. It was docked in the Port of Fandom, waiting for all the guests to board. Once the last person had crossed the gangplank, it sailed almost to the edge of the island, where blue water lapped with gray. Eliot's boat was already there, anchor down, Hardison in a tux, playing around with a sound system.

A few minutes to futz with mics and the speakers set up discreetly around the yacht came to life. "Testin'...Testin'..." Hardison murmured. Good. Everybody would be able to hear the ceremony on the second ship.

Looks like it was time to begin.

[TIME FOR A WEDDING! If you think you were invited, you were. Some OCD coming]

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Maybe that was the problem with boats... there wasn't quite enough room to be off in a corner, all wistful by yourself...

Though, really, Nina was grateful for that, and for the people who came to talk to her.

"Noooooo, I don't think we've met," Nina said, smiling for Kathy. "Though I know you run the... um, adult store???????" Nina was way, way too much of a lady to call that store anything more explicit. "I'm Nina!!!!!!!!! Hardison's............ student?????????"

"That's, ah, me, yeah," Kathy said, blushing a bit. "I was walking by when the last manager quit and flung her keys? And I picked 'em up cause I needed something to do and..."

And it had just kinda gone from there?

"Dad and Parker were my teachers before we became a family, but I never ended up in any of Hardison's classes." For inexplicable reasons, truly. "But he'd always been super-nice. And helpful. What's he teaching now anyway?"

"I don't really know what he teaches at the school," Nina admitted, since she wasn't sure what he taught. "He's teaching me... it's more like an apprenticeship??????? For what he does professionally, rather than what he does at the school?????????"

Nina paused.

"Did... did you really wind up running a shop because someone threw their keys in your direction?????????"

"Ohhhh," Kathy said grinning. "He's teaching you to hack! Awesome!"

Any compunctions she might have had about the legality of their professions had died long ago, before she'd even graduated.

"And yeah, I did," she said, chuckling a bit. "Pretty sure that's how Dad got the diner, too. The last guy was leaving and just threw the papers at him. Me, I called myself a manager for awhile, cause I figured someone would come and claim the place but that...kinda never happened? So now I own it. The brick and mortar part of the store doesn't do much, but the online section more than makes up for it."

This was, like, making Nina feel like her hostile takeover of the bookstore had possibly been unwarranted but it had been funny and she got to trade insults with the other blond on a weekly basis, so she... she was still okay with her actions.

Besides, if she gave up now, Rufus would win.

"I never, like, really thought of online sales," Nina mused. "At least, not for stores here........"

Something to consider, she supposed, though she wasn't against using her bookstore as essentially her own personal library either.

Nina laughed, a little, looking a bit sheepish. "He, like, actually caught me trying to get into his stuff?????????" she admitted. "And then, like, was all awesome about it and offered to teach me properly?????????????"

"That sounds like Hardison," Kathy said with a small laugh. "He and Eliot both. They've got this inner mantra of, like, 'everything is a teachable moment'." She shot them both a fond look.

Nina cast a sideways glance at Kathy for that.

"Is that, like............ I don't know........... normal here????????????" she ventured.

Because it was weird and, like, she'd grown up in a school.

At the docks, then out to sea, Sunday

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