"What about that place?" Penguin pointed at the window.
"No." He pursed his lips, before spotting another building and pointing to it.
"That one?" Lexi glanced out the window then shook her head.
"Nope." He huffed, and Shachi joined him looking outside, the slight drizzle of rain landing on the glass.
"Wait, that's one, isn't it?" Lexi followed his finger, and saw the golden arches that indicated the McDonald's. She sighed with another shake of her head.
"Yes, that's a fast food place. But no, we aren't going to eat there."
"Aww…" The two engineers pouted together in the back, crossing their arms like children. Law only raised an eyebrow quizzically.
"What exactly is, 'fast food?' What about it is fast?" Lexi slowed and crossed over into the left turn lane, switching on her windshield wipers as the rain began to pick up. In front of her, a shiny red Lexus was waiting for the green arrow to turn. With a small grin, she noticed that Law repeatedly followed the wipers with his eyes.
"It's just a place that you can get food for cheap, and it's a lot faster than cooking something yourself. Mostly people just use them to eat on the go, like if you're running late for work or just want something quick for lunch." The light turned green and she pressed on the gas again.
"Wouldn't you want dinner to be quick?" Shachi asked, poking his head through the middle into the front row of seats.
"Yeah, but the only problem is it costs money. And since you blew through my weekly allowance like it was pocket change, we don't get to have anything like that until at least next week." She gave a pointed look at the two idiots through the rearview mirror, and they blushed guiltily.
The subject of time brought up another thought to her mind, and she glanced at Law, had remained mostly quiet since they had left the mall. "Uh…when, or I should say how, are you guys gonna get back to…your world?"
"Yeah, Captain. What are we gonna do?" Penguin looked over to the man in front, who shrugged.
"There's not much to go on, especially since we don't know what caused us to be brought here in the first place. Until we find that out, we'll have to stay with Lexi-ya." He turned that overly-innocent grin onto her, and she scowled. Much as she was starting to enjoy having the pirates around, they didn't belong in her world. They weren't meant for the things Lexi had.
"Great…" She muttered, deciding to focus all of her attention on the road and not the tiny bit of disappointment that sat in her chest.
"Nana, dinner's almost ready!" Lexi knocked on the main bedroom door, and she heard her grandmother respond from inside.
"I'll be out in just a second!" Satisfied that she was in a lucid state, or at least she so hoped, Lexi returned to the kitchen where the chicken was roasting in the oven. Upon turning the corner, she laid eyes on the two idiots hovering around the glass to try to see inside.
"Ahem." She said, and they straightened with wide eyes. "It's almost done, just let it sit for a little longer."
"Sorry, Lexi-chan!" They scuttled from the room, taking places on the couch beside Law. Bepo sat on the floor in front of them, as he'd come to the conclusion that he was too large for the couches. She'd felt bad about it, seeing as the floor wasn't too comfortable, but he'd waved away her worry and said that he was used to the ground. There was still a little doubt in her though.
Checking over the food, she saw that it would take another five minutes before it was done. There was nothing to do but wait now, and so she grabbed herself a cup of iced tea and wandered into the living room with the others.
She frowned, wondering why they were watching Family Feud of all things.
"You know you can change the channel, right?" She sat in the armchair, across from them. Law only glanced in her direction before turning back to the program at hand.
"I'm aware. We experimented with the 'remote' and discovered its many uses." His answer sounded like there was some trial and error involved with discovering those uses, but she intentionally didn't ask. Perhaps it'd be better if she didn't know anyways.
"Uh…right." She said nothing more, opting to simply wait for the timer on the oven to go off.
"You attend schooling of some kind?" Law asked a few minutes later, startling her slightly. He wasn't one to start random conversations, or so she'd come to realize in their few days of staying at the house.
"Oh, yeah. I go to the university in the town over. I-how did you know that?" She asked suddenly, coming to the conclusion that no one had mentioned school at all in their presence. He smirked, enjoying her confused state of mind.
"Simple observation." She narrowed her eyes in return. He wasn't about to admit that he'd snooped through her room when she wasn't looking.
"Hmm…yeah, I do."
"What do you study?" Shachi asked, turning his attention to her.
"I'm a medical student, so I want to be a nurse eventually." She shrugged. "My mom was one, and Nana was a medic way back when. It kinda runs in the family I guess."
"Really? Captain's a doctor too." Shachi said, and Law nodded.
"What kind of doctor?" Lexi asked, her interest just a little bit piqued. With the tattoos and piercings, fuzzy hat and all, he didn't exactly look like a doctor. Though, she supposed looks could be deceiving.
"A surgeon, though I'm knowledgable in most areas of practice." She nodded slowly, impressed beyond the fact.
"Wow, and you're what…not even 30? Or you just look really young…" She trailed off, feeling a bit awkward with that line of conversation.
"I'm 25." He raised an eyebrow, unsure why she was blushing slightly. Subconsciously, she was calculating their difference in age. Internally, she kicked herself and forced that subject out of her mind. Why she had started crunching the numbers was beyond her anyways.
The timer in the kitchen began to go off and she sat up a little too quickly. "Dinner's done then." She scurried off to take it out, and the others followed behind her.
The six of them sat at the dinner table, eating the chicken dinner Lexi had prepared. She was glad it turned out alright. On occasion she'd accidentally let the food burn in the oven and they'd been forced to order takeout. That would be embarrassing now, considering that they had 'guests' over. Guests who conveniently didn't know when they'd be leaving.
Bepo somehow had wedged himself into the chair, and was eating at the table as well. She almost laughed when he looked down on the plate in disappointment. Perhaps he was lamenting the lack of
"This is awesome, Lexi-chan!" Penguin said through a mouth stuffed full of green beans and chicken meat. Beside him, Shachi was doing much the same thing. They ate as if it were the only food left in the entire world, and them starving men. She blinked a few times before fully recovering from their blatant lack of proper dinner etiquette. She doubted as pirates they practiced good eating behaviors.
"T-thanks." She went back to timidly picking at her plate. Nana chuckled at the two men's enthusiasm.
"My, you're quite a couple of eaters! Do they feed you anything over there in Greece?" She laughed again, taking large bites of the food.
The rest of dinner went by without much chatter. There were the occasional compliments from the engineers to her cooking, and Nana marveled at Greece's culture, but other than that it was mostly silent. Lexi noticed Law didn't say much, looking decidedly lost in his own thoughts.
After they'd all had their fill, the pirates and Nana returned to the living room to watch TV. Lexi remained in the kitchen and began cleaning up the dishes. While doing the dishes themselves wasn't her favorite thing in the world, she liked having the opportunity to think to herself without distractions.
To say she was still confused and overwhelmed by the presence of the pirates was an understatement. They seemed innocent enough, but her heart rate quickened every time they mentioned something dangerous or even remotely illegal. For god's sake, they were pirates. They probably did illegal things for fun.
And another thing. What was she gonna say when people started asking about him? It's not like they could stay cooped up in the house the whole time. And what about Bepo? She didn't know a lot about polar bears, but they were animals. Was she in danger of being eaten? What if someone reported him in her house? He could possibly get taken away and thrown in a zoo.
She shook her head. Sometimes she could be so pessimistic.
And what about Brittany? She was nosy by nature. Due to the unfortunate series of events from earlier, she already knew about one of them. Now, she would make it her life's mission to find him and date him…probably. It was the way of Brittany. Lexi sighed, scrubbing away at the large pan used for chicken.
Seeing her in class would be even more awkward. She'd probably ask her so many questions her head would spin. And most of them would make her very uncomfortable to answer…
Class! She forgot all about class!
Law sat next to his engineers, watching another few episodes, as Nana had called them, of Family Feud. As much as Lexi's world still confused him, he was surprised at how easily he could grasp the concept of the 'gameshow.' The world's culture was vastly different from their own, and he was intrigued with what aspects they had in common. Gameshows were not one of them, however.
He could hear Lexi cleaning the dishes in the kitchen, and he was half tempted to send Shachi or Penguin in to help her. Suddenly, he heard a pan hit the counter, louder than the usual click of metal to stone, and the water immediately stopped running.
"Shit." He heard her mutter, probably louder than she'd anticipated. In the next instant, she was jogging past the living room and up the stairs to her room. Closing it behind her, Law heard the lock engage.
"What was that all about?" Shachi asked, and Law only shrugged in response.
"What man in their right mind would go to his mother-in-law for advice? The nerve of these producers!" Nana shouted up at the TV, and he focused his attention back onto the show.
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