Arriving At Makoto's Pub

Brraaaapp!

"Yahooooooo!"

You couldn't really hear Norvin's cry of joy over the exhaust of his supermoto, which was currently flying down a dark side street in the industrial zone of town, one wheel steadily rising up and then falling down and then up again as he blasted past the decrepit cars on the edge of the road.

Even with the backpack full of goods and the wrapped 'toy' sword strapped to him, Norvin managed to still handled his mount like a seasoned pro racer.

There wasn't too many that would have heard him thrashing on the throttle at this hour of night but he chose this side route to Makoto's Pub anyways.

Norvin preferred the path less traveled most of the time, he liked to have a good time doing wheelies, stoppies, jumping the bike and 'backing it in' as the supermoto guys called it. Essentially, backing it in happens when someone on a motorcycle pitches the bike into a corner under heavy breaking, with the rear wheel skipping sideways and 'drifting'.

These minor sins were much more convenient to pull off when no one was calling the local police over a little fun on two wheels, or on one wheel as was Norvin's case right now!

A second exhaust note pierced the night, closing in on Norvin's two stroke machine, louder and deeper. The motards they rode almost matched their riders statures. Norvin piloted a lightweight, two stroke 250cc that rang and pinged aggressively, while Edward looked natural yet lazy on his big 650cc four stroke machine. Edward had choose a big bike after Norvin had teased him about looking like a 'ape on a grape' after sitting on a smaller bike. Norvin was the only one that was allowed to crack jokes about Edwards size in Edwards presence without receiving a lunchbox sized fist to the dome.

Edward had finished teaching his class a few hours ago, his mind had been a little bit distracted thinking about his recent success with the opposite sex. His students had an easy time for once, one of his students had even snickered about Edward's dreamy mood being a result of 'Not dropping the ball again'.

"She suits me just fine," Edward mused as he pursued the glow of Norvin's taillights. They were usually side by side, but Edward's slight distraction had put him a bit behind.

The twin tail lights carved streaks through the brisk night air, the bike engines thumping with appreciation for the crisp temperature. The two riders glided around corners and leapt off any feature that could serve as a ramp, or was 'launchable' as Norvin would put it.

Earlier on, they had set out to get fuel for their bikes. Both of them admired the way the gorgeous sunset had set the mood as they set off. Following their "Over too fast" sunset drive to the gas station, Norvin had to jog Edward's memory about his 'debt' with a kick to the shin as he caught him attempting to stealthily stash his wallet away after refueling his bike and securing the fuel cap.

The skyline grew darker.

The ten-minute drive to the pub had unexpectedly extended into a half-hour journey before they noticed. The continuous stream of city lights ceased to blur together as they both decelerated from their rapid speed. It was Norvin who first reduced his pace.

"Leg cramp!" Norvin exclaimed, pounding on his right thigh as his speed decreased rapidly after releasing the throttle. Edward slowed down and synchronized his bike's speed with Norvin's. Together, they moved to the side of the road and came to a halt, shutting down their machines.

"Okay...I tell you to stretch before we ride every time. Forgot to stretch, didn't yah?" Edward yelled through his helmet at Norvin.

'You think? Bro I never forget, I just don't care.'

Norvin lifted his visor, narrowed his eyes at Edward and spoke loudly through his helmet back to Edward. "That was a rough cramp… hey! Maybe Ms. L can knead it out for me." Norvin then went back to massaging his still tingling leg, but he did it in a very suggestive way. He then smirked and continued on. "Give me and Ms. L one minute and we'll get going okay?" Edward rolled his eyes, not even bothering with him anymore.

Norvin flicked his visor back down. They both fired their bikes back up and pulled on to the road again heading towards Makoto's pub.

A few blocks of normal travel speed later they pulled over in front of the building. Norvin pulled off his helmet and gave his head a shake, tousling up his medium length dark grey, white and black hair with his left hand. Norvin's hair was a multitude of different shades. That wasn't the only oddity. His eyes were abnormally bright blue. Edward also pulled off his helmet and watched as Norvin arranged his hair.

"You know we have a barber nearby us, you hippy?

Norvin rolled his bright blue eyes and looked at his friend. With a deadpan look on his face, he lowered the wrapped prop sword he had strapped to his back for the ride earlier and pointed it at Edward as he shot back:

"At least my hair doesn't look like I've battled a lawnmower, man. Should I trim the top more for you? Mine's just slightly longer than yours, you turd... and at least I comb mine!"

The towering figure looking back at him sported a similar hairstyle, though his locks were jet black and perpetually unkempt, regardless of helmet wear. Edward's eyes, a deep brown tinged with a distinct shade of red, made the two men an impressive sight when stood next to each other, disregarding their difference in stature. 

"Yeah, well at least I have an excuse, I'm too busy training to bother with that while you're busy pretending to be a pretty boy."

Norvin narrowed his eyes and took a different angle. "Alright… alright, alright ….why don't you worry more about your girl's looks than mine buddy." Norvin raised his eyebrows up and down, grinning big.

Both men then laughed and gave each other a fist bump. Edward closed in on the door and then turned sideways and said "You ready to get wrecked in Virtual On? Bars open for an hour still, looks like there really isn't too many people here either, should be able to get a couple rounds in for sure."

"Just focus on not turning the flight sticks to dust."

"Okay...and you try not to go too light on them like they're your boyfriend's weiner okay?...Oh, hey, how's it going Greg? These are just some toy props Vin here is selling to a little fatty later tonight."

Edward gestured at the wrapped sword and bag on Norvin's back.

Norvin kicked Edward's shin on his way past the bouncer into Makoto's while all three laughed. The bouncer was even taller than Edward and the three men of course knew each other quite well as Edward was a frequent guest at Makoto's. Norvin had accompanied Edward there several times too and no one ever forgot the way Norvin looked.

Thirty minutes after they walked through the door, a small, heavily modified car turned the corner and pulled up to the Pub, instead of parking in one of the many open stalls, it pulled closely in between the two motards and a gleaming black sports car that was parked a stall over. A short, slightly chubby young man with bright blond hair, a big grin and reddened, squinty eyes looked over at the bikes.

 'Two bikes, just like Vin described, Makoto's Japanese pub, it has cool ambiance…and we are in public so Edward can't beat me up.'

He looked over at the other vehicle he had squeezed in between. 'Hey, wait a second, that's stupid Cassie's car. What the hell is she doing here?'

This short optimistic fatty was none other than the buyer of Norvin's extremely high end cosplay items, Huey. He was also an avid tokuatsu fan, like Norvin. They had met at a Comicon a couple years prior and after being blown away buy Norvin's amazing Super Sentai cosplay, Huey had been like a shadow to Norvin anytime there was a convention in town whether Norvin liked it or not.

After also realizing that his new friend was the guy on the Tokunerd.com site selling high end props and cosplay, he started buying costume after costume from him. Huey was nearly 50% of Norvin's business at this point!

Edward found Huey extremely annoying the two or three times he had come by their place to visit, pick up props and play games with Norvin and didn't hesitate to tell Huey how he felt the last time he was there. Luckily for Huey, his skin was extremely thick in more ways than one. That was the vibe that he tried to pass off anyways.

The last time he had paid the roommates a visit, it had resulted in Edward crushing one of Norvin's gaming controllers after being subjected to Huey's never ending trash talk. He had sat down to play a fighting game with them and Huey wouldn't stop launching him off the arena their characters were battling on and talking smack about Edward's mother.

The bratty fatty opened the door to his car while staring at the familiar vehicle next to his as a thick plume of smoke escaped out. Huey let out a sudden, violent cough, then burped out another cloud to match the one coming from his car.

He started waving the cloud away in a dramatic fashion. Huey had indulged with several joints on the way over. While he was waving, he let go of his door and bumped it with his tummy…it hit Edward's supermoto with enough momentum to knock it over into Norvin's!

BANG! BANG! CRASH!

"OH CRAP!" Huey wasn't a jerk at all, he had just initially felt intimidated by Edward's huge size, so when the passing by Edward had sat down to play a round of Huey went overboard and started overcompensating to impress both Norvin and his giant of a roommate!

He wanted to make friends but his personality and social tendencies often made people want to punch his round face instead of chum around with him.

Now he had knocked over both Norvin and Edward's bikes…

 ...

Ten minutes earlier.

 ...

A gorgeous set of blue eyes looked in the her rear view mirror and squinted slightly at the rapidly approaching headlights. Less than a second later a snow white hand shot to the shifter, while a set of cute little high-tops worked the pedals expertly and dropped down a gear.

The Black Porsche squatted slightly in the rear before shooting forward to match the pace of the other machine that had been intending to pull a 'flyby' on the black car with the 'hot pilot' he had been chasing for ten minutes of freeway.

She looked over at her unwelcomed admirer, pulled down on one eyelid while sticking out her tongue at him.

"You bit.." The sound of the sinister flat six engine powering her machine overpowered his voice inside his own car as it reached its peak at redline, she shifted and then immediately pulled several car lengths, then several more before dancing between some vans and semi trucks and gripping the offramp at a speed her follower never imagined possible.

There was no way for him to follow her line in time and he wisely chose to keep driving straight, he had just been humiliated anyways, no need to make it worse.

'Just because I drive a fast car doesn't mean I'm interested in you and your shit-box. I have a man already <3…. I hope…'

Long blonde hair was flicked right before her steering wheel was, she drifted the supposed grip car perfectly, linking several corners together before slowing her weapon down.

'Don't want to be too rough on you before I stop to see that absolute hunk.' She smiled the cutest smile while thinking about the massive sweetheart she had fallen head over heels for at first look. She squeezed the steering wheel a few times and giggled while thinking about the last couple nights out.

 After a couple blocks, she rounded a corner and noticed the bar she was looking for. 'That's the one for sure, their bikes are outside already too.'

She pulled into the stall one over from the bikes, making sure not to get to close to them for both her beloved car's sake as well as not wanting to accidentally hit the boy's machines. She really liked Edward and didn't want to scratch up his bike. The big fellow had really hit the jackpot with this one, so considerate!

The ignition was killed, emergency brake set, safety harness un done and hair flicked one more time. The car came to be quiet, asides from the ticking of the still warm engine and exhaust starting to cool off. The woman inside took a moment to send a text message before tucking her phone into a storage space in the Porsche. It's door then opened.

A shapely set of legs wrapped in leggings got out of the sportscars first before the rest of the beautiful curvaceous package followed. She pulled off the fingerless, leather driving gloves she had been wearing and tossed them onto the seat before she closed the door; the door shutting made a solid, satisfying sound that only a car of its pedigree could offer.

'Should I let him drive it right away?' She thought of yet another way of snaring her soon to be man! Making a good impression on his best friend/roommate was another goal for this evening. Edward had talked about Norvin a little bit and she realized just from the little stories he told just how important Norvin was to him.

Edward had let her know just before he left his gym that he and Norvin were going to head to the pub, he didn't think Norvin would care if she attended or not, after all, Norvin had invited that rotter Huey!

She walked up to the door, Greg checked her ID, gave her a look up and down, then admitted her inside.