dojima_hime | Buenos Aires, Florida Street [Sunday Afternoon]

Dōjima Yurika	After a morning spent at Catedral Metropolitana de Buenos Aires (where Yurika had been perfectly well behaved, thank you!), it was time for a trip to Florida Street for some shopping. After all, it wouldn't be right to go home without some souvenirs from their trip.
Romeo Montague	Romeo had wandered into a shop of leather goods and was looking at some ornate belts. "Do you think Reno would like any of these?" he inquired. He certainly wanted one.
Dōjima	"I don't know, something as tidy as a belt might ruin his perpetually rumpled look," Yurika mused jokingly. "Do they have a nice wallet, instead?"
Romeo	"You've a point," Romeo told her, keeping a belt for himself in one hand and roaming toward a display of wallets. "Though belts are fine things. They let you wear belt buckles." And they kept your pants up, which was of secondary import to Romeo.
Dōjima	"I feel like I should be making a joke about boys and belt buckles," she replied, "but it seems too cliché." She paused by a small table with accessories, holding up a smaller belt pouch. "For Rikku? It looks like a desert-y flower."
Romeo	Romeo fingered his own silver buckle, which had ornate fleur-de-lis carving. "Or they can be truth in advertising," he laughed. "But I agree, the clichés better left undiscussed. I think Rikku would love that."
Dōjima	"Undiscussed in public, anyway," Yurika agreed impishly, holding on to Rikku's gift as she continued browsing. "Although now I have to wonder... if we make fun of boys and belt buckles, what is the equivalent for girls? Shoes? Our purses?"
Romeo	"You are trying to make me blush," Romeo said, a little bit of a laugh in his voice. "And I have no idea. I've never heard a girl accused of overcompensation."
Dōjima	"If I was trying to make you blush, aijin, you'd be blushing," she proclaimed, winking at him over her shoulder as she paused to look at the aforementioned belt buckles. Hrm. Maybe she should snag a few for eventual Christmas presents. She giggled, fingers trailing over the assorted merchandise. "Oh, girls overcompensate. We're just sneakier about it than boys. Nothing as obvious as flashy cars or things like that."
Romeo	This was intriguing. "You have to tell me what you mean, love," Romeo told her, as he unwrapped a peppermint and popped it in his mouth.
Dōjima	"And give away all the secrets of my gender?" Yurika put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Nuh-huh. What's in it for me?"
Romeo	"I would answer the question of your choice about men?" Romeo tried. "Though now we've both firsthand experience, so that may be less tempting than it was before." He was rather glad most of the other patrons didn't speak English.
Dōjima	Now it was Yurika's turn to blush, and she quickly bit her lip to keep from giggling as she pretended to inspect some purses. "I could probably come up with questions about the devious ways your little brains work. Boys are still strange, mysterious creatures, no matter what experience I may have with your gender."
Romeo	"Perhaps we'd go mad if we understood each other too well," Romeo volunteered. "A little mystery is good for the soul."
Dōjima	"I thought all you poets were a little bit mad," Yurika laughed, picking up some nice leather gloves for herself. Oooo...holsters. Shiny. "Isn't that part of your charm?"
Romeo	"And part of yours is that you think it so," Romeo joked. "Ah, to be a mad poet. One never knows what I might do."
Dōjima	She watched him warily from the corner of her eye. "You aren't going to break out in a sonnet in the middle of the market, are you?"
Romeo	"If I thought I was about to, I'd lie down until I felt better," he promised.
Dōjima	Yurika shook her head at him. "So you'd blame the tropical heat and not the topical madness?" she laughed. "What kind of poet are you?"
Romeo	Romeo stared at her, air suddenly somehow more charged. He leaned closer to her. "The kind who is going to start spouting a sonnet at the top of his lungs in about 30 seconds, just to show he'll do it?"
Dōjima	"Don't. You. Dare."
Romeo	Romeo took a deep breath and met her eyes. "TWICE or thrice had I loved thee," he began, loudly. It was Donne, but he knew it enough to recite. "Before I knew thy face or name; So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame, Angels affect us oft, and worshipp'd be ..."
Dōjima	"Chikusho! Stop that!" she hissed, blushing furiously as the people around them started to stare bemusedly. "Are you insane?"
Romeo	"All poets are mad" he told her softly, then resumed his declaiming, flashing a cheeky grin at the staring patrons. "Still when, to where thou wert, I came, Some lovely glorious nothing did I see ..."
Dōjima	"I'll show you a 'glorious nothing.'" she retorted, darting over to try and cover his mouth with one hand while she balanced her would-be purchases in the other and tried not to laugh. "Romeo!"
Romeo	He threw up his hands in surrender, eyes sparkling as he kissed her palm. "All right, I'll stop. But sonnets are always a threat, with us mad poet types."
Dōjima	"A threat, huh?" Yurika asked, blushing even harder as he kissed her hand. "How terrible for the poet, knowing an eruption of pretty words could happen at any time. Isn't there a medication you can take for that?"
Romeo	"If there were, would you really want me to take it?"
Dōjima	Yurika laughed, backing away from him before turning and walking over to make her purchases. "I would think a poet would prefer having some choice in what words spring forth. Uncontrollable poetry sounds like it might hurt." "But no, I wouldn't want you to take it." She favored him with a glance over her shoulder and smiled. "Probably not, anyway, as long as it stays pretty and you don't start spouting dirty limericks at me."
Romeo	"It probably would," Romeo mused. "To just have words gushing forth constantly, without your control. Luckily I've no need for a pill. And I'll avoid the limericks." "... unless they're exceptionally good."
Dōjima	"No way," she said, shaking a finger at him. "No dirty poems in public!" Once he got going with the naughty ones, it usually took kisses to make him stop. Stop speaking them, anyway.
Romeo	Romeo rolled his eyes comically, and leaned in to kiss her properly. That was almost as good a use of his lips as sonnets. It might even be a better one, he thought. [FTB]