Mixology 101

You know, Hana, I think it’s time.

You mean..?

Come meet me at the Rabbit Hole at 11pm, I have something I wanna show you!

Hana, being a Sloth bun, was equally fine with either staying at home or going out late at night, provided she was actually informed of the venture in advance. She needed time to gather up energy for the trip, after all, even if said trip was just a couple of minutes away from her apartment. And she had been there countless times at this point - she should be called a regular! She liked the thought of one of the hostesses just referring to her as a regular, because if it came from Hops it just didn’t have the same vibe, y’know?

Anyway, it was summer now, and the heat and humidity started to stick to her even in the evenings. She made her way to the establishment, already hearing the hustle and bustle of patrons before she stepped inside. It was well-lit but not bright, creating a cozy atmosphere fit for the evening. Hana would only take a couple of steps inside before she would hear Hop’s voice loudly whispering to her to come to where she was, which happened to be near the staff entrance.

“It’s like you’re going to sell me something suspicious.”

“What? No! Where does your imagination go, Hana?” she ushered her to one of the rest areas for the hosts, which was much emptier than she expected. “We have a pretty free night tonight, so I thought it would be a good time to teach you how to mix a drink!”

Hana gasped, “For real?!”

Hop nodded, “For real!”

Again she called for her to move closer so that they were standing in front of an array of ingredients in bottles that were laid out for them. They were in different colors, and Hana for a moment was tempted to just mix two colors together to see what color would come out from it. Of course, Hops stopped her before she could do so.

“It’s not just about what you’re mixing together, but how much of it you’re pouring. That’s why we have this - to measure how much mL we need to put in.”

“Sounds complicated. Can’t I just be the one to put the little umbrella?”

“Wuh! I thought you’d be interested in knowing how I mix ‘em together!”

“I mean yeah…okay okay, run it through me.”

Hops let out a sigh, “Fine, let’s start with something you like, a Peach Hellini! How do you feel about sprouting bat wings?”

“Wait what?”

“Haven’t you heard? There are rare cases of patrons saying that they suddenly get little wings after drinking lots of Peach Hellini! I mean, I have seen some weird things around here, but I can’t really tell if it was because I was drunk and hallucinating or something else.”

“Err…well I don’t really want wings.”

“You’ll be fine! You’ve been drinking them a lot, haven’t you? Maybe you’re immune!”

“Eh?!”

So the evening dragged on with banter, laughter, and the rare spilled drink. Hana couldn’t help but sneak (but not so sneakily) take a few peaches and strawberries and stuff it in her mouth while she was listening and watching Hops explain how to create the drink. Admittedly, watching the liquid from the bottles getting poured onto the glass was fascinating, and seeing how it changed colors elicited an “ooooh” and “aaaaah” from the starry bun. 

When it came to her preparing it herself, well, it was harder than it looked! Her grip wasn’t steady and she could see the bottle shaking whenever she carried it. She would apologize profusely whenever some of the liquid spilled out of the glass, but Hops took it in stride - either she was expecting it or simply factored the entire thing as a loss on the bar’s part (it wasn’t like they were going to serve these drinks to patrons anyway, even if Hana had already tried helping out before. She hadn’t been allowed to touch the bar, only to serve them to various patrons).

In the end, they had quite a number of drinks on the table, some better looking than others, and there was also the matter of how to split these between the two of them. Come to think of it, when Hana looked back at that evening, that latter half was kind of a blur…oh well, at least she still remembered how to make one or two drinks, she thought.