The Perk, Thursday morning

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Tara smiles at the vendor at the Perk, ordering a strong cup of coffee and a pumpernickle bagel with cream cheese as well as her own peppermint tea and... she peruses the pastries. Oooh, custard donut. Yes!

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[valentine-tart.livejournal.com]

Beka walked in and found Tara already at the counter. With breakfast for her.

"Hey," she said, sounding bemused, and her face crinkling into a confused sort of smile. "You didn't have to do that."

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Tara shrugs. "I know. But I got here first. And I remembered what you like, Mistress. Do I please you?"

[valentine-tart.livejournal.com]

Beka raised her hands in surrender. "I haven't started my new job yet and I haven't been out for a salvage run in awhile. I'm not going to argue. This time. Yes, pretty one. You please me greatly."

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Tara laughs, carrying the tray over to a table. "My first week here I lived off of people's charity. I think two out of three meals every day were bought by someone else." She shrugs. "It all comes back around eventually. Where are you going to be working?"

[valentine-tart.livejournal.com]

Beka pulled out a chair and sat, resisting the urge to spin it around and straddle it. "I'm glad you got charity. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here for us to meet for breakfast." Beka smiled - a smile that was almost a grin but didn't quite make it. "I think I'll be working at the Museum. Amanda offered me the assistant curator position because I'm a thief too."

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Tara raises her eyebrows. "Wow. I'm impressed. Thief of my heart, you mean. *bats eyelashes*

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Beka shook her head. "Don't be. We just hit it off. Kinda like you and me, only without the subtext. Shameless, sweetheart. Really. *pats head*

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"Don't downplay yourself," Tara scolds. "That's a job that takes skill and dedication. Just 'hitting it off' wouldn't qualify you for it." She laughs. "I should drop by some time, I guess. A little culture wouldn't hurt me, and maybe it'll stop Angelus from being quite so patronising. You could play with my hair. I mean, if you wanted to. Since your hand is right there and all...

[valentine-tart.livejournal.com]

"As My Lady wishes," Beka said lightly. She sipped her coffee and murmurred appreciatively. "And, yes, you should stop by. It's a nice museum. It feels right. As for Angelus being patronizing, I'm not sure anything can stop him... Asking for things, little love? Very bold. Fortunately for you, I'm whimsical this morning. *strokes hair*"

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Tara inhales her tea, waiting for it to steep enough to drink. "He's gone away and left me for two classes - and was completely unfocussed and unhelpful last week." She sighs. "Both my TAs were, actually. I think the assignment sucked some of the enthusiasm out of them." She looks up at Beka. "But you and Buffy went well, didn't you? I mean, in the end, you were glad of it? I'm sorry, Mistress. It was not my place to presume, but I am grateful to you for indulging my foolish whim.

[valentine-tart.livejournal.com]

Beka cocked her head, considering. After another sip of coffee, she replied, "I don't know Major K! much. We've talked a little, back when I was with Jack, and before that when I was with Cameron. Since then--" She shrugged. "No clue what he's up to. Angelus, on the other hand... he's been stressed. Distracted. It's not like him. He stopped by about the interview...it was...in a word, wierd." It's also not like him to be so open with me. Why no, I'm not ignoring your question about Buffy. See me through shiny Angelus-hints up in the air to distract you?

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Laughing a little, Tara says, "he's distracted by Darla. They've been apart for a hundred years or somesuch, so I can forgive his distraction."

She clears her throat. "And Buffy? I like it better when your subtext has more sub, and less text. Mistress.

[valentine-tart.livejournal.com]

"The vacation will do him good. He's been under a lot of pressure. And Darla does seem to make him happy." Beka smiled, As dumb as it was, she was glad for him.

"Buffy is fine. We get along fine. I like her. She likes me. She kissed me. What more is there to say, really? And I like it when I can spell 'throw' properly in my subtext. Sheesh. Bossy bossy, tonight, you are. Careful love, I might punish you for that.

[valentine-tart.livejournal.com]

Tara laughs, shaking her head. "Of course he can have friends! Believe me, you don't need a soul to make friends, or even fall in love. And all 'sociopath' means is that he plays by different rules than most of us." She shrugs. "Maybe he sees something in you. You're certainly more willing to accept him on his terms than most of the people around here."

Fall in love? "Well, I guess since I'm not even sure what a soul is, I can go along with that but..." Beka blinked again, hard. "I don't think there's any love there. Affection maybe." Shrugging, she tried to find the words for her confusion. "I do like Angelus. I enjoy his company. He makes me think. I guess it just surprised me. I'm used to everything being a game between us. He seemed very genuine and unguarded. At the time, it didn't seem strange. Later... later I started to wonder what it meant. Maybe he's just vulnerable because of Darla." She nodded. That made sense.

[brambless.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I didn't mean..." Tara blushes. "No, I didn't mean that he was in love with you. I just mean, you know, that they can. Love, I mean. Even without a soul. But, um... why would Darla have anything to do with how he reacts to you?"

[valentine-tart.livejournal.com]

At that, Beka looked amused. "I didn't take it that way. I was just processing the information and weighing it against the facts. Sometimes I think out loud. If Angelus is in love with anyone, it's Bel Darla." Beka sipped her coffee, thoughtful. "Like I said, when Angelus and I spoke, he seemed unusually vulnerable and open. As if something had gotten under his skin. Because of that, he was kinder than usual. It makes sense that if he was feeling 'mushy', for lack of a better word, and distracted, he might not have been in the mood to play games."

[brambless.livejournal.com]

"Mushy?" Tara stifles a giggle. "Angelus? Beka, I hate to say it, but he's playing you. Angelus would only do vulnerable and open if it served his purpose."

[valentine-tart.livejournal.com]

Beka sighed. "I must be tired. I know he's playing me. It's why I can't figure out. Or what he wanted, rather. I know Angelus wants me to trust him, and I do, to a point. But he seemed to want something more specific by the interaction." Then she glared comically. "No, I don't mean sex because he can have that for the asking."

She closed her eyes to try to remember the conversation better. "It started out normal, if a bit distracted. He got going about knowing evil and understanding it. Then we talked about what happened with Bel's parents, because I was furious. Then..." The coffee is cooling, but since she didn't pay, she swallows it without grimacing. "Then he was talking about the Kitty Pryde situation... He wanted me to believe the way he put the story to me." She nodded. "That's it."

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Tara frowns. "How did he put the story to you?"

[valentine-tart.livejournal.com]

Beka pursed her lips and wondered if Tara would mind if she smoked, or if they could even smoke in here. "He told me 'between friends' that a student, Kitty, had died. That not many people knew yet, and that her dragon, Lockheed was saying that she'd been killed." Shit. She slapped her palm on the table. "It didn't even occur to me to ask how he knew. I went straight to 'how do we know the dragon can be trusted' and 'is there any proof'."

[brambless.livejournal.com]

"He probably heard it from someone," Tara says soothingly. "Rumour gets around pretty quickly. I'd wonder more why he wanted you to know. Between friends. Um, did you know Kitty at all?"

[valentine-tart.livejournal.com]

"True, he could have. But he sounded like he'd actually spoken to Lockheed." A memory of Lockheed hissing at Angelus floated back to her. "No, Lockheed hates him. I saw that at the weapons ban meeting."

Again Beka wished for a cigarette and ate instead. "I knew Kitty. Not well. Definitely not well enough to grieve, except for her friends and my friends who were her roommates. But Angelus knew I knew her. He knew that I'd planned to invite her to participate in something like Marty's Safe Walk and informational sessions about non-humans."

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Shaking her head, Tara bites her lip. "He sounded like he'd spoken to Lockheed? Um, I didn't think Lockheed spoke English. Or, um, any human tongue." She frowns, more defensive than puzzled. "Beka, what is it that you're accusing him of?"

[valentine-tart.livejournal.com]

Beka blinked, startled. "Nothing." Was she? She shook her head. "Nothing. Angelus and I settled that between ourselves. When I intimated that he might've done it, he offered me his chest to stake. I offered him my throat instead. Angelus could have done it, sure. He was one of the first people I thought of. But he's too smart for that."

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Breathing a sigh of relief, Tara sips her tea again. "Thank goodness for that. I don't want to have to defend him against you, of all people. Angelus is a killer, yes... but not in Fandom, and not randomly. He commits art, not murder. If it was him, there would be campaign of fear and terror against someone close to Kitty, and this death would just be part of that."

Quirking an eyebrow, she realises what Beka has said. "You offered him your throat? How did he react?"