fandomtownies | Luke's Diner Monday 6/12

And then..?

...

River was hungry again. At least she thought that was the case.

Tim came over to greet her, as the diner was pretty empty. "Hey River."

"Hello," River said. "Can I have a cheeseburger, please? And some custard."

"Cheeseburger and custard, coming up." Tim said. "Anything to drink? Soda? Juice? Elven Wine?" Crap he was still doing it.

"Elven wine, haven't tried that yet."

Tim winced. "I hadn't meant to tell you about that but I seem to be spouting off things lately. I don't know if I'm supposed to have it and," though he wasn't able to keep from saying it, he was able to at least manage to whisper. "It's hidden under my bed."

"So I don't have it with me, but maybe later."

"What's elven wine, and why is it under you bed? Is it a secret? Can I try it?"

"Elven Wine is wine made by elves, funnily enough. It's under my bed because I thought I might not be supposed to have liqour on campus."

elven wine is nfb if it'll get confiscated

Smiling happily, River said: "So perhaps you could share it with me?"

She was in a strange mood today.

"Sure. I mean I've never tried it before so it'll be new to me, actually I've never had anything alchoholic before. Except a little champaign at a wedding, but not enough to get me drunk."

"Haven't been drunk either. It might be an interesting experience."

Tim nodded. "Tell you what, drop by my room tonight and we'll try it. Not much, just to see if we like it."

River just grinned and nodded.

"So how's life treatin' you? How'd you like the movies last night?"

River frowned. "I feel lonely. Like I can't reach anyone."

Now that was being in a strange mood.

Tim frowned back. "Reach people how? And I know sort of how you feel about lonely, I was hoping for a better turnout last night, but half of those that showed up left midway through."

Suddenly looking as is she was in pain, River blurted out: "No, not last night, always. Always alone!"

"Woah!" Tim reached out and grabbed her hand. "Woah River calm down. You're not alone. Not really. I have no idea who else you've made friends with yet but you've got me for one."

Tears were running down her face. "But they put something in my head, and it's all dark and hidden and alone, and I can't see anything clearly, just loud mess pain!"

Tim felt a mix of confusion and anger. Anger at whoever had apparently hurt her. "who put what in your head?" he asked softly.

"And I just remembered that Kaylee's your friend, so that's two."

"Wo shang mei er, mei xin, bian shi tou," River mumbled. She rested her head on the table. "Blue hands. They're gone but still here. Simon saved me but he's gone too. I hurt him.

Tim put a hand on her shoulder, and crouched beside her. "River, River look at me."

River looked up at him, still trembling.

"You're safe here." he told her gently. "there's a whole school of bad asses here, it's hard to get more secure than that. Please, tell me what happened."

this was reminding him somewhat of when T'ing thought she was going crazy for seeing ghosts.

She shook her head. "Too painful." Then she looked at him curiously. "Who's T'ing?"

"My ex-almost girlfriend that I'm not sure I'm completely over." Tim said, surprised. Not surprised that he'd said it, as that seemed to be the way things were going the last few days, but surprised that she'd asked. And a little surprised that she'd not followed the odd pattern of people saying whatever seemed to be on their minds regardless of whether they wanted to or not.

And now that he thought more about T'ing, other events, getting kicked out of the PSAT's for yelling at her ancestral spirit companion, but since no one else could see him, they'd thought he was yelling at a teacher, getting thrown into the bathtub clothes and all by a newly arrived Bannik, swearing to aid the Fae, Teleri's wailing, and attempted seduction of him, and falling over a cliff while a furry child molester clawed at him.
Funny how one thought can connect to another.

"How'd you know about T'ing?" he asked.

"You were thinking about her."

For some reason the fact that Tim wasn't quite over this ex-almost girlfriend bothered River.

"You can do that?" he asked. "Read minds?"

River shrugged. "Yes." She hoped he wouldn't mind.

"That must get noisy sometimes."

"It does. Why aren't you over T'ing?"

"I don't know exactly." Tim said. "Maybe it'd be easier if we'd actually gotten to the point of dating and then broken up, but we never did. She went to China before we got that far. So, maybe it's a missed opportunity kind of thing."

He was used to the enforced truth thing by now, he only hoped that what he'd already said to others wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass. And in this case River could read his mind anyway. Which, slightly disconcerted him, but only because in his efforts to not think of embarresing things, like Teleri the Banshee trying to de-flower him in his sleeping bag, only made him think of them.

Frowing, River asked: "But you liked Teleri too?"

Oy.

"Uh, yeah." tim sighed. "It was complicated, see I'd had a crush on T'ing for years, but she never seemed to be interested. Then Teleri came along, and while she scared me at first I started to like her, a lot. But when I realized that T'ing was interested, me and Teleri just, never became serious."

"When you're a lonely teenage boy, having more than one girl like you sounds good in theory, but when it actually happens you wind up feeling like a jerk."

"Oh." River said. "I've never had that problem."

"you've never had more than one girl have a crush on you?" Tim smirked.

"No. Dating and crushes weren't really possible at my former school. And then I've been stuck on a space ship with older people. Well, apart from Kaylee, but she's a friend, and fancies my brother. Or used to. He messed that up. Boob."

"What kind of school did you go to before?" he asked.

"Evil place. Hurt us." River grew pale and started shaking again.

Tim took her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. "Sorry," he apologized. "like I said, they can't hurt you anymore. Your classmates are witches and demons and aliens oh my, I feel a great swell of pity for the poor soul that comes to this school looking for trouble."

~~couldnt' resist~~

River blinked, and blinked again. "They should be gone. Don't want to talk about it." She squeezed his hand back, then rose from the table, and ran out of the diner.

Tim blinked and watched as she left. "Huh." he said, wondering what she'd meant by that.

...

just in case

Luke's Diner Monday 6/12

May I take your order?

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Talky talky

ooc