fandomtownies | Luke's Diner; Wednesday [ 04/09 ]

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$luke's,
a.j.

Luke's Diner; Wednesday [ 04/09 ]

Coming into work today and finding out by the helpful spatula throwers that were the kitchen boys that Yitzhak was gone was a little bittersweet; he really loved that guy, y'know, even if they never talked. Well, the boss never talked anyway, but that wasn't what A.J. meant. Besides, he left for A.J. a box of stuff. How could he have not been totally psyched for a box of stuff? Stuff he'd probably never ever use except in the most abstract of projects, but stuff was stuff, and A.J. liked his stuff, and he probably wouldn't look too bad in that pink sparkly wig.

Not that he was going to bother trying.

The specials board, however, was decked out to the nines, in a tribute to glam that A.J. thought would do Yitzhak proud.

Luke's is open!

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That's what...errr...someone who isn't Yitzhak is paying him for.

It occurred to Lacey that maybe she should introduce herself to the staff she didn't know yet, which was why she came into the diner looking a little nervous and yes, still flustered.

"Hi!" A.J. greeted the woman with a light smile, a little bit of extra friendliness because he was pretty sure he didn't know who this was. She didn't look familiar, anyway. "What can we get for you?"

"A dose of normalcy," Lacey said wistfully. "I miss seeing nothing but kilometres and kilometres of grain everywhere I look. You work here?"

You'd think it would be obvious, but nooooo.

"Sorry," A.J. said with another light grin, this one seeming torn between whether it wanted to be sympathetic or amused. "But normalcy around here comes pretty few and far between. And, yeah, I work here." He figured, not knowing who she was, he should avoid his first thought to say that, no, he didn't, he just liked to hang out behind the counter. "Name's A.J."

"I keep hoping people are just winding me up about all of that, coming from towns with giant snake mayors and that sort of thing," Lacey said plaintively. "I mean, it just can't get any weirder, right?"

She plunked herself down on one of the barstools and propped her chin up on one hand. "Don't answer that. Please. I'm Lacey Burrows, by the way, and I guess it looks like I'm your new boss."

"Word of advice, then, Lacey," A.J. said as she sat down. "Never say anything about it not getting any worse, because then, really, you're just setting yourself up. Coffee? You look like you could need it, if you don't mind me saying so. Boss?"

It ended in a question, testing it out, to get a feel for it. He was sure there was a story there, but he'd hold out a moment before digging into it.

"I would love a cup of coffee." Lacey found herself liking him already. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad, and the tentative title made her smile just a bit. "Apparently so. Guess your boss skipped town and thought it'd be funny to stick me with the place. I suppose it could be worse. I mean, I could have gotten stuck with a gas station."

"And hey!" A.J. said brightly as he poured Lacey a cup o' joe. "No threat of that, either, because there aren't any cars on the island. Some people have, like, hoover bikes and spaceships and stuff, though."

Lacey groaned. "I'm never writing home about this. For one, I'll never hear the end of it from Davis if I tell him there are spaceships, and Hank will want to come visit and nobody wants that, and Brent will ask me all kinds of geeky questions that I don't know how to answer, and besides, that would mean admitting to everybody that what I thought was a vacation really wasn't."

Oops.

Despite himself, A.J. chuckled. "Glad to know someone around here can sympathize with why I can never write home about half the stuff that goes on here, either. And now I gotta ask. If you were here for a vacation, how'd you end up getting this place from Yitzhak?"

"Oh, that? That's just the sort of thing that happens to me," Lacey intoned. "End up coaching the local hockey team, take over a diner . . . that's apparently what I do. I came in the other day and poof, surprise, I run a diner. Again."

"Again?" A.J. tilted his head a bit. "Well, at least you've got experience, then? And, you know, you didn't end up, poof, surprise, you're the ringleader in an underwater midget circus."

Lacey opened her mouth to say something, then tilted her head and thought about it for a second.

[Flash-cut, in blurry fantasy-vision, to an underwater midget circus and Lacey, swimming by in scuba gear (sans helmet, because breathing underwater is not a concern in fantasy-vision), humming cheerfully to herself and not paying any mind to the proceedings.

There's a *POOF*. Like pyrotechnics. Yes, underwater. It's fantasy-vision, okay? A clownfish in a red wig swims up through the dissipating smoke, pushing a bubble that contains official-looking paperwork.

CLOWNFISH: Surprise, Lacey, you're now the ringleader of an underwater midget circus!

LACEY: What?!?

Zzzzzzzzip -- flash-cut's over.]

"Okay, you're right, it could be worse."

A.J. nodded a little. "That's kind of become my mantra around here, yeah. But, uh, hey, welcome to neighborhood, I guess. I'm a mostly good employee, I swear, so you've got that going for you, too."

He would delicately not mention that he was the reason they were often missing a lot of napkins and Post-Its and the occasion cutlery with 'really cool bends' on them.

"Well, that's one thing off my mind," Lacey admitted. She had not, as of yet, noticed the cutlery or the napkins. "Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry to spring all this on you, but it was a surprise to me too."

"Hey, no, it's cool," A.J. said, shrugging a little. "I mean, you actually talk! That in itself is a nice change already. Still kind of sad that he left, but at least he left me that box of really cool stuff."

"You mean he didn't talk to anyone?" asked Lacey, her eyebrows knitting a bit at the thought that A.J. actually missed that disagreeable little scruffbucket.

"Oh," she added, embarrassment creeping into her tone. "That box. Yeah."

"It's a lot of wigs and pumps for just one guy," A.J. stated with a smirk at the first hint of embarrassment in Lacey's tone. "You're welcome to any of it if you'd really like. Blonde could really suit you; or maybe the redhead one. And, yeah, I don't think he ever really said anything. Maybe a word once or twice, but I never paid attention enough to notice."

There was a pause, his face going suddenly thoughtful.

"You know, that might not be that strange around here, either. My exgirlfriend's roommate's like that, too. With her, I'm actually positive she's never spoke a word. Not to me, at least."

"Oh, no thanks," Lacey said quickly. "I don't know where those have been. Is there anything around here that's strange but . . . actually is strange?"

Ew. Lacey had a very good point with that whole not knowing where they've been thing. A.J.'s nose wrinkled a little as he comforted himself with the fact that the box of stuff wasn't going to see much else but some really innovative art pieces. "Like what do you mean?" he asked. "Strange is strange is strange, especially around here. There's so many levels and layers of it that, most likely, whatever level of strange you're looking for, it's here, somewhere."

"I miss grain," Lacey said plaintively, imagining a glowing orange onion that never got any smaller no matter how many layers you peeled off. "I really, really miss endless fields of grain."

A.J. bit his lip, but it didn't help him in restraining a grin. "Okay, maybe not so much grain here. I take it there's a lot of grain where you come from? Where you from? Oklahoma?"

Gone for a bit, and then back all evening, so if the responses seem dead, just wait a biiiiit~

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Mod your Service -- 04/09

OOC -- 04/09