The Perk, Tuesday Afternoon

[vanillajello]

For a girl who was about to get some heavy stuff off her chest, Kate was pretty damn cheerful by the time she and Mitchell got to the Perk.

It was only temporary joy at having got a bigger part in the play this time, but it helped in getting some sincerity in the smile – her first bright smile in a week – which she flashed at the person behind the counter. Maybe they'd give her coffee if she was sweet?

"Hi! Can I please have a black coffee? Just a normal-sized one? No threats, I promise. Mitchell here will vouch for me."

The barrista looked dubious.

[ooc: Kate is here with the lovingly modded Irish-vampire-teacher-brotherly-friend person, but open place in town is open!]

Comments

[chosehumanity]

"Just get her the coffee," Mitchell said, tossing some money on the counter. "You don't want her to get the claws out."

He glanced sideways towards a table, a little far from the sunlight, but not in such a way that it might be inappropriate. "Over there."

[vanillajello]

Kate resisted the urge to smirk at the barrista as she got her coffee and sauntered over to the table Mitchell had picked.

She took a sip as soon as she was seated. It had been a while since she'd last got her hands on a cup of coffee from the Perk. She had to savor it.

But not for long. "You know, if we'd stayed in the office, I think I would've convinced myself something bad was going to happen once I left."

[chosehumanity]

"What, like a piano would fall on me?" Mitchell asked, pulling out a chair for himself.

[vanillajello]

"We've met, right? I worry about me, not you."

Liiies.

"No, I was thinking more along the lines of, like, a phonecall for me, like 'oh hey Kate, there's a new alter'. Would've kept last Tuesday's thing going."

[chosehumanity]

"My ego hurts," he told her, voice monotone. "But last Tuesday. I'm living in suspense."

[vanillajello]

"After I left your office, I got a call, telling me I'm probably starting private dance lessons in Baltimore," Kate said, holding her coffee cup with both hands. "So, up until that point all was better than good. Obviously the world decided I shouldn't be that happy, so like ten minutes later Jason came to bring me the news."

[chosehumanity]

"Dance lessons for a bloke," Mitchell said, sucking in an exaggerated breath. "At least life spared you the choice."

Not that that last bit didn't come with some sympathy.

[vanillajello]

"Oh, there would have been choices to be made if he'd stayed," Kate said wryly, and took a sip. "That wouldn't have been one of them."

[chosehumanity]

"But that's the one life chose for you," he said, shrugging a bit. "Hope you at least enjoy the dancing part." He sipped his own coffee. "So he's gone for good."

[vanillajello]

"As far as I can tell, yeah," she replied with a vague shrug of her own. "Back to Bon Temps, Louisiana. Which, by the way, doesn't exist in my version of the States."

She'd googled it while she was home on Christmas break.

[chosehumanity]

"That's thorough."

Mitchell set down his own coffee.

"There's no talking to him?"

[vanillajello]

"Talking to him in general, or talking him into coming back?" She paused. "Actually, I think the answer to both is no."

[chosehumanity]

"In general," he said, but winced in sympathy anyway. "Ouch."

[vanillajello]

"Yeah well, guy's only family is his sister and his grandmother, and he says he has to go home? Then he has to go home."

Kate could respect that. She'd do the same for her own family. Even if she'd never admit it.

"I guess there's interdimensional email and phone calls and whatever, but I just... can't.

[chosehumanity]

"Long distance relationships rarely work," Mitchell agreed. "Still, you could probably send the poor bastard a postcard."

Minding his language around Kate wasn't so easy.

[[ niiight ]]

[vanillajello]

And Kate would only mock him mercilessly if she noticed him trying to.

"Maybe," she allowed. "Might do him good to have someone remind him of... some things, sometimes."

[Oh you sensible person you. Night!]

[chosehumanity]

"Or you could still go the opposite breakup route and never speak to him again and assume he dies pining for you at old age," Mitchell said, his mouth twitching a little.

[vanillajello]

The twitching wasn't lost on Kate, no. "Well, I'd assume that he'll pine for me anyway," she shot back. "I'm very pineworthy."

Then she glanced in the direction of the windows, and shrugged a shoulder. "It wasn't really a breakup, though. We didn't really get that far."

[chosehumanity]

"Will they or won't they?" Mitchell asked, sipping his coffee. "That's a rough one."

[vanillajello]

"We were, like, just about to get to 'they will'," Kate said, firmly back to being subdued, now. "Maybe the next time we'd talked we could've actually gotten through a conversation without a fight breaking out."

[chosehumanity]

"And then you would've wondered where all the fun went."

He had to make a crack every so often. It was part of his job description.

"But, you know, it was an opportunity. There'll be new ones."

[vanillajello]

"So people tell me." It was really rather obvious that she was having a hard time believing that. "It's just that... He's the first guy I've met who didn't just drop me the very second he saw the worst sides of me."

Of course, she didn't even show those sides of her to most people.

[chosehumanity]

"I'd say if that's your one criteria for falling for someone," Mitchell replied, a hint of wry sadness to him, "You deserve better in life."

[vanillajello]

"Hmph. Of course I deserve better, but not everyone gets what they deserve."

She rolled her eyes. "You wanna know the really sad part? He only got that close because I thought he didn't want to actually know me."

[chosehumanity]

"You gave him an opening for some sort of romantic sneak attack? I think that's a rookie mistake."

[vanillajello]

"I guess I did." The corner of her mouth quirked upward a little bit. "Although I don't think even he knew he wanted to get to know me." Pause. "It still wasn't terribly romantic, though."

[chosehumanity]

"Why? Did you fling faeces? Beat his chest? Knock you 'round the head with something and drag you to his cave?" Beat. "No, really. Tell me."

[vanillajello]

Okay. There was an actual laugh. Well done, Mitchell.

"No. There was just a lot of yelling. And stuff you wouldn't want me to share with you."