Stark Industries, Monday

[endsthegame]

A new term, a new day on the job, and a shop that seemed - for once - blissfully free of anything fruit-related. No amount of inspections netted Ender anything that as much as looked squishy, red, green, yellow, or edible. Every machine was running at top performance.

With a slow sigh, Ender went back to his desk, and set up his laptop. He sank down in his chair--

-- and heard something go squish.

He sighed again, loudly this time, rubbed at his forehead, and muttered a creative curse the likes of which people didn't usually manage to catch him making. Then he gingerly removed the cherry tomatoes from his seat.

Sigh.

[[ open, but slow since I'm at work! ]]

Comments

[weetuskenraider]

It wasn't usually Tahiri who showed up on Mondays, but then Ben -- who was trotting along beside her -- wasn't usually a tiny orange kitten, either.

"Someone would have been cranky about missing his usual visit even if he can't carry the food with his paws," she noted, holding out the bag of sandwiches with a distinctly amused look on her face. "I hope I understood his meowed instructions on what to get decently."

[endsthegame]

"You didn't get the coffee," Ender observed, not sounding too fussed. "I think you're in for a life sentence, Tahiri."

[weetuskenraider]

"I was afraid he'd get into the coffee," Tahiri said apologetically, "and that would have been a bit terrifying. Can I owe you some another time?"

She watched, shaking her head, as Ben meandered over to Ender's feet and mewed softly. "I hardly think it's a huge stretch of the imagination to say he's not enjoying this much. I keep telling him he's a cute kitten, but it's not much of a consolation."

[endsthegame]

"Some other time," he echoed, easily, distractedly. His eyes found their way down towards the mewing kitten, and he extended his fingers to him, letting him sniff. "It's just Fandom whimsy," Ender said, and still he sounded slightly distant. "He'll get over it."

[weetuskenraider]

"It would be a shame to let this opportunity to go by without putting a bow on him," Tahiri remarked, and laughed briefly when Ben took a break from sniffing long enough to give her a baleful look. "I'd say he missed you."

[endsthegame]

"He would, the little meddling cat," Ender said, fondly. "I think I'm out of bows, though - that's a quest you'll have to embark on on your own." He leaned down a little to pick up the cat.

[weetuskenraider]

"Oh, I plan on it," Tahiri answered with a puckish grin; Ben didn't look like he was objecting to being picked up, as far as she could tell. "Force knows he threatened me enough with that when I was an animal last year. Yes, Ben, you can have one of those sandwiches too."

. . . which was why at least one of them was tuna, yes.

[endsthegame]

"I see you're prepared for anything," he said, with a slight crack of a smile, and held on to Ben while he went about the important process of sniffing the sandwiches. "When did it happen?"

[weetuskenraider]

"No, I'm just painfully familiar with his appetite, although being prepared for anything ought to be a habit I should cultivate more," Tahiri said wryly. "It was Friday afternoon, after a lightsaber workout."

Under circumstances that seemed a bit awkward to explain, somehow.

[endsthegame]

Ender nodded idly as his fingers instinctively found a spot to scritch just under Ben's head. "That would match up to the timeline," he said, "I was wondering why I didn't come home to someone packing away large quantities of food on Friday." He pursed his lips. "Would you like me to take him off your hands for a while?"

[weetuskenraider]

"I don't know that I'd put it in those words, but --" Ben's ears perked up at the offer, and he was definitely enjoying the scritches. Tahiri grinned. "I can't say I'd mind. I'd also imagine Karla would love to see this. She'd be upset with us if she missed out on it, actually."

[endsthegame]

Ender grinned. "I'll make sure everyone's favourite Queen gets to see him," he promised, rubbing behind Ben's ears. "She'll probably be able to appreciate it more than I do." Humiliation not being his thing.

[weetuskenraider]

"It's only fair," Tahiri said mildly, with a glance at Ben. "Force, he would even purr like an engine obsessively fine-tuned to outperform its specs by an illogical degree."

[endsthegame]

Ender caught her eye, and chuckled once. "I guess," he said, "I hadn't really noticed, but I'll be sure to let him know when he turns back." He glanced down at Ben as well, and added, "He doesn't shed, right...?"

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri looked down at the dark olive drab of her flight suit, largely free of telltale orange hairs.

"Only a few stray bits here and there, but nothing awful. It's probably not a surprise that he's a terribly fastidious kitten."

Although the look on his face if he'd discovered that he'd managed to shed enough to leave hairballs inside all that machinery he was building would be priceless.