The Perk, Monday afternoon

[betterthanaplan]

Duke had spent the first few days back from vacation cleaning and tuning up his boat. He hadn't taken a trip with her that long in ages, and he'd been a bit too . . . distracted to do the upkeep while they were on the go, like he usually did.

But the Rouge was in ship-shape now, pardon the pun, and Duke was starting to feel the post-holiday, back-to-real-life slump. He was left with it being winter and January.

He wasn't a fan.

So he went out for a hot drink, that he didn't even spike. He grabbed himself a muffin while he was at it -- chocolate chip, what was he, a saint? -- and settled into a table by the window to people watch.

At least this wasn't January in Maine.

[open!]

Comments

[thatwaslucky]

Rey, in her too-big coat, was planning on stopping in just long enough to get a drink on her way between training and working her study time in before movie night. But she hadn't actually run into Duke in a long time, so once she got her drink she stopped by to say, "Hi."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke looked up from his people watching and gave her a small smile. "Hey. How's it going?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Good. Busy," she said. "How about you?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Good. Just got back from a holiday trip a couple days ago." Duke nodded to the chair across from him. "You wanna sit? Catch up a bit?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Sure," she said, taking the seat. But leaving her coat on because it was winter and she was at least a silent baby about it. "Good trip?"

[betterthanaplan]

Winter could be hard! Duke also figured she wanted a quick out if this proved to be too awkward.

"Yeah," he said, sipping his coffee. "We headed down to the Keys over Christmas, and when we decided we weren't ready to come back to the island yet, headed up to Iceland. Spent New Year's Eve in New York."

[thatwaslucky]

"That feels like a lot," Rey said.

Of course she wasn't sure where the Keys were. Or what they were.

[betterthanaplan]

"Mostly just meant we spent a lot of time at sea," Duke said. "Which, you know, was fine with us."

The whole point had been to spend time alone together figuring things out, after all.

"How about you? I know they're not from your culture or anything, but did you do anything fun for the holidays?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Not unless the Christmas party counts," Rey said. On one hand, she wore a sweater. On the other hand, it'd been December 4. "I went to the New Year's party, too, but otherwise it was just a normal week."

[betterthanaplan]

"Right, yeah, I heard you hosted kind of a rager. Nicely done."

[thatwaslucky]

"Not me. That was all Summer and Annie's fault. I just had the big apartment and tolerance."

She didn't even have to clean up, that part was awesome.

[betterthanaplan]

"Well, well done Summer and Annie, then. I hope you at least had fun at it?"

[thatwaslucky]

"I did. And I even remember it."

She paused, and decided to go ahead and admit, "I was kind of surprised you didn't show."

[betterthanaplan]

"Really?" Duke blinked. "I . . . kinda figured you wouldn't want me there."

They hadn't exactly left things in a good place.

[thatwaslucky]

"We invited everyone," Rey shrugged. "That wouldn't have happened if I wasn't okay with you being there."

Of course she also hasn't thought things were in such a bad place that they wouldn't talk for months, so maybe that was on her.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded and shrugged. "Well, good to know. Luce and I had our own thing that night anyway."

[thatwaslucky]

"Hopefully you had fun," she said.

[betterthanaplan]

"I did, yeah," Duke confirmed. He lifted his coffee. "To fun. Hopefully we'll both have more of it this year."

[thatwaslucky]

"Hopefully," she said, lifting hers too. "Still plenty of time for things to happen."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke snorted. "Yeah, probably no point in hoping it'll be all fun."

[thatwaslucky]

"At the very least it's only a few months till the next crisis here," she agreed.

[betterthanaplan]

"Now there's a cheery thought." Duke took a long sip of his coffee, wondering if he maybe should have spiked it after all. "Well. No reason to focus on that, is there. We're not going to know what it'll be until it's here."

[thatwaslucky]

"No. I just like to be prepared for that stuff," Rey said with a shrug.

[betterthanaplan]

"You know, there's this group here on Earth," Duke said. "Called the 'Boy Scouts'. Gender issues aside, I think you'd fit right in. Their motto -- well, one of many, probably -- is 'be prepared'."

[thatwaslucky]

"It's a smart motto," Rey said. "They're not the ones with the cookies, right?"

[betterthanaplan]

“Those would be the Girl Scouts. Who are probably also generally prepared.”

[thatwaslucky]

"I like them better," Rey decided. "The food actually makes them more prepared."

Well it did.