The Perk | Tuesday Afternoon

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie didn't really have anything better to do today after her training than to head to the Perk - it was cold enough out that there was a certain appeal to getting something cozy to sip on and doing some people-watching.

And once she had a latte and had picked out a chair to curl up in, she was all set to screw around on her phone for awhile when she made the mistake of glancing at a table with some discarded reading material on it. And there, with yesterday's newspaper and a Dan Brown paperback she'd continue ignoring, sat a pristine, hardcover copy of Extra-Ordinary: My Life as Number Seven, by Vanya Hargreeves.

"....what." Annie actually looked around the shop like this might be some kind of prank, or something? Maybe whoever had left it here was still here? But it was empty except for her and the baristas (who took exactly zero interest in her, so, probably not their book) before her gaze returned to the book.

And on the one hand, she was very proud of herself for how long she stayed in her seat, just eyeing the book from across the way and then trying to go back to her phone. She had Queen Maeve's Instagram to check - a book about her boyfriend's incredibly-messed up childhood, written by his estranged sister? Pff, not nearly as interesting as what Maeve had for breakfast, okay?

On the other...it really didn't matter how long she ignored the book, because she ultimately did reach over and pick it up. She didn't open it right away, but...okay, she could look at the cover a little, since she had never seen a picture of Vanya and that was a legitimate thing to be interested in. And maybe there was, like, a blurb on the back? (And then she would get rid of it. Because this thing seemed like it was placed here specifically to tempt her.)

(And maybe she'd read the inside dust jacket flap, okay.)

(But that was it.)

[Waiting for one in particular but it's an open coffee shop, yo.]

Comments

[hatesparadise]

Danny was in for coffee that didn't come from the station. Which a guy could only drink so much of before they needed some ridiculous concoction with whipped cream and sugar.

Also, the donuts were all gone by the time he got over to them.

"Hey," he said, nodding over at Annie once he caught sight of her.

[defenderofdesmoines]

You know what didn't look guilty at all? The way Annie had startled and dropped the book - which she had just started to peek into - onto the floor.

"Oh, hi," she said, super-casually as she leaned down to totally, so casually retrieve it.

[hatesparadise]

Danny paused and nodded slowly like he was graciously allowing her to think that wasn't weird at all. "That another vampire book?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"...no," Annie said slowly. "Um, no, it's actually Diego's sister's book. It was just, like, sitting on the table here."

Like a trap.

[hatesparadise]

"Diego's sister's book?" YOU NEED TO EXPLAIN, ANNIE. "I'd say he never mentioned that, but he talks about his personal life about as much as Steve, which is to say not at all."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Do you know how he's one of seven?" Annie asked, and like, if she idly thumbed through the book a little while talking to Danny, here, that was so not the same as actually reading it, was it? "One of his sisters wrote a book about their childhood. 'Cause it was, like, really...unusual."

And all of the unusual stories were, like, right there, in her hands.

[hatesparadise]

"He mentioned that and a monkey mostly to be an asshole." Because Diego. But Danny was able to read through some lines and be deeply concerned about how the guy reacted to normal stuff. "How unusual we talkin'?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Like, his dad numbered them according to how powerful they were and was a total abusive dickwad," Annie offered, tapping the Number Seven on the cover. "Vanya here was the only one who didn't have powers so she got left out of a lot of stuff, and like...her perspective on it might be kind of interesting."

And also it might be kind of wrong to look, and she should bring this book to Diego right now.

"And the monkey's real." If, you know, an ape, technically.

[hatesparadise]

Well, if she wanted to see Danny's temper for a brief moment before he got it under control with a deep breath and a clench of his jaw, she succeeded!

"Sonovabitch." Now he had to go hug the knife happy idiot!

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I know." Annie was at least briefly distracted from the book in her lap by that reaction, since, you know, that largely summed up how she felt about the whole thing. And she didn't even get into the whole crimefighting thing, or the tattoos, or the fact that the numbers were in place of their names. "I swear, I can never meet his dad. I don't trust my temper."

[hatesparadise]

"You know what? I might be in the same boat." Might. He managed to not get snippy with Doris most of the time.

Mostly because they avoided each other for some odd reason.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Some strange, strange reason.

"Their dad is awful," Annie said, because it bore emphasis, and now she was back to turning the book over in her hands again. "But like, also, Vanya kind of is, too, 'cause I don't think she checked with anyone before writing this thing. Which, like, I guess is her right, but...."

And it probably had all kinds of stories in it that would just make her want to go murder Sir Reginald even more.

[hatesparadise]

She really liked Steve's ex, though! Not that they were on the same emotional level or anything.

"Oh, it's one of those," Danny said, feeling a little guilty for really wanting to read it now.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie drummed her nails on the cover of the book, looking pained. "I already peeked a little." Only a very little. "But yeah, it's one of those."

Which, you know, meant that Diego wouldn't want either of them even touching it, so...Annie was already a little screwed, there.

[hatesparadise]

"Well," Danny began, taking a seat across from her to look at the book. "We should tell him it's here so it's not a betrayal of trust."

But he still wanted to peak. Look, he'd want to do the same thing if Mary wrote a tell all book about the McGarrett bullshit.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"We should," Annie agreed emphatically, reluctantly holding it out so Danny could look at the cover. "I feel like I've already looked at it too much."

And yet also not enough. There were hundreds of pages. (Though, Diego had said Vanya was kind of a shit writer, so maybe she just needed an editor?)

[hatesparadise]

"What did you see in there?" Danny asked, reaching out to take the book so he could inspect the cover.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Their training schedule," Annie admitted slowly, guilt written all over her face as she handed it over. "Diego studied ancient Greek as a child, apparently. And Shakespeare."

She would be rescinding her earlier comment about she thought they'd make a bad pub trivia team, yep.

[hatesparadise]

"Sounds like one of those schools my ex wants Grace to go to," Danny said, looking at the meek author on the cover. "But I assume it's not like that at all."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Not unless psychological abuse was part of the curriculum," Annie said, and here she was feeling bad for Vanya again, since she clearly hadn't been spared in that department. "And presumably those schools let their students have more than a half hour a week of recreation time." She'd gotten that far, yeah.

[hatesparadise]

Danny's grip on the book tightened at that. "No. No, it wouldn't be."

Or he'd end up raising hell.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie frowned, glancing at the book again. "So what're we gonna do with it?"

Because right now, Annie's conscience was fighting a valiant battle to keep her from reading more of it - she was literally tapping her foot with the nervous energy that was starting to build up - but her curiosity was piqued to the point that it was also all she could really think about.

[hatesparadise]

"We can't just throw it out. Someone might grab it." Which was important to prevent.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"No, exactly, that's probably how it ended up here in the first place." Or else the island was messing with her. "We could...destroy it."

Not that she had a lot of ideas how, just yet. She could shred it, page by page (but then she'd be tempted to read the pages as she fed them into a shredder.)

[hatesparadise]

"I've got a grill on the lanai." And then people could wonder what the hell they were doing using a grill in the middle of an East Coast winter.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"...I mean, I could do it faster than that," Annie offered, holding her hand back out for the book. Because yeah, Annie, you have burny superpowers. "Not that I normally endorse burning books, but."

[hatesparadise]

"You can?" Were they gonna set off a fire alarm here?

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yeah. Have you not seen the thing I do?" Annie asked, quirking a little half-smile at him. "But it'll have to be outside."

'Cause yeah, they would set off sprinklers or something in here, and the baristas were already watching this exchange warily.

[hatesparadise]

"Okay, let me get my coffee." Because he needed coffee to witness this destruction.

Give her a minute to be tempted by the book again too.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Goddammit, Danny, that was exactly what was happening, and now Annie was sitting here with the book again and, like, jiggling her knee around for a solid few seconds before she picked it up to read the 'about the author' section in the back.

That wasn't so bad, right? Diego never talked about Vanya. Annie knew nothing about her.

...not that this little blurb was shedding a lot of light on her, either, since this was a very nondescript description.

[hatesparadise]

Look, he was trusting her here!

"C'mon, c'mon. I'll buy you a beer or something to pretend this never happened.

Diego was still getting a goddamn hug.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Okay. Right." Annie was going to drown in her guilt at this rate, cycling back and forth between temptation to read the book and guilt for even considering it. (Vanya played the violin, apparently.)

She led the way outside, holding the book in one hand and her latte - because look, she wasn't that distracted - in the other, and took a few steps away from the shop before setting the book carefully on the ground. "Okay, you ready? Watch your eyes."

[hatesparadise]

"I didn't really bring my sunglasses," he replied dryly, but squinted and looked a little bit away from the book. Because he preferred to not get himself hurt, thanks.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie declined to point out that sunglasses would actually not help, but at least he got the idea. She illuminated her hand and, careful of her aim, shot a bright blast of heat at the book.

Which immediately caught fire, because, you know, books are made of paper. But Annie still fired two more blasts in rapid succession, just to be safe.

[hatesparadise]

"Never show that to Steve. Never." Which was Daniel being accepting of the weird as hell powers, you see.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"They don't call me Starlight for nothing," Annie said, actually smiling over at him a little proudly in spite of the circumstances. (Which might have looked a little weird, considering her eyes were glowing still.) "Steve has sort of seen it. He's seen me turn on a blender without my hands, anyway." But not the blasty part.

[hatesparadise]

"That's helpful. Things that cause things to blow up and Steve are a bad mix for my stress levels," Danny replied. "You don't want to give me an ulcer, right?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Definitely not. Steve doesn't get to know about the blasty hands." Until he unavoidably got to see it in action, of course. "I think you guys just like, find enough explosions on your own that I don't need to go around creating them for you on demand."

[hatesparadise]

Danny sighed heavily. "Yeah, unfortunately we do. I think the popcorn machine is safe for another few months at least."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Does Steve have a problem with the popcorn machine?" Annie asked curiously. "What'd it ever do to you guys?"

[hatesparadise]

"Somehow every time I get dragged into a rickshaw chase here, something crashes into it and there's an explosion." NO. NONE OF IT MADE SENSE TO HIM EITHER.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"...do you guys have, like, a curse on you?" Annie wondered, stepping forward to stamp out the book a little bit. "That doesn't seem possible."

[hatesparadise]

"Having been Steve's partner for four years now... nothing would surprise me." Wait until work put them in couples therapy.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, imagine if Steve had powers. Maybe that is Steve's power."

God, Annie, no, that was all terrible.

[hatesparadise]

Danny raised a hand to stop her there because she was trying to drive him insane, wasn't she?