JGoB, Sunday morning

[stykera]

Going to the bakery on the weekends was almost a routine for Stark and routines were useful. Routines were good for keeping himself more grounded and for keeping him from being stuck in his own head. At least some of the time that worked, anyway.

And then there was the fact that he just genuinely enjoyed the bakery. It was comfortable there and he did love his baked goods.

Today's special, which the staff seemed very proud of, were sugar cookies decorated with edible flowers.

Stark was sitting at a table with a plate of those flower cookies in front of him and a box with cupcakes, decorated with icing flowers rather than real ones, for later.



[Open, of course, for baked good or alien needs though I will disappear for a bit later this afternoon]

Comments

[flourish_or_perish]

Faye was up relatively early -- you know, early for her -- today. She was feeling much better than she had all week last week, and you know what that warranted? Cake for breakfast, that's what.

So Faye wandered into the bakery, still wearing a pair of oversized sunglasses as she ordered that cake and a big coffee to go with it, and it was only once that was done with her rambling order (and the staff was clearly irritated with her, oblivious though Faye was) that she noticed Stark.

"Morning, Stark!" she called cheerfully. Look how good a mood she was in. She was greeting people like she liked them and everything.

[stykera]

Cake for breakfast was a time honored tradition around here!

And awkward conversations were just a this weekend tradition, maybe. But maybe it wasn't? She'd said hello and maybe he just overthought everything.

"Morning, Faye."

[flourish_or_perish]

Pff, this was super normal for Faye. It helped that the pollen hadn't really done all that much in terms of changing her personality; she'd mostly just been pleased at how easy everything had been during that whole week. (Plus, you know, all that glorious attention.)

"I'm gonna sit with you," she decided, because asking was for other people, and strode over with her coffee and her cake to do exactly that. "Do your cookies have real flowers on them?"

Weird.

[stykera]

It had been a completely unprecedented level of attention for Stark though! And he still wasn't sure how to deal with that.

He certainly wasn't going to complain about the company so he nodded when she sat down.

"They do. Would you like one?"

[flourish_or_perish]

"I'm good. I didn't know you could eat flowers," Faye noted, peering closely at them. "Aren't most plants poisonous or something?"

Faye was wise in the ways of the world, clearly.

[stykera]

"These are safe to eat," Stark assured her. "Only some are poisonous. Definitely not all. Not these."

Some plants were people but why go down that road right now?

[flourish_or_perish]

Faye was clearly forgetting about things like, you know, vegetables. Plants being people might actually blow her mind.

"They're pretty," Faye noted, suspicious and skeptical. "Almost too pretty to eat."

[stykera]

Look, it was easy to forget vegetables sometimes. Some people lived off a diet of mostly sugar, or so it seemed. And plants being people might blow a lot of minds.

"They're for eating," Stark pointed out. "I promise they aren't poisonous. I wouldn't poison you."

He'd just take a bite to prove it.

[flourish_or_perish]

"I'm not worried about getting poisoned. I've been through worse," she said loftily, though she was still watching him with concern because she did not especially want to watch Stark be poisoned, either. "But I've just never heard of someone eating flowers."

Maybe it was a future thing?

[stykera]

Nobody at JGoB was going to poison Stark, Faye. Probably nobody on the island. Probably.

"I don't think there are that many you can eat, here," Stark said. "These are fine. And some others. It wasn't unheard of where I was before either."

The Scarrans definitely ate flowers!

"...If there's poison I'll take you to the clinic. I promise."

[flourish_or_perish]

"I appreciate that." Faye eyed him with just a little bit of suspiciobn before hesitantly reaching out to break off a little piece of one cookie and pop it into her mouth.

And after a moment, she commented, "You know, that's pretty much what I expected a flower cookie to taste like?" Like how they smelled, plus sugar. "Though honestly this would probably be a great vehicle for poison."

Just to say.

[stykera]

"You aren't planning on poisoning someone, are you Faye?" Stark asked, eyebrow raised.

He took another bite of his cookie before continuing. "I don't think anyone here deserves it."

[flourish_or_perish]

"Not today," Faye acknowledged, "and I don't know. The guy with the ice might deserve it."

It had only been a little over a week since prom. She had forgiven nor forgotten nothing.

[stykera]

"I don't recommend trying that," Stark said. "Although it was unnecessary. Even if the evening did end well..."

[flourish_or_perish]

"It did," Faye agreed with a totally comfortable smile. "But I didn't know you knew that guy."

Were you in cahoots with Anakin, Stark? It didn't seem like it, but never could be too sure.

[stykera]

That was a good smile to see. It helped to cut down on the awkwardness, a bit.

"I think..." Stark began. "I'm fairly sure it was the owner of that ship I borrowed."

Taking revenge being best served cold a little too seriously, maybe.

"It could have been someone else but I think it was him. Seemed like him."

[flourish_or_perish]

"So that was about you?" Faye asked, narrowing her eyes just a tiny bit.

So, like, she could blame you for getting doused, there, Stark? Could she just go ahead and make this a hundred percent your fault?

"I still like that you stole a ship," she added. She just also really disliked the whole ice thing.

[stykera]

"It wasn't just me," Stark protested. "I may have been a contributing factor. Or we were just convenient targets? I don't know. We were hardly the only ones trying to leave but I didn't see any other buckets of ice water or see anyone else leave soaked..."

Maybe it had been his fault?

"You have mentioned you enjoyed the ship stealing. Borrowing. It's not something that happens often..."

[flourish_or_perish]

"I feel like he picked on you because of the ship thing," Faye decided. Even if it wasn't true, she was going to decide that was the case, because it simply wasn't fair that Summer and her nerd hadn't gotten soaked, too, considering Faye had totally seen them heading for a closet, too.

That being said, the ship theft did make it a little better, actually. "You can call it borrowing all you want but it doesn't change anything," she added with a bright smile.

[stykera]

Stark would agree that it wasn't fair nobody else had a bucket of ice water dumped on them. There had been other guilty parties! And honestly he and Faye hadn't even been guilty yet. There had been no opportunity to do anything before the water hit.

"It may have been retaliation," Stark conceded with a little sigh. "For the ship. Or the class? Like the bed was. Could be both. Maybe he was just feeling cruel that evening. Or bored? And it was borrowing. We brought it back! Mostly unscathed. Maybe we shouldn't have."

[flourish_or_perish]

"I don't know why he'd decide he has to retaliate for the class," Faye declared, going ahead and helping herself to another cookie since no one was showing signs of being poisoned. (Yet.) "I mean, we weren't even the worst ones."

Obviously John and Hannibal and Lucille and Seivarden and Miguel -- especially Miguel -- were terrible, and Faye and Stark had just, you know, gone along with things. Innocents that they were.

[stykera]

"Because he could? Maybe he thought it was funny." Stark had not been amused in the slightest.

"We weren't the worst ones," he agreed, reaching for another cookie as well. "The class was Constantine's idea. At least we were there to chaperone when we were supposed to. We should have been rewarded for that at least instead of punished before we even had a chance to do anything wrong."

[flourish_or_perish]

"I mean, really, he acted without a reason to," Faye pointed out with a knowing raise of her brows. "I could have just wanted to show you something, you know. Could've been perfectly innocent."

Except how, you know, it wasn't. At all. And how Faye was never doing anything perfectly innocent.

[stykera]

"We weren't given a fair trial. No chance to defend ourselves," Stark said, nodding emphatically.

And, really, Faye had wanted to show him something. Just nothing that could possibly be construed as innocent.

"Though... I'm not sure anyone would believe it was innocent." Nothing about that week had been innocent.

[flourish_or_perish]

"Why, don't I radiate innocence?" Faye asked with a bright, incredibly-lacking-in-innocence smile.

She knew perfectly well that she did not.

"At least until proven guilty, all that."

[stykera]

"I don't think I could ever consider you innocent now," Stark said honestly.

[flourish_or_perish]

"I'll take that as a compliment," Faye decided.

Innocent people weren't very fun.

[stykera]

Stark smiled crookedly and looked down at the table.

"Well, it wasn't meant as an insult."

[flourish_or_perish]

Faye watched Stark for a moment before reaching out to kick him under the table. "Wasn't just the pollen, you know."

Like, she'd felt free enough to be as bold as she wanted, but Faye hadn't done anything last week that she hadn't at least thought about doing once or twice before.

[stykera]

Stark jumped, a little, at the kick. Not that it had hurt. It was just surprising.

"I didn't know," he admitted quietly. "Thought it was."

Baniks with half a face weren't exactly in high demand, in his experience.