The Perk- Monday afternoon

[thatwaslucky]

Getting coffee from someplace outside of her own kitchen still felt like a splurge a lot of the time, but some days after training she'd let herself get something. It wasn't like she was so busy that she couldn't stop for the length of time it took to drink something.

She'd seen someone else in front of her order something pink and covered in whipped cream, and went ahead and ordered one, just got something new. And that's how Rey ended up sitting at a table very focused on her strawberry frappucino and trying to mix the whipped cream in without ruining all of it. Like an adult.


[I have pre-trip seniorotis. Might as well post. Open!]

Comments

[justalittlerepressed]

A coffee break was a perfectly acceptable thing to do to fill the void while on shift. You needed coffee to stay awake for it all, right?

Right.

Look, he needed something to stay active with here.

But for the moment he was a little zoned out on that very pink drink that he was gonna have to get for Chris, he was just sure of it.

[thatwaslucky]

"It's very good," Rey said helpfully.

[justalittlerepressed]

"It looks like it's mostly sugar," Eddie replied, which was not a disagreement.

[thatwaslucky]

"But it doesn't taste like it, and that's the important part," she said, reasonably.

[justalittlerepressed]

"Ah, of course," Eddie said with a laugh. "Even if it looks cotton candy flavoured."

[thatwaslucky]

"Strawberry. So I hear that makes it healthy." It did not. Like even a little.

[justalittlerepressed]

"Oh, definitely," Eddie said, playing along with this one. "Practically a fruit smoothie."

[thatwaslucky]

"We're you going to get something else?" Rey asked.

[justalittlerepressed]

"I hadn't actually thought about it until I got here," he admitted, looking at the menu and not at the deeply unimpressed barista.

[thatwaslucky]

"The lattes are good. Though it's much easier to just get a regular coffee and add what you want," she told him.

[justalittlerepressed]

"I'm usually a 'whatever is fast and re-heats well in case we get a call' kind of guy, but there has yet to even be a call..."

But it was fine. He was doing fine.

[thatwaslucky]

"What kind of call?" Rey asked.

[justalittlerepressed]

"Oh, sorry," Eddie said, twisting in place to jerk a thumb back toward the fire station. "I'm a firefighter here. For all the emergencies that doesn't seem to happen."

[thatwaslucky]

"Oh! Well, for the day something does happen-" Hypothetically. "-I'm glad you're around," Rey said.
M

[justalittlerepressed]

"I don't want to say I'm hopeful for something to happen, but... it's very quiet compared to LA."

[thatwaslucky]

"I think it's very quiet compared to a lot of places," she said with a friend. "Maybe the next invasion will give you something to do."

[justalittlerepressed]

"Next... what?" Look, he'd been warned about the wildlife mostly.

[thatwaslucky]

"No one's told you about invasions yet?" Rey asked.

[justalittlerepressed]

"No, that sounds pretty bad." And dangerous, you know.

[thatwaslucky]

"It depends on what it is. I don't think the inflatables hurt anyone, but the murder clowns were rough," Rey said. "I promise I'm not making this up."

[justalittlerepressed]

"I think I'd feel better if you were," he had to admit.

[thatwaslucky]

"Sorry," she said, actually apologetic. "It's easier once you've been through it."

[justalittlerepressed]

"So, the supply checking is actually helpful at the station?" No, Eddie. It wasn't. But you do you.

[thatwaslucky]

"Maybe!" Oh Rey. So earnest. "Supplies have been helpful in the past."

She said, in a way that meant she was trying not to mention how they ended up in a hole for like a month.

[justalittlerepressed]

He would stock up on MREs, but only the good ones and then end up in a fight about what 'the good ones' even were.

"I'll make sure to keep working on that then." He was being useful! Yay!

[thatwaslucky]

"I'm Rey, by the way. Sorry for the bad info," she says.

[justalittlerepressed]

"Eddie," he replied. "Better to know now rather than later."

[thatwaslucky]

"This is true," Rey said. "How long have you been here now?"

[justalittlerepressed]

"Since that thing that kept people from sleeping?" hopefully that narrowed things down.

[thatwaslucky]

"You came in on that? I'm so sorry," Rey told him, making a face.

[justalittlerepressed]

"Buck had it worse than me," Eddie admitted. "Do you know Buck?"

It was a small town.

[thatwaslucky]

"We've been on the same team on Wednesdays but I don't think I've ever actually met him," Rey said.

[justalittlerepressed]

"You get dragged into that too?" Eddie would like to be excluded from the narrative of bad shirts, but he was goin' in anyway. Because reasons.

[thatwaslucky]

"Weekly," Rey nodded. "It's usually just like another kind of training, unless you have to dodge fish with your feet. Sometimes it's even fun."

[justalittlerepressed]

"I can safely say I've never had to do that in any training I've done in my life," Eddie replied, thinking Rey was also a little crazy like Buck. But she was also nice like Buck, so...

[thatwaslucky]

"It's different than a lot of people do," Rey admitted. "Mine is with Master Skywalker, too, so I try to make sure I do a good job."

Because she desperately needed approval.

[justalittlerepressed]

Okay, that made sense.

"And the terrible shirts?"

[thatwaslucky]

"He just likes to make people look stupid," Rey stated flatly.

[justalittlerepressed]

"That is what I thought it was," Eddie admitted with a sigh. "Okay, so tell me this.. How does he know who will be there?"

[thatwaslucky]

"I think if you show up, you're fair game," she said thoughtfully. "I don't know how he knows everyone's names. Maybe the squirrels?"

[justalittlerepressed]

"I don't know how I feel about finding that an acceptable answer. Does this mean I've settled in?" he asked.

[thatwaslucky]

"It at the very least means you're on your way and adjusting well," Rey smiled.

[justalittlerepressed]

As well as could he expected, really!

"How long have you been here for?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Three years in August. And then I was a student here before that," Rey said. "Long enough to be too used to things."

[justalittlerepressed]

"So, just completely blasé about it all," Eddie replied. Then had to joke, "Three years is all it takes?"

[thatwaslucky]

"I think really six," Rey said, considering. "But that's all."

[justalittlerepressed]

"What's another three?"