The Perk, Thursday Morning

[joan_of_bark]

A call to Janet that morning hadn't brought Pam the news she'd wanted; her Harley still wasn't home. Between that and the more recent, vivid memories of a crying Harley on her doorstep, a hint of concern was starting to creep in.

"Harley can handle herself," she muttered to herself, as she shuffled up to the counter at the Perk. She didn't come here often, but right now she needed something. "I want a--"

The barista took one look at her face and said, "We'll get the special coffee from the back."

"'Special coffee'," Pam muttered, watching her flee. "It's not 'special', it's just not murder coffee." Did she need to have the biodiversity talk with the staff again? Maybe she did.

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Comments

[knightinshinarmor]

Remy didn't usually bother buying coffee, but he was on his way back from the mainland -- and a very stupid superhero battle that ended up with him in the Inner Harbor -- and something hot and caffeinated and not made by him sounded perfect.

"Morning," he greeted Pam with a nod. "Take out any good terrorists lately?"

[joan_of_bark]

Pam looked away from her drink, and-- oh, it was him. "No, but I've eaten a building," she said dryly, and sipped her coffee. "Interrupted anyone's work lately?"

[knightinshinarmor]

"Who hasn't?" Remy asked. Did he mean eating buildings, or interrupting work?

Eh, either way.

[joan_of_bark]

Pam grunted, irritated. "You work for Harley, right?"

[knightinshinarmor]

"You could say that."

He . . . hadn't actually ever gotten around to asking her for a salary, for instance.

[joan_of_bark]

"Here's some advice," Pam said. "Make sure there are sweet things in the fridge and you talk to her as little as possible over the next week."

She threw Remy a serious look. "For your own wellbeing."

[knightinshinarmor]

Remy's eyebrows went up, and he nodded seriously.

"Don't talk to her every week anyway," he said. "But yeah, I can do that."

He might be thinking about sneaking giant decadent desserts into her apartment.

. . . Maybe he'd be better off dropping them off at her door. Part of being a good thief was knowing when not to break in somewhere. (It wasn't his biggest skill as a thief, but still.)

[joan_of_bark]

Pam held her gaze steadily on Remy's face for another moment, just to make sure he got the seriousness of the situation.

Then she raised her coffee and took a big sip.

He made her wary, still.

[knightinshinarmor]

She was not at all alone in that. His tendency to make people wary had resulted in, among other things, him nearly dying in Antarctica.

Twice.

He sipped his own coffee.

"So. You and mon patron are close?"

[joan_of_bark]

"She's an alternate universe version of my girlfriend," Pam said mildly.

So.

Complicated?

[knightinshinarmor]

"Ah." Remy nodded. Then considered if an alternate Rogue lived on the island. He grimaced sympathetically. "Désolé."

[joan_of_bark]

"It's fine." Well. It was mostly fine, now that Pam was back together with her own Harley. "It's just strange, seeing a version of her go through her... old style of break-ups."

[knightinshinarmor]

"She broke up with someone?"

Wasn't she dating Marc? Hmmm. Maybe he should bring the guy a beer.

[witchoftheflesh]

"Have you tried chicory coffee?" Adrian asked, giving Pam a grin from his table. "No caffeine, sadly, but significantly less murder."

[joan_of_bark]

"Sometimes I need the caffeine to prevent myself from committing murder," Pam said. She walked over to him, holding her cup.

[witchoftheflesh]

"Yaupon tea from the yaupon holly," Adrian offered. "Indigenous and caffeinated."

[joan_of_bark]

"Technically from a little further south than us," Pam pointed out. "But we'd have to convince the baristas first."

And they were making themselves scarce the second Pam looked at them.

[witchoftheflesh]

"Baristas? I thought we were being waited on by smoke outlines," Adrian said with a soft laugh.

[joan_of_bark]

"They're cowards," Pam said, sighed, and sat down. "Sorry about... everything, yesterday."

[witchoftheflesh]

"Nothing for you to apologize for," Adrian said. "It seemed like there was a lot going on there. And it wasn't made easier by having a random guy show up naked in the middle of it."

[joan_of_bark]

"Her boyfriend broke up with her," Pam said wryly. "It... was definitely not Harley at her best."

[witchoftheflesh]

"Ooof," Adrian said, brows drawing together. "Yesterday?"

[joan_of_bark]

"The day before that," Pam said. "She showed up at my doorstep in the evening, crying and unintelligible."

[witchoftheflesh]

Even not sobbing Harley trended towards unintelligible, or so Adrian's few conversations with her had suggested, but he wasn't the kind of man to say that even about someone who hadn't just had their heart broken.

"I'm glad she knew she could come to you," he said, since to him, Pam was absolutely a good person to go to for emotional support. "How's she doing today?"

Better, hopefully, since Joan was out and about?

[joan_of_bark]

"I think she's moved on to the next phase of her break-up routine," Pam said wryly. "I expect something is going to get robbed, blown up, or set on fire over the next few days."