Coffee with Fred

[killingsoftly]

He wasn't accustomed to having coffee later with people he'd so thoroughly seduced, but then, she'd been nice to him before that and after that and didn't seem to be running away, ans she'd offered to let him talk and he'd already apparently told her about Warren, so that made her slightly safer to talk to than the redhead who he barely knew.

He called her and invited her for coffee. He arrived at Starbucks a little early, parking the bike, then fidgeting outside on the step while he waited for her. He lit up one of his clove cigarettes, moving away from the door to the ashtray a bit further down. People might have given him disapproving looks on his own account, but at least no one coughed pointedly at him.

He was still fidgety, but at least the nicotine helped a bit. And there would be coffee. Which might make him fidget more. But it would be good and she was a calming sort and he might not end up talking about Warren at all, really, even as VERY confusing as things were now.

He leaned against the wall and tried to make himself stop fidgeting, which got him looks from the Barbie clones who walked by, flashing him an inviting smile. Bike. Leather jacket. Sunglasses. Cigarette. Too pretty for words. It was what he used to get such creatures in his bed to give him what he needed, but he was too fixated on Warren to do more than just smile back at them with a nod.

Some things were instinctual.

Comments

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"Is it?" He looked the slightest bit hopeful.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

Fred nodded.

"I think so, at least. You've known each other for a good while now, right?"

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"A few months..."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

Fred's voice fell to something softer.

"Then it's not just what you do, Devin. It's who you are. And I mean that as two very different things."

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

He smiled, a little shy, a little uncertain.

"You think so?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

"As much as I ever think so," so said with determination, finally pulling her hand away. "And I do a lot of thinking."

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes that can be dangerous," he said with a smile.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

"All my thinking?" She actually flushed a bit at that. "I know."

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

He watched her for a moment. "How are you?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

"I'm okay," she said honestly. "Doing better every day."

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

He nodded a little. "Things are...all right at home?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

"Things are...a learning process at home. I wanted to...tell I guess? Both of them? But I got educated by like, well everyone at once that I shouldn't. And that was hard at first. Still is, truthfully."

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

He nodded a little. "I didn't mean to make your life more difficult..."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

"I make my life more difficult Devin, it isn't anything you need to take responsibility for, okay?"

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

He nodded, but just a little.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

She looked at him more firmly.

"...okay?"

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"Okay," he repeated obediently.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

"And there ya go," Fred rewarded him with a smile. "That's better."

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

He smiled back.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

Fred finished off her coffee, and propped her chin up on her hands, happy to let him smile for a bit.

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"So, what have you been doing lately?"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

"Well, first I slept for those few days." And she gave him a very strict look that he was not to fret over that. "And even past that I spent the next few days napping. We're opening a school by the house in the fall, and I'm supposed to teach, so I spend a lot of time reading, and trying to make up interesting lesson plans. And I worked on the room some."

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"The room?" He asked curiously.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

"Right," she considered that. "There's this room, at the house, and they gave it to me to be 'mine', when we first moved in. I think the idea was it could be a ...sitting room, I guess. But I don't sit very well, so I used it for something else. I just brought a little of all of us into the room, and tried to make it blend as much as possinle.

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

He smiled. "That sounds like a nice use of the space."