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

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

Fred felt a little guilty, question after question, and she made a mental decision not to push much further.

"What'd depressed you? Him, or...and then things got said?"

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

He shrugged slightly. "I don't know. Sometimes I just get depressed."

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

"It's okay," she reassured him quietly. "You don't have to explain that to me."

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

He nodded a little.

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

"...if this was a story?" Because that helped her work through things. "What would've happened next?"

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"After the fight?" He smiled a little. "Our first kiss would have happened, if it was a story."

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

Fred tucked her legs up in the chair, heedless of her surroundings, and listened.

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"But it didn't."

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

There was a definite huff of a breath, at that.

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

He arched an eyebrow at her.

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

She watched the eyebrow cautiously.

"Nobody should be that good at that," Fred pointed out fairly. She needed to get her timeline straight, if she was going to understand things, and why and when they'd changed. There was only a few markers for that.

"Was the fight before or after..."

She somehow managed to point at herself, and tuck unruly hair behind her ear all at once.

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"Before."

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

She just nodded.

"Something obviously changed somewhere in all of it though."

That wasn't her best, Fred knew. But you had to have specifics to actually be specific.

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"He threw a fireball at me?"

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

"He did....he cando...."

She'd skipped a whole chapter somewhere.

"He can do that?"

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

Oh. Shit.

"I don't think people are supposed to know...."

Though he seemed rather casual about it.

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

"It's okay," she reassured him, voice light, but quiet. "I think pretty much everyone I know is...special. I've got a dozen specials to keep close."

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

He smiled, just a little and nodded.

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

"Vampires, Immortals, Slayers and Seers, I've got quite the collection, somehow."

She didn't tell him who was who, so that seemed safe.

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"I've heard of Slayers, but never met one."

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

"One girl in all the world..." Fred recited each word carefully, then shrugged, a flush on her cheeks.

"Sorry, I've been reading a lot lately." She smiled. "When I first came back? It felt like Slayers were all I ever heard about. Well, one specific one, over and over and over again, just her."

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"Oh?"

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

Fred just blinked and tried to figure out what the 'oh' was in refrence to? Which part of the ramble...

[killingsoftly.livejournal.com]

"They talked about one a lot?"

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

"Buffy."

And Fred still mamanged to say her name exactly they way it'd been said back then. A little bit of awe, and reverence, love, and saddness, and if you were Cordy? Annoyance.

All at once, all in that one word.