Maintain The Right: WIP, dS fandom, 'Cravings'
“Fraser, I’ve had some of that water you Canadians call coffee.”
Okay, so we hadn’t found the Hand of Franklin. We’d searched until the snow began to melt and we’d had to return Frobisher’s dogs.
Now, we’re in Yellowknife, and Fraser just suggested that we go into a coffee store.
“I’m tellin’ ya Frase; if a cup needs more than eight m&ms to make it drinkable, then it’s not decent coffee.”
“Ray, I seem to recall you placing ten m&ms into the station coffee and then drinking it perfectly amiably.”
“My point precisely. And I don’t have any m&ms. Or smarties. Or even any, what was that weird brand your nutso friend in Iqaluit gave me?”
“Those would be Pebbles, Ray. His family sends them to him from New Zealand once a year.”
“Yeah, them. I don’t have any of those left, do I?”
The girl behind the counter is blinking at us.
“Uhm, sir?”
“One medium Chai Tea black in a china mug, please. My friend here would like one large coffee-” and here Fraser glanced at me, hesitating a moment before finishing, “four and four, please. Also in a china mug.”
The girl grinns cheerfully.
“That’ll be $2.64 please sir!” she chirps. Christ, her voice is annoying; after so much time out in the snow, I’ve gotten used to only hearing Fraser’s voice and the dogs barking. I nearly freaked when we got to Iqaluit.
She disappears, and Fraser’s frowning.
“This chain is known for its speed of service. Drinks such as this should only take fifteen-to-seventeen seconds for trained personnel to make. I wonder what could possibly be keeping her.”
And she’s practically bouncing back in, holding what I think might be my mug; it looks like a large, but you never could really tell with Canadian sizing. The coffee-girl dimpling at me now. Too perky, I bet she’s drinking half the merchandise.
“I heard what you were saying about the quality of the coffee in Canada, sir, and I felt perhaps you might benefit from the sort of thing I put into my own drink when I’m on my break,” she chatters, tapping the machinery in front of her for a few moments. “It was a good thing there wasn’t a lineup though.”
Picks up a straw, and opens it one-handed as she pours in coffee from the pot with the other hand, and now she’s stirring with that straw (seriously, a straw?)… I smell chocolate; I am taking back everything mean I just thought about her.
“I put some of the chocolate icing we use for the donuts into your drink for you, sir. I hope this makes it slightly more palatable. Hope you both have a wonderful day!”
“Thank you kindly, I hope you have a wonderful day as well,” Fraser’s saying genially. I tossed a dollar (yeah, weird, they use coins here, but I could get used to that) onto the counter for her.
Genially, shit, I’m starting to think like Frase speaks. Next thing you know I’ll be saying ‘Oh dear’ when what I really mean is ‘oh crap’.
Mmm… Chocolate and coffee. Nothing like it. Fraser’s watching me drink with one eyebrow raised.
“Good?”
“Not as good as Frannie makes, but yeah, this is dripolator, it’s pretty good.”
“I must admit, I have never seen you as somebody with discerning tastes in coffee, Ray.”
And that sentence throws me a curve. Because truth is, I’m not. I don’t usually obsess over the perfect brew, and I usually can’t tell the difference between the stuff that Frannie makes on her machine and the stuff I’ve usually got congealing in a pot in the kitchen (although the kitchen stuff tends to be a bit heavier and I’m more likely to find coffee grinds in the bottom of it).
“Yeah, well, maybe when you don’t use your tastebuds for much for ages, they start, a wazza word… lookin’ for? Anyway, maybe they start getting hungry for certain things.”
“Craving, Ray?”
“Yeah, that’s it. Craving. And my tastebuds have been craving decent coffee.”
“I see.”
Aw, geez, now he’s gonna blame himself for taking me away from my creature-comforts.
“Not that I don’t enjoy the instant stuff I’ve been having recently Frase, because I do, but sometimes…”
“Understood.”
Even though he doesn’t, not really, I can see it in his eyes because I know he doesn’t enjoy coffee, he hates the effects that caffeine takes upon a person, he took an opportunity while we were out in the snow to explain to me precisely why I was feeling so incredibly rundown and why the coffee was bad for me; he doesn’t completely understand, but he’s willing to try to comprehend for me.
Wow.
Comprehend. Yep. Definitely been hanging out with him too long.