A breath in time that's yours and mine, it belongs to only us

[trappedbyhate]

[locked to Ianto Jones, timey-wimey backdated to a few days before Iris's death]

After much harassment from a certain fae, Mio is actually taking some time to rest and allow herself to recuperate some from all of the strain she's put herself under ever since Iris was attacked. She's barely even seen Ianto lately, and she's really begun to miss

Comments

[physics_magic]

Spencer is standing outside of the kitchen listening to the sound of someone moving about inside. This does not line up with his plan of avoiding people but he needs to get something to eat and more than that,, he needs to get coffee.

He sucks in a deep breath, closing his eyes and stepping through the door.

The smell of food makes his stomach growl but he doesn't say anything, just walks to the fridge and starts picking through it's contents. He's not certain if he sho9uld say hello or if she would even want him to. Perhaps she's of a similar mindset to himself and has no real desire to deal with people, he can't be certain.

[trappedbyhate]

Mio can feel Spencer's anxiety even before he came through the door. Because of all the time she's spent searching for the CLF, her psychic perception has been on overdrive recently so it's a lot harder for her to block out the emotions of people nearby.

"Hey, I haven't seen you around much," Mio says, taking the initiative to start a conversation since she can tell that Spencer's not going to. "I'm Mio. I work for Torchwood, the group that runs this Tower. Would you like something to eat? I'm cooking up some bacon, sausage, and eggs right now--I can put some more on for you if you'd like."

[physics_magic]

He stiffens as she begins speaking and turns to watch her. He's not entirely certain what to say, it was an unexpected invitation but he is hungry.

"Sure," he agrees after a moment, putting on a small smile. "Thank you, I appreciate it." He shuts the fridge and starts making coffee instead.

He feels almost guilty not saying anything else. She's clearly making an effort to be friendly and he ought to at least meet her half way. "So you work for Torchwood," he starts, the words feeling awkward in his mouth. "That...must not get dull."

[trappedbyhate]

"What are you in the mood for? Breakfast, dinner...? I can cook just about anything. ...Here, this bacon is almost done, go ahead and grab some." Mio scoops several strips of sizzling bacon up off the griddle with her spatula and dumps them onto a plate to cool. And before Spencer can protest she's putting more strips of bacon onto the griddle to start cooking. It only takes a matter of minutes to cook bacon anyway, and the rest of her food isn't done yet.

"Well, that's the understatement of the century," Mio says with a laugh, though not an unkind one. "I can think of any number of words to describe working at Torchwood, but 'dull' is definitely not one of them."

[physics_magic]

There's something vaguely surreal about all this but he tries not to pay too mucyh mind to it. Instead he just shakes his head. "Breakfast is fine," he says, finishing up the coffee and picking up the plate. "You really don't have to do this." But he's not going to say no because it's food and right now he knows he should really eat something substantial.

"I can think of any number of words to describe living in this city but 'dull' isn't one of them," he counters with a small laugh of his own. "Working for them has to be at least ten times as bad."

[trappedbyhate]

"Nonsense," Mio says firmly. "It's barely any extra work for me, and I enjoy cooking anyway. Any dietary restrictions I should know about? I'd hate to cook you something you're allergic to." Mio's can tell that Spencer is going to be too shy to tell her if he's actually in the mood for something specific so she's not even going to bother to ask right now. Maybe if they get to know each other better he'll eventually get the confidence

[physics_magic]

He shakes his head at her, then peers down at the food. Prodding it with a fork, be breaks off a small piece and chews it carefully, even if it is just a little too hot to be comfortable. He doesn't entirely care

He listens carefully, taking in everything she says and when it all finally comes to an end, he can't help[ but laugh a little. "No, it doesn't look like it." He picks up another piece of bacon as he considers all of that. "Could you not recruit people to help you with the more mundane stuff? Granted, I'm sure this is something you've considered already so I guess the better question is, why aren't you able to?"

[trappedbyhate]

"Oh, there used to be a whole group," Mio says. "When there were seven of us, we were busy, but everything was pretty comfortably under control. But this is Chicago. Sometime people just....vanish without a trace, you know? And with the CLF more active recently we've had more problems to take care of and fewer people to help take care of said problems." She grimaces a bit. She doesn't really want to say that Torchwood is essentially down to three people right now, four including Gwen. That's sensitive information.

Mio cracks a couple of eggs into a bowl and starts whisking them together. "You want anything in your eggs? Tomatoes, onions, spinach, cheese...? I can make you an omelet." She gestures at some small piles of diced veggies on a cutting board near the stove.

"By the way, I don't think I caught your name. It seems a bit impolite to be going 'Hey you' at you all night." She smiles at him.

[physics_magic]

he nods. "Yeah, I didn't take into account the Rift's habit of taking people." He smiles weakly. "I think there's still a part of me that's trying to rebel and tell me all of this isn't possible." He takes another piece of bacon shakes his head a little.

His eyes go to the veggies and he finds himself shrugging. Why not,, he was already imposing on her as it stands and it sounds good. "That would be great," he says with a small smile.

"No," he admits. "You didn't. I'm Spencer. Again, thank you for this."

[trappedbyhate]

"Ah, denial," Mio says with amused nostalgia in her voice. "I was very good at that, once upon a time." As she's saying this, she starts putting some of the vegetables on the griddle to pre-cook, since vegetables take longer to cook than eggs. "You should have seen the place I used to live. Chicago's practically mundane in comparison." Populated with a statistically improbable number of nutjobs and psychopaths, yes, but at least the laws of physics applied relatively consistently here. Not so much in the Nexus

[physics_magic]

"It's hard to imagine it," he admits with a laugh. "Well, it's hard to imagine living it. I could come up with scenarios that would make Chicago pale in comparison but there's a difference between theorizing and actually living it." And it's true, he's thought of a myriad of ways that Chicago could be much worse in an attempt to help himself adjust to the idea that he';s actually living here but it's only marginally worked

[trappedbyhate]

"The Nexus had a complete disregard for normal Earth logic and the laws of physics, but it was crazy in a very enjoyable way," Mio says. "I lived in a sentient house, for one thing. Her name's Uchiko-chan. She's actually here now--she managed to find a way to come through the Rift herself on Christmas. Would you like to meet her?" Mio's demeanor lightens substantially while talking about Uchiko-chan. It's clear that Mio loves Uchiko-chan very much; she almost considers Uchiko-chan to be her adopted daughter

[physics_magic]

"...A sentient house?" He can't help but smile. "Sure! I mean, I'd love to if you don't mind." It's fairly obvious that she doesn't but he feels the need to state it nonetheless. He's already taken up her time and he certainly wasn't planning to be down here this long but well, plans have seemed to change.

"You're not the first person to say that," he says with a shrug. "I did though. I was in the FBI, working in the Behavioral Analysis Unit." He moves around the food on his plate for a moment. "It doesn't seem like there's been much use for profilers in Chicago though." Which is a lie, he knows it is but he never quite found himself in the right state of mind to actually do something and that was before Christmas.

He swallows down about half the omelet before he pauses to watch her cook. It's...pleasant, even though he barely knows her, it's nice to sit here eating something good and talking. It feels relatively normal, a feeling that Chicago rarely elicits.

[where_thou_art]

"Ohhh, the BAU," Mio says, nodding as Spencer explains. "That explains it. And you know, I could definitely find a use for your skills if you wanted to help. I'd like to think I'm pretty good at reading people, but most of what I know is self-taught or from books. Your profiling skills are probably a lot better than mine." She laughs a bit self-deprecatingly.

"And of course I don't mind if you meet Uchiko-chan! I'd love to introduce you two. She gets lonely sometimes because I spend so much time working and she doesn't know many other people yet. She'll be so excited to make a new friend." Mio smiles.

Uchiko-chan! There's someone I want you to meet, Mio projects to her psychically.

:: kk~ ❀ Coooming! :D :: she calls back to Mio.

There's a soft pop! and there is suddenly a young girl in a schoolgirl uniform with a grey vest and a red plaid skirt appears in the room. She runs over to Mio and hugs her around the waist. "Uchiko-chan, I'm cooking, you should know better," Mio admonishes gently. The girl pouts a bit, but she

[physics_magic]

He's honestly not sure how to react to that. On one hand, it might be good to have something to do, something to put his mind on. On the other hand, he's not sure he trusts himself enough to go back to work.

In the end though,, he winds up smiling and replies, "I'd be happy to help in any way I could."

His eyes widen as she appears and he can't help but watch in fascination as the two interact. It's more than a little interesting, to say the very least.

"Reid," he says with a small smile, waving back. "I don't mind," Granted, it's something that has never happened to him before, so he may mind after this but he's willing to give the whole psychic communication thing a try.

He looks at the screen, then at Uchiko-chan and laughs. She is amusingly enthusiastic and he's not entirely sure what to do with that but he's hoping he can get by.

[trappedbyhate]

"I've been in charge of the investigation of the CLF," Mio says. "It's been nothing but dead ends lately. Maybe a new set of eyes will help us get the breakthrough we need." She lets out a bit of a frustrated huff. Trying to get info on the CLF has been nothing but trouble. Every time she thinks someone has brought her a lead it just peters out.

:: Hajimemashite, nice to meetcha, Spenspen! :: Uchiko-chan says.

Mio gets a bit of a stricken look on her face as Uchiko-chan utters the nickname 'Spenspen.' "...She likes to give people nicknames. Just let her know if you don't like it and she'll stop." If this were an anime, Mio'd be sweatdropping so much right now. Luckily, that's just when Mio's food finishes cooking, so she serves it up onto a plate and grabes some utensils. "Why don't we sit down?" she asks.