The Perk, Friday Afternoon

[borealpriestess]

It was a holiday for the Aeslin mice and Verity had escaped the hotel room as soon as she'd could. One of the high priestesses had started making hopeful eyes at her while mentioning the possibility of a benediction. Verity was not prepared to offer some kind of prayer-slash-speech for a group of mice before at least two cups of coffee. And maybe a

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[breakfastlover]

Mike had been out on the mainland making a delivery out of his workspace there. Apart from Caritas tomorrow, that was his work week done by Friday afternoon, for once. He'd earned some kind of a ridiculous pastry and a good damn cup of coffee.

And that was why he ambled in right now.

[borealpriestess]

Verity looked up to spot the one person she'd managed to meet on this island. She'd spent the better part of her time being ignored in favor of preplays in Baltimore getting to know the local cryptid scene to meet any of her actual human neighbors.

But she had found a Madhura bakery, so it wasn't a total loss.

Still, seeing a familiar face brought a grin to her own and Verity gave him a wave from her table. "Here for that coffee I owe you?" she asked. "Hard to offer you one when I forget to get anything but your name."

[breakfastlover]

Mike looked up and grinned back at her. "Verity, hi!" he said. "Here I thought you'd just used me for my muscles."

Hey, it happened sometimes! Though not in a very serious way.

"Could definitely use that coffee right now."

[borealpriestess]

"I'd never do that," Verity said, trying to look as innocent as possible. "For one thing, I might need your help again when I finally get that apartment."

She winked at him and strolled over to the register. "I'll pay for whatever he's having," she told the barista, before leaning against the counter and looking at him again. "In appreciation for those muscles."

[breakfastlover]

Was Mike cheesy enough to flex his arm for that? You bet your ass. Even if he immediately chuckled and dropped his arm back down, afterwards.

He put in an order for his coffee and one of the giant muffins. "For my muscles." It was very important to make the distinction. Then he turned a little more towards her. "So hey, you haven't run off yet."

[borealpriestess]

Was Mike cute enough to get away with it? You bet his ass he was.

"It's going to take a lot more than some stairs and a couple of parallel universes to do that," she said. Especially not after the phone call she'd had with her father about it. He'd practically ordered her to stay and find out more. "Okay, actually, that's not true. A few more stairs and I might have thought about it."

[breakfastlover]

"Well, totally selfishly, I'm gonna say it's a good thing the stairs stopped when they did, then," Mike said. And smirked, just a bit. "Because that would've been a loss."

[borealpriestess]

"And not just because you were tired of hauling that damn thing up the stairs?" Verity asked, smirking right back.

[breakfastlover]

"Might've factored in, somewhat," Mike replied, half-teasing, half... Look, there were better things to be doing in life than lugging a Barbie Dream House around a town with too many stairs. "But mostly, yeah, no. Mostly, I'm just... interested in seeing you stick around, 's all."

[borealpriestess]

The spark of interest in her eyes kindled a little higher. "That so?" she asked, leaning forward a bit. "Well, I'm sticking around for the next year if that helps any."

[breakfastlover]

His eyebrows bounced. "Yeah? You already made plans for the long term?"

[borealpriestess]

"Just for the year," Verity said. "I agreed to help my dad with some research on the local wildlife while I decide what I want to do. So I'm here for the year to help with that and then..." she spread her hands. "The world is my oyster, I guess."

[breakfastlover]

"Year's a pretty long time." Said the dude who'd been here for getting closer to five. "Hey, welcome to Fandom. Gonna be a wild ride before you go off in exploration of oysters."

[borealpriestess]

"So you mentioned," Verity said with a wink, heading back towards her table as the barista handed Mike his coffee and muffin. She nodded towards the other chair, inviting him to sit with her if he wanted. "But it's seemed like a pretty quiet town to me so far."

[breakfastlover]

"Yeah, it does that sometimes," Mike replied, shrugging one shoulder, then reaching for his coffee and pastry, all in one continuous movement. "Lays low and shit. Then surprises us with random crap when we start getting too cozy."

[borealpriestess]

"What kind of random crap?" Verity asked, unable to think of something a town could do that would be a surprise.