Day 27: Lunch

[norainu]

Renji wasn't so certain what this grilled cheese thing was all about, but he liked the sound of some soup. Even if it was strange western soup, well... there wasn't anything bad people could do to soup, in his experience. His good mood was starting to fray at the edges, a little, from the strain of dealing with the Ichimaru issue, and even more from what had been on the bulletin board earlier.

He'd never had difficulty simply writing something before. But...

He shook his head as he entered the line. He didn't want to think about it. He wanted to hold on to the tenuous equilibrium he'd managed to find.

Renji got himself a large bowl of soup, water, and even one of those sandwiches, just to try it. Old habit, recently awakened, had him over to one side of the cafeteria, where the fewest people possible would have the chance to pass behind him. He sat there with his back toward the wall and started eating.

Comments

[nadine-he-loves.livejournal.com]

Grilled cheese and soup? Just like mother used to make. Great. Nadine rolled her eyes as she took her tray and sat down at the closest available empty seat. Across from some guy she didn't know. Which described more than half of the people here, actually.

"So," Nadine said, never having been one for formal pleasantries, "what's your story?"

[1mperturbable.livejournal.com]

His eyes flicked to the female that took a seat across from him. Cloud did not recognize her at all, but it was fairly busy for lunch and the seat had been empty.

He raised an eyebrow at the imprompto question. He supposed they all had stories of some sort. "I am a delivery driver," he said simply. "You?"

[nadine-he-loves.livejournal.com]

"Oh, if that's how we're doing it... I'm an interior designer." Nadine took a bite of her sandwich. Not the chatty sort, was he? Too bad Javert was already talking to someone. She'd liked having breakfast with him. Even if he was weird and from a hundred years ago.

"I'm Nadine."

[1mperturbable.livejournal.com]

Looking at it, Cloud thought her profession was vastly more interesting than his own. "Just houses or apartments?" Well, were they not an odd pair? A driver and a designer sitting at a table together.

"Cloud," he replied softly. "Pleasure to meet you," he added as he picked at the cheese on the edge of his bread. "Have you been here a long time?"

[nadine-he-loves.livejournal.com]

"Apartments, mostly. I mean, I've done houses, but it's mostly just apartments. Which is fine by me, houses are a bitch to get done." Now this was weird. Sitting here, talking about work, like they were two normal people just having lunch.

"Cloud? Wow, were your parents hippies?" Nadine couldn't help but laugh some. "So, Cloud. What do you deliver?"

[1mperturbable.livejournal.com]

Nodding his head a little, Cloud was not too sure what to say. He was completely thrown by the question about his parents and sat stiffly for a moment as he considered the question. No, he was quite certain his mother was a normal person in and around the time he had been born.

He cleared his throat after a moment and rested his elbows on the table instead. "Whatever people want me to deliver," he said off-handedly. "Vehicle parts, shop materials, parcels that are too expensive to send by mail... that sort of thing."

[nadine-he-loves.livejournal.com]

"Oh, you're a courier," Nadine said, waving her hand. Better than a delivery boy, then. That was a job for desperate teenagers. Maybe he was a desperate teenager? She could never tell people's ages.

"We have those all over New York. Had them, it's gone now and they're all dead. End of the world and all."

[1mperturbable.livejournal.com]

That was a fancy word for his line of work. Cloud decided it was better not to correct, since they were obviously from different places. He had never heard of where she was from anyway.

"You lived through the end of your world? How did that come about?" The vastness of worlds made him shiver at the thought that Sephiroth could possibly get to any one of them when given the chance.

[nadine-he-loves.livejournal.com]

"Plague," she answered, without much emotion in her voice. "Super flu, got loose from those nice military men and killed almost everybody. The big apple baked. Empires fell, all hat Biblical stuff. It was horrible and scary and disgusting and I really don't like talking about it while I'm eating. It's just not polite lunch table conversation."

Especially considering what lunch was. Ugh. She'd already lost her appetite over breakfast.

[1mperturbable.livejournal.com]

Cloud allowed his eyes to flick down to his own relatively untouched meal, and he slowly pushed it aside. He had not been that hungry anyway. Breakfast had been filling, and he normally did not eat all the much during the day. Tifa would kill him.

At least the military in both worlds sounded about right. "Sorry to hear that," he murmured. "How long have you been at the Institute?"

[nadine-he-loves.livejournal.com]

"A few days." Nadine picked up a french fry. Everybody asked the same questions. And she asked the same questions, too. What the hell else were they supposed to talk about?

"Woke up one night, I'm sure you know the drill. Horrible nights, boring days, irritating roommate... the norm."