Cammie and Adrienne - Happy Anniversary!

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

To the surprise of both of them, it has been nearly one entire year since Cammie began working at Adrienne's shop and Adrienne brings a cupcake to celebrate and to let Cammie know she's not going to be driven off by the younger woman's attempts to push her away.

Adrienne rapped on Cammie's door with her knuckles, keeping an eye on the cupcake balanced precariously in one hand. It seemed like the candle was going to tip the entire thing over, and she glared at it as if the power of her disapproval would keep the icing from oozing over the edges and onto her hand, or the entire thing from losing its molecular structure and puddling onto the floor. "Hey Black, are you in?" she called out. "I've got something for you!"

Cammie shut the laptop and hobbled towards her door. At least she had graduated to the walking cast. It made life so much easier. “Something for me?” she echoed, raising an eyebrow. Right now she couldn’t figure out why Adrienne had stopped by anyway.

When the door opened, Adrienne held up the wobbly cupcake balanced in her palm. "Can I come in for a minute so I can light this?"

“Uh, sure?” Cammie said, moving aside, “What’s with the cupcake and the candle? My birthday was in October.”

"You've been working for my shop for one year," the older woman explained with a smile. "I thought that was worth acknowledging." She pulled her silver Zippo from her pocket and lit the candle, then held the cupcake out to Cammie.

“Really?” Cammie looked down at the cupcake, “Uh, thanks?” she said taking it and blowing it out. Wax had no flavor, but she’d eat the candle anyway – she was weird like that.

"You don't have to eat it," Adrienne told Cammie with a smile. "Although I'm such a terrible baker, you might actually find it more edible than anyone else would."

“Sure, I’ll eat it. I just thought, you know,” that Adrienne might actually fire her soon. At least the general manager of the store seemed to be under that impression which filled the idiot with glee.

"Thought what? That I'm poisoning you so I don't have to have you fired? I think that strategy might backfire on me," she grinned.

“Yeah, that never turns out right. Well, I suppose I should fish out a clean plate or something for this, since I’m going to drown it in even more poison.”

"When you have guests over, do they eat on special plates or does everyone eat off of the poison plates?" Adrienne inquired curiously.

“I don’t feed guests,” Cammie said, walking over to grab a plate, “That would require having guests to feed.”

"I'm a guest right now. You have guests. I know Manuel used to come over here, too, what did he eat off of? Wait," she added quickly, holding up a hand, "I don't want to know the answer to that."

“I normally go over there, actually. I’m told the smell can be hard to handle,” she said simply. “I can get you a plate that isn’t covered with some mystery substance.”

"Don't worry about me, the cupcake's for you," Adrienne insisted.

“In that case, who needs a plate?” Cammie said, biting into it and chewing – or trying to. Slightly carbonated, but mostly tasting of nothing.

"How is it? People don't usually keel over from my cupcakes anymore, but, y'know, if you feel a bit odd you should probably tell me," Adrienne told her with a nod.

“It doesn’t taste like anything, really,” Cammie said simply, “Well, kinda carbonated around the edges, but that’s it.”

"Carbonated? That's... interesting." Adrienne didn't have another word for it. Cammie's mutation was incredibly strange to her. "I've certainly never heard of a woman with powers like yours, to affect the ability to taste or anything like that."

“Yeah, as in burned,” Cammie said, “Best I can come up with, since small amounts of carbon sort of pop, I guess.”

"Delightful," Adrienne teased. "So, one whole year working at a clothing shop. Did you think when you started that you'd stay there for so long?"

“I didn’t think I’d be here long period,” Cammie said simply.

This intrigued Adrienne, who sat on the arm of Cammie's couch. "Me neither," she confessed. "You and I aren't really settlers, are we?" A lot of people at the mansion weren't, she supposed. "We're more comfortable moving around, not getting close to people." For different reasons- Cammie didn't want to hurt people she got close to, while Adrienne feared being hurt by them.

“Yeah, sure. If you want to put it like that,” Cammie said, munching on the cupcake and trying to think of something to say again along the ‘sorry for your nose’ lines.

"How would you put it?"

“That we’re a herd of beautiful wild ponies running free across the plains,” Cammie said, snarking it a bit. But it covered up not knowing how to answer the question.

"But still a herd?" Adrienne asked, not letting Cammie joke her way out of answering. "So what, we all run together but... wait, where does the not getting close come in?"

“I had nothing,” Cammie said with a shrug, “Sarcasm has failed me. I am speechless.”

Adrienne raised an eyebrow. "Ladies and gentlemen, I think that may be a first!" she called out jokingly. "Look, you can pull the 'don't get close, don't trust' routine all you want- I'm familiar enough with it from personal experience. That doesn't mean I'm going anywhere." Amanda's words had penetrated to the point where she wished she could take back the way she'd acted after Christmas when Cammie had apologized to her.

“Okay…” Cammie said, now just confused.

"You'll be noticing a raise on your next paycheque, because of the one year anniversary," Adrienne explained. "Also, it'll be retroactive due to your getting your GED. Have you ever thought about taking college classes?"

“I don’t know,” Cammie said, “I suppose I could. But can college handle me?”