Cecilia & Arthur | Sunday Morning

[x-longshot.livejournal.com]

Cecilia and Arthur go out for donuts and coffee, but Arthur's luck powders the cute with unexpected consequences.

"Okay, now, see, this is just absurd." A sweater-clad Cecilia approached Arthur with a coffee in each hand. It was a nice enough day, and she'd been eager to escape the mansion. And to Arthur's credit, he was game, even though the last time they'd been in public together, she'd slapped him across the face.

Not that she was going to think about it. That was old news, rendered false by a near-apocalyptic experience that she was also trying not to think about.

0 for 2.

She placed the two coffees down on the table in front of him. She'd left Arthur at the gourmet donut shop (donuts, donuts and only donuts) to pop into the Starbucks next door. She had not expected their order to multiply. "There is a box in front of you." Cecilia glanced at it, then at him. "Oh." She nodded, a knowing look on her face. "Celebrity donuts or lucky sweepstakes donuts? Or are you really just this hungry?"

"My business card was drawn for a weekly prize," he admittedly this very casually from his seat facing the window. Snow fell lazily outside, painting the afternoon with a surreal haze of soft light. "Apparently that is a thing that happens."

"Figures." Cecilia slid his cup toward him. "Not to, like, you know." She placed her clutch on the table next to her cup, then followed his gaze toward the snow. Hollywood it was not, but something about the weather felt like it suited him. "But what do your business cards even say?"

"I," and he sat on that in emphasis, "Do not have business cards. Other me was apparently detectiving with Adrienne Frost's people."

"For real? Like Dick Tracy?" She wrapped her hand around her cup. "I can kinda see it," she admitted after a few seconds. "Gonna have to get you a trench coat." She took a sip of her coffee and instantly grimaced. "Ugh, this is not what I ordered."

His eyes lit up at the mention, but any dreams of costuming were cut short by the end of her statement. "Like, how so?"

"I think they forgot the coffee." Cecilia took another sip and frowned again. She gently popped the lid off, revealing a drizzle of caramel atop of steamed milk. "Sure enough." She continued staring at it for a second, as if she could will the caffeine into existence. Then, she looked at him and shrugged. "Blessing in disguise, really." She tried to secure the top back on the cup. "Should get you a fedora too."

"This is all my fault." Arthur slumped his shoulders at this, but quickly recovered with an idea that set his eyes back to sparkling. "I will go back and get this fixed," he added with the gusto of a man who was already buying into the decision, "I have a way with baristas."

"I bet you do." Cecilia leaned back in her chair, a slight smirk that she couldn't suppress on her face. It was an easy joke, but she stood by it. "And nobody said it was your fault. It's Starbucks. They get things wrong sometimes." She waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it."

That may have worked if he wasn't already halfway up and out of his chair or his eyes weren't set in a "yes, I can fix this thing" look that was rather intense. As always, she got a smile. "I am always happy to worry about you."

Cecilia blushed, because she couldn't help it, and because even if they were just friends, it was still a very charming thing to say. "I appreciate that." Unsure what else to do, she rather awkwardly popped open the lid to the doughnut box and studied their glazed tops.

About five minutes later, Arthur, flushed from the weather, peeked his head in the front door of the doughnut shop. He looked decidedly flustered, and didn't even bother coming all the way through the door. "Cece? Dr. Reyes? We may have an emergency."

"Okay," Cecilia said around a bite of a maple bacon doughnut, the words muffled by the carbs. She looked up as she swallowed, taking his expression in. Then she grabbed her clutch and followed him. "What's going on, Arthur?"

Not forgetting to be a gentleman, Arthur held the door before breaking into a rapid-fire breakdown of the problem at hand:

"Turns out there was an line and five contests and a guess the amount of coffee beans and..."

He continued down a Rube Goldberg series of events, but as they left the bakery it was plain to see that the Starbucks, now overpacked, was either in the middle of a rave or a riot.

"... I am kind of leaning toward running away and pretending nothing happened. Personally."

"Oh. My." Cecilia's eyes widened as she watched two women tussling in front of the door to the Starbucks, a bag of Blonde Roast beans in between them. As the door swung open, she could almost feel the frenzy emanating from the store. The site of coffee beans on the floor caught her eye, and she had to grin. "You didn't get to the part where that happened." She nudged his shoulder with her head. "Explain."

Arthur spread his hands desperately. "I just walked in! I was super intent on getting your coffee, but the line was long and I made the mistake of making small talk. Then people starting winning on their phones and suddenly everything was ringing up free." His hands spread wider as if this could explain things. "I didn't even do anything! The baristas and customers started panicking."

"I can't – wow." Cecilia shook her head, trying to keep from smiling because the whole thing was so ridiculous. The door slammed shut again. "Not even sure what we can even do here, short of waiting it out and making sure nobody maims anyone else." The bag that the two soccer moms had been scuffling over ripped in half, showering beans onto the floor.

"Let me try something."

Arthur closed his eyes and slowed his breathing down to zen levels. He attempted to bring his hands to prayer, but the coffee cup in the middle of the gesture complicated things. He took several deep, calming breaths before commenting, in a focused monotone, "Any improvement?"

"Let's see." Cecilia did her best to suppress her doubt at the power of meditation to solve one's powers problems. Because even if the whole thing felt super SoCal to her, who was she to question it? The door of the Starbucks once again swung open, and this time, a group of people filed out, clutching their pricey coffees like they were prized possessions. "They're all smiling, so that's a good sign, right?"

"Maybe? That's something. Possibly."

A couple more beats, and the man sighed again. "Jennie says that I need to clear my mind to feel my power at work, but all I'm feeling right now is a lack of gloves."

Cecilia laughed - she remembered her first winter back east after residency, and she remembered getting off the plane from Honduras. And she hadn't been in either place as long as Arthur, as far as she knew. She reached in her bag. "Stick out your hands."

When he obliged, she pulled out a pair of her own wool gloves and put them on her hands. Then she cupped his fingers in her hands. "Try now."

The smile she got for this was fit to break the other man's face, but his eyes remained closed as he continued to consider the universe in a very ponderous way that was starting to get a few looks from passers by. However, word of the free Starbuck's Day was apparently getting around. As if on queue with this realization, a barista scrambled outside to place a chalkboard sign near the door that read "Happy Hour! Free drinks until 11 as a celebration to our customers!" There were hastily scribbled hearts and a mermaid doing a backflip to go along with the bubble-lettered, overly cheerful message.

A couple shoved a few old ladies in their need to take advantage of free lattes.

"Huh." Cecilia glanced away from him, a little puzzled. Her cheeks were flushed, though whether that was from blushing or winter winds was unclear. "You've turned chaos into an institutional promotion." She turned back to him, smirking both at the situation and how seriously he was taking it. "Is spontaneous marketing a good or a bad outcome? I didn't take economics."

All Arthur could do was echo her confusion, but he snuck a peek. "I have no idea. I was trying to cancel things out through the power of empty-headedness." That is not what Jennie had actually called it.

"Hopefully this means no one in there loses a job. Or, well, a hand. People are vicious."

"Yeah." Cecilia shrugged and crossed her arms. Experience had taught her that was true, but it wasn't generally knowledge she considered outside of a corporate caffeine temple. "I would say that human nature's not really your responsibility though."

"Well. I did something. I do not even know what tricked my powers, but suddenly it was like the whole store was having a good day." He shrugged a little helplessly at this. "But nothing exploded. That is a most definite plus."

"It is!" She turned toward him with an encouraging smile. "All steps in the right direction, I'd say." Especially considering the last time she'd been around Arthur, his powers brought a lightning strike to the middle of District X. "You should be quite proud."

"I have no idea what happened, but yes. Hurrah success! Shall we go celebrate?"

"Sure," Cecilia nodded. She looked at the Starbucks again, then looked at him. "Oh," she clapped her hand to her mouth. "I... left the donuts."

"I vote we just call it quits. At the rate I'm going, the bakery will declare it National Pastry Day. I can feel Jennie frowning at me from here."

This was accompanied by a flat look and an offered hand, "Let's go cause trouble elsewhere."

"Yes," Cecilia took his hand, a smile again on her face. She was enjoying this day, unpredictable as it was, and she was a little surprised at how much she was enjoying Arthur's company, unpredictable as that had proven to be. "Let's."