How to snag a cat

[homeless_pard]

Who: Beryl and Nat
When: A month after opening shop.
What:...hot kitty.

She looked up when the door chimed and smiled, no avoiding it really, Nathaniel made her smile. He was just a fucking hot ass snack that walked into her workplace pretty regularly, unprofessional as it was to stare, well...

...she did sometimes.

Sue her.

"Hey, she's at the clinic," she smiled. "Wanna wait until she gets back or just sit upstairs staring at bread rising?"

Nat paused on the stairs, blinking, "oh..."

"Don't sound so shattered kid," she chuckled. "C'mon, have some tea." There were all kinds of tea here, and most were tasty, right? Granted..."pick one." She hadn't memorized them.

Nathaniel laughed, easing back down, "any?"

"Any, on the house."

"...you don't know the teas do you?" he chuckled, slipping behind the counter to sniff the jars.

Gods he moved like oil on water didn't he? "Hmmm? Oh, yeah, no...not yet?"

Nathaniel smirked a touch, amused at that answer, "Must be a distracting place to work."

"Not going to lie, this is the best part of the day," she grinned.

"Is that normal retail banter?"

She laughed, shaking her head, "nah, we don't have any retail workers technically, just crazy manager lady me and a stillmistress who breaks the laws of reality." They might hire more people later but, well, for now this was it. The business graduate and the lady from another world, oh and the vampire on night shift sometimes!

Yeah, it kept overhead low, but it meant she couldn't skiv off entirely to watch a stripper make himself tea. She could...rearrange the shelves by the tea counter? It seemed to amuse Nat so hey, that was a plus?

"You want to sit with me?"

She laughed, "I'm not a tea drinker myself, no palette for it? But I'll share a sandwich if you're hungry?" She'd packed leftover pot roast on hoagie buns for herself so could be nice? "Fresh made pot roast as of yesterday I promise, can't eat it all by myself so it usually makes a couple days of sandwiches. I know it's not Khem's on the hearth meals but..." Great, now she was second guessing a crock pot meal offer. Hell, what the fuck was wrong with her?

"Sounds great," Nat grinned. "Lunch with you I mean."

"Heh, careful, say it like that and I'll read into it," she laughed again. "Should be in the minifridge there with the milk for tea." It took an act of while NOT to go around the counter to fish things out by his knees on her own thank you.

"But that could be fun!"

Bliiink. Grabbing her lunchbox herelf? Why yes it could be...oh, wait, "reading into it? Oh be still my beating heart!" she snickered.

"You saying it wouldn't be?"

She reached across the counter to poke his nose, amused, "oh it'd be a riot kid, no joke there, but I'd be sad and lonely at the end of it with all your life stuff going on."

"Awwww, how about a co-conspirator?" he blinked guilelessly at her. "We could have meals based on that!"

"Conspiracy to commit...what?" Best to feel out the boundaries ahead of time here! "I warn you I make a crappy robber, but a pretty good getaway driver."

Nat tilted his head, grinning, "yeah, a ski mask would be a shame on you!"

"...now you're just teasing," she snorted, poking him again. "Get those sandwiches out!" Let her try to calm down a second!

"Well there go my hopes of being badass bank robbers," he laughed, ducking below the counter to raid the fridge. "We could be a great Thelma and Louise team though!

"I prefer to avoid car rides into canyons as my ending," she snorted, leaning on the counter to peek over his end. Yup. "Besides, your friends would miss you and the rest would be jealous as fuck."

"Hey, you'd be missed too!" he pointed out, straightening up and setting her lunchbox between them. "Khem would be devastated! Jason would be lost, and I'd be sad!"

"Oh you would huh? You'd miss our little moments of you teasing me over tea?" she chuckled. "Anyway, what ARE you plotting, if not bank robberies?" Unwrapping a sandwich stuffed full of flaked pot roast, veg, and tasty sauce and passing it helped against stuttering there!

"Hmmm, well, I'm team Jason and Khemrys?" he grinned after an appreciative bite. "She's good for him and she needs someone to teach her confidence who WON'T find her lack of self esteem empowering!"

"Hmmmm," she unwrapped her own sandwich, considering that, "but he's a bit of a playboy I hear? Just saying, he's flirted with me even and he knows I'm not interested." And that wasn't exactly what Khemrys needed honestly, a playboy could easily shatter her.

"Habit," Nat laughed. "I promise."

"Gee, thanks." That stung a bit!

"No no hear me out!" he blinked, looking at her, "he's been gone on Khem since he found her. Head over heels idiot about it in fact, any flirting with ANYONE since her arrival has been on autopilot with no interest behind it. Appearances and all. Mainly I think he wants to stay in practice for when he CAN flirt properly with Khemrys."

"Still kinda stings that you said it so casually," she snorted, "but I follow that sure."

"Hey, you know you're hot!" he laughed, reaching across to poke her this time. "Just not Jason material now. And prior, well, pretty sure you'd have laughed in his face right?"

"Yeah, I'm not a quick and easy pickup date I admit, still," she snapped at his poking finger, amused. "Anyway, carry on, plotting?"

"Right, right, they just so damn adorable together. I like seeing them together, and taking pictures so they can have a photo album at some point later when they realize they might want to remember the early years you know?"

"Years?" she laughed. "That sounds like you're banking on the whole nine yards with them!"

"Yeah, he doesn't know it yet but he's going to marry that girl," he grinned contentedly.

Jason as...the marrying type? "Sorry, can't see that," she admitted with a laugh. "But if your matchmaking senses are tingling or something..."

"Exactly!"

"...oookay, kitty fate sealer you are then," she snickered. "So you want help taking candid shots like spies?"

"And talking with Khem, I can't be the only modern voice for advice you know? Requiem would try but he's old school like she is, and more comfortable talking to men about such things..."

"Such things like 'households' and stuff?" she snorted.

"Yeah, exactly, he's got his perspective on a man's role in such. Honor, yadda yadda, but how to DEAL with a modern man is kinda iffy in his knowledge, and how to explain that dealing to a young lady he thinks of as family is harder!"

"Hmmmm, stumped vamp, that's kind of funny," she admitted.

"Isn't it?" Nat laughed, already down to his last bites of sandwich.

"Alright, so, you want me to keep doing what I've been doing by being her friend, but with bonus picture taking?"

"And coordination so we can grin together?" he grinned. "You've got my number right?"

Oh, huh. "Actually no I don't."

"What? I thought...oh, you were on Khem's phone that one time weren't you? Crap, I thought you had it, which means my texts totally never got you..."

He'd tried texting her? Oh, well then, back to misreading things in her head! Stupid brain! "Here," she smiled. "This is me." Sketching out her number on a tea info card? Yup.

"That is going to make this so much easier!" Nat cheered, pocketing it. "But now..."

"You have to go," she guessed given his finished meal and empty tea cup.

"Yeah, need to check in with Anita, she doesn't have a lot of daytime feeding options you know?"

"...no, I didn't know but take care of yourself okay?" yeah, that sunk the 'misreading' things neatly back in it's place didn't it. Anita. Fucking man kryptonite in St. Louis somehow. What had she even been starting to think? Fuck.

"Where's the fun in that?" he smiled, heading out.