Rarely was Lucinda Noble so stressed to the point of self combustion. Usually the petite brunette was cool and collected but it was hard to be when everything seemed to be swallowing her where she stood. It was one issue after the next to resolve. Livia had completely ruined a sheet cake by forgetting to add eggs to the batter, Cat was slacking in the vegetable station, and she could not even fathom checking the mess hall to see if the boys were actually doing their job of collecting dirty dishes for washing. It was tedious, but it was her job. Lux loved running the cafeteria. It was not the coolest or most rewarding job in the world, but she loved to cook. It had always been a passion of hers. Even whilst in Erudite faction she read countless cookbooks and worked to perfect her culinary techniques. Nobody was better with a knife than she.
"Lux, we are out of cornbread!" A voice called to her tentatively. She paused to rub her tired eyes before opening the walk in fridge where she knew another platter of sweet cornbread was. Lux handed over the steel tray to Van who grinned his thanks and disappeared once more to place slices around the tables for greedy hands. It was almost thankless work for as soon as food was added it was gone.
"Laura, can you mix up a super quick double batch of cornbread? Van just took off with my last sheet pan." Lux called to the hardworking blonde carefully chopping carrots for stew later in the night. She offered a nod to the red faced leader before continuing her task.
Lux took a moment to get water as lunch winded down. The crowds were growing more sparse. The tables were layered with dirty spoons, platters, and mugs. She let out a sigh and swished ice water around in her dry mouth. She tried hard to ignore the approaching figure, but was unable to so instead she put on a friendly smile, "Hello, Max."
Her leader nodded in greeting and stood beside her with arms crossed. It was hard to tell if Max were irritated or not. His body language was always as offputting as today. Lux tapped her fingers on the glass in her palm. She pressed it to her warm neck with a long sigh, "Busy day?"
Lux chuckled at the question, "It's always a busy day here in Dauntless. Is that what you needed me for? To ask how my day was going?" Lux liked to tease the older man. He was truly not as intense as he appeared to be, and his eyes crinkled in humor at her words. Max did not let many talk to him in the same manner, though, so she was still slightly hesitant in her jokes. Today he found her jokes amusing.
"Actually, I wanted to let you know about training schedules coming up with the new initiates."
Lux groaned letting her head fall back, "Is that coming up already? I swear we just added twenty mouths to feed last month."
"Sometimes it feels that way." Max agreed. It was then that Lux could see the exhaustion in his eyes. The tightness of his mouth was unnerving as he scowled. His face had become tired in his time as leader. Lux bit her lip at just how old Max looked. Dauntless was not for the old or the weak. Soon someone would be taking Max's position as leader over the entirety of Dauntless.
In the years she had been within the faction she had never seen weakness from Max. He was tough, ornery, and almost mean tempered. A typical Dauntless born. Lux was still eyeing him when he arched a brow at the intense observation. She blinked as a response and put on a shy smile. Sometimes it was hard to leave her Erudite tendencies behind. She was still as intelligent and observant as before, only now it could get her in trouble more than aid her. Dauntless was not about observing. It was not about facts or data, but rather fearlessness and bravery. Everything was so quick here and she got swallowed by the crowds on occasion because of her slow way of over analysing and thinking. She often blamed it on daydreaming which made other leaders laugh. To them she was just another dumb girl with her head in the clouds. They were all wrong.
"In the coming weeks we will be expecting the usual twenty or so transfers. Just make sure we have adequate meals for them all. Hell, they can eat cheese sandwiches for all I care. Nobody said we had to feed them well. Though I know you will. You're not mean enough to send a kid away with a sliver of bread as a meal. I like that about you. Reminds me of my daughter."
Max closed himself off then and moved to walk away when he suddenly stopped and pivoted, "Oh, also, the leaders will be having meetings the entirely of next week as well as during training. I hate to inconvenience you, Lux, but we will need meals brought to our offices. Four and Eric mostly, because they will be grading. Their work is going to be tedious so they will be eating by themselves. I will be sending more help your way while we adjust."
Lux could do nothing but nod in acceptance but her gut clenched at the thought of Eric Coulter and delivering his meals. Just what she needed from him: jokes about her being a waitress on top of a glorified lunch lady. Sometimes she wanted to beat him with a wooden spatula but refrained. She did not need enemies inside Dauntless. Eric would probably be the worst type of enemy to have. He was cruel, and relentless. Eric was gunning for Max's job and would not let anything get in his way.
"Hey, kitchen wench!" A husky voice called making her eyes close tight. She clenched a fist in irritation. Speak of the devil and he shall appear.
Eric Coulter was walking towards her with an almost pleased smirk playing at his mouth. The heavy black boots he wore thudded against the cement flooring of the cafeteria, echoing from the cavernous ceiling above. Her eyes took him in from head to toe: freshly cut hair with the sides cropped close, the two ebony piercings lodged above one arched eyebrow, his broad chest covered by the thin cotton of a black tee shirt, and the leather vest over it that kept his weapons close. A revolver was at his side and she knew from personal experience how good he was with a firearm in his hands. There was not much Eric was not good at doing with his hands.
"What do you want, Coulter?" She bit back in annoyance as his muscled frame came to an abrupt halt before her. Lux was at least an entire foot shorter than he, and she struggled to make eye contact with him standing so close. Her head was forced back on her neck in an uncomfortable position. He smirked more so at her discomfort, "Is that any way to greet an old friend, Noble?"
She scoffed and turned on the heel of her booted foot. He followed after her with long strides. Eric came to a halt before her putting a hand to her upper chest. She knocked it aside with clenched teeth, "We have never been friends, and you know better than to touch me."
"Or what?" He mocked her with blue-grey eyes shining. The evident humor flashed in his eyes briefly as they continued to study one another.
Lux had never been a fan of Eric Coulter. They had been in the same classes growing up together in Erudite. She briefly remembered his smiling face and twinkling eyes hidden behind a pair of flashy silver rimmed glasses. He had always been a know it all as a child, and even more so as an adult. Eric had all the answers. What set Eric apart from all the other Erudite boys was his boldness. He was the first in their grade to kiss a girl. The first to drink a beer and sneak out of the faction complex. He gloated at age fifteen when he lost his virginity to a Dauntless girl on guard the night before. He had always been a little shit, and Lux hated him for it.
"We were school pals, no?" Eric lifted a brow once more and for some reason the action irritated Lux more so than his question. She wanted nothing more than to knock the smirk from his pompous face. If anything the move from Erudite to Dauntless had made Eric even more arrogant. She assumed it was the position of power in which he had found himself. Give a cocky man a stick and he would do nothing more than show off just how much bigger his was than the rest.
"I think we spoke all of three words to each other the entirety of our school pal days. In fact," she narrowed her eyes at the smirking man before her with his head cocked to the side as he listened, "I recall you telling Anderson Poole I was a butter face with a fat ass."
He laughed at the words she spoke and brought a hand up to his lips to hide the grin. The smirk on his lips let her know he indeed remembered the words he said. She hated him for it. Lux spun away once more from Eric and started for her office. She went to close the heavy metal door behind her only to have it stuck in place by a familiar booted foot. She let her head fall back in a groan and threw the door open, "What do you want, Eric?"
"I just wanted to chat. I heard you were delivering my meals next week. Wanted to make sure you knew who you were messing with before you went and spit in my food."
"Believe me, Eric, I would do much worse to you than spit in your food." She hissed between pressed lips.
"So spunky," he chuckled with a wink. He rapped the door with his knuckles, "I'll be seeing you around. Bye, Lucinda."
It took all of her to not throw a can of pineapples sitting atop her desk at the back of his head. Lux let her fingers relax and studied the half moon impressions left on her palms. He knew she hated being called Lucinda. Her throat tightened at her birth given name. She had not gone by that name in many years since leaving Erudite behind. It left a bitter taste in her mouth hearing it used by someone she was not even remotely close to. She had her reasoning behind hating her name, and it was almost unlikely that Eric would know why.
Lux sat down at her battered desk topped with mountains of paperwork of all sorts. She was swamped by schedules, orders, and menu plans. She took in a deep breath and reached for a scattered piling of new requests put in by Dauntless members. She was diligent about reading each and every one, and tried her hardest to cater appropriately to every request no matter how small. Most were do able: fried chicken, German chocolate cake, and even pot roast. Her fingers clenched of their own accord when she read over the last request in the pile which had Foie Gras and Caviar scrawled across the front in small capitals. Above the offending request was the name that made her curse aloud and crumble the paper in a ball.
"Fucking asshole." She mumbled under her breath before starting an ingredient list for Max of things she needed from other factions. She shook her head at the idiotic request still balled up on her desk. She let out a calm sigh and quietly smoothed the crumpled slip out upon the scarred wood. Lux smirked to herself and scribbled the words live goose on her list for Max. She would see his face now in her mind: dark eyes narrowing at the listed words almost to see if he had misread the elaborate cursive lettering before him. He'd chuckle, and shake his head, but sooner or later Max would return to Lux with what she had asked of him. He always did. She laughed under her breath, "You want goose liver, Coulter, I'll give you goose liver."