Title: Coffee

Author: Daria

Rating: G

Category: Gen

Summary: A bad start to the morning.

Author's Notes: Thanks to Ent Write Brigade for the beta.

Permission to Archive: LD or Lumi. Others ask.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, not these characters, not a Starbucks. Paramount owns one, and I don't know who owns the other. Just for fun, not profit.

****

It was early in her shift, not yet five minutes past the hour, and already her console was a malfunctioning mess, her plans to finish an overdue report a fading memory. Malcolm and Travis were shooting her reproachful and sympathetic looks, respectively.

Coffee. That was all she wanted. Just a nice cup of coffee--preferably one that had so much added to it, that it only bore a vague resemblence to the original beverage. She just wanted that one little comfort to start her long day.

Hoshi backed away from her console to give Trip access to it, her thoughts drifting lovingly, longingly, to the object of her desire.

Coffee. Hoshi sighed. So many ways to drink coffee--you could add milk... or skim milk or soy milk. Cream or flavored cream. Sugar or sugar replacement. You could drink it black. You could have lattes, cappuccinos, and espressos. Some people, for reasons Hoshi would never understand, even drank it decaffeinated.

You could sweeten it with chocolate, with caramel, with chocolate and caramel. There was white chocolate, raspberry, white chocolate AND raspberry. You could put whipped cream on top of it. Coffee could be hot, or it could be cold. Good for a quick morning wakeup, or as a dessert to be lingered over with friends.

Coffee was a portable source of power. It could do anything, go anywhere.

Well, almost anywhere.

Trip stood up and handed her a wet, sticky cloth. "This is absolutely the last time I'm doing this, Hoshi. No more coffee at the consoles!"

*****