As Solana staggered into the Ringtown Ranger Station's kitchen, she surveyed the sole occupant with a look bordering on disgust. "How can you possibly be so cheerful at four in the morning?"

Without waiting for a reply, she trudged over to the cheap coffee maker. She groaned as an inky black liquid trickled into her mug, and then she stumbled back over to her associate, slumping down into the plastic chair beside him. She drank from the mug, set it down heavily, and collapsed against her best friend, groaning.

Lunick chuckled. "Morning, Sleepy Head," he said.

She moaned sleepily. "You can't be human. No one could possibly get by on the amount of sleep you do."

"This, coming from a woman who drinks liquid ash?" Lunick quipped.

The turquoise-haired woman would've glared at him, if she had the strength. Instead, she defiantly grasped the brown mug and slurped loudly from it. "I don't get you," she said finally. "Are all the people as up-and-at-'em as you, down in Hicksville?"

"Yup," Lunick said, his sunny grin a stark contrast to the dark and moody expression of the woman who was using his arm as a pillow. "I could say the same thing about you," he said after a moment.

"Hunh?" Solana slurred groggily into the steaming mug she had just taken another sip from.

"I don't get why you drink that… stuff."

Solana blinked at the coffee. "Because."

"Because… what?"

"Just 'cause."

"Well, put some milk or cream in it, why don't you?"

Solana blanched, sticking out her tongue. "Yuck! No, thank you."

"Why not?"

"Coffee is meant to be black and bitter. Only wusses put in sugar or stuff in it."

Lunick chuckled again, and went back to the small novel he'd been perusing when his best friend came in. Solana looked up as he began to laugh again.

"What now?"

Lunick wiped a mirthful tear from his eye. "Oh, nothing."

Solana raised an eyebrow. "Uh huh, sure…"

Lunick looked at her, giving her his infamous Country-Boy Grin. She rolled her eyes, and turned away, before he could see the blush she got whenever he smiled at her. She slurped from her coffee, and did it once more, only louder, when she saw the grimace he got from the noise.

"Could you not do that?"

She did it once again, enjoying very much the fact that it grated on his ears. "That's payback for you being so dang happy at a time when every normal person should be asleep in bed."

"You're awake, too, Sol," he reminded her cheekily. "Does that mean you're abnormal, too?"

She shrugged. "This is the only quality time I get to spend with you, at least in a manner that won't allow people…" here she disguised the words "Murph" and "Aria" in a fit of coughing, "…to start rumors. Again."

"Sure…" Lunick chuckled, playfully poking her in the ribs. In response, she smacked him lightly on the shoulder, and he flicked her on the nose. He immediately backed off, however, when she threateningly placed the coffee mug to her lips.

"What do you have against coffee, anyway?" she asked.

"It stunts your growth."

"You know that's an old wives tale."

"It tastes nasty."

"Nobody drinks it for the taste; they go out and get frappucinos if they want tasty coffee."

"Why don't you?"

"Like I said, I prefer my coffee black. Next reason?"

Lunick rolled his eyes as Solana smiled cheekily at him. He grinned back and whispered in her ear, "If you want to know the truth, it's because I fear the prospect of stealing a kiss from you when your breath smells like black coffee."

Solana's eyes widened, and she stared after him as he walked to the door. He turned back to look at her shocked expression. "I'm gonna go outside and watch the sunrise."

It took a few seconds for Solana's brain to reboot after the startling revelation. "Wait for me!" she cried as she poured the last of her coffee down the drain.