Things in Taylor's life keep on getting gradually worse, and at this point, they see no other possible explanation for it than the fact that they must have offended Rao in one way or another. Their only saving grace is that Alex looks even more distraught than they do.
"It's just, it needs to be perfect," Kara repeats for the nth time.
"It's Lena we're talking about," Alex replies, also for the nth time. "This woman thinks you've hung the moon, whatever you do, she'll think it's perfect."
Ghim noped out of this conversation by volunteering to take Lena to her DEO mandated check-up and Taylor would think she made the right choice if they still had any higher brain function at this point. "Why are you so stressed ?" they ask, a question they've uttered in various iterations several times in what feels like the past millennium. "You've been platonically dating for ages, just do what you usually do."
Kara opens her mouth to retort, some variant of "but it has to be special" already on her tongue, but Taylor cuts her off hurriedly. "Also if I help you I could accidentally erase your first date when I go back to the future and I'm sure we can all see how this is a bad idea."
"The kid's not wrong," Alex, who's only contribution up to now has been to suggest Kara wears blue, points out.
"I'm really nervous," Kara mumbles dejectedly, staring at her mismatched socks like they hold all the answers in the universe. "It's Lena."
"Exactly, it's Lena !" Taylor and Alex exclaim simultaneously both slamming their hands on their laps in a synchronicity born of despair.
"She loves you," Taylor continues on their own. "The two of you could go pick up trash on the side of the motorway and she would still love you. Listen, I'm gonna go make some tea, the two of you can brainstorm and when I come back you can throw an idea at me, we'll pretend I can give my opinion and you'll go along with whatever you came up with."
They do not wait for an answer and, taking a page out of Ghim's book, remove themself from the situation.
The kitchen isn't far enough for them to fully manage to tune out the conversation and this precarious time out is endangered by a scream readying itself to worm its way out of their throat. The frustration is almost unbearable and though they know it's not Kara's fault, she's also the closest target. She's done absolutely nothing, her only fault being that she's here and in love ; and maybe that Taylor had to vacate the apartment very early dragging a half awake Ghim in their wake under the guise of flight practise to avoid being traumatised further by their mothers.
Instead of letting out a sound barrier breaking scream they turn their body towards the mindless preparation of tea and tune into Lena's heart, steadily beating in the DEO. Everything is going to be okay.
Everything has to be okay.
Focused as they are, they completely miss the slow cautious approach of a warm figure and nearly jump out of their skin at the sudden intrusion.
"You okay there aonah ?"
The mug in their hand neatly breaks in half, the sharp sound of ceramic snapping in two almost pleasant to their ears.
"Come on," Kara adds, her voice annoyingly soft. "I know a place."
Taylor shakes their head, no, and stubbornly cary on their tea making, retrieving another mug and floating two inches off the ground to find the disgusting herbal tea Alex's favours.
"That wasn't a question," Kara pushes on. "We're going."
Hands shaking they put the box down very slowly, the cardboard ripping at the edge under the pressure, and turn to find their Yeyu staring at them with an unbearable kindness.
"Come on," she repeats with no room for discussion. "You need a breather."
No longer than a minute later, they find themself on the edge of town vaguely trying not to sulk. They touch down a patch of slightly dry grass and promptly plop down next to Kara, turning their gaze to the bustling city. The air around them smells of car exhaust and warm concrete distilled in ozone and freshly cut grass ; and if they turn their head slightly to the left, they can catch a whiff of hot sand, and desert. They know this place, know it well, still, they ask, "what are we doing here ?"
Kara shrugs. "Thought you could use a step back," she says earnestly. "So, what's wrong ?"
"Um, everything ?" they reply, their voice coming out more annoyed than they intended to. "Sorry."
"You don't need to apologise."
"Except I kind of do," Taylor bites back sharply. "None of this should be happening. None of this would be happening if I weren't here."
"You can't really blame yourself for falling into a wormhole," Kara points out in an irritating rational way. "Nor for being followed. That's not your fault."
Taylor breathes out harshly. "But," they start before being cut off in a tone that leaves absolutely no room for discussion.
"There's no but Taylor. This isn't your fault, period. They were trying to get to me so if anything it's mine."
They drop their head on their knees, releasing a low frustrated growl. Their Yeyu isn't always firm and reasonable but when she is, she always manages to shake up every foundation to rebuild arguments to her advantage.
"Did you get any news from home ?"
"I didn't call them."
Their confession is low, half muffled by the way their mouth is pressed against the fabric of their jeans, but it is still perfectly audible to Kara.
"Why ?" she asks, her own voice low and gentle. Tenderly, she reaches out to brush the messy hair on top of their head and they almost burst into tears. Rao, they're so tired of tears.
"You know how you are," they reply, swallowing their sobs and burying them in the deepest part of themself. "If I'd call, you'd come in guns blazing, Mum hot on your trail, and it would have messed things up even more."
"Do you really have such little faith in me ?"
"You can't see yourself or you'll go insane," Taylor replies, whipping their head up to glare at her with all the might of a petulant twenty-something. "I need to fix this."
"Okay. I understand."
The come back Taylor was ready to spew dies a quick death. "Wait," they sputter instead, "you do ?"
"Of course I do," Kara replies with a small unamused laugh. "The fact that I wish you didn't have to do that doesn't mean that I don't understand why you're doing it. You and I, we're cut from the same clothe, so I understand. Is there anything I can do to make it better ?"
Taylor shakes their head in faint dismissal. "Not really. It's just. All of this is just a lot. And then Mum getting abducted. She could, she could have died."
Kara is well aware of that, and she remains silent for a moment, her body subtly tensed. "What you did was really stupid," she says eventually. "Brave, but really stupid."
"I couldn't do nothing."
"I know. I would have done the exact same thing. Pretty sure it's encoded in our genes." She laughs again, earnestly this time, then adds, "so this isn't a reproach. More of an observation."
"The D in Danvers is for dumb," Taylor mumbles.
In an interestingly awkward display of affection, Kara bumps their shoulder. "I'd say it's for daring, " she says, "maybe for dauntless, or doughty, but suit yourself."
Taylor fights hard against a smile threatening to split their face in two. "In your case it's probably for doltish," they grumble, their obstinacy in holding back their laugh turning into a full on snort.
Kara shrugs, bumps her shoulder against theirs again. "Made you laugh."
"It did," Taylor admits mutedly, not so much begrudgingly as broodily.
They go to nudge Kara back in a show of good faith, and in the half second it takes them to do so, they decide to rest their head on her shoulder instead ; just for a minute.
"Is there anything else ?"
At the question Taylor straightens immediately, leaning away from the comfort of their Yeyu's young frame. It would take hours to answer her question, to lay out every little thing that's wrong in Taylor's life right now and they would elect not to reply at all if one of these reasons weren't so small and insignificant in the face of everything else. They swallow, staring intently at the patch of dry grass they've dug out with their foot. "I miss Max," they say, almost surprised at how strangled and small their voice sounds.
"Tell me more about her," Kara offers, gently tapping her foot against theirs to minimise the destruction of the ecosystem on the receiving end of their mood. "If you want to," she adds after a beat, and then with a roguish smile says, "I want to know all about the Danvers charm carrying into the next generation."
Taylor laughs, short and sharp, and takes a minute to think it over. Not because they don't want to share, but because when it comes to Max, they have so much to say that picking just one thing to start is nigh impossible. "Max is," they start eventually, "Max is amazing."
Kara is not freaking out. She will repeat this until her last breath if she has to, but she is not freaking out. She's overworked, because she technically has two jobs, and a tiny bit stressed, because her entire existence is a train wreck, but she is not freaking out. She just needs this to be perfect, needs for everything to go right and no one wants to tell her if a thousand rose petals is too much. Two thousands would definitely be a bit much but one thousand ? Seems perfectly reasonable to her. Not that she's counted them in the first place or anything. She would go to great lengths for Lena but this seems a bit extreme. At least that's what she told Nia when she enlisted her help to set this up but she isn't sure she believed her and the fact that she's been sneering and chuckling to herself for the past half hour doesn't help with Kara's nerves.
She got the idea for a picnic while listening to Taylor talk when she dragged them to this very place, a hill reaching for the job of a mountain just on the edge of town. It's relatively remote in human distance, mostly quiet for human ears and she's bribed Brainy for the power to be cut in the entire city for twenty minutes so she can show Krypton to Lena. She's got the telescope set for her weak eyes if needed, enough food to settle her own stomach, and, one thousand rose petals spread evenly to hide the patch of dead grass ; a Kryptonian pacing in circles does tend to have a disastrous impact on whatever is in their way.
The sun is starting to set and Kara hasn't seen Lena since breakfast when Nia finishes adjusting the last lantern, which definitely needed to be moved two inches to the left, before joyfully clapping her on the back and wincing when Kara doesn't give way like she usually does. "Well," she says cheerfully, "if she doesn't marry you on the spot, there's something seriously wrong with her."
"Nia," Kara bristles through her clenched teeth.
Nia shrugs. "Just saying," she says, "if Brainy did something like that, we'd elope and be on our honeymoon in less than a minute. It's better if he doesn't know that though or is going to smother me in picnics until I drop dead. Did I tell you that the other day he filled my apartment with so many flowers I couldn't even get inside ? And then he proceeded to speak only in verses for an entire week, because I said once, only once, that I like poetry."
"I don't think you did," Kara replies slowly, racking her brain to try to remember if this conversation could have happened at one of the numerous times she was too engrossed in the rift between Lena and her to notice anything else.
"Well he did," Nia continues, unfazed by her interlocutor's hesitation. "Don't get me wrong, it's very romantic. Very very romantic. But it's a bit, a bit..."
"A bit much ?" Kara supplies, surveying her own work with a stupendous amount of doubt.
"Yeah, it's a bit much. I love him and he is wonderful, but sometimes," she stops, sighs and closes her eyes for a full ten seconds, opening them only when Kara comes to wrap a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Sometimes a lazy Sunday morning is worth a thousand rose petals."
Kara is aware that this isn't about her, that Nia is merely discussing her own disappointment in her own relationship. Still, her brain immediately kicks into panicked action and she turns to look at her partner in date set up with what she can feel is a horrified look painted on her face.
"Stopping you right there," Nia interrupts before Kara even has the time to start talking, an incredible fit considering the speed at which Kara is capable of speaking in most circumstances. "This isn't a criticism, I made an unfortunate shortcut between two situations, what you've prepared for Lena is amazingly sweet and the two of you have more history that any of us can comprehend. You're doing great and your date is going to go great."
Kara shakes herself, straightening up to her full height and drawing her shoulders back a little bit more than is necessary. "I'm doing great," she echoes, "and this date is going to go great."
"Do I get a raise if I mentor you instead of the other way around ?" Nia asks, cheekily bumping her elbow to Kara's.
"Don't push your luck. But thanks. For the help and the pep talk."
"Anytime."
"And if you ever need help figuring things out with Brainy..."
"I'll ask anyone but you," Nia cuts immediately in mock alarm, "because girl, you are a disaster."
"I'm not !"
Nia sends such a glare her way that Kara doesn't dare to reply.
Lena isn't nervous. No, she's beyond that, crossed that threshold hours ago and is now well on her way to either vomiting everywhere or fainting, which is nonsensical because it's Kara, just Kara. Kara her best friend, the love of her life, the person she's going to marry and have a child with. Maybe fainting would be a good idea.
She did try to not be nervous, using the good old shitty advice of "thinking positive" ; but though she's making some progress in that department, Lena has never been a positive person to begin with and the exercise proves to be a complete failure. She isn't even sure why she's so nervous, Kara loves her, and she loves Kara, nothing significant really rests on that first date. And, if she's being honest with herself, which she's trying very hard to be, their first date happened long long ago when they weren't quite aware of it.
"Is everything okay ?" Kelly asks, fastening a pin in Lena's artfully deconstructed low bun. Kara said to go for casual and that they would be outdoor ; still, she's overwhelmed by the urge to impress her. "Something on your mind ?" Kelly probs again.
Lena realises she's been fixed on her own reflection for quite some time, and, snapping out of this staring contest with herself, she averts her eyes to look at Kelly in the mirror. "Just thinking about Kara," she says because it's the truth.
Kelly, like the good therapist she is, sees right through her bullshit. "It's going to be okay," she says, and Lena briefly wonders if her voice sometimes accidentally lulls people to sleep with how soft it is. "But if it helps, Kara is really nervous too. Nia texted me earlier and I quote 'she's a mess, send help and prayers'."
Lena laughs, just a little, and uses the sudden stretch of her mouth to check that her lipstick is correctly applied. "That does sound like Kara."
"That sounds like you too," Kelly points out matter-of-factly in a way that would be quite offensive if it was coming from anyone but her.
Lena shrugs, she doesn't have any argument to refute that and doesn't even want to try. Maybe being seen and understood by more than just Kara isn't bad ; it certainly seems like the kind of good thing one should strive for.
A fraction of second after Kelly has fastened one last pin, a soft and quick knock sounds at the door ; Lena's heart misses a couple of beats.
"Thank you," she says in a breath, knowing that it will be enough to convey her gratitude beyond just helping with her date.
A warm hand briefly squeezes her shoulder, conveying, again, more than it outrightly says. "Anytime. Now go, have fun."
Lena doesn't run to the door, she does however stagger a little in her haste to get to it, losing her breath and balance entirely when she finds Kara waiting behind her, looking entirely too handsome for her heart to handle. She's wearing soft, almost frayed, washed out jeans, cuffed at the ankle, and a loose ocean sweater that looks so soft it fleetingly makes her want to cry. She pushes away her desire to exist forever in this sweater, to become part of its fabric on a molecular level, and focuses instead on the single bright rose in Kara's hand, its petals the colour of a fiery sunset.
"For you," Kara says lowly, pressing the flower in her hands before she bends a little and kisses her softly on the corner of the mouth. "You look beautiful."
"So do you," Lena breathes out when Kara hasn't quite yet retreated to her own space, the words coming to rest between their lips. "You look very handsome," she then elaborates because Kara absolutely has to know how gorgeous she is. "Breathtaking."
Without moving an inch, Kara stumbles. She looks down at her feet, adjusts her glasses and the visual, completed with a soft blush spreading on her cheeks only furthers Lena's quick march towards cardiac arrest.
"Shall we ?" Kara asks, holding out her hand after what could be a minute or an hour of simply staring in each others' eyes. "I borrowed Alex's bike if that's okay with you."
Lena must agree, surely she does because in a couple of minutes she finds herself on said bike, pressed against Kara's back with her arms wound tightly around her torso. The concept of Kara Danvers in a leather jacket has swiftly annihilated her last brain cell.
For a blessed, too short moment, Lena's arms wrapped around her body calm her nerves sufficiently for Kara to focus. Once they've left the bike behind, her reprieve barely lasts to the top of the hill.
Her setup is impressive ; there are lanterns evenly spread, petals everywhere, and her best picnic blanket is covered in a wide assortment of food, enough to feed a small village. Lena is speechless, slowly revolves on herself to take it all in with her mouth slightly agape and the first stars of the night reflecting in her eyes. They've arrived just in time to catch the last of the sunset, the horizon lit with bright pinks and oranges while the rest of the sky steadily settles on a dark purple. Lena looks like an angel, a timeless apparition, her silhouette cut sharply against the blazing landscape and with a start, Kara realises that this entire date really does make her look like she's trying way too hard to impress what is essentially a goddess in human form.
She's just starting to think that she should have stuck to potstickers on the couch and a movie when Lena regains full control of her motor skills and, seemingly breathless, marches right to her to engulf her in what aims to be a bone crushing hug. "You did all of that," she breathes, words half lost in Kara's sweater, "for me ?"
Kara's momentary bout of self-hatred collides with the evident love that permeates Lena's tone and for a brief instant, she finds herself unable to react, and she can't do much more than blink owlishly before her instincts kick into gear and she wraps her arms against the body clutching hers.
"I did," she eventually says, her words sounding much more like a question than the statement they are. "I did," she repeats, firmer. "I wanted to do something nice for you, and something memorable." She pauses, hesitates then decides that lies, no matter how small, have no place in this relationship. "I'm a bit nervous though, I think I went a little overboard."
"Oh you absolutely did," Lena says, the confirmation holding no bite at all. "It's perfect." Sighing, she tightens her arms around Kara and they stays like that for a long minute, lost to the world entirely until both of their stomachs rumble simultaneously, Kara's only slightly louder.
Lena laughs, sharp and throaty, and after taking a step back, turns around to survey the food. Kara braces herself for her incoming realisation ; when she said she went overboard, she really did mean it. She waits one, two heartbeats before Lena says her name, the syllables dragging out of her mouth menacingly. "Kara. Kara Zor-El, none of this can be purchased in National City."
Kara averts her eyes to the side, her mouth falling open in a near silent and purposefully innocent "oh."
"Kara," Lena repeats, "did you really fly to Dublin, Paris, and Milan to get all of my favourite food ?"
She considers denying it, but it goes against her -no lies- policy and anyway Lena looks like she's been offered the sun on a platter and Kara would do absolutely anything for her. "To Ashford too," she squeaks instead, "to that-"
"To that little bakery I mentioned exactly once ?" Lena cuts her voice lost somewhere between awe and something Kara can't really place.
Out of nervous habit, her hand comes fiddling with her glasses and she averts her eyes to the ground, ready to die on the spot if Lena's commands her to. Her gaze is brought upright again by a lithe hand guiding her chin up.
"I love you," Lena breathes, "God I love you."
"I love you too," Kara says before Lena's own words are fully out of her mouth. "So much." She doesn't think there will ever be a time she tires of saying it.
She doesn't so much lean to kiss her as she's guided by the hand that still frames her chin. They meet halfway with no hurry, Lena boosted up by the sensible boots she's wearing, and their mouths slot against each other in a way that is steadily becoming familiar. Lena's lips part and Kara sighs, tongue darting to fill the newly created opening. Lena melts, and this is her new favourite thing ; Kara doesn't want to do anything else ever again but stand here, kissing Lena in the moonlight.
Eventually, they do have to part to the sound of hungry stomachs ; and Lena murmurs, voice so low and husky that Kara dies a little, "I appreciate all of this, but never think for even one second that you have to try so hard. I'm already yours."
Kara is painfully cute. She's trying so hard, and so earnestly, and every time Lena looks at her, she melts a little inside. Which is to say she's in a constant state of deliquescence and is reaching her breaking point because she hasn't taken her eyes off Kara even once.
She's used to people trying much too hard to impress her to either get in her pants, her bank account or both and it's something she absolutely cannot stand. With Kara though, it's different. The Kryptonian exudes genuine interest and love and she's trying to impress her because she cares. So sure, she's trying a wee bit too hard, and Lena half expects her to produce a cheap guitar out of nowhere to serenade her, but it's so endearing that she can't truly be mad about it.
She "borrowed" a telescope to the DEO and is in the process of checking its setting, cursing in Kryptonese under her breath at her inability to understand this "prehistoric technology." At least that's what Lena gathered before Kara switched from English to this language she herself only has a feeble understanding of.
"Here, let me," she eventually says, covering Kara's hands to replace them with her owns after the metal starts creaking under her strong palms. She squints through the finder, trying to adjust the telescope through the heat turbulence rising from the city. "What am I looking for ?"
"Do you have Polaris in view ?" Kara asks softly, her voice tickling in her ear. Kara is standing so close to her, body heat radiating into her, that she momentarily forgets what she's supposed to be doing. "Lena ?"
She gulps, then nods. "I do."
"Okay," Kara whispers, still right in her ear, "I'm going to move you."
Before Lena has the time to ask for any sort explanations, an arm snags around her waist and her feet briefly leave the ground as she rotates east in time with the telescope.
"There," Kara murmurs, her voice somehow even lower than it was before but less seductive, almost strangled. "What do you see now ?"
Lena squints, she really needs to get her eyes checked. "A red dot ?" she says tentatively. "Mars ?"
"Look to the left."
"A white dot ? A white dot next to a red dot ?" As fast as she can, which is to say, not much because more than half her brain power is devoted to cataloguing all the different points of her body where she can feel Kara pressing into her, Lena skims through remains of her astronomy college course. Realisation downs on her heavier than the weight of a dead world. "Kara," she starts, "is that...?"
"Krypton," Kara finishes for her, almost inaudibly ; and as she says it, the power goes out in the entire city. Lena almost jumps out of her skin, her heart ready to leap out of her throat, and the world briefly spins around before Kara's hand presses harder on the small of her back. "It's okay. You're safe. I just asked Brainy for a little help. Your eyes will focus better without light pollution."
For a long, immeasurable moment, they stand like that, huddled close, Lena bent over the telescope and Kara standing straight behind her, eyes fixed on the sky. "I almost didn't make it out," Kara says after a while, opting to put words on the ineffable. She laughs a sad heavy laugh and Lena almost turns around to cradle her in her arms, to shield her from all pain, past, present and future. "I didn't want to let go of my Mum," Kara continues, "I didn't want to let any of them go. I didn't see why I should be the only one to survive, I didn't see how it was fair."
"It wasn't fair," Lena interrupts gently, her words barely over a whisper, barely cutting through the thickness that's settled between them.
"My pod was knocked off course by the shockwave and I thought 'good, I'm going to die too. I won't have to survive without them.' And then I spent the next twenty-four years seeing my planet burst into flame every time I closed my eyes." She swallows, her throat bobbing against the back of Lena's head where it rests. "Turns out they had a backup plan, I just wasn't a part of it because they needed a baby-sitter. And he didn't even need me."
She marks a long pause then kisses the top of Lena's head, her lips lingering there until she straightens up and sighs. "Sorry. That got a little heavy."
"You don't have to apologise, I told you, I want to know all of you," Lena says in return, leaning back against Kara, making herself as heavy as she can so she will truly feel her weight. "What was it like there ?" she asks, peering back into the telescope, trying to imagine a bustling planet instead of the dead star that twinkles in the distance.
"Different I guess. Though I didn't know at the time that anything could be different. Everything was taller. Tall building, tall trees, tall people. I remember how shocked I was of how flat Midvale was in comparison. Birds were a surprise too, what we would have called birds on Krypton went extinct long before my birth. And physically, they were more like tiny dragons." She speaks slowly, painting a picture in the shell of her ear, and bit by bit, Lena starts to see it. "The sky was different too. Redder, like a perpetual sunset. You would have looked so beautiful under Rao's light."
Lena shudders ; because of the compliment and the hand that Kara slips under her blouse. She closes her eyes, just for a second and when she opens them again, Krypton looks different. Not because she's got a clearer image in her head or because the last of the heat convection has dissipated but because it's bigger. And getting bigger by the fraction of second. That's not normal, is it ?
With her eyes fixed farther in the stars, Kara doesn't seem to notice that anything is wrong, remaining lost in thoughts even has the bright dot gets closer and closer taking shape has it speeds towards them. Lena rips her gaze from the telescope, she doesn't need it anymore to see the spaceship hurtling towards their exact position at breakneck speed.
"Duck."
"Where ?" Kara asks, blinking and lowering her gaze to the ground.
"Not the animal idiot ! Duck !"
Kara catches up in the nick of time and Lena finds herself flattened to the ground, nose is the dirt, and the spaceship flies above them, tracing a path of smoke and heat right where their heads used to be. A second later, it hits the ground in a screech of metal.
"Why," Kara whines, pushing on her hands to get to her feet. "Why is my life like that ?"
Lena also would like an answer to that question.
They approach the spaceship slowly. In the distance, the city lights up again and Lena swears she can hear the buzz of electricity, her ears rendered sensitive by the mayhem they just went through. The metal hull hisses and cracks ominously as it cools down. The spaceship is charred, probably due to a bad angle on reentry and Lena is just starting to calculate the probability of someone being alive inside when a sliver of light cuts the side of the ship and Kara all but shoves her behind her for protection.
A tall figure exits the ship through the newly open door. For a moment, they seem unfriendly and menacing, towering over even Kara ; and then they groan petulantly, dust their hands on their trousers and break in the most bizarre rant Lena as ever witnessed.
"Good. You're here. Don't you know that the standard procedure for an unregistered wormhole is to report it so someone can take care of the situation ? By the state of this thing I can't possibly be the first one to fall through and that's not a very pleasant experience. Anyway. What year is this ?"
The figure advances further into the light and reaches up to loosen their bun, releasing a mass of blazing hair. Lena can feel her jaw hitting the floor in slow motion.
The bar is loud. Well Al's bar is always loud but tonight it's reaching new levels of hearing damage, aliens bustling around as the TVs above the counter broadcast an off-world match of something that looks like a crossover between rugby and wrestling. Taylor doesn't care to investigate more, they're only here, dining out because they've had a shit day and didn't feel like staying inside. They know that they would only have had to ask to find themselves surrounded by people but they didn't want to disturb their mothers' date, or Alex and Kelly's, or Nia and Brainy's, and Ghim's newborn attitude can be a little overwhelming.
So here they are, glaring at the alien version of the already crude American version of cod and chips, a sad pile of mushy peas pushed to the side and the plate swimming in a poor excuse for tartare sauce. Al's bar is not renown for its food. The beer at least isn't bad, and it's imported from outside of the solar system so it as some effect on them, muting the world around them. They swallow another forkful of fish, gearing up to abandon their meal and go home when a shadow falls over them.
"Please," a oh so sweet and dearly missed voice says, "tell me this isn't your go-to meal or I'd have to break up with you."
Taylor almost chokes in their hast to get up.
"Max ?"
