Alex yawned, fighting to keep his hand away from his mouth. They'd made it until Tuesday until the toilets overflowed again, filling the men's restroom with a white froth that looked clean, but obviously was anything but. Like always, Alex and Harvey had been pulled from their duties in the kitchen, ordered to grab the mops and dive right in.

He sighed, plunging a foam-covered mophead into its yellow plastic bucket and washing the disgusting foam off. The wet mop was the fastest way of removing the bubbles short of upending the bucket, and they weren't going to do that until they'd cleared the drain. He'd gotten better with the dirty process since it had first been pawned off on him, reducing what had once been a grueling two hour task to just under half an hour.

That didn't make it any more pleasant, though.

"So…" Harvey spoke up, Alex's blond coworker looking up from his own mop. "...you and Sarah?"

Good god, not this topic. Between Cameron's ribbing over Discord and his Mother's constant questions, he'd been getting enough teasing about Sarah outside of work! Now his coworkers were getting involved too? He liked Sarah, sure, but he didn't know if he should be trying to start a relationship with her or running away. Weird wasn't always bad, sure, and she seemed nice enough. Despite her eating habits, she obviously took care of herself…

That didn't matter. Determining if she was radioactive was his business, not anyone else's!

"Hmm?" He hummed, pretending to miss his coworker's question. Harvey wasn't really a friend, they lived in different cliques during high school, but they'd traded ribbings during their time working together.

"Come on..." his fellow W F West Alumni didn't buy his stalling tactic, pressing his advance. "You planning on finally getting some?"

"She kind of likes a hobby that I like." Alex grimaced. "That doesn't automatically she's into me, or that I'm-"

"Jesus Christ, Alex!" He interrupted, clearly enjoying the opportunity to bug his coworker. "Have you ever had a girlfriend before?"

Alex tried to ignore that question, too, but the knowing chuckle made that difficult. He'd always been really busy, okay? You know how much of an investment a girlfriend was?

"You two are always eating lunch together." Harvey spoke up again. Alex looked up to glare at him, but the gaze of alex's tormentor was focused on the bubbles at his feet. "You're the only person she really talks to. You two even left together friday!" He looked up, a smirk on his face. "I'm just saying, if you miss this opportunity, I'll never let you forget it!"

Alex almost snapped out a denial, but caught himself before he said something that would make the teasing much worse. Instead, he took a moment to gather his words, then deadpanned:

"I think you're reading way too much into this."

Sure, Sarah looked great, but the idea of bedding her felt wrong, somehow. Like doing so would be taking advantage of her, even if she was for it. She looked… developed, sure, but his coworker seemed to lack the level of maturity he'd seen even among his female classmates back in high school! Maybe that would change, but…

He shook his head, plunging the mop back into the floor of bubbly foam.

"Okay." Harvey acknowledged. "It's alright if I take her, then?"

Anger, real anger, not the annoyance or embarrassment he'd been feeling previously, flashed in Alex.

"Don't you have a girlfriend?" He snapped, only to watch Harvey shake with sudden laughter.

"I rest my case." He chuckled. "Sarah's made you so easy to bully, man…"

Alex elected not to reply to that, instead plunging his now bubble-covered sponge back into his bucket. No matter what people were telling him, what 'advice' his mother would give him, or how much his body shouted at him to be more proactive...

He wasn't gonna get his hopes up.

Money was only two days away, now. Trinitite knew she'd have no real supply problem until then, but still felt Friday couldn't come soon enough. She looked up at her fleet's building, eager to be done with the day already. They were probably going to put her on the register again, which meant several more hours of floundering through human after human, constantly aware that she would take the blame for any mistakes made by the humans astern of her…

Honestly, why had they ever bothered having her train in the kitchen if she'd just be talking to customers from now on?

"...not nearly tall enough."

The voice of one of her coworkers, maybe Harvey, met her as she shouldered through the glass entrance. Stephanie was manning the register, offering Trinitite a stiff nod as she clocked in. All the more reason to hope for kitchen duty...

"No, I think I can pull it off." Another one of her coworkers replied, her voice contemplative. "They're not all built like Sarah, after all."

They were talking about her? Curious and a little concerned, the Wo-class peeked into the kitchen.

"Ah, speak of the devil!" The dark-haired human Trinitite recognized as Laura exclaimed, flashing an innocent grin as she asked "Do you think I'd make a good abyssal?"

Trinitite felt like she'd just been rammed. Was she asking her because her disguise had failed? No, her coworker was far too calm for that. What in the deep was she talking about, then?

"...no?" She answered, failing to keep her confusion out of her voice. "You don't have a hull form, and aren't trying to kill everyone."

She made sure to emphasize that last point. She didn't know how close anyone was to suspecting her, but reminding everyone that abyssals supposedly killed humans on sight, and that she wasn't trying to do that, wouldn't hurt the situation.

"Pfft." Both of her coworkers laughed, Laura's dark hair falling over her face as she bent over. When she looked back up, she clarified: "I'm not trying to transform into an abyssal, Sarah! It's for Halloween!"

A disguise, then? For… What was it she had just said? Some sort of… ween, whatever that was. The word was strange enough that she wasn't sure what to add to her research list.

"Wait, Sarah," Reading the abyssal's face, her Laura's eyes widened, "you don't know what Halloween is?"

Crap. Had Trinitite fallen for an unwitting trap, casting herself into suspicion? She couldn't afford to lose her disguise, especially before she got paid! Nevertheless, she couldn't find any way to evade the question, so she reluctantly shook her head.

"Oh, that's terrible!" Laura's face fell, "you never got to go trick-or-treating?"

"No…" Trinitite replied, unsure. This wasn't the first time she'd gotten pitty from a human. It was better than suspicion, sure, but knowing how different their reactions would be if they knew her true problems made their sympathy feel… flimsy? No, that wasn't the right word. Also, trick or what?

"Sarah, did you have any holidays back at your island?" Harvey asked. The abyssal could feel herself bristle at the insinuation. Sure, she didn't know what a holiday was, but that didn't mean they never did something like it!

"Man the grill, will you?" Laura interjected, her attention shifting as an order came in from the front. The relief of being away from customers today was enough to distract her from the jab. "Anyways, you gotta do something on the thirty-first…" Her coworker abruptly leaned back, casting her gaze towards the driveway. "Hey, Alex!"

There was a brief pause, punctuated by Trinitite dropping two patties onto the grill, until Alex's acknowledgement drifted over to them.

"...Yeah?"

"You doing anything for halloween?"

There was another brief pause before Alex hesitantly replied.

"...No?"

The Wo-class chuckled a little at that. It was a little reassuring to know this 'Halloween' wasn't that important.

"Jesus..." Laura breathed, returning to her work. "Why do you like someone that lame?"

"Don't you like him?" Trinitite asked, surprised. She didn't pay that much attention to how her coworkers interacted, but they seemed to be on good enough terms…

"Sure, I like him as a coworker," She tempered, pulling the hamburger's bun out and beginning to decorate it with condiments, "but I don't like-like him, you know?"

She didn't.

"Christ, you're just as hopeless as he is!" Her fleetmate exclaimed. "No wonder you two are so lovey-dovey."

"What does that mean?"

"I'll tell you when you're older." Laura shook her head, sighing as she focused on her work. The conversation was obviously over, but it had left the abyssal with far too many questions for her liking.

Trinitite forced a smile, only half-hoping the tired expression reached her eyes as she handed a paper bag to another customer. Thursday was more than halfway over, meaning the lunch rush should be starting to slow down, but to the abyssal the flow of humans seemed just as strong as it had been two hours ago. Amid the constant barrage of orders, she started to feel like a damage control pump, straining to keep the flooding from overtaking her compartment.

"Hey, Sarah?"

Alex's voice Came from right behind her, causing the abyssal to reflexively jump as she looked away from the next customer.

"He's taking over the register…" Her coworker pointed over his shoulder, to the high-schooler named Hunter. "...so we can get lunch."

Was it that time already? Trinitite had known it was past noon, but between the barrage of customers and the fact she was starting to get used to gnawing hunger, the Wo-class hadn't realized she should have been eating by now. Why were things so busy today?

"Oh." She acknowledged, "I stand relieved, then."

Whatever the cause of the human flood, she wouldn't be her problem for a while.

While there were plenty of people flooding the restaurant, they mostly seemed to be leaving after getting their meal. That meant that, thankfully, a table without anyone around it was fairly easy for the abyssal to spot. Once the two clocked out together, the Wo-class started making her way there, only to be stopped by an uneasy question from her coworker.

"...Uh, Sarah?" Alex asked. For a moment, she wondered if she'd made a mistake when she'd reapplied her disguise that morning, but her coworker only seemed nervous, not suspicious. "What are you planning on having for lunch?"

"...I've got some summer sausage that looks nice." The abyssal replied, checking her hull. It was stretching the limits of what could reasonably fit into her pocket, but after how crazy the day had been, she thought she'd earned some good meat.

"Would you mind if I bought you lunch instead?"

"You want to buy my lunch?" She echoed, suddenly wary. "What for?"

What did he want from her in return? Aid with a task his home fleet, his family, needed to perform? Overlooking some transgression against the Jack in the Box Fleet he was planning? An open-ended favor that he'd be able to call on when he felt it was convenient?

G- Genetic material?

"Well…" he tempered, looking away from Trinitite and scratching the back of his head. "I just figured that you needed some help with food, right? I know payday's just one more day away, but…"

Hmm, that made some sense. They were fleetmates, after all, but only for around two weeks. The abyssal didn't know Alex nearly well enough to trust him on that level, though. Still, the offer probably came with good intentions, so the human at least deserved some explanation.

"Thank you," she started, surprised that she meant it. "but I don't want to be indebted to anyone more than I have to."

"Oh, okay." He replied, nodding loosely. "You can buy me lunch tomorrow, then."

"Tomorrow?" She echoed, turning the deal over in her head. It would leave her in serious trouble if whomever was in charge of delivering her well-earned money to her poorly-understood 'bank account' failed or was delayed, but hopefully Alex would understand. Plus, after the bland week of small, under-prepared meals, a hamburger was sounding pretty good. "Alright. I accept your offer."

The note of finality in her tone must have reassured Alex, because his face broke into an innocent grin.

"Deal." He chuckled. "What do you want?"

Whoops, forgot to post an update last week.

Training has recently taken the turn for the very stressful (I Cry Everyday, for those of you familiar with NNPTC), and the lack of easy access to a keyboard has made what time I do have to write less productive then I like. As a result, I kind of fear that quality slipped this chapter, but that might just be the spiteful ghost of Admiral Rickover trying to undermine my self-confidence. Hope you enjoyed!