[A.T.L.A.S] (maketheplay) wrote in worldsapart_ic, @ 2019-02-10 21:23:00 |
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Entry tags: | brett conroy, daniel penbrook |
Who: Daniel Penbrook & Brett Conroy
What: Nobody expects to be assaulted in the grocery store
When: 10th Feb
Where: Random grocery store
Rating: Low
Warnings: n/a
Typically speaking, Brett didn't have a lot of time for books. Between work, practise and the occasional community event, her plate was rather full. She'd somehow been roped into helping plan the upcoming dance in March. She hated school dances, and she hated the planning committee even more, especially since they met on Saturday mornings and seemed to think everyone had time to make snacks or something before meeting up at 9am on Saturday. It was just a bit of a hassle for her.
Enough that even after work, having stayed an additional hour to catch up on reports and following up support requests, Brett was in the store trying to work out if she could get away with just buying muffins rather than making anything -she had too much to do tonight than stand around and bake for the damn planning committee who didn't even want her assistance anyway.
But she knew they'd complain about things not being allergen free and low carbs or gluten free, and that was another headache all together that she wanted to avoid. Her frustration just happened to come out with a heavy groan and she put the box of muffins down, prepared to go and get the box of mix, when she shoved it too hard, knocking several things off the shelf and in trying to grab them all, she hit someone with her basket.
"Fuck," she usually tried not to cuss, since she did work in a school, but sometimes the language was just needed, "I'm sorry, are you okay?"
Generally speaking Daniel didn't need to eat to survive or rather he did but his food came direct out of a vein there were however appearances to keep up as he didn't actively advertise that he was a vampire. That and he did keep company who required food so in order to be a good host he should at the very least have something in his cupboards to offer them.
Of course what he had not expected on this fairly routine outing was to be assaulted by a blonde and her basket after she made a desperate grab for all the items she had knocked off the shelf. Thankfully he was relatively sturdy and this suit was in need of a dry clean anyways so any damage done could easily be resolved by the magic woven by Mr Vance.
"I'm fine," he assured her. "Are you okay?" He asked because he could hear the uneven beat of her heart which to him indicated a flustered state but then her actions loudly announced that as well.
Was she okay. God, there wasn't long enough to answer that question.
"I'm fine, I'm sorry, God," putting the basket down and out of the way, Brett went about gathering up the dropped and askew breads and muffins and cakes. "Apparently I just decided to reorganise the shelves onto the floor." Naturally she'd be the one being an uncoordinated mess because her brain went in fifty directions.
"I don't make a habit of assaulting people with baskets and ruining displays, just..." Work stress, life stress. Her damn day to day stresses seemed to be piling up all the time, and Brett foolishly kept taking things on rather than stopping. "It's a tough week."
Wow, that was quite the information overload accompanied by apparent rambling. Daniel to his credit remained quiet as the blonde continued to explain what was going on with her that meant she had just assaulted a stranger with a shopping basket.
As she went about gathering up the items that had in fact hit the floor Daniel pushed out a breath and joined her, figuring it wouldn't be very nice of him if he let her struggle when it was clear she was already struggling.
"I know what those are like," he assured her with a smile. "I have my fair share of those."
Finally clearing up the mess, smiling in appreciation as her assault victim helped, Brett pulled herself together a little bit better than before. "Yeah, they suck, but I think they're universal." She just needed to try not attack people with shopping baskets. "You're sure I didn't hurt you? I really am sorry."
She'd taken a trolley to the knee a time or two, and those bastards hurt, the bruising tended to take forever too. It was bad enough she'd probably injured some unsuspecting shopper, but he'd even stuck around to help her out and clear up.
Thankfully Daniel being a vampire was for the most part relatively hardy unless of course he happened to come across a pissed off werewolf on a full moon because then all bets were off. "I'm honestly fine, really. Believe it or not but I've actually had worse."
Once it seemed like all items were collected and placed back onto the shelf he rose back to his feet and offered a hand.
At least all she'd wounded was her own pride then, it was better than random strangers being injured and potential claims for injuries -God could she do without any of that nonsense. "Good, I'm glad," and then she thought about it, "not that you've had worse, of course, just that you're not hurt. I wouldn't be glad that---"
Brett huffed to herself, bracing on her knee before accepting the hand offered, "I am sorry, you're really catching the brunt of my frazzled mess of a self, aren't you?" Ramblings and uncoordinated attacks and just a general whirlwind of Brett's pent up everything.
She was definitely a rambler, that much was evident. Daniel idly wondered if she was always like this or it was just as a result of the week from hell she had referenced briefly. Not that it was any of his concern, it wasn't like they were friends, just two strangers in a store.
"It would certainly appear that way," he returned with a bemused smile that coupled with his accent was significantly more charming than it could have been.
Giving herself a stern talking to, Brett had to pull it together, make it through the rest of her shopping trip, get home and pour a glass of wine -which just added a trip to the wine aisle for her too, because damn she was going to need a decent bottle to get through this.
"You'd think deciding to bake or buy wouldn't be the stress causing nightmare that this is becoming, but... Thank you for your help, and sorry for the attack, again." She was sure she needed to stop apologising, let the poor man get on with things since she didn't think he'd sending civil servants out to bring her in for an injury claim.
At least she assaulted someone relatively nice.
"Well, good luck with whatever decision you make," Daniel offered as he slid his hands into the pockets of his dark grey slacks. "Personally if I were you I'd buy rather than bake but I can't bake so maybe I'm not the best person to be giving advice."
He turned to start away before pausing to look over his shoulder. "And hopefully you'll get through the rest of your shopping trip without another... incident." Then he realised rather belatedly that he hadn't given his name or gotten hers in return. "I'm Daniel by the way."
It wasn’t as if Brett was terribly good at baking either -she could do it, it was just following a recipe, and that wasn’t complicate. It just never seemed to come out right. “I mean, that does sound far easier.” And she’d face less criticism for how bad they tasted.
Feeling like that settled things, Brett picked up the little container of muffins, then considering and grabbing a second, to put in her basket. “I’m Brett. And I am, really, so sorry for the incident, Daniel.”
But it wasn’t like he could’ve been nicer about it. All things concerned. And hopefully no, there would be no more incidents in the store.