Sam Winchester (not_amoosed) wrote in incompletedata, @ 2017-09-15 22:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | hansel & gretel: gretel, supernatural: sam winchester |
Who: Sam and Gretel
What: coffee and portals
When: backdated slightly, after Gretel's net post (training day 8)
Where: coffee shop and then various common areas
Warnings: nothing much, maybe some language.
Ever since the coffee shop had appeared after the Pokémon experiment, it had become part of Sam's daily routine to stop off after training for a cup of coffee. Most days he went after, some days he went before - but everyday he went. It was nowhere near what his caffeine consumption was like back home but it was enough for now.
Today though, he'd skipped it. Well not skipped it exactly, it had sort of slipped his mind. After all the drama in the pool with Gretel falling through the ceiling he'd been kind of preoccupied. She seemed okay but he wanted to make sure she got back to Romeo alright which meant taking a different route and forgetting about his coffee.
Forgotten at least until he talked to her later. He wasn't sure why it hadn't occurred to him before now to go for coffee with her. Something he meant to rectify as he sat outside the shop waiting for her to arrive.
Sam didn't know it, but even if he had invited her on their way back to Romeo, Gretel would have insisted on going later, considering her dress was still soaked even after letting it lay out during the scuba lesson. That, and she'd still been processing the whole 'breathing under water’ thing. And falling through a magic hole in the fabric of space. It'd been a strange day.
But the promise of actual coffee was impossible to resist, especially coming from Sam. It was no secret she enjoyed his company, nor was she blind to the certain type of affection he showed towards her. That wasn't the reason she liked spending time with Sam- at least, not mostly- but it certainly was more on her mind lately.
The events of today definitely added to that.
“I'm not late, am I?” She said, coming up from the direction he hadn't been facing: her hair was loose and still drying- a heavy curtain over her shoulders, mostly hiding the top half of the 'athletic’ clothing of her dormatory. It was far more revealing than she like but she'd been in less earlier, and this wouldn't be as cumbersome as the denim if she ended up in the pool again.
Sam would be the last person to try and label what he felt towards Gretel. He had a lot in common with her, felt a sort of companionship regarding a lot of similar experiences that they happened to share. For those reasons he found it easy to talk to her and easy to identify with her, finding that he knew to a certain degree how she would feel about something because it was largely how he would feel about it too. He rarely had that kind of connection with anyone, save for his brother maybe, and it was difficult to ignore.
If that had developed into something more Sam was resolutely avoiding thinking about it, not necessarily intentionally but as a result of years of conditioning - there was no place for romantic entanglements in his world, at least none that really meant anything unless you wanted them to go horribly wrong.
That being said he was not completely oblivious. He turned towards her at the sound of her voice and did an almost imperceptible double take at the image of her hair cascading down her shoulders, somehow clinging to her form and flowing loose and wild at the same time. It was striking. “Uh...no.” He said uncertainly, reigning in his thoughts again. “I was early. I didn't know what you wanted so figured I'd wait instead of ordering for you.” He offered her a half smile.
If she noticed the change in his look, Gretel said nothing about it; truth be told, she was more unused to her own reflection in this place more often than not than the people around her. Her typical clothing rarely changed much back home.
In any case, what Sam said was much more distracting at the time.
“What I wanted?” she asked, her brows both raising, along with the slightest twitch her smile. She fell in line with him, heading into the small shop. “How many kinds of coffee can there possibly be?”
Sam broke into a grin as they headed into the shop together. “Well, why don't you take a look for yourself?” He said with a soft laugh, indicating the menu written on the wall behind the counter.
He watched her looking over the various options and it occurred to him that with no prior knowledge she probably wasn't going to have a clue where to start, so he went ahead and ordered a black coffee for himself.
“Here.” He offered her a taste when his coffee was ready.
He hadn’t been wrong; Gretel looked at the long list of offered items as if it were written in a dead language. The only thing she recognized was the word ‘coffee’, and only some of them seemed to even include that. After what felt like way too long staring blank-eyed at the menu, she came to the conclusion that starting with the simplest was probably best.
Problem was, she didn’t know which of these things was the ‘simplest’- at least until Sam ‘rescued’ her again for the second time that day.
“Oh- thank you…” Her tone wrapped around a slightly overwhelmed laugh. It melted into a hum of surprise and definite approval after she took the cup he offered and held it close for a cursory sniff. She could feel the warmth even through the container, which was a strange material she’d only encountered before in the cafeteria, but the aroma was powerful and heady, almost as strong as a rich man’s perfume.
The taste was even better.
“Fuck me-” she nearly gasped after the first taste, looking at the cup as if it just turned into gold. Without thinking, her lips rolled in on themselves, a little more red because of the heat; she could still taste the residue. “It tastes nothing like it smells- but it’s still good.”
Sam was almost as much in awe of watching her taste the coffee as she was at discovering it for the first time. He knew she'd like it, but he still hadn't expected her reaction to be quite so enthusiastic.
He smirked when she swore like that and tried not to notice the way she rolled her lips or the way they darkened with the heat. “It is, isn't it. Why don't you take that one and I'll order another.” He said, already indicating to the server behind the counter.
Once the second cup came along he nodded towards a small table by the window. “You wanna sit down?”
Gretel nodded, somehow, while right in the middle of her second, much less tentative sip. It was still far too hot to take in too much at a time, but the fact that she could only get small, separate tastes made the whole experience a bit more tantalizing. It was distracting enough to miss any specific looks she received from Sam, but she did notice his smile- that had always been impossible to ignore.
“Hansel would do backflips for this,” she chuckled as they found their seats- she peeled the strange cover off her cup in order to indulge in more of the aroma. “He’d never admit it, but he would.” There were so many things about this place that would leave her twin with a blank stare on his face- including the dragon currently asleep in the small sphere in her ‘room’- but thinking of his reaction to coffee was a small comfort to his absence. She didn’t dwell on it; Sam was always a help to keep her thoughts away from missing her brother too much. “Thank you- again.”
Sam laughed. “Honestly, there's not much I wouldn't have done for it if this place hadn't shown up when it did. Cafeteria coffee is barely coffee and it really wasn't cutting it.” Sam added sugar to his cup and stirred it a little.
He took a substantial sip and gave her a half smile. “For what? The coffee? Don't mention it. You'll get the next one.” He joked.
A flash of green outside the window caught his eye and he turned just in time to see someone disappearing through some kind of portal in the wall of the building opposite. “Huh.” He raised his eyebrows. “I think maybe your unexpected drop in to the swimming pool might not have been a one off.”