WHO:Eliot Spencer & Anna of Arendelle WHEN: Early March WHERE: Grocery store WHAT: Anna walks into an Eliot shaped brick wall. RATING/WARNINGS: Zilch STATUS: Complete
For the most part, when Eliot wasn’t working at the restaurant he cooked at, he was working on the surveillance part of his current work. It was still mostly leg work, although he would, eventually, need to find some way to get a hold of phone records and get a tap set up. But for now, it kept him mostly busy. Between his jobs and the renovations on the house, he hadn’t gotten around to setting up the garden vegetables like he preferred to do, which meant grocery shopping.
He wasn’t really the best shopper in the world.
He hated paying the price for organic food, but he preferred it over the treated stuff. And don’t get him started on the way meat was cut. He couldn’t really avoid the fact that he had a face like thunder walking around the store.
Anna was in a rush. Like always. Taking eight college level classes meant she was a busy camper. If she wasn’t in class or doing homework, she was running to or from class or study groups, or trying to catch forty winks in the common areas on campus. Or drinking coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.
When Anna’s roommate Caroline dumped all her Red Bull down the sink, Anna had used it as something of a wake-up call. But that didn’t meant she cut the drink out entirely, heavens no. She kept the cases in her closet and only put a couple at a time in the fridge--to maintain the illusion of control. Anna was headed to pick up another case, thinking about other things, when she turned a corner around an aisle too quickly and bumped into an incredibly angry-looking guy.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Anna exclaimed, both hands flying up to latch onto his shoulder--in an attempt to keep herself from falling over. She’d been walking really fast.
One hand releasing his basket, reaching out to help stabilise the girl that just slammed into him -not that he really had to worry too much of that since he was usually the immovable object in those situations. It wasn’t so much that he was angry and far more that he just had a resting murder face, not great but not something he was terribly good at fixing either. “It’s okay,” making sure she was stable before he stepped back, Eliot gave the kid a once over to make sure nothing was broken or injured.
“You okay?” And he was genuinely concerned, since he’d body slammed bigger men than her and broke them.
“Yes, yes, I think so,” Anna said, settling on her feet and lowering her hands to her own basket. “I didn’t mean to be walking so fast, I just… I get into these rushes when I’m between classes and I’m looking for Red Bull, and this isn’t my normal supermarket, so I’m a little bit lost,” she babbled. Handsome guys--even those with RBF--made her babble nervously.
Energy. That was definitely something she had a lot of. “Um, are you sure you need any more of that?” Okay, so, Eliot tended not to preach, but, “Those things are terrible for you. They increase your chance of heart and blood pressure issues.” And sure, Eliot liked the occasional coffee, but controlled caffeine was different from the sugar, caffeine and god knew what else they poured into those things.
And yeah, he was sort of preaching at a random stranger in the grocery store. “Just saying, they don’t last either.”
“I walk on the wild side. Danger is my middle name,” Anna said, playfully but seriously. “I mean, there are far too many variables in this world to worry too much about what I’m eating and drinking. Pretty much anything can kill me, so I’m going with what I love most. And I love me some Red Bull. My roommate and ex-boyfriend dumped my stash once straight down the drain, but they neglected the idea that I can go buy more.”
The word explosion just had Eliot’s eyebrow raising slightly. “It sounds like your ex and roommate are just considering your health,” sure, no one knew what was coming. Eliot knew that better than a lot of people, since he had a hand in cutting quite a few lives short, but it didn’t mean you should help things along. “You should think about it though, cutting it down at least. Heart trouble early on can really affect what you can do later in life.”
Anna gave a shrug of one of her shoulders. Didn’t really matter which one. It was a nonchalant sort of gesture, an ‘I hear what you’re saying, but I don’t really care’ kind of thing. She’d been sick too long in her life, spent too much time locked away from the world. Now that she was out in it, she was going to experience it. If that meant making her heart explode with Sudafed and Red Bull? So be it.
But he was kind to express concern for her well-being. She nodded. “I should… um… let you get back to your shopping. I’m sure you’ve got important things to do, important places to be? That sort of thing.”
Kids these days. Eliot just gave a small shake of his head before taking a small step back to let the girl past, “Try not run into something that’ll damage you next time.” Like a wall. The tornado that she was. Eliot might not have better things but there were other things needing to do.
“Thanks. I’ll try.” Anna couldn’t help the blush and the sheepish smile. She turned to head off and collect her Red Bull, giving him one last smile before she disappeared down the drink aisle.