Plan for Action

Well she didn’t have to tell him twice, the further he could get away from his little avian nemesis and the faster he could do that, the better, pigeons cooing at him angrily and rather venomously (if you could attach such vitriol to something like a pigeon) when he passed a fountain where they were roosting. They luckily hadn’t bothered with the healer just because she was in close proximity, but it didn’t take too very long for the effect he had on animals to be obvious and apparent, cats that were just walking along and minding their own business stopping to hiss at him, their backs arched high and their fur standing straight on end. He had just gotten in in the nick of time too, several pigeons smacking themselves against the glass, the reaper wincing with a bit of a shudder before he took a deep breath, having held it in the entire time he’d been racing toward the bakery.

“Sorry about that,” he laughed with a bit of a shrug. “They all tend to go kinda nuts whenever I’m around, so in the warmer months I spend more time indoors than out.” That was all he needed, to go off on some kind of hiking nature adventure in the woods or the outlying areas and get speared in a butt-cheek by a pissed off buck or God forbid come into contact with a porcupine or a skunk or something.

Even a little keyed up from his battle with the local fauna, it wasn’t hard to notice that everything in the place smelled absolutely heavenly, a display case flanking both sides of the counter with sweets on one side and baked savories on the other. Donuts filled a few shelves, brownies, fruit pastries tied into pretty braids and drizzled with sweet cream glaze, bear claws, bundles and bundles of freshly baked breads and baguettes behind the lady that was standing there ready to take orders while other shelves held freshly made croissant sandwiches with eggs, cheese, and sausages or bacon depending on what the orderer’s preference was. The sample of the day was eclairs cut up into little bite-sized pieces, and in another separate display case, there were cakes of every kind one could possibly imagine, a little sign on the glass door noting We do Weddings and Catering! All of it mingled with the scent of freshly brewed coffee and tea and when at last he turned his attention toward the woman who was gazing at them expectantly, he put on his brightest smile, slipping his hands into his pockets.

“Good morning! What can I get you?”

“Uhhh… I’ll have–” Evan narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, head tilted to the side as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet a little, a bit of a nervous habit whenever he had to speak to a stranger with any degree of formality and politeness because he was hardly formal and not always so polite by the standards of the citizenry here. “One of those blueberry pastry things, uhhh… two glazed donu- no, that cream cheese danish, yeah. Two danishes and one of your sausage croissant sandwiches, please. I’ll also take a large vanilla latte, extra sugar and some whipped cream on the top. Do you have sprinkles?”

“… Yes, people don’t normally put them on a latte, but… we have them.”

“Sprinkles it is, rainbow that shit up!” He grinned. “And she’ll have whatever she wants, all on the same ticket please if it’s not too much trouble.” Very lightly, he ruffled Amber’s already mussed hair with a warm grin that made his face a beaming beacon of happiness, though the gesture was halted long enough for him to dig out his wallet with a thoughtful expression.

“You must be the new guy in town,” the woman couldn’t help but tease. “You’ve never come in on my shift before but all the eateries around here have already heard all about you, I was starting to think they made you up or something. I’m surprised you didn’t dig your phone out to play a little recording of other people so we wouldn’t think all of this was for three or four different checks.”

Damn. The barbecue place must have had his number after all, and he’d gone to all that damn effort to be clever which was apparently for nothing– “It wasn’t all for me, I swear my friends–”

“Were on a beer run. Three nights in a row. Right.” She winked at him playfully though quickly turned her attention back to Amber, leaving Evan to stand there with a sheepish smirk on his face, his tongue tucked into his cheek and his hands slipped back into his pockets. Apparently, small town life was the same no matter where you went, everyone talking about anything even remotely exciting that happened in town, trading gossip, with everybody knowing everybody and observing any newcomers with zealous interest.

“Yeah yeah, just tell me how much it is and I’ll get out of your hair.”

It was some weird shit, that was for sure. Amber hadn't really ever seen anything quite like it. Why did animals, or birds at least, seem to hate this dude so much? “Jesus balls, yo. What did you do to them? Take a shit in their nest?” Amber was a little out of breath from the sudden sprint, but nothing super noticeable. It was a positive that came out of constant physical training via sports and weightlifting. The multiple thuds that sounded as birds flew into the barely-shut-in-time door made the healer frown slightly. Wasn't there a bad movie out there that had a similar scene? Oh well. 

The birds eventually flopped onto their feet after impact from the ground and gave a last glare through the glass at their apparent nemesis before turning and taking wing into the sky where they belonged. Too much bizarre for such an early morning, she decided, and lifted her hand up to her windblown hair to fix whatever craziness was taking place up there. Granted, there wasn't much she could do to completely fix it since she had already woke up with bedhead and no real way to tame it. Still, it was better since her hair was a short boy-cut, which made her happy to not cave to suggestions that she should look more like a girl and let it grow out. 

After dealing with appearance, she turned to take in the little shop’s huge selection of pastries and breakfast choices. Her animal hated companion was already going crazy on ordering, so she half listened to his order while making decisions for herself about what would go into her stomach that morning. The croissant sandwiches were holding the healer’s attention so well, that she jumped slightly at the sudden hand that was fucking with her hair. Obviously it wasn’t going to be a great hair day for her hair, it must have been the curse of actually waking up in morning hours. 

Doing nothing to fix her already mused hair, the healer turned to the lady working the counter and pointed toward a croissant sandwich. “I’ll take a croissant sandwich with egg, cheese, and sausage.” Amber thought for another second before pointing toward a plain glazed donut shining behind the display, “And two glazed donuts. And an orange juice, yo. Thanks.” 

Amber wasn’t really awake enough to follow whatever conversation was happening between the cashier and the new dude, but she supposed it was flirting. It was nice to not be the person on the receiving end of the flirting while trying to survive the morning for once. Doubly since the flirting was usually girls hitting on a girl without realizing it was a girl. Amber had that affect on people. They thought she was a boy. 

“I’mma go get a table, bro. Thanks for covering the food.” Amber gave the dude a slight nudge to get his attention before sliding away to plant her ass on a bench that straddled a little booth that was out of the way of any direct sunlight or heavy customer traffic. It was a calm section of the shop that catered to a tired non-morning person like herself. From there, she could easily watch the dude and his interaction with the cashier lady, but instead she broke out her phone to check the time. 

“Thanks bro, that would have sucked,” he laughed in an airy and easy sort of way then, the deliberate use of his native English feeling much more comfortable to him, though it could have been possible that ‘yo’ and ‘bro’ were the only words she’d managed to pick up through exposure to pop culture, he’d just have to wait and see if there was a hint of welcome recognition on her own face.  "Good lookin’ out though, I guess I need to be more aware of my surroundings, but like, to be fair, I had one eye open and it’s early as fuck and who the hell is awake-awake at this time of day?“ The village around them was just getting stirred in the earlier hours of the morning, not quite yet nine, with people bustling into shops that they owned, opening up for the day and starting the daily grind, and he himself had been on his way to grab something from the little coffee shop though the prospect of bringing someone else along was kind of a welcome change.

For long hours the past few days, his time had been spent holed up among the treasures he collected and although he kind of preferred it that way, it was a pretty boring use of his newfound freedom. He was supposed to be getting out in the world and shit, doing things he couldn’t do before like having actual friends that weren’t a bunch of task-oriented robo-pricks with their emotions so suppressed it was almost as if they didn’t have any at all. Even he himself slipped into that sometimes, but… well it was hard to fight that kind of thing when you grew up in it, keeping everyone at a safe and comfortable distance because he didn’t want anyone to catch on that he was somewhat different than they were, uncomfortable expressing things that other people felt so freely.

“You doing anything right now? Cause the coffee shop over there has hella good croissants and if you haven’t had one yet you’re missing out.” The 'open’ friendliness he liked to show others was on in full display, and the nod of his head indicated where he was headed, though his hands it seemed stayed forever in the pockets of those cargo shorts, one hand fiddling with the keys he kept on him, his beat up little yellow car already parked outside his own shop for the day and everything else was pretty much in walking distance. It was kind of superfluous to even have one, he didn’t seem to need to use it much, but hey, gas was one less expense, right?

“I could buy you breakfast or something for literally saving my shoes and all that, or lunch later if you’re busy or somethin’. I’m Evan.” He smiled warmly at her, those dark eyes of his seeming to sparkle when they narrowed into the half-moons of his lids, almost closed but not quite. “I just got here from Minnesota, like not too long ago, so meeting people around here has been kind of an experience, you know?

He could have just killed time right there and kept on with the pleasantries of their conversation, but it was the first day of spring however, he remembered which was the only thing that could have spoiled an otherwise pleasant disposition of his, best to get indoors instead of staying outside to chit chat. The gesture that followed was rather nonchalant, as if he was just used to having to do so, sliding his backpack off one shoulder and bringing it around before grabbing a paperback book out of its confines, tightly gripping the tome in both hands and batting an incoming diving blue jay with malice in its beady little eyes away like a baseball, the creature fluttering off in a daze with an off-key whistle as if it were dizzy. "Son of a bitch,” he groaned. “Fucking birds. Yeah I better get in before they all start this crap, if I stand still too much, they go right for the top of my head and it hurts like a motherfucker.” He was going to have to start carrying his bird-swatting broom around everywhere he went, and that was going to be a tough one to have to explain to people so they wouldn’t think he was crazy.

It wasn't like nobody in Korea spoke English, and it wasn't like there weren't plenty of multilingual people strolling around the immediate area, but it was kind of rare to come across someone who was willing to carry on a conversation in English if it wasn't their first language. By that reasoning alone, the healer figured that English had to be this guy’s first language. That, and the fact that they spoke similarly and his English was fluent with a hint of that American-ness in the accent. It was surprising, but it was a welcome change that made the healer grin with a relaxed ease that made friendliness much easier. 

“Dog shit smellin’ up your shoes first thing in the morning? Some people believe walking on crap is a sign of good luck, but I’d still rather avoid it.” Amber nodded along sympathetically, moving back a few paces to the opposite of the dog poo so that the smell didn't carry with the wind into her nostrils. “Dude, tell me about it. I don't even know how peeps be functioning so early in the day.” Amber pointed up at her ruffled hair with a sheepish expression, “that’s what happens when you ain’t a morning person. Or that.” Amber turned her pointed finger to the pile of dog crap. 

It wasn't usually a good idea to hop on random play dates with people you meet on the street - the term ‘stranger danger’ still applied as an adult, but Amber had spent the night boozing enough to leave her with major hunger grumbles that started up the second food and croissants were mentioned. A particularly loud one filled the air between them and she laughed. “I think you got an answer already, bro. I’m down for croissants, breakfast, whatever. I aint a picky eater.” Amber watched as a busy passerby squelched their shoe onto the shit, and the tide of curse words that flew from his mouth as a result. Her face instantly morphed into a grimace of disgust before returning to the dude’s face. “Evan from Minnesota, huh? Yo, that’s the last place I was expecting to hear, y’know? Minnesota ain’t very popular. I’m Amber, from Cali. West coast represent.” 

The sudden appearance of a blue blur caught the healer by surprise. At first she thought someone had thrown a blue dart at the guys head, but realized after the initial swat that it was actually a bird. “The fuck? Do birds not like you or some shit? That was unreal, ain’t never seen nobody get dive-bombed by a bird except seagulls at the beach when there’s food in someones hand.” Spotting another bird taking aim behind Evan, the healer pointed it out and shouted, “If you don’t want beaks pecking out your hair, I’d suggest a run. Now.” And with that, the healer took off toward the bakery-looking place that the dude had pointed out. Luckily it wasn't very far from where they stood, and it wasn't across the street.    

Yo, you gonna make me feel bad that I didn't think to get you no sappy af Valentines day gift! How’d you know I like dark chocolate tho? That shit is the best!

“Well-preserved secret you mean. This place is like something out of a novel.” she added. “It would be tragic if this were to ever become a common store. Ain’t no way I’m telling anyone about this spot!” she huffed as they got to the front of the line. When Nathalia glanced around again she had to agree with Amber; there were just enough people to make it cozy and not overwhelming. When she was nudged, Nat apologized to the cashier before placing her order. “May I please have a medium lychee milk tea? Cold please, with jelly. Thank you.” Nathalia was always polite and treated any person who was working with the utmost respect. No matter what position one held in life, she strongly believed in treating each and every worker with nothing but kindness. Service jobs were hard, and long, and Nathalia never wanted to be the reason a service worker felt nothing but pleasant.

The whole ‘bomb-dot-com’ comment made a good guffaw of laughter roll off the healer’s tongue. This chick had a sense of humor, and it wasn't too otherworldly either. Rare. She seemed normal, and the healer was pleased. “Yo, you don't gotta apologize ‘bout that shit out there.” Amber waved away the girl’s apology with one hand. “The ice out there can get anyone, you're even wearing heels. I would’a broken my damn ankles, neck, and wrists.” Amber wrinkled her nose and flexed her arms the way a douche-y male gym rat might in front of mirrors or girls. “See these guns? Too powerful for a little yank to break them, bro.” Amber broke out into a laugh, letting her arms fall to her sides again.

Amber watched the cashier poke the girl’s order into the system before she opened her mouth to order her own. “Medium Lavender milk tea, please homie. Cold, no jelly today. Thanks bruh.” Amber gave the cashier a playful smile and handed over the payment. In return the cashier gave Amber a receipt with a phone number scrawled on the back and her change. Amber held up the receipt and nodded thanks before turning to her new companion and gesturing around the little shop. “Follow me. I know the best seat in the place, yo.” Amber started winding her way past little chairs and tables, and climbed up a small flight of stairs that led to a second floor area of the shop were there was a small fireplace burning and more of the same cushy cute chairs. Amber settled in one with a satisfied exhale and waited for the girl to do the same. 

The use of such formal language made the healer do a double take, leaving her game to its own devices for a little while. “Yo, don’t worry ‘bout it. I was playing some games, nothin’ that important.” Nonetheless, Amber returned the bow without the same shyness that the girl had. “New to the academy?”