LION !

Kai could feel the other woman’s eyes on her as she scanned the menu - that coupled with the way she commented on Kai’s boldness has her getting a bit flustered. “Uh…well, I guess I just couldn’t help myself when someone as pretty as you smiles at me like that. Besides, maybe you should’ve taken the initiative to do something first,” she said as she peered over at Daphne again. Despite the shyness that took over her under this girl’s gaze - Kai straightened up as she answered Daphne’s question “I mean, I’m just a HHA - Home Health Aide. I’m certified but the training and knowledge I have is still considered less than a Nurse. I’m proud of it, though. I like taking care of the people I tend to - I mean, I only have a few patients but that gives me time to know them on a personal level. They often make fun of my Nevada accent - which I didn’t even know was a thing. I can’t even get them back for all the Michigan accents I have to hear ‘cause they are just so darn cute!” Kai’s eyes widened when she realized how she just rambled on and on like. “No! At this rate, I’m gonna need to try some of the lemonade with how much I’ve been talking your ear off.” When a waitress came around to take their orders, Kai went ahead and ordered two lemonades as well as the roasted ham and egg sandwiches. “Thank you so much, love,” she offered without even thinking as she handed the menu off to the waitress.

Daphne’s eyebrows rose at the challenge, taken off guard more than anything as it startled a laugh out of her. “You’re right,” she conceded with a nod, keeping her eyes on Kai as she answered her question thoroughly. Though she put no one on a pedestal, she could still appreciate someone who made a career out of their own compassion. While Kai rambled, she slowly shrugged out of her jacket considering she knew she was going to be there for a bit longer than she had otherwise anticipated. “No, I get it. It might not be the accent everyone seems to think we all have but... there’s some words that hit me just right and bring out the Canadian in me.” Her eyes narrowed playfully before she leaned back, looking at the waitress while Kai rattled off their orders, thanked her as she was turning away, then turned her attention back to Kai. “So you, like... take care of old people and stuff?” Daphne questioned, wanting to wholly wrap her brain around what Kai did. “Or just anybody that needs it, under whatever circumstances?”

❝ a cat !? & you’re not showing any pictures to me yet ? i’m so offended right now, ❞ he jokes lightly & takes his phone out to begin showing her pictures of his own baby. ❝ his name is meow. i know, you don’t need to say it. pretty creative. i’d always wanted a black cat, but my mother was too superstitious to allow me having one & back in new york, it was kind of hard having one while living with 4 or 5 more people, so before i moved here i adopted him & we’ve become the bestest friends in the world. ❞ kam arches his brows & begins to chuckle lightly. ❝ really ? i got this one from ebay. it’s from the 90s. it wasn’t that expensive, but definitely wouldn’t do it again. i suppose… burns are guaranteed !! i’m a clumsy fella. ❞

The second his phone comes out, Daphne was easing her way up closer, already prepared to get a good look at a furry friend. Her grin widened, eyes narrowing in the process. “No, it’s perfect! I had a stuffed animal when I was a kid named Woofy — my cat’s lucky I wasn’t the only one deciding on his name.” She slipped her phone out to find one of the many pictures of Gus she had taken just in the last week, holding her phone up only when she found one that wasn’t a messy blur of black fur. “Me and my ex adopted my Gus when we moved here some years ago. His legs are a lil too short for his body and he throws a fit when I get more attention than he does, but I love him. Wouldn’t trade him for the world. He’s eight now and he still acts like he’s a little kitten.” She barely forced herself not to swipe quickly through her pictures of her beloved pet, akin to an overbearing parent showing off pictures of their children. “Oh, I’ve got no problem burning myself on my own already. Did you know that taking shit out of the oven with a damp oven mitt hurts and is actually stupid to do? Yeah, I learned that recently.”

Maybe she was getting ahead of herself with buying Daphne some food as well as another drink but it does go hand in hand with paying it forward. “Why wouldn’t I offer a meal to someone with such a beautiful smile?” Kai genuinely asked before she reached for a menu, looking over it. “No mushrooms,” she noted, she had a better time remembering things when she says them aloud for some reason. With how concentrated she got - Kai belatedly laughed and looked up at Daphne again when she heard the penicillin joke. “As someone who works in the medical field - I can appreciate that joke wholeheartedly,” she responded, offering up another smile before looking back down at the menu. “They don’t really offer much but how does a roasted ham and egg sandwich sound?”

"Oh, we’re sweet talking me, are we?” Daphne scoffed with a laugh, looking on with her head propped up on her hand as Kai looked through a menu. Her expression softened further in amusement. “In the medical field? What are you exactly then?” Her question was nothing but curious, taking a quick peek at the menu herself when Kai made her choice. “Yeah, that sounds fine to me. The lemonade is the most important part anyway,” she insisted with another sly tap to her empty glass, narrowing her eyes playfully at her. “Have you tried the lemonade here? It’s good.”

❝ i think the main goal in one person’s life is to accomplish certain goals & make dreams come true, don’t you think ? you probably don’t care, but that’s too damn bad & i don’t remember asking, but i recently hit two life milestones: going full pastel fantasy & buying one thing that possibly defined me as the gayest kid in my block, an easy bake oven. now if i wasn’t fired… maybe then my life would be great. what’s up with your life goals & dreams ? are you as happy as i am ? ❞

@vestalanding​​

Daphne’s mind did backflips for a moment as she caught up, then offered up a sheepish smile. “Well, I have a cat,” she laughed. “I think that’s enough for me.” Future talk was something she typically dodged so she did just that, though the mention of an easy bake oven did pique her interest. “I dunno about as happy. I’m not the one with an easy bake oven. Honestly, I didn’t even think they sold those anymore — I swear I could’ve burned my whole house down as a kid if my mom didn’t realize what a big mistake she made getting it for me.”

As soon as the other woman agreed with her, Kai’s smile grew tenfold - enough that her cheeks began to hurt. Instead of continuously smiling like an idiot beside her, though, she picked up her own drink to take a sip from it, occupying her mouth as much as possible. That action didn’t save her from the smoothness of what Daphne was about to do, though. As soon as Kai was being propositioned into buying her another lemonade, the smile returned to her face with the glass still against her lips. “I think that’s fair but it’d be incomplete without a meal, are you hungry, at all?” She asked as she set her drink back down.

"Oh, I’m getting a meal out of this too?” Daphne huffed out a laugh but answered with a hum and an affirming nod. Even if she was more used to being on the opposite end of things, she wasn’t going to say no to a free meal. “Although... I’m not sure what they have here. How about you get me what you’d get? Just no mushrooms. Allergic. Everything else should be good to go — I doubt they’re serving up penicillin in their food.”

“I might’ve phrased it wrong, you’ll have to forgive me for that,” she said as she offered the other woman a smile. “The idea still stands - I want to send out good vibes with the way I go about life, the way I act to strangers. I mean, I think just offering you a smile like this is an accurate way of doing a good deed, right?”

The fact that she was being given a smile and having it called a good deed startled a laugh out of Daphne. She wasn’t going to argue — far from it. “You’re right,” she conceded easily. “I guess you could call a smile like yours a good deed. You know what else would be, though?” She leaned back in her seat, revealing her empty glass in front of her at her adjacent table. “Buying a stranger another lemonade.”

“dogs do have the superpower to make everything better. maybe i should get a job with animals,” alec replied with a chuckle before sipping his drink. “my boss keeps shutting down all the work i do and says my art isn’t good enough yet but i’ve been trying to so long. makes me feel so defeated.”

"It’s great. Wouldn’t change a thing about my job except, like... more time with animals, less time behind the desk.” But maybe now wasn’t exactly the time to brag about how much she loved her job. Daphne turned a bit in her seat to more so face him. “Yeah, I could never do anything where doing a good job is subjective. You’re braver than I am. And you can’t tell them to go fuck themself I guess, huh?”

alec was sitting at a bar, beer in hand, and sulking. it was rare that he let something get to him, but for once he didn’t have his token smile on his face. “do you ever just feel so defeated that you wish you could just give up and become a hermit?” he asked the person next to him with a sigh. 

@vestalanding​

"Sometimes.” Daphne tapped her nails against the side of her glass, peeking at her company out of the corner of her eye before her gaze settled on her half empty glass again. “The perks of working with animals, I guess. I go to work, see a dog that’s excited to see me, and suddenly I don’t wanna stay holed up. What’s up?”

“In my opinion, the best attitude to have in life is to pay it forward. I know I’ll run into people who won’t agree but at least I’m doing my part by spreading the good karma.”

@vestalanding​

"Can you spread good karma? I thought the karma was just for the people actually doing the good deeds. Isn’t that what people who believe in karma do? Do good things because they’re keeping some karmic score?”

"The position’s open! I’m taking applications.”

"Back up, back up. I can tell you right now I’m never getting married.”