milk and honey ;

“Okay be a doll and get me some ice for my knees. I took a fall last night, and they’re fucking wrecked. Seriously look at them, they’re black. It looks like I spent the night giving blowjobs on the street corner.”

“Hey, I’m not gonna judge you at all. What a person gets up to on a street corner is completely their prerogative” She held her hands up in defence, smirking. Leaving the counter for a moment and reaching into the fridge for the ice-cube tray, it wasn’t long before a pile had been collected on top of a dishcloth. Folding it up, she moved toward Piper, handing it over. “Ice, ice, baby?”.

“—Hey, just a heads up, it’s almost last call. Can I get you another drink?” he questioned, tapping his fingers against the counter. “Maybe get you a cab?”

“Oh, thank you, you’re so sweet. A cab would be ideal right now” Edmée sighed, holding her colleague’s side to keep them from falling in their drunken state. They’d been out celebrating one of the girl’s getting promoted only she couldn’t have predicted how long they’d be out or how inebriated some of them would get. “Come on, honey, let’s get you home to Mark, hmm?” She shook her friend gently as the girl seemed to have fallen asleep on her shoulder. “Uh, could we have a glass of water to go with that cab please?”.

  “Okay, you have the worst taste in music You should just give it a rest and you are making my hears bleed” he said talking to the person next to him

Edmée removed one earbud, completely bemused at what the person next her was getting at. “Hm, I’m sorry but I don’t remember the part where I asked for your opinion especially when it concerns the goddess Kate Bush”.

“Alright, you’ve been sitting here for almost an hour. Are you here to just keep that seat warm or are you actually going to order something?”

“Hm?” Edmée’s eyebrows knotted in confusion. Was she talking to her? Or to some other patron who had wandered in? Still, she persisted and started doodling something else in each corner of her notebook. Flowers, stars, swirls and the occasional attempt to pretty up her signature were starting to cover the pages. “Oh, uh, sorry, I’ll have a lemonade please...”.

“NyQuil is one of the best medicines out there. It’s never changed, it’s always been that same green death fucking flavour and by the time you realize how horrible it tastes, you’re already well on your way to being knocked out so you don’t care. Long story short, I’d probably marry whoever invited NyQuil and also I may or may not have downed half a bottle before getting here. It’s not my fault that I’ve somehow managed to catch a cold even though I’ve spent ninety percent of my time this week at the hospital. Like aren’t hospitals supposed to be germ free? Anyways…..back to the point….wait, was there actually even a point?“

Edmée laughed. “Hm, I think somewhere between your declaration of love toward whomever invented NyQuil, who’d be a very lucky person by the way, and the distinct lack of germ-free hospitals, there was meant to be a point, yeah” She offered with a grin. “I’m actually just enjoying the fact you talk about as much nonsense as I do. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside”.

So it hadn’t been the best way to get anyone to agree to anything really, but Ben had never exactly been Mr. Polite, especially not with people he knew well. He expected them to be used to it and so he rarely ever bothered – even if he knew that he should from time to time. “I figured that was the way to go,” he responded with a light chuckle, shaking his head at his own stupidity in that moment. “It brings me out in a rash, too,” he added then. “But it’s a good way to blow off steam and without company I’ll only end up lost in my own thoughts… and yeah, I do not want that right now, at all.” He nodded to himself when she mentioned keeping the door on that latch. “Alright, I’ll see you soon,” he responded, ending the call a moment later and continuing on his way. He was almost there now, so there wasn’t much point in keeping it going anyway. And within a couple of minutes, he was opening the door and calling out to her.

“See, if I didn’t know we were probably related, I’d say we were now” She chuckled back. A quick “Okay, I love you. Bye” ended their phone conversation on her end later than he had which left her to say it to a dead line, something she was slowly becoming used to. Rushing upstairs to change her bottoms, she sighed, scraping her hair back, tying it up with a careless precision. Once dressed in something more appropriate, with a fuzzy headband in her hand, she almost skipped downstairs only to be greeted by her cousin’s voice as he called out her name. “Hey!” Edmée grinned, throwing an arm around his shoulders and hugging him tight. “Do you think this is too much?” She asked, tugging the headband over her head.

“That is true, but think about it – how many cape wearing crusaders didn’t get famous because their fashion choices ended their crime fighting career prematurely?” She pointed her fork at the other woman, a smile sitting on her lips, before shrugging her shoulders and using the utensil to slice through her pancakes once again. “Or maybe that particular woman wants to be throat punched, so she acts like someone who deserves to be.” Constance, of course, couldn’t speaking for the woman’s motives – but if she wanted someone to hurt her, she would go around insulting them for no good reason, so maybe the woman was secretly a masochist. “I can’t speak with authority on the matter, but yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Think of all the forgotten tupperware bowls that could have been saved from a cruel existence at the back of a top-shelf in the cupboard had you avoided those lessons when you were younger. Gymnastics is one cruel mistress.” She popped her forkful of pancakes in her mouth, chewing slowly as  Edmée spoke. “Stairs will bring us an unheard of amount of entertainment,” she announced once she’d swallowed, grinning.

“Oh my gosh, I never even thought about that. There could’ve been a new superhero team wiped out from existence because they made the mistake of wearing capes and we don’t even know about them because of it. My god, you’ve completely opened my eyes!” Edmée exclaimed, her eyes widening at such a discovery. Hearing of the mother’s possible kink for masochism, she snorted through another bite. “You think so? I never really thought about it like that. Maybe she does secretly enjoy the consequences of being a psychopath? She could be the next of Christian Grey’s victims, sorry, submissives” Ed visibly shuddered over her knowledge, limited at best, of what was essentially billed as Twilight fanfiction. She’d only read it at the behest of one of her girlfriends but luckily she’d only managed to get through the first chapter before burning it. Shaking her head at her adolescent activities, Edmée took another long sip from her glass so much so the iced tea had started to turn into ice. “Hm, well, there might not be any hope for me but since I essentially married a giant, there might be some left for Issy” She chucked softly under her breath. Dragging her fork through her diminishing stack, the petite brunette took a rather large bite out of it before swallowing down like a boa constrictor. “Oh god, I can’t wait! Maybe now doing a couple of downward dogs won’t be so much of a ‘stair-y’ thought after all”.