"Hey, can I get a mocha and a chocolate snow donut?"

Smile (somewhat strained). "Coming right up."

"- are you all right?"

 Slight twitch. "I'm fine.' Card reader.

He taps his phone.

She's anxious to get this interaction over with because this guy's inquisitive (and also distractingly attractive). She reaches to take the reader back just a little faster than necessary and bumps knuckles.

She's actually losing it. That's the only explanation. She needs to not lose it for the next hour. At least. (It was so GOOD though. Kind of uncomfortably intimate but....)This guy definitely saw the face she made but she needs to not make it worse. 

'S-sorry. Do you need the receipt for that?

She's so so professional. She is going to win an award for how professional she's being right now. She can go stark raving mad or whatever later, where nobody can see.

"Uh - no thanks - if you're an esper why do you work at Tim Horton's."

"What..I...."

"Let alone with that much backlash - wait, how old are you -"

WHY the questions? WHY. (Her brain is failing to compute right now)

"...I'm nineteen." Don't make a big deal of it. 

"...are you awakening?"

Oh. That would explain- the last threeish hours. So, good news she just has to survive the week. Bad news, this really really sucks and she can't even complain to anyone about how it really really sucks because the rabid brain weasels are eating her alive. 

....Also she remembers what if felt like when this guy touched her. Apparently he's...compatible with her. In the the esperfiction this would result in (actually she needs to not think about that right now). Also, that would be weird in real life. She's pretty sure it would still be weird and bad to ask even if her brain was not  being eaten by the rabid weasels.  She just met the guy. Also he definitely has more important things to do with his week. Also, and most importantly, the rabid weasels.

She should finish doing her job. And answer the question. Instead of staring at this guy (so that everyone can see she's freaking out). 

"That would explain a lot. (she doesn't have to explain the details of what, right?) Thank you for letting me know. Your order is ready I think."

She's going to finish this shift. And then...well. She'll figure it out.

"...you should absolutely not continue to work at Tim Horton's while awakening. You could check into the hospital if you don't have family or anyone who can look after you? If you don't want to just come crash with me, we're pretty compatible and I could keep your backlash down, I promise I won't be weird about it, every esper has been there."

She doesn't want to deal with her family in this state. She doesn't want to deal with a lot of people at the hospital asking her personal questions. Even if it's for professional reasons which feels less bad to think about than otherwise. As for the last...

"I'm..." He won't believe her if she says she's fine. "competent to operate a microwave. And...I just...want...privacy. Also, you have...dungeons to kill or something, right? It's not your job to look after me."

(a few of her coworkers are staring by now. She's trying to pretend she can't see them.)

"I'm not surprised you want privacy, I've had my current partner for years and have never had a conversation with her, I can leave you mostly alone, but - people die during their awakenings even if they're competent to operate a microwave. I am allowed to take a week off dungeoneering."

...Fuck it she needs to not be having this conversation at the register of this crowded coffee shop. Half the customers are DEFINITELY staring by now. 

As calmly as she can manage "Sharon, tell the shift manager I'm off for the week. At least. You can tell him why too. (since she was definitely snooping the entire time and....don't think about that.)

(She's going to calmly remove her apron, grab her outerwear, and walk out like a normal person who is definitely not freaking out.

"...If you want to continue this conversation we should do it outside."

"Of course." He collects his coffee and donut and goes out with her.

This is...a little better. Fewer people. She's going to step away from the door and off to the side a bit. And mostly face the wall. Harder for people to see her expression and guess her feelings that way. She's not going to face completely away from Random Coffee Esper though, they're theoretically having a conversation. She is not going to be Weird (weirder than she's already being). 

She..can totally avoid people for a week. The basement suite she's renting has a separate door. But if she's not working, and not going to class and not hanging out with friends she's going to be very bored very fast. You can only play stupid phone games on your own for so many hours. Or well, she can only play stupid phone games on her own for so many hours. Being alone for a week doesn't sound like fun. It's just that right now she doesn't want anyone to know about or think about or engage with her feelings and almost any possible conversation topic seems like it's about her feelings. Or somebody else's feelings which is less bad but still bad. So being around people is incredibly stressful.

...She probably objectively should not in fact actually be alone. Even when she was busy working she kept finding herself worrying about 'what if people are recording me on their phones and posting the video on Youtube with a play-by-play of my emotional state for the Entire Internet to see?'  If she's on her own for a week with nothing but stupid phone games, her textbooks, and fiction books she's mostly already read at least twice...

Probably she should go with this guy actually. Even though it's weird.  Even if he promised not to be weird about it going home with a guy you just met for a week has a certain level of baseline weirdness. But sometimes life is just weird. Sometimes you start awakening when you were just trying to do your job and then run into a compatible esper out of nowhere.

She glances at the guy.

"So, you really won't be weird? Weirder than necessary? We...could probably talk about dungeons. Or well, you could tell me about them mostly. Since they are...apparently going to be relevant to my life for work reasons. And not personal reasons.  Unless you'd rather not talk about work outside of work?"

She has not lived under a rock and has taken several modern history courses.but she never expected dungeons to be directly relevant to her life particularly except in the sense that if you live in a big city chances are you and most of the people you know will be kidnapped by a dungeon at least once. And there's not much you need to know about that other than 'sit tight and wait for the rescuers and do not attempt to fight the monsters yourself." And according to her statistics major friends 'Fill out your damn surveys for the sake of your statistics major friends."

"I like talking about dungeons, I have a blog about them. - I'm Traceless but if you're coming home with me you can call me Haru. I live with my mom Ren and my talking monster cat Cricket, it's a short walk from here but I can pick you up and fly if you want to hug me afterwards and guide the backlash off. My backlash is that I get lonely, but I don't have to be talking to you if you don't like it, Cricket'll talk to me."

Well that is several things to have emotions about.

He has a talking monster cat. That's a big deal actually.

She..wants to stick to the codename, it feels like a little bit of emotional distance. Except she doesn't have an objective reason to ask that. Also she should introduce herself. It would be weird and rude not to. (She's going to want a codename ASAP...)

Hugging...Traceless would be...a lot. She does want it, but it's scary because she wants it (and he'll know that it feels good...)

If she's gong to be an esper, then the guiding is necessary. It's a professional job requirement, and also a medical requirement, like food or water. That's objective facts, right? (it's still pretty scary though, because the feeling was...a lot)

She should text the landlady. And ask her to collect clothes and stuff. But she doesn't know if the landlady will do it without asking questions. She should also text her parents at some point. But she'll have to tell the things and they will want to know about her feelings.

Hmmm... Deep breath

"Um. I can hug you. I'll have to be able to hug people...when.."

Another deep breath.

"Also, I should ask my landlady to bring some of my stuff. So I don't have to wear these clothes for a week. But she might ask questions. That I...don't..that I probably can't answer right now."

"If you want to not be able to notice that I'm there, guiding still works even if I'm imperceptible. - I don't actually know if I can hide the guiding itself but it doesn't have to otherwise feel like anything to hug me, and I think we're compatible enough that the guiding would be net-positive even if I were doing that. I can drive you to your place to get your stuff so you don't have to talk to her?"

"It's not about noticing you're there. Not really. It's....I apologize for being unhelpful when...you're going out of your way to be helpful. And driving me to the house would be very helpful."

Ugh this guy is going to so tired of her by the end of the week. Assuming he doesn't get sick of her sooner and boot her out.

"You're already way more communicative than my partner, I have to go through her brother for everything. The opposites thing means pretty much anyone compatible enough with me is going to be at least somewhat -" gesture. "House is thisaway."

"Okay." 

She'll follow his lead.

He opens the garage; there's a black truck in there. "Where'm I taking you?"

"It's..(she names the address)." (It's a little further from the Tim's in a perpendicular direction.)

He pokes that in to the GPS and gets underway.

Oh no. Awkward silence. She hates awkward silence. Also it gives her too much space to think right now.

"You have a monster cat. That talks. There's not a lot of talking reformed monsters out there, right? How did you end up with one. Or with one as a housemate rather. .If it's not too personal."

Hopefully that's a safe conversational gambit. (...aaaaaa)

"After his dungeon died he was staying at the Maple agency offices - he's really useful in 4D dungeons - but he has a very disagreeable personality and didn't like anyone there. When I was awakening I decided I should get a cat, as a loneliness target who would seldom have other plans, and Ren posted about it on an esper forum and someone said I should take Cricket - he wasn't named that yet, he wouldn't take any of their name suggestions - and they were probably joking, but I went in to meet him and he took a liking to me and came home with me."

"Picky about people? That's  very catlike." As is taking a liking to people for inscrutable reasons. But maybe the reasons are actually very scrutable and none of her business.

"If you want more detail there's a post about him on my blog. And lots of pictures, he likes posing."

"I might. At some point." The blog would be useful for generating conversation topics. Probably.

Also she decided she was going to introduce herself. And then didn't. Argh. "Uh. I'm Katherine Sullivan. By the way."

and now they're almost at the house so she can FLEE THE SCENE (temporarily). 

"Would that we'd met under better circumstances."

He will wait out in the car for her to pack, she seems mostly functional, but he's ready to swoop in if she takes a weirdly long time.

Right. She's going to get the bigger duffel bag. Then she's going to grab some clothes. Any clothes will do. She cleaned the wardrobe just before the start of the semester so everything should still fit. Let's not think about it too hard. (She's still going to think about it too hard). But she's not going to waste Traceless' time. He's a guy, he won't form personal opinions of her based on her shirts. (Is she sure?) As long as they're clean which they are. She's going to grab her baggy sleep shirt. Underwear, she's on a budget, she buys panties and socks in six packs of bland colours, Not that it fucking matters. Toothbrush. The cheap shampoo bottle. Towel. Her phone charger. Also, she's going to put her phone on Do Not Disturb while she thinks of it. (She should delete all her texts, block everyone on her contact list and then delete the contact list) She should not do that. She's pretty sure she'd regret doing that next week. Also she absolutely needs to figure out how to get in touch with her parents. At some point. Otherwise she'll just have even more questions to answer eventually. 

There she's done. That took longer than necessary but not an absurdly long time. It was way too stressful because of all the overthinking though. 

She leaves a note on the table with the date and "Away for the week", makes a circuit to make sure no lights were left on, relocks the door behind her and drags her loaded bag out to the car.

"I think that's everything. Also I left a note so the landlady at least knows I won't be around...."

"She comes into your place uninvited a lot?"

"Not a lot, but she lives upstairs so she'll probably notice I'm not there, and check. This is just so she knows not to call the cops."

"Gotcha. Anyone else who should know you're awakening?"

"My parents. Should know. But they'll ask a lot of questions." She's not going to cry. She's not. Even though this sucks and she hates it.And she can't talk about it.Even (especially) with her family.

"...do you want me to field those for you? I'll probably sound suspicious as hell but I can at least have people confirm that I am who I say I am with my agent."

"That would be helpful."

heavy sigh. "It doesn't even make sense to not tell them. It's not like they aren't...going to find out." (she could move to Papua new Guinea and throw her phone in a lake)

"Okay. Can I have their numbers?"

She gives them. "You should try my mother first. She works from home so she usually answers quickly."

"I'll text when we're at my house so I can respond right away if she does." And he starts up the truck again.

"That's reasonable."

This is Toronto esper Traceless, Your daughter Katherine is awakening; we're compatible and she shouldn't be by herself during hell week (it's unsafe) so I've invited her to my house. You can confirm my identity with my agent Paula Bescond via the contact info on my website traceless.com if you wish. Katherine's backlash leaves her capable of talking but reluctant about some aspect of it (I don't know the details) so I can ask her to talk to you if necessary but this may be very hard for her.

There is no immediate reply.

She fidgets "So, what now. Besides waiting."

"Uh, what do you eat, we have food around but if you're allergic to gluten or something no guarantees we've got a week of what you'd want for that -"

"Who's this?" yawns a winged cat emerging from the bathroom.

"Hey kitty, this is Katherine, she's awakening and will be around this week, be nice."

"Hrmmmmm." He trots right past Haru's ankle and takes up his position in his window-seat catbed with its laptop.

"I'm not allergic to any foods or anything like that." She usually doesn't eat meat other than fish but that's not a a health issue.And it wouldn't be the first time she's ended up bending that at somebody else's house.

Her eyes widen slightly as Cricket comes into the room. "Oh. He has wings. I don't think you said that." She watches Cricket go by.

He stretches them out real big and then folds them up again.

"Yeah, all the monsters in his dungeon were giant winged versions of small nonwinged animals. With add-ons. He was venomous. When the dungeon died that went away and he shrank."

The posing gets a very brief smile. "I see."

"Did you have breakfast, are you hungry?"

"I had coffee and a donut before my shift started. I'm a little hungry. I usually eat something after my shift to hold over until lunch."

"KD sound good?"

"That works."

"You don't seem - medically acute - in any way that is manifestly obvious to me, but I have in fact ever practiced cooking while in continuous physical contact if you would prefer that."

"....I think...we can wait until the food is done.". And they can sit next to each other and it doesn't have to be a whole thing. KD in a bowl is a one hand food more or less.

"Okay."

It doesn't take that long to make. He dishes it up.

Mm processed mac and cheese. The lazy college student's staple aside from instant ramen. 

At about that point Haru's phone beeps with a new text message.

This is Paige Sullivan. I'm still working right now but I wanted to let you know that I've got  your message. I'll probably want to talk to Kathy later this evening, if she's able. A mother worries about her daughter you understand.. In the meantime please tell her I love her and I miss her.

Haru shows Katherine the text.

She's been holding it together more or less but those words from somebody she cares about are breaking the dam. It's not just the backlash itself, it's her feelings about it, and the confused feelings about awakening in general> All of that would be difficult even in normal circumstances but with the backlash it's impossible. She's losing control and she can't let herself lose control (he can see, the cat can see..)

She's going to cry.

She's crying and she needs to stop crying because people can see. They know. There might be people outside the window who can see. They might be taking he picture with zoom lens. They might be uploading her picture onto Youtube and instagram.

She can't breathe. She's panicking and crying and she can't breathe.

She needs help. There's someone here who can help. She needs to ask for help. So she can stop crying. Hopefully. She doesn't know how else to stop.

The tiniest squeak ...help.

...will she take a hug.

...She'll take it, and breathe a little better. And bury her face against him.

"If you're comfortable with it this works better the more skin contact there is."