Alex wasn’t sure what to think of the silence in which swallowed up most of the time they walked to the diner. At least she hadn’t asked anymore about what she had been thinking about, but at the same time wouldn’t have minded some kind of conversation. But what would they have talked about?

As they stopped in front of the diner she looked up at the name of the restaurant – Monroe’s Family Diner. That was great. Now if she got a headache, who knows what would happen. Her heart pounded for a moment as she grew nervous. Was this really such a good idea?

Her stomach growled again and its needs were overpowering her idea to stay away. ”Looks nice.” She spoke as she opened the door for Nienna to walk in first.

If Nienna would've known about Alex's headaches, she would've suggested something like getting dinner to go. But since she didn't, this was the best thing she could think of. At least it wasn't some cheap burger chain type of restauraunt, since one of those had almost given her food poisoning at one point in time.

"It is.. well, when it's not busy. I don't really like the noise... mm, thanks." She walked in, as the door was opened for her. And she held it for Alex to walk in, as to not be rude.

”Thank you.” She replied back in response to Nienna holding the door open as well so she could walk in. As she looked around it was kind of busy at the current time. Families sat around with screaming children. A few people sat alone and a few young couples were scattered about.

Her sapphire eyes traveled over to the smoking section of the diner. The scent of the smoke was becoming more common to her nose these days.

”Do you have a place in particular you want to sit?” Eyes turning back to Nienna as she spoke.

"No problem," she said quietly, letting the door close behind Alex once she walked in. Her blueish green eyes scanned the diner, and she stood there for a moment, picking out in her mind where the best place to sit was.

"Right over there," she said, trying to talk louder so that she could hear what she was saying over all of the families with their upset children.

The place she was now pointing at was a spot in the corner with the least amount of people near it, and the people that were near it were quiet couples. Or mostly quiet, with an occasional topic-starter. But it was better than screaming children.

It was in the non-smoking section, since Nienna couldn't eat with the smoke bothering her. Sure, her brother smoked and she had plenty of time to get used to the smell, but it still bothered her a lot, and most times made her cough.

"If you don't mind."

She looked in the direction that Nienna stated she wanted to sit. Indeed it looked a little quieter over there but it was in the non smoking section. If something happened she couldn’t blame it on a cigarette from another person. Alex would just have to figure something out or pray that nothing happened. It wasn’t like it occurred as frequently as it used to, but it still did have that troublesome way of sneaking up on her when she least expected it.

”Not at all.” She spoke with a smile in response to the question if she minded at all. An overpowering stomach growl was getting the better of her and she still longed for a good meal.

The girl walked over to the table and sat down, scooting her chair underneath and then tucking one leg behind the other.

"Oh, 'kay. 'Cause if you wanna sit somewhere else, that's good too."

But she had already made her way to the table. Bother, that. Trying to give someone else a choice and... well don't be stupid, Ni. Just shut up and don't ruin your good deed.

She slipped into a seat beside Alex, crossing her legs at the ankles as well. A waitress came up with menus for the two girls, and stood there asking them what they'd like to drink.

Alex looked up as the waitress stopped next to their table and asked what they would like to drink.

”Water please.” It was the most reasonable choice. It quenched her thirst and most places didn’t make you pay for a glass of water. She opened the menu that was handed to her and began to look at the food items she could order. All of it looked good at this point. She decided to wait and see what Nienna got before she chose what she wanted. Probably the most least expensive item would be what she got. Nienna didn’t sound like she had a lot of money either at this point and wasn’t about to add to that by selecting the most expensive item on the menu.

"Make that two waters, please." Nienna said softly, and the waitress scuttled off to get their drinks.

Water was... ideal. Usually she couldn't bring herself to drink water, because something about it made her very sick to her stomach. Oddly, she had nothing against restaurant water, which probably had a thousand times more germs in it than the water she got at home. Odd, that.

She opened the menu, looking through it carefully. As always, it'd take her forever to decide. But finally, she came up with a small meal. A small portion of soup with bread.. which was really all she could eat for the whole day, probably.

Alex sifted through the items. She had no idea what she wanted. Well actually that wasn’t true. She wanted everything on the menu to satisfy her hunger, but she wasn’t about to order one of everything. Instead she tried a different approach. She looked up at Nienna.

”What are you getting?” She asked inquisitively. Perhaps she would have an idea of what to get if she knew what Nienna was getting.

"Just soup and bread," she said with a small shrug. "What're you ordering? Have any idea... anything you're craving? Besides food, of course?" She asked, folding up the menu and setting it saide. She picked up her napkin and set in her lap.

"You can order anything your heart desires, my treat. And don't you dare feel bad about it, either."

Soup and bread. That did sound good, but would it be enough to fill her stomach? Alex blushed as Nienna asked if there was anything she was craving, besides food of course. Sapphire eyes watched as Nienna picked up her napkin and placed it in her lap. She’d never done that before. Of course she hadn’t eaten in a restaurant in a long time either. Had to be at least a few months.

”Um…” She looked through the menu. Just pick something already.

”This looks good. Cheeseburger with fries.” That did sound good. Wasn’t necessarily the healthiest choice, but at this point her stomach didn’t care. It was one of the cheaper items on the menu as well which was good. She closed the menu and set it back down on the table and mimicked Nienna by placing her own napkin in her lap.

Nienna hadn't eaten at a restaurant in a few months either, but common courtesy had been drilled into her mind all of her life, as well as manners. Her mother had always said 'manners are always in style', and her family would pick on her and criticize her while she ate, so that's part of the reason Nienna avoided food.

"Mmkay. You can order an appetizer too, if you want. I mean, if you're hungry. Remember, it's on me."

An appetizer to? That would take another millennium to try and decide on as well. No. It best be that the menu stay shut.

”Nah. I think the cheeseburger will be enough.” Hopefully it would. Then she made a note to herself to attempt and find a job at all costs, even though she had checked everywhere at least twice. Third times a charm right?

The place seemed to quiet down some as most of the families with screaming children had left. That was a good thing for they were starting to give her a headache. Not the kind that lead to burning items, but just a normal migraine. It had been so long since she’d had a normal headache and surprisingly it was welcomed rather than shunned.

”So….how often do you come here?” Alex tried to make the awkward silence go away by striking up a conversation.

"All righty. If you say so," she said quietly with a gentle shrug, folding up her menu now too and laying it on top of Alex's.

Nienna had managed to relax a little bit more since the children left, but was now feeling that it was a bit too quiet. If the families came back, however, she would miss the quietness. What can I say, the girl's a bundle of contradictions.

"Not very often. Like, almost last year was the last time I came."

”Oh.” That was all she could manage to say. By the way Nienna had spoken of this place she thought she would have come in here more frequent. Eyes looked away from the girl and down at the table. Her fingers fidgeted with one another underneath the table.

”Um..I hope you don’t mind my asking but….why are you offering me a meal?” Of course she was suspicious, but she didn’t mean to. It was embedded in her mind now that nice things aren’t given freely and someone always wanted something in return for it. Of course Ronnie had been the exception to that. But she had not seen her in such a long time.

Nienna seemed surprised by this question. "Are you crazy? How could I not offer you a meal? To be frank, you were obviously starving, kid, and I wasn't about to just let that go. Couldn't just walk away and continue my day like normal, y'know?"

She fiddled with the napkin on her lap, contemplating this. "Okay, so maybe you don't know, but still. I couldn't let you just starve."

Her face grew red from embarrassment once more. Was it that obvious that she had been starving? A lonely teenager sitting slumped over on a bench with a look of lost hope in her sapphire eyes. Okay yes maybe it was obvious, but it hadn’t been to her. Not at the time. So many people passed by her without so much as a look. Nienna had done something nobody else dared to do; help a stranger. It was a rare quality these days and Alex was glad that Nienna had selected her to do a good deed for the day.

”Thank you. If there is anything I can do in return. You name it and I’ll try and do it.” That was all she could offer though it didn’t seem like much to her. She had no money, no job, and no shelter. All she had was this painful gift of setting things on fire. She wasn’t about to tell her that though. The only thing she knew was that her offer was genuine. No matter how or when, she would try and pay Nienna back for her kindness.

That was what triggered the whole thought process. She (usually) knew a starving kid when she saw one. Though Nienna didn't look like it, she was starved, too. Obviously not on purpose, but because of many health issues.

"Nah, it's no problem. And as for paying me back, there's only one thing you can do for me. You try to take care of yourself and that's all."

The waitress came back with a notepad again, asking them if they were ready to order or needed some more time to think.

She nodded in response to try and take care of herself. Indeed she had been trying to since she left her parents and dropped out of school, but for some reason it just never worked out. But she would continue to try. The memories of all the times she’d had outbursts flooded her mind. One terror stricken face right after the other when they saw her fits explode. She was the very definition of a ‘hot head’. The one time she had finally gotten a job ended up having her to leave a few weeks later do to an explosion. Of course they hadn’t known she had started it, but she knew. She knew she had a fire within her and that it couldn’t be controlled. Perhaps that was the first step. Learning to control this demon.

Alex was jolted out of her thoughts as the waitress came up and asked if they were ready or still needed a moment. ”I’m ready. I’ll have the cheeseburger with fries, please.” She handed the lady her menu and waited for Nienna to order.

You know, Nienna had been asked to do the same thing many times, but she never did. Perhaps she'd just lost the will to try. But she'd feel infinitely bad if she knew about Alex's headaches. It would come as a shock to her, even if she'd encountered a little faery just recently. Twice, actually. What a cute little faery Wick had been.

Nienna looked up, handing the waitress her menu as well and asking for the soup. The waitress nodded and scuttled off with their orders still in mind.

Once again, after the waitress had left, an awkward silence fell between them. It was hard to keep a conversation going for some reason. Perhaps it was due to her not being around a person long enough recently to actually get a conversation out. Alex twiddled her thumbs underneath the table.

Eyes turned to the smoking section once again as she saw the people puff smoke out their mouth. She wasn’t sure why it made her so nervous, but her heart couldn’t help beat a little faster. Gaze turned back to Nienna. Just don’t look at the smoke. It’ll be okay, just don’t look at it. Why did restaurants have to take so long in getting food?

"Meh. I thought Monroes' service was faster," she commented idly, flexing her fingers and trying not to pick at her cuticles. It was a nervous habit she'd picked up... also something she did while she was waiting for things.

She sighed, looking back to Alex.

"Soooo, how old are you?"

Indeed they were quite slow. At least Nienna was trying to keep some sort of conversation going. She’d run out of things to ask or comment about.

”I’m nineteen. How about you?” She continued twiddling her thumbs underneath the table.

"Whoa, almost an antique there." She grinned a bit, teasing Alex only lightly.

"I've just turned seventeen, actually." She finally replied, with a small sigh out of habit.

The food was finally here, as the waitress arrived with the two plates of food for the both of them.

She laughed along with Nienna, trying to shake the nervous feeling she was getting after watching smoke puff into the air in the smoking section.

”Seventeen is nothing to sight about.” She said with a smile, the first one since she sat down at the table actually. ”It’s a fun age to be at.” Except she didn’t have so much fun at that age. She’d been on her own for a year and was practically starving. But that was in the past now so she tried to block it from her mind.

The waitress came and sat down their food. It smelled delicious. Of course at this point anything would have smelled delicious to Alex.

”Thank you very much.” She told the waitress and then started eating her fries. Oh the delicious taste of fries! She’d almost forgotten how wonderful greasy fries could taste.

"I know.. I shouldn't complain, but I'm getting olddddd. I already have gray hairs." It was true. She'd aged prematurely in every aspect of things, and had had gray hair since she'd been twelve.

"Ah, thank you so much," Nienna said gratefully with a small but warm smile. She reached for her fork as the waitress scuttled away.

"Is it good?" She grinned.

”Ah, but gray hairs are very becoming.” She continued eating, almost inhaling her food. Her burger was especially delicious.

”It is very good. How about your food?” Alex took another sip of her water to wash down the large bite she’d just taken from her cheeseburger before going back to eating a few more fries.

She giggled, yes giggled a bit. "If you say so." She shook her head playfully and started to blow on her soup to try and cool it off a little. She ate it very slowly, as if sipping the brown liquid of the soup.

The thing about Monroe's is, they tend to make meals like Alex's food for about two, or even three people. "Mine's good too. Monroe's has good food."

”Yes they do have good food.” She was finished with her food in about fifteen minutes. After her first few bites, she had started to slow herself down seeing as people were starting to stare at her. Whoever in the diner that might have been innish would have assumed she was a werewolf at how desperately she ate at the beginning. But after she restrained how fast she ate they stopped looking. It made her embarrassed. Was she really that hungry? It had after all been a few days since she’d last ate. Why couldn’t she eat like a starving person? After all she had been starving. But thanks to Nienna she would be okay for at least another day.

”Thank you again for the meal.” And she was sincere about that. She wasn’t sure when she would have had another descent meal had Nienna not stopped and offered.

She smiled at how she'd decided on offering her a meal. She was turning out to be a nice kid so far, and Nienna would feel terrible if she just went on and passed her by. He spooned some more cooled off soup into her mouth, glancing off in a different direction every now and then.

She gave a mildly hard glare at the people who were staring, but otherwise smiled softly.

"It's my pleasure. You need something aelse to drink? Anything?" She asked, looking to Alex.

”No. I think I’m fine.” Her water was almost gone, but she didn’t need anymore. Otherwise she’d need to use the restroom a lot the rest of the day and she hated walking into stores and asking if she could use the restroom. They always gave her that look that if she wasn’t buying anything then she shouldn’t be using the restroom. But where else was she supposed to go?

The waitress came back and asked if she needed a refill and Alex shook her head no and told her the same as she’d told Nienna. The waitress walked off and Alex followed her for a moment, eyes drifting back to the puff’s of smoke drifting up into the air. A prick in her head made her wince. The first sign of an oncoming headache. Joy. Though from this point it could be anywhere from an hour to twenty-four hours from now before it was completely uncontrollable. It made her heart skip a beat for a moment, but she wasn’t going to worry about it yet.

“Mmkay. If you want anything else, just feel free to ask, ‘kay?”


A little while after that, Nienna’s soup was left half-finished, and she sipped at her water a minute, seeming to loom over it like a monster. A tired monster. She blinked, reaching into her back pocket for her wallet as the waitress left after asking for refills on drinks, and then came back with the bill. She paid it simply in cash, with a nice tip for the waitress. Thirty dollars, and what she made in a day at work, which was almost her weekly paycheck.

“Ready to go?” She asked, then sipped a bit more at her water. Nice, fresh, cold city water. Oh, it was possibly splendid for the soul.

”Okay.” She watched Nienna continue to eat her soup for a little while and then finally she thought they were done. The waitress came by and gave them the bill and Nienna paid for it. Alex wished she could have helped out with the bill, but she was positively broke. If she pulled out the inside of her pocket it would have been like one of those cartoons where the moths fly out and a puff of dust along with them.

”Yes.” She scooted her chair back and stood up then scooted the chair back in under the table.

If Alex would have helped out with the bill, Nienna would have told her it was on her, as usual. She liked paying for things for people, as she grew up with no money her whole life (though that had nothing to do with her odd habit of buying the first thing that caught her eye, that she never used anyway).

"All right-y then." She said quietly, scooting her chair in and out as Alex had done.

"Less'a go, then." She half-mimicked the video-game character Mario as she said this.

Alex laughed at her mimic of Mario and followed Nienna out the door. Standing out on the curb she looked out across the street and the cars going by and the busy pedestrians that started to curve around them so as not to bump into each other. She turned to Nienna.

”Thanks again for the meal. I really appreciate it.” Sincerity was in her voice. Of course she was grateful for a free meal. Another throb in her head almost made her wince. She’d managed to squelch it though so no look of pain crossed her face. Damn headaches were always messing up any fun she might actually start to have.

”I better get going. Sorry to eat and run, but there’s something I have to deal with.” And I doubt the city wants to deal with the after effect. She thought to herself. Alex wasn’t sure what reaction Nienna would give her from her eat and run and saying she had something else to do. What could a homeless have to do so badly?

After Nienna exited the diner, she stretched out a little, yawning. She grinned after that. "It's really no problem. Don't mention it." She had wanted to help, so she simply did. She slid her hands into the pockets of her jeans, looking across the city, across the street, eyes never staying on one particular thing.

"Awww. Well, if you must be going, then all right." She sounded a bit sad, but she had to be going soon anyway, and she wasn't going to poke in Alex's business or stop her from doing whatever it was that she had to do.

"This was fun. Try not to get yourself into too much trouble, and take care of yourself, 'kay?"

A smile came upon her face and a chuckle as Nienna told her to stay out of trouble. Only if the flames permitted.

”I’ll try. Hope to see you again.” She smiled and waved good bye then started walking down the street. After a few blocks she stopped and turned around the corner and started walking down another street. Nienna had been so nice. Alex really did hope she would see her again. But right now she had to get out in some place that wasn’t crowded. The beach was probably the best place.

"B'bye Alex." She took one hand out of her pocket to wave back, and then returned it there, bounding off towards home, feeling oddly pleased with herself.