Despite his knowledge of the place, April had never actually been inside Tres Chic before. The lights were a little brighter than he had expected, but not blindingly so, which allowed a few tables to be shrouded in partial shadow. The decor reminded him a bit of Starbucks, but with a definite metalic theme. Due to the lateness of the hour, there were only a few people in the shop, so the only real noise came from the soft music that most coffee houses kept playing.
He could hear Case's even footsteps behind him, and again felt a fluttering of elation that Case had accepted his offer. So what it was at a ridiculous hour of the night, so what this little escapade would result in both of them being exhausted the next day. A little all-nighter never killed anybody, and in April's mind, this was worth it. He didn't have an exact reason as to why it was worth it, but something about Case's personality just seem to draw him in like a magnet.
'Or a moth to the flame.' Just because April's new 'friend' had agreed to accompany him here didn't mean they were suddenly great pals. As far as April could see, Case had more walls and defences than the Alamo, and he didn't open his front gate for just anyone.
'You think too much, April,' he silently chided himself as they walked up to the counter. 'For now, just contemplate what kind of coffee you're going to order.'

Case followed April into the coffee shop, glancing around and noticing its metallic decor with approval. The hippie-esque aura of most coffee shops repelled him, but this one, he thought, he could deal with, although the lights were rather bright for the middle of the night. If he concentrated hard enough, he could even will the bubbly music away.

There were a surprising number of people still up late: he recognized a few from on campus. They were probably here for the same reason he was -- and reminded of his purpose, Case strode over to the counter along with April, ignoring the cheerful counter girl's smiles and looking up at the long list of available drinks listed on a board pinned to the wall above the counter. He read them silently to himself, one eyebrow rising in slight increments as he passed each one: white mocha whatberry caramel what? The hell. He'd never ever heard of half this stuff before, and some of these prices were exorbitant, even for him.

He turned, glancing down at April over his shoulder. "How the hell does a high school senior pay for shit like this?"

April grinned. "I don't. Coffee and I don't get along well during the school year, since I stay up late a lot and caffine can make me nauseous if I'm exhausted. Kinda defeats the purpose, so I avoid it for the most part. But this is a special Case." He gestured to the menu board. "Splurge, there's no spending limit. I asked you out, remember? I'm paying for us both."
After scanning menu for himself, he decided that he had to hand it to Tres Chic; their prices were a little outrageous, but the selection was impressive. Deciding to go with something he recognized, he turned his attention to the uniformed girl behind the counter and ordered a tall white chocolate mocha with caramel.

Case blinked at the unintended -- or perhaps intended -- pun on his name, but said nothing. "Alright. If you're buying, that's good enough for me. I won't ask where you get your money. Not that I want any of that expensive crap..."

Listening to the exchange, the counter girl grinned at the pair. "Oh, is this, like, a date?" Her grin faded into embarrassment as Case shot her a look full of sharpened, poisoned, serrated daggers. "Oh." She twisted a lock of hair around her pinkie, blushing. "Sorry."

He sighed, rubbing at the spot between his eyebrows with two fingers. "Give me an espresso." The girl opened her mouth to speak before Case cut her off. "I don't care what kind, or whatever the hell you put in it. Any kind. Just give me caffiene."

She left with their orders. Case leaned his weight onto his left foot and crossed his arms, settling down to wait.

April, still leaning forward on the counter with his hands lightly clasped, gave Case a slight nudge with his elbow and smiled apologetically. "Sorry. I'll be more careful on how I phrase things. Although, that was kinda funny."
Minutes passed in silence until their drinks came. The girl's face was still tinted pink as she rang up their total and took the money from April, so he gave her a discreet, encouraging wink before picking up his mocha and heading out to find a seat.

Case bit back a curse and moved a bit away from April. "Don't do that," he growled softly, clamping a hand to his side where the boy's elbow had touched him.

Their coffee arrived, carried by the cheerful register girl. Case nabbed his as she slid it across the counter and headed over to the small table which held sugar, milk, and other additives in brightly-colored paper packets. He palmed a few things and returned to the counter before April had finished paying.

"Have a nice night!" The girl called from behind them. "Jerk," she added quietly at Case's back. He thought of turning around and flinging his coffee at her, but only silently grit his teeth and ripped the tab off of the cover of his cup as he followed April down the small corridor between the tables. It wasn't the girl's feelings that were stopping him, of course: it was the potential lawsuit.

Lost in thoughts of violent murders in coffee shops, Case looked up and skidded to a halt as he realized where April was heading: toward the section with tables with seats for two. Oh, hell no. He pulled out a chair from one of the bigger tables, dragging it over the floor with unnecessary loudness to make sure he had April's attention. "Just sit down."

Damn. April knew he'd crossed a line when Case jerked away from the slight touch. He'd been so busy trying to get Case to lighten up that he'd completely forgotten about the severe personal space issue. 'I am so, very, stupid.' If not for his present company, he could have hit himself over the head. Both for getting cocky, and for telling himself to not get cocky and then forgetting and doing it anyway.

April's blonde hair whipped around as he turned a one-eighty. Case was situating himself at one of the larger tables with more chairs. Why...? Oh. Oh.
Slightly disappointed but not discouraged, he complied with Case's less-than-subtle request and sat down across to table from the disgruntled young man.
While removing the cover on his coffee, April cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. "Paranoid?"

Case raised an eyebrow. "Paranoid? Of course. Horribly paranoid. It's a healthy thing to be."

He set his cup down on the table in front of him, then, with his other hand, tossed several pink packets of sugar next to it. Neatly, he ripped four of them open and dumped them in his cup. After a moment of contemplation, he added another before glancing into his coffee, which had turned a murky brown color. Satisfied, replaced the cover on top of it, swirling the concoction around.

Case looked up to see April seated across from him, regarding him with a strange expression as he piled the empty sugar packets in a small pink heap to one side of the table. He returned the boy's gaze with a flat one of his own. "...what?"

April blinked, chuckled softly, then shook his head. "Nothing." Picking up the spoon he'd nabbed from the counter, he stirred the creamy beverage until it was no longer emitting as much steam as before. Satisfied, he grasped it carefully and took a tentative sip. It was still hot, but not so much that he would burn his tongue. A longer sip followed the first, then another. And with each, he tried to think of something, anything, to use as conversation. Then he realized he'd never answered Case's question, the one he'd asked as they were leaving the museum.
"You asked before, who named me. It was my mother," he began. "Why she chose April... I don't really know. I was born in December, and there's no tradition in my family of naming kids after months, at least not that I know of. She says she thought I 'looked like an "April"'. So now it's on my birth certificate." He shrugged his shoulder dismissively, then returned his gaze to Case, who was still eyeing him. God, those eyes...
"So, what's your background. Case isn't exactly from the Baby Names for Boys Encyclopedia either, is it?" He leaned back in the chair and crossed his legs, an encouraging smile on his lips.

At the question, a hint of fear rose in Case's eyes before he blinked, snuffing it out. He knew it was gone, but still broke eye contact anyway, fixating his gaze on his drink. When he spoke, his voice had lost all of the little animation it had contained before. Deadly, deadly flatness. "Who named me? I don't remember."

Case tossed his head back, throwing half the cup of scalding-hot sugar-laced coffee down his throat at once. He held it that way for a moment, closing his eyes, then set it back down. It was, he decided, time to change the subject.

"You don't look like an April."

Case's history was a touchy subject. Probably connected to his dislike of contact. Fine. April would leave it alone. For now.

"I don't look like an April, huh? Well, I guess not, it's kind of a girl's name," he responded, laughing. "Most of my friends at school call me Kenneth, my middle name. I think they're more comfortable with it." Suddenly, his eyes sparkled mischeiviously and he bent forward once more. The coffee was out of the way enough that he could rest his elbows on the table's edge. "So if it's not April, what name do you think I look like?"

"Hmm. Kenneth." Case tried it out, then peered at April, observing him minutely for the first time. "You look more like a... Kenny to me. Then again, if it were up to me, I'd just have given you a serial number." His words were completely serious. "It would make cataloguing people much easier if they had their social security numbers tattooed on their foreheads."

At the mention of school, Case frowned and took a sip of his coffee. "High school... isn't it a bit late for you to be out?"

April hid the uneasy expression behind another gulp of coffee, which by now was almost gone. "Well, probably. I'm eighteen, so it's not like I'm illegal, but it's going to be hell staying awake for class tomorrow. Or rather, today..." The clock on the wall behind Case was ticking quite close to two AM. April had already finished his homework, so that was no problem. But by fifth period he knew he'd be more than a bit zoned.
"So, why numbers? Why catalogue people? It would be like taking away a person's identity, don't you think?"

Case just looked at April for a space of a few blinks, then realized he wasn't going to say any more. He'd thought it was obvious that the whole point was, indeed, dehumanization; for a second there, he hadn't realized that the idea might have been foreign to April.

"That's the point," he answered shortly. It sounded sharper than he had intended -- not that he cared. "Ever heard of the Stanford Prison Experiment? You might have, in your Psychology class. Led by a guy called Zimbardo. Got a bunch of volunteer students, yeah? Some were guards, some were prisoners. Guards gave the prisoners numbers, shaved them bald, forced them to wear uniforms: other words, dehumanized them. Then, they tortured them with no mercy." A flash of white teeth, a split second of dry, cynical, horrible humor. "In the end, the whole thing turned out much like... society."

"It was supposed to show that dehumanization was bad, caring was good, and all that sappy crap. I say it says the opposite: no matter what you do, there will be people like that out there. Hell, I'm one of them myself." Case sipped at his coffee meditatively. "Dehumanize everyone at birth. Get rid of hope before it starts. No hope means no care, and no care means no pain. Think of all humanity could accomplish as a synchronized, efficient machine..."

"A human brain is almost exactly like a computer, and computers don't feel pain..." Case glanced at April. "Haven't you ever thought of why that is? We're cursed with emotion. All of us. Even me..."

April gazed at him steadily throughout the entire monologue. It was the most words Case had spoken to him at once time since they'd met.
When he finally finished, Case looked... a weary. Worn.
Hurt.
"You've suffered a great deal, haven't you?" April said quietly, pulling up an arm and resting his temple against the knuckles of his hand. "You cared a lot, once, about something. And then it got taken away." The empathy leaked into his voice, and his eyes regarded Case sadly.
"You've been hurt so many times that you can't take it anymore, so you bury it under cynicism, anger, and hate, until the violence is all you have left. You're tired of putting faith in people, of hoping for a better day, only to have it crushed, again and again, until you feel broken, weak. And the world preys upon the weak, so in order to survive you protect yourself by lashing out at anyone who tries to get close. You've been sick of life so long that you can't even remember what its like to live."

Case shook his head, looking down at April over the rim of his paper cup. "No. That's what most people think, but they -- and you -- are wrong."

"I have a... if not perfectly, at least a rather normal life," he said, toying with the pile of empty sugar packets. "I'm not hurt; I'm not internally agonized. I'm disillusioned. And I fancy myself lucky, for it."

"Sure, I've had my share of tragedy," he added, then, quickly, not wanting to call attention back to this topic, "but not too much." Case gestured with his cup at April. "It doesn't take personal tragedy to disillusion a person. All it takes is the ability to watch. I told you, I think: I like to see what's there. And I often do see what's there, in the dregs of society." His eyes went far, staring through April. "Part of my job description..."

What Case exactly did for a living was an intriguing topic, and he was tempted to pursue it, there was something else that intrigued him more. Something that had been nagging at him ever since Case had flinched when April tried to hand him the pen.
"If you're not 'internally agonized', why does physical contact bother you so much?" Absently he drained the last of his cold coffee from its cup. "I don't want to pry into anything that's not my business... or maybe I do. I don't know. But I want to understand. How you think, why you think the things you do, what you see when you look at the world, everything. Case..." He was having trouble expressing what he wanted to say. Maybe it was the hour, or the caffine, or both. Whichever, his mind was tangled, swirling, and it was becoming a bit of a hassle to put a coherent thought together.
The hand supporting his head moved to rest on the table once more, and for once he couldn't look Case in the eye. "You're like an extremely complex computer program that I'm trying to decode. I don't know what folders to open, what files to search through first, what numbers to input to get the answers I want. I don't understand any of it, but I want to. Because, despite my usual distrust of computers and their inner workings... you're one program I'd very much like to get to know."
Well. That was quite a speech.
Grabbing the empty coffee cup, he hurridly rose to find a trashcan.

Case opened his mouth to respond to April's first question, then clamped it shut again. It hadn't been a good day for his teeth: they were grating against each other again, almost painfully. Thankfully, April kept talking, and he let the question fade away into the young man's complex electronic metaphor.

Once April left to throw his empty cup away, Case leaned his elbow on the table and ducked his head, shoulders quivering slightly, almost laughing with genuine humor. 'You're one program I'd very much like to get to know?' It sounded like a horrible pick up line used by skinny computer geeks at LAN parties. But something about it was hilarious, in a good way. Maybe it was just the way the boy had said it: with such seriousness and honesty.

Of course, once he looked up, all traces of the faint laughter were gone. He finished off the last, sugar-drenched drops of his now lukewarm espresso (of unidentifiable type). The sugar rush was beginning to take hold; that, he thought, might partially explain his urge to laugh a few minutes ago.

He joined April at the trash can, tossing his empty drink in the basket.

While disposing of the cup, many things went through April's mind. Most were in the general vicinity of, 'WHY the hell did I just say that?'
And the craziest thing was, he knew exactly why he'd said it. Not because he was so damn tired and the coffee was affecting his rational thinking, although that had been a part of it. He'd said it because for the first time in a long time he'd met someone who, for some inexplicable reason, he just didn't want to let go of.
April heard Case stand and join him at the trashcan. Biting his lip, he took a breath and blew it out slowly. Ok. He should probably say something about now.
"I'd apologize for saying that... but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't appriciate a lie." Lifted his head, turned so he was facing Case, but kept his gaze to the floor. Arg, he'd forgotten how tall the guy was... 'Damn, April, you idiot, he's got to be at least twenty, and he's in college for crissake!' His left hand grasped his right arm tightly.
"I told you before that this," he waved his hand at the shop, "came without strings. That still applies. If you'd rather just go home and forget this ever happened, it's cool. But..." It was getting easier to speak, as his words gained momentum. "I'd prefer that not happen. I may have layed the drama on a little thick, but what I said still stands. I would like to get to know you better. A lot." Of their own volition, his eyes rose to look directly at Case's. "Your call, man. I'll go with it either way."

((never thought I'd see the day when I'd put so much sappy drama into one thread. Even so, this is great fun. :P ))

Case's vibrant green eyes stared into April's hazel ones for a brief moment before the light in them died away. "There's not much of me to know." At least, he thought, nothing that he didn't plan to kill away in his quest to rid himself of all emotion.

Case knew his next words would be blunt, even before he said them, but tact had never been a strong point of his. Not that anyone had ever bothered to teach him proper manners anyway. "I came here for caffiene," he said pointedly. He gestured to the trash. "We had caffiene."

Then, he struck a hand to his forehead and swore. "Shit. This place is in the opposite direction of... forgot about the new..." Case sighed. "Look, kid, I just remembered that I got a long walk back to my new apartment building. It's late. Go home."

OOC: All the sappy drama has been on your part! I'm clean! It's not my fault! But yeah, it is kind of fun being totally cold.

Case's words struck a nerve. "Kid...? Kid? Is that why you're brushing me off?" The rejection hurt, and the implied reason for it envoked a spark of anger, but he couldn't just nullify what he'd told Case. No strings attatched...
Willing away the dejection, he slipped on a cheerful smile and quickly said, "Nevermind. Guess you don't... sure. It's all good." Grabbing his jacket off the chair, he swung it over his shoulder. "I've got a ways back to where I live too. So, I'll see you around?"

Case watched April's face fall, then immediately lift again in one of his bright smiles. Something about him reminded him of his little sister. She, too, had always been so cheerful. The thought of her was a bittersweet one; his head filled with memories tinged with gold and the leaden, heavy knowledge that he would probably never see her again. He'd heard his foster parents had moved, but to where, he didn't know. He wondered if they would even be able to recognize each other...

Case blinked. April had his jacket over his shoulder and was regarding him as if expected to be answered. Realizing he had been addressed, Case shook himself out of his reverie. "Hmm. Maybe. Won't be around the museum much, if I can help it." He wondered briefly if April expected a goodbye.

Screw it.

Walking quickly with purpose, Case headed out of the coffee shop, made a right, and began to walk toward his apartment building.

April watched Case leave, making no move to stop him. The doors clicked shut behind him with a sort of finality, and in some ways that was the worst insult of all. Just like that, he was gone.
April sighed. Sure, he was still stinging a little from the blunt rejection, but the pain was nice in a way. At least Case hadn't minced words or tried to soften the blow. He'd been honest. April could respect that.

A few minutes later, he walked out the door himself and headed out towards his apartment.


[fin]