americas_son | Sunnydale AU: simple words

It is.

The door, partially closed, swings back open, revealing a blonde woman about a decade older than Cal and Tina.

"Welcome home, Mr Chandler," she says. "Will you and your guest be needing anything?"

"Thanks, Danielle," Cal says. "You hungry, Tina?"

"I- um-"

Is she an assistant? Or a maid? Her grandmother was a maid. This is so fucking weird.

"Yeah, a snack would be nice. And ice water? Please?"

Danielle smiles. "Certainly, Miss McCoy."

(Peter, of course, has been doing his research.)

"I'll have the same," Cal says. Danielle nods in acknowledgment and leaves.

How did she know her name?

"Did you mention I was coming over?"

Somehow?

"What - ? Oh. Nah, our head of security must have filled her in."

Cal forgets that things like this are weird to other people.

"He'll have looked you up as soon as we got to the Espresso Pump, probably. Don't worry, it's just to make sure you aren't, like, part of some plot to lure me to my doom or something. It's his job."

"Does that happen to all of your friends? Even Sherlock?"

Cal laughs, remembering the events of Angela's party.

"Especially Sherlock," he says.

He takes a seat on the couch, gesturing for Tina to join him.

"The first time we hung out, we got shot at."

"What? Oh my god... Why?"

She sits down beside him. The couch is more comfortable than it looked.

"Well," Cal amends, "technically he was shooting at Sherlock. He thought he was Tony."

His expression darkens a little.

"There was a - thing for a while with someone trying to kill Tony. But that's over."

He sounds absolutely positive about that last statement.

"Was it a person? Or people? I mean, is it not enough that we have to deal with-"

She lowers her voice to a whisper. "With monsters here in Sunnydale?"

Maybe what the news says about gangs on PCP is not entirely false.

His expression shades into a slight, humorless smile.

"It's okay, everyone here knows the score. You don't have to whisper."

The smile disappears.

"It was a human. Technically."

"Jesus. But you were okay? Are okay?"

She scoots a little closer to him. This is a big room, and these are big, scary things she's learning. At least, that's how they feel to her. She's not a histrionic kind of girl, but finding out the guy you really like was shot at during an assassination attempt on one of his close friends... that's pretty big and scary.

"Yeah. Fine. No one got hurt."

He summons another small smile, this one more on the genuine side.

"I didn't mean to freak you out."

"It's okay. I'm getting used to being in a surreal state of being when I'm with you."

Cal laughs a little.

"Anyway. I bet Peter investigated Sherlock extra hard after that."

And he must have been okay with whatever he found, since he never tried to intervene.

"So if they investigate me, they'll tell you everything? Like where I live?"

He looks at her a little more closely.

"Only if I ask."

He takes her hand, cupping it in both of his.

"I won't ask," he promises.

She looks down at their joined hands. She trusts Cal. She doesn't think anything she says will chase him off, but it makes her a little sick to admit anyway.

"No, it's just- I live in a crappy neighborhood in a rundown complex, and it's embarrassing. Oh, and I work at Hot Dog on a Stick, and you can never come to the mall when I'm in my fucking awful uniform. I'm, like, the typical girl from the other side of the tracks. Literally. You cross tracks to get to where I live."

"I don't care about that stuff. If I did, I wouldn't have said anything to you in the first place."

He knows most of that stuff without having to ask. If her family had money or status, he'd at least know about them even if they'd never officially met. He doesn't know a lot about clothes, but he can tell hers aren't designer. And he's pretty sure he's caught a faint whiff of hot dogs from her once or twice before, when they passed each other in the hall. None of that matters.

"I guess I care."

She picks a non-existent piece of lint off her skirt.

"But if you don't? I guess it doesn't matter."

She smiles again, biting her lip while she does so. This isn't a dream. It's real.

Cal nods.

"Don't worry about it."

The door opens again and Danielle enters with a tray, which she sets on the table in front of the couch.

"Will there be anything else, Mr Chandler?"

"That'll be all, Danielle. Thank you."

She nods and departs.

"Is she an assistant?"

There are sliced cheeses and crackers on the tray, along with some pita chips and hummus. There are grapes and sliced apples, too. So fancy! Best after school snack ever!

So healthy. Anthony's new assistant must be in the kitchen today.

"She's on the housekeeping staff."

The word "maid" is really un-PC these days.

"Oh, okay."

She starts in on the pita chips and hummus. She loves hummus.

"This is great. Way better than microwave popcorn. Not that there's anything wrong with microwave popcorn."

Cal stacks together some cheese and crackers.

"There is if you forget and burn it. Which I always do." Mainly because he's always been high when he's tried to make it before.

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