Luke's Diner, Thursday

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Ugh. That jerky white kid was back at the house again this morning. After the...issue...that had arisen when Alec, Jerkface, and Weird Girl had woken up sharing a bed, Alec had been more than happy to spend all of yesterday avoiding them, even if that had meant participating in the paintball thing. But he hadn't had any of his fake credit cards or IDs on him, so he'd ended up going back to the house last night.

To find Jerkface also there. Ugh. And he thought Weird Girl might have been around, too, but she was fast and kinda creepy, so it wasn't like he'd gone looking.

So Alec was out of the house as soon as he was up (at the crack of noon!), casually swiping one of the expensive laptops that had been lying around. Maybe if he could hack into that (maybe? HA!), he could get himself an ID and a cash stream and away from the house. Before Jerkface could decide to beat him up for, like, existing or whatever.

The sign on the restaurant's window caught his eye:

Today's Specials
Yeah, we know you don't have money. Come in and get a meal and pay us back next week. Unless you're Eliot, Hardison, Miguel, or Kanan Caleb. You gotta work.
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup
Shrimp Fajitas (You're welcome, adults)

Free food? Ish? Alec was going to worry about why he was singled out later. He was going in to peel some potatoes and get a huge helping of spaghetti and meatballs.

[Content Warning for a physical fight in the Eliot/Hardison thread with underlying homophobic tones. Please practice good self-care when deciding whether to read, my dears.]

Comments

[what_the_shock]

"I think they're just losers," Miguel said with a sniff. "Come on. We'll get whatever we want, and they can't make us work if we have money." Right?

[uncertain_dume]

"Okay," Caleb agreed. And then hesitated. "But I really don't have money."

That had been in his grown-up pants.

[what_the_shock]

"I'll pay for you," Miguel said. He wasn't sure whose card this was, but it was his now. Besides, this little weirdly dressed nerd reminded him a bit of Gabe, and he wasn't about to let him go hungry.

"Come on." He tugged him toward a booth, put the card down prominently, and dared the staff with a glare to try to make them work.

[uncertain_dume]

"Wait, what?" And here was Caleb, being tugged along, blinking. "You don't have to--"

Nope. There went the card, being put down, and they had a booth now. Okay. This was unexpected.

"I mean, um. Thank you?"

[what_the_shock]

"Don't worry about it." Miguel shrugged a little awkwardly. He met the waitress's eyes squarely, daring her to try to make them work. "We'll both have the shrimp fajitas and Cokes. And a large fries."

[uncertain_dume]

"... What he said," Caleb agreed, still looking puzzled, mostly.

He knew what fries were?

[what_the_shock]

"They're the best thing on that menu," Miguel said. "And you put them together yourself, so if you don't like them, just don't eat that bit." He frowned. "You're not allergic to shellfish, are you?"

[uncertain_dume]

"I'm pretty sure I don't have any allergies," Caleb replied, and there, predictably, went his hand right for his hair. "I haven't eaten much food from around here yet, though. This'll be a learning experience, I guess."

[what_the_shock]

"Yeah?" Miguel asked. "Where are you from? I'm from Nueva York, which is way bigger than this, but we still have a lot of the same food."

[uncertain_dume]

"Coruscant," Caleb supplied. "It's, uh, not actually in this galaxy, I guess."

Unless the Sol system was somewhere out in wild space, maybe...?

[what_the_shock]

Miguel squinted at him. "You're an alien?"

[uncertain_dume]

"... I guess, technically?"

Caleb scratched his head.

"I mean, I'm human. I'm just not a local human."

[what_the_shock]

"But humans don't live anywhere else," Miguel protested.

[uncertain_dume]

"Have you ever been anywhere else?"

Worth asking.

[what_the_shock]

Miguel snorted, acknowledging the point even as he disagreed. "Nobody has. Except for maybe back in the Heroic Era. Are you from some kind of lost colony?" he asked excitedly. Man, Xina would freak!

[uncertain_dume]

Caleb actually laughed a little at the thought.

"You know, I was wondering the same thing about Earth?"

Populated by humans! But no space travel!

[what_the_shock]

"That's so weird." Miguel shook his head. "So this Coruscant, it's on another planet?"

[uncertain_dume]

"Coruscant is the other planet," Caleb supplied. "In another galaxy."

One that was, dare the narrative say it? Far, far away.

[what_the_shock]

"Shock," Miguel said, a little awed. "I didn't know anybody had made it that far." He eyed Caleb sideways. "You're not just pulling my leg, are you?"

[uncertain_dume]

"Why is everyone accusing me of lying?" Caleb scrunched up his nose a little. "I have nothing to gain from it, why would I?"

[what_the_shock]

"Because it's pretty unbelievable, and some people lie just because they can," Miguel said, little cynic that he was.

[uncertain_dume]

"Well," Caleb muttered, "that's dumb."

Lying didn't have much of a point to it when your teacher could tell anyway.

[what_the_shock]

"They're usually dumb, too," Miguel said, rolling his eyes. Not that he wouldn't lie for a reason, but some people just did it because they were nasty.

[uncertain_dume]

Caleb shook his head a little, and that was about the moment their food arrived.

He blinked down at the plate that was set in front of him.

"Dumb, or desperate," he mused. "Maybe lonely. Still doesn't make it the right thing to do, though."

[what_the_shock]

"Desperate is different," Miguel said. "If you have to lie to, like, get by or something, I get it. But mean people lie all the time because they feel like it."

He picked up one of his tortillas. "Here, like this," he showed Caleb. "Just pick whatever you want to put in it. The shrimp are shelled, at least. Put it in like this, then you roll it - turn one side then the other, then roll from the other end and it usually holds better."