Inara and Paige (backdated to April 27th)

[om_husk]

Inara and Paige meet while in town, talk, and procure some gelato.

(Very) Backdated to April 27th.



Paige stepped out of the bookstore and pulled in a deep breath of gradually warming spring air which she promptly released again as a much-needed sigh. She liked her job, loved it most days, but today had been long and there had been a higher percentage than normal of crabby, demanding customers and she just wanted to put all of it behind her. Deciding to take a walk before hopping on the bus to go home, thinking in the back of her mind that she'd just maybe stop for a bit of ice cream, she turned at the corner instead of continuing straight down and tried to let her mind clear and her body relax. She was so distracted, she didn't even recognize the familiar face up the street.

"Paige?" Inara didn't know the girl well, but they did share some classes...and now a squad. She did an about-face and fell in behind her schoolmate. "Paige, wait a second!"

It took a moment for the sound of her name to distinguish itself from the noise of the street and the shops lined up along the sidewalk, but once it did Paige jolted to a stop and looked back over her shoulder. When she saw Inara her tired expression brightened into a friendly smile. She didn't know the other girl either, not well, but she had been seeing more of her lately and she wanted to know her better as a teammate and a classmate and a peer. She hooked some blonde hair behind her ear and waited for the brunette to catch up with her. "Hi Inara. What're you doin' here?"

Inara braked a little unsteadily; the combination of flowy sundress, heels (even reasonably sensible ones) and shopping bags just didn't do much for balance. She recovered after a moment, smoothed down her dress, and returned Paige's smile with just a touch of added sheepishness.

"Just picking up a few things for when the weather warms up some. How about you?"

"Workin'," Paige said and laughed a little, holding up her hands, "Hence the paper cuts and the old book smell." She paused, examining the shopping bags that flanked Inara; they looked heavy and she wondered what sorts of things girls like her bought in preparation for the arrival of spring. She couldn't even come up with a reasonable hypothesis. "Do you...need a hand?" she asked, gesturing to the load dangling from the girl's thin arms and thinner fingers.

"I wouldn't say no. Thank you." She offered Paige the lighter of her bags. "I think I dressed more for appearance than for practicality. So are you heading back to the school?"

"Well, you look nice," Paige pointed out a bit sheepishly because she was dressed in a plaid button-up, jeans, and sneakers that in no way measured up, "If it's any consolation." She took the bag and managed to ignore the curious impulse to glance at the contents, then nodded. "Soon, probably. Just thought I'd walk around for a while before I go to the bus stop. Get some air, you know?"

"I can give you a ride if you like?" Inara's inflection made it clear that she wasn't presuming Paige's acceptance. "I'll be calling a cab when I'm done here anyway."

While Paige's first thought was to protest that she didn't want to intrude (well, after being surprised that a girl like Inara even rode in taxis), she caught herself and smiled. It wouldn't cost any more and even if the other mutant managed to shop herself into an entire back seat's worth of bags there was always the passenger seat. Besides, it sounded like fun. "Sure," she agreed warmly. "What else're you lookin' for?"

"Well, right now I think I'm hunting for a place to sit and something to eat. You're familiar with this area, right? Can you recommend a place?"

Paige smiled, paused, and thought about that. There wasn't any shortage of answers, but only a few came immediately to mind. "Well...if you're looking for a meal, Daisy's is good and I think there's a little bistro a few blocks up. There's also a gelato shop."

Inara's eyes lit up. "Gelato sounds great! Lead the way -- I'll even buy!"

"I was sort of hopin' you'd say that," Paige admitted with an airy laugh, shaking her head and scattering loose blonde strands around her face, "The gelato part, not the buyin' part. You don't have to do that. I'm already hitchin' a ride, remember?" As they reached the corner, instead of going straight, she gestured with her head that they needed to turn and then stopped, waiting for the crosswalk light to change.

Inara dismissed the objection with a wave of her hand and followed on her new guide's heels. "Consider it a return favor for carrying my bags, all right?"

Paige stopped herself from protesting again; it would be rude to keep pushing and she doubted she would change Inara's mind anyway. She surrendered, offering the girl a smile and stepping off of the curb as the crosswalk light flickered, "Okay, okay. Thank you. But next time it's on me." Then, lightly, "Unless it's the whole team or somethin'."

"Oh, there's an optimistic thought!" Inara lengthened her stride a bit to keep pace. "I'm trying to imagine Damon coming out with the rest of the team for an ice-cream date and it's just not working."

"I'm tryin' to imagine me invitin' him," Paige replied with a wry and immediately guilt-tinged smile, "It's not workin' any better." As soon as the mean-spirited sentiment had worked its way through her system she sighed and focused on the sidewalk ahead of her. "...Sorry," she said after a moment, "That was a rotten thing to say. But the guy's a piece of work."

"Mmm." Inara nodded her agreement. "The term 'overcompensating' comes immediately to mind. The question is, for what?"

Overcompensating. Paige hadn't considered that, but that didn't make Inara's question any less valid. She shrugged. "I reckon...I don't know him well enough to even speculate. But maybe that's the point. Act the way he does and nobody gets close enough to know you." Put that way, it almost seemed sad. But her last conversation with the boy kept her sympathy in check.
"Know you, hurt you, or see all the cracks in the facade you put up," Inara agreed. "Not that it excuses being an irredeemable jackass to everyone in your immediate vicinity."

"It's...what he does to people," Paige answered after a pause burdened with heavy silence, "That's what I can't get past. He's so callous about it. He doesn't even care." She glanced down at the street and then at the bags she carried and then finally at Inara. "And we're supposed to help him get better at pullin' people's strings."

Inara kept her thoughts to herself until they reached the gelato shop with its red-green-and-white awning and had snagged a table on the patio with its white plastic furniture.

"I think we're supposed to be teaching him to open enough to learn that there are advantages to teamwork."

"Probably," Paige admitted, settling the shopping bags carefully on the ground by the table and then sitting back in the chair, "But it doesn't really feel like that." She exhaled and leaned back, laughing apologetically, "Sorry. I don't mean to be so sour. And I'm not goin' to let him ruin our time when he's not even here!"

"Sage device," Inara said with a laugh. "So how are things at the shop?"

Even without her powers, Inara seemed to know how to calm Paige down and the mention of the bookstore made her smile. "Good. I really love it there. Temptation to spend everything I earn before even walkin' out the door aside."

"Mmm." Inara studied the little laminated card listing the flavors and types of desserts for a moment, then looked back up at Paige with a wry little smile. "I suppose that's how you learn the difference between the things you need and the ones you just want, hmm?"

Even though she didn't need to, Paige did the same, reading over the available flavors and serving options until Inara spoke again. It was better than admitting that she'd been craving chocolate gelato for days, right? "Need is probably too strong a word," she said with another broad smile, "But...there's somethin' satisfyin' about fillin' up that bookshelf in my room. Back home, everything I read came from the library and it always had to go back eventually."
"We moved so often that I tried not to get attached to too many things," Inara explained, a slight smile on her lips. "The Kindle was an absolute godsend for me."

"Sounds complicated," Paige said after a moment, then laughed, "But excitin' too. The movin', not the Kindle."

"Exciting and a little frightening. No matter how much you try to prepare yourself, going to live in another country is always good for an attack of nerves." Inara laughed. "It's almost something you get used to, being the eternal outsider."

Paige had never thought of it that way, not since her conversation with Arthur anyway, and she looked at the other girl thoughtfully. "So, how does it feel now? Stayin' in one place and not...bein' the outsider?" She smiled a little and added, "Well, not any more than the rest of us, anyway."

The question got a playful smile by way of answer. "It's hard to feel like you're on the outside when you're having ice cream with a classmate."

That made Paige's smile widen. "Well," she pointed out, "You don't have ice cream yet."

"I think the company will tide me over, don't worry."