blue_ajah | (no subject)

Moiraine glances up at him, and a flicker of curiosity is visible in the dark eyes.

"Is it so?"

"One way to find out for sure."

"So it would seem," the Aes Sedai agrees.

She brushes one hand over her skirt, smoothing it, then rises from her seat.

A very small smile -- the corners of his eyes crinkle -- and he goes to open the door for her.

There isn't much of a crowd at the Double R. The waitress -- not Norma or Shelly, a blonde girl in braids named Heidi (naturally) -- comes over to take their order right away.

"Cherry pie, if you would, please," Moiraine says, then glances sideways at Cooper.

"And coffee...?"

It is not exactly a question, for all that her tone makes it one.

"I'll have what the lady's having," Cooper says, cheerfully enough. Heidi smiles and heads for the counter.

"Seriously?"

"I have said it, have I not?"

She appears unruffled.

"It seems an easy enough adaptation to attempt, at least."

Cooper leans in as though to tell a secret.

"You know what the best thing about the Northwest is, after the people and the pie?" Beat. "The coffee places on the side of the road. I've never seen so many of them."

Moiraine looks at him in some surprise.

"There is a reason, I presume?"

"They like coffee. That's all." He's smiling.

"Reason enough, I suppose."

Heidi returns with their order; the plates clack against the tabletop as she sets them down with more enthusiasm than anything else. The coffee sloshes, but doesn't spill.

"There you go."

"Thanks, Heidi." Cooper beams at her; Heidi has been around long enough to not be unnerved by Dale Cooper's enthusiasm over pie and coffee.

He picks up his fork. "Do you think you take it with anything? Have you decided yet?"

"I think that I prefer tea, still," she says, upon taking her first sip. "But I thought that I should try."

Cooper does not dive into his pie straightaway.

"Why?"

"It seemed best."

Moiraine glances up at him.

"Considering."

"...I'm afraid I'm a little in the dark, Moiraine."

She makes a soft, noncommittal noise, and allows her gaze to flick quickly around the room. Seeing that no one is close enough to overhear their conversation, the Aes Sedai says,

"As gracious and courteous a host you have been, Dale, I cannot continue to impose on you in this way. You are too close a friend for me to do that."

"All right," he says. Mildly. "Granting that this is the case. What does that have to do with finding out how you take your coffee?"

A faint smile curves her lips.

"It is a small step."

"Toward what?"

And he knows. (He thinks he knows.) He knows what it means.

"Adapting," she says, very simply.

That's --

Not what he thought it meant.

Surprise shows very clearly on Cooper's face for a moment. Time to lay down the cards. "Does that mean you'd like to stay in Twin Peaks, Moiraine?"

Dark eyes widen. An instant's silence, then--

"Is that an option that I have available to me?" she counters.

"Of course," Cooper says -- and now he sounds surprised. "If that's -- if it's something you want."

"I..."

She glances away from him, out at the room, and at the patrons.

"Twin Peaks is an unusual place, in its way. A quiet place, to some degree; an accepting place, it seems, among other things."