blue_ajah | (no subject)

"It certainly wasn't a bad drive." He comes over and looks out the window. "How are you doing today?"

"Not unwell," she replies, setting aside her book.

(It is a very battered paperback; she appears to be about a quarter of the way through.)

"I have been watching the trees."

Were they any other people, were this any other town, the question might be playful.

"See anything?"

She smiles again, faintly, understanding what lies beneath the seemingly-casual query.

"Nothing unusual. Think of it as an exercise in meditation, if you would like."

Cooper nods.

Glances at her.

"Not unwell," he says, mildly, "isn't well."

"Mmm," she replies, noncommittally.

"Well enough, then, if you would prefer?"

He wouldn't, as it happens.

Cooper nods, and looks out the window. "There's cherry pie at the Double R today. Fresh."

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?"