Chapter Text
The next day dawned calm and bright as Caleb woke to sunlight streaming through his blinds. He went through his morning routine half asleep, stumbling from his small bedroom to the only other actual room in his tiny apartment, which functioned as his kitchen, dining room, living room and study, nearly stepping on an affectionate Frumpkin on the way to the coffee pot.
The Fey Bengal cat weaved around his legs, meowing and chirruping as Caleb turned on the machine and got a chipped red mug out of the cupboard. He only stopped once Caleb had finally opened a can of wet food and dropped it into his cat bowl. Satisfied, the cat turned to his breakfast and blatantly ignored Caleb as he began to eat.
Caleb quickly put together a breakfast of his own, a multigrain bagel with cream cheese and freshly-brewed coffee. He shuffled over to his tiny two-seater table and ate while catching up on store emails and the Facebook page Caleb had reluctantly made at Nott’s urging to give the store an online presence. He made sure to keep himself out of the photos for fear of facial recognition software tagging him and alerting someone, even though his Cobalt Soul contact had assured him every trace of himself had been scrubbed.
They didn’t know the Cerberus Assembly like he did, despite everything he had told them about his past and their... methods.
These thoughts played out in the back of his head, mostly unnoticed by Caleb as he went through his morning routine and headed downstairs to the shop proper. He had practice ignoring the paranoid thoughts always murmuring that he wasn’t safe, and he wasn’t going to let them ruin such a good start to his day if he could help it.
As he got the store set up for opening, he suddenly became aware of someone waiting just outside the doors. Mostly from the surprise banging that scared him enough to drop the front door keys before he could unlock them.
“Gotternverdammt!” He shouted as he clutched his chest, his heart beating wildly. He was breathing hard as he looked out the long glass panels of his doors, recognising the amused-looking blue tiefling from last night. Jester, his mind supplied helpfully. She was holding a brown paper bag in one hand and balancing a cardboard drink tray full of drinks from the local café down the block, shuffling from foot to foot impatiently.
After retrieving his keys from the polished wooden floor, he unlocked the doors and opened one warily, half expecting Jester to push her way in and knock him over. Pleasantly surprised when she didn’t, he greeted her with a quiet wheeze of a ”Hallo” -he still hadn’t quite recovered- and followed behind as she rushed over to the counter serving as his front till area.
“Okay, sooooo I didn’t know what you liked so I got a few things and I figured you probably maybe would like one of them at the very least and then I’d go visit like Fjord or Molly or Caduceus since they’ll be setting up for the regular market today and give them whatever you don’t pick!” Jester pointed to the drinks one by one. “This one’s a matcha latte, it’s pretty good if you like green tea and stuff. This one’s just a vanilla latte because no offence Cayleb, but you seem kinda boring and I thought maybe you’d just want some coffee but no one just buys coffee from the café so I got the next most boring drink. This one is like, a strawberry mocha or something? And this one is mine! It’s got chocolate milk and cheesecake gelato in it with extra whipped cream. But I guess if you want that one that’s okay too, I don’t mind. I made sure that one of the other drinks is one I like too but it’s a secret which one it is!”
Caleb blinked at the onslaught. He decided against telling Jester that he did, in fact, go to the café down the street sometimes just for the coffee. It was their specialty after all, some sort of roasted and smoked coffee bean that they sold quite a bit of in bags and tins. He thought for a moment, absentmindedly scratching his forearms.
“Ah, thank you Jester. I was not expecting you to come and visit me so quickly, and I hope you didn’t feel that you had to bring me anything to, ah, to ‘sweeten the deal’ so to speak. There were no lingering ill feelings due to last night, I assure you. I know Nott and Yeza feel the same as well, and Luc was just very excited to see it all.” Caleb’s eyes crinkled as the faintest of smiles appeared on his face.
“Oh, good! I was hoping Nott wasn’t too mad, you know, even though I totally brought up a ton of sad stuff. But that’s not why I came, I came to visit you and see if you guys wanted to be our friends! And I won’t judge you even if you do pick the lame drink, I promise.”
Caleb snorted. “Well, I would hate to disappoint you, Miss Jester.” I am definitely not bringing up my drinking habits, he thought wryly. “I will take the, ah, ‘boring’ option, if you please. I am a very boring old man, after all.”
“Well then, here you are Mister Widogast. Or do you prefer Old Man Widogast?” Jester snickered. “But seriously, you have to have some of pastries I brought. They started making my favorite since I’m there like, practically every day. Cinnamon bear claws! They taste just like home!” She handed him his drink and a bear claw, adding “They’re supposed to be very good for your libido too, you know? Which you might need since you’re so old and dour.”
Caleb choked on the sip of his latte, causing Jester to pound on his back with surprising strength, cackling in delight. Once he felt he could talk, he gasped out a “That is good to know, but I do not- I am not exactly- I…”
Jester took pity on Caleb, patting his back where she had surely bruised him. “Oh man, you should see your face right now. Don’t worry Cayleb, I’m sure you don’t need any help with that. But if you do, I know all sorts of things that can help, or my momma isn’t the Ruby of the Sea.”
“Ah, …thank you, I think?.” The Ruby of the Sea? It sounded familiar, but he didn’t recall from where. Hmmm. “But truly, I do appreciate this gesture-“ Heh! “-and please do not be a stranger to the shop. I cannot promise to be interesting, but I would like us to be friends. And that Fjord fellow as well. And please forgive me if I am being too forward, but I am curious how people such as yourselves have ended up here? I- I mean only that yourself and Fjord do not seem like you are originally from a rural area and this is a very out-of-the-way place to settle down.”
“Of course, Cayleb! But only if you do the same! Oh! Were you one of those Hutterite people but like, you left the colony to meet your one true love?” Jester gasped and clapped her hands together as an idea came to her. “Oh! Is your one true love books? Did you leave because you were caught owning ‘The Courting of the Crick’ or something and then they tried to make you give it up and you decided you’d rather leave and then met Nott and she saved you and taught you how to live in like, modern times or something?”
Caleb chuckled at that. “Nein, Jester. I am not a Hutterite, I am originally from Germany, though we moved to the States when I was very young. And I believe Hutterites are very much familiar with much of ‘modern times’ as you put it. From what I have seen, they are very nice people, just a bit odd in their ways, I think. And, ah, my story with meeting Nott is not a very pleasant one, I’m afraid. I do not wish to ruin such a good morning with it right now, although I don’t mind telling it. Just not- not today.”
He wasn’t sure how Jester would take hearing about Nott and Caleb’s first meeting in the drunk tank of a tiny town in the region, or their respective bouts of homelessness. He didn’t think she would judge them harshly for it, but he wasn’t in a great headspace to handle any misguided pity, not with intrusive thoughts at the edges of his brain, saying worthless, worthless and you don’t deserve this and worst of all, traitor, murderer all scratching away at him in the shadowed corners of his mind, trying to consume him.
Caleb took a couple of subtle calming breaths and mentally went over a grounding exercise, deliberately taking notice of things around him with his five senses in a matter of seconds.
“Oh, Cayleb, can I give you a hug?” Jester waited until Caleb gave her a small nod, then brought him in tight. “You don’t need to tell me anything, I’m sorry for bringing up painful things. Here I just finished apologizing for upsetting Nott and here I am putting my big stupid foot in my mouth again!”
Caleb patted her on the back gently, trying to let her know that the hug was appreciated and that he didn’t hold anything against her. “It is okay, Jester. It is just a difficult story to tell, sometimes, and I don’t want to ruin such a beautiful morning -and the bear claws- with it. Especially after having such a delightful surprise such as yourself.” He smiled despite himself, although inside he was still feeling a little off-kilter. It was just going to be one of those days, he accepted ruefully.
“Anyways, I should not keep you much longer, not if you want to deliver those drinks to your friends while they are still warm. You, ah, will have to come back sometime to visit. After all, you still have not told me about yourself and Fjord. If you come by during the week, perhaps closer to lunch time, you will be able to visit Nott as well. She often comes by to make sure I eat while she works. She, ah, does some freelance coding and such and brings her laptop so she can fuss while she works.”
“That sounds wonderful, Cayleb! Alright, I’ll leave you be and come by during the week sometime to harass you. Oh! And here’s my phone number, you absolutely should text me so we can plan a get-together or something!” Jester wrote her number on a napkin, having somehow apparated a pink sparkly gel pen into her hand. “And if you don’t, I know where you work!
With that threat hanging in the air, probably far more fearsome to Caleb than she had intended -more because she was a hurricane incarnate than anything sinister- she scooped up the drinks and bounced out of the store, leaving the bag full of goodies for Caleb to contend with.
Well, thought Caleb. I suppose I’ve just been adopted into friendship yet again. Somehow, that thought didn’t bother Caleb as much as he thought it maybe should have. He considered the implications of that for the rest of the day, intrigued.