Work Text:
(on a piece of torn-off lined paper, left on the kitchen table at 3 am)
Good morning Tea!
Or, I’m guessing it’ll be morning when you read this? I’m trying not to check clocks as much.
Anyway, screens are too bright for my head again and I’ll (hopefully!) sleep through the morning, so if you text me later and I don’t answer that’s why. Don’t worry, I have all the reminders written down, too.
Please try to eat breakfast today. I’ll see you later.
-Nat
TO: Nat
Wed. April 23, 1:42 PM
hey i’m picking up more toothpaste and your meds, you want anything else from the store while i’m here?
1:47 PM
oh right no phone today sorry
i’ll grab some of that flavored cocoa you like though
(scrawled over several post-it notes and pasted to a hand-sketched, slightly crinkled diagram)
I’m guessing this is yours? Found it in the fridge this morning.
Are you planning to What do you want to do with it? I’d feel bad throwing it away. Your designs are still some of the most intricate I’ve ever seen.
I’ve got some contacts here, you know. Engineers who’d love to talk with you about all these amazing things you know how to do. No contracts. Nothing binding. Just - if you still enjoy doing this, I want you to be able to talk about it with people who actually get it. I’m a pretty good pilot, sure; but I’ll admit, I don’t know ships the way that you do.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong and this was just something to do with your hands on a bad day. It’s fine if you don’t want it. But the offer’s there.
-Tea
TO: Tea
Sun. August 17, 3:02 PM
Tea you hyped up this mysterious roboticist for a week and it’s my friend Cene Sixheart
Thank you for putting us in touch again but this is very funny
(recorded into a handheld speech-to-text device)
Timestamp 11.4.009 21:13
"Hey, Tea, I - Well, I'm really just recording this to think through it better, I probably didn't have to address it to you... um.
"I'm not sure what the... the, uh, standard time frame is for sharing an apartment while you recover from mind control. There aren't any old, wise sayings about that situation, I think. But it's probably obvious by this point that I'm not - I mean, I'm better, but being able to live on my own still feels so far away. I don't know if I'll ever be ready for that.
"And so I really want to stay with you, but it almost feels rude to after so long, and I can't tell if I'm just scared to leave or if... I'm actually -"
Knock knock.
"Natalya?"
" - in love with youOH HI TEA. Just recording some notes! One second, let me - what?"
"I said, did you want to go out to dinner tonight? Or order in, there's this documentary about genemod cats I think you'd like."
"...Yeah. Yeah, the documentary sounds nice. I'll just put this away and we can go -"
Click.