Chapter Text
It was a fine morning, warm sunlight streaming in from the large windows of one of the bigger Protocol bases. Most of the agents had already awoken, some gathered at the kitchen, others not yet making it there.
A frizzy-haired Duelist swooped into the large room, past a slowly walking Omen, and angrily slammed the electric kettle onto its stand, dashing off to snatch a pouch of instant coffee from the top shelf as soon as it touched the stand. Pacing the room, Jett irritatedly waited for the water to finally boil.
The rest of the group was quite a bit less agitated, with Yoru being perhaps the closest to Jett’s current state of mind, having stayed up with a couple of the younger agents to game, the eyebags showing. Though he needed coffee as much as her, the riftwalker decided to give Jett a bit of space, especially if she was angry and about to handle boiling water on a shitty morning.
Omen settled in the farther corner, seemingly looking out the window, the sky brightening with every second as clouds rolled out and sun rose. Fade, orange juice in one hand and a plate of pancakes in the other, approached him and sat down on the opposite side of the little square table, murmuring a greeting. Steel, an ex-stray silver tabby cat ‘adopted’ from the streets by the new agent followed around like a dog, jumping onto Fade’s lap as soon as she sat with a loud purr and a curious look towards the blue slashes marking Omen’s “face”.
The phantom greeted them both with a nod and a gruff “morning” and went back to his activity of watching the fiery sky, waiting for his friend to finish breakfast so they could go about their day. No missions, no plans just yet, so Omen was fine with just sitting in silence all day if need be, assuming they wouldn’t find anything interesting to do.
A hearty laugh marked the entrance of Cypher, clad in a light tan button-down and beige pants, black mask on his face as always, followed by a similarly casually-dressed Sova. The duo gave wide berth to the sleep-deprived Duelists and headed over to the fridge to ransack whatever last night’s little gaming group hadn’t yet managed to get their hands on.
Jett finally heard the click of the kettle signaling boiling water and momentarily dumped in a good quarter cup of coffee mix followed immediately by aggressively-poured hot water. Stirring it and trying not to spill while rushing, she walked quickly over to the agents who’d previously tried to avoid the Duelist and her boiling hot coffee, reaching out for the milk carton and pouring till it almost overflowed to cool off the beverage.
Practically tossing the milk back in, Jett leaned against the countertop and took a sip. A miserable, miserable sip, face instantly somehow even more sour. “Sugar”, she hissed the forgotten ingredient before putting down the mug and further terrorizing the kitchen for what she needs. Moving out of the way of the Duelist was a smart move, which everyone even near her did. Sova grabbed some sandwich ingredients from the fridge and gestured Cypher to a nearby table, meanwhile prepping himself said sandwich on the countertop corner farthest from the teakettle and sleep-deprived Jett. Cypher just chuckled and sat down, making himself comfortable. He’d have breakfast later, in his workshop-the info broker still didn’t trust anyone seeing his face, which, thankfully, the others understood.
Wolfing down the whole stack of pancakes, Fade finally turned her attention entirely to Omen, gaze quizzical.
“Well then… day’s free, what do we do?”
A nod of his head as a quick acknowledgment to Steel’s presence, Omen inwardly smiled warmly, at least as much as he could.