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“Eat something,” Cadence pushed the plate towards her. It scraped across the café table, teetering with bruschetta, lamb koftas, and focaccia with roast pepper butter spread across them.
“Not hungry,” said Morrigan, not even looking up from her notebook.
“It’s lunch, and you told me that you didn’t have breakfast,” she rolled her eyes, ripping up basil leaves and casting them on the food. “I will mesmerise you, for the greater good.”
“Greater good of what?”
“Three square meals a day?” She tore a piece of the focaccia in two and then into two again, folding up one of those and popping it in her mouth.
“I ate a banana this morning,” she said without modulating her tone.
“Was it this morning in the sense of like… two?”
She didn’t make eye contact with her, “Perhaps.”
“As in, yes. Your sleep schedule seriously scares me, Morrigan.” She could see the dark circles under her eyes, and the way her cheeks were beginning to hollow out. She didn’t like it.
“You’ve mentioned that,” she personally thought that Cadence was being more than a little hypocritical considering that she was also awake in the wee hours more often than not, but she hadn’t come this far without knowing that it was a do as I say, not as I do system here.
She reluctantly snapped her notebook shut - she needed to come up with a solution for that before the next C&D meeting, or before she got accosted by Gideon Steed in public again, and grabbed a piece of focaccia, picking it apart in her hands before eating it at a slightly disturbing speed. Then she grabbed a kofta, slicing it in half and devouring it with alacrity.
Apparently she was hungrier than she had thought.
Cadence was looking at her closed notebook, sipping her water, “Have you seriously been working on that all night and all day?”
“All night and all day all week.”
“Morrigan,” she raised an eyebrow. “It’s not an emergency. You can maintain a normal sleep schedule while you work on it, you know?”
“I know,” she sighed. “That’s what they said too, but they don’t mean it. They want results like,” she snapped her fingers thrice in quick succession. “And they will not leave me alone until it's done. And then when it’s done, they find a new problem that only the Society’s pet wundersmith can solve.”
“I don’t say this lightly,” she said. “But do you think you might be becoming… you know… a miniature Jupiter?”
She slumped her head onto the table, folding her arms over it, “I know, I know. But I can’t stop, can I? It’s not going to stop, Cadence.”
“Maybe,” she said, and Morrigan knew her well enough to see the plans taking shape in her brain. “Possibly.”
“Perhaps?” she laughed humourlessly.
“I’ll get you a decaf tea,” Cadence said, getting up from her chair. “If you have any more caffeine right now, it might induce a heart attack.”
“Okay,” she smiled at her, feeling a lot older than her twenty years. “You’re probably right,” she drained her coffee cup.
“Cadence,” she rubbed her eyes, looking down from her window onto the forecourt. “It’s three in the morning? Why-”
She swore lightly, “I thought you would be asleep, honestly.”
“Well… no. I value your advice.”
“You fell asleep on your desk.”
“How-” she touched her face and her hand came away with ink smudges. “Urgh.”
“Also you’re still wearing your clothes from yesterday.”
She looked down at her rumpled shirt and trousers, “Oh. Wait,” she frowned. “You still haven’t explained why you were throwing stones at my window at three in the morning. What if you had woken someone else up?”
“I have great aim,” she said. “Come on, I’ve got a surprise.”
“Did you borrow another dog?”
Even though she was several floors down from Morrigan and it was the middle of the night, she knew that Cadence was grinning. “Better. Come on. You’re already dressed, just wash your face.”
“Fine.”
She was downstairs and rushing out of the forecourt swiftly, gaping at what the surprise Cadence had brought for her. It was a cool night, but she ignored the way her air was rising on her arms.
“I’m assuming you didn’t acquire this by… legal means?”
“Morrigan, you sound like the Stink.”
She threw her hands up, “I’m just asking.”
“Well,” Cadence smirked. “I’m going to give it back later, this is just for tonight.”
It was beautiful, sleek. A convertible with the cover off, in racing green, polished to a shine. Morrigan ran her hands along the side of the passenger door. “Wait, you can drive?”
“No,” she shrugged. “I was hoping you could do that. I just carried it here on my back.”
“Cadence.”
“Sheesh, you’re no fun. Get in, I’m taking us somewhere.”
“Where?”
“Not here.” Instead of opening the door, she just swung her leg above it, like a very slow high jump with no jumping whatsoever. Morrigan shrugged and did the same thing on her side, strapping herself in, hoping that Cadence was actually a good driver and they were not going to end up on the news for grand theft auto, or being in a horrible accident.
Cadence was a good driver as it turned out. Once you left the streets of Nevermoor proper, there wasn’t much traffic for her to swear at for cutting her off or traffic lights for her to roll her eyes at.
For the first hour or so, Morrigan dozed lightly, only opening her eyes on tight turns, or when they started going down big hills which made her stomach churn a little. On some of the roads, Cadence managed to make the car go airborne at a certain speed over a bump, but she kept her eyes closed for most of it, resting far easier away from her work than near it.
But after five minutes, or an hour, or three hours, she was gently nudged awake by a hand pushing at her shoulder.
“Wha-” she complained, her mouth dry. She turned her head from side-to-side, trying to unstiffen it as her mind began to wake up as she climbed out of the car, regretting not bringing a
“Sorry, but you’ll want to see this,” she said. She pointed up, and Morrigan’s mouth fell open.
It was exactly the same way she had felt looking up at the ceiling of the Map Room when they had all just started at Wunsoc, only magnified. The rooftop of the Deucalion wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t high enough to beat out the light pollution which came from living somewhere as densely populated as Nevermoor.
The sky was a completely different colour, grey and white, rather than the “true black” she might have expected to see, stretching out above her so far that she couldn’t hope to comprehend the distance.
A hand slipped into hers. It was warm and slightly callused. “Makes you feel small too?” Cadence asked.
“A bit,” she could barely comprehend how small she must be compared to the lights out there, burning and burning millions and millions of lightyears away. “Wow.”
“What can you hear?” she asked.
“You,” she said, almost turning to the face right next to her own, and she knew that she had just rolled her eyes.
“Apart from that?”
“The wind in the trees over there,” she let her eyes lose focus, looking away from the sky and down to the distant lights of Nevermoor in the distance. “And some cars, and the sheep in the field over there. It’s nice.”
“Yeah,” she put her arm around her, drawing her in. They stayed like that for a while, staring up at the sky in silence until Morrigan’s stomach rumbled.
“Let’s go,” Cadence pulled away. She suddenly felt a little colder.
“It’s okay.”
“I know a twenty four hour place near here.”
“Do you come here often?” she blushed immediately. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that as a come on.”
It might have been the low light, the fact she could only see Cadence by the distant glow from the city lights, but she almost looked disappointed. “Sometimes.”
“Do you always steal a car?”
“Borrow,” she shrugged. “My dad brought me here when I was small.”
“Oh,” Morrigan touched her face, brushing the edges of her fingers against her cheek. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s been a long time now.”
“Still,” she said. It wasn’t much but Cadence tried a wobbly smile at her anyway.
The food they got was hot and good. Or at least it was hot and Morrigan was too sleep deprived to care whether it was good or not.
Cadence stole one of her chips, but she grabbed one of the bits of fried meat out of her bag and stuck it in her mouth before she could grab it back, so she won that one.
“Morrigan!” she complained.
“Do unto others what you… something something. I forgot.”
“You’re an absolute theologian,” Cadence said, snatching another chip. “Let me know when you’ll be lecturing on the doctrine of the Divine Thing at Wunsoc, I’ll be sure to be in the front row.
“Oh, just next week. Monday at nine twenty five.”
“Very good,” Cadence sighed. “I’ll see if I can send Baz there somehow. As a form of punishment.”
“To me or to him?” she asked, halfway to shock.
“Not sure. Depends on if you’ll let me have the rest of those.”
Morrigan sighed and handed over the rest of her food even though Cadence had only been angling at the chips. “Should we go now? It’s getting early.”
The sun wasn’t even nearly up yet but she could see the way the sky was turning a little violet and pink in the east, the stars beginning to fade, and the way the clock’s hands were suggesting that it was probably too late to call it the middle of the night anymore.
They paid, or Morrigan paid while Cadence was ignored by the waitress, and climbed into the car again.
She nodded off in the car as they drove back towards the city, the sounds of sheep and cows in the fields slowly turning to motorcars and commuters bustling about, getting ready for the day ahead.
She was distantly aware of being led in, half asleep, one arm stretched over Cadence’s shoulders, her feet moving from habit and not from her brain telling them to, and then her bed, warm and soft, and someone pulling her covers over her, and a soft touch on her head, before a door closed, and she fell asleep fully, feeling like she could properly rest for the first time in a long time, a weight lifted from her shoulders.