Food Cravings (Sean)

Sometimes, Kateri decided, it was really, really nice to be working with a telepath. Even though he might know all the sordid details—um, maybe not sordid. Another word there…yes, that’d be a good idea. But anyways, even though he knew all the details, he always knew exactly what was on your mind.

Poor Sean. Especially due to the fact that her thoughts had been ranging toward strangling Terrowin as of late… “Thank you,” she said, quite fervently as she took the candy. “Oh, that’s wonderful! I haven’t seen these in…I can’t even remember. Thank you!” She beamed at him and resisted the urge to open it and eat it right then. She would at least wait until the end of dinner and make sure she shared some with him. It was the least that she could do. “You’re a lifesaver,” she added. “I don’t know how to make anything sweet and I have never tried buying candy for myself. I was at a loss. Well, I’m glad Josh is out.” Friends. She hadn’t seen a few friends in quite a while, and she still hadn’t had the nerve to tell Janice that she was…anyways. “I also appreciate the lack of child-raising pamphlets,” she added. “When I told my brother, that was the first thing he shipped here. I wanted to kill him, but as I want to kill almost everyone these days, I told him not to take that personally.” She sighed. “Anyways. Students. Do Vincent and Sam have any chance of graduating this year?”

“Mm, nostalgia.” Kateri wrinkled her nose and laughed. “You know, when I was a girl I used to always want to be older.” Although not in the typical way. Kateri, in spite of her early marriage, hadn’t dreamed of getting married and owning a house and raising a family. She’d wanted to be a pirate captain and go swashbuckling on the open ocean, which she’d loved ever since her father had rented a boat and took her and her brother out for a day. She’d disregarded most things, like barbies and stuffed animals, in return for a wooden sword and a bicycle so she could go ride around with the local boys. “Now I wonder what in the world I was thinking. Children have everything. Why are you always so eager to grow up?” Well, she’d taken over ten years to get to the “parent” stage, so she figured she’d taken her childhood later. When she was still working. Oh well. You got what you could. “But thank you. And thanks for the offer, but I can’t do that. I’d be depriving you of dessert. Besides, I should eventually learn to cook, um, something.” She glanced ruefully at the menu. “Unless I just want to feed the child takeout all the time.”

She could cook fairly well. But only for one person, and nothing elaborate or that children normally liked. This was going to take some work.

Kateri’s lips quirked into a more serious smile at the statement, and she nodded to him in thanks. “Well don’t be too fast to offer that. I might make you pick out names with me. Terrowin’s been bloody useless, Jesus.” She sighed. “I keep telling him I want something that I can pronounce. And my father is pushing for a long Spanish name and my mother for a stout Irish name, and all I can think is that I wish everyone wasn’t so opinionated about the whole thing.” She didn’t have a list. Every time she thought about it, she panicked and had to go clean something or write math problems on the board, something she hadn’t done since her college years. But she was glad for the distraction of students.

“Poor things,” she said. “Actually, not Vincent. That boy deserves everything he gets. But I do feel sorry for Sam. Maybe I could find a pyro to give him some tutoring on the side. I had someone in my year…” She waved it off. “Any other lifers on the list? I want a warning in advance, you know, if I have to have them sit through algebra two for five years.”

“I know,” Kateri groaned. “There should be some kind of class when you’re a kid that teaches you all the things you have to do as adults—like…bill paying. Now there would be something that would keep kids as kids for about…I don’t know…forever.” Her lips twitched into a wry smile, and she shook her head. “Although I’ll spare my children from that treatment. I guess. It’s…a very strange thought to be having kids, Sean. You know, I always had thoughts about what would happen if I had kids—when I had kids—but now that I’m actually having them I feel like I want to bubble-wrap my entire house. And Janice might kill me for that.”

Speaking of which, she was going to have to figure out how she was going to manage having a kid with living with a roommate. Janice was wonderful, but she wasn’t sure she wanted a screaming baby hanging around.

Kateri seemed surprised at the suggestion, and she grinned. “Well, thank you for agreeing with everything I’ve ever said in my life to my parents. Although I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate it. But I’m not sure I’m qualified to think of a name for a child anyways.” The mere thought had her reaching for the drink, making her wish she could have something stronger. But no. Well, she’d get used to it eventually. She sipped at it, then put it down. “But be warned. I’ll probably be emailing you and Josh with random suggestions. When the hormones take over, you’d better warn me away from anything like…like…Rhapsody. Please, for my sake and the child’s.”

Although why any sane person would name her child Rhapsody was an entirely different matter.

“Some day.” Her lips twitched up. “Yeah, right. No, Sam’s a good boy, which is more than I can say for Vincent. Good. I’m glad we don’t have any other lifers. And I’m also glad Josh has started interviewing his interns.” She shook her head, then eyed the candy he’d brought. She wasn’t sure self-control was going to win out in this case. “Sean, I know we haven’t gotten our food yet, but would you like to share some candy with me anyways? Just so I don’t feel like a pig?”

Kateri’s brows climbed. “Is that so? Well then, I almost propose we should bring it back. As it is I try to teach an accounting section in my algebra class, but Jesus knows if any of them actually pay attention.” She’d suspected the answer was no even though she tried to bribe them with candy. That only worked for the younger grades in any case. She kept working on it in attempting to prove that it was possible to teach young adults how to manage money. So far, however, she was failing. “I’d love to know how it got recoded,” she added. “So to speak. Just shifting to a more male-dominated societies, or different ideals, or what?” She shrugged. “It’s interesting.” Even if she was more of a math person, she was also interested in that kind of thing. Mostly because she might’ve been hiding a bit of a feminist side.

Okay, not hiding it. Not hiding it at all, but she also didn’t scream it from the ramparts.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Kateri sighed. “It’s bad that I haven’t actually spent that much time with newborns, isn’t it? I don’t think I’ll know what to do. I guess I’ll enroll in all those classes and see if I can drag someone along to help. How enjoyable.” Baby-proofing was actually the least of her concerns, she decided. She had to make it through labor. She shuddered at the thought, then eyed him, surprised at his statement. “Well thank you. That’s incredibly polite of you. And I’ll…I’ll think about it. I love my family and I don’t want to hurt them either.” Besides, they weren’t ever that insistent. And eventually they got over themselves.

This other topic was good. Much more professional, and she smiled. “Oh, yes. And I’m glad he learned a good lesson. I hope it didn’t kill him too much. If he needs any help cleaning up, I know some nice, normal students who would be happy to give him a hand.”

“You’re the best, Sean.” She grinned now and fetched out some nerds, offering them to him and grabbing—actually, she didn’t care, because it was sweet and right now that was all she wanted from life.

Kateri crossed her ankles under the chair—as her feet never quite hit the ground, it was easy for her to do and didn’t actually make much of a difference—and leaned forward, propping up her chin on her folded hands. As she was a teacher, she could and would suggest curriculum changes. Politely. While she could be incredibly insistent and stubborn, she wasn’t sure how she felt about Yvette yet. Better to be polite. At least as a semi-private institute they didn’t have to follow all state regulations and could have a little leeway. “Always,” she agreed. “Although I don’t know too much on that. My studies never included American history. But it’s certainly interesting.”

Kateri wasn’t sure how she felt about taking classes for parenting, but she knew it was a necessary step. She rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed. “School for parents. A good idea, but definitely tests how much can be done through education.” She looked up at his next statement, brows climbing. “Did you actually just…offer to attend those crazy breathing classes with me? Sean.” She grinned at him. “You are really far too nice. Josh is a lucky man.” She didn’t mean anything by it, but it was fun to flatter him. Besides, it really was incredibly nice of him.

Kateri was eating something—she didn’t actually know what it was, but it was incredibly sweet and she loved it. But she was distracted long enough from her food to watch the process of Sean eating Nerds. If she was depressed, it would be a great way to cheer herself up. “I’m guessing you don’t have sugar much either, do you?”

Kateri tilted her head to the side. She was not typically a reader. While she did enjoy studying science journals and the like, actual literature had never been her strong suit. But she couldn’t see the harm in picking up a book—especially as she would be having quite a bit of free time in the near future. “I think…I would enjoy that,” she said. “Thank you. At least it would give me something to do.”

Kateri nodded. “At this point, anything would help,” she admitted. “The last time I dealt with a baby was my brother, and that was when I was five. I hardly did much work. But just proper changing…” She exhaled. “I would like that very much at this point.”

How could he think that wasn’t too nice? Kateri was openly staring now and, to her embarrassment, was even a little teary-eyed. Which never happened. Kateri was not the kind of woman who cried very often. But as it was Sean, and he was telepathic and far too sympathetic, she decided not to try and hide it and leaned over to point a finger at him. “That—that is too nice. And proof is you don’t even see it.” She sniffed and dabbed at her eyes with the napkin. “And I’m hugging you once we get up,” she added. Because it was Kateri, and she could care less what other people thought. In fact, if they were to attend a class together and anyone did comment on the age gap, she probably would’ve flirted with him outrageously just to prove a point. But that was about as far as she would’ve gone because she knew Josh sometimes had a Thing about that.

“Neither can I.” She sighed. “That’s it. I’m learning how to bake. These things just can’t be good for you.”