Toppings (Sloane)

[Sloane Deveraux]

Sloane laughed easily before shaking her head. "He would appreciate being homeless a lot." She joked, not being serious either. "And I don't think that man thinks Thomas is a boyfriend. I hope Thomas doesn't either. That man is trouble. I can just...smell it off him."

"Maybe we need foreign imports. Or get some of the graduates from Hammel to intern with us." Sloane suggested. She had done more than enough whining to her brothers about the lack of manpower here and Patrick and Jonathan were far too eager to come down to Pilot Ridge to offer their 'manliness', as they had said over the phone. Samuel, Bernard and Reece all already had family and were pretty settled in and Drew, well, Drew was Drew and he hated change. He was more than ready to stay over for two nights at Sloane's place but more than that, no. Pilot Ridge was too strange a place for him.

"Hardass might be putting it lightly, Hart." She shook her head in resignation, laughing derisively at the notion of Renee being less than a raging bitch. Of course, had they met in a less...hostile environment, Sloane would have easily looked up to the senior officer. Hell, Sloane would have wanted to follow in her footsteps. But as it were...

"It really is." Sloane grinned and took a big bite out of her cheese mountained pizza. She leaned close when Hart did and the thought of having a grill out obviously enticed her. But that would make it a social convention she was none too ready to face. "I...I don't know. This weekend you say?" She bit into her pizza to avoid talking. She chewed slowly and wondered if she should take Hart up on his offer. It was meat. On fire. If nothing, she would stay for the food. She could always just shovel it down her throat to avoid talking at all.

"I'll...have to see. Maybe. I'll get back to you tomorrow or the day after maybe...my brother might be coming so I don't know." Excuses, excuses. "So," she leaned back, realising she was way too close to Hart that his eyes were getting a bit bluer for Sloane's comfort. "Barracks clerk. You're not seriously making a career out of it...right?"

[Hart Kenney]

Oops, wrong gender for the roommate. It was probably a tiny bit inappropriate of him to hope her roommate wasn't bisexual, but hope this he did. "You sure that's trouble you smell? Maybe he just needs to be acquainted with a bath."

And while it was somewhat meant as a joke, the truth was that Hart really liked baths. Being grimy and dirty was not for him.

"That might work," He agreed with the idea of Hammel interns. And metas had advantages against other metas that baseline humans like Charlie and Renee didn't. If Pilot Ridge were more crime-ridden the police might have a difficult time.

He savored his greasy slice of pizza as Sloane stammered out a reply to his invitation. Not the most encouraging pseudo-answer ever, but at least she didn't immediately shoot him down. "Yeah, this weekend, you know, for Labor Day." He wasn't too surprised at the idea she might have family in town for that, largely because he forgot she was Canadian. "You don't gotta, but it would be fun."

His smile slipped as she turned her topic of conversation to his job. So she didn't really respect that, which was expected but disappointing. Still, he tried for nonchalance, shrugging in response. "Dunno. It's a government job." Which meant a whole slew of things to him, many of which he theoretically opposed but as they currently worked in his favor he was taking advantage. Hypocritical, perhaps, but he did have a sense of self-preservation there.

"Used to teach school, but there weren't uhhh any positions open around here."

That wasn't exactly true; he hadn't even looked to see if there were any teaching positions available around Pilot Ridge, because he'd assumed that he would have the same problem as before .

[Sloane Deveraux]

"We could go with that." Sloane shrugged with a straight face despite her amusement. "Might need to hose him down someday." Much like Hart, Sloane didn't like feeling dirty. She made it a point to wash up three times a day. Extreme to some but just very routine for Sloane.

Sloane realised then that Hart didn't know that she was meta. A pretty powerful one at that, one who can absorb another meta's power for one full hour. Not that she had occasion to use it these days. Hart would probably not care as much as other people because he did have his niece in Hammel. But it didn't mean she had to tell him...yet.

"Oh is that a holiday?" The police officer smirked at Hart's intonation. "Maybe." She shrugged with a little smile. Besides, if she couldn't talk to other people present, at least Hart would be there. And quite maybe Charlie. "I'll get back to you on that." She bit into the pizza with a quite non-committal nod.

She wouldn't have opened up the topic of his job if she had run out of things to say, really. But Sloane was not a conversationalist. It was why she decided to be a cop, besides being from a long line of them. You didn't have to talk so much. You could usually just get a detective to do the interrogating for you most of the time.

"You used to teach? Really?" This was news to Sloane obviously. Hart didn't seem the teacher type. Mostly because Sloane thought he ought to have been a model. Yes, she appreciated the guy's looks. And body. No, she wasn't objectifying him at all.

"I'm sure Hammel has available spots," Sloane said, not quite understanding why she was so invested in Hart's occupational options. She supposed it was mostly because being a clerk was just not a guy's job. Not because it more suited a woman but because it was distracting. They were practically on the same desk.

"Well hey," she suddenly felt a little uncomfortable. "Sorry if I'm babbling." She mumbled before stuffing the pizza into her mouth. Why she suddenly felt shy around Hart, she didn't know. But she did not like it, to be sure. She checked her watch and groaned. "Augh, we have to leave soon. You think Davis and Farley would want some pizza?"

[Hart Kenney]

So that was a definite maybe. Hart wondered if he could convince Charlie to suggest to Sloane that she come, and then wondered if they ought to invite Renee; it would be poor form to leave out one coworker, even if everyone was kind of afraid of her. If they were lucky she would decline because she was being responsible and insisted on working during a holiday. Considering the likelihood of drunk drivers over the weekend that would probably be the smartest move, anyway.

Or maybe she would surprise them all and prove that she was capable of relaxing and having fun. She couldn't always be a dragon.

"Yeah, I used to teach." He grinned at the shocked expression on her face. "What, I like kids, don't act so surprised."

He would have been flattered if she had voiced her opinions on his looks, though he was pretty sure he was too short to have ever been a model. He would appreciate the height fairy blessing him with a few more inches.

"Taught middle school history." He explained between bites, "And coached girl's soccer. After you teach middle schoolers nothing scares you anymore."

At the mention of Hammel he shrugged, smearing grease across his napkin with his fingers. "Might look into it later. I just needed....a change of pace." He wasn't aware of the extremely LGBT friendly nature of the boarding school his niece attended; he hadn't looked into any teaching positions at all after being let go from his last job, and Jessica hadn't enlightened him though it was likely she hadn't really noticed.

When Sloane looked at her watch, exclaiming at the time, he had to suppress a sigh of disappointment. "Yeah, let's just bring it back, it'll get eaten."

He pushed back his chair, meandering toward the front to grab a box and pay their tab before his companion could object, because he was sure that if he told her that he was going to pay she would feel obligated to insist otherwise, and that just wouldn't do, not when he'd asked her to come.

"So," He said as he returned to the table, placing the box beside his plate and gingerly sliding the remainder of the pizza in, "You ready to leave, then?"

[Sloane Deveraux]

"I'm sorry! It's...unexpected. I mean how can you stand their incessant babbling? I mean, those two boys who came in, I just couldn't even get them to shut up. I can ask adults to shut up but kids? They just go on and on and on and..." she stopped herself and realised that this was the most she had spoken to anybody at one time. It felt a tad strange. Maybe she sort of did have more social graces than she was previously thought.

"Amen to that." She raised her pizza and pressed it briefly against Hart's before taking a healthy chunk out of it. "I have a nephew who just barely escaped middle school with his pants intact. A trooper that one." She was divulging seriously personal information now. It was disturbing how easy everything was coming out.

She took one more slice of pizza and shook chilli flakes and cheese all over it as Hart went to get a to-go box. Hart was right, had he told her that he was going to pay, she would have cuffed him to the table and paid for it herself. But she didn't know and she would get him back for it. Nothing serious. Probably cancel the the internet so he won't be able to post new winnings on his "Angry Birds" game or...whatever pixelated antropomorphic animal bounced on his screen currently.

"Yeah." She nodded as she bit into the crust of her pizza as the other hand rummaged through her pockets for a tenner, slipping it into Hart's pants pocket. "Thanks for asking me out." Sloane licked her lips ebfore realising the choice of words she had used. "Of the station I mean. For lunch. Not..." she frowned and down went her pride in her social graces. She quite obviously knew nothing about being a regular human being.

[Hart Kenney]

"Aw, most of 'em aren't that bad!" Hart protested, grinning at the memories of his days spent teaching largely reluctant children about their history. Some of them were loud and disruptive, but that was the exception rather than the rule. "The ones get too rowdy, I just sent 'em to in school suspension." Cheating, perhaps, but that usually got the point across to any who refused to listen to him. Better to have the disruptive ones away from the rest of the class instead of allowing the few to ruin the education of the many.

She wasn't the only one to notice her awkward word choice, and his grin slipped slightly. She was hurriedly backtracking, and he was trying to decide if her initial screw up was good or bad. Not that he should be thinking along those lines anyway; she was his coworker, and dating anyone included complications.

He decided to ignore the slip up, instead saying simply, "Yeah, no problem." As he scooped up the leftovers.

He didn't fail to note that she was paying him back, either, because it was somewhat difficult to ignore other people putting their hands in his pockets. He considered arguing with her about repaying him, but decided against that, as well. Not worth the effort.

"So let's get this show on the road," He suggested, balancing the box on one arm and taking one last sip of his drink with his now free hand.

[Sloane Deveraux]

"And the ones that are, are horrible." Sloane rolled her eyes, although there was a tiny smile in the corner of her lips. It was actually pretty hard to keep an annoyed demeanour around Hart, it seemed and frankly Sloane didn't quite mind. Much.

"Well good on you. They deserve it." She shrugged. It was clear as day that Sloane did not put children in high regard. Her nieces and nephews were monsters. And she held every single child in the whole world to their standard.

Glad that Hart was willing to not mull over her awkward, Sloane stood up and followed Hart out of the restaurant. "Come let me hold that. You're going to spill everything on you walking like that." She extended her hand out to grab the pizza box.

"How much are you willing to bet Farley would chew us out for coming back late?"

[Hart Kenney]

"I'm not even taking bets on that." Hart grinned, rolling his eyes at Sloane. "That's a given even if we gave her a whole pizza in penance."

Farley was a harsh task mistress as far as he was concerned, but he didn't begrudge her that. She had a job to do and to few people to help her do it.

"What?" He glanced at the box balancing on his arm. "Naw, I won't spill it." He objected, though he allowed her to take the box regardless. "You have no faith in my pizza juggling abilities. I'm hurt."

He placed the now empty drink back on the table, rubbing his fingers against his very crumpled and greasy napkin before shoving his hands in his pockets and following Sloane out the door.

It wasn't, perhaps, the societal norm to follow a lady, but the view was nice and he was trying to be surreptitious about enjoying it.

He wasn't too keen on sexual harassment lawsuits just because he was caught admiring his knock-out coworker's backside, so it was best if she didn't know.

"So uhh we should do this again. Maybe we can even invite Charlie next time."

[Sloane Deveraux]

Sloane rolled her light green eyes right back at Hart and shrugged. "Yeah, I wouldn't bet on that either." She shook her head before chuckling almost audibly.

If Sloane knew Hart's stand on their boss, she would have fought him but Sloane was blissfully ignorant. She was content in the fact that she was the only one who hated Farley simply because the woman was too narrow minded.

"No, no I do not." Sloane teased Hart lightly and rolled her eyes at his 'hurt'. "Like I'm going to believe that."

Sloane could have just turned slightly to find her colleague checking her out but she remained unaware of his enjoyment, only turning to face him when he offered to do this...whatever this was, again.

"Um...yeah. Sure." She shrugged nonchalantly. At least Charlie and Hart could talk and Sloane could eat in peace. With background noise to keep her company. It was a good set up.

"We'll do this again some time." She nodded with a small smile.

[OOC: Wrap!]