Fic - Breakfast

[sl_walker]

Title: Breakfast
Rating: G
Universe: Home
Timeline: January 27th, 2006
Written: January 27th, 2006
Summary:  Mike and Scott (Summers) at Harry's Hideaway for breakfast.


The morning rush at Harry's Hideaway tended to make the place seem hectic, but it was an ordered sort of chaos. Scott had yet again rousted Mike at an unholy hour for breakfast, and again the two of them sat in one of the booths, drinking coffee and not doing much in the way of talking.

It was a comfortable place. And Mike enjoyed it to some degree -- it felt wonderfully normal, to go out to breakfast, even if it meant having to wake up a bit earlier than he would have cared to.

He used to go out with Joel like this, and it was much the same; find some roadside, non-chain place, have some breakfast, drink some coffee and not do much talking.

He didn't really have to talk too much to either of them, Scott or Joel, because there was an underlying current of understanding already in place. Admittedly, more with Joel, but Scott knew him too and he understood his counterpart, so it was comfortable. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

"What's chewing at you?" Scott asked, taking a sip of his coffee, having already finished eating.

Mike rubbed the back of his neck, not bothering to give Scott the 'stay out of my head' lecture. He knew that it wasn't really intentional, and it was more empathy than telepathy in this case anyway. "Just reflecting."

"About?"

"Everything."

Scott nodded, looking towards the bar and the old fellows hanging around bullshitting. After a moment, he asked, "So, what's the biggest?"

"Besides the obvious?"

"I meant, the biggest problem currently in this realm of reality."

Mike looked into his coffee mug, thoughtfully. He had a lot of things on his mind, slowly regaining that level of leadership he'd let go of in Florida. "I'm a little worried about Rick."

"Why?" Scott looked back across the table, raising an eyebrow above his ruby-quartz glasses.

"He's..." It took a moment for Mike to figure out what it was that's been troubling him, and Scott didn't push for a quick answer. After almost two whole minutes, the farmboy tried again. "He's upset. I don't exactly know why... maybe getting turned into a fox, but I feel like it's something bigger than that. And he's gotten..." another pause, as he thought, then he settled on, "...distant. Far away. We used to kinda be able to talk."

"Why can't you now?"

"It's hard."

Scott smiled a little bit, shaking his head. "You're so used to your team all being pretty open... but you can't expect that from everyone. Rick's not Joel or Kitty or Clay, he's Rick."

"But what do I do?" Mike looked up from his mug, eyebrows drawn. "Every time I try to start a conversation or offer some kinda olive branch, he just cuts me off. We're supposed to be *friends*."

It took him a short while to formulate his thoughts, but Scott finally said, "Try putting yourself in his shoes."

It was an almost funny thing. Empathy had always been one of Mike's better qualities. But he nodded anyway; maybe Rick was just too different from the others to 'get'. "I guess I can try that..."

"And talk. You didn't build that team in a day, Mike. Remember?"

Mike nodded. It was fast, but it did take a lot of talking, and some foot swallowing, and a whole Hell of a lot of pride swallowing. It was kind of hard to remember a time before they were all connected like that, but it did exist, even if it didn't feel like it.

Scott pulled his wallet out, standing. "Let me know how it goes."

"I will," Mike replied, standing himself and leaving a handsome tip on the table.

And with that, they headed home in silence.