Fourth Floor Common Room, Saturday Evening

[futureclone]

Now that they were in the dorms, Some Random Campfire was no longer a reliable source of sustenance, and this time period was woefully lacking in synthetron technology. So Alex had wandered around his floor until he came to the common room, with its kitchen, where he'd poked through the cabinets until he found something that would require no actual skill on his part to allow it to be consumed, and that did not contain chocolate. He didn't particularly care for chocolate, he'd found.

One bite of the Cheetos and he was hooked. Anyone entering the room would find Alex on the couch, guarding the Cheeto bag jealously, his fingers liberally covered with the Cheetos' pernicious orange coating.

Just no one tell him chocolate chip cookies probably have better nutritional value. He might cry.

Comments

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Whatever happened to junk food being bad for you?" asked Jen teasingly.

This, from the girl holding a jumbo-sized greasy pizza box, yes.

[futureclone]

"This isn't junk food!" Alex protested. "It's...something with cheese. Cheese is good for you, it's dairy. Right?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't real cheese, but on the other hand the opportunity to see Alex looking all deer-in-the-headlights was so rare, she just grinned enigmatically. "Maaaaaaaaaaybe."

[futureclone]

Alex looked at her warily. "Do you know something I don't know?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

She totally wouldn't have done this to him a couple of years ago. She blamed Wes -- her Wes -- for being a bad influence.

"I know that cheese is dairy, so no," she hedged. "But you do realize nothing that comes in a bag like that is strictly health food?"

[futureclone]

Alex eyed the bag. It was kind of...bright. But practically everything in the cupboards had looked like that. "What's wrong with it?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen made a twirling gesture with her index finger but didn't quite have the heart to tell him to look at the ingredient list herself.

"Nothing's wrong with it. It's just not exactly what I expected you to eat. I mean, it's so orange."

[futureclone]

"I like orange," Alex said. "Orange is close to red, y'know?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen laughed and walked into the common room to perch on the arm of the couch. "Okay, there is that." She held out the box. "You want any pizza to go with those?"

[futureclone]

Alex eyed the pizza box warily. "What's in it?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"You're eating those Cheetos like you're starving, and that's not a healthy complete meal. So now I get to introduce you to pizza," Jen said, opening the box and glad she'd gone for something basic tonight. "It's . . . bread, tomato sauce, and cheese." Cheese that wasn't orange, but she didn't mention that out loud.

[futureclone]

Alex reached out to take a slice of pizza. "That doesn't sound so bad...you know, nutritionally."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Oh, Alex," Jen mock-chided. "Just try it and don't worry about the nutritional value for once?"

Well. Twice if you counted the Cheetos, but still not pointing that out . . .

[futureclone]

Bread, tomato sauce, and cheese. Couldn't be that bad...

...and it wasn't. OMG.

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Boy, was Jen ever going to treasure that look on his face forever. "Told you," she said, and just barely resisted the urge to nudge his shoulder.

[futureclone]

Alex grinned up at her. "I should remember to trust you."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Of course you should," Jen said. "I am, of course, completely trustworthy."

You know, if you didn't count putting her in charge of transporting the world's most notorious 31st-century criminal to prison.

[futureclone]

Or of not breaking time. Not that Alex knew that, either. He grinned at her. "Aim could use a little work, though, right?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Flail.

"I was sort of hoping you wouldn't notice that," Jen tried to joke.

[futureclone]

"I'm sure you're better now," Alex said. "I mean, it's been a few years, right?"

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Well, yeah. I wouldn't be able to stay in the Academy if I didn't improve, right?" asked Jen. She didn't even want to risk thanking him for the help. That sucked.

[futureclone]

"All you needed was some practice," Alex said confidently. "I bet you're going to be a really great Time Force officer one day."

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen smiled warmly at him -- maybe partly because it had been a long time since she'd heard him compliment her skills instead of critiquing them . . . a bit too harshly.

Shame about that whole breaking time thing, really.

"Thanks, Alex. I'm still not quite as good as you, but I'm working on it."