Utopia

Percy watched from nearby as he watched Mary beginning to swing on the swing-set. He smiled as he remembered to back when the girl would have him push her high-up, but in the last couple of years she didn't really need his help anymore. They grew up so fast, raising a child had been a big surprise for Percy, but he honestly regretted nothing about the time he spent with Mary and Simon.

"We can go get a snack if you want." Simon suggested, motioning to a cafe nearby. He hated to admit it but with age he'd become addicted to coffee.

Charmaine noticed Mary run towards the swings. She'd never met any other kids that were around her age. The spirit leaped into her arms and she approached the girl, smiling.

Elena smiled, nodding. "That would be nice, yeah," she responded, readjusting the hat on her head. "Do you have any money on you?" she asked, pulling out her wallet. "Never mind, it's on me. I've got enough." Simon was always doing a lot for her, so buying him coffee was the least she could do.

Simon fished out his wallet around the same time as Elena. "It isn't any trouble."

Percival whenever he said it was okay for Elena to pay for somethign gave him this funny look, even if the man wasn't hear he still felt a bit of a nagging presence.

Elena raised an eye brow, yanking Simon's wallet out of his hands and putting it back in his pocket. "I'll pay," she repeated a bit more forcefully. "It's a thank you." She then smiled at Simon, grabbing his hand and pulling him over to the cafe.

Simon felt slightly scared at the force of Elena's reply but didn't argue anymore, holding on to the woman's hand as they walked into the cafe. It felt much warmer within the shop then outside, and there were nice smells wafting throughout.

Elena smiled widely as they entered the cafe, the smells only serving to make her even hungrier. She looked back at Simon, a frown slowly forming on her face. "Do you think it'll be bad if I order?" she asked uneasily.

Simon blinked, taking a moment to understand Elena's fear. With her Flow she was a fraid of ordering the person behind the counter, literally.

"You'll be okay." The man assured her, giving her hand a squeeze as they were still joined before letting hers go.

"R-Right..." Elena trailed off, fidgeting anxiously. She figured it was just hard for Simon to understand. "Um, I'm guessing you just want a coffee?" she asked, having eaten enough with Simon to know about his coffee addiction.

Simon nodded. "Um, Hazelnut please. Medium."

The man looked a little sheepish at giving Elena his order.

Elena nodded, walking up to the counter to place their order. She really didn't like talking to other people anymore, but she wasn't about to Null her Flow. It could be used for self-protection, and then she wouldn't have to use violence. Someone had to protect her and Simon, and it minds as well be Elena herself.

After a few minutes, Elena came back to Simon, handing him his coffee and hanging on to the muffin that she had bought for herself. "I guess that went okay..." she mumbled, though she looked rather shaken, having caught herself almost ordering him quite a few times.

"See? You just need some practice and you won't have to worry about your Flow in a normal conversation." Simon took his coffee and smiled at her. Then he lifted the lid and blowing the steam that came off the top.

Elena nodded, taking a bite of her muffin. She had been trying to practice, but that didn't make the ordeal any less terrifying. There was a short moment of awkward silence, as she looked around the room. "Where do you want to sit?"

"Hmm..." Simon looked around. "Why not those two armchairs by the window? We can look outside while we eat."

The man took a sip from his coffee, though it was still hot and caused a burn on his tongue. "Hot hot hot!"

Elena laughed when Simon started shouting, breaking off a bit if her muffin and handing it to Simon. "Here, maybe this will help," she snickered, before sitting down in one of the arm chairs. One would think that Simon would have built up a resistance to hot liquids after all the coffee he drank.

Simon took the muffin piece and shoved it into his mouth, letting the dough soak up any remaining burn along his tongue.

"Thanks." He muffled out with his mouth full, chewing a bit and swallowing before he responded. "No matter what it always seems to get to me. Mary can drink hot chocolate straight out of the pan no problem... maybe my tongue has low pain tolerance with heat."

"Maybe," Elena responded, sitting cross legged in her chair and taking off her hat, her curls almost instantly flying everywhere. She took a bite if her muffin, frowning slightly, and glancing over at Simon. "So...what was the chatter in the background about...?"

Simon's face quickly turned a shade of red, but he brought his face out of direct view by looking down at the coffee cup. "You know, just some usual stuff... Mary doing silly things..."

"...R-Right," Elena responded, almost feeling a little upset. It was kind of expected that he wouldn't want to talk to her about it if he didn't share her feelings. "I just...wanted to make sure." She stared at her muffin again, hesitantly taking another bite. She should have gotten blueberry instead if cranberry.

Simon looked up, though he was surprised at the look Elena had on her face now. She seemed kind of sad. "Hey,"

The man reached over and patted down a couple of stray curls from Elena's head. "Everything okay?"

Elena's face slowly became redder and redder, before she shrugged, pushing a smile onto her face, and looking over at Simon. "Yeah, everything is f-fine," she reassured him weakly. Stupid, stupid Simon. If he didn't like her like thst, she wished he wouldn't keep touching her.

"What, was it that warm in prison?" Russell asked curiously, starting his car smoothly. It drove well enough that it was obvious that it had been made after the Great Storm. There were still a few relics that been salvaged from before people had Flows, in fact the split between them was about fifty-fifty, albeit only when you took the city as a whole. There were few new cars in the outer city, the cost far more than an average person could afford.

"Figured they wouldn't exactly be generous with the heating in there. It's only going to get colder in the next few weeks, fair warning. Might want to wrap up," he advised, faintly amused.

He had heard that some of the prison guards were needlessly sadistic. He had also heard that the inmates were much more so, but there was a split between real criminals and those who had been put in for misusing Flow but who were more or less average people on the wrong side of the law. He was pretty impressd she had managed to come out the other side of a three-year sentence seeming pretty much unchanged.

------


"Waking up, haha," Luke chuckled cheerily, bouncing off the wall and stretching his arms up. She looked severely abashed, leading him to wonder if he'd done anything wrong. It had been nice to get a normal conversation in with two normal people, non-work-related. He almost felt bad leaving her in a worse mood than she had started the conversation in, but he figured that since she wanted to go it was all good.

"Anyway, it was real nice talkin' to you. Adios, have a good day," the blond-haired man waved goodbye, turning on his heel and making his way back to his home down the street. The bubble of warmth he had created retracted back into his body as he left, getting him an odd look from people he walked past that felt the heat radiating from his body.

Simon didn't understand the tone in Elena's voice when he touched her hair. Back when they were small wasn't she the one who always wanted hugs? He remembered a good couple of time when Erika would carrying, even if she was too big to be carried anymore.

"Okay." The black haired man went back to focusing on his drink.

"It was warmer than this," Heidi answered stiffly, rubbing her ears. "Plus, last winter I was out, I still had hair covering my ears. Got it cut off for summer and didn't change it when I got canned." She glanced over at him, frowning slightly, before pulling up her hood. Government people gave her the jitters, she was probably only civil with this guy because he reminded her of Tom. "Got it. I'll jack some clothes from Percy," she continued a bit distractedly, turning her gaze back to the window.

---

Elena stared at her muffin, taking a few more half-hearted bites out of it, before holding it out to Simon. "Not hungry anymore," she sighed, feeling another bad mood coming on. Just great. "Do you want it?" People were so much harder to deal with when you had to constantly think about whether you accidentally ordered them around.