Sweet and Sour (Part Three)

Posted on 29 Apr 2013 @ 8:20pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho
Edited on on 29 Apr 2013 @ 8:21pm

2,278 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 2, Panne's Quarters
Timeline: MD04: 1940 hours

[Continued]

"I see," That was interesting but she knew so little about it Kiri really didn't know what else to ask. She wasn't even really aware that wines had much in the ways of types or flavours other than white and red. Taking another sip she closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again she still didn't know what else to say. What sort of questions would Maenad feel comfortable answering?

Maenad quietly sighed through her nose as she listened to the music. She couldn't recall exactly which piece was playing, but she knew that it was one of Chopin's Impromptus. She wondered what time it was as she stared at the flickering candle and its wax dripping down the side.

Kiri started to worry, was she being boring because of that sigh. Taking note of the music she tried to think hard. What things could she think of, dancing? Not really, she couldn't dance, or sing to this music. Tell a story, um, ask a question, what topics did Maenad like really? Looking rather frantic she shook slightly, "Um, do you, no. Do you have a house on Earth?"

"I do," she smiled. "I have one in the Pacific Palisades and one in Nantes. I miss being able to go outside at night and swimming in the pool." Maenad seemed to fade off into memory. "Do you live with parents in China?"

"I did, I'm not sure now," Given everything that had happened and being so far away making conversations difficult. Sarah had started living with her parents, there was only two real bedrooms in the house. The other was her mother's studio where sometimes guests would sleep. With Sarah in her room, Kiri didn't have a space to call her own, even if it was still home.

"You aren't sure where you live?" Maenad didn't understand.

"I have a sister now, there are only two bedrooms at my parents house though so she would have my room," Kiri looked slightly uncomfortable, but her room on the ship was almost as big as her parents house anyway. It was selfish to want her own room at home as well.

"Oh," Maenad nodded. "Well, you are grown up now," she offered. "Do you think you will get a home of your own, some day?"

"I, suppose I should, I haven't really thought about it before," She didn't really fit in her village any more. Kiri was used to advanced technology and didn't want to be a farmer or any of those things. Yet she didn't feel as if she fitted in anywhere else, but where?

That puzzled her. Maenad could not imagine living with her parents. When she was young she was sent to boarding school in Canada, on the other side of the ocean, and in a culture she had never experienced. She hated being sent away and for years longed to return. But once she had gotten used to it, Maenad found that she could never live with her parents again. Visits were enough for her, even though she loved them dearly. She didn't love anyone more than she loved her mother and father. "Really?" she asked. "When you were at the Academy, you never thought of living on your own?"

"No?" She'd been focused on work and her thoughts had been on what she was going to be as an officer, not a person. Despite her travels, she didn't really know much about any place other than where she grew up. She'd been to the Canadian wilds, Gobi desert, San Francisco, Paris, Mars, but inside buildings or nothing cultural at least. She had no idea what they were actually like.

Maenad didn't understand how someone who was twenty-two years old could never have once considered in their entire life what it would be like to live on their own. Maenad herself was a bit unconventional at Kiri's age, but no so much that she never thought about maturing into an adult. Despite Kiri's initial display of more confidence than usual, she was seeming very childish. Maenad shrugged and poured herself another glass of wine.

Kiri was childish, in a lot of ways. From how she saw friendships and relationships and to what life was actually about. How she wanted to have fun and enjoy things was childish, though she didn't feel she could ever express that. There was silence again and given her questioning answer before, Kiri felt she had done something wrong again. She had to think of something fast, "Um," Anything, "Maybe, somewhere on Atlantis?" It was starting to be habitable, though it was mostly a construction site still. She'd read about it, it was a place, that was it.

Atlantis. That was probably one of the most isolated places a person like Kiri could go, or any humanoid really. Maenad frowned, trying not to smirk at the sheer absurdity. Hadn't Kiri said that she wanted to meet people? She wanted to flower into a better person, find love, discover her Trill heritage, and become more confident. Maenad couldn't see how living in a biosphere on an ocean world, weeks away from the nearest Federation-like planet, with an extremely alien species could help stimulate any of that. "That seems unlikely," she laughed quietly. "What would you do there?"

"I don't know," Kiri bit on her lip, "I'm not really sure how it is different from other places on Earth." It was going to be a new continent at some point and it would have Atlantic weather, so sometimes nice sometimes wet. It would be a place where everyone else was new at least, no one had any history. If she had a house, Kiri had no idea what to do with it.

"Then why go there?" asked Maenad. "There must be some reason you want to go there."

"I just," Kiri looked rather ashamed, "I don't really want to, it's just a place."

Maenad was no really confused, but she hid her feelings by rising to put the bottle of wine back in the cabinet. Kiri didn't really want to live on Atlantis, but she brought it up before anywhere else as an idea of somewhere to live? Maenad had to crouch to put the wine back, she smiled to herself with her back turned. When she turned back around, she saw that Kiri had barely touched her second helping. It was probably getting cold, she thought. "Are you full?" she asked. "Can I get you anything else? Desert?"

However much she tried trying to talk while she ate was hard to remember. Taking note of were Maenad was looking Kiri quickly arranged another fork full, "Sorry, I," She'd already brought that up once. Taking a bite she started on another, there wasn't that much left and it wasn't that cold. Letting Maenad finish with the wine she polished off what was left surprisingly quickly, "Desert might be nice." Despite her size today Kiri had an apatite, something she didn't normally have a lot of.

"What would you like?" asked Maenad from the kitchen.

Pausing for a moment Kiri tried to get her head around the fact that she wasn't really asking for much whatever she asked for, "Um, lemon cheesecake?" That was one of her favourites, though it was made almost completely of sugar and fat.

Maenad went to the replicator and got her a piece of lemon cheesecake. She replicated one for herself too, even though it wouldn't have been a first choice for herself and got rid of the dishes.

She sat back at the table, smiled, and cut into her cake. Maenad couldn't remember if she had asked what Kiri was dong that night. At the risk of repeating herself, she decided not to ask. "Do you..." she was about to ask if Kiri played an instrument, but answered the question herself. No. She did not. "What have been up to lately on your off-hours?" she decided to ask instead.

"Other than talking to Kohl and Dawn, exercising, um, and reviewing the sensor scans, I've been reading," She'd already said about those, the other things were a little private, "As well as developing some programs, for me." Very carefully she cut through the cheese and tried very hard to cut rather than break the base with the side of her fork.

"Ah," Maenad nodded as she forked a piece of cake into her mouth. "I see," she said.

Kiri had sort of hoped that Maenad would have asked about them, but she wasn't interested it seemed. Reaching the plate she had cut herself a perfect little triangle and slipped it onto her fork, "Are you doing anything else this evening?"

"Going to bed," Maenad replied. She was still sore and exhausted from the mission that morning. She ate another piece of cheesecake, finding it a bit too sweet.

"Oh," It seemed rather shape to her, was she being a pain? It seemed that way. It felt like the Maenad that was here wasn't the same as the one she'd been with at other meals but she didn't know what to do. It frustrated her that she didn't understand, worried her that she might be annoying. All she could do was be quiet, unable to figure it out.

Maenad poked at her cake with the fork and suddenly jarred as a sharp pain went through her shoulder. It went down her back right into her tailbone and up her spine into the back of her head. She let go of the fork, clanging it against the plate. She opened her mouth and jerked her head to one side, but she made barely a sound. Despite her best efforts to hide what had happened to her that morning the suppression could last no more. She held her breath, her eyes closed, as she waited for it to subside. After about ten seconds, her raised shoulders sunk and she deflated through her nostrils. She gave the impression of giving up, but the anguish was still very much there. She opened her eyes and looked at Kiri sympathetically.

"I'm sorry," she breathed. She couldn't remember whether she had told Kiri about the shuttle, or about the way the captain had scolded her for surviving. Maenad didn't like appearing weak and feeble despite knowing that everyone in the universe knew it. She put her elbow on the table and leaned into her hand, covering her eyes. Her bangs covered her fingers. She felt terrible. She was not herself anymore; the day had gone horribly. She hated her captain, and she hated herself. She was in pain. She had almost died. She should have died. She wished she had. And she felt horribly guilty for inviting Kiri over for the dinner she was so looking forward to; what kind of company had she been? Rotten. Maenad's eyes began to sting. She was going to cry, which angered her even more.

Even Kiri could pick up on the emotions in the room. Her first instinct was to run away, the second to cry herself, neither of those seemed even remotely useful. The third was based on her recent experiences, how people had been acting towards her in similar situations, sort of. Her chair staggered against the carpet as she stood, fork clattering to her plate, moving quickly round the table. The angle was awkward but for once Kiri didn't hesitate about invading someone else's personal space. Lightly placing her arms around Maenad's shoulders while she sat with her head in her hands. Without a word Kiri felt like crying herself, she wasn't used to other people being sad, she didn't have a clue what to say.

Maenad didn't move when Kiri wrapped her arms around her. In a way, it only made her feel worse. She was supposed to be her superior. She wasn't supposed to show weakness. She wasn't supposed to show her problems. She was off duty, but emotionally she was supposed to always be on duty. She wanted to tell her that she hated Lirha; she wanted to tell her the details of the crash, how Lamar had treated her like a child and how she let him do it, how she was uncomfortable when he put his hands on her. After a minute, she took her hands away and wiped her eyes with the top of wrists. She put them on Kiri's tiny hands and gave them a gentle squeeze. "Thank you," she said with an embarrassed smile. "I'm sorry," she turned her head to look at Kiri.

Kiri wavered on the spot for a moment. She didn't really realise what she had done, nor how close she was to tears herself. Being around sad people made her very sad, so sad eyes met sad eyes. Kiri didn't know what to say, what to do. A mournful smile crossed her own lips, "I'm sorry, for being abrupt." Squeezing back the girl stayed still not knowing what to do, "I, just, do you, what is wrong?"

"I just had a bad day," Maenad said, wiping at her eyes one more time. She sat up and got up very stiffly, then made her way to the kitchen with the empty plates. "I'm still sore from the crash, which did not go over well by the captain," she sighed. She couldn't tell Kiri any more, even though she wanted to. "I am fine," she lied. "I just need a night's rest and I will be all right."


[TBC]

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Lieutenant (JG) Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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