In the well-over-ten years of living in the same space, Winn had never woken up after Elliot.
More importantly, she had never woken up to him making breakfast. To her knowledge, he didn’t even eat breakfast.
And yet, he was completely oblivious to her surprise as she walked in on him making pancakes.
“Ellie….buddy...love of my life…” Winn said as she slowly approached the kitchen, “Who died?”
Elliot spun around, placing a plate of pancakes in front of her at the kitchen bar, “No one died, why on earth would you assume such a thing.” He said nonchalantly, “These have blueberries in them and the others have chocolate chips, help yourself.”
Winn slowly reached for a blueberry pancake, “Uh...I don’t even know where to start with this.”
“Well, “Thank you for making breakfast, Elliot” is a great start.” He grinned, shoving a bite of a chocolate chip pancake in his mouth.
“I take it this is the relief from sexual tension?” She asked, tentatively awaiting details.
“No.” He corrected quickly, I wish, “I’m not going to push anything until I know Danny is ready.”
Winn stared at him.
“Pick your jaw up off the counter.” He said defensively, wary of his best friend’s eventual questioning.
“You’re waiting.” Winn repeated, “For sex.”
Elliot wondered if he should find her surprise offensive, “What?”
“This is...you’ve only attempted this one other time...you...you really like him!” Winn said, grinning, “I mean, I thought you did, but this is legit infatuation.”
“Don’t make this weird, Winn.” Elliot frowned, his face maddeningly hot, “I don’t need to be nauseated this early in the morning.”
“I didn’t make this weird, waking up to pancakes and showtunes made this weird.” Winn said, shoveling in another pancake, “So when’s the next date?”
“I don’t know, schedules are...uh...hard to predict.” Elliot said with a sigh.
“Yeah, duh. No kidding.” Winn staccatoed between bites of food, “That’s so gross though, you’re literally pining.”
Elliot blushed, “If you’re done here, I need to go to work.”
“Yeah,” Winn said, gesturing towards the pancakes, “I’ll clean this up, don’t worry about it.”
Elliot pulled off the apron he had put on over his clothes, walking over to place it in Winn’s lap before kissing her forehead, “See you, Winn.”
Winn shuddered, “Jesus, tell me the cheeseball shtick isn’t going to be a permanent thing.”
“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.” Elliot shrugged and headed out the door.
~
The Starlight Gazette was far from being even remotely similar to InfoBYTE aside from printing words online. Even the people, Elliot found, were better. More adjusted, more ambitious, more well-rounded.
It was almost intimidating.
Almost.
Had Elliot not arrived already on cloud nine, he would have probably felt overwhelmed. But the world was his oyster and he was happy.
It felt like he had never felt like that before.
At least, not in the same way.
Elliot shadowed several people over the course of his morning, learning more about the inner workings of the office political landscape than actual journalism, not that he minded.
It was about noon when Adam popped his vaguely-familiar-but-mostly-forgettable face into Elliot’s new cubicle.
“Mr. Edison, I trust you haven’t yet taken a lunch break?” Adam asked in his too-polite tone.
Elliot wanted to reach into his arsenal of mean nicknames, but opted not to for the purpose of job security, “Can I help you, Aaron?”
“It’s Adam.” He corrected, his voice sharp but the polite smile still plastered to his face, “And no. But you can help someone else.”
“Want to try not being cryptic, Ansel?” Elliot smirked, pushing himself away from his desk.
Adam straightened his posture in an obvious attempt to remain impersonal, “Mr. Astra has sent me to fetch you for lunch.”
“You’re phrasing implies I’m lunch.” Elliot said as he stood, “Semantics matter, Amanda. Especially here.”
“It’s Adam”, He corrected, disdain heavy in his voice, “And he requests your company, but if you prefer I tell him you’re unavailable-”
Elliot held up a hand to silence him, “Relax, I’d be more than happy to join him.”
Adam seemed to release a sigh of relief, “Right this way, then. There’s a car waiting outside for us.”
Elliot tried to stop himself from teasing the older man, but it was entirely too fun and too easy.
“Wait?” He asked, “Now? But I’m in the middle of something.”
Adam stared at him expressionlessly, “Mr. Edison, can we please just go?”
Elliot resigned himself, following Adam out and down to the car once he let his supervisors know where he was going.
A small part of him wanted to be a good employee.
A larger part of him wanted to let everyone know where he was going in case he ended up murdered in the next few hours.
The car pulled up in front of a cafe Elliot had never been able to afford, Adam shooting out quickly to round the car and open Elliot’s door.
“Wow, Agnes, you’re such a gentleman.” Elliot teased, patting Adam on the shoulder as he got out of the car.
His dress shirt and slacks felt incredibly under dressed as he stepped inside, Adam leading him to a table in the back.
He looked around as they walked, the french decor making the little part of his heart that was still shallow and pretentious sing out in joy.
It was immediately stopped as his gaze fell on the rather intimidating looking man in the corner booth.
He didn’t look much older than Elliot, from what he could tell, but the way he carried himself was as though he were a good twenty years older. The man had dark hair, loosely slicked back and piercingly green eyes that seemed almost...cat like.
His suit looked as though it cost more money than Elliot made in his life, finely tailored to his tall, angular build.
“Mr. Astra, I’ve brought your guest.” Adam said, gesturing for Elliot to sit.
The man smiled, “A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Edison.”
Mr. Astra held out his hand for Elliot to shake and he hesitated.
Okay, now I’m intimidated. Elliot thought as he cautiously shook the other man’s hand.
Elliot sat down, fully aware of how graceless his movements were, “I..It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. Astra.”
The man smiled with alarmingly perfect teeth, “No need to be nervous, Mr. Edison. May I call you Elliot?”
Okay, so I’m intimidated and about to be murdered.
I never got to tell Winn I loved her...and broke her record player.
“Y-Yeah, of course. Sure.” Elliot said through the overwhelming sensation of cotton in his mouth.
Mr. Astra turned a pointed gaze to Adam, “You may take your leave, now.”
Adam nodded, taking careful pains to glare at Elliot before heading out of the cafe.
“Order anything you’d like,” Mr. Astra purred, “It’s on me.”
Yeah, because this is my last meal.
Elliot awkwardly grabbed for the menu, “Uh...so...uh…” He struggled to find his words, “I...thank you. For the job, I mean.”
“Oh no, thank you.” He said with a smile, “Just adding you to our staff has already increased our daily viewership you know. People want to know Starlight City’s hero, and in turn they want to know his publicist.”
“I mean, I’m more his friend than his publicist.” Elliot flushed, “But that’s insane... Still, you got me out of InfoBYTE, I owe you my life.”
Mr. Astra laughed, “I can’t look at that website more than five minutes at a time without feeling my IQ drop.”
Elliot tried not to laugh, “Yeah, working there wasn’t too much fun.”
There was a lull in conversation, Mr. Astra pausing to wave over a waitress and order wine.
“So,” Astra paused as the waitress poured his wine, “You must be wondering why the sudden meeting.”
No fucking shit, “I mean, kind of.”
Astra smiled widely, taking a sip from his glass, “There’s an official unveiling tomorrow of our new building, Astra’s, not the Gazette of course, and I was wondering if you and your...friend could attend.”
Elliot felt a discomforting pulling at the center of his chest, “Like a groundbreaking thing? Why would he need to attend that?”
“I mean, he’s the hero of Starlight City, he’s sort of the best celebrity I can invite, don’t you think?” Mr. Astra asked with a dry laugh, “I understand if you can’t ask him to come. It doesn’t hurt your employment at the gazette.”
Elliot breathed a sigh of relief.
“Yet.” Mr. Astra added, shifting in his seat, “One may begin asking if you’re worth our time if you can only show off once. What’s the term? One-hit wonder?”
“I can get him to come.” Elliot said all too quickly, “He’ll come...I mean.”
Mr. Astra smiled, his gaze burrowing into Elliot’s skull, “Good.”
Elliot wasn’t sure what was happening, but he had the sinking suspicion he may have bitten off far more than he could chew.
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