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who: Alex Reagan and hopefully you!
what: An open log. There's a couple open prompts but if they don't work just add your own! And don't worry about styles. I'll match em.
when: The month of August.
where: Anywhere you want her to be that's not the mingle, honestly!
warnings: Not that I can think of at the moment.

I.

Despite everything else in her life, Alex Reagan happened to be someone who was a person of habit, and so where she could be found just happened to be habit as well. So, all too often Alex found herself working at The Coffee Shop rather than her office with the substandard coffee and the annoying interns. She was there almost every day with at least one empty cup in front of her, one full one and some sort of pastries there for anyone who might happen to want to stop by and visit, or for anyone whom she had a lunch date with. The table itself was largely taken up with two books and a notebook, along with her phone from home. She inevitably had one of the books open, even though both of them were on the same lines of things, even if vastly different.

Alex would either be reading from a book on learning Spanish and copying what she was learning into the notebook in small and frantic writing, as if her hand couldn't keep up with her brain, because well... That's basically what happened, even in things like this. Still, she was making a real effort to do it, and the book was deeply into, as Alex was hitting the harder parts of the beginner's section and there were lists of words that went along with it.

The second book is much older and still somehow less well-loved than the first one, and Alex had found it in the back of the library shelves. Despite having taken it out days ago, she was still dealing with the beginning pages of it, and if there was something that was guaranteed that would make her grumble, it was this. But still, she was determined to try and teach herself how to read Cruciform even if it killed her, which at this point it honestly just might do. So when someone came up to her, she was all too ready to sit either of them aside, and greeting the other person with a grin, especially if it was someone who she expected.

ii

The other way in which Alex was a creature of habit came with her walking her dog in the afternoon. Alex's pitbull was large and gray and more than a little friendly, which probably made sense considering Alex Reagan was his owner. Her mornings were normally running and rowing, but afternoon walks were more slow and leisurely and normally made by herself. Well, by herself as well as her playing Pokemon Go, even if no one else was. So, yes, she's walking her dog but she's also got her device out to let her know when there just happens to be a pokemon or two in the area that she's walking in.

Normally she collects one or two, and fights at a gym or so, and then goes about her business and comes home. Not today though. Today, Alex just stopped so suddenly that Apo's leash actually snapped taunt for a moment before the gray dog came back to see her, and Alex is just staring at her phone for a second. The dumbed silence only lasts for a second or two before Alex just yells like the child who she can come times be: "Oh my god! It's a Pikachu! It's a Pikachu!" Then without a preamble other than that, Alex just takes off after it, a giant grin on her face. She's never caught one before.

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Alex was hurting. There was no doubt about that. She's been trying to hide it, which is something new for her, but given everything else in the house, it makes the most sense to. More than that, it makes sense to given everything that's going on. But she didn't sleep the night before, and she's definitely not sleeping after her conversation with Rey, so Alex is going down to the kitchen to the one thing that might just comfort her right now. If nothing else, it would make her feel less like a zombie than she does at the moment.

So, it's very late when Alex slips into the kitchen and turns on the light, filling up the electric kettle so that she can make coffee in the french press. Leaning against the counter, she just buries her face in her hands and waits for it to boil.

Simon is nearby when she is in the kitchen, still in the shadows while she's working on making coffee. He watches her body language with a certain sense of frustration and anger. It's some amount of self-control that he isn't lashing out at the person who is definitely at fault for making Alex hurt -- he'd always known Strand was a danger in more ways than one. This is just the proof in the pudding.

"It's too late for coffee, Alex."

When he spoke, Alex jumped. She couldn't help it. Even after the month of having him live there (and the two of having Stan) Alex still expected to be alone in the middle of the night. It's left over from both being in her apartment and from being here too and living in communal housing. Besides, Alex is an adult, and she shouldn't need to feel like she's doing anything wrong making coffee in the middle of the night. (Even if Simon is right and it's too late for coffee.) "Jesus," her voice is a soft hiss, and she just placed a hand against her chest for a minute. "You scared the hell out of me, Simon."

There's a beat and she lowered her hands to rest them on the counter behind her as she looked at him. "It's never too late for coffee for me. But what are you doing up this late?"

Simon doesn't react much to the comment of how he'd scared her. This time maybe she deserved it a little bit for making coffee so late... or something. He didn't really think that seriously but he doesn't really know how to not be scary or creepy. He's not exactly trying to be so.

"Don't change the subject. You should making something to help you sleep not something to make it harder to sleep."

Chamomile tea anyone?

Alex would argue that Simon was the growing kid, and he needed the sleep more than she did, if he actually truly got on her case about it, but for right now, she's just going to let out a huffy and offended sigh, before she crossed her arms over her chest and met his intense gaze without blinking. After living with him for so long now, he didn't actually intimidate her anymore. At least when it came to herself. She'd gotten pretty used to the whole creepiness thing, honestly. So it probably says something that she doesn't find him creepy beyond the whole thinking herself to be alone but not actually being alone thing. Which meant that anyone would have freaked her out, even if it had been Richard.

But she's still going to roll her eyes at the mention of something that she 'should' be making rather than something that she was. "I've never been very good at doing things that people tell me I should be doing, Simon." Her eyes met his with a raised brow, because honestly, shouldn't he know that better than anyone. Besides, "I don't like chamomile tea. I drank too much of it." Last time she had those severe bouts of insomnia. She's not going to mention that she did actually take one of the pills that Victor had prescribed for her, but they hadn't exactly worked. So coffee it was.

Simon knows that Alex is difficult but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t try — however, he also is better at manipulating her if he’s really trying which he’s not. In the end, this isn’t really all that important even if it’s a tell-tale worry signal that’s being shot up like a flare for him to see. It’s not serious enough to press her too hard or to try too much to deter her. At least with any serious measures.

“Well, if you’re having coffee then so am I, Alex,” Simon says with a small smile and he’s actually not sure if it’s something she would protest or not. He doesn’t really want coffee but he’s not sleeping anyway and coffee wouldn’t keep him awake if he wanted to sleep either.

Alex just frowned at him for a moment and she shook her head. "I don't think I've ever seen you drink coffee before, Simon. And it's definitely not the time to start drinking it at three in the morning." Alex is just going to meet his eyes and wait for the coffee to be finished for a second.

But it's only a second before she just reached for the bread and the peanut butter and the jelly and then moved to sit down at the table and began making two sandwiches one for him and one for her. She wasn't going to give him coffee, but she'd definitely feed him if he wanted it.

Or if he doesn't want it, let's be honest, it's Alex.

Simon studies her unwaveringly. "If you can drink coffee at 3AM then so can I, Alex," Simon counters because that's enough of an argument for him and can she really stop him, though?

He can't really stop her from making a sandwich for him but it's questionable whether he'll eat it or not.

In response Alex is just going to scowl at him, but she adds the extra scoops of coffee anyway. It doesn't seem like a good idea to give Simon caffeine, but he was also an adult and she wasn't his mother so if he wanted coffee, then she supposed he could have some.

Letting the grounds steep, Alex just asked him: "so how do you take it?" Avoiding talking about the bigger picture and why her eyes are red and her face is puffy? You bet.

Simon might be a little pleased that he'd won the little argument, though, he would have rather she not drink coffee and go to sleep.

Simon lifts his shoulders. "Black?"

Why not.

Okay that definitely earns him a very broad frown and she gets up and grabs milk and sugar anyway. "You seriously haven't had coffee before have you? You definitely don't want to start by drinking it black. That's something you need to work up too. My parents thought they could break me of it by making me drink black coffee and it worked for a few months before I discovered it with cream and sugar." The words come with a little bit of a smile before she settles back into the chair and settles both in front of her.

Honestly, she probably should have let him do it the other way, but she tries not to be an asshole to people she cares about, even when they're angry with her.

"I'm sure plenty of people start drinking their coffee black," Simon counters but he doesn't argue with her as she grabs the items. He doesn't really care how he takes his coffee after all. It's not really about enjoying it that he's drinking it anyway.

"Why can't you sleep?"

When the timer on the french press is done, Alex pours it into two cups, and then adds her normal about of cream and sugar to her own. To his, she adds enough that the coffee most like resembles coffee ice cream more than the actual beverage. All the while she does this, including putting it in front of Simon, Alex is silent, letting the question way.

It's on the tip of her tongue to say something angry and spiteful, something like 'you know why I can't sleep.' With the knocking and the demons and the seeing further in the dark. But what she settles on with a little shrug is, "I'm not used to sleeping alone anymore." There, simple and easy.

Simon is quiet and he can feel the accusation in the silence. But he doesn't feel sorry about it. There had been a reason for everything he had done and it had all been to try and protect Alex, to prepare her and help her. He couldn't control the side effects that it had but to have not done anything would have been worse.

He doesn't take a drink even as the coffee is sat in front of him.

"Where is Strand?"

The coffee is joined by a diagonally cut sandwich on a napkin rather than a plate, because honestly fuck doing dishes at this point. That's the last thing that Alex wants to be doing. No, scratch that. That's the second thing she wants to be doing. The last thing that she wants to be doing is what she needs to do right now and she sighed softly before she wrapped her fingers around the cup as if it were a sort of lifeline to something other than this.

Keeping her voice neutral, Alex just spoke softly. "I imagine he's at his office. He and I we had a fight last night." So two nights with no sleep. This is Alex, it's normal and everything's fine. Don't you see that everything's fine smile on her face, Simon?

Simon frowns at the information and he's not particularly interested in the food or the coffee, though he should be.

"What did you fight about, Alex?" Simon asks, his eyes dark at the idea of Strand doing anything to hurt Alex.

Now that the two of them saw each other so often, Alex felt like she was getting to know some of his tells, and she could definitely see that look in Simon's eyes and she just shook her head in response. "It wasn't his fault, it was mine. Before he arrived here, I told some people about him. About the show. And you know how he values his privacy. So something happened with someone who knew about it attacking him and he got upset and left." A pause and Alex just dragged her hand across her face because honestly, the fight was happening on so many different levels it seemed like she barely even knew what it was that the two of them were actually fighting about. But this started it, so this was what she was going with.

That said, she does add: "he'll be back. He needs time to cool off." Away from her of course.

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