Frosted Cupcakes

Posted on Tue May 5th, 2020 @ 12:59pm by Lieutenant Gunnar Arnason & Consul Briya Valriya

3,707 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: What Lies Ahead, Between, and Behind
Location: Crepe Cafe, Haumea Colony
Timeline: following 'Setting a Date'

Gunnar had arrived to the shop early, hoping to find a table somewhat out of the way of anyone who decided to drop in to watch. But as he entered he saw he was already too late. Lizza was with Jeanine at the table he'd hoped to claim in the back corner, two other tables likewise showed familiar faces and the one front and center was occupied by MacGuire, who lifted a cup of tea with the sort of smile and short nod that was acknowledgement but not invitation.

He was almost tempted to sit down with the doctor anyway, but decided that particular third wheel would only make matters worse. The table furthest from all of them was the one right in the cafe window - a bit more on display than he'd wanted, but it was still cold out so not that many people were out strolling. Taking a seat, he selected a dark roast from the menu - the place did have good coffee - and opened his PaDD to read just as he would if he were expecting to be there alone.

Before too many private messages could be exchanged between Lizza and MacQuire’s table, Briya Valriya arrived. She had not come past the cafe window to walk in through the front door - since she was already on scene. She slipped out from behind the counter bearing a tray laden with confectionery delights and donning a pink apron with the caption: Eat My Frosting. Her short hair was pinned back behind her ears and there was a perfectly placed smear of white flour dabbed across her left cheek. “Have you tried the stuffed cupcake,” she asked Gunnar as she came up to his table and presented her treats. “They poke a little nozzle straight up the bottom and squirt frosting right inside the cupcake.”

Gunnar looked up, surprised, and then compressed his lips against reaction to her description. That was... innuendo worthy of Divash. He might have laughed out loud, but the chorus of snickers from nearby tables reminded him of the 'audience'. He was going to be hearing references to cupcakes for weeks, if not months...

"I have tried them, but I admit I have never heard the process of making them explained in quite that way," he responded, trying for deadpan, but lost it at the end. "Please, have a seat," he chuckled, shaking his head as he gestured toward the chair opposite. "How long have you been planning that entrance?"

“How long indeed?” She stepped in close to him - as she was given to do - and turned her backside to Gunnar. She cast him a stern look over her shoulder as she feigned effort at untying the knot behind her. “Would you please loosen me up? Or must I wait weeks for that as well?”

More amused sounds came from the peanut gallery as Gunnar found her well-defined behind centimeters from his nose. Though Lizza muttered something under her breath about 'serving him right' at the remonstration.

"No. Sorry," he apologized, lifting his hands to untie the apron (which set off some titters from people viewing from certain angles).

“Thank you, Gunnar.” Briya slipped the apron’s strap over her head and removed it, carefully laying it across the table. Despite the baking she’d done in the kitchen - and she had actually baked these cupcakes - Briya had not given up her usual choice in attire and still looked as put together as ever in her high waisted charcoal grey double-faced wool skirt suit. Her heels made just as much noise as ever as she pulled out the offered seat before sliding it around closer to Gunnar’s side. “A diplomat would do well to pin down her table’s counterpart when they’ve shown a tendency towards evasive maneuvering. So, which of these shall we enjoy together first?”

"I really wasn't trying to be evasive. I didn't want to set anything up until you'd recovered, and then I got a bit overwhelmed with the new CMO leaving so suddenly," he explained. Taking the opening to shift focus to the cupcakes, he looked over the selection. "Personally, I'm partial to mocha, or fruit and dark chocolate." He reached for a knife. "Should I cut them in half, or do you prefer smaller slices?"

“I leave that up to you. I believe our agreement was that I’d try whatever you fed to me. More or less. My flu-rattled mind may have forgotten one or two of the stipulations during my prolonged loneliness. Start with this one,” she pointed towards a particularly brown morsel then deftly laid her fingers atop Gunnar’s knife-wielding hand. “We will cut it together, so there can be no need for apologies or explanations later.”

Holding his hand while cutting the cupcake felt perhaps a little more intimate than he'd expected, but on the other hand, she hadn't tried to finger feed him or anything that would be equally embarrassing in public. "As you wish, ma'am," Gunnar replied, gliding the knife through the middle of the cupcake. The filling blossomed along the cut, exposing gooey lighter brown cream in moist dark chocolate cake.

"It looks perfect." He smiled at her. "The point was to feed you, so I think the first bite should be yours."

“That was one of the points.” Briya kept her hand on his and used her other to pick up half the cupcake bringing it to her lips. “It’s important to me that you see me as a healthy, capable woman with powerful appetites that you are able to satisfy.” She popped it into her mouth and licked her finger tip. “I also wanted to be seen with you, spend time with you outside of the requirements of your medical duties.” She lifted the other half of the cupcake to Gunnar’s lips. “May I do this with you?”

It was tempting. Gunnar couldn't say whether it was Briya herself or a manner so ...similar in style... that it made him think of Divash, but he sincerely hoped that none of the hospital staff watching had brought a medscanner because he was sure it would show his heart rate had elevated. However, he could almost feel the people at other tables leaning forward to watch, and perhaps the awareness of an audience was a good thing - in private it might be too easy to rationalize giving in. After all, T'Ango would almost certainly understand. They weren't mates, only t'mewt, a relationship Dosadi didn't regard as exclusive. And given that the strict monogamy of mated pairs was driven at least in part by a species-specific pheromone response, they weren't likely to ever...

He caught himself leaning closer to the morsel of cupcake, and stopped. ...yeah, being in public wasn't necessarily an antidote to rationalization... He plucked the half cupcake from Briya's fingers. "I'm flattered, truly, and I do see you are quite healthy now. But there's someone who's ...special to me... so while I'm happy to spend time with you socially, on the," he cleared his throat slightly, "satisfying appetites front, I'd be more comfortable sticking to sharing something like this." He took a bite of the cupcake, and paused at the taste of moist coffee-laced chocolate, "...Mmm, maybe especially this. That is delicious."

Briya stared at him then leaned back in her chair. “I do not wish to undermine any pre-existing relationships, Gunnar - I am aware of Lieutenant T’Ango and Doctor Divash - but nothing in your file indicated these to be exclusive relationships, none currently. Is it your wish to change that with one of these females or have I overestimated our attraction to one another?”

Two tables back, MacGuire exchanged a look with Lizza, who mouthed 'It's TWO women?'

However, Gunnar blinked and sat back as well, taken aback and more than a little freaked out at the notion that she'd been able to access the sort of records that might discuss those relationships. However on a moment's reflection, he realized it wouldn't have taken much to guess those associations based on service records, which also listed him as single and not cohabitating with anyone. Besides, she was a diplomat, and gods knew when it came to anything unclassified those people gossiped (almost as much as some of the people currently sitting ringside to listen in).

It was still somewhat disconcerting. "You're a very attractive woman, but we barely know each other. Or at least I barely know you. Do you always research men you meet for pastries this thoroughly?"

“I find you attractive as well, but I haven’t shared my frosted cupcakes with a man in quite some time, so that’s not really a fair question. It’s not as if I called in outstanding favors to Starfleet Intelligence, if that’s what you’re getting towards. I simply accessed pubic records, a few requested video logs, asked around and made one or two checks against my woman’s intuition. I want to get to know you and you me, but you don’t make it easy, Gunnar.”

If he weren't familiar with the typical diplomatic officer personality, that would still sound a little stalker-ish. Even with that understanding, he had to wonder about what video logs she'd requested. There were undoubtedly some that would give a misleading impression. "Look, I know I was late in getting back to you, and I do apologize. I'm not actually that hard to get to know, as a person. But if you've been checking up, then you know I went through a ...difficult period... a year or so ago and T'Ango and Divash made a point of being there for me. Despite how that may have looked to some people, or on some video logs, I'm not actually so casual about relationships."

“And despite my Risian heritage with its propensity for giving pleasure freely, I too find myself seeking something less casual in this relationship. As I’ve told you before, I am a very accommodating woman so your ongoing friendships with T'Ango and Divash are a boon to your character, not a bane to our own. So am I to understand that you are looking for something more serious?”

Across the room, MacGuire watched from over the rim of his coffee mug, largely to hide trying to keep his jaw from dropping. Sure, he kidded Arnason about the patients and volunteers that tried to flirt with him, but mostly because the kid was so straight-laced he always deflected those overtures. Or at least he'd seemed straight-laced. But now... two women - who apparently knew of each other and were fine with it? And right here in front of him a stylish sophisticated Risian was basically making a case to be added to that harem... MacGuire wanted to say it shocked his sensibilities, but the truth was the shock was directed at the cosmic unfairness of the universe. He had never gotten offers anything like that even back when he'd been Arnason's age.

Lizza on the other hand was just trying to keep from chortling at both MacGuire's and Gunnar's reactions. MacGuire was practically turning as green as the skin she imagined on Gunnar's Orion 'friend'. Gunnar on the other hand was looking distinctly uncomfortable, having obviously been caught flatfooted when his generic 'someone special' demurrals hadn't gone as planned. And okay, Lizza understood that a little - if a guy on a first date had looked up her entire romantic history and told her about it, she'd be texting security under the table to get an escort home - but Gunnar was a tall, fit Starfleeter who could probably bench more than the Consul weighed. Besides, he had no one but himself to blame; he'd let people think his heart was fixed elsewhere, but avoided discussing it which led to all sort of rumors; everything from the normal Starfleet separate assignments thing to some sort of grand romantic tragedy. But what no one had imagined was that Gunnar of all people was a Captain Kirk.

Fortunately, while he was aware of them watching, Gunnar couldn't hear their thoughts or in addition to being flustered he'd have been blushing red. He really had not intended to wind up in this situation, but here he was. As far as Divash was concerned, they were already in a serious relationship - serious being defined by bonds of loyalty and trust. She knew he literally wouldn't betray her under torture, and that was about as serious as one could get from her point of view, but there was zero chance of them ever settling down together. He and T'Ango had been emotional life preservers for each other long before the relationship ceased to be purely platonic. She meant the galaxy to him, but Dosadi marriage was typically just an acknowledgment of a female becoming fertile in response to a male's pheromones, and knowing how much she loved kits he had to hope she would find it, even if it was with someone else (though what his head knew didn't change what his heart wanted).

However none of that needed to come into answering Briya's question. "Honestly, I'm not looking for anything serious with anyone here. I've avoided romantic entanglements since arriving both because my love life, obviously, is complicated enough, and because I was only supposed to be here a couple months. Even now that that's been extended, I'm only here on a temporary duty assignment."

Briya stared at the man seated next to her. It wasn’t so much a glare as...searching. Her eyes shifted left and right from each of his as she considered him and his response. It was a let down for sure, a rejection of her affections and refusal for that kind of relationship. She was an emotional woman beneath her calm facade and there was disappointment and a sudden emptiness inside that small pit of her stomach that came with all rebuffs to romantic overtures. But she was also a natural and trained negotiator, competent around compromise and schooled to split the difference. There was more to mediating than turning every loss into some small victory, but seeking a give and take status was crucial and accepting a flat refusal - a hard no - was not the diplomat’s way.

She retrieved a linen napkin from her lap to wipe away the flour smudge on her cheek as if she’d been aware of it the entire time, as if it had been placed there deliberately for some affect that had failed. She folded the linen and laid it across the table then slowly picked up the knife, cradling the colorful handle in her palm and examining it’s design. “I openly confess, I am unhappy with your answer, Gunnar. I had not anticipated this level of opposition on the matter of you and I choosing to grow towards one another. I suppose I must have overestimated my merits.”

"Please, don't take my resistance as any measure of your appeal. I assure you, if we'd met two years ago, my response would've been entirely positive." His lips turn in a crooked smile. "In fact, I probably would have scarcely believed my luck. But even if I can almost hear Divash chiding me for being a silly human about this, I am human and I'm still trying to recover my bearings and untangle a lot of emotional fallout from..." He paused. If she'd researched him enough to know about Divash and T'Ango, she almost certainly knew at least the broad strokes, but it wasn't common knowledge and he preferred that it not be. "...that difficult period I mentioned."

“Perhaps were you to find yourself in another ...difficult period... you would reconsider allowing me to be there for you. I realize at this point it’s foolish for me to hold out such hope, but we Risian are a passionate, hopeful people. I have to ask, Gunnar, would you prefer that you and I had not met under the circumstances of illness?”

The very idea of ever going through that again made him blanche, but he was touched that she'd want to be there for him even after he'd rebuffed her advances. "Of course I don't regret meeting you - under circumstances of illness or otherwise. I'm glad I could help you, and I'd gladly accept help from you if I were to need it," he said sincerely. "I'd like to get to know you as a person, a friend, and I know, 'let's be friends' is often taken as a way to cushion rejection, but it's not how I mean it. I hope you don't see me as someone only worth knowing as a potential lover."

Briya selected a cupcake and placed it on a plate before Gunnar. “People like you and I who find ourselves possessed of a certain comeliness are fortunate to be in a position to never know for certain just how much of our confidence and charisma we must attribute to our physical features. So again, you ask an unfair question of me. You phrase yourself carefully, perhaps to avoid undue hurt to my feelings, perhaps to bolster your humility. In many ways it is a kindness, but being settled so firmly in the friend zone... it is an allocation I am unfamiliar with.”

That was, fittingly for the Consul, perhaps the most diplomatic admission that she wouldn't be propositioning him if he were homely that Gunnar had ever heard. He couldn't help contrasting it with T'Ango, for whom his physical features were not so comely. Of course with her he had been firmly, and mostly contentedly, in the 'friend zone' for some time. He was still a little amazed that had changed. Divash on the other hand was generally blunt about physical attraction. He had in fact initially resisted her advances, saying he'd learned to avoid romances with colleagues. She'd replied that she was fine with avoiding romance; the relationship could be purely physical. And he'd fallen for her anyway. He'd have had a better chance of resisting the Borg. "I hardly think of it as slight if a woman counts me as friend. And as I've said, I'm still trying to sort out having two of them turn that into emotionally complicated versions of friends with benefits."

Briya picked the tastiest cupcake yet, decorated extravagantly and topped with something resembling a pink strawberry. She slid it slowly towards Gunnar with her long slender fingers. “Are you absolutely certain you have no room left on your pallet for a third cupcake? Perhaps if you were to savor a bite of the fruit and a lick of the frosting, you’d develop a hunger for the rest in time?”

Gunnar focused on the plate, trying to ignore the titters from the tables around them.

Briya didn't have Divash's force-of-nature personality, but he was beginning to feel a vague sense of deja vu with respect to resistance being futile. But then he'd never been good at saying 'no' - a failing that had gotten him in over his head time and time again, not just in his personal life - and even worse when it involved hurting anyone's feelings. "It does look delicious," he admitted and swirled a touch of icing with his finger. "I'm sure the frosting's amaz-"

The sentence was interrupted by violent choking from Lizza who'd swallowed wrong in surprise.

On reflex, Gunnar immediately swung around and started to rise, only to be waved off by MacQuire, who was already halfway there. "Sit down, idiot," the doctor snapped. "Half the hospital's here." He wrapped his arms around Lizza for a Heimlich, muttering, "Someone should taste that cupcake."

Briya was aware of there being others in the cafe and she did recognize the doctor as one of Gunnar’s medical colleagues, but with the refusal, she decided to take a different approach. She feigned frustration. Everyone knew one of the necessary traits to successful diplomacy was the ability to remain calm in the face of disappointment or aggressive posturing. But an equally valuable tool in her arsenal as both a diplomat and woman, was the ability to get angry or upset on cue. She stood up from the table so forcefully her chair shot back and toppled over to clatter against the floor. "I never thought to be envious of a choking woman, but at least she's had the fortuity to gag on Gunnar without begging." Briya's eyes shifted to Lizza and her face briefly took on the genuine worry that all decent people feel when someone is choking. "I hope she's okay." Then the fiery, feigned temper returned and Briya stabbed the knife she'd been holding this entire time down hard into the table. She swept the nearly untouched tray of cupcakes heartily into Gunnar's lap. She collected her apron and hesitated behind Gunnar's chair. Her hand reached up to the back of the man's head and a second's tender caress turned into a rough, yet provocative grasp as she clinched her fingers through his stereo-typically Nordic hair. Dammit why did he have to be so attractive. "You can lick yourself clean!" Briya let him go and set about storming off full of dramatics.

Gunnar fell back into the seat, stunned and torn between two reactions. Because he genuinely hated hurting anyone, one was to go after her. On the other hand, the drama... he couldn't help but feel a sense of having dodged a disruptor blast. Over the years he'd had some experience with women who couldn't accept that he'd always put a medical emergency (even one as simple choking) first and a certain number of those romances had been tempestuous enough to leave him with a sense of whiplash by the end.

He brushed the cupcake remnants off his lap, then sucked the bit of frosting off his finger and sighed. "It is delicious, but I think I've had all I can handle for today."

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