Being Earnest // Svetlana

Well well, what did we have here? Rory was stooping over a letter that was marked with a red kiss on the ground near his apartment, but he was unsure of where it came from? The letter was so tattered, it looked as though it got caught in a storm, and the only eligible writing was "...with most earnest intentions, I am awaiting your arrival. I am most affectionately yours."

Although he wasn't sure it was for him, he found it quite peculiar that it would have landed at his doorstep. Although he couldn't read who it was to and who it came from, he still wanted to figure it out. It could have been a secret admirer, or something trying to get ahold of someone else in the building... or even Amy. Oh how he missed her.

Sticking the letter into his pocket, he continued to button up his autumn jacket and head to the hospital to pick up his paycheck. He had the day off for the first time in a long time and was planning to treat himself to a nice cup of tea and a wrap at the local cafe.

They were on land again. Finally. Svetlana had lost track of how long it had been since the Helicarrier had last been on land. Surgeon-time differed majorly from normal time. Days were seen as weeks, weeks as months, and months as years for anyone working the medical field. Several months they'd been in flight and Sveta had been so happy to be back on solid ground, she could have kissed the grassy spot outside their base. But she hadn't. Who knew how many dogs had peed there?

Ditching her usual work 'uniform' of button-down shirt and pants in favour of some skinny jeans, heels and her favourite leather jacket worn over a navy blue tank-top, Sveta was out of the Helicarrier like a shot and was soon zooming through the streets of London on her darling motorbike. Oh how she'd missed the dear thing these past few months! It felt amazing to be riding her again. The wind in her face, the purr of the engine beneath her; it was glorious.

Twenty minutes later, the brunette was parking outside a cafe and sauntering inside. Trading a playful smile with the pretty redhead barista, the woman ordered a mocha adding a "don't be shy with the marshmallows" in a conspiratorial whisper, before turning to look for a spot.

She wasn't even supposed to be drinking coffee. Theoretically it was her day off and as such she  was supposed to be detoxing from coffee, if only for a day and if only to cleanse her body of the obscene amounts of caffeine that usually ran through it just a little. Unfortunately she was on-call so there was no way that was going to happen.

But as she sat down, Sveta pleaded with all deities above that she wouldn't get called back to base. All she wanted was an afternoon to herself. Surely it wasn't that big an ask...

When Rory had finally gotten himself to the cafe, he sat down at one of the tables in the corner of the small restaurant, by the two windows that met together, getting all the sunlight to shine down onto him and keep him nice and toasty in this surprisingly cold autumn season. When the waitress had made her way over to him, giving him a menu, he gave a smile and decided to go with some jasmine green tea with a side of honey.

Looking through the menu, he decided that he was more so in the mood for some chickin, lemon & rice soup. If he was hungry still, maybe he'd get the wrap. After ordering his food, he looked back at the strange note that he had found on the apartment doorstep. He thought it was amusing, honestly. He wanted to find the person who left it so that he could help them find who it was meant for... if it hopefully wasn't meant for him.

As the waitress brought over Svetlana's mocha, the surgeon's eyes lit up as she saw just how many marshmallows the kind barista had given her. Most people would scoff over the fact that she got excited over being given three marshmallows, but to Sveta such things were luxuries. Back on the Helicarrier there were never enough marshmallows to last more than a week, and the cooks kept the rest of the marshmallow supply under lock, key, and several impenetrable key-codes.

She gleefully popped a pink marshmallow in her mouth, dropped a white one into her mocha and took a sip. Bliss. So much better than the coffee-pot swill that was the norm at work. Thankfully, Stark was getting them coffee machines. Proper ones, like the barista's used. Sveta couldn't wait. Goodbye swill, hellooo proper caffeine goodness!

Sipping away on her glorious coffee, Sveta looked around the cafe. She enjoyed people-watching. Regular people were infinitely more fun to study and try to deduce than her co-workers who most of the time showed no emotion at all, unless you counted stressed as an emotion. Her eyes fell upon the male sitting in the corner, reading first the menu and then a letter. He was rather attractive. A slight smile curled up the corner of her mouth at the thought.

And then the (rather attractive) guy happened to look up from his letter and catch her eye. Busted! Sveta hadn't felt this sheepish in a long time. But she gave a flirty smile and mouthed a hi to him, before taking another sip of coffee. Well, that's one way to meet someone.

Did that girl just look at him? No, no, not possible. When it came to girls, usually he was the opposite end of a magnet, repelling anyone who came in sight of him. At least, that's how it seemed. After the way things had ended with Amy, how could Rory possibly have confidence about himself? Still, when they made eye contact, she even mouthed the word hello to him, so that had to mean something, right? He bit his lip, hesitating on whether he should react or not... he might look like a fool. What if she was really looking at someone else? He had this problem; he would think people are trying to talk to him, when really they're talking to people behind him.

Then again, no one was behind him. She had to be trying to get his attention. He took a deep sigh, trying to get the courage and then looked back over to her with a sheepish smile, and a nod, showing that he was saying hello back. Still, what was she going to do now? Ask him to come over? Was she going to go over there? Did she expect he would just walk over? Should he? No, no, then he'd seem too desperate. He didn't want to look like he was too forward or anything.

Rory was analyzing the situation way too heavily. He took a minute to calm down, sipping at his tea as he then closed his eyes for a moment, thinking it over. Okay, she could just be trying to be friendly, or she's flirting. Either way, it's a girl. I don't talk to girls well. She's super pretty too... and look at those tattoos... he thought in his head as he glanced at her every so often when she wasn't looking.

Grinning sheepishly to herself, Sveta busied herself with her coffee, plonking the final marshmallow into her coffee and watching it sink to meet its doom at the bottom of the caffeine sea. Taking a long sip, she watched te stranger over the rim of her mug, curious as to the man's reaction.

Would he simply ignore her and pretend like he'd never seen her say, or rather mouth, hello? Would he come over and say hello? He'd smiled and that was always a good sign; generally people didn't smile back if they thought you were a creep or stalker.  

Hell, why am I even analysing this?! She blamed work; too much time analysing sick people and not enough time to stretch her flirting muscles. Granted, it was also much easier to flirt with someone at the bar or at SHIELD, where the chance of the person being single was higher than at someone at a cafe, therefore confusion on the flirter's side was minimal.

Well, there was no harm in going over. Slinging her jacket over her shoulder and picking up her coffee, Sveta walked over to the handsome stranger. "So instead of mouthing to each other across the room, I thought I'd come introduce myself," she began, flashing him a playful grin. "I'm Sveta. You can call me The Strange Girl Who Mouths To People From Across Cafes, but that's quite the mouthful..!"