Office Hours, Tuesday

[on_her_korhal]

Kerrigan had given up on her syllabus.

Well, okay, she hadn't given up, because she was a dogged sort of person, but it had finally found its way to a pile. It was just being worked at from a distance.

She made herself some noodles and spent a goodly period of time staring at it.

[ open hours! ]

Comments

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"Behind you, on the shelf," she said, with a roll of her eyes, then reached forwards for the water cooker. "Look, I'll even press the 'heat water' button for you."

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"You're too kind," he said dryly, turning and snagging the stuff. "I've made coffee before. I used to make it for my mother when my dad was off flying around the universe. Zak used to make it too but his coffee was frakking terrible."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"Hey, I'm just letting you make yourself useful." She sat back in her chair. "Your brother?"

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"Yep," he said, setting to work on familiarizing himself with the coffee maker before he started actually making the coffee. No need to waste her coffee. "Younger. He's still back home."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"Going to military school, too?"

The Adama family history was starting to become a little clear, there. Kerrigan eyed him thoughtfully.

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"Think so," he said, feeling confident he'd figured out the coffee maker enough to start brewing. "Academy and then flight school is what he wanted last time we talked about it. So, same as me. Imagine that, huh?"

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"Seems like that kind of family," Kerrigan replied, in a tone of voice that was carefully noncommittal.

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

Lee shrugged a shoulder, keeping an eye on the coffee. "Well, look at my father. Of course it's that kind of family."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"You can't keep blaming everything on your dad, Lee," she said, fixing her gaze on the coffee.

Not that she really was anyone to talk.

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"I'm not blaming him," he said quickly. "I'm faulting him."

Because there was a difference.

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"Whatever it is," Kerrigan replied, with a roll of her eyes, "Let it go."

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"You know, it's really not that frakking easy and don't tell me it is," he said tightly. "You don't know me."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"I'm not telling you it is." Kerrigan leaned forwards on the desk, leaning her elbows on it. "I'm saying you need to stop making stuff dependent on your dad or that's all you're gonna be. Something in relation."

Which was not a subject she had any experience in. At all.

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"I already am something in relation," he replied, focusing really hard on the coffee maker now. "Too late for that. That came with the name."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"So's that all you are?" she asked, dryly. "Some jackass named Adama."

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"You're such a confidence booster," Lee snipped and glared at the coffee maker. "No, that's not all I am. That's all people see me as back home though."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"Then why the hell should you have a stick up your ass about it?"

She paused, resettling in her chair. "Stop trying to break my coffee maker with the power of your mind. It's lacking."

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"I don't want him to do the same thing to my brother," he mumbled and focused his glare on her. "He's there, I'm not. No one else to focus on."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"So tell me about your brother." It wasn't that the glare did anything, but the situation reminded her uncomfortably much of Jimmy and his dead kid.

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"He's younger," Lee said and scrubbed at his temple with the heel of one hand. "Taller than me but who isn't, right? I don't think he wants to go into the military. I think he wants...I think he wants to have fun or something. But, he doesn't...he wants approval."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"Don't we all?" Kerrigan asked, vaguely, and maybe with some inflection of sarcasm. Or not. She wasn't really sure, herself.

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"It's hard to get," he muttered and looked back down at the coffee maker. "So, you try and try and try and it never comes."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

"Or it does, and then you're not sure it's worth it."

Kerrigan stared down at her desk.

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"I really wouldn't know," he said, shrugging again. "I don't think I've ever gotten it, not from him. And it's stupid that I keep trying when I know it's not going to come. I'd just like Zak to avoid that. But he won't."

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

Kerrigan's eyes flicked back up. "Tried smacking him over the head?" she said, lightly.