2025-03-08 - Gummy Bears

A handful of days after their meeting: The Tour. Plans were made, timing agreed on, in the time between, and so far the day has consisted of a couple of stops, actually. Turns out Barrett already knew about them. Oh. That's okay! Sadie is stubborn, and she loves a challenge.

When they arrive at the Botanical Garden, she's understandably in her element, she knows where everything is, what everything is, and settles into an actual guide role. Here is this plant, it features these things; oh look at that one, that's a this one. Etc. For a little while, they have a nice little stroll, and it might start to seem like she's just showing him a bunch of plants. Until they reach the roses, that is.

They're beautiful and well cared for. She presents them with both hands a la game show prize girl. "The roses are the most agreeable. You might not think it, because of the thorns, but they're really lovely. Anyways. Ready?"

"Ready?" Barrett looks genuinely confused, but open to whatever she's got up her sleeve. Yes-And. "Never thought of rose's as agreeable. Always heard they are finicky and temperamental. Never really grew much except for tomatoes, myself, and that was only sometimes successful."

"Wait you grew tomatoes? We'll talk about that later." Because this is a new facet of this large, lumberjack lookin' guy that surprises her and Sadie is eternally curious. But she can focus, and she's going to prove it just watch her.

So, turning to the nearest bush, she lifts a hand to delicately brush her fingers against one of its leaves, her head tilted like she's in conversation. A glow begins to spread from her fingertips and up along her hand, then her wrist. It could be lavender or pale pink in color, sort of a 'is the dress gold or blue' thing, but it's undeniably forming a design of leaves, vines, flowers, up her arm. And in answer, a new bud forms off of the branch, and blossoms on the spot into a new rose.

"See, if I'd tried that with an orchid? Nothing but sass with orchids."

"So you're that girl from Encanto," Barrett decides, voice low and impressed. He explains quickly, "Got nieces and nephews. I know all about Bruno."

He takes a step closer to get a better look. "So are you talking to it?" he asks, trying to make sense of it. His brow furrows, and he keeps his voice low, as if he might frighten the roses.

Sadie mock-winces and stage-whispers, with her hand poised at the corner of her mouth should there be any eavesdroppers, "I've never seen Encanto."

Her body language changes a little when he comes closer. Just a minute shift of her stance that suggests she's including him in her bubble. "Yeah. Kind of. Not with words. It's more of an understanding? I dunno, it's weird, and I haven't met anyone else who can do it so I'm kind of on my own. Have you met any other fire people?"

"Plants wouldn't really talk in words, would they?" Barrett muses aloud. When she asks the question, he shushes her. "Shh, not in front of the plants," he whispers, looking genuinely concerned that the plants might be afraid of a guy who can make fire on command.

He clears his throat. "The answer is no, but I really don't talk about this stuff much. Haven't found my people yet."

His whispered words give Sadie pause. Her expression is one of helpless amusement. "I can't tell if you're fucking with me or not, and I'm not sure which one would make me happier." It wouldn't be the first time he's said something that was so funny it surprised her.

Something about what he says hits a chord of some kind and she considers him for a thoughtful moment. "Well. I can be your people. I mean, one of your people. You know what I mean. I know I don't do," pause, exaggerated whisper, "fire stuff. But I can listen. If you wanna talk."

Barrett looks a little confused by Sadie's comment. "I'm not fucking with you." If anything, he looks a little embarrassed, standing up straight and sticking his hands in his pockets.

He looks equally confused at her eagerness to be his buddy, but after a moment's thought, he nods. "All right. Hope you like hockey."

The ghost of a smile.

Oops. "Oh." His body language is easy to read, and for a second Sadie looks unsure of what to do. Then she says, "I'm glad you weren't. I like that you were thinking about them. Don't worry though, they're okay."

Now it's her turn to look confused. "Like... the concept? Or watching it? Or... playing it?" Because anything is possible.

"I think I was making a joke. Something like that." The big man gives a little shrug. "Been kind of keeping to myself since I got here? Maybe I've gone a bit feral. It's been a lot of adjustment. Very different life."

Sadie smiles, shaking her head slowly as if in wonderment. "Wow I just can't get a read on you at all." And it's delightful.

"I'd like to hear about it." The life before the island, whatever it held, the stuff he did. Endless. Curiosity. And honestly, she'd be down for it now, and might have been just about to start poking around, except she hears a rustle in the branches of a tree that's bowed over where they stand. "Oh," she whispers, and this time it's a real whisper. Her hand suddenly grabs for his so she can tug on it in a silent bid to for him to stand there.

"Look up, and try to see... there, see 'im?" Most people, mundane people, would brush off the sounds the creature is making, assuming it's a squirrel or just a weird breeze. For people who know better than to dismiss magical notions, a little green fellow is perched on a branch, looking down at them and chewing on something.

"All these questions. You're not a PI hired by my ex-wife, are you?" The grin in Barrett's voice makes it clear that this is not a serious accusation.

"I'm a firefighter. Was. Figuring things out now, you know? It's like--"

His hand is grabbed and he whips around, trying to figure out if there's trouble or--

"Holy fuck, that's a Pokémon."

"I know right? I don't know what they're called, but I've seen them all over the place, here. I can kinda talk to them, too, so I think they're like part plant or something. Isn't he cute? Do I win at tours?" Meanwhile, the leafkin is still just staring at them, its head tilting this way and that like it's following along.

Sadie smiles up at Barrett. He's tall. "I'm not spy material, remember? I'd spill all the beans. I just like knowing about people. Their stories, you know? Where they're from, why they're where they are right now in this moment, how they like their corn dogs. The really important stuff."

"What's it like?" What? "You were gonna say something."

"I don't even remember what I was going to say. That's a fucking Pokémon." Barrett seems... really stuck on that.

It's a fucking Pokémon.

He stares, completely dumbfounded. "How the hell have I never noticed these little guys?"

Sadie laughs, leaning to bump her shoulder into his arm. "They're good at hiding. I bring blueberries for them sometimes. They like those. The funny thing to me is... they're good at hiding but they don't really try that hard. One time I saw one of them blatantly knock an acorn onto a guest's head."

She returns to watching the leafkin with him, content to let the moment happen, with her hands laced beneath her chin. Eventually, she asks, "Do you really have an ex-wife?"

"Gonna call that one DiBella, after my favorite sub shop," Barrett decides. Forget that he probably will never be able to tell that leafkin from any other leafkin. They might all be DiBellas to him from now on.

His eyebrows rise slightly when she asks about his ex-wife. "I do. Do you have an ex-wife?" he asks, turning his head to look down at her.

DiBella 1, DiBella 2, DiBella with Big Leaf, etc...

"Oh my god don't talk about subs, I'm so hungry." Sadie puts a hand to her stomach, expecting it to grumble at any moment. "Was that in Rochester?"

He surprises her again, then, with that riposte, and she laughs. The sound gets a major head tilt from DiBella 1. "Yes. Just kidding, no. No ex-husbands either, not that you were going to ask." She would, though, definitely. "Do you wanna stay? We can sit. I can ask you more questions." Wouldn't he love that?

Surprisingly, Barrett seems okay with the questions. He just seems perpetually puzzled about why she's so interested.

"You want to grab something to eat? If you really want to interrogate me, might as well do it on a full stomach."

A beat.

"Yeah, that's a thing in Rochester. That and and Garbage Plates."

"Really?" No way can Sadie say no to that. So she doesn't. "Okay." Her smile is genuinely pleased.

"What are Garbage Plates?" Could she find this information on her phone? Sure. "We could go to Nora's. They have sandwiches. I feel like we need sandwiches."

As they make their way to Nora's, Barrett begins to explain the garbage plate. "Okay, so you've got a base of home fries or regular fries. Slap some mac salad or baked beans or both on that bad boy. Then your main thing -- you can do hot dogs, white hots, italian sausage, burger patties with or without the cheese, even a grilled cheese on there. Top it off with hot meat sauce -- kind of like chili? -- and maybe your onions or whatever. That is the traditional dish of my homeland. I like adding cheese and a fried egg because I don't know what's good for me."

"Of your homeland." Oh that gets her, and when she laughs it's with her head back. That was a good one.

"That sounds fucking good. All of it. It's like they got all the food groups covered." In some kind of fucked up food pyramid. "You do love cheese, I do know that about you." Like she said: the important stuff.

The way from Starlight to Crescent via ferry is plenty long enough for them to talk, and maybe part of her plan was to trap him on the water for interrogation purposes. "I wonder if Nora's can do a Garbage Plate. If not, we're gonna make 'em."

"Sadie. Sadie. I'm not going to expose these good people to the garbage plate. They are untainted. Innocents." Barrett is barely containing his amusement, even as he eyes his own meatball parm sub... that he then tops with his french fries.

Sadie nods, lips pursed, as if she's in agreement. Neither of them ordered a garbage plate. Her BLT looks delicious. There is absolutely no reason to order a garbage plate.

"Do you guys have garbage plates?" she asks their server, eyebrows lifted in hopeful expectation. No. The answer is no. She thanks them, then looks down at her sandwich.

"Gimme some fries."

"If you wanted fries, why didn't you order--" Barrett gives a long-suffering sigh and forks over a handful of fries onto Sadie's plate, giving some critical side-eye. "I see your game."

"Yeah but I wanted a salad." See? Sadie gestures at the plate of greens, which she dressed with some vinaigrette. Beaming when she gets her way, she does a happy wiggle in her seat and chews on one fry while shoving most of the rest under the top bread of her sandwich. "Okay. Moment of truth."

She takes a bite of her modified BLT(F), considers, swallows. "Yeah I think we're onto something. Want a bacon?" Because she's invested in this whole combinations thing now.

"You can get a side of fries with anything," Barrett points out with the weariness of a man who apparently has had this conversation before. He doesn't seem too put out, though. It's the principle of the thing.

"Can give a it a try. I think the bacon will be overpowered by the marinara, and it would be a crime to waste it. Cole slaw might work."

"Can I get a side of fries with your face?" Burn.

"So it's like a Thunderdome kinda thing? Two men enter one man leaves, except both of them get eaten. Well here." Sadie passes a slice of bacon over, then her side of cole slaw. The girl enjoys a good side. "For science."

After another munch, she uses a napkin, then asks, "Why'd you come here?" And with that question so vague, she could mean anything Why did he come to the park? Why did he come to Nora's, with her? The world is his cole slaw.

"For the right price, I guess. You offering vision and dental?" Make a dumb joke, get a dumb response.

Since she's insisting on sharing the bacon, Barrett won't protest too much. The cole slaw gets loaded on and the bacon is laid on top, just so.

He picks up the sandwich and carefully takes a bite so that it doesn't go all over the place.

"Why'd I come where?" he asks, covering his mouth with his hand.

Sadie very appreciatively laughs. Yes, that was the correct response.

"How is it?" Maybe wait for him to finish chewing. And since it's lady's choice, she goes with, "Here. Spellbound. I don't think I asked you that yet."

"Not bad. It's like a texture... festival. A texture festival." Barrett decides that the wording is exactly what he wanted to say and nods decisively.

Ah. Why he's here.

"Municipal budget cuts. Got laid off and the union couldn't save my job. Soooooo, it either was join a private crew or look at something else. Couldn't do the private route. That's just." He frowns. "No. Firefighting shouldn't be pay-to-play. Applied to this in a kind of foggy night of Fireball and Indeed one-click applications and they actually called me."

"A texture festival. I love that."

His origin story has Sadie's full attention, and she's such an easy read when it comes to facial expressions. Shock for his losing his job; a sympathetic wrinkle of her nose for 'private route' even if she doesn't exactly know what that entails beyond that he doesn't like it; a grin for mention of Fireball.

"So I have cinnamon mistakes to thank. I mean I guess and HR. Kinda the same for me, except it was more about looking for somewhere to be after I finished school. I didn't really have a plan." Weirdly they weren't just handing those out at graduation.

"Okay so." She chomps a fry, wiggles another one at him. "Karaoke. Love it? Hate it?"

"So you're saying... it's actually not the same at all?" Barrett looks a little bit amused, taking another whirl at his texture festival.

He looks at her like she's out of her goddamned mind when she brings up karaoke. "Come again?"

In the middle of taking a sip from her Coke Zero, Sadie points at him. "Exactly," she says after swallowing.

Her eyebrows lift. "Karaoke. People are really into karaoke around here. Our fellow employees. I'm not gonna get my hopes up by thinking you're into it, but also it could be fun. I could sing you the song of my people."

"Party in the USA?" Barrett hazards a guess.

Don't be a dick, Hector.

"I don't think I've ever done karaoke. Well. Hm. Not in years. Not sure I would want to inflict that on these good people. It's the musical equivalent of a garbage plate."

Sadie's eyes narrow, her lips twitching in her effort not to smile. She's trying to look offended. "How very dare you."

He makes that comparison, and she looks intrigued. "Delicious and over the top?" Grinning, she takes her turn to guess. "You look like a That Don't Impress Me Much kinda guy."

Barrett looks across the table, a flat, unimpressed look. "You can do better than that."

Oh. Sadie pauses, considers him, and a slow smile appears. She nudges her plate aside and leans forward with her arms crossed atop the table. This is serious.

For a long moment they just sit there like that, with her trying to stare into his soul. "Do you take it seriously? Because that changes my guess."

Barrett leans back, crosses his arms, and settles in with a slight wiggle of his head. He stares right back, not saying a word. He's dug his heels in. This is aaaaaall on her.

"You are such an asshole," Sadie says through laughter, without an ounce of sincerity. After another moment of their stare-off, she takes a deep breath and goes for it. "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, final answer."

Barrett leans forward, resting his forearms on the table. "Close."

He gives her a level, serious gaze before reciting, deep and deadpan, "The best part about being a woman is the prerogative to have a little fun."

Sadie grins. "See, I knew you were a Shania guy. I could feel it." She steals another fry. Give a mouse a cookie and they still all your cookies. "So wanna go?"

Barrett threatens Sadie's hand with his fork, but there's no real oomph behind the threat. It's the principle of the thing.

"I really want to know the logic train that connected between 'you see me' and 'you think it would be fun to take me to karaoke'. I want to know how that mind works."

"Oh come on. That isn't even the weirdest thing I've said to you today. All relationships end up at karaoke at some point. At least all of mine do." After chewing for a moment, Sadie tilts her head. "I think you're fun."

Barrett straightens up, eyeing Sadie with a quirked eyebrow.

"Relationships?"

At first Sadie's confused, brow furrowed, smile fading. "...yeah? What." But then it slowly starts to click. "Oh. I meant... I didn't mean... I mean it's way too soon, I don't even know how bad you are at karaoke yet."

"I think we should back up the train, here," Barrett says patiently. "You don't know me. I don't know you. I didn't even know... that... was even on the radar."

Sadie lifts her eyebrows. "I'm kidding, Hector. I said relationships when I should have said friendships. Your virtue is safe with me."

Barrett snorts, trying to look like he wasn't just mildly panicking.

"Good, because I'm saving myself for Jesus."

And Sadie grins, pausing to take some water, then gives him a curious squint. "Were you really freaked out?"

Barrett waves a hand, then picks up his sub to take a bite. "Mrrm," he says helpfully. He swallows, putting his sandwich down.

"Takes more than that to freak me out."

"Even if 'that' was on the radar?" She picks some bacon out of her sandwich and contemplates her next question. "So what would it take?"

"'That' would at least require a quick conversation first." Barrett pauses. "Usually."

He does not elaborate.

As for what would freak him out? He answers that quickly, without a second thought.

"If someone hurts one of my nieces or nephews, it would be pretty hard to keep my cool."

"Usually?" Hey, if he's going to keep dropping kernels.

Sadie looks surprised by that answer, but it changes to approving quickly. She swirls her ice around in her soda cup. "That'd be a reasonable thing to freak out about." Then, to shift things a little, she asks, "How many do you have?"

Barrett leans back, putting his palms out, hands up. "I'm only human," he says of the 'usually'. He decides that his sandwich has disintegrated to the point where he needs a fork.

"Five," he says, spearing a meatball with his fork. "Three girls, one boy, one nonbinary."

"Oh I see." And Sadie, nodding, does seem to get it. It's just that there's something in her gaze that hints at mischief as she looks at him over her cup.

Her chin rests in her upturned palm. "Wow. Five. All from one sibling, or?" She's just picking at her sandwich at this point, deconstructing it with clever fingers as they go. "I want a milkshake."

"Brother has three, sister has two. How about you?" A corner of Barrett's mouth twitches as he spots Sadie's mischievous glint. He's not sure whether to be amused or alarmed. "You know, you're an adult. You can get a milkshake."

He pauses. "Chocolate peanut butter with Reese's pieces and gummy bears mixed in. That's what I'm getting."

"I just have the one sister, no fun little ones running around. Not sure if she'll ever have any kids. I don't know if I will. Do you have any?" He did mention an ex. Kernels.

Sadie smiles. "Thank you." And maybe she would have had something else to say, but then she hears 'gummy bears'. "Do you always get those in your milkshakes or is today special? I wanna try it. I'll do vanilla though." And it's easy to wave their server over and put that order in, except for one major issue. "No gummy bears?" Tragic.

Barrett shakes his head. "Nah. No kids, and she got the cat in the divorce." He looks still annoyed about that part. "Didn't even like that cat, but it's the principle of the thing," he says, thumping the table with his fist. Not hard. Just enough to make a satisfying thud.

He looks up at the server. "Okay. Gummy... worms?"

No dice.

"Oof. Yeah." Sadie raises her fist and shakes it in solidarity. "Are you a dog person?" she wants to know next. "We have bunnies. The ones I was telling you about. We call them Chuck and Fred because when we found them we were talking about horror movies." Her tone suggests this topic is not uncommon for the Mitchell sisters.

The absolute let down when it comes to the diner's lack of candy, a completely reasonable ask, slumps her shoulders a little. "I wish I carried emergency gummy bears. Maybe now I'll start. I have some at home. Wanna raincheck on the shakes?"

"More of a dog person, yeah," Barrett confirms. "Big dogs. Little dogs. In-between dogs. The kind that like to take up your whole bed, no matter their size. That kind of dog."

He looks mildly curious about the bunnies. "Why rabbits?"

"You like a bed hog." An imaginary notepad comes out, in which Sadie scribbles a note with an invisible pen, with the tip of her tongue poking out. "Mm*hm*."

Why rabbits? "Me and Louise, my sister, were at the garden one day a while ago and we heard this... singing. Like... you know Gremlins? It sounded like Gizmo, but it was a pink bunny... thing. Anyway, first we found one, then we found its friend. That's why they were singing. I know it's weird. So now we have them in our apartment."

There's a blank stare from the firefighter as he tries to figure out if she's being serious or not.

"Pink rabbits. That sing?"

And Sadie smiles. "Yep." And then, because she's cruel, she steals his last french fry. "I'm gonna make your life all kinds of interesting, I can tell."

Eventually they'll part ways, but only after having a nice long discussion about the benefits of gummy candy that shifts to a debate about something something peach rings vs those sour bacon belt things.