Chapter Text
It's the sign that makes Raven stop. The bulb for the 'r' is out, so it just reads 'The A k Cafe.' The lot is nearly empty. Raven brings her black Charger to a rumbling stop opposite a purple 18-wheeler and a biege station wagon that's old enough to be an antique.
Raven walks inside slowly. It's cold out, the last bit of winter still holding on. She's been driving for the past four hours. Her left leg is stiff and her brace is biting into her knee with every step.
The diner is designed like the 1950's. It's clean, but it's best days are clearly behind it. Dead center is an oval shaped bar surrounded by blue stools with silver trim. The place is more windows than walls, and every window has a booth with black pleather seats that seem well used, but comfortable enough.
Three of the four people inside briefly look up at her, then go back to their business. There's no sign that says seat yourself, but since no one comes to greet her, she does just that. The booth she picks is half the distance from the door. It gives her a great view of the place, her car, and the emergency exit to the left of the old man drinking a cup of coffee and reading a yellowed newspaper.
She looks over at the menu and thinks about picking it up. A waitress comes from the back and drops off a check for the man that didn't bother to look up from his laptop when she walked in. He doesn't even acknowledge the waitress, just keeps banging away at the keys.
When the waitress turns her way, Raven thinks stopping at The Ark Cafe might be the best decision she's made in a while, because she thought small town waitresses in late night diners were supposed to look like grandmas or like life's been way too hard. This waitress looks like she emerged from some 1950's pulp novel wearing a dress that's trying to be innocent while hugging her body in too many perfect places. She definitely does not look like anyone's grandmother.
"Welcome to The Ark. I'm Abby. What can I get for you?" Abby asks with a half smile and a warm expression.
"What do you recommend?" Raven asks as her eyes finally finish their trek up Abby's body.
"The Dunkin Donuts twenty miles outside of town."
Raven's laugh barks out of her throat and thoroughly surprises her. She hasn't heard that sound in, well... it's been a while. "Will you be at the Dunkin Donuts?"
"What do you think?" Abby asks.
"I think I'll stay here so you can bring me a cup of coffee and a slice of your least horrible pie. This way you get to make me laugh for a while longer."
"The coffee and the pie I can do. The laughter, I don't know about."
"That's fine, you're really hot, so getting to look at you is just as good."
Abby's half smile slides into indulgence. "I'll be back with your order."
Raven watches her go and can't help but smirk. When Abby looks back and catches her, the smirk turns into a full blown grin. If Bellamy were here, he'd bet her an insane amount of money, neither of them had, that she couldn't get Abby to take her home.
"She's out of your league, Reyes," he'd say.
"Nobody's out of my league, Bel."
"Alright then," he'd challenge.
Raven has never, in her life, been able to walk away from a challenge. It's responsible for 72% of the trouble she's ever been in. She actually wrote an algorithm once to figure that out. It was after a particularly outrageous incident, even by her standards, involving a bottle of tequila, a bicycle, a rope swing, and Octavia quoting obviously made up statistics.
Abby comes back with a piping hot cup of coffee, a bottle of honey, and a slice of cherry pie.
"What's the honey for?" Raven asks.
"Your coffee," Abby replies as she puts everything down on the table. When she leans over, Raven is momentarily distracted by the cleavage peeking out of Abby's dress.
Pulling her eyes away, Raven looks at the honey skeptically. "What kind of person puts honey in their coffee?"
"It's better for you, and it's delicious. Trust me," Abby says.
"I don't even know you."
"But you want to," Abby says.
She's got her there. They both know it.
"So what's the best way to get what I want?" Raven asks. Being straightforward has rarely let her down, and she sees no reason why that should be any different in some small town in the middle of nowhere.
"Drink your coffee," Abby says, half smile fighting its way back onto her lips.
Raven watches that smile and starts working on an equation that goes something like x(coffee + Abby) = orgasms. She doesn't think x equals honey, but for now she picks up the honey, squeezes some into her coffee, adds a little cream and takes a tentative sip.
"This is actually kinda fucking delicious," she says.
"I know," Abby's says.
"What time is your shift over?" Raven asks after another sip.
"Why?"
"I want to know how many hours I have to convince you to take me home."
Now it's Abby's turn to laugh. It's bright and full, and Raven can't help but smile even though the laugh is directed at her.
"What's your name?"
"Raven."
"Well, Raven. Thanks for that," Abby says. "And eat your pie." Abby winks at her then walks over to Yellow Newspaper Guy to refill his coffee mug.
Raven eats the pie. It isn't awful, though she's never actually had cherry pie before. There's probably better out there, but this is one of the more edible things she's had in some time. She takes another sip of her new favorite way to drink coffee and notices a small chip on the handle of the simple white mug. She rubs her index finger over it and decides she likes it. Likes that it's a little broken, but still doing it's job.
Raven looks around the diner again. Yellow Newspaper Guy is still reading. Laptop Guy is still banging away at the keys. There's a woman who just stares out the window, looking for something she probably won't find in the inky blackness outside. The last customer is another woman who was reading a book, but who's now staring directly at Raven.
Raven maintains eye contact, which in this part of the country apparently means come on over and have a seat.
"Hey, I'm Harper," she says as she slides into the booth.
"Raven."
"Not too many people my age hang around here," Harper offers.
It's not a question, so Raven keeps quiet.
"Where you off to?" Harper asks.
"Nowhere in particular."
"Sounds like a great place."
They just stare at each other quietly. It's not awkward, which is surprising. Raven doesn't know many people who don't like to fill long silences with noise. Harper's got a stillness to her that Raven appreciates.
It's broken when the diner door swings open and bangs heavily against the wall. A mountain of a man lumbers in and looks around until his eyes land angrily on Harper. Harper stiffens immediately.
"See you around, Raven." As quickly as she sat down, Harper's up even faster and out of the booth. When she gets to Angry Mountain Man, he clutches her by the shoulder and walks her out.
No one in the diner is paying attention, so this isn't new to them. Raven knows it's none of her business, but staying out of trouble has never been her thing.
She watches as they make their way to his car and she's halfway out of her seat when Abby sits in the spot Harper just left.
"Don't," Abby says.
"Why not?"
"Because I like having a woman half my age hit on me, and if you leave, who knows when that will happen again."
Raven looks at Abby, then out the window to Harper and Angry Mountain Man. He's already deposited her into the car, and is getting behind the wheel.
Raven reluctantly sits back down and the brief flicker of relief on Abby's face when she does holds her attention. "I could have taken him."
"I don't doubt it," Abby says, and Raven believes her even if they both know it's not true.
They stare at each other for a few moments beyond proper, Abby finally checking Raven out like she might want to do something about it. Raven knows she's hot, even after spending the last couple of weeks driving across the country. Even wearing simple, but super tight, black jeans, boots that she's kicked a lot of ass in, and a long sleeved purple Henley she's had since high school.
"You like what you see?" Raven asks.
"What would you do if I said yes?" Abby's smile is a puzzle.
"Say yes, and let's find out," Raven challenges.
"Hey, Abby! Can I get my check?" Yellow Newspaper Guy yells across the diner with the worst timing in the entire fucking world. Abby hesitates before getting up and Raven seizes the opportunity before it vanishes.
"What time is your shift over?" Raven asks again.
"Twenty minutes," Abby says, and she's gone before Raven's smile becomes obnoxious.
"Fuck, Reyes," Bellamy would say, after Raven got whatever woman she was talking up to agree to take her home. "Are you made of magic? Can I get some?"
"Nope. Some of us are born with it," she'd say. "The rest of us are you."
"Fuck you, bro," Bellamy would say as he downed the rest of Raven's beer, and stood up. "Don't call me to pick you up in the morning for your pre-dawn getaway." She always called him. And he always came. And she always bought him his favorite breakfast as a thank you.
"Love you too, Bellamy," Raven would say. And he'd wink and walk away because only one of them was allowed to say I love you at a time.
While Abby's taking care of Yellow Newspaper's check, what must be her replacement walks in. She looks more like what Raven thought a small town waitress would look like. Abby talks to the woman for a bit, and Raven can tell they're talking about her when the woman's eyes shoot over to her, then look away again when Abby slaps her on the shoulder.
After a few more heated moments of conversation, Abby takes her apron off and walks back over to Raven. "You ready?" she asks.
Raven looks down at the crumbs of her pie and her empty coffee cup, "What about my check?"
"On the house," Abby says.
"Alright then," Raven says as she grabs her jacket and tries not to be completely obvious about staring at Abby's ass as she follows her out of the diner.