she's feeling kind of strange.

Who: Alyson and Marian
Where: Nighthawk’s Diner
When: barely after midnight

It wasn’t Alyson’s choice to brave the weather and venture out for a midnight snack, but Rabbit the Second had simply insisted. One did not argue with a hungry rabbit, and unfortunately, none of the snacks at home would do. She had tried everything -- carrots, lettuce, berries, bananas -- and it all gotten barely a nibble and then nudged away. If there was one thing that Alyson knew, it was that this particular rabbit would not rest until it was satisfied and had precisely what it was craving.

Blueberry pancakes, a bowl of strawberries, and vanilla ice cream on the side. That, Rabbit the Second had told her, would be where they would start.

She scooped the small lop-eared rabbit up, wrapping him in his winter scarf (a red and white plaid thing, ratty from the animal’s claws) and tucking him under her own jacket. She’d mastered positioning him just right. It took skill to hold both a rabbit and an umbrella during a storm, and it was a skill that Alyson would proudly boast about given the opportunity.

They ventured to Nighthawk’s Diner, braving the wind and rain, and all too glad once they reached the door. Inside, Alyson closed her umbrella and leaned it up against the wall. “Good evening,” she called, unbuttoning her coat to get to Rabbit, “or goodnight given the time, I suppose, but goodnight is a parting word and I’ve only just gotten here.”

Marian was still awake which was good because her visit to Alec’s had cut in on sleep for sure. But she was up and working, even though the storm was seeing to it that it was a slow night. Of course it meant even less than usual tips, but Marian was trying very hard to let that get to her. She had enough on her mind with everything Alec had said.

When the door opened Marian looked up from the salt shakers she was refilling on the counter. Smiling brightly she jumped up. “Evening works. You can sit wherever you want,” she said gesturing around the almost empty diner.

Alyson looked around the very empty restaurant and eventually settled on a booth a good distance from the door. It was too cold, and while it was unlikely that someone else would be opening it any time soon, she wouldn’t take her chances at having her dinner interrupted with an unfortunate breeze.

She took a seat and requested, “Can we have a chocolate mocca to start?” Coffee was sophisticated (in her mind, if no where else), which is what the Walker family had conditioned Alyson that she ought to be. She let the rabbit settle down beside her, though he didn’t appear too fond of the fabric of the booth. She glanced to him and gave a small nod. When she looked back up at Marian, she said, “Milk for him, please.”

Marian jotted what she wanted down on her notepad. She hadn’t actually noticed the bunny right away more focusing on what making sure the table had a menu and what Alyson was ordering. “Him...Oh!” she said looking up and spotting the bunny. “He’s very cute. I’ll be right back with that.”

“Thank you.” Alyson waited until Marian had moved at least slightly away before she scolded Rabbit. “You should take the compliment. Cute is a very nice thing to be called,” she insisted, patting his ears. “I know, I know. You’d much prefer handsome.”

Marian thought she heard the girl speaking and she turned her head to make sure she was speaking to Marian but instead she saw her speaking to the bunny. Smiling she shook her head a little and then headed back behind the counter to get the girl’s drinks. It didn’t take long before she was back at the table, with a mug for Alyson, a small cup of milk and a saucer for the rabbit. “Here you are. Do you know what you want to eat?”

Alyson thanked Marian again with a smile as she moved the saucer and cup to where Rabbit could reach it. The animal seemed content with this and busied itself lapping up the drink. “Ah, pardon him, he forgets to say his thank yous,” Alyson apologized. “We were hoping for blueberry waffles, some strawberries, and a little vanilla ice cream?”

“It’s okay, if he enjoys it, it’s thank you enough for me,” Marian said with another smile. She wrote down the order again and nodded. “I think we can arrange that. Anything else?”

“That’s all for now,” Alyson beamed up at Marian. She’d always found it hard to imagine what it would be like to work at a place like this all night. The dark alone was enough to put a damper on her mood. She couldn’t imagine having to tolerate the night time and an empty diner all at once (she’d had a discussion, once, with Rabbit the Second, on just how eerie she found diners to be).

“Coming right up then,” Marian said with a nod before she went back behind the counter to put the order up for the cook. He glanced at it a still strangely, since most orders this later were coffee and dinner food, but all Marian could do was shrug. He rolled his eyes and went about making pancakes while Marian found the ice cream and strawberries.

As it was, Alyson wasn’t aware that her order could be considered ‘strange’ at all. Her favorite part about diners had always been the delight that was the ‘twenty-four-hour’ breakfast, her personal favorite meal of the day. Her rabbit preferred lunch, because despite his fussing, Alyson insisted that carrots were lunch food and not for breakfast.

She carefully sipped on her coffee, nose wrinkling as she burned her lip. That was something she always ended up doing with a hot drink, no matter how much precaution she took.

Marian had just finished scooping the ice cream into the little bowl for it when the cook dinged the bell for the order being up. Looking up she gave him a playful scowl. “You know you could have just said something. I’m right here.” And she was the only one there. One waitress had called in sick and the other had been sent home because it was such a slow night. She’d been more than willing to let Marian handle the place on her own. He shrugged and hit the bell again out of spite. Shaking her head she grabbed the plate and added it to her tray before she took it back towards Alyson’s table. “Here you are,” she said as she set everything down and produced a knife and fork. “Everything look alright?”

“Everything looks perfect,” Alyson insisted, taking the silverware. She stabbed a strawberry with the fork and held it down so Rabbit the Second could nibble on it. “Have I been your only customer tonight?”

“Good,” Marian said with a smile. The question had her letting out a big sigh as she rested her hip against the table. “One of the only ones. I’ve got you and two guys earlier who only ordered coffee and pie.” She rolled her eyes a little. “It’s still a little early in the night for me though. Maybe it’ll get better?” She glanced towards the windows along the front of the diner as the rain poured. “Maybe not though.”

Alyson took a bite of her pancakes, covering her mouth while she chewed (another attempt at being ‘polite’). “It is a nasty night,” she said after she’d swallowed. “It was a nightmare getting here. I felt like I was crossing an ocean!”

“You might have been,” Marian said as she shook her head. “Just when we get used to it not raining and thinking that it might actually just stop it starts again. I don’t know why I expected differently.” She sighed again then smiled at Alyson. “Do you need anything else?”

“Oh, no, I’m fine,” Alyson assured her. “I’m sorry!” She must have been keeping Marian from doing something she needed to, leaving a guilty feeling in her stomach.

“Sorry?” Marian asked curiously. “For what! You haven’t done anything. Why would you be apologizing?”

Alyson hid her face by looking down at her meal, poking at the pancakes with her fork. “Oh, no, I just felt like I was keeping you... from your important... diner duties.” That didn’t come out right at all. ‘Diner duties’ sounded a little too... well, okay, humorous and it was enough so to make her laugh.

Marian smiled at the laugh even if it wasn’t terribly funny. “No you aren’t keeping me from work. Refilling the salt shakers is pretty heavy stuff but I think it can wait. Most people don’t want to chat with their waitress.” Actually only Alec seemed interested in talking to her more than just the standard waitress conversation.

“That’s too bad,” Alyson told her. “It seems like it would be boring to simply come in, say hello, eat, and say goodbye.” It also narrowed down the ‘adventure’ that was going out to eat.

Marian shrugged a little. “It’s normal I guess. People come to eat or talk to other people, not me. I just work here.” She was used to being part of the background, that was the job.

It was a job that Alyson would never understand. To her, everyone was a key part to whatever story they were currently in. “People tend to get caught up in their own little worlds.” She looked down at Rabbit the Second who was licking the rim of his bowl. “Like Rabbit the Second, for instance. He’s all about himself.”

“Well he is a rabbit. I imagine being such an adorable rabbit is not an easy life to live.” Marian smiled at the rabbit eating happily. “People do and at the same time they don’t consider the help someone who’s worth their time.”

“I think you’re worth my time,” Alyson piped up, scratching behind Rabbit’s ear. “He agrees, though, that it isn’t easy being an adorable rabbit. He’s full of himself.”

“I think he has at least some right to be,” Marian said. “But it is nice to be worth someone’s time. I appreciate it.”

“Of course,” Alyson smiled, watching as Rabbit shook his head and rubbed at his ear. “Do you always work the night shifts?”

“Mostly yes. Someone has to. I sometimes cover a day shift here and there.” Marian shrugged. “It pays the bills really. And I get to work more often if I work this shift.”

Paying bills was something that Alyson, thankfully, had never had to worry about, and as much as she tried to wrap her head around the concept and be worldly, she simply couldn’t. “I guess that makes sense.” There was something clear about how she said it that proved she didn’t quite grasp the concept. She never would have thought of herself as spoiled. Lucky, maybe, but not spoiled.

Marian knew what that meant. It wasn’t lost on her that the comment was said in a manner that she didn’t understand. She smiled sweetly as if she understood Alyson’s confusion. “It does. I’m Marian by the way.”

“I’m Alyson,” Alyson replied. “Alyson Walker. And this charming fellow,” she motioned to the rabbit beside her who had now hopped half-into his milk cup, “is Rabbit the Second.”

“Pleasure to meet you both,” Marian said with another smile. “The second hm? Is he a junior then, his father was Rabbit the First?” It was something Marian remembered from the way they named kings in history.

“Well... no.” That seemed like an interesting story, one Alyson would keep in mind for future Rabbits, but it wasn’t the case for the current title holder. “He... is just my second rabbit.” She gave a soft laugh. “The first rabbit was like a grumpy old man.”

“Well it’s still fitting, especially if he’s the second.” Marian smiled again, but she found herself hating herself for it. Here she was, making a show of being happy and yet it was a front. Just like Alec had said. The smile faltered just a tiny bit, but she managed to hold on to it. “How can a rabbit be like a grumpy old man?”

“It was in his eyes,” Alyson told her, “and the things he said.” Emotions were something that Alyson had trouble grasping. She wasn’t in tune with much of anything, really. “He’d talk all, ‘Get those kids off my lawn,’” she explained, imitating her best ‘old man’ voice.

What the rabbit said? Marian couldn’t help the funny look on her face even though she was pretty sure she was suppose to laugh at the old man voice. All she could think about though was the fact that this girl seemed completely off her rocker. “I wouldn’t have thought about it that way.” Like how rabbits could talk.

“You wouldn’t?” Off her rocker was, of course, the easiest and most accurate way to describe Alyson. “How would you have thought about it?”

“I’m not sure to be honest. I’m um...your rabbit talks?” she asked then flushed a little pink. She probably shouldn’t have asked that.

The question didn’t phase Alyson in the least. It wasn’t the first time she’d been asked that and it wouldn’t be the last. “Everything talks,” she explained. “My rabbit, this pancake,” she held up her fork, “this fork. Everything. You just have to listen.”

Everything? Everything talked. It was a little ridiculous, there was no denying that much and Marian couldn’t keep it off her face. “Just have to listen?” she asked even though she had no idea why she was asking it. She was trying to have a rational conversation with a crazy person who heard voices.

“Yes,” Alyson answered. It was that look again, the look she got when people couldn’t follow her anymore. She only wished she could understand why. “Do you ever just close your eyes and open your ears? Sometimes it’s faint, but it’s always there.”

“I...uhh. No, I don’t.” Marian was trying, she really was. It reminded her of the conversation with Angelo, about how things are different than how people see them, but at the same time, that was art. This was bordering on insanity.

Bordering on insanity was being generous, as Alyson was certainly not all there. “You should sometimes,” she told her, feeding Rabbit the Second another strawberry. “You’d be surprised what you can learn.”

“Like what?” Marian found herself asking, completely unsure as to why she was asking. But for some reason, whatever it was, she wanted to find out what she was apparently missing from not listening to everything like a crazy person.

Alyson gave a soft, “Hmm,” as she tried to decide what would make the most sense to someone who didn’t ‘get it’. “Feelings,” she started. “If you know how the room feels, you know how the people within it feel.”

“Wouldn’t the how the people in the room feel justify how the room feels, not the other way around?” Marian asked. That was how it felt at least. If the diner was full of happy people, it was a happy place to be. If it was a bleak night like tonight, the patrons were bleak and the overall feel of the place was one of longing for something better.

“It depends on the room,” Alyson said after some thought. “When you enter a room with antiques, do you not feel time?” Time wasn’t an emotion to most, but clearly, Alyson thought it was.

“I...no. Not really I don’t think. Do you?” Marian really couldn’t shake the confused look on her face but at the same time she was interested in what Alyson had say. Interested enough that she found herself slipping into the booth across from her, eyes wide as she listened.

“Yes, of course,” Alyson responded, her eyes equally wide. It never ceased to amaze her that people could simply not ‘get it’. “It’s the same with clocks. Clocks feel nothing but time.”

“Clocks tell time, but they don’t really feel anything. A clock is just a thing,” Marian tried to explain. “The only purpose of a clock is to tell time if that’s what you mean.”

Alyson narrowed her eyes for a moment before accusing, “How rude. I suppose you think a cup is just a thing, too, then, don’t you?”

Marian was surprised at Alyson’s reaction and she couldn’t help but lean back a little. “What else is there to think of it as?”

“A cup is a cup, and it has feelings, just like anything else,” Alyson replied, picking up her coffee mug to try and ‘show’ Marian what it means. “This cup, for instance, prefers to be warm and likes to be held. He’s content, despite your accusation that he is just a thing.”

This time Marian looked around a little not quite sure how to handle the fact that the mug in Alyson’s hand apparently had feelings. The girl was clearly off her rocker to the point where Marian was worried that she might have escaped from Bedlam. “It’s a mug Alyson,” she finally said softly.

Alyson covered the sides as if trying to cover its ears. She gave Marian a defeated frown and set the mug back down. “A mug can be another word for face, crude as it is, and people have faces,” she commented quietly.

Marian opened her mouth to respond, but somewhere in Alyson’s circular logic she’d gotten lost. Instead of saying something she just wound up frowning and shaking her head a little. “I suppose that’s right,” she said finally still looking puzzled.

Alyson nodded, blonde hair falling briefly into her eyes. She brushed it away and said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten so upset.”

That left Marian feeling worse and she reached across the table to put her hand on Alyson’s. “Now sweetie. You’re fine,” she said in her best waitress voice. “You want me to call someone for you?” Like your doctor?

“No, it’s quite okay,” Alyson assured her. “We’ll just finish our pancakes and head on our way. How much do we own you, Ms. Marian?”

Marian still looked worried, but she didn’t think there was much she could do about the situation. Reaching into her apron pocket she pulled out the ticket and scanned it over, scribbling Alyson’s total at the bottom and handing it over. “Here you are,” she said as she stood. “Let me know if you need anything else before you go.”

“I will, thank you,” Alyson said with a smile. She returned to eating her meal (and giving Rabbit the rest of the strawberries) before she paid the tab and left a nice tip on the table. Once she finished, she scooped Rabbit the Second up, bundling him once more, before she grabbed her umbrella and ventured out into the treacherous morning.