Chapter Text
"They really do have a planet for just about everything around here in the Triad, don't they?" Gloria sits up on the roof with Leif, watching the night life after their shift was over.
"Yeah, leave it to the Triad to operate like an outlet mall." Leif wasn't too far, tinkering his hands on a console that he acquired for David on their last stop while the young man explored out in the sprawling lights for nightlife. It bustled like an urban sprawl with various beats littering the air and light polluting similar to how California did if they hadn't been right off a freeway.
"Little shoebox stores..." Her voice was a bit tired, who knew how badly a planet dedicated to clubs and flashy casinos desperately craved a diner with in house cooking so badly. Much of her energy was wiped out for the night. Caspar offered up to clean up the store the way he had seen her do it. Dishes and all.
Those had been a pain in the ass since their last jump start.
Leif laughs. "No kidding, they're like rest stops with sideshow attractions. Anything to blow your time and hard earned currency to the Teds."
"I wonder if Earth took a page from their notebook or they thought it was entertaining enough to copy and replicate in space." It was hard to deny how much influence Earth had on the rest on the Galactica. Leif gives a half-hearted shrug while his fingers move. She had asked him to fix the kitchen. Maintenance during the middle of a rush and catch up. They hadn't caught up until their dinner rush left. Everyone was beat.
"I'm tired just looking at you guys. I had to get out and smoke ten million cigarettes. Drunk people get loud..." Ava had thrown earlier, sweeping the booths near hers before passing the broom back to Caspar to go smoke another in the parking lot.
"Colonialism is still colonialism wherever you go. No matter how it's dressed up or the chicken or the egg situation. Doesn't really matter who starts it, once a bighead adopts and administers the blow, it's the same wherever you go. It's like working out a math equation, sometimes you get the same answer after working it out with the same system as the asshat next to you."
"Is it more from a 'there's only so many ways to approach a math problem' way or more of a 'someone took the homework and changed it a little'?"
"With corporations and half thoughtout operations that rely on their neat paperwork system and an algorithm 'that never fails' to do it for them, there's pretty much no difference in their thinking process from one another. They might have carried one more one and crunched the number here or in one less step, but the outcome is still the same. Not because the math problem's solution is predetermined, but because they approach the problem similarly everything time and predetermined the desired outcome before they even sat down to work out the problem. Y'know, usually for something to gain or some goal in mind. It optimizes their output."
"Thinking of colonialism like a math problem makes my head hurt." Gloria sighs, laying on her back to watch the stars twinkle instead.
"Yeah, that's the game both Earth and the Teds bank on..." Leif switches from one small tool to another with a slight yawn. They were both worn out but somehow his fingers still needed the extra movement, likely the extra adrenaline from after the shift. Gloria settled hers with something of an alien beer he recommended. It tasted similar to a Modelo Negra, more malty and less like what she was used to back on Earth, but it did the trick. The bottle was as dark as the skies, bouncing city lights off of the smooth glass. The restaurant owner peels at the labeling out of habit.
She then rolls to her stomach and reached for the radio set that her engineer friend kept to listen to music other than quartets and praisal hymns from when their grandparents were young. She flicks through his songs until one of them she heard and liked before plays again. She enjoyed playing punk music in the dishpit at Jack-In-the-Box to make the long nights and many dishes go by faster. A few she recognized here and put on to stare up at the stars. Leif starts to mutter the lyrics to himself as he works. As if unconsciously.
"We should go out. We don't take off for another few hours." Leif suggests. "Take advantage of the wonderland while we can."
Gloria hums in amusement. "Wanting me to play hype man again?" Gloria stretches out, giving a yawn and sitting up again to peer over at his handiwork in his lap. "I usually end up reminding you of the count down when we go to more active, populated places like this."
Leif gives a laugh. "I was thinking of playing hype man this time." Gloria tilts her head at Leif in bewilderment.
"Why would you do a thing like that, Leif?" She laughs along.
"Come on, it could be fun. You never have a bit of fun for yourself." He elbows her lightheartedly with a bit of that playful tone. Gloria couldn't help laughing more.
"I think we have different definitions of fun. I like working for the diner and making sure everything goes smoothly. We can go out dancing and having a few drinks, but- I'm okay, Leif." It was still funny between them, and she did like going out with Leif to the nightclubs! He was a lot of fun and acted like his crazy, natural self in those moments.
She could tell it confused him a bit, though she wasn't going to elaborate. "...Are you sure?" Well, he asked. It was more in the way he asked it. She was okay with it, but she supposed she could go on a bit more.
"Yeah, I don't really think it's for me, y'know? Like, marriage or whatever. It feels more or less the same, going out to find someone for a night. Dancing is fun, but if it feels dancing with you or Ava when we're having fun." He gives a nod.
"Remember that time we peer pressured Caspar into drinking the last of the moonshine with us and the Mucklewains gave us that little shindig? Felt like I was in a speakeasy. Especially how Grandpa was dancing." He mutters the last part, reminding Gloria about Caspar's awkward white dad dancing. She erupts into laughter.
"No!" She howls, "you guys are terrible for that! I had to clean up broken glass from Ava's corner for a week and a half after that. She was hungover for a day and a half after." She leans against Leif, doubled over in laughter.
"They both were worse off for wear for a minute. It was pretty funny." Leif recounts fondly over his hungover friends.
"We should have known there was something going on between them around then." Gloria agrees, head on his shoulder and looking at her empty bottle. Reaching a hand for a new one to open.
"Oh yeah, they'd been at it for a while," there was a mental record scratch in Gloria's head, "I caught them a few times in the freezer right around the time you got here. They had to stop going in there when you made friends with the wolves."
"WHAT?!"
"What?" Leif deadpans. "Oh, you really don't know? Oh shit, that's new information for you, huh. One two many rounds were being olayed of Roll the Dice In the Walk-In, I got susoicious."
"What the fuck, Leif? Why didn't you tell me they were sneaking off to the walk in freezer?"
"Because they stopped after I walked in on them."
They both pause for a second, the pure look of disbelief and awe on Gloria's face was priceless.
The two both erupt into laughter after that. It carries off the roof until they're both weeping. Gloria struggled to keep herself from crying and leaking from her eyes down her cheeks. Leif's face turns bright red.
"What are you two chucklefucks giggling about up there?" Ava calls up, teasing the two. Gloria all but actually screams her laughter, choking on it until she forces herself a sip of her beer to wash down the harsh feeling in her throat.
"Oh, nothing, Ava. Just telling Gloria about the times I walked in on you and Caspar hiding off in the walk in like a couple of kids at a college party." Gloria nearly chokes on her intergalactic beer.
"Times?! Plural." Ava went silent, but Gloria could still see the embarrassment written all over her face.
"Oh yeah, they weren't very slick at all. I would have to go in for a restock before a shift or a midnight ice cream run in there and there they'd be!" Gloria's lips were trembling, she couldn't help the fits of laughter.
"I'm going back inside now. Thanks for ruining my cigarette."
"In all fairness, I should have seen this coming. She's been wearing Caspar's clothes since- oh my god, Ava's been wearing his clothes since the Teds took him. That was months ago."
"Yeah." Leif struggles not to laugh through his smile.
"I'm leaving now!" Ava heads back into the diner with a jingle and a slam. Gloria giggles.
"I can't believe I didn't realize it. They'd been acting like a married couple for..."
"Ever? Like, forever?"
"Yeah! Leif, how did I miss this?" He gives her a shrug.
"I dunno, They'd been like that a few weeks before you got here. It was just more..." He pauses, "repressed sounds like a good word. Like they were both embarrassed of each other."
"Oh my god. They're like college kids." Gloria snickers, bracing herself against his arm.
"Gloria, you're going to push me off of the roof and I'm taking you with me."
"I'm- I'm sorry. They just-"
"I have a feeling they're going to freak about it for a while." The engineer sets the console to the side. "Let's run the town, paint it red and show them how Earthlings bust a move."
"I don't think humans 'bust moves' anymore."
"Well, shit. They did in '99."
"Leif, that was nearly thirty years ago."
"What do kids these days say?" Gloria shrugs.
"I never used TikTok but I think somewhere along the lines of rizzling."
"What the fuck is- what does that mean?" Leif knits his brows together.
"It's like game. Being smooth, I think. David told me about it, more as a joke."
"Huh..." There's a beat of silence.
"We should go though, before they start going on and on over explaining themselves. Then they'll never...get together." Gloria pieces together the words as she says them.
"That's a good idea." Leif agrees and helps her stand to her feet. Gloria dusts themselves off before they scurry down the side of the diner.