Food for Thought

It takes me a while to snap out of the post-orgasm daze I find myself in, but eventually, I manage to pull myself together enough to realize that I should probably join Luck for some lunch. I quickly step out of the storage room and swing by my desk to grab the lunch box I packed while making breakfast this morning. I didn't make anything too fancy, just a turkey sandwich and a few sides like a bag of chips and some carrots, but for me, that's more than enough to keep me going for the rest of the day. Once I have my food, I remember Luck mentioning that she noticed the office break room. Normally, I just eat at my desk since that has the lowest chance of me having to interact with any of my coworkers during my break, but I guess just this once won't hurt.

I make my way to the break room and poke my head in to see if anyone is there. However, to my surprise, the room is completely empty. Strange. I thought Luck warped over her the second she was done... doing that thing to me. God, even the slightest thought about that sends a small shudder through my body.

"Luck? Hello? You in here?" I ask as I step into the room.

"Took you long enough," I hear a voice say directly into my ear.

In a moment of shock, I jerk involuntarily and stumble forward. Once I regain my balance, I turn to see Luck standing behind me, trying to stop herself from laughing.

"Hey! Don't appear behind me like that! You about gave me a heart attack!" I cry.

"Sorry. I just couldn't help myself. There's nothing quite like the reaction you get after popping up in whatever direction someone's not looking," Luck giggles.

"Well, can you not? I'm not sure how many more times I can handle it."

"Oh, quit being so dramatic. Would it kill you to try and enjoy yourself a little more? Oh, wait. That's right. You're Mr. Grumpy Pants, so it probably would."

I just roll my eyes at Luck's comment and try to ignore her as I sit down to eat. She can call me whatever silly names she wants. I've dealt with far worse, so if she wants to tease me with stupid insults all the time, she can knock herself out.

As I take out my food and prepare to start working on it, I notice that Luck is still standing in the middle of the room. When I look over at her, something strikes me as odd. She doesn't seem as confident as she usually does. She glances around the room nervously, and I can make out the tiniest hint of red on her cheeks. I wonder what's up with her all of a sudden.

"You okay?" I ask, causing her attention to snap to me.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I just realized I didn't actually bring anything with me to eat. I'm trying to figure out what I should do. I'm not sure what the easiest way to get something is," she explains.

"Really? Honestly, I'm kind of surprised someone like you even needs to eat," I mention to her.

"Why do you say that? I need energy just like you do," she says as if it was obvious.

"I don't know. You clearly operate on different rules. It doesn't seem like the biggest stretch to think that you don't need to eat," I argue before a thought occurs to me. "Hey, why don't you just use those crazy powers of yours to create some food for yourself?"

Hearing me say that causes Luck's face to turn a much deeper, much more noticeable shade of red. She fidgets with her hands and seems to have trouble looking me in the eye. Her change in demeanor catches me off guard a little. She normally has so much confident, it's weird to see her look... embarrassed, maybe? It's kind of hard to read what's going through her mind right now.

"Um... yeah... about that... Remember when I said my specialty was changing people?" She asks in a weird half-whisper.

"Yeah?"

"Well, that's really where most of my skills lie. I'm not great at making things on my own..."

"What do you mean 'not great?'" I ask curiously.

"Just... here. Watch this."

I stare at Luck as she turns away from me and begins to move her hands around in front of her. With her back to me, I can't actually see what she's doing, but based on her movements and the occasional grunts she lets out, it seems like she's putting considerable effort into whatever it is. It's a pretty stark contrast from the total silence of her altering Carmen's mind earlier.

After waiting for about a minute, Luck turns back around, but this time, she's holding something in her hands. It's a bit hard to tell what it is, but upon further examination, my best guess is that it's supposed to be a slice of pizza. However, the pizza is completely deformed and looks totally inedible. The dough appears to be both undercook and rubbery, it's shape slowly warping in Luck's hands as she holds it. The sauce drips out, it's color less of a vibrant red and more an unsettling brown. There is barely any cheese scattered on the slice, and the pieces that are there look weirdly hard. And I can't even make out what other topping are on it, as they all just look like nondescript blobs of various colors. Not to mention that the entire thing gives off an unpleasant odor that I didn't even know food could have.

"Okay, yeah. I see what you mean. Now can you please get rid of that thing before I lose my appetite?" I request, unable to tear my eyes away from the monstrosity.

"If I really spend a lot of time working at it, I can usually make something that's at least half-functional, but that's about as good as it gets," Luck says as she walks over to a nearby trashcan and chucks her abomination inside. She then quickly warps to the sink to wash her hands.

"Wait a second..." I mumble as something dawns on me, "Is that why that dumb remote you tried to give me looks like an old hunk of junk with only two buttons?"

Luck blushes even harder than she already was. She bites her lip and looks down at the ground in front of her, which is all the answer I need.

"Oh my god, it is! That's why the person using it doesn't have any control over what it does. It's not because you wanted it to be random or whatever. It's because you weren't physically able to make it any more complex!" I exclaim my epiphany.

"Who says I didn't do it for both reasons? Two birds with one scone, right?" Luck asks as she turns away from me and hides behind some of her hair, playing with it a little as she does so.

"Sure. Whatever you say..."

Luck glances over at me, then does a double take. She still seems a bit more shy than normal, but a smile reappears on her face, albeit a softer one than usual.

"Well, would you look at that? It looks I was finally able to make the first real step in helping make your life better, even if it wasn't quite in the way I was expecting..." Luck says joyfully.

At first, I'm not really sure what Luck is talking about, but after a few seconds, it suddenly occurs to me what she's looking at that has her so happy. I vaguely feel the sensation of my lips curving upward on my face. I'm smiling. If Luck hadn't pointed it out to me, I don't think I would have even noticed. Looking back, I suppose this is the first time she's seen me like this. Though it's not like I was happy all the time before she showed up. Quite the opposite, in fact. It's pretty rare for me to find any kind of enjoyment in my current life.

I can't help but let out a small chuckle once the realization washes over me. To think that she was that delighted with herself just to know she was the one who got me to grin, even despite the embarrassment she was feeling not even two seconds prior. Something about that is amusing to me.

"Alright, fine. You got me. Now sit down so we can have lunch. We don't have much time before we need to get back to work," I tell her, a faint smile still resting on my face.

"But I still don't have anything to..."

Luck's voice slowly fades as she look over at me. She watches in fascination as I pull out a napkin and lay my sandwich on top of it. I then grab one corner in each hand and begin slowly attempting to tear it in two equal-sized pieces.

"Sorry. I don't have a knife on me, so this is the best I could do. You can have the bigger half if you want though," I say as I hold up one piece of the sandwich to her.

Luck doesn't move a muscle, just quietly staring at the ripped piece of food in front of her. She's softly breathing out of her mouth, and her eyes have a weird shine to them that causes me to raise an eyebrow when I see it.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"Uh... yeah, I'm fine. I just... wasn't expecting you to... er... well..." Luck stumbles out, trying and failing to find the right words.

"It's a sandwich, Luck. Don't think too hard about it. Just take it," I instruct her.

This time, Luck simply smiles as she finally sits down and takes the food from my hand. I notice just how hot she is as her hand brushes against mine when she takes her half. She brings it up to her mouth, but pauses before she actually takes a bite.

"You're a good person, you know that, Kyle?"

"Well, one of us has to be," I respond jokingly, which causes Luck to snicker.

"Hey, I don't mind being the bad girl," she fires back.

It seems like Luck is back to her typical, overly-enthusiastic self. Honestly, it was kind of weird there for a minute, seeing her act more subdued. Anyway, Luck and I split the rest of my lunch, chatting about various things as we do so. You would almost think we were just two friends hanging out. However, the surprisingly pleasant encounter is eventually cut short when Carmen walks into the room.

"Kyle? What are you doing in here? You're supposed to be fixing that atrocious mess you made in the storage room," she explains in a nasty tone.

"I have a half-hour break for lunch," I remind her.

"And I saw you come out 35 minutes ago, which means you've already gone over that limit," she claims, which is a blatant lie. Working for Carmen, I've gotten pretty good at keeping track of time, so I can say pretty confidently that we're only just now approaching the 20-minute mark of our break. Of course, knowing that doesn't matter much since I can't exactly argue with my boss. "Enough sitting around. Get back to work."

"Yes, Ma'am," I sigh.

As Carmen grabs a box of food out of the fridge and leaves the room, I notice Rae standing in the hall staring at me with a smug grin.

"Yeah, Kyle. You better get back to it. Wouldn't want to cause any more issues, now would you?" She ask before holding out a large stack of folders. "Oh, and some of the sale team downstairs said that these needed filing too, so you should probably get on that."

I grit my teeth before standing up and walking over to Rae. I hold out my hand to take the files, but the instant they touch my skin, Rae suddenly tips them slightly, causing them to fall to the ground, papers slipping out onto the floor.

"Whoops. You really have some butter fingers there, Kyle. I'd help, but I'm just so busy today. You don't mind handling it, right? Thanks," she quickly spits out before slinking down the hall and around the corner, out of sight.

Luck jumps to her feet and helps me pick up the papers scattered on the floor.

"Those two are the worst," I mutter under my breath.

Luck gives me a contemplative look, but doesn't actually say anything. Then, once we finally manage to round everything up, she places a hand on her chin.

"Hey... Totally hypothetical question, just out of curiosity, if you were able to get back at one of those two, which one would you choose? Or at least, which one would you be more interested in getting back at first?" She asks me.

Wow. Real subtle there, Luck. Can't imagine why she could possibly be interested in that information...

"Do you seriously think I'm dumb enough to fall for that?" I ask her.

"Come on. It's just a simple question," she retorts. "Besides, you should know by now that I'm not one to just let things go, so you might as well answer it now before I end up pestering you for the rest of the day. So who would you pick? Carmen or Rae?"

As bad as Luck is at hiding her desire to do something with one of my coworkers, her question actually does make me stop and think for a moment. Obviously, I still don't really want Luck to use her powers to try and fix my life, but I can't stop myself from evaluating the scenario she's presented me with. Maybe that's my analytical mind talking. Though it also doesn't help that I know she's being serious about continuing to bugging me. She's persistent, I'll give her that.

I guess the question she's really asking me is which one pisses me off more, which is tough. On one hand, Carmen is impossible to please, and her deceitfulness is so infuriating. It feels like she's constantly manipulating her employees just to try and squeeze out every drop of productivity she can get. And what's worse, I'm the only one who even care, though that might be partially due to the fact that she seems so much harder on me than anyone else. I can't remember the last time I didn't end the day being completely fed up with her bullshit.

On the other hand, Rae is such a frustrating person to deal with. It always has to be her way. We literally have the exact same job title, yet she never seems to do her share of any work we get assigned. And everyone just lets her get away with it. But it's not enough to just get out of doing work. She also feels the need to taunt and make fun of me at every turn. I'm so sick of her trying to make my life even more difficult for no other reason than that it amuses her.

Huh. Man, that's a more difficult choice than I thought it would be. Both of them are just so awful. But I guess if I really had to pick, I think I would go with...