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Quinn glared at her and then grunted. “There is no label maker since I didn’t see the point of one. But yes, I was trying to be funny.” Now that she’d called him out about it, he just felt awkward.
She still chuckled and went back to setting up the basket. There were plates nestled in the lid and silverware buckled in. “Just for that, I’ll color up a label myself.”
“I can’t tell if you’re saying that to annoy me, or if you are saying it to annoy me in a way I am supposed to find endearing,” Quinn informed her as he settled down on the blanket with her.
“Definitely the second one until you see what it looks like.” She brought sparkling juice and a flask of water for him with chunks of ice.
“I think I should be afraid.”
Her shoulders shook with unexpressed laughter. She served chicken parmesan in deep set plates. Laying out the grapes and a side of garlic bread, she sat, looking out at the stars, which had not changed during their stay there. “I’ve always wanted to do this.”
“Have a picnic on a space station?” Quinn looked at her quizzically, since it was a bit of an odd thing to have always wanted.
“Well, the space station wasn’t really a requirement. Usually picnics are in parks or other grassy areas, but I would have felt ridiculous asking any of the crew.” It meant she’d reserved her odd request just for him.
“Oh, so just the picnic part.” Quinn scratched his neck absently. “And you decided to invite me on this thing you’ve always wanted to do?” While he wasn’t openly calling her crazy, the look he gave suggested that was what he thought.
“Yes,” the confidence with which it came out and the way she grinned after solidified the crazy for him. “Is it so odd that I might invite you to do something that means something to me?”
“Little bit. But not so much as it did in the past.” He still didn’t quite get why she had practically forced a friendship upon him, but he was, at the very least, not having another breakdown over it.
He focused on eating his meal. A thought occurred to him and he frowned, trying to push it aside. Eventually, he realized he should say it, but he didn’t want to. So much like her, he hemmed and hawed rather than communicating.
“Max will arrive tomorrow,” she informed him after another beat. “He is going to accompany me onto the Eikos while I finish out the paperwork for our stay.”
“The vicar? Why am I not surprised he is the first one coming back?” Quinn snorted. He remembered the man from their brief meeting and honestly, if he’d had to guess which member of the crew would have harassed him the most, it would have been the priest.
“He was not going to be on this trip originally, but he is nothing if not punctual.”
“Aye, I suppose he is at that,” he agreed with a nod of his head. “I looked up a list of questions you can ask to make small talk. They all seemed a bit silly, like asking who you would choose to have dinner with.”
“Is it supposed to be the one where you can have dinner with anyone dead or alive?” Popping in a grape, it let out an audible pop as she bit down.
“Yeah, I think it is.”
“It’s meant to be a sort of test to see where your values lie,” she informed him. “Not a true test, but just a way to feel someone out. If they say a family member, then you know that’s something important to them. If they say someone famous, it depends on what they’re famous for, and it shows you what appeals to them.”
Kira peered over as if she still considered it. She asked him instead of answering, “Did you come up with an answer to it?”
“Not really. I’ve only ever eaten a meal with you, so I suppose you’d be my answer.” It was a fairly straightforward bit of thinking for him.
“It’s less of a compliment when you put it like that.”
“If you say so.” He finished eating, but lingered, looking her way, apparently curious to hear her answer.
“I don’t know myself. I did not meet my parents and I’m not sure I would want to. There’s no one out there that I think holds any great wisdom about the universe who hasn’t already said what they have to say...”
Quinn had no great insight to offer to Kira as she puzzled herself over the question. His response had been based mostly on the fact that she was the only person whose company he came close to enjoying, not that he would ever admit that aloud.
“Toke.” She finally decided on, but there was more to it. “Before he took me in. I would like to know the man he is to a stranger, to judge for myself.”
“Hmmm, I guess I can understand that.” He scratched at his nose. He would like to know what some of his researchers were like off of work. Or, he might have once long ago. These days, it was hard to see them as anything other than jailors who’d exploited him.
“I don’t-” Kira took a sharp breath, assuming his regular defensive position, arms around her knees, something he noted not absently but with all his being. “I don’t think Toke is necessarily bad, but I do not think he is as good as I once believed him to be, not that I’ve led a life without consequence, either.”
“I mean, based on what I’ve read about him, by the numbers, he breaks about even.”
“Do you research everyone you meet?”
