andhiswife | (no subject)

Regardless of whatever else Darrow throws at her, her job at the Gardens remains a merciful constant. Greta arrives early in the morning, well before most of the children are even awake. (Rising at an ungodly hour still comes naturally to her from her years of co-running a bakery, so she might as well put it to good use.) The halls are quiet and empty, unless one of the cats has come to greet her, and she's able to get started on breakfast without interruption.

More often than not, she's able to finish breakfast without interruption, too. But there are exceptions; any number of things might drive a child out of bed early, and it's not that unusual for said child to come down to the kitchen for some company (or a fortifying biscuit).

So, she's not terribly surprised when the door eases open while she's still in the middle of kneading dough, flour up to her elbows. "Good morning," she says, still focused on her work. "Breakfast is still a ways off, but if you want a snack, you'll have to rummage for it yours--" and then she looks up, realizes it's an unfamiliar lad whose found his way in, and blinks in surprise. "Oh, hello. Have we met?"

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Peter opens his mouth to open before pausing because, well...

"I'm not sure. I mean it was back home but I don't know if it's supposed to be here, too."

He has kind of told a lot of people. Like, a lot. Plus it doesn't seem very likely that bad guys are gonna come attack the nice baker in the orphanage for info on him. There are way better superheroes in this city. It's kind of stuffed with them.

"I got bit by this spider, but like a special one. Gave me weird powers. Not like, gross ones. But my metabolism is insane high so I eat a lot."

Whether it qualified as a secret or not was, she'd assumed, a matter of personal preference. Whatever hints he might drop, it's not her intention to pry. So she's surprised when he starts talking about whether or not it's supposed to be a secret, as if it isn't entirely up to him. Or wasn't, where he came from.

It doesn't take him long to decide that it's not a secret here, at any rate. Greta pulls a face in spite of herself at the explanation. "A spider? That sounds... unpleasant." Spider bites, in her experience, don't give the receiver anything more exciting than a nasty welt.

"I'll be sure to adjust my portions, then," she adds with a wry smile. "Can't have you eating us out of house and home."

"Yeah, the bite sucked and then it made me crazy sick and then I thought I was going to maybe turn into one before it all settled down," he says, settling on a stool and stuffing the other bagel into his backpack.

"Tell me if I'm taking too much, though. I mean stealing from actual orphans is pretty bad. So you don't live here, right?"

"Does that sort of thing... happen, where you're from?" she asks, looking up from her work in surprise. "People turning into spiders?" Ugh. "Sounds ghastly."

'Actual orphans' seems a slightly odd turn of phrase from someone who presumably doesn't have any parents here, but she doesn't comment on it. He might just mean that he has parents back home. Or maybe he just doesn't want to lump himself in with the other children, which, given his age, isn't terribly surprising.

So she moves onto his question, shaking her head. "I don't, no. I have a place nearby, a little outside of town. It's an easy enough walk from here, if you ever want to stop by. Though I can't promise it'll be much quieter than here, between my daughter and the dogs." She smiles fondly at the thought of them -- and at the fact that Saoirse is capable of being noisy, now -- moreso than before she got her coat, at any rate.