Send me a ship and a number and I will write a kiss...
1. ...good morning.
Mei is awoken when rays of sunlight peek through the blinds of her on-base apartment’s bedroom window. The pockets of light become too irritating on her eyes and too warm on her cheek for her to simply turn over and return to slumber. So with a long yawn and a satisfying stretch that cracks her fingers and shoulders, Mei wakes up. The full-sized bed feels lighter than it did when she fell asleep. After a quick grab of her glasses on the nightstand, the empty, unmade other side of the bed becomes clear in her vision. It can only mean that Jesse is already awake.
Which is odd to Mei. Normally, Jesse and her wake up around the same time. He always gets up early to join Fareeha and Lena in an early morning jog before the daily Watchpoint briefings, while she usually needs extra time to set up in the lab. After cleaning up and getting dressed, they usually exchange swift hello’s and “Love you!”’s over quick breakfasts of cereal or granola bars before hurrying out the door and going their separate ways down the hallway. Something must’ve pulled him away.
She decides to wonder about it later as she stands up and slides her feet into the yeti slippers waiting for her at the foot of the bed. Already, she can feel the top strands of her hair sticking up where they’re not supposed to and knots in the lower layers. The bathroom and a hairbrush are her next destination and target.
That is until another odd occurrence catches her attention. When she reaches the door of her bedroom, her left hand instinctively reaches for Snowball’s charging port next to the door to wake the little drone. But her hand doesn’t touch the top of his smooth metal panel, instead it only moves awkwardly trying to clasp at open air.
Mei glances over and sees an empty charging port. Now that’s even more odd than Jesse’s disappearance. On the mornings where her shrill, holographic alarm clock isn’t enough to wake her, and Jesse isn’t around to gently shake her awake, Snowball is the one dispatching himself from the port to flutter around her and nudge her until she wakes up.
Come to think of it, Mei realizes, her alarm hasn’t gone off at all this morning.
Strange. Very strange.
She slowly opens the door, mentally starting to list a number of possible reasons that both Jesse and Snowball would be gone today. However, the list dissipates as fast as it began when, upon stepping into the living and kitchen area of the apartment, her senses are overwhelmed with the sweetest scents. She sniffs the air. Powdered sugar and...chocolate? Interesting.
Mei looks ahead and one mystery number is solved. There’s Jesse in the kitchen, at the stove. He’s still clad in pajamas made up of an old, worn rodeo t-shirt and flannel plaid pajama pants. In his flesh hand, he’s holding a spatula while his left, prosthetic hand holds the handle of a large pan.
“Well pick me up with golden hand, I may see you, I may tell you to run,” Jesse sings a tune that Mei heard in a movie once. Both the song and the movie they’d watch weeks ago were older than even Reinhardt. Jesse whistles a part that’s too fast for him before tapping the spatula against the side of the pan in rhythm as he continues, “Well, I would like to hold out my little hand...”
As he carries on his improv musical cooking session, still unaware of her presence, Mei scans the room for Snowball. She spots the little drone hovering over towards Jesse. There’s a bottle of maple syrup being balanced on top of his panel. Mystery number two solved.
However, Snowball notices her right away. His little screen eyes blink into a cheerful emoticon.
“M-E-I!” Snowball whirs.
This draws Jesse’s attention away from the stove and finally alerts him to Mei. He turns his head, his song goes quiet, and he smiles.
“Hey you,” Jesse says, “good morning.”
Mei makes her way over, finding a comfortable position next to Jesse. She loosely clings to his left arm and rests her head on his shoulder. The view gives her a full look at the stove, as well as two empty plates sitting on the nearby counter.
“Good morning,” she says, looking down at the pan. There’s a perfect circle of pancake batter filling it, with chocolate chips sprinkled about, floating in the batter like tiny islands in a sweet ocean. “You didn’t need to make breakfast for me.”
“Can’t go wrong with chocolate chip pancakes. Plus, Snowball insisted, and how can I say no to that face?” He takes another glance at her, focusing on the wavy mess of strands now sitting on his shoulder, and chuckles, “Nice hair.”
“Nice pants,” Mei playfully shoots back. “Plaid will definitely come back into style someday.”
Snowball makes his way over and delivers the maple syrup to Jesse. He grabs it with his free hand and places it aside on the counter next to the plates. His other arm shifts, signaling Mei to let go and move off of him as he now needs that arm to flip the pancake. Mei turns around and leans against the counter, lifting her arm to let Snowball hover to her and snuggle close to her. She gives the little drone a pet to his head.
“Sleep good, darling?” Jesse then asks.
Mei nods, “Like a baby. But,” she tilts her head suspiciously, “my alarm didn’t go off. I don’t suppose you had something to do with that?”
“I was going to surprise you, but I forgot you’re still a natural morning person. Besides, you were up late last night,” he nonchalantly answers. “Thought you could use the extra sleep.”
“It’s not that I don’t appreciate it,” Mei says, scooting around Jesse to walk over to the fridge. She opens it and looks around for a bottle of water, “But I hope Winston and Sojourn won’t be angry if we’re late to the briefing.”
She grabs the drink and closes the fridge. Upon turning back around, however, Mei is met with Jesse giving her the strangest look. His arms are folded, the spatula sticking out, and his voice is firm.
“Mei-Ling Zhou,” he says, “did you forget we have the day off today?”
Ah. Well. That explains it. Mystery number three solved.
She sheepishly grins, “I guess I did.”
Jesse laughs and turns his attention back to the stove, “Oh yeah. You definitely needed the extra sleep.”
Mei rolls her eyes and rejoins him at the counter.
“A day off,” she repeats as she opens the bottle’s cap. “We haven’t had one of those in a while. What should we do today?”
Jesse finishes the first pancake. A fluffy masterpiece brimming with the sweet scent of melted chocolate is lifted off the pan with the spatula and delivered to the first empty plate.
“Good question,” he says. “Maybe a nice stroll on the beach? Or we could head into town and see what’s on the market. Hell, I’d be fine with just flopping down on the couch and spending the whole day watching mindless holovids with you.”
Mei giggles and replies after taking a sip of her water, “Decisions, decisions. I know how I’m going to start my day off, though.”
“Oh?” He turns around to face her fully, “And what’s that?”
Mei places the water aside, steps forward, and leans into him. She wraps her arms around his shoulders. Jesse smiles and wraps his own arms around her waist, holding her comfortably close. It’s here that Mei notices a smudge of powdered sugar on his cheek. She moves one hand and quickly wipes it off with her thumb.
“Kissing the chef,” she says. She then cups his cheek with the same hand and moves to press her lips to his.
Jesse happily accepts. They stay locked together for a near minute. Snowball’s chirps of surprise and his immediate hover away to give them space doesn’t sway them in the slightest.
Finally, they pull away.
“The chef greatly appreciates it,” says Jesse.
He plants a quick peck of his lips to her forehead and lets her go. Mei laughs softly and moves to grab the nearby bag of chocolate chips. As Jesse returns to pouring the next batch into the pan, Mei plucks a single chocolate chip and pops it into her mouth.
Sweet, she thinks. Very sweet. And it’s not about the chocolate.
