The Breakfast Club

Whatever it was Pren picked up, she didn't seem to be willing to divulge details. She also still wasn't really looking at the counselor. Nope. Her attention, instead, gratefully, went to the waiter. She ordered considerably less than her male counterparts, but her choices were fairly refined Klingon dishes. "Oh," she added, "and a raktajino please and battertoast. Thank you."

She was sobering up slowly but surely and trying not to wonder what Regan was doing or think about what she pulled from Akh--oh, fuck it. "I've never been in love like that," she said suddenly, finally making eye contact with the Klingon. "I thought I'd been in love, but it wasn't like that."

"We all have our lost loves, don't we?"

For once, Akhil was not sure how to respond. He glanced at the Commander who, though he knew so much about the others, opened up so rarely. "Yes," he replied laconically. "I believe we have reached the melancholy hour that follows a great party." He pushed the Klingon coffee towards Pren, and took a swig from his own cup.

"Oh, I--" T'Pren started, mildly horrified that she'd unwittingly turned things sour. "I'm so sorry. Both of you. I was...curious." She stopped talking lest she make it worse, and drank from the raktajino to make sure she stayed shut up.

"Nothing to be sorry about!" Akhil replied. "It is natural. At Klingon parties, those who have not passed out from drinking bloodwine would now be launching into songs of epic battles and lost loves. I won't do either," he added reassuringly.

"It's quite alright. Nothing lifts the spirits like a pile of greasy, bloody sausages and wriggling organisms," he said, sipping his coffee as punctuation.

"You could do either one," T'Pren told Akhil with sweet smile to show she meant it. "Or both. I don't mind."

She drank more of her own coffee while she tried to figure out how to salvage the conversation and the mood. She finally settled on, "I'm always most grateful after I've been drinking that my dad didn't let my father turn me into a vegetarian. It's not nearly as satisfying to eat salad in the early morning hours."

Akhil grunted his approval around a mouthful of gagh, which he ate with great relish. "The body's fuel must have verve."