Imperial Coffee

View: Part Eight

A/N: I'm traveling from tomorrow to Saturday, so I'm updating this week early! Enjoy the fluff and overly lengthy descriptions~ SHOUT OUT TO THE GREAT PERSON WHO TRANSLATED THE PORTUGUESE FOR ME!

Cinder felt oddly proud when Kai oohed and aahed at the tram system.

"I thought the Bay Area had pretty good public transportation, what's so special about this one?" Cinder asked. She hadn't needed to go very many places in NorCal yet, though she'd taken a few buses and the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) once. She wasn't used to it, and it didn't often cross her mind to use either since the public transportation in LA was so poor. So the fact Kai would be impressed by this one seemed weird, but gratifying. As much as she tried to escape it, SoCal was very much still hers.

"It's less crowded, no one's blasting loud music, and this tram has a view," Kai said, pointing a finger down the mountain at the city sprawled out beneath them. In the distance, more mountains faded into the bright afternoon sky.

"Now that I think about it, you probably have someone driving you around most of the time anyway, right?"

Kai nodded. "Yeah, but often public transportation is faster. At least Bart. You should know by now traffic's not super great where we live either."

"True. I guess I haven't been around much yet."

"Do you know anyone in the area?"

"Besides Cress, my boss, and some fellow employees? Not really. I know how to get to the places I need to go, but not much else."

"What about Thorne?"

Cinder stiffened. "What about him?"

"He hasn't taken you around places either?"

"He would take me back from work when it got dark, but we didn't really go a lot of places with each other. We were both busy."

Kai could tell he'd hit a nerve. He regretted it only a little, though; it was pretty clear to him that Cinder and Thorne needed to make up. Maybe Cinder thought she had fully distanced herself, but Kai could tell she wasn't over him. Not really.

Friendship was often something you didn't notice the importance of until it was taken away from you.

"You know what I love about museums?" Kai said, trying to pass by the tension.

"What?"

"The museum itself is art. I'm only a little fan of art myself, but the buildings always make it worth it."

"I agree." Cinder nodded, then smiled and looked up the mountain towards where the Getty had to be. "But you won't know what you're talking about until you see this one."

"Wow," Kai said when he stepped out of the tram.

"Wow is right."

The placed they stepped into was made of white stone. Though the buildings were still for the most part out of view, what he could see was modern and made him feel like he was at a resort for the very rich and sophisticated. Despite there being other people around them, the space felt open, not cramped.

Cinder lead him up the stairs past a Greek sculpture to the top. He saw the buildings now, and he didn't know anything about architecture, but in that moment he wished he did only to describe what his eyes were seeing.

"This is unfair," he said, looking up and around. In the distance he could see a fountain gurgling over rocks. The entire place was made of the same white stone, except for the buildings, though they were still the same color. The issue with white buildings was that they were quick to show dirt, but it was clear these ones were taken good care of.