Entry 3 - Leslie and Mai

Leslie groaned as she felt herself being shook.

"Leslie." Another shake, another groan.

"Lez, c'mon. You need to get up."

"Five more minutes." she grumbled, nearly pushing her head under the pillow. There was a sigh, and whomever was shaking her stepped away.

Leslie could feel as her body relaxed and her mind began to drift back to sleep-

Suddenly, she found both herself and her covers bodily pulled off the bed. She yelped and gripped her pillow as if that would be any help in grounding her. There was a thud as she hit the floor and scowled up at Mai."

"I asked for five more minutes."

"And I said, you need to get up. Be lucky it was me and not Martin." With a flick of the bed sheet, Mai turned on her heel and walked out of their room. Leslie grumbled some more as she stood. She threw her bed sheets back on haphazardly before she turned to her closet to get ready for the morning.

~~~~~~~~~~

"You didn't make the bed, did you?" Mai asked, eyes narrowed. Leslie has had years of practice dealing with Mai's 'what did you do' face, and thus didn't break stride for a moment to answer.

"Yes, I did."

"Lies."

"You can check yourself if you want."

"Nice try."

Leslie huffed a laugh and picked up her keys. Mai then held up a breakfast roll, filled with eggs and sausage, and Leslie grabbed it. She made a groan of delight from the taste.

"All I need is a coffee."

"Make one when you get to work, dear. You need to go, and I need to get ready for this video call. Here's one for Martin, just in case." She said and handed Leslie a wrapped roll.

"Is Martin ready?"

"Probably," Mai picked up her laptop, "He's better at being on time than you are."

She rolled her eyes, but didn't miss the teasing smile on Mai's lips. She wasn't wrong. Martin was a bit of a nut, but he never made other people wait if he could help it.

"That, and he's already by your car."

Leslie blinked, then threw the door open to look towards the driveway. Sure enough, Martin was there, leaning against her car with a book in hand. He must have felt her gaze, as he looked up and waved cheerily. Leslie looked back at Mai.

"How long-?"

"No idea. Probably ten minutes."

Well, at least it wasn't thirty minutes anymore.

~~~~~~~~~~

"How long were you out there?" Because Leslie had to ask now that they were in the car together. Carpooling saved on gas, and she didn't mind Martin's company.

"Probably ten minutes. Woke up a little late and had to wake up Richter and Seth and clean up after Luna. Got out of her cage again."

Leslie snickered at that. She's seen what happens when Luna gets out and she never thought she'd end up chasing a floating rabbit up and down stairs. Then again, she never imagined a lot of the things that happened now, since the Jones' moved in.

They had worked together for about six years now when Martin had become the new employee at the bookstore she worked in. He also ended up eating a dead rat in a single go in an alleyway not even three months later, but Leslie tried not to think about that too hard.

Speaking of eating-

"There's a breakfast roll in there if you haven't eaten yet." She said, nodding towards the wrapped food on top of her purse. Martin opened his mouth, probably to say no thank you, when his stomach growled. Leslie gave him a smirk.

Martin blushed and sheepishly pulled out the roll. He took a bite, and Leslie couldn't help but comment.

"Not going to slurp it?" Martin, mouth full, rolled his eyes first before he spoke.

"That was one time. I was delirious." She made a sound of surprise.

"One time? Really?" He chewed for a moment, thoughtful.

"No, actually." She wasn't sure how to take that, but had figured out a long time ago that she was better off not asking.

"Such as?" That wasn't going to stop her though.

"There was a pineapple and, before that, eggs."

"A pineapple and eggs?" Martin swallowed his last bite and Leslie made a turn.

"Bird eggs. Mostly robins, I think. I thought the pineapple was a good party trick."

What?

"Seth liked it. Carlos and Cross, not so much."

She remembered what happened with the rat. Remembered what that looked like.

"Did you unhinge your jaw?"

"Of course I did. I couldn't eat it whole otherwise."

Why was she not surprised? Wait, Cross?

"Cross? That agent that's always stopping by? That Cross?"

"Yes."

She took a breath.

"Martin, that wasn't a party trick." Martin raised an inquisitive brow as he chewed his roll. Leslie took another breath and had to remind herself that Martin didn't always fully understand what humans would find threatening and what they didn't. It could be a mixed bag with him.

"You showed him you can unhinge your jaw to eat things whole. That's pretty intimidating by human standards."

Martin made a thoughtful sound and silence engulfed the car. It wasn't uncomfortable, that was rare with Martin. Leslie wasn't worried about him being upset because he knew she just spoke her mind. However, when they pulled into a parking spot behind the building where they worked, he spoke again.

"By the way, Cross found out about you on Friday. He's probably going to visit you soon."

She stopped, handle on the door. She turned a horrified look at him.

"What?!"

~~~~~~~~~~

Mai blinked as her phone rang. As she read the caller id, she had to resist the urge to sigh. It didn't help that the clients, while not rude, were very wishy-washy on the budget they wanted. Particularly for this specific layout. As much she loved her, Mai did not want to deal with one of Leslie's over dramatic crises.

"Excuse me. I need to take this," she said and walked away from her computer into the kitchen.

"Hello?"

"Martin's man crush knows about us knowing about Martin's weird bullshit and now we're going to have to deal with him interrogating us at some point in the future." Mai was quiet, letting her words sink in. Then she nodded.

"Okay. We'll figure out what to do later, alright?"

"I've already got an idea." Oh, no.

"Leslie, no."

"But-,"

"No. I'm sure he's a reasonable man." She swore, by all that was good, she was not going to deal with another Balloon Incident.

"It wasn't illegal."

"It doesn't have to be. No."

"But-,"

"Leslie. Babe. Honey. I love you, but if I have to tell you 'no' one more time-," She could practically feel the pout she was making over the phone.

"Fine." Mai allowed herself a moment of relief.

"Like I said, we'll figure it out later, okay? Let me get back to my clients and you can call me again at lunch."

"Yeah. Okay." Leslie grumbled, but still gave her a 'love you'.

Mai gave her a quick good-bye and hung up.

"Is everything okay?" The clients asked as she sat herself back at her computer.

"Yep. Just need to make a phone call later." Mai didn't know what face she was making, but whatever it was the clients were much more cooperative than they had been a few minutes ago.