[Action; Closed, December 19]

[dead_black_eyes]

Who: Lazarus Lawliet and Belle Goldman
Where: The grocery store
When: Backdated to December 19
What: L's therapist means well but cannot always keep the professional barrier firmly in place. While L waits to hear from his prospective job, the grad student takes matters into her own hands and brusquely spirits her client away on a trip to shop, healthily, on a budget.
Warnings: L can be inappropriate, will be updated if necessary.



After Belle's call, Lazarus spent a few moments pacing indecisively. Leaving immediately, as she'd said he'd need to if he wanted to catch her before work, meant that his plans for the rest of the day were effectively spoiled. Then again, his "plans" were far from exciting or pressing.

Slinging on his newly-repaired coat and locking up his studio apartment, he made his way to the bus stop and hopped the next bus, avoiding eye contact the whole time with the neighborhood's other ne'er-do-wells as they rode to the station.

Once there, he kept his dark eyes peeled for Belle's Honda civic, idly wondering if she really had the time for him she claimed she did.

Comments

[belphe]

In Belle's personal corner of the world, an hour was more than enough time to complete even an indecisive shopping trip. During the ten minute drive to the bus stop where she'd asked him to wait for her, she was busily mulling over how to get the most out of this outing. If she took a passive role, she would be doing exactly as he'd said - allowing him to depend on her for things that were unreasonable to expect of one's doctor.

Which meant that it would need to become a portion of his therapy. She felt that she had failed him by not, somehow, gleaning his intentions during their last session the afternoon before he had attempted his suicide. She felt that the system had failed him further by tossing him back into a world that he was not ready to face and leaving him to huddle in an apartment waiting for his utilities to be shut off and, finally, to be evicted.

Lazarus was not stupid...and not nearly as incapable as he attempted to paint himself. With enough patience, she was sure that he would find his footing and be ready to stand on his own again.

And they would start here.

There was no searching necessary as L stood out starkly in any environment as she coasted the navy blue civic to the shoulder of the road and unlocked the passenger door in invitation for him to get in.

[dead_black_eyes]

He shuffled toward the car door, breath visible in clouded puffs as he pried open the door with fingertips and took a seat next to his petite therapist. He yanked at his seatbelt, managing to fasten it despite his chilly and largely unresponsive hands.

Safety first.

"You're sure that this is no trouble?" He asked, sounding largely unconvinced.

[belphe]

As he situated his seatbelt, she reached for the heater's knob, cranking it up a few more notches to counter the chilled air he'd let in and warm the car faster.

"If I'd thought it would be trouble, I wouldn't have offered." she assured him gently, beginning to drive again. Instead of taking him to the grocery store nearby, she bypassed it for an establishment a couple of blocks down. The parking lot of SAV-LOTS Variety Market was not packed, but a bit more populated than most would be mid-morning on a weekday.

"To begin with, place like this will accommodate a tight budget a lot more than a normal retailer." her point seemed to be illustrated by the group of ragtag college kids pushing a couple cartloads of bulk groceries to their car. As she pulled into an open spot and put the honda in park, she waited to see if he would present an outward reaction.

[dead_black_eyes]

"Maybe not my budget," L responded uncertainly. "It's nicer than where I usually shop, and probably has higher prices."

Nevertheless, he knew that Belle had offered to pay today, so he stepped out of the car and slipped his hands into his coat pockets as he began wandering toward the entrance.

[belphe]

"It's a bulk outlet.". she explained, locking the car to follow him to the front door. "You'd be surprised how little it costs to buy more of something."

To illustrate her point, as they came in the front door, they were greeted by several enormous dispenser bins of cereal. The oat shapes, bran squares and brightly-colored loops had no brand name attached, nor did they come in colorful, friendly boxes with well-loved mascots. They WERE, however, on sale for 88 cents a pound.

[dead_black_eyes]

And it took a lot of cereal to make a pound.

Instead of celebrating, though, Lazarus was shrewdly poking about for an ingredient list on the colored loops, squinting as he meticulously examined each item.

[belphe]

He would hardly find them immaculate, but then, mass produced food seldom was. The ingredients were posted on a narrow neon pink sticker that had been plastered to the side of each bin, unimportant and off to the side as if the business owners were well-aware most of their shoppers were not particularly contrary. Beneath the bins were a shelf of bags ranging in size from three-gallon to bags so large people would ordinarily expect to find dog food in them.

"There's much more to choose from than just these.". she offered, thinking they could do better than cereal, though nonetheless, made no move to hurry him along, attempting to get a feel for how the rest of the trip was likely to go.

[dead_black_eyes]

L bit his lip, setting the bag of colored loops back on the shelf.

"Unfortunately, these contain gelatin," he said, sounding disappointed, but resolute. "Gelatin's not Kosher." Perhaps frustratingly slowly, given his cut tendons and the resulting odd, delicate way he had of holding things, he went about perusing many other bags of cereal and reaching similar conclusions, usually because of gelatin, occasionally because of forbidden nuts or fruit.

[belphe]

She watched him as he continued the line of rejections, seeing the obvious turmoil of a man who was hungry but allowing his compulsions to command him.

"As I said, you don't have to feel obligated to limit yourself here." she told him, pulling a cart out of the holding corral. "We can start with some staples for a tight budget..."

In other words, her personal manual for how she survived college without eating ramen every night.

[dead_black_eyes]

He would argue that it wasn't compulsion, and it would be flimsy... because religion was not what dictated his restrictions, either.

Giving up, defeated by the cereals that were apparently off-limits to his self-imposed rules and regulations, he trailed after his therapist as she started to guide a cart away from the stockpile of sugary dead ends.

[belphe]

They would stop next in the grains section of the pantry aisle where Belle knelt, dragging a large bag of rice off of one of the lower shelves and hefting it, with no small amount of difficulty, into the cart.

"This," she began, pausing to lean against the side of the cart a moment and recover from the exertion. "is a starting point to cook a lot of things. Thirty pounds will last you quite awhile if you keep it sealed and dry."

[dead_black_eyes]

L tilted his head, clearly conflicted, but having nothing to say about rice by its own merits. Blessings were necessary to the devout, but to the merely neurotic who were only concerned with fitting a category and being "clean," rice of any kind could slide by.

"I guess I could just be careful, and make sure there aren't any insects caught in the grains..." he said, that being foremost on his mind.

[belphe]

"You could eat it in small servings and rinse them first. It has a shelf life of two years." Inwardly, she was pleased by the lack of fight about the rice and moved next to the sacks of dried beans.

"These don't last quite as long, but are good for protein and cheaper than meat or nuts..."

[dead_black_eyes]

Beans should also have been OK... but ever the meticulous skeptic, L began to turn each can, scrutinizing ingredients once again.

If he repeated this process with every food type they encountered, Belle was unlikely to make it to work anywhere near on-time.

[belphe]

Clearly she had reached this same conclusion. As he fussed over cans and ingredients, she took a sack of red beans from the shelf below the cans and dropped it in alongside the rice.

"If we get some bouillon cubes, you'll be able to make soup." she said, beginning to push the cart forward again. "Have you cooked before, L?"

[dead_black_eyes]

A lengthy silence probably indicated, pretty succinctly, that he was more or less at a loss on the subject.

"The power's out right now, anyway," he said, shrugging offhandedly. "Cooking won't be an option until it's back on."

Pointedly, he didn't actually answer the question.

[belphe]

So she had noticed.

That explained why he had been so interested in the cereal, at least...

"I don't suppose you have access to a gas stove? Or a lantern, maybe?"

The bouillon cubes were near the end of the aisle. A package of chicken-flavored ones were taken down and dropped in with the rice and beans as she attempted to move them along to their next stop.

[dead_black_eyes]

He shook his head. "I thought you knew I didn't. You're at my apartment every week... I have an electric stove. No lantern."

Though she' hadn't asked him if he owned those things, he had no friends, and owning something was therefore the same thing as having access to it.

"I'm pretty sure I'm stuck waiting for my overdue fee to process, but it should only be a few more days."

[belphe]

Dark brows arched at 'a few more days'. Ordinarily power companies worked quickly to process payments and get people who had been disconnected back up and running.

Unless, of course, this was far from the first time they'd shut him off and had learned to make well and sure his check was good this time before allowing it back on. Sadly, it would not have surprised her.

"Then we should get you some ready-to-eat things in the meantime." Belle said, pausing to look over the aisle headers before moving the cart into the preserves aisle where tubs of peanut butter and economy jars of jelly lined the shelves.

[dead_black_eyes]

L was, indeed, well-known to the power company. Unfortunately, they were dismally familiar with him and his flaky payments. But to be fair, he was hardly the worst in his apartment complex. He was better at keeping up with his bills than the meth heads, at least.

Peanut butter and jelly seemed to be acceptable, but he was still intent on shrewdly inspecting the various jars, looking for options that were acceptable to his paradoxically religious palate.

"A lot of these contain gelatin, as well..."

[belphe]

The jellies do...the citrus jams should use pectin.

[she offered, dividing her time between watching him carefully and perusing the shelves so it didn't seem she was staring]

Honey also goes with peanut butter.

[Well...it hadn't for HER since she was about ten years old and had grown out of cloyingly-sweet foods, but she was certainly not everyone]

[dead_black_eyes]

He slumped impatiently against the shelves, appearing exhausted and overwhelmed.

"This is so difficult. 100% pure honey is kosher, but it's hard to find in grocery stores. I only see it a lot at farmers' markets or specialty shops, and it always costs more."

[belphe]

Then, L, you may need to make do with what's available to you here.

[It was not spoken condescendingly, but gently, encouraging him to give it a try]

[dead_black_eyes]

His eyes flashed, affronted, and he withdrew from his therapist. He was prone to this, throwing silent tantrums when things didn't immediately go his way and he had to mentally regroup before offering any kind of response he could commit to.

"I make do with a lot of horrible things. Maybe I don't want to make do with what I put in my body. It can't be so unreasonable, to just want to eat clean food."

[belphe]

"It isn't unreasonable at all." she agreed. "But in cases like this, it would be better to make exceptions until one's budget is not strained. Everyone, at some point, does it and there's no shame in surviving.

There was a pause. "...we can come back to these if you'd like to think about it."