Summer's eyes went to the specials board almost immediately on entering the diner, as usual, then immediately narrowed, squinting as if that would help her see that teeny, tiny small print on the bottom better, to see if it said what it ought to. Of course, that wasn't helping, not even when she got to the counter, so she pulled out her phone, opened up her camera, and then zoomed in on the screen.

pancakes. GOOD. Satisfied, Summer nodded, closed out of the camera, and tucked her phone away again.

Sure, she could have just moved closer to the board, but, come on. She had the technology. Might as well use it.

"I'd like my pancakes in a milkshake today, I think," she declared, because who would want just regular pancakes on a day like today, gross. "Maple syrup blended in and everything, please."

"I think...." said Summer, narrowing her eyes again but for a different reason, clearly deep in thought and consideration, and then she nodded again, "vanilla would be best. But throw in a few strawberries for good measure."

She almost suggested a banana, too, but, no. No. The fewer bananas in her life right now, the better.

....because of her class not...

...nevermind.

"That's the sign of a damn good milkshake, if you ask me," said Summer, grinning with happy anticipation as she folded her arms in front of her, leaning on the counter a bit, "when just a straw just won't cut it. And how's your week been, Beeg? Besides hot and gross."

Because, yeah, if Summer knew what was really up for the week, she would just side-eye it a lot and be uncertain if she should be mad or not. Because, on the one hand, who would want to deal with that? But, on the other hand, it would be nice to have had the opportunity, jeez.

It would, however, put into perspective the fact that it sounded like there were a lot more things breaking in the apartment next to hers than usual this week...

"Awwww," said Summer, because that was just the thing Sabine would probably want to hear about her current avian form, awww. "Might be one of those weeks. One of my students was this weird flying snake, and, since my class is tiny, that's literally a quarter of my class turned into animals this week. She still showed up, though. To a cooking class. Without any hands or even arms. I'm not sure if that's dedication...or just boredom."

It was Nina, though, so...she was guessing probably both.

Yeah, that would have been awkward.

"Got her in one," Summer said, and thank god, too, because so help them if there were two weird flying pink snakes running around the place this week. "And beach volleyball, huh? What great nuggets of life knowledge were you trying to pass off with that one?"

Said the woman currently using her class as an excuse to traumatize children (who were just a few years younger than her). Shush.

"So really sticking the point to us non-powered low-lives, huh?" Summer noted with a smirk. "That'd be interesting to see, though. I just made my students wrap baked bananas in ham and cover it with weird sauce."

"And a weird sauce," Summer reminded him, because, honestly, that was the grossest part. "And honestly? I think you'd love it. I'll make you some. And I'll even make the sauce for real and not just from the little packets I found."

Thus saving Hannibal another explainable headache.

"How about this?" Summer asked, after laughing a little at that question. "How about I make you some with the packet sauce," sorry, Dr. L!, "and some with, you know, the good shit, and then you can tell me if you even notice a difference."

Her guess was...probably not.

Because it wasn't caf.

"You are so easy to please," said Summer, maybe faintly marveling at it, because it was still a little weird to get used to, even after all this time, because it was just so not what she was used to. Maybe a little too easy to please or easy-going sometimes, really, all things considered, but still, it was nice. "It's one of many things I like about you, BDG, and I'm saying that genuinely, I promise, I'm not trying to suck up to you because I want something."

Not this time, anyway.

And Summer could only pray that she would be there for it, too, so that she could film each and everyone one of those expressions.

For posterity.

Of course.

"Or," she offered, "counter-point? I'm just that awesome."

See, the thing was? He brought it up so much that it was losing its embarrassing qualities and mostly just becoming a point of pride, almost, and Summer grinned. Preened, almost.

"I think," she said, her slightly smug but mostly fond expression not faltering as she was slightly distracted by a buzzing in her pocket, and she continued to talking as she pulled her phone out to see what all the buzzing was about, "if you can still love me after my cat pukes in your ship, I'm pretty much golden."

But that smug little expression faltered a bit once she really got a chance to read the message on her phone, blinking at it a little.

"Well," she stated, "that's ominous."

No one yet; settle down there, Bus Driver.

"It's a text from Apu," Summer offered, turning the phone his way for a second to confirm that, yup, that was Apu, and then turned it back so that she could read it out to him. "'If an insufferable man in a silly pink coat asks you anything about the store, just say no.'"

Summer just sort of gawked a little because it sounded even more ridiculous out loud, and shook her head, not even knowing how to respond at first, but then she got something and quickly typed out a reply while asking to Kanan out loud, "What the hell is that supposed to mean? I swear to god, if this is another cheese panda iteration, I am seriously going to flip my shit."

Should it be worrisome, that Summer took a moment to consider this suggestion and then, as clearly indicated by her almost impressed expression, decided that this might not be a bad idea at all?

She started to put together the first logical steps of such a plan before the phone buzzed in her hand again with a response, and her eyes danced over the text before letting out a groan, tilting her head back, clearly beset with all the frustrations and annoyances of the entire world at that precise moment.

"Ugggghhhh," she said, lingering in that exasperation for a moment before typing up a storm of a response to Apu while complaining, "I swear, of course I can't just enjoy a nice, normal week, can I? Everyone else gets to enjoy the place being quiet and normal....animalized students notwithstanding, of course, but, I mean, come on, that hardly even counts!...but not me, oh no, I get to deal with cheese pandas and mysterious dudes in pink coats, apparently!"

Although, well, maybe if this mysterious pink coat guy turned out to be cute, it could potentially be tolerable.

And if he could get rid of the panda, even better.

So maybe it might not be all that bad, now that she thought about it, but she was still going to cling to the tragedy of it all a little bit longer if she could.

"So far," said Summer, eyes pretty glued to her phone now since she'd dug for details and this little drama unfolding was actually starting to get captivating, "it seems like he's just asking about the store, so more cryptic Apu than anything ellllssseee......okay, some more explanation coming through now. Apparently, Pink Coat Guy is actually a previous owner of the store? And....hoooo, boy, let me tell you, he did not leave a good impression on Apu. I'm almost sad now that this is happening over text, because hearing some of this come out of his actual mouth would be amazi--"

Summer cut off again with another blink, and this time leaned back from her phone as if it might bite her. "Whoa," she said. "Okay, so....either...I think I'm talking to Pink Coat Guy now. Either that, or Apu just got bit by a gremlin, or my phone's going haywire, because..."

She turned the phone around so that Kanan could see an eruption of heart emoji filling her screen so egregiously that it might almost put Nina to shame.

Goddammit. She just couldn't have a nice, normal week, could she?

"Hmmmm, let's see...." said Summer, scrolling through the messages and ready to pick out the context with the fine-tooth comb of someone well-versed in text translation. "There are words between the hearts, we've got.... 'Lovely, lovely Summer-chan, you'll have to forgive me for interrupting, but Apu-san'...oh, great, so he's a weeb," or, you know, maybe actually Japanese, Summer, you don't know, but STILL. Come on. "...blah blah blah, confiscated his phone, interesting business proposal...heart heart heart, so glad to see the store in the hands of such a capable and beautiful woman, well, I mean, TRUE...heart heart heart...let's discuss it sometime over steamed buns and sake...weirdly specific, but okay. I mean...."

She scrolled a little further but it was all mostly just more hearts at that point.

"Once you get past the hearts, that doesn't sound so bad."

She looked...worried, though. All those hearts were...worrisome.

And, well, the fact that he'd usurped Apu's phone and the fact that Apu was against this idea so hard that his phone had to be usurped because he'd presumably tried to prevent it.

Yeah, but Summer at least mixed it up a little. You couldn't do just all hearts, you had to throw in some rainbows and ponies and stars in there once in a while, too, make it more interesting...

Summer nodded a little in acknowledgement of the back up, chewing her lower lips a little as she considered a response. "Yeah," she said. "I mean, I mostly trust Apu's opinion on stuff like this, he's usually a pretty good judge of character," even if she never did get what he had against Astrid, she'd always seemed fine to Summer, even for being a little delinquent, "but....I mean...former owner? An interesting business proposal? Just as I'm, you know, trying to work on moving on out of here..."

Summer's stomach suddenly felt heavy. Way too heavy for a pancake milkshake.

"It's at least worth hearing what he has to say...Maybe it's something that'll make the transition easier."

"Alright," said Summer, because a confirmation from Kanan on everything she'd been thinking was all she needed, and her attention went slightly working out a reply, "I guess I'm having steamed buns and sake with the mysterious Pink Coat Man."

And once it was sent, she set the phone aside, only to have it start buzzing against the counter seconds later. She didn't bother picking it up to see what the response was, though, because she could already pretty much guess it was going to be a bunch of hearts.

She leaned forward on the counter again. "But whatever this proposal is," she said, "I am absolutely working in some sort of Panda Removal Clause into it if I can."

"Eh," Summer shrugged a bit. "It's not so bad now that I know about it, you know? Definitely caught me off guard, though. I can at least warn people now, and while it's not ideal...it still seems to not have disrupted business as much as I'd originally worried about. He's still a total jerk, though, but at least he doesn't expect to be paid to do it. He's just all, 'whatever, I'm a panda, I have very strong opinions about your cheese and I'm just trying to live my life.' Not in those words, of course, because he doesn't talk, but if he did, that's what he'd say, and I'd say, 'yeah, well, people are just trying to get their cheese, so chill out, dude.'"