"Oh- I- um. As you say?"

This is probably not better, but they are saved from the awkward moment by the toaster going off.  Cassie scoots the poptarts onto a plate and glances at Blaze.  "I could put another pack in for you, if you want?  Or actually hot toast?"

"I- this is- fine? Ma- Um. This is fine? Thank you?" (There's a sense that she doesn't want there to be more waste.)

"Mmkay."  Cassie chews on her lip a moment, then takes a breath and digs a keychain out of a pocket.  "If you need to leave and come back while I'm gone-"  she detaches one and holds it out- "this'll get you in and out the people door.  Just in case."

Blaze stares at it, completely lost, she's never been given a key to anywhere before in her life, is far more used to being locked in places than anything else.

After a minute, Cassie slides the key under the coffeemaker so it's just reachable but won't get accidentally knocked on the floor.  "Right, uh, it'll be right here if you need it, okay?"  She pokes at her poptarts; evidently they're cool enough to eat since half of one disappears in short order.

"O-Okay," she agrees quietly.

"Okay, then."

Cassie drinks her coffee quietly for a bit, then squeaks and skitters off to collect various items from the Parts Hoard, swinging back briefly to collect her remaining poptart and tie a length of string to the key. 

Once she's out of the warehouse, though, she stops the van on the corner to send a quick text to a friend.

hey

I maybe obtained a ward and/or employee

how do I figure out what paperwork I need to do

how do I get her healthcare

she's barely eating and I think maybe she's pregnant but I can't ASK because then it's employment discrimination

what do i DO

Blaze, meanwhile, looks for cleaning supplies, and will clean the kitchen area and the bathroom. She leaves anything she doesn't recognise alone.

Cleaning supplies are findable:  there's some normal ones in the cupboard under the sink and some industrial-strength ones of uncertain vintage piled up in one of the bathroom stalls that didn't get converted to a shower.  There's relatively few random contraptions in the kitchen, although a socket wrench somehow ended up in the silverware drawer and the clock radio has been opened up at the back and added on to.

 Cassie comes back about half past noon, heralded by the rumble of the loading dock door opening.  "Guess what!  I got the job I got the job I got the job!"  She clicks down out of the back door of the van, already in the spider chair, and does a little capering victory dance.  "Gonna put in a titanium order as soon as the advance comes in but I got us a celebration feast right now anyway."

Blaze is startled at first by Cassie's exuberance, not entirely sure what-

-and then the words process and she gives a small smile, unpracticed, and definitely seeming larger than it is, but there.

"I- that's really good, ma'am."

"Thank you!  It's gonna be so much fun I can't wait-"  she heads around to the passenger door and unbuckles a large paper bag- "except I really should 'cause they haven't actually paid me yet and I've still got the shop stuff to go over.  I got Indian, I wasn't sure how much you like spicy food but most of it is only a little spicy and some isn't spicy at all."

Cassie's enthusiasm is infectious, and Blaze feels strangely...safe? In the face of it.

"I- whatever is fine," she assures the other woman, hurrying into the kitchen area to find plates and cutlery.

Cassie follows, pausing as she comes around the corner.  "Oh gosh, that explains what you did while I was out.  Thanks for cleaning all the things, I hope you weren't too bored."  She sets the bag on the counter and skitters backward, still talking a mile a minute.  "I'm gonna just grab a bigger table, this won't really all fit on the space heater..."

(There's a tiny pleased blush when Cassie thanks her.)

"I- um, do you- need a hand? I can-"

"I can move it on my own fine but if you wanna scoot the little one out of the way that'd be great."  She shifts a tangle of wire and what looks like an oversized eggbeater off a card table into an open footlocker.  "Uh, aaaactually if you could find something to wipe it off with also?  It hasn't got any engine grease or anything on it I don't think but it's probably more dusty than we wanna eat off right now."

Blaze has pushed the smaller table out of the way. And as luck would have it, courtesy of her prior cleaning exploits, Blaze knows exactly where to lay her hands on a cloth, and also a spray to clean the table with.

Cassie doesn't bother folding the card table up- instead she grabs it by the tops of two legs once she's gotten it clear, and telescopes her chair upward so she can let it hang at an angle in front of her without dragging on the ground.  It gives her an odd tiptoey gait, like a cat trying not to get its paws wet, but the table makes it over to the sofa without incident.

"Huh, I should find you a chair at some point, shouldn't I.  Like, a chair chair, so you can sit places that aren't the sofa if you want."

"I, uh, the sofa's fine?" she says as she wipes the table down.

"Well, you couldn't drag it over to the counter if you wanted to sit there- I guess you could, it's not super heavy and I'm not making a rule against it or anything?  But you probably wouldn't want to."

She scoops the bag off said counter and starts unloading- there's something in an orange sauce and something in a green sauce and something in a slightly redder orange sauce, little triangular dumplings, flat bread and round puffy bread and crispy crackery bread, a big tub of rice and a little tub of dough balls in sticky syrup.

"I, uh, suppose not," she agrees, staring at the sheer quantity of food, and not entirely certain where to start - except to go back to the kitchen to grab more spoons for serving it out.

Cassie narrates as she takes the lids off the tubs:  "So this one's chicken and this one's spinach and cheese and this one's cauliflower- that's the spiciest, I think- and the samosas have potatoes and peas in them."

She nods as Cassie narrates, and perches herself on the couch at one end of the table. She seems to be waiting for something - permission maybe?

"You can, um, help yourself..."  She fidgets with the spoon in the cauliflower for a moment.  "If you want something that's not spicy at all I got extra rice, or the bread should be fine.  The chicken is my favorite if you're okay with a little bit spicy, though."