Jenlisa Oneshots

i like my women how i like my coffee (inside me)

When she steps up to the counter at last, Lisa's eyes flick swiftly down over Jennie's body, taking in the button-up and well-worn tweed blazer she'd changed into after the gym. She looks back up at where Jennie is nervously pushing her glasses up her nose, grins and says, "If I'd known I was going to meet my future wife today, I'd have dressed a little nicer."

"Oh, no," Jennie stumbles. Underneath her apron, Lisa is wearing an "I Want To Believe" t-shirt. Jennie spotted it while she was waiting. "I think the X-Files is a good way to meet your - um - "

If possible, Lisa's smile grows even wider, "Mulder or Scully?"

This, at least, is comfortable ground. "Scully, of course."

"Good, 'cause I'm definitely Mulder. It's a perfect match."

Jennie has spent much of her life feeling perfectly ordinary. She is reasonably smart but not brilliant, neither ugly nor attractive, interesting in her own mind but probably not to anyone else. But there's something in the way Lisa bites her lip as she looks at her that makes her feel extraordinary.

With all of this running through her mind, all she manages to force out of her mouth is, "Um."

It makes Lisa laugh. "I'm just messing with you. What can I get you?"

"Oh." Right. Jennie is in a coffee shop. She has a routine. "A black coffee, please."

The order makes Lisa wince. "You don't want to try our special?"

She points upwards and, for the first time, Jennie notices there are other things in the café besides Lisa. A chalkboard on the wall is advertising the special of the day: "Mocha Love To Me - white chocolate mocha with extra chocolate, extra caramel and extra whipped cream." It makes Jennie's teeth ache just thinking about it.

"I don't have much of a sweet tooth," she admits.

"Maybe next time." Lisa shrugs good-naturedly. She rings up the order and when she hands over the change, Jennie finds herself absurdly turned on by the chipped purple polish on her nails.

The guilt sinks in almost the second she steps away from the counter. Lisa is at work, undoubtedly being friendly because she's doing her job, and Jennie is lusting over her like a teenager.

When she glances back, Lisa is laughing with another customer - probably joking about her X-Files t-shirt - and Jennie feels silly, suddenly, for reading anything more into it.

—

There was a time when the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University College of London was something of a joke, at least among its academic peers. Under the leadership of Jillian Salvius though, it has rescued itself from the bottom of the league tables and is slowly climbing the ranks to become one of the best in Europe.

Jennie likes her work there very much, likes working for Jillian, who is renowned without being arrogant and tries to give the professors under her an even balance of teaching and research workload. With the improvement of the department though comes an increase in the number of students and, correspondingly, the number of ridiculous questions Jennie has to field.

By the time she reaches the breakroom for lunch the Monday after her first visit to Manoban Linings, three different freshmen have asked her if they really have to do the assigned reading for her class or if that's just "sort of, like, a suggestion, y'know?"

"Is it just me or do the students smell worse this year?" Rosé asks the second Jennie sits down opposite her on one of the uncomfortable grey couches.

"It's you," Jennie tells her. "They smell just as bad as normal, you just have sensitive pregnancy nose."