The cafeteria was loud at breakfast.
Finn sat at the far end of the grey section with a tray in front of him and looked at what was on it.
Porridge. The thick grey kind that had no strong opinion about being food. A piece of bread that was slightly past its best. A cup of something warm that was trying to be tea and not fully succeeding.
He ate it anyway because he was hungry and bottom ten didn't get options.
Across the cafeteria, through the door that connected to the VIP section, he could hear the sound of a different kind of breakfast happening. Not loudly. Just the particular quality of sound that came from a space where the food was real and the chairs had cushions and the coffee was actual coffee.
He knew that sound.
He had heard it every morning for three weeks from the chair next to Cullen's, eating whatever had been placed in front of him, warm and full and close enough to touch the most powerful person in the room whenever he wanted.
