somethingwithturquoise | MHA #4; Tuesday Evening [09/01].

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MHA #4; Tuesday Evening [09/01].

Summer had sort of been wishing her class hadn't been moved to Fridays this semester, because that would have given her something more to focus on for a good chunk of the day that wasn't kind of obsessing over the state of her apartment, which was fine, obviously, and it was kind of stupid that she was even nervous about Barry coming over for pizza and a phenominally dumb movie and meeting her cat (god, she really used that as a framing devise, didn't she, wtf), but there they were.

Thankfully, she actually did manage to distract herself pretty effectively by deciding to actually dig into a little bit of economic theory for her class, with Pancakes curled up and purring and complicating the whole lap part of using a laptop, but, whatever, it was cute, although Summer did make sure to have at least one moment of serious discussion with her.

"Seriously, Cakes, don't be a brat. If you're good, I promise, there will definitely be some of that dank Nebulon 9 catnip in your future."

And Summer was just going to take Pancakes' continued purring and leaning into the chin scratches she was getting as an acceptance to these terms and conditions.

[[ for that guy! ]]

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And Barry too had been doing research between Friday and today when he hadn’t been preparing for class. Which had resulted in the purchase of about $45 dollars of car toys and three ebooks on how to make friends with a cat. The books he read and all of said toys were in a box which was balancing a pizza box on top of it which had the predetermined hand-wavy toppings they had decided on earlier.

As he got to the door he took a deep breath and wondered if he spent way too much time focusing on a comment that could have been a joke or a half-truth in their nascent relationship.

Maybe it was just a joke but either way he was prepared as he was going to be for this. And with that he knocked on the door.

"Ohmygod," said Summer, after the knock, not an expression of pent-up nervousness or anything like that. It was just from the effort it suddenly seemed to take to remove Pancakes from her lap so she could get up, wondering if even Barry was smart enough to be able to explain the transitive property of the physics bending nature that was cats and their ability to somehow become the heaviest thing in the multiverse when they didn't want to be moved.

But Summer managed, even if it did earn her a plainitive, complaining meow when she set the cat down and brushed a little fur off her pants. "Nebulon 9," Summer reminded her with a warning sort of look, waited for some sign of acknowledgement, looked a little doubtful about it, and then finally went to answer the door.

"Hey--" she started, which came out much more gushing than she'd rehearsed, but, it didn't matter that much anyway, because his hands were full with more than just the pizza. "Oh! Here! Let me--"

She went to take at least the pizza box off his hands before stepping back into the apartment to let Barry in, eyes wide with curiousity. "What's all that?"

"Well. I'm meeting your cat for the first time and I-"

And just now he realized just how stupid this was going to sound.

"Uh. Wanted to make a good impression," he said, realizing there was no way to back out of this now.

Should have brought flowers. Or firearms.

He opened up the box and forced a grin. "Hope that's okay?"

That was...

Well, if she was honest, Summer didn't exactly know what that was, and she may have stared at Barry a little bit while her brain tried to figure it out. Because, at first, it seemed incredibly sweet that he would think of that and go through the effort, but then what if he was just doing it because of what she'd said about getting along with the cat? But then wouldn't that mean that it mattered that Pancakes liked him, because if she didn't...so it was, like, just an extension of all the effort he'd put into their last date, but, then again, maybe that was just the kind of person he was, that if he was going to put extra effort into just some dumb cat, then all that effort he'd been putting into everything else so far didn't really mean anything, it was just who he was, but it was still effort toward her cat, because she said...

Okay, officially thinking about this way too much, and Summer shook her head, and Pancakes had cautiously made her way over, anyway, sniffing at the air with uncertainty as she brushed protectively against Summer's leg.

"I mean," she said, with a tentative grin back, as she set the pizza box down on the table for now so she could pick up the cat, "that's sort of more up to her than it is me...

"Barry," she said, adjusting Pancakes in her arms while Pancakes got momentarily distracted following the scent of the pizza before going back to figuring out the scent of Barry, and then getting distracted by the contents of the box, straining forward to get a closer look, "this is Pancakes. Pancakes, this is Barry. And look!"

Her grin flashed with a little more deviousness now.

"He brought you a bribe!"

Any thought of trying to deny this was a bribe went out the window with Summer's devious little grin.

"Guilty as charged," he admitted. "I mean, hey, if your cat is going to have any factor in future dates with you I might as well stack the deck, right?"

He held out the box and used a practiced tone he spent maybe an hour on that might sound good for a cat. "Do you see anything you like?" he asked hopefully.

His cat voice sound was very dorky with a tad of goof thrown in.

Oh, that was a good answer. That was a very good answer, and Summer was going to enjoy that answer for a moment, with the warmth of a pleased blush creeping up on her face when here she'd been the one trying to elicit a blush out of him.

"Don't worry," she said, moving closer so that Pancakes could manage a better look in the box without awkwardly trying to climb out of her arms, "I may have put in my own bribe. This cat is coming out of this making bank."

This cat was currently positioned with one paw on the side of the box now, pushing it down towards her, with a few tentative bats of the other paw inside. And when that didn't seem to yeild the results she was going for, she pushed on the side again before looking over at Barry with stubborn, determined eyes and let out a demanding meow to match. Both paws were on the box now, and if it wasn't for Summer still holding her, she might have just crawled right into the box, which meant another meow, this one of protest, as Summer pulled her back a little and laughed.

"I think that's a yes," Summer observed, over a few more objecting meows now with squirming. "Maybe you should just dump them on the floor for her and just let her go hog wild."

Barry let out a small sigh of relief and seeing and hearing Summer's reaction was enough to put him at ease. At least for the moment. "I do hope she likes them," he said kneeling down and carefully dumping the toys out and putting the box to the side. He then picked up one of the catnip toys that were sealed and started undoing the wrapper. "Otherwise I just made your apartment a cat toy obstacle course."

Getting the toy free and dropping it into the pile he popped up again and waited to see what Pancakes thought of the mess of toys. "Did you have a nice weekend?"

"That's honestly how it kinda is on most days," Summer admitted a little sheepishly, but with no small amount of glowing pride for the cat seeming to give each toy scattered around them now a tentative, speculative sniff. "And I did, yeah. Welcome picnic's always fun, although I am a little worried about my teaching buddy, but then it was mostly getting the store ready for new people figuring out what sort of crap they'll need now that they're here."

And just when Pancakes seemed to have found a toy that maybe would be her favorite among the plethora of options, she seemed to come to a last minute conclusion that none of them would be even remotely as interesting as the one she'd claimed from the start, and she padded over to it with her tail haughtily lifted behind her like a pennant about to stake a claim, climbed into the box, and promptly settled in, purring her approval.

"And we have a winner."

Summer was so judging you right now, Pancakes.

But she was also going to see it as an opportunity, going for the box with the pizza in it, and then making her way for the living room with a beckoning tilt of her head for Barry to follow while they could still hopefully escape any further demands for attention.

"How about yours?" she asked as she moved. "You fuck up any students yet?"

"Well I turned most of them into dinosaurs yesterday," he said boggling a bit at Pancakes before shrugging it off and following Summer to the living room. (Hey, if Pancakes was happy with a box, he's taking that as a win) "There were a couple of students who noped right out of it which I expected. Most of older students jumped in with no hesitation so I'm saying it went off pretty well. So what interdimensional bad movie did you pick for us today?

But now Pancakes had a taste for it, Barry. Just wait until next time, and if there's no box...

"Yeah," said Summer, as she set the pizza box down on the coffee table, where she already had some plates and napkins waiting, and then perched herself on the edge of the couch, "I see can dinosaurs being a hit, that was a good choice. And it's Two Brothers," she reached over to grab the DVD from the table and handed it over so he could get an idea of what he was about to be in for, although, really, the cover left a lot of ground untouched, "it's just called Two Brothers, and it's one of the stupidest things I've ever seen, you're going to love it."

But in her anticipation to gauge if he would actually love it, she was also going through a mental checklist for everything about the evening to spot at least one thing she'd skipped over, which had her back on her feet. "Oh! Drinks! I forgot to grab drinks! What would you like?"

Alas. Barry had turned Pancakes into a box junkie. Maybe there's box rehab for cats if she hits rock bottom.

"If it's a stupid action movie, I'm going to love it," he said taking the DVD cover and started laughing. "Holy shit! Yeah, this looks idiotic."

And then he read the part about the Mexican Armada.

"Oh, fuck. I'm going to need a copy of this."

He was still standing when Summer popped up off the couch and he finally took in the setting. It was just... nice. There were no vistas, alien landscapes or Ted Allen asking questions. For some reason it made him feel content and relaxed. He hadn't felt that 'warm and fuzzy' for a long time. Mostly because he's not a warm and fuzzy person but this seemed to just hit home.

And then he realized she had asked him a question. "I'm good with just water," he said kind of meekly but smiling. "Unless you have something prepared. I'm good with that too."

There was something in that moment for Summer, too, when she realized he'd been sort of looking around, that nervous kind of anticipation about whether or not, with all the bells and whistles stripped away (well, one bell, maybe, although it was more of an explosion), it was still...okay.

"Not really," she admitted, with a small smile back, a small hitch up of her shoulders. "Not unless you wanted to crack open a bottle of Lotus wine before I turn it into jello shots tomorrow."

"Well, I don't want to take anything away from your job," he said, just standing there enjoying the moment. "But honestly, I'm not that big of a drinker. But if you're going to have a drink I'll just have one of what you are having."

"I figured you'd say something like that," Summer said, because she paid attention, dammit, but she did sort of feel like she'd forgotten how to move for a moment there. Forgotten, or just didn't want to, but then realized she'd probably start feeling a little silly if she didn't.

"I'll be right back," she said, before brushing past him a little to head over to the kitchen, but looked back with a grin. "Want to get the movie set up? I mean, if you think you can figure it out."

"I think I can handle that," he said, watching her leave and then popping the movie into the DVD player. As he turned around to look for the remote he suddenly realized they were going to be sitting on the couch. Together.

Now, normal people might just sit down on the couch and be done with it. Barry on the other hand spent about five seconds trying to determine the proper position he should take so that when Summer came back he would be sitting in a spot that was not too close or too far away from her and would also ensure that both of them wouldn't see any glare on the screen.

And then he sat down and turned on the television set where part of the trailer for Two Brothers started to play. "It literally looks like someone dropped acid in the middle of writing the movie and it went an entirely different direction."

There was a little bit of a delay because Summer figured, while she was over there, she might as well see if she could tempt Pancakes to at least consider playing with one of the toys because it seemed like kind of a waste if they were just going to sit there untouched, but she wasn't having much luck. Pancakes regarded the dangling mouse with as much cool consideration as she gave to the mere presence of air, and Summer, unimpressed with her dedication to the box, just set the mouse down on Pancakes' back, where she expected it would probably remain until the cat decided to move. Which would probably be a while.

She shook her head, went to the kitchen, fussed around maybe a little bit, and then returned with two glasses of ice water with lemon, handing one over to Barry before probably ruining all his calculations by sitting just slightly within the margins of the 'too close' range.

"Yeah," she said, "I wouldnt' be surprised if that's exactly what happened. It's a giant rambling mess."

Okay. There were a lot of calculations that happened there, Summer. But her being somewhat closer... Well he didn't seem to mind.

"Let's get this shit show started shall we?" he said kicking off the movie and leaning back on the couch. "Here's hoping that there's really good beheadings. It's not a shitty action movie without a really bad fake head.

She didn't know! Her own calculations on just where she was going to put herself were way more simple and direct, right down to the way she tucked up her leg under her after grabbing a plate and a slice that left her angled just a little more towards Barry.

"I didn't know that was requirement," she admitted, sounding amused, even if she immediately started to go back and think if there even were any beheadings. Then she remembered that the whole thing was so chaotic that she had absolutely no idea. But there had to be, right? Especially once the old ladies showed up...She was just going to try not to worry about it.

Okay. So now Barry had a choice. He could either shift away slightly which could possibly give Summer a hint that he was uncomfortable or he could just-

Ugh. This was so obvious.

“Hey look! Giant computer animated attack cats! This movie has fucking everything,” he said as he pretended to stretch his arms with one arm happening to land and rest on the back of the couch.

Maybe the talk about cats would distract her from such an obvious movement.

Nope! Not even a little! Summer had seen this movie, she knew all about the cats already, thank you. But she was willing to oblige him in turning her attention to the TV, even if it was partly so that the big grin she suddenly couldn't keep off her face wasn't just focused on him and that move.

"Oh, you don't even know," she gushed. "We're just getting started."

“Well I’ve already seen the spaceships in the trailer that are shaped likes Sombreros,” he said relaxing now that the arm movement was out of the way. “I’m expecting this will lead to a very sensitive portrayal of ethnicity.”

No. He was not expecting that. But he was comforted by Summer’s smile that he only caught a portion of.

"It's probably a good thing," Summer said, settling just a little bit more against the back of the couch, "we went with pizza instead of taco, huh?"

“Hmm?”

You’ll have to forgive Barry as he was distracted by Summer’s hair brushing against his arm.

“Oh, right. Totally. Besides pizzas travel better than tacos,” he looking a little bit pink.

What was he saying? Tacos? Really?

“Despite the crazy story line the movie is shot pretty well,” he said trying to regain a bit of his composure.

With that, Summer went quiet for a moment, shifting her focus on the TV to consider the movie from that perspective, while wondering if maybe she was talking too much, if she was just being too distracting. Obviously, Barry woudl want to, you know, actually, like, watch the movie, and here she was just making bad jokes about tacos.

But still...

"The budget for this thing was probably as insane as its plot."

Maybe she'd cease the commentary when she actually did run out of things to say. Or when the action really got amped up. She thought, as the city burned around the two brothers and the hordes of mutant space cats and tomato guns attacking each other.

“We’ll have to check the credits later,” Barry suggested. “When it’s written, produced and directed by the same person you usually get shhhhhhhhhhiiiiit is that a fucking tomato gun?”

Summer can probably relax as it’s fairly obvious talking trash through a movie is something Barry likes to do. Barry is obviously relaxed as his hand slipped to Summer’s shoulder and didn’t realize it at all.

Edited 2020-09-01 22:33 (UTC)

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