somethingwithturquoise | MHA #4; Thursday Evening [07/09].

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MHA #4; Thursday Evening [07/09].

It had been a while since Summer and Rey got together for one of these sangria nights, and Summer was really feeling like it was needed. But the nice thing was that the unwinding and conversation that had this time around should be way more positive and uplifting than the last time they did this.

Boy, she certainly hoped so anyway! That last time had gotten dark.

But tonight, there was plenty of sangria to be had, the cats had been isolated in the bedroom with plenty of catnip and their fifty billion different toys that they usually just ignored for pieces of string and packaging tape unless it was decided that what this evening really needed was some cute cat snuggling, she'd set up a pretty relaxing multidimenional playlist that featured heavily on the snake jazz, the space jizz, and the lo-fi hip-hop beats to chill to, there was a small army of hopeful nail polish bottles stationed on her coffee table, and while she waited for Rey to swing by, she was in the kitchen, looming over the glowing screen of her phone in the attempts to mix up an experimental mud mask that she was hoping to convince Rey to at least try once they were a few glasses in.

Dry winter weather was coming for their skin soon; they needed to be prepared.

[[ for the space bestie! ]]

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"Oh," Summer assured her emphatically, "it totally makes sense. One of those 'when you know, you just know' kind of things."

"Sort of. I never really had a single moment where I knew anything," Rey said. "More like, 'of course this is what our conversations have turned into.'"

"Into what?" teased Summer. "Into what anyone else with eyes and ears figured it would?"

"Yes, that, apparently," Rey confirmed with a nod.

"Well, now I definitely need to get around to meeting Johhhhn," Summer decided. "And pick up way more glitter for my flag. How long until you think you two'll be up to double-dating status?"

Summer was really bad at follow-through on that kind of thing, though, Rey, so no need to worry too much there. She still owed Tisarwat and Lucille one to the moon.

"We haven't even talked about actual dates," Rey said. "Do pirates go on dates?"

"I don't see why they couldn't," Summer pointed out with a smirk. "I don't think it's something expressly forbidden in their contracts."

"There's also the issue of how I don't even know what to do on dates," Rey said.

She'd seen them on TV, and now terrible Hallmark movies.

"The general rule of thumb is a chipper and encouraging 'just be yourself!'" Summer chirped with a laugh, considered how much was left in her glass, and figured she was still a few more sips away from needing a refill. "But also, my last date was literally to a toilet planet, so my own perception on it is pretty wide-reaching. It does usually involve dimension hops or visiting planets these days, but most people just stick with, you know, dinner and a movie or something."

"To a toilet planet?"

She had to ask about that one. She didn't want to, maybe. But she had to.

"In my defense," Summer offered, "I didn't know it was a toilet planet. And it is legit one of the most gorgeous places I have ever seen, and I have been to a lot of pretty places, Rey. It's really just the one toilet, too, but it's my grampa's secret toilet...because he has one of those, because he's a shy pooper...so, you know..."

She winced a little.

"Awkwaaard."

Rey took that in, nodding slowly.

"I should probably avoid that sort of thing for the first date," she decided.

"It does make for a good story, though," Summer grinned, "but, yeah, that's probably pretty smart."

"We'll figure it out. Probably."

And don't think she wasn't going to use this as an excuse to turn this around on Summer in a minute, but there was one question she had first.

"Can I ask what you see that made you think something was going on? Or should have been?"

And that was...a good question, because Summer wasn't sure, even after thinking about it a little, after some sangria to help her think, that she even knew an answer to it. But since it was a good question, she wanted to make sure she had a good answer.

But what she came up with was a shrug and wry grin that knew very much that this wasn't a good answer at all.

"Like I said," she said, "one of those 'when you know, you just know' kind of things.

"Seriously, though," she added, a beat later, "I don't really know, if I'm honest, it was just...something kind of different when you talked about him. And, well, you denying it when I teased you. You ever hear the phrase 'the lady doth protest too much'?"

Also...projection and hope based on a whim, but that was generally Summer's approach to most things these days.

"I didn't want to get ahead of myself in case there wasn't really anything there," Rey said with a shrug. "Things like using his name or him coming to check on me really were friend things."

She assumed him coming to check on her that time was a friend thing. It was only like the third time they'd talked or something.

Summer shrugged back with a light smile. "Sometimes friend things are a really good start."

Not that she ever had any experience with that, really, but, you know. Theoretically.

Then her smile sharpened a little.

"That's a good friend to have," she added.

"Seems like," Rey said, totally unable to keep the smile off her face at that. "I'm not sorry about how this has gone at all."

"Good," Summer's own grin grew as she finished off her glass, reaching for the pitcher to refill it and then giving it a questioning lift to see if she should top Rey off while she was at it, too. "You shouldn't be. And I'm really, really happy for you, Rey."

"Thank you," Rey said, and held out her glass. She'd only gotten maybe halfway through but she was keeping in mind that she had training tomorrow.

"How are things going with you and Barry?"

Summer, meanwhile, had already informed Troy that he was on his own for radio tomorrow and gotten a sub for her class, because Shunsui owed her one. That's how you knew you were a responsible adult: you fucking planned for your hangovers!

"Things with Barry are great," she said, smiling softly into her glass. "Barry's great."

Almost too great, but she'd need to make it through at least another round before she managed to get that one out loud.

She laughed a little, shook her head. "But that's, like, totally ancient news at this point, right?"

It had been one of her longest continual relationships pretty much since tenth grade, so...

"Not that ancient," Rey pointed out.

Especially when Summer was smiling into her glass like that.

"This has been one my longest continual relationships pretty much since the tenth grade."

Yeah, that definitely called for bringing that little bit of narrative into the world.

"We're practically married at this point.

"Fuck," she realized, "we've been together longer than my actual marriage."

Another beat.

"Okay, not technically, because the papers only got signed this year, but, you know. Spiritually. And you could even make the argument that, hello, it was a lawless wasteland, so was it really a marriage if, you know, laws don't even exist?"

"It might say something that I didn't hear about the marriage until about a month ago," Rey said, putting actual thought into it. "But I think the time you were actually together is what actually matters here."

Was that helpful?

"The time we were actually together," Summer offered pointedly, "happened when we were still in school here, Rey. Wrap your brain around that one."

Oh, look, maybe getting through that second glass was going to go even quicker than the first!

She feel bad about it if this wasn't exactly the sort of thing sangria nights were all about.

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