somethingwithturquoise | MHA #4; Friday Evening [03/11].

There had been talk, earlier that week, of space booze that Summer had not tried yet, and that was always something to be excited about. Plus, this particular space booze also came with a recently returned friend from which to potentially pry all sorts of hot gos and space deets from in the meantime. If she was entirely honest, she had kind of hoped that maybe Stark would seem better when he got back...and he did, for sure, but she was hoping for something...more better? She didn't know, she just knew that it was good he was back, and that it seemed he was taking the steps toward recovery or whatever and blah blah blah, he was just kind of doing it at a snail's pace, but she also had to remind herself that her pace was basically breakneck and faster than the speed of light with these things, so...you know...

To each their own.

But she was getting space booze out of it, and to make up for that, Stark would also get snacks, both sweet, savory, and gelatin (adjacent). And if he didn't show up? Well. She'd make leftover rounds tomorrow, or something. She did not think it would be hard to find people to shove extra food at.

[[ expecting a sad alien at some point, but also definitely open if anyone else wants to swing by or get in touch! ]]

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"She still had more," Stark said. "She bought more before I left. When I got this. But she'd probably appreciate it." Especially if it was something she couldn't get herself.

"How," he asked cautiously, "am I supposed to prove it?"

"I don't know," said Summer, in the tone of someone who felt she did, in fact, very much know, "maybe start appreciating the shit you do have more than focusing on the shit you don't? I mean, you said it yourself, right? You could be dead right now. Or still in a cell. But you're not. Instead, you get to have space wine with me and my cool cats. And that's pretty great, right?"

So help her, Stark, if you said it wasn't...

"I do appreciate this. And you. I never said this wasn't good. This is good and I'm glad you're here and haven't gotten tired of me."

Aw, he'd been doing so well for a minute there. He stopped, took a drink, and started over.

"Sorry. Being here with you is good. Being safe is good. The drinks are good. The cats are good. It was good to see my friends. It was good to rest. Chiana was good."

"Aaaaand," Summer added, because this was the important part, "that sounds like an awful lot of good things. Maybe not as big as the bad, sure, but...you know...that's still a lot."

"It is," Stark agreed. "And I know that. There have been good things. And they've helped. You're helping. Din came to check on me, yesterday, with Grogu. That helped. Chiana helped."

Different sort of help. He was definitely going to accidentally blurt something out if he wasn't careful.

"So see?" said Summer, with a nod and a swig. "Lots of help. So, you know, it'd be nice to sort of feel like we're not all just....you know...wasting our time.

"This space booze, though," she added, emphatically, a beat later with a look of approval and another nod, "is definitely helping with that right now, too, though."

"I don't want to waste your time," Stark said very quietly. "Yours or anyone's."

The worry that nobody actually wanted him around had gotten much worse this year.

"If the raslak is helping then I'm glad I brought it. I'm glad I did anyway. It's better to drink it with someone. And I thought you'd like it. I like it. It's... Chiana said I smiled for the first time since I got there that night. And that was her but the drinks helped."

There were...several threads of interest dangling in front of Summer with that response, so her next sip was a little slower as if that would give her a little more time to figure out which one of those would be best. They were all pretty good, and had their merits, she felt, but what she ended up doing was mostly just snorting at the end of her sip with a skeptical but teasing (mostly), "You? Smiled? And you're telling me it didn't even kill you to do it?"

"I already told you nobody died this time," Stark said. With, in fact, a tiny smile.

"Not even me."

"Waaait," said Summer, squinting over at Stark over her glass, leaning forward a little as if to see better. "Hold on. Do that again."

"I didn't do anything."

A lie. With another tiny smile.

"Did I? She had me drink more to celebrate, when I smiled. That was the night I slept on her floor."

"You keep it up," said Summer, reminded now that drinking more was also good, and went to do just that, "and maybe I can upgrade you to the couch."

"There wasn't a couch there," Stark said, taking another drink as well.

"I slept in beds after that."

MHA #4; Friday Evening [03/11].

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