somethingwithturquoise | MHA #4; Saturday [09/30].

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MHA #4; Saturday [09/30].

Well, look at that. Summer was doing the responsible, adult thing and sending a message over to the hotel that morning to be left with Hemorrhage to let him know that she'd be willing to have him come over so that they could talk, and coffee had been made and there was a blaster on the kitchen counter as he sat at the kitchen table not drinking his own coffee (what with the ~~bucket~~ helmet and all ) and she peered at him from where she was leaning against the counter and tried to figure out where to even begin.

"So," she said, "why are you here right now, exactly?"

There was a long pause, a bit of some awkward shifting in his chair. "I, uh...." He coughed. "Heard you were single again."

Summer blinked for a moment before staring at Hemorrhage. "Like, six months ago!"

"So you've already moved on? To someone else?"

"Well, no," Summer said, immediately, rolling her eyes, but then she faltered a little on the uncertain truth of that statement and pulled back a little. "I mean, there is kind of this one guy, but that's, like, nothing serious--"

"--the puny one with the half-mask?"

"That's not fair," Summer protested, "he's been really working out a lot lately! Not that it matters whether I'm with someone else or not right now, anyway, Hemorrhage. We're over. We've been over for a long time, we have documents and everything. Why would I want to go back and rehash old relationships that were bad ideas to begin with?"

"Well, Rick said--"

"RICK?"

"Rick said," Hemorrhage tried again, shrugging a shoulder, looking off to the side, "you seemed pretty interested in revisiting relics of the past lately, and so he thought, maybe..."

"Oh mygod," said Summer, sucking in a breath to keep a bit of her rage from boiling over, "that asshole went and found you to send you here for Parents Weekend, again, all because I decided to use Tiny Planet as a hook-up spot at the exact moment he decided to rehabilitate some pigs???"

WHY WAS THIS HER LIFE RIGHT NOW???

"Soooooo," Hemorrhage hedged, "you're not interested in getting back together?"

"No!" Summer declared, leaving it in absolutely no uncertain terms. "Never! Well, I mean, okay, there was maybe a few times I thought about it directly after the breakup, but that's got to tell you a lot that even in the wreckage of a two and a half year relationship, I still didn't get that desperate."

"Wow," said Hemorrhage, "okay. Harsh."

"Whatever happened to 'you're a total bitch, Summer, I don't need that in my life', anyway?" she said, throwing up a hand in frustration.

"Well, that was almost three years ago," Hemorrhage pointed out, leaning forward a little. "A lot can change in three years. And that bitch was exactly who I feel in love with all those years ago, when the world was just a merciless wasteland and we pissed on the grave of the past."

And, for a moment, there was a small tug of nostalgia in Summer's heart, as she nodded and gave Hemorrhage a small smile. "We did piss on the grave of the past," she said. "But that was then. This is now. I mean, I know you still dress like a Mad Max extra, but it's been a long time since even you've been in that world, right? I mean, god, what is it you're even doing these days?"

"Investment banking."

"Exact--, wait, what? Investment banking? Really?"

Hemorrhage shrugged.

"Wow, well, okay, I guess that just really proves my point, then, doesn't it? I mean, you used to roam the wastelands striking fear into the bowels those who dared to cross your path, and now you're an investment banker. I used to eat the hearts of my enemies to gain their courage, and now I make jello shots and run a general store. What we had, in that moment, was really special, Hemorrhage, but it was just a blip in time. We're different people now. And you can't catch lightning in a bottle twice.

"And also," she felt this part was particularly important, "you should really invest in some pants, dude."

Hemorrhage sighed, nodding a little forlornly as he looked down at that untouched coffee cup. "You're right," he said. "Of course you're right. I just...I just sometimes miss the times we had, the spark between us, destroying everything in our path with wild abandon for all the guts and glory....but the Apocalypse is behind us now. It is time to move on..."

With that, he lifted his hands to his helmet to pull it off so he could finally drink his coffee, and Summer immediately winced, cringing back like she'd just got hit with an eyeful of the burning hot sun reflected off a sheet of metal, which, really, with how pale his face was under that helmet, wasn't too far off from the truth, and she was now going to be finishing her coffee trying to look at literally anything else but that horrible moustache.

[[ expecting some visitors a bit later on, but definitely very open before them in the timeline, and CW for recreational drug use in the comments, because Summer. ]]

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"Oh, he'll get there," Summer assured Chiana, but the way she flicked her gaze up Stark afterwards made it sound like more of a promise in retrospect. "He just needs time. Can't hit him with the heavy artillery right out the gate, he'll just get defensive and flail."

"He does flail," Chiana said fondly. "But he doesn't always. He gets over it. But you know that."

She grinned again.

"But how much time you think he needs? I'm not in a rush."

Summer shrugged a little, her head tilted thoughtfully, still just looking over at Stark although clearly talking to Chiana. "Only way to really find out," she said, "is to just wait and see. Until then, though..."

Her gaze shifted back to Chiana with a soft smile. "How's everything been over on Moya?"

Stark's face was going on a whole journey while Summer watched but he wasn't sure what to say yet so he was keeping quiet.

"Moya's good," Chiana said. She was watching Summer watching Stark. "Little D's getting bigger and keeping everyone busy. Rygel's still on Hyneria and hasn't been deposed again yet. Granny's... herself."

"...Granny?" asked Summer, because not only did that not ring any immediate bells for her, but it sounded like it had the potential to cool some jets a little bit so that Stark could ~~be lured into a false sense of security~~ actually get around to relaxing...

"Her name is Noranti," Stark offered.

"Crazy old lady," Chiana continued. "With 3 eyes and a lot of drugs. Her cooking can be scary."

"One of my cooking classes scary?" Summer wondered, glancing over to Stark again to confirm. "Last Jello Shot on the List scary? Or.....?"

"Unexpectedly scary," Stark said absently. He was trying not to make eye contact right now.

"These cupcakes but stronger with no warning? Or... something that might be worse. I think she's gotten better?"

"She's a little better," Chiana allowed. "She wouldn't make anything that would hurt Little D."

"Ah," said Summer, nodding, with the kind of thoughtful consideration that should probably make a few people sweat a little. "That kind of scary. Got it."

Maybe they could talk recipes some day!

"Yeah, that kind. That why you got that look on your face, Stark?"

Stark shook his head. "No. I...I don't... we...I don't think... do you... really?"

Summer stared at Stark for a moment with both eyebrows lifted before she shook her head and had to laugh.

"Okay, now, that," she declared, "had no full sentences or thoughts at all, I'm sure of it, because it hasn't started to kick in that much for me. 'Do you really' what, Stark?"

"I don't think I want to..." Stark said. Which still wasn't quite a complete thought.

"If you do, you can, I wouldn't stop you but I don't...I don't want to share you!"

Summer, who had definitely mentally put a pin in that for now and spiritually moved on to something else for a little while, just sort of blinked at Stark for a moment before realizing that he was still, conversationally, left behind.

And now she might be having trouble with a full thought.

"...oh."

"Sorry," Stark said. "Sorry. I know you don't, that we're not supposed to be so serious but..."

Be sighed. "Sorry. "

"No," Summer said, lightly, shaking her head. "No, it's okay. We were mostly just teasing anyway, right,Chiana?"

There was a small pause, a small hesitation, before she realized she really couldn't help herself from adding, though, her grin a little apologetic, but not by that much, "And I'm pretty sure it was going to be more about us sharing you..."

Just to, you know, put that perspective out there, too.

Chiana heaved a very dramatic sigh.

"We would have shared you so well, Stark."

Then, in a much lighter tone, "don't worry."

Stark, meanwhile, was looking at both of them with a mixture of confusion and relief.

"Worrying," Summer stated, "just negates the whole point of all of this, and if you start in on that, you're just going to have a bad trip."

And she, meanwhile, could already tell she was going to spend way too much time on that I don't want to share you.

"I'm better at worrying than not worrying," Stark said. "I'm trying. But... ok. I don't want to have a 'bad trip' I want to just relax. With both of you. Just not... like that."

"Your loss," Chiana told him but her tone was gentle. As was the touch of her hand when she reached out to touch his shoulder. She did let her fingers slide down his arm but she was Chiana. Of course she did.

Summer watched that small interplay with a quiet, conflicted curiosity, feeling a bit like she had gotten the positioning wrong, and it should have been her landing that comforting touch along Stark's arm, but at the same time...

"Like what, then?" she asked, softly, tilting her head at him. Because, hey, it was only fair, if you were going to shut down one idea, to provide another in its stead.

"Can we just... be?" Stark said softly as he looked over at Summer.

Wishing, perhaps, that he'd sat between the two of them.

"Here. Relaxed. Without anything complicated? You know I care about you both I just... would like to just be here. Relaxing."

"We can do that," Summer assured Stark. After a moment, though, after looking back over at him, she scooted forward a little, unfolding her legs to stand up from the couch. "I'm getting something to drink, though; anybody else want anything?"

"I'll help," Chiana said quickly, jumping up to follow Summer into the kitchen.

She thought Stark might need a microt to recover. He did.

"Whatcha got? Raslak? Something better?"

Which was fair, sure, but Summer sort of winced, just a little, at Chiana hopping up to her feet, too, because maybe Summer kind of needed a moment here, too, and that was what she was hoping to have gotten in her excursion to the kitchen, but, well....here they were, instead.

She did give Stark's shoulder a light squeeze and a small pat in passing, though, and was half-tempted to ask Chiana if she'd ever had Malört, but she was a guest here, and that was just mean.

"A little bit of everything, really," she said, offering Chiana a faint smile before moving over to reveal the impressive cabinet of booze that had been wrought from several years of becoming a goddamn boozy jello queen. "I was just going to get some water, because I get thirsty as fuck when I'm high," in more ways than one, it was true, but they could navigate that later. "And you can get raslak at home, you should really use the opportunity to have something new while you're here. Chocolate liquor? I could even mix you up something, if you want."

Chiana was good at reading expressions and body language and she noticed the little wince.

"Surprise me?" she suggested. "Water's good too. We wouldn't want to overdo it, would we? I'll take some back to Stark too and you can make me a drink. Frell, I didn't know they made it into something intoxicating!"

She'd head back to the couch as soon as she had the waters.

"I'm definitely mixing you a chocolate drink now," Summer decided firmly, before lifting her voice to call out to the living room. "Staa~aark! What do you want?"

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