fingerstripes | IC Inbox + Friendr

[ He... raises an eyebrow a little at that, but- eh. He's friends with too many aliens to really assume too much about anyone's intentions. ]

Sounds like a winner. [ He says, with genuine sympathy. ]

Hey, if you need mayo I've got about... ten jars I can donate to the cause. [ Its probably more like three. ] My roommate just shipped out, and I don't really see how I'm gonna finish it all on my own.

[ Which- much as he appreciates the newfound space and privacy kind of sucks too in it's own way. He'd been fond of Ray. ]

Your roomie had good taste. Who were they?

[ Setting the phone to hover outside the spray of the water, the screen never dips below Loki's shoulders once she strips and gamely starts having a shower. Saves time on pausing their chat and flashes just enough skin to hopefully give Dick a strong hint. ]

I was hoping to move out soon, I miss having my own space.

[ Dick is an immovable object. He dated Barbara Gordon. Helena Bertinelli. Starfire.

Except. Well.

Loki is stunning. Beautiful in her own way, and more than that, she's charming. He likes her.

But Alfred raised a proper (™) gentleman, and it definitely seems like this is kind of... probably the done thing wherever she's from. Asgard. Leering doesn't feel right, while she's placing even that much trust in him. It's not a good precedent, if he really wants to know her better. If he wants to be friends.

But it also doesn't feel right to totally avert his eyes there either, as if she's doing something wrong or shameful. So instead he tries gamely to strike the awkward balance between looking and... not looking. The blush on his cheeks is telling, but for the most part he pulls it off well. ]

Ray Palmer. A good man. [ There, a sad thought to fixate on. He runs a awkward hand through his mussed hair. ]

Yeah? Housing getting a little cramped? [ It does kind of look it from down here in two-bedroom town. ]

I can't believe they just gave you a bed and called it a day while Ray and I got a suite to ourselves.

[ Whatever game or test goes unspoken in Loki's antics, Dick passes with flying colours. No gawping, albeit clearly exerting some self-control judging by that blush ... He's cute. She likes him more for trying. ]

Ray was the scientist, the one who worked with Stark when the monsters infiltrated the underground. I remember him.

[ Briefly, having been angrier at Tony at the time. She lathers up her hair into a frothy ball and briefly disappears under the showerhead to rinse off. That may have something to do with the subject matter as she goes on, ]

They, um, put me up with ... former enemies. It's been tense.

[ Former enemies could mean almost anything. Now he's watching the spot her back had occupied moments ago, considering. ]

...I can imagine. [ She doesn't appear to be frightened or in danger. Logic says she would have gotten out a lot faster if the situation was that dire.

Still, you never really know. He leans forward, concern in his face. ]

Anything I can do to help?

You can beat up every single one to earn my favour, how's that?

[ A smirk widens ruby red lips as she flashes him a grin. If he's going to be chivalrous, she's going to lap it up. ]

You're an officer of some laws or others, they'd get in trouble for throwing a punch your way. Couldn't you goad them, Grayson? Just a bit.

[ Winking, she reaches for a towel. ]

...Well, I'm hardly demure, but I'm not sure how one cop against a big crowd of heavy hitters is gonna shake out in our favor.

[ He's assuming they're heavy hitters. Assuming they must be to have given her enough trouble to qualify as enemies, even in the past.

But he's still grinning, as if the idea itself (even in jest) is a little flattering. ]

I'll make sure to publicly mourn your heroic passing.

[ Laughing, she wraps her hair in a towel and gives him a wave. ]

Now away and let a girl put on some clothes. Since you have all the mayo, would all be proper and good if I came to cook at your place? Then we don't have to pay.

Sounds good. I'm down on the third floor. Come down whenever you're ready.

[ And phone down, he- wow he kind of needs to do something about the state of this place. Takeout boxes are easy, then piled up dirty laundry, but there's really no way around the fact that this place is barely touched otherwise. Spare. Empty. Unlived in. Even before Ray had disappeared he's been mostly crashing at the hideout, and even there only in rare moments when his body's need for rest finally outpaced his desire to be moving. In action. Doing something about the problem of being here in the first place.

But then, all of them are new to this place. No one's comfortable and no one's settling, if the glimpse he's caught of life upstairs is an indication. What exactly is he afraid of giving away?

By the time she arrives he'll be freshly shaved and washed at least, wearing a more respectable shirt and jeans. ]

Will do!

[ And she does, literally appearing in his kitchen a half-hour later with a bag of supplies pilfered from Floor Five's cupboards (it isn't as if anyone else up there knows how to actually cook). Dressed in a plain green tee and black jeans, Loki may appear between one blink and the next or when Dick is conveniently turned away, because her teleportation is just that smooth and understated. Evidence of her shower lingers in damp waves that have been air-drying ever since the call was cut.

She plants the bag of groceries on the breakfast bar with a rustle, marvelling at how empty the apartment is. How relatively tidy too, lacking the mess that a group of Avengers brings. It's refreshing. ]

Officer Grayson? I'm here.

Gah!

[ He jumps, moving a lot faster from the breakfast bar to a near fighting stance than anyone without a whole lot of drilled-in paranoia paired with intense physical training should be able to move. The coffee pot is a lost cause, slipping out of his hand to smash on the kitchen floor in a dramatic explosion of glass and hot water. ]

-Wow. I guess knocking's not really a done thing in Asgard, huh?

[ Yeah he's sure gonna try to play it off. ]

[ Biting her lip, she snags a tea-towel off the side and steps around the breakfast bar to crouch by the smashed coffee pot. ]

You said to come down whenever I was ready, so I did ...

[ Sheepishly tucking her hair behind an ear, Loki mops up the worst of the spillage and picks out broken glass to put on the cloth. Startled in return by Dick's alarm, she doesn't have to pretend to look chastised; the front door would probably have been a better option, it just seemed expected that she should arrive as speedily as possible. Oops. That, and ... How stupid. It seems idiotic, in retrospect, that he would be as glad to greet her as she was to see him.

Maybe living amongst former enemies has crippled her judgement with a bit more loneliness than expected, ah. ]

I'll get you another one of these.

[ Caffeine is important, after all. ]

[ The outsized reaction feels a little ridiculous now. Kory would have done the same when they'd first met, if she'd been able to teleport. Raven had done the same.

And that's his cue to sweep in gallantly, crouching down beside her to reach for the towel. ]

No. No no it's fine. Honest. I don't even know where it came from, it's probably Ray's...

Edited 2017-04-20 02:54 (UTC)

Ah, but then that's worse, it's irreplaceable because it was your friend's. [ With the broken shards safely in the bundled towel she hands it over, smiling at him softly. ] I'll repay the debt with something that I can't have back once it's gone; a kiss. You can ask for it anytime.

[ But for now Loki rises and reaches for her bag of supplies. ]

Shall we get started?

[ It's honestly the nicest way anyone has ever cleaned a patch of his floor. For a moment he's still, left at an odd loss for words. ]

...Ray was a friend, sure. [ And he's snapping out of it, standing up to toss the towel straight into the trash, slam dunk style. ]

I don't know that it was working out between me and the coffee pot.

[ He's getting the mayo. ]

[ Officer Grayson's got some moves; his accuracy in the slam-dunk reinforces the agile way he sprang into a defensive stance before. Eyeing him curiously, she takes out the bacon and eggs and starts heating up the cooker. ]

Is that your roundabout way of saying 'No, thanks!' to my kisses? [ The ribbing continues. ] No breakfast meats for you today.

Well, I wouldn't say that... [ Mayo acquired, he lines the jars up on the counter in a meticulous line. Then he's just going to lean a little across the breakfast bar, watching her work with something like fascination. ]

But it's not every day you earn that kind of promise from an Asgardian god. [ His eyes flick up again, and the smirk makes it's return. ]

Call it in once and it's gone.

Very true, legend has it that I burst into dust upon every second kiss that attempts to pass my lips from the same person. Myths can be so harsh. Romance is tough! [ A wink his way says she just made that tall tale up, though.

Dropping strips of bacon into a sizzling pan (she brought her own pans, yes, so organised!) she begins chopping up some chicken and dropping those chunks in too, a drizzle of honey topping the lot. Four eggs are cracked and Loki starts scrambling them up in a bowl with butter, adding a scoop of mayo from one of Dick's jars.

This is going to be a breakfast of the gods or one that sends Dick to meet more when he has a heart-attack after eating it. ]

I used to travel when I was, er, relatively younger. With the Young Avengers, as a matter of fact, and every so often when we weren't kicking our way through the Multiverse we'd stop at a diner and get breakfast. A really American diner, you know the sort? We would skip other meals but breakfast became our own brand of religion.

[ It feels like filling in the silence but in a good way, over-sharing happier memories doesn't make Loki feel weak (not if she circumvents the worst parts). The sunshine peeling through Dick's windows is warm and in his kitchen, as it begins to smell like meat, Loki relaxes considerably. It also has a lot to do with his ease of character, a sweet nature that forgave her inadvertently smashing his stuff. ]

Edited 2017-04-21 19:16 (UTC)

Yeah?

[ Young Avengers. It's a small piece of a larger story, but the part there that matters tugs at something in him. He listens silently, going to the fridge for cheese. Ketchup. A large box of awful, sugary cereal. One of these things is not like the others. ]

Same here. There was this... great little diner in Manhattan where I used to take the, uh- crowd I ran with. [ He can't say team, and something quick flashes in his eyes with the omission. ]

...But it was the one spot where we could all decompress. Where we all came together no matter what we thought was in between us.

[ He sets the items on the counter beside the mayo, and then he leans there again, chin propped on one hand. He doesn't really know yet if he'll ever be able to think of that moment in time without the ache of absence. Somehow with the pride of all they'd accomplished. The unbreakable bond they'd formed. He wonders if Loki, housed with former enemies, has any friends here to compensate.

His eyes flick towards hers again. ]

You ever miss it?

[ Paying attention as she takes the ingredients from Dick, Loki's curiosity only subsides when he tries to catch her eye and she looks down at the pan of eggs. She shrugs carelessly, as if the memory — of leaving without saying goodbye (after her awful confessions) and paying for the New Year's rave with treasure so the YA could party without her — doesn't hurt. ]

Billy Kaplan was one of them. He's here, I live with him in the apartment, so it's hard to miss him when he has no level of chill.

[ It's a light-hearted tease but it omits another answer, that she misses them all quite a lot. Best to move the conversation away from herself. ]

Which diner was it that you frequented? I settled in Manhattan and know it well, maybe there is some overlap between our universes and I went there too. [ A small wistful smile curls up the corners of cherry-red lips. ] Perhaps we were sat opposite each other in the same booth. Same day, same place, same time ... different worlds.

[ That's a pretty thought, naively unlikely though it is. ]

[ It's not an omission that escapes him. But it's not as if he's not keeping a few cards close himself, and she's allowed some privacy there. He files it away for consideration later.

He's glad she isn't alone. ]

Like one of those glimpse through the veil things? [ It would be funnier if that wasn't a thing that had actually happened to his universe a few years back. But it makes him smile anyway. ]

Could be. There's not much that would surprise me now.

Though something tells me I'd remember you if our strings ever crossed.

Oh, and why is that?

[ Inspecting the sugary cereal with a smirk, she delves into it to steal a few pieces to munch on as she cooks. Totally innocent, not flirting at all. ]

[ He taps his chin, pretending to give the question serious thought. As if she doesn't already know. ]

Hm. Can't be the retiring mystique or the dazzling wit.

[ He's stealing a handful of that cereal too. ]

Must be the eyes.

You really are the worst. Total cheese! Mozzarella-wrapped-cheddar.

[ Inordinately pleased as she indulges in a wider smile and can't hold back a pleased blush (she's a little shallow when it comes to flattery, sue her), two plates are served up on the breakfast bar and when she reaches his side, Loki pecks him on the cheek. ]

Eat up, you're a growing officer of the law.

[ Perching on her own stool next to him, she makes sure her one of her folded legs rests against his. ]

[ It's a very fetching blush. Like everything else about her.

And Loki, as it turns out, is a hell of a cook. He needs to return the favor soon, if she lets him, even though that'll probably mean going out on the town rather than subjecting her to his embarrassingly utilitarian skillset in the kitchen.

There's a sweetness to her odd sense of mischief. Something generous in her obvious desire for company. He doesn't really think for a second that the press of her leg against his is an accident, but he's... finding himself very disinclined to pull away. He should probably be thinking that through a little more.

But the truth is it's been a long time since he's had anything like this. A warm presence in an empty space. Contact with someone he doesn't have to wrestle into a wet gutter. He's missed it badly.

A few blissful bites in, he reaches across the bar for the cereal, which he sure is going to crush up in his hands and then sprinkle delicately across his plate like table salt. ]

Not that I wouldn't admire the hell out of your finesse either way-

But I've gotta ask. How much of it's actually magic?

[ It's pretty much what he would use magic for if he had the power, so. ]

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