solo_sword | MCA #6- Monday afternoon

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mca #6

MCA #6- Monday afternoon

Jaina had had better newbie picnics. Since then she'd just had to bury herself in work and focus on that, because the alternative was something along the lines of potential depression. Some things she'd said she wanted to take back and wasn't sure she could, but she was still mostly confused as to where this had come from and how things ended up the way they had and how she'd obviously missed something or other.

At the moment she was curled up on the small sofa in her apartment, reading through a report she was making no progress on. After realizing that this was just not happening until she did something else first, she grabbed her phone to make a call, and then tried to resume her work.

Tried being the operative word.

[Door closed, post open. And so y'all know, it's fine to mod that Jaina told/Emailed/called with her address. Don't want anyone wondering where she is now omg.]

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John was used to being on his own and doing his own thing - it kind of went with his lifestyle over the last several years. He hadn't let the incident with Jaina ruin his return to Fandom, but when she decided to get her head out of her ass and call, he figured it was time he stop by her apartment (strange as that was) and see if they couldn't talk.

Walking up the stairs and down the hall to find number six, he wasn't all that hopeful about the situation and only kind of wished he had backup.

Still, there was a knock at the door.

Despite the fact that she could sense him at the door, Jaina almost didn't want to get her hopes up until she actually got up and opened the door to see them there. And even with the way things had gone, there was a tiny little half-smile just because it was him.

"Hi," she said, opening the door a little wider to invite him in. "I was hoping you'd show."

"I was surprised you called," John admitted, stepping inside and having a look around. "I remembered you being more stubborn."

There wasn't much to see, yet. There was a sofa, an armchair and coffee table, but not much else in the way of furniture. She hadn't even had a chance to put any of the pictures up from her room, which, in retrospect, might not be a bad thing.

"Yes, but I can also apologize when I should apologize, and sometimes that wins out," she said, little smile going more sheepish.

"Well, maybe I should apologize too," he answered, making his way to see if there was anything of interest on the coffee table because eye contact was a bad idea. "I was a little confused by the talk of finding yourself. In my world, that's not usually something you do when people are coming back into your life."

"It's more a continuation of what I've been doing here," she explained, closing the door. He might be out of luck in finding much on the coffee table, save for the abandoned datapad and the flimsi that went along with the report. "I just... It's a little hard to explain all of the why, but annoying as this place can be, I don't regret coming back here after the war. There are some things I've figured out about myself since around that time that I don't want to regress back to."

And realizing this was heavy talk right off the bat, she asked, "Can I get you anything? I promise I haven't cooked."

"Just ordering in every day?" John verified. It was his main calling when the time came for him to feed himself things that weren't power bars. "So you've been finding yourself?"

"So far. I might have to resort to throwing noodles in water, though, since that's not real cooking," she nodded, taking a seat in the chair. He was welcome to sit, but she wasn't going to assume he wanted to sit next to her right now. "And I guess I have been. When I first came back here, it was because I wanted to see who I was when my main focus wasn't life and death every day. So I took some time, restarted a job I liked that put me around actual people..."

John took a seat across from her, because it was available. There was no thought put into it. "That is a change." He was dealing with something similar actually. "And by job you mean the bar?"

"Yeah. At the very least I have to deal with Tino every week, even if no one shows up. It's hard to immediately go all loner when you have someone behind the bar who shows up in boxers or whatever his thing is that week," Jaina said. "I'm tempted to get something in addition to keep myself busy. Ben brought up Stark Industries. That's getting back to doing something I like, so it's an option."

"Wait." John leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees. "You're giving up your career to be a bartender and possibly a mechanic? Am I in some alternate Fandom?"

She shook her head. "No. I'm not giving anything up. I'm actually involved in more projects now, helping others with their missions and jumping in when I'm needed, along with spearheading a couple of my own. I have a duty, I'm following through with it..."

And it felt really odd actually voicing this, but it was John. There had never been a problem telling him things. "I'm just trying to follow through with it in a way that means I don't lose myself to it."

"You're involved more, but you're staying here?" He was trying not to judge but... "I think I missed out on the part where you decided you liked Fandom. One of those things that happened while I was gone, I guess."

"You didn't miss anything there. I'm as irritated with Fandom as I ever was. I was plastic this week and the fact that I haven't been gremlin-bitten in a while makes me nervous," she said flatly. "Have you ever been somewhere that you might not particularly like, but the benefits are enough for you to put up with it?"

"No, but I'm the guy who got stuck on the planet of meditating pacifists," John answered. "And then got kicked out of the one place that liked me back." He was working on not sounding sad about that.

She frowned, still feeling sad for him. This was when she'd ordinarily go for his hand, but not knowing where he stood, her own hand just sort of twitched on the armrest where she tried to slap down the instinctive reaction.

"The way Ben and Tahiri talk about their Jainas, she seems like a mess. Bitchy and her love life is a joke and I hear way too much about it considering the things she should be doing," she said. "I don't want to be like that. And you, and Rose and Lois, you've kind of beaten it into me that I don't have to be. And I'm hoping that teaching myself some kind of balance and not making work my entire life might even make me better at it."

"So this is what makes you happy?" John didn't think he could do the same in her situation, but it was good to ask.

"I don't know yet. But I want to find out," she replied honestly. And maybe it wouldn't work out, and she'd just end up on the exact same path she didn't want to go on. But at least she would have given herself the opportunity to make changes.

"Okay," he nodded. There was no point telling her she was going to hate it or that the people around her would always resent the way she tended to choose work over living just because she had access to both. Jaina was an adult and John had his own issues to deal with.

"Does where I'm coming from at least make more sense?" she checked. "And yes, I knew as soon as I got this place that I was going to make people look at me funny for it." She had thought things though far enough to know it wasn't the easiest thing for people to accept her doing.

"No, but you're a high school graduate and you think you're right, so I can roll with it," John answered, smiling just a little. "Which means if you end up in jail I'll come bail you out so you don't have to call gramps."

"Hey, I don't get caught," she reminded him, deciding not to take issue with the graduate thing when she was three days away from twenty-two. "And for as much as finding myself might sound like a solitary thing, I'd really like to have you around for it."

Welcome to as directly as she wanted to approach that subject. It kind of scared her after Saturday.

"It's not like I'm going anywhere," he pointed out. "At least not for seven weeks." Still it was awkward to him, trying to figure out what they were supposed to be now that he was back.

Seven weeks. It seemed like they were always headed to a deadline. "So what you were saying about taking a step back...?"

"Hey, this is the first time in a year for you and eleven for me that we've been in the same time and place for any solid length of time..." And wow, to remember when all that was forced to change was rough. "It'd be a little freaky to just jump back to where we were a dozen years ago."

"I can see that," she said after the briefest of pauses. It was disappointing, but she could see where he was coming from. They'd been okay when she would visit him for days or weeks at a time, or when he would visit since Atlantis, but one of them would always have to leave. "So what would make this not freaky right now?"

"You're freaked out right now?" The only cure for that was sending him back across town to his own place. But it was hot as balls out and he wasn't going to suggest that without verification.

Edited 2010-07-06 00:17 (UTC)

"Not at all," she said quickly. "I mean, if jumping into things like they used to be would be freaky, do we set some kind of boundaries? Consider this a reboot? I don't have that eleven years, I don't know what's comfortable for you and what's not." And she really didn't want to make this any stranger for him, or she'd have at least attempted to remedy the fact that she hadn't so much as touched him since he'd been back.

"A reboot? Sounds like we're taking a page out of the Sheppard book of computer repair," he considered. "Can we keep it simple? Light?"

"I think so," she said, coming over to sit on the sofa near him. They'd always worked best with simple anyway. "So if I were to maybe suggest a real date, something easy, do you think that could be called light?"

"A date?" Okay, it had been a long ass time since John went on just a date. "Like you're gonna take me out?"

"Yeah. Something fun and low pressure. Unless of course betting on cheese fries is pressuring, in which case I'm going to have to think harder," she nodded. The original thought had been a movie. That original thought lasted about two seconds, all things considering.

"Low pressure? Then we can't play a game. I know how you Jedi work, after all." John could beat normal people, but not the Jedi.

"I have only cheated when you knew I was cheating," Jaina reminded him. "I can promise no powers, because superfluous use of powers should be limited to light switches and when I'm too lazy to get the remote." Yes, it happened. Not here, as she had no TV.

"You have no remote," John pointed out like the helpful person he was. "How are you staying entertained here?"

"iPod," she admitted. "That thing's getting a workout. I might see if Marcus has anything at the junkyard I can fix up, make it a project. Which would be entertainment in itself." Yes, she knew it was sad.

"Okay, maybe I've been a little bored."

"Yeah you have," John laughed, turning to see her better. "Who's Marcus?"

It was really good to see him laugh again. "He runs the junkyard now. I have no idea what he does there, but he helped me get a part for the bike during some routine maintenance. And it runs very nicely, by the way."

It was John, he'd never stopped laughing. "So there's just a guy hanging out in the junkyard now? What's the island come to. Next you're gonna tell me he doesn't wear pants."

"I first met him when the island turned me eight. He definitely wears pants," she promised, and couldn't help but smile. "Out of curiosity, why would he not wear them?"

"Oh, I met another whole race of people who abscond from clothing entirely. So if it's someone at all mechanical and friendly with you...I'm betting they're free of pants."

Jaina stared at him for a second before cracking up laughing. "Trust me, I have not been getting friendly with pantsless mechanics. What is it with you and meeting naked races?"

John shrugged, smirking at her laughter. "What can I say, aliens have a thing for me."

"That's not news," she pointed out. Even besides her, she'd heard stories about the alien hos...

"What, I'm supposed to have new lines?" John wondered, looking amazed.

"You have had eleven years to come up with new ones," she teased.

"Yeah, I was mostly busy mocking others in all that time," he admitted.

"As long as you were mocking others, I guess I can forgive it," Jaina decided. "Though now I worry that the mocking's going to turn on me." She wasn't really worried. She knew the mocking always turned on her.

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MCA #6- Monday afternoon

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