trans_9 | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Kate was in a much better mood than she had been with the recent mess about not!Iron Lad, and wondering how Cassie was dealing. She was currently in the Media library, humming along to some music cheerfully. She wondered how it would sound like on a cello, how to adapt these particular chords to the strings.

She was also smiling contently, casually thinking of a certain recent event with a certain someone. Maybe she'll go play something in the Sensoriums a little later.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Kate had almost missed the knocking since she had let herself zone out so she really feel the music like her teachers had taught her.

She straightened up, and hit the volume to lower it. She then turned in the direction of the voice, and there was a mix of surprise and a hint of guilt on her face.

"Oh. Paco. Uh hey."

"Hey chica," Paco said. Well, she wasn't freaking out with him here, that was a good sign, right?

Of course, that didn't make it less awkward.

"How's it going?"

"It's good. Going good."

She nodded, trying to get around the awkward. And it really was. Especially now.

"How you been?"

"About what you'd expect," Paco said with a shrug. "I got to hang out with Master Chief; that was pretty cool. And me, Brenda, and Jaime are planning a Movie Night at some point, you're welcome to come to that." He shrugged again. "Just thought that I'd come by and see how you were doing."

Yep. Awkward. Ability to form sentences suffering, send help.

She kept her arms folded against her, still nodding.

"Sounds cool. I haven't really spoken with him much. And Movie Night sounds great. I'll tell Cassie and Jonas about it if it's ok? It's been a while since we've done anything like that."

She shrugged, "I've been good. Some bad with a sort of teammate only he isn't because he's from the future, and the him we knew was an alternate one who had to go back since the present otherwise would have meant some of our friends not existing. Plus more of the old Avengers would be dead. And he doesn't know anything about us now that he went back... It's complicated."

"Yeah, that's fine. Bring whoever you want, it's open to whoever shows up. I'm also planning paintball and a couple other things -- I'm starting up a "Team Have Some Freaking Fun" team so no one stresses themselves out and goes crazy."

Paco wince sympathetically. "That sucks. Is this the time-travel guy you mentioned earlier?"

"Ok I'll tell them, and I.." Whoops, she almost asked about bringing a date too, but uh no, that would be awkward and strange right now.

"Paintball sounds like a good idea. And yeah, the time travel guy who was supposed to be one of the Avengers biggest enemies."

Since as far as Paco knew, the two of them were still technically dating? Yeah, would have been a bit strange.

"Chief thought it would be a good way to get people used to handling guns. Apparently, the idea of the crew running around and trying to hit the bad guys with sticks makes him uncomfortable," he joked.

"Whoa, really? Man, that...ouch," he said. "And now he's here? That must be rough."

"I guess but thought you've shown the effectiveness of a good stick."

Kate then added, "We told him but he didn't believe us. And this version of him is a real jerk."

"I did, but he showed me the things he's been fighting," Paco said, holding a hand high over his head. "They're more than twice as tall as I am, and built for that height. Not something you want anyone in arms' reach of, no matter how awesome they are with a stick."

"Lame," he said, shaking his head. "If he keeps acting like a dipstick, point him out and I'll smack him upside the head."

"Ok you got a point there. I have some special arrows that might work. Like when we had those giant bugs."

She gave a small laugh and nod, "Sure, he probably will."

"Master Chief seemed pretty big on the 'deal with it from a distance' sort of fighting, so I think he'll let you get away with arrows," Paco said, winking.

Well, this seemed normal. Nice and back to normal. Of course, they were still standing several feet apart. Less with the normal there.

She smirked back, "He better, or command staff or not, I could still send a shot to his butt to prove my case."

Well she didn't feel as uncomfortable being in the same room with him now. But now there were other complications.

Kate then asked to change the subject, "How's Brenda been? I've only seen her here and there."

Plus it could be another way to gauge his reaction. So she knew she was doing the right thing not to try to get back together. Because kissing Tony just confirmed there was something more, something that could be really good.

"Brenda's good," Paco said with a shrug. "Like I said, she's helping me with the Movie Night, and she's also going to help me make sure that Jaime doesn't embed himself in the ships insides too much. Oh, and she's made friends with Fleshy Brainy."

He'd been keeping what Kate said about Brenda's feelings in mind, but he hadn't been poking at it too much. He didn't want to even think about starting anything with Brenda in the middle of this whole mess.

Although he was thinking about pulling the plug on his and Kate's relationship. He'd ended relationships for reasons less than "horrific mental trauma due to brainslugs".

"Oh, and she yelled at me for trying to avoid doing Allen's school-test thing, so it's almost exactly like being at home.

Kate laughed, "Yeah, I finished some of his problems. I'm still looking over the essay topic he gave me. That's good for her then. Sounds like you need it."

Paco rolled his eyes and smirked.

"You say that now, but while all of you are tearing your hair over midterms, the rest of us will be quietly getting permission from your parents to kidnap you the weekend before and drag you on a camping trip with none of your books."

Well, he'd always asked permission from Jaime's parents and Brenda's mom, at least. He'd usually gotten it, too.

"Parent you mean, and I would have got away anyway. My dad's hardly around."

She added, "I thought the camping trip was going to be boys only?"

"I'm talking about camping trips in general," Paco said. "Jaime and Brenda get all frantic about their school stuff, and I drag them out camping or something so they don't fry their brains. We have a system and it works very well."

Although come to think of it, he really ought to look into that "Boys' Camping Trip" thing. Could be fun.

"Yeah, I used to go to a music camp each summer. Interlochen. Was a lot of fun." Also hard work studying music.

"I think I remember you telling me about that," Paco said. He definitely remembered very manfully preventing himself from making Band Camp jokes. "Ours weren't structured like summer camps. Just 'grab the back packs and the sleeping bags, and I will throw any textbooks I find into the bushes'."

Kate nodded, "Sounds like a good idea. More like some of our get togethers back home."

"Get togethers with your team, or someone else?" Paco teased with a bit of a grin. "'Cause I'm having trouble picturing Jonas wearing hiking boots and pitching a tent."

"With my team. But we never camped together. Not even with Eli."

"Yeah, I guess you'd have to go pretty far to go camping if you live in New York City," Paco said.

Was it just him, or was that an awkward silence on the horizon?

"Well family's got a place in the Catskills, but haven't really been there since my mom died."

There was and she was still trying to hide any signs of guilt as she glanced away for a moment.