The Perk [Monday afternoon]

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime needed coffee.

And space.

Not really to think about things. He had no idea what he'd even think about. Or, more accurately, he wasn't sure what thinking would accomplish. On the one hand, seeing kids that could potentially have been his as relatively well-adjusted teenagers had been kind of cool. On the other hand, they really just served as reminders that he was... unsettled ("unhappy" wasn't something he was going to admit quite yet). They seemed to come from a happy family, one where he and Momoko, somehow, worked out.

A family that he was never going to get to see, except through these brief glimpses.

So: coffee. And some breathing space. To just... wallow think.

Comments

[weldedtomyspine]

"He thinks I don't care?" Seriously?

Well, actually, that probably meant Jaime was doing a pretty good job of keeping it buried? Or something?

[nonenamedboaz.livejournal.com]

"Well, you're being all 'it's inevitable' like that's not a terrible thing," Lena pointed out. "What's he supposed to think?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"You think it would be better if I said it was inevitable and that it makes me sick to my stomach?" Jaime shook his head. "I don't think that would reassuring, either."

[nonenamedboaz.livejournal.com]

"Why are you hung up on the inevitable part of this?" Lena wondered, exasperated but also wanting to laugh. "Okay, hang on. I need more sugar for this."

She went to the counter, got two giant chocolate-chip cookies, and brought them back.

"You get cookie bits if you make sense," she said, pleased with herself. And started to nibble on one. "'kay. What's with this inevitable? If 'Berto's parents pulled it off, it must not be, duh."

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime shook his head. "Different circumstances," he countered. "Different decisions."

He shrugged. "I don't know what they did differently that made things work out, but I'm pretty sure that's not even an option with us." Which really did make him sick to his stomach. Yay.

[nonenamedboaz.livejournal.com]

"No cookie," Lena said sternly, and took another bite of hers. "What circumstances. What decisions. Do not catastrophize!"

Wow, she sounded like her mom. Weird.

"Unless you killed her mom? Or her dad? Or you slept with her sister?" Lena wrinkled her nose. "Ew, no, never mind, I forgot how little Aunt Momoko's sister is right now."

[weldedtomyspine]

"Um... don't take this the wrong way, but... I'm not sure I'm ready to take any advice from you on this particular subject." No matter how much she might sound like Dinah.

[nonenamedboaz.livejournal.com]

"Why not?" Lena demanded. "I'm only a couple years younger than you! And my love life is way together!" ... Almost.

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime raised an eyebrow. "And how long have you and my son been dating, exactly?"

[nonenamedboaz.livejournal.com]

Oh, fine, Uncle Jaime, be all intuitive and perceptive when it's not *your* love-life.

Lena folded her arms, shrugging first one shoulder, then the other. "Depends on who you ask. We've known each other since we were babies. We've been best friends since before we can even remember. I gave him his first kiss." She smirked at him. "And in another two weeks, he's going to be my boyfriend."

With 98% accuracy there! Or was that 98% confidence?

[weldedtomyspine]

"Two weeks?" Color Jaime intrigued. "And why so precise?"

[nonenamedboaz.livejournal.com]

"It's my birthday! I'll be eighteen." Lena bounced, her smile widening. "Berto will bring me my birthday cake, because he's made all my birthday cakes since I was nine, and I'm going to get my parents to let him stay overnight, and we'll stay up with popcorn and Jackie Chan movies and I'll get him to admit he likes me and then I'll tell him how much I like him and then everything will be awesome!"

Substitute love for like, and that was the whole plan.

"And I'm going to be really really gorgeous."

...Okay, *that* was the whole plan.

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime blinked.

"Did you just explain to me that you're going to seduce my future, alternate-universe son?" That was what she'd just done, wasn't it?

[nonenamedboaz.livejournal.com]

"Well, if you're not his dad, you don't care," Lena pointed out with Lena-logic. "And if you are his dad, aren't you glad someone who really lo-- cares about him, is going to keep him safe and happy forever?"

Where was the problem here?

[weldedtomyspine]

"That should make it all feel less awkward, I suppose, but it doesn't." Predictably.

[nonenamedboaz.livejournal.com]

"But see! I have a plan! And it's going to work. I even have all the after stuff worked out, for if all the parent-types freak out." Lena looked smug. "And considering Mom told me once that she had to tackle you at high tide to get you to kiss her, I don't think you get to critique my plans. So why won't you tell me why you're going to die a hermit instead of living happily ever after?"

[weldedtomyspine]

Wait? That had made it into the category of family lore? Jaime was totally going to be blushing over that little fact.

"I don't know about dying a hermit," he shrugged after taking a moment to get himself back under control.

[nonenamedboaz.livejournal.com]

"Mmmmmkay." Of course it did. Silly Jaime. Lena had been asking Dinah for hints to tell if a boy liked her, and Dinah had felt obliged to break it to her about how dense certain Reyes guys could be.

"Okay, but... if it's not going to be Auntie Momomomo, you'll find somebody, right?" Hmph. Who could be better? Seriously. "...although it makes me sad. 'Cause then I won't have a Berto. And I used to pretend you guys had him just for me, since his birthday's three months after mine."

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime's smile was a bit bittersweet. "Sorry to disappoint." And he was, really, in a way.

[nonenamedboaz.livejournal.com]

"You're still all-avoidy," Lena grumbled, breaking off more cookie for herself. "I don't think you're going to get any sugary goodness here. Okay. Why did you and Auntie Momomo break up in the first place?"

[weldedtomyspine]

That, at least, he could answer. "Same as with your mom. When you're from different worlds, and you can't leave yours because it needs you..." He shrugged.

And very carefully didn't think too much about the fact that in some universe, someone had managed to do just that.

[nonenamedboaz.livejournal.com]

Lena frowned. And resisted her first impulse to say that's dumb. Because duh, Uncle Jaime and Aunt Momoko lived in El Paso.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Aunt Momoko ... wasn't in El Paso. Here.

Wait, that was still weird. "Why...?" She paused. "Why didn't somebody move?" Either somebody.

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime shrugged. "Both our worlds need us."

Also: he'd never asked. Because both their worlds needed them.

[nonenamedboaz.livejournal.com]

Lena frowned at him. Not her frown of you're-crazy, or her frown of stop-thwarting-me, but her actual frown of confusion. "What, forever? No way. You're not the only superhero here, right? Is she the only superhero in New Tokyo?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"There are only two others for her, and my world needs all the help it can get." Jaime sighed. Because it sucked.