Caritas, Saturday Evening

[newroutines]

Mike hadn't actually worked a single shift at Caritas since the shark thing.

He'd wanted to help, he had. But this was because since the shark thing, most of his time left over from keeping his furniture business afloat had been going into repairing damage done by the goddamned sharks to his house. And it had been some major damage, at least for something he couldn't really afford to hire help for.

But he was just about done, now. The second floor was habitable, again. So he was at Caritas. Looking like he'd been working on a house by himself for almost a month straight.

So maybe don't order anything too complicated?

[ooc: Open, no OCD!]

Comments

[throughaphase]

Kitty felt like she half lived here these days, so here she was, coming over to the bar and saying, "Hello. How're things?"

It'd been a rough few weeks.

[newroutines]

"Like I've kinda stopped giving serious thought to moving the fuck out of this town?" Mike offered, straightening up some behind the bar. He looked weary, but he trying. "Hey, Kitty."

[throughaphase]

"I hope you don't, but I couldn't blame you. I've been there myself a couple times," Kitty admitted. "Need a hug? Or there's plenty of alcohol."

[newroutines]

"At this point, I wouldn't say no to either," he admitted. Cracking a small smile, even.

You know, as if he'd ever actually say no to either.

[throughaphase]

"Tah dah!" Kitty said, leaning through the bar to hug him, because she was a weirdo like that.

[newroutines]

It made him laugh, it was all good. Even if she was still a weirdo for doing that.

He wrapped his arms around her pretty firmly. And yeah, it was weird that he could do that when she was halfway in the bar but whatever. Look, he needed this. He was so fucking tired and wasn't great at telling people that.

[throughaphase]

"I am available for hugs at any time, by the way," Kitty said.

She was a good hugger, too.

[newroutines]

She was.

"I don't know, think it'd get weird with Clint," Mike joked as he pulled back. "I mean, I know he's a chill guy but I don't know how much he'd enjoy it if I took you up on that 'any time'."

[throughaphase]

"He'd probably get annoyed and then remember who he married," Kitty said honestly. "Do you want to talk, or do you not want to talk? I can do either."

[newroutines]

"I can pretty much just sum it up in one statement," Mike sighed, resting his elbows against the bar. "I never wanna see another goddamned shark in my entire life."

A beat.

"Not at a fucking aquarium, not anywhere. I'm done."

[throughaphase]

"So I shouldn't work some kind of shark emblem into the Caritas remodel?"

She would absolutely not do that, though she might sell Shark Attacks at the reno party.

[newroutines]

He snorted. "Not unless you're secretly pissed at me for not showing up for a month, and this is your way of saying you want me to stay gone."

The theme drinks, he could probably overlook.

[throughaphase]

"I wouldn't do that to you," Kitty promised. "How much do you still have to do?"

[newroutines]

"Mostly just cosmetic stuff," he said. "But there's one hole left in the roof that still needs to be patched up in a more permanent way. It'll hold up for a while, but I gotta fix it up soon."

[throughaphase]

"If you need help, I now have practice at that, or I know contractors who don't ask questions," she said.

[newroutines]

"Thanks, but I think I've got it."

He scratched the back of his head, and sighed agaib.

"I just gotta... not go upstairs for a few days and take a little break, you know? Downstairs didn't get any damage so at least that feels like home instead of work."

Yeah, okay, he knew how this all sounded. "But, uh, it's fine, honest. I'm just tired, 's all."

[throughaphase]

"I get it. I've been working on this place for how many weeks straight. You need down time and normalcy before it drives you nuts," she said.