Chilly Boulder | Friday Afternoon

[scarlet_chaos]

It was still hot and Wanda had a cicada fly into her hair today, she thought she deserved ice cream. There wasn't enough hair washing in the world to forget that feeling, but maybe some rocky road would help the trauma fade.

She wasn't expecting to have to navigate a broken door to get to the ice cream but, whatever, she was willing to put in the work. The cicada trauma, it was a lot.

Once she got her ice cream she picked a spot by one of the booths facing the door. She wondered if she should offer to help fix it, but didn't want to weird people out if she accidentally turned the door into a llama or something.

[Open! Look at me getting to use this icon]

Comments

[thedadalorian]

You want cicada trauma? The kid had taken to trying them, but only the ones that were still alive and kicking.

And no, Din had no clue if that was safe or not.

Hence trying to bribe the little womp rat into not being gross with ice cream.

He nodded politely over at where Wanda was seated, navigating Grogu into the building and over toward the counter so the kid could jam his face up against the window to see all the flavors.

[scarlet_chaos]

"Hi, Grogu!" Oh god, he was still so cute. Wanda then remembered she should be polite to his adult as well. "And hi to you too."

[thedadalorian]

Grogu looked away from the ice cream long enough to blink those big ol' muppet eyes at her in greeting.

"That's basically a hello," Din said, shaking his head in amusement at the kid. "No idea when he'll start talking."

[scarlet_chaos]

"I'll take whatever I can get," she said. "I'm not insulted, I know the ice cream is way more appealing than I am."

[thedadalorian]

"I don't even know if he can read the labels or if we're just picking based on what color looks best," Din said, watching as Grogu jammed a clawed finger at butter pecan. Because he was 50, maybe.

[scarlet_chaos]

"I mean, it's kind of hard to go wrong with ice cream," she said. "Unless it's rum raisin, that's actually gross."

[thedadalorian]

"Can't say I've had it to know for certain," he replied, raising one finger at the server behind the counter to ask for a scoop on a sugar cone for the kid.

[scarlet_chaos]

"The flavor or ice cream in general?" she asked.

[thedadalorian]

"Both," he replied as the cone was graciously bestowed on the kid. "Think I had a milk custard thing a couple times growing up. But the milk here looks different."

Yeah, why don't y'all have the normal blue milk?

[scarlet_chaos]

"Well, why don't you have some now?" she asked. "I can vouch for the rocky road."

[thedadalorian]

"I'll get some to go." Look, he was a religious boy. In a manner of speaking.

[scarlet_chaos]

You know what? Fair. It looked like it'd be hard to eat ice cream in that outfit anyway.

"Any particular reason you're treating him?" she asked. "I got a bug in my hair and had to try to banish the trauma away with sugar."

[thedadalorian]

"It's to keep him from trying to eat the bugs."

ENJOY THAT IMAGE, WANDA.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve, covered in mud and paint, squelched past the door and gave Wanda a rueful little wave. "Hey there!"

[scarlet_chaos]

"Hi!" Wanda said, waving her cone in hello. "...bad day at work?"

[heroic_jawline]

Steve laughed. "Kind of. We had a mud course with the paintball today. Tony did really well!"

Steve less so.

[scarlet_chaos]

"Ah. That explains it," she said. "And you felt like you deserved ice cream after?"

[heroic_jawline]

"I did," Steve said. "Unlike other teachers I can think of, I didn't spend the entire class period in a suit of armor away from the mud and cicadas."

[scarlet_chaos]

She laughed. "And you don't think you could have said anything to get him out of that suit?"

That came out dirtier than she meant it to be.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve's cheeks went a little pink. "Well, yes, but I wasn't going to do that in class."

Was that accidentally oversharing? Maybe.

[scarlet_chaos]

"Oh, god--" Wanda covered her face with the hand that wasn't currently holding an ice cream cone. "I really did not mean it that way."

[heroic_jawline]

Well, please don't mind Steve as he attempted to actually die of embarrassment. Did you know a grown man could turn that shade of red, Wanda?

[scarlet_chaos]

"Wanna just pretend that never happened?" she asked.

[heroic_jawline]

"Please," Steve said vehemently. "Hi, Wanda. How's your week been?"

[scarlet_chaos]

"It's been fine, Steve, thanks for asking," she said with a smile. "My t-shirt at my forced outdoor activity this week wasn't that bad, so I can't even complain about that."