Chivalry is stupid (chivalrysstupid) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-04-18 21:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, !log, [plot] future kids take 4, ~2017 april, ~25 points, ~~methos (chivalrysstupid), ~~~maria hill (by_the_book) |
Who: Maria Hill and Methos/Kishar
What: Kids
When: backdated Saturday morning
Where: Coffee shop
Warnings: Probably not
Status: Closed/completed gdoc
Having Kishar around was definitely something to get used to. Methos wouldn’t trade it for the world at the moment but he was the sort of person that liked to read late then sleep in and roll out of bed somewhere after ten am. Five year olds weren’t really down with that plan so it was Saturday morning and they had already gone for a walk and now they were in the coffee shop that Methos liked to get himself a rather large coffee and a juice and a treat for Kishar and it wasn’t even ten am.
He’d brought along a pad of paper and a box of pens so Kishar was sitting in her chair swinging her feet and coloring while Methos working on getting some coffee in. Sure, being immortal he did better on short sleep than most people but damn it he didn’t like it!
***
By ten AM on any given day Maria had already accomplished a two mile run, a couple of tours through the obstacle course and whatever practice with whoever was on the schedule that day. These days not so much. These days she had two teenagers ghosting about her house. Teenagers that she had no idea how to handle. Steve had given her some reassurance on the matter, but it was the open door policy at the Rogers/Barnes abode that was saving her bacon, at least in her opinion.
Rousting teenagers before noon on a Saturday was no easy feat. She’d had to use what Gabe called her Agent Mom voice to get them moving so she could take them to their dads’ for whatever they had going. Maria had said she’d stop by to check in, but she’d given up her run so she’d have time to grab a quick shower before heading to the coffee shop for some much needed caffeine and a bagel.
The very last thing she expected to see was Methos looking a little frayed around the edges with a little girl sitting next to him. Maria smirked a little as she took her coffee and carbs to walk up to him. “You too, huh?”
***
“Hello Maria.” Methos at least had made it through most of his coffee so he was feeling a little better about the morning now. “Yes, this is Kishar. Who really likes to get up and eat cereal very early in the morning.” He wasn’t really complaining, he’d do whatever the little girl wanted to be honest.
Kishar looked up at Maria and waved with a smile before going back to her picture.
***
Ok. The kid was cute. Maria smiled and waved back. “Kishar. Pretty name. Sumarian, right?” Hey, something came from all the research she’d been doing lately.
“Care if I join you two?” She nodded to the empty seat across from Methos.
***
“And how exactly is it you are familiar with Sumerian names?” Methos raised a brow at her with a slight smirk. That was not your run of the mill type of knowledge to pick up. Even the people full of useless trivia rarely had anything to do with Sumeria.
“Please, have a seat.” He waved at the empty spot in invitation.
***
“Research has its benefits,” Maria answered nebulously as she sat down. Would she expand on that? Probably not unless pressed. Mostly, it was something to fill the time, scratch an idle curiosity. But to keep further questions from coming she volunteered her own plight.
“I ended up with two teenagers,” she said as she unwrapped her bagel. “Boy and a girl. I kind of suck at this so they get shoved onto their dads a lot.”
***
“Really? What kind of benefits?” Yes, he was curious why she’d be researching things like Sumeria after meeting him and getting to know him a little. It wasn’t like he thought it was for nefarious reasons but Methos and curiosity went together.
“Like I’m good at this? It’s been five thousand years, I’ve never done this you know.”
***
“Educational benefits,” was the dodging answer before Maria took a drink of coffee then continued her evasion.
“You have five thousand years of observation,” she protested. “I don’t even have five. Three, if we’re being generous. I can’t rely on my own experience to give me a single clue.” She wrinkled her nose, obviously disgusted with herself. “Rogers says they seem content, but he’s Captain Sunny Outlook so his opinion is biased.”
***
“I think you’re underestimating your amount of observation.” Methos didn’t want to point out he’d never been able to have one so he hadn’t bothered to pay attention to that part. And his days long ago where he had really were a long time ago.
“You didn’t just learn to be observant the last few years. You’ve been like that all your life I’m sure.”
***
“When you grow up with a father who hates you for just existing, you learn to be observant and quiet fast.” That was kind of muttered out quickly. Maria was a little surprised at herself. She didn’t usually volunteer that information, but apparently after talking about it with Steve it was right in the front of her head ready to spill out her mouth. She grimaced then moved on.
“But I wasn’t interested in observing the more familial habits of human nature,” she said. “I trained to look for martial and military benefits.”
***
“The nice thing about being observant is you will see things whether you are looking for them or not.” Methos didn’t want to poke too hard at the family observation. Maria was the type that let it all spill when she finally cracked open but she also would possibly get mad at herself for doing it and retreat after.
“I have teenagers around but Percy and Reyna are entirely self sufficient. So I’m not much help I’m afraid.”
***
“Fortunately, their dads are so they get sent there during the day.” Maria knew she couldn’t just dump them on Steve and Bucky. They’d shown up in her house for a reason, and she wouldn’t shirk responsibility no matter how rough.
“So who’s the mom?” And why did she care? Hmm.
***
“Her name is Pamela.” Methos chuckled thinking of her. They’d been partnered in the bed on the cruise and woke up with each other every morning. It made for being good friends for them. “She’s being nice enough to let me monopolize Kishar and keep her at my place.”
The little girl looked up at Maria. “Mommy has a million kids. She said she needed a drink a lot.”
Methos was doing his best not to laugh after that. “Not quite a million but there were more than a few.”
***
Maria had to bite the inside of her lips to keep from bursting into laughter. She’d said the same thing at least once a day since discovering she was a mom twice over. “I haven’t met her, but I’ve seen her on the net.” Maria nodded a little with her brows up in obvious amusement. “She’s ah...friendly.”
***
“Yes, she is.” Methos chuckled since that was a very good description of Pamela. Friendly and uncomplicated. “She also lives with a rather manic set of teenagers, one of whom has a magic wand, and between them and all the other kids...well it’s a bit chaotic there.”
***
Better this Pamela than herself, Maria thought, but she wouldn’t say that in front of the kid. No dissing the mommy. Maria had never known her own, but based on what little she’d learned she felt she might have had a much different life if her mom had lived.
“Remind me not to let my two be influenced by the manic,” she said with a chuckle.
***
“I’m not sure you can avoid it with Star.” He’d mostly seen her on the network but he’d also seen her in the park playing the whole hide and seek with the animated pillow things and he was a little wary of having to spend any time with her. She basically seemed insane. Nice. But insane.
“But she can’t be everywhere at once right?”
Kishar got a big grin since they were talking about Star. “She has a laser puppy. It shoots lasers out of its eyes and they kind of sting and tickle at the same time.”
***
Maria looked at the little girl with a blink. “Laser. Puppy.” Then she turned her blink to Methos, her brows coming down a bit. “Is that safe? And how the he-eck,” self editing for the win, “is there a laser puppy?”
***
“Star made it with her magic wand. She does lots of magic, she’s really funny.” Kishar showed Maria the picture she was drawing which seemed to be a stick person with really long yellow hair that was doing something acrobatic and waving a stick that had colored dots around it.
Methos had to just shrug since he wasn’t sure how one got a laser puppy. “She probably knows better than I do. I don’t hang around with her much.”
***
“I think I’ll go on living without knowing how one gets a laser puppy,” Maria said with a smirk for Methos. She then dutifully turned her attention to the drawing Kishar was proudly displaying to her.
“That’s very nice,” she said with a smile. “You should draw your daddy.” Maria would be amused to see how that came out.
***
“Okay.” Kishar picked up a new piece of paper to start drawing again.
Methos knew what this kind of drawing would look like to he smirked a little for Maria’s tactic. “So sparring is probably not an option for now. But we can still meet for coffee and check in.”
***
“Yeah,” Maria said with a wrinkle of her nose. “No bladed weapons with little humans underfoot, and knowing my two they’d want swords of their own.” The chaos that would bring into her house...she’d plan on a shopping trip immediately.
***
“She already has ideas about wanting a sword so I don’t want to tempt her.” Kishar was definitely his daughter. All she’d talked about was ancient languages and swords for the most part. Methos was amused by it.
“I figured we’d be slow and boring this week.”
***
“I don’t do slow and boring very well,” Maria said with a note of self loathing in her voice. “That’s usually when I screw up.” She sighed as she pushed her hand back through her hair. “But, what choice do I have? Somewhere out there in the multiverse there are at least two versions of me that had her shit together long enough to have kids. Now, for some stupid reason, this version of me has to take responsibility for that.”
And she obviously wasn’t used to being around young children since she said shit.
***
Swearing made Methos chuckle again. He was just as bad but Kishar seemed to ignore it for the most part. Maybe because Pamela was way worse with the language than he or Maria. Kishar might just be used to it.
“You don’t have to be together to have a kid but from what I’ve seen it certainly helps your sanity afterward. You can always come be slow and bored with us if you want.”
***
“Have a kid?” Maria chuckled with an awkward smile coming to her face. “No. That usually is pretty straight forward.” She looked down at her coffee, stabbing at it with the little plastic stir stick. “Raising a kid is a much different story.” Her dad was a perfect example of that.
The invitation brought her attention back to Methos and Kishar. Her first reaction was to decline with some lame excuse, but she found herself hesitating to do that. “Yeah, maybe.”
***
“It’ll get you out of the house and able to talk to someone other than a kid. Although MacLeod would argue that I’m an adult mind you.” His friend would tell Maria that Methos was the most childish person he knew probably. Methos was all right with that. He liked to keep the childish part of himself to remind himself that there were much worse alternatives to be.
***
Maria chuckled. “So popcorn and kids movies instead of cognac and beer at Lou’s?” That had been the agreement the last time they had a similar conversation. “Fine. And if it’s okay I’ll ask my two genetic receivers if they want to come along. Chances are they’ll turn it down in lieu of the more fun place that is their dads’ place, though.”
***
“Well at least they have some good kids movies now.” Methos didn’t watch a lot kids movies but he’d seen enough to know they were a lot better than they used to be. “And of course the other kids are welcome. We also have action movies so they could watch things that blow up.”
Which Maria might like better as well.
***
Oddly enough, Maria preferred period pieces, horror flicks and (don’t tell), rom coms. She had enough action and explosions in her real life that they kind of lost their impact.
“I’ll give them the option and see what they want to do.”
***
“Well just let us know.” He just thought she might like them better than the kids movies. If he found out she liked rom coms he’d get those out to watch at some point and try to refrain his sarcastic nature. After all he’d been married almost 70 times he obviously believed in love.
***
“I have to make an obligatory appearance this weekend.” Maria made a face at Kishar to punctuate that and make the little girl laugh. “I’ll bring it up to them then and let you know.”
***
Methos couldn’t help smiling at the amused giggle Kishar let out. She really was a happy child and he was glad of it. “Well we will be waiting with bells on...or at least Kishar will because she found some left over holiday decorations and she’s been jingling them all over the house the last day or so.”
***
“A little Christmas in April, huh?” Maria chuckled. Okay, she could like Kishar. She was quiet and kind of cute. “Never live according to everyone else’s rules. Make your own.”
As if to punctuate that, Maria finished her coffee. “Speaking of holidays, apparently there is one and I should do something to make myself presentable as I hold up a corner.” Holidays were decidedly not her thing. Even less were family functions.
***
“Ah yes. I believe we have to make sure that a rabbit shows up and leaves candy and eggs. That will be interesting.” Methos tugged on Kishar’s hair with a smile. It was definitely going to be different to play along with the modern way holidays were celebrated.
Easter bunnies, bah.
***
“Don’t forget a basket,” Maria said helpfully.
Watching Methos with Kishar was kind of bittersweet. This was how a father and daughter were supposed to be. This was what Maria had missed out on. An old ache poked her from the inside. She hadn’t felt that in a long time, and wasn’t thrilled to feel it return now.
“Anyway I should go.” Her smile was a little tight as she stood up. “Have fun.”
***
She had that look. The one people got when they were upset by trying not to show it. And after the things Maria had said about her own family Methos could guess why. But he just smiled nicely at her instead of drawing any attention to it.
“We will, and we’ll wait to hear from you about having adult conversation later.”
***
Maria arched a brow for that. What adult conversation? Or was she reading into something that was only meant at face value. It was possible she was being Agent Hill again instead of Maria. Ugh.
“Yeah, okay,” she said. “I’ll let you know.” She smiled then looked at Kishar. “And I expect to see that picture of your dad.”
***
He'd said it was part of coming over, to have adult conversation, so it could be taken at face value. Methos nodded to Maria while Kishar promised lots of pictures of her dad. There was still a long day of entertaining the unexpected daughter to get through so after Maria left he decided another cup of coffee was in order.