Nico Minoru (nicomancer) wrote in momadness_log, @ 2022-08-06 18:09:00 |
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Entry tags: | marvel: nico minoru, ~inactive: tim drake |
Who: Nico Minoru and Tim Wayne
What: Road Trips and Ice Cream and Big Talks
When: After This Exchange
Where: Out on the Road Somewhere
Warning/Status: Low, just some feelings (and a little language)
Status: Completed via Gdoc
Just as she'd promised—threatened?—Nico met Tim in the garage and silently hugged him within an inch of his life.
And that was all that happened. Not a word was said about their private exchange—at least for now. Instead, he teased her about her admittedly ridiculous sunhat. (She said, "Fuck off.") And then she teased him about his admittedly ridiculous quarter-life-crisis car. (He said, "Fuck off.") They grinned at each other over the top of the electric blue paragon of rampant capitalististic excess, and then they were off.
The first few minutes were spent squabbling over their respective playlists, but they'd settled on one with minimum contention by the time they got on the main road to the highway. Miles and miles went by in comfortable silence with only the low roar of the shifting engine, the steady thump-thump-thump of the pavement, and a mix of random tunes to fill it. All the noise prohibited conversation anyway.
Nico wasn't sure how far they'd gone or how long. She'd long since leaned her seat back and closed her eyes, but eventually she reached for Tim's phone and started typing something in.
A moment later, the navigation voice kicked in. "I've found three places along your route that match the search for 'ice cream'. Would you like me to give you directions?"
Tim needed the hug, as much as he would deny it verbally, this was one of those times he’d accept and not just freeze up like a terrified deer. He was obviously a bit disheveled when they met, lack of sleep and nightmares would do that though.
His car was all kinds of sleek, and on the inside it was obviously very much not from this world. Dark on the inside, leather interior. Everything had a glowing button to react to. Red and black was the theme. The Red Bird, his car. A sports car that was just barely street legal, but it didn’t matter. Tim was able to disable a lot of the police functionality nearby. Drones and traffic control didn’t see them thanks to Tony’s tech that he borrowed.
“Yeah. First one on the list.” Tim was quiet at first, but the ride seemed to be helping. He was far less tense than when it all started. He glanced over at Nico and her hat and actually gave a little smirk. “Gelato or ice cream first up…meaning, yes, we’re probably hitting all three of those.”
The pleasant nav voice started in on the directions even as Nico tipped a triumphant smirk in Tim's direction. Her socked feet—with their black lace around the ankle—were kicked up on the dash, not out of disrespect, but just because she was comfortable. She poked at the display and swiped it to the map with an ease that came from watching Tim do something similar earlier when they were trying to avoid a snarl of traffic. "I should get credit for the original idea, but I'm enjoying your embracing the theme. Looks like it's ice cream first and then gelato, and then back to ice cream."
It was a very British voice on tha nav. It gave him a sense of homelyness. It reminded him of Alfred, whom he missed at this point. “Works for me.”
The feet on the dash didn’t seem to bother him at all, he’d rather his friends be comfortable around him than not. He said nothing on it, as the engine practically purred under them. They could feel every single movement, and that was how Tim liked it. It was a manual car per his request. Bruce had someone put it together that way. Tim was a secret car nerd.
“Credit noted. First one's free.” He looked over at her with amusement behind a pair of fancy shades. “...Probably should add in some actual food in between.” A light way to admit he hadn’t been eating too much recently. Probably only the bare minimum, and someone as skinny as he was felt it.
“What are you in the mood for?” Tim could eat whatever. But since he had someone with him...well, he was trying to play good host. He seemed better off obviously than he had been the day before, Tim had a tendency to just isolate when something was wrong. Bottle it up and shut up until it came out in some other awful way.
Her only acknowledgement of his subtle admission of his lack of self-care was a slightly sour look in his direction, and then she was on a mission to find comfort food. There were a few pizza joints around and all kinds of chains to be found at the upcoming exits, but nothing was catching her eye or her tastebuds—until one did. "How about this diner here at the next exit after ice cream part one? It's got a decent rating."
And then maybe they could talk. Really talk.
“Sounds fine.” Tim wasn’t really into fancy snotty rich people places anyway. That was more of Bruce’s thing. Yes, he had money, but no, he didn’t want a portion the size of a small rock. He wanted a burger as big as his face if he was going that route. A bit of time was spent at each place before Tim was finally a lot less dizzy thanks to the lack of nourishment.
They had a small outdoor area that he’d chosen to finish off a soda in after the giant burger. When his mental health started to decline it was only obvious in a few subtle ways. Lack of eating being one thing. He wasn’t really used to confiding in Leo just yet as he had been with Sam, so it was a little rough of a start to a new therapist—a shake up he didn’t really expect, but probably should have.
“Not a bad choice. We need to do this more often.” It seemed like a bit of the world's weight was gone at least. “Thanks. For coming, I mean.” He’d likely have just gone on his own, but that probably wouldn’t have ended well.
While Tim sat, Nico was laid across the umbrella shaded table, one hand across her comfortably full stomach while the other arm was tossed carelessly over the wide brim of her sunhat. ("Kid scoops" had been her advice on not going overboard.) She turned her head a little to smile at him over the top of her sunglasses before she slid them off so she could see him more easily. "We do, yes, although no thanks are necessary. I've been told this is what friends are supposed to do."
She paused for a moment, considering and watching him, before she turned on her side and propped her head on her hand. "So, the thing with your dad. That was… intense. Do you ever talk about it? Do you want to talk about it?"
“Haven’t had any of those in a while. Sort of forgot what that was like.” Sure he had the Titans, other teen heroes...but he hadn’t really let anyone get close to him after everything that had happened. Plus, half of them thought he’d lost his mind after Bruce “died” and all but disappeared off the face of the planet. They thought he was just pushing them away out of grief. Tim had experienced a lot of that.
Looking up, he shrugged. “How does one talk about that without getting committed?” A serious question, somewhat. “No, Sam was aware but not the details of it. Other than that..nope. Not really. Not ever. It was a thing that happened, and then was just…pushed away.” That was how bat people reacted to tragic things, and Tim wasn’t sure how he was supposed to cope with that. Beyond a little tightening of the corner of his eyes that could have been pent up anger, he just shrugged.
Setting aside her own admittedly shitty track record when it came to being the kind of person someone would consider being a "good friend", Nico decided to act on instinct. Or maybe counter-instinct, because her first impulse was to make an inappropriate joke and/or snarky remark and lead the conversation in a different direction. But she didn't. Instead, she reached out and touched the back of his hand where it was wrapped around his soda. "I'm not a therapist, so I'm not gonna spout a bunch of bullshit that probably wouldn't help you anyway, but I'm here if you ever—I dunno—wanna talk? My Dad died, too. Just a few hours before I came here. Did I ever tell you that?"
Nico was probably one of the best friends he had there. Tim wasn’t exactly on par with his usual snark, but nightmares and days worth of lack of sleep would do that. At least the color was coming back to his skin. “I’m not usually very good at the talking, but the sentiment is appreciated." He didn’t pull away when her hand came to touch his own. He just gave a little smile at it. “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. You didn’t.”
He sent an empathetic look in her direction.
“The first time I was brought here, my best friend was killed in front of me before I was just sort of dumped here.” Obviously Tim had a ton of death related trauma, hence his go to form of function these days being snark. “Things lately have been kinda messed up in my head I guess. And with Sam being gone it’s a shitfest. I know Leo’s around but..I don’t know him yet.”
There was a pause before he looked up at her. “Before I was brought back this time, I spent almost a year inside an assassins' nest in my world. Acting as a double agent, but it got a little murky even for me at times. Enough to screw with your head.” He offered a faint smile as he hoped her reaction wouldn’t be disgust, but understood if it was. “Thus my entire head being kind of a clusterfuck right now I guess. With everything.”
She kept a finger on the back of his hand as he talked and didn't take it away. If anything, she pressed harder by the end of it to make sure Tim was watching her face when she said, "Sometimes we do bad things in the name of something good. I'm no expert when it comes to moralistic absolutes, mostly because I don't think they exist, but I think the fact that you're as messed up about all this is just a sign of your inherent goodness."
Nico gave him a sad smile and shrugged a shoulder. "But what do I know about anything? I'm nineteen in a world that's practically my own, but might not be, hanging out with a guy who's been through a lot of fucked up shit for a guy who's not even twenty yet. I'm just saying, I don't make friends easily, but you're one. And I take that pretty seriously. I'm not going to tell you how to think or how to feel, and I'm not going to shy away because you're having a crappy brain day or days or weeks. I'm just going to be here for you if and when you need me or want me."
“I mean…I hope so, I did it to take the entire place out, but…got a little lost along the way.” It brought him back to hoping his dad would have been proud, even though the man often didn’t agree with his extra curricular activities as Robin. He’d made it known. “My dad hated lying.” Thus the memory of the assassins that got to him. He shook his head. “He probably would hate what I’m doing entirely.” Batman and Robin were based on lies and deceit.
“Might hate me,” was said a little quieter, eyes focusing anywhere but on Nico for a moment, even staring down at her hand instead. But then he gave a little smile and looked up at her. “Me either. I mean...friends making. Peopling is hard, but with you, a lot less hard. I’ve had a lot of people I care about die, started thinking I wasn’t allowed to let people close anymore.” Tim seemed less angry than he had a moment ago anyway. “I always want you around, even if I fail at the words to say so occasionally.”
The more Tim talked about his added years, the more parallels Nico was able to draw to her own life, but she didn't share them. No one won in a contest of pain, she'd found, and the whole reason she had come on this road trip was to be there for her friend. Her mouth quirked in a sad smile that faded quickly. "I think hate is the wrong word, but it's not like I could ever know what's going on in someone else's head unless I was an empath or a telepath. And I'm neither. I'm just a bad ass witch who isn't all that bad ass, unless it's under certain circumstances. Which was my super round about way of saying I probably don't know anything about your dad, other than that hate sounds a lot like concern to me, and concern means love, and love means everything."
Sudden tears pricked her eyes, her own losses hitting her in a way she wasn't really prepared for. She leaned back and pushed the heel of her hand into her eye to try to stem them while she swallowed thickly. "Okay, okay, I think that's enough feelings for now. We're both awesome, but also pretty broken, and it sucks, but we need people around who both get what it's like to be kind of broken and puts up with our moods—like Peter for you and Karolina for me, and us for each other. You're stuck with me, Drake. Nothing's gonna change that."
“You sure about that?” A small hint of amusement seemed to touch the corners of his lips as he responded to her not being an empath. “Most people just seem to see through me.” Even at times the ones closest to him.
It was like they weren’t all there to begin with, and that part made it rough to trust anyone.
“What my time is up already, Doc? I still have year one to go through.” She probably wouldn’t get what Year One was, but ask any Robin, and they got it.
“Yeah…That goes both ways. I mean...even if you get my last name wrong half the time.” A small tease as some of the humor seemed to return to his tone like a warm summer breeze after a stark winter. It was almost scary how they could both just turn it back off. Tim had nearly lost that ability, but Nico had put it back together when he was right on the edge.
She laughed and sat up before making sure her hat was at a dramatic angle and then looking at her friend from beneath it. "I blame you for having, like, a dozen names. It's hard to keep track of them all."
Nico may have been teasing, but she made a mental note to get his name right. Names were important, and the last thing she wanted was to cause Tim to doubt the level of her friendship—which was getting to be about as deep as it gets. "We should probably get back before our Sunshine People miss us. Are you good to drive, or are you in an ice cream and burger coma? And, if so, does that mean I get to have a turn with your baby bird?"
“A dozen actually isn’t even that accurate...those are only the names you know about.” He smirked as he gave her a side glance. He had a solid fifty alias names he’d come up with in the past.
Tim didn’t think much of anyone getting his name wrong, he only liked to give her a hard time because he knew Nico could take it. She’d give it right back half the time. “It doesn’t recognize anyone but me.” He stated with a bit of a too confident air there, it would probably recognize Bruce; but Bruce wasn’t there. “Yes, it is able to recognize its drivers.” He’d said that like it too had AI technology-because well, it did. “I can drive. Takes a bit more to take me out than three stops. Four more and I might be in a little trouble though.” He actually chuckled at that idea, meeting his end by ice cream amused him after all the things they’d been through already.
She just rolled her eyes at him on both counts. "If I really wanted to pull out the Staff, I could just do a 'hotwire' spell and make your car my b-word. But it seems like a ridiculous waste of a perfectly good spell to prove that magic will always trump science. Now that I know your limit, however, I won't be afraid to use that to my vehicular advantage."
“That’s cheating though.” He smirked. “ I should just show you how to hotwire a real one." Thanks Jason for that trick, but that was another thing for another time. “All the things I did to get here and I’ll be taken out by ice cream, go figure.”
With that he slid into the car again, and it took to life in no time. They were off to the next destination.