Who: Ben and Poppy What: Somebody may have stalked Poppy back from New York. Where: Baggage Claim. When: Sunday. Warnings: A little bit of language.
Poppy Barnes hated airports. More specifically, she hated planes, and not irrationally. Being struck with horrifically painful ear pain during flights meant that she stocked up on any kind of medication that would stop her from wanting to claw her own eardrums out, and as a result she left the plane groggy and really not able to find her belongings as quickly and easily as she wanted from baggage reclaim. The heat was oddly comforting, it felt like home, but it only succeeded in making her more tired than before in this case and as a consequence, the mildly irritated girl could only mumble to herself as she attempted to find her bags.
Waiting by the carousel, she massaged the top of her head with one hand, frowning at what had been done to her hair. She'd gotten it cut just before she came back, hair now falling in layers around her face, dying it back to her natural brown colour. The eyeliner was still there but it felt different, and she was dressed in a pair of blue converse, black jeans, black spiked belt, zebra striped tee and blue hoodie with her leather jacket over the top. She had lost weight with all the running around, and it was wierd to know that everything she owned was in one bag over her shoulder and one bag that was meant to be coming towards her now.
It seemed like oddly evil timing that Poppy's shoulder bag, stuffed full, would break at that very moment and send some of her things flying across the tiled floor.
The mumbles that came out of her mouth next were much more violent and probably swear-filled, but even more incoherent than before. "Great." She muttered, dropping to the floor to attempt to scramble to pick up everything she had lost. And this was why she should have paid up for more baggage space.
Ben was so nervous he could puke. In fact, he did puke on the flight to Seattle about three times. He had gotten away with his plan of following Poppy. Of course, it probably meant he was a wanted criminal if they could have seen him. It was very precise changing from invisible to visible outside of camera view or in the bathroom on the plane over.
The stewardess was very nice though. She didn’t even mind when he nearly puked on her shoes. She smelled really wonderful too. Not that he was sniffing her, of course, but it was easy to smell her perfume when he was sitting in the empty flight attendant seat while invisible. Now in Seattle and ten paces behind the the girl he followed there, Ben didn’t really have a plan beyond this. What was he supposed to say now?
As her things broke and rolled across the floor, Ben walked forward to help Poppy pick up her things. He really should have came up with something good to say, but all he managed to say when Poppy looked up was, “Hello Poppy. Please don’t hit me until I explain myself.”
The last thing she had expected to hear was her name, and that in itself woke her up slightly more than before. She nearly jumped out of her skin. She almost did hit him too, out of shock, when she realised who was actually stood there. “Dude. What?” The incredulous stare said it all. “What are you doing here? How did you get here? Just... what?!”
The amount of new people she had met only once in New York temporarily overwhelmed her, but she had met him more than once and his name seemed to stick out in her mind and she clung to it as soon as it appeared. “Ben.” She said it more to confirm to herself more than anything else. She grabbed her phone and attempted to stick the back onto it again, leaning on one knee. “Okay. How did you...?” Her words had stopped making sense so she decided to go with it, looking at him with both question and confusion in her eyes.
He stood upright, rigid in his dark button up shirt and jean jacket. He looked all the picture of a young, law abiding man with a terrible Ian Curtis haircut and held out her items for her. “I had followed you,” he began and stopped, awkwardly reaching up to brush his fingers through his bang in a nervous gesture. “I didn’t mean it in a terrible way. I just...was getting out New York. And you were leaving and it was...a good chance to go.”
He gestured to the small bag he had at his feet. It looked more like a ladies handbag stuffed to the brim with his basic necessities. “So I had snuck on your flight. And well. I did follow you here.”
Poppy slowly stood up, frowning, trying to gather the words she needed without using the appropriate word ‘stalking’. A brow raised involuntarily, and she didn’t look pleased. “So... you basically stalked me here.” Damnit. Well, there didn’t seem to be another word for it. And in the situation he was in, she could say whatever she damn well liked to him. This was her territory. She hadn’t exactly expected anyone to follow her.
She stared down at the bag in front of him, head tilting slowly to the side. “Okay, so have you and your purse got any more plans you would like to tell me about?” She swung her bag back over her shoulder, clutching it to her side. She wasn’t quite sure what else to say. Was she meant to be more mad?
“Stalking is a very harsh word, Poppy,” Ben said neutrally, face even and calm. “I had followed the only...other competent hero who was my age out of the city. I had assumed you’d like back up where ever you were going.” He thought they had worked well together when they did in New York. She had a big gun and he could be invisible. It was a good super hero team, much better than trying to get any of his other friends to use their powers for good.
He crinkled his nose a little and looked down at his bag, “It’s not a purse. It’s a bag.” He paused again and just shrugged. He hadn’t considered it this far in advance. “Well. I had planned to come here. Then find a local shelter that will take me in until I can find basic housing...Oh and possibly do the crime...fight thing.”
There was a moment of immediate panic when he used the word hero and her eyes darted around. “Woah woah woah we do notuse that word in public.” She couldn’t help but hear competent though, and she did feel much more pride that she had originally intended, a tiny smile crossing her face before another frown. “We do not mention that ‘Poppy’ does any of this shit, clear? Ever. You can keep your name while you’re doing it but no. I’m not Poppy out there.”
The thought of housing made her stomach turn. She couldn’t go back to her apartment. The idea of her and Mere at each others’ throats over Hazel was more than she could probably bear at the moment. Then an idea came to her as she picked up a packet of gum that had fallen. “...How much money have you got?”
Ben blinked, jerking back a little startled when she blurted out at him. He picked up his bag and apologized, “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean anything.” He looked at her again and a smile quirked a little at the corners of his mouth. “So. Here you have a secret identity.” This was far better than any comic book. She was a proper hero. Secret identity and everything. Maybe she worked at a paper like Bug-Boy and The Praying Mantis.
“Me?” He looked surprised she even asked him. He tried to mentally count how much he had saved and grabbed. “A little over twelve hundred dollars?”
The smile made her want to both punch him and grin back at the same time, so she decided to do neither and just twist her mouth in an expression that wasn’t really anything but ‘let’s stop talking about this.’ “I do. I have a family here. And friends. And they can’t know about this shit, right?” There was only a little desperation in her eyes, but for some reason she did trust him. Trusting a stalker seemed odd, but it was the smile. There was nothing dangerous in that smile, and while he was weird, there was something trustworthy about him.
“Well shipping took a lot out of mine but...” She mentally counted what she still had in savings. “I’ve got about five hundred. And I’m getting a job as soon as I can.” She looked at him again, folding her arms across her chest. “Creations live in three buildings here. That’s it. We stick together. It’s probably safer... Local housing can’t help you with that.” She wasn’t entirely sure how to say what she wanted to, but she paused to see if he had anything to say first before she monologued to them both about the buildings.
“Proper hero,” Ben couldn’t help the little grin again at Poppy. He would stop after that comment. The last thing he ever wanted was Poppy to dislike him for any reason. When Poppy started talking, he straightened up and nodded along with the apparent lecture of how Seattle works. “Oh,” he was a little disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to find housing, he assumed. It was way too much money for him to live on his own, even with the checks coming in. “Which is the cheapest?”
There was too much, highly unusual flattery coming from this conversation and it was immediately met with the defense of a frown. But his next words were promising. She spoke very slowly, but a lot more confidently than she actually felt. He might want to do this? It was certainly worth a shot. A certain type of insecurity came when asking people about this, and she shifted uncomfortably. “Well, if I get a job, and see if my parents can help me out for now... we could live together?” She looked up, trying to look blank faced as opposed to hopeful. “I mean, the Bathos isn’t too expensive if you have a roommate...”
Ben’s face was schooled back in to an emotionless mask when he frowned at her. He was very good at following unsaid orders of shutting up. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline when the next words came out of Poppy’s mouth and he couldn’t help but sound surprised, “You’d live with me?” He wasn’t going to say no, of course. He respected Poppy deeply, but well, he was him. She was her. “If that’s fine with you, I can pay rent I get money...”
The look on his face was a little priceless and while she tried to ignore it, she couldn’t help but nod approvingly. She didn’t know why people suddenly had confidence in her, but after a few weeks in New York she assumed the huge-ass gun probably had something to do with it. She wasn’t going to complain. She shrugged, grinning. “Lots of people in the Bathos have a roomie. I think it’s kinda the done thing.” She bit down on her lip, thinking it through. “We’ll split rent fifty fifty. But... we work out ground rules when I’ve had something to eat.”
She turned at a sound, realising that her phone was making odd noises. That meant a phone call. “Shit. Right, hotel. Make calls. Find us one for tonight.” She was barking out orders, but somehow Poppy didn’t quite care right now. Everything was going right. And with that, she pressed the phone to her ear, one hand to the other, and headed towards the exit.
Ben held his bag protectively to his chest, nodding along with Poppy. It was a lot easier to just follow along with what the angry girl said than try to offer suggestions. Thankfully for Poppy, Ben was excellent at taking orders. He picked up Poppy’s other bag awkwardly as she began walking away, trailing off after her and out in to the Seattle air.