Who: Peter Maximoff maximoffp & Usagi Tsukino clumsyusagi What: Trying all the food! When: Tuesday, May 12, midday Where: Test City Mall Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Peter talks too much. Usagi is ridiculously adorable. They shouldn't offend you, but they might make you cringe from how insane they are as individuals. Status: Closed/Completed GDoc
~*~
"I like to try one of everything, too. It's rad you're a girl who eats. Most girls don't want people to think they eat even though they do or they'd die. Everything eats. I'm Peter. Sorry if I startled you."
Peter had already been through the mall too many times to count. He'd gathered up enough cash from various patrons to be able to afford anything they might want in the food court. Most of the places in there were good. He didn't like anything at the so-called Cajun place though because it tasted too much like greasy Chinese. While he'd been running along the way, he'd decided to try a little of this and that since it wasn't as if he didn't have time. The girl was taking forever to get there. She'd said she knew where it was, but he was starting to wonder.
He had figured out which one she was by looking at all the mobile devices on all the blonde girls in the food court. She was the only one who was a newcomer like him. Her name was Japanese he thought. Usagi Tsukino. Peter had no idea how to pronounce it, but he thought it had to be more interesting than his name. His mother had wanted him to have an American name. She hadn't explained to him why. He'd asked. She had just ignored his questions as usual. After a while she had seemed to learn how to go deaf when he was in the room.
It was why Peter didn't talk at home. He just played games and amused his kid sister.
Throwing himself into a chair across from the girl at the table, he propped his chin on his fist, "You look younger than I thought you'd be. Are you eighteen yet? No. I didn't think so. How do you pronounce your name? It's Japanese, right? I'm Peter Maximoff, but I think you know that. My first name is American. Last name Russian. I don't speak any Russian. My mother does. She's Russian. She wanted me to be All-American though and my sister, too. It's okay, I guess. I just wish we were more interesting. I get bored easy."
Peter had a feeling the girl would get what he meant by that. She seemed to be more active than most girls he'd met. She had also given him an earful on the network when he'd only been curious. It turned out he had issues with being polite. Who knew? Peter's mom sure hadn't cared if he was polite. She only cared if the cops were there to get him. Again. It wasn't his fault they were constantly harassing him. They didn't seem to have anything better to do than try to blame him for things they couldn't prove he'd done. Since they couldn't. Prove it. He was sure. Peter was always sure when it came to whether or not he'd gotten away with something.
It was how he'd managed to break the guy who'd killed the President out of the Pentagon which he still thought was the best thing he'd ever done. Ever.
~*~
Being on time had never been one of Usagi’s strong suits. It honestly, more than likely, never would be. She was too easily distracted by video games or cute outfits or free food samples, and she just generally took her time getting from point A to point B, unless point B was school and she was running late. Then she’d run. Getting to the mall wasn’t difficult, but it had taken her a bit longer than she’d thought it would and then she made the mistake of passing by all the fancy jewelry stores. It wasn’t her fault they had such pretty engagement rings! Mamo-chan would pick out the most perfect ring for when he proposed, obviously, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t look and see what the options were! It wasn’t until her mobile device chimed that she realized she was a little late. Oops. Hopefully Peter didn’t mind.
Since she didn’t know what he looked like or where he might be - or if he’d gotten food yet - she decided to start with the pretzel stand. Usagi got the cinnamon sugar sticks with icing, a pepperoni pretzel, and salt pretzel bites to start, with a bottle of water. Then she carried her haul over to a table before she started on the pepperoni pretzel one. She’d never seen anything like it before, and it actually tasted really really good. Usagi made a happy sound as she took another bite a little too enthusiastically, which caused a piece of pepperoni to fall onto the wrapper. She popped that into her mouth just as Peter started talking.
“Who wouldn’t want to eat? That’s dumb. Food is delicious. Mako-chan makes some especially delicious bento boxes for me sometimes, and she usually brings treats when we study. I think all my friends know I’m more likely to show up if there are snacks.” She hated studying, even though she knew she needed to do it. It was just so boring and it was hard to remember everything she was supposed to. Snacks and video games were much better. “Do you want some pretzels?” she asked, pushing them toward the middle of the table so that he could have some.
“I’m not 18 yet. I haven’t even started High School. That’s next year. I don’t wanna think about entrance exams. Ami-chan’s already starting in on them and it’s just too much studying. I hate studying so much. It’s the worst.” She finished off the pepperoni pretzel and picked up one of the cinnamon sticks, dipping it liberally in the icing. “Mmmmm, delicious.” Anything sweet was good in her book. “It’s Use-ah-gee. See? Easy! I don’t think there’s an American equivalent or anything. What would it be in Russian? Pietro?” She tilted her head as she considered what the other options might be.
“Did you see any dumplings or sushi or ice cream? These pretzels are really good and sweet. I liked the pepperoni one. Does America always have such weird food choices? I’ve never seen that anywhere in Japan before. I want to try some of everything before I get sent back home, since I guess it can happen whenever?” It was too bad that Setsuna-chan couldn’t access the Gate of Time and Space. At least things were probably safe at home. Usagi liked the idea of that.
~*~
Peter was already eating pretzels while the girl was talking. He had managed half by the time she'd finished and he decided he liked her, he liked her a lot. She was definitely more interesting than most girls. It helped she talked fast enough to where he didn't feel as if he were drowning waiting on her to finish saying anything. What was with that? Did people expect everyone to put their entire life on pause so they could manage one sentence which was probably not important anyway?
Life was too short for that.
"I love pretzels. I'm more of a fan of cold things than hot things though so I tend to try stuff like yeah, sushi, ice cream, Popsicles which I do love, I wasn't joking about that, and cereal which is the best when it's got sugar on it. Americans pretty much eat anything fast, cheap, and easy. It's why McDonald's is still around in the future."
He went through a list of options for them before holding up a hand to her to indicate she could wait there. Peter moved through the crowd to go to the front of three different lines to place three different orders, summarily paying for them all before they could be provided to him or anyone could realize he'd cut line. It took a good two minutes to get everything, but he had it all back to the table in less than one. He couldn't help it the staff in the mall was slow. They had a lot going on or something. It was pretty busy. He couldn't blame them. Even fast food took a while in his opinion.
Given how fast Peter was in comparison to everything else? It was little wonder nothing was ever fast enough for him.
Pointing at one tray, he said, "I got us five different kinds of ice cream -cotton candy, chocolate chip, birthday cake, strawberry cheesecake, and triple fudge chunk- with a scoop each so we can share. I figure if you like one really well? I'll get you more. I also grabbed some sushi. I asked for the sampler boat which is a lot of nigiri and a California roll, a Philadelphia roll, and a tuna roll. This other tray has pizza on it and a calzone. I figure if you liked the pepperoni pretzel? You gotta love pepperoni pizza with extra cheese. It's New York style. The sushi isn't really like the places it's named after though. I checked on that once."
He'd almost seen all fifty states. It was taking more time than he'd expected since he could only travel when he was sure his sister was taken care of at home. Peter tried not to be gone more than a few hours at a time, but it got hard when he was somewhere really interesting. There were places where he was definitely not the most different guy around. California was a lot like that. People were really accepting there. He liked the way it felt to walk around San Diego with people smiling, waving at him as if they knew him, talking to him as if they'd been talking for a whole day instead of a few minutes.
"Pietro is the Russian. Sorry. I got distracted by food. Do you do that? Do you miss Japan? I haven't ever been. I guess I could probably get there pretty quick for a visit, but I'd have to make sure someone was taking care of my sister first. I've never gone that far away before. It'd be like---over two hours for me. That's a hard one. Usually I try to stay within a fifteen-minute radius."
~*~
Usagi liked Peter. He talked fast, but he was still easy to understand, and he loved food. “Hot food’s harder to eat fast, but I still like pies and cookies fresh from the oven. Oh and dumplings!” It was silly of her to forget dumplings. She shook her head as she took another bite of one of the pretzels, pleased to see Peter helping himself to some. This place had given her money, which was a very generous budget for food on top of the food that came with her apartment. It was kind of nice of this Test City, whoever was in charge of it.
It was also very nice of them to bring someone like Peter, who was quite a lot of fun and got her lots of food. He was impressively fast, since it only took him a few minutes to get a wide variety of food for them to try. Usagi’s expression was nearly comical at all the food he’d been able to get, almost in the blink of an eye. “Woah! How’d you learn to do that? That is so cool!” Of course, the food was also incredibly amazing because he brought such a wide variety. Immediately, her eyes went to the ice cream, and she grabbed a spoon to taste some of the cotton candy ice cream, since she’d never tried that before. It was awesome, so she tried the triple fudge chunk once after.
“These are so good. And you got sushi and pizza and a calzone?” Usagi’s eyes were often times just as big as her stomach, if not a bit smaller, but the food he’d laid out for them was an excellent array. She reached for chopsticks to take a piece of the California roll as he explained just how fast he could go. That was amazing, as far as she was concerned. “Only two hours? That’s a sixteen hour flight, isn’t it? And super expensive, too.” Usagi was impressed. “You’re really fast, huh? Couldn’t you just bring your sister with you? That would be less worrisome for you. Wait- don’t your mom and dad watch your sister? She’s younger than you?” Something didn’t quite sit right with her about that, which made her frown.
~*~
Sushi was always interesting for Peter. He liked the way it was chilled and tasted as if it were supposed to be served that way. Cold food which was supposed to be served hot made his stomach cramp. It was gross. Sushi wasn't as 'fishy' tasting as he'd expected either. Given it was all mostly fish? It was surprising to taste something other than the ocean in every bite. Or was it rivers? Lakes? Probably the ocean. Sushi came from Japan and it was an island in the ocean so it was probably the ocean.
Geography was something Peter was shockingly good at thanks to his speed. He could get somewhere without directions or if he got lost? Double back in less time than any automobile could go. Technically, Peter thought he could get somewhere faster than most airplanes. They weren't as fast as people thought. They had some fancy ships they were sending into space. Those were faster than him. He'd been excited when he'd seen them. They had a testing facility in Florida where they ran machines as fast as he could run.
Peter loved visiting there.
"I run at the speed of light and I can actually go faster. Fastest I've ever clocked was Mach 5 which is five times the speed of light. My dad was weird like me. He had powers. Could control metal. Met a guy who could do that too, but I don't think he was my dad. I hope my dad is a lot cooler. I don't know though and doubt I ever will. Never met him. He didn't stick around when my mom got knocked up with me. Wanda -my kid sister- has a different dad. He's not around either. He was ordinary. No powers."
Wanda didn't seem special to him. Peter had no idea if she was or not. His gift had always been around. Hers might take a while. He'd read some files at The School for Gifted Youngsters when he'd gotten the address from Charles Xavier's card. It said some people didn't show their powers until they were going through puberty. The idea of his sister going through puberty was gross. Peter didn't want to think about it so he hadn't asked anyone anything about Wanda. He figured they'd find out when they found out if she was a freak like him.
"Do you have powers? A lot of people here are different. Freaks is what we'd be called back home. Here? I think we're all just people. It's nice. I like it here. Hope you like the food."
He ate a few spoonfuls of every flavor of ice cream while he waited on Usagi to catch up with him. She was cute. He didn't mind waiting on her the way he would have with a normal girl. It helped she was nearly as fast at talking as he was so he could understand her better. He wished Sirius was around. He could introduce her to a wizard and ask Sirius what kind of foods wizards ate. They had to eat way better than Americans or even Japanese people. No way would magic people eat regular stuff like pizza and sushi.
~*~
Usagi made sure to have a little of everything, though the calzone was easily her favorite. She had most of that, and then some more of each roll of sushi and then some ice cream. Listening to Peter was easy, since he talked so fast about interesting stuff. She never got bored, and that wasn’t something that happened often to her. Being bored was the worst, right up there with studying and school. Sure, her future self had asked her to study harder because that knowledge was important, but it was still so boring and awful. The prospect of having to take her High School Entrance Exams was a terrifying one, especially since she wanted to stay in the same schools as her friends. That was a problem for a different day, though.
Peter was an extraordinary big brother in her eyes. He loved his little sister even though she was different from him and had a different dad. They would always be family for each other, she thought, and that made her happy. Maybe she and Mamoru would have more children than just Chibi-Usa. “I’m sorry about your dad. That sucks. But your sister totally appreciates how much you care about her. I know I do, and my brother doesn’t have any special abilities or anything. You can go super fast though. That is so awesome.” Plus it was super helpful in terms of getting food and eating it. Usagi had already decided that she liked him, but now it was even better. He was just more cool.
“I’ve never been called a freak before, but I do have special abilities. I’m a reincarnated princess and my friends are Sailor Guardians. One day, I’ll be Queen of 30th Century Crystal Tokyo and it’ll be the longest stretch of peace Earth has ever had. I’m not ready to be Queen yet, but I will be. With my friends and Mamo-chan by my side, I can do anything.” Her hand went to the brooch at her breast, where the Legendary Silver Crystal was housed. It was the source of her power, the same as her heart.
“But that’s ages from now. Test City is cool,” Usagi said animatedly, pleased to see that they’d just about finished all of the food Peter had gotten them. “Come on, we’ve got to get some more food and maybe a milkshake or one of those popsicles!” She piled everything up into one easy to carry before getting up to dump everything into the trashcan nearby. “Then I probably have to go, because Setsuna-san still wants me to try to do some of my studies and even though it’s awful, it’ll make her happy. I like making my friends happy.”