Happy Hogan (mister_niceguy) wrote in oh_marvelous, @ 2009-12-16 23:03:00 |
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Entry tags: | z: om1: !complete, z: om1: affiliation: stark enterprises, z: om1: character: pepper potts, z: om1: location: new york, z: om1: past character: happy hogan |
It's time to walk the streets...
Characters: Happy, Pepper
Setting: New York City, evening
Content: Nothing bad
Summary: With a free evening, Happy visits his mother then has dinner alone
Happy had an evening to himself, which seemed to be happening a lot more lately since no one really needed him around. He was on call, of course, if the boss actually decided he wanted something but Happy didn't really expect to hear from him. Back in New York and with nothing else to do Happy decided to pay his mother a visit. He sat at the kitchen table now, sipping a cup of coffee, while she chattered away. He'd been zoning out now for about twenty minutes and he had no idea what she was actually talking about now. He'd been thinking about the World Series.
"-You know Harry, that's what your father would've done. Harry? Harold, are you listening?" his mother asked.
"Yeah, Ma, I'm listening," Happy answered and tried not to look too ashamed under his mother's stern gaze. Almost forty and the woman still made him feel like a naughty little kid. Obviously disbelieving she frowned for another few seconds before starting up again. "Go out, open a place. How long are you going to sit around driving Mr. Stark's cars? That was fine when you were younger but look at you now! It's no way to live your life!"
"Yeah, Ma, I know," he said, automatically. Even if he didn't agree, it was what she wanted to hear. Happy shook his head and sighed at his mother's harping. If it wasn't one thing it was another. Harry, when are you settling down? Harry, when are you going to start dating again? Harry, when are you moving back to New York? At least she was getting that last one, though she would never be pleased unless it was on her own terms. Her terms probably included a new wife and grandkids and a successful business. He was derailed from this resentful train of thought by a new and abrupt question from his mother. "How's Pepper?"
It caught him off guard and he stared at her with a surly expression and annoyance in his eyes. The question bothered him for several very obvious reasons, though at the moment the foremost of those was that he didn't know the answer. He didn't know how Pepper was at this very moment because he wasn't with her, even though he ought to have been. Every moment since she'd been kidnapped he'd been beating himself up over it. It never should have happened. If only he'd been nearby instead of waiting the car, that creep never would've taken her. Happy wanted to protect her now, but Stark had stepped into that role, and never seemed to leave her side. Though Happy figured Tony felt as guilty as he did about it, that didn't stop him from feeling bitter. It was like neither Tony nor Pepper thought Happy could watch out for her. And really, what right did he even have to do that these days? The whole thing made Happy feel damned useless, and sitting here at his mother's apartment doing nothing definitely didn't help.
When he refrained from answering her question his mother just peered at him intently for a moment before getting up and shuffling over to the stove to pour herself another cup of tea. Happy used this moment while her back was turned to surreptitiously check his watch. Half-past eight. He'd been here for five hours and he figured it was about time he head home. Home today was a nice hotel room until Stark Tower was finished up. It took another twenty minutes to extricate himself from his mother's apartment and then he was on the street and wondering if he really did want to go back to the hotel or not. He was actually feeling sort of hungry so he ducked into a little restaurant and took a seat in a booth by the bar so he could watch the New Jersey Nets game while he ate dinner. Little pleasures to kill the boredom.