Neena Thurman pours drinks, kicks ass. (fallsinplace) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-08-30 12:28:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, logan howlett (wolverine), neena thurman (domino) |
Who: Logan Howlett and Neena Thurman
Where: a steakhouse
What: talking
When: This evening
Warnings/Rating: pg-13
Status complete
Neena didn’t bother dressing up much for Logan. She was more comfortable in yoga pants than her jeans now, but her t-shirts still fit just fine. He was used to seeing her wearing mostly black anyway. The smell of steak was really welcome to Neena. She looked around for Logan, and made her way over, tucking her phone into her purse. She hated having a purse, but there just weren’t any pocket in her pants and carrying her phone, keys, wallet, and revolver in her hands wasn’t going to work, for obvious reasons.
“Hey. Sorry I’m late, didn’t get relieved for fifteen minutes after my shift.”
Logan shrugged a shoulder. “Gave me time to get started on my drink. How you doin’, darlin’?” He’d let her order just about anything. Except his eyes fell on her purse and he smirked. “See you got domesticated.”
Neena rolled her eyes. “Go fuck yourself. When you have another human being living inside of you that’s when you get to make fun of me.” She didn’t stop smiling, though. “Beside, I’m not the one who was commitment phobic for years and years then got settled by someone faster than a fifties housewife.”
“Wasn’t a human bein’ but I’ve had things living in me,” Logan joked, his grin only growing wider. “I like a regular thing, an’ she happened be to really fuckin’ amazin’ in other areas.”
“Yuh huh, I’m sure.” Neena noted with a laugh and opened her menu. “So which one of you is losing your shit more?”
“She is. Probably.” Logan shrugged a shoulder. “I went through my losing shit in the first ten minutes, then accepted it. Still worried, but can’t control other people.”
Neena nodded, smiling up at the waitress when she came around to take their orders. She gave her order and waited for the woman to leave before resuming their conversation. “How’s life otherwise? Everything okay with the shop?”
“Shop pretty much keeps getting the ‘away on vacation’ sign, with all the shit that’s happening. I’ll probably shut it down. Ain’t like I hurt for money.” But he did enjoy his hobbies and he hated being idle.
Neena nodded. “Yeah. It’s hard as hell to have a normal job. I’m a little glad Thomas isn’t letting me do stupid shit anymore. It means that I’m actually at my bar most of the time.” She didn’t sound particularly glad, but she did like seeing her regulars. It was hard to balance the two things she liked to do most.
“You miss some of the stupid shit, don’t you.” Not all of it he was sure, but some of it. Maybe the excitement.
She sighed. “I don’t know. I miss fighting. I miss the feeling you get after you do something stupid and impossible. I feel like I don’t have much reason to interact with anyone anymore.” She shook her head. “I know it’s stupid, I’ll be fine.” She was worried about pretty much everything. Back when she was single and not pregnant the only thing she’d worried about was not getting shot too much.
Logan nodded in understanding. He wondered what life would throw at them next. He also knew there was a time when Neena was running in the other direction from her dream self. “So we make reasons.”
“Sure, that’s fine for you, we’re both assholes and if we weren’t friends with each other we wouldn’t have any others. Most of the people I hung out with I was only around when we were doing stupid shit. I’ve got nothing in common with most of you guys.” Her patrons were treating her differently too. She hated the fact that they were treating her like a girl.
“That’s bullshit and you know it.” Maybe some of them needed a kick in the pants. Logan would be happy to provide.
She shrugged. “All I know is that if I wasn’t training Velma I’d have nothing going on when Thomas is at work and I’m not. I used to have a bunch of shit going on, so something’s changed and it’s bugging the crap out of me.”Somewhere Kitty was willing to volunteer. Logan shrugged a shoulder. “What about fuckin’ with people? We could go fuck with people.”
“I don’t know.” She said with a sigh. “I hate being an adult about shit. I’m tired all the time now, and I feel like I’ve got more morning sickness now than I had at the start. I’m just pretty frustrated with shit, and none of that’s your fault or anyone else’s.” Well, except her own for being in the position she was in. “Guess maybe impulsively deciding to have a baby wasn’t the best plan in the long run.”
“Is it?” Logan looked at her seriously. “Or maybe it’ll be the best thing you’ve ever done. It probably will be. Gotta chance to undo all the fuck ups you’ve ever done. I know I’m gonna take it.”
“A baby isn’t going to undo the mistakes I’ve made, and if the time came again, I’d make most of those mistakes again, but faster and with more enthusiasm.” Her expression lightened, and one side of her mouth twitched up into a lopsided smirk. “Thomas should be the one who’s pregnant, he’d handle this shit no problem.”
Logan threw his head back and laughed. “You know what I mean, Dommy. Why don’t we go do somethin’ stupid an’ only marginally dangerous after this.” He raised his eyebrows like ‘trust me’.
She rolled her eyes. “Dommy? Why the hell did you decide to start calling me that?” But her bad mood was more or less gone. “We’ll see how much energy I have after dinner.” If she could keep dinner down.
“Because ‘Neena’ doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily.” And “Domino” made things feel weird. He shrugged his shoulders. “You want my salad? Ew. Veggies.”
Neena snorted. “No, I got soup for a reason.” She wasn’t sure she could keep the salad down. “How’s the new house?”
“Pretty good. We christened the place, it’s got spaces for Eli-” and half the time fucking Athelstan. “Plenty o’room, an’ secure as fuck.”
“That’s good. We’re still trying to figure out what we’re doing with the house. I figure it won’t be a big deal until after the baby’s born anyway. If we do wind up finding Chris he can sleep with the baby at first or something.” They didn’t need a whole new floor unless they were having more than one kid, and she wasn’t sure that was something she wanted anymore.
“Hope you do, darlin’,” Logan replied. Knowing a kid is out there, without being able to be with you - it hurt. Didn’t Scott have one there too? “Jus’ don’ go disappearin’ in a coma again. I’ll be pissed.”
She couldn’t help but laugh loudly at that. Enough time had passed that she didn’t think he’d mind. “At least this time I won’t have my legs wrapped around your head.”
Logan grimaced. “Worse blue ballin’ ever, an’ I’ve had some really bad blue balls.”
“You had blue balls? I got laid twice in the decade after that, and both times I was too drunk to appreciate it.” Because it was totally a competition. “You probably had some girl with daddy issues crawling all over you later that day.”
Logan just darted his eyes.
“Yeah, so whatever.” She said with a laugh. “What’s the longest you’ve gone without sex since you got here, a couple days?”
“A week. Maybe two.” Logan grinned. It wasn’t like Neena hadn’t helped him set a sort of record.
Neena laughed. “That long? I’m actually somewhat impressed.”
“Sometimes it ain’t a good time, an’ other times you get tired of random partners an’ shit.” Logan shrugged. He did have a secret commitment side to him!
Neena shrugged as well. “You were my most casual hookup, beside the four times I had sex while way too drunk. I wouldn’t know.”
“Never expected you to put out,” he said. “Was a nice surprise. Ever wonder?”
“About what, us?” She shrugged. “I did right after you hooked up with Velma for real. It was actually a pretty bad blow to my ego. But honestly you annoy the crap out of me sometimes and I’d probably end up shooting you way more often than could be considered healthy.”
“You’re one of like 4 people who can put up with my shit,” Logan pointed out, helpfully. “But I think we’re both happy an’ we’re makin’ two other people happy.”
“Or prematurely grey, depending on the day.” Neena noted with a laugh. “Thomas can’t say I didn’t warn him, at least.”
“Thomas will look dignified,” Logan said. “An’ Vel would look fuckin’ hot.”
“One of us should be dignified. I think Velma can actually handle your shit pretty well, once she gets over her own shit about not having powers.”
“I hope she never has to have ‘em.” There were days when he wished he didn’t, either, but that feeling usually lasted only a few minutes. He liked most of his abilities, and he liked being able to defend his loved ones.
“Eh. The way this place works there’s no sense in worrying about it. Shit will go down and we’re either good enough to deal with it or we’re not. The only thing we can do is what we’re already doing: prepare for the worst and stick together when possible.”
Logan nodded, and then his plate was put down, and it was moving. He waited until the waitress has left, then didn’t bother with a steak knife. He had them built in!
Neena rolled her eyes and started in on her food. She had to eat slow to make sure she didn’t get nauseous. Watching Logan eat wasn’t helping, either.
He grinned at her, then started to eat like a normal person. Logan was an ass, and he liked being one.
Oddly, Neena saw that as his most redeeming quality. “So how are we going to fuck with people after dinner? Provided I don’t throw up or pass out before then.”
“Depends on how much trouble we wanna make. I don’t think you want to do anything too strenuous.” Logan thought about it while he ate. “Psychological fucking with.”
“Ugh, but I’ll take what I can get. You have a specific plan or what?”
“Lets find some drunk college students an’ make ‘em piss their pants. Simple.” He grinned. “But fun.”
“I do that for work.” She thought for a minute while she cut her steak. “We should troll people we actually know. How many strippers do you think we could get to go to Scott’s house with us for seven hundred dollars and a keg?”
“Thirty, and I’m thinkin’ 1500 and two kegs,” Logan replied happily.
“Oh God this is going to be epic.” Neena grinned widely. It wouldn’t even be that strenuous, she could do this even if she did throw up. “I’ll supply the kegs, I’ve got a couple of shitty ones hanging around the bar waiting for another coconut oil wrestling match.”
“Perfect. I’ll round up the strippers. They miss me.”
“Of course they do. I’m really glad you can’t get STDs, by the way.” She pulled out her phone and texted James at the bar. “Okay, so I should tell Thomas about this, right? Even though I’m not into women and have no intention of purposely seeing naked breasts?”
He looked at her funny. “You’re a grown woman, but if you wanna, go ahead. Jus’ think that you don’t need to check in every goddamn time you do something.”
“Yeah, but this a pseudo-sexual. . . hazing I guess.” She made a face.
“There’ll be no fuckin’ an’ it ain’t like you’ve never seen a pair of tits before.” He shook his head. “What, does he like to check up on you?” That didn’t sit well with him.
“No, just weird stuff upsets him. I’m not sure getting strippers and beer to hang out with two guys I used to fuck is going to make him feel awesome.” Even with the lady-boner killer that Emma represented in this equation. “I’m not asking his permission, but I think it would be better to let him know ahead of time.”
“He’s married to a woman who’s special skill is ‘luck’ and who knows more ways to break a bone than most grown men. An’ didn’t you have an alien parasite in you once? Point bein’, weird happens around you. He damn well better get used to it.”
“That was in the dreams, I’ve been parasite free for most of my life.” Neena joked as she finished up her text. “But with all that insanity inherent in my life, maybe it’s a good idea to let him know when I’m purposely doing insane things for the purpose of enjoying their insanity. If it makes him feel more comfortable and like we have any control of our lives whatsoever, then at least he’s getting something out of it too. Beside the video footage I’m taking and showing at the next group event.”
Well, she had a parasite now. Logan grinned at her. “Okay fine. When you put it like that it doesn’t piss me off as much. Ain’t like I’m gonna go off an’ do some rescuin’ or shit without tellin’ Vel.” He wasn’t going to prewarn her ahead of time. Warning was for things where he might die. “Jus’ give me some of that footage so I can show her this after the fact.”
“Sure. I’m sure she’ll get a kick out of it.” She put her fork down and sat back. Her stomach was starting to get upset.
“You okay darlin’?”
“Give me a minute.” She took deep breaths, hoping not to lose everything she’d just eaten. “Swear to God the kid’s trying to kill me.” After a minute she felt a little better, but she pushed her food forward. “I’m going to need a box for the rest.”
“Well it is a parasite.” Logan flagged down the waiter and asked for a to-go box. His own meal had been devoured until his plate was glistening.
“No kidding. Won’t be able to get rid of it for about twenty years, either.” She sighed. “It’s worse than it was with Chris, it’s freaking me out.”
“The mornin’ sickness? That’s not necessarily a bad thing. An’ wasn’t that with Nate? Coulda been some mental fuckery.” Mental fuckery! Afoot!
She shrugged. “I was in a different body then, maybe that’s the difference.”
“Could be.” Logan looked at her, somewhat concerned. “It’s okay though, right?”
Neena shrugged. “Could be nothing.” But it could be bad, too. “Right now all I can really do is treat the symptoms and hope they go away like they’re supposed to.”
“Gonna get it checked out?” Logan asked. He got up once the food was boxed. Still had every intent on trolling the Summerses, even though he was worrying about his friend.
“I got checked up, but right now they can’t tell if it’s anything wrong or just a lot of morning sickness.” She got up as well, walked five steps, huffed in annoyance, and went back to grab her purse. “I’m apparently not allowed to wrestle women in oil for another month.”
Logan grinned. “So we’ll get you into the oil in a month then.”
“It’s a date. Call your strippers, I need to swing by the bar to get the kegs.” She smirked and led the way out.
“See you there, darlin’!” Logan followed her out.