Who: Joe Hardy and (Tinker)Belle When: Backdated to Saturday, August, 28th Where: The Hardy’s Apartment What: A meetup for a movie marathon, and Belle shows off her latest invention Rating/Warnings: Low/None, its all fluff here XD Status: Complete!
One of Belle’s older brothers had met his girlfriend online, so no one at her house batted an eye when she said she was going to meet a guy from the internet. She hadn’t told them she was going to the dude’s house, nor had she said she was planning on being there for eight hours (or more!) to watch old movies, drink beer, and make popcorn. Probably not in that order. But she had her phone and her pepper spray, so she figured she was fine. Right?
She drove to the address he’d given her, then collected the popcorn machine out of the backseat (it was the size of a shoebox, so it wasn’t hard to carry) and headed up to the door. As promised, she was in comfort mode; yoga pants, sloppy ponytail, oversized t-shirt with a faded “Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters” logo on the front. At least she wasn’t wearing her bunny slippers. (They were totally in her backpack.)
She knocked.
This was the 21st century and more and more people were meeting online. Joe’d even had a few cases here and there in which people had been attempting to track down people they had met on the internet and had lost contact with, or who had mysteriously disappeared. So, to him, there was nothing strange about Belle, a woman he had literally only spoken to on Valar Net, coming to his apartment to have a movie marathon. He hadn’t even thought twice about it, really. From their conversations, he already felt as though he knew the girl. She could have turned out to be a psycho, sure, but so could any random stranger Joe met in a bar, and he had brought a few of them back to the apartment already.
He had spent a few hours tidying up the apartment in anticipation for Belle’s arrival. The Hardys weren’t naturally messy people, but any space in which a person lived in - especially more than one person - always amassed a certain amount of clutter over time. Joe went about cleaning up said clutter, mostly making sure there wasn’t anything embarrassing out in the living room. He had just finished putting away dishes and a few pieces of stray laundry when he heard Belle at the door.
The first thought that hit Joe’s mind when he saw Belle the first time was that she was pretty. Not that he expected her to be homely or anything. To be honest, he hadn’t really formulated what she might have looked like in his mind quite yet. He had gotten the impression that she was smart and maybe a little tomboyish, both of which he really liked. He had to smile at the X-Men shirt she was wearing. Joe may have teased Frank about being the “Nerdy Brother”, but it wasn’t as if Joe didn’t have an appreciation for certain “geeky” things. He had grown up watching Saturday Morning cartoons, reading comic books and playing video games. He had kind of grown out of those things at a certain age, but he still liked them. He hadn’t been lying when he told Belle he had a certain affinity for what was considered children’s shows these days.
“Hi, Belle,” he greeted her with a calm easy smile as he opened the door to allow her inside. “Love the shirt.”
Belle was a little surprised at the sight of the guy on the other side of the door. He was a bit more handsome than she’d been expecting, which, combined with the smile on his face, made her wish she’d brushed her hair or worn jeans. Or both. Still, they’d gotten on like PB&J on Valarnet, so she had a feeling they’d get on IRL just as well. She went a little pink when he commented on her shirt (since Belle, Tink, whatever, was the kind of girl who went pink a lot. And red, too, when she got angry.) and she shrugged her shoulders. “Ain’t no thang,” she teased, but was obviously pleased that he liked her shirt. Then she added a quick, “thanks.”
She crossed the threshold, carrying the box with her popcorn maker inside, and glanced around for the kitchen. That was the place most likely to have bowls and plugs, and beers. She was one of those girls who made herself at home, and kicked off her shoes by the door. Then she smiled at him over her shoulder. “Popcorn first? I hope you’ve got salt and butter.”
Joe laughed lightly when Belle told him it was no “thang.” The pink tinge to her face clearly stated otherwise. He liked that she had chosen to wore her PJ’s like she had claimed she would on Valarnet. It showed him that she was comfortable. Besides, he was in a pair of plaid pajama pants and a t-shirt as well. It was the best attire to wear while binge watching a bunch of movies.
“Kitchen’s through there,”Joe pointed through a doorway. The kitchen looked old, but nice, with a vintage looking stove and cabinet work. The new modern looking fridge stood out like a sore thumb in the room. “We got plenty of butter and salt. Is that the popcorn maker?” He asked looking at the box.
Belle could absolutely dress up of she had to. There was a girly girl inside her, even though it was faint and small. She much, much preferred to be casual and comfortable. Pajamas we most preferable, though not always acceptable. Thank God Joe didn't care she was wearing her cozy clothes.
She moved into the kitchen after he pointed and broke into an excited grin. “It's my own invention!” And then, quick as a flash, she was unpacking the box. The thing looked like a normal air pop popcorn machine, but with a few adjustments. She started to fill it with corn kernels from the box. “We'll need a bowl. And butter and salt. Because that's the best way to eat popcorn.”
Joe tilted his head a little. She kind of reminded him of his brother. Frank was always saying “I’m working on this thing - it’s not done yet, but it’s supposed to do…”
The popcorn machine didn’t look all that innovative, at least at first glance, but Joe was curious to see what kind of modifications Belle had made to the device. He was in agreement: the only way to eat popcorn was with butter and salt. And you couldn’t watch movies without popcorn, so they couldn’t start until Belle’s invention had done it’s thing.
He got her a large bowl and some butter and salt, setting them down on the counter. It was very clear that Joe was at ease in the kitchen. He knew where everything was and contrary to two bachelors residing in the apartment, the fridge was well stocked with ingredients rather than pre-packaged foods and containers of take-away. Though, there were a few containers containing a few left overs from the nights Frank was in charge of dinner.
“There you go,” Joe said with a grin. “Let’s fire this baby up and see what she can do.”
Belle beamed. She was proud of her inventions--even the ones that didn’t really work as planned. At least this one hadn’t exploded. ...yet. “It’s supposed to pop popcorn twice as fast as your traditional popper. I added a second heating element and additional fan. And this attachment here,” she said, motioning toward something on the top, “is supposed to melt the butter and apply the salt all in one go.” She grinned over at the handsome guy who knew his way around a kitchen (omg, perfect, right?). “It’s only sparked a couple of times when I’ve tried to run it. Ready?”
Before waiting for his say so, Belle plugged the thing in, wincing in anticipation. But it simply started up, heating and fanning, and the kernels began to swirl. Belle gave a little cheer of triumph and punched her fist into the air.
She had his attention. He had listened to Frank countless times explain a project he was working on, something he was tinkering with. Joe wasn’t a tinkerer the way either Frank or Belle were. His element was under the hood of a car, or up in the guts of a motorcycle. Electronics and appliances weren’t things he generally fooled around with, but he understood what Belle was telling him and he listened to her carefully, nodding his head.
He wasn’t so sure of her contraption when she said it had only sparked a couple of times. It had only been a few weeks since Joe had convinced their landlord that the fridge that had exploded due to a Dream Bomb had actually been the casualty of an electrical fire. He wasn’t ready to tell the story again.
Before Joe could stop her, however, Belle had already plugged in the machine and fired it up. Joe braced himself, ready to grab the fire extinguisher from under the sink. Much to his relief, though, the modified popper didn’t blow up or catch on fire. Soon the smell of salty melted butter filled the kitchen.
Joe laughed. “It works! That’s amazing!”
Belle laughed and clapped her hands, then practically jumped into his arms for a big hug. Uh oh. Apparently Belle was a hugger. Who knew? She released him right away, though, seeming not to think anything of it, and leaned forward to get a good look at the machine. The first couple of kernels popped, then jumped straight into the bowl.
“Look at that! Oh my God, I’m so thrilled. I even sent out to get patents on this new design. So I’ll have a couple more under my belt! Probably time to go on Shark Tank and try and sell them?” She said, giving him a grin. “Where’s that beer I was promised? This should only take about thirty seconds to pop all the corn.” Plenty of time to pop open a couple beers.
Joe laughed and returned the hug, not really thinking much about it either. People hugged and Joe wasn’t so hung up on personal space that he even noticed, much less cared. The fact that Belle’s invention hadn’t exploded in his kitchen was cause for celebration!
He grabbed two beers out of the fridge, one for himself and one for Belle. He uncapped them both using a bottle opener magnet on the fridge and handed her one. “How many patents do you have?” He asked as he watched the machine spit buttery popcorn into the bowl at record speed.
Belle gave a bright, “thanks!” and gulped from the bottle. She thought for a moment before responding. “Twelve?” She said, though it was more a question than a statement. Belle was an amazing inventor, and she did her best to protect her own designs, but the paperwork was crazy. And then, what was she to do with the patents afterward? She had no idea. But she had them, anyway. “I think it’s up around twelve now. I guess this one makes lucky thirteen?”
She gulped again from the bottle, then gave him a sheepish grin. “I suppose I should try to do something with them? My father’s been helping me with it, but I have no head for business.”
Joe nearly snorted his beer through his nose. “Twelve?” He stared at her. He had expected her to say something like maybe one or two, but twelve? It was like he was talking with a female Thomas Edison. Joe glanced at the popcorn maker, which seemed to be done popping the kernels, then back at Belle. “What other things have you invented?”
Belle nodded, setting the bottle down on the counter. Her eyes moved to the machine as the popcorn kernels slowed in their popping. It was just about time to shut the thing off. Too bad she hadn’t perfected the automatic shut-off that she’d been working on. “Oh, yeah. I’ve worked out a really cool door system for this mini-fridge I’ve been toying with. The cooling system is about a thousand times less energy consuming, though it shuts off every once in a while and I can’t figure out why. Oh, that’s another one. My new cooling system.” There were a couple. “Other little odds and ends I’ve done. I dunno, I’d have to go over them again to be able to tell you what they all are.”
Belle took the bowl of popcorn and unplugged the machine, then grabbed her bottle of beer. “I’m ready for movies. I was promised movies as well as beer, I think.” She grinned, playfully.
How was she so casual about this? This was a big deal! Maybe being a genius was just normal for her? Whatever the case, Joe just laughed and shook his head, bemused. “Alright, yeah. Moveis, I got them all ready to go for us.” He motioned for her to follow him into the living room where he had the DVD player already queued up and ready with the animated Tansformer’s movie. “At some point, though, I wanna hear more about this cooling system of yours.”
Joe hunkered down on the couch and waited for Belle to do the same with the bowl of popcorn. Beer in hand he reached for the remote so they could start their first movie.
With another gulp from her bottle, Belle moved to follow Joe into the living room. She climbed onto the sofa to sit cross-legged smack dab in the middle, and settled the bowl of popcorn into her lap. If he wanted some, he’d have to reach for it. It wasn’t like she did it on purpose, though, when a person grew up in a house with so many brothers and sisters (adopted and foster, but as good as blood) she learned a thing or two about protecting her own food.
She was willing to share, though. Of course.
“Transformers first?” She asked, excited and amused. “Man, I haven’t seen this movie in ages. The last time it was on my brother’s VHS, and the static or whatever was all over the screen. What do you call it? Tracking? Anyway, it was bad.”
“Transformers first,” Joe said with a smile and a nod. He plunked down on the couch next to her and had no qualms about reaching over and helping himself to the popcorn, which he did almost immediately. There was no concern about etiquette or airs that needed to be put on, just two friends getting ready to have the Best Movie Marathon Ever.
“It’s one of my favorites,” he said as he aimed the remote at the player and hit play. “Frank and I watched the shit out of the copy we had. I guess maybe the film in the cassette went bad or something because that happened to our copy too. Not that you can actually find VCRs these days. Blu Rays, the way of the future.”
Joe lapsed into silence when the opening scene started in all of it’s epic animated glory. He had one arm on the back of the couch behind Belle’s shoulders, the other reaching across her lap to occasionally snag a handful of delicious well buttered popcorn to shovel into his mouth.
Good think Belle didn’t think about it too much. She leaned back and could feel the warmth of his arm along the back of the sofa. It was damn good popcorn, if she didn’t say so herself. And damn good beer, too. And the movie? Well, it was like a trip down memory lane. She laughed at the funny parts, gasped at the surprising parts (playfully, of course) and tossed a couple of pieces of popcorn at Joe when he wasn’t looking. All in all, an excellent time, excellent movie, excellent company.