Marguerite Blakeney is clearly beyond scruples (blazeinhereyes) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-07-14 10:29:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, marguerite blakeney, peter parker (spider-man) |
Who: Marguerite and Peter Parker
What: Friends reuniting in the grocery store, like y'do
When: Recently
Where: Grocery Store
Warnings: Low
Status: Log | Complete
Sometimes, being an adult meant that Peter had to go grocery shopping. As much as he loved burgers and pizza, he couldn’t survive solely on fast food. That, and with the amount of debt he was in, thanks to some really, really bad investments, he should probably try to save at least a little money.
Sure, his shopping cart was filled mostly with frozen dinners, bags of chips, 4 litre bottles of coke, and boxes of cereal along the lines of Cocoa Puffs and Fruity Pebbles, but it was a start.
He was just pulling into one of the checkout lines, glancing around with a bored look on his face, when he caught sight of someone who looked familiar. The red hair, of course, made him immediately think of MJ, like he did whenever he saw a beautiful woman with red hair, but there was something more to it too. He squinted, and as he made eye contact with the other woman, he recognized her.
He didn’t know what Marguerite was doing in California, but now that he thought about it, he might have remembered MJ mentioning that Marguerite had been moving to California years ago. This was something he did not need today, and he quickly looked around for something to hide behind.
There was a magazine stand next to him, and without even looking at the cover, he grabbed one and opened it, holding it in front of his face and hoping that, despite the obvious eye contact, Marguerite had somehow not seen him. It was only a couple of seconds later that he realized that he’d opened up to a spread about Mary Jane herself. He paled a little, and then took a quick peek at the cover, hoping Marguerite had already moved on. What the hell was Playbill Magazine doing in the grocery store anyway?
Even while in production for a show, groceries still needed to be purchased. And with Percy’s juggling of his business and then Pimpernel Outreach? Well, as she wasn’t needed at the shelter that day and they were running low on a few essentials, Marguerite was more than fine with doing some quick errands before she needed to get to the theatre that evening.
What she hadn’t expected? Seeing Peter Parker of all people at the grocery store. MJ certainly hadn’t mentioned anything to her back in February during the emergency rehearsals for The Scarlet Pimpernel where she’d filled in for the role of herself - awkward and many amused comments about her brother’s name as well as husband’s. But they’d played it off. Though given the fact it was basically making sure she had the basics down, there hadn’t been too much time to actually catch up.
So while Peter was trying to avoid her, the actress seemed to ignore that fact and walked up to him.
“Peter? MJ didn’t mention anything to me about coming out here. How are you? I missed you back in February.”
Because of course she would just jump right into conversation - it was Marguerite’s way when she knew someone. And even that brief moment had been enough for her.
“Oh, Marguerite! Hi, I didn’t see you there,” Peter said, unconvincing as he lowered the magazine, now not sure if he should put it back on the rack or throw it into his shopping cart so he could check out what MJ was up to later.
“I am fine,” he continued. “More than fine, really. Great. Perfect, even. California’s great, isn’t it?” The bags under his eyes, unshaven scruff, grey sweatpants, and the 50 pounds he’d gained (all muscle. Round, squishy, ab muscles) since the last time he’d seen Marguerite might have told a different story, but Peter was definitely living his best life.
As Peter tried very unconvincingly to say that he was fine, Marguerite just quirked a brow. Because he definitely wasn’t fooling anyone. Least of all her. Yes, she was clever and able to pick up things most people tried to keep hidden but Peter was just failing at being even slightly believable.
“Say fine one more time and I might actually believe you.”
She was also straight to the point. She was French after all.
Well, maybe Peter could admit that he’d gone a little overboard with the assurances. Looking back, he could see that now. He tossed the magazine into his shopping cart after all. “Well, you know. Big cross country move and all. It’s a lot to get used to. Big changes.” Like the fact that he didn’t hear random people yelling outside of apartment window at all hours of the day anymore. Or that he could actually walk down the street without getting jostled by a swarm of people. He missed New York sometimes.
More like a lot overboard but who was Marguerite to say something on that? Oh right, it was Marguerite. If she had an opening, she would take it.
"Well yes, this is true."
She was also suspicious though. The scruff and weight gain certainly didn't help. A quick glance to Peter's left hand gave her the answer about MJ.
"How are you settling in? Orange County is very different from New York after all."
Crazier in a lot of ways, though she wouldn't mention that right now.
Peter followed Marguerite’s eyes, and unconsciously rubbed where his ring had been with his right hand. “We’re just taking a break,” Peter said uncomfortably. “A very expensive, legal break that involved a cross country move,” he added, and then cleared his throat. “California is… nice. I mean, I miss the people yelling outside my window at all hours of the night, but you win some, you lose some.”
Not having much to say on the ‘very expensive legal break’, Marguerite just nodded. It was information filed away but she also was adept at reading social cues so was more than happy to drop that particular line of conversation. It did answer a lot of questions that she’d brushed off as just being too busy with the emergency rehearsal while in New York to get answers from MJ about.
“Probably should have gone to LA if you wanted the yelling outside your window. It is definitely different from New York, though.” In a lot of ways. Honestly, for all the people and things always going on, New York was definitely a lot less dramatic than Orange County.
“Hindsight is 2020,” Peter sighed. Still, the OC didn’t seem too bad so far, even if it was far too sunny and the people were far too not-angry for his tastes. “How does anyone deal with all this peace and quiet?”
“Isn’t it always?” And that nearly made Marguerite choke on air. Mostly because peace and quiet? Well, if he stayed off the network, maybe. But given Orange County? Also something that was a bit more difficult to explain, “Oh, it has its moments to shake things up. It’s just not as constant.”
"Oh yeah, I'm sure things get real crazy here when the kale goes on sale," Peter joked. As far as he was concerned, there was nowhere half as exciting as the Big Apple. "What do you get up for for fun here?"
“Kale sales are a very serious matter I’ll have you know.” Sure. Go with the kale sales. Hopefully Peter would be spared some of the insanity as it were. “As for fun? Well there’s always the beach. Admittedly I tend to stay pretty busy with shows or my husband’s nonprofit for helping those get out of abusive situations.”
No need to go into the spy work she did for Natasha, or the network at Pimpernel Outreach that would disappear those the law had failed.
“The beach? With all that sun and the sand? No thanks,” Peter said, though, well, he had moved to California. Maybe he should actually go see the beach at some point. It was part of the experience, wasn’t it? Even if Peter was not a fan of sunburns.
“That’s… actually pretty great,” Peter said. It was pretty great that Percy and Marguerite were actually doing some good for people, and he couldn’t even make some kind of joke about it. He had hoped that he’d been doing good with his photography, but more and more lately he didn’t think that he had. It didn’t help that some of his photographs had been used for alt-right news sources. “Good for you guys.”
“Pretty sure you chose the wrong place if you want to avoid the sun and sand. More so the sun.” Since if you didn’t want sand, well, just don’t go to the beach. But Peter would figure that out soon enough. Or decide he wanted to go. Either one.
“Yeah, it’s good work. Hard, but definitely worthwhile.”
“Yeah, well…” Peter said vaguely. “Something just felt right about here.” He wasn’t sure what it was. All he’d known was that it was probably time for him to get out of New York, and for some reason Orange County, California had called to him.
This was all more than Peter had ever expected from coming to the grocery store. He had come to California to escape the memory of MJ - well, to escape more than just that, but that had been a big part of it - and looking at Marguerite, it was hard not to think of his ex-wife. He was pretty sure that he’d fulfilled his social niceties by now, and so he glanced awkwardly at his phone. “But it was nice talking to you. I’ve got, you know, a lot planned today. Very busy day.” Lots of Netflix to watch. “But I’ll see you around sometime.”
“Orange County has a peculiar way to be like that.” After all, Marguerite had come back twice now - once after already knowing about the insanity that came with it. Yet she also couldn’t see herself anywhere else at the moment.
Grocery store run ins with someone she’d known back in New York was definitely not something Marguerite had anticipated that day, but she wasn’t complaining. Then again, she was fairly social as it were even if Peter wasn’t at the moment. The attempt to get away wasn’t really acknowledged because well, it was awkward given the initial confusion and well...tech week so she did need to get her groceries then get to the theatre.
“You as well. Don’t be a stranger.”
With a smile and a wave, the actress let Peter go before she went back to her own shopping.