Who: Iris West and Michael Guerin What: Michael is upset about his fake birthday When: Tuesday, October 29th Where: Out of This World Mechanics Warnings: Pretty low! Status: Log | Complete
It was Michael’s least favorite day of the year. His birthday. Or at least the day that became his birthday. It was the day his parents apparently died in a car crash and Michael lost his memory. Yeah there was probably a record of his real birthday out there, but it had gotten lost in the system. Big fucking surprise there. So October 29th became the day he marked getting a year older.
Michael was doing his best to ignore what the day was. Just go to work, do his job, and then get more drunk than usual after. However, no matter how hard he tried it was on his mind and his mood was definitely soured. Even the fact that Iris was bringing her car in didn’t do much to cheer him up.
“Hey,” he greeted his voice monotone when Iris parked her car in the garage.
Iris didn’t know too much about cars. She could change a tire and all of that, but specifics? Not so much. Even so, she could tell when there was something that was wrong and there was definitely something wrong with her car. Could she put it into words? Not exactly just that it did feel right, that there was something different when she drove and she knew enough that if that were the case? She should have it checked out.
Which was why she had decided to take it to Michael to have it checked out.
Getting out of the car, Iris quirked a brow at the monotone in her friend’s voice. Okay. Something was definitely up.
“Hey.”
Michael didn’t exactly make small talk with most of his customers. But it was different with friends. Which was a category that Iris fell into. However, he was in an even less chatty mood today than usual.
After the greeting was done Michael held out his hand for the car keys getting straight to work. He popped the hood and spotted the problem immediately. “Looks like your sump plug got loose,” Michael replied already working on repairing it, his voice still monotone. “Good thing you brought it in when you did or your engine could have seized.”
Normal silence Iris could take. She knew not everyone wanted to keep up small talk and she was fine with that. The problem was that it was clear that something was troubling Michael, which meant she wanted to find a way to help. The trick of course was figuring out what the issue was, as well as seeing if there was any way she could help.
“Good to know.”
Now Iris was distracted, but it was more out of concern than wondering how her sump plug or whatever it was got loose or the trouble that could have caused if her engine seized at the wrong time.
“Yeah,” Michael replied from under the hood, his tone matter-of-fact. “It’s kind of hard for it to get loose on it’s own,” he added. Of course there was no reason to expect foul play but it would be good for Iris to at least know and keep an eye out.
Tightening it back up again, Michael shut the hood. “You should be good now,” he said in that same town, walking to the desk to grab his open beer. “On the house,” he added taking a swig. Which was usually not something he did at work, but he was going to need all the alcohol he could get to get through the day.
There was that one part of Iris that had to suspect foul play just because of her job, it wouldn’t be the first time after all. However, she was a bit more preoccupied with how Michael was acting to really worry if the sump plug had just somehow managed to get loose on its own or if she had pissed off yet another person with an article.
“Well thank you,” And before she could comment about it being on the house, she noticed the beer and quirked a brow. Yep. If she hadn’t been worried before…. “Everything with you okay?”
She was a reporter, it was in her nature to be direct.
“Yeah,” Michael said though he was already taking another sip of his beer. “Just peachy. Why wouldn’t it be?” Although he was trying to deflect, he was no longer monotone, instead he voice was dripping with sarcasm.
If Iris got scared off by sarcasm, she’d never be able to do her job so she instead she just fixed Michael with a look.
“Well tone of voice and drinking during the day seem to indicate otherwise.”
Sorry, Michael. She wasn’t backing off that easily.
Michael caught the look and it phased him more than he expected it to. Not many people cared enough to question his mood or behavior.
“What’s wrong with my voice?” Michael questioned taking another swallow of beer. Iris was right that he didn’t usually drink during the day though. At least not a work day - while at work. But special circumstances. “I thought it was sexy.” What? He could at least try to avoid the subject with jokes.
Deal with it, Michael. People do care.
There may have been special circumstances, but Iris was unaware of them at the moment and so she would remain concerned. Because even with the stress and what the day meant, drinking during the day on the job? Not a good thing.
“Very monotonous.” And that’s all there was about is voice. It was clear to her something was up so she would figure it out. “Mhmm.”
The type of tone that brokered she wasn’t buying the joke and could see through him.
“That’s usually how I get all the girls,” Michael replied and even though he was attempting to joke to evade the question he still had that monotonous tone. Which wasn’t intentional but could add to the joke if Iris bought it.
Though knowing her journalistic ways she probably wasn’t buying any of it. Michael sighed knowing he probably wasn’t going to get out of this conversation with a joke.
“It’s my birthday… sort of.”
Oh, Michael was definitely not going to get out of this conversation with a joke and no more questions. She might let him say the jokes if he wanted but that didn’t mean Iris was dropping this. She was worried, which meant she would press. Especially since his voice remained monotonous even as he made the comment.
At least he finally gave her something, though the comment was still odd.
“How is it sort of your birthday?”
He wasn’t surprised she asked more questions. Of course Iris wouldn’t let it go at just that. “It’s the day I use to mark getting older,” he said with a shrug trying to act as though it didn’t bother him at all. Or like there was more to the story.
No, she wouldn’t. Especially when the way he had phrased the answer had been...maybe not confusing, but enough that it needed to be clarified. Which okay, there was still a lot to unpack there. Because why would he choose a different day to mark getting older? Some pieces were falling into place - she knew he’d been in the foster system. So it could just be he didn’t know his actual birthday.
Whatever it was, it was clear that Michael wasn’t happy about it and whatever was hanging over him, whatever had made him choose this date? It was bothering him and Iris didn’t know how to help with that. Not here and now at any rate.
“Oh…”
“Yeah,” Michael replied raising his beer again. “Happy birthday to me.” Now that Iris kind of knew if she asked more he’d probably tell her. But he also wasn’t about to freely offer the information. Even this much was a lot for Michael. He didn’t exactly talk about the part of his life that he couldn’t remember. Hell he didn’t even talk about the parts of his childhood that he remembered. The foster system didn’t exactly lead to happy memories.
There was a lot to take in and Iris wasn’t really sure what to ask. Definitely nothing at the moment. It was clear that Michael wasn’t in a good place and digging into that right now would just...not be a good idea. If it came up later, sure. But for now she would let the topic drop. Even if she did have questions, but they were ones she could look up on her own. For now, she just nodded.
“Well, if you want proper drinks after work, let me know.”
“Might not be the worst offer,” Michael replied with a small smirk. Which was his way of saying, yes, he would like proper drinks after work.