Velma Kelly (jazzkiller) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-04-05 15:26:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | navi, velma kelly |
Who: Velma and Navi
What: Getting to knoooow yoooou ...
When: 4/4
Where: The public library in Garden Grove
Status: Complete
Rating: G
Despite appearances, Velma very often visited the public library in Orange County, and the closest branch to her was in Garden Grove. The only annoying thing was that that branch closed for a lunch break, so when she got there about ten minutes after twelve, she had no choice but to wait if she wanted new books. Fifty minutes to go. It was a good day, at least, so she sat on the bench near the doors, taking her phone out to answer e-mails.
Navi was curled up in a chair on the opposite side of the doors, drowsily reading in the sun. She had taken some time off from the shop, choosing to do the books at home where she could snuggle her husband, but she’d wanted to get some books, too. Just for fun. But the library was closed, and so she popped out a book she had already and cuddled up.
Velma looked up after a while, feeling the sun moving overhead. As she looked up, she raised an eyebrow “Are you okay?” The woman on the other side of the sidewalk was curled up, and she couldn’t tell whether she was asleep or sick.
Navi lifted her head. “Hmm? Oh, I’m fine, just reading. It’s all cosylike in this sunbeam here.” She smiled broadly. “Thank you for checking!”
Well, at least there was that. “Sorry, just only saw the top of you.” Vel chuckled. “Figured I should check. Have you been here long? I confess I didn’t notice either way.” She’d been getting rid of all her work emails.
“Five minutes or so!” Navi sat up, exhaling a quiet breath as she stroked her stomach. “Goodness, little one, calm down.” She was speaking to her stomach as she moved.
As the woman sat up, Velma blinked, realizing she was noticeably pregnant. Not crazy pregnant, but enough to see it. “Congratulations,” she said. “How anyone can do that, I’ll never know.”
“Be pregnant or have sex with my husband?” Navi giggled, shaking her head. “I kid, I kid. One’s not as bad as it sounds, and the other’s heaven. Guess which is which!” She giggled again.
Velma laughed. “Well, never met your husband!” The idea of being knocked up was actually terrifying; she’d seen a family member have 48 hours in labor with all the attendant needles in her vagina and special kinds of hell. “Seriously, though, I could not be knocked up. I respect women who can.” This lady looked positively goddamn radiant.
“Pete’s amazing. Really, once I got past morning sickness, I’ve been really okay with it. I’m going to have the baby at home, so I think it’ll be as nice as it can possibly be.” She grinned, glad she’d make the other woman laugh. “I’m Navi, it’s nice to meet you.”
“Velma.” She smiled. “How far are you?” She was no judge of that kind of stuff, God knew.
“Eighteen weeks! I don’t get why pregnancy forgets that months are a thing. Four and a half months makes just as much sense, but nooooo, I’m on knocked up time.” Navi wrinkled her nose.
Velma laughed. “I have no idea. I’m the youngest of my family, so I never saw anybody really get knocked up except my uncle’s second wife. And that went ugly. She turned into like ... Momzilla. Instead of Bridezilla.” Yeah, the less said about that crazy bitch, the better.
Navi wrinkled her nose. “I’m too much of a hippie to be a control freak. And the husband wants a whole footy team, so I don’t think he will be either. If he does, though, I’ll bop him one.”
“Atta girl.” She grinned. This lady had spunk. “I have a kind-of sort-of boyfriend, but thank God, kids are not one of my worries with that shit.”
“Oh, no, not when you’re still kind-of-sort-of. Pete and I didn’t start trying until after we got married.” They’d been married at Halloween and she’d been knocked up on Christmas. “He worked super fast. I mean, I know it’s because we shag all the time, but - “ She pulled out her phone to show Velma a “family photo”. It was Pete holding Zora, looking entirely exhausted, while Navi held Scamp, fluttering a little bit behind Pete. But Pete looked indulgent and happy despite his tired veneer, and the cats both looked content despite missing an eye and an ear each.
Velma chuckled. “God, your cats look like they’ve been through the grinder. Strays?” They were really cute, just, they clearly hadn’t been housecats at first. “Haven’t met your husband, but he looks like a nice guy.”
“They’re strays, yeah. Zora got lit on fire by a neighborhood kid, and I had to help her. But don’t let Pete hear you say he’s nice!” Navi giggled. “He likes to think he’s scary.”
Velma rolled her eyes. “What is it with men and that kind of thing? Logan does the same damn thing. As if any woman with a brain couldn’t tell he’s a teddy bear.”
Navi paused. “Logan? Darlin’ Logan? Logan ‘I’mma fuck you until your knees turn to maple syrup ‘cause I’m Canuckian, eh’ Logan?”
Velma blinked, laughing. “Oh, don’t tell me you fucked him too. He’s had like half the county.” Obviously, before Navi had been married; Logan wasn’t a homewrecker, but still.
“Oh, no.” Navi shook her head. “Not me.”
“But you know him.” Velma grinned. “Christ. Everyone does. Even people who haven’t had him know him.”
“Oh, I met him the other day. He knows Pete. You know Kitty, right? In the dreams, Pete used to date her. She’s one of my best friends, I love her like the sister I never had.” She moved to sit closer to Velma on the bench.
“I’ve met Kitty, yeah. She tried to set me and Logan up.” Okay, it had mostly worked, but still. “She’s really nice. She makes me feel fucking old, but nice.” Velma shook her head. Kitty was about a decade younger than her, Jesus Christ.
“She’s sweet, yeah.” Navi felt terrible that she couldn’t help her with her pain, but she snuggled her as often as possible.
Velma nodded. “She looks up to Logan, which is kind of sweet. I don’t know her that well yet, but she just seemed really ... I don’t know. Kind.”
Navi nodded. “Kitty’s one of my favorite people.” Which was totally true. She loved her like a sister.
“I’ll probably get to know her better, given she’s friends with some of my friends.” Logan most of all, obviously. Velma chuckled. “And she tried to set me up.”
Navi snorted. “She’s a helper! And her dragon’s pervy. Watch out for him. I love him, but oh. So pervy.”
“Dragon?” Velma echoed, raising an eyebrow. “Kitty has a dragon? I never heard about that.” Just further proof that this place was fucking weird. “Is that ... I mean, where the hell would you keep a dragon? Wouldn’t it like, burn buildings down?”
“Lockheed? Oh, he’s just a little one! He likes to burrow in my cleavage.” Navi giggled to herself, shaking her head. “My husband hates him.”
A little dragon. Okay. Velma shook her head. “Because he burrows in your cleavage?” She couldn’t help but grin at the visual. “That would be kind of awesome. Because let’s face it, your cleavage is awesome. Is it baby enhanced?”
“Oh, no, because in the dreams he and Lockheed fight. They still do, but in his dreams, Lockheed hid a bunch of his clothes once and lit them on fire.” Navi looked down at her boobs. “If by enhanced you mean sore, then yes. They’re not too much bigger yet, that’ll come soon.”
Okay, that was just funny. “That sounds completely nuts, and yet I don’t think it is.” Velma shook her head. “I mean, the dragon fight. I mean, I know a guy with claws. I know a woman who can phase through walls. You know?”
“I’m a fairy!” Navi offered cheerfully.
Velma blinked. “I thought you said you were married?”
Navi blinked. “Huh?”
“Well, you - ” Velma blinked, chuckling. “I think there’s a miscommunication. You said you were a fairy, but you have a husband.”
As if in response, Navi’s wings fluttered out and she hovered a little bit above the bench.
“Oh.” Velma blinked again, laughing. “Um. Wow. Okay, message received.” Well, shit, how many times did you meet an actual winged flying fairy? This place was so weird.
Landing again, Navi laughed. “I kind of hope the baby has wings too.” She rubbed her belly contentedly, humming in pleasure at the sunshine warming her bump.
“That’d be ... interesting. I’m guessing your husband doesn’t have any?” Her husband had looked like a normal guy.
“Nope, but he’s got powers all his own. He’s basically like an ickle little sun.” Navi sounded proud of him, grinning and cocking her head to the side.
“A little sun?” Velma echoed. “Like, conducting heat?” She was beginning to wonder if she was the only one around who didn’t have any weird power.
“Yeah, he can basically make his fingers lava. It’s hard to describe.” Navi wiggled her fingers to help illustrate the point.
“And I thought claws would be weird to deal with.” Velma raised one eyebrow. “But he can control it? It’s not a constant thing?”
“Claws? Like Logan?” Navi cocked her head, then answered her new friend. “Oh, yup, Pete’s really good at controlling it. He mostly uses it to light his smokes. But his base temperature is like, one-twelve, so he’s always warm and gives amaaaaaaaaazing backrubs.” The fairy visibly shivered at the idea of one.
Velma had to laugh. “Yeah, like Logan. But that does sound good. I haven’t had one in a while. Maybe your husband would help me out if I ask nice?” She was joking, obviously, but still. She couldn’t help but ask. “Sometimes I think everyone’s got some kind of power but me in this place.”
“Everyone has a power. You have your legs. And you’re smart and you’re funny. So what if you don’t have wings? I’ll never have legs like yours. And at least you’re not constantly cleaning up glitter.” Navi wrinkled her nose. “Even if it does taste like cinnamon toast. So. You and Logan, huh. I can see that. Mountie needs a challenging woman, you know? I think he’s used to swoony damsels and fifteen year olds, neither of which are good and only one of which is legal.”
“Your glitter tastes like cinnamon?” That was just cool. “Your husband must get so much crap about going to strip clubs.” She didn’t really comment on how her legs were a power. “Wait, what did you call him?”
Turning, Navi glittered Velma faintly. “Try it! And yeah, Pete does, but I’ll be honest - he probably did before my wings.” She giggled. “I love him so much.” Sprawling out, Navi grinned. “Who, Logan? I call him Mountie. He’s Canadian, and he unfs a lot.” Navi would’ve used the word slut, if there’d been a word like that in the English language that didn’t have a shame stigma around it. She was into free love; were she single, she’d have hit that, and she’d have been quite a bit like him.
Velma had to laugh at that. “I’m sorry, he what’s?” Her face screwed up, and she shook her head.
Navi held up one hand and made a circle with her index finger and thumb. The index finger of her other hand went through said circle. “Unfs.”
Well, it had been a while since she flat out giggled. Velma did that, throwing her head back and laughing. “Oh my god. He either loved you or was so scared of you.”
“You know, I think it was a little of both?” Navi grinned. “I did manage to make him stop talking for a minute!”
Velma was still grinning. Oh, she’d needed that. “You are my new best friend.” She did seem incredibly sweet. Maybe she needed more sweet in her life. “What do you do for a living, if I can ask?”
“Oh, I run a nursery for plants. My grampa left it to me when he passed. I basically grew up there. It kind of is lucky, since I can talk to plants anyway. Literally, not in a weird metaphor way, they talk to me too.”
“Another power?” Velma raised an eyebrow. “That kind of works out, though, I guess, if you can do that.” She was curious in spite of herself. “What do plants talk about?”
“It’s part and parcel of being a fairy. I also know where everything is if I focus on it, and I know a lot about military strategy and how to use weapons.” Navi swung her legs. “Oh, they fight a lot about the sun. Catty comments about soil. Sniping about petals.”
“Really.” Velma raised an eyebrow. “Soil? Petals? I mean, I guess that if you’re stuck in one place forever you don’t have much else to complain about, but still.”
“Exactly. It’s kind of like their version of keeping up with the Joneseseses.” Navi kept the -es coming because it amused her. “Soil’s like their house, and petals are a lot like their clothes, their makeup.”
The shit you learned talking to random people. Velma chuckled, though it turned into a grimace. “Does that mean that I’m technically a murderer? Cause uh, plants hate me.” She had what most people called a black thumb.
“Yes and no. Plants have shorter life cycles, but death is part of life, you know? I eat plants all the time, I love my veggies. And sometimes pruning feels really good for them. So, without having been there, dunno.” Navi smiled. “It’s not like I’m going to hold it against you.”
“Well, I’m glad for that.” She kind of liked this lady. She was about to ask another question, but then she saw a woman come up to the double doors and unlock them. “I guess lunch is over.” Velma rose. “Maybe I’ll come by your place sometime, though. If anybody can teach me how not to kill plants, it’d probably be you.”
“Oh, I’d like that! We can gossip about Mountie and Pete.” She grinned, rifling through her purse until she found a business card. It was cheerfully decorated on the front with a photo of flowers in bloom. “Here, my cell phone’s on it.”
“Sure.” Mountie. She’d never let Logan live that one down. Vel took the card, handing over one of her own with a smile. “Good luck in finding stuff to read. I’ve been lucky at this branch so far.”
“Oh, me too. Then again, I like reading everything.” Navi would’ve hugged Velma had she seemed the type, but she didn’t so Navi just waved. “Have fun, I’ll talk to you later!” And with that, she bounced off to the Westerns. She wanted something with a standoff in it.