Julia leaned on the island in Marina's kitchen, her hands cradling a cup of coffee as she heard Marina headed her direction. Once again, she was a lot more put together than the first morning she'd woke up in the penthouse, and while Marina always looked good, Julia regretted that her friend seemed to think she needed to look presentable around her.
She was not yet making that effort. She'd brushed her teeth and ran her fingers through her hair, but there wasn't much hope of taming it that early in the morning, and she hadn't been too concerned. Everyone at the cottage had seen her looking worse.
"Morning," she said, greeting Marina who had entered the kitchen. She nodded toward the coffee, which was waiting for her. "You know, I miss the cat pajamas. I liked that side of you."
Having forgotten Julia was there once, Marina had made a point to get pajamas that were a little more presentable and more dressy. She’d also gone for a more slicked back ponytail instead of the messy bun. There was no reason to look messy in the morning because now she was keenly aware of the fact that someone was staying there. Eleanor had been there a couple times for her messy looks. Messier than this and usually they hadn’t even changed into pajamas. Somehow this was different.
She hadn’t put make up on, but she’d washed her face before going downstairs. She looked up at Julia briefly before sitting, lifting the coffee to her mouth and taking a sip. “The cat pajamas aren’t even that important,” she said quietly. Even if there was a part of her that missed them and her morning routine that involved silently drinking coffee without being put together. But the idea of looking unkempt in front of a Julia that hadn’t otherwise been used to it felt off. “So have you heard anything from Eliot? Still upset about womanhood?”
"Sure they are, it was a good look," Julia said, not teasing in the slightest. It had been a different side of Marina, the most relaxed she'd ever seen the other woman. It had felt comfortable, but that was obviously one-sided.
She smiled into her mug when Marina asked about Eliot. "In case you couldn't tell, I'm avoiding her." Maybe her reaction had been a bit dramatic, but Eliot was dramatic at the best of times, and this situation only heightened that.
“Eh.” Marina shrugged. She didn’t really want to overthink her wardrobe or the fact that she cared about Julia’s opinion regarding her wardrobe. “It’s whatever.”
She snorted softly about the mention of avoiding Eliot. “I mean, I do that regularly, so what else is new? Kind of annoying in general, but that could be the ghost weirdness, the marrying a sith lord weirdness, or just his personality. It’s hard to pinpoint it.”
"God, the ghosts," Julia answered with a slight shudder. Before, when Marina had hinted at it she hadn't said who the ghosts were. Once Julia was granted those memories, she tried hard not to think about them.
So she focused on the Texas version of Eliot instead. "I can't believe he married Kylo Ren and I married Tony Stark. Like there is definitely a version of me totally geeking out at the fact that I married Iron Man. Somewhere in the multiverse. Besides the one that actually did it, of course. I don't actually get Kylo Ren, but I kind of get the Adam Driver thing?"
She didn't think too hard about it because it was weird even by their standards.
“I don’t think you got married,” she said after a moment. “But then you might have after I ended up here. I don’t know how those things work.” She shrugged. “But once I trapped them in my club together and they had to get out using magic and tech because they were being insufferable and wouldn’t fucking stop both being upset about it. And it was annoying.” Marina honestly didn’t understand that. But she didn’t understand most people. And she kind of missed her club.
“But yeah. The one Eliot apparently married Kylo Ren and the Disney Princess and they all married each other? I don’t know. I didn’t go to the wedding.” There really wasn’t a point in going there either way. She knew Holland liked Kylo Ren, but she guessed she forgave him for the lapse in judgment.
"Oh that's right," Julia said with a shrug. "I'm confusing my alternate lives here." Something about her with Tony Stark and this Tony Stark who wasn't the one in the movies she'd seen getting married had mixed itself up.
Not that it mattered, she had no interest in either Tony.
"Any plans for the day?" she asked. Julia was content to laze about and read, having been out at Pride with Marina the day before. Which now that she thought about it, it was weird they hadn't run into Eliot there.
She snorted softly. “Wishful thinking, huh? You really were hoping to marry Tony Stank, weren’t you?” She wasn’t sorry about using that part of the movie. Her amusement was evident on her face as she elbowed Julia lightly. But it was weird to see Tony and have him look different and not know her at all. Just as weird as a Julia that looked the same and shared none of the same memories.
“Avoiding most people and probably getting coffee eventually.” She sighed. “I miss being able to go all around the world and get stuff when I wanted. This place is big, but still not the entirety of Earth.”
"You could travel around the world, just like that?" Julia asked. "Or you just miss having more places available?" There were plenty of coffee places in Vallo, at least. But Julia was always interested in hearing more about Texas. Or anything, really.
Marina shrugged. “Mostly a lot of portals. Holland got us around a lot of places. And then sometimes I got us around other places if he didn’t have a mark there already.” It was nice to go around and cheat people out of their money. She’d curled her hair and purposefully looked like some innocent twenty-something to get people to unwittingly walk into her trap. She’d even giggled for it. But she’d been a different version of herself before to catch people off guard. What else was new?
“Japan has some interesting places and there were some other places to go. Lots of teleporting types.”
"Which one was Holland again?" Julia asked.
Marina was quiet for a moment. “Just a person I knew in Texas.”
"Am I just a person you know from home?" Julia asked, raising an eyebrow. "When you go onto the next place? The Julia who was in Vallo?"
Marina shrugged. “I mean, you’ll basically be dead because if there’s a you in another place, chances are you don’t remember me or you remember the dead me or like there for one episode me.” And it would be exhausting. She honestly hoped no one she knew showed up. Not even a version of someone she knew.
"Or…" Julia said, considering that. "Maybe we'll both just stay here?"
That earned another shrug. “I guess it depends on how the universe feels.” Cause she didn’t trust it or anyone else. She’d already seen how trusting people went and that the universe was willing to fuck over everyone and everything. “Either way, I’ll make it through.”
"But you'd miss me," Julia pointed out with a small smile. Even if she hoped that they could just stay in Vallo, which she decided to voice out loud. "I hope we can just stay here. It's gone better for me than anything back home, at least."
“I’d get over it eventually.” It wouldn’t be the first time. Probably wouldn’t be the last time. People left all the time. It was just a part of things here and in Texas. Back home, too. “Anywhere is better than back home. That’s the easy part. Back home is absolute shit.”
"Eventually," Julia teased. "Years in the future."
Maybe it was a bit rude to be teasing Marina before she had even had a chance to drink a full cup of coffee, but that wasn't stopping her. "You'll be sitting there one morning, in a pair of cute cat pajamas, wishing I was there to comment on them."
Marina made a quick face. “I don’t know about that.” She wasn’t sure she’d necessarily be happy, but what else would be new? Pretty much nothing. “I’m basically over everyone already.”
"Are you?" Julia asked. "So it makes no difference if I disappear or not?"
Marina shrugged. “Did you also want an ugly clown portrait? I’m not really sure what you’re after.”
"Honesty." Julia's response was punctuated with a sigh. "I wish you'd just be honest."
Normally Marina would have scoffed at Julia’s words or rolled her eyes and deflected with some quip, but it was like something switched on in her brain. “Yeah. Okay. So I don’t like that everyone disappears, but I also don’t like that it’s a constant discussion or that I’m blonde in the future or actually a lot of things. Like when people heat vegetables for too long and they get mushy. This coffee does not have enough sugar in it and I’m in boring pajamas because I don’t like it when you look at me like I’m some normal person that can be teased about her pajamas this early in my being awake.”
She was quiet for a moment before she said, “I fucking hate the fact that I don’t hate you for this. I want to say I’ll kill you, but I can’t because I don’t actually want to kill you, but I will probably not even contemplate throwing myself off a bridge over this even if I’d like to.”
Wow. Julia was not expecting that and her jaw may have dropped slightly when Marina started speaking freely. How? Why? Not that she was complaining, and she thought back to what she had said. She'd wished. It hadn't been deliberate, just something she'd said without thinking.
And while she wasn't necessarily for people being compelled to talk, she also wasn't against this sudden rush of information, either? But first, "No even thinking about throwing yourself off a bridge," Julia said, making a face.
"And that's well, that's a lot to address." Julia couldn't stop herself from looking somewhat amused. Sorry, Marina. "Would you rather I didn't look at you like you were a normal person? Just don't dye your hair here? And maybe people just want to have some idea that you actually care about whether or not they stick around so it comes up more than it should."
But she nodded in agreement at one thing. "Overcooked vegetables are gross."
“I’ll tell you this simple thing. Do not offer me a challenge shaped like telling me what to do because I will think about it.” Marina sighed. How long was this going to go on? Cause she was already tired of it. “And stop looking at me like that.”
Her frown grew then. “I am supposed to be looked at like I might murder your best friend next week. And I’m not dying my hair. I just hate it. Blonde me is just a bad look. Like maybe if they’d done a better coloring or whatever, but why? My makeup was on point, though.” She paused a moment, trying to recollect the last thing Julia said. “Well, maybe you should look at all the not talking I do about it for your answers.”
Overcooked vegetables were the worst. Overcooked anything really. “Ugh. I need a breakfast burrito and at least three more coffees to effectively deal with this shit.”
Point taken.
Julia pulled up delivery for the breakfast burrito place on her phone, and even though they always ordered from Marina's she was able to put in Marina's usual order from having paid attention. "You want your usual or something different?" she asked, ordering for herself. She could always change it up if Marina wanted to do that.
"You mean what you do while complaining about it the entire time?" Julia asked, looking amused. "Trust me, I do notice. Like how you let me stay here, minimal complaining, no questions asked."
“My usual is fine and it’s weird that you even remember what my usual is.” She made a face. “Mostly because people don’t actually care enough to remember.” This was the most annoying. “Except maybe Pete, but he was a suck up.” At least it was an honest feeling. Which was the least uncomfortable of the honesty that she’d been letting through. She was probably going to kill someone later for this. She wasn’t going to kill anyone.
“Yeah, well, I guess you caught me,” she said after a moment. “I actually like you.” She drove the sarcastic tone in on that one because even if she had to be honest, she didn’t have to not be sarcastic about it.
"Yeah, well you remember the part where we're friends?" Julia asked, slightly amused. It applied to paying attention and the fact that Marina actually liked her.
But she felt like she should try and wish for something different to fix it. "Sorry, shouldn't have used those two words, huh?" But since wishes had a way of backfiring, she was hesitant to try something and have it turn out worse. "I don't hate this, though."
She kept her mouth shut for a moment, trying to keep in the honesty hour bullshit she was dealing with. She was going to bite down on it and if she had to choke on it, maybe she would. Except even when she wasn’t speaking, she was being honest and that was just really annoying. “Being honest is annoying because it’s not honest because I chose to be honest. It’s honest because I can’t stop myself from being honest even in my own thoughts. Which is definitely the most problematic part of it.”
She sighed, leaned forward on her elbows. “Being honest is stupid. Is how I honestly feel about this.”
"I'm sorry," Julia replied, but she couldn't hold back her amusement completely, the corners of her mouth quirking upward. "Still hate hugs?" she asked, because there was a part of her that wanted to hug Marina, but she also didn't want to end up with a black eye.
"If I try and reverse it, things could go worse?"
“I don’t want hugs.” She didn’t understand hugs or why people gave them or why it was something they did. “I don’t get it,” she said after a moment. “Why people even give them. Like for what? Cause someone felt bad? I felt bad plenty and I didn’t need hugs.” Not that she figured she’d get them anyway.
“If you wish one more thing, I may be forced to ignore my not wanting to kill you.”
Julia just shook her head, trying not to laugh. "Or you know, people give hugs because they care about the other person and want to show it? Let them know they're not alone? Or because… Right." No hugs then.
"Let's go watch trashy television until the food arrives?" At least Marina's honesty would be directed at that, it probably couldn't annoy her too much.
Marina made a face, but nodded at the suggestion of trashy television. “Vallo Housewives or I’m out, though. Cause that shit is so dumb and I can judge them in semi-near distance in person sometimes. There’s this Pixie on there and she is fucking insane. Like will straight up tear someone’s house up cause they said something she didn’t like crazy. Thank someone they have subtitles sometimes cause I don’t even understand her half the time.”
Oh yeah, the commentary alone would make Vallo Housewives worth it. And their food was already out for delivery.
Julia figured things could have gone worse with that wish.