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You’d think that after the whole near end of the world thing that everything after that would seem like nothing significant in comparison. I thought that for a minute, maybe. And then remembered just who I am- I’ll be damned if things are peaceful for the rest of my years. Even for the next week- doubtful. If someone doesn’t get kidnapped to some other dimension then there’ll be some other drama, probably between Billy and Teddy and David and whoever else is messed up in all of that (Tommy, too?). It’s kind of funny, then, that I’m free from all of that now. Do I miss Noh-Varr? I guess I’m too busy thinking about now to think about then.
America and I are probably the most drama-free members of the team right now; it figures. That probably jinxed it, though, didn’t it?
Will write more later, most likely. I think she’s here.
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She was still pulling on proper clothing when America opened the door; the girl just rolled her eyes and said something about being more prepared for a battle against the universe’s most notorious villains than a date. Which was true. But Kate didn’t have it as easy as opening up her closet and finding something patriotic-looking that went with jeans and going with it- maybe she was more partial to the color purple than most and had it easy with colors, but everything else was a drag, it really was. Clothes weren’t really significant in light of recent events, continually recurring events, but she could make an exception, she’d figured, and panic just this one time. For a date.
“I just have to grab my bow for that,” Kate said as she grabbed a purse, any sort of purse, and threw her phone inside, notebook, a few extra things in case shit went down at an inopportune moment. “You don’t even have to do that, you just- what would you call what you do, do you think?” She gave her teammate a fleeting glance as she whipped past her, then abruptly stopped herself and planted her feet on the carpet floor and gave America a more attentive look. Her comrade started to grin at that.
“I kick ass so hard I can do it through multiple dimensions,” she suggested, lifting her eyebrows playfully as she mockingly lifted a converse all-star and pushed Kate’s door farther open for them to get through.
“The fact that that’s true...” Kate snorted as she followed her teammate/date out of the house. “So where are we going tonight? You never said.”
“Because it was a secret- still is, chica.” America led the other girl to her car, parked outside Kate’s house and looking out of place amidst all the obvious money (but neither of them cared, of course). She held the passenger-side door open for her comrade. She looked like she was about to say something fancy but she just went, instead, “Get in, princess,” with familiar fondness. Kate shook her head but she was smiling; she was long since used to the name, had been even before she’d agreed to go on this excursion.
When she’d settled into the driver’s seat America looked down at the gas and brake pedals and a thought occurred to her- that no matter if she was traveling between dimensions or driving on the way to the park with Kate, she always used her feet.
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America acting sort of weird today. Chavez, that is, not the actual country. Obviously. I mentioned it to Billy but he just gave me the same sort of odd look, and then looked like he wanted to laugh but didn’t. I was tempted to ask Teddy about that, or even David, maybe, but something held me back. I feel like they all know something I don’t, and I just... don’t. And I’m supposed to figure whatever the hell it is for myself.
So I sit here and I write because I’m supposed to be figuring things out, but that... is not going incredibly well. What am I doing? I wonder.
And then I start to figure things out.
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We were already stuck- or, well, tied- together, Teddy and I, so I took a chance and asked him about things, and he looked really surprised at first but then he seemed to understand after a minute. Whatshisname the bad guy looked pretty annoyed that we were talking about romance and crap while captured, but even he had to realize how loose the ropes were. How strong Teddy is. Needless to say, things didn’t work out very well for whatshisname.
“Maybe it doesn’t matter?” Teddy said; even he sounded a little confused as to what he was trying to say.
“If she- why?” Curious.
His voice straightened out (metaphorically speaking). “Isn’t what you think of her the most important thing?” Well, when you say it like that. But people don’t think like that in terms of themselves. I don’t, anyway.
Now I am.
America- what do I think of her? Not the opposite; what she thinks of me- doesn’t matter? What does is that I- I think of her, anyway. And write, as of late. As of the last day or two. Same thing. America- what do I think of her? When I try to draw the thoughts out they hide, so when I see her I try listening to those because they’re much more alive and present. What do those say?
They tell me things I hadn’t paid attention to when I was with Noh-Varr. And now I am. Now I am.
What do I think of her?
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Stars- it was so dorky, so cliche for her especially to be staring up at them while lying on her back on the grass. But she did anyway, and reached across the space between her and Kate to take her teammate’s hand. This was also dorky, she figured, but it felt right, and that was all that probably mattered.
“Still can’t get over the fact that you did that, princess,” she mumbled in Kate’s direction, smiling. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”
Her comrade’s eyes narrowed mockingly. “What else was I going to do? You weren’t doing anything, so I figured I’d just...”
“Grab me mid-dimension flight and kiss me? That’s logical. Especially considering you had to practically shove Noh-Varr out of the way to do that. But you didn’t mind that, did you?” Kate smiled faintly at the memory, recalling the reactions of their teammates. Billy had probably been the only one- other than David, of course, who knew everything- that didn’t look surprised.
“You were supposed to be straight,” America continued. “I wasn’t going to be an asshole and- do the bad version of what you did, I guess...”
“We both did it!” Kate cut in loudly, irritated maybe but also struggling not to laugh. Her hair got messed up in her movements in the grass. “Not just me! You totally just, um- responded to... that. Both of us.”
“‘That’,” her teammate quoted, smirking.
“I think we scarred David for life,” Kate considered. “Even if he already had it figured. Damn, I really should have asked him in the first place.”
“Wait, who did you ask?”
“Billy. Very helpful.” She rolled her eyes. “I don’t think he even did anything but laugh.” She watched America open her mouth to speak and then pause, almost awkward and out of character like that. “What?”
“I talked to Billy before that,” the other girl said with a mouthful of laughter. She took her hand back only so that she could get closer to Kate; their sides were almost touching now. America’s fingers drifted through Kate’s hair as she kept talking, her lips seemingly stuck smiling slightly. “And told him how I felt about you. He agreed that I ought to stay my distance since you were supposed to be- well-”
“Straight, I get it!” Kate frowned at that but at the same time she was making a point of tilting her head towards America to allow the other girl’s fingers freer movement. “You can get over it now,” she mumbled.
“No, but it’s funny- nobody on our team is straight, chica. Tell me that doesn’t make you laugh.” Of course, they were both doing that by now. “Tell me the starry sky doesn’t just make you think of Billy. Tell me you don’t miss Loki sometimes, crazy as that is. Tell me...” America’s eyes fell up onto the mentioned sky. “What do you think of this?”
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It was perfect. A perfect moment. I didn’t even have to use the arrows I had in my purse on some maniac set out to mess shit up, didn’t even take them out. Except when America asked about them and I let her look inside the bag. Except for then.
It was perfect except when it got cloudy and the moon disappeared in all of it and it was perfect except for when it started raining, but running back to the car holding hands with her- America- was perfect. For a minute I found myself thinking that this must be what Billy and Teddy feel like. All the time? Could someone really be this happy and whole even attached to someone else, as one of two parts? Really? It sounds illogical but everything else seemed, seems to beg to differ. America kissing me in the car with some shitty pop song on the radio on in the background, with the rain beating down in torrents against the windows, with her hands in my hair again. Me touching her. It was too perfect to be real and the fact that it was was a little too much to bear. I had to let some of it out and give it back when we kissed. Had to share it. I got more back, anyway.
America. Not the freaking country. Not at all.
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Breakfast: another day, another diner. “You’d think that things would stop happening,” David was muttering under his breath, almost rudely but he looked too okay with it to be like that. “But nope- the drama, the kissing continues. As it always does.”
“Smooching,” Teddy corrected him, and they all laughed.
“It’s an initiation thing by now,” Noh-Varr offered. “Gay kissing. Smooching. Whatever.”
“And who have you kissed?” Billy queried of him, raising his eyebrows. He attempted to flip his hair away from his eyes but the piece just fell back in place like it always did.
“I’m not at liberty to say,” the alien answered at the same time that Billy cut in with, “Loki.” America choked on her orange juice in surprise and humor.
“The hell?”
“It just... happened?”
“I’ll bet.”
Things were awkward for a moment until someone made a comment about David and the conversation shifted a little. America squeezed Kate’s hand under the table and gave her a meaningful look. She whispered something into her teammate’s ear, which maybe was a bad idea because that just started the smooching conversation all over again, but that was alright, too.
“I guess I never said it, but- I think it’s cool,” David said suddenly. “You and- her.”
“Thanks for the blessing,” America answered with an eye-roll, but then the rest of them were all saying the same thing. She had to admit, it was nice that they were all cool with it, even Noh-Varr, if only to a certain degree because it weirded him out a bit. Whatever. He’d get over it.
He’d get over it, and things would get better, and more shit would happen to them and to Earth and the rest of the universe. She whispered something else like that into Kate’s ear, ending with the familiar term, “princess,” because that would always stay the same between them. Throughout everything.