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John never had much growing up in Vought’s cage. No love, no care. Only torture and manipulations to make him fall in line. He was able to escape with the help of Noir and Maeve in his mid-20s. Sometimes Maeve would get frustrated with John and his lack of awareness, he would say things that didn’t make sense or reveal unspoken issues within the team.
The only true luxury he was allowed to indulge in were movies, or documentaries if you want to get literal. He’d watch things that contained perfect families; a doting wife, hardworking husband, one teenage boy crazy girl, a younger boy who played baseball, and who could forget the family dog. Or they would put on movies that contained Soldier Boy, how he became a comforting idol to John after many days of seeing his face. He liked the idea of having a family of his own, helping one another.
Now that the group has grown by the numbers, john had decided to make a fun rule; Movie nights twice a month, everyone has a chance to pick a movie, they have an order as well;
John and Noir for the first month, Maeve and Annie for the second month, Kevin and Reggie had the third, Misty plus Sage had fourth. Repeat and recycle each time a new month came around so everyone had a turn to choose. Tonight, however, proved to be an issue.
There was supposed to be a mission where Noir, John and Annie were supposed infiltrate a weaponry base that was planning on rolling out new chemicals to temporally de-power supes for up to 24hrs. Butcher had beaten them too it, laughing as he threw one of the gases at the three, escaping just as quick as the saw him.
To say Maeve was pissed would've been an understatement in anyone's book, she berated the whole team for a small mistake in John's opinion. How were they supposed to know where and when the leader of The Five would be at the plant. Even when John spoke up about that Maeve shot it down. She eventually got fed up with the others for not being able to come up with better ideas and stormed out.
John was sad, or at least he was experiencing sadness, Annie told him that he probably was before, he's taking her word. But he felt that way because it was Maeve's turn to pick a movie, and she clearly didn't show, Deep said she was probably drinking away at some random bar, Firecracker smacked the back of his head for that one.
Noir, being the kind man, he is; messaged her, asking if she still planned on choosing a movie or even deciding if she was coming home for the night.
He was left on delivered.
"Why don't we just let Starlight choose and then Maeve can take next?" A-train suggested, it left a bitter taste in John's mouth, it didn't feel right for some reason. Too everyone else though it seemed like a good idea.
In the end Annie chose some movie about a musical high school, John didn't understand the plot and what basketball had to do with drama club (why couldn't the guy do both? he'll half to ask Noir later since he never went to high-school) but it made everyone laugh so he felt like he could bare the confusion for the next hour. Reggie was eating his own bowl of popcorn while Annie was humming some of the lyrics, Sage and Misty were quietly talking about the main mean girl and how she was 'Iconic'. Kevin, well Kevin wasn't even paying attention, John is 50% sure he has his air pods in listening to whale noises, typical. No one could tell what Noir was thinking or doing, for all John knew he was probably sleeping up right leaning against the couch's right arm.
As the movie continued to play John heard the tell-tale signs of a key being entered into the doorknob, Maeve was back, that made John happy. She could sit down with them and watch the rest of the movie, Starlight would probably explain what she missed anyways. As she enters the house however she seemed sluggish, signs of being drunk or at least tipsy since her alcohol intake was way above anyone else's besides his here. His smile dropped to a small frown, she really was mad at them.
"What the hell is this dude." She walked in at the part where they're singing about not dancing while dancing, seriously what the hell is this movie man?
"Musical High school, it's pretty decent, you should watch it." Maeve scoffed but hadn't walked off just yet, shuffling towards part of the couch Deep was sitting at. She sat on the arm rest and watched in worry and judgement of the characters.
"This seems so bad oh my god." Sage laughed hard at that, and that caused Reggie into a giggle fit, Noir let out a small wheeze that only John could pick up on, but everyone could see the shoulders moving up and down.
"Man, piss off it's a childhood classic for me. You're just mad because we're not watching some war documentary." Starlight snapped back smiling at the older lady.
the laughter, jokes and lighthearted insults, popcorn with sweet things mixed into it, too John this felt right. He felt the care and affection he wanted so badly as a child. He loved his family. He'd burn the world down for them if it meant protecting them.
The movie ended, Kevin was the first to run away towards his room, then sage and misty made their way to, Annie helped clean up while A-train washed the dishes. Noir, Maeve and John were outside the complex, Meave was huffing down a cigarette, John hates the smell, overloads his sensor, Noir was just sitting in a rocking chair, swaying back and forth. It was quiet, no hunters, no yelling, nothing bad could hurt them.
"I'm sorry about earlier by the way" Maeve flicked her cigarette onto the ground, stomping it out with her shoe.
"It's fine, I didn't take it personal. I doubt anyone did." Noir nodded in agreement with the statement, the wind blowing gently as his hood was knocked off.
"Still shouldn't have lashed out, but I guess Butcher's been getting to me more thank I'd assume." Her hair blew, she was staring at the constellations, right hand twitching like she was counting them.
"Me too, don't know how he does it, being at the top hurting people like they're nothing."
"Not that hard when you don't see your enemy as inhuman. The government labeled us as 'a different species of mankind' or whatever that means" She sighed, turning her head toward the two men.
"They're wrong. Everyone is, we deserve peace. we'll get it." That got a smile out of Maeve, which in turn made John smile.
Turning on her heels, she walked towards the front door, giving a wave while not looking back,
"Goodnight, guys, don't stay up too late."
"We won't, night Maeve!"