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It's only about a month in that Mandy realizes she may have a problem. She's taking PTO, since Blazer took a blast from a terrified extraterrestrial that would have vaporized Mandy. She's sitting at home as Blazer, waiting for the worst of the aching and stiffness to wear off. If she turned back right now she probably wouldn't be able to move at all, so it's worth staying home for. And it's not like she doesn't have paperwork to catch up on, shows to binge-watch, and cleaning to do. It's a fine use of a Tuesday.
Things don't get weird until about five p.m., when she comes out of the bathroom after her shower. The shade of neighboring buildings means the apartment is already pretty dark, so she flicks on a light and just about jumps out of her skin. Blueknife is standing there in the hall like a lamp. Too still to be a living thing, and as if he's just part of the place, and has never been anywhere else.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" she snaps, glad that she sounds more angry than terrified, because she may be Blazer right now, but she has an entire security system that didn't go off and he is right there, holy Jesus.
And he just looks at her with those eyes... god, it's from Tim O'Brien's How To Tell A True War Story, isn't it? 'those big sad gentle killer eyes', and he says, "I was worried about you."
Blazer sighs. "I'm okay. But you have my number, you could've called."
"Communication channels might be compromised," he says, and she sighs.
"I really shouldn't reward your bad behavior," she says, "but are you hungry?"
There's this long, weird, frozen kind of moment, and then he nods, and trails after her to the kitchen.
"I've noticed you don't eat anything people give you that wasn't factory-sealed," she says opening her freezer, "but I think I've got an unopened bag of chicken tenders, and maybe even a vegetable..."
Lucky for Blueknife, Blazer has done some shopping within recent memory, so there's unopened frozen peas, and one of those bags of instant mashed potatoes that makes a manageable amount for two people. Preheat the oven, and the other things should microwave within about five minutes.
Which leaves the two of them with at least half an hour to kill, and that's after the oven reaches temperature. Blazer has thrown on a robe, of course, so she doesn't actually feel all that exposed, but the vibe is... odd. Blueknife actually seems embarrassed now, for probably the first time she has ever seen, and looks a bit like he's regretting agreeing to stick around for food.
"I've been catching up on Oakwood, if you watch that kind of thing," she says, taking a seat on the couch and patting the cushion for her to join him. It's a pretty much just a soap opera with time travel for flavor, but the cast is good and her cousin won't shut up about it.
"...I watch a lot of Sparkle Time," he says, and for a fraction of a second she wonders if he's joking. And then realizes that of course he's not, and honestly? It's kind of sweet, to think of a guy like this watching a show like that. Well. As long as he's not weird about it.
"Got a particular episode you want to start on?" she asks, bringing up the adorable, sugary-pink cartoon series. He shyly says something about season three being where the writing truly starts to mature, and a moment later, they're off. The animation is more experimental than she was expecting, and the protagonist and her adopted unicorn sister are charming.
"I got into this when I was having trouble sleeping," Blueknife says, over the lullaby-like ending theme, and Blazer nods.
"Yeah, I can see that."
"I'm not a pervert or anything," he adds, not looking away from the screen as they roll into the next short episode as the oven finally beeps.
"Wh-What?" Blazer asks, with a guilty little start.
"I know how it looks. But the kid kind of reminds me of me, and it's pretty to look at and nobody dies."
Blazer nods. "Yeah," she says, getting up to put the chicken in the oven. "I can see that working for you."
Somehow, settling down at her kitchen table to a plate of chicken tenders, peas, and instant mashed potatoes with Blueknife after a few episodes of Sparkle Time is not the craziest thing Blazer has ever done, but it's close. Of course he turns down beer, but at least Mandy has a couple of canned Cokes in the back of the fridge, so she can offer him something besides tap water.
Blueknife looks down at his plate and says, "Thank you," so quietly that Blazer almost doesn't hear it.
"You're welcome," she says. "There any other dips I should bring out?" There's probably something besides barbecue sauce.
"...fine like this," he mutters.
He actually eats the tenders with a knife and fork, so he can keep his scuffed, deep-blue tactical gloves on. Whatever's comfortable, Blazer guesses.
"You can't just show up here like that," she says, "but thank you for caring about me, that's very kind."
"Brought you a medkit and some snacks," he mutters, and she wonders yet again how this happened, why Blueknife is like this.
He washes the plates after they eat, and then leaves as mysteriously as he appeared. Because he needs to get home to his dog before curfew. Jesus Christ, how is he even real?