Natalie's Apartment, Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, Monday

[whenshewasnice]

The weekend had been unexpected. (That was a word for it, sure.) Clearly Natalie had been a little dumb and optimistic when she'd thought Fandom couldn't get her way out here. And clearly, she needed some kind of system in place for these things. Like a notebook on how not to draw too much attention to yourself while inhabiting Natalie's body.

Not that tiny Natalie had had much of a problem with that. She'd been much too preoccupied with taking care of Moxy to cause a commotion apart from letting security downstairs know Jim had been coming.

But still. Ugh. Waking up, she felt like there was a reopened wound somewhere in her mind or her heart, a kind of a hole that was always there but was harder to ignore right now. And she was still going to. She grabbed her phone off her nightstand and got to checking her emails. Back to work. No one minded that she was going to stay in bed for that, right? It was going to be her one last sliver of immaturity. And maybe a need for comfort, too.

[ooc: NFB, but open for calls and texts and visits and anyone who might have stayed over idk I'm too lazy to check in with people.]

Comments

[pursuedthestars]

"Mm. Okay," he said, rubbing his cheek against the cushion and stretching slightly. "Wasn't wondering but good to know. I'm awake."

Sort of.

[whenshewasnice]

"Kind of," Natalie agreed with his narrative. "How was the couch? You looked comfortable."

[pursuedthestars]

"Couch was fine," he mumbled, nodding. "Slept fine. You okay?"

[whenshewasnice]

"I'm eighteen again." And a little sad, but she wasn't going to bring that up. She rubbed the back of his neck. "Peter knows I was a kid so I'm not facing a work catastrophe."

[pursuedthestars]

"S'good thing," Jim mumbled, yawning and stretching underneath her ministrations. "You were a cute kid. Seriously polite too."

[whenshewasnice]

"Thanks." Well, that was what you said, wasn't it? "My upbringing was kind of like that."

Polite and nice.

[pursuedthestars]

"You were adorable," he said, finally prying his eyes open and turning a little more onto his side. "Enjoy all the leftover ice cream and sprinkles."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie pulled her hands away from his shoulders, but trailed her fingers absently along his arm. "I'm sure it'll all get eaten eventually."

[pursuedthestars]

"You sure you're okay?" Jim asked, raising a sleep eyebrow. "You seem a little...off."

[whenshewasnice]

"Wouldn't you be, if you'd just unexpectedly been a kid for two days?"

It wasn't defensive in tone. Just... kind of rhetorical. Like it explained anything.

[pursuedthestars]

"Probably not."

But, he was that kind of guy. He shrugged one shoulder.

[whenshewasnice]

"Fair enough."

She fell quiet, brushing her fingers back and forth against his arm.

[pursuedthestars]

"Wanna talk about it?" he tried, watching her.

[whenshewasnice]

She wasn't watching him back this time. Her eyes were on her hand on his skin.

"Coming back to adulthood is jarring."

It was nice, to get the chance to be carefree and tiny and someone people couldn't help but care for. But it also made her remember things.

[pursuedthestars]

"Guess I can understand that," Jim said after some silence. "But, I would have thought you'd be used to it too."

[whenshewasnice]

"How so?"

She glanced up at him.

[pursuedthestars]

"Hasn't it happened before?" Jim asked, shrugging again. "So, you can prepare or something or at least know what to expect when it happens?"

[whenshewasnice]

"I wasn't expecting it to happen." Her gaze flicked back down to her hand. "I didn't think it would get me out here."

In retrospect, that was pretty foolish.

[pursuedthestars]

"Sorry it's hard," Jim said. It was the best he could muster. He wasn't great with comfort.

[whenshewasnice]

He was actually pretty bad at it, yeah. But luckily Natalie was pretty bad at asking for it, too.

Wait, that wasn't really a good thing.

"Yeah."

Todd was such a stupid thing to miss.

[pursuedthestars]

Yeah, and Jim felt uncomfortable in situations where he didn't know what to do. This was one of them. He squirmed a bit before sitting up.

"I should probably get going soon," he said, rubbing his eyes. "So, I'm not late."

And he didn't have to be uncomfortable with vague feelings of guilt about being so bad at this.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie pulled her hands into her lap, only a little bit awkwardly.

"There's coffee," she said. Because there was.

[pursuedthestars]

"I'm okay," he said as he pushed to his feet. "I'm just gonna use the bathroom, splash some water on my face and all. Freshen up."

[whenshewasnice]

"Okay."

Not okay, actually, but she was deeming that a private issue he didn't have to deal with.

[pursuedthestars]

Jim disappeared into the bathroom and stayed in there for awhile, doing the normal bathroom things.

He splashed water on his face and ran his fingers through his hair. He felt a little more awake now.