For Peter: Dated Sunday November 25th

[tooprettytodie]

Valkyrie was glad that she didn't have to hound Peter too much to make sure that he showed up for the picnic. She tried to make sure that she was understanding of his schedule and didn't assume every time he said a certain time wasn't good for him he was just making up excuses. In the end, they settled for a Sunday afternoon not all that far from the Compound.

It wasn't anything fancy, mostly just leftovers from whatever meal was cooked a few days ago with a lot of fruit and vegetables. An exciting meal wasn't the point, the point was to give Peter a reason to get cleaned up to have human contact with someone. Valkyrie hoped that after she saw him he'd start to pick himself back together at least a little bit. The guy lost his wife, so she wasn't expecting a miracle, but hopefully knowing someone cared about him enough to check up had helped.

So, with warmed up boar burgers and some side dishes, Valkyrie waited for Peter to show up. She'd give him five minutes past the agreed upon time to show up before she started hunting him down. If it came to that, she would find him.

Comments

[daretodo]

"So I should just be grateful the Island's not on fire and eat is what you're saying," I reply, giving her a look. I'm decent at cooking. Between my Aunt May and bachelorhood, I would've starved if I hadn't been. Heck, even when I was married--

Maybe I shouldn't think about how awful a cook MJ was right now, considering this whole outing was to cheer me up.

On a sigh, I pick up one of the boar burgers and eye it a little, dubious. I still don't have much of an appetite, but I probably should eat.

"For the record, I don't like the ocean."

[tooprettytodie]

"That's basically what I'm saying," Valkyrie said with a nod, watching him. Even though he was cleaned up, he was still pretty melancholy it seemed. Not that she could blame him, she wasn't here to be all sunshine and roses, just to let him know that his state of mind and appearance mattered to someone.

"And is that a 'I find it unpleasant to be in' dislike or more 'I will do everything in my power to prevent myself from ending up there' type dislike?"

[daretodo]

"Try a 'it brings back bad memories' type dislike," I say, in a rare example of candor. I don't really have much to gain about lying, though. Kendra Shaw's death was in the paper, even if the exact details were off. She wasn't killed by 'Alton Hartford,' for one.

"Don't mind swimming, I just could do without swimming in there."

[tooprettytodie]

"Duly noted. Any swimming invitations that are extended with forthwith be to the pond where the waterfall is and not the beach," she said with a nod. Whatever reason he had to dislike the ocean, she wasn't going to pry.

It wasn't like she didn't have her own reasons to not be a big fan of it. She still was, because she wasn't going to let killing her sort of ex-boyfriend in the ocean get in the way of her enjoying the beach, but she could understand how someone could have a reluctance.

"I saw you're teaching a lot of science classes. All ready for school to start?"

[daretodo]

"I've been teaching the same ones for a couple of terms now," I say with a shrug, trying to figure out just the right angle to take a bite from this boar burger before it gets too cold to eat. "Doesn't take as much prep these days once I lock down the right textbooks."

With how temperamental the bookshelf can get, putting the onus on the students to acquire their own just strikes me as cruel.

"I saw you're not in any of my science classes. Not a fan? 'Cause you should be. Science is awesome. In both the awe inspiring and totally rad sense."

[tooprettytodie]

"So I've heard," Valkyrie said, giving him a little bit of a smile. She almost rolled her eyes, but she didn't think what he said was that ridiculous. Just a tiny bit.

"But I don't really like school. I like learning, just... school has never taught the sort of stuff I wanted to learn. Even back home I totally cheated to still go to school but get out of going."

Wow, that sentence may have gotten away from her there.

[daretodo]

"...I think I need to brush up on my English just to parse that sentence," I say, abandoning the burger for a little while longer to peer at Valkyrie instead. "You... cheated so your grades were so good that they thought you didn't need to go back?"

[tooprettytodie]

"What? No, nothing like that."

Sure, using her reflection was probably cheating, but not cheating-cheating like he was assuming. That would have been wrong instead of mostly unfair.

"So, back home I'm a sorcerer detective. My partner and I solve crimes in the magical community, which most of the world doesn't know exists. That takes up a lot of time, not counting training in magic and martial arts. That doesn't leave a lot of time for school, so I use a spell that pulls my reflection out of a mirror. She goes to school for me, and then when I put her back in the mirror, I learn and remember everything she learned and experienced."

[daretodo]

"...Sorcerer........Detective."

I let that sit in my mouth, saying it again, but slower, like the words'll somehow make sense the second time around. They don't. I'm not so big on the hocus pocus mumbo jumbo stuff. I mean, I've run across it plenty -- when a guy like Doc Strange has your number, it happens more often than I'd like, honestly -- but do I believe in it? Not so much. It's something I don't understand, based on a set of rules that are always changing. Could I understand it someday? Sure, why not. Do I particularly want to?

Well, let's just say I like my science better.

"So, what, you were Nancy Drew meets Harry Potter?"

[tooprettytodie]

"No. Nancy Drew was an amateur who fell into cases and no offense to Harry, but way more bad ass than him. I'm fully authorized by the Irish Sanctuary to carry out the appropriate duties of partner to the Prime Detective. Generally that means saving the world and hunting down serial killers."

Maybe that was being unfair to Nancy Drew and Harry Potter, but they were technically amateurs while she was fully recognized (and slightly feared) by the magical community. That had to carry some cache with it and she wanted people to understand she wasn't a teenage detective. She was a detective who happened to be a teenager.

"More like Dirty Harry crossed with Gandalf in a Lovecraft novel. Plus way, way prettier than either of those two guys."

[daretodo]

"Whatever you say, Sabrina," I tell her with a sarcastic little salute.

People start listing their credentials, and I generally tune out. It's a bad habit, but I guess I still have a bit of the ol' anti-authority streak in me, even in my hilariously old age.

"Clint Eastwood in his heyday was a fine specimen of a man. Very pretty. Those flinty blue eyes, those sneering thin lips..."

[tooprettytodie]

Valkyrie is beginning to see why nobody came to check up on Peter. He's kind of maybe a jerk. This whole 'kindness to strangers thing' she was doing maybe needed a better set of qualifiers. Still, she had started out with this and was going to see it through.

"Ruggedly handsome, yes, but not very pretty."

[daretodo]

I lean forward to look at her. Really look at her, which I haven't actually done, despite accepting a very strange invitation to a picnic.

I should probably get around to actually eating at some point, but I'm busy actually looking at her, like I said.

"Fine," I say. "You're prettier than ol' Dirty Harry, I guess. The accent's definitely a plus." A beat. "So. Serial killers and saving the world, huh? That's more impressive than the whole Leprechaun government thing. Should've led with that."

[tooprettytodie]

Okay, the staring officially crossed him over into slightly creepy territory, but considering how she invited a random stranger to a picnic, she figured they were even in that category now. Also, Valkyrie didn't mind being looked at so it wasn't quite as creepy as it could have been.

"Leprechaun government thing? You should have added something in there about potatoes and drinking. If you're going to go for the stereotypes, finding a way to hit them all makes it seem more clever. And I didn't want to overwhelm you at first. You seemed to struggle with the phrase 'Sorcerer Detective' so I didn't want to overwhelm you. I'll remember the advice for next time though."

[daretodo]

"You didn't want to overwhelm and I didn't want to offend. Looks like we both made a mistake," I say, leaning back and going back to the boar burger that I should eat, but still kinda don't want to.

"Did you save the world by throwing potatoes or--" I stop myself. I'm looking for reasons to push her away at this point, and why? Because I'm too afraid of losing someone else that the idea of making a new friend -- even a Sorcerer Detective, whatever the hell that even means -- terrifies me?

"Sorry," I add, expression shutting down a bit. "I'm being a heel, I just... It's been a rough couple of months." Not an excuse. "But that's on me, not you. You don't... I can go."

[tooprettytodie]

"You could, but I'd rather you stayed," Valkyrie said. They were kind of making a mess of this, both of them. Obviously some sort of intervention was needed before they both just stormed off.

"Look, how about this. You can joke as much as you want, and I'll just assume you're saying things because they're funny, not because you want to upset me."

[daretodo]

"....why?" I ask, then quickly clarify. "Not the last thing, the first thing, the wanting me to stay thing. I'll tone down the jerkiness, I just. I really don't get it, I'm sorry."

I'm saying that a lot. Sorry. It used to be my favorite word. Kinda fell out of favor, recently, but maybe it's making a surprise comeback. Because I actually mean it. I am sorry that I'm apparently such a failure of a human being that I can't handle someone being nice to me for no reason without finding it suspect. I press two fingers to my forehead and smooth out the furrow in my brow, swallowing back some emotion I'd rather not name, let alone deal with. I let out a slow, shaky breath.

"God, I'm a mess."

[tooprettytodie]

"Because it doesn't really cost me anything to be nice. And no one should go around without anyone checking up on them to make sure they're okay, letting know they care about how they're doing. I guess, maybe, because I can," she finally said with a shrug.

It was more selfless than she was used to, but she'd been trying to be a better person. She had, unintentionally surrounded herself with people who were good at being selfless. Jessica, Stephanie, Percy, Bella... they were all such good, helpful people.

"I can do this nice thing, so I should. I can't check up on everyone on the island, but I can check up on one guy I came across that looked like he needed someone to care about him. So I did."

[daretodo]

"I have people," I say, looking up through my fingers. "I have-- A best friend who fell off the wagon when his girlfriend-slash-my-other-best-friend disappeared in September who I have no idea how to talk to at the moment. And a friend whose response to my wife disappearing was an incredulous, 'again?!' And a couple other ones who went insane on Halloween. And one I haven't seen in a while." A beat. "And Captain America, who's kinda busy."

I shrug and give a pitiful smile. "Lots of people."

[tooprettytodie]

She wasn't sure just how great his people were if they didn't check up on him, but maybe they knew that he needed time or something and she was just pushy. Well, she would just be pushy until she knew better.

"And now you've got another one. Who likes picnics."

[daretodo]

"Yeah," I say, still a little disbelieving. I need someone I can talk to, is the thing, and while Valkyrie might be pushy with her picnics, she's not someone I'm about to unload on -- not with the kind of baggage I'm lugging around.

I need Mary Jane.

But barring that, having a reminder to eat every once in a while isn't going to kill me.

"You know, we should really eat this before it gets cold."

[tooprettytodie]

"They definitely do taste better that way," Valkyrie agreed, switching the topic of conversation away from his friends on the island. If it was someone she knew well, she'd definitely pressure them to share a bit more, but even she knew that wasn't her place here.

"So what foods do you miss from home?" she asked before taking a bite of hers.

[daretodo]

"Anything that's greasy and comes in a cardboard box."

And my Aunt May's cooking, but I don't really want to get into that. Instead I take my first bite of the by-now lukewarm burger and force myself to chew before swallowing. It doesn't taste the greatest -- burgers don't keep especially well -- but now that I've done through the ever important first bite, eating the rest of it doesn't seem like quite the chore it was a few seconds ago.

Actually, I realize just how hungry I am.

"What about you?" I ask around my second mouthful.

[tooprettytodie]

"Some of the traditional holiday, Irish things. Nothing I'm really keen on that I can't get here though."

She certainly missed some of her mum's old standbys, but she was sure pretty much everyone missed that sort of thing. She wasn't particularly fond of fast food or anything like that, although she could see how it would be miserable here food-wise if you did. Although...

"And pizza. I miss pizza."

[daretodo]

"Pizza!" I throw my arms in mock anguish.

Adopting a vaguely Italian accent, I add, "What I would not give for a real New York pizza pie."

[tooprettytodie]

"Not really a big deal in Ireland," Valkyrie admitted, throwing up her hands in... mocking mock anguish.

"At least, not New York pizza. We're a little closer to, you know... Italy."