nextgenerationmarvel | Moving In (Roxie)

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Moving In (Roxie)

The night after their discussion, Joe followed Roxie's instructions to get into the building and headed upstairs to the apartment to check it out. He politely declined the doorman's offer of assistance as he didn't want to frighten the poor guy with the weight of his bags or their contents. Between all the clothing and weapons, Joe knew Uncomfortable Questions might be asked so he avoid the whole situation by carrying his own things.

Once he got through the door, Joe turned on some lights and checked the place out. Roxie had really good taste; the place was furnished much better than the places he'd been in the last few years. He didn't even see any rats scurrying once the lights were on. The cleanliness of the place made him realize just what kind of dumps he'd been inflicting on himself since he left Colorado Springs.

He sought the nearest empty bedroom and found it, sitting his bags down and taking off his coat. He was about to figure out what he'd sleep on when he remembered something about a rooftop garden. Now, he had to see it.

He found the access to the rooftop and stepped out, looking around at the place. Whatever he'd expected this place to be, this was so much more. Joe simply walked around a bit, getting an idea of the space. He could put a heavy bag right over there, in the corner, if Roxie didn't mind...

for a moment, Joe let all of his worries and trepidations about the world fall away and he stood near the edge of the building with his head titled back, eyes closed and just enjoyed the sounds of New York by night.

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"That would be wise, yes," she nodded. Lately, she'd been a lot more guarded about the things she tended to say. Joe was bringing out an older side of her that hadn't been seen in awhile.

It felt new to her, oddly enough.

"Okay, but I also want to hear about all of your adventures." Because she really was intrigued, and she didn't want to talk the poor guy's ear off.

Joe suddenly felt like a jerk for saying that. She didn't owe him any explanations or anything. Her life was hers to do with as she chose, though he found himself more interested in that life with each passing second.

"Oh, my adventures aren't really that interesting but I'll tell you about them. You'll probably want me to stop talking after a few minutes." he chuckled.

The pair pulled out of the garage and headed toward the restaurant on 92nd Street, with Joe enjoying the feel of Roxie's arms around him the whole way (for her safety, of course). She could have flown here but she chose the slightly slower method of riding his bike, which made him feel good.

She was an awesome friend.

Don't kid yourself, Rogers. You guys aren't kids anymore. She could be more than friend if you asked her.

He clamped down on that thought immediately and pushed it out of his head.

Fifteen minutes later, the pair arrived at the restaurant and Joe parked the bike and killed the engine. He took off his helmet and then looked back to Roxie.

"This is the place. A little mom-and-pop joint I found my first night back. Had to come here and try it out." he said.

He waited for her to dismount the bike before doing so himself and he offered her his arm once again.

"I hope you'll like it here. If you don't, you get to pick the restaurant next time." he grinned.

There was a thrumming sort of tension there between them, which Roxie was attempting to ignore for Joe's benefit.

"You'd think that, but I really want to learn all that there is to know about you." Pause. "Because that doesn't sound at all stalkery," added with a laugh. "I'm sorry. It's one of those days where my mouth goes before my brain catches up."

Roxie slid off of the bike and yanked the helmet off, shaking her hair free, grinning at Joe all the while. "I'm not going to lie - that was exhilarating," she said. "I mean, flying is one thing, but this was all kinds of fantastic," she added. She'd also never really let anyone take control like that before - more often than not, it was Roxie doing the driving, so to speak.

"I'm worried you might not necessarily like my tastes," Roxie confessed, taking Joe's arm. "I'm comfortable eating from the corner hot dog stand, but then I also have a thing for some of the city's more...decadent places." Which was par for the course when you were Carol Danvers' daughter and had access to so much. "But I have no doubt that I'll more than like this place." She looked up at him and grinned. "After all, the key to a good meal is good company and I like my company a lot."

She wanted to learn more about him? Joe almost couldn't remember the last time someone wanted to know things about him that didn't involve finding out where he lived so he could be killed. There was a time, though, when he'd enjoyed telling people who he was.

Despite everything Roxie said before, though, he didn't think she'd really like him if she knew who he was.

"Hey, I just like hearing you talk so don't worry about your brain-to-mouth ratio. Watching you backtrack is cute." he said.

"I love this bike. Mom said she had to get it for me when I got back and she made some...upgrades to it." he said.

The headed inside and Joe wondered exactly what Roxie meant by decadent but his curiosity was piqued.

"Corner hot dog stands are really good but now you've got me curious about these places you go to. But you're right; I'm in great company tonight."

When they walked in, they were greeted by the owners, an elderly Indian man and woman who greeted them in accented English. Joe indicated that they needed a table for two and the woman smiled at him and ushered Roxie and him to a private booth in the back. The lighting was dim and the atmosphere was very intimate, which made Joe wonder how Roxie would take it. He didn't want to give her the wrong idea.

He pulled her chair so she could sit down and then took his own seat and looked down at the menu. The owner asked for their drink orders and Joe waited for Roxie to order first before ordering a water.

Once she was gone, Joe looked to her.

"So who's first on story time? You or me?"

He should give the girl a chance. Her father is, after all, the Olympian god of war.

"I'm glad. There was a time I would have pushed forward instead of backtracking," she smiled. "As for the places...well. You know. The expensive, trendy eateries where you pay a lot for tiny, extremely tasty portions that don't really fill you up? Those places," she nodded.

Roxie was also experienced enough with men not to get the wrong idea, but there was a small part of her that she was desperately pushing back that wanted to, well, hope.

For her part, Roxie ordered a sparkling water with a splash of lime juice and a few sprigs of mint.

"You," she said. "I'd like to get to know you before I scare you off and make you rethink your decision to be my housemate."

"I've never been to one of those trendy places before. I see them every now and then but I never go in." Joe said. "Not that I don't like them or anything, but I guess I just never thought about it."

He was going to have to change that mindset if he was hanging out with Roxie.

Joe's experience with women was very, very limited so he didn't know how to read signs and wasn't very conscious of what signals he was sending. But he figured the best way for Roxie to get to know him was to be honest with her.

"All right. Ask me a question and I'll answer it as best I can. Anything you want to know. But I get to ask the same question of you after." he said.

The owner returned with Roxie's drink and Joe's water while he prepared himself for Roxie to ask him whatever came to mind. He took a sip and hoped that he could, in fact, let her in a little.

"First crush," she asked, simply. "And be honest."

Okay, so she was starting with the easy stuff, but she needed him to get comfortable, to open up a little, before going for some of the heavier stuff that two damaged souls had the potential to discuss.

That stuff could possibly weigh more than Roxie could lift, after all, and she could lift a few tons.

"Answer well, and I'll treat you to a dinner at Butter one day," she winked.

Joe nearly choked on his water when she asked him about his first crush. Life was not fair.

"Okay...God, I can't believe this. When I was a kid, I told my parents I was going to marry your mother." Joe said, his cheeks coloring with embarrassment.

"I swear, I got over it quickly. After that, the only other girl I had a crush on...well, she was younger. It wouldn't have worked out." Joe said.

"Who was your first crush?" he asked, pretty certain that he knew who Roxie was going to name.

She laughed. She honestly laughed at that. "You and almost every other kid in our group," she said. "I think Mom would be a little mortified that she became one of the sex symbols of the Avengers," she added.

And then his question came.

Roxie paled a little and took a few quick sips of water.

"Maybe I should have started with another question?"

"I swear, it wasn't like one of those 'American Pie' things. I can't believe I just said that." Joe said, laughing at himself now. He was turning a bit redder as he sat there. Why did he agree to this?

Wait, it was just to see Roxie pale when he turned the question back on her. Now he laughed.

"Okay, if you say my dad, that means we're even." he grinned broadly.

She was totally going to say his dad.

She totally wasn't going to say his dad.

"Yeah, let's...go with your dad," she said, nodding her head. Because that was the less awkward answer, right?

And less awkward was good.

"Ha! I knew it. Your secret is safe with me." Joe said, a bit proud of his ability to read Roxie's mind in this case. He hadn't met a woman yet that didn't like his dad, especially since he was, you know, Captain America.

Everyone loved Captain America.

"All right. What's your next question? Now that we've gotten the somewhat awkward one out of the way."

Everyone did, and Roxie certainly looked up to the good Captain.

Heck, Roxie looked up to most of that generation.

Almost all of them did.

"How about you ask me one?"

Joe searched for a question that he wouldn't mind being asked and hit upon it quickly.

"What's your favorite food and your least favorite food?" he asked.

Oh, he was going so easy on her.

"My least favourite is sushi," she admitted. "My favourite...I have a weakness for shrimp lo mein. It's my go-to comfort food. You?"

Still, at the back of her mind was one little question.

Who was the girl that was younger than Joe who he thought it wouldn't work out with?

"Sushi is my least favorite, but liver and onions is my second least favorite. Mom used to make me eat it all the time. Ugh." Joe said, making a face.

"My favorite, though, is the old fashioned double-cheeseburger and a plate full of fries. If I didn't have super-soldier serum coursing through my veins and I didn't work out like a madman, I'd be screwed." he told her.

Another question came to mind.

"What's your favorite childhood memory?"

Old-fashioned double cheeseburgers and fries? Roxie was committing that to memory.

"My dad visiting me, and teaching me how to use a mace," Roxie admitted after a long moment. "Alternatively, visiting Janet van Dyne's Fifth Avenue showroom and trying on all of her amazing shoes." Fighting and fashion, those things were very much Roxie's life.

"You?"

"My favorite is when I learned Dad was Captain America. He swore me to secrecy as a matter of 'National Security' even though it was public knowledge by then." Joe laughed. "Anyway, he showed me his shield and his motorcycle. I fell in love with bikes that day. Then there was the first time I visited the Avengers' mansion." he said.

He paused for a moment to take another drink.

"Then there was time you got me a replica World War II plane for my...I think it was my twelfth birthday. That was pretty awesome. I built it. I still have it in my things. It's going in my room at home." he said.

Roxie couldn't remember a time when she wasn't aware of who her parents were. As far back as she could remember, there was her mother with her domino mask and her father with his axes and helmet. That had been normal for her growing up.

"You still have that?" Okay, she was touched by that. So very touched. "Oh my god, that was so...I really wanted to get you something, and both you and my mom loved planes so much. But I never imagined you'd still have it after all this time."

"Yeah, I kept it. I'm a military history buff--well, I should say a history buff. Military history is just my favorite portion of it. But yeah, it was in my room at Colorado Springs." Joe said.

He didn't mention that he would often take it out and look at it when he was feeling especially down and missing home. Usually he'd call his mother right after that, only to hang up the phone before she could pick up.

The owner came back for their food orders and Joe again waited for Roxie to order before ordering shawarma for himself.

"What's the craziest thing you've ever done. hero-wise?" he asked suddenly.

Edited 2012-11-20 05:01 (UTC)

Well, there was that time she'd made out with a Doombot to make it malfunction, but Roxie wasn't about to bring up that particular story.

Then there was the time that Roxie and Bruce had mingled powers while fighting a dragon. She might have enjoyed that a little bit too much.

That story certainly wasn't being told.

Was it?

Roxie paused for a long moment and then took a long drink of her water.

And then she told him both of the stories.

"What about you?"

Joe laughed aloud at the story about the Doombot, asking her to tell it once more. Not because it was unbelievable, oh no. Quite the opposite. He believed that Roxie could make a Doombot malfunction and now he was tempted to ask Colonel Fury if he could borrow an LMD for "field testing" to see if Roxie could make one of those meltdown, too.

Joe was an easy-to-please guy in the company of a beautiful woman. He was pretty sure that the LMD didn't stand a chance.

"I would feel bad for that Doombot if not for two things. One, it was a Doombot. Two, it was the luckiest Doombot in existence for the kind of send off it got." Joe said, unable to keep the dorky smile off his face.

When she told him about Bruce and her mingling powers, he couldn't help but be a tad envious of his friend. Bruce was an awesome guy, though he was pretty sure Bruce didn't always know that. The lucky guys who got to know Roxie continued. An odd thought crossed Joe's mind but he pushed it down because he had no business thinking such thoughts.

"Okay, dragons and Doombots. You might have just won story time for crazy stories. Me, on the other hand...my stories involve more of a 'crazy-stupid' kind of feel." Joe said.

And so he told about a recent time when he went after a criminal boss in Texas who lured him into a warehouse, only to blow up the building once he was inside.

"It's not the first time someone's tried to blow me up. Oh and you know how they say don't drink the water in Mexico? Yeah, don't go swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, either. It was horrible. I knew it was a trap, but I didn't really have a choice. I still got the guy later but...yeah." he said.

"And then there was the time I fought a motorcycle gang. These guys were pretty bad and into everything from extortion, to coke-muling, to gun-running. Fifteen-on-two. There was me and another guy who used to run with them It was in Southern Missouri, a little place called Loving, just after I got kicked out of Colorado Springs." Joe said.

"They had us dead to rights, Roxie. We almost didn't get out." he said, reflecting back on it.

"Then Tommy, the guy I was working with...he changed." Joe said, clearly remembering something that disturbed him. "I don't know what happened, Roxie. I thought he was a mutant, or a demi-god, but I've never seen anything like it. He wiped them out single-handledly, Roxie. I've never seen one person leave that much destruction in its wake." he said.

"I tried to bring him in after but he was on his bike and gone before I could. I told the cops what I saw and got the hell out of town. I tried looking for Tommy after that, but I never found him." he said finally.

"Well, now that we got that out of the way...if you had twenty-four hours left to live, what would you do with it?"

Edited 2012-11-20 14:38 (UTC)

That was Roxie for you. Always doing the crazy, impulsive thing, running free and wild with her emotions.

An old boyfriend had once told her that she'd never be tamed. He'd been right for the most part, but no one ever really factored tragedy into the equation, did they?

At some point during the conversation, when Joe had been speaking about everything he'd been through - attempts at being blown up, the gang stuff, Tommy - Roxie had reached across the table and taken Joe's hands in her own, running her thumbs - smooth, soft, and silky despite all of the war they had seen - gently over his knuckles.

She wondered if he was still looking for Tommy, or where Tommy might be right now.

Possibly how much of a threat the man posed.

You. That was the first answer that came to Roxie's mind when Joe asked the question. It wasn't an answer she could freely give, no matter how much she would have liked to. "I've spent so much time partying, fighting demons and aliens and robots, you know?" she asked. "If it came to that, and if I knew I only had that long, I'd spend it with friends and family - the people who meant the most to me. But I wouldn't ever tell them I was dying, because that would...discolour...the day." She gently pressed her lips together. "And at some point, I'd put in a request to my Olympian family for a swift resurrection because, let's be honest. No one ever really stays dead for long in our world," she smiled. "How about you?"

When Roxie took his hands, Joe didn't pull away. The feeling was nice and one he hadn't felt in quite some time. He wasn't even sure he could let someone get that close to him anymore, not after the years of avoiding it after Melissa's death. The death that he caused.

Joe hadn't seen Tommy since then, but he'd heard stories of the thing that Tommy became and knew that his failure to stop him had caused other deaths, too. He was a failure at heroing as far as he saw. People got hurt or died because he wasn't on his A-game.

"I'd apologize to my parents because they deserve it after everything I've put them through. I'd also make sure my friends understood that I respect them and that I know they'll get past it. And I'd make sure Sammy wasn't working on a last minute effort to save me when she could be working on something else. I know she would." Joe said.

"But in truth, I think I'd spend the remaining hours with someone really important to me just so I know that when I go, I was with someone who mattered at the end." he said.

He'd thought about the answer to that for a long, long time so it was easy for him to answer the question.

"Okay. Your turn on the next question. I feel like I've been talking more than listening." he said.

But he didn't let go of Roxie's hands, though his own were calloused and rough from years of fighting, a literally clawing and scraping by in some ways.

Edited 2012-11-20 19:25 (UTC)

"Maybe it's because you're worth saving," Roxie said softly. "I mean, look at you, Joe. You're doing what the rest of us should - helping the innocents who really need it. Yes, we fight the big threats, but you make more of a long-term difference. We just...deal with the threat of the week."

She squeezed his hands again, feeling their gentle roughness against the tough silkiness of her own. "She's not the only one who'd try to save you," Roxie added. "I mean...you know." Her brow furrowed. "We all care about you, no matter how long you've been away."

There was, on the tip of her tongue, another question that Roxie wanted to ask, but it wasn't her question to ask. She wanted to know who that important someone would be to Joe.

"What's the darkest thought you've ever had?"

Yeah, because that wasn't a zinger.

Moving In (Roxie)

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