nextgenerationmarvel | Back in Town (Roxie)

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Back in Town (Roxie)

(Occurs after this thread.)

Joe checked the building twice over before he pulled his bike into the garage and closed the door. The last couple of days had really taken a toll on his sanity. He was holding up well but being back home was good. He went to the fridge and pulled out a few things for making a sandwich because he hadn't eaten much while he and Sammy were on the way to Leavenworth. Now that he was back, he could relax and get his head in order before he went off after Jason Landon or before Landon came after him.

He also had to talk to Roxanne about things and that reminded him to be quiet in case she was sleeping. He sat down at the counter in the kitchen and dug into his sandwich, relishing having real food again.

His mind wandered to the idea of Roxanne sleeping and thinking she probably looked like an angel. Was she a morning person? Probably not.

Finishing his sandwich and finding himself with a bit extra energy, Joe went to his room and changed into some sweats and a t-shirt with running shoes. If nothing else, he might at least get a work-out in.

He dropped to the floor and began the first five-hundred push-ups.

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"He's wounded, but he's getting better. I'm going to do something to help him and his family out, because they have like a two-year-old, and this...well. You know as well as I do that he didn't deserve this."

Not feeling comfortable enough to sit on Joe's bed, Roxie instead lowered herself to the ground, folding her legs under her, and leaning her back against his bed. She patted the ground next to her, indicating that Joe should sit down as well.

"Hey, I understand that. The mission is the mission, and you have to do what you have to do," she said. "But is there anything I can do to help find Landon?" Pause. "And you don't think Tommy is somehow connected to all of this, do you?" Yes, she was full of questions tonight.

Joe moved to the spot next to Roxanne and sat down, relaxing a bit. He shook his head at her question about Jason.

"No, there isn't. And...I don't want to get you too involved, Roxanne. You weren't part of that mess and it's nice to have someone--I mean, know someone that wasn't there, you know? You're a port in the storm and I like having that." he said.

"No, I don't think Tommy's in on it. But he's in trouble, I know that. He's got the FBI on his tail and Sammy asked me if I wanted to turn him over or bring him in under SHIELD." Joe said. "I don't think he'd do well with either one."

Joe was silent for a bit before speaking again. "Anything interesting happen with you while I was out?"

"What kind of friend would I be if I didn't at least offer to help, right?" she said, leaning into him a little. Yes. He was there. He was real.

"Tommy mentioned something about things going bad when the sun goes down. I don't know what he was getting at, but there's more to his story than he's willing to share with anyone. Well, more than he's willing to share with a girl he's just met at any rate." Potentially because if it was really bad, Roxie would've had the Avengers on him in a New York minute.

"Interesting? Well." She cleared her throat. There was one other thing she needed to warn Joe about.

"My brother is here. Alex. Well, he prefers that most people call him Alexander." It was funny, she realized. Out of all of Ares' offspring, Alex was the only one she ever called brother. "He's in one of the other spare bedrooms here." Pause. "He might...be a little overprotective about me." Mostly because he was all too aware as to Roxie's feelings for Joe. "But don't worry. He won't, you know, punch you into Hades or whatever."

Edited 2012-12-09 16:36 (UTC)

"You're a great friend, Roxanne. Never believe anything different." he said.

"I don't know what he's talking about but it worries me. He got dealt a really bad hand and I...I tried to be there for him but there were some things he wouldn't even tell me." Joe told him. He knew that Tommy had been set up by his family but not how or what really happened.

"If he comes back, I'll talk to him."

When Roxie mentioned Alexander, Joe took a deep breath and composed himself. He hadn't seen Alexander since Colorado. That...hadn't gone well.

"Alexander is home. I see. Did he mention that he saw me in Colorado a few years ago?" Joe asked.

"..." Roxie blinked at that. She shifted over so that she was facing Joe, a look of curiosity on her face. No, Alex hadn't mentioned anything of the sort at all.

Had he?

Roxie racked her brain, but she couldn't remember Alex ever having brought it up. "Saw you as in he popped by for a friendly visit?"

"I don't know if meant it to be friendly when he showed up but it certainly didn't end that way." Joe said.

"We talked about you and he left."

Joe decided that leaving out the part where Melissa threw a drink in Alex's face and the subsequent bar fight over said insult was better than going into it. He hoped Alexander had gotten over that.

"We'll deal with Alexander when he's around. There's other stuff we can talk about." he said, searching for one of those topics in his head.

"I was hoping," Roxie explained. "But Alex is...well. Alex." She knew her brother well, and she loved him, but he had certain quirks that she was all too aware of.

Still, she wanted to know what they'd talked about, especially since the topic of conversation was her.

Granted, if Joe didn't want to talk about it just then...

"Like what occurred shortly before you left?"

Joe looked at Roxie now. She wanted to go there.

"Yeah, like that." he said.

He looked down at the floor for a bit before speaking again.

"I used to keep track of you when I was away. I wanted to know that you were all right. I tried to do the same for everyone but...you were in magazines and stuff." Joe said.

"I kept that plane because it made me think of times when life was simple. But you were always younger than me, Roxanne. We were friends, kind of like siblings and I thought it would be wrong of me to take advantage of that. You deserve a lot more." he said quietly.

"And it seemed like you had that over the years. You always had a smile on your face so I took that as a sign, I guess, that you had what you needed and who you needed. And after Melissa, I knew I didn't fit into your life like that. So that was part of why I stayed on the road. It was easier than coming home and feeling out of place."

Go there? Roxie had been living there for the past few days.

Mentally, at least.

"Do you still feel out of place? I mean, you're barely back, and the last thing I want is to rush into things. The very tiny part of me that allows rational thought knows that we need to get to know each other again as adults." She smiled at him, sadly. "Tommy and Alex both remarked that it was very obvious that I still care for you, you know. Apparently I'm not so good at hiding it." Not that she'd ever been good at hiding any emotion ever. Roxie was practically passion incarnate, her every emotion on display for the world to see.

Usually in the gossip rags.

"Sometimes, I do. I'm a reservist Avenger and I'm working for SHIELD. I've gone to some dark places I'm not proud of in my head." he said.

"Tommy and Alex kept saying the same things to me, that I should come back here and see where we stand instead of writing it off before it happens, if it does. I care about you but, like you, I don't want to rush things. We should get to know each other as adults so we go into this with eyes wide open." Joe told her.

He shifted a bit so he could face her and look at her in the eyes. One of his hands found hers. He was extremely nervous right now and he didn't know why, only that he was.

"Look, you've probably known a lot of guys who were all about getting you into bed before they knew anything about you. I'm not that kind of man. I've known you almost all of my life and there are still a million things I /want/ to know. The point of all this babbling I'm doing is that getting you into bed isn't the endgame for me. This isn't even a game. I need you to know that I've got your back, one way or the other, friends or...more-than-friends." he said.

"I made a lot of mistakes in the past and the biggest one was not being honest. I'm always going to be honest with you, Roxanne, no matter where that leads."

Roxie warmly, gently squeezed Joe's hand, her thumb gently running back and forth over his knuckles. She leaned over and gave him a kiss on his cheek. "I appreciate that. And I don't want - I mean, eventually, if this blossoms into it, I would like...the bedroom thing. But for now, I want to start this off in a way unlike any other relationship I've ever had. I want to get to know you again, and I care for you and yes, I love you, because how can you not love someone you've known your whole life, but...I want to fall in love with you too. Before getting naked." She chuckled softly. "Sorry, I'm rambling. There's just so much I want to say, but words have never been my strong point." Which was why she always resorted to sex and games first.

She stared at him for a long moment before saying, "But I would like to give the more-than-friends thing a chance, if you're willing to."

Joe simply nodded because Roxanne was saying pretty much everything he'd been thinking the last few days. He felt a weight come off his shoulders and it made this thing with Landon a little easier to bear.

"Yeah, there's a lot I've wanted to say for a long time but I get to talking and it doesn't always come out right. And yeah, I definitely want to be more than friends with you, Roxanne." Joe said.

"Dinner the other night felt right. But I hope you can be patient with me. It's been a few years since I've even had thoughts like this about a woman so I might mess up a lot. I might screw up. I've been living alone and focused on everything but what makes me happy and I'm getting back to that place.

So to that end...I'd like to take you on a real date. Dinner and dancing, like we talked about. You in?"

"I'm not ready to rush into anything myself, so taking this slow sounds perfect Joe," Roxie smiled. Her grin only grew wider when he asked her out. "Of course I'm in. Just tell me when and where I'll be ready." Because this wasn't going to work if they didn't go out and see what the chemistry was really like.

As for the physicality - she'd had that. She'd always had that. But she realized that she needed something different from that. She needed a foundation to build things on. She felt as though that foundation was something that she could build with Joe.

"Good. Wednesday night it is. How does 7:30 sound?" he asked. No, he hadn't been planning this in the car. Not at all.

"And then maybe we can head to that dance club you were talking about. I'll let you do all the work because the waltz and swing is just about all of the dance expertise I have." he laughed.

A blush crept up Roxie's cheeks when he talked about letting her do all the work, but she didn't follow up on that.

It wasn't the time.

"Sounds good," she nodded. "I love Wednesdays." Which was all kinds of true. It generally seemed as though all the crazy action tended to happen on Wednesdays.

Joe loved Wednesday because it was close to Friday. They were practically a microcosm of the differences between men and women.

"And since you're here...I wanted to do something special for my move-in ritaul." Joe said, smiling. He got up off the floor and went into his semi-packed bag to get out the old World War II fighter-plane she'd gotten him when they were kids. He also took out a hammer and a hanging hook and stood on his bed to fix it into the ceiling.

Finally, he hung the plane on the hook over his bed in front of Roxanne.

"Now, I'm home." Joe told her.

That was...that was just...

Roxie stood up and pulled Joe into one of her generally body-crushing hugs.

There weren't any words for what she was feeling in that moment.

Joe hugged Roxie tightly in return and just let his body conform to hers. He held her like that for a while so he could enjoy being with her. /This/ was what he'd wanted for quite some time and what he'd needed but couldn't express.

"Yeah, I missed you, too." he whispered.

"You don't know how happy I am," she replied. "How at peace I am right now." She pulled away, her eyes shining. He anchored her in a way that she'd never felt anchored before. He made her want to climb out of the rut she'd fallen in, and become a better person. "Thank you for coming back."

Joe didn't know what to say. He'd never had that effect on someone before, but it made him feel good as well. It made him feel like his own pain might finally be ending.

"Thanks for being here when I got home. You'll never know just what that means, Roxanne." he said.

"So...what are your plans for the rest of the night? I don't really have any so we could...watch TV or something?" he suggested.

"I have this giant tub of cheddar popcorn that was delivered earlier in the week that I haven't opened yet," Roxie admitted. "And an extensive collection of Marilyn Monroe movies?" They weren't everyone's thing, so she wouldn't press the issue. "But I'm game for whatever you want to do. You need the r-and-r more than I do."

"I love cheddar popcorn, Marilyn Monroe and '50's pin-up models. You now know three things about me that very few other people can claim to know." Joe said.

"Let's watch those movies."

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Back in Town (Roxie)

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