Life Goes On And Hides Under The Couch ((Open to Avengers))

[lil_hulk]

After Christmas but before New Years, Jay and May had mutually decided to stop dating. They had drifted slightly apart. It was an amicable split and also half his choice, but Jay was still a bit sad. Though rather than brood in his room as he had done before, he went out and about all over New York City. Distractive outings. Though he made sure if he was with Stooges that the girlfriends were not along. He didn't want to dwell on being suddenly single nor did he want to feel like a fifth wheel.

Jay had gotten up late today and slogged out to the kitchen. When got back to his room, he noticed his door still open. He slapped a palm to his forehead and grunted.

"Crap. Crapcrap. Crapcrapcrap." The miniature giant space hamster, otherwise known as the pet he had that no one particularly knew about, was loose in the mansion. Jay turned on his heel and started down the hallway. He needed to find his pet before Jarvis found him and called the intergalactic exterminator.

"Boo," he whispered through clenched teeth as he stalked through the mansion. "Here, Boo. Heeeeeeeeere, Boo."

Comments

[asgardian_angel]

"Perhaps not as fast as Quicksilver would," Nicky said as he watched Susan go. Pity. He'd have to get a chance to talk to her alone for a minute sometime, maybe ask her out for coffee.

Did people still ask each other out for coffee? Nicky hadn't really dated since he'd returned to Earth, and that one disastrous dinner with that reporter, Kate Durance, really didn't count. She'd wanted a story.

"But fast enough, I suppose." He turned his attention back to Jay. "So. Space hamster."

[lil_hulk]

"Miniature giant space hamster," Jay corrected sagely. Not that he could read the Kree gobbledygook that had been beside the cage he had freed his ever-trusty Boo from.

[asgardian_angel]

Nicky chuckled. "Yes, because that's not a contradiction," he said. "I don't suppose he actually poses a threat? No crazy powers or anything?" Honestly, with space animals, you never knew.

[lil_hulk]

"Not as far as I know..." Jay hadn't been gnawed on or killed in his sleep. He took that as a good sign. The creature had been generally well-behaved for being cooped up in his room. He didn't really blame it for the escape.

"Though I've been careful with handling him and figuring out what food he eats. Seems to be omnivorous. Likes raspberries a lot." He glanced around the hallway as they strolled down it.

[asgardian_angel]

"You should try a bowl of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries with a goji berry sauce and some crème fraîche," Nicky said off-handedly. What? He enjoyed a good, tart dessert. "It's delicious."

[lil_hulk]

Jay raised any eyebrow at Nicky. "I like to try one thing at a time to see what he likes and what he has a bad reaction to. If I can build him up to that fruit salad, maybe."

He stuffed his hands and his pockets. "So, you like Susan, huh?"

[asgardian_angel]

Jay was perceptive. Nicky liked that. He grinned a bit idiotically at that, though, as he was prone to do. It wasn't like Nicky hadn't enjoyed a good amount of women up in Asgard - he was Thor's son, and with that came some very enjoyable perks - but every time he saw one that he took a certain liking to, he became a little less smooth. "She's beautiful," he stated, simply. "And strong. I like a woman who can wield a weapon well."

[lil_hulk]

"She can kick my unHulked butt with a weapon, for sure." He shrugged. He tried to be less of a burden when he was human, but everybody loved the Hulk. Except his ex-girlfriend when he was green and naked.

"You should ask her out. She'll probably say yes since she was all googly-eyed, too. Hmm." He glanced down both hallways when they came to an intersection.

[asgardian_angel]

Nicky hadn't ever really known what it was like to be a burden, but Jay didn't seem like he was much of a burden at all. He seemed very polite and warm and down-to-earth. He could see why some of the girls talked so warmly about Jay when he wasn't around, to be honest.

In spite of himself, Nicky smiled. "I'd like to, but I sometimes wonder if asking her out should entail a night saving the world instead of dinner and a carriage ride through the city. I mean, it isn't as though we really get a moment of peace." It wasn't a complaint - Nicky would never change who he was or what he was able to do for anything in the world - but he was being realistic.

He wondered if she'd ever be interested in going abroad with him to work with Habitats for Humanity or something. For a weekend.

"I heard about you and May, by the way," Nicky said. He indicated that they should go to the intersection on their right side. "I'm sorry."

[lil_hulk]

"Well, start with dinner and romance and work in saving the world if needed. You both have heroes for parents." He glanced at Nicky and shook his head.

Then he was vastly more interested in looking down the hall for signs of Boo. It might have been a mutual parting with May, but it still hurt. And he couldn't stop from occasionally thinking he made a huge mistake. "Uhm, thanks."

[asgardian_angel]

Nicky immediately read into that at bit his tongue. "Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up a sore point," he apologized. His hand went up to the little axe pendant that he wore around his necklace - the same axe which, when activated, grew into a full size, thundering Uru Axe. "I'm assuming this is the first time Boo's been out and about, without any supervision?"

[lil_hulk]

"Yep." He squinted down the hallway to his left. "Plant tipped over down that way."

He started down the hallway. He needed to find Boo and pick up that plant before Jarvis noticed...

[asgardian_angel]

Nicky stealthily followed behind Jay. He doubted that the little furry guy had knocked over the plant and then backtracked down to hide somewhere else, but you never knew. Space animals - miniature, giant, or both - could be tricky critters.

[lil_hulk]

Jay was so much stealthier when he didn't have massive muscles in the way. He stalked along the hallway. With Nicky moving pretty quietly behind him, Jay was able to catch a faint rustling from a doorway beyond the fallen plant.

He gestured for Nicky to move along the opposite wall as Jay crept close to the wall by the plant.

[asgardian_angel]

Nicky crouched down a little bit and held his hands out, as though he was waiting for a baseball to come flying into it.

In case the miniature giant space hamster came flying into it.

[lil_hulk]

Jay coiled like a puma ready to pounce. His fingers wiggled slightly in anticipation. Then he leapt at the doorway!

There was squeaking and a little scuffling until Jay rolled on his back to hold a miniature giant space hamster with two green fronds in its hands.

[asgardian_angel]

Nicky grinned at that. "Jay, he's cute." Nicky walked over to Jay and knelt by them both. He hesitated before reaching out to pet the thing between the ears. "If energetic."

[lil_hulk]

"Of course he's cute. He wouldn't be Boo otherwise." Berzerker rangers knew that, right? Jay looked at the creature standing on his stomach.

Boo blinked up at Nicky and waved the fronds. Possibly in celebration of taking down someone. The creature cooed at the petting between the large, flappy ears.

[asgardian_angel]

"Or he'd just be Boo for a different reason," Nicky surmised. "You know you're going to need to inform everyone about him at some point, right? Before Jarvis calls in SWORD to exterminate the poor guy."

[lil_hulk]

Jay sat up and moved Boo down to his lap. He sighed. "Yeah. I know. There hadn't been time between recovering from the Kree and stuff."

He skritched a spot on Boo's neck that made the little creature coo in a melodic way. "Least I can do the little guy after he kept me distracted on New Years."

New Years sucked to be alone on.

[asgardian_angel]

Nicky frowned. He watched Boo coo and hum, seemingly content with his lot in life. He wondered why neither humans nor Asgardians were ever quite so simple. "Yeah. The Kree fallout has been...something." He sat down on the ground next to Jay, tired of kneeling the way he had been. He leaned against the wall and looked Jay straight in the eye. "If you want to talk about it, I'm all ears, Jay."

[lil_hulk]

"Kree stuff effects Bruce and Roxstar. And Marcus not wanting to be on Vincent's team." He stopped skritching Boo and wrinkled his nose as the waving fronds made it itch. He made various faces until the urge to sneeze passed.

"And you're not all ears. They probably have a Greek monster for that."

[asgardian_angel]

Nicky half-smiled. "I'm more on the up-and-up about the Asgardian stuff, but I know they have one that's mostly eyes," he replied. "But you know what I mean. I'm good at listening. You have to be when my parents start waxing poetic about some of their greatest battles."

[lil_hulk]

"You don't want to know about my parents and wax. Believe me." He shuddered a bit, which got the attention of the creature in his lap. Boo dropped the fronds and grabbed Jay's shirt to start to climb up.

"Anyway," he said quickly to dispell the image of his parents in his mind, "I'll probably feel like a fifth wheel with the other Stooges and their ladies. They'll beat me over the head with their strange white man logic, and I'll continue to wonder if there is anyone out there that can handle both big, green Jay and human, squishy me."

[asgardian_angel]

"..." Nicky raised an eyebrow. "What about your parents and...you know. You're right. I probably don't want to know." Midgardians sometimes were a bit odd. "I'm not going to lie to you, Jay. Breaking up and all that - yeah, you are going to feel alone for awhile. Especially when your friends have someone special in their lives." Nicky, for all of his fun sexing up on Asgard, always felt like a bit of one. Thor's son was wanted, yes, but getting into a relationship with him while he was up there was another matter entirely.

Especially when you threw Amora and Lorelei into the mix.

He understood the feeling. "But you have to look at it this way. Bruce Banner found someone to love. Your mom did as well. And they turn big and green, too. If they can, I'm sure there's someone out there for you, too."