Pre-barbeque

[24d_245t_tcdd]

Even aggressively under-socialised heroes with virtually no external hobbies or entertainments have certain chores which they must do, regardless of inclination, time, or other pressing matters. Chores such as the utterly mundane need to go shopping. For food. Plain, ordinary, food.

So, of course, Agent Orange is not dressed as himself, but rather as his secret identity, which is rather more secret than most. He is wallpaper; about as ordinary as it is possible for a man to get with virtually no feature standing out sufficiently to be a starting point for a description should he be witness to or suspect in something.

He was standing in the vegetable section of the store, a Whole Foods because he found the price an equitable trade for the quality of foods, doing meal planning for the week as he judged the benefits of asparagus versus those of bok choy.

Comments

[futures_of_ash]

She sighed and laid a hand on his shoulder, trying to be reassuring. "They're good people." The ones at the barbecue were anyway! "And they don't tend to be pushy. If you get tired we will leave." As simple, and as easy, as that.

[24d_245t_tcdd]

"Thank you, Rachel." he paid, and headed out to his car (about as nondescript as he was) before driving towards his home.

It was nice, if not particularly outstanding. Just a little one bedroom place in a quiet suburban neighbourhood. "This is my house."

[futures_of_ash]

Rachel was...well, she would never get a driver's license. She had no shame in turning her head and peering at anything that caught her attention as they passed. She hadn't seen Seattle before after all, why not stare and tilt her head and crane around?

His house, once they'd arrived and she'd taken a grocery bag so she was helping, was eyed. Carefully. In that way that meant she may not be only looking at the paint. "It makes you feel safe," she noted after a moment.

[24d_245t_tcdd]

"Yes. It does." He agreed, opening the door. It was Spartan inside, with only a few prints on the walls and very little colour. Safe, but not warm. "Just leave the bag on the table and I'll put things away, then we can go."

[futures_of_ash]

She strode through the door and house to find the kitchen and set the bag down gently. Then? Oh then she was stalking through the livingroom, peering at the prints and tilting her head over things. Because, really, why not look around a person's house?

"What do you do when you're here?"

[24d_245t_tcdd]

"...Eat, sleep, and meditate." he said blankly, "Sometimes I read, if I am too sore to go out at night."

[futures_of_ash]

"Ah," no wonder it didn't feel incredibly supportive? It was a place, and a safe one, but not precisely...a home? She didn't know. She would have to ponder it. "You're not sore now are you?"

[24d_245t_tcdd]

"No, thank you. It has been a fairly low key week." he said with a shake of his head. He started to put groceries away, rapidly and without having to think about it.

[futures_of_ash]

"Oh good. I'm not a healer." Best she would manage would be pain dampers on the nerves and some teke on bruising! "I could help a little if you were hurting...but better that you're not."

[24d_245t_tcdd]

"I do not use healers." he said with a small shrug, "It is too likely that I would get used to it. Depending on others powers isn't wise."

[futures_of_ash]

"Maybe, but if you had access and they liked you and wanted you to NOT BE IN PAIN, well..." she shrugged. "Anyway, done in here?"

[24d_245t_tcdd]

"I still wouldn't use them." was the simple response, "Depending on someone else would be foolish. Yes, I am done."

[futures_of_ash]

"Sometimes you have to." She gave him something a bittersweet smile then reached upward to part the air in a shimmer of reality. "Trust me, I know."

[24d_245t_tcdd]

He didn't bother arguing, just stepped through the shimmer with only a faint hesitation. However...he wasn't going to go into the area where he kept Agent Orange's life. Not even in front of Rachel.

[futures_of_ash]

She didn't expect him to really. She just...knew people needed people. Often. The shimmer led to a brief, blasting warmth and a sound like a falling bird before his foot landed on firm ground. Firm, wooded ground. They were near a clearing where several people were talking and such as people did.

"Welcome to New York." She offered from behind him. "Upstate. We're in a clearing on the far side of the lake, away from the mansion."

[24d_245t_tcdd]

He nodded and turned to take in the surroundings, watching them with an eye towards cover and the best places and ways to hide.

[futures_of_ash]

She'd brought them in on the fringe of the wood, the clearing started a good ten feet away. There was a man grilling, a blue furred man reading a book on the picnic table, and another darker furred man tousling the hair of a brown haired woman. "Logan on grill, Hank is reading, Kurt and Kitty." Rachel listed for him quietly, mainly so he wouldn't be too nervous? "Ororo couldn't make it. Wakanda got hit by something nasty and she's rebuilding with her husband."

"Steak or burger kid?" Logan called out after a sniff.

"Whatever, Logan. Salmon can be put on now too."

[24d_245t_tcdd]

"Logan, Hank, Kurt, Kitty." he repeated, without hesitation. He wasn't nervous, exactly, he was simply...out of his depth. Completely out of his depth.

[futures_of_ash]

"Ah, wondrous, she's returned with her mystery guest." Hank noted, closing his book and smiling toward the treeline. He was wearing...very small little glasses on that blue furred nose! "Rachel has been quite diligent in acquiring salad fixings, we have a veritable mountain of greenery and herbage."

"And she forgot the credit card." Kitty noted cheerfully. There was an emergency 'go rescue her from the clerk' mission."

"I don't shop." Rachel muttered.

[24d_245t_tcdd]

He nodded in return to Hank's commentary, "I appreciate it. Salad is a large part of what I eat." Kitty got a nod as well with the note; "Not everyone is good at shopping."

[futures_of_ash]

"Yes yes, do come join us sir!" Hank waved at the picnic table, and moved so that he wasn't precisely sitting on the whole table!

Kitty laughed and Kurt grinned. "Ja, but we've had this happen before. Just as Kitty never lives down her inability to ride busses..."

"Hey!"

"...Rachel cannot shop."

Rachel snorted and grinned. "My friends. C'mon, they don't bite."

"Except Logan!" the group chorused.

[24d_245t_tcdd]

He nodded, stepping after Rachel in a casual sort of walk that did not look like that of a fighter. Not even like a fighter trying not to be a fighter. It was just...an ordinary guy, walking after a woman.

There was a flicker of a smile at the comment about Logan, but nothing else.

[futures_of_ash]

Hank adjusted his glasses, eyed Agent Orange a bit, then blinked. "And I do believe I've been asked to equip you." He sounded utterly delighted by the prospect. He didn't often get cart blanch like that!

"Hank! Let the man sit and eat first." Logan gruffed from the grill. "Then you can science at him. Rachel, the salad stuff is all still in the fridge since we didn't know when you were getting back."

"Ladies, if you'll come with me?" Kurt laughed and held out his arms to the girls.

"You be alright for a few minutes?" Rachel asked Agent Orange, not taking the offered arm yet.

[24d_245t_tcdd]

"I will be fine." he said mildly, sitting down at an unoccupied space with plenty of room on either side of himself. He then turned towards Hank, "Does she often offer to pay people to eat out more?"

[futures_of_ash]

"Alright. I"ll be right back." That said she hooked her arm in Kurt's, the tailed man giving a jaunty grin before disappearing in a puff of smoke with the two ladies.

Once they were safely gone Logan turned around and crossed his arms. "So, who are you exactly?" Rachel had said 'friend, hero, non-powered' and told him she would bring him to the barbecue. That was about it!

And Hank chuckled. "I believe we would need you to elucidate upon the issue if you wish us to confirm or deny it's reoccurring nature."