[Except that it comes out like a bike with shitty tires is the best thing in the entire universe, not quite laughed out but his voice attempts to go up a pitch and breathless in the middle of it. Once he hears it he's torn between wishing she hadn't heard anything at all and wishing he hadn't tried to hold it back in the first place because she'd probably like to hear it.
Unless she's asking how great it is to be on a bike again, but he doesn't have words for that.]
[She would have liked to hear it, but what she does hear is enough for that response to come out warm and affectionate. She turns her head towards him even though she's still a little too wary of this passenger deal to actually turn it far enough to see him. Wouldn't do to spoil the moment by overbalancing them.
There's a whole bunch of things she wants to say - I'm glad you like it and it's good to hear you happy and I've missed you, but what actually comes out is:]
[The way she says it makes him want to lean in, and then she turns her head and he really wants to lean in, but he's. Biking. Where he'd like to press closer and nuzzle, at least, that turns into a half-grin and a full-fledged snort when she asks if he can go faster. Of course he can.
Faster it is.
It also gets them to the lift in record time and once they're there he finds it hard to get off of the bike. Damn.]
[Luckily - or maybe unfortunately - she's distracted enough not to note the reluctance as anything strange as she hops off the bike, not quite giddy but flush-cheeked with laughter and resting a hand on his thigh for stability as she does. Slaps the button for the lift and takes a moment to look at him, and doesn't bother to hide her smile.]
You look good on there.
[He does, in a whole lot of different ways, but the ones that really matter to her are comfortable and happy. And looking ta him, for the first time in a long time, she's proud of something she's done.]
[A little sound that slips out, has always slipped out even when he was a kid and too blindsided with the moment to clamp it down, and just like when he was a kid faced with riches it comes out the same way - taken aback and kind of flattered that anyone would want to give him something good enough for it.
It also makes him blush, every time.
Luckily the door opens as his cheeks flare and he has enough sense, still, to throw his leg back to standing and wheel it in. Once it's in he kneels, and starts pointing out all the parts and how they're put together - never letting the bike go - just attempting to shop talk his way over all of that.]
[God help her but that's cute. The man walks around like he owns the place and something that she considers a pretty minor compliment and definitely not something he doesn't already know still draws that kind of reaction? Cute. There's a brief moment of worry when the lift arrives - this is going to be awful, isn't it, she's not a fan of the lifts at the best of times but right now the two of them in an enclosed space seems like a terrible idea - but he's got that too, and she drops gratefully into a crouch on the other side of the bike. Watches his hand making its tour around the different mechanisms at first, but pretty soon she's just watching his face as he talks.
It's easy to pretend, like this. To listen to the familiar cadence of his voice, the way his face moves when he's talking about something he knows and cares about. It's a good while before she becomes aware of the soft sort of smile she's wearing and tries to rearrange it into something neutral, something safer.]
Wish I could say I had more to do with putting it together, but I was mostly playing fetch for the materials. It's amazing what they'll let you take from engineering if you tell 'em Tony Stark sent you.
[There are precious few subjects he gets on a roll about, but bikes are something he could talk about through twenty trips up and down the lift and then some. It starts out with him glancing up at her to see if she's following as he goes and admires the craftsmanship and explains way more than she probably ever wanted to know about types of gears and brakes, ends up with him paying more attention to the bike the longer he explains. By the time she speaks he has to snap himself out of it, blinks up with an apology on his face and snaps his mouth shut when she doesn't look bored after all.
Another blink as he processes what she's saying.]
Tony Stark, huh.
[The name's familiar and that's about it. Apparently Tony Stark has never mentioned the Gardens and that's almost all he pays attention to as far as the network goes.]
[Not bored, no. She's interested in the way things work, something born from necessity (raised by a single parent on a freelance writer's income, replacing something that could be repaired instead had always been out of the question) that had grown into a sense of satisfaction about being able to fix things, knowing that she could take something apart and it would still work after she put it back together. Really the only thing that keeps her from gazing in rapt attention is that she's been so worried about him that seeing him this way is like rain on parched soil. The bike can wait.
Then, of course, the nasty little though bubbles up that he might be okay for the most part. That it's her presence, hurt and tiptoe-careful, that makes him edgy and odd. Damn. She takes a breath, snaps herself out of that train of thought just in time to catch the question.]
I don't know. I hope so, he's amazing. But I got the impression he's kind of a... solo act.
[A freakin' diva, actually, but she's grateful enough and likes him enough not to mind.]
I don't pay that much attention to the other departments. Is that weird?
[Is that weird, a holy vessel asks the living embodiment of a whole country while they're hunkered down on the floor of a lift in a spaceship, and she resists the urge to groan. What's weird is that she's been here long enough that she keeps forgetting it's all strange.]
A - [Solo act. That's certainly an odd way to put it, but where he'd normally question it he's sort of getting used to her way of phrasing things without feeling the need to fact check and pry too much. Usually she's saying what he thinks she's saying.] Okay.
[When she asks if it's weird he honest-to-goodness tilts his head to the side like it's a question he's never considered. Which. He hasn't. And he's about to shrug and write it off when her expression changes, and then he's curious.]
I think my gauge for weird is broken. I just... I don't know. It's trite as hell, but we're all in this together. I feel like I should be paying more attention. [A quiet sigh, and then she's not really talking about other departments anymore.] I should be doing more to help.
[Case in point: she's only now noticing that a) his hair is much shorter than she's used to seeing it, and b)]
[Well, he was going to say something along the lines of "you should be getting more sleep" but then she asks about the earring. It is about the last question he's expecting to hear from her, too, because he figured that after this long she'd noticed and decided not to comment. Apparently not. He doesn't think it's embarrassing, at all, but he does think she'll laugh at him and that's what sends him looking at the floor and clearing his throat before he looks back up.]
Yeah. Hello Kitty.
[The first part comes out reluctantly, but the second part is a neutral statement of fact. That is the hello goddamn kitty shoved through a tiny hole in his head, yes.]
[She leans forward slightly, peering. Yup, that's Hello Kitty alright. There is a tiny Hello Kitty high on his ear and it's so completely incongruous to that serious face and the deadpan tone he clarifies in that she should be laughing at him. But in a weird sort of way it's so completely him - to walk around with it with no regard for the fact that it's kind of ridiculous, it's there because he wants it there and that's all that matters - and when she does crack a smile, it's tender.]
[Somehow her looking at him without any sort of chiding in it, like she knows it must be sentiment that keeps it there, makes him way more bashful than her laughing at him ever could've. Whatever part of his brain that would raise a brow and ask if she's really gone this long without noticing, then make fun of her for it because Heder please - that's momentarily out of commission.]
Ah - [He licks his lips and adjusts his grip on the bike, doesn't look away or blush quite yet.] Couple days before ya came back. Hong Kong gave it to me.
[Of course it's more complicated than that but he stops there, biting on the inside of his cheek. It's not that he's unwilling to discuss it with her, it's that he suddenly feels shy and scrutinized and isn't sure what her reaction will be.]
[Okay, his hair had been down then, and a mess. And when she'd seen him after she'd been way too preoccupied with the way it felt like he was stepping right on her heart to pay that much attention, but still. That's a long time, and it pains her that she's been removed enough that she's only noticing it now. And then he clams up, and it's... well. She's the one who's been avoiding him. If he wants to keep something back now, she can hardly complain.]
It - you're gonna think I'm making fun, but I swear I'm not - it kinda suits you.
[There's a blink where he flattens his lips and wants to ask just to make sure - what - but she's pretty terrible at keeping a straight face. Besides, she just said she wasn't so he rolls with it.]
Y'think so. [Not a question. Turning over the idea because he's never actually wondered over if it suits him or not, and then he shrugs as well as he can with both hands attached to a bike.] Japan an' Hong Kong thought it was a good idea, too.
[Netherlands she never said it was a good idea...]
[Japan. Right. She doesn't know what was going on there, by any means, but she knows enough to tread carefully, to ease off. If he wants her to know he'll tell her, right? Otherwise it's just an earring.]
Miffy? You lost me.
[Light, and easy, but her hand settles on the bike near to his, fingers curved in the opposite direction, not touching but waiting.}
[Whatever she's thinking about Japan is over his head, because - well, he doesn't actually gasp. Doesn't come near gasping, even, doesn't part his lips or suck in a breath at all, but he looks downright horrified and borderline offended that she would know who Hello Fucking Kitty is and not Miffy. In fact.]
Y'know who Hello Kitty is, though.
[There is no right answer here, Heder, accept your fate. The rest of this lift ride will very likely be a grudge-ridden rant even if she slides her hand closer, or he slides his closer to hers.]
[Thins ice, here, and she can tell but she can't tell why. So it's a shrug and:]
Yeah. It's the cat with a bow and no mouth, right? My last year at school there was a girl who was obsessed with it. Drew it on my chemistry homework.
[She's still annoyed about that, and it shows. The paper had come back with an A+ grade but a question mark next to the drawing, and if there's one thing she's always hated it's not being taken seriously. Which, funnily enough. is the exact sentiment that keeps her from saying what she's thinking, which is "so Miffy's like the Dutch version?"]
It is. An' Miffy's cuter. Woulda been okay if she drew Miffy on it.
[He is 110% convinced of this, and 120% serious. And then he narrows his eyes and scowls while he waits for her to agree with that sentiment even though she's never even seen the poor rabbit - doesn't even know that Miffy is a rabbit, yet - seemingly just as annoyed as she is over the Hello Kitty graffiti but for an entirely different reason. (Also Heather's own insecurities just prevented a bona-fide blow up in the lift.)]
[W o w you sure take your adorable cartoon characters seriously for a grown-ass man, Nederland. She looks at his dead serious face and wants to cup it in her hands, kiss his forehead and his cheek and his mouth and pull him close get it right, but the best she can do is take a guess.]
Is Miffy a rabbit?
[A quirk of her mouth there, and it's not laughing at him so much as it is sheer relief because she was about to call it Missy and caught herself. It's a rabbit, isn't it? She'd bet her left tit it's a rabbit, if there was anyone in this lift who wasn't so serious they'd probably try to collect.]
[Hello Kitty is a fucking rip off and made more money and Japan likes it better and it's a fucking rip off have you even seen the - okay Heder hasn't seen the two of them. But Miffy is cuter. And while he can guess where her own guess comes from, there is far more to be offended over than Heather making fun of his love of rabbits. In fact it's so serious that he attempts to glare that quirk of her mouth back down into submission before he looks up and answers her.]
She's a fuckin' adorable rabbit.
[As much as he'd love to keep ranting there's an interruption when the lift actually. Gets to where they wanted it to go. Somehow they've spent the entire ride crouched on the floor, face to face, bike in the way like it was deliberate.]
[Oh, thank god for bikes and Miffy. The lift ride is over and relatively pain-free. She unfolds, rolls her shoulders and walks backwards out of the lift, still watching him, that little smile not going anywhere.]
Then yeah, Miffy would've been better. It's still pretty cute, though.
[And probably a better reminder of who it's from, but no way in hell is she traipsing into that particular minefield. This is so close to normal, and she really doesn't want to go prodding at something that might make him close off or shut her out again.]
[For a second he nearly gets right back on the bike - if she doesn't think it is going to be his new fifth limb she is dead wrong - realizes it's kind of a waste of effort and huffs back and forth between it and her. Fine, he'll wheel it along and harrumph over Hello Kitty's existence as he attempts to walk as close as she'll let him. Not that he notices he's doing it. Too busy giving her a grumpy earful as they make their way, frowning down at her and speaking like he's trying to convince her to join his side of the argument. Which. Yeah. He is.]
An' a ripoff. Miffy was first. She's in books for little kids, teaches 'em life lessons in poems. Sixteen pages, drawings on one side, four lines on the other. Good colors. Small size. Real damn easy to read. They only made Hello Kitty 'cause Japan likes buying kawaii shit.
[The utter annihilation of the word kawaii is intentional (it shouldn't sound that bad even with his accent) and he does it with no trace of humor. This is an argument he and Japan have had dozens of times and it's very important that Heder take his side here.]
[Stress less, Nederland, you said the magic word. Books, books and poetry? She's Team Miffy all the way. And the way he phrases it - like it's the rabbit teaching the lessons, not the books - just makes it cuter. So she's smiling in the face of that frown, nodding as she walks, and if he's not aware of how close he's getting she's not going to tip him off by moving away.
Until he says kawaii. It's about the last word she ever expected to hear out of him, and in his low, deep voice it would be hilarious anyway but then he goes and mangles it beyond what can possibly be blamed on his accent and says it with such disdain that she actually has to duck her head for a second. The attempt to squash her laughter fails, and it escaped in a snort.]
So Hello Kitty's Miffy with all the important stuff missing, basically.
[The fact that she's trying to talk her way out of that bubble of laughter doesn't mean it's not true, but she does have to resist the urge to tack a cheeky 'and less cute' on the end. There's such a thing as pushing your luck.]
Right. [Basically that should've been a huff instead of a word, and instead of swiping his hand to open his door he thwacks the console while she laughs. Her laughter doesn't do a damned thing to stem the annoyed tide he's got going on, but it checks its vehemence somewhat - always sobering when someone who isn't a nation catches a glimpse of just how ridiculous they can be - and in her case it always seems to feel more like she walked in on him doing something far more embarrassing than ranting about a petty grudge.
So the tail end of his mini tirade comes out in a rush as he jerks his head to let her step in, eyes suddenly locked on a patch of wall.]
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[Except that it comes out like a bike with shitty tires is the best thing in the entire universe, not quite laughed out but his voice attempts to go up a pitch and breathless in the middle of it. Once he hears it he's torn between wishing she hadn't heard anything at all and wishing he hadn't tried to hold it back in the first place because she'd probably like to hear it.
Unless she's asking how great it is to be on a bike again, but he doesn't have words for that.]
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[She would have liked to hear it, but what she does hear is enough for that response to come out warm and affectionate. She turns her head towards him even though she's still a little too wary of this passenger deal to actually turn it far enough to see him. Wouldn't do to spoil the moment by overbalancing them.
There's a whole bunch of things she wants to say - I'm glad you like it and it's good to hear you happy and I've missed you, but what actually comes out is:]
Can you go faster?
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Faster it is.
It also gets them to the lift in record time and once they're there he finds it hard to get off of the bike. Damn.]
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You look good on there.
[He does, in a whole lot of different ways, but the ones that really matter to her are comfortable and happy. And looking ta him, for the first time in a long time, she's proud of something she's done.]
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[A little sound that slips out, has always slipped out even when he was a kid and too blindsided with the moment to clamp it down, and just like when he was a kid faced with riches it comes out the same way - taken aback and kind of flattered that anyone would want to give him something good enough for it.
It also makes him blush, every time.
Luckily the door opens as his cheeks flare and he has enough sense, still, to throw his leg back to standing and wheel it in. Once it's in he kneels, and starts pointing out all the parts and how they're put together - never letting the bike go - just attempting to shop talk his way over all of that.]
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It's easy to pretend, like this. To listen to the familiar cadence of his voice, the way his face moves when he's talking about something he knows and cares about. It's a good while before she becomes aware of the soft sort of smile she's wearing and tries to rearrange it into something neutral, something safer.]
Wish I could say I had more to do with putting it together, but I was mostly playing fetch for the materials. It's amazing what they'll let you take from engineering if you tell 'em Tony Stark sent you.
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Another blink as he processes what she's saying.]
Tony Stark, huh.
[The name's familiar and that's about it. Apparently Tony Stark has never mentioned the Gardens and that's almost all he pays attention to as far as the network goes.]
One-a the engineers?
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Then, of course, the nasty little though bubbles up that he might be okay for the most part. That it's her presence, hurt and tiptoe-careful, that makes him edgy and odd. Damn. She takes a breath, snaps herself out of that train of thought just in time to catch the question.]
I don't know. I hope so, he's amazing. But I got the impression he's kind of a... solo act.
[A freakin' diva, actually, but she's grateful enough and likes him enough not to mind.]
I don't pay that much attention to the other departments. Is that weird?
[Is that weird, a holy vessel asks the living embodiment of a whole country while they're hunkered down on the floor of a lift in a spaceship, and she resists the urge to groan. What's weird is that she's been here long enough that she keeps forgetting it's all strange.]
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[When she asks if it's weird he honest-to-goodness tilts his head to the side like it's a question he's never considered. Which. He hasn't. And he's about to shrug and write it off when her expression changes, and then he's curious.]
You think it is?
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[Case in point: she's only now noticing that a) his hair is much shorter than she's used to seeing it, and b)]
...is that an earring?
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Yeah. Hello Kitty.
[The first part comes out reluctantly, but the second part is a neutral statement of fact. That is the hello goddamn kitty shoved through a tiny hole in his head, yes.]
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Since when?
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Ah - [He licks his lips and adjusts his grip on the bike, doesn't look away or blush quite yet.] Couple days before ya came back. Hong Kong gave it to me.
[Of course it's more complicated than that but he stops there, biting on the inside of his cheek. It's not that he's unwilling to discuss it with her, it's that he suddenly feels shy and scrutinized and isn't sure what her reaction will be.]
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[Okay, his hair had been down then, and a mess. And when she'd seen him after she'd been way too preoccupied with the way it felt like he was stepping right on her heart to pay that much attention, but still. That's a long time, and it pains her that she's been removed enough that she's only noticing it now. And then he clams up, and it's... well. She's the one who's been avoiding him. If he wants to keep something back now, she can hardly complain.]
It - you're gonna think I'm making fun, but I swear I'm not - it kinda suits you.
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Y'think so. [Not a question. Turning over the idea because he's never actually wondered over if it suits him or not, and then he shrugs as well as he can with both hands attached to a bike.] Japan an' Hong Kong thought it was a good idea, too.
[Netherlands she never said it was a good idea...]
Shoulda been Miffy instead of Hello Kitty though.
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[Japan. Right. She doesn't know what was going on there, by any means, but she knows enough to tread carefully, to ease off. If he wants her to know he'll tell her, right? Otherwise it's just an earring.]
Miffy? You lost me.
[Light, and easy, but her hand settles on the bike near to his, fingers curved in the opposite direction, not touching but waiting.}
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Y'know who Hello Kitty is, though.
[There is no right answer here, Heder, accept your fate. The rest of this lift ride will very likely be a grudge-ridden rant even if she slides her hand closer, or he slides his closer to hers.]
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Yeah. It's the cat with a bow and no mouth, right? My last year at school there was a girl who was obsessed with it. Drew it on my chemistry homework.
[She's still annoyed about that, and it shows. The paper had come back with an A+ grade but a question mark next to the drawing, and if there's one thing she's always hated it's not being taken seriously. Which, funnily enough. is the exact sentiment that keeps her from saying what she's thinking, which is "so Miffy's like the Dutch version?"]
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It is. An' Miffy's cuter. Woulda been okay if she drew Miffy on it.
[He is 110% convinced of this, and 120% serious. And then he narrows his eyes and scowls while he waits for her to agree with that sentiment even though she's never even seen the poor rabbit - doesn't even know that Miffy is a rabbit, yet - seemingly just as annoyed as she is over the Hello Kitty graffiti but for an entirely different reason. (Also Heather's own insecurities just prevented a bona-fide blow up in the lift.)]
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cup it in her hands, kiss his forehead and his cheek and his mouth and pull him closeget it right, but the best she can do is take a guess.]Is Miffy a rabbit?
[A quirk of her mouth there, and it's not laughing at him so much as it is sheer relief because she was about to call it Missy and caught herself. It's a rabbit, isn't it? She'd bet her left tit it's a rabbit, if there was anyone in this lift who wasn't so serious they'd probably try to collect.]
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She's a fuckin' adorable rabbit.
[As much as he'd love to keep ranting there's an interruption when the lift actually. Gets to where they wanted it to go. Somehow they've spent the entire ride crouched on the floor, face to face, bike in the way like it was deliberate.]
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Then yeah, Miffy would've been better. It's still pretty cute, though.
[And probably a better reminder of who it's from, but no way in hell is she traipsing into that particular minefield. This is so close to normal, and she really doesn't want to go prodding at something that might make him close off or shut her out again.]
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An' a ripoff. Miffy was first. She's in books for little kids, teaches 'em life lessons in poems. Sixteen pages, drawings on one side, four lines on the other. Good colors. Small size. Real damn easy to read. They only made Hello Kitty 'cause Japan likes buying kawaii shit.
[The utter annihilation of the word kawaii is intentional (it shouldn't sound that bad even with his accent) and he does it with no trace of humor. This is an argument he and Japan have had dozens of times and it's very important that Heder take his side here.]
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Until he says kawaii. It's about the last word she ever expected to hear out of him, and in his low, deep voice it would be hilarious anyway but then he goes and mangles it beyond what can possibly be blamed on his accent and says it with such disdain that she actually has to duck her head for a second. The attempt to squash her laughter fails, and it escaped in a snort.]
So Hello Kitty's Miffy with all the important stuff missing, basically.
[The fact that she's trying to talk her way out of that bubble of laughter doesn't mean it's not true, but she does have to resist the urge to tack a cheeky 'and less cute' on the end. There's such a thing as pushing your luck.]
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So the tail end of his mini tirade comes out in a rush as he jerks his head to let her step in, eyes suddenly locked on a patch of wall.]
But Hello Kitty made a lot more money.
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