xp_logs | Marie-Ange and Wade - backdated to Sept 28

Marie-Ange was avoiding Wade after the events of Sonatorrek, but Wade is having none of that, so he brings Thai, and himself, and he makes things better - not much better, but enough.

Wade sent off the last, silly little text message to Marie-Ange and then propped himself up against the wall across from the apartment door. He'd been sparring and working out more than was probably good for him if the bruises he'd been sporting for the last couple weeks were any indication, but Marie-Ange hadn't seemed like she wanted to talk much after that first conversation they'd had when she got back from Minnesota, so he'd left her alone. There was only so much leaving alone he was willing to do, especially when it didn't seem like she was doing much besides avoiding... everything.

Thus, Thai.

Sure enough when she opened the door, as she'd said, Marie-Ange was in yoga pants. She hadn't mentioned the long-sleeved pajama shirt, with her hair in a messy ponytail, and with a pair of fuzzy socks that only went up to her ankles. All together, it made a statement, it was just that to her, the statement was "I am not going out at all today." - she hadn't anticipated Wade and Thai food. "I warned you about the mess. Laundry feels like a very lot of work at the moment."

Quirking a small smile, Wade pushed away from the wall and walked forward. He pressed a kiss to Marie-Ange's forehead and tugged her into a loose, one-armed hug. "Everybody's allowed to be a mess sometimes, ladybird. At least you don't smell."

That brought a familiar expression back to Marie-Ange's face, one of mild exasperation. "As if I would not shower. Minnesota was not that bad." She looked away from Wade as she realized what she had said, and frowned. Now she was not at all sure what to say, and that almost annoyed her more than looking terrible (by her standards) or her inadvertent admission that she was still feeling ground down by everything that had happened.

"Well, that's good, at least," Wade said, turning Marie-Ange back around and into the apartment. "I'm pretty sure it'd signal the apocalypse or something if things got that bad." He shut the door behind them with one foot and held out the rather large bag of food he'd brought in with him. "So I got those curry puffs you like as well as the lemon chicken soup. Their red curry sounded good, too, but I also got duck and the ultimate pad thai with calamari just for kicks and giggles. Sweet, sticky rice - the kind with mangoes and coconut - for dessert with a couple fried bananas."

"I think you do this on purpose so that I will be too full of food I like to be upset." Marie-Ange suggested. "It is hard to be miserable when you have curry puffs and fried bananas." She felt a little silly for hiding away in the apartment like this, and now he was just simply bringing over food without making a big deal of things, and Marie-Ange was genuinely confused about the whole thing. She'd have been upset, if she had been in Wade's place.

"That's basically the plan," Wade said, quirking a smile. "I can't tell you not to be upset, but I can try to distract you." He started setting out the food on the table in the kitchen. "But from my angle, you don't have to be upset at all."

"How can you not be upset over this?" Marie-Ange sat down on one of the kitchen chairs and pulled her feet up onto the edge of the chair. "I am upset, I would think you would be even more so!"

"No, no, no,' Wade said, offering Marie-Ange the curry puffs. "I didn't say I wasn't upset generally speaking. It's just that I'm not upset with you. That's sort of key." Snagging a curry puff for himself, the mercenary shrugged. "I mean, from what you said, it's not like you looked at Thor and went, 'Now there's a fine hunk of a Norse god - I gotta get me some of that,' you know? So really, it's basically that if I could break his face, I totally would. And gladly. Possibly with a few other broken things for him. And probably some missing body parts that only he'd notice. But it's not like we didn't talk about this kind of thing before we started being all official. So I figure getting mad at you would be kind of pointless - especially when you're beating yourself up about it." All that said, Wade stuffed the curry puff in his mouth and reached for the calamari pad thai.

"No, but it is not just Thor... " Marie-Ange said quietly. "I know it was all magical influence but there is guilt, and..." She very carefully took a curry puff, but did more tearing it apart into bits than actual eating it. "I just ... I wish I had never agreed to go there, and I do not usually make time for regrets. I do not even know if anything we did did any good and I know much of what I was there for did very little at all!"

Wade put down the pad thai and reached across the table to put his hand over both of Marie-Ange's to still them. "It's a shitty situation to be put in, basically having the ability to make choices and decisions taken away from you, but it's not your fault. What followed isn't your fault. You can't change it, so learn from it. It's a thing that happened. Just a thing. Nothing's different from my end here, right now. I dunno if that helps or not, but there it is."

"I don't.. I do not like at all when my ability to make decisions is taken away from me." Marie-Ange said hotly. "And there is nothing to learn! We walked into a situation where we could have no idea that the Enchantress was going to turn Garrison into a sex magnet and I cannot think of a single thing we could have done to prevent it. If I could have blamed myself it might also be easier, then I would know whose fault it was."

Not entirely sure how to respond to that, Wade held his silence for a moment. "Have you ever been through anything like that before?"

"Manuel. He left before you arrived, but he... it is very complicated, but he was... is a projective empath. It was similar, and I slept with Remy." Marie-Ange explained. "At least then I could blame someone. Manuel was not well at the time, and he was influenced by someone else, and I saw a therapist. I thought I was over it. I barely even think of it anymore."

Wade was really, really not qualified to handle this level of emotional trauma. He felt completely out of his depth. Aside from offering to kill the people responsible for causing it, he didn't think he really had much to offer besides what he hoped was a welcome presence. "Okay. So that was easier because you had someone to blame, right? Blame this Enchantress chick and shank her the next time you see her. I'd offer to off somebody for you, but you're more than capable of doing that for yourself, if you wanted it done. Besides making sure you eat and appreciating your yoga pants, what can I do to help here?"

"Oh, I blame her entirely, as it was all her fault. But I am not sure I can, ah, shank, a goddess. We had enough trouble breaking free from her in the first place." Marie-Ange explained. "As for helping, I am not sure. I imagine keeping busy will help, but I worry that I will be like Wanda, all work and no sleep, and as it is, I do not sleep half enough as much as I should."

"Still," Wade said, quirking a small smile. "I'll make you a shank just in case. Y'know. So you're prepared if the opportunity ever arises." He paused to consider that, then quirked a brow. "Unless you'd like to make your own. If you made it, it'd probably be prettier. I'm sure between the Thai and the runway fashion show we'll find things to keep you busy without making your insomnia worse."

"I can make a shank out of a toothbrush, ponytail holder and a piece of sharp plastic, but if I am going to make improvised weapons without my powers, I prefer garrotes. I can make those from my clothing, and there is less blood that way." Marie-Ange said calmly. "The Thai is very good, and I am told that distraction helps with obsessive thoughts. There is a reality show with movie makeup now too, it is interesting. They made them make monsters out of children's drawings."

"Sweet," Wade said. "Let's watch the makeup show. There's a thing on the internet where all these girls let their boyfriends do their makeup - we should do that. I promise not to poke your eye out with an eyeliner pencil. Thoughts?" Handing Marie-Ange a curry puff that wasn't completely torn to shreds, he grinned.

"Wade, I love you but you wore bell bottoms, and I am not trusting you with anything in my makeup kit." Marie-Ange said, a faintly amused look replacing the drawn out one. "They wore blue eye shadow when you were a teenager."

"Those bell bottoms are awesome," Wade said, waggling his eyebrows. "The fact that they used blue eye shadow when I was a teenager doesn't mean I'd put it on you in this hypothetical scenario." Closing one eye, he squinted at Marie-Ange with the other. "I'm thinking pink. Possibly with some green somewhere. Maybe orange. Definitely a glittery lipstick or something."

"Under no circumstances am I wearing any makeup colours that Clarice Ferguson wears on a regular basis." And despite the tone that was so dry you could have made a martini out of it, Marie-Ange's mouth turned up in a crooked little smile. "I have nail polish with sparkles. You can try to paint my toenails if you really must play in my cosmetics."

"Hey, that's not fair," Wade said, mock-pouting. "Skittles wears all the colors on a regular basis. Seriously - all of them. Usually at the same time."

"Therefore clearly she is a terrible influence on your already questionable fashion sense, and you should not be trusted with women's clothing, hair or makeup." Marie-Ange countered. "And if you tell me about your days in Rio as a drag performer, I am going to have to put on real clothes because I will have to buy Jubilee a box of donuts, as she bet me that you had done drag, and I said that of course you had not, because if you had, you would have bragged about it already."

Wade opened his mouth to say something - anything - but then decided silence was the better part of valor. He shoved another curry puff into his mouth and chewed, swallowing before finally saying, "I've never performed in drag in Rio."

Marie-Ange's mouth twitched several times before she gave up on trying not to laugh. Laughing felt wrong - but in the way that pulling out a hair snarl felt wrong. The hair would get tangled again, but not for at least a while.