(no subject)

[everylittlegirl]

Characters: Hayley & OPEN
Date: June 25th (or the next couple days)
Location: Hayley's sweet new digs or outside in the Metal Sector
Situation: Roommate shenanigans, Hayley coming out of hiding to be social again, whatever..
Warnings/Rating: None yet.

Hayley had done her best to avoid people for the last few weeks, trying to regain a more objective view of the situation and of her relationships. These friendships were getting harder to avoid and while part of her wanted to accept them, there remained a voice in the back of her mind warning her of the dangers of embracing these people. Moving had been a very unwelcome break in the monotony, but a joyous excuse for helping her in hiding away in a nice place and pretending she didn't exist. She kept contact, of course; it was the bare minimum required to keep anyone from thinking she had disappeared from the turtle.

Now, finally, boredom has overcome her and so instead of taking her food to her room and leaving for work at odd hours, Hayley was returning to a more standard routine. It meant she was more likely to run into people and to have to be friends again. She knew that and was slightly apprehensive about it, but the part of her that wanted those kinds of connections had inevitably won out and she found herself missing Bart and Kon and the others after enough time.

Comments

FOR MARK

[everylittlegirl]

Mark had been, in some ways, slightly more difficult. While not quite as close of a friend as some of the others, their spontaneous repositioning as practically roommates made things tricky. In addition to late night showers and sneaking in and out of the kitchen for food, Hayley had done her absolute best to avoid Mark beyond a quick and casual "hi," "bye," and wave. If she didn't know better, she would say he almost seemed worried about her by the end.

Regardless, she was resuming normality now, overcome with boredom and isolation being less comforting than she remembered. And so, one day, Hayley grabbed a small plate of cookie like treats and climbed the stairs of her own place. With a deep breath, she knocked on Mark's door.

"Hey, it's me."

[shorttempered]

Mark began noticing Hayley avoiding him shortly after he made his identity public. That, combined with her concerns about such a move, led him to believe that the distance was his fault. Every time he tried to talk to her about it, he was met with a cut ending line and the sight of her back as she walked away. He knew he could easily catch up to her with his speed, but for whatever reason she was uncomfortable talking to him now that everyone knew he was Invincible, and he wasn't going to force the issue. If she wanted to talk to him, she knew where he lived... especially after they wound up living in the same place.

"I don't know any me's," called Mark as he turned the page in his book. After a pause he added: "It's open."

[everylittlegirl]

She cringed slightly at his response. "It's Hayley."

The girl waited a breath before taking hold of the handle and pushing the door open to give them a mutual line of sight. She didn't move from her stance at the door, plate of cookies balancing on one hand while she stared awkwardly into the room and to the guy that she had rarely felt awkward around before, the one who usually made things easy somehow.

"I brought cookies," she offered lamely, knowing it was a poor attempt at reconciliation for how often she had avoided him as of late. If someone had done the same to her, she would be unlikely to accept cookies and an awkward inability to express feelings as an adequate apology. But Mark had always been a better person than she was.

[shorttempered]

At the sound of the door opening, he turned to see Hayley entering with a plate of cookies. He had no idea what finally pushed her to start talking to him again, but whatever it was, he was grateful.

"I don't think anyone can say no to free cookies."

He scooches over to give her some space, and pushes stuff on his table over to give the cookies a place to sit before he eats them.

"But I can't shake the feeling these are bribery cookies."

[everylittlegirl]

Hayley sets the plate down in the space on the table and then takes a seat on his bed where he made room for her. She immediately pulls her feet up to sit cross-legged, dropping her hands into her lap and watching him. At his comment about a bribe, she smiled before mocking great offense.

"You're getting paranoid, Mark." She points a finger at him. "What ever would I be bribing you for?"

[shorttempered]

Mark looks from the cookies to Hayley, then back to the cookies. They looked delicious.

"I don't know, world domination?" Mark places his hands over his heart, as if to protect it from her finger, but smiles slightly to show he's only kidding. "I can never tell with you."

Around the Metal Sector

[i_speak_softly]

Suddenly developing telepathy, it turns out, is a little bit disruptive to one's life. It has interesting applications, to be sure, but after trying a few of them out, Donatello needed a little space from his housemates to deal with all the implications.

Fortunately, wandering the city is a little safer right now than it has been in the past weeks. Don is trying to put his thoughts aside and take full advantage, exploring the various goings-on and enjoying the festive mood. While he holds back from getting involved in much of anything, he asks the kedan lots of questions, and takes an interest in just about everything relating to the celebrations.

[everylittlegirl]

Hayley hasn't exactly spontaneously returned to a ball of happiness and joy, but the girl is making the effort to be around and be social. It takes a conscious decision at the moment, to engage with people that she couldn't care less about. When she finally catches sight of the turtle man, it's a welcome relief from the inane banter, seeing someone she finally feels some level of genuine curiosity for. Without hesitation, she slides between the kedan crowding around the area and sidles up next to the man, falling into step beside him.

"Have you always been a turtle?" She asks with an intentional tone of humor, as if the answer is obvious. It's not to her, but Hayley finds that most people respond better to jokes than random interrogations.

[i_speak_softly]

Don's not really sure what the joke is. Being mistaken for a shape-shifted kedan was new to him when he arrived here, but he's already gotten used to it.

"Yes, I have," he says, a little guardedly. All kinds of rude questions could follow an opener like that, and he's in no hurry to find out what they might be this time.

[everylittlegirl]

"It's a good look for you," she offers offhandedly. Hayley still walks beside him, appearing to the outside observer as if they might already be acquainted and simply getting to know each other better. It's the kind of image she wants to send. It helps to avoid attention.

She directs her gaze forward, toward the direction they're walking without really thinking much about it. It's not the weirdest thing she's found here, but it's hardly commonplace either. "Are you a superhero?"

[i_speak_softly]

Um, okay.

"I'm Donatello," he says, because if they're going to walk around like they know each other, they should at least introduce themselves. "Ordinary guy."

As for where they're going, he's not walking anywhere in particular, but maybe there's something new to see around the next corner.

[everylittlegirl]

"Hayley," she returns. It's hard to think of the turtle man as an ordinary guy, but she thinks for a moment before following up with her potentially rude questions. Hayley's less concerned than she probably should be about offending people.

"Is everyone a turtle where you're from? Is it even a turtle or is it like, an alien thing?" A beat. "Are you a mutant?"

[tactile_telekinesis]

Coming back to the turtle in such a different state both mentally and physically had been draining and strange in a lot of ways. He remembered people here, spoke to Bart, hung out with him in the suite and around the city. He'd met Kal and explained why he had done what he had done. He'd spoken to knew people that he didn't remember. Kon hadn't seen or spoken to Hayley in a long time and he'd been worried. Even before he had been sent back home.

So after a few weeks of nothing, he made the decision to go and see her after he found out where she had been moved to. Kon was aware that she probably saw him on the network, saw what he now looked like. Who he looked like and heck he even used his name. Well, a name. He knew that Hayley would probably be wary of such a big change, but he didn't want to lose a friendship like hers. Even if it meant freaking her out a little by showing up and giving her little choice to talk to him.

It didn't take him long before he arrived at the suite and knocked on the door. Hoping it wasn't any of her suite mates that answered it 'hello can Hayley come out to play?'

[everylittlegirl]

Hayley wasn't keen on answering the door in the best of circumstances and this was hardly the best, but she saw no one else around and didn't like the idea of someone knocking incessantly or trying to call out. She wasn't expecting anyone, so it was likely someone she would need to shoo away anyway and she was okay with that. It was with this mindset that she pulled the door halfway open with a casual smile.

Then she froze.

Her eyes widened a noticeable degree and it took effort to swallow. She had to focus on breathing after the split second passed, her hand tightening around the door itself. Hayley directed her gaze up to the guy who she was no longer comfortable around.

She had seen him on the network, had heard he was back. But Kon was different now. Older, so much more like Clark. He carried himself with the kind of authority that made her inherently uncomfortable from someone she liked, especially now that he was, more than she would care to admit, noticeably attractive.

Hayley buried all of her surprise and discomfort as fast as possible, donning a smile she knew he would recognize as fake because it was all she could do. "Hey."

[tactile_telekinesis]

Kon wasn't sure if the feeling that he was experiencing was hurt or not. The situation was just so complicated that it wasn't something he could easily make sense of. But he instantly thought that maybe he should have waited for her to come to him, and then instantly forgot that thought because if he had, she may never have come.

He would have argued that he was still the same person she knew, that he was just older and much more confident in himself. That he had experienced the same things as when she knew him, and a lot more. A heck of a lot more.

It was hurt, because he found that he had to put on a smile himself after he watched her smile that didn't quite reach her eyes and looked tight in the cheeks.

"Hi."

Kon slipped his hands in his pockets and moved a foot as if he was grinding something on the ground.

"I thought. I thought maybe I should come over and say 'hi'. I hadn't seen you in a while and I was worried..." He trailed off and his smile was gone, replaced by a slight frown as he took a hand out of one of his pockets and rubbed at the back of his neck.

"I'm still the same guy and I hope that things between us are still cool." He's quiet a moment and his brow creases a little deeper. "Maybe stupidly. I mean obviously it's stupid but...I don't want to lose you as a friend."

[everylittlegirl]

Hayley's expression contorted into a brief grimace before she exhaled a melodramatic sigh. Her gaze slipped past him, out onto the streets before she stepped aside, giving him plenty of room to enter.

"It's not stupid," she replied carefully. Once he was inside, she would close and lock the door behind him like usual. With the new housing arrangements, however, she hesitated. The girl valued privacy among most things, which meant talking in her room, but taking the older, hotter, and likely way more powerful Kon into her room with her wasn't exactly ideal.

She scratched at her brow, then tugged at her hair before finally turning to lead him up the stairs toward her room, not saying another word until they arrived there. Then she opened the door and gestured for him to enter, lingering behind him near the exit.

He might notice that the glasses he had given her as a present sat as the sole item atop her dresser; he might also notice that Jor-El's cape was sprawled across one side of her bed like a blanket. Everything else was plain, with most other items hidden away in the closet or drawers.

Hayley watched him closely, tension apparent both in her posture and heartbeat. "How old are you?"

[tactile_telekinesis]

With the door opened in invitation, he visibly relaxed and let out a sigh as he stepped in. Careful to give her room as he passed, he could remember what she was like. Especially when they were first getting to know each other. He was also grateful that she didn't think it was stupid, even if she was only just saying it, it was something he would take.

The open area was the same as his with maybe a few differences from the other occupants. He was both surprised and not at the fact she took him up to her room, Kon knew Hayley was a private person, that she liked her privacy and that it must have been hard to move in to shared accommodation with only a room to yourself. He followed he and when he stepped in to her room he looked around, a slight smile as he saw the glasses, something he hadn't seen in so long back home. The cape hit him hard, he had forgotten everyone here, even Jor-El but back here, he remembers how close he had been to the man and their relationship. How the man he had called Gramps was gone.

Kon turned to look at her, a few feet into her room and brought a shoulder up.

"18." That was the easy answer. Even if he ignored the clone thing, that was still the easy one.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I should have."

[everylittlegirl]

"You look.." Like him. Stronger. Unfamiliar. "..older."

Hayley lifted both hands to rest on the back of her neck, tight, elbows nearly meeting in front of her. She knew that Kon, of all people, was very aware what the pose meant and the fear and anxiety it represented. If he remembered, of course. Even if he remembered her well enough to worry now, that didn't mean he would remember everything. It was impossible to know really, not without asking. It was too soon to ask.

"We're not like, dating or BFFs or whatever? So you really don't owe me anything." The reply was intentionally flippant and she donned a light smile to match, one simultaneously sincere and an act - a defense mechanism. "You left, lived a few years back home, and then came back, right? Forgot about us. Made better friends. Got stronger. And now the prodigal son returns."

She couldn't help the edge of hurt in her voice. As much as Hayley liked to pretend she was above friendship and all of those petty attachments, it still got to her. It still hurt when the guy who had been something like her best friend here suddenly disappeared and came back as someone else.

[andaway]

Clark had, like he usually did, assumed it was a personal thing. That he was avoiding him and not just avoidance in general- he'd talked to Mark about her, and the kid hadn't told him anything was wrong with her. So he'd thought that maybe she just- needed her time, like she did every now and then. And that was fine, by him. She had Kon, Bart, Mark... she wasn't alone. She was going to be fine.

Clark was still surprised to bump into her as he walked out of the Stark offices after a talk with Aya about the radio, in his Clark Kent clothes.. She did work here, he guessed it had to happen sooner or later.

"Well, hi."

[everylittlegirl]

Hayley nearly literally bumped face first into Clark Kent, catching herself less than a foot shy of the action when his words, rather than any attentiveness, brought her up short. She immediately stepped back just once to a comfortable distance, smiling up at him as if nothing was wrong and as if she hadn't been avoiding him along with everyone else.

"Hi, Clark." The words were meant to sound lightweight and carefree, to float gracefully instead of lingering awkwardly in the air as they ended up doing. There was something about Clark - about Superman - that continued to put her on edge. They both knew what it was, knew that their history had made things complicated.

And so, after a second, she added, "I wasn't avoiding you."

[andaway]

He blinked, surprised- not at the denial, but that she'd blurt that out without prompting. But if she wanted to have that conversation then so be it, he did get tired sometimes of being kept in the dark.

"I believe you." And he did. If she had actually been avoiding him it would just have been easier to small talk for a second then claim she was busy. Not to mention, as weird as things could get between them, he didn't think of anything in particular he could have done to upset her this time. He'd just assumed it was her way to process their talks in prison.

"But that makes it sound like you've been avoiding someone else."

[everylittlegirl]

Hayley shifted from one foot to the other. For as strong and capable a girl as she knew she was in most situations with most people, Clark always seemed to reduce her to being a scared little child all over again. It wasn't hard to know why, with the vague authority and resemblance to her father, but it was inconvenient at the best of times.

"Kind of.. everyone? Like, no one specific. I just wanted some time to myself, you know? To think and whatever. It had nothing to do with you." Clark could insist he believed her all that he wanted. She would continue to doubt the sincerity of his words - or, more appropriately, doubt how well Clark knew his own thoughts.

[andaway]

He nodded, because repeating he believed her felt silly... and insisting to make her believe he believed her felt even sillier. It wouldn't change much, anyway, would it? Fact was they hadn't talked in a while, whatever the reason, and now they were talking. But her answer was actually a bit more worrying than if she had admitted he'd been avoiding him. If she avoided him she had everyone else, if she avoided everyone else...

"Have you been alone, these past weeks? What about your new suitemates?"

Thanks now I have Madonna in my head.

[backinakidflash]

Bart had been getting irritated with Hayley's continued absence from life, but he tried to give her space. Honestly, he figured that it was something that he'd done or said that had set her off, and it was. Easier. To wait her out, in some ways. Like it was preferably to trying to figure out what to apologize for.

On the other hand, it was driving him up a tree. She was one of the only people here who could really hold his attention, and he missed talking to her. Arguing with her, too.

When he saw her on the street, he wasted no time popping up at her side. But he tried to play it all cool anyway. "Hey Hayl."

Victory.

[everylittlegirl]

Hayley stopped when she saw the figure beside her, hesitating for the split second it took to recognize him. Then she was smiling as she turned to face him, lifting her arms to wrap loosely around his neck and pulling herself up to give him a light kiss. "Hey."

If he wanted to play it like she hadn't been avoiding him for weeks, then she was more than happy to oblige. People like Bart didn't usually get the whole isolation thing and Hayley wasn't keen on trying to explain it when they could pretend it never happened instead. Pretend Kon hadn't changed. Pretend Malicant wasn't taking over and that they had something like a normal semblance of a relationship. Pretending was awesome.