Chapter 24: Variety Hour

Guardian

a Worm/Destiny Crossover

Chapter 24: Variety Hour

A few weeks after Taylor was thoroughly confused by everything that came out of Director Emily Piggot's mouth, she'd gotten a particularly strong urge to go out and explore something. Anything. The instinct was to wander, it wasn't specific as to where. Which was how she found herself sitting on the prow of the good ship Marianne, kicking her legs back and forth through the empty air. At one point in time, it had been a successful fishing trawler, plowing through cresting breaks to gather massive nets teeming with future profits. Salted, weather-beaten men worked the deck, swearing up a blue streak and hauling lines through calloused hands. A captain, ballcap in place, smelling of coffee and cigarette smoke, would shout orders through his open cabin door. It was a nice picture she painted, rendered bittersweet by the rusted hulk it had become. Beached and buried in the Boat Graveyard.

Also, it had a really great view of the Bay's skyline. The sun warmed her back and stained the glass buildings orange and pink as it set. Then her phone pinged. This particular ping meant a text message. She dug it out, saw the text came from Lisa, and opened it.

L: Pizza and planning at base. You in?

She hummed, considering. On the one hand, she was really digging this spot. High up, hidden, and all hers. On the other hand, it was a near perfect temptation. Hot food, hot girl, and hot superhero shenanigans.

T: Be there in ten.

After tucking her phone away, she stood, brushed her pants off, and hurled herself off the prow of the Marianne. She touched down on the aft transom that was all that remained of an entire ship and danced along the narrow width of rusted metal. Then she vaulted up and over the top of a smaller boat, fell ten feet to the ground with a flex of her knees, and sprinted off towards her base. As she ran, she hoped that there never came a day when superhero parkour stopped being awesome. That would be a very sad day. A very sad day, indeed.

=+= Chapter 24: Variety Hour =+=

Lisa was in fine form when Taylor showed up. A pencil served to hold together a knot of white-blonde hair at the base of her skull while another was held between a set of full, pink, enticing lips. She'd crossed her legs and placed them on her desk, tilting her chair back to a dangerous angle to achieve this. The laptop on her thighs – stop it, Taylor – was braced by her hands to keep it from sliding down onto her belly. On screen, information, command prompts, and data files slid by at incredible speed.

There was also the smell of pizza throughout the entire place, and since her partner was hard at work, Taylor elected to follow her nose. Soon she found it – a glorious ten inches of cheeses, meats, and crust. After a moment's thought, and fishing around for a paper plate, she took two slices, reconsidered, and took a third. She meandered back to their office area, taking a huge bite on the way. She wasn't going to say she chewed extra loudly to be annoying, but she wasn't not saying it.

"Stop that." Lisa's words came without heat, mumbled through an otherwise occupied mouth. "I know you're doing it on purpose."

Taylor put her food on her desk, comparatively empty to the other one next to her, and flopped into her chair. Then, without saying a word, she took another loud, obnoxious bite.

A sigh. "You'll have to be killed for this, you realize."

Mouth full, Taylor replied. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Sure. Course you don't. You're just sitting pretty and eating. You would never purposely annoy me, your beloved partner, would you?"

"Uh uh." Taylor shook her head, then took another bite. "Never ever."

Somehow, Lisa didn't seem convinced. She rolled her eyes and then threw her pencil at Taylor, who snatched it out of the air and spun it between her fingers before flicking it up into a spin, then caught it between her thumb and pointer finger. Then it was thrown over her shoulder to clatter on the floor.

"Showoff." Lisa grumbled with a smile. "Look," she heaved her legs off her desk and took a less dangerous position. "we can bicker and banter, or get down to business." Taylor opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted. "No, wait. I'm revoking your voting privilege. We're getting down to business."

"Fine." Taylor pouted for a moment before curiosity got the better of her. "What have you been working on?"

Lisa's eyes gleamed in the reflected, digital light of her laptop screen. "I...have made a List."

The List, and Lisa insisted it be pronounced with a capital L, was in essence a series of things that she felt Needed to Happen before any more bounties could be claimed. It was a series of dossiers on capes she felt would be willing to join or consider joining their team, some Tinkers who were willing to supply arms and armor in bulk, Directors she felt that would be willing to stand up for them in the political arena. That kind of thing, put together with the kind of detail and speed only someone cheating through copious use of superpowers could accomplish.

"So...yeah." Lisa looked immensely pleased with herself. And also like she was dealing with the onset of a headache. "What do you think we should do first?"

Taylor leaned forward, pulling her lower lip between her teeth as she thought. "I think we should reach out. Talk to some independent capes, see who's willing to hear us out."

"Sounds good. Who first?"

She hummed. "How about...Foil?"

=+= Chapter 24: Variety Hour =+=

An e-mail was drafted, discarded, re-drafted, bickered over, and finally sent before the matter was put to bed. Until they got an answer, anyway. But that was for later. For now, it turned out, was an awkward silence. For once, it wasn't Taylor's fault. As far as she could tell, at least. It was a nice change of pace to not be the awkward one. It seemed pizza did wonders to soothe one's own inability. So that left Lisa. Which was plainly impossible. Lisa was confident in almost everything she did, gregarious and outgoing and not awkward in any way. Which was why it couldn't be her filling the air of their little subterranean base with a heated tension.

Except it was. She had her hands wound together, her shoulders were tensed and slightly hunched, she was very pointedly not looking at Taylor. Sympathy welled in her, having been there before. In public, no less. Lisa had something she wanted to say and no idea how. If it were Taylor, she would have kept quiet until the person she wanted to talk to prompted her, but her partner had a bit more of a social spine, because, "Hey, uh, Taylor?" Lisa was mumbling, and rushing over her words, but was speaking.

Taylor wondered if there was pizza sauce on her face. "Yeah?"

"I was just – just wondering something."

There was. There had to be. She swiped her palm over her chin, found nothing, and then checked her cheeks. Still nothing. So, then, what...?

Lisa snorted a laugh. "There's nothing on your face, I just...wanted to ask you something."

You said as much, Taylor almost said, but refrained out of solidarity. "Ask away."

A heavy, pregnant pause, then a sigh. With a head hung low, Lisa asked, "Do you like me?"

Everything sort of...stopped. Taylor's breath caught in her throat. Her heart froze, every part of her body went still. It would be easy, more or less, to simply laugh and say something like of course I do, we're friends but that wouldn't be the answer her partner was looking for. It would be an answer, and true, but heavy in the air between them was the meaning behind that word. She'd been holding the answer to that question for a long time. Now she was finally asked it, and instead of bursting forth it stuck, caught alongside her frozen breath. She opened her mouth, intending to force it out, and managed instead only a croak.

Quietly, almost too quiet to hear – a small, sad sigh. Then, louder, "Forget I said anything. I gotta – there's a thing I need to get to, and –"

"Yes." It came out in a rush. "So very much. Like, to a probably unhealthy amount." Then, because she couldn't stop herself. "Do you like me?"

"Uh...yeah."

It was a good thing, Taylor decided, that there was no one else around. They would never let either of them forget how stupidly they were grinning at each other. Or how hard her heart was pounding in her chest.

=+= Chapter 24: Variety Hour =+=

Taylor stared at Lisa. Lisa stared right back.

...now what?

It was a completely valid, utterly terrifying question. She'd thought about this moment, hoped for it, and dreamed about it on a few naughty occasions, but had no idea about how to progress. Do they kiss now? She'd just eaten like, three slices of pizza and had to have something in her teeth. Not to mention her breath. Did they not kiss instead? Was it too soon to even think about kissing? Were they supposed to hug instead? A handshake? What the fuck was supposed to happen now?!

"Taylor. Stop freaking out."

"I'm not –"

"Yes you are. Stop it."

"But – !"

Having somehow managed to find a source of calm and collected to draw from, Lisa explained it all, "Taylor, sweetie." There was a little thrill at the word, even though she'd heard it dozens of times before then. "We like each other. There's – there's uh, no plan to follow or – or a script or...anything like that. We'll just...figure it out, yeah?"

"So. Um. Where do we start?" Taylor asked.

Lisa hummed, tilting her head side to side. She tapped her lips with her finger. Then, "Ha! Got it. We...are going on a date."

Taylor opened her mouth. Then closed it. That was...anticlimactic. She cleared her throat. "Uh, sounds good. But, what are we gonna do?"

Terror shot straight through her soul when Lisa waved an airy, dismissive hand. "We'll figure it out."

=+= Chapter 24: Variety Hour =+=

They parted ways not long after that, because, well, how exactly did one move past such an acknowledgment? Well. Taylor could think of a few methods, but they were probably inappropriate. No, definitely inappropriate. Especially for people who hadn't been on their first date yet.

Oh, God. She was going on a date. Soon.

What's worse, she now had to tell her dad that not only was she going on a date, she was going to do so with another girl.

…

Hooray.

How to do this? Best to be quick, she decided. Do it all at once, like tearing off tape stuck to skin, or brushing a nasty tangle out of your hair. It will be terrible no matter what is done, so...be fast. Just say it. Just open her mouth and...

Say it. Right. She could do that.

She was in her living room before she was ready for it. The TV was on, some fishing program at low volume being ignored by her dad. He had the day's paper spread over his knees, and was fishing through it for stories or – more likely – any signs of incoming work for his Union. Company mergers, vehicle prototypes, it was all above or beyond her, but he somehow knew what meant what and for whom. He was good like that. When he noticed her, he startled a bit, smiled, and got up to give her a hug. "Hey, kid! How was all that stuff I'm not supposed to know about?"

She returned the hug, nose full of his shampoo and the faint scent of the detergent they used. Her nose was weird like that. "I'm not supposed to tell you about it," she pulled away after a satisfying amount of time. "but if I was, I'd say great. There could have been pizza, I'm not saying."

He hummed. "Was the hypothetical pizza good?"

"Very. In theory."

A laugh. He ruffled her hair. "Well, next time you see her, give Lisa my best, will you?"

There. An opening if she ever saw it. Capitalize, Taylor. "Will do." Wuss. "Actually, uh, about that?"

He peered at her over his paper, having retaken his seat while she just sort of stood there like a lump. "Yeah? You guys having a get together soon?"

"S-something like that." Then, "We're going on a date." Except it sounded more like, "Weeergoanadate." so her dad could be forgiven for being confused.

"What was that?"

Deep breath. This isn't that scary. "We are going on a date. As in, Lisa and I, are going on a date. With each other."

He hummed again. "Okay. Have fun!"

...What?

=+= Chapter 24: Variety Hour =+=