El Paso, Texas [Monday evening]

[weldedtomyspine]

The mission had been a success. It had been long, and busy, and incredibly demanding. He'd barely had time to sleep, worked himself into exhaustion every day, and managed not to think about anything but fighting alien invaders for a whole week.

Oh, and they'd actually beat off said alien invaders. That had been good too.

But mostly the distraction had been what Jaime had been going for. And while he felt a little bit guilty for his priorities, he was still grateful. And as his feet touched the ground in his back yard, he knew that tomorrow that distraction was gone, but that all that exhaustion from fighting would thankfully keep that from happening for at least another night.

And he'd be glad to see his family again.

Even Milagro.

So Jaime de-armored, sighed in relief at the breeze blowing across his skin, and headed for the back door.

Comments

[heromaniac]

Unfortunately for him, that was exactly when the door opened and he walked right into the bag of trash.

"Ooof!" Momoko stumbled and grappled with the bag. Wait... "Oof?"

Something was in the way?

SOMETHING HAD BEEN TRYING TO GET IN THE DOOR?!

She pushed the bag of trash forward and took a step back into the house.

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime reached out and grabbed the bag of trash before it could hit the ground. "I just got back," he half-heartedly whined. "Couldn't Milagro take out the trash?"

Because, obviously, his mom had used her special mom-powers to detect his arrival and decided that Jaime should do some chores.

[heromaniac]

"Ah! How do you know Milagro, Thief?!" Luckily it only took a moment more for Momoko to recognize the voice and she didn't actually complete the punch. "Jaime?"

[weldedtomyspine]

...

Momoko?

Jaime didn't actually manage to say the name. He was too busy staring and trying to get his brain to start working again.

...

No luck so far.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Which was when Dinah came stumbling in, bearing a baseball bat, looking half-asleep and demanding, "Whozit? Whasshappening?"

[heromaniac]

"It's Jaime! He's back!" Momoko grabbed the bat from the sleepy Dinah with a chuckle. Funny how just seeing him had Momoko feeling so much lighter inside. "Milagro's finishing a report for school, and anyway it was my turn to take it out. Here, let me take it! Welcome home!"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Jaimeeeee!" Dinah perked up, nearly stumbling as Momoko grabbed the bat and tried to grab the garbage, and Dinah went for the Jaime-hug. Of the guy just standing there. Kinda looking shocked. "You're baaack! Finally. Jeez."

[weldedtomyspine]

Dinah?

Wha--?

And now there was an ex-girlfriend-current-awesome-friend was hugging him. At least Jaime's arms seemed to know how to respond to that. As he hugged back, some part of him was kind of surprised that she didn't disappear like a ghost or something.

His brain still hadn't caught up, of course.

[heromaniac]

Momoko laughed. "You've only been waiting two days!" It didn't take that long to dump the bag into the can and soon Momoko was back and taking one of his hands (Sorry Dinah) to drag him back to the house. "I told her you said two weeks. At least that's what your parents said."

Okay, she couldn't hold it any longer: she bounced up and kissed his cheek.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah let go of him so Momoko could have her squishing chance, and grabbed his hand to squeeze it. "So, save the world? Nobody got hurt? You didn't get hurt, right? Your mom made us empanadas, we should get you some, did you eat?"

[weldedtomyspine]

...

"You're..." Alive? Here? Thingy.

"Both of you?"

[heromaniac]

"Noooo. I'm me and she's Dinah!" Momoko totally knew what he was asking. "Come in! We'll totally explain! You have to eat first, though! I got to help with dinner!"

Okay, tonight she'd made the salad, but it totally counted.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Oh, totally.

Dinah snickered at Jaime, and tugged on his hand. "C'mon, c'mon. Did you not even check your messages, goofy boy? You need food to be thinking with."

Later...

[heromaniac]

At some point later in the evening, Momoko managed to get up the nerve (and find an excuse) to talk to Jaime away from the others.

"Uhm. I just want to apologize. For coming here without asking you first, I mean. And for staying while you weren't here. I totally didn't think about it when I came, that you'd be gone."

Re: Later...

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime blinked. "Apologize? What for?"

Because that stuff she'd just said didn't sound like the sort of thing you apologized for doing.

Re: Later...

[heromaniac]

"For bothering your family. For being here without letting you know. It's your family." She scratched her cheek, embarrassed. "I had no right to just show up and totally shouldn't have stayed."

[weldedtomyspine]

Again, Jaime didn't really understand what she was apologizing for.

"Hey, you showed up at my door, right? There's no way my mom was going to just let you leave, you know." He shook his head with a fond grin.

"Besides," he said more softly, "you needed somewhere to stay for a bit, didn't you?"

[heromaniac]

It was totally not fair how well he knew her, sometimes.

"She pulled me into the house. She's awesome; you're totally lucky." Momoko grinned. "But yes. I didn't know anywhere else to go."

[weldedtomyspine]

"I know," Jaime said with a soft smile.

And then, more somberly, "No one in your world remembered it, did they?"

[heromaniac]

"They say that I've been acting stranger and stranger and working on some project they can't remember anything about." Momoko released a long breath. "They're worried about me, but not really? My mom thinks it's stress from work and school."

[weldedtomyspine]

Even if it wasn't welcome, there was no way that Jaime could stop himself from wrapping Momoko in a quick hug. That quickly transformed into a longer hug as he felt the tension in her body.

"Then I'm glad you came," he said softly.

[heromaniac]

A hug from Jaime had been what she'd wanted most for some time now, so it was totally welcome. Even if she couldn't fully relax into him, she did lean heavily.

"I wish you'd been here," she admitted. Although the time spent talking it all over with his parents had helped more than she'd ever thought possible.

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime squeezed Momoko more tightly.

"I'm sorry," he said softly. "I just couldn't..." Stay. "You were..." Gone.

"Well."

He didn't know how to say it, really.

[heromaniac]

"You don't have to apologize. You had to work, I didn't call."

Momoko wasn't going to complain at all about how he was holding her: she'd told him goodbye. She just wished she could ask for more. Instead, she gave him a small grin. "And you came back before your curfew. I totally didn't want to be here if you were late."

[weldedtomyspine]

"I didn't have to go, really," Jaime admitted, not letting go of her, or planning to any time soon. "I just... needed to get away."