Cemetery, El Paso, Texas, Sunday Afternoon

[weldedtomyspine]

The Day of the Dead. Every year found Jaime ending his rounds in the same cemetery, at the same grave.

Nadia.

Just like every year, the first thing he did was look to see if anyone else had been by before to leave anything for her. And just like every year, there was nothing. So he knelt in front of the grave marker and lay the small bouquet of cempasúchitl against the granite.

He didn't say anything. Even years later he wasn't sure what to say. He just knelt in silence for a bit, remembering.

Comments

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime shook his head gently. "I'm sure tea is just fine with her," he answered. "And there's no need to be nervous. She would have liked you."

[heromaniac]

Nervous? Who was nervous?

"I don't know what I was thinking. I totally should have brought lemonade or something." Momoko fretted, making sure that the plate was sitting straight and not spilling into the flowers before reaching for the basket. "She was only in highschool, right? Normal highschool kids don't drink tea. Ah!"

She looked up. "I could go down the road and buy a soda; we passed a gas station on the way here!"

Yeeeah. Okay. A little nervous.

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "It's fine," he repeated quietly, applying enough pressure to keep her from jumping up and running off.

[heromaniac]

Momoko snuck her hand up to cover his. "It sounds stupid, but I want her to like me," she murmured, tightening her grip on his hand.

[weldedtomyspine]

"And I'm telling you," he said, squeezing lightly at her shoulder, "she would."

[heromaniac]

"I'm jealous, you know." Momoko tugged at Jaime's hand, silently asking him to sit with her. "Tell me about her."

[weldedtomyspine]

"Jealous?" he asked. "Why?"

[heromaniac]

"She got to work with you. And she's always on your mind." Momoko leaned against him. "It's not a bad jealousy. But the kind where... well, she's a part of your life I can't get to. She knows a different you."

[weldedtomyspine]

"Hey," Jaime said, leaning back, "you're always on my mind."

[heromaniac]

"I'd better be," she teased lightly, then went back to watching the tombstone. "She's the last teammate you let yourself have. The last real one. You keep all the others distant. That's kind of a big thing for us."

[weldedtomyspine]

"I have the Titans."

Sort of.

Sometimes.

Which kind of proved her point.

[heromaniac]

"You act more like a consultant than a team member," she pointed out.

[weldedtomyspine]

"Well, they don't need me full time or anything..."

[heromaniac]

She could argue team dynamics with him again, but this wasn't the place so she just gave him a smile.

"But that's why I want to know her, why I'm jealous. Nadia was... is important enough that you closed that position." Momoko shrugged. "How can a girl compete with that?"

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime looked serious, thinking about that. "Is it a competition?" he asked softly.

[heromaniac]

"Hmm." She could tell he was thinking seriously about it; good. "I'm not jealous of her in the same way I would be if you started to pay attention to another girl. It's not romantic jealousy."

Momoko made up a small plate from the items in the picnic basket as she spoke. "Not anymore, at least. So in that way it's not a competition. But Nadia's death affected how you work. How you think about work. That's an area of your life that I want to share, too. But because of her death, you keep parts of that away from me."

She held out the plate to him. "So I guess it's not a competition, since she's won that from you. But I totally still want to win against her; I haven't given up."

[weldedtomyspine]

"I... kind of think I understand that?" Jaime mused, taking the plate absently, still a bit lost.

[heromaniac]

"She's the last person you asked to help you. I love you; how can I not wish that was me?" Momoko asked, reaching again into the basket to prepare her own plate.

[weldedtomyspine]

"I've asked for help lots of times!"

Just... not with dangerous stuff.

[heromaniac]

Momoko made a face at him. "You know what I mean."

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime nodded, shrugging a bit helplessly. "Yeah. I do."

[heromaniac]

"So. Jealous." Momoko shrugged and nibbled at a pan de muerto. "Why don't you talk about her?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"I don't really know what to say, I guess?" Jaime admitted after a moment. "I mean... we weren't friends, precisely. I liked her, but... we worked together, you know?"

[heromaniac]

"So you didn't know her from school, too?" Momoko asked. "Like Paco and Brenda?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"Right. She and Hector went to Paco and offered their help." He shook his head. "I wasn't sure it was a good idea, but it worked out pretty well, actually."