like I could post a log about Jan and Hank

[youmakemesmall.livejournal.com]

WHO: Me and Mr. Jones The Pyms
WHERE: Coffee shop
WHEN: Evening
WARNINGS: None. I think?
SUMMARY: Janet and Hank meet up and talk. Shit's bound to get real.
FORMAT: Parawkward :D



Janet had been extremely proud of herself for not completely falling apart at the sight of this new Hank. Her and her own Hank had a very complicated relationship-- for all of the problems they had-- and did they have a lot-- she still loved him. It was probably a mistake to talk to this Hank at ALL. This couldn't end well in any foreseeable well, especially not with the guy mourning his Jan's death, but she was just a glutton for punishment.

She would make some joke about a moth to a flame but refrained-- nerves were too fried for that.

She had to smile at his initiative. Working on making a lab as soon as he got here. Some things translated pretty well from universe to universe. Janet waited for him outside, mentally trying to prep herself. It was fine. This wasn't her Hank. There was no reason to act like such a girl about it.

Did her hair look okay? She hoped it looked okay.

Comments

[sciencesupreme.livejournal.com]

Hank should not have been okay with this, and to be honest, he really wasn't okay. He didn't need to be so concerned about it thought. He knew about alternate and parallel dimensions. Hell, Reed Richards pretty much wrote the book on such things, and Hank himself had gone beyond all of them.

This wasn't his Janet. He knew that. She looked similar, but the same, not even the same ethnicity, but she was similar in many ways. Maybe that was why he was feeling a but anxious, those similarities that she shared with the Janet he knew from back home, the Janet he knew before he was abducted and she was killed.

He wasn't going to think about that though, he had already insulted her once with it, and he was supposed to have put it behind him. Hell, he had to if he was going to work with her and Tony here. It just wasn't easy to do.

'It's just the same name and powers,' He tried to tell himself.

He met her outside the cafe, out of costume, of course. He'd even left the goggles back at the lab.

"Hey," He said awkwardly. What were you supposed to say when you meet an alternate version of your ex-wife?

[youmakemesmall.livejournal.com]

It was also nice to know that the awkward dorkiness somehow spanned multi-universes, though these days her own Hank was so caught up in his own ego he had somehow lost that charming quality he used to have. Somehow, despite everything that had happened at home, she felt sorrier for this Hank than she did for herself. His Janet no longer existed and her presence would be sure to drudge up some uncomfortable and sad memories. But still, they had to learn to get along, didn't they?

There might have been a moment or two of staring; it was positively uncanny how much he looked like her husband, though this Hank actually looked like he slept once in a while.

"Hey yourself," she said with a smile. He probably was wondering why she was wearing sunglasses at night but Janet often found herself needing them more so than in the day-- when it was dark out and all of the city lights were on, it was completely distracting. A side effect of her mutation and a rather annoying one at that. "Should we go in or just look at each other some more?"

This was some kind of torture. A torture that made her inexplicably happy but she didn't want to delve into such thoughts right now.

[sciencesupreme.livejournal.com]

He didn't want this to be awkward, he didn't need it to be. Yet somehow it still was. He was over the loss of his Janet, over the fact that Tony had been an insufferable ass and caused all of this shit. He didn't need to dwell on it more. He was the leader of the Mighty Avengers, he was finally the hero that he wanted to be. He had moved past all of that. Being in a relationship with a robot version of your ex was moving past it, right?

Unfortunately it was never that easy.

He didn't realize that he had been staring until she had mentioned it, and then it was obvious. "Oh, yeah. Yeah." He quickly stepped forward and opened the door for her, feeling like he was dating Janet again for the first time, when things were good.

They were not dating.

This was awkward, wasn't it? He was definitely awkward.

"How do you take you coffee?" He asked, not knowing if this Janet liked hers the same way his did.

[youmakemesmall.livejournal.com]

She walked inside and took off her sunglasses, slipping them into her bag. To be honest, she was thinking along the same lines: what was this other Janet like? What was their relationship like? It was this crazy morbid curiosity that she had to keep a cap on or else it would come off... weird. Still. She wanted to know if somehow, somewhere, it had worked out for them.

"Light and sweet," Janet said casually. She tried to look neutral, disinterested even, but she was totally interested. Out of the corner of her eye she was staring: every move he made, every small gesture reminded her of her own Hank.

It was starting to feel less awkward, at least for her. Even though it wasn't her Hank, it was still Hank. It made no sense, even in her mind, and it was probably better not to dwell on these things.

"Should I grab us a seat?"

[sciencesupreme.livejournal.com]

"Sounds good," He nodded and walked over to the front counter to order their drinks.

He wondered how things had worked for Janet and the other Hank back in her universe as well. He had already heard some things about the other Hank. He was still a scientist, they had dated still, to say the least, and apparently the other Hank had done something pretty bad to her... That at least one other person here knew about.

He really wanted to know what happened with that, but at the same time, he wanted nothing to do with it and the possible guilt that could come with the fact that on some level, he'd done something horrible. Hey, it didn't have to make sense, but it was just the way that Hank was.

He quickly returned with two cups of coffee, setting one down in front of Janet before sitting across from her. He felt a little more comfortable now, the longer that he thought about this place, the differences between this Janet and his, and between her Hank and himself. Okay with it? No. But at least being a little more comfortable was a start.

"So, where should we even start? We could... Talk about home." He thought for a moment. "Or we could discuss here, what happening with the Avengers and the rest of the mess around here."

[youmakemesmall.livejournal.com]

He was new to the city, so Jan wanted to cut him some slack. This was probably weirder for him than it was for her. It was just-- he looked almost exactly like her Hank and it was tripping her out. A lot.

"Well. Let's see. You wanted to know about how we got into the biz," Jan sipped at her coffee, looking thoughtful. "We met at NYU. I was an army brat and lived in Germany on an army base before going to college. We met, predictably, in the science lab. He-- you-- burned off his eyebrows trying to impress me. Needless to say we were married within six months of that while we were both only eighteen. We both graduated, got our PhDs, and eventually got recruited by Nick Fury because of our work with genetics and our... abilities."

Thinking back, she had to laugh. The lab they were working in pre-Fury was the biggest piece of shit fire hazard Janet had ever seen. But they were happy. "We didn't have much, money wise. I mean, you know how scientists live. Then they decided to form a team called the Ultimates which is my world's version of the Avengers. From nerds to heroes, you said. It was pretty accurate. So we moved on up, so to speak."

She left out the part where she was a mutant and Hank only got his abilities because of playing with her DNA. It wasn't something she liked to talk about easily.

[sciencesupreme.livejournal.com]

Hank didn't touch his coffee once while Janet told her story. To say that he was interested in how the Hank and Janet from a different universe still ended up together but under completely different circumstances was an understatement. To be honest, he was little bit jealous of how they'd met, how everything sounded like it had worked well for them, when he couldn't even propose to Janet until he was suffering from a drug-induced schizophrenia.

"It sounds much nicer than how I met the Janet from my home," It felt awkward and impersonal to call his Janet like that, but he was getting more used to the idea of being around a different one now, and he didn't want to upset her or seem insensitive to her feelings in this.

"Janet's -- Her father was a colleague of mine, and he was murdered. Shortly after, she contacted me telling me about her resolve to avenge him. Perhaps against my better judgment, I agreed to help, and outfitted her with wings, the ability to use Pym Particles, etc. Together we defeated her father's killer and after that we started crime fighting together. She enjoyed it back then, was very carefree." He couldn't help but smile a little at the memory. "The Avengers were formed by chance really, when we all answered a distress call from Rick Jones. It was her idea that we call ourselves "Avengers"."

He thought for a moment, debating on whether or not to go into the details of their marriage, before deciding against it, since it wasn't exactly a romantic story, and that would also lead to talk of their divorce.

"You already know that she wasn't a scientist, but a fashion designer, a really successful one too. She brought in most of the money." He smiled a little, surprised that how a thought that had, once upon a time, made him feel so incredibly insecure was suddenly so meaningless. "I was on and off of the team a lot, but that was where she really shined."

[youmakemesmall.livejournal.com]

The way he was talking about her-- not really her but some form of her-- was making her more uncomfortable as the minutes ticked by. She felt like she was at the doctor's office, waiting for test results or something equally as painful. Jan struggled not to squirm. She didn't want him to know how uncomfortable she was. It wasn't his fault, really. This was all just surreal.

"It sounds like an adventure. Good to know that my life, in any universe, is never boring."

This conversation was making her want to smoke. Or drink. Or both.

Jan rested her chin in her hand, her elbow on the table. Even after everything that had happened, the reappearance of this Hank had made her realize-- quite painfully-- how much she missed being married. Despite everything. God, she needed therapy.

"This is really weird. I feel like I know you better than anyone else but at the same time, I don't know you at all."