Bite they little heads off! Nibble on they tiny feet!

[baedalites]

Who: EVERYONE.
What: Catenrat party.
Where: The Apache and surrounding environs.
When: Givdi the 22nd of Toidaren
Notes: The topic threads are just suggestions; if you've got somewhere else that your characters simply must be, make your own thread. When your characters are ready to leave, they'll be given a little wooden cheese, a glass fish, and a voucher for a big basket of snacks.
Warnings: None yet. Please put warnings up on individual threads.

The Apache is much the same as it always is: dimly lit, with the jukebox playing in the background, and the bartender serving whatever's on tap. Above the doorway and wound through a few of the sets of antlers some enterprising soul has placed a garland decorated with little blue and green fish.

Comments

[captainredwhiteblue]

And then Steve sniffles.

Oh, sure, he tries to hide it with a cough, with fussing with the half-eaten popcorn ball in his hands, but it's a sniffle, all right. He coughs again and then he turns to the person beside him, summoning a smile, ready to confide something.

"...Did you know Jimmy Stewart was turned down the first few times he tried to enlist, too? For being underweight. He's kinda my hero, just a little."

[joiedeviolet]

He's crying. Captain America is crying. Again, Captain America is crying. Never had Kate expected to see this from the man who in another universe yelled at her and her friends and denied them the opportunity to be heroes.

However, she can't say much about the movie bringing out his waterworks because there are tears running down her own cheeks and she's sniffling herself. No shame with her emotions here. What for? Clearly she isn't the only one sobbing over this flick.

"I didn't know," Kate whispers, slightly distracted from the conversation by the overwhelming emotions. "But he did well for himself anyway." Just like Steve did.

[captainredwhiteblue]

"He sure did."

He looks over at her, sees the tears, realizes she's choked up. He's too much a gentleman to say anything aloud, he doesn't want to embarrass her.

But he does shift his popcorn ball over to his left hand so he can pull a handkerchief out of that sleeve. He offers it to her without a word, but with a faint, kind smile on his lips.

[joiedeviolet]

It's impossible to embarrass her now that everybody's probably seen her crying and besides, she's clearly not the only one choked up. Accepting the hankie in hand, she smiles back and nods as she dabs at her eyes.

"I'm totally pathetic watching this movie when I know it makes me cry every year."

[captainredwhiteblue]

"What? No." He shakes his head, kind smile still firmly in place. "It's not pathetic to enjoy something like that. I think the fact that it makes you emotional shows how much it means to you. Of course you want to watch it every year."

[hehaseatenthepancake]

Aw. He wasn't kidding to Njoki earlier when he said there was nothing like watching trained soldiers crying at the movie. Seeing Steve sniffle brings something of that thrill, but it's accompanied by the fact that it is a very sad movie and Hellboy isn't immune to that either. He quietly reaches over and places a hand on Steve's shoulder reassuringly. It's okay, we've all been there.

[captainredwhiteblue]

That gets another big sniffle out of Steve, a sharp, lips-pressed-together inhalation that clearly conveys I am trying to pull myself together, honest. He gives Hellboy a smile that's slightly quavering. "Thanks. That was some great movie, huh?"

[hehaseatenthepancake]

Hellboy nods with a sad little half-smile. "Yeah. It's one of the first I ever saw, as a kid. I can't even count how many times I've seen it, and it gets me every time."

[captainredwhiteblue]

"Yeah?" Steve can't help it; he's curious about other people, other worlds, what other lives are like. "Part of your holiday celebrations every year?"

[hehaseatenthepancake]

He so-sos with his Right Hand. "Not every year. I occasionally had a case come up around Christmas, or was somewhere I couldn't get to a TV, or whatever. I'd say I managed it probably... two years out of three, on average?"

[captainredwhiteblue]

"Still. It's gotta be a nice tradition. We should do this every year."

He's already thinking, already planning.

"Or as much as we can, if work doesn't get in the way at the holiday."

[hehaseatenthepancake]

The sadness of the movie is displaced by the dull heartache of the friends with whom he'd once had that tradition, from whom he's long been absent, but Steve's suggestion still inspires Hellboy to a more complete smile.

"I'd like that a lot."

[captainredwhiteblue]

"Great! I'll... uh." His smile fades, lips pursing. "Write it on the calendar. I'll have to get a calendar. Wait, or can the CiD do that?"

...He's still getting the hang of all this newfangled technology, don't mind him.

[hehaseatenthepancake]

"Probably can. Seems like it can do everything else." So, someone else that has tech adaptation problems sometimes, then. "In any case, it won't be for another year. We've got time."

[captainredwhiteblue]

A brief shadow flickers across his face; doubt, perhaps, tinged with a bit of sadness. It's true, there's time. But the worry is always at the back of his mind, moreso since Bucky died--what if there really isn't? You can't know that anymore, not the way you used to before the war.

But he doesn't give voice to any of that, smiles instead, nodding. "Plenty of time. I might even have the hang of this CiD by then."