Hazel

[nola_jeangrey]

What did Hazel mean?! She understood what had happened to Katie? Did that mean she was someone else from a universe Katie didn't know, like Sam or Dani were? Katie hadn't recognized Hazel as someone she knew. Did it mean that she only had an artistic epiphany and didn't actually understand at all? Either way, Katie needed to know.

And also, she wanted to see her friend, and her friend's art. And also the face of a Hazel Jean who just told a boy that she loved him.

So Katie had a giant coffee in each hand, a bag full of snacks and water and yes, a bottle of wine, and when she made it to Hazel's shed she knocked with her foot. And by then, she was dying see Hazel, to know what was going on, to understand.

Comments

[nola_jeangrey]

“A normal smelling man. That’s a high compliment.” Katie really meant that! “I should have brought us cheeseburgers. I regret my choices.”

[nola_lucy]

“Aww, it’s okay. Cheeseburgers would probably make me go into a food coma and I have to stay up at least until Kyle comes over to kiss me.”

[nola_jeangrey]

“What, my kisses aren’t good enough?” Katie laughingly kissed Hazel’s cheek.

[nola_lucy]

Hazel grinned. “Nope, sorry. Your kisses are lovely, but I need kisses from the boy who loves me and kisses me like he can’t believe he’s lucky enough to get to.”

[nola_jeangrey]

“He better always kiss you that way. If he ever stops, I’ll have words with him. And probably break his brain. I don’t have any powers, but I’d get them back for this reason.”

[nola_lucy]

“That’s because you’re the best. And if you ever need someone lightly stabbed, I’m not bad with a sword.” On no sleep she was less Queen Lucy the Valiant and more Queen Lucy the Violent, apparently. But she’d do anything for Katie.

[nola_jeangrey]

“I’ll keep that in mind. Sam and Oliver think everyone is trying to kill mutants, so maybe, but then I guess now their theory is wrong, because you’re here and you’re not a mutant.” Yes, Katie really had a lot on her mind lately.

[nola_lucy]

"Mutants...aren't real. Here, anyway. How could someone be killing them?" Did they think they were still mutants and that life was still happening? Hazel couldn't imagine it. But then she knew how her last life ended. This was a whole new one.

[nola_jeangrey]

“No idea.” Katie shrugged. “But they’ve been to different universes a lot and get how it works way better than me, I guess. But I don’t know, maybe they’re just afraid of actually getting to start over?” Katie didn’t know them well enough to say. But here, with wine and Hazel, it sounded legit.

[nola_lucy]

"I get that, a little. When we came back from Narnia it was a huge adjustment. And even after later trips, when we got told we'd never go back, it was a hard thing to accept. But we still moved on. Not in a forgetting it way," except maybe for Susan, "but a...this is our life now kind of way. Though I guess I never had to be an adult with that knowledge. Until now. Only Polly and the Professor did, really." Lucy had been 17 when she'd died, the others not much older. 

[nola_jeangrey]

“I don’t really know what it all means.” Katie shrugged. “I told them I’m here to help but I’m not really a superhero, and I kind of love not worrying that my brain powers are inherently evil and I’m going to swallow the earth. Which it sounds like was next for me in that life, based on movie trailers that make me cry.”

[nola_lucy]

Hazel put her arm around Katie's shoulders, hugging her close, and kissed her temple. "I'm sorry, that must suck. But for the record, in all the versions I know, Jean wasn't evil, and definitely not inherently. And I know for a fact that Katie is the opposite of evil. She's the best."

[nola_jeangrey]

“She just killed a bunch of people and then died, right?” It was Jean’s future, but it wasn’t Katie’s. “I got out in time and turned into the beautiful gay butterfly you see before you.”

[nola_lucy]

"It was more complicated than that. The Phoenix Force was mostly responsible. And other people have hosted the Phoenix Force over the years, so it's not a Jean-only thing. Not that that makes it less awful, I guess." She leaned her head against Katie's. "But either way, I love this beautiful gay butterfly and I'm glad she's here."

[nola_jeangrey]

"It's so weird how you know more about this than I do." But it was also nice, and comforting from Hazel in ways it could never be from people she'd just met. "You're handling your new-old life so well."

[nola_lucy]

"This is the stuff I used to teach myself to draw. It's been a long time since I read comics anything like regularly, if I ever did, but I check in with what's going on with characters and stories I like online. And it's been really fun seeing how different bits get translated to movies or television, see how they try to carry that art style over into a completely different medium. Or don't."

She was pretty sure the weirdness would set it eventually, both with regards to being best friends with a superhero she'd drawn dozens of times and her own dual life, but for now she was feeling pretty good about it all. "I've always been the kind of person to be delighted by the wonders of the universe instead of intimidated by them. I don't see why I should stop now."

[nola_jeangrey]

“I wish I had grown up drawing Lucy and Narnia, just for the symmetry of it all, but I don’t think I ever did. And now, looking at this wardrobe, I think the only person who could ever do it justice is you.”

[nola_lucy]

"See? Just because our stories have already been told doesn't mean they're not worth telling again." Now that she'd found Narnia again, she couldn't imagine stopping.

[nola_jeangrey]

"We need to find a bigger space for you to paint." If Jean's life was captured in a mural, why not Hazel's?

[nola_lucy]

"Or I need to get really into miniatures," Hazel countered cheekily.

[nola_jeangrey]

“Actually, that’s adorable, you should totally get into miniatures.” Probably Katie would get into them right alongside her.