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_lucy]

"I mean, I'm not saying we would spend all our time with you two and not in our own room," Hazel pointed out with a smile, bumping their shoulders lightly together. "Maybe next time, though. You know, enjoy that for once we're four wheels instead of three. When we're gross, you and Dani can be gross right back."

[nola_jeangrey]

“I don’t know if Dani is a gross-in-public kinda girl. I don’t know if she even knows that about herself yet.” Katie smiled at Hazel. “And you and Kyle are so gross in public.”

[nola_lucy]

Hazel laughed, delighted. "And we're going to be so much worse now!"

[nola_jeangrey]

“So much heterosexual smooching.” Katie made a face, and a dramatic show of drinking more wine.

[nola_lucy]

Hazel only laughed more. "I was an art major, it's not like I didn't try! Boys are just so cute. I like them so much."

[nola_jeangrey]

“I only like one boy and it’s Jean’s fault for breaking my perfect streak. Also, boys are objectively not-cute. Girls are cute. Boys can be attractive but never cute.” Katie may have had a little wine.

[nola_lucy]

"You are incorrect! Boys are very cute. Also you totally admitted that Kyle was cute when you met him, so pfft." Hazel did not disagree about girls being cute, because even if she didn't want to date them, she knew that to be objectively true. Katie was being super cute right now.

[nola_jeangrey]

“Kyle looks like Jean’s type, I blame Jean for that comment. Kyle is adorable though. He looks so sweetly at you.” It was nice to see someone loving Hazel as much as she deserved.

[nola_lucy]

"You know, I always paid a lot of attention to Jean because Jean is my second name and all, but I don't think Kyle looks like Wolverine at all," Hazel replied as innocently at possible.

[nola_jeangrey]

“I was talking about— oh my god, Wolverine is a thing. Oh my god, that man in the facility was Wolverine. Oh my god, okay, I need a minute.” Katie had been so caught up in Sam - and Scott - that she had forgotten what little she knew about the X-Men independently of her own memories and the other universe. “I meant Scott! I mean Sam. I mean. Oh wow, Wolverine. Hazel, he probably smells like pure masculinity. gross.”

[nola_lucy]

"Wait, Sam like played football Sam? HE'S Scott? Oh my god." Okay, now both their minds were a little blown. "Also like, Wolverine is not my type in general, but I always pictured him smelling like...like man and also the woods and also Canada, and that works for me." Because of course Canada smelled like snow and maple syrup, things that Hazel loved.

[nola_jeangrey]

“Yeah, football Sam. His boyfriend is a superhero two. So is Zach from football. And Caleb from football.” Basically, everyone. “That smell really, really doesn’t work for me! Scott always smelled like fresh soap and like, cotton. Which was fine. It doesn’t do much for me now, but it did for Jean. What does Kyle smell like?”

[nola_lucy]

"Well now I'm going to gloat about beating some superheroes at football, so that's fun. And I don't know. I haven't smelled him really thoroughly or anything, so I think he mostly just smells normal." You know, average nice-smelling people smell. "But also it's possible that paint fumes and other noxious chemicals have ruined my sense of smell except for yummy food smells anyway. Which is okay. As long as I can still locate a cheeseburger blindfolded, all is right with the world."

[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."