[MINGLE] One-Man Show

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: Inari Shrine and elsewhere
WHEN: 25 January 2019 through ?
OPEN TO: All opted in characters
WARNINGS: Please warn in the subject line of your comment as needed, and remember to move anything turning adult to a new post.
IMPORTANT NOTES: Final reminders and informational links are here. Please label all top-levels clearly so that there is no confusion who they are open to and what they are for, and DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR TAG!
Have fun and ask questions here!

Comments

[oorah]

"Maybe." He licks his lips, mulling that over. "But I dunno, Rhodes. You never saw my kids the day I'd come back. It was all they could do to try and tackle me to the ground, even when they were so small..."

It's bittersweet, of course, but right now it feels better to talk about them than it doesn't. These moments are snatched and rare so he's riding it out.

[constructionzone]

"No, that I didn't," he says. And he knows he isn't going to ever get it, not entirely. He knows he gets bits of what Frank's gone through, maybe some bits no one else gets, but he hasn't had a family in the same way. He's been the kid left behind but hasn't had his own kids. It's always going to be different.

"But if you want to talk about it, I can listen."

[oorah]

He nods at the offer, for once it's that easy. Maybe because Rhodey gets the other stuff, or maybe just because he needs someone to hear this, either way.

"My wife, she'd— she'd keep it a secret, when I was comin' back. Then I'd go to their school or wherever they were to surprise 'em. Oh, man, you'd think I was the best thing they'd ever seen. Their little faces would light up, you know? Like I was their whole world." His eyes water, but he's holding it together remarkably well considering the subject matter. "They'd squeeze me so tight I wouldn't be able to breathe, but I didn't care. That shit, that shit is the best feeling. I used to love coming home just for that moment, that look in their eyes."

[constructionzone]

When he came home, Rhodey thinks, there'd been no one to keep secrets from any kids. Sometimes he regrets it, but, he'd made his own family. Sometimes it was an older Navajo woman meeting him at the airport...sometimes it was a black stretch limousine stocked with his favorite scotch.

Frank's story makes him smile as much, but there's a melancholy twist to it. "I had a buddy in the air force, probably before you even met your Maria, and he'd say something almost the same," he says. "That it made it worth it."

[oorah]

Here's where it breaks down. Frank feels distinctly out of joint with the man Rhodey describes. Still he asks, "Did he make it home?" He hopes so, of course he does, that this airman could find his way home after so long. But it isn't the point. Not for him. He's not a veteran in the way Rhodey is, the way his buddy was. "I did. I made it, only to have my home ripped away from me by the same country that put it there."

[constructionzone]

Rhodey is silent for a moment, then he reaches up to rub his hand over his head. "No," he says, "no, went down over Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm." He'd handed his wife the flag, and frankly he's not sure he's ever done anything harder.

Unfortunately a part of Frank's story isn't a shock, and not just because he was aware of the man. Their country was increasingly excellent at fucking over the men and women who fought. "Fucked you right over," he agrees. "It makes it hard to continue to serve."

[oorah]

He nods, bowing his head. "I'm sorry." And he is, deeply. He doesn't think he can talk about this anymore. "How long ago...?" Frank nods to Rhodey's leg. They never really did talk that all the way through when he first met the guy.

[constructionzone]

Rhodey snorts. "What's time, anyway?" He says. "It was about two years ago now. Friendly fire's extra dangerous when you fight with a guy who can shoot lasers out of his head. I fell straight out of the sky."

He squints at the screen, gone dark now. "If I'd known this was coming it's what I would have thought we would have seen. I'm just as glad it wasn't."