strangetrip | [Backdated April 28th] Frustrations

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[Backdated April 28th] Frustrations - OTA

Alec found himself walking down the hall tense and unable to really form a coherent thought except a lot of swearing directed toward Peter. He hadn't expected to punch the kid - to really punch the kid. Even when they fought in the parking lot, Alec had held back. That punch - he had meant to hurt Peter. And then after, when he had he was pissed off that Peter hadn't defended himself.

In his walking as he dwelled on the events that just transpired, Alec saw the vending machine. That damn vending machine.

He closed the distance between him and it and then Alec began to punch it. Not the glass - that would be too easy - Alec punched the metal. The metal dented with each hit, his knuckles getting raw and bloody quickly from it.

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"That, but more often whichever one of us just got our heart stomped on," Kitty replied evenly. She opened her candy bar and picked the chocolate off the end and then ate it. She'd always done the same with Ho-Hos.

"My heart wasn't stomped on." He said defensively, speaking around the chocolate bar in his mouth rather than waiting to talk when he swallowed. Of course, he wasn't entirely truthful, but it wasn't like Peter had broken his heart.

Well, that had hit closer to home than he wanted to admit.

"Didn't say you had. I said that was what I learned to associate with the sound," Kitty replied as she peeled a little more chocolate off the nougat on her candy bar. "How bad did you fuck up your hands?"

He looked down at them as if for the first time. "They'll heal..." His knuckles were raw and bleeding like hard scrapes.

"How fast is your healing factor?" Not as fast as Logan's, since they were still bleeding, but possibly fast enough he didn't need a doctor.

There was no pity in her tone, just pure calculation. They could and probably would talk, but it would go better if Alec understood that this was part of Kitty's life experience: people beating themselves up when they wanted to hit someone or something else. She didn't think he was being an idiot for once and had no interest in beating him up worse. She was just doing what you did when someone you lived with got themselves tied up in knots.

He shrugged. "By the end of the day it'll be like nothing happened. Maybe sooner." He offered a sardonic smile. "Soldiers who can't heal small wounds on the battlefield are useless, after all."

Kitty made an ugly face at that, one not directed at him at all. "I'm not a fan of the people who put that barcode on your neck." Which was, she reflected, one of the nicest things she'd probably ever said to him for him, instead of for Peter or Liz or someone else.

"Do you want someone to bandage them or heal them? I think Kash is on duty and his spells work in seconds."

"It's fine." Feeling the air sting against the exposed skin was nice and grounding and felt exactly like he deserved. Alec paused. "I'm surprised you're not giving me shit about this, though."

"Why? You think I've never punched a wall before?" She actually grinned a little. "It's hard to do when you're fourteen and your powers go haywire when you're mad. But I tried a lot."

"More like I thought you'd give me the riot act for destroying public property." Though Alec knew it would be fixed by the morning. "But that sounds miserable." Being unable to punch a wall. "You ever were like, eating a sandwich, and couldn't pick the thing up?"

"Not as often as me falling through my bed multiple floors to the kitchen," came Kitty's even, decisive response.

Since they didn't seem to be going anywhere, she looked around and decided on the floor for sitting. When she'd slid down to it and sat with her arms around her knees like a fourteen year-old ballet dancer, she said, "I only care about public property when you're destroying it where there are humans for collateral damage. It's the people I care about. In this case, you."

Alec paused. He never really knew what to do when someone expressed fondness for him, especially when he didn't think he earned it in any way. "I'm fine. Just having to put up with living with an annoying teenage boy."

"I should've guessed." Although she loved Peter (and Liz) dearly, she was under no illusions as to how easy he was to get along with for someone like Alec on a regular or even irregular basis. "What did he do this time?"

Alec leaned against the nearest wall. For a moment he was quiet because part of him wasn't sure why he had gotten that angry. And saying them back now almost felt ridiculous and silly.

"He keeps telling everyone he's a fighter, but then gives up so easily when it's shit that should matter."

"Okay." It was filler, letting Alec know she'd heard him but not expressing an opinion about it. She didn't know enough. "What kind of shit are we talking about?"

He looked out across the hall absently.

"He said he'd give Liz up if that other guy from her world show up." He knew the name. He couldn't forget things so it wasn't hard to remember Max. He also knew how it sounded. "Without so much as a fight." And then he had punched him

Max. And Peter. And Liz.

Again.

Kitty sighed and pinched her brow. Not really at Alec, but at the discussion of love by hypothetical. "And you think he should fight for her if he loves her." Obviously. "Did you two even discuss what Liz would want?" It wasn't angry, or even aggro-feminist at this point. Just reflexive. She still had no idea what the context of the argument was.

He rolled his eyes. "It's not even about her. I mean, sure, yeah, about her. She can make whatever damn choice she wants." And currently, maybe, Alec wouldn't blame her for not choosing Peter, but that was him being petty. "It's about Peter saying he's willing to fight who-the-fuck knows and be a superhero, but then to people that matter to him, he'll just sit on his hands and accept fate like he can't at least express interest?" Alec wasn't even sure he was making sense at the moment. "He needs to try harder." And that may, or may not, have sounded more personal than it sounded like it could be directed to a teenager.

Kitty started to get pissy about it not being about Liz, but she listened long enough to realize that this hadn't involved Liz and had been something between the boys. While she wasn't a fan of 'whatever damn choice she wants', Kitty understood unhappy-male well enough to know the difference between that being about Liz and it being about Peter.

Alec obviously had a lot wrapped up in this that didn't have to do with Max and Liz, so she tread carefully in saying, "There's a big difference, though, isn't there, between tying super-assholes up in web-fluid and the kind of fighting you're talking about. Punching bad guys is easy. But who do you punch when the girl you love loves you and someone else?"

The thing was, he wasn't wrong and she met his gaze and told him so. "I'm not saying you're wrong. Because love is always worth fighting for. I'm just saying, he's a kid, and he thinks making the choice simple for her is kindness. You and I know it's being too scared to lose."

It was nice to feel like someone understood, even if it didn't fix the problem he was having with Peter. He felt the regret he had for Rachel seep into his body again. "If he's not careful, he's going to have regrets he can never get back."

Kitty patted the ground next to her. She didn't mind looking up to talk to people, since it happened all the time. But experience told her that if she could get Alec to sit, it would help him ground himself a little and calm down.

"Yeah, he is, for dozens of things," Kitty agreed evenly as she scooted a little to give him some more space. "But no amount of telling him is going to change that. We can try, but he's going to make those mistakes the same as everyone else. You can't protect him from life, Alec. It's just going to happen to him."

Alec paused, then moved to sit on the ground. He didn't often sit on the ground, it left you at a tactical disadvantage.

He didn't like Kitty's explanation, even if he knew she was telling the truth. "I hate teenagers." Was his grumpy response instead.

When Alec sat, Kitty took advantage of the situation to press her shoulder against Alec's. Soothing warmth, for one thing, but for another, he was hyper-vigilant like a lot of recently discharged soldiers. Since he knew she could phase them through a wall if she was touching him, she hoped the body contact would let him relax a little.

"Babe, you don't know the half of it." It occurred to her, though, maybe he did. She gave him a lopsided half-smile. "Unless you've been giving sex and anatomy lessons to Liz too."

Alec stared at her for a moment. That was way more information that he expected. At least it meant Peter was probably way more likely to get lucky than not. "No. I wouldn't say I'm a teenage girl's first stop in the sex ed tour." And he was okay with that. As much as Alec liked women and sex, he didn't do underage - gross and no thank you.

"Peter sometimes brings something up, but he pretty much thinks I'm going to mess with him when I answer." He shrugged. Alec often gave off that vibe.

"And of course, you haven't given him reason. No alien strip clubs, no embarrassing discussions about what he should or shouldn't do with Liz," Kitty said, mouth twitching at the corners with a smile.

Alec was little better than a teenager himself a lot of the time, but she got it. He hadn't ever had a chance to be anything but a soldier. For as little of a childhood as he'd probably had, he really wasn't that bad. Honestly, she expected more from Peter and Liz--

Which was probably why she kept being disappointed.

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