Timelined after Family Traits
<Hope> Rule number 1... cell phones do not take hits against the wall very well. Rule number 2... Tony Stark thinks his child shouldn't throw phones against the wall, even when aimed at a Press Secretary's head. Rule number 3... said child must wait until shes back in Boston before she is allowed another cell phone for nearly hitting said press secretary in the head.
<Hope> Thus rules left Hope Stark one angry ginger as she sat at her desk in the residence. She had the phone entirely taken apart, trying desperately to fix the broken connections and repair the damage. It was useless. She must have slipped with a power again, because it was dead, dead, dead. She sighed and threw her screwdriver down as thunder boomed outside.
<Bobby> Somehow, Bobby knew he got this gig because she couldn't actually kill him. Rapping out a shave-and-a-haircut knock on his way into the office, Bobby decided icing up first probably sent the wrong message. "Hey hey Hopey Wopey!"
<Hope> "Hey." She ran both hands through her hair, looking over at him. "Did you see the bullshit? Did you see this ever loving bullshit?!" She pulled the newspaper off of her desk, shoving it at him. Right there, on the front page of the tabloid, was not one, but two pictures of her with Prince Harry.
<Hope> The first was her and Harry in the garden, which didn't show the numerous others who had been there, with them laughing together, looking quite cozy. The second had been snapped at the state dinner where they had danced together. She wasn't sure how, but they had managed to make that look cozy and romantic too.
<Hope> The kicker, the icing with the cherry on top, wasn't the pictures. It was the headline. "Cinderella Finds her Prince Charming."
<Bobby> "Yeah, I saw the bullshit, babe..." Bobby parked himself on the desk and looked at it. "Not sure why you're surprised though..."
<Hope> "I guess I shouldn't be, they love pairing the gingers up. But seriously?! Can I not catch a break!? I just posed for pictures, and they've already got me moving on to someone else." She threw the paper back down. "Can't we do something? What's the point of my dad being the president if I don't get a life whatsoever."
<Bobby> "Next time pose with me?" Bobby gave her a duck face over the paper and dropped it back onto the desk. "At least this time it's with somebody actually... good for your image? I mean it is Prince Harry... you guys can just laugh over it."
<Hope> "Harry found it hilarious. The Queen was not amused. I'm just so tired of it. What's the point in doing things right when nobody believes you are?"
<Bobby> "Doing what right?" He swung his legs and kicked the desk, then realized he probably shouldn't and stopped.
<Bobby> "Doing what right?" He swung his legs and kicked the desk, then realized he probably shouldn't and stopped.
<Hope> "I mean. I broke up with Chris. I haven't been out drinking and sleeping around and shit. I mean, yeah I kissed Shinobi... but it was a kiss. Nothing more. I've done everything right, and I'm still crucified as the Stark party girl."
<Bobby> "Yeah, and although I know you're super excited about that.... whole... Shark thing..." Bobby made a distressed face and waved a vague hand. "You are still a Stark, y'know, and since your old man has slowed down a little... up to you to carry the party torch in the press."
<Hope> "But I slowed down too... just nobody seems to notice. It's like that saying? Damned if you do, damned if you don't? So why bother?" She got up from her desk and moved to the window as another clap of thunder rolled across the sky.
<Bobby> "Well, 'cause it's good for you?" He shrugged and watched her, then decided the time was now. "Hope..."
<Bobby> "Well, 'cause it's good for you?" He shrugged and watched her, then decided the time was now. "Hope..."
<Hope> "If it was so good... maybe it would feel better..." she muttered, looking back at him.
<Bobby> He picked up on that, but decided not to comment, since his mind immediately went to a bad, bad place involving her and Sharky's crazy son. Ew. "Um... your flight back to Boston is being held..."
<Hope> "My flight... is what?!" She turned to face him fully.
<Bobby> Yeah there was the explosion. "The storm," he gestured at the window.
<Hope> "You've got to be fucking kidding me!"
<Bobby> "Can't control mother nature," he said with a shrug. "Well. You could. I could, even, but not really for this..."
<Hope> "So I'm stuck here with no phone... and no plane. Fantastic." She turned away, staring out the window again. "At least it isn't snow I guess. But damnit!"
<Bobby> "Yeah, but it's ice... that's kinda worse as far as planes are concerned, so we gotta wait it out." Bobby hadn't witnessed the phone incident, but word traveled quick, so he'd heard.
<Hope> "Ice?! Can you like, go melt it?!"
<Bobby> "....can you?" Bobby gave her the look reserved for crazies.
<Hope> "Hell yes I can. Let's go!" She went for the closet, looking for a rain coat. And boots. And hat.
<Bobby> Bobby jumped off the desk. "No, Hope... no. Y-you can't," he said, ducking in front of her. "That was something called sarcasm. Remember that?"
<Hope> "Why the hell not?!" She challenged him, crossing her arms over her chest. "You can't tell me you don't want to get back to your kid. To your fiancee. Nice springy blonde curls... big blue eyes... come on Bobby. Let's go home."
<Bobby> "Well, yeah." Now she got the duh look. "But it's just a few hours, and I'd rather not worry her with something little like... oh, I don't know... a plane crash?"
<Hope> "Like you could be taken out by a plane crash. Come on!" She made an exasperated noise and moved back to the phone. "Maybe I can fix this... Stupid Tony. Stupid papers."
<Bobby> "It's just a few hours," he repeated, not dignifying that plane crash comment. Then he frowned and followed her yet again, this time back to the desk. "Why are you freaking out? This is just... normal drama."
<Hope> "You wouldn't understand." She turned the lamp on so she could better see, putting the pieces of the phone back together.
<Bobby> Bobby rolled his eyes heavenward. "But daaaaaad, you just wouldn't, like, understaaaaaand!" His voice cracked on the bad falsetto.
<Hope> "You wouldn't," she pointed out, focusing on her work.
<Bobby> "Yeah, yeah, try me." He plonked himself back down on the desk, watching her do... whatever the hell she was doing.
<Hope> "So... some people aren't exactly happy that I broke up with Chris. Namely Chris and his... whatever she is." She glanced up at Bobby. "I took a lot of hell for the first pictures."
<Bobby> "Yeah, he broke a lot of shit... probably better off without that." Bobby liked Chris, but, well... crazypants. "He harassing you?"
<Hope> "He hasn't spoken to me since that day. Kat, on the other hand... was an issue."
<Bobby> Bobby rolled his eyes. "Well, not like you'd even see her unless you went to the school..."
<Hope> "I kind of need to graduate you know," she pointed out. "Kind of have to go."
<Bobby> "Yeah, well, just ignore her? And if we gotta, Lehnsherr can tell her to just mind her own bee's wax, y'know?"
<Hope> "See this is why you're my favorite," Hope told him with a smile.
<Bobby> "Well yeah, I'm the cool guard." Bobby put on his cheesiest grin.
<Hope> "And so damn punny." She shoved him playfully.
<Bobby> "The punniest!" Bobby rolled with the shove and pretended to half fall off the desk. "Abuse!"
<Hope> "You are definitely being repressed," she shoved him again, grinning.
<Bobby> "Be careful, if I feel too threatened I might poof, and then no pants... nobody wants that." He laughed. "Well, Paige, but she's not here... unfortunately."
<Hope> "Oh GOD keep the pants on!" She shuddered, shoving him away. "You should bring her next time. Though you'd subject her to Tony flirting. Which is ew. I mean it's ew when you two do it? But super ew when he does it."
<Bobby> "But it's not ew when you and Harry do it?" He laughed at the continued shoving and finally sat up.
<Hope> "Yes that's very ew! We didn't flirt! You ass." She was out of things to throw at him. "I should have brought Carol."
<Bobby> "Oh, like she would have giggled along with you on the way here?" Bobby batted his lids at her. "Eeeeee, I kissed him! Twice!" he mimicked, complete with flaily hands. "It was magic! The earth moved! Or maybe that was gas... now that is ew!"
<Hope> "Oh shut up," she told him, lowering her head to work again.
<Bobby> Well, well... nerve strike. Bobby moved back in close, looking over her shoulder at the phone. "Hmm.... so that is totally why you're in a big hurry to get back..."
<Hope> She tried to shoo him with her hand. "I'm trying to work here, Drake," she snapped.
<Bobby> "Mmmmhmmm...."
<Hope> Sighing, she looked up at him, nearly jumping at how close he was. "Look... he gave me hell for the pictures too. And I can't even warn him. Not unless I fix this."
<Bobby> "He gave you hell for the pictures? He was in the pictures!"
<Hope> "Not that one, the ones we staged."
<Bobby> "Why would he caaaoooh... oh, shit. He was jealous?" Bobby made a sour face at this concept.
<Hope> Hope just rolled her eyes. "There you go, genius."
<Bobby> "So you two really are..." His face further screwed up.
<Hope> "Are what?" She pressed, looking up at him.
<Bobby> "...together..." He couldn't have looked more uncomfortable if she'd stripped naked and started making out with her absent boytoy right in front of him.
<Hope> "No. We aren't. So you can stop making that face already," She shot him a look before going back to work. "Though... I'm considering it. The only reason we aren't is so people won't accuse me or us of rushing this time."
<Bobby> "Yeah, well, you kinda did... last time." He tried to relax the face. A little. "But I guess it's sort of... a different situation?" Bobby shrugged. "Other than the part where he's a crazy assassin Acolyte and shit..."
<Hope> Laughing, Hope sighed a bit. "Yeah, that whole thing. But we've all done things under mind control. We all know what that's like. And this is a completely different situation." She leaned back in her chair, looking up at him. "I've been in his mind. Several times."
<Bobby> The horrified face returned.
<Hope> "He's not dangerous," she told Bobby, poking him.
<Bobby> "He was an Acolyte." Bobby shifted away from the poke. "And wasn't he raised by Doc Feelgood or something?"
<Hope> "And I was the horsemen War. Shit happens." She went back to her work.
<Bobby> Bobby sighed. Loudly.
<Hope> "And one of you killed people without mind control," she reminded him.
<Bobby> He froze in place without benefit of his powers, staring at her wide-eyed, then looked away. "That was different..."
<Hope> "Was it?" She asked, looking over at him. "Everyone is so quick to condemn Shinobi for a past that he had no control over. Nobody is giving him a damn chance for what he is doing with his life now that he's free."
<Bobby> "We... were trying to stop it from ever happening again. We were wrong," he said quietly. "He joined up with Essex and Apocalypse for his own gain, just like Fabian."
<Hope> "He was in a home run by Essex. Bobby he has my life if I had ended up in the wrong place. If the wrong person had found me. You chose your path. he didn't."
<Bobby> "Okay, okay." Bobby held up his hands in defeat. "I can tell you really like him. Still... we're stuck for a while." He slid off the desk and gave her a friendly slap on the shoulder. "Just sit tight and you'll be back to lover boy soon enough."
<Hope> "Goh!" Hope rubbed her shoulder. "I still think we could go out there and deice the plane and get home by dinner time."
<Bobby> "Babe... if we fucked it up, trying to deice the thing in the air? We would survive, but what about the crew? And the press..." He shuddered and flicked her hair for good measure. "Sharky junior can wait."
<Hope> Sighing again, she threw her screwdriver down. "Guess I don't have much choice."
<Bobby> "Newp. Not for now." After a moment, he sighed. "Come on, let's go get some coffee."
<Hope> "Only if it comes with scotch," Hope relented, getting to her feet.