milliways_bar | (no subject)

Danny had a cast on his wrist. His parents and Jazz had been immensely relieved to find out he was okay when he got home, and coming up with an explanation as to why he looked like he'd taken a tumble down a cliff was easy with how trashed the town was. ("I was downtown--got hit with some of the rubble, but I'm okay.") They got him to the hospital, got his wrist in a cast, and took him home, tucking him in and babying him for a bit, before leaving him with Jazz and heading out to clean up the city--sending the remaining ghosts back into the ghost zone.

From their calls back home he and Jazz found out all the portals were clearing up.

Good.

Peace and quiet was a rare commodity indeed.

Before he could relax, however, he desperately needed a shower. He had to take a bath instead because of the cast, with his right arm in a plastic bag and rubber bands on it, to keep it dry. That was annoying.

He would've gotten into his pjs and gone to take another nap, but the bar had other plans.

As such, a lightly bruised teenage boy with wet hair, and wearing naught but a towel and a plastic-bagged, rubber-banded cast walked into the bar, still brushing his teeth distractedly with his good hand.

He blinked his eyes open. When he realized he wasn't in his hallway, he stopped brushing and went scarlet, turning to the door as it snapped shut behind him.

"I sfpill gav to sfpit!" he said to the door around a mouth full of toothpaste mange, his toothbrush still being juggled in his hand as he made sure the towel was secure so no one could see his rear. He tried to open the door and when it wouldn't, he kicked it, then started hopping because he'd hurt his toe. "No fwair!"

But of course this sort of thing would happen to him, considering his pants went clear and fell down at the most inoppurtune times on a regular basis.

Embarassment was his life.

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Unaware of why Danny had paused at all, Katara just smiles when he describes Sam. It's a sweet smile, happy for him, like any girl that hears about a successful relationship.

...and a slightly bitter one, like any girl that's never had a boyfriend.

"You have a lot of help - that must be nice. And meeting people here who would help you, too! That's pretty much the only reason why I can never get too made at Milliways: all the people I've met here."

"They're the best friends a guy could ask for. All of them."

Being Captain Oblivious, he didn't pick up on the bittersweetness.

"And Milliyways is definitely not like any place I've ever been to--and I've been to some really weird places."

There's more sweet than bitter now - Katara knows about best friends.

"Really? Milliways is the weirdest place I've ever been to." She smirks a little and looks up at him, floating there. "But I guess you make a lot of trips to the spirit world, huh?"

"All the time. Actually, when we have time, me and my friends try to map it out--not that everything is stationary, but some things actually stay where you left them."

"Really? What's it like?" Turning toward him, Katara sits cross-legged on the bench. "I've never been before, but Aang has - even Sokka has."

Of course, that was accidentall and he barely even remembered it but-- still!

"I wonder if our spirit worlds are the same one. I bet it's, like, different for each world," he said. "It's a lot of empty space. There's air but gravity works weird. There are these floating hunks of land and sqirling green clouds and doors all over--they can lead to just about anywhere--usually weird absolutely terrifying places. One of them's a door that always comes to the bar. The ghosts I fight, they all have different lairs there."

Katara's head tilts to the side, thoughtful, and she shrugs. "That doesn't sound like anything Aang's ever talked about. But he says the spirit world is huge, so... maybe you just go to a different part of it.

"Aang says it's more like... swampland in some places and up in the clouds in others, or caves... it depends on who he's talking to."

"Maybe. It's...endless, I think. We've gone miles and miles and only charted a tiny part of it," he said. "It's...weird, though."

"Aang says that, too," Katara replies, grinning a little, and draws her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs. "But he likes it. The Air Nomads always had the best connection with the spirit world and he learns a lot when he's there."

"You talk a lot about this Aang guy. You must be close," he said.

"He's my best friend," she says, and her smile is all the more fond for him pointing it out. "My brother and I left home to go with him - we've been all over the world and-- I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."

She misses home, yes, btu she's learned so much, seen so much - and Aang is worth it.

He grinned. "It is worth it, isn't it?"

Once everything changed, you couldn't go back.

Sometimes Danny felt like a freak, but...sometimes he never wanted to go back.

She smiles, chin settled atop her knees.

"Always."