milliways_bar | (no subject)

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"Just leave me alone, I'm not doing anything to you."
"You're in the way Sandy."
"Let's put him out of the way."

The door swings shut - a gym locker door today - with an eight-year-old Guppy with his coat and jumper hooked neatly onto the peg so that his legs dangle. He looks surprised to say the least that he's ended up back in the bar he was in the other day, but right now is more concerned about what his mum will say about the stretched jumper. He squirms, trying to lift himself up on the peg so that he can unhook himself.

And then sighs, because being stuck on the inside of a locker door is just plain embarrassing.

Little help over here?

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Molly hears the giggling. It sounds suspiciously like the sort of giggling the girls at her home used to indulge in, before she found a frog in her bed or something.

(Not that Molly's scared of frogs - how could she be? - but that's not the point. Stupid girls.)

Milkshake and dinner are promptly abandoned in favour of the little kid hanging on the door.

"...Dude, what happened to you? D'you want a hand?"

Going red in embarrassment, the little boy nods.

It takes her a second to figure out how to achieve this without hurting him.

"Okay, I'm gonna grab your legs and raise you up off the hook-thing, okay? You'll have to push away from the door so the hook doesn't catch again."

"Please don't hurt me." he says in a small whimper, but nods.

"Not gonna hurt you," she says, shocked at the very idea. "Promise. I'm totally a super hero, and we only hurt bad people."

Which is a bit simplistic, even by Molly's standards, but then Guppy's currently even smaller than she is, so that's probably okay.

She kneels, and grabs his legs, supporting him. "Okay, gonna lift you now, 'kay?"

Super hero or not, she's a kid, and a bigger one than he is.

He nods and looks at her nervously.

Her eyes flash pink, just for a second, although she could probably do this easily enough without her powers.

Molly lifts him easily, as though he doesn't weigh anything at all.

"Are you off the peg now?"

Guppy pushes up and disentangles his jumper.

"Yeah, thanks."

He wobbles forwards.

Molly lifts him well away from the door before carefully putting him down.

"'re you okay now?"

"Fine thanks miss." he fibs.

Raised eyebrow. "You're totally a sucky liar. And I'm Molly, not miss. C'mon."

She tugs him gently in the direction of her table. "I've got fries and milkshake, you can share. And you can tell me what happened, if y' want."

He pulls his arm away quickly and cowers back.

"I don't have anything you want."

"Well, d'uh. 'Cause I don't want anything. Not from you, anyway. But I've got food, and this totally awesome milkshake Bar always makes for me, and you can share. 's not like there isn't always plenty more."

She headtilts down at him, concerned. "I'm not gonna hurt you or anything, kid. Cross my heart."

He hesitates. But the big kids here yesterday didn't hurt him, so he follows cautiously.

She slides back into her booth and pats the seat next to her for him to join her.

"What's your name, anyway?"

He does join her.

"Gurpreet miss."

"...Oh." She looks at him again, more thoughtfully this time. "I've got a friend called Gurpreet. He looks a bit like you, but he's lots older. Like, grown up. And I call him Fish."

She pushes the plate of french fries over. "Want one? They're good. And I said, my name's Molly. Miss is for teachers and maybe other grown-ups."

"Jake calls me Fish." Guppy says, looking longingly at the fries but unsure whether he dares take one.

"Yeah, he sa..." Molly breaks off, to blink at him. "Oh. Okay."

A certain conversation with Monk at the party means she can join the dots. It also means she's rather more blase about said dots than she might otherwise be.

"I did say you could have one, y'know," she says instead, seeing him look at the fries. She nudges the plate further in his direction and takes one herself, nibbling it thoughtfully.

"Thanks."

He cautiously reaches out and picks the smallest one.

"Have as many as you want," she says easily. "Loads more where they came from."

She picks up her milkshake and sips it contemplatively. "So, what happened to you? D'you wanna tell me?"

"I got hung on a peg." he says quietly.

It happened to the mun's brother once. He got lines for it, which highlights the injustice in the world.

She nods. "Other kids being mean?"

He looks at his feet and fidgets.

That'll be a yes.

She puts an arm gently around his small shoulders.

"The other kids used to do stuff like that to me, at the Home," Molly says quietly. "The girls, mostly. 'Cause my powers are really not-girly and 'cause they said I was weird. They trashed my room, the one day, so I got mad and I chucked my bed at them. After that, they didn't even pretend to be nice- just acted like I didn't exist."

She's never actually told anyone this before. Not even the other Runaways.