Round Two

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry's still rather new to this whole Milliways business, and it takes him a good while to accept the fact that he went through the front door from Perry's house, and has now gone back through that same door to find himself in a completely different house.

He's going to ignore the whole other country business all together. For now.

"That's, uhm... What the fuck?"

OK, he wasn't sure what was going to happen, but this was not it.

Comments

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry's finding all this a bit difficult to keep up with, but that's pretty much par for the course.

"Oh. Uhm. OK."

Hey, at least she's not yelling at him. This day could have gone much worse.

He takes the shoes and puts them on. They're a bit big on him, but it probably doesn't help that his idea of tying them is just pulling the laces tight and letting them just dangle.

What can we say? He's a bit of a child sometimes.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

"Do you know how to lace shoes? You'll fall over, and knowing this place, onto broken glass. And I'd hate for that pretty face to get ruined. I'm sure your young lady and possibly scary room-mate would agree."

Mary picks up the Indian menu.

"Do you want curry?"

[captain_fucking_magic]

"No, it's fine. We're not going very far anyway, are we?"

He tucks the laces into the side of the shoes, though. Easier than tying them, apparently.

"I don't know. Is it good?"

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

"Have you never had curry?" This seems completely unthinkable. "Gosh. Okay, we're getting Indian. Do you like chicken, beef or lamb? Also, how do you feel about spicy food?"

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Uh... Yes?"

That's a lot of questions at once. 'Yes' seems like a safe answer for most of them.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

He's really not very bright, is he? Mary feels a bit protective, and considers tying him to her belt when they actually leave the house. No, wait, that would probably be mad. Probably. He looks the wandering off type.

"Okay. I'll order something and you can try a bit of everything. And they're pretty good about taking half an hour to get here, so we can bob down the shop."

Mary grabs the housephone and makes a quick phone-call.

"Come on." She grabs his hand (she doesn't have string to attach him to anything anyway) and drags him out.

[captain_fucking_magic]

No, he really isn't. But he tries, so that must count for something, right?

"OK, I'm not really sure what you just said, because I'm pretty sure half of that wasn't even English."

He follows after without protest anyway, and once they're outside, can't hide the slight amount of wide-eyed wonder at actually being in London. At this point, he's pretty much ready to believe anything he hears about Milliways.

Also, Mary should be pleased to discover, he's not really much of the wondering off type. If anything, he's the can't-really-shake-him-off type.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

Mary grins at his face and resists the urge to pinch his cheeks. Clearly its a survival mechanism. Cute the enemy into confusion.

"This is Brixton." She points around her. "That street goes to the river, and to the bit they like to film for rom-coms and things. And that way goes to Hyde Park, and that way will take you to the Meridian line." She squeezes his hand and hauls him down the street.

"You should come back in daylight sometime. We'll have a proper look round."

[captain_fucking_magic]

Hey, don't knock it. It's worked before with excellent results.

"Do I look like I watch rom-coms?" Harry asks. He's trying to sound macho, but failing a bit. Harry's never been good at macho.

"Hey, I won't get in trouble for being here, will I?" he asks. "Like, they won't ask to see my ID and then arrest me because I don't have any papers or anything, will they?"

Hey, when you've lived the sort of life Harry has, you learn to be cautious as hell about everything. How do you think he's still alive?

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

"Only if you go to a police station and shout 'I have no papers and no idea how I got here!' I expect."
Mary slows down a bit.

"Contrary to popular belief, England is full of Americans who all think it's a great place to be and whatever. Even if we don't have grits. What are grits?"

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Kind of like oatmeal," Harry says. "But with corn."

Actually, it's more like Weetabix, but he's never heard of Weetabix.

"My mom used make them with breakfast. They're not bad, actually."

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

"Ah, another cultural gap bridged." Mary says solemnly, leading them to a little corner-shop. "So is it sweet?"

She grabs milk, and then a few bags of sweets. If she gets bored she can just spend the evening seeing how many she can plant on Harry before he leaves. (Because the idea of him taking off the hoodie and scattering Smarties or Skittles across his scary flatmate's hardwood floor makes her giggle.)

[captain_fucking_magic]

"They can be, yeah," he says. "If you put like, honey or maple syrup or something on it."

He follows her into the shop and immediately shoves his hands deep into his pockets. He hadn't realised how nervous he was until stepping inside, and now it's all he can think about.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

Mary's a little distracted by shiny things, so she doesn't notice till they get to the counter that he's all hunched up like that. She touches his arm.

"You're not claustrophobic are you? Sorry, I didn't realise how little this place is."

It's about the size of someone's front-room, probably because once that's what it was, and a little bit of everything is shoved in with no real regard for whether it fits or was ever asked for more than once.

[captain_fucking_magic]

He shakes his head. "No," he says. "I'm just... wait outside."

And that's where he goes. He even manages to keep his hands to himself while he goes there.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Another mental one. Mary finished up paying Mrs Singh, who's very deaf, and jogs out to meet him. She puts her hand on his arm, keeping it there this time.

"Are you alright?"

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry still looks uncomfortable, but not nearly as bad as he was in the shop.

"Yeah. What'd you get? Anything good?"

His hands are still in his pockets. Just in case. Or something.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

Mary gives him a considering look, then evidentially decides a) his crazy isn't catching, b) he hasn't done anything too mental yet, and c) her British heritage demands she pretend there is no such thing as personal problems.

"Oh, a bunch of stuff. I figure if we don't hate each other by the end of the movie, we can make a night of it."

She holds out her hand to him, inviting him to take it. If he is a nutter, he really shouldn't be allowed to wander off, and if he's not, well, he's still cute.

[captain_fucking_magic]

He finally pulls his hands out of his (still empty) pockets, and takes hers. After all, it's only hand-holding. Nothing harmful about that.

"Well, that depends on if the movie scares me off or not. It might be weird watching some guy who looks like me."

He goes with her though, and doesn't even seem like he's about to wander off at all.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

"If it's weird we'll switch it off and find something else."

Mary shrugs. She sets a bit of a pace, because she's worried she'll miss the take-away delivery person. And then, because she's pretty nosy when she's not completely intimidated:

"So are you sure you don't want to tell me what happenened back there?"

Also if he's going to murder her and put bits of her down the sink she'd like some warning.

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry gives her a look that says he'd rather not talk about it, but he doesn't feel like he has much of a choice.

"I steal shit. I told you that. Sometimes it's all I can think about."

He shrugs awkwardly, but doesn't take his hand away.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

"Oh."

Way to make it awkward. At least she knows he's not going to murder her. She slows down a bit as they draw near her place, swinging the shopping bag thoughtfully.

"Yes, but you didn't steal anything. And it's not like it'd be hard in there or anything. So, that's a good thing, right?"

She gives his hand a hopefully reassuring squeeze and hands him the bag to fumble for her key.

[captain_fucking_magic]

Hey, she asked.

"Yeah, I'm... I'm working on it. I don't even know why I do it. I just, you know, feel like I have to for some reason. Is that fucked up? I think it might be fucked up."

He shrugs as though this is a perfectly normal thing to be discussing.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

"It's probably a little messed up. But that's okay. Some of my favourite people are a little messed up. It's why I like them."

She pauses on the step to look him squarely in the eye (which the narration only comments on because that doesn't happen much to Mary step).

"What is it with the people I know not thinking they're any good?" With this cryptic comment, she kisses him on the cheek, (because he does tend to stand there like an idiot) gets the door open and leaves him to make his own way up the stairs.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Huh?"

Well, he didn't expect any of that, so it takes him a few moments to catch up mentally before following after her.

"Wait, what did you mean by that? I don't--I mean..."

OK, he just doesn't know, apparently.