MCA0: Monday Night

[needsaparrot]

If Xander's been a little clingy today - like "Call me when you get out of class and come straight back here plz" clingy - who's going to mock him for it? After landing on your ass in Prohibition-Era Chicago, not knowing what might happen if the folks in Fandom didn't find a way to get you all home, and spending a month away from everyone you know

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[bridge_carson]

Somebody else isn't exactly complaining, here. At either the attachedness or the popcorn. "Missed this," he murmurs.

[bridge_carson]

Bridge shrugs. "It wasn't a big deal," he says, oblivious to what Xander's implying.

[needsaparrot]

Honestly, truly and honestly, Xander hadn't asked because he'd been worried about who Bridge had been doing for the last eight months. The thought never, despite the comparison he'd made to himself back in Sunnydale, even entered his mind. Which means that his flailing now is completely genuine. And extra-flaily.

"You what now? how is that NOT A BIG DEAL?"

[bridge_carson]

"I had to eat!" Bridge replies, genuinely confused now.

[needsaparrot]

"Well, of course you had to eat." Xander's somewhere between guilty and appalled at the idea that Bridge could have ended up someplace where that was his only option. and still flailing. "I'm not, I'm not like, mad, I'm just. Just. How is that not a big DEAL?"

[bridge_carson]

"...Because I use my powers to find stuff all the time? This wasn't that different."

[needsaparrot]

"How is using your powers to find stuff the same as --" Xander stops, teetering on one of those rare, thrice-in-a-lifetime moments when he actually realizes he's being an idiot before he says something incredibly stupid.

He's just not sure how he's being an iodiot yet.

"Um. Wait. What is using your powers to find stuff the same as?"

[bridge_carson]

"Well, I've tracked stuff before," Bridge says. "But, you know, usually I've got a vague idea of what- or who- I was looking for. It was a bit different when all I had to go on was 'interesting stuff I can trade'," he shrugs. "Admittedly it helped that just about anything was bound to be considered 'interesting' by someone down there."

[needsaparrot]

"Oh. Ah. Stuff. Right. To trade." He knew that. Really.

[bridge_carson]

"Yeah," Bridge says slowly, giving Xander an odd look. "...What did you *think* I meant?"

[needsaparrot]

"Um." This? Would not be one of those anti-idiot moments. "Well. I didn't know! I mean. Because I didn't think you would, but like you said you had to eat, and you kind of sort know how from that one weekend, and what did you think I meant when I said you didn't with my who the hell would put vegemite on a Twinkie face anyway?"

[bridge_carson]

Once Bridge actually parses all that, his only response is to stare at Xander. A lot.

[needsaparrot]

"What?"

[bridge_carson]

"I- you thought- that I- that..." he babbles. "I wouldn't!" he yelps.

[needsaparrot]

"Well I KNOW! Which is why I said you didn't! Except if you were starving I could see how you might have had to."

[bridge_carson]

"Even then," Bridge shakes his head. "I wouldn't. You're the only one I've ever, well... and that's important, to me."