Title: Sisterly Advice
Author: sandoziscariot
Fandom: Runaways
Pairing: Chase/Gert, one-sided Molly/Victor
Rating: PG
Words: 1000
Written for: 30caresses
Prompt: 023: Am I jaded?
Disclaimer: Runaways was created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona and is the property of Marvel Comics.
Summary: Gert has never been the slumber party type. Molly has other ideas.
Gert had never been the slumber party type. Sitting in bed with Salinger and a cup of very hot tea had always seemed more pleasurable to her than giggling over Justin Timberlake scrapbooks and using a hairbrush for a microphone. But of the three older girls who made up their little club, it was not Shiny Happy Karolina or edgy, fashionable Nico whom Molly had chosen for a surrogate sister. Gert did not reject the role, though there were some parts of the job she wished she could skip.
Like boy talk.
"Are you gonna marry Chase?"
Gert blinked, unsure of what she just heard. Molly sat cross-legged on the floor in front of Gert with her panda bear hat by her feet. Gert was running a hairbrush through Molly's tangled hair. Both girls were in their pajamas.
"We're underage. And we're fugitives."
"Geeeeeert. You know what I mean," Molly said. Gert could picture Molly rolling her eyes even when facing the back of her head.
Gert exhaled. "Well, why are you asking?"
Molly shrugged. "I dunno. I think about it sometimes. Like, what I want to do when I grow up. I totally want to have a career and join the X-Men and stuff, but I wanna have a husband too."
"Wolverine?" Gert asked with a knowing smirk.
"Ew, no, he smells."
"And he's way too old for you." Setting down the brush, Gert picked up the yellow ribbon she planned to tie in Molly's hair.
Molly began to bounce her knees up and down, like she did sometimes when she was impatient or nervous. "Um, I think I want to marry someone else now. Maybe, um…Victor."
"Victor?!" Gert tried not to laugh. Victor had only been on the team for a few weeks; he was gradually earning his place among them despite the protestations of a strapping but suspicious Leapfrog pilot who would remain nameless. "Why him?"
Molly fidgeted, and Gert made an effort not to pull her hair as she braided it. "Remember Halloween?" Molly asked. "I wanted to go trick-or-treating but we couldn't because we had to stop some bad guys? Victor bought me a candied apple."
"Candied apples. Caramel and nuts with a healthy fruit center. Insidious."
"Geeeeeert!"
"Okay!" Gert said, giving Molly's braid-in-progress a gentle tug. "So you're crushing on the Telemundo version of Data. But if you're on the X-Men and he ends up joining the Avengers, it's going to be a long distance relationship."
Molly made a small "hmm" sound, like she hadn't thought of that before. "But if we get together, I'll be with him all the time so I'll know right away if she starts to go robo-crazy. And I'll stop him from being evil because we're in love so much. It'll be like a comic book."
Gert was never the type for believing in "the power of childhood innocence" either, but she smiled anyway. But there was much more than a hopeful note in Molly's voice, like the twelve-year-old was reaching for something else besides a fantasy superhero wedding. Gert thought she caught the unsaid sentence attached: And if Victor's not evil, you won't die.
"Don't get too hung up on the future, Mol," Gert said, feeling that this was the closest to true sisterly advice she could give. "The present is what matters."
Molly seemed to think about her reply. "Is that irony, Gert?"
"What?"
"That, like, your parents could travel to the past and future whenever they wanted but you like staying in the present."
"Something like that, Mol."
Gert let the thought pass. She tied the yellow ribbon into a bow, and swung the rope-like braid over Molly's shoulder. "There, you're all done."
Molly responded by scooting around so that she faced Gert and plopping her panda hat back on top of her head. "So, are you going to marry Chase?"
After Molly's openness about Victor, Gert felt that she owed her an honest response. "Someday, years from now, if we're not busted by Excelsior, then maybe. Yeah."
Molly grinned. "Cool."
"Not that we have to get married," Gert added, touching Molly's nose with the tip of her finger. "This is the twenty-first century. And if we did, I'd keep my name. There's already one Gertrude Stein in the history books."
Molly wrinkled her brow, thinking hard. "Wait, that's not another alternate you, is it?"
Handing Molly her hairbrush, Gert said, "Okay, definitely time for bed."
"Awwww." Molly groaned, shaking her head in protest. "I can't believe I still have a bedtime. Not fair."
"Life's not fair, little dude," Chase said from the open doorway, his hands in his pockets. He sauntered into the bedroom and leaned down to kiss the top of Gert's head.
Molly stood up and stuck out her tongue. "If you're getting lovey dovey, I'm totally going. Thanks, Gert."
"Sweet dreams, Molly," Gert replied. The younger girl closed the door behind her as she left.
"Ahhh," Chase half-yawned, throwing himself down on the bed with his arms and legs outstretched. "Soooo….Molly and the Vicinator? That's scary."
Gert rose to her feet. "Oh, is that all you can say?"
"What?" Chase sat up, flashing Gert his best yearbook smile. "I'm just an innocent eavesdropper."
"No jury in the world would convict you."
Chase threw back his head and laughed like the owner of a winning lotto ticket. "You want to marry me."
"Come on, you want to say more than that." Gert sat on the bed beside him and ran her hand through his hair. Her fingers curled into a fist and yanked his head down in imitation of a death grip. Her voice was teasing. "No macho comments about me not taking your name in this crazy fantasy wedding of ours?"
Tugging on her elbow, Chase pulled Gert down to lie beside him. "If anything, babe, I'd take your name. Chase Yorkes has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"