Here's to being human and taking it for granted

There are days that she really just felt like she needed to talk. Days where she just needed to relax and get everything off her chest that she liked to keep pent up. With the whole trying to go sober thing seeming to kill her most days (rather figuratively), and with so many ups and downs just so frequently in life recently, she felt like, with everything starting to get pulled back together, it was time that she go to one of her oldest friends and just talk about, well, everything. She almost felt bad going to someone other than Aileen but, well, she didn't really feel like she needed the comments that would come from it with her. Not at the moment. So why go to her when she had someone else, someone she had known for ages? She'd surely talk to Aileen about it all eventually, especially considering she and James hadn't been necessarily trying to be as secretive about it all as they likely should have. Although could anyone really blame her? Hell, she was certain most of them had a bidding pool on her and him.

There was one person she knew she could fully trust talking to, though, someone she knew wouldn't necessarily have been in such a pool. Or, at the very least, she could have hoped he wouldn't have been. To think, Ginnie was going to a guys place for what could probably be thought of as girl talk. She'd have to make it up to Aileen if she ever found out. Best friend or no, Rupert was someone she'd known all her life, she'd grown up around him, had always had his back in a way. He was like family, a brother she likely didn't need but certainly wanted. So why not go to him? And while she knew there was the possibility of him not being there, of this all being a wasted trip considering he did do work with both SHIELD and the Avengers. Still, she liked to think that she had a good enough grasp on the mainframe that the deployment lists she pulled up were accurate. He should be home, right? Right.

With a six pack in one hand (and she doesn't consider it going against her sobering up as, well... it's just a bit of social drinking, yeah?), she precariously balanced a couple of pizzas on top. Coming right up to his door, she paused. She hadn't thought this through, had she? She tried shifting things around, hoping to free up a hand but nothing good was going to come out of that, she knew that for a fact. Common sense was something she'd always been a bit slow with, unfortunately. With a soft sigh, she finally just went to using her foot to kick at the door lightly before doing her best to shimmy the door open. It wasn't nearly as hard as she thought it would be. "Hey Rupe, you home? I brought gifts of beer and pizza."

xxx	Rupert Rhodes
the real versions of these two threading is long overdue

The highs and lows of living, to getting second chances

✿

Rupert hadn't had work that day. SHIELD hadn't needed him and nothing had come up that either the police or Avengers needed help with, but that didn't mean Rupert was going to be idle. Having nothing productive to do with his day tended to leave him antsy, so after doing a quick tidy of the house he'd plugged in his treadmill and changed into something he could work out in. A couple of kilometres, maybe some free weights or bench pressing and working a bag for a bit. After that, maybe he could feel justified in relaxing. He'd put on a movie or something.

Pretty much as soon as he got on the treadmill, however, he heard somebody scrabbling at his door. He pulled the cord to turn the machine off, running with it for the last few seconds, and then stepped away to look into the hallway. SHIELD hadn't got him paranoid enough to grab a gun anytime someone he wasn't expecting showed up, but it never hurt to be cautious. He stood in what could easily become a stance if he had to, his feet shoulder width apart and his hands lightly curled into fists. If it came to a fight, he'd have to rely on the gun taped to the underside of the dining room table - SHIELD's idea, not his. The suit was upstairs and, besides, it took minutes to put on.

His mental preparations turned out to be for nought, however, as Ginnie Stark stepped through. True, it could be an impostor, as recent events had proven, but Ginnie's had never been sighted and he was pretty sure, if Ginnie wanted him dead, she'd have come with several tons of gold-titanium ally and laser-based weaponry, rather than food and drink.
"Ginnie!" He said, a small smile breaking out across his face as he saw her, "This is a surprise." Sure, they worked together these days, but he still didn't see her quite as much as he'd like.

"Everything okay?" He asked her. He knew she could be spontaneous if she really felt like it, but he also knew she typically felt much happier with a plan in place, and he was guessing she'd come here for more than a pizza night. Still, he wasn't going to complain. Slightly ruing the calories he'd never had the chance to burn, he moved to take the pizza off her hands and put it on the meticulously neat table in the front room. "Take a seat," He told her