Xander's Workshop, MCA Roof, Early Sunday Evening

[needsaparrot]

It'd been one of those weekends. If by that you mean "those weekends you dream about and then wake up promising yourself never to touch runny cheese at a college mixer ever, ever again."

Still, he had a guest, of sorts, and he might as well show her that he did something besides Apartment Managing, without showing her the other thing he did besides Apartment Managing. Which was why they were currently in the elevator heading for the roof of the building.
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[OOC: for the parental unit! B-word-person also welcome laterwards, if desired.]

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[takemyfamilyplz.livejournal.com]

"So what's up here?" Jessica asked, curious more than anything else. "You got a motorcycle or something up here?" If it were Tony, it would totally be a motorcycle. One he would never be able to fix. But absent that, she was kind of stumped.

[needsaparrot]

"...How would I get it down? There's a --" Right, she was not going to believe shuttle bay. "Helipad, though."

[takemyfamilyplz.livejournal.com]

"For serious?" Jessica laughed, amused. "Anybody ever used it?"

[needsaparrot]

"Once in a while? It's empty right now, though." Except for, let's see, Anakin's shuttle, the SPD thing Dr. Manx had brought, and a couple of other things that he wasn't about to show her. Luckily you couldn't actually see the landing pads from the elevator foyer, which hove into view as the doors slid open. Xander pointed to the right, towards the (thankfully empty) garage, and his workshop. "This way."

[takemyfamilyplz.livejournal.com]

"'kay." Jessica followed him along, wondering again. "I saw Willow up at the school. Had a real nice talk with her. Did she get work done on her eyes? Or a chemical peel? 'Cause I swear, she looks the same as she did in high school."

[needsaparrot]

"Clean living?" Xander suggested nervously.

[takemyfamilyplz.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, sure. She said water. You could stand to be drinking that water, you know," Jessica told him. "Me, I could never stand that, but you're still young. Even if you're not as young as your boyfriend," she added under her breath.

[needsaparrot]

The Harris definition of under your breath is not everyone's. Xander winced, because really? Not over that. Possibly by December.

"You'd be surprised how old I feel some days," he muttered. He opened the door to his workshop and turned on the light. A half-finished bench for the lobby was spread out on the worktable, legs not yet attached.

"This is the other thing I do," he said.

[takemyfamilyplz.livejournal.com]

Squinting for a moment, Jessica walked in, and looked around, not quite getting it. "You fix stuff?" she asked, tilting her head at the bench. "They pay you extra for that?"

[needsaparrot]

"Sometimes? I helped reconstruct the school this summer. But this is just a project."

[takemyfamilyplz.livejournal.com]

"Project," Jessica repeated, then slowly frowned. "Wait, wait. Wait, you designed it?" She got a little closer to get a better look at it, then pointed from it to Xander. "You did this?"

[needsaparrot]

Xander shrugged. "Sure. Carpentry and construction's my thing. The apartment manager deal was kind of an accident."

[takemyfamilyplz.livejournal.com]

"You didn't even take Shop," Jessica said, then paused, thinking. "Or wait, did you take Shop?" Because maybe she's forgotten. It's been a while. "This is... it's nice." Really nice, the kind of thing people pay money for. And after a second, she connected it to some of the stuff in his apartment, and blinked. "Hey! You made that stuff at your place!"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

It had been a long weekend. Well, no longer than your average weekend, time-wise, unless one considered that it was also the tail-end of a week off of classes, but still. Long in the whirlwind-of-activity sense. And so Bridge was definitely looking forward to spending time with the boyfriend. This time, without any interruptions by unexpected visitors.

He lets himself into the apartment, clicking the door shut behind him. "Xander?" he calls out. "You home?"

[needsaparrot]

"In the den," Xander calls back. He's slouched on the couch with the tv on but the volume off and the lights down, the changing scenes making shadows dance acros the room.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Hey," Bridge says quietly in greeting, curling up beside him on the couch.

[needsaparrot]

"Hey," Xander says back, sliding over until his head is resting in Bridge's lap, and it's so easy and unconfusing, unlike everything else this weekend, that it feels like he's been underwater and is just now coming up for air.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"So that was your mom, huh?" Bridge says conversationally, running one hand through Xander's hair.

[needsaparrot]

"In all her...her-ness."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"She seemed... well. I could tell she cares about you," even if she doesn't really *know* you, he doesn't add.

[needsaparrot]

"I guess. Sort of." Xander's not arguing, really - it's just not something he's ever let himself look at head-on, not since he was a kid, for fear of what he wouldn't find there.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Still, wasn't exactly a picnic for you, having her show up all unexpected like that." He pauses. "Well, except for the mixer which technically was a picnic, of sorts."

[needsaparrot]

"But it's not a Harris family picnic until there's food being used as a projectile weapon. And possibly somebody's shoes on fire." Xander shifts on the couch, propping his feet up on one arm. "No airborne wieners. It's disconcerty."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"I could get some food to throw at you," Bridge offers. "But that'd involve, you know, moving."

[needsaparrot]

"And being a Harris. Trust me, you don't want to."