A Friendly Drink Or Three - Toro and Jim

[coinoperatedtorch]

This was the sort of evening Jim Hammond had never again expected to have.

Nights out for him were fairly rare these days - he preferred the comfort and calm of home more often than not - but the promise of sitting down to a drink with his son was more than enough to bring him out of doors.

That was the remarkable part, the part he had presumed lost to him except in memory; Toro's presence across the table, his warm smile as he slid into the opposite seat.

"There you are."

Jim's responding smile was just as warm.

Comments

[rekindledflame]

Tom had experienced more than his fair share of shocks in the past few days. It wasn’t everyday you found out you’d been officially ‘dead’ for over a decade. Or that your wife had moved on without you and remarried. That particular tidbit had threatened to break Toro’s heart in two. So when Jim had suggested they go get a couple of drinks, the young man had been more than eager to go.

It was hard, trying to keep up a smiling demeanor when you were quietly mourning on the inside. But he desperately wanted a sense of normalcy right now and what was more normal than spending time with Jim?

He smiled at his adopted father from across the table and even managed a passable facsimile of the normally warm smile.

“Hi, Pappy, hope you don’t mind I started without you?” Toro asked, indicating his half-empty glass. He’d gotten to the bar early and had already ordered himself a drink before Jim arrived.

[coinoperatedtorch]

"Far be it from me to keep a man from a well earned drink."

Jim replied, lifting his hands in deference as he slid off his jacket. He reached across he table to lay a warm hand on Toro's arm.

"It's good to see you. How are you doing?"

[rekindledflame]

Toro's mouth twitched in another small smile and he took another sip from his glass. Thus far, the sharp burn of alcohol wasn't doing much to quiet his inner-demons. Not that Tom knew much about drinking away his troubles. He'd only been drunk once in his life and that had been on Christmas Eve in nineteen forty three. The poor lad had felt so awful and sick the next day he'd sworn off drinking to excess.

He glanced down briefly at the warm touch of the blond’s hand on his arm and managed another wan smile in answer to Jim’s question.

“Uh…coping. As much as I can, it’s a lot to take in.” He admitted with a sigh. “It’s good to see you too, Pappy. Really.” Tom’s fingers squeezed Jim’s hand lightly. “How about you? I can’t believe you’re alive again. We must both have more lives than a cat or something.”

[coinoperatedtorch]

"I can only assume some poor cats out there are going around with just one life on our behalf." Jim laughed.

"I've just been doing this and that to pass the time. My powers were next to useless for a long while but they seem to be back on par now after this whole incident in hell a while back."

He shook his head, he'd really rather not talk about having hellish visions of Toro's demise just now...

"It's hardly the most interesting story, honestly. I promise I didn't make any illicit trades for the powers back though."

[rekindledflame]

"I dunno, how many lives are you on these days anyway, Jim?" Finally, there was a gleam of mischief in Toro's eyes.

A troubled look flickered across the younger man's face as Jim explained what he'd been up to since he'd been brought back online. It was a scary concept, the idea of losing ones powers. Especially for the Torch whose whole body was comprised of Horton Cells. And if they were on the fritz who knew what other ailments his friend might have been facing.

"I'm sorry, what? Hell." You can't drop a bomb like that Torch and not give a little context! Poor Tom's eyes widened almost comically. "Jesus, you make it sound like you went there on a day trip or something. It was really Hell? As in Hell Hell and not some freaky hoax?"

[coinoperatedtorch]

"I'm sure I'm up to at least five now..."

Jim laughs sheepishly, waving off Toro's concern with a placating hand.

"Well we WERE only there for a little while. Bobbi Morse was taken by Mephisto and I went with the team that retrieved her. We were all harassed with visions of our failures and shortcomings, of course, but persevering seems to have restored my strength so I don't believe I can complain."

[rekindledflame]

"Only five? Well, I guess I can see why the cats might be put out." Toro teased with a laugh and drained the rest of his glass in one go.

He wasn't sure who either of these people were but guessed this Mephisto was a nasty type of character. "Jeeze, no offense, Pappy but I think I'm going to miss dealing with Nazis if those are the types of people you're facing off against these days." Tom motioned for the waitress who was working their section of tables to refill his drink. "So what are you having?"

[coinoperatedtorch]

"Oh I'm sure you'll get used to the new crowd of rouges in time. Perhaps he was holding back on me but I've faced rather worse than Mephisto over the years."

"I'll have whatever you're having I suppose. I'm not picky. One more for him and another for me please." Jim gave the waitress a smile as she nodded and headed off with Toro's glass.

"I dare say fighting Nazi's would be kind of nostalgic, nowadays. If I run across any I'll be sure I don't go fighting them without you."

[rekindledflame]

"Yeah. Maybe." Tom muttered a little evasively. Truth be told, he'd been enjoying his civilian life up till the Mad Thinker had ruined everything. Toro wasn't sure he was up for up for diving right back into the life of supervillains, genetically altered Übermensch and Nazis.

The dark haired man sparred a faint smile for the waitress as she took his glass. "Thank you, ma'am."

"Heh, you be sure to do that. Don't want me to get jealous of you off fighting the krauts all on your own. Of course, I guess it isn't anymore is it? We're practically having an Invaders reunion these days."

[coinoperatedtorch]

"There's a reunion we ought to have, actually." Jim mused, picking up his glass as the waitress returned with new beers for each of them.

"We got Cap and Bucky again, you and I, Jackie and good ol' fishface. Two torches hosting a barbeque sounds about fitting to me."

[rekindledflame]

"And listen to fishboy complain about how sub-par our surface world food is? He'll probably end up blaming us for poisoning the ocean even if we're just frying up a couple of burgers."

But Toro found himself warming to the idea all the same. It had been....decades since all of them had been together at the same time. Not to mention he couldn't remember the last real 'family' meal the Invaders had shared together. "But, Namor's airs aside, it could be fun."

[coinoperatedtorch]

"Namor can bring his own food if he's going to be picky." Jim snorted a little, amusement and fondness in his tone.

"We'll fill a pool up with fresh water and keep our party far away from his precious ocean and there won't be a thing to complain about."

[rekindledflame]

"You know he will, Pappy." Toro grinned and clinked his glass against Jim's in a silent toast. As much as he loved to bust Namor's balls, there was no denying the affection the Invaders held for one another, including the prickly Sub-Mariner.

"Sounds like a plan to me. Cap's birthday is coming up soon, right? Maybe we can kinda roll it all into one, both a birthday party for him and a barbecue.