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]

"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.