fandomhigh | Finding (More) New Hobbies, Thursday 8/14 Period 2

Stark still, after years of associating with Summer, had no social media. He hadn’t been flooded with notifications about a new album coming. Today’s activity was completely coincidental! Really.

Sure, maybe ‘friendship bracelets’ had been higher in the search results than they might have been otherwise when Stark looked up ‘fun easy hobbies’ but he wasn’t doing this on purpose.

“Today,” Stark said, “jewelry. But nothing fancy. Beaded friendship bracelets. Sometimes these are given away or traded. Easy to do, but fun, I hope. And then you have something at the end to show for your efforts and maybe something you could give to someone. If you like.”

He smiled a little uncertainly. “I have elastic cord. You’ll want to make sure there’s enough of it so you can tie it and have it still fit on a wrist. Yours or someone else’s. I’ve plenty of beads and plenty of cord and there are scissors. Not much else you need for this.”

“I have beads with letters and numbers, if you’d like to put messages. Or something meaningful to you, or whoever you might be giving one of these too. I have star beads and ones with glitter and ones that glow in the dark and metallic ones and ones that are just plain colors. And there are some other shapes as well. I’m not sure why these,” he pointed, “look like gummi bears but they’re amusing.”

“So…let’s make some things. And if you like this you can take more supplies with you to make more another time.”

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Steven felt all of that resonating within him. He had to remind himself that Luma was talking about her sister.

"I can understand that," he said. "It's something I've been trying to work on. It's hard to want to help but realize sometimes the best help is staying away. Makes me feel like I'm giving up on them."

The soft huff from earlier became a little more bitter.

"Is it really giving up, though," Luma ventured, "if they never wanted it to begin with?"

"It feels that way," Steven said, raising his hands a bit to show he wasn't disagreeing with her. "Not that it is that way. That's what I'm trying to be better about. Learning the difference."

But Luma's quick and volatile anger had been sparked at this brutal reminder that everything she'd lost had been all because of Eleanor's stupid, foolish insistence at trying to help, no matter how much Luma had told her what a bad idea it was, how horrible she was making everything, every step along the way. And when Steven lifted his hands in defense, her brain just screamed at her at this display of weakness, and her first impulse was to attack. She could even feel the corner of her lip curling back, suddenly no longer caring if she showed her teeth.

Suddenly hoping he did see.

But she knew where she was and that giving into it wouldn't be worth it, even if she would be a certain catharsis and just tearing him to (verbal) shreds.

Her grandfather had taught her to seize weakness when she saw it, but her grandmother had taught her about consequences.

So she just stared at Steven for a moment, while sucking in a calming breath. "Good," she growled oit, and then turned so she was facing her bracelets again, shoving the orange and blue one for Eleanor off the table and fiercely reaching for a handful of coral colored beads in the decision to make one for her mother now, instead. "Just listen to people, and get over yourself, don't make it all about you, and you'll be fine. I'm sure."

"I - er - yes," Steven said, flinching when he saw her reaction. Not at any display of teeth, of her anger. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

"Oh, don't worry," Luma said, that withering tone now dripping with the roll of her eyes. "I'm not upset at you."

She barely even knew you, Steven. Preposterous notion, that she would waste energy being upset at him. She huffed out.

"I'm upset with Eleanor. And of course you didn't mean it. She never does, either. And yet....people can still get upset. Or hurt."

Or dead, Steven. Or worse.

"I see," Steven said. He relaxed a little bit, glad at least he hadn't been directly responsible. Her words still weighed on him though. He hadn't been planning on using them anyway but he pushed a few red and black beads away from his pile, unaware of how much this would be foreshadowing a conversation he had later that afternoon. "It is true though. Marc's done things to hurt and upset me with the best of intentions. Sometimes intentions don't matter as much as results."

"Marc's done things to hurt and upset you?" Luma asked, eyebrows lifting as she looked at Steven to stare at him again, and try to figure out if it was just her inability to relate to people that made it sound like he'd completely missed her point.

Or was it really a type, that just were so convinced by their own good intentions that they couldn't see it as anything but.

Edited 2025-08-15 00:45 (UTC)

"We've both done things that hurt each other," Steven clarified. "Not meaning to. Trying to help or protect one another. But hurt all the same."

"Interesting..." said Luma, her eyes lingering sharply on Steven for a moment before they turned back to her beaded work, "that you didn't say that, then."

Or himself. Just himself. But no, couldn't be him. Not with his good intentions.

Steven looked at her in confusion. "Say what then?"

Luma drew in another breath, trying to just focus on her work and ignore Steven now, or just to tell him to stop talking to her all together.

But she decided she'd give ut one more go, if he sincerely did want to know why she was changing her mind about being upset at him.

"That you've hurt and upset each other," she said. "Or that you've hurt and upset Marc. I was talking about you, you know. But you said Marc has hurt and upset you. Like you hurting and upseting him didn't even come to your mind."

Steven's confusion didn't leave. "I'd already talked about what I've done. I only mentioned what he'd done to say I understood both sides of it. It doesn't - "

Steven stopped. Luma was much younger than him and clearly dealing with something. And, after all, the conversation was about knowing when to stop.

"I'll leave you be," Steven said. He turned back to his pile, pulling some of the purple beads together for the next bracelet.

Luma's eyes narrowed a little, glaring at her beads, before she just shook her head, wondering why she even tried.

And ignoring the pang of hurt that he didn't even want to try and understand her, apparently.

"Good," she murmured, then gathered her beads to take with her as she got up and moved away from him, not even caring about the ones that fell from her grasp and bounced along the floor in her wake.

Like she needed to deal with another Eleanor, anywag.

"Do you need more beads?" Stark asked softly.

It wasn't 'are you all right' because he wasn't an idiot. There was a similar intention behind it though.

"I'm fine," said Luma, lifting her chin and sweeping her hair behind her shoulders and giving Stark the brightest, most cheerful smile she could muster without showing her teeth, a little flutter of her eyelids in an attempt to sell it more. "Thank you. These will do just fine. My mother and cousin will love these, I think."

Yeah, no, you were still clearly a predator Luma but good try!

"All right. There's more of everything if you decide you need it," Stark said.

Finding (More) New Hobbies, Thursday 8/14 Period 2

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