Chapter Text
Joe had been warned by Conner of Ivy’s… predicament.
And he wasn’t going to hesitate in helping.
He hadn’t known Ivy too much before the… incident… but the more she came to the cafe, the more he came to know her.
So, to hear that she had been struggling with the concept of her own humanity was rather… daunting to Joe, and he was ready to help in any way he could.
“Zark! Zark - c’mere boy!” Joe got down on one knee and whistled, grinning and scooping Zark up in his arms when the dog came paddling over to him, his tongue hanging out from his mouth. Joe stood up with Zark in his arms, reaching up to scratch behind his ears. “Ready to cheer up Ivy? I’m sure you are!”
Zark barked happily, licking Joe’s cheek. “That’s exactly what you have to do when Ivy gets here!” Joe encouraged. “Good boy!”
Zark barked again, wiggling around in Joe’s arms. Joe bent down and set Zark down gently, smiling as Zark ran away and hid under a chair, figuring that Zark wanted to surprise Ivy when she came.
(...if Joe didn’t know any better, he would think that Zark alone would be enough to cheer Ivy up.)
Joe took his position behind the bar, glancing up at the clock every now and again, waiting almost anxiously for Ivy to come.
A few moments later, Ivy slowly walked into the bar, closing the door quietly behind her. When she made eye contact with Joe, a lopsided smile formed on her face. “...hey.”
“Hey! The usual?”
“Yes.” Ivy began to walk towards the stools at the bar, letting out a small yelp and jumping when Zark jumped out from under the chair and barked. A more eased expression formed on her face, and she knelt down to pet Zark.
“Hey there, Zark.” She smiled, picking him up in her arms. Zark barked happily, and just as he did to Joe, began to lick her cheek, cooing happily when Ivy began to snicker. “Okay, okay - I get it. Hi, Zark.”
“Did you come here to see me, or did you come here to see Zark?” Joe complained jokingly from behind the bar.
“Zark.” Ivy replied simply, setting Zark back down on the floor and walking over to the bar.
“You wound me.” Joe placed a hand on his forehead dramatically, pushing the bottle of yamameto forward with his other. “You wound me.”
“Sorry.” Ivy shrugged and sat down - clearly not sorry - and began to take small sips from the bottle. A comfortable silence fell between them, the only thing making noise being the faint sound of jazz music playing through the speakers.
...Joe decided that he was going to take a more direct approach with this.
“...so…” Joe tapped his fingers on the top almost awkwardly. “...how’s your music been going?”
“Good.” Ivy replied curtly.
...it was always like this. Joe had to pry a little bit to get her actually talking.
“Any new music I should know about? I know you mentioned something last time I saw you.” Joe grinned, trying to make his best pleading face when Ivy scowled. She let out a small sigh, rolling her eyes and looking away.
“...fine. I am working on something but I can't say a lot about it.”
“Can you spare me a couple of details? Please?”
“No-“
Joe made another pleading face.
Ivy sighed.
“...fine. All I can tell you is that it’s a collab. That’s it.”
“A collab? Ooh…” Joe began to fill himself a cup of water, looking over his shoulder to smile at Ivy. “It would be funny if you had a collab with Conner.”
Ivy scoffed. “He wishes. ”
“Nah. He doesn’t do that techno stuff.” Joe took a sip of his water.
“...I guess.” Ivy played with the bottle in her hands, her gaze falling to the top of the bar. “I can't really tell you much about it yet, though.”
“That’s understandable. I’m just nosey.”
Ivy snorted. “It has been… nice reclaiming the title of Æsir. I know I will never make up for the mistakes that I have made, however, I feel… better knowing that I’m using this name for good.”
Joe was simply going to jump into it. He wasn’t one to sugarcoat things.
“Well, humans make mistakes all the time - what’s important is that they learn and grow from them.”
Ivy immediately stiffened. “...I’m not-“
“Of course you are.” Joe raised an eyebrow, a small frown forming on his face. “If I didn’t know about anything else, I’d be under the impression that you’re flesh and bones. But there’s no doubting that you’re human .” Joe chuckled quietly. “Maybe all that yamameto is getting into your brain.”
Ivy scowled. “It’s not -“
“Hell, Ivy, you’re even more human than a lot of the people I’ve worked with.” Joe crossed his arms over his chest.
“But-“
“No buts!” Joe cut her off. “It doesn’t matter if you have metal parts or don’t have to breathe to live - the fact of the matter is that you feel . And… take my mistake thing to heart.” Joe smiled softly. “I’ve made… more mistakes than I could ever count. At some points, I thought I was… irredeemable. But, I was able to bounce back.” He took a swing of his water. “And I learned and grew from my past mistakes.”
Ivy remained silent, her gaze not leaving the bottle in front of her. Zark padded out from under the chair, whimpering quietly and pawing at Ivy’s ankle.
...Joe decided he would press on.
“Being human means… growing. Experiencing. Developing. And you’ve done all of those things, right?” Joe grinned. “I don’t see any reason why you’re not human.”
Ivy was still silent.
...she almost looked sad.
It didn’t sit well with Joe. He knew that both Conner and Rin had tried to talk to talk to Ivy before, and she had walked out on both of them.
Was she really feeling that bad about the idea of her being human? What was holding her back? Why did she still doubt?
...he was afraid she was going to run out on him.
Instead, Ivy turned around in her stool and reached down, picking up Zark. Zark barked quietly and got himself comfortable in her arms, panting happily when Ivy began to scratch him behind the ears. She simply smiled sadly and continued to pet him, not looking up at Joe.
“...Ivy.” Joe said with a soft sigh. “You can’t just ignore this forever. It’s not good it just… builds and builds until it renders you unable to do anything. It’s better to just face it.”
Ivy scowled, gritting her teeth.
Joe blinked twice, forcing himself not to take a step back because this was his first time seeing Ivy mad and woah a mad Ivy was a scary Ivy.
“...why is everyone talking to me about this?” She hissed, heat building behind her words. “It’s none of your business, I don’t even know why you want to get involved-“
“Ivy, you’re my friend. ” Joe said in a pleading tone. “It would be wrong of me not to step in in a situation like this.”
“It’s just-“
“What?”
“What did I do to deserve such kindness? You humans confuse me!” Ivy raised her voice slightly, anger dripping off of her words. “Whenever I think I have humans down, something always shifts, it always changes-“
“Ivy-“
“I have done nothing to deserve the kindness you have displayed towards me. So, tell me - what is the reason for your actions? Is there one?”
It was silent.
When Joe didn’t reply within the ten seconds that followed, Ivy scoffed quietly, taking Zark off of her lap and setting him down on the floor as gently as possible. Zark whined, pawing at ankles. “I didn’t think so.”
“Ivy-“
Ivy put some money down on the table, pulled her hood over her face and began to walk towards the door rapidly, and Joe was running out of time he had to say something -
“I don’t need a reason to be kind, Ivy.” Joe said, loud enough so that Ivy could hear it. “...kindness doesn’t need justification all the time. Not everything does.” He smiled weakly when Ivy paused right in front of the door. “Sometimes, all you can do… is trust that someone just has the right intentions.”
Zark yipped as if he agreed with Joe’s statement, padding over to Ivy slowly.
Ivy took a shaky breath, then quickly walked out the door, slamming it rather harshly behind her. Zark whined loudly and ran back to Joe, who was already jogging out from behind the bar and kneeling to scoop Zark up in his arms.
“It’s okay, buddy…” Joe cooed, petting Zark gently. “She’s… hurting.” He let out a heavy sigh. “Ah, man… this runs deeper than I thought it did.”
Zark barked sadly and licked Joe’s cheek.
“I know. I don’t… I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”
He glanced over at his phone, which was face-down on the bar top. “...I think I might have to give the green light to Vanessa.”
(...his phone was right next to the half-full bottle of yamamteo that Ivy ordered.)
(...she had never left before finishing at least one bottle.)
(... god - this ran deeper than he thought.)