handleyourshit | TLV Inbox

"I know you do." He does. He gets it. Sometimes even he feels that way. "But I need you to try. Like I'm trying. Remember?"

"I remember."

She sighs.

"I was going to call you. I was just slower than fucking married people."

He laughs softly. "I hoped...that if it you were seriously injured I'd know before Shaw did. You'd let me know."

A soft sigh. "I was pretty scared though. When she told me, and I didn't know."

God but he doesn't want anything to happen to Rosita.

"Well, if I'm dead in a stairwell, I can't really call you," she points out, but it's only dark humor even if it is true.

"We were both in the hallway when the flood ended. I was still getting my bearings, and she jumped me. Taylor broke us up before I could do any real damage to her." Because Rosita was, quite plainly, winning when she intervened.

"So I'll send a gift basket to Taylor. She didn't put you in Zero?" He assumes he would have heard of it by then, but Taylor might not have known to call him the way Shaw does.

"No. I didn't start it."

She just didn't want to stop once someone else had.

"That doesn't always matter." Plenty of wardens would have thrown both in Zero to investigate further.

"I don't think she'll escalate."

"I know."

She knows life isn't fair. She wouldn't have really blamed the girl if she had thrown Rosita somewhere, the way she was acting.

It just wouldn't have mattered, which is why she changes the subject: "You were a cute kid."

He laughs, but it's almost a sigh. "Do we have to talk about me as a kid? I was...I just... I was a different person then. I'm sorry if I stole from you."

"You think I wasn't?" she asks, raising her eyebrows, but she's smiling at least.

"We're trying, remember?"

"We're trying," he agrees, with a soft huff of agreement, of resignation. It's hard for him. "I've just tried for years to put distance between who I was then and who I am now. But... I got a tattoo. From a boy I liked. That's who I used to be."

He rolls up his sleeve to show her a beautiful but obviously hand pecked drawing of a Tree of Life. "I like it a lot. But I did it to impress a cute boy."

She stretches her neck to see, nods her approval.

"You still like him?"

"Yeah. He's kind and he's strong and he's smart." He smiles faintly. "And he's in love with someone else, which is a bonus."

She doesn't actually flinch, but it's close.

"That's a bonus?" she asks.

He looks away, down at his hands. "It means he won't get too attached. Makes it easier when we have to part ways. He won't really miss me when it's over."

She sits with that for a moment, ice shifting against ice as she moves it against her face.

"Well," she answers finally, well aware that it's pathetic. "As long as he's kind to you."

"His name's Godric. You should get to know him." He gives her a hesitant glance. "He's a pacifist. And a vampire."

"I'll watch for him," she agrees, but then, she was going to figure it out anyway. Jesus is an adult, he's more experienced here than she is, but that doesn't mean she isn't going to pay attention to the people he's close to here.

"Vampires aren't what the movies promised, are they?"

"He's not. I'm not sure about Astarion--he's a different kind of vampire. Godric's a leader. He wants peace." Which, well, is catnip to Jesus Rovia.

And indeed: "Of course."

Which means it's a dice throw if Rosita will get along with him, but they can cross that bridge when their feet get wet.

"I talked to Astarion. He's pretty much the only person besides you that's talked to me, and not at me."

"He seems okay. I haven't talked to him much yet." But the fact he gets on with Rosita is a huge plus in his favor.

"I saw him during the... flood? Too. He was starving, I think, but he didn't even try to bite me," she adds, shrugging.

"He told me he's not allowed to drink from humans. I told him if he tried I'd stab him in the head, and he said I should aim for his heart."

So. That happened.

Huh. "I'm impressed. And now you know," if the head doesn't work there's always another place to stab.

"Humans work that way too," she reminds him, dry. It would have been her second choice regardless, if she was lucky enough to get a second chance.

"Malcolm tried to apologize to me but it was bullshit, and Shaw doesn't think she should have to talk to me directly, but other than that people have mostly left me alone."

Which is what she wants.

"Malcolm is... Still learning about apologies I think," he says, diplomatically.

"And Shaw's usually pretty direct? What did she do?"

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