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[handleyourshit]

  


This is Rosita.  I'll hit you back when I can.

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[hippie_ninja]

He nods; he can abide by that. "He gave me some brass knuckles for Christmas. I love them." He's used them, carries them with him sometimes.

"But Vrenille gave me a key to the Manor for Christmas, too. I get the feeling Jacob wouldn't take it very well. I don't like feeling like one of my friendships hurts someone but..." But it does and he can't fix that.

[handleyourshit]

Well that's. News. She traces her fingertip along the rim of her glass, toying with where it catches where she's been drinking from it, where a drop dried sticky from the first round.

"Do you think Vrenille replaced him with you?" she asks, not because she thinks it's true, but because she wants to know if he does with his more intimate insight into the relationships in play.

[lobster_bib]

"No." And it feels good to say it out loud, to have this fragile faith in someone. "I think my relationship with him would be the same even if Jacob had never gone home. Maybe a little more complicated because of Jacob..."

And Jacob's jealousy, which Jesus had assumed was new and it turned out it wasn't.

"But I don't think Vrenille works that way. I don't think he sees people that way." Jesus doesn't either.

[handleyourshit]

"Then it's between them," she says simply. She has a habit of getting herself involved where things get quite complicated, quite quickly, and she has a hard time talking things out at that point, but this is all quite clear to her.

"And I'll tell him that, again, if it comes up. He has a certain way of seeing things, sometimes, but - I'll give him the credit that he does try to listen when I disagree with him."

[hippie_ninja]

"How often have you disagreed with him?" Jesus asks, wondering how often they've had to share strong opinions at all yet.

[handleyourshit]

"A couple times." Nothing big yet, of course, unless one counts the Zoo debacle.

"He lets people at the Spread Eagle and the Arena believe that he's got me coming around because I can't live without his dick," she snorts, finally hooking a barstool with her foot.

"Safest way he could figure out how to explain why he's contracted with a SIN guard, I guess. I wasn't exactly happy about that when I found out."

[hippie_ninja]

Jesus looks at her, and the anger he had earlier is a very different flavor than this one is. He purses his lips, nods slightly.

"And how do you feel about it now?"

[handleyourshit]

She shrugs, but it's a dishonest answer and she doesn't try hiding that fact.

"I agree it's a lot safer for him than letting his black market pals think he's in love with a SIN guard." It's more of a risk for her, but not significantly more than the sympathies everyone knows she came in with. That she was accepted with. "I just don't go around there anymore."

[hippie_ninja]

"That's bullshit, Rosita." Maybe it's the way things are. He doesn't have to like it.

[handleyourshit]

She shrugs again.

"I knew I'd lose people when I did this," she says, and lets that stand.

She did it anyway. She believes in it anyway.

[hippie_ninja]

He knew she would, too. This still bothers him but the alternative is Jacob giving up his illegal contacts, and that's not going to happen.

"Well, you still have me," he tells her instead with a small smile.

[handleyourshit]

The corner of her mouth quirks.

"I knew that, too," she assures him. Even if it's more dangerous to stick close with her - for her to stick close with him - that was never on the table.

"One of his boyfriends went to the Zoo earlier this week. He did let me talk him out of storming the fucking gates and into letting me just buy him out."

[hippie_ninja]

"Sounds like he respects you," Jesus says, because at least there's that. "Which boyfriend?"

[handleyourshit]

"He does. I know the dick thing is... not great. But he's said some other things that were."

Talk and action are two different things though, and that's something else Jacob has to learn by Rosita's estimate.

"Chris Sonom?" She'd never heard of him before this week. "I don't know him, and he got some pretty rough handling before I could get to him, so I'm leaving him alone until Jacob gives me the all clear to try talking to him again."

[hippie_ninja]

"Haven't met him either," Jesus shakes his head. The city is large, especially by Hilltop standards. "But I guess that answers how working the Zoo is treating you."

[handleyourshit]

She offers one of her dry, shallow smiles at the comment.

She would really like to just burn the Zoo down.

"It's been fine. Nothing I can't handle."

[hippie_ninja]

"Well in my opinion," he says, whisking the empty glasses away. "We should get together to catch up on movies after your shift."

At least one or two nights a week anyway.

[handleyourshit]

She stands, moving around the bar to help since they're the only ones here and she helped hold him up.

"If we can make it work," she agrees, grateful that he's offering without her having to ask. "Although - I mean to make a bid on the property next month."

[hippie_ninja]

It lights up his face, shifts his demeanor entirely.

"Really? That soon? I'll talk to Drake about having some of my wages wired to you."

[handleyourshit]

It makes her smile, a different expression from her more common one; softer. Warmer. She likes seeing her people happy.

"I think sooner is better in this case," she admits. There's also the sinking certainty that she's somehow both running out of time to get ahead of a serious situation and the need for somewhere familiar, somewhere private to hole up.

"So why not? Spring should be starting soon and we can get moving early."

[hippie_ninja]

"We can get some seeds in," he says, because he's already been planning ahead. "And I should be able to help with the roof soon. Or there's a company here, but... I can help."

He'd rather they do it all but it's up to her. She is, as she noted, being set up to be the leader.

[handleyourshit]

But she shakes her head the moment he mentions outsiders.

"I know how to do everything we need to do, it's just a matter of time, materials, and priorities," she answers confidently. She's been planning too.

"Roof, security, water. If we get stalled on one of those we can get some seed down, but we can manage food other ways if we have to, and I want to set the crops up right."

[hippie_ninja]

"All right. So we get started next month?" He's thinking, hearing Maggie's voice in his head. The things they need first, the things they can do before the first hit of spring.

[handleyourshit]

"The moment I have the title in hand," she agrees. Storing things they can grab and move somewhere else is one thing. Burning calories working on a place they might have to abandon is another.

Although: "I've been clearing debris sometimes when I'm out there. We have a burn pile already. How much do you know about construction?"

[hippie_ninja]

"A lot, now. We had to build everything in the Hilltop from scratch. What do you need built? Or are you just looking for repairs?" He doesn't know how far her vision goes but he plans to nudge it along.