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[handleyourshit]

  


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

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[handleyourshit]

"They should be."

This is the same threat she used to make even before the virus; back then, though, she didn't know the best angle to hit the brain from under the jaw with a utility knife. Now she does.

"I don't keep most of the ones I'm doing, and Magpie is gay as they come, so you don't have to worry about me."

[hippie_ninja]

He gives her a Look. "Well the one you have kept, I also want to spend time with, so you're doing all right so far."

[handleyourshit]

A look she returns in kind, with interest.

"I'm onto you, you know."

[hippie_ninja]

"Oh, really?" She is not. His eyes are so blue and so innocent. "What am I doing, then?"

[handleyourshit]

She's not falling for it. Nope.

"I think I can get him to the date," she sidesteps instead.

"We should try dinner. See if sharing food helps."

[hippie_ninja]

"I'll take it. I think he'll be okay if we're both there, showing him Vrenille's not a threat." He chuckles. "I don't think he trusts my take on who's a threat and who's not but he might trust you."

[handleyourshit]

"We both worry about you."

But Jesus is adapting better, faster, more completely than either of them.

She thinks about it a lot.

"We have to be willing to let it not work, though."

[hippie_ninja]

"I am. If they can't be friends, I'm confident they can still exist in the same space. If the worst happens." If they have to come to Creekside to live, if Carver brings his vampires. He looks at Rosita. "But that's the least I'll take. I really think they could be good for each other."

[handleyourshit]

Rosita raises her eyebrows at Jesus.

"He's been willing to let it not work with us and Grayson." He hasn't pushed, beyond what is for him the very telling minimum of stating that they're important to him.

[hippie_ninja]

"He's been willing to keep going between us if it doesn't work with us and Grayson." There's a difference. "But that doesn't matter because it's not what I'm willing to settle for."

[handleyourshit]

"As long as you not settling doesn't look like you pushing him for something he can't give. Or that's bad for him to try."

There is the faintest edge of warning in this; Jesus loves Vrenille. Vrenille has a lot of good qualities.

But no one is a good fit for everyone.

[hippie_ninja]

"I would never do that to him," he promises. "I'm watching. I'm paying attention."

And there's potential there for an alliance, if not a close friendship.

[handleyourshit]

"I know."

Jesus might need reminding sometimes by her estimation, but she trusts him to listen.

"I need you to pay attention at the Crucible, too. I warned Amelia not to try and push her bullshit on him, to let him drive, but I don't know that she knows how to do that."

[hippie_ninja]

"And you think she'd listen to me if she hasn't listened to you?" He asks, dubious that he can be any more impactful than Rosita. "What have you told her so far?"

[handleyourshit]

"I told her that she has to drop her own feelings or confusion about whatever the fuck happened at realignment," she answers, shrugging.

"I mean trying to force a conversation with Carver about it. She apologized, he didn't accept it, it's up to him when or if he does, and what or if he explains anything about why. I told her if she kept pushing, she and I were going to have a problem."

[hippie_ninja]

He has a few questions. One thing at a time. "Does Carver know?"

[handleyourshit]

She shakes her head. It never even occurred to her to tell him.

"It's between us. She chose that."

[hippie_ninja]

He frowns at her. "Does it matter what she chose? Maybe he should know."

[handleyourshit]

"She came to find me after I helped Chris in the Zoo," she explains.

"Didn't know each other at all, it's not why I did it, but she made a point of swearing she owed me a debt because I helped someone important to her. Then she turned around and pulled that shit. What advantage is there in him knowing any of it?"

She and Jesus haven't talked a lot about what happened at realignment. She's good at moving on from terrible things, packing it up and never thinking about it again, but there's legitimate anger flickering through in her voice.

[hippie_ninja]

"Because it involves him. Because if I fought someone over you, you'd want to know it, too." She doesn't like being left in the dark. Neither does Carver. "Why don't you want him to know?"

[handleyourshit]

"Because there's nothing for him to do."

It's not, she knows, exactly the full answer but it's the best one she has; it hadn't even occurred to her until Jesus said something, and now everything in her is saying not to.

"I want her to leave him alone. She was forced to hurt him, fine, okay. But he deserves better than to have to keep playing nice with someone after they did. He deserves better than to have her keep poking around in it just because she wants to know more, and he doesn't want to tell anyone."

[hippie_ninja]

"Yes. He does." He's not arguing otherwise. "But he has a right to know who's got his back, and what's being done at his back, too, doesn't he?"

[handleyourshit]

"It's not a secret," she protests. If he asked her about it, if Amelia said something or if it came up otherwise, Rosita wouldn't deny it.

"But I don't see why I'd need to go running to tell him either. Especially when talking about it fucked him up twice already on top of the actual thing."

[hippie_ninja]

"It doesn't have to be an in depth discussion." He looks at her evenly. "It's okay for him to know you care about him and you've got his back, Ro. It might even be good for him to hear it."

[handleyourshit]

She looks back at him, and this isn't even a hard thing. It's nothing she's ashamed of, nothing she needs back from anyone, nothing even complicated on the face of it really, and still she wants to dig in her heels.

She doesn't know why. "He knows I care about him."