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[handleyourshit]

  


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

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[handleyourshit]

"I can only take one date at a time when I'm emotionally fragile," she deadpans, "But have you ever ridden a mechanical bull?"

[hippie_ninja]

"Surprisingly they weren't very popular in my old haunts," he shakes his head. Shame. "Are you going to try to get him to ride one?"

[handleyourshit]

"They're a lot more fun than they sound." A beat.

"At least as long as they're not Duplicity-fied with a dildo or something."

[hippie_ninja]

That's an image he can't shake now. "Are you sure this one hasn't been...?"

[handleyourshit]

"It would be pretty obvious if it had. I think."

Great, now she has to check first.

[hippie_ninja]

"People don't talk about things like that. Surprisingly." It just becomes mainstream. "I'm still amazed K found anything for us to do that wasn't all about aphrodisiacs and condoms."

[handleyourshit]

"Don't get me wrong. In the right context, I think a mechanical bull with dildo attachment could be fun." She's not a complete or even half a prude, after all.

"But like. You have to choose to do that shit." She glances sidelong at him. "You mean the Valentine's Day date? Or something else?"

[hippie_ninja]

"Yeah. We...we haven't been on one since then." A soft frown, because he doesn't know how to ask, doesn't know how much to read into it. Maybe exactly as much as he's reading into it.

[handleyourshit]

She tips her head, following the path of that frown.

"Why not?"

[hippie_ninja]

"Because shortly after that I broke his trust." He looks at her, then away, at the fire. "And I've never tried to rebuild something after I broke it so I don't know how long it'll be before he wants to go on another one."

[handleyourshit]

"And it's been a hell of a month," she also points out.

Not exactly the best timing for one, the other, or both.

"You should ask."

[hippie_ninja]

A long sigh. "What if he only says yes because he feels obligated?" He's being stupid. He knows he is and he waves off the idea. "I'll ask. I just need to heal a little more first."

[handleyourshit]

"Jesus."

She tips her head to catch his attention.

[hippie_ninja]

A sigh. He looks up. Looks at her.

[handleyourshit]

"What's worse?" she asks. "The possibility that things have changed enough to hurt, or losing the chance to repair them?"

[hippie_ninja]

"I never thought of myself as someone who runs when it's hard. Not since the world changed," he says quietly. "I've decided to be someone who tries. Someone who doesn't run. But...it's hard."

[handleyourshit]

"It's a different kind of hard," she agrees, and wiggles her toes again, but not half so obnoxiously as she did earlier.

"What's the worst thing that could happen?"

[hippie_ninja]

"He dumps me." The answer is readily available. He's on high alert for it now, more than he ever was before. "And this time it wouldn't be because of anything I can't control. It'd just be me. My fault."

[handleyourshit]

"Has he said anything to make you think that's where his head is at?" she asks. Maybe his not-robot boyfriend can read people, but Jesus isn't so shabby at that himself.

[hippie_ninja]

"He's been sleeping in the park rather than in his apartment." There are so many layers to that.

[handleyourshit]

"Sounds like it should be right up your hippie alley," she prompts, because whatever the layers are, she doesn't understand why that's significant.

[hippie_ninja]

He shakes his head. K isn't him. "He's avoiding the apartment I picked out for him."

[handleyourshit]

"Is he?" she asks. She barely remembers K out in the woods, the quietest of the group by miles and someone who didn't make her have to consider him at all by complaining or falling behind.

"Or is he just as fucked up as everyone else right now with no idea how to cope with it?"

[hippie_ninja]

"I'm going to bring him out here. See if he'll stay a little while." Maybe figure some things out here where there's nothing but quiet.

[handleyourshit]

"Do it," she says, then pokes him in the shoulder until he looks at her.

"I mean it. The hot tub is amazing, and it will always run. I installed the well pump generator myself."