handleyourshit | Duplicity Inbox

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

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"Good?" she prompts.

"You're out here handing me these bullshit questions and all you have for me when I answer them is 'good?'"

"I've never had a best friend to approve or disapprove of my boyfriends before!" He laughs. "I don't know, it just feels good that you do. It would be hard on me if you didn't."

"It would be harder if I disapproved and didn't say anything," she promises. Something being hard on Jesus, if it's necessary or it keeps him alive, will not stop her from doing it.

"I'll still fuck 'em up if they make me mad." If they hurt him.

"They're all afraid of you," he laughs. "Drake especially though. Well. Maybe K is a tie." He grins, at his hands though, like he does when he's feeling touched and warm.

"I wouldn't want you to stay quiet. And if I didn't approve of someone you were doing, I'd say something, too." Even though it's harder on him to strike up a confrontation than it is for her.

"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."

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."

A look she returns in kind, with interest.

"I'm onto you, you know."

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

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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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.

"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."

"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.

"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.

"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."

"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?"

"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."

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

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

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

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

"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.

"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?"

"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."