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

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"He was one of the ones that thought he was protecting people by stepping between every little thing. They threw him back in next to me once and I tried to talk to him, but." She shrugs with her good shoulder.

"He thinks people can be better than they are. Hell, you'd probably like him fine." But she isn't as annoyed with him as she could be: "He did apologize later, though."

Apologies are good. Someone who she thinks Jesus will like bodes well and he looks down, half-hiding a smile.

"I think you should do it. I think you two should contract. Vrenille does, too--he was Jacob's Dom the last three months."

She starts to say something then stops when she actually processes that statement, closes her mouth again to press her lips together. Jesus hides a smile. Rosita's eyes narrow on him.

"Why would Vrenille think we should contract, J?"

He looks up at her, meets her eyes. "Because he loves Jacob, and he trusts you with him."

"He doesn't know me. We met once, in a fight, while I was half out of my mind on sleep deprivation."

She's comfortable meeting his gaze right back.

"You made an impression." He'll maintain that fact no matter how much she looks at him. "But he trusts my judgment, too. And he knows I trust you with everything."

"I stabbed two men in the neck with a piece of fiberglass." She imagines that would leave an impression, yes.

"So basically, you already planned this. With him."

She's seen Jesus do this before, multiple times. He orchestrated the partnership between Alexandria and Hilltop; he was the one who brought Alexandria and the Kingdom together. This is, as he said, just that on a small scale.

"Are you angry?"

She isn't the least bit surprised, certainly. And she's not actually angry at him, she knows that right away too. It's Jesus, being Jesus: people, causes, opportunities. He collects them and weaves them together. She can hardly blame him for being who he is and in a way, it's even encouraging.

Her instinct still is to balk. She is, generally speaking, upset although she doesn't know immediately why. Maybe just because that's her leading defense mechanism, always.

She sets her water glass down, and folds her good arm across her torso.

"Did you think I would be?" she asks, nodding at the scotch.

"No. This is because I think you're better at knowing when to use it as a social aid than I am." That and his apartment is so small he rarely has guests.

"I feel like I'm doing the right thing here, Ro. I believe you and Jacob could be a good fit and I want you to have that option before they take you to prison. If I'm wrong, tell me?"

Prison. She normally might not have cared as much - not that she's remotely willing to just go along quietly, not after the shit she's seen - but just now the thought makes her bristle involuntarily.

Which is what the rest of it is too, really: a more evolved version of when she'd snapped at him before that she didn't want anyone to touch her. She's gotten over the literal aversion well enough, but thinking about a contract makes her want to punch someone every time she does.

"I just don't know him that well. I'm not like you, I don't want people around me all the time, and I don't know how I feel about you and someone I don't know deciding someone else I don't know is a good fit for something like these bullshit contracts."

"I'm not trying to force you to do anything." He is afraid of losing her to the prison. He is afraid of what happens to her if she just won't contract; he just went through that with another friend, one he has less history and less connection with and that was hard enough.

"I'm just trying to give you options. I believe Jacob is a good person; but I'm not here to tell you what to do."

"I know you're not," she says, since she didn't actually say she's not angry with him. She's not. And he can't force her to do anything anyway, just like she can't force him; they're both too good at getting out of corners.

Which just leaves - what?

"And it's not like I have a lot of options. I banged five people in the last two days but they're either not people I'd take home, already contracted, or both."

Edited Date: 2022-10-22 10:21 pm (UTC)

He nods, but he's still watching her for signs she's upset with him.

"I'm just trying to help." Like he always has, like he knows how to do: by bringing good people home.

"I know." She does know that - there isn't a malicious bone in Jesus's body, even at his most mischievous, even in the middle of a war. That's why it's usually up to her to draw that line.

This is harder. "Fine. Tell me what's going on. I know a little bit from Jacob - they're taking a break?"

"I'm not sure." He shakes his head slightly. "But I think they agree Jacob could learn a lot by branching out. It's very easy to fall into Vrenille's orbit--it feels very safe there."

"From what I heard, Vrenille doesn't really want him there right now."

She picks up her water again, drains it like it's full of scotch too, refills it.

"Learn what? Why me?" Which is really what her balking keeps coming back to, in the end.

"Because I trust you." So that vouched for her on Vrenille's end. "And because I think he's a good man who could use someone who can tell him when he's doing something stupid. You're good at that. Maybe he'll listen to you now that you've proved you know what you're doing, and he ended up dead."

There's a gentle jab at himself in there, yes.

The jab is at him but she's the one who flinches.

"He already said he would listen better next time. We'll see how that goes." Contract or not, she does mean to keep talking to him - or at least not avoid him.

"What else should I know?"

"That I think he could make a good part of our group. As long as he can listen to you." Rosita, it turns out, has become the de facto leader.

At least as far as Jesus ever truly accepts a leader. When pushed he does his own thing; but on his own he's happiest following her lead.

She's noticed that fact. She's not sure how she feels about it after successfully dodging leadership positions at home. At least between the two of them they can trade it back and forth as necessary.

Start adding others and it starts getting tricky though.

"Maybe. We'll see. Contracts are a whole different problem." She casts Jesus a look, because he knows that, too.

"What are you going to put in your contracts?" He uses the plural to make it a general question, not anything specific to Jacob.

"The least amount of requirements I can manage," she snorts, but moves over to the coffee table to pull a stack of papers out to offer to him. They're rough drafts of a contract.

"Housing, accounts, quota - none of it has to come from me. The government does need my permission to exact any punishments on anyone contracted with me - don't know if that'll hold, but at least maybe I could come for any assholes that try."

"I'm curious if that will pass." It opens all kinds of doors if it does. at the very least, it might mean she'll get a heads up before anything happens.

He looks over the rest of the contract and sets it back down. "You're okay that I didn't contract with you?"

Ah. There it is. She didn't know if it would ever come up again, considering how hit and miss they both are with being willing to talk about anything that can be looked past, and she hadn't figured out how to bring it up herself without being a total bitch. That, and the whole Veracity thing.

But she pulls the paper across the island to herself and looks it over for a moment before she answers.

"I'd have to understand to be okay - and if I'm being honest, I don't."

Edited Date: 2022-10-23 04:02 am (UTC)