gunsforhire | LOG: Crappy take out and some beer

Entry tags:

LOG: Crappy take out and some beer

Who: Texas (native) and Florida (native)
What: Chillaxing and relaxing. Oh and Florida has some feelings and things to talk about.
Where: One of Florida's safe houses.
When: 5/22 evening
Warnings: Possible adult situations and talk? Will edit this if it becomes a thing.

More scarves. He's saving her a bit by making them for her and she's not sure if she needs to thank him or not for shoving Omega into approaching her to hang-out. If only her brother didn't need that shove in the first place.

She's picked up what passes for Chinese take-out on Adaptive and brings it with her to his safe house. She's packed herself an overnight bag and a few things to occupy her time since she has a feeling he'll be knitting at least part of the night. It sounds like he's being doing a whole helluva lot of that lately and she's not sure what 'frustration' has brought that on.

Her bike is parked in the garage next to his Isis and she enters into the house with only a short knock of warning.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"So, back-up a second. How did you drive her to Control? And if they think you're influencing her in ways they don't like, why haven't they ended their contract with her?"

Surely they have other mercenaries that could do the same work if involvement with Florida is an issue.

"She... when she came to Adaptive I watched over her," Florida answers. "She went Merc, so I used my right of tapping a merc to join the group. I brought her in, helped her be one of us. And then there was the job..."

Everything had gone wrong. Poor research on his part. Failing to cover her on his part. Not running to her side on his part. She'd...

"Long story short, she got hurt badly, and she left. Didn't feel safe anymore. There was a lot of tension between her and some of the others, so she left. Went to Armonia and joined Control and thins haven't been the same."

Not even remotely. His hand comes up to run through his hair, and he finishes his beer. Wishes there was more. "Her burns? Those are, in the end, my fault. But she's their creature now."

"Don't blame it all on yourself. Ultimately, she made a choice and that's on her. Getting hurt is the ugly part of the job."

She screwed up with York, though she wasn't necessarily on his team in that set of jobs. But he didn't run off to Armonia in search of another group over it at least. He stuck around and he seems to be doing better. It helps to alleviate the small amount of guilt she still feels over his injury.

She stares at her beer as she turns the bottle in her hands before taking another drink. "Is Control going to be causing you more problems now that more of them are roaming around?"

"Yes, and no," Florida answers. "They aren't allowed to touch me. I'm covered under Lou's contract as family. But on the other hand, I can't touch them. She's forbidden me from it. Which means I'm forced to give them and their scummy employer a pass."

He hates that. With a sigh Florida sets his empty bottle aside and grabs his take out. He opens the carton and moves a bit to stretch out, mostly so his leg brushes hers just a bit.

"So there, two of my chief problems that don't involve the fact that I can't work just yet."

"If they get to be an issue... Well. I'm not covered under this family clause," she says casually. She's confident in her skills and if it becomes a necessity, she won't hesitate to step in.

There's a small smile at the feel of his leg and she nudges him before pulling out an egg roll to start on. Her beer is on its last legs and she leaves it on the end table to finish later.

"I'm surprised you haven't gone stir-crazy yet. I get antsy if I spend more than a few days without a job."

"I... have my own ways of dealing with stress."

He'd found a gangbanger who looked like Jersey and... well, that man wasn't going to hurt anyone ever again. Florida had left his body in pieces near the Control base in hopes that Jersey would find it.

"I'll figure it out later I guess," he sighs. In the mean time... He pulls his leg away from Tex's. Clearly from the nudge she wants her space. Not that he can blame her. In fact, he blames himself for presuming.

"You didn't need to move away," she says with a quick glance down at their legs. She had meant the nudge to be more playful than anything, the contact had been nice.

"Is that why you've been knitting so much?"

"Yes... and no," Florida answers, his voice getting quieter when she asks.

That's his other problem. Two of his pressing problems he'd said. She's his third. With a sigh he puts his takeout aside for a moment before moving to grab his bag. He quickly fishes out the scarves, sky blue and forest green, and passes them to her. "Here."

"No?" she asks with a frown. What does he mean then?

The scarves provide a temporary distraction as she runs her fingers over them, careful to not accidentally dip them into any of their food. She's starting to wonder if there's something she should be concerned about hidden behind his scarf making. "They're beautiful. Thanks."

"You want them," Florida answers. That should be enough, right? "There aren't many people at the base who appreciate what I do."

He does it because...

If he has to guess? It's because he wants more attention from him. Something he's not used to feeling. "I didn't know what colors specifically you wanted, so I went with what I thought would look good on you."

"Then they're missing out." A fact she is just fine with since it means she gets to enjoy what he does more. She folds the scarves neatly to tick at her side.

And she's not about to let him dodge the question. Not completely.

"So why are you knitting so much?"

"To distract myself from Ana and her friends," Florida offers. "To give me something to do other than gossip, spreading rumors and collecting them. To keep my hands busy."

To not think about her and what he admitted to Louisiana or what he'd realized when he'd bought the yarn for the first.

"It's soothing, and allows the body to do while the mine does not."

He's said nothing new. He's hoping the speed at which he said it makes her miss that.

"Yeah, you said that. And also added a 'no' to the end of your answer when I asked before," she replies. Like there was something else to be said.

She rolls her eyes and focuses her attention on her food. If he doesn't want to elaborate, she's not going to pull it out of him. As she said at the start of this, which problems he wanted to talk about were ultimately his choice.

"Wh... What are we?"

Florida looks away the second he asks the question. This is so stupid. He'd going to blow all this with a stupid question. But he has to keep going. "Coworkers, allies, friends? I tell you all this stuff and I help you with your family, and what do..."

Does he really care what he gets in return?

"You don't open up to me in response, so it's clearly not really... Well, it's not what I'd expect with someone who I was pretty sure just wanted to use me for stress relief."

Is he really asking her that? It's not something she's given much thought, finding it easier not to over think when she's been enjoying their time together. But she should have known this would need to be answered sooner or later.

"What do you want us to be?" she asks. "To start we work together and are friends, I wouldn't be coming around this often if we weren't."

But are they anything else? She didn't think he was looking for that.

"Did you really think I was coming around to use you?"

"Isn't that what both of us are here for?" Florida asks. If she says yes then it's yes for him as well as absolute truth. Period. Forever. Easier for them that way.

Easier for him to ignore the strange feeling gnawing at his gut. Eyes in the takeout. Remember that. Don't look. Can't hurt if you don't look.

God that's so childish, but it's not like Florida knows how to process reasonable human feelings like this. He never got to have that 'crushes' and 'dating' and adorable failure part of life. He doubts she did either. At least that she remembers.

"We're both getting pleasure out of what we do, so use is a faulty word choice. I am sorry for that."

"I'm here because I like being here. With you," she answers with a slight shrug and there's a slight pause as she sets down her plastic fork and sets her food aside. "I like you. Is that going to be a problem?"

More than like at this point, but she's still not sure where the hell this line of conversation is even going. Does he want her to leave?

"You like me... What does that even mean?" Florida sighs, shaking his head.

A whole realm of human experience that he's so blind and unexperienced in that he's not even certain he's reading her tone properly. Like him as a friend or as a coworker or tolerate him or...

He groans and just flops back into his corner of the couch. "I feel like I imagine a high school boy does."

Like a high school boy? Suddenly she has all the context she needs.

"If you want to be my boyfriend all you have to do is ask," she teases lightly as she reaches for one of his hands. " Didn't think you were looking for that.'

Huh? What? Wait... Huh?

Florida pulls his hand back, staring at Tex like she's grown a second head. "B-boyfriend?"

Yep, brain seems to have disconnected from his mouth because there should be a filter here that makes his language flow cheerfully out without stammers and stutters and other issues.

"I'm not exactly boyfriend material and you'd deserve someone closer to your age and mercenaries don't date and did I mention the fact that emotional connections aren't exactly easy for me or that I have absolutely no clue what the hell I would be doing even if your assumption was correct which I'm not saying that it is because that would be and anyway isn't dating just a means to an end for sex and aren't we already doing that so clearly we don't need anything resembling dating anyway how was your day did you like the scarves and do you have a specific shade of gray you would prefer?"

Yeah... he's totally not flipping out.

Holy shit. She didn't think saying that one damn word would open up the floodgates. She only manages to catch half of what he's rambling on about before she rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

"How about you stop jumbling everything together so I understand what the hell you're trying to say," she says firmly. "Let's start somewhere simple. Do you like spending time with me? Yes or no."

How are yes or no questions going to solve his problems?

Florida sighs in frustration and nods. "Yes. I enjoy our time together. You are a rare spot of calm in a stormy sea."

"Then I don't know why you're freaking out," she replies and reaches for her beer to finish off the last of the bottle. "If you don't want something serious, tell me but so far you haven't been a shitty boyfriend."

"I haven't been a boyfriend," Florida insists. "I make you food and help you with your family. Boyfriends are supposed to be..."

He doesn't know. Some sort of mythical creature? God this is difficult.

"I... wouldn't know what serious was if it bit me in the ass."

"It's not like there's some kind of blueprint for how every boyfriend should be," she says with a slight snort. "But usually? They're supposed to be around when things get shitty and help."

Which he has somehow managed to do since she's showed up in this city.

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