An outright 'no' means haste, and it's barely a minute before she reaches the cabin, still garden-stained as she slides open the panel to let herself into his room, sinks down into the edge of his mat to look him over. "How 'no,' is it?"
Rags looks fine on the outside. His breathing is shallow, almost like he's sleeping, but he opens his eyes when he feels her settle down beside her.
"You know, one of the things I had to do as an inmate here was to learn how to be friends with people. Work with them, I guess. And I thought you were so fucking good at it. At being a friend and working on a team. Because you - fucking insisted on it. And so when we were paired, I was so fucking excited because you had worked on teams before. You knew what to do! Even if I didn't."
She stills, eyes level and fixed on him, because she isn't sure what's going on. "I think you've been doing pretty good at it," she says after a moment, voice quiet.
"No. He took full responsibility. But he actually told me what happened. Which I had to hear about - again - from fucking Trevor," he says, pushing himself up to his elbows.
She frowns at him, confused and somewhat concerned.
"You're mad about this, so now I'm wondering what he actually told you. He made a mistake. No one got hurt, it was over in about thirty seconds. I laughed at his bruised ego a little, and showed him the dining hall since he'd plainly been here about ten minutes."
"I'm not fucking mad," he tells her, because it's deeper than that. "I just - you didn't say anything to me. That this guy randomly attacked you. And yeah, you're fine and you can take care of it and sure, but it still happened and you didn't think to even mention to to me."
She lies down on her side, facing him with her elbow propped on the bed.
"He didn't attack me. He scooped me up in a cape, shouted that he was protecting me, and tossed me into the chapel. It was not, at any point, an attack. If it was, yes, I would have taken care of it, and yes. I would have told you. Immediately. But it wasn't.
"He seemed really embarrassed, but didn't get upset at me about that, which was nice."
"He put his fucking hands on you when you didn't want him to," he points out firmly.
"And yeah, he was really fucking sorry about it after, but he ran me through a whole fucking list of all the ways he's hurt people here. He just happened to mention the girl with the bees."
She sighs, and rolls onto her back. "Sorry. I should have told you. I wasn't trying to hide it. It just- it wasn't anything, and I just didn't think about it, with everything else."
Rags sighs, turning to look over to her. He makes a small move over, giving her room to join him on the mat if she wants. "Yeah, well, then the asshole went and said shit. About how you didn't tell me because we're just inmate and warden and - I don't know, Taylor. It's just fucked."
She snorts, and moves closer, nudging his arm. "Yeah, that's stupid. What does he even know about this place?"
A moment of silence.
"If he'd attacked me, I'd have set your bugbox off. You'd have known, long before you saw some guy crawling to the infirmary with his eyes swollen shut from stings. Promise."
"Yeah, but you didn't say that some asshole grabbed you. And Trevor is an asshole," he says, turning to his side to face her. "If we're a team, then you have to tell me shit. Even if you don't think it's a big deal. He needs to stop attacking and doing without thinking. And if I had known that he had done that, I could have kicked his ass a lot sooner for it."
She raises an eyebrow at him. "For swooping in to protect me from an unreasonable amount of hornets? Because that's what he thought he was doing, Rags. He even made sure to communicate that while he did it. It wasn't thoughtless."
"No, for being a jerk," he tells her lightly. "There's no hard feelings with us. He might be sleeping in my room for a while once he's out of Zero anyway."
He clears his throat. "I just want to know what's going on. You've got your bugs on me but I'm not - your subordinate. We're partners, right? Friends?"
She puts her head on his shoulder and she'll feel him relax at that, closing his eyes again as he settles onto the mat. "I tried to pick his pockets the first time we met. Adrian said that he had taken his razor and he wanted it back. Trevor caught me and went to bitch at Adrian about it."
"No, he had already used it against Sephiroth by that point. Because apparently he can't stay out of fucking trouble." He rolls his eyes. "And now he's paying for it. But - then he asked if Adrian and I were fucking."
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He folds his hands behind his head and closes his eyes.
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An outright 'no' means haste, and it's barely a minute before she reaches the cabin, still garden-stained as she slides open the panel to let herself into his room, sinks down into the edge of his mat to look him over. "How 'no,' is it?"
Does she need to tell Kiryu?
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"You know, one of the things I had to do as an inmate here was to learn how to be friends with people. Work with them, I guess. And I thought you were so fucking good at it. At being a friend and working on a team. Because you - fucking insisted on it. And so when we were paired, I was so fucking excited because you had worked on teams before. You knew what to do! Even if I didn't."
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"I hope he didn't tell you that was my fault."
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"You're mad about this, so now I'm wondering what he actually told you. He made a mistake. No one got hurt, it was over in about thirty seconds. I laughed at his bruised ego a little, and showed him the dining hall since he'd plainly been here about ten minutes."
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"He didn't attack me. He scooped me up in a cape, shouted that he was protecting me, and tossed me into the chapel. It was not, at any point, an attack. If it was, yes, I would have taken care of it, and yes. I would have told you. Immediately. But it wasn't.
"He seemed really embarrassed, but didn't get upset at me about that, which was nice."
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"And yeah, he was really fucking sorry about it after, but he ran me through a whole fucking list of all the ways he's hurt people here. He just happened to mention the girl with the bees."
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A moment of silence.
"If he'd attacked me, I'd have set your bugbox off. You'd have known, long before you saw some guy crawling to the infirmary with his eyes swollen shut from stings. Promise."
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Metaphorically, of course.
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He clears his throat. "I just want to know what's going on. You've got your bugs on me but I'm not - your subordinate. We're partners, right? Friends?"
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"Yeah. We're friends. And I know I can tell you anything."
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Raised.
Eyebrow.
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Because he needs to make that clear.
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