fiinalgiirl:

She closed her hand around the cool metal, fiddling with it for a moment as she thought on her answer. There wasn’t exactly a way to say ‘pretty sure I’ve got a super power and I need to go find out how to use it,’ delicately. Especially when it was coupled with ‘the only way I’ve turned it on recently is to get in a fight with a demon.’ Besides, even if he were to believe all of that – and that was a huge if right there – it still wasn’t something she thought he needed to know. 

Xander was a smart guy, nice, and good with cars but they’d already established she didn’t know much about him. She wasn’t about to go spouting off secrets if all she knew of him was small talk fodder.

So, she nodded. “Exactly. I just gotta see that eighth wonder of the world, right? And at least try and conquer it. I’ll let you know how it goes; text you progress shots and everything.” She crossed her heart with her free hand. “But really I just gotta go down for a job. Nothing too exciting. Maybe make a trip up to Austin if I’m feeling adventurous.”

So she was lying to him, that was almost blatantly apparent. Even though they didn’t know each other super well, Xander had always been one of the most perceptive people he knew, no one’d really topped him yet. He didn’t know why she was lying about why she was going to Texas, but that wasn’t for him to question, either. If she had wanted to tell him, she would have told him then and there, but she’d hesitated and come up with something different. That meant something perhaps a little painful, or something she was afraid of, so he wasn’t about to push it. 

The donut went on, and he held his hand out for the nuts again. “I don’t think something you eat can be a wonder of the world. All the rest of ‘em are big stone things,” and he would know, he’d seen them all, base-jumped off a few of them. A smirk broke his concentration face, “I’ll hold you to that like a promise.” A job, yeah, that just didn’t sound like what he knew of her, but again–not going to push. “Right,” there was just enough of an I don’t believe you tone to it that he didn’t need to elaborate. “There’s a lot better places to be adventurous than Austin, Texas, Rosie.” Kuala Lumpur, Bora-Bora, some of the places out in New Zealand, too. Finished with his part of the job, he released the jack and stood up, “You still getting me waffle house?” An acceptable payment, and now he was actually a little hungry. 

fiinalgiirl:

“Oh, so you’ll follow rules I set? Is that how this goes? Because I have some ideas if that’s the case. Like, only allowed to get places while skipping or! Maybe you have to make a chicken sound when someone sneezes,” she grinned. 

Rosie followed him over to the side of the car and watched him begin working. “You can hand me the nuts when you unbolt them so they don’t get lost,” she offered, looking over his shoulder while shrugging. “Eh, I was gonna head on out to Texas – probably Houston. Wanted to get there early; guess that plan’s shot though, right? Especially if I gotta replace that tire. Anyway, I was staying out in Covington because the rooms are cheaper than in the city, and they got a decent park close by.”

He laughed, “If I’d made it in ten, I might’ve got caught, and you’d still be stuck here.” After all, Xander wasn’t right 100% of the time, just 99% he thought to himself. Rosie was nothing if not amusing, but he definitely wasn’t going to follow just any rules she set. Especially if those were her first ideas. 

“Sure,” he’d already gotten the first one off and was handing it to her. Changing to the spare wasn’t hard, even though the donut always looked stupid, no matter who’s car it was or what make and model. “Texas? For what? One of those 80 ounce steaks?” He’d been to Texas, there wasn’t really any redeeming value there, save for the few good bike parks and a couple good people whom X trusted. “Because I don’t think you could finish that all in one go.” Maybe she could, X knew he could, at least, not that he was really feeling in the mood for steak, though. 

fiinalgiirl:

She couldn’t disagree with him there. Xander was nice enough, they got on plenty well, for all her needling, but she couldn’t claim to know him well. Pleasant conversations barely farther than playful teasing built only so much knowledge of another. But, she didn’t have complaints either. You couldn’t jump to knowing. There was a process.

She waited patiently, and returned to her car to plug in her phone. The car appeared in her rear view and she rolled down her window to lean out and grin, one brown arm jutting out, hand closed fist with her thumb up. “Going my way, stranger?” She laughed, then pretended to look at a clock. “Don’t think you made ten,” she remarked, finally stepping out of her sensible grey Civic.

“Thanks for coming. I owe you, I can get breakfast if you want. We can do Waffle House.”

To be fair, Rosie seemed pretty decent, but he tried to avoid dragging new people into the chaotic whirlpool that was his existence if he could help it. But he also was pretty sure no one else would drive out there at this hour to help her, most sane–or slightly sane–people were asleep by now. Probably why he was one of the first she called. 

“Nope,” he said with a smirk, “you told me not to,” and followed it up with a wink. The jack was already in his hand, and even in the low light, it wasn’t hard to see which tire was flat, so Xander shoved it underneath the carriage and started jacking it up. “I’ll take Waffle House, call it even.” He wouldn’t be able to tell if the flat was a puncture or if it had popped off the rim until he got it under more light, but that didn’t matter right now, getting her off the causeway did. The rest of his tools were beside him, but he’d have to go back to his trunk for the spare. “What makes someone like you drive the causeway at four in the morning?” There had to be a reason, it wasn’t exactly a highly-traveled road at this hour. 

fiinalgiirl:

“I don’t think that’s ever been a thing,” she retorted, unable to let him have the last word, at last in that respect.

It took her a moment to process the question. “Ten – no,” she frowned into her phone. “I do know better,” he drove like a man possessed, she’d seen it before. “Gotta say it though, never know who’s listening,” she teased. “Don’t want to be implicated in your crimes,” she retorted teasingly. 

“Hurry up then, I’ll hold my breath until you do,” she laughed, hanging up before settling herself onto the side of the grey concrete wall, overlooking the lake.

“Mmhm,” was all he said. He had the upper hand, he knew it, he wasn’t going to lord it over her–even though it would be easy to. “Now, see,” Xander said, tossing his keys into his pocket, “If I said five, that’d be breaking a whole load of laws. It’d be fun, though.” The devilish grin definitely came through over the phone.

He laughed at that, “If you think I don’t check my phone, you don’t know me very well, Rosie,” and added a snort to that, “I’m not driving to the Causeway to help out a dead person.” The drive went by quick enough, and maybe he’d been timing it on his phone–thirteen minutes from engine rev to squealing breaks. Even with all the bells and whistles on his GTO, the normal stuff was still there, including all the average stuff, a jack, tire iron, jumper cables. “All right, if you’re dead in there, I’m leaving!”

fiinalgiirl:

“I wouldn’t think you’re an ass for not answering an early morning call. I would think you’re asleep. But, I definitely would think you’re an ass if you answer the call and tell me it better be a good reason when you have the means to not answer if you don’t want,” she retorted, even though she was on the phone, it was clear that eyes were rolling. 

“Fifteen?” That sounded a dangerously short amount of time, but she wasn’t going to complain all that much. She didn’t want to be stuck out on the bridge too long. It was a weird combination of muggy from the early morning fog and cold from the wind coming off the lake. All in all unpleasant. The sooner he arrived the better. “Okay…just be moderately careful.” It was four in the morning, traffic couldn’t be that bad, right?

His shrug was almost audible over the phone. “And here I was thinking it’s rude to ignore phone calls from friends when it’s so late,” there’s a little bit of derision, because as much of an ass as he was, he was there for his friends, and somehow he’d ended up with Rosie in that camp. They were gonna get nowhere in this pseudo-argument, and he’d stopped caring about thirty seconds ago, he was too busy putting on his boots. 

“Want me to make it ten? I can do that.” That would probably be more than a little illegal, especially since he was technically twenty minutes away, minimum…but wouldn’t it be fun to add a bit of extra risk, too? Cradling the phone against his shoulder, he laced his boots before pulling on a jacket. “No promises, you know better.” His one was teasing, and as he grabbed his keys, he held the phone again. “I’ll be right there.” 

fiinalgiirl:

“I have great faith in your ability to let a phone go to voicemail,” she retorted, holding the phone to her ears with her shoulder as she kicked at a tire. It, stubbornly, stayed deflated. 

“So, don’t make me feel bad for calling unless you want your number deleted. I got a flat and I don’t have a spare, I’m on the Causeway, close to the Northshore. You too far to help?”

“Yeah, I’m not an ass like that,” Xander said back, almost sniping at her. “You haven’t called me for stupid shit yet, anyway.” So he figured it was somewhat important. 

He wasn’t going to tell her she could delete his number if she wanted, but he’d still have hers, so that wasn’t going to work out the way she intended. Technically he was on the other side of town, but at four in the morning, he’d shove his feet into a pair of boots and drive the GTO out there. “All right, gimme about fifteen.” Speed limits were for suckers. 

@fiinalgiirl // punch’d the heart

It was four in the morning. Luckily–or perhaps unluckily–for him, he was already awake. “Better be a damn good reason you’re calling me before sunrise, Rosie.”

fiinalgiirl:

Rosie glared at the bottle and then him as if they’d both crushed some sort of hope – which, they did. She’d desperately wanted to watch someone while they tripped on absinthe. Apparently, that just wasn’t a thing anymore. What a bummer.

Her eyes narrowed and she frowned. “I don’t think I believe that, but I’ll mark it down on the list of disappointments this city has given me. Right next to decent public transportation. Have you tried the bus system here? I haven’t seen it arrive on time once.”

“It’s gotta do with the thujone content. You can check, but most’ve them in the states don’t have that anymore.” For someone who barely drunk, Xander sure as hell knew a lot about booze. It was part of the job, he supposed. Or the lifestyle. “You find real absinthe, you can con someone into drinking it.” Not me, though, he thought to himself. If that was something she wanted, he was sure she could find someone in this city to do it pretty easy. 

He sipped his cranberry and tonic water, “I’m not a bus guy, really. Bikes are more practical pretty much anywhere.” Of course, there was his old favorite GTO, but he couldn’t just drag that around the world with him, he’d stick out like a sore thumb, and that was just a bad idea. 

fiinalgiirl:

@thexanderzone

“But, and hear me out on this, big Guy. What if it just expanded your consciousness? Into another realm or some shit?” 

Look, she wanted to know what the stuff actually did, and she wished for once someone would just take the bait. Let her know if absinthe really made you see things, please. She gave her best smile and shook the bottle. 

“C’mon.”

Xander looked between her and the bottle. “It’s just absinthe. It gets you drunk. Most of the stuff you find here doesn’t have the wormwood in it anymore, anyway, so it’s just liquor.” He smirked a bit, taking the bottle from her before putting it right back down on the bar. 

“Sorry to disappoint you.”