The Perk, Friday afternoon

[betterthanaplan]

Octavia wasn't kidding about how quiet the town was without the students and teachers who were on the school trip. Duke had thought he'd enjoy that, but it quickly became eerie, and by Friday afternoon, he was getting a little twitchy, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The baristas had managed to pumpkin-spice bomb his order again, but Duke didn't complain. Sitting in front of the Perk drinking the wrong coffee and watching the empty streets was still better than sitting on his boat, drinking through his alcohol stash, and trying not to remap exactly how the fight had gone for the umpteenth time. . . .

[I'm bored and today is taking FOREVER. Open!
Content note: references to domestic violence in the Jack thread]

Comments

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack needed a break from Kaidan. She loved him but he was the worst patient ever when it came to 'keep still, stop trying to stand up, you have broken ribs'. One would think a combat medic would take medical advice but one would have been underestimating the stubborn that was Kaidan. She also needed some coffee.

The walk through town was almost creepily quiet and she walked through the door with a frown. The bruising on her jaw and under her eye as well as those the t-shirt didn't cover were something she'd forgotten about until the barista's eyes widen the second she walked through the door. "You should see the other guy," Jack drawled wryly. A lift of her chin in greeting to Duke - and then a sharp glance that tracked the bruising all over his face. "Seems to be going around this week."

She collected her large black coffee - which was, per the month, pumpkin spiced. Paid and tipped the baristas and headed over. "You want company or to be left alone?" she asked Duke.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke shrugged one shoulder and kicked a chair out from the table for her. "Make yourself at home." His eyes flicked over her collection of bruises, looking for signs of more than he couldn't see. "Was a banner week for heading out of town, I guess."

[biotic_psychotic]

"Yup," Jack said, taking a sip of her coffee and slinging her ass into the chair. She wasn't holding herself as if anything hurt but the bruises disappeared under her sleeves and down the neck of her shirt and her knuckles on both hands had signs that it had been one mother of a fight.

Jack was regarding Duke with the same sort of scrutiny. "Job go south?" she asked with cautious curiosity.

[betterthanaplan]

"No," Duke said. And didn't elaborate.

The bruising on his face was the most visible for him, with the fading rope burns on his hands a distant second. There were a few more bruises here and there, but most of the damage he'd taken had been internal. Psychological.

Haven was very good at dealing psychological damage.

"The other guy," he said, lifting his chin in the vague direction of the baristas. "They dead?"

Jack didn't strike him as the sort of who took bruising like that without dealing out a hell of a lot more damage in the other direction.

[biotic_psychotic]

"So far's I know she's still alive," Jack answered low enough the baristas wouldn't overhear, "Doubt she's happy about it because she's never gonna see daylight again." Liara would see to that.

Her gaze tracked all the visible damage again. "Homecoming didn't go well?" A muscle in her jaw twitched. She really hoped it was a bar fight or something.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke let out a choked laugh into his coffee. "It did not."

Which he should have known before even heading up there. Parents' Weekend had clearly been some sort of fluke.

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack's face was a little blank when she heard that laugh. It was an ugly sound with no trace of humor in it. She knew from ugly sounds. That was the sound of sharp edges being honed even sharper. So sharp they cut inward.

She drank some more coffee to put her brain in some sort of order. "Anything I can do?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Not unless you know how to rewind the last several days." He shook his head. "Nah, scratch that. I'd probably just manage to fuck it up even worse, somehow."

[biotic_psychotic]

"That isn't an ability I have," Jack said slowly, "and also probably not a thing to say too loud here in case you get your wish." A hand ran over her head, "You know a statement like that's gonna make me ask, right? Because you're the one with bruises and generally people don't punch themselves in the face. So.. is this a thing you want me to ask about, or is this a thing you want me to not ask about? I'm not gonna fuckin' interrogate you if you don't wanna talk but, I mean, if you do, I listen pretty good."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke shot her an evaluative look. His immediate, knee-jerk response was 'fuck no', but his immediate, knee-jerk responses hadn't been the most helpful over the last week or so.

"I didn't punch myself in the face," he said finally. "But I also didn't get thrown off the side of the boat and nearly drown. So. You know. I guess I won."

[biotic_psychotic]

"I mean, you got punched in the face," Jack said, "If you were defending yourself, they deserved to get thrown off the damn boat." She nodded at his hands. "At the very least you then threw down a rope and hauled them up again. 'Nearly drown' means 'not dead'. Pretty sure that's your win."

Duke.. did not strike her as the killing sort. She knew that type. She saw it in the mirror every damn day of her life.

[betterthanaplan]

"I didn't throw him because he punched me. Fuck, we've punched each other plenty, and I never. . . ." Duke trailed off, rubbing his hand over his face.

"That biotics shit." Have a hard conversational left turn, Jack! "How does that work? Like -- what sets it off?"

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack gave him a long look for a minute and took that in. That.. sounded ugly. If that 'he' was the cookie cop, it made the bruises and the comment about punching each other plenty pretty damn ugly.

She answered him, "We're born with it. The ability to channel the energy we use. Makes toddler tantrum time pretty fuckin' exciting. All biotics can flare, burst of energy sort of thing. Like a static charge buildin' up, you know? Happens during emotional shit. Stronger the emotion, more power to the boom. Gotta learn control to do anything else with it. Most human biotics don't survive to birth. Even more don't survive childhood." Tilted her head, "Why?"

[thatwaslucky]

Rey was twitchy for entirely different reasons but the player was still bored, so she hadn't gone home right away, going for a walk with her staff still sling across her back.

At least she was relieved to see Duke- not that she'd been worried, hush- though she was frowning a little when she stopped by. "Welcome back?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Thanks." Duke nodded to her and offered a shadow of his normal smile. "How'd flipping practice in the park go?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Not much in the way of flipping." She'd blame her own attitude today for that, she was always worse when she was too inside her own head. "Are you all right?"

It was the smile that worried her.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke grimaced faintly. He still had a fading bruise on his cheek. "Trip went a little rougher than anticipated," he said. "Should be fine for yoga on Tuesday, though."

Because clearly that'd be the only reason she was asking, right?

[thatwaslucky]

"That's good, but are you okay?"

Not the reason she was asking.

[betterthanaplan]

That shadow smile went a little confused at the edges. "I'm fine. Thanks."

It was weird when people wanted a real answer to that question.

[thatwaslucky]

That left her with the feeling that he didn't want her asking, or at least didn't want to tell her. Which didn't leave her with much else with the week she'd had.

"Okay," she said, and shrugged. "I'm glad to see you back, at least. I should leave you alone."

[betterthanaplan]

"You want to . . . sit? Or something? You could tell me about your boring week on the island."

[thatwaslucky]

"There's not really anything to tell," Rey said. "You're the second person I've seen all week."

Which didn't used to bother her.

[betterthanaplan]

"Seriously?" Duke's eyebrows went up. "Not that many people went on the trip, did they?"

They did. They really did.

[thatwaslucky]

"School trips happen, everyone clears out whether they were going along or not," she said. "It gets quiet."

[betterthanaplan]

"And so you hibernate," Duke said. "I guess that's fair. Did you watch a bunch of movies or something?"