bloody knuckles
who: Roach and Corey
where: The streets
when: Afternoon
Pepper was dead. Roach hadn't known her all that well, not much beyond those times Dodge had helped her, when trying to get back her spot. Yanking Roy off of Dodge and watching him get laid into had felt weird and wrong, but driving his fists into that asshole at the bridge, that was justice. And now Pepper was dead.
Could they have done things differently? Could they have kept a closer eye on her? He didn't know, but it was too late for the what-ifs and the maybes, the woulda-coulda-shouldas. Now they just had to find the ones responsible. When he'd found out, he'd split, able to cover more of the city with Dodge's wits and Roach's muscle heading off in different directions. They weren't even halfway through the day and Roach had already hurt a lot of people. His knuckles were split and bleeding, though the blood on his hands wasn't all his own. He'd punched and kicked, shoved people up against walls, dangled them over fire escapes, but nobody, not a damn one of them, knew anything. How could some big motherfucker carry a screaming little girl off into the darkness and no one knew a goddamn thing?
He'd stopped and sat himself down on a stoop, smoking a cigarette before his anger rose to a fever pitch and he started shaking old ladies on the street and demanding to know where Pepper's killer was. He exhaled smoke and looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers so that the split skin pulled apart. Useless. Everything he'd done so far and it hadn't amounted to anything yet. He glared out across the street, looking for all the world like he wanted to rip somebody apart. A little longer without success and he might do just that.
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Corey had heard the buzz about Pepper's death. And while she'd known the girl, and fairly well, and while she'd not seen her in a while, that didn't make things suck less. She'd been listening for whispers for where those who'd harmed her had gone, and as soon as people heard, she'd find out. Still. It just didn't make things better. She was out, though less because she wanted to be and more because she wanted to check on people. She'd spotted a few and hadn't said anything, most people were with others and therefore as far as she was concerned, covered. But then she spotted Roach, and he wasn't with anyone else. In fact, he was sitting there by himself with blood on his hands. So, moving through the few shadows afforded her by the brightness of the day, (and god her eyes hurt because of that) she ghosted up onto the stop behind him, and just sat down, being quiet, but present. He'd notice soon enough.
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Roach was edgy as hell, and when he felt the presence settle down beside him, he jumped, fingers curling into fists. But it was just Corey, and he relaxed... or at least he relaxed as much as he was able.
"Hey, Cor," he said, looking over at her. He didn't even attempt a smile; his face wasn't going to work right and she'd know anyway. She always knew when he was faking it. "Guess you heard about Pepper, huh?" He'd bent his cigarette when he jumped and he carefully reshaped it, digging out another match to light up again. He seemed to suddenly remember he was sitting there with blood on his hands and he awkwardly wiped them on the thighs of his trousers--there wasn't much, most of it dried and flaking, but it still looked odd.
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Corey was crouched, knees in against her chest and her arms were hugged low on her legs. She wasn't sitting so much but almost, near but not touching him. Her good cheek rested against her knees, and she looked at him, hair falling into her eyes a bit. Nodding, she answered his question non-verbally. She also watched him wipe the blood off of his hands, and she was looking carefully to see if any of it was his. If he needed to have his knuckles bandaged up. "You going to be okay?" she asked, tone light.
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Some of it was his, with his bruised and split knuckles. The blood was starting to crust into the wounds, but every so often Roach would flex his hands, cracking them open again. "Yeah," Roach said, ignoring the tiny rivulets of blood running down the back of his hands. "It's not me I'm worried about, though. I can't believe some asshole picked her up and carried her off and nobody said anything or tried to stop him. Why kind of shit is that, Cor? What the hell is wrong with people?"
He ran a hand through his hair, fingers curling into a fist. He looked over at her, an almost desperate look in his dark eyes. "You probably didn't hear anything either?"
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"Stop it." Corey said, reaching out one hand to light her fingers on the back of his wrist, not stopping the motion or anything, but letting him know what it was she wanted him to knock the hell off. "It's just going to cause me more work when I make you sit down and get fixed up." she added. It was meant to be a light teasing remark, but fell flat. "Not yet." she told him. "But I'm waiting." she promised. "People know. They're listening." she promised. And if anyone was going to figure things out, it'd probably be someone down there. Someone would have heard a story from someone and it could be traced back. "You know I'll tell you when I find out."
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Roach stopped, looking at her as she chided him. It did fall a bit flat, but he still cracked a small smile at her, letting his hands fall into his lap. He nodded when she continued, resisting the urge to tangle his fingers in his hair and tug again. "I know. Just... whenever you hear something, okay?"
He flicked the butt of his cigarette out into the street and looked at Corey. Usually his face lost some of its hard edge when he was around her, but today, it was hard to shake the clouds that were surrounding him. "I didn't even know her that well. I mean, we helped her out with her spot, some other stuff that came up over the years, but we never really... talked. I just can't get over how fucked it all us. People die out here all the time, but what kind of monster hurts a kid?"
The same kind that had hurt Roach himself, most likely. Not that anyone besides Corey, not even Dodge, knew about that.
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"Pepper was a little hard to get to know sometimes. She had her walls too." Corey said, so Roach didn't feel bad for not having got past them. Like they both had their own walls, and that was how that was. Even if their walls were less wall like and squishier in places between the two of them. But they were there, and they both knew it. Like Corey knew people just didn't know a lot of pretty important shit about Roach. And people didn't know she remembered watching blood sink down into the grass at the park when her 'parents' were shot down. But Roach knew that.
"I'd wager the kind of people who forgot other people are people." she said. "That things hurt and you don't shit where you live." she added. Because there would be payback for this. There would be. She was willing to bet it was going to surprise the living shit out of whoever did it, but good christ there was going to be payback.
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Roach nodded. Yeah, he knew about walls. He and Corey were still chipping at each other's, little by little. Even with how long they had known each other, even with all that they knew that no one else did, there was still a lot left. He had to wonder if things had been different if he'd gotten that far with Pepper, if he'd been closer with her. Like with Corey. But the thought only made him cringe, his mind replacing the two girls, imagining some misshapen beast of man going into the tunnels to cart her away. He was already pissed, but thinking about Corey hurt just made it worse, and it showed in the sudden tension in his shoulders, the way he clenched his hands.
"I'd rip apart anybody that hurt you, you know that? I know you can take care of yourself, but I would anyway." He looked at Corey, nodding firmly, his jaw tight. "Just like I'm gonna rip apart this guy when we find him. We all are."
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Corey smiled a little at Roach's statements, a quirked little half expression that brought the red scars on her cheek up a little. "Yeah, I know." she told him. "You'd get all mad and go charging bull on them." she said. "It'd be a sight." Her tone was light, like she was just playing, though she did suspect if anyone messed with her too bad Roach would take issue with that. The weird part was that she never did feel like he viewed her as anything less than capable. He was aware of the fact that she wasn't some silly little princess, who couldn't look after herself or needed some big strong man to come rescue her. So it never kicked up her twitches that she could take care of herself, thanks. It was different than that. She knew Roach would just take it really damn personally if someone really fucked with her. In her book that made just enough of a difference that she tolerated it just fine, and occasionally even found it endearing. He just also happened to be the glaring exception to that rule. Anyone else who suggested that might be protective would get an earful. Though Corey hadn't run up against that. The people in the underground had taught her what they had because they could see she could handle herself. And she could.
"And yes, Roach, you're going to get your shot. I promise." she told him, hoping to hell she could keep that. Corey tried extremely hard not to make empty promises. Though in this specific case she figured she'd search to the ends of the goddamn earth to deliver up the people who got Pepper. It would be worth it. And she was already thinking that they were getting their asses booted from the underground, and they were going to have to walk around sans one eye for their offense. And that was just what she planned to do. That wasn't even counting what Roach, Dodge and the rest of the boys would dish up.
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Corey's joking did manage to defuse Roach, just slightly. He smiled and reached over to ruffle her short her playfully (making sure he wasn't getting any blood on her). "The streets would rue the day," he said, allowing himself a chuckle. "Forget D-Day, it'd be C-Day. Pickin' bombs out of the sky and dropping 'em on anybody who ever looked at you wrong. Better than flowers, right?"
But then the moment passed and they were talking about Pepper again. He leaned forward on the stoop, elbows resting on his knees. "Funny how fast your whole day can go to shit."
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Corey smiled at him, laughing just a touch. She also made a light little face, though didn't actually move away from his messing with her hair. He was one of the only people in the universe that could get away with doing that without losing an appendage. He got to, other people knew better. "Yeah, that's way better than flowers." she agreed. Flowers weren't something that Corey had ever in her life gotten, which was likely a good thing and all considering where she lived. Not a whole lot of flowers down there, and even ones from proper florists would likely die a horrible death in a very short time.
She watched him when he sat forward again, like a little personal raincloud had come to settle over him once more. She could understand that. She felt it herself sometimes. Today, for instance. "Yeah, I know." she said. But they both knew that. Things changed in a heartbeat. Often, even. Sometimes shit just happened, and you rolled with the punches or you got brought down. Not pretty, but the way of the world, certainly.
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They did know that. For both of them, one day things were fine, where they were both living perfectly ordinary lives, when suddenly it was all suddenly, violently snatched away. They had both watched their family die in front of them--it was a strange thing to bond over, but they had, and it worked.
He felt restless, though. Sitting here was all well and good, but there was information out there still, words that needed to be pried out broken finger by broken finger. He'd gone and gotten himself stuck in a dark place, between Pepper's death and everything he was doing to rectify that, and it was far too easy to get pushed out to the edge. Being with Corey helped to ground him. Dodge could pull him out of it too, but it was in his own boyish way, berating him and pulling until his head rose above the surface. Corey just... put him at ease. She didn't even have to try. So he felt like he ought to stick around, at least a short while longer.
"Haven't seen you in a bit, Cor. What's been going on downstairs?" Small talk was always good.
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"Things were kind of in an uproar for a while." Corey admitted. "From what I understand, one of the crime families up here scattered and some of they tried to scatter our way. That didn't work out so well for them, but that didn't mean they didn't think they could walk in and intimidate everyone with their guns and tough talk and everything. A lot of people died, one way or another. Us. Them. They're gone now, but still." she said with a shrug of one shoulder. "Took a lot of work to get everyone settled again. And it's made people more paranoid than usual lately, so it's been harder to calm people down. I know there are a few people who went deep, way farther than people usually go, and they haven't come back. But then people push farther and farther every year, too. Maybe this is just another push into the tunnels, and it's just been prompted by something else this time." She kept her eyes on him. "What about up here?" she asked. "I miss anything important?"
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Talk about your sunny conversations.
Roach did worry about her, though. She was tough as nails, he knew that, but there was only so much she could do with her slingshot when a mobster was waving a gun around. Even he knew when to pick a fight and when to leave the diplomacy up to Dodge. Lucky for Corey, she could do both.
"You okay, though?" he asked her, trying not to look her over for cuts and scrapes and bullet wounds. "No greasy mafia bastard I need to get my hands on?" Surely anyone that had hurt her down there had already gotten his just desserts, but that didn't mean Roach was keen on missing out just because he was late.
He shook his head when she threw his original question back at him. "Besides this? No. Just Dodge up to his usual... you know..." While Roach had never come right out and directly said exactly how he felt about the entire situation, he figured that Corey had worked it out for herself by now. Roach had long since accepted his role in the whole mess, but that didn't mean it didn't sting from time to time.
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"They're all gone, and won't ever be heard from again, and I'm fine." she promised him. Though really, even if there was some mafia guy out there who'd harmed her, she would think really really hard before she told Roach about it. Because he might just be silly enough to go looking for the guy. And she didn't want Roach messing with any mob people ever. It wouldn't end well and likely not in Roach's favor. So she was glad when there was the Other Topic, the one that was sort of a constant, really.
"What, up to his usual 'if it's got boobs and a heartbeat' he has to be all over them like fleas?" she asked, making a face. It was not something Corey approved of. But then she'd had to back Dodge off of her business back in the day. These days she just stuck to one specific phrase when she wanted him to fall the fuck back in line. She asked him 'which eye?' Which was meant to convey she was asking him which eye he wanted to keep while she shot out the other if he kept up his bullshit.
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"Good to hear," Roach said, nodding solidly. Dodge hadn't really gotten in deep with that part of the city yet, and honestly, Roach wasn't looking forward to when he would. Dodge might have been able to work his way around other street kid and church ladies, but fucking with city's families was going to be something very different. If things got that, Roach would still follow him down the rabbit hole... he'd just figure that he wouldn't be climbing back out again.
"Basically." Roach shook his head. Generally he tried to keep things vague, not wanting to spread around what few details he knew about Dodge's... romantic life. If things were going to slip out, though, Corey was the best person to hear about it. Her lips were screwed tighter than a steel trap. "I talked to him about it this morning. Hopefully it got through somehow. Maddy deserves it."
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Corey resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "He still at it with her then?" she asked, though it was rhetorical. She could feel her headache coming on, the bright sunshine doing her in, though it could be from the subject, too. Her tone didn't suggest, however, that she wanted to not talk about it. It wasn't for her benefit, personally she couldn't give less of a damn about who Dodge was chasing, but she knew it bothered Roach to no end. And who the hell else was he going to talk to about it? No one, that was who. "How many girls does he have on the line right now?"
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"Yep." It was frustrating, watching Dodge sit back and do what he wanted when it came to girls. Obviously he only knew about what he could see or what Dodge said himself, but he'd been right there for JJ and he'd seen Dodge heading in the direction of Evelyn's apartment or the diner. He'd listened to Dodge talk about Jessie and Maddy in the same breath. And although Roach hadn't told Corey as much, it hurt that Maddy had chosen Dodge over him, when Dodge treated her like that, when Roach would be capable of doing everything Dodge didn't even think about. That Maddy would be saving herself so much heartache if she would just, for once, look in Roach's direction...
Except that by now he knew it was hopeless, that Maddy and Dodge would always be a thing and he'd just have to get over it. It was hard, though, when every other day something was happening that made him wish everything was different. He hated it, honestly, and he was tired of feeling this way, but like hell he'd ever let anyone know about it. He didn't even want to tell Corey the whole story. If he'd dealt with what had happened to him when he was eleven, then he could deal with his heart hurting every now and then. He was a big boy, he was tough. It wouldn't be that hard.
"Two that I know about," Roach said with a shrug. "He said he and JJ are just friends but hell, you know how long it took Doge to take your no for an answer, even with messin' him up. So I dunno. He'll do what he wants, in the end."
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Corey watched Roach as he slowly burned, wondering what it was going on in his head that he wasn't actually saying. she was guessing 'a lot'. But she didn't call him on it, at least, not in an outright manner. Instead she took a more subtle approach. She generally did when it came to this subject, what with her having figured out his crush on DG ages ago. It wasn't like he was overly subtle with it, at least, around her. She imagined he played it a whole lot closer to the chest around other people. She was quiet as she considered everything, wondering if she should try and come up with an angle for Roach. It was a situation that required a lot of care. "He's really going to get a lot of people hurt someday." she said, tone light. It was an odd place to open, but she didn't want to come at things directly. Not in this. Not with Roach.
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Roach made a noise in his throat, somewhere between a snort and a chuckle. "Probably," he said, idly scuffing his shoe against the pavement. "Sooner or later they're all gonna find out about each other, and he'll be standing in the middle of it wondering what it is he did wrong." He laughed again, shook his head. "And I'll be there to say 'told you so'."
He thought he played things a lot cooler around Corey than he actually did. In actuality, he kept things so tight that it was easy for more than he intended to spill out when he did open it up to talk to her. He assumed she knew more than what he said, he just might have been assuming less than what was true.
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Corey shook her head, and she moved then, sitting farther back in the shadows, but her posture was more open than it had been as she looked at him. Her headache was worse, but she was trying to think past it. "That's not what I mean, Roach." she said. "You're thinking too small." she continued. "I'm not going on about girlies with bruised feelings or some cat fight breaking out at any given moment. I'm not talking about some silly situation where he's in the middle just shrugging over the pain he's causing people. I'm talking bigger than that."
She drew in a slow breath and chose her words carefully, knowing she was treading on strange ground. "Dodge has people who depend on him. He views himself as king of the streets. And while he takes care of certain people, he has a disregard for people in general. He doesn't care if he hurts feelings, he doesn't have any morality, and he's got this silly idea that he's untouchable. Eventually he's going to hurt the wrong person. He's going to disregard the wrong person. Bad things will happen. And his boys, you...you'll go to his aid. You're loyal, even if I don't know that he wouldn't cut out if the tide turned fast. He does care most about himself, it seems. It's that lack of care for others that's just so apparent. But...you'll try to help him. The boys will try to help him. And depending on who it is you're up against? ...do you see what I mean, Roach?" she asked, her concern over the potential situation clear in her tone.
Dodge and she had similar situations, but they were night and day with the way they dealt with things. Corey had the underground that she protected with her entire being, but she also made sure that the good of the whole was served. And the good of the whole very much rode on her, her attitude and friends and enemies she made. Dodge viewed himself as invincible and infallible, and therefore didn't worry about such things. His reputation couldn't float him forever, and he seemed to be under the impression it would. And that he'd never find anyone who would slap him down for his indiscretions or disrespect.
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Roach shifted to face her when she moved back into the dark, knowing that she'd probably have gotten a headache by now from being outside. But when she started talking about Dodge, his face creased.
He had a knee-jerk reaction to her talking about Dodge that way, his best friend besides Corey herself. Because it was Corey, he was able to not get outright angry, and also because it was Corey, he was able to listen to what she was saying. And for the most part, she was right. In fact, she was saying things that Roach himself had been worrying over just moments before.
"He's not... totally like that," Roach managed, still frowning deeply. "It's not that he doesn't care if somebody gets hurt. He cares. He does all of this, takes care of all the boys, because he cares. He cares way too much, even. He just... he doesn't get it. He doesn't get why people would feel anything different from him. And since his vision of how things ought to work is already a bit messed up, everything else comes out all weird. He's not... malicious, Corey. He's just Dodge." Roach shrugged, brow furrowed. "Totally full of himself, prince of fucking thieves, but yeah, that's Dodge."
He worked his jaw for a moment, leaning back against the stoop's banister. "You're probably right, though. He is too sure of himself, and he probably will get us all dragged into some stupid scheme that'll get us all killed. And I'll be right there with him, 'cause... I don't know. I can't just let him walk into it on his own."
Roach saw the way Corey ran things and he admired her for it. Now if only Dodge could stop calling her princess long enough to take a few pointers from her.
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"You're missing my point." Corey said. "Or, kinda, anyways." she amended. "I acknowledge that he cares. But it's only about certain people. It's only his chosen few. Everyone else he kind of just pisses on. Hell, even including people he cares about, assuming he actually does give a toss about the girls he's jerking around." Though Corey was hard pressed to believe that, considering she didn't know how anyone could do that to someone they did care about.
"What I'm telling you is it doesn't matter if he cares about the few he does care about. It doesn't matter if he's 'not like that deep down'. What'll matter in the end isn't whether or not he gives a damn about his boys. It'll be the people he doesn't give a shit about. It'll be the people he pisses off because he isn't even thinking about it. That careless nature he's got where he really just can't be bothered to think about how people will react or feel. And it won't matter if he doesn't mean it maliciously, either. When has motive ever truly mattered? Seriously, Roach. You know it doesn't. Street justice is street justice." She ticked her gaze to his knuckles, then back up to his eyes. "You know that."
Like she knew that Roach was fully speaking the truth. That he'd be right there alongside Dodge, and that was the problem. Roach and all the boys would be and it would be so bad in the end. So many innocent kids were going to get their asses handed to them, or like Roach said--killed--and all because they followed someone who couldn't see the big picture. Or maybe he just didn't want to because he was far too busy worrying about himself. In Corey's opinion if you were a leader--you worried about your people first and foremost. Your own bullshit got put to the side. Dodge seemed to do it the other way around.
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Roach looked down at his hands when he saw her look at them, closing his fingers into fists so that the cuts pulled open again. He looked back up at her, his frown as firmly in place as before.
Because he couldn't argue with her. Dodge couldn't see the big picture. He saw the moment, he saw what he wanted at the time, and he went for it. He did that with Jessie, with Roy when Maddy had gone missing, he'd done it when he'd asked Roach who that pretty little blond girl was eight years ago. He did it everyday with the boys, trying to make up for what happened with Patrick, appeasing his guilt about blindly letting it all happen. He had one hell of a lot pf weight on his shoulders that no one had ever asked to be put there. Because it made him the prince of thieves.
But then it came back around, that Roach could only criticize so much because of what he owed Dodge himself. He didn't know where he'd be without a purpose, without someone to tell him what to do so he didn't just... implode or something. He didn't even know.
All he could do was just shrug. "You want to tell him that? Dodge always believes he's right. Honestly, he's got it all sussed out in his head already. He believes in what he's doing, whatever he's doing. I'm not saying it's right, Corey. I'm just saying... good luck telling him he's wrong."
.
"You're an idiot." Corey said with a heavy sigh. "I'm not telling him anything. It's not my place. He doesn't tell me how to do my business, I'm not going to tell him how to do his. I'm talking to you about it because I'm worried about you, dumbass." she said. Though the name calling was affectionate in nature, even if her tone was still grave. The topic was very serious for her, she meant every word. And she did, in fact, worry about the entire thing. But that didn't make it her business, just because she could see the storm when Dodge couldn't. Or wouldn't.
"And I know you're not going to change your ways, just like Dodge isn't going to change his. I know that just because I can see the imminent disaster doesn't mean it'll be averted. But at least I'll have tried to talk to you about it. Never know, right? Maybe it'll do some good I just don't see right now." Like maybe Roach would watch for things. Or advise Dodge in certain ways in light of things she'd said. She didn't know, and she wouldn't ever ask Roach to put himself in that position which was why she didn't suggest it in the slightest. But still. She wanted to have some hope that things wouldn't end in blood because one person was too self centered to understand the impact he had to everyone around him. Especially when he went out of his way to effect everyone who crossed his path.
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"I never said I wasn't," Roach said, with a little smile. He knew that it wasn't good enabling Dodge, going along with whatever he decided to do. He tried talking him out of the worst of it, like he had that morning, but the other half of the time he let it drop with a roll of his eyes and a "oh, that Dodge." The boy fancied himself a ruler of the streets, and you could only say so much before he took it as a personal affront. Dodge had done a lot for Roach, and he wasn't about to go shitting where he ate just because Dodge was an idiot about some things, and too stubborn to admit that fact. Nothing too awful had happened yet, right?
Except this, with Pepper. Maybe if they'd done things differently, maybe if the guy hadn't been so angry...
He had taken what she'd said about imminent disaster and was rolling it around in his head, obviously thinking as he picking the dried blood out from underneath his fingernails. "Cor," he said, hesitant, "you think Pepper is our fault? You think this is one of those things you're talking about?"
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"No." Corey said, tone firm. "I think someone tried to boot Pepper from where she was, and she wanted it back, and you guys helped her. But that doesn't mean that it was because you guys helped her." She definitely didn't think that it was Dodge's fault or anyone associated with him either. Absolutely not. "I think it's one of those things you look back at and can see that maybe she should have found a new spot and been done with it since the guy wanted it badly enough to have booted her from it in the first place, but it just as easily could have gone different. He could have decided to find his own different place since obviously Pepper had friends."
She gave him a light smile, though there was a little twinge of pain in it. "You guys tried to do what you thought was right, tried to help someone. No one's gonna fault you for that. I think you guys did the right thing. It just ended bad's all. If anyone's gettin blame here it's them." she promised. "This was a case of some of the good things Dodge does. I know he does good things too. I just can see a storm brewing. Never said I thought he was all bad either."
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Roach nodded, biting at the inside of his cheek. He'd needed to hear that. He'd already been in the process of beating himself up over what had happened, but how could they have anticipated that the man would do what he'd done? How could they have known he'd be stupid enough to hurt, probably kill, a girl that obviously had a lot of friends? Surely he had to know there would be retribution. Maybe that was why they couldn't find him right now.
"We'll make this right too, then," Roach said, looking determined. "As much as we can. We'll get them. We have to." If these were anything but guys on the street, he might have worried that they were starting that storm right now, starting a chain that would land them all in early graves.
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"We'll make it right." Corey promised. She rubbed at her temple a little, her head throbbing at the moment. "Right now, though, you're coming with me, I'm taking care of your knuckles, and you're not going to argue with me over it." she told him, quirking a faint half smile at him.
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"Forget about me," Roach said, standing up on the bottom step, facing Corey. "You need to get out of the sun." He didn't need to know her as long and as well as he did to see that being up top was starting to give her a headache. "I ought to get back out there anyway. I can't worry about my hands when he's still running around."
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"I could always bandage you up while inside." Corey pointed out. "And technically, you should worry about your hands while he's still running around because if you're too hurt, you'll do less damage with a punch." Which was Roach's favorite thing to do. But she knew what he meant. She just couldn't not give a try to help him out while she could. Especially since right now, it was more a waiting game than anything.
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Roach frowned slightly, looking down at his hands. He made a fist and tapped it against the wall; he didn't wince, but it didn't feel great.
"Five minutes," he said, looking at Corey with a half-smirk. Five minutes usually didn't happen with the two of them. One topic always lead to another that lead to another--but he did need to get back to looking for clues. There was somebody out there that knew something, and he was going to find them. And hurt them.
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Corey smirked. "Five minutes?" she asked. "Seriously? I'm supposed to work that fast?" she asked. "Whatever." she said, though it was more playful than annoyed. Standing up, she stretched a little, wincing faintly over that pain in her head. "Might as well go back to my place." she said, heading down the steps, so they could head towards the library. She always had first aid supplies lying around in her nest. She used them sparingly, but in this specific case she deemed it necessary.
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"Better hurry," Roach said, smirking back. Standing next to each other as they hit the sidewalk, Roach towered over her. After a quick moment of re-arranging and he was standing on the other side of her, putting her in shadow.
"Good?" He smiled, almost half-heartedly, but it was easy to feel a little better when they were doing things that were familiar, that were normal for them. He cupped his arms over her, making her a little umbrella.
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Corey laughed, squinting one blue eye shut as she looked up at her human umbrella. "Perfect." she told him. Roach was a pretty big guy, and she wasn't an overly large girl. So when they were walking she often had to sort of cran her neck to see him. But he did give good shade, not that it was sunny all that often. Of course, on the days she needed to be topside the sun was blazing in the damn sky. Today she'd take rain. But alas, no such luck. She did, however, walk closer to Roach than she did when they were indoors, and she tried to walk close to buildings as well, the overhead sky making her nervous. She understood it was stupid, there wasn't anything up there that was going to hurt her, and just because she was walking around during the daylight hours didn't mean there was some magical target painted on her forhead or anything. Still, it made her nervous and she couldn't help that. So she walked closer to Roach, and took the shortest route to the library that was humanly possible. "My five minutes don't include travel time." she informed him.
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Roach laughed too but let his arms drop after a moment. He knew that being up top made Corey uneasy, and he squeezed her shoulder, letting her walk close. If he were Dodge, he might have wrapped an arm around her, pulled her close, but she hadn't asked for it and he wouldn't presume that she wanted him to or would appreciate it if he did it. He had been that way around Maddy before, when they were friends, when they'd known each other from the orphanage, but then she told Dodge and Dodge told him to back off. He didn't want to be that presumptuous, only to get told off again--not that it ever stopped Dodge himself.
"I can make an exception for travel time," Roach said. "Five minutes starting when the bandages come out."
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For Corey's part, she probably wouldn't have known what to do if Roach did put an arm around her. People didn't do that with her. Or, sure, Dodge had tried back in the day, but he'd learned eventually that she wasn't interested, and he could keep his hands to himself, thank-you-very-much. But really, beyond a few creepy sorts of looks she got from people on the streets now and then, no one had ever made any advances towards her. And she had other things to worry about than that.
Letting the conversation drop while she got them to the library, she slipped in through the ruined section, then headed down through a cracked, crumbled portion of the wall to drop down onto the steps that led to the basement. Technically, the door up top was locked most of the time, but that crack in the wall worked just fine to bypass that. Not that she couldn't have dealt with a locked door if she wanted to. Pulling the lighter she carried out of her pocket, she lit that--though it was pretty much just for Roach's sake, not her own. She knew where she was going in the dark, but he probably didn't. So, they got a meager bit of fire light. Getting to the basement, she paused to pick up one of the lanterns she kept in there, hidden behind an old trunk. Lighting that, she led the way to the gaping hole in the far back wall, that was mostly hidden by an old bookshelf that was leaning crooked against the wall. Ducking down, she got inside, the darkness and cool air from the tunnel serving to make Corey feel better. it didn't kill her headache, but it soothed it some, and her anxiety and tension over being topside eased back. She waited for Roach to follow in behind her, not wanting to get too far ahead.
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Roach had been down at Corey's place plenty of times over the years, but he still marveled at how she could live down here. It was so dark and cramped... he'd gotten used to it by now, and no longer felt anxious when he was down here too long, but it was still disconcerting when coming in from the open air.
He followed close to her, keeping an eye on the lantern. It was funny, how their comfort levels switched when they entered their respective worlds. Roach tensed up slightly, but it would pass--it was just like closing the coffin lid. "Almost there?" he asked, laughing a little.
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"Yeah, almost there." Corey confirmed for him, smirking a little to herself. And true to her word, they did arrive not too long from then. Dropping down into a more open, cavernous space, she headed them to the right, through another crumbled archway that hadn't been put there by any builder, but had been formed by collapsing brickwork. Heading through there, after another turn or two, they got to Corey's nest. It wasn't really a home. Or, not in the traditional sense. She set the lanturn down, and lit a few candles, giving the place a warm glow that caught the light of a ton of little trinkets she had everywhere. They all seemed random, like it was a room full of lost things--and in essense that's exactly what it was. Most of them were gifts from people, little somethings people had given her when she'd done something for them. Corey kept gifts. The only time she traded or sold them was when she couldn't come up with any other way to get something necessary for the people she looked after. The room itself was like a hollowed out cave, some of it natural rock, other bits re-mortared brick that she'd done herself(not all that awesomely well, but it worked well enough for her). Her 'bed' over in the far back corner was actually underneath a table, with long heavy drapes over it, so she had something like a canopy bed even if it lacked an actual matteress. It still kept her hidden while she slept.
Heading over to the back wall, she opened up the rickety cabinet that stood next to the old window frame she had there. The cracked glass in the panes had been painted, depicting a 'view' of a forest. Inside the cabinet were her collected medical supplies. Getting out the bandages, she looked back over at him. "Have a seat." she told him. There were odd bits of furnature around, though none of it was in perfect condition.
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Roach could breathe easier once he was in Corey's nest. There was something homey about it that made him forget he was in the tunnels. They'd had a lot of conversations down here, so many that Roach had his usual seat, the one chair that seemed sturdy enough to support his weight.
"Those are new," he said, nodding to a shelf that was fuller than the last time he'd seen it. As uneasy as it might have made him to come down here at first, it was obvious that Corey had a life down here, and that it was homey and welcoming in its own way. It was hard, like it was hard anywhere, like it was hard topside, but she made it work and Roach respected and admired the hell out of her for it.
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Corey glanced over to where he indicated. "Yeah, I found a few new people places to stay recently." She said, walking over. She pulled up a little rickety foot stool to sit in front of him, taking his closest hand. She set it on her knee, then started the process of bandaging his knuckles. "That and when the O'Malleys decided to try and crash the party, I was kinda instrumental in making sure they didn't overstay their welcome. What with them not having one to start with." she said. She smiled though, even if it was a little to herself. Then, after a moment she decided to share her thought. "I think you're the only person around who actually would notice something like that." she told him. Which was true. People sure as hell didn't frequent her nest, and even if they did, most people wouldn't be able to pick out what might be different in a place that looked like hers. But Roach was more observant than most people ever gave him credit for. Like most people thought he was the dumb muscle, too, and he was hardly that. Or, Corey didn't think he was, anyways.
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Roach nodded, though his expression did turn a little grim. "I'm glad you're okay after that," he told her, wincing only slightly when she started in with the bandages. He didn't know about her, but he wasn't keeping time. "Try not to get in bad with any mafia assholes, okay? Even if they've got guns, you know I'd go after 'em anyway. I'd rather not get shot." He smirked a little, but it was still rooted in seriousness. He would go after anyone that tried to hurt her, no matter how unwise of an idea it was. He couldn't let something like that go unpunished.
He smiled when she spoke again, a little sadly. He understood what she meant, because it resonated with him as well. No one in the whole damn world knew as much about him as she did. No one had ever really asked, either, not that Roach would even be particularly inclined to tell them if they did. "I must be scaring off all the Prince Charmings," Roach said, teasing. "That, or it's the slingshot."
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"There wasn't anyone really walking away to tell the tale." Corey said--even if she personally hadn't killed anyone or anything. There were more than enough dangerous people down beneath the city that would just as soon kill an outsider than look at them. They'd gotten themselves taken care of. "And I won't go getting involved with mafia types. You know I can't stand their lot." She couldn't. Though it was for different reasons than a lot of people. It wasn't like she was morally opposed to groups of people who played by their own rules. She had that going on. More it was there was a hell of a lot of people in the underground who got there due to their lives being shattered by said mobs. That wasn't so cool.
"And keep up that talk, my friend, and someone's going to start asking questions about where your loyalties lie." she told him, tone light, almost playful but she did wonder if anyone overheard that if he'd get called on picking a side that wasn't Dodge's. That wouldn't be good for Roach, plus she wasn't under any illusions who Roach would pick if it came down to it. There was once when Corey had been pressed to consider if Roach was just around to keep tabs on her for Dodge, which she handed out a black eye for, and summarily dismissed as a possibility. No one had brought it up again, but people were in fact, aware of the fact that Roach was one of Them. Corey just didn't hold that against him.
When he mentioned the last bit, Corey snorted, laughing a little and she made a face at him. "Prince Charmings?" she asked. "Totally non-existant." she said firmly, with a nod and everything. "No such thing at all, ever. I've heard those fairy stories. They're all about some girlie who's weak and stupid and she needs some random guy to become randomly obsessed enough so he can rescue her. They don't make any sense." she said. Which was true, she could never make heads or tales of the practicality of those stories. She couldn't think about it and come to any conclusions beyond the girls were always sucky and the dudes were rather creepy, really. That and everyone had wild abandon of even the most cursory of standards and logic was something that only happened to other people.
"So, you wouldn't be chasing them off." she told him. "And the slingshot, that just keeps people with a healthy dose of anxiety over stepping out of line." she continued, glancing up with a little touch of a wicked glint in her eye. Then she went back to bandaging. "If anything chased them off 'bout me, I'd imagine it's the stupid bright red, 'looks like an open wound' scars I've got on my face. I said it before and I'll say it again, if anyone's princess material, it ain't me."
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"Oh, fuck that noise," Roach said, rolling his eyes. "Doing something for a friend doesn't mean I'm going to start fucking Dodge over. I hate that. Like regular politics aren't stupid enough, we've gotta have our own too." He shook his head, but still... he understood why and how things like that happened, why the system had developed. He understood that he had to play his part in it, that as much as he wanted to be loyal to Dodge and his own friends, he couldn't. He had to pick a side.
He was glad to move onto other subjects though, lightly teasing Corey about her romantic life--not that Roach's was exactly booming either. They'd talked about enough dark things already.
"Not all of them!" Roach protested, grinning, biting off a wince when Corey tightened the bandages. "There's gotta be a fairy tale out there with a girl that can kick some ass, like you. When I hear one, I'll let you know."
He and Corey had a lot of things in common. Their past lives, their dead parents, and their scars. Roach's weren't as bright as Corey's, but the long scar cutting across his eye and down his cheek was just about as noticeable. "Maybe you don't wanna be a princess anyway. If they're all up in their towers waiting for princes to come get 'em, maybe it's better to be... I don't know, the knight." He smirked, just a little half-heartedly, touching his scarred cheek with his free hand. "You and me both."
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What you're talking about ain't 'doing something for a friend', it's picking a fight with people who will ventilate your sorry butt if you tried to go up against them. Not the same thing. she thought but she didn't say because she too would much rather skip past the darker topics and maybe forcus on something lighter for the time being. She smirked a bit at him. "None that I've heard, and I'm pretty sure they're all the same anyways." she told him. Or, all the ones she had heard were. Essentially it was all that same thing over and over, with mildly different themes. But not once had she heard one with any kickass girls. Any women in fairytales who had some heft to them were villains.
She grabbed his other hand when she finished up with the first, smiling at that a bit. It was a quirked little half smile, the one she usually gave when she was amused. "I was just thinking that the only women with power in fairytales were all villains. But yeah, maybe I just need to give up the being a strong female thing, start telling people I'm a boy and be done with it. Go for that knight persona fully instead of just having the role by default. I just happen to be a knight without a master."
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"No, don't do that," Roach protested, frowning. "You're a girl, so be a girl. Being strong isn't just something guys can do. Maybe you can't hurt anybody real bad without your slingshot, but you're tougher than a hell of a lot of other guys I know."
He grinned wide and said, "Besides, you don't have to be a boy to be a knight. Just look at... damn, what was her name... Joan of Arc! Learned about her in school. She was a knight." He didn't mention that she become a knight because she was pretending to be a boy, but his point still stood. Sort of.
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Corey looked at Roach for a moment. "Don't think I could do real damage without the slingshot?" she asked, considering. She could do worse than people thought with it, she imagined. If absolutely nothing else, that shit hurt when you got pegged with a steel ball. And she hadn't done it or anything but that whole threat of blinding someone--that was real. She didn't think the human eye would stand up to steel shot into it at high speed. But she didn't know that she'd do it, really. Not unless she had a really damn good reason. "I can throw a punch. And I know that if you kick someone's knee out, they sure have a rough time following you." she added. Which she'd had to do before, most certainly. But then again, Corey could do that then lose people in the tunnels like no one's business. She figured on the street she could do that then disappear into the tunnels and anyone would have to be a total idiot to chase her onto her own ground.
"Wait, wasn't Joan of Arc pretending to be a boy?" she asked, remembering the story too, though she was fuzzy on the details. She paused. "...didn't they set her on fire?" she asked, thinking ole Joanie had a bad ending.
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Roach laughed. "Yeah, maybe," he said, imagining Corey going for someone's kneecap and making a break for it. She didn't have the raw power that Roach had, but she probably knew enough weak points to mess him up. It meant that Roach didn't worry about her like he might have worried about Maddy, who attracted danger and creeps like moths to flame and thought she could do more than she was actually capable of. He knew Corey could handle herself, and that there were a whole lot of other people who would do what she couldn't. And whatever was left, Roach would take care of if he could.
"Y-yeah," Roach said, getting a little flustered when Corey caught him, grinning sheepishly. "Only 'cause she was crazy or something, heard voices. Didn't mean she wasn't a badass!"
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Corey laughed, genuinely amused with his little trip up there, and she grinned at him for a second. "I think she was supposedly hearing God." she said. "And hey, I talk to God all the time--just y'know, not in my head. And by God I mean him." she said, motioning over to the fat rat that was asleep in the little 'house' she had for him. The house was really just kind of a crate that she'd put a bit of food in and water, with a little nest of rags and the like. Technically this was God the fourth, since rats didn't have overly extended lifespans or anything, but still. "Think the church would set me on fire for that?" she asked, finishing up his hand and she sat back a little, eyeing her work. "Go like this." she said, flexing her hands and fingers, to be sure he still had his full range of motion. She didn't want to hamper him and she knew what sort of activities Roach got himself into. Punching people happened a lot.
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Roach grinned and looked over at the cage, not seeing much besides a long pink tail. Bugs he absolutely hated, but rats were okay by him. He'd have given Corey one of his cats by now if he wasn't afraid that they wouldn't get along with poor God. "Still the same one from last time?" Roach had been around for a few incarnations of God.
He said as she said, holding up his hands and flexing them. They were tight enough to stay compressed against his knuckles, but he could still move his hands enough to make a fist and hit someone. He punched his opposite palm, nodding. "Perfect. Best bandaging ever, A plus."
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"Yeah. So far he's hanging in there." Corey confirmed, watching Roach test out the bandages. When he said they were perfect, she grinned. "Well of course they are." she told him. "I did it. And I'm good at that." Which she was, though she was teasing. Corey wasn't normally the type who just sat there and talked herself up. And most of the things she was especially good at she never really talked about at all. "Well you're cleared then." she told him. "Don't mess them up too much. And if you need me to re-do them, you know where I'm at." she added, which he did. But then he always knew if he ever really needed anything, he could go to her and she'd do her best to help out. Like she knew if she needed him she could call on him--she just usually didn't. Because of the politics thing. She didn't want anyone to be questioning Roach about where his loyalties lay. She didn't want there to be even the suspicion that he might favor her. Plus, he didn't, so the idea would be even worse to have out there. Nothing was worse than getting pinned for stuff you didn't even do.
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"He'll be okay. He's God." Roach grinned as he stood up, going over to the crate. He reached a finger in between the bars, gently stroking the sleeping rodent's back. Rats were nice and all, but he definitely preferred cats. He didn't have to worry about anybody mistaking his cats for pests. Roach remembered that's how one of the Gods died.
But now that he was facing going back out on his search, all of the good mood that he'd had since being around Corey was already leaking out. He knew it wasn't going to be long before he was in a dark place again, angry at the lack of information, enraged by the fact that it had happened at all. But at least he'd had some time apart from it, some time to forget about it. "I know," he said, giving her a smile that was already looking tense. "Goes both ways. Let me know if you find anything out... well. Let Dodge know."
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"I'll be there as soon as I know." Corey promised. And she most certainly damn well would be. She'd be knocking on Dodge's door in the middle of the night if she found out in the middle of the night. She had everyone on alert for things, and the second they knew they'd tell her, regardless of when that happened to be. And with this situation, she was pretty sure the boys wouldn't give a damn if their beauty sleep was interrupted. "Take care." she told him, not that she expected him to. He didn't lead much of a life that lent itself to being careful. But she could tell him anyways.
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"I'll do what I can," Roach said, though it was unclear whether he meant Corey's demand or his search for Pepper's killer. Right now, Roach didn't matter. He had to find that man.
"Take care yourself," he said, smiling, then letting it fade as he slipped out of Corey's nest. By the time he was back up on the surface, he was tense and grim-faced. Back to work.