paying respects

who: Ethan and Roy
where: The cemetery
when: Before the funeral

Ethan had woke up early again, slipping carefully out to avoid disturbing Corey. He felt like he had a slightly better grasp on the tunnels after spending two straight nights there, though he had a lantern and a fairly straightforward route to get back up to the streets. The sun wasn’t even up yet when he left the library, the air still cold from the night, the sky just barely blue. He drew his arms tight around himself and let his feet walk; he felt like he had a knife stabbed in his back in a place he couldn’t reach, a constant pressure that nothing could alleviate.

As the sky slowly lightened, he found his feet taking him to the cemetery, where Pepper’s funeral would be. His own parents weren’t buried here. They had gone to a cemetery outside of the city, laying next to his grandparents. They were so far from him they might as well have been in China. He hated this feeling when he couldn’t shake it, and sitting in a cemetery in the early morning likely wasn’t the best place to feel better.

Roy had had a few errands to run before everything got started, and so he took care of those far earlier than he usually would have. But this was important, and therefore he needed to be there and not feeling like he had to take off before he was ready. Or before other people were ready to be alone. Like Madeline for instance. Sure, he didn’t know if she needed him around or not, but he didn’t want to chance it either. He positioned himself mostly towards the edge of the proceedings, near a tree. He’d sort of vaguely looked around for family members, but didn’t remember where they were buried, and trying to find the word ‘Grady’ on a stone in the midst of so many others was a futile task. He saw it when one of Dodge’s guys arrived, though he didn’t see Dodge yet--and frankly he hoped Dodge stayed away.

Ethan glanced up, seeing Roy standing at a distance. He was too far to be much more than a silhouette, especially in this light, but there was just something in the very slope of the guy’s shoulders that identified him. Ethan shoved his hands in his pockets and approached, since that was closer to where the funeral was actually going to be held anyway. When he got up to Roy, he stopped a few paces away, looking down at the graves of Maddy’s parents. When he looked up again, he said, “Sorry about Dodge. That time he got the boys to beat you up when you were sick. I always wanted to apologize to you about that, since he wouldn’t.”

Roy had tensed up the moment he realized the guy was approaching him, ready to defend himself if he needed to. What he didn’t expect was an apology. Yeah, it was safe to say that was a total shock, even. It left him blinking, frowning as he looked very much like he was trying to find the punch, the trick inherent in the statement. “...won’t it not work out well for you, if you go around apologizing for your boss?”

“Considering that I punched Dodge in the face yesterday, he’s not exactly my boss anymore.” Ethan shrugged. Yeah, he and Dodge had ended their chat on amicable terms, but that didn’t change the fact that Ethan had hit him, and he’d been furious at Dodge when he’d done so. And he was still angry at Dodge--not as furious anymore, no, but “in the group” wasn’t a place he wanted to be anymore.

Still frowning as he took that in, Roy glanced away, then back. “This have to do with D?” he asked, since he’d never been someone who called her that terrible nickname ‘doll girl’. He’s always found it completely creepy, and so he’d shortened it to ‘D’. Of course, he knew her name, but he also knew she didn’t just hand that out to anyone, and so he didn’t use it unless they were alone. But considering what she’d been saying and the like, he could imagine he wasn’t the only person in the world to think the situation was fucked up. Especially since the guy was apparently apologizing to him over the incident where Dodge had thought it was a good plan to beat the shit out of him for information he hadn’t even had.

“She had something to do with it, yeah,” Ethan said, nodding. He’d hated Maddy’s nickname just as much and refused to use it. She wasn’t a doll and he abhorred the fact that people called her that on a regular basis. He respected that she wanted to keep her real name secret, though he generally avoided the issue by not calling her a name at all in conversation. “A lot to do with it, actually.” He’d ranted at Dodge about being a poor leader, about getting his head on straight, which he’d meant and was true--but his anger, the part that had hit him, that had been fueled by his anger about his treatment of Maddy.

Roy didn’t say anything immediately. He just kept a careful eye on Ethan, not sure that this wasn’t still some sort of set up. But he was willing to try, he supposed, to keep his end of the conversation up. “And you felt the need to apologize to me for what Dodge did.” he said. “And you for some reason are defending her.” His tone was neutral, more fact-checking than anything else. He wanted to understand, he just wasn’t at all sure he did yet.

Ethan nodded. He could completely understand if Roy didn’t trust him--he probably wouldn’t have trusted himself either. “What Dodge did... was really fucked up. He’s been out of control for a while now and I told him that. After I hit him. After what happened with him and Maddy... I didn’t want to be a part of that anymore.” He shook his head, looking down at the graves. “I’ve known Maddy since she was eight. So yeah, I’m defending her.”

Again, there was a silence for a few minutes. “What exactly are you talking about with what he did to her?” he asked, tone very light. Then he realized that that hadn’t been exactly what the guy had said. So he amended it. “I mean--I know he’s treated her like a toy.” he said. “I’ve been telling her for ages to get away from him, but...is there something else?” he asked. “Something I don’t know?”

“Maddy didn’t tell you?” Ethan frowned at Roy. After Jessie, he’d more or less learned his lesson about opening his big mouth. He knew that Maddy and Roy were close, but if Maddy hadn’t told him about the bruise and the door frame, then she’d kept it from him for a reason. “If she didn’t, I won’t. It’s not my story to share.” But whatever it had been, it had been bad enough that Ethan had flipped out on his friend and boss and punched him. Hard.

Roy sighed heavily. “Oh for fucks sake.” he snapped. “I don’t know if she told me. I want to know what you’re talking about. It’s not some secret code or some shit, just clearly something happened, and I’d like to know what it was on your end. But if I don’t know what you’re not saying, then I don’t know do I. I’m not psychic.” He shook his head. “Obviously something major happened from your point of view, or you wouldn’t have hit the guy or anything.” Especially since he’d already noted that Dodge had been going stupid for a long time.

Yeeeah, he’d heard about Roy. Mostly he’d seen him and Dodge interact, and Dodge had always been abrasive towards him, but abrasive was apparently Roy’s default. It was difficult for Ethan not to get testy in return, he forced it under. The guy had already been fucked over by Dodge--Ethan wanted to at least try and make amends. “Her arm,” Ethan said, after a moment, trying to think of how he could keep things vague but obvious if Roy would know what he was talking about. “And the wall he hit?”

There was a stillness that swept through Roy hearing that. He didn’t even need the blanks filled in. he could guess. She hadn’t told him, he was sure he would have recalled that. But there was definitely a dark look that settled on his featured, even if it wasn’t directed at Ethan at all. “I see.” was all he said, though it was quite clear that he hadn’t known and he wasn’t dealing especially well with the ideas that had been presented.

“You didn’t know,” Ethan said, more statement than question. “Goddamn.” He dragged a hand down his face, sighing hard. Him and his big fucking mouth. He was mostly worried about Maddy, since she had obviously not told Roy what Dodge had done to frighten her for a reason. And given the look on Roy’s face right now, he was pretty sure what that reason might be.

Roy shook his head, still coming to terms with that information. “No, I didn’t know.” he said, tone quiet. And he didn’t know what he was going to do with that information either. Nothing good, that was for certain, but he honestly didn’t know. “She didn’t tell me. She just told me she finally realized I was right.” Since he’d been saying for ages now how fucked up Dodge and all of that was. “He hurt her?” he asked, looking back to Ethan, and this time making eye contact.

“He scared her,” Ethan said, meeting Roy’s eyes. It wasn’t answering Roy’s question exactly--and Dodge had hurt her, physically, even if he hadn’t intended to--but it was giving him another answer entirely, one that was true but didn’t sound as bad. “I’d only been getting Dodge’s side of the story. If I’d known how Maddy really felt about everything, I would have hit him a lot sooner than this.”

Exhaling, Roy looked away, before he looked back. “You want to know how she felt?” he asked. “She spent the majority of her time defending his ass to me.” he admitted. And there was still something edging beneath his tone, but it still wasn’t at all directed at Ethan. “She felt like I was just unreasonable. She thought that the shit he pulled was because he cared about her. That all the bullshit, all the over the top stuff, the abusive shit, that it was because he cared.” He shook his head. There’s something the matter with that girl.

“He cared,” Ethan said, shaking his head. “I’m not justifying it, but he cared. Except he cared about other girls too, and was too damn selfish and self-centered to realize that he couldn’t have all of them. He kept saying that... Jessie was different from Maddy, like it made it okay. And her bed, shit, I don’t know what he was thinking.” He looked at Roy again. “It doesn’t make anything he did right, and it doesn’t mean anything in the long run, but he cared.”

“I think he cared about him.” Roy said. “I think anyone who locks a girl up against her wishes doesn’t give a shit about her. I think he just didn’t like it if anyone else played with his toys, and he never even saw her as a person. Not really. I think all she was to him was another possession, and you don’t really care how inanimate objects are. Maybe he says he cares, hell, maybe he even thinks he does. But I don’t think it’s true. I think all he really cared about was what she could do for him.”

Ethan worked his jaw a bit, obvious that he was finding it difficult to disagree with Roy. “That’s possible,” he said. He’d thought along the same lines himself. Whether Dodge had actually, really cared or not, he’d certainly seemed to think he did, except for the fact that his actions didn’t jive with that. If you cared for someone, you didn’t kidnap them, steal their beds, break into their rooms, tell the whole world that they were yours like she couldn’t make decisions for herself. He’d hated how Dodge had treated her, just from seeing how Dodge was, the things Dodge had told him himself. He’d just never known for sure how bad it really was until he’d seen the bruises on Maddy’s arm. “I told him that he needed to change. I just don’t know if he’s going to listen.”

“I don’t think anyone like that really changes.” Roy said with a sigh, leaning back against the tree he was standing near. “I think they just learn to lie better.” Which was a depressing sort of frame of mind, but one he believed to be true. "I'm glad you hit him, though." he added. "And that you're worried about her." At least he seemed to be showing a lot of concern. That was good.

“I hope not,” Ethan said, frowning. As angry as he’d been at Dodge, he wanted him to improve. Especially if he was going around hearing voices. That was just a downright shitty place to be. “You kind of have to be worried about Maddy,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s kind of a requirement to be close to her.” He’d known Maddy since he was eleven years old, and hardly a day went by when she wasn’t on his mind somehow. She went through so much and she felt things so hard, you always had to be there to be sure she’d make it out the other side. And for a long time, Ethan had been there. And he had every intention of continuing to be there.

"Considering she's a trainwreck? Yeah, you do." Roy said, and he actually quirked a half smile. He was always there for Maddy too, something that he had signed on to do a long time ago. Even if it meant he was the guy in her life that wound up telling her the things she didn't want to hear. He didn't cater to her like he knew a lot of people did. That didn't mean he liked his role all the time. In fact sometimes it downright sucked. But he was still there.

“She’s not nearly that bad,” Ethan said, though he was smiling a bit too. He didn’t think of Maddy as a trainwreck. She was a complicated girl and she had a lot of problems, but a trainwreck? No. If she was a trainwreck then Ethan had utterly failed as a protector, and he liked to think that he’d had his arm around her better than that, had shielded her from the storms better than that. “And... I’m glad for you being there for her. I’ve been kind of... out of her life recently. I thought it was what she wanted but I was wrong. But she had you. So thanks.”

“I did it for her, not for you. You don’t have to thank me for anything.” Roy said, smile still there. "And seriously?" he asked. "you don't think she's a trainwreck? We talking about the same girl? Because I'm talking about the one who decided it was a good idea to go work at a place that even Dodge was going to disown her for. She runs around declaring herself queen of the universe. She bursts into tears more often than it rains, and she defends a guy who treats her like shit ninety percent of the time. She's reckless, and doesn't think anything through. She's a lot of things, and 'stable' and 'reasonable' aren't on the list. I love the girl, and I'll do anything to protect her and keep watch over her, but I'm not blind either. It's always something with her. Always."

“I know. I’m just glad she had somebody.” Somebody other than Dodge, is what he meant, but he figured that was unsaid and obvious between them. “Well, when you put it like that,” Ethan said, with a little chuckle. He still shook his head after, though. “Just because she’s not exactly stable or reasonable doesn’t make her a trainwreck. She didn’t used to be like that, you know. In the orphanage, she was... she was a lot different. Even as recent as a couple of months ago. She needs people. It’s just... sometimes she picks the wrong people.” He didn’t like calling her a trainwreck. She was just... she was complicated.

"No, that on top of everything else I just said make her a trainwreck." Roy said. "Seriously. It's always something with her. Always. She's not had a stable or non dramatic time in ages. And it's not like she couldn't avoid a lot of it. She could. She just doesn't. And her attitude about being queen of the world or whatever doesn't help, because she doesn't even think to herself she's got limits. Then add into that mix that she put up with a guy like Dodge in the first place, and started ditching people in her life for a guy who locked her up and flirted with anything in a skirt for a ten mile radius...what about that says she's okay?" he asked, though it was rhetorical. "I get that you want to defend her and all, but there's a difference between being there for someone and being too blind to see the truth, too. The girl isn't okay. She's probably not going to be any time soon, either. And to help her? You have to see that. She says I'm the only person in her life that she lets yell at her. And I yell at her because half the shit she does is wildly stupid. Way out of line. And she just...does it. And no one else'll tell her she's wrong. But having a life full of people who'll just go along for the ride, and smile and nod...it'll just mean she never gets checked on any of her shit. It'll just get worse." He sighed. "I really fucking hate that I'm the only one who'll call bullshit, sometimes. I really hate having to be the bad guy. I just do it because I honestly, truly give a shit about what happens to her and I know no matter what, no one can ever be there for someone all the time."
　
Roy talking about her ditching people hit him a little close to home. Not Maddy had deliberately ditched him, he was sure of that but... she had tried doing something that would separate him from her so she could pursue Dodge without consequences. She hadn’t said it like that, but it was the gist of the whole thing. And that hurt. It hurt a fucking lot that she had picked Dodge over him, Dodge, who treated her like a toy. That whole situation was messed up, Ethan had learned that very quickly. He’d just never known how messed up it really was. “I know what you mean,” he said, quiet. He could accept the concept better if he switched it around, thought of it as Dodge. It was the same situation, wasn’t it? “It’s like that with Dodge. It was. Nobody said anything to him hard enough that he could listen to it and he got out of control. Prince of thieves.” Ethan rolled his eyes, shook his head. “Should have stopped that ages ago. I was the only one who could, I think.”

"Oh, didn't you know?" Roy said, tone sarcastic, though it was directed at Dodge, not Ethan. "Apparently everyone else in the world only lives for his approval." Which was something Dodge had said directly to him, the day they'd gotten into the fight. That he owned the streets, and yeah. Everyone on them were just there for him. To cater to him. "And she listens, sometimes. It's just hard to deal with a lot of the time because like I said, it's always something. either she shows up to my place crying her eyes out about something, or she's running around the streets, doing stupid shit and not taking care of herself. As for whether or not you should have stopped things...it's always easy to say that when you look back on something. It's harder when you're right in the middle of it." And that he could get. That he could empathize with.

Ethan snorted. He’d thought Dodge did some crazy things sometimes, but the idea that he owned the streets was downright delusional. The big families owned these streets. The mob owned these streets. The people who threw bodies in the river? Yeah, Dodge didn’t have a damn bit of control over those people, and if he thought he did, then he was crazier than Ethan thought. He’d rolled his eyes when Dodge had said it, had let it go--but then it became fact to him. Then he’d thought it was something he could throw around with real weight. But hopefully Ethan had punched that out of him. Hopefully. “Well, apparently they broke up, right?” Ethan said, shrugging a bit. He couldn’t help but selfishly hope that was really, genuinely the case. “Maybe things can calm down a bit now, at least.”

Roy shook his head, watching Ethan. "I doubt it." he said honestly. "It wasn't always Dodge, and half the stuff she does has nothing to do with him. He's just been the latest focus of things, but no. It's just her. It's just how she is. He didn't make her like she is, he just used what was already there. Unfortunately, I think she's fodder for that. For people to just come in and do whatever. She doesn't make it hard to do." he said, regret in his tone. "Like I said, I love the girl, but I won't lie to myself about her."

“No, she doesn’t make it hard,” Ethan said. He had to agree with that, at least. He’d picking up the pieces of Maddy for years, hurting those who hurt her and doing what he could to soothe the pain away in the aftermath. They didn’t sleep together like they had as children in the orphanage, but Ethan always tried to make her feel that same way, that safe. Because he was in love with her. So maybe Roy was right. Maybe he was blinded by her, maybe he was the wrong person to call her out. He tried, sometimes, but he was too gentle about it. She made herself feel like a huge enough pile of shit, he didn’t want to make her feel worse. “You don’t have to tell me,” Ethan said, looking back at Roy and shaking his head. “I know. I’ve seen it too.”

It was clear in that moment that Roy wasn’t going to be getting any help. That he was still going to be the only person in Maddy’s life that called bullshit . Unfortunately, she needed it. If she didn’t have some checks and balances system going on, she’d probably wind up as bad as dodge. it wasn't like she didn't have an ego, miss 'I'm Queen of the Universe!'--which he'd actually heard her declare before with his own ears. But he didn't hold it against Ethan either. Most people he knew didn't really want to do the kinds of things he felt like he had to. "I guess we'll see how things go, huh?" he offered.

“Yeah. There’s a lot up in the air right now,” Ethan said, crossing his arms over his chest, frowning. He could still remember talking to Maddy the night before, all the things she’d said about Dodge, the possibility of going back to him after all of this (which she hadn’t quite answered directly). He was incredibly frustrated to watch her take a step ahead, then come to a halt instead of continuing on, looking back over her shoulder. But Ethan was in a tough place, friends with both Maddy and Dodge, more loyal to one than the other and unable, at times, to keep his bias from showing. He had no idea what was coming. “She’s staying with you, right?”

Roy nodded. "Yes. I just...I felt better thinking she'd have somewhere that wasn't her place to spend for a little while." he admitted. Because even if he did know the reality of Maddy in general, he'd been honest when he said he cared about her. He really did. "At least til things sort of blow over a little better."

“It’s definitely better if she’s not alone, especially now,” Ethan said. Maddy had... said some pretty scary things, things that had made him want to grab her and shake the ideas right out of her head. He worried about her. “Keep her with you as long as you can. Not like Dodge would,” and his nose wrinkled a bit. Kidnapping girls, stealing beds. “Just... you know. It’s a really bad idea for her be alone sometimes.”

Looking away for a moment, Roy nodded. he definitely knew that. She'd said things to him before too, things that equated to her thinking about not being around so much and it wasn't in the capacity that meant she would be leaving town for a better one. So he understood what was being said there on his own level. "She won't be alone unless she wants to be."

“Even then,” Ethan said. “Watch her.” He remembered how there had been a boy in the orphanage who’d killed himself, one like Ethan, too old and had too many problems to get adopted out. The nuns had tried to keep it quiet, but Ethan had found out, and it always scared him when Maddy started talking like that. He knew what she meant, even if she didn’t really. “She’s had a rough life. Maybe that’s why the whole thing with Dodge pisses me off so much--he just made it worse for her. Like she didn’t have enough to feel shitty about.”

Quiet for a moment, Roy looked at Ethan. "Everyone's had a rough life." he said. Because he was assuming this guy had. He knew he had. it wasn't just her by a long shot. Hell, Dodge could probably even say the same thing. They were all street kids. They were all people who's lives generally sucked. He'd even say that Maddy had it better than a lot because she had people who catered to her. People like, apparently, the both of them. He didn't have anyone like that in his life. All he had was a sister who generally avoided him a hell of a lot of the time. "And I'll do what I think is right. But sometimes I think she needs to learn to stand on her own, too. Otherwise people are going to be taking care of her for the rest of her life, and she'll never learn to be okay."

“You’re right,” Ethan said, frowning. “She’s... always had somebody to run to and tell her it’ll be okay.” Namely Ethan himself. “She broke up with Dodge on her own and that was good, but... if she just backslides? I don’t know.” He looked over at Roy with a somewhat self-depreciating smile. “It’s easier for you, I guess. No conflict of interest. No Dodge to worry about.”

Considering that for a moment, Roy shrugged. "Maybe?" he suggested. "I guess I just care about her enough to want what's best for her, and what's best for her isn't always what's easiest. Or what she thinks is best. Doesn't mean that I give her whatever she wants, or that I'd try to make her do what I think she should. But I will give her my opinion, and if I don't agree with something, I won't contribute to it. Like right now, I think she does need support, and a place to stay that's safe and she doesn't have to worry that he'll show up at any given time. But that's just right now. Later? She's going to need to learn to do things on her own. She's going to have to learn to be as strong as she pretends to be. Because she does that, y'know. She talks herself up all the time, plays a good game, but it's just a game. She needs to learn how to do that for real. Especially in this place, in this city. Unfortunately, I just don't think she's got that great a learning curve. I think she gets too wrapped up in her own head and that's kinda it for her. But I wouldn’t say it’s not a conflict of interest for me. After all, she might just decide she doesn’t like my opinions and leave, because she’s tired of not hearing what she wants to hear."

“I doubt she’d do that,” Ethan said, shaking his head. “She’s too worried about people running out on her to do that to somebody else. She doesn’t cut people of--that’s probably part of the problem. She doesn’t know when to tell people to fuck off.” Not that Ethan was great a that either, at least not with people he gave a damn about.

Pausing, Roy shook his head. “She already did, remember?” he asked. "She already distanced herself, I haven’t seen her much in ages, and the last time...she just kind of left. Or, we weren't having the most pleasant discussion and I said I'd go put locks on her doors and she didn't fight me on it. She just took off. And I left her a note, to say I was sorry, but never heard from her after that, til now. 'Course, it's only been a few days, but I have to wonder if this hadn't come up, if she would have just...stopped coming to see me. She ditched me. I said that earlier, didn't I?" he asked--though he was honestly asking because he'd thought he did but maybe he'd just thought it and not said it aloud. "She hasn't been around very often in a while."

“Yeah, same with Dodge.” Ethan leaned against the trunk of a nearby tree--shit, he was tired. “Maddy wasn’t always like that, queen of the universe and all. But they’re a lot alike, now. No wonder they were together. It’d be kind of like looking into a mirror, wouldn’t it?” Ethan wasn’t stupid, he could see why else they’d be drawn to each other. They were both pretty people, something rare when you lived on the streets. Pretty people totally convinced they were the best thing ever. But it hadn’t worked because it wasn’t true.

"I imagine so. They both have the ego issue." Roy said. "I'm sure they just kind of continually built each other up at the same time. But I can't pretend to really know what happened there. All I know is that girl doesn't see things for how they are, and she doesn't really want to." he admitted. "I don't know if she's ever going to, either, or if she'll just always star in her own dramatic fairytale."

“Neither did Dodge. Guy thinks he can do whatever the hell he wants--doesn’t even see anything wrong with it. He just doesn’t get it. He’s not even looking. It’s a lot of bullshit Patrick put into his head, calling him the prince, telling him the streets were his. And he believes it. Or he did. I hope that’s over.” He shook his head, looking at Roy with a crooked smile. “Some friends we’ve got.” He had pushed himself away from Dodge, but Maddy, as much of a headache as she might give him sometimes, he would never leave.

Roy laughed lightly. "Yeah. some friends." he agreed. There wasn't much to say beyond that. Though he was kind of glad he'd had the conversation with him. Even if he had been part of Dodge's crew, he didn't seem to be a blind follower. Or, not to Dodge, anyways. Maybe to Maddy, with the way the guy was talking. But she did that, as far as he could tell. It wasn't like he wasn't guilty of it in some capacity himself.

Ethan laughed too, shaking his head. They were both in strange places, wrapped up in strange people, caught in their webs. Ethan might have been able to punch his way out of Dodge’s, but there was still Maddy’s, and like Roy had suspected, he was hopelessly caught up in hers. “I don’t think we ever really met, actually,” Ethan said, looking at Roy with some curiosity. People knew he was through hearsay and seeing him with Dodge, but there were very few people he’d actually, personally met. He held out his hand and said, “I’m Ethan.”

That was different than the name that came to mind, which was 'Roach', but he didn't call him on the fact. Instead he reached out and shook his hand. "Roy." he said, even if it was clear Ethan knew who he was. If they were officially introducing themselves, then that was what you did, right? "And it's nice to meet you." he added onto that, a genuine statement, which was clear in his tone and expression.

Ethan did know that already, but he still nodded in acknowledgment, sliding his hands into his pockets when they’d finished shaking. “Just wish it was under better circumstances, huh?” he said, looking down at the graves. Seemed sort of sad to be making new friends at a funeral.

Roy looked back over to the cross he'd made. "yeah, I do." he agreed, nodding solemnly. "But I guess we all keep going." he added. Because they all did. Until they stopped. It was best not to stop before you had to, right? Pepper wouldn't have wanted that. Pepper probably would have found that pretty stupid. "Maybe we'll catch each other around some other time." he suggested, thinking having a guy around to talk to now and then wouldn't kill him. And really he seemed to have an easy enough time taking to the guy so far.

Ethan’s thinking was right around the same as Roy’s. Now that he wasn’t in Dodge’s gang anymore (and it had been a gang, no matter how Dodge had tried to slice it), he only had girls to talk to. Having some testosterone to cut through all that estrogen would be nice now and again. He smiled at Roy, nodded. “Probably. It’s a pretty small world for such a big city.”

Roy smiled a touch at that. "yeah it really is." he agreed. It certainly seemed like that a lot of the time. "So I guess I'll see you around either way." And the likelihood was greater considering Maddy. "Guess we should..." he said, nodding to the cross. Pay their respects and whatnot.

“Probably.” His smile fell a bit when Roy nodded towards the cross. He turned to face it and crossed himself, his knuckles still red from the fight a couple of days ago.