[ as far as she knows, he swears, just hasn't around her. Jess chuckles hollowly, hanging her head. so he does want to use her but as emotional blunt force trauma. her other, less fun avenue of acknowledged expertise. what right does she have to expect him to want anything else? he owes her nothing, she owes him everything. time apart hasn't changed that. she swings her head upright, amusement clinging to her face. ]
Sure. Takes one to know one. [ it's what he wants to hear, though Jess can't confidently mean it without knowing more about how he came to be where he is. everyone who left him, people who want him to make other choices or be a better man, and she's not equipped to listen to that. but he's probably going to load it on her anyway and she'll sit and listen out of guilt and leave with her head full of nightmares that she came here to clear out. the best part is that Matt would doubtlessly have laid into him with aplomb but the only one of them with a shard of decency in them is buried beneath the city they can't leave. Jess leans over the couch arm a second time to grab the bourbon back. ]
[ that gets a soft snort, and somehow it does help. he knows neither of them can truly sit in judgment of the other's life and that's for the best, too. he's definitely past feeling like she owes him anything. more like they've finally broken even, something like that. he finds himself distracted briefly by her obscenely pink lips, staring as she pulls the bottle back down and swallows, feeling his throat dry up. ]
You're not wrong.
[ he'd eaten a lot of humble pie in the last year, his girlfriend left the country presumably because of him. no, he doesn't think he's better than her. not anymore. make no mistake, he used to, before danny rand had knocked him down a peg. but that was something he'd sorely needed, he came to realize. ]
Mariah. Um, Councilwoman Dillard. She left this place to me. I still don't really get why.
[ he scratches at his eyebrow briefly then starts to undo his cuffs, suddenly feeling suffocated by the oxford, slacks, and too shiny shoes he's still wearing. and that stupid tie, of course. he's not really any more a fan than she is. mariah had died and that was confusing enough, but putting luke in her will? leaving him the only thing that meant a damn to her in the end? yeah, the whole thing's fucked up. what part of his life isn't? ]
Guess I don't have to, right? Just trying to make the best of it.
[ Dillard rings a distant bell, one of the details Jess didn't ask for when Trish was covering his hooded hero stint in Harlem. Jess made a point not to investigate the shit he was digging himself deeper into; the vigilante "friends" she's made know that they can call on her if they want her help. they know that she'll say no and do it anyway but they haven't made her fight herself like that. Jess assumes that's what friends actually do: Stay out of each other's lives. it's always been her play and it's made her realize there's no good side of it to be on. but it is the best one people like them can make. ]
Why? [ he can lie, if he wants. if it has to do with Reva, she'd prefer it. but otherwise, Jess doesn't get why he's hanging around here when he could just as easily pass the buck to any of the staff and keep his name on the lease. it's a simple question to which she anticipates a loaded answer, so she rests the whiskey on the no man's land of her knee touching his. ]
[why? misty had asked him the same, and while most of the answer carries over... jess is still a special case. no matter what's happened, he'd still prefer she didn't think he was a total piece of shit, despite his earlier words. there's a tiny electric spark as the bottle touches down on her leg and presses hers more solidly into his. it's a fight not to reach out, not to touch a heavy hand down on her thigh and start up something he knows has already started. something he probably can't stop even now if he wanted to. ]
Short answer: I don't know. Long answer?
[ he chews his lip and does it anyway, the whole of his hand can wrap around one of her spindly legs but knowing the strength behind them makes it better somehow and his eyes flash as they climb up to meet hers. ]
This place is as close to the pulse of this town as it gets. It's the front lines.
[ and he wants to be there when shit goes off. before shit goes off, whenever possible. maybe that's naive, he's still not really sure. ]
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Sure. Takes one to know one. [ it's what he wants to hear, though Jess can't confidently mean it without knowing more about how he came to be where he is. everyone who left him, people who want him to make other choices or be a better man, and she's not equipped to listen to that. but he's probably going to load it on her anyway and she'll sit and listen out of guilt and leave with her head full of nightmares that she came here to clear out. the best part is that Matt would doubtlessly have laid into him with aplomb but the only one of them with a shard of decency in them is buried beneath the city they can't leave. Jess leans over the couch arm a second time to grab the bourbon back. ]
no subject
You're not wrong.
[ he'd eaten a lot of humble pie in the last year, his girlfriend left the country presumably because of him. no, he doesn't think he's better than her. not anymore. make no mistake, he used to, before danny rand had knocked him down a peg. but that was something he'd sorely needed, he came to realize. ]
Mariah. Um, Councilwoman Dillard. She left this place to me. I still don't really get why.
[ he scratches at his eyebrow briefly then starts to undo his cuffs, suddenly feeling suffocated by the oxford, slacks, and too shiny shoes he's still wearing. and that stupid tie, of course. he's not really any more a fan than she is. mariah had died and that was confusing enough, but putting luke in her will? leaving him the only thing that meant a damn to her in the end? yeah, the whole thing's fucked up. what part of his life isn't? ]
Guess I don't have to, right? Just trying to make the best of it.
no subject
Why? [ he can lie, if he wants. if it has to do with Reva, she'd prefer it. but otherwise, Jess doesn't get why he's hanging around here when he could just as easily pass the buck to any of the staff and keep his name on the lease. it's a simple question to which she anticipates a loaded answer, so she rests the whiskey on the no man's land of her knee touching his. ]
no subject
Short answer: I don't know. Long answer?
[ he chews his lip and does it anyway, the whole of his hand can wrap around one of her spindly legs but knowing the strength behind them makes it better somehow and his eyes flash as they climb up to meet hers. ]
This place is as close to the pulse of this town as it gets. It's the front lines.
[ and he wants to be there when shit goes off. before shit goes off, whenever possible. maybe that's naive, he's still not really sure. ]