Re: Nick & Wren: Fortunes
Nick's eyes didn't widen but the creases at the corners grooved deeper, and the flicker of something like surprise settled over the cast of his face. Dark, because Nick thought of Repose like opportunity, something dug in deep and bare of the city's desire to consume itself in whatever it took: up the nose, in the vein, in an alley, bottom of a bottle. Yeah, it was real fucking naive. But it had been hope, and it fluttered brief, beating wings against the lamp-shade. Girls here worked, he had figured out that much. But a cop in this town didn't have the excuse of seeing every shade of ugly from sun up to sun down to turn him bitter. Not that law-enforcement had hearts of fucking gold, because they didn't. They worked a job, same as everyone else. But somewhere, down deep inside every cop Nick had liked had wanted to fix something.
Yeah, he thought of her as temporary but Nick was used to looking for roots, and she didn't look like she had those. He didn't know whimsy real well, hadn't been a lot of that going around the kind of jobs he worked, but he liked her even if he thought she'd move on eventually.
"Yeah, that's right." And hell if he'd ever learned the words right, even if he could contemplate the stomach to say 'em. Manhattan snobs, his adopted parents, they hadn't had the stomach for I-love-yous, bent on proving affection in cold hard cash, education paid for or tickets to some event they didn't have to have a conversation through. He'd said it, to women mostly. Sometimes he thought he meant it, other times it was an outright lie, like silt sitting on his tongue, ashy. But he didn't think his kid brother would believe it, no matter how convincing the delivery. Nick smiled at her, but it was all mouth, the look in his eyes was contemplative. "Some people don't believe the meaning, even if the words are there, beautiful."
He'd noticed the bowl. Couldn't miss it, in fact. Out front, but she didn't ask and she hadn't sold him something shiny, made in tin. No sell at all in fact, and Nick's smile cast itself whole, "No. No tall dark and handsome stranger appeared on my horizon. Just a lot of bad blood. You want to know my tales, I'll talk, but if Lady Fortune isn't visiting, I want to hear yours too. Fair's fair."