InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "what are you? Mr. Teflon?"

Peyton Lark ★ Dinah Lance (canaryscry) wrote in thereincarnates,
@ 2015-07-24 20:15:00

Entry tags:

kai whistler, peyton lark

Who: Peyton Lark & Kai Whistler
What: They accidentally unmask each other
Where: Whistler, Inc (NY)
When: Friday afternoon, July 24th 2015
Warnings: Nothing too crazy. Though Peyton might hit him.

It was Friday, which meant most people in the office had left by now, but not Peyton. Work was her life, and she wasn't too ashamed to admit that she'd rather stay at work late than go home. Nothing against home, really, except that her apartment was tiny and also a huge mess. She was never home long enough to clean it, so her apartment was more or less in a constant disarray of laundry she could never be bothered to actually put away, dirty dishes, and various old computer parts lying around that made walking through her place something like an obstacle course with landmines. It wasn't like Peyton ever had people over anyway, so the only person around to be offended by the mess was herself, and she definitely wasn't offended. As far as she was concerned, her apartment was just a rest stop in between coming home from work and turning around to go right back to the office.

While everyone else was eager to leave early on a Friday, Peyton could still be found at her cubicle long after the clock hit four, and if there wasn't anymore work for her to do? She invented some. Played with new code, hacked into other coworkers private e-mail accounts. She never did anything sinister with it, she just liked to snoop a little, find out who she was really sharing office space with. Apparently the guy two cubicles down liked Asian porn, exclusively. Pretty typical of a middle aged white dude, but hey. Peyton wasn't going to judge. She was just making a mental note never to high five him, especially after he's spent some quality time in the building's bathrooms. His e-mail account was most active while he was in there. Gross.

There wasn't anything too interesting that she'd found today so far, which was disappointing. She was running out of things to occupy herself with and she was almost desperate enough that the idea of Kai Whistler showing up at her desk to ask her for another IT related favor didn't sound so completely terrible to her. It wasn't that Peyton hated him, really. There was just something about the guy that really bugged her, in a completely nonthreatening way, but still. She couldn't put her finger on it, there was just something about him that made her want to punch things. Not exactly out of the ordinary for Peyton, since she more or less always wanted to punch things. It was a constant state of being for her, actually. Especially since her mom's diagnosis.

"Ugh, come on you stupid thing, download. I command you!" Peyton ordered her computer, shaking a pen at it like she was actively trying to threaten the painstakingly slow speed at which some new software was downloading. It was entirely possible that she was already three red bulls deep, and she was starting to develop a twitch. Just another Friday in the life of Peyton Lark.

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canaryscry
2015-07-28 09:15 am UTC (link)

Yeah, in retrospect, her question maybe seemed a little stupid, but now he just seemed agitated. What was his deal, anyway? Peyton wasn't even sure what he actually did for the company, since from what she'd observed he spent most of his time here sleeping at his desk or hitting on the secretaries. Or, in the case of much more recently, occasionally bugging her for hack jobs. But this one pretty much took the cake. Whatever, either way, Peyton was pretty sure his job description didn't include looking into shady deals between two shady sounding people who as far as she could tell didn't have anything to do with the company.

"Uh-huh." She clearly wasn't buying it, especially after he added the part about the cops, but Peyton had noticed the way he pinched his nose and mentally decided it wasn't the right time to push. He looked like he was about ready to explode, and definitely not his usual carefree, slightly annoying self. Under normal circumstances, Peyton might have just told him to get lost, but she was honestly curious about that bank account now. She might not believe the explanation for his involvement, but she did believe that there was something fishy going on here, whether or not Kai was actually part of that something fishy or not.

"Okay. Tell you what. I'm going to ignore for the moment that you've clearly gone insane and think you're Superman now or something, and help you." She considered him another moment before she took Abernathy's file, glanced at it and opened up a browser as well as her favorite decrypting program on the desktop, immediately starting to type rapidly as she talked. "But instead of paying me, you have to tell me what's really going on. Human trafficking isn't exactly awesome, but last I checked, it wasn't your area of expertise either. You know, Whistler, you've been acting seriously weird lately, even by your standards."

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greenhoodie
2015-07-30 02:07 am UTC (link)

"Not Superman," Kai answered off-handedly, not realizing until the words were out and hanging there that it implied that, while he wasn't the caped boy scout, he was some type of superhero. That was exactly the last place he wanted her mind to go, and he was actually impressed with himself over how quickly he was able to let words tumble out of his mouth in order to cover up.

"Come on, Peyton, could you really see me as a superhero? Please." He laughed, but it didn't stop him from hovering a little closer to her while she worked on breaking into the account. As much as he was trying to cover up his actions, he couldn't stop the anxious way he kept peering over her shoulder impatiently waiting for results. He didn't feel comfortable when his brain kept ticking down the time and how many girls were getting hurt while he had no answers.

He sat in silence then, leg bouncing with nervous energy while Peyton typed on the computer rapidly. Seriously, he was going to talk to his family about a raise for her just based on her typing speed. Despite the typing speed, and the fact that it probably wasn't taking as long as it felt, Kai exhaled loudly the second that Peyton got into the account section he needed. His eyes scanned over the transactions, and he reached over her--a bit rudely--to scroll some. And there it was. A hefty transfer of funds into Abernathy's account from the other scum's company. Kai slammed his hand down on the desk in victory and planted an exaggerated kiss on Peyton's cheek before he jumped up.

"Got him." A pause. "I have to go."

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canaryscry
2015-07-31 05:04 pm UTC (link)

Lucky for Kai, Peyton was paying more attention to her computer than him at this point, so the pointed 'not Superman' comment went largely unnoticed by her. When Peyton was working, she was more or less In The Zone, a 7.0 earthquake probably wouldn't even be enough to jolt her out of it once she was jacked in. Of course, she wasn't used to someone hovering over her shoulder the way Kai was while she was working, so she was still mildly aware of his presence while she worked, just... tuning him out for the most part. She was already getting pretty good at it.

.... Not so good at it that she didn't notice when he was practically breathing down her neck, and she was just about to tell him to back up off her grill when her program finally locked onto the key signature she needed to break through the website's security blocks. It was shockingly easy to break into bank accounts, actually, for all that these sorts of websites boasted unbeatable security. Bullshit. Most people were total civilians and didn't know the first thing about on-line security, they were satisfied with just being told it was safe and secure, so they wouldn't have to worry about it. If only the mundies knew just how secure it wasn't. Peyton could hack into a bank account like this in less than five minutes, so really, what did that tell you?

"A-ha!" And just like that, she found the backdoor, and she was in. Shockingly easy, which was good news for them and not so good news for whoever this account belonged to. Peyton was still a little unclear on that part, but she didn't have much time to let her thought process travel much farther than that, because then Kai was reaching over her and scrolling through the account transactions. "Wha- hey!" Peyton's protest was cut off by Kai slamming his hand down on the desk and then... kissing her cheek??? Peyton was so thrown off guard that she almost let him leave. Almost.

"Hold it right there, Whistler." She jumped out of her chair only a second or two after Kai did, hands on her hips and using her 'booming voice' that wasn't exactly a canary cry, but she was tapping into the same elements to make her tone more noticeably commanding. Whatever the hell Kai was into, he'd just dragged her into it, so she wasn't letting him go without a better explanation. Dinah's warning signs were going off, and Peyton couldn't shake the feeling that something about this was fishy. Really fishy.

"You can't go without telling me what's going on with you. You just had me do something pretty illegal, you know. I'm involved now. So what is this really about? Is the company embezzling or something? Don't tell me you think you're some kind of Robin Hood vigilante type, trying to get this money back from the greedy rich." Never mind that the 'greedy rich' was technically his family, but hey, all families had their problems.

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greenhoodie
2015-08-01 04:47 am UTC (link)

Kai couldn't help it. He laughed. Peyton was so close, yet so far, to his identity, that it was comical. Robin Hood he was not, that title belonged to somebody else. Probably somebody whose family wasn't loaded like his was. No, he was the other archer with the green hoodie, and for a second while he was laughing he looked at her curiously as though he were trying to assess whether she was testing him with that throw-away joke.

No, it was just a joke. Peyton was a smart woman, but her focus lied in the world of computers and hacking, not in detective work. At least, not that he'd discerned. His family didn't go out of their way to hire detectives, after all. It wasn't exactly a requirement on the application. Then again, they didn't go out of their way to train their kids as vigilantes, either. Sometimes shit just happened.

With a long sigh, Kai held his arms out in a defeated sort've gesture, actually giving Peyton a pleading look that was completely out of place with the image he usually projected around the office. He didn't have an answer for her, not one that didn't sound suspicious. Everything he came up with painted him as a crook, or a criminal, which okay he technically was with the vigilantism and sort've-murder, but not the kind she was thinking of.

"The company isn't involved in this. It's a solo project." He started. "There's no embezzling. I mean, there might be, I don't know. I wasn't looking into embezzling."

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canaryscry
2015-08-01 05:06 pm UTC (link)

Peyton came very close to punching him when he laughed. If he were anybody else, anybody else, she probably would have at this point. Peyton wasn't so good at the whole self-restraint thing, not when it came to wanting to punch people. That's sort of what made her and Dinah a terrifying combination, since Dinah was no better, always punch first and ask questions later. It was just so much more efficient then patiently waiting to make your case. The fact that Peyton had started taking self defense classes in the last year at Dinah's insistent didn't help, because now she actually knew how to punch and make it really hurt.

But she had to keep reminding herself that Kai was still the boss's son, no matter how much of an infuriating, arrogant ass he also was, and she would probably get in a lot of trouble for punching him in the middle of the office. Peyton wasn't actually in the mood to get fired and/or sued today, but she also wasn't in the mood to be laughed at, so she settled for giving him the most withering look she could possibly muster.

"A solo project? You realize how insane this sounds to somebody else, right? Who died and made you overachieving citizen of the year?" Peyton found it really hard to believe that this was the whole story, or even half of it. He could be lying about everything, and she was even more determined to get to the bottom of it. Even witnesses to crimes didn't usually help by hacking into people's bank accounts to get evidence, so she wasn't really buying the whole 'helping the cops' story either. Then, suddenly, it dawned on her, and Peyton's mouth dropped open a little as she stared at him. "... Is this a reincarnate thing?"

Of course it was. It had to be. Peyton felt like an idiot for not remembering before, but Kai had talked to her on the boards once or twice. He was a reincarnate, just like her, but she had been too busy not caring to bother asking him who he even had. How could this not be a reincarnate thing? It was too weird to be anything else. She was a little excited now. "It's a reincarnate thing, isn't it!"

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greenhoodie
2015-08-02 05:25 am UTC (link)

Kai was well-aware of how insane it sounded. Prior to having Oliver, had anybody come to him like this he would have been as suspicious as Peyton. These were the rambling of an insane person. Even knowing what he did, even having Oliver, he had to admit that what he was insinuating he was doing was insane. What he was actually doing was insane. No sane person, even one with the reincarnate of a vigilante, actively sought out villains in missions that could be fatal like this. He had to do it, though.

"Nobody died," Kai rolled his eyes. He wasn't entirely sure how reincarnation worked, so it was possible that there was a previous reincarnate with Oliver who had died so that he could be bestowed with the semi-insane vigilante like some weird version of Highlander, but he was going to function under the ignorant assumption that he was the first. It was easier to believe that than dwell on the ever-increasing possibility that he was going to be faced with his own mortality sooner rather than later.

"Jesus." Kai's jaw set, rigid and tense as it became very obvious that Peyton had gotten a bullseye with her last assumption. Yes, he was a reincarnate. Yes, it was technically a reincarnate thing. He wouldn't be doing this without Oliver, after all. But that didn't make him any more willing to talk about it than he was five minutes ago, even if Peyton was determined to make him. He stared at her, not sure about how to proceed. His secret was in great danger of being out.

"Okay, fine. It's a reincarnate thing. Can I go?"

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canaryscry
2015-08-04 05:11 pm UTC (link)

It was a figure of speech, but she didn't bother explaining that to him. She wasn't too sure how reincarnation worked either, but at the moment, she didn't really care. She was too busy still trying to convince herself that punching him in the face wouldn't solve all her problems, but damn if it didn't feel like it in the moment. He had some nerve, asking her for help and then behaving like a giant asshat about it.

She really shouldn't be surprised, given how much of an asshat he tended to be about everything else, but that did nothing to dissolve her anger in the moment. Peyton briefly clenched her fists at her sides before she forcibly loosened them, silently telling herself over and over again that it wasn't worth the possible firing and/or suing. Or maybe it was? She could get another job, right? The economy wasn't too bad anymore...

"Fine, go, whatever." Peyton threw her hands up in the air, visibly angry now to the point that she didn't even care that she'd guessed right. "But don't ask me for help again. I'm not some bimbo receptionist you can bat your eyelashes at and do anything you want, so if you're not gonna do me the courtesy of at least filling me in on the shady ass things you've gotten me involved with? Then screw you. I don't need this, you're the one who needs me, so sucks to be you I guess."

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greenhoodie
2015-08-08 08:18 pm UTC (link)

Despite the fact that Kai acted like--and actually could be--an asshole at times, he did have a rather active conscience these days. It was the biggest driving force for what he did in his spare time, and only part of it was Oliver. A lot of it was just plain Kai, awoken by the blonde in the mask, but him just the same. Because of his conscience, he hesitated even though Peyton dismissed him. She had helped him get to this point.

And as much as he wanted to work alone, to keep people safe by keeping them at arm's length, he was starting to realize that the unfortunate reality of vigilantism is that it's impossible to do it alone. Sure, he ran off fighting on his own, but he almost always needed the assistance of somebody like Peyton to get to the point where he could take these people one. Sometimes, even when he was fighting, he needed the Flash's assistance to stay alive. Not that that was his prime objective ever, which could possibly be a sign of psychosis, but that was a different thing to worry about at a better time.

"Alright, alright," Kai threw his hands up in surrender. "Look, it's really important that you don't tell anybody, okay? It could put you in danger. Or my family. Or pretty much anybody who associates with me at this company. Do you understand?" Assuming she understood, Kai plowed on, afraid that if he stopped for too long he would lose the nerve to go through with it. There wasn't a single other person on Earth who knew his secret right then, and he hadn't realized just how tightly he'd been wearing it as a security blanket. "My reincarnate's a superhero. So at night I've been...fighting crime. I know that sounds dumb, but it's the truth. Believe it or not, I'm pretty damn good with a bow and arrow now."

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canaryscry
2015-08-09 04:15 am UTC (link)

Peyton wasn't so disconnected from the reincarnate world that she hadn't heard about the hooded vigilante. She was still on the boards, though rarely, but she'd been on them enough to see that gossip tagline about the hooded archer who was going around shooting to kill. Of course it had struck a nerve with Dinah, but they'd been trying not to think too hard about it. The Ollie they knew wouldn't do that, but Oliver Queen also hadn't always been so straight and narrow. The prospect of having to deal with an Oliver Queen at all was enough to make Peyton not want to engage, but to deal with an Oliver who didn't have all those hard moral lines that he and Dinah had both tried their hardest to live up to? That was a prospect more daunting to them than anything else.

However, no matter how much she didn't want to acknowledge the fact that everything she'd been trying to avoid might actually be staring her in the face right now, she couldn't actually ignore what he said. His reincarnate is a superhero, and he's been fighting crime... with a bow and arrow. That narrowed down the possibilities by a lot, and while there was every chance that he could be someone else, from the way the hooded vigilante had been described, Peyton wasn't so sure. She and Dinah knew Ollie's patterns, maybe better than anyone. Not to mention, coincidences had never really looked all that favorably on her.

And neither did rational thinking. After a long moment where all Peyton did was stare at Kai open mouthed, she seemed to finally snap out of it, blinking a few times before doing something completely unexpected and reaching out to punch him in the shoulder. Not lightly, either. She hadn't meant to do it really, Peyton had just kind of seen red for a second, and in the midst of a freak adrenaline rush, she'd lashed out at the nearest living thing to her. Who was also very likely the reincarnate of Oliver Queen, so really, you couldn't blame Peyton for the sudden act of violence. Oliver always had it coming. "You idiot! You're Oliver freaking Queen, aren't you?! Ugh, I should have known!"

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greenhoodie
2015-08-10 01:27 am UTC (link)

Kai grunted loudly as his shoulder rolled with her punch, more painful than he had been expecting her to be able to hit. If this had been a combat situation there was no doubt he could have blocked it--because he would have been expecting some type of hit and would have kept his guard up. In this case, he wasn't used to being punched by employees. Not because he was sure they didn't hate him, but because he was sure they didn't hate their jobs.

"Okay. One? Ow," Kai rubbed his shoulder and gave her a disgruntled look. He wasn't aware that he needed to give the disclaimer of 'don't hit me' before telling her the truth the way he'd told her not to tell anybody. He made a mental note to preface any news to her in the future with 'don't hit me' from now on. "Two, how'd you figure that out? There are tons of freaking superheroes out there. Tons who use bows. For all you know I could be a freaking Avenger or something."

But he wasn't, and it was clear from the fact that he wasn't denying it that she'd hit the mark with her question. He looked insulted that she wasn't excited to know that he was Oliver--apparently she wasn't a Green Arrow fan. Not that he expected to be a favorite in comparison to people like Batman and Wonder Woman, but still. The blatant disgust was a little off-putting.

"Unless your reincarnate knows him..." He pointed a finger at her accusingly. "She does, doesn't she?!"

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canaryscry
2015-08-13 03:22 am UTC (link)

For a moment after Peyton hit him, she froze, only then fully realizing what she'd just done and immediately back pedaling. She'd just punched the shoulder of the boss's son, Oliver Queen or not, she could still get fired. Or at the very least Kai could file charges, a restraining order, something. It was easy not to take the guy seriously because he didn't seem to take himself or much of anything very seriously ever, but that still meant next to nothing when there was the potential for a lawsuit. Just because Oliver wouldn't do that, didn't mean that Kai wouldn't. She might just be totally screwed here.

"... Uh." It's true, he easily could have been someone else, maybe that weird Hawkguy character from the Avengers movies, but Peyton had led with her gut, and Dinah's, and Kai wasn't exactly denying it either. She hadn't been expecting that to be his next question to her though, but then again, Peyton hadn't exactly been thinking things through when she'd accosted him with physical violence before accusing him of being the reincarnate of Dinah's on again, off again vigilante flame. Realizing that she was basically now forced to out herself (or lie and say she was just a fan, barf. No way was she giving Oliver that kind of satisfaction, let alone Kai. She could just picture his dumb, smug face now.), Peyton tried stalling. She wasn't very good at it.

"What?! No way!" Okay, that definitely wasn't very convincing, even to her, so she knew Kai wouldn't be any more fooled. Peyton shifted awkwardly on her feet, crossing her arms over her chest to keep herself from doing something dumb like punching him again on reflex, and chewed on her bottom lip. She didn't want to come clean. Dinah wanted her to, but that... was complicated. Peyton didn't do very well with complicated. After a moment of completely obvious indecision, Peyton finally threw up her hands in surrender to his accusing finger and sighed, faking exasperation to cover up her nervousness. "Fine, I'm Dinah, alright? You caught me. Don't make a big deal out of it or anything."

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greenhoodie
2015-08-15 03:16 am UTC (link)

The fears Peyton had about Kai being punched because of who he was in relation to the company hadn't even occurred to Kai. For Oliver--and Kai, really--getting punched was such a normal occurrence that it only phased him because he was figuring out who she was in tantamount with it. It wasn't a thought he had at all; Peyton getting fired for punching him seemed preposterous in comparison to the big secret she could now hold over his head if she really wanted to.

"Dinah." He said the name slowly, the name rolling off his tongue like a heavy weight while warning bells rang through his brain. Even Oliver was cursing slightly at the revelation; Dinah. Dinah was complicated. Dinah was somebody Oliver admired and loved, and she was a hell of a vigilante, but for Kai... That was one hell of a complication he could now add to his already full plate.

For somebody who preferred to work as alone as possible, he now felt like he was surrounded by people Oliver worked with. Dinah, the Flash... Hell, he even ran into that mystery girl down at the docks who still contacted him occasionally. Was this what it was like to be a vigilante no matter who you were? Were you just destined to be drawn into a group? His jaw tensed. It was hard enough keeping his secret safe when he was alone, but now...

"Hate to tell you this, but this whole thing is kind've a freaking big deal." Kai rubbed at the top of his head and exhaled air he hadn't realized he'd been holding in his lungs, like a man drowning finally chancing a breath. "Is that why you're into all...this...?"

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canaryscry
2015-08-15 11:05 pm UTC (link)

"Into what? Computers?" Peyton shook her head, so caught off guard by all of this that she actually forgot to be sarcastic. Well, for the most part. "No, I've been hacking since I learned how to type." Okay, a slight exaggeration, but it was true that she'd been doing this longer than she'd been the reincarnate of Dinah Lance. Besides, Dinah hadn't ever really been too into this stuff, that was more Oracle's job. Dinah had always been the muscle.

As confused as Peyton was now, it was a different sort of confusion she was feeling. Before, at the prospect of an Oliver Queen (especially an Oliver Queen that was slightly off the rails), her opinion on that had been pretty firm. Now that she knew that Oliver Queen was Kai? She couldn't tell if it was just that it was so unexpected and she didn't know how to feel about it yet, or if she was actually impressed by him. She'd had Kai pegged as a rich, arrogant playboy, and here he was, getting his selfless vigilante on at night. Then again, that was pretty much an accurate description of who Oliver had been too. How had she never seen it before?

Peyton shifted awkwardly on her feet while he sighed openly, just as unsure as he probably was of where to go from here. He was right, this was kind of a freaking big deal, but part of her was still resisting that. She hadn't asked for this, any of this, but now it was pretty much unavoidable. Crap. "... Sorry I punched you."

She wasn't that sorry, actually, but she thought she should probably apologize anyway. Despite how irritating he could be on a daily basis, Peyton was pretty sure he hadn't done this to her on purpose. Or himself, even. You couldn't choose who you wound up with in a reincarnate. Peyton frowned. "So that was you? You're the archer everyone's talking about. You're the one who's been taking down all those criminals." She sounded maybe a little more impressed than she meant to.

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greenhoodie
2015-08-17 03:18 am UTC (link)

"Don't worry about it." Kai waved off her apology. "I've had worse." Not that Peyton's punch was anything to scoff at. His shoulder still throbbed some from where she connected, and he wouldn't have been surprised if she left a bruise, but a fist just didn't compare to some of the weapons he'd been whacked with during his nightly travels. One work day he'd come in with bruises all over him because he'd taken a particularly painful beating from a crowbar, but he'd played it off as a club brawl, and had even paid off somebody in the media to do a story on it in order to cover it up.

Kai slowly sank down into a chair closer to the door. He seemed exhausted, and it was true that he was. It was hard to keep up the double life; his image outside of the hoodie was a full-time commitment, and then the hours he should have spent sleeping he was running around like a mad man hunting down criminals. He was burning the candle at both ends, and he was well aware that it wasn't something he could keep up forever. It didn't mean he wouldn't try.

"Yeah, guess that's me," Kai rested his chin on his clasped hands, eying her wearily. Peyton had Dinah, which means that she should be an ally, but reincarnation didn't guarantee anything. Dinah couldn't prevent Peyton from telling his secret if she really wanted to, and considering what he'd been doing, he couldn't blame her. Knowing and not reporting made her an accessory to his murders. No matter how well-intentioned they were. "Some costumed girl caught me in the middle of a job a few months back. She saw me shoot somebody with an arrow. So I'm sure their perception of me is fan-fucking-tastic."

Kai heaved a sigh. "Listen, I'd get it, if you need to tell somebody. I hope that you don't, because that'll expose me to a lot of people I made enemies and. Well. I don't want to go to jail. I can promise that I didn't kill anybody that I thought could be taken care of through the justice system. Just the guys who wouldn't face any consequences if they were arrested. The guy she saw me kill, he was in charge of a prostitution ring. Human trafficking. And he had every judge in his pocket. If I turned him into the police, he would've been out the next day to keep terrorizing those kids." He was rambling, and he quickly closed his mouth. This was the longest he'd gone in her presence without a wise-ass remark.

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canaryscry
2015-08-18 07:44 pm UTC (link)

Peyton wasn't sure what to do at first, when he sank down into the chair. This was uncharted territory for her with Kai, always able to fall back on sarcasm and biting remarks before to keep her distance, but that wasn't exactly appropriate given the nature of this turn in conversation. He was... serious. More serious than Peyton had ever seen him before, and it was weird. Really weird. Almost as if the truth of his identity finally opened her eyes to Kai for the first time, Peyton suddenly noticed how tired he actually looked.

"Got caught in the act, huh?" Her tone was more gentle than she'd ever sounded when speaking to him, hesitantly sitting down in a chair next to him after only a moment or two of awkward indecision. She was out of her element here with him, but clearly so was he. They could both afford that, as long as they were still on the same page. She thought they were, or at least, he was finally being honest with her so Peyton didn't feel the need to actively pit herself against him. "The emerald archer's losing his touch."

She actually smiled at him then, not a huge one, but it was kind. Not at all mocking, despite her teasing. This was a complicated situation with no clear right or wrong answer, she knew that, and while Peyton wasn't a vigilante herself, she had one in her head. She knew how black and white it wasn't, being out there in the fight. Sometimes you had to do things you never imagined yourself doing, for the right cause. A dangerous way of thinking when bad guys so often twisted it to suit their own, nefarious purpose, but she believed Kai. She didn't know if it was because she knew he was Ollie now or if she would have believed him anyway, but she did.

"I believe you. And... I won't tell anyone. I promise." A short pause, before she made up her mind. Maybe she was just as crazy as he was, or maybe it was just right for her to choose this. She didn't know the first thing about being a vigilante herself, but she knew when something was wrong that needed fixing. And Kai was already doing that. "I'll still help you, if you need me to."

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