Neena Thurman pours drinks, kicks ass. (fallsinplace) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-03-21 00:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, logan howlett (wolverine), neena thurman (domino) |
Who: Logan Howlett and Neena Thurman
What: playing pool, chatting
When: Wednesday evening
Where: a poolhall
Rating: PG-13 for swearing
Status: complete
Neena was still really embarrassed when she showed up to the pool hall. She’d made an ass of herself around Logan the past two times she’d talked to him, and that wasn’t fair. Nothing she was doing was really fair to anyone. She didn’t even know what her own deal was, and expecting others to put up with her shit was really not cool.
So she’d asked him out to play pool. It was a neutral location so they could talk, and she owed him at least one game for even agreeing to meet her. She still felt like she was a mess about half the time, but she could keep it together for one evening.
Probably.
Hopefully.
Even if she couldn’t, it wouldn’t be his fault. She’d set herself up for failure.
To say Logan was concerned about Neena would be an understatement. He didn’t know how to act around her, and it felt like their relationship might have shifted, but to what gear he didn’t know. There was a lot of not knowing with him, lately. He hated it.
He walked into the bar, looking around, and picking up her scent before he saw her.
She was ordering a beer, and waved to him a little when she saw him. She took a deep breath. This was probably going to suck a little bit, but she’d feel better afterward.
Logan waltzed on over, giving her a smile and ordering a whiskey. “I know you’ll kick my ass, so we ain’t playin’ for money.”
Neena snorted. “Fine but let’s do something to make it interesting.” She took her beer when it was poured. “I’ll play you for drinks. Or something else. You pick, I’m feeling generous.” She smiled at him, but more than anything else she felt tired. It was so hard to function normally.
“Drinks then,” Logan replied. Seeing Neena get hammered would be worth the embarrassment, and she looked like she needed to get hammered. Maybe she’d tell him what the fuck was going on.
“Good. We’re the table in the back corner.” She grabbed her beer and the bag with her cue in it and went to the table. “So how’s life been?”
Logan grunted, like that about summed it up. “Good an’ bad, pretty much par for the course. Not as bad as the shit you’ve been through, I think.”
Neena shrugged. “Eh. That’s life.” She racked the balls carefully.
“It ain’t life. What the hell happened?” Logan watched her bend over to rack, and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“I already told you.” She straightened and started to assemble her cue. “You go first, I’ll take whatever you leave me. Stripes versus solids, right?”
“Yep.” Logan thwacked her on the ass with his stick and came around to the head of the table. He placed the ball down ,and sent it crashing into the balls. “You’re solids.” He sunk two more stripes before missing, and stepped back.
She laughed at the smack, and drank while he played. She enjoyed the view a little, but there was too much awkwardness and guilt to make it truly amusing to watch him bending over. She moved back over when he finished, eying what he’d left her. She’d have an easier time getting her stuff in with his out of the way. She took a shot before she said anything else. “How’s your new assistant working out?”
“Eli? She’s attentive, quick at learning and a bit anal when it comes to attention to detail. She’ll be really good once she loosens up and learns a few more things.” Logan watched her shoot, leaning on his stick.
“That’s good.” She took a couple more shots, then missed and stepped back. “I remember back when I first hired James. He was fresh out of his classes and I figured he’d stick around for a couple months then move on. I don’t know what I’d do without him, now.” Even his fretting was nice, he was a stabilizing force in her life.
“He seems to be a good man. Bit stubborn. Think you need that in someone helpin’ you at the bar though.” He lined up a shot. “You should meet Eli. She’s stubborn too.”
“I think I just like stubborn men.” She laughed a little. “I’ll swing by sometime soon. I bet she’s adorable.” It felt good to be talking about normal stuff again.
“Yeah. She’s really fuckin’ adorable.” Logan laughed, and missed his shot. “She has this serious unimpressed face. At everything. A unicorn could trot by and she’d be unimpressed.”
Neena laughed again. “Oh man, I’ll definitely have to come visit, then.” She drained her beer and stepped up to the table, circling it for a couple seconds. She took her shot and sank a ball, then began to circle some more, because she hadn’t set herself up for her next shot. Stupid mistake.
Logan smirked. "Lucky shot, darlin'." He folded his arms as she circled the table, his grin a little bit playfully mocking. "Got any more amazin' moves to show me?"
He walked back to the bar, and ordered a pitcher of beer.
For himself.
She made a face at his back. “Well, I got this new thing I do with my tongue.” She knew he’d hear, and it amused her to think he might wonder what it was. She took her next shot, and sank two balls. Unfortunately, one was Logan’s. She sighed and stepped back. “I’m feeling generous tonight, I guess.”
“How generous?” Logan asked, though he was only half serious. Despite what happened with Alicia, he was still trying to figure out what the hell that Velma meant to him.
“Hmm? Oh, I sank one of yours.” She moved away so he could take his shot. “I’m sorry about how I’ve been acting, by the way. I feel like an ass for the conversation we had on the network.” And for kind of asking him out. They’d made a deal, and she hated that she’d gone back on it.
“Seemed like you needed to talk,” Logan commented, and sunk a ball. “God knows I’m willin’ to listen, anytime.” He sank another one, then scratched. Logan picked up his pitcher and drank from it. “Especially if there’s booze involved.”
“You’re such a romantic at heart.” Neena snorted and went back over to the table. She grabbed the cueball and examined the table, rolling it back and forth under her hand as she thought. “We probably shouldn’t sleep together anymore.” She finally decided where to put the ball and took her shot.
“What makes you say that?” Logan had been expecting it. It still felt weird, and hurt a little. He watched her make a perfect shot and snorted.
“I just don’t think I can do it without getting attached right now. I mean, I was back an hour and trying to convince you to date me? It was ridiculous. I like you a lot, and you’re a really good lay. Maybe we’ll get back to that eventually, but I don’t want you to expect it when I know I can’t handle it.” That sucked so much to say. She dreaded the thought of renewed chastity, and sharing that with Logan had been kind of nice. When it worked, it was wonderful. Right now, though, she knew it couldn’t work.
Logan gripped his stick, and watched her as she played and spoke. The thought wasn't a happy one. He'd thought they'd had a good balance between friendship and fucking, but if her head wasn't in the right place, that would only lead to more hurt. And Logan had been hurting too many people lately. Maybe Velma had been right on that. "You know I never expect anythin'."
“I know, but I promised I’d say something if it wouldn’t work out. I like you too much to sit around hoping you’ll turn into someone you’re not. If you change your mind about dating, or I get my shit together, I’m going to jump you like you owe me money, but until then. . . it’s just better to avoid it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to spend time with you, or do shit together. You’re still the best friend I have, and I don’t see that changing.”
"Neena...." Logan wondered how he found himself in these positions. He could feel her pain and confusion and it made him a little confused. It was like it was raining feelings this week.
“What?” Neena sighed, as she cleared the table of her balls. Now she just had to get the eightball in. “Far corner.” She pointed to the pocket with her cue.
"We'll I'm fucked," Logan said. In more the one way.
“See, you won’t even miss me.” Her tone was teasing as she sank the ball. “I’ll have another Sierra Nevada.”
Logan sighed, and got her the drink. He also ordered chicken wings and fries while he was there, because he was hungry and putting food in Neena’s stomach would keep her sober longer.
She racked the balls again and took the first shot while her food came up. She hoped this wouldn’t ruin things between them. Losing Logan as her friend, on top of losing her husband and child, would be too much to bear. She didn’t know she could survive that disappointment on top of all the others.
He handed her her drink like a defeated general handing over his sword, and gave her a reassuring smile. “Try not to drink too fast, okay darlin’?” He thought she worried too much. It would take a lot more than this to lose him.
“Pffft. I’ll drink it like I always do, and you can deal with it. I didn’t sink anything when I broke, so you’re up.” She took the beer and put the fresh glass next to her old one.
“Fuck you,” Logan said, rolling his eyes and sinking three solids, then knocking a stripe in on his last shot. He cursed again.
She just laughed. “I’m not the only one being generous today, I guess. Don’t worry, I’ll try not to beat you too much.” She was feeling a little better. The sadness came in waves, but she had an easier time managing it when she was around people. “I found some interesting stuff last Thursday. Apparently some major shit’s going on in town.”
"Tell me about it," Logan asked. He grew suddenly less interested in the game.
Neena went around the table as she tried to think of the best way to phrase this without drawing attention. “Apparently there’s a couple big organizations uniting together for something. It’s nasty shit, too.” She dropped her voice, so that she could barely hear it herself. “There were documents about arms deals, organ rings, and plans for something big coming up.”
"So what are we going to do about it?" Logan leaned on he stick, his voice low.
Neena looked up. “We’re going to kick some asses. Kitty’s looking at stuff now, but I figure there’s no reason we can’t do a little snooping around on our own.” She didn’t even remember whose turn it was at this point, so she drank her beer and set her cue against the table. “Then, once we’ve run out of asses to kick, we turn the whole sorry set over and let the government kick their asses for a while.”
“That’s the best kind. Nothin’ beats actual feet on the ground an’ noses in the air,” Logan replied. He picked up the cue ball and twirled it around in his fingers.
“I’m still not busy tonight.” Neena noted. “I could use a little exercise to calm down after a long day.” A long day filled mostly with exercising. She didn’t like to sit still normally, and now she had a near obsessive need to keep moving.
Logan grinned. “Let me change into something ...fuck it I’m ready to go now.” It was probably a good thing, he might actually bring up his ‘something or other’ with Velma and that probably wouldn’t go over well with Neena right now.
“Good.” She put the balls back in the carrier and took them back to the bar. She grabbed her cue and unscrewed it as she walked toward the door. “Let me see if Kitty has any idea where we should start. If not, I figure we’ll start with the warehouse from last week and work our way out.”
"Sounds good." Logan nodded his head, and followed after her. He rolled his shoulders, and looked forward to this.