"Good timing," Jake said as Kady showed up at his apartment. "Pizza just got here." He ushered her in, but she knew his place by now. (Maybe not as well as the base, but he hadn't been back over there since the night of too much drinking.)
There was still pizza, beer, oreos and ice cream stocked in his apartment and he didn't need to tell her to help herself.
"I wanted to tell you thanks for getting me home the other night. I love you for putting up with my drunk self. But also whatever I said or did during that time, if it was weird? No clue. Don't even remember getting back here."
Kady waved him off as she headed right toward the kitchen, collecting what she wanted to eat. She rolled her eyes at his words, all of that heartfelt sincerity something she wasn’t ever going to be comfortable with hearing. Not with the life she’d led up until then. “Whatever you said was incomprehensible.”
Had it been? Maybe not. Was she going to reiterate what he said? Nope. Better to lock it up and forget about it. Even if he’d just said the same shit all over again. She added a bag of chips to her horde before plopping down on the couch.
“No thanks needed.” It’s what friends did. Not that she was going to admit that.
"Well, you got me out of there at a good time," Jake added, joining her on the opposite end of the couch. "So whatever. Accept that I appreciate it. And you."
Kady opened up the chips bag, shrugging at his words. It was as much of an acceptance as he was going to get about it. “Please don’t tell me you invited me here just to go on and on about how appreciative you are.”
Because she was going to need to bounce then. And take the pizza with her.
For not the first time, Jake glanced at Kady wondering just what her life had been like before she'd arrived in Vallo, and for not the first time he passed on asking. Instead he teased, "I did say I was buying pizza to thank you," he pointed out.
"But really, that night had the potential to go really dark, really fast."
“The pizza was all the thanks I needed.” She never knew what to do with words. Food was easier to accept. Less likely to bite her in the ass as well.
“You didn’t say shit though, Jake. I think you were mostly too far gone to do so really. Not sure why you thought it’d go dark fast.” He’d been celebrating with people he liked, hadn’t he? Not that she’d really looked to see who else had answered his post.
Was there someone that she was going to need to hex?
"Good," Jake said. Because he'd been drunk, and he was pretty much an open book since it was a requirement of being a jaeger pilot. Or had been until his new jaeger had been made. But he'd liked knowing what he was saying.
"And it's ridiculous. Like you always say I am. But I was flirting with Zeke, that just started and suddenly I was thinking about Neal. And how I flirted with him because he was safe and taken, and I was trying to get past Margo…"
He shook his head, and then offered an explanation he knew she probably didn't want or need but he felt like talking anyway. "Margo gave me this entire thing on avoiding feelings, and I don't know. Made me realize maybe I had some? Then she turned into a man because what the fuck, Vallo? And she changed? Besides the obvious. Anyway I wanted to help but what could I really do, you know? But somehow it felt like I lost her then and then again when she disappeared."
That was cheerful. Sorry Kady, you probably just came over for the pizza. "But Neal? I was never going to actually try anything when he was with Ella. Just seems cruel that you introduced me to this guy who so quickly became one of my best friends and now he's gone. But I shouldn't complain…"
He wouldn't know what could have happened with Neal, but he also knew Kady had just lost her best friend to the whims of Vallo, not that she was going to talk about it. They'd gone together to the cottage and that was the extent of it.
"Anyway, I should have held the party on Margo's yacht, but I couldn't? Not yet. She'd be so pissed. Like so pissed that I was too emotional to throw a proper bash on that yacht." That at least made him smile a little bit. He could handle that thought.
That was a lot and Kady had absolutely no idea what to do with any of it. She ate her pizza while he kept talking. And talking. And talking. Every last bit of information only helped to solidify her belief in not getting close to people. Look at all of the hurt and confusion it had apparently caused Jake.
How did she keep ending up friends with people who were so damn emotional? It was like some cruel trick the world liked to play on her. And did all of them need to be talkers?
She took another bite of the pizza as he started in on Margo’s yacht, trying to keep up with the logic to any of it. But that was the problem with feelings. There was absolutely no logic there. It seemed to go right out the window.
“So throw a party now.”
"I mean, I had better," Jake replied. "It was in the terms and conditions she left me." Though he was alright if she showed up and yelled at him for not doing that. That would mean she'd returned and remembered him.
"In other news, I won the auction to design a custom sword. How badass is that?" Jake asked, changing the subject for Kady's benefit, feeling better now that he'd spoken but not about to make Kady sit with all his feelings too long. He didn't run her off. Which is why he didn't point out that he'd also won the lunch experience. Would she end up going with him? Probably. But with far less pressure than mentioning it now would bring up.
“The thing probably won’t sail or some shit unless you do,” Kady told him. Because it seemed like a very Margo thing to do.
A custom sword was definitely badass and she was grateful for the change in subject because there was only so much emotion spilling that she could handle. Especially when she didn’t know what to say back. “Do you even know how to use a sword?”
"I mean, can I swing it around and hurt people or crazed animals gone mental? Yes. Am I actually skilled… No. Not in the slightest."
Jake grinned at Kady, because he knew she'd appreciate the fact that he'd just bid on something he had no real idea how to use.
"I'm sure I can find someone to teach me."
Kady snorted, not even a little surprised he’d bid on the damn thing because it was cool. He was right though; it should be easy enough to get someone to teach him how to use the thing. People knew how to do all kinds of shit.
“Might want to get some lessons before you get the thing designed. Figure out what suits you best,” she suggested. Swords were never her go to, but she knew a little about them. Nothing that would really help. Just that there were different kinds.
"Yeah, because I know I don't want to end up with a rapier. Though maybe Hot Sauce could learn to wield a little mini rapier," he offered, not sure where the squirrel was. Especially since there was pizza. If the box was left open he'd be stealing all of the pepperonis.
Shifting the topic slightly, Jake tried to ask casually. "You doing alright? Since Julia disappeared?" He was at least going to give her the option to do something other than nod and say yes without expanding further. But he assumed that's exactly what he would get.
Kady shrugged. “She’s still alive back home so it's not absolute crap.” They’d made up, been friends again for a bit. She’d miss Julia, but it wasn’t the end of the world for her to not be around. “Means I’m not being told about whatever the latest drama is at the cottage.” Which was nice.
The idea of the squirrel with a rapier was ridiculous, but then again Cleaver had a top hat. So who even knew.
"You always do that?" Jake asked. "Keep people at an arm's length?" There was more curiosity than anything else contained within his question.
“Yep.” Her word popped at the end and that was all she was saying about that.
Jake nodded, with no interest in pushing the conversation further. Hadn't he tried with Margo? And look where that had gotten him. Whatever their world was like, it seemed like the people he knew from it had little interest in dwelling on that or on personal connections.
What they had as friends was working, no sense in messing with it too much.
"So back to my sword," he said. "What should I have on the hilt?"
Kady considered that as she took another slice of pizza, grateful that he wasn’t going to push it. She liked Jake, considered him a friend--which was rare for her to do--but talking about any of that shit wasn’t something she wanted to do. The past was the past. No point in looking back at a world she wasn’t in and had fucked with her at every turn.
“Pay homage to Hot Sauce. Do some nuts.”
"Subtle," Jake laughed, looking around for something to throw at her. If she hadn't been eating he'd have tossed a throw pillow, allowing it to live up to its name. "And no, that's not what I'm going to do."
Kady took a big bite before continuing, “I have no clue what usually goes on them. What are you thinking? Robot? A bike.” She eyed him carefully. “Don’t put a bike on it.”
"Nah, something more badass, mate. Like a dragon. But maybe I'll just have Hot Sauce on there."
At that, the squirrel finally made an appearance, pepperoni in his mouth. "You are rotten," he said, but there was no truth to his words. Turning his attention back to Kady, he asked, "Did I tell you Zeke decorated my jaeger for me?"
“You could always have them put your jaeger on it.” Kady had no clue what that would even really look like, but she figured it was possible. “Or the jaeger and Hot Sauce together.” She offered one of her pepperonis to the squirrel. Might as well embrace this insanity.
“But no, don’t think so. How did he decorate it?”
Jake pulled out his phone, because words weren't going to do it justice. Neither would the photo, really, but it was close enough. "He wallpapered it," Jake said with a grin, holding the phone out so she could see how his month of the calendar had been plastered all over the walls, just him and Hot Sauce.
"I'm leaving it up."
Right.
Well. That was definitely something. She wasn’t surprised that he seemed to love it. Especially because of how ridiculous it was. Ridiculous and sentimental went hand in hand with Jake.
Kady looked over the squirrel. “It’s very you.” Looking back over at Jake she added, “You taken the jaeger out yet?”
"Not outside the alpha test," Jake replied. "But it's close, didn't need too much more work. The team Zeke assembled? Brilliant. And not one of them ever questioned where I got the money to pay them so even more brilliant. I know they had Dragon Slayer to use as a basis," Jake said, referring to his renamed jaeger from home. "But they still nailed it better than I could have expected."
“We’ve got a lot of smart people here.” She didn’t understand half of what needed to go into creating the jaeger or what an alpha test was, but Jake was excited about it so that was good enough for Kady. They had to take the good things that they could in the world.
“You pick out a name for this one yet? Or does it come to you once you know one another better?”
"I've tossed around a few ideas, but haven't settled yet," Jake said. "This is gonna spoil me though, I can tell you that already. A working jaeger, even at half the size, where I don't have to share my entire brain with my co-pilot? I mean, you get used to it, right? But when you're both thinking about the same woman, or he wants to beat the shit outta you, things can get a little rough."
Kady arched a brow at that. So basically, all of those things had happened with the last one. She wasn’t even a little surprised by it. Jake was a social person. Relationship sort of drama was going to follow him around. “I’m not going to say hopefully you’ll have a monster to test it out on soon.”
Even if she’d technically just did.
"Me either," Jake replied. As much as he wanted to get out there and use it, wishing for that sort of thing was bound to mean trouble. They'd already had a dragon and the crazy tall magic thief lady. Who he'd killed. Without a jaeger.
"I mean, I'm already a hero," he pointed out.
“Mmhmm,” she agreed. Which meant at some point he’d get himself killed. Like all heroes seemed to do. The smart thing to do would be to cut her losses short now, but eh. She’d just scream at his grave later on and keep eating his food until then.