His eyes twitched from place to place, and he fidgeted ever so slightly. The trouble with being on an undercover mission like this was that his animalistic senses didn’t go away. If anything, they intensified because he was looking for something— a strange person or object. With those senses though, came instincts and urges to sniff and walk all over the place. The only things that kept him still was his training and the fact that there were other eyes watching for potential perps, both at his table and on the other end of the restaurant.
Despite the tension between Viktor, himself, and Kassy, Ja wanted none of that to interfere with the mission at hand. This was about freeing the other kids, if they were still alive, and catching the people responsible. Plus, once this was all over there was even still Daphne who was at home, stuck in her condition. The longer this took, the longer it’d take for them to get home and possibly figure out how to free his Green sister too. He wasn’t going to fail again and possibly inadvertently fail her too again.
However, with all of that in mind, he didn’t want to get ahead of himself and mess things up. So, back in the moment, it came to looking for strategic spots to place a…probe? He forgot to ask what that word meant, he assumed it had something to do with spying on the place. If he was honest, he didn’t keep up with all his English lessons. Though with his cover of Ezekiel being from America, he figured it was a word he should know and he didn’t want to ask ‘Eveline’. There was no knowing who could be listening.
He felt a small change of wind in one of the braid locks that drooped to the right of his head, a small scent of smoke…his head twitched back towards their table as a waitress approached. Like a switch was flipped, a small smile flipped to his face as she asked them what they wanted to drink. His mouth opened briefly to speak but he looked over at Kassy. Thinking about the theme of where they were…
”Whatever you want Eve.~” He offered, extending a slightly wider smile to her.
“O-oh. Sure!” She had browsed the menu twice, but not really found anything she particularly wanted. Still, they had to blend in.
“I will take a… iced double mocha espresso and a chicken sandwich. Thank you, Miss.” She was distracted. There were parts of the mission that were leaning on her forbidden power. She didn’t really know how to explain to the others that she wouldn’t. Possibly couldn’t. Even now, she could hear the screaming back in Atlantis. She just knew the same thing would happen again, here. She would ruin it all. Rubbing the back of her neck, she peeked over at Ja.
“So. Um. Zeke. What do you want?””Hm…” Zeke took a gander at the menu himself.
“I’m thinking a orange juice and,” He closed up the menu and passed it over, gesturing his head to Eve.
“I’ll take a chicken sandwich too.” Came a chuckle as Ja watched the waitress walk away. Returning his eye to her, his smile became a bit more solemn, noting Kassy’s mannerisms.
“Are you okay?”“What?”Kassy murmured, lost in her thoughts. Then her ears tugged a little harder at her brain.
“No, not really.” She dropped her voice, low enough to be heard by no one but Ja.
“I know what needs doing, but… I’m very reluctant to do it.” She scrubbed a hand over her face.
“I’m scared I’ll screw everything up again. I know we talked about it, but it’s still in my mind. Heh. I haven’t even told the rest of the team what I am fully capable of. Just you.” She was terrified that it would make everything so, so much worse. After all, who could trust a monster who could turn your very mind against you?
Her explanation had garnered a small nod of his head.
“Well…there hasn’t been much time to allow wounds to heal completely…But, remember what you thought about the—“ He paused to rethink his wording.
“committee changing their minds by cutting you from the project. They had enough faith in your abilities to keep you here…for our squad though…I don’t think you did anything unfixable. You just build trust back up and tell them in your own way.” “Right. Of course you would say that.” She pulled back her sleeve, revealing a thin metal bracelet etched with similar runes to those on her staff. The same eye marking that was on the back of Kassy’s neck was prominent amid the runes.
“Faith is one thing. Trust is another. They… dampened me. Not fully. But enough so that I can’t do what I did before. I’ll be able to manage ‘projects’, but…” She rolled her sleeve back down.
“My… ah… boss said it will be on until such a time when I can be in complete control, no matter my emotional state. So.” A half shrug.
“I see…I’ve had similar things said to me from my superiors while growing up. My…father told me that he liked that I was learning but that the way I was applying what I learned…’upset’ people. A lot of them…So, I was kept inside for a long time.” Ja’s eyes seemed to glaze over as he stared down at the table.
“I had to learn how to follow orders better…”Kassy reached out under the table, found Ja’s hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze. He didn’t speak of his past much, just like her. Whatever was in his head had to be difficult to think about.
“You’re out now. That’s important to remember. You made it out, they can’t hurt you anymore.” The waitress returned then, with two chicken sandwiches and Kassy’s espresso drink. She took a careful sip. It was bittersweet, but blissfully cold. She drank gratefully, feeling a pleasant chill on her insides. She let the waitress leave before speaking again.
Realizing her other hand was still warm in Ja’s, she pulled back abruptly.
“S-sorry.” “After many failures with other teams in the past, I’ve learned a lot of things. Coming here, I wasn’t sure it’d be much different.” He eyed his food but didn’t touch it.
“Despite what we all went through, and even where we’re at now, I’m actually grateful that I was wrong. Honestly, I haven’t had as much fun then as I’ve had in the past year working on this project.” He looked up, smiling a little again. In a small leap of faith, the hand that she retreated from followed and latched back to hers.
“You’re a big part of that. So, even if you don’t really like yourself right now, please don’t beat yourself up too much. That’s my friend.”Kassy felt her breath hitch in her chest, suddenly. Her mind was as blank as wet sand.
“But-” She tried, then stopped.
“Okay.” It was very warm in here. She could feel her heart starting to thunder in her chest, and a rich blush on her face. She hastily sipped her drink to fill the silence.
And yet, her hand remained in his.
“I agree with you. I have had fun with this project. And the team. I’ve never been a part of anything before, so this is good experience.” She could feel her skin buzzing, for some reason, her head feeling like it was full of tiny bugs.
“...I feel weird.” Ja could probably feel it too. Minute tremors in her fingers.
Which, he did, and the minor shaking shifted his glance into one of slight concern.
“How so? Like a sick thing or a head…sick…thing?” He had trouble trying to phrase it.
“You’re shaking a little.” “I don’t know. It’s really hot in here.” She tugged at, then removed the sweatshirt.
The young lion kept a careful eye on her movements. Her heart rate, the fact that she had shook a little in his hand seconds ago…It seemed to be like an actual sick thing opposed to something more emotional. His lips pursed a bit. She seemed fine a moment ago…what was it?
“Do you need to get some…” He stopped midway through. He was going to say ‘air’ but in reality, she’d probably need:
“Water? I mean…coffee is hot, and I’ll admit it’s kind of warm in here…” He looked at his orange juice which had some ice cubes in it.
“Would that help?”“Water! Water, yes, please. ” She snatched the cup from the table, tipping her head back and chugging the cold juice in seconds.
“That’s not water.” Her speech was rapid and her eyes were darting.
“Waterwaterwater- wait!” She looked at Ja with wide eyes.
“We have shit to get done. Let’s go! Let’s gogogogogo!” Ja’s expression kept calm but inwardly there was more and more growing concern. Did that perhaps make it worse? She was acting frantic.
“Okay, okay. Just keep steady, we’ll get you water.” He coaxed, standing up. From the way she was acting, it was almost as if it were like an allergic reaction of sorts. He briefly glanced at the table that held their squad but didn’t want to draw any more attention than they already might.
With that same line of thinking, her suddenly needing a giant pitcher of water from the kitchen because she’s allergic to the expresso would be rather dramatic as well…Wait, bathrooms had water in them. Not to have her drink from toilets, but there was usually always a sink. His eyes briefly scanned the restaurant’s perimeter until he picked out a sign that indicated ‘restrooms’ down a small corridor. Looking back down at Kassy, he gestured to get her darting attention.
“Okay, so there’s a bathroom over there—”Kassy’s head jerked at Ja’s motion.
“Bathrooms have sinks. Sinkshavewater! LET’SGO!” She grabbed Ja’s hand as she rose, and sped for the bathroom. Ja, unfortunately, was caught in her trembling grip as she burst through the doorway.
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Interaction | Metamorph / Ja