konstant | . .. IC Contact

"Yeah. She officially has it now, so we're getting it ready. It's going to take a lot of work to build it back up, but I think we could all use a good project."

He doesn't know if he's fully forgiven yet but for the first time it feels like maybe they'll get there. They have to stop at a light and he looks up at K, smiles like he's not been hurt at all.

K almost misses it - he glances down at the curb to be sure of Mango like he always does - but he looks up in time to see Jesus smiling at him, then glances back again as if he might have misunderstood.

The corner of his mouth curves, too, even though he has no idea what's happened. Not really.

"Do you... still want me to help?" Normally he'd leave it there, but they've been so careful with each other lately, so he adds: "I want to. If I can."

"Yeah. I want to show you around. You need to pick your space," a twinge as he realizes there's an empty room now, but whatever. They'll fill it up. Make Carver's room into an armory.

"And I want to show you where the garden will be. I think you'll like that part." Seeing things grow week by week. "Things taste different when you grow them yourself."

He sees that too, but there are so many landmines planted from the last few days he doesn't dare just now.

"My space?" he asks instead. And: "I've been taking care of the petunia. Something else is growing in the pot. I think it might be a second one."

"For when you're at the property." He's pretty sure if anyone has earned the right to be there in Rosita's eyes, it's Vrenille and K and Drake, who came and fought. "Even if you don't have your own room you deserve space to keep what's yours."

Just in case.

K doesn't really have anything, he doesn't bother to point out. That was already made abundantly clear when he turned up to the rendezvous with more space in his pack than was filled, and most of that was for Mango.

"Is that where you're going to stay, now?" There are rules, of course, but.

"As much as you can?"

"I'm going to try." Three days a month isn't enough. He'll find a way to bend that rule. "We need community. Rosita and I do." He looks up at K again. "And we both want you to be part of it."

"Like you have back home?" Jesus has talked about Hilltop, and K has seen it, once; in light of that he supposes it makes sense.

It's a bit harder to see himself in that, but he's willing to try.

"I watched the two of you working together. It's easy to tell you're used to it."

"Like that. Adapted for here; I can't help anyone if I'm in the Zoo every other week. But yeah. I want a place where we can be together. A place we can go if things go wrong." Something to fight for.

It's K's turn to tense slightly at mention of the Zoo - or more specifically, either of them being in it.

He focuses on the community though.

"I don't know how to farm. I went to the protein farms a couple times, but that's - not the same." And nothing he'd want to replicate here even if he knew how, even if he could. "Is that - how long until that's possible? Having it ready?"

"The roof needs a little work. Not much, though. We need to get the kitchen going but Drake knows how to do that. All it needs to be is a place to get away from the city when the city gets too crowded." A place to recharge; that's what Jesus envisions.

They're at the edge of the city now, far enough out that K feels comfortable unclipping Mango's leash and letting her run ahead of them.

"It's funny what you can get used to. City seems so small to me." He glances around them.

"I kind of liked the forest though. Wish it would have been different circumstances, but I liked the trees."

"We could camp sometime. I like the trees, too. I miss the forest; I miss wandering off the trails." Making his own way, seeing things that hadn't been seen by anyone else in years.

Exploring, having a picnic on a T-Rex. K remembers.

"You need to heal first, but. I'd like that, I think." He'll have to find out before he can say for sure, but he's pretty sure anyway.

"Remember that campsite? For the games?"

"I do. I thought it was lucky timing for me--it gave me a break from trying to get used to being around so many people and so many buildings." They've been in Duplicity almost a year, he realizes.

"What do you remember about them?"

K had still been in shock. That's what he remembers, mostly, although there are other moments.

"They put me in weightlifting. I was still healing up from..." He waves his hand. Dying. Arriving. Whatever.

"I went to a party with Sara, and you and I drank aphro potions."

"And then didn't do anything but talk," he chuckles. "I wish I'd seen you in the weight lifting."

"I liked it anyway. I still wasn't used to people actually talking to me, then." He still isn't, really, but it's no longer the surprise that it was at first.

"I don't remember much of the games. They took most of my clothing and had me lift a woman I didn't know, then a second one and I think.... they thought it was too hard for me, because I didn't really know what they wanted from me and it hurt. They disqualified me after the second." Jesus knows, now, firsthand how ridiculous the thought is of it being too hard for K to lift a single human.

"I liked it, too. If we had slept together then I think it would have taken me longer to trust you." He would have relegated K to 'fuck buddy' in his head, and kept his distance.

"Because you'd think that was all I wanted from you?" he wonders, glancing across at him.

"No," he shakes his head with a rueful smile. "Because I was trying to keep my friends and my sexual partners separate then. That didn't take, thanks mostly to you."

His brow furrows for a moment, but he's not sure or not if it's something that he should apologize for, so he doesn't. Not yet.

"Do you wish it had?" he asks instead.

"No," he says, fast, almost startling himself with his vehemence.

"I like this. What we've got. I know I screwed it up but- I want it. Like we were before. Maybe even better than we were."

K is quiet then, trying to sift through that reaction, those words. He wants to insist Jesus didn't screw anything up - there's still no blame in him for Jesus needing to get out of a corner - but not only does he know that's how Jesus himself sees it, something has definitely changed and it wasn't K. They both have acknowledged it as a mistake, but they're still working back towards each other again.

It makes him cautious, and would even if Jesus weren't still recovering from the last several days. If they all weren't. So his question, when he asks it, is both careful and earnest: if Jesus says no, he'll willingly respect that.

"Can I ask you more about... How you view what we've got?"

He swallows and nods. In a way he's hoped for this conversation. "Some of it is hard to put into words but I'll try. Ask anything."

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