MA

[jageskro]

Jag was just grabbing the old bag of peas they kept just for this purpose out of the freezer when he heard someone walk into the kitchen. He pressed the peas to his bruised cheek, then grabbed a beer out of the fridge, because one more wouldn't hurt. It wasn't like he was drunk. No, he wasn't drunk.

He turned around and smiled at the sight of Em. And no, he wasn't at all a little wobbly on his legs. "Heeey, Emma."

Comments

[offthebeatenpath]

"Scraggly or not, Ollie's been swearing at his current piece all night," Em told Jag, knowing how Ollie felt. "Although there may be some busted knuckles because of it, and that I don't know."

She pushed up from the table. "Your hands, on the other, well, hand, I can see. Just stay there a minute." Going to the tap, she wet a clean dishrag. Hopefully, she'd clean things up enough and see that was all his hands really needed, but she could always go get her first aid kit if need be.

[jageskro]

Jag didn't move from where he was, but took another drink from his beer. "It was over art. That fight. You'll have to ask him what exactly, I can never remember that shit." It seemed vital to share this with Em right now, obviously. It was a great story!

[offthebeatenpath]

Em laughed softly, shaking her head. "It's not the first time people have fought over art. Still not my style, though." Sitting sideways in her chair so she was facing Jag, she crooked her fingers. "Let me see your hand." And then, because she'd interrupted his story, and before he could balk too much, "So somebody had a wrong opinion about art, and Ollie got into it with them..." her voice trailing off so he could pick up the story.

[jageskro]

Jag wasn't balking; he gave her his hand easily, and simply went on with his story. "Well, he'll deny it to this day, but I still say that from what I saw, Ollie threw the first punch. I didn't think he had it in him. I don't think he thought he did either; he looked as surprised as I felt. Before the bloke punched him back."

[offthebeatenpath]

"You know what they say about artistic temperaments," Em said slyly, as she dabbed at his knuckles with the damp cloth. It didn't look like anything than scrapes, but she wanted to make sure. "And I'm a soulless ginger too. I hate to think what would happen to make me throw a first punch."

[jageskro]

"I like soulless gingers," Jag stated with a small smile, and tugged on a strand of her hair as illustration. "Anyway, that's the story of how he broke his nose."

[offthebeatenpath]

Ducking her head, Em laughed again, the hair he'd tugged at falling over her face when he let it go. "It's always the quiet ones. But there are worse ways to get a broken nose, I guess, than defending good art, or condemning bad."

[jageskro]

"I'm honestly not sure which it was," Jag stated. "I zoned out during the conversation." The conversation he hadn't understood anything about.

[offthebeatenpath]

"Now I don't know if I should ask him or not." But she grinned as she said it. "I'm not sure I want round two if I disagree with him on whatever set him off in the first place."

[jageskro]

"They were right pricks, I remember that much," Jag offered. "Posh wankers right out of art school. You'd be fine." He grinned, teasing. "Probably. Are you happy about my hand now?"

[offthebeatenpath]

"Yeah, it doesn't look that bad. You'll feel it tomorrow, though, I bet." Not that that would stop him the next time someone was being an ass around Jag.

[jageskro]

"Always do," Jag confirmed, and drained the last of his beer.

[offthebeatenpath]

Realizing she was still holding his hand, Em let it go, only a little reluctantly. "Did you get enough to eat?"

[jageskro]

"Oh yeah," Jag confirmed. "Cheers. You wanna share a joint?" It was just what he needed before going to bed.

[offthebeatenpath]

"Would you believe I've never smoked?" she asked, although she wasn't sure if that was an answer or not. More a prelude to an answer maybe.

[jageskro]

The biggest surprise was that she hadn't smoked once in the last year or so, and that he hadn't noticed. "Huh. Well, come on then." He pushed up and dropped the can in the bin, then gestured for her to come along. "It probably won't have much effect, first times usually don't."

[offthebeatenpath]

If asked, Em couldn't have said how she'd gone this long living in the squat without trying pot. Hermiting at the wrong times, most likely. Or painting or reading, or otherwise being off in her room. She hadn't really thought about it, until he asked if she wanted to join him. "So I've heard. Although it makes me wonder how people get to a second time."

[jageskro]

"Because they trust their friends," Jag replied with a grin. He gestured for her to come with him into his room. It was mostly untidy, with dirty clothes piled up in a corner, waiting for him to give them a wash, and buggered fire gear lying around.

He grabbed his pot and skins and dropped them on the bed, pulling his boots off before sitting on it. "You've got to go through that first time. Then you can really experience it."

[offthebeatenpath]

While her room was usually neat, almost obsessively so - although that wasn't difficult when you didn't have ton of stuff - except for the nest she made of her bed and high chance of books, cards, or a sketch pad lost in the blankets, the lived-in feel of Jag's was comfortable too. Sitting on the bed with him, Em tucked her sock-clad feet under her. "I am in your more experienced hands."

[jageskro]

"That sounds dirty," Jag grinned at her, focusing back on what he was doing immediately. He grabbed an empty CD case to lay the skin down on, and licked the side of a cigarette to neatly tear a strip off of it, so he could use its tobacco.

[offthebeatenpath]

"Only if you make it sound that way," Em said, rolling her eyes fondly all the same. She hadn't meant it that way, as innuendo went it was pretty weak, and Jag had a boyfriend, so she wouldn't have meant something like that anyway. "Generic you, not you you."

[jageskro]

"I I definitely went there," Jag pointed out with another grin, arranging the tobacco on the skin.

[offthebeatenpath]

"That's on you then, innit, bab?" her usual American English sliding into something close to his Brummie, a verbal nudge when she couldn't nudge his shoulder because his hands were busy.

[jageskro]

Jag laughed, looking up at her. "That was good."

[offthebeatenpath]

She grinned back, a bit of color rising in her cheeks anyway. "You were asking for it. And no, that's not supposed to sound dirty either."