ArchivedLogs:Together Again

Together Again
Dramatis Personae Trib, Cage
In Absentia	2013-08-13 Cage and Trib make up.
Location <NYC> The Train Yards
Luke sent the text at midnight, and headed out without waiting for a response. He picked up a pallet of bottled waters from an all-night store, and carried it on his shoulder all the way out to the train yards. He hiked through the graveyard of old metal hulks, to find his usual place, and was surprised to find things moved around a little. Luke smiles to himself, thinking about Trib and Parley sparring together out here. With nothing to do but wait, Luke strips off his street clothes, and is down to just basketball shorts (Nets, of course). He's bare-chested and barefoot for his work out. All manner of metal debris crunch under his feet until he finds a slightly open space, and starts shadow boxing to warm up. Jab-jab-swing, shuffle shuffle. For a big man, he is surprisingly light on his feet. Trib was good and surprised by the text, and despite the late hour, he has decided to actually show up. Maybe it's curiosity; maybe he's just here to beat the stuffing out of his boss -- if that were possible, that is. But, it is his big form that is the shadow that rises up and enters the small workout area. Dressed in shorts and a red hoodie that barely fits his massive torso, the boxer stands in silence, watching Cage go through his warm-ups. He lets it go on for a good long while before he clears his throat. Loudly. Cage hears the throat clear, and pulls up short, mid-combination. He turns until he can spot the other man in the ambient lighting spilled over from the surrounding city. Cage has apparently had enough time to get warmed up. His skin is already sheening in the weak light. Cage runs a hand over his slick, bald head and fights to maintain eye contact. He takes a deep breath, and starts, "Look... I fucked up. I'm sorry." And then he stalls out, not sure where to go next. Trib seems unmoved by the detective's discomfort, although there's a shift in the muscle of his jaw. Then he steps forward, slowly. "I'm listenin'." Cage closes some of the distance, and struggles for the words. "You scared the /shit/ out of me, ok? And people do stupid shit when they're scared. That's all I got. I thought you were gonna /hit/ those kids at the store. You lost your shit, man, and I didn't know how to handle it. And I'm sorry. I wish I could go back and do it differently, but I can't. All I can do is try to fix it." Luke gestures at the old train seats set up around a hobo fire pit. "Will you talk to me at least?" "I don't fuckin' hit kids," Trib says, wrinkling his nose. "First of all. Second of all, them kids are fuckin' /dangerous/. If anyone was goin' to be in trouble, it was gonna be me." He furrows his brow, and there's a bit of heat in his tone as he raises his voice. "We should have fuckin' /talked/ about it when it happened," he says, continuing forward until the distance between them is little more than a couple of steps. "You were the first fuckin' /friend/ I've had in a fuckin' long time. I thought you had my fuckin' back." His eyes narrow, and he gives Cage a long look-over, and grunts an emotionless noise. "How you goin' to try an' fuckin' fix it? Throw more fuckin' guilty money at me?" Luke winces at Trib's withering arguments, but when Trib gets to the 'guilty money' Cage slumps down into one of the train car seats, elbows on his knees. His tone is quiet, hurt, but not defeated. "You know, I've only been out of prison for about four months?" Cage dips his head and scrubs both hands over his scalp before sitting up again. Sitting back in the seat, he says, "The friends I /thought/ I had when I went in... were the fuckers who set me up. And... it's fair to say I didn't get along real well with the general population in there. You were the first /real/ friend I've had since I was little. So I don't know what to do to fuckin fix it. But I'd do it." Trib listens in silence as Cage explains, and thunder gathers in his features, his expression darkening in the low light. He remains silent for a long time after the older man finishes speaking, and simply watches him. His golden gaze is sharp, and his jaw tightens. Then he reaches up to scrub at his face with his half-hand. "God /damn/ it," he growls, dropping his hand sharply. If there's more to come, it's delayed as he begins to pace, shoving his hands into the pockets of the hoodie and hunching his shoulders as he circles in front of Cage. Finally, he stops, and just STARES at the other man. "You're a fuckin' dumbass," he says with a deep frown. "You know that?" "Yeah, I know," Cage says. He rises to his feet, not comfortable just sitting by. "But I also know you're the best friend I ever had." He squares his shoulders, hauling up the strength to utter words he's probably never spoken in his life, "And... I don't wanna lose you." By his tone, saying that was harder than punching his way through brick walls. Trib makes a noise. and rolls his eyes. "Jesus," he grunts, without heat. "Get out your fuckin' purse, Nancy. Don't go gettin' all mushy on me /now/." He presses his lips together, and regards Cage for a long, uncomfortable moment. Then his mouth pulls tightly to one side. "You ain't lost nothin'," he rumbles, finally, and reaches out to punch Cage lightly in the shoulder. His eyebrows hike up. "But you've got to stop fuckin' around," he admonishes. "You ain't in the fuckin' jug anymore, an' I ain't in no fuckin' cages, an' we /both/ got to fuckin' /remember/ that shit." He waves a hand. "Or we're goin' to end up in one big-ass clusterfuck." Luke laughs and smiles. "Alright then!" He puts his hand up between them for the tough guy hand-clasp, and then turns it into a bro-hug, two solid pats on the back, and release. "So look man, I dunno if you're gonna want your job back after I tell you what's next. Or, well, if you want it at all. But that's cool either way. We should sit down for a minute." Cage indicates the repurposed bench seat across from his. Then he leans down and cracks the flat of waters, tossing one to Trib before opening another for himself. Trib bro-hugs like a champ, bumping chests and echoing the double pat before he releases it and steps back. When Cage tosses him a bottle, he snags it out of the air, and wrinkles his nose at Cage's oh-so-temping job re-offer. "Hell yes I want my fuckin' job back," he says, giving Cage a look that states how ridiculous any opposing idea would be. "I didn't want to lose it in the first place." He grins to take the heat out of his words, and moves to sit down on one of the pallets, resting his elbows on his knees. "So what'd you do now?" "Haven't done anything yet," Cage says before chugging down half his water bottle. "But I aim to. The thing is, Heroes for Hire isn't going to be low profile anymore. I can't stand by any more, with all the shit going down in this city. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about beating up cops or some crazy shit like that. I'm gonna be at the front of peaceful protests left and right. But they ain't givin us permits, so technically it's illegal." Cage pauses, looks at his water a moment, but just continues. "'Heroes' is gonna come under scrutiny. As is... anyone on our books." He finally glances back up at Trib, looking for understanding. "You were low-key before?" Trib seems surprised by this revelation, and his mouth pulls to one side in a half-grin. He wrinkles his nose as Cage continues, and his grin slowly fades. "You know that the cops ain't gonna haul folks away peaceful-like from those things," he rumbles, his brow knitting. "I know for a fact that there's a bunch of 'em just /lookin'/ for an excuse to crack open some heads." He chugs at his water bottle, thinking a moment before he shakes his head at Cage. "Dude. I ain't worried about it. The cops don't have nothin' on me without revealin' themselves, an' I live a pretty quiet fuckin' life." He snorts. "An' I /really/ don't think they're gonna listen to what a bunch of freak kids have to say about my character." His eyebrows hike pointedly. "What's the other shoe you ain't dropped yet?" Cage nods along with Trib's concerns and says, "The protesters will know what they're in for. But every arrest makes the police look worse and worse." Cage shakes his head, "No other shoe I can think of. It just... scares the shit outa me, keeping all of you on at 'Heroes'. Parley decided to stay on too. And Janice told me to go fuck myself when I offered her severance..." Luke just chuckles down at the ground for a good long moment. Finally he looks up again, "I uh... I got a date tomorrow. Didn't have nobody to tell before now." "Good for Janice," Trib says, nodding firmly. "Someone needs to tell you that kind of shit more often. Keep your head in the game." He grins, and rolls his shoulders. "But, as long as everyone knows what's up, I guess I ain't got no problem with it." He leans back, finishing off his water, and crumpling the bottle in his hand. "Oh yeah?" he says, when Cage mentions his date. "That's cool. Anyone I know?" He narrows his eyes. "I can't really see Parley as your type, an' I'm /pretty/ sure you ain't Miss Walters' type, or you two would already be datin'." It's a tease, and his grin is toothy in the dark. "I kinda been seein' someone, myself." Cage frowns slightly at the mention of Jennifer, but then his attention swings all the way back to Trib, grinning wide. "No shit, brother?" He's skipped right past the question of his own date. "What's her name? Where'd you meet?" Trib's brow twitches at Cage's reaction, and his eyes narrow slightly. He seems to be weighing something in his mind before he speaks. "It's a guy I met in the cages," he says, finally. "We met at Baohaus a few weeks ago, an' we just kind of hit it off." He can't quite stop the warm smile that spreads across his face as he talks about his new fling, and he presses his lips together before he offers, "I call him Bones," he says. "On account he don't really /like/ his name. Plus, it fits him." His eyebrows hike, and he extends his left hand, palm-up. Cage's turn to answer. The wheels spin, and then hop the track, if Cage's expression is accurate. He tries to play it cool, and then just gives up. "Shit, I'm sorry man. I had no idea. And I'm not doin' this right. But look, it's /cool/ ok. I mean, I had gay friends, and stuff and-" Cage stops himself. "Wow, I can't believe I just said that..." He sighs and shakes his head. "I'm glad you found someone. How long you been together?" Trib frowns at Cage's reaction, his brow furrowing deeper as he listens to the older man babble, a bit. "Hey, it's cool," he says. "I don't really make an /issue/ of it, because it would make boxin' a fuckin' nightmare. But it ain't anything I hide, neither." He chuckles, and pops his eyebrows. "No shit?" he teases, wrinkling his nose. "You had gay friends and stuff? That's fuckin' incredible, 'cause I had black friends in my old neighborhood." He rolls his eyes, taking the sting out of his words, and lifts his shoulders. "I guess it's been about three weeks?" he says, doing the math in his head. "We got together right after you closed up the office." He tips his head. "But you ain't told me who you're goin' out with," he reminds the big man. "Fair's fair." Luke takes the 'black friends' like a champ. He nods and holds up his hands. "Yeah, I deserved that. My bad." He laughs and shakes his head, trying to wipe his own comments from history. He swigs some water, and says, "Well, we just met last week. But I think you might know who she is. You ever seen Alison Blaire on TV? She was in a couple movies too." Trib chuckles at Cage, and then his eyebrows are lifting at the revelation of the Big Date. "No /shit/?" he says, blinking a couple of times. "I've seen a couple of her flicks. I like the one about the Man-Thing. Good for you, man." This is an earnest sentiment, and Trib even holds out his fist for a fistbump(!). "How'd you manage to run into her? You hangin' out at them cheesy horror conventions, now?" Cage grins, and returns the fistbump. "Now see? /This/ is right," He gestures, meaning the two of them, shooting the shit. "Actually met her totally at random. I went back to SPIN because Spinster was playing again." He pauses briefly, but just barrels past the awkward memories. "Anyway, /she/ came up to /me/. We started talking, and she asked about interviewing me. Had lunch the next day, but then... pre-interview lunch... turned into... friends at lunch. So at the end, I asked her to go to the Mets-Dodgers game with me. We're going tomorrow." He shrugs, trying to play it off cool, but he can't completely hide the tugging at the corner of his mouth. He finishes his own water bottle, and snags two more, setting one out for Trib before opening his own. Trib grunts agreement at the rightness of the repaired friendship, and nods. He's quiet as Cage tells the story, his nose wrinkling lightly at the reminder of SPIN, but he also soldiers through it. His eyebrows hike as the story's told, and his grin is a slow echo of Cage's. "Well, fuck,' he rumbles, eyes crinkling at the corners. "You're just a regular fuckin' charmer, ain't you?" He waggles his eyebrows. "That's some pretty fancy trim, for a dude fresh out of stir." He shakes his head, and there's another(!) fistbump offered. "I got to give it up to you, man. Respect." Luke returns that fistbump too, but holds his hands up. "Well hey, lets not get ahead of ourselves. My track record is terrible. I mean-" Cage looks down, shakes his head, and then back up again. "Can I tell you something? /Seriously/ just between you and me?" Trib snorts, rolling his eyes up to offer Luke a flat look. "You ain't goin' to tell me you're a virgin, are you?" Luke blows air out in a short laugh. "What? Hell no!" And then a pause. Which gets a little longer. "No, seriously. But uh..." Cage sighs and looks up at the few stars bright enough to poke through New York's light pollution. "I mean, I got laid in high school. But I went in the joint at 17. No one in there... was my type." He grins and shrugs. "And I've only been out 4 months. So..." Trib is a bit stunned, actually, at the revelation. Because he can do math, which he is doing right now, using his eight fingers to tick off the numbers. "Wait," he says, frowning deeply. "So...you ain't gotten laid in ten years?" His eyebrows hike, and his expression is one of horrified sympathy. "Holy fuckin' shit, dude." "Thirteen..." Luke sighs and holds his water bottle up to 'clink' with Trib's. Then he shrugs and sits back in his seat. "I turned thirty the week before the case was overturned." "Jesus," Trib says, his voice heavy with the weight of this information. The bottle clinking doesn't even register for a second. "Well, that's about the same thing, isn't it?" He wrinkles his nose, lifting one side of his upper lip in a thoughtful grimace. "I hope you ain't askin' me for pointers," he says. "I ain't been in a cooch since the day I was born, so I got no idea how all of that works." Luke laughs and shakes his head again. "Naw, man, no. Just... /been/ a while, you know? I think I know how everything works, I'm just..." Cage sighs and looks down. "Nervous." How the mighty are brought low. "Well, yeah," Trib grunts, bobbing his head. "I guess. I'd be nervous, too." He grins, suddenly, a hard slash across his face. "Better clean your gun a couple of time before you go out," is his helpful advice. "You'll be more relaxed, an' you won't run the risk of throwin wood when it'd be awkward." SO HELPFUL. Luke snorts. "Yeah, sure. The one good thing is /not/ being 17 anymore." Luke tips his head left, then right, to a series of loud pops from his neck. "Shit, how old were you in 2000?" Trib grins widely. "You really want to know the answer to that?" "Hell no, keep that to yourself." Luke shakes his head and finishes his water in one long go. "When do I get to meet this 'Bones' guy anyway?" Trib rumbles a chuckle, and rolls his shoulders. "Soon," he promises. "He's kind of a pill, sometimes, around other people. Got that snappy teenager attitude goin' for him." He holds up his hand, eyebrows lifting. "An' he's nineteen, just for the record. Just had his birthday on Friday." There's a flicker of warm memory that filters over his face, and he lifts his shoulders. "I'll bring him by the office sometime," he says, twisting his head around on his neck and stretching his chin skyward briefly. "You almost met him before," he notes. "He wanted to come an' plead my case, after you fired me." He snorts, his expression still warm, but now with a twinge of annoyance in his features. "He /did/ talk to the sharkkids. Came home all bristlin' like an angry puppy." Luke nods solemnly at the mention of the twins, and the rest of that whole chapter. "Yeah, I think it's best if we just keep our distance from those kids. I don't see a resolution there. It's a big city. We'll just have to keep our distance." "Oh, trust me," Trib says, shaking his head. "I got no plan to ever run into them again, if I can help it. If I see 'em, I'm heading the other way." He chuckles hollowly, and wrinkles his nose. "An' I got Bones to agree to that. We got to just move on, an' forget about 'em. Just do our regular shit." He exhales, suddenly, and pushes to his feet, curling his hands into fists and lifting them lightly. "Speakin' of which...you feel like goin' a couple of rounds, 'fore security does their next run?" He grins. "Work off some of that...whattayacallit. Testosterone. Before your date." Luke nods his approval of Trib's tactic, and stands when he mentions working out. "Yeah, lets go a couple rounds-" Luke's eyebrows go up when he remembers something. "Hey, I almost forgot! I got you something." He digs in his pocket and comes up with a dull, gun-metal gray ring. He tosses it to Trib and says, "It's titanium. Turns out they're not too expensive, actually. Thought you'd wanna try it out. It's light, but strong. If you like it, I know a guy." Luke shrugs and shuffles his feet, hands up and ready. "Was gonna make some joke about proposing with that, but it seems inappropriate now." Luke laughs good-naturedly.