He’d never had any reason to consider such an ill-advised idea. It seemed foolish to do so given the inherent danger of their professions. Children were a responsibility he had no interest in shouldering. They were a nuisance at best and a liability at worst. He counted himself fortunate that between himself and Ilian there would be no thoughtless accidents. If any snot-nosed brats were to ever come into their lives, it would have to be intentional.
Lovely had no such intentions. He assumed Ilian shared that opinion, given that Ilian had never given any indication otherwise. Ilian had the Negaverse and Lovely had Ilian. What more did either of them need?
“Considering all the ******** up s**t we’ve been through and whatever other ******** up s**t could come our way, yes, we’d have to be ******** insane to think about it as anything more than the height of cray-cray,” he said, sneering the last bit like the words hardly deserved space in his mouth, like he thought himself above silly slang phrases that weren’t doused in profanity.
Lovely’s eyes, already narrowed into a keen stare, narrowed further with the look of a man trying to figure out a puzzle. Maybe he shouldn’t have been thrown off by the discussion. Waru was a rambler. Lovely had known that already. As Albite, he seemed to blather on about anything that crossed his mind without regard for whether it was any of his business or of any interest to the other party. Why should that be any different out of uniform?
Not that Lovely knew what to do with it any better as Aquamarine.
He lifted his glass of wine in a careless toast, more for something to do than because he cared to.
“I don’t do this often,” he admitted—low, not quite under his breath, dragged out of him by stubbornly born unease more than any penchant for honesty. “I don’t have any ******** friends, don’t even know why you’d consider me one. I don’t talk about myself because there’s never been any ******** point to it. I don’t ask after anyone else because I don’t ******** care. Even in the unlikely event that I did, I can’t afford to in our line of work. This is… weird,” he said, gesturing between them with his wine. “You’re weird. I’m ******** up. I’m not even that ******** interesting so…”
Lovely shrugged and trailed off, at a loss.
Shiningamisgirl
