Break ins!

[mitochondriaaya]

"...and then I said how was I suppose to know the difference right? Denture paste, tooth paste? Who knew one was glue?!" Kyle laughed and held open the door to her floor. They'd just exited the stairwell after Kyle's normal night of taking Darlene out.

Pheh. Normal. That was a depressing thought. "Well...they do put nice, step by step pictures on the side of one of them?" That was a CLUE Mr. Detective.

"Who reads toothpaste tubes? Really, I just passed it to him!"

"...I do? Janna's allergic to Xylitol and a lot of toothpastes have that in as a sweetener." Because it was bacteria neutral or something. Anyway! "So do a lot of chewing gums, so no giving her gum unless you've checked!"

That was...not the come back he was expecting. "What the fuck is Xylitol?" She was making that shit up wasn't she?

"No, honest! It's a fake sweetener! Toothpaste can't use sugar right? That defeats the point of brushing, so they use fake stuff but Janna's allergic. The doctor said it wasn't uncommon!" SHE WAS NOT MAKING IT UP!

"Huh," weird. "What do you use then?"

"Toothpastes that are mainly baking soda based with mint extracts!" The whole family did! It was a solidarity thing!

"Damn allergies huh?" Kyle smiled as they turned down her hall then...froze, hand reaching for the gun he wasn't wearing. Fuck. "Darlene, stay here." The door was kicked in.

"What? You need my key t-" Oh. OH. THAT WAS HER DOOR. WHO WOULD WANT TO KICK HER DOOR IN?!

"I think some of those people Traver pissed off may have stopped by. I'll look around."

Darlene nodded mutely, wide eyed...then lifted her cell to her ear to call Traver the moment her partner went into the apartment. Because...that was her life in there. Her material life. She needed to talk to Traver.

Comments

[mitochondriaaya]

"Not encouraging! Just pointing out fact!" She held up her hands in mock-surrender. "It's just truth! Hot, skilled, and he has the worlds best significant other! Do you want some kind of crippling issue to balance that out?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Damn," said Braig, "I am good."

Dilan just laughed, slapping his forehead.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Not that he doesn't deserve a good kick sometimes..." Aya drawled and tossed a balled up napkin at Braig's head. A napkin Sheeva was more than happy to intercept.

[sliceitwithwind]

"Sheeva!"

NO! IT WAS HERS AND SHE WOULD TEAR IT UP!

Dilan sighed, "I'll get that later. Pizza grease is a dog magnet."

[mitochondriaaya]

Aya glanced at Braig, then the triumphant dog and...giggled. "Your mighty hero." She'd help clean too!

[sliceitwithwind]

"I'd say good dog," Braig said, "buuuut I think I'd be sleeping on the couch if I did."

Dilan snorted quietly, "Damn straight." he said, jokingly.

[mitochondriaaya]

"But she'd keep you company! Wouldn't you Sheeva?" Aya proclaimed to the accompaniment of much cheerful tail thumping. After all Sheeva had heard her name! But she was not moving away from her napkin prize. Nope. She knew better.

"Anyway..."

[sliceitwithwind]

"I have lost the train of the conversation." Dilan admitted, "So."

"Good pizza?" suggested Braig, "Or we could go back to talking about how awesome I am."

Thunk went Dilan's hand against Braig's head, gently.

[mitochondriaaya]

"You earned that one Braig." And Sheeva, his protector, was HAPPILY TEARING A NAPKIN TO SHREDS OMG!

And then Darlene's phone rang. Aya glared across the room balefully before going to pick it up off the table by the door. "Hello? Yes Kyle, I'm fine. I was in the middle of...oh. Good, glad your place is okay. No, I'm really fine, Traver and I are talking things out. No Kyle, he hasn't gotten any threats recently, geez, drop that already!"

[sliceitwithwind]

Dilan and Braig rolled their eyes at the end of the conversation that they could hear. They kept eating, of course, because they were a pair of walking stomachs.

Cat wandered over to strop against Aya's legs.

[mitochondriaaya]

"No Kyle, I don't want to know about the apartment below you that opened up last week! I have a place!" She bent down to fuzzle Cat, then scooped her up to cuddle the fluffball against her chin. "What?! No I'm not high right now! I am making a good decision! Traver is my boyfriend why wouldn't I..." Oh, boy. The faces she was making.

"Kyle! Just...go to bed. I'll see you tomorrow." And yeah, hanging up.

[sliceitwithwind]

"Soooo..." Braig tilted his head, "What did he say? Aside from trying to get you to move in with him?"

Dilan leaned in, hoping to hear as well.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Oh, you know, the 'You can't do that Darlene, you're a cop.' thing, as well as the 'You know you deserve better right?'. Even after yelling at him tonight. Guys an idiot." A very large idiot really. "He may think Darlene traded her single status for a place to live."

[sliceitwithwind]

Braig snorted, "Yeah. Because, like, she and Traver haven't been going out at least once a week for the last month right?"

[mitochondriaaya]

"Obviously it's just because Traver has the keys to Janna or something." She rolled her eyes and flopped back down to finish her pizza. "Not real dates, not like his taking her to dinner."

[sliceitwithwind]

Braig snorted, "Riiiight." Dilan shook his head and passed Aya some pizza, "Madigan lives in a whole other world."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Yeah, a severe break from reality." She used Dilan's knee as a pillow and kicked her feet up on Braig's ankles, relaxing because SHE NEEDED TO. "But, luckily for us, it means he probably won't give up on chasing Darlene."

[sliceitwithwind]

Dilan's right hand, his non-dominant hand, stroked over Aya's hair soothingly, "Probably not, no." he agreed, "For the best, even though it's hard."

"Play it by ear," Braig said, "but we're going to hold closer than usual for a while just in case he gets violent towards you."

[mitochondriaaya]

"I think he's more likely to target Traver than Darlene but yeah..." Maybe they could end up on a domestic case. Darlene could talk about never putting up with someone who hit a girl. "He might step up his drunk 'wooing' though." Nice, big, sarcastic air quotes.

"Maybe Darlene could ask the poker players about inviting Traver...he's a better player."

[sliceitwithwind]

"They probably wouldn't let me in." Braig said, "But if you get the invite, I'll be there." Brash and genial and very Traver to let Aya get a bit of a rest.

"At least I could just stand against the wall." Dilan said.

[mitochondriaaya]

"If I make the offer early they'll remember it if they ever want to bring Traver in on their ring." Aya shrugged and tilted her head under Dilan's hand so he would scritch a different area. "Or if they ever want to look Traver over themselves instead of relying on Kyle's questionable judgement."

[sliceitwithwind]

Dilan obediently scratched! He was content with the two of them being near him. "Good idea." he said, "It's sort of hard to believe they trust Kyle at all...they must have something on him."

Braig looked thoughtful, "That's a point. If you can figure out what, aside from generally being scum, is up with Madigan let us know."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Probably something, that or...given how Kyle sees the world, they have what he needs. Like a leash." Given how much the man liked to control things, well, they lent him enough power to cow people? "Don't know. I'll have to start looking for that, or see if I can come up on an interesting conversation with someone else." Because Kyle wouldn't say such things around Darlene.

"Maybe pass out at a poker night?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Oh hell no." Braig said, instantly, "Way, way, way too many things that man might consider fair game if you passed out. No."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Yes sir," Aya actually saluted! "I don't honestly know what they'd do and not do, or what Kyle would 'allow', but if your impression is 'hell no' then I don't even fake it." Simple as that.

"Ideally we could Kyle bugged."