More Than One Way To Win A Bet - For @laserhawk

[duel_wielding]

This was perhaps the stupidest plan that had ever been created, but dammit, it was a solution. After all, there was no chance that North was going to let South win this one. Because the thing was she was right. North had been striking out for a while. Months. He lived on a military ship and there were hundreds of crew and North hadn't had a behind closed doors 'encounter' in more than a year. And it wasn't just because shore leave wasn't the most regular.

But the bet had been made during one of the regular PFL poker games. South had observed that North had lost all of his game. North had said he did better than she did. One thing led to another and now North had another week to make sure he had a date that he could have proof of before he was South's bitch for a month.

So no, he didn't want that. Which was why that he, now that he had a week of shore leave to recover from an injury, he was trying to solve things. Which had started with a personal ad online.

One that was now having him waiting to meet up with someone in an all night cafe. There needed to be talk before things were agreed to. Maybe the guy would be agreeable to it too. But he didn't want to go and buy a guy a dinner if he was going to be weird about 'I'm a space marine and I need to win a bet against my sister'. Because North had better things to do than deal with someone being weird. Like sleeping.

Comments

[laserhawk]

[ ah, right. people may not know him here. ]

Dolph Laserhawk.

[duel_wielding]

[Wait, what?]

Okay, Laserhawk is a pretty interesting name.

[laserhawk]

[ dryly. ]

Is it? I never noticed.

[duel_wielding]

Yeah, it really is. But that's fine. I think it's interesting.

[He smiles and stands.]

Let me get you a drink?

[laserhawk]

Sure.

I like margaritas.

[duel_wielding]

[North laughs.]

I meant coffee, but you know what, margaritas seem more appropriate for sealing an agreement.

[laserhawk]

[ who equates drinks with coffee? ]

You are buying after all.

[duel_wielding]

[Plenty of people. Especially people who prefer not to get too tipsy because their fighting style is literally just 'guns'. You need sobriety to aim well.]

Of course I am. Are there good ones around here? Never been a margarita fan.

[laserhawk]

We can just try the bar. It should be fine.

[duel_wielding]

Alright then. Come on. Let's see what we can get you.

[laserhawk]

What we can both get.

Do you not drink?

[duel_wielding]

There's a lot of tension in my unit. So I got used to being the designated sober person, you know?

[laserhawk]

I don't know. We have self-driving cars.

[duel_wielding]

Oh, it's not about the driving. It's about avoiding bar-fights.

[laserhawk]

That happen a lot?

[duel_wielding]

Yes. Far too often. And I'm apparently the dad of the group.

[laserhawk]

Is that a good thing?

[duel_wielding]

I don't know. How much do you think it's fun to keep trained special forces idiots from breaking each other's faces?

[laserhawk]

[ he grimaces. ]

Not much.

I never bonded with mine. I was the elite soldier, Eden's smoking gun. They admired me, but I don't think they wanted anything to do with me.

[ and he was gay. another thing he had to keep under wraps. a few people knew, which . . . was unpleasant at the time. ]

[duel_wielding]

We all live together. It's sort of required to try and get along some.

[Wait, hold on.]

Why would they want nothing to do with you?

[laserhawk]

[ dolph shrugs. gay, brown, poor, part machine. pick a reason. ]

Cyborgs don't exactly turn people on.

[duel_wielding]

Really?

[North lets his eyes roll up and down the man's body again.]

People are blind.

[laserhawk]

[ it's been a while since he's been looked at. not since . . . alex.

he pretends not to notice. ]

Everyone's got their own hangups.

[duel_wielding]

That doesn't make them right. In fact, that often makes them wrong.

[laserhawk]

It doesn't matter to me.

I've been the best. I've been treated like the worst. It's all the same in the end.