phone post

[orangetoughguy]

"Motherfucker, I'm trying to watch The Lost Boys."

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[orangetoughguy]

You're pussying out.

[Casual observation.]

[signatures]

Only stating the facts.

Besides, it's personal.

[orangetoughguy]

How the hell's it personal for you?

[Brow quirking.]

[signatures]

Why wouldn't it be bloody personal? [ He frowns sharply. ] It's a relationship.

[orangetoughguy]

[......Freddy leans in a little as if doing so will keep the conversation just between the two of them.]

On the rocks?

[He's taking a gamble that maybe they aren't talking about the same thing after all.]

[signatures]

I don't know.

[ It's is an incredibly difficult admission, not knowing the state of people, even if one of them is himself. ]

I suppose it's been mended well enough for now, but. It all seems to come to uncertainty with the slightest disturbance.

[orangetoughguy]

What happened?

[He can tell Eames is having difficulty admitting it but that doesn't stop Freddy from pursuing it because sometimes it's better not to have to face something alone. It's hardest when the person you consider to be your closest company is part of the trouble.]

[signatures]

I left.

[ Which is, really, the only catalyst he can think of. ]

[orangetoughguy]

[Not about Ariadne and her ginger at all.]

You've been back a little while now.

[He saw them at the gala. He saw Arthur on the piano.]

[signatures]

That I have.

[orangetoughguy]

What the fuck did you do, leave unfinished business?

[Finally, food. He's crunching into a taco then talking with his mouth semi-full.]

You try candy and flowers yet?

[signatures]

No, actually. Not as far as I know.

[ He goes for some beans first. ]

I've no intention to.

[orangetoughguy]

[He's putting a little taco meat on his tamale now because he can.]

You gotta give me a little more to work with here. [He's a cawp, remember?!]

[signatures]

I'm sure during your stay here you once considered this place to be a figment of your imagination?

[orangetoughguy]

Sure, here and there I'm thinkin' what if it's all a fuckin' dream, man? Then I put a hand right here.

[He places his palm over where he carries a bullet scar to the belly.]

And I tell myself no fuckin' way cause this really happened.

[It's a lot better than telling Eames Orange knows this place is real somehow because he came here with White and he couldn't make White up.]

[signatures]

Exactly.

[ Now it's Eames turn to lean forward. ] We all have physical evidence or desires that just wouldn't hold up in something created by fantasy.

[ He thumbs the side of his nose. ]

Arthur has doubts.

[orangetoughguy]

[Freddy might be crunching loud enough for Eames to hear. Crunch crunch.]

When the fuck did that happen? [Because the guy's been around a long while.] Don't you have a fuckin' dog?

[signatures]

The beginning. Then again when I came back.

[ Stupid cockblocking dog. ]

[orangetoughguy]

[In trying to make sense of this Freddy ends up flapping his hands this way then that way while swallowing up a tamale.]

When the hell was he convinced at all?

[It occurs to him now that Eames may not know the extent of just what happened while he was gone, especially if Arthur's stuck in a rut of thinking he imagined it.]

[signatures]

[ Eames rolls his shoulders. ]

Who knows. Perhaps he'd only allowed it out of a pause in his otherwise solid line of logic. I'm still not sure what he thinks, now.

[orangetoughguy]

[Okay the kid clears his throat a little then washes down his taco with some soda. No choking this time.]

He talk to you about when you were gone?

[signatures]

Somewhat.

[ He finally digs more into his food. ] Why?

[orangetoughguy]

Just wonderin' what he thought it was with you gone.

[Freddy's still trying to decide whether to tell Eames or not.]

[signatures]

Thought what was? All this?

[ Eames waves around him idly with a taco. ]

A dream.

[orangetoughguy]

[This is tearing Orange up inside. It really is. But his face is a facade of utter supercoolness.]

How long you known each other again?