goneawaycomms

York can't hide his grin, even with his head down as he laces his boots.

"Oh my god is that why you're here? Am I getting the twin shovel talk?"

South rolls her eyes and folds her arms, "Oh wipe that dumb grin off your face. I'm here because I wanna fuckin' train, dipshit, but since you're not pretending I don't exist these days, well. Maybe there's some things we need to talk about, too, yeah."

"Okay, okay. Let's go."

York stands up, gesturing for South to scoot from the doorway. As they head towards the gym he calls for Delta.

"D, you napping in there? I've got news."

Delta finally projects upon being called on, claiming a space in the air closer to York than South; she doesn't comment or even roll her eyes, when he does. He knows, of course, the other reason why South is here; he heard her promise North that she'd start to think about giving Delta back, that this is likely a part of that thinking process, but he knows better than to say anything. This still all has to be on her terms.

He also heard North's side of recent events, but that doesn't stop his genuine curiosity to hear York's. "I am online, York, I was simply waiting."

South shakes her head at him, but there's still no eye roll, at Delta or at York. She's got her eye on their surroundings, making sure to skirt them around any areas with higher traffic before they get to the gym itself; she's taking keeping her brother's new relationship a secret seriously.

Edited 2021-03-12 01:13 (UTC)

Don't worry, South, he's not actually going to talk about it while wandering the halls.

"There you are. How've you been?"

"I am much the same as when we last had the opportunity to talk, though I was given an interesting opportunity to observe some other occupants of the rig when South was 'encouraged' to take part in the speed-dating activity."

South shakes her head. "It wasn't actually fuckin' speed-dating, Delta. Thank god. I woulda walked out, potential punishments or not, if it was."

"Nevertheless, it did expose us to a wider variety of rig personnel than typical."

"You probably found it more interesting than me, then," South says with a snort, amused rather than annoyed, for once. "Some of the New Hires were alright, but the rest were just boring normal people."

"Oh yeah? Who'd you guys meet?"

They chat about various others on the rig for the rest of the the trip to the gym, including those boring normal people. When they get there it's empty, though, so York lets the door close and lowers his voice to speak to South conspiratorially.

"So did you guys tell him already? Or do I get to make the announcement?"

South snorts again, still amused, and shakes her head. "He was around my neck when we were talking, so he'll have heard, but, y'know. It was all North's side of shit. Which was mostly me dragging him for being an oblivious idiot."

She says that with a degree of noticeable fondness she can't hide. That conversation was a rollercoaster and a half, in the end, but it had started largely as that: North telling her what had happened, her stunned and teasing.

Edited 2021-03-12 01:38 (UTC)

"If it helps, I was oblivious to his end, too." He isn't sure he ever would've picked up on it on his own, honestly. And definitely never would have said or done anything if he hadn't.

South actually snickers, a little. She's... more chilled out, than York has probably seen her in, well, the entire time they've both been on the rig.

"Dude, he's always been like this, and I'm not fuckin' exaggerating when I say 'always'. You have no fuckin' idea how many of his crushes I saw coming before he did. He earned that torment," she says, starting to wrap her hands ready for her workout. "Expected him to take a few weeks to work out if he wanted to pursue it, but then he comes to me the next day and tells me. Swear to god I almost choked."

"There was more than a 62% chance that you would have begun to choke on any beverage you had been drinking during that interaction, based on your level of surprise."

"What he said."

Edited 2021-03-12 01:53 (UTC)

"I think it was my assuming he had a crush on Wrath that pushed him into admitting it," York tells them both, leaning against a press rack while South gets ready for her workout. He's already had one today so he's fine just spotting.

Her chill fractures, for a second, at the mention of Wrath; North mentioned that part, too, but the woman being here still puts her on edge. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't a little relieved that North had figured out his feelings for York and gotten himself officially off the market before anything could happen, there.

North told her he doesn't think Wrath would use what she knows against her, but she doesn't trust that.

But she shakes it off and shakes her head, getting everything set up. Less weight than she'd usually do, but she wants to lift, so she's going to.

And when she answers, she dodges the mention of Wrath entirely. "He was all worried he'd ruin your friendship or some shit. Told him he wouldn't and look at that, I was fuckin' right. As usual."

York moves behind the rack to spot -- the comment about South being right as usual gets an eyebrow quirk but not much more than that. They're getting along pretty well and he doesn't want to ruin it.

"There isn't much he could do to ruin our friendship. I almost blew it right away, though."

"Let me guess, you put your foot in your mouth somehow? Or did he just take a two second fuckin' delay as a sure sign you were gonna laugh in his face and reject him? Or both, that's possible with you two in the same room."

The jabs she's making are a lot closer to teasing than they usually are, like she's recovered her balance on the line between joking and just being a bitch. Still teetering, the way South has always tended to do on that line, but...

She sits and then lays down on the bench. Flexes her previously injured hand a few times, before getting both situated in place to lift.

“I put my foot in my mouth.” He’d brought up Carolina, which was a dumb move but they really needed to be on the same page starting something like this.

He pauses, thinks. Because her jab is more like teasing than usual and also... she’s not wrong.

“Actually I think that second thing might have happened too.”

South actually laughs for a second. "Knew it. I know that idiot well. You, less so, but I do remember you putting your foot in your mouth plenty before, so..."

She shrugs, then she grunts as she lifts the weight and starts a set. She flicks her eyes to Delta and raises a brow at him.

"I take it you managed to rectify your mistake despite my not being around to assist." Jut a hint of Delta sass. "I also take it that this development has made you happy, York."

He's been forced to miss out on several major developments for York, which he isn't at all pleased about. South knows that, he's made it clear enough, but it's not until now that she may even be starting to feel a little bad about it.

“Hey, I’ve improved over the years. And yeah, D. It has.”

He’d actually like to talk to Delta about how it’s sort of complicated, about North’s ultimatum of sorts, but isn’t willing to mention it around South. That’s testing their newfound camaraderie a bit too much.

“Aren’t you going to threaten me now?”

"I am glad to hear that, and that the two of you continue to look out for each other. I believe we will have much to talk about." The 'one day' is unsaid, but there.

Choosing to ignore the implications in the air there (oh, she can tell Delta thinks she's going to give him back soon and she hates that she can no longer outright deny that) South rolls her eyes with humour. She'd give York the one-minute finger, if her hands weren't full.

She finishes her set and rests the bar back in place, sitting up to take a quick drink.

"Depends if I fuckin' need to. Do I need to tell you what'll happen to you if you hurt him, or are you smart enough to guess?"

“Yeah, D, I’ll tell you all about it.” One day.

He isn’t even trying to guilt South right now, because he believes she’ll come around at this point. He just doesn’t know when. And not badgering her has improved their relationship to the point where... well. He still doesn’t trust her but he’s not constantly on guard against attack anymore.

“You don’t need to.” York isn’t an idiot. At the very least she’ll beat the shit out of him and he knows it. “But I kind of want to hear it.”

South snickers, “You want to hear me threaten you? That’s a fuckin’ new one. Last time I did something like this the poor fucker looked legitimately fuckin’ scared and you want to hear it.”

She stands up to add a little more weight to the barbell. It may or may not be part of making her point.

“Look, you make him happy. You make him happy in a way I haven’t seen him in a long, long time.” The fresh weight clunks into place. There’s a lopsided smile on her face. “You should have seen his face when he was telling me about you guys, swear to fuck he looked like a lovestruck puppy.”

She sits back down, lays back and looks up at him as she settles back into position.

“And I know what you all think of me, after everything; I know you all probably think I don't love him— but I do love him, and I want him to be happy. And you're not a stupid guy, York. You know how close that fight was out in the snow.”

She lifts the barbell and grunts, quietly, completing a few steady reps without issue. The ink over her arm muscles distorts as they flex under the weight before setting it down again.

“You know how hard I can hit if I really wanna fuckin’ hurt someone. And Drew’s not the only one with a fuckin’ protective streak. You know how many teeth I knocked out, black eyes I gave, over people fucking with him? A lot. So, y’know.” She flashes York a slightly dangerous grin, with teeth. “Don’t fuck it up. Or you know damn well I’ll fuck you up too.”

Standing up does make her more intimidating —- she is taller than him. But she lies back down before getting to the threatening part.

She has a point in that their fight was pretty close. If she had real rage behind it she could have won, and he suspects she would if he hurt North. Maybe he’s just not scared of her because he doesn’t anticipate hurting her brother. He knows he could, but he won’t. Not on purpose, anyway.

“I know. And I don’t want to fuck it up.” And he means that. He won’t promise not to because that’s unrealistic. Things go wrong for all sorts of reasons. He isn’t perfect.

“Good,” she stands to adjusts the weights again and shrugs. “Then hopefully I won’t have to kick your ass so hard you’re laid up in the infirmary for weeks.”

She could be more outright, even physical, if she wanted; she’s pinned someone to a wall once, during a similar talk, though that hadn’t been a romantic partner and they’d already been pushing their luck. But she believes him, and she hasn’t seen North this happy in years, so she just gives him a firm punch in the shoulder with enough force to get the point across before laying back down again.

“He might’ve told you, but I’ll cover for you. Far as anyone official knows, he never sleeps outside our room.”

The punch doesn’t hurt, exactly, but it’s hard enough to get the point across. He grins, moving back to spot, but before she lifts the bar she says she’ll cover. And that shouldn’t be a surprise — of course she doesn’t want to get her brother in trouble — but it kind of is. Because she could get in deep shit for lying like that and if nothing else South’s proven that she’d cover her own ass above all else.

“...thank you. I don’t know how much good it’ll do but we do have the defense that we’ve always been like this. Mostly.”

She wraps her hands back around the bar again, adjusts her grip.

“You sure fuckin’ have been. Almost made me doubt my ‘North’s got a crush’ sense, the way you two always were.” She snorts a quiet chuckle. “May not be the best defense but at least it’s the truth.”

She lifts the bar, does a couple reps, then pauses to talk with it lifted above her chest.

“Told him he should probably sleep in ours at least once a week just in case, but...” She shrugs, lowers the barbell to her chest, and continues the set.

That request was more about her own loneliness, than the guys’ secret, but it serves a double purpose, and she’s not going to admit to York she hates sleeping alone in that room. That it’s too quiet without North there. She barely admitted it to North.

"It's a defense plenty of people around here besides our friends can vouch for, that's something."

He keeps his hands perched below the bar as South raises and lowers it, in case her hand gives out. The 'once a week' comment surprises him.

"Is he planning to move or something? I didn't expect him over that much all the time." He certainly wouldn't mind it, but it does feel a bit like abandoning her in that room. York's used to being alone in his. "We can share."

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