who_is_she | shot through the heart and you're to blame

shot through the heart and you're to blame

"I don't want a new partner," Bullet griped, a few steps behind Angela as she led him to the station's docks.

"Yes, well, you'll have to grow up first. Until then, I'll keep assigning you babysitters," she said, her bottom two arms crossed over her stomach and her top two tapping furiously at a tablet.

"Grow up? I'm plenty grown up! I'm gonna be forty in a couple months! Doesn't being old mean I'm grown up?" Bullet said, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting petulantly. Angela stopped and turned, giving him a withering look. She looked pointedly from his pout to his clothes, which weren't his standard uniform and were an old shirt and pants with holes in the knees. Bullet shuffles a little, embarrassed.

"As soon as you can manage to dress yourself and go a whole week without passing out drunk at some point then I will officially allow you babysit yourself," Angela says scathingly, turning back and walking briskly again. Bullet trips a little trying to catch up.

"What makes you think this one is going to last any longer than the others?" Bullet asks, genuinely curious, because this is his sixth babysitter (or partner, as they liked to call it) in his five years on the team, and Angela seemed confident this one would last.

"Well, they aced every examination we gave them, including my interview. Their name is Xo, they're 25, and their powers are..." Angela trailed off, flipping through a few things on her tablet, "Regeneration and selective shapeshifting. Powerful enough to keep up with you, and stubborn enough to not let you get away with any bullshit." Bullet looked over in time to catch the evil smirk at the corner of Angela's mouth. Angela grabbed his arm, pulling him up to stand next to her just outside the shuttle dock airlock.

"Come on now, stop with that grouchy face. You can be professional, I know you can, so suck it up for, oh, ten minutes. Then you can go back to slowly drinking yourself to death," Angela said, her frown somewhat serious, and Bullet sighed, standing up straight and schooling his expression into neutrality, "Oh yes, he's from Korza, as well." Angela adds, too casual, and Bullet gapes over at her just as the airlock hisses open.

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Xo stands up quickly from their spot as the door opens, straightening their jacket quickly and pulling at the collar of their turtleneck as they nervously make their way across the room. They don't fully take in the sight of their partner yet, eyes fixed instead on the woman they'd met earlier, the one who had screened them.

"Hi again, ma'am," they say, wiping the sweat off their palms and giving Angela a polite squeeze of the shoulder before turning and doing the same to their new partner. "Xoett Yiskifikos, nice to meet y-"

He stops short of finishing the thought as their heart drops into the pit of their stomach, eyes growing wide as he looks into the man's face.

"Oh my God," they say, releasing his shoulder and bringing both hands up to cover their mouth, shaking their head disbelievingly. "You're...I don't...Angela, miss, is this really...I can't believe it, you're-Bullet, aren't you?" They did the best to contain themself, despite the heat they felt rising to their cheeks, and their eyes flick quickly back and forth between the two of them.

Edited 2014-11-09 17:33 (UTC)

Bullet pastes on his best fake smile, which turns a little bit real at the familiar shoulder-grasp that reminds Bullet of home. It's been years since he's been home. The smile on his face drops away fast when Xoett gets a good look at him and starts to gape. Bullet clenches his teeth and curls his hands into fists, sure he's about to be accused of murder for oh, the thousandth time. Xo's stuttering doesn't actually mention the scandal, but their wide eyes and shaking hands say it for them.

Angela starts to answer, but Bullet cuts her off, suddenly and remarkably sick of dealing with this same situation over and over.

"I'm not a killer. I never hurt anyone," he spits, coldly, then turns to Angela, "I'm not partnering with them. Find someone else. They'll spend more time waiting for me to strike than doing their job."

"Woah, woah, woah, cool down," Angela says, putting a placating hand on Bullet's shoulder, "Did they say anything about you being a killer? Aren't you jumping to conclusions a little?" Angela smiles at him, but it's tight and tense, the expression that says 'if you mess this up I will hurt you', the one Bullet knows well. Bullet sighs and rubs one hand over his face before turning a cold look on Xo.

Xo cringes at Bullet's outburst of anger, his words stinging a little, and takes a few steps backwards, raising their hands defensively. Their mouth works, but they're too stunned to form words, both starstruck and frightened, still staring at him with wide eyes.

"I don't think you killed anyone! I never bought into that! I always lov-liked you!" he stammers, finally regaining control of his bodily functions, "I just-"

"I just what? Idolize you?" he thinks to himself, "I can't tell him he's my hero, or that he was my reason for living for years, or that I have a poster of him in my dorm, or that I want to have his children." His mouth hangs open for several seconds as he looks for the words.

"...everyone thought you were dead." he breathes finally, lowering his arms and shoving them in the pockets of his jacket.

Edited 2014-11-09 18:17 (UTC)

Bullet hesitates at Xo's outburst, the glare on his face dropping away and leaving surprise. There had been a handful of people (well, fans, mostly) who had sent him messages and support and assurances that they believed him, but those assurances had been a small handful compared to every other media outlet dragging him through the mud.

"Oh," Bullet says quietly, glancing at Angela, who's also looking at Xo with her eyebrows raised, "Sorry for, uh, assuming," he says awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck, "Yeah, I... Wasn't in the best place after all that shit was finally over so I kind of... Went on a bender. And then didn't come back." Bullet shrugs and laughs a little, and the look Angela sends him is withering. That had actually been an incredibly painful time in Bullet's life, when he'd been grappling with the knowledge that the universe was a darker place than he'd thought. He was still surprised he'd got out of it in one piece.

"Well," Angela said into the awkward silence, returning the shoulder-grasp gesture to Xo, "We're glad to have you with us. I'll let you and Bullet here get acquainted, and Bullet will show you around the station," she paused, turning to Bullet to give him a quick, stern look, "And if you have any questions I'm available at any time."

With a small nod at Xo she was gone, and when she'd disappeared around the corner Bullet turned back to Xo, offering an awkward smile.

Xo scratches the back of his neck and coughs, giving him a look of confusion. He wishes Angela hadn't left them alone, because the silence between them is so heavy he feels as thought he might be crushed under it.

"So," they say, in a voice that almost sounds like a squeak, their nerves catching their voice in their throat, "So. You're...going to show me around?"

They feel like the realization that they were standing in the presence of their fucking hero is hitting them now, and it takes them a while to notice the fact that he looks like an absolute mess as they stare at him when he isn't looking, mouth slightly ajar, awestruck.

"Oh, right!" Bullet says, starting a little and turning around, gesturing to the room they're in, "Well, this is the... Shuttle airlock. Obviously. That way is more shuttle airlocks," he gestures to the left, "And this way is the pavilion. They've got a few stores, restaurants, bars, that kind of stuff. The gift shop is down here too. You can get a coffee mug in there with my face on it, it's pretty cool, I have one. I'm sure before long you'll have one too," Bullet said, turning back to throw Xo a grin and check to see that they were following him down the corridor. He trips a little as he turns, and wonders if he overdid it a little with the human alcohol at lunch.

When he looks back at Xo the kid is staring with their mouth open, and Bullet wonders idly if he's ever left planet before.

"So, what's the deal with your powers? Uh... Regeneration something, Angela said?" Bullet asked, into the spirit of making things less awkward between them.

Xo listens to him talk, and gets sidetracked by the way he's slurring his words slightly, and he's starting to wonder if Bullet might be intoxicated. The way he trips when he turns back around furthers his suspicions, but he decides to keep quiet about it, for now.

"Regeneration and shapeshifting," they say, "Well. Partial shapeshifting. I can't turn into animals or anything, but. Well, I can show you."

They roll up their sleeve, extending their hand out in front of them. Suddenly, their hand glowing red, as do their eyes, and, with a look of concentration on their face, they grow their fingers several inches, sharpening them into claws.

"See?" they say, before dropping their sleeve, their fingers and eyes returning to their usual colors. "Stuff like that."

"Wow," Bullet breathed, his eyes glued to Xo's arm as he demonstrated, his eyebrows climbing towards his hairline, "That is cool." He looks up to grin crookedly at Xo. He starts to put his arm out too and then stops to laugh.

"I guess I don't really need to give you my demonstration, but," he says, laughing, and holds his arm out, palm up, and after a moment the veins in his wrist start to glow white-blue, then a blue force-field stretches out from his veins until it wraps all the way around his forearm, about a quarter of an inch from his skin.

Edited 2014-11-09 21:49 (UTC)

"Yeah," Xo says, nodding, feeling a little weak in the knees at the "cool" comment, and about getting a live demonstration from Bullet. They'd seen him do it a thousand times, even once when they'd met him in person as a teenager, when he'd come to one of the fanclub meetings, but never up this close.

"S-so," they stutter, zipping their jacket up self-consciously and swallowing hard. "What are we doing now?"

Edited 2014-11-09 21:55 (UTC)

"Well!" Bullet says, clapping his hands together as they reach the pavilion, looking over to smirk at Xo, "I could finish showing you around, all the boring stuff that you can probably figure out on your own anyways, or I could buy my new buddy a drink." He clapped Xo on the shoulder and slung his arm around their shoulder, leaning in close.

"You seem like a fun guy," he says lowly, hoping that if this Korzan kid really was a fan way back when, then maybe with a few friendly drinks he can ply him into being the best partnet ever--namely, one that doesn't bother him and then inevitably give up on bothering him.

"Uhh...drink?" Xo repeats, uncertainly, their eyes shifting. Bullet's slap on the back knocks the wind out of them, and it takes them a moment to catch their breath. "I don't really...do that, usually. Isn't there work we need to do? I mean...what if we get called out to work?"

"Nah, you won't be on duty for at least a day, and because we're partners that means neither will I. C'mon, it'll be fun," Bullet says, walking off ahead of Xo without waiting for him to reply. He goes to his favorite bar, the only Earth-themed one, which is more his favorite for the large amount of alcohol that works on him than any particular affinity for the strange setup of the bar. As soon as he steps into the bar the bartender is nodding at him and pouring him a drink, and Bullet takes it gratefully and sits in the same stool he always sits in.

Xo hangs back a minute before following him into the bar, climbing - literally climbing up, the stool is much too tall for them - sitting down, letting their legs dangle down below them. Their eyes scan over the list of unfamiliar drinks, and they try to find something that doesn't sound too threatening.

"Um...I'll just...have water," they mutter, folding their hands on the bar and grimacing at the bartender. They then turn to Bullet, noticing the way that he and the bartender act like they know each other, and the corner of their lip starts to curl.

"You're...you're drunk, right now, aren't you," they ask, finally saying what's been on their mind for the past while.

Edited 2014-11-09 23:24 (UTC)

Bullet laughs bitterly, knocking back the tumbler of whiskey before bothering to answer.

"I just had a beer with lunch," he said, tilting his head to grin at Xo, sliding his glass across the bar where the bartender already has the bottle ready to fill it back up. It was still early in the day, a bit earlier than Bullet usually started, but the appearance of this Korzan had shaken Bullet.

He didn't want to think about it though, about how much he missed his home and how terrified he was of people like Xo--his people--hating him, so he didn't think about it. He drank instead of thinking about it, a strategy that had worked fairly well for him so far. He didn't even care if it backfired on him eventually; he'd be ready for it.

Edited 2014-11-09 23:55 (UTC)

Xo sips at their water, drinking it slower than Bullet was drinking his whiskey, keeping their eyes on the glass rather than on their partner.

"I'm just not sure how responsible this is. Drinking this early in the day, on my first day," they mumble, taking the glass off the table and tipping it into their hand, pulling out an ice cube and sucking on it nervously. "I mean, I'm sure there's stuff we could do to be getting ready for tomorrow, I don't even have my suit yet, my luggage is still in the airlock, and-"

They trail off, watching astounded as Bullet continues to knock back drink after drink, and an anxious feeling starts to simmer in the pit of their stomach. They take in Bullet's state, the dark rings under his eyes, the holes in his shirt, and the subtle bitter tone that was mixed in with the aloofness in his voice when he talks.

It's only then that they truly realize that heir new partner, their biggest hero in the universe, was a drunk.

"You worry too much, kid," Bullet said, slurring, and reached over to pound Xo on the shoulder, but missed completely, his hand sailing right over Xo's shoulder. He nearly falls right off the stool, catching himself on the lip of the bar at the last moment, laughing loudly as he rights himself.

"Just relax, you'll thank me for it later," Bullet says, finally relaxing as the cloud of numbness descends over his senses, breathing a sigh of relief.

Xo reaches over steadies him with a grunt, his body much heavier than his own.

"Oh my God, you're so drunk," Xo nearly shouts, feeling a slight prick of anger as he hops out of the stool. "You are like, blackout fucking drunk right now, we need to get you back to - where is your room?" They dig in Bullet's pocket, fishing for his card key before standing up, hoisting Bullet's arm over his shoulder. They pay for his drinks for him, using what few credits they have to cover the cost of it, before dragging him away from the bar towards the dorms.

"God...what the hell happened to you?"

Bullet struggles a little against Xo's pawing, but too dazed to actually resist any more than swaying a little in the opposite direction Xo was leading them.

"Life happened," he said, leaning heavily into Xo's side, letting his feet carry him to his room, because he knew he could do it without thinking about it, "You're young still, but it'll happen to you too. You... You think you have a job to do, you think it's a good thing, but they all... They focus on the stuff that doesn't matter, and they hate you for it. And they decide you're a murderer when you do everything to save a little kid's life. I can still see his face, you know. I dream about it all the time. His mom threw a rock at me." He loses track of his rambling thoughts suddenly, and he's staring at his door. With surprising dexterity for how drunk he is, Bullet stands up straight, plucking his keycard out of Xo's hand and elbowing him out of the way to open his door.

"I can take it from here, you should go back to wherever you came from and do something better with your time than waste it on a pathetic old man."

Xo can feel his heart breaking for him while he talks, and the snarling expression on his face softens, until Bullet insults him and tells him to leave, at which it hardens again.

"I'm not leaving," he growls defensively, pushing his way into Bullet's room behind him and leading him to his bed, "You're my partner now, and I'm not leaving you alone when you're like this, even if you think you can handle yourself. Also, you didn't bother to tell me where my room is before you got sloshed, so I've got nowhere to go for the night. Now lie down. I'll get you some water. You got any food in here? Bread?"

Edited 2014-11-10 01:41 (UTC)

Xo's words barely filter through the fog in Bullet's mind, only bits and pieces making sense to him.

"Don't think I can handle myself. Know," he says, flopping back on his bed and ineffectually trying to kick off his shoes, "Been alone for ten years. Taken care of myself the whole time." He gives up on removing his shoes, flopping back with his arms outstretched instead, staring dazedly at the ceiling.

"It's okay. I don't even mind anymore. You're the sixth partner. It's fine, you'll leave too, don't worry about it."

Xo ignores him, moving across the room quickly to help him remove his shoes.

"Oh, god," they groan, "Your feet are fucking rank." They pitch the shoes to the other side of the room and walk over to Bullet's pantry, rummaging through until they find a loaf of bread. There's some mould on the first few slices, which they toss into the trash, but the rest of the loaf is salvageable. They take a few pieces and fill a glass with water.

"Here," they say, setting the food on the bed and getting behind him to push him back into an upright position. They put the bread in his hands, and hold the glass of water in their own. "Eat this."

Bullet eats the bread on autopilot, staring blearily down at it, not exactly sure how it got in his hands. He frowns at it for a long moment, then cranes his neck to peer over his shoulder, surprised when he sees Xo there.

"Why are you still here?" he asked, more confused than ornery.

Xo sighs, taking off their jacket and pitching it onto the floor before sitting on the couch in the corner of the room, curling their legs up as they lie down.

"Because I know you're better than this," they mumble, and they watch Bullet from across the room until he passes out on his bed.

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shot through the heart and you're to blame

you give love a bad name

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