FTEC -- August 17 -- Sunday.

[ecirpnellehada]

Well, she was no longer a bird. That was a good thing, Adah supposed, if it weren't for the fact that it was all terribly disorientating, this switching between different bodies with different balance points, not to mention the change in height and having to reacquaint herself with the possession of opposable thumbs, which, really, she'd never

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Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[ecirpnellehada]

"It's good to be back in regular form," Adah agreed simply, but her attempt to be perfectly aloof and nonchalant broke slightly with a sigh. "I haven't decided if it was just a stroke of random luck, bad on my part but good on yours, that it happened, or simply that I had jinxed myself in admiring those Australian birds and pondering what it would be like to be one..."

She lifted her eyes, although her head stayed down, peering steadily at the Eel through a few strands of hair. She felt the same sort of surge through her body that she'd felt all week, but she certainly didn't have the conventions to peck at him again. "I doubt," she added, "any of those pecks were hard enough to break skin and cause a possibility of infection," although there certainly were times where she'd wanted to peck that hard. "You should be fine."

She said it in a tightly cool way, as if to suggest that such a risk was clearly the only reason he would be here today if he knew what was good for him, despite the fact that, underneath, she knew she was glad he did come it. She was just reverting back to certain habits, defensively, protecting herself from the fact that it still hurt that he'd go against what they talked about so soon and so near to when she'd be leaving. As if he couldn't have held off his stupidity for just a few more weeks...

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[stupid_toasters]

"I'm completely fine," he answered, nodding. "I got used to all the pecking after awhile. It was almost comforting to wake up to pecks between my eyes. So, yes, I'm fine. And I'm glad you're back. The pecking might be nice to lose."

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[ecirpnellehada]

Adah frowned a little as she struggled with the slight urge to apologize for the pecking, which she blamed on her conflicting feelings about being in her own skin. She was fairly certain she wasn't really sorry, though, considering that she wanted to throw a pen at him to make up for her current lack of beak.

"You deserved it, you know," she informed him firmly, reminding herself more than him. "Every peck. I don't know what happened and I'm not sure I care to know, but what I am sure of is the fact that, whatever it was, it was incredibly stupid of you."

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[stupid_toasters]

He winced and said, "Whatever you say. I don't think it was stupid of me, it was a long time coming but you know, if you think I was stupid, you're not the only one."

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[ecirpnellehada]

After blinking a few times in response to that, Adah settled into staring at the Eel with a dull expression of surprise.

"And, somehow," she said, "the fact that I'm not alone in this assessment fails to make you think that perhaps there's truth in it?"

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[stupid_toasters]

"No, somehow, people telling me that I'm stupid all the time gets really old when that's all they focus on," Lee replied.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[ecirpnellehada]

"Not even a week after the words 'I'll be careful' roll off your tongue, and you're in the clinic," Adah reminded him. "What the hell else am I supposed to focus on? Maybe if actually gave people something else to focus on, they'd start singing a different tune, but you can't just expect it to turn just because it's getting old, Lee."

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[stupid_toasters]

"So, I give you nothing else to focus on besides the fact that I'm stupid?" Lee asked. "All this time?"

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[ecirpnellehada]

Adah sighed, unable to help the small roll of her eyes as her good shoulder joined the sagging of her bad one. "Lately," she clarified. "Yes. Taking care of me in my recent altered state and toughing out a few harmless pecks is hardly going to make up for how...upset I am."

She struggled a little with those last few words. Although she said it, she knew that upset wasn't the right word. Hurt was. But she had trouble admitting when anyone really hurt her, even more so when it was him. And that it had been now.

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[stupid_toasters]

"All right." He rubbed his head and then took a breath. "I didn't think it would and I wasn't asking you to forget what happened. Do you wanna know what happened?"

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[ecirpnellehada]

"I told you," Adah said, intentionally firm because she worried that if she didn't think about it, her voice would have wavered, "I'm not sure if I want to know or not. I just really want you to realize how the whole thing looked from my point of view, finding out how I did, even, but I haven't exactly had a chance to say it until now. And I've certainly had time to think about it, and so it's not just the anger talking at this point."

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[stupid_toasters]

"Yeah, well, the reason it happened was a good one," he said. "And it probably needed to happen. I didn't think you'd find out on the radio. That was bad. But, I was fine. Am fine. Nothing permanently hurt."

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[ecirpnellehada]

"Fine thanks to the fact that you're a lucky son of a bitch," Adah replied with a stiff grunt, but she quickly drew in a breath, closing her eyes and regretting it. He might not always be so lucky, though; it could always run dry, like rivers in the drought season. Didn't he understand that? He was right; he wasn't stupid. So why the hell did he seem set on constantly acting like he was?

She wasn't going to nag at him about it, though. Not when she'd been pecking at him all week. Not when she felt firmly that she shouldn't have to. He should know better.

"Damn it, Lee," she muttered, feeling her throat tighten. "This is hardly the thing I wanted to come between us during my last week here."

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[stupid_toasters]

"Yes, I am a lucky, stupid, idiotic son of a bitch," he said. "I've heard it enough from people since it happened. I don't know what you want me to do. You don't want to know what happened so I'm not going to tell you. I'm sorry it happened when it did. It was bad timing. Horrible timing."

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[ecirpnellehada]

Adah sucked in a breath, the swell of understatement, and let it out slowly. "And I don't know what you want me to do. You act like I should just ignore how..." Again, a reluctance, a quick change of words, "upset...I am, shrug my good shoulder and carry on with boys will be boys, who am I to feel as though everything we talked about just marched in one ear and out the other? Or is it just that it doesn't matter because next week, I'll be out of your hair and you can throw yourself into as much senseless danger as you want with abandon?"

Re: Front Desk -- Afternoon/Evening Shift -- 08/17.

[stupid_toasters]

"Yes, that's exactly it," he said sarcastically. "As soon as you leave, it's all drinking and fighting for me. Chicks dig scars and all that, right? Why not? Who cares, not me?"