(Untitled)

[bitingmybullet]

It's well past dark when they get back

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[cheng_hu]

Daniel appears from a back room, arms full of first aid supplies. Mostly glorified bedsheets and rubbing alcohol, but you take what you can get.

[bass_line_blues]

"- bandages. Thanks, man," Preston says, heartfelt snags some, and disappears.

He reappears after a while, though.

[cheng_hu]

"You're welcome," Daniel tells him, belatedly.

"How'd it go? I saw Russ, but I didn't ask. He wasn't in the best of moods."

[bass_line_blues]

Preston considers this for a moment.

"None of ours dead," he says, finally. "Couple of theirs are."

He doesn't sound triumphant, though.

[cheng_hu]

"Hm."

Notice how Daniel doesn't say 'good', either.

"These 'Friends of the Right' Kay mentioned?"

[bass_line_blues]

A nod, followed, a second later, by a sudden tired sigh.

"Fucking waste, man."

[cheng_hu]

"Yes."

His voice is quiet.

"It is."

Daniel looks up at the stage. "Was that Claire I saw? What was she doing there?"

[bass_line_blues]

Preston snorts.

"- yeah. Uh.

"Remember how I said I heard a girl got kidnapped?"

[cheng_hu]

"Claire?"

Somehow this seems even less likely than Russ.

[bass_line_blues]

"Well," Preston says, with a shrug, "she's a girl."

[cheng_hu]

Daniel raises an eyebrow. "You checked?"

[bass_line_blues]

A beat.

Then: "Man," says Preston, looking significantly down at his own flat (manly!) chest, "it's kinda hard to miss."

[cheng_hu]

"She's not really my type." His voice is dry.

[bass_line_blues]

"Not mine, exactly, either," agrees Preston, amiably.

"But I'm not fucking blind."

[cheng_hu]

"Maybe I am, then."

He really isn't seeing the appeal, here.

"Because all I see is trouble on high heels, man."

[bass_line_blues]

"You're not wrong."

Preston's voice is thoughtful, now; slipping into philosophical debate mode, rather without being aware of it.

"I mean. She's a good leader. Same way - I dunno, Julius Caesar's a good ruler. Great for his own guys, not so hot for everyone around him."