Family ties are strong...

[vw_coyote]

Who: vw_coyote, painhumbles, and hexyoutotuesday
When: Saturday, May 21st, evening
Where: Mercy's place
Summary: Mercy knows who has just arrived, and has invited a few people for some damned good food.
Warnings: Umm, language? Other than that... probably not.

Comments

[hexyoutotuesday]

This was not how Jinx wanted to spend Saturday. At all. So, Gabriel had other friends. They were few and female. She had managed to get along with Rochelle, somewhat. They spent most of their time arguing about who took the title of Baddest Girl Alive. It was silly, but better than Jinx clawing the other woman's eyes out for so much as looking at her boyfriend. So she was jealous. Possessive. Territorial. Very uncomfortable with this situation.

Coming here with Gabriel was the lesser of two evils. Sure, being here was hell, but it was either this or pacing her room all night, seething. Then, when he came home full of brownies, she would spend the next hour screaming at him like a banshee. Oh, she knew herself. No way she could convince him not to pass up those stupid brownies. So she threw on a little black dress to die for, her favorite pair of spiked pumps, and wore that perfume Gabriel liked. Suck it up.

As Gabriel knocked on the door to what she knew as Anna's apartment, Jinx kept her arms folded across her chest and stood with a confident posture. When the woman answered the door, her mouth twitched and she immediately had to bite back on a growl. Yes. Definitely a threat.

"Hi," she managed to bitterly throw at this Mercy person. She glanced down at the other woman's hand, chose to ignore it, then clung onto Gabriel's elbow. Her claws embedded themselves in his jacket. Not even an ounce of friendliness here. "I hear you bake."

[vw_coyote]

Mercy could smell the animosity rolling off the girl. And that was a girl. She lowered her hand and closed the door behind them. "I'm glad you both could come." She said, instead of commenting on the girl's immediate hatred of her.

Mercy knew a jealous woman when she smelled one. She wasn't a threat and blatantly played with the engagement ring on her finger. She had a fiancé, even if he was back at home and not here. Jinx had nothing to worry about from her. Dating an archangel was way beyond her capabilities.

"Yes, I do. Gabriel's been a good friend, so, I try to keep him in sweets." The buzzer in the kitchen sounded and the kitten mewled, not liking it one bit. "Please, have a seat. I need to check the lasagna." She went to check on the lasagna, leaving the pair of them alone for a moment.

[painhumbles]

"Thanks, Merce'. You're a peach." He salutes her, waited until she was gone, and then glanced down at Jinx. "Babe, you can dial it back some. She's a good Christian girl and she's like my sister. Dating her would be like you dating Trauma." He arched an eyebrow at her and then pulled her a little closer with their linked arms.

"Besides. How many times did you say you've had a homecooked meal?" Yes, he remembered that.

[hexyoutotuesday]

The engagement ring meant nothing. If it was from some guy in the Port, he would probably be there right now. So, since he wasn't, that meant that Mercy's fiance was back home, meaning that he wouldn't know whether or not she was faithful, meaning she was still a horrible threat. Jinx eyed her as she left the room. If looks could kill. Well, in this case they really could, but that would be more trouble than it was worth.

When Gabriel began talking, she was gritting her teeth hard enough to make a dentist's day. That was until he equated this relationship to her dating Trauma. That got one hell of a disgusted look out of her. After that, her claws relaxed a little on his arm and she looked up at him.

"I can't believe you remember that. I think I told you that on our first date." Frowning, she reached up and toyed with his hair. She lowered her voice to a quiet hiss. "But I can't really eat lasagna, you're a vegetarian, and she's so goddamn curvy."

[vw_coyote]

Unfortunately for Jinx, Mercy had really good hearing to go along with the nose and the speed. She'd known Gabe was a vegetarian. She'd made meatless lasagna. And she was curvy? Since when?

Mercy always saw herself as compact and wiry. Hell, even Adam said she needed to add weight to put on curves. Maybe it was because she hadn't been doing karate. Of course, she was always out running after dark.

She walked back out. "Everything's ready, save the bread. It's toasting, but the salad is done and there's no reason to stay hungry." Mercy decided that ignoring everything she'd just heard was for the best. She didn't want to have a fight. This was part of the repayment for everything Gabriel had done for her.

"How're things at Purgatory?" She slid into a seat, the table already set.

[painhumbles]

"I have a good memory. C'mon, you can be a Stepford girlfriend for one night, hm? I'll pay you back." The last part he whispered in her ear, close enough to almost nibble on it before he jerked back upright when Mercy entered, expression wide-eyed and innocent. That? Didn't happen.

"Still pulling in customers like it's going outta style. Merlotte's can eat its heart out. Think we're getting a lot of former AGI supporters, looking for cute tail with a lot less sketch. 'Course half the staff's underage, so we might be drawing the wrong crowd."

Of course, he'd read the news about Merlotte's getting slammed on. He had no doubt that the Purgatory would get a much longer write-up if anything happened in that club. Gabriel could slam a person into a pocket dimension like it was nothing if he was inside. Best part of cornering Gabriel in a building- you usually got cornered.

He led Jinx into the kitchen. "So. Anyone else joining us tonight?"

[hexyoutotuesday]

In comparison to Jinx, there were a lot of sticks out there with more curves. At least in the chest, which was what she was focusing the most on. At least Mercy had something there. She was also a normal damn height. With her rich toned skin and her pretty hair and--

The internal jealous rant stopped when Gabriel mentioned he'd pay her back. Well, that whisper in her ear definitely knocked the frown right off her face. It was replaced with her chewing and sucking off her lip gloss until the older woman interrupted them.

Okay. She could try to be civil. Only because he asked so nicely.

"Hey. They're mostly 18. Except the pianist, but I don't think he's really the cute tail they're looking for. Then there's Raven. She's dour and wears a leotard." She rolled her eyes. "Ugh. Leotards."

Jinx sat herself down sideways in her chair, crossing her legs and not pushing herself in any. Immediately, she picked up a fork and started toying with it. There. She was nice. Added to the conversation. Was he happy?

[vw_coyote]

Mercy raised her eyebrows at Gabriel. "Mostly eighteen?" She asked, passing the salad to Gabriel. "I'd ask, but I'm sure I wouldn't like the answer." Mercy said dryly.

She shook her head. "I'm not sure where Anna is, and I think Gabu and Azula went out." Mercy shrugged. "They'll be back later, but they're really good about giving space."

Especially Azula. Honestly, some days if she didn't smell the girl, she wouldn't know the girl was still here.

[painhumbles]

Gabriel took the salad more out of politeness than anything, since he was mostly hear for his low blood sugar. "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy. What would I be if I didn't offend everything you stood for?" He winked at her, making certain Jinx saw it and making certain she knew it was a playful, 'I'm fucking with you' wink.

That done, he turned to Jinx. "She was nice enough to let Anna stay here for awhile. Kid needed a nice, safe place, especially after-" He paused. "Well, y'know." He coughed, realizing Mercy had lost someone during the plaster killer crap too and suddenly... this was a wrong topic. "....Anyway."

...Yeah, small talk? Gabriel blows at it.

[hexyoutotuesday]

When Mercy passed Gabriel the salad, Jinx couldn't help but give her a 'seriously?' look. The man's idea of a salad was picking all the green gummy worms out of a bag. After that wink of his, she snatched the salad bowl away from him and began dishing herself up a small amount.

Well, that topic of conversation got the archangel a swift kick to the shin underneath the table. She was so casual about it, too. Didn't even bat an eye. Delicately, she set down her fork, leaned both elbows on the table, then started picking at her salad with two claws.

Not only was murder not an appropriate dinner subject, but it was made worse by the fact that Jinx's boss was the murderer.

"So, Mercy. How did you and my boyfriend become such good friends?" Worst. Dinner. Ever.

[vw_coyote]

Mercy ate the salad and just shook her head at Gabriel. "Sorry, hiring people under the age of eighteen doesn't offend everything I stand for." She waved a fork at him. "that's not a challenge for you to meet."

She looked at Jinx, her lip almost curling at the challenge the girl was presenting. Mercy tamped down on her instincts and was damned determined to get through this dinner.

"We met over the network." Mercy was honest. "Then, after I was killed around Valentines, when I came back, he helped me from becoming... well, wild."

[painhumbles]

"Touche. Maybe I'm taking this Catholic thing too far, hm?" Gabriel winced at the kick and then gave Jinx the look of a hurt puppy before turning his attention back to Mercy, poking dismissively at the salad.

"She was making such a big show out of..." He paused, realizing she was keeping that a secret and shrugged, moving on. Not that he believed for a second that Jinx would let that go. "Anyway, she peaked my curiosity. Jinx and I actually really got together over that crap- she lost two people, I lost two people. We banded together. Very Lifetime special."

[hexyoutotuesday]

Possessive and territorial were some of the things Jinx was best at. Even when this girl was supposedly not a threat, she was still female and associated with Garbiel. Wars had been started over less. The fact that he was helping Mercy around the time that Jinx was falling for him didn't help in the least.

"Mmmm...that was when I started to fall in love with you," she purred. Beneath the table, her foot decided to trail up Gabriel's leg. Which was probably more deadly than attractive when she spoke next.

"Wild? Such a big show out of...what, exactly?" That girl never could let go of anything.

[vw_coyote]

"I'm not Catholic." Mercy couldn't help but grin. "Unitarian is probably closest, but definitely not Catholic." She finished off her salad. "The problem is I was also a History major in college. So I learned all sorts of things then."

She looked at Gabriel and picked up her plate, bringing the lasagna over to the table. "Ready for this?" She asked.

It was meatless, but not tasteless. She'd put in vegetables and sautéed onions for the sauce, making that from scratch.

"After I was killed," her tone edged toward 'get over yourself, child' but she managed to pull it back. "Gabriel helped me with a power problem." She slid into her seat. "This is how I repay him."

[painhumbles]

"I get them all confused," Gabriel rolled his eyes. "There's just so many, you lose count after awhile. And Daddy didn't really think to go through the rules of every religion when He-" Gabriel froze like a deer in the headlights mid-sentence as it suddenly occurred to him that he'd said something dumb and that Jinx was probably not so much trying to play footsie with him as she was trying to find the easiest way to break his foot.

Awkwardly, he spooned lasagna onto his plate and decided that stuffing his face was probably the best possible scenario here. Why did he think this was a good idea? Mental note: Only invite Jinx on outings with his male friends.

...His unattractive male friends.

[hexyoutotuesday]

"Yes. You said that already." This was less of a dinner and more of a prelude to a fight. Even though Jinx lacked all social graces, she wasn't dumb. She knew exactly what she was doing, that prying into this wasn't okay in the least, and that she may get yelled at later. Scratch that, she would definitely get yelled at later.

Time to enjoy it while she could.

Ignoring the lasagna, she kept her eyes on Mercy. Her dangerously sharp shoes continued threatening Gabriel into silence. "What sort of power problem?"