Cover art by the amazing Tumblr used trshlrd, thank you so much ;_;
Featuring: awkward first impressions, Brick trying to make friends, the easiest way to become Mordecai's friend is to make him yell at you.
Warnings: some violence.
Chapter 1: Fresh off the bus (AKA: Successive Approximations)
.-
Brick laughed as he punched through bandits.
After a loud "what the hell?" and a slightly less loud curse, Roland, the soldier guy, ordered him to get back. Brick ignored him; he knew what he was doing. Lilith, the woman, on the other hand, laughed: a full, belly deep laugh in her surprisingly deep voice. Brick decided he liked her.
"Brick!" Roland called again, this time with more alarm than annoyance, and that was the only reason Brick payed attention and turned around to watch his back.
One of the bandits had been sneaking behind him, with his cheap assault rifle ready. Brick grabbed the bandit by the collar with one hand and raised the other to punch him. The bandit's eyes widened behind his mask.
Before his fist could connect with the bandit's throat, though, his head exploded, splattering Brick with bone and brain matter.
Brick let go of the dead man's body and looked quickly around. Roland was crouching behind a dumpster and threw him a surprised look. Lilith was nowhere to be seen, and then she was; she materialized behind one of the bandits who was closest to them and promptly filled his head with bullets from her SMG.
Stray shot, Brick decided, unconcerned.
When Mordecai reunited with them Brick was honestly surprised to see him. Mordecai had disappeared as soon the first shots had been fired, so Brick could only assume he was long gone or dead. The bird Brick had noticed on the bus was perched on his shoulder again, now covered in fresh blood. As he saw it again, Brick realized he had seen it diving here and there during their fight to kill the bandits that had taken over Fyrestone.
"You trained that thing to fight?" Brick said.
Mordecai turned to look at him. His goggles and mask obscured most of his face, but he seemed surprised.
"Yeah. Something like that," he replied. "His name's Bloodwing."
Brick laughed. He had seen attack dogs, but never attack birds. It seemed like too much trouble, seeing at birds were much more fragile than dogs. But he had to admit that, if nothing else, Bloodwing had been a good distraction for the bandits.
"Good name."
"You're a sniper?" Roland asked Mordecai, eyeing his rifle.
Mordecai smirked. "Yep." He paused for a second. "What, you like what you see?"
Roland blinked. Then he coughed.
"That's, uh, it's just a nice rifle."
Lilith snorted to herself.
After the four of them realized they were after the Vault, they established a tentative alliance. They'd been on that bus for the most past of a day and the long, long Pandoran night was falling soon, so they claimed a few of the empty houses in Fyrestone for the time being.
Lilith declared one of the houses was only hers.
"You gon' be alright on your own?" Brick wondered.
Lilith gave him a look. "Aw, are you offering to keep me company?" she asked in a caustic tone. "Protect the helpless damsel in distress?"
Mordecai snorted and Roland gave Brick a wary look.
Brick just shrugged. "Just askin'."
"She's a siren," Roland pointed out. "She can take care of herself. Right?" he added, looking at Lilith.
"She can also stand up for herself."
Roland held up his hands and dropped it.
It took them longer to scavenge enough food for the four of them than it took them to kill the bandits on Fyrestone.
"So, why are you in Fyrestone, anyway?" Roland asked Brick.
Mordecai was sure he didn't imagine the tension that followed that question, emanating from Lilith and Roland and himself. Reasons were complicated, and not something you gave to anyone.
Brick shrugged as he kept shoveling food into his mouth.
"I got an ECHO message from some woman. Said to get off the bus here."
There was a long silence. Mordecai, Roland and Lilith shared a look.
"What?" Brick asked, getting defensive.
"Uh, well…" Roland trailed off.
"That's why I'm here, too," Lilith admitted.
"Me too. But she said not to tell anyone," Mordecai pointed out. "To me, anyway."
Brick shrugged again. "We all got down at the same time. Figured y'all had heard her too."
And it sounded so obvious when put like that. Of course they'd all been contacted by the same person (or whatever she was). Mordecai had no idea why, but they had.
Still, he and Roland and Lilith hadn't mentioned it before. They must have suspected, all of them but they refused to tell, because… because they didn't trust the others yet. Because giving out secrets was usually fatal when you were on Pandora.
Brick didn't care. Why exactly, Mordecai wasn't sure.
Their second day had them meeting T.K. Baha, who was honestly too nice for someone who lived on Pandora. It also saw them getting ambushed right outside Fyrestone by yet more bandits who weren't too happy about them killing their way through the Badlands.
As soon as they killed the last psycho, Mordecai stomped over to Brick.
"You need to stop doing that! Who the hell charges like that?" Mordecai shouted.
"I do. And I'm damn good at it," Brick replied.
Mordecai stared at him for a few more seconds, his mouth opening and closing.
"Look… Fine. Do your thing. Whatever. But I can't cover you if you go berserk like that."
"I don't need cover. I've got my shield."
Mordecai's forehead creased and he let out a long suffering sigh.
"Man. Look, I've gotten a lot of bandits who were sneaking behind you - or behind Roland, or Lilith. A lot. But just now I was this close to also blowing your head off, or at least your ear." Mordecai rubbed his temple. "Maybe we need a system?"
Brick laughed. "A system? When I punch them, don't shoot them; how's that?"
Mordecai groaned in annoyance.
"Fine. Whatever, just don't complain when you get stabbed in the kidney by a psycho," he said before turning around and going to check on his bird.
Brick could feel the smugness radiating from the other side of the fire.
"At least it wasn't a kidney," Mordecai said, a shit-eating grin clear on his face.
"Ok, fine. You were right. We need a system," he admitted.
Mordecai shook his head.
"And here I was getting ready to say 'I told you so'."
Roland pressed harder on his wound Brick hissed in pain and clenched his fists.
"I'm almost done," Roland said.
Much like Mordecai had predicted, a psycho had gotten too close with his buzz axe and given Brick a nasty cut on his thigh. Roland had the most experience treating wounds, and he was cleaning it before they could apply on of Dr. Zed's Insta-Healths. Brick didn't much like the itchy feeling they gave as they reconstructed his flesh, but it was better than getting stitches and fighting with them for days.
"Got any ideas?" Brick wondered.
"How about you shout 'RAAGH! KILL!' really loud?" Lilith suggested
Mordecai snorted and Roland shook his head, but he was fighting back a smile.
"Nah, that's just dumb," Brick countered.
There was a brief silence.
"You already say that, man!" Mordecai said and burst out laughing.
Brick blinked. "I do?"
Lilith nodded. "Oh, yeah you do. Sometimes. Maybe do that all the time?"
Roland's hand were shaking. He stepped back and started laughing too.
Brick could feel himself blushing and his temper start to rise at the familiar burn of embarrassment. He had been laughed at and called stupid all his life, and it never failed to make him feel like a pit was opening at his feet.
"You're not bright, but you're strong," his momma had told him a few times. "If you hit them hard and hit them fast, it won't matter."
Brick's fists itched to do that: punch the daylights out of the three assholes who were laughing at him. He could even take them out, too.
Roland put a hand on his shoulder.
"Sorry, Brick." He wiped his eyes and sobered up a little. "I thought you noticed you shout that. It's terrifying. A lot of the bandits turn tail and run away when you do."
Brick narrowed his eyes, trying to decide if Roland was just lying to keep him from flying off the handle.
"Makes it easier to pick them out," Mordecai chimed in.
"I kinda feel bad for them," Lilith said, and then shrugged. "But not really."
Brick made himself unclench his firsts. He couldn't say he believed them - childhood memories of being picked on and mocked were always hard to let go off. But they had managed to defuse the tension quickly, so killing them now would be anticlimactic. Besides, Brick was starting to like them.
He would try to pay attention to make sure what they were saying was true, though. If it wasn't, then… well, he'd had to punch them. Although not hard enough to kill them. Probably.
They arrived to New Haven in the middle of the day cicle, enveloped by sweltering heat and covered in motor oil thanks to their recent battle with Mad Mel. No one was in sight when they parked their cars, not even guards. Judging by the hour, most people were probably asleep.
Brick grimaced when he peeled himself from the car seat; the faux leather had stuck to every exposed bit of skin on his arms and the small of his back. Mordecai seemed to be in a similar situation, judging by his annoyed grunt as he left the driver's seat.
Lilith, who was still limping a little, stood with a hand shading her eyes, looking in the direction their ECHOs directed them to.
"Great, another ghost town," she commented. "Think we can actually get air conditioning here?"
"I wouldn't keep my hopes up," Roland said, awkwardness in every line of his body. "We should go see Helena Pierce."
Honestly, Brick was still surprised it had taken Roland this long to realize Lilith had been flirting with him - she hadn't even tried to be subtle. And yet, the shocked look on Roland's face when Lilith told him that if they survived Mad Mel's ambush she'd be taking him out for a drink had been proof enough that he hadn't noticed at all.
Roland had agreed, stammering a little, and now seemed like he was ready to trip over his own feet at any moment.
They followed the waypoint marker in their ECHOs into a squat, ugly building that seemed only marginally more resistant than the rest of the town.
Brick noticed Mordecai hanging back and felt a little sorry for him. Mordecai had kept to himself, for the most part, even as the rest of them started getting more comfortable around each other - but Brick had seen him talking to Roland, making a joke in a dry tone, and he'd caught Mordecai's smile when Roland had laughed. It had been the first time he'd seen Mordecai smile at all; the guy was taciturn as hell.
That had been a while back, but seeing Mordecai keeping some distance from the rest of them, Brick thought maybe it had been more serious than he'd thought. And maybe Brick thought Mordecai was kind of an asshole with everyone except his bird, but he knew how it felt to have a crush on the wrong guy.
Helena Pierce gave them a harsh welcome, asked them to do a few menial tasks, and then directed them towards the closest tenement house where they could rent some rooms for as long as they were staying in New Haven.
"Alright, I owe you a drink," Lilith told Roland as soon as they left Pierce's office. "Where can we find a bar in this place?"
Roland shifted his weight. "Lilith…"
Lilith crossed her arms. "What?"
"Uh… don't you wanna get some sleep first? It's been a long day."
"And give you the chance to change your mind? I don't think so."
Brick saw Mordecai smirking to himself and looking away.
"Have fun with that," Mordecai said, his tone amused. "I'm gonna go check the bounty board."
Brick looked at him, somewhat surprised, then he looked at the others. Roland was looking flustered and Lilith was still staring him down, and Brick decided to follow Mordecai. He wasn't needed here.
"Hey, wait up!" he called.
Mordecai turned his head and slowed down until Brick caught up with him.
"Didn't wanna play third wheel?" Mordecai asked him with a snort.
"Not really."
"Dorks," Mordecai muttered with a huff. "Can't believe it's taken them so long."
Brick made a noncommittal noise.
The bounty board had a few jobs posted. They checked them out in a bit of an awkward silence - the two of them hadn't spent too much time together so far, and it was suddenly glaringly obvious. Brick had taken a liking to Lilith in particular, she was fun and she was tough (much like his little sister), and Mordecai and Roland seemed to have a form of quiet understanding - one-sided crushes aside.
"King Wee Wee?" Mordecai said with a snort. "What the fuck?"
"What?"
"There's a bounty to kill a King Wee Wee," Mordecai said. "Who the fuck calls himself that?" He selected the bounty and added the info to his ECHO. "Well, seems like I could do this one and the crystal one in one go, at least."
He turned and headed towards the north exit.
"Wait, where are you going?"
"The Tetanus Warren," Mordecai said over his shoulder without even slowing down.
"You're going alone?" Brick asked, stunned.
Mordecai finally turned around. "What, you wanna come, too?"
Brick shrugged. "Sure."
Mordecai smirked. It wasn't a friendly gesture, it was sharp and a bit mocking.
"I got it." He turned around again and left.
Brick frowned. That was the sort of thing that made him think Mordecai was kind of an asshole. It was hard to talk to him without getting the brush-off, or an unexpected quip that sounded close to an insult. If he thought it was cool, Brick could certainly tell him it wasn't.
Brick went looking for Mordecai late in the next day. Lilith and Roland were up and about (and, predictably, still being weird around each other), and they were debating leaving to find Tannis.
Mordecai took a little while to open the door, and when he did he looked like he'd been asleep. His hair was loose and he wasn't wearing his mask or his goggles.
"What?" he asked gruffly, rubbing one with the heel of his hand.
Brick's words died in his mouth. He'd never actually seen Mordecai's whole face like that, he was always at least wearing the goggles. His eyes were dark, and he had surprisingly thick eyelashes. Brick wasn't sure if it was just that, or the fact that he'd never seen his eyes before, but he found himself staring, trying to memorize their exact shape and color.
Mordecai stopped rubbing his eye and glared at him.
"Just, uh, just checking if you're still alive," Brick heard himself say.
"I am," Mordecai said dryly.
Brick tried to shake himself. "We're thinking of leaving soon. Go look for that Tannis lady." He noticed a bandage around Mordecai's right arm. "You ok?"
Mordecai followed Brick's eyes. "Oh, yeah. Turns out King Wee Wee had a weird Eridian artifact. It fried my shield." He shrugged. "The whole fucking thing was weird. He was a midget and had a weird mustache for some reason."
"So, you killed him?"
Mordecai gave him a look. "Of course I did. Told you I had it," he said, and the harsh note in his voice betrayed more defensiveness than bravado.
Brick blinked.
"Oh. No, that wasn't - I thought you might want some company," Brick said, and regretted his choice of words almost immediately. "I mean, no reason to go alone. I had nothing else to do."
Mordecai quirked an eyebrow, skeptical, and it was strange to see how expressive his eyes were after so long of having to read his face through what wasn't covered by the goggles and the mask.
"Sure," Mordecai said, not sounding convinced at all. "Anyway, he's dead. I also got us some Eridian artifacts. Are Lilith and Roland visible yet?"
"Yeah, they're up."
"How awkward is it?" Mordecai asked with a mischievous look and smile.
"The same," Brick said with a shrug, suddenly not interested in talking about them.
Mordecai snorted. "Figures. Anyway, I got an SMG for killing that guy. Thought Lilith might want it." He scratched his bandaged arm absently. "Let me get my things, I'll meet you guys."
"Ok," Brick said with a nod, and tried to look for a reason to stall him, something to say. Once Mordecai closed the door, Brick probably would never get to see his whole face again like this. "Why'd you think I wanted to go with you?"
Mordecai gave him a sardonic look. "Cause you thought I couldn't handle it? I'm just the sniper with the bird."
Brick blinked. "I mean…" He'd be lying if he said he hadn't thought of that.
Mordecai huffed. "Go to hell," he said, and shut the door in Brick's face.
Brick stared at the door for a few seconds before heaving a deep sigh and rubbing the back of his neck.
That could have gone better.
Brick left quickly, suddenly very aware of how nervous he'd gotten and trying to outrun the feeling.
Ok, so maybe Mordecai wasn't such an asshole after all. He thought they were looking down on him, and… Brick guessed he'd done that. He wasn't sure what Lilith and Roland thought, though.
But Mordecai had gotten them all part of the reward and he was thinking of giving his SMG to Lilith just because. It was more than Brick would have given him credit for, so maybe he'd been wrong about the guy. Quiet people had always been a little hard for Brick to understand.
Mordecai kept them all at arm's length, but he hadn't left. He was working with them, he was part of the team. It was hard to tell if Mordecai thought of them as friends, but if he didn't, why would he stick around?
Maybe Brick just hadn't found the right way to approach him.
Mordecai was startled when he heard heavy footsteps very, very close. A second later he recognized them as Brick's, even before seeing him. Spending time with people meant you learnt too much about them. But it had taken him too long to notice someone approaching, and that was bad - that was how you got killed.
Brick stopped, his head raised to one side, like a hound listening for the rustle of prey. Then he turned his eyes in the general direction of Mordecai, who almost flinched. Damn, but that huge bulk of a man had good instincts.
Brick walked in his direction, unhurried, seeming more relaxed than any (relatively) sane human had any right to be while in close proximity of one of the many bandit enclaves that filled the Rust Commons. After a moment it became evident Brick hadn't located him yet, even if he was on the right track, and Mordecai considered letting him walk past - but knowing Brick, if he was looking for Mordecai, he would end up finding him anyway.
"You're loud," Mordecai said. Brick startled a little and looked up into Mordecai's perch. "Could have killed you several times over."
Brick, as always, seemed to find that funny. Mordecai wasn't sure if he was crazy, unafraid of death or maybe considered himself invincible.
"There you are!" Brick beckoned for Mordecai to get down. Mordecai ignored him. "Should have known you were somewhere high up."
Mordecai looked away and sighed. He slipped away because he was in need of some quiet time, and Brick was just so… big; his body, his voice, his presence were all so huge. Mordecai could already feel his proximity like that of a planet, massive, inescapable. Brick had a gravitational pull of his own, and it was exhausting.
"Well, you found me. Anything you need?" Mordecai's voice was dry.
Brick hesitated. He peered up at Mordecai, assessing him, before looking around. "Bloodwing around?"
"Nah. He's hunting."
"Oh."
There was a short silence.
"What do you want, Brick?"
Brick frowned. "You're not leaving, are you?"
That wasn't what Mordecai had expected. He huffed out a laugh.
"Nope. Why?"
Brick didn't reply right away, and Mordecai finally turned to look at him fully. Brick was squirming - actually squirming. Oh, man, this was either really good or really bad.
"Just wonderin'," Brick said quietly.
Mordecai wasn't going to let it go that easily.
"Why you ask? You worried about me or somethin'?" He had meant it as a joke, but the silence that followed spoke volumes.
"No, that's-"
"Wait, you are!" Mordecai exclaimed, annoyance flaring.
"Not worried-" Brick tried again.
"What, you think I'm gonna steal the Vault key piece and disappear or somethin'? Is that it?" Mordecai demanded. "Did Roland send you?"
Brick stared at him blankly for a long moment.
"What? What are you talkin' about? Roland didn't send me."
Mordecai snorted. "Then why the hell are you following me?"
Brick frowned and shook his head, seeming very confused. "Not following you. Just… wanted to find you."
"That's the same thing, Brick."
"Nuh-uh. You disappeared, I was trying to find you." Brick shrugged his massive shoulders awkwardly. "Just curious. You always disappear. I wanted to know - I was curious."
Mordecai just looked at him for a moment, then decided he didn't have the energy to figure out why Brick did the things he did.
"Curious about what?"
"About why you disappear. Like, are you leaving? Are you scouting ahead?"
"Just need some time alone," Mordecai said, hoping (but not really expecting) Brick would take the hint and leave.
"Oh. Ok." Brick nodded to himself.
Mordecai sighed and started climbing down from his seat atop the ruined tower.
"Why would I leave, anyway? Where would I go?" he wondered.
"I don't know. Don't know much about you."
Mordecai's mouth quirked up a bit. "I don't know much about you either," he pointed out.
"Not much to know," Brick said with a shrug.
"Yeah. Not much to know about me neither," Mordecai said as he sat on a rung from the ladder that left him on a similar eye level with Brick.
"I keep expecting you to leave. Since the first day," Brick said.
"Why?"
"Don't know. You look... "
"Like a coward?" Mordecai ventured in a bitter tone.
"Weak. Too scrawny."
"Lilith is thinner than me," Mordecai said dryly.
"No, she ain't. And she has magic. Or, whatever is she has. You always - poof!, disappear. Don't see you until the end of the fight."
Mordecai rolled his eyes. "Not all of us like punching every single bandit and skag that crosses our path. And did you just say 'poof'?"
Brick gave him a wide grin and ignored the last part. "Punching feels good. Letting it out. Making people fear you."
"I don't need people to fear me in order to kill them."
"It's easier if they fear you. They leave you alone."
Mordecai had to agree to that. He'd seen some bandits give Brick a wide berth, just because he looked like a tower of muscles and rage, while they tried to kill Mordecai on sight.
"Well, I'm not running away. Why are you asking anyway?"
Brick shrugged stiffly.
Mordecai chortled. "Aw! You do care!"
Brick scowled at him, but it was ruined by the obvious embarrassed turn of his mouth.
"It was just - I -" he coughed. "I think they needed privacy."
Understanding dawned on Mordecai. Of course: Roland and Lilith's horribly awkward dance of fighting and flirting that had been getting intolerable lately. That was one of the reasons he had sneaked away a while back.
"Oh, man, finally!"
Brick laughed too, looking somewhat relieved.
"Those two idiots. What, Lilith ambushed him, right?"
"Something like that."
"Well, about fucking time. In a lot of ways."
Brick huffed. "Yeah. I thought it best to get lost."
"Think they're gonna be all weird tomorrow?" Mordecai wondered.
"Probably," Brick agreed.
"So much drama."
There was less awkwardness than Mordecai expected. Roland and Lilith kept fighting most of the time, only their fights now mostly sounded uncomfortably close to foreplay. At least after the first night they had the decency of taking it into a tent - or a room when they were in New Haven - instead of forcing Mordecai and Brick to leave.
That, of course, meant he and Brick found themselves having a lot of time of mutual company. With just the two of them to keep watch it was harder to sneak out. Besides, it wasn't like Mordecai was the most responsible person on Pandora, but even he knew that leaving only one person guarding the camp was a bad idea.
Brick was never completely quiet: he talked, he hummed, he drummed his fingers. Something, anything except complete silence. It had been unnerving during the first weeks of knowing each other, but by now Mordecai had learned to tune most of the noise out.
"Hey, I've been thinking about that Old Haven place Price mentioned. Roland and Lilith seem a bit… busy, but maybe we can go and check it out," Brick mentioned during one of their watches.
Mordecai blinked and turned to look at him. It wasn't the first time one of them had gone out on their own to do some odd job - collect pieces of guns, kill a few skags, pick up ECHO recordings - but this would mean a few days of travel, at least.
A few days of travel where they wouldn't have to listen to stifled sex noises and try to pretend they didn't see the looks Roland and Lilith kept giving each other.
Yep, that was enough for Mordecai.
"Sold."
As far a bad ideas went, going to Old Haven with Brick wasn't exactly the worst thing Mordecai had ever done… but not by much. It certainly wasn't the best, but at the moment Mordecai was leaning to consider the trip a bad idea but not a defeat, which was something.
Another thing that came with spending too much time with people was you came to rely too much on them. Mordecai had lost practice with fighting in urban terrain, full of nooks and corners and back alleys and dead end streets - and he'd also lost practice with having to watch his back constantly.
Lilith always Phasewalked along the battlefield, annoying bandits, crippling defenses and keeping an eye on her team. Roland mostly fought on the defensive too, and directed movements on a clear, sensible way. As for Brick... he still charged, as he had always done, somewhat following Roland's directions, and wrecked chaos into the enemy's forces.
Mordecai didn't realize the obvious problem until they were already in Old Haven and Brick started punching his way through the Crimson Lance forces: the Lance soldiers were everywhere, and they were trained, armed and dangerous, so he'd had to do his best to keep up with Brick most of the time. Mordecai wouldn't have a chance to pick a perch and clear the terrain as he usually would, both because the Lance troops kept coming and because Brick simply kept going, like a steamroller, and didn't pay any attention to Mordecai's barked directions.
Which was how he ended up nursing a bad cut on one arm and an acid burn on the other. He managed to herd Brick into an abandoned apartment and ordered him to keep watch while Mordecai tended his wounds.
Mordecai slumped against a wall, took off his goggles in irritation, and threw them at the floor.
"I'm blaming you," he said, pointing at Brick.
Brick, who was peering out the window, turned at him with raised eyebrows.
"Me?"
"You keep charging! You just go!" Mordecai shouted. "If you don't remember: I have handguns and a sniper rifle. I can't take five guys at the same time who are firing shotguns point blank at my face!"
Brick pursed his lips.
"So, what you need?" Brick asked, and he sounded a little miffed but also almost remorseful.
"I need you to watch my back!" Mordecai yelled. He rummaged through his supplies looking for an Insta-health hypo for his wounds. "How hard is that to get? I watch you back, you watch mine. I take out guys long range, you take out guys close range. That clear enough for you?"
Mordecai could hear Brick shuffling, but he didn't care if he was angry or offended right now. All Mordecai could care about right then were his arms, one bleeding and the other pulsing with pain from the burn.
Then Brick filled up his field of view and Mordecai's stomach dropped. He might have pushed it too far, after all. Making Brick angry was a bad idea, as many dead bandits (and now Lance soldiers) could attest to.
Brick, though, pulled the bag away from Mordecai's grasp.
"Here, let me," he said, surprisingly quiet. He pulled two Insta-Health doses and an antiseptic kit from the bag. "This is gonna hurt," he warned unnecessarily.
"I know! Just do it," Mordecai replied through clenched teeth.
Brick's massive fingers struggled with the antiseptic wet wipes and with with trigger in the Insta-Health syringes, but he kept complete focus on his task and tried to be as gentle as he could while cleaning the wounds and while injecting the serum.
After it was done, Mordecai let out a puff of breath and closed his eyes, willing the medication to work faster and wipe away the pain.
"I'm sorry," Brick said then, quietly. Mordecai opened one eye and looked at him. "For, uh, charging? I'm not good at - I've always fought alone. Mostly. I'm not used to watch out for others."
Mordecai glared at him for a little while, but then sighed and gave up. It was impossible to hold a grudge against a man who was so big and who looked so much like a kicked puppy when he apologized.
"Me too, man. But…" he hesitated and decided against any lectures. "Doesn't matter. Just try to keep an eye out for your team. We're in this together, right?"
Brick's face lit up, and Mordecai held his breath. There was something almost awe-inspiring about seeing Brick's rough, mean and huge face splitting in a smile.
"Got it, Mordy," Brick said slapping him on the shoulder, and Jesus that hurt!
"Ow! Hey, I'm wounded, remember?" Mordecai cried. "Save your strength for the bad guys."
"Sorry, sorry. Forgot you're so delicate," Brick said with a grin and stood up.
"Not delicate!" Mordecai sputtered. "Brick, you've torn off bandits jaws with one punch. Skag's jaws!"
"That was just a love tap. You'd know if I was trying to hurt you, trust me."
Mordecai opened his mouth, but then decided not to remark on the "love tap" part. He liked his jaw where it was.
Mordecai was dozing off with his feet up in the dashboard when Brick spoke.
"You ok with Roland and Lilith, right?"
Mordecai opened one eye and sighed internally. Here he was hoping he could nap for a while.
"I'm ok with them… how?" he wondered.
"You know. Hooking up."
A chill filled Mordecai's bones. "Why wouldn't I be?" he asked, trying to sound casual and disinterested.
Brick mumbled something. "I don't know. You seemed to have a thing for Roland."
Mordecai stiffened. He tried really, really hard to keep from doing something too obvious - something like, say, dropping his feet from the dashboard and then bolting out of the moving vehicle.
It wasn't easy to resist the temptation.
"I - That - I don't know what you're talking about," he stammered and looked away, his mouth turning in disgust at his own unconvincing voice.
Brick shrugged. "Oh. My bad."
Mordecai wanted to curl up in himself, hide and die. If Brick had noticed, then Lilith must have too. And if she decided to kill him, she'd make it last.
He let out an angry puff of breath.
"It- That's over. It was stupid anyway." He admitted begrudgingly, hating how his face burned under his mask. "It was maybe a week." Mordecai squirmed in his seat. "I didn't think it was so obvious. Fuck."
Brick threw his head back and laughed, and laughed.
"Rude," Mordecai mumbled.
"It wasn't that obvious. I don't think Roland knows," Brick said.
"Roland is an oblivious skaglick who didn't realize Lilith was flirting with him until she spelled it out for him," Mordecai pointed out dryly. "Not really my type. Glad Lil likes them dumb and oblivious."
"Right."
Mordecai frowned. "How d'you know, anyway? Does Lilith know? Is she gonna set me on fire while I'm sleeping?"
Brick hesitated, which didn't make Mordecai any less nervous.
"Dunno. But she probably does - she's smart ."
"Yes, she is," Mordecai agreed dejectedly.
"Relax. If she had it out for you, she'd already killed you."
"You are really, really bad at reassuring people, Brick. Just so you know," Mordecai said.
Brick shrugged. "Still true."
"Explain it to me again," Brick said.
Mordecai sighed and took the bottle back from Brick's hand.
He took a pull of rakk ale, wiped his mouth and then replied: "Like I said: instead of punching, I prefer to keep my distance from the target, pick my moment, and kill them with a single well-placed shot."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Brick said, raising his hands. "You lost me at 'instead of punching'."
Mordecai stared at him, just radiating annoyance and disbelief, and Brick couldn't hold his shit-eating grin anymore.
"Aw, fuck you, pendejo!" Mordecai said, but he cracked up a second later. He pushed Brick away, and ended up only pushing himself away from Brick.
Brick's rumbling laughter shook the both of them and poured over the dying flames of the campfire.
"You should see your face!"
Mordecai rolled his eyes (or seemed to) and shook his head.
"I'm not a complete idiot, you know?" Brick said, to his own surprise. He hadn't meant to say that. "No need to talk down to me."
Brick's grin fell and he looked away. He shouldn't have said that. Too obvious.
Mordecai paused, then nodded. "I know. Never said you are."
Brick snorted, still looking away.
He heard Mordecai taking a few more swigs from the bottle.
"I mean - yeah, sometimes you are," Mordecai said thoughtfully. And it stung. "But honestly? Most of the time I think you fake it to ambush people."
"Fake it?" Brick asked, more surprised than anything, and hated himself a second later.
Asking for clarification wasn't helping his case, was it?
"You are scary observant sometimes, man," Mordecai said with a tight smile.
"Uh-huh," Brick muttered skeptically.
"Seriously! Even if most of your solutions are blowing stuff up."
"Explosions are fun," Brick said, trying to sound more enthusiastic than he felt.
Mordecai laughed. "Sometimes. But you are; and you're good at findin' things. And figuring how stuff works. And, I don't know, other stuff. But you surprise me a lot of the time. You have good ideas."
Brick shook his head.
"Shut up before you hurt yourself," he said dryly.
"Hey, I'm trying to be nice here, you asshole!" Mordecai complained.
"Yeah, and you suck at it"
"Screw you," Mordecai replied, though he couldn't hide his grin. "I'm trying here. But fine, suit yourself."
.-
Notes:
Music mood: José González - Slow Moves
Brick never did say how he knew Mordecai had a thing for Roland :P
I hope you enjoyed it, please leave a comment :)
