Lusaint - Wicked Game (cover)

"OOOOOhhh GOD YEAH!"

Dick's mouth quirked up in one corner at Mac's visible embarassment as they passed the line of street food trucks as his text notification went off, slipping a hand into his pocket he unlocked his phone to find the familiar Sock and Door emoji's from Logan, letting him know it was now safe to return to the suite.

A few guys catcalled Mac and she hugged her bag tighter, increasing her steps, glad that the Neptune Grand was visible only a few blocks over. Dick jogged a little to keep up, sliding the phone back into his pocket.

"I no longer need a sitter." he shrugged when she glared back with a rueful expression on her face.

You need something.

"Good, lets get you settled for the night." Mac said in a voice barely above a whisper that strummed down his spine like a caress. Their gazes caught for a long moment before she hinted at the next street back towards his hotel.

Something flared in his blue eyes as the raked over her body, feeling her face heat. She shivered, she hadn't planned to be so underdressed to be out this late, the elements were unforgiving this close to the boardwalk. Why was she doing this to herself? Helping Veronica and Logan didn't have to mean trying to damage control Dick and all his troubles.

"Should've wrapped it up." Dick observed as he took a sip of the hipflask he pulled from his chinos. "Big storms coming up from Mexico, Surf's Up."

Noting the way she was shaking he offered her a swig from the shiny metal flask. Relenting she wrapped her slender fingers around it and then took a small drink, coughing a little as the whiskey burned the back of her throat, wiping her chin on the back of her sleeve as she handed it back. The rebelliously dyed streaks in her hair blew across her face and he fought the urge to reach out and tuck it behind her ear.

Dick felt a flare of resentment at this fragile friendship. "I never brood about the past, I prefer to choose now, its easy to make-believe Beaves is half way to Tijuana or doing some nerd stuff at home... only can't when I look at you."

Her eyes widened with distress. There it was again, the urge to either cuss him out, yell, cry or wrap her arms around him and never let go. The conflicting impulses pounding through her veins like an orchestra of war.

"I remind you of him." she stated simply, wrapping arms around herself.

Dick pursed his lips and turned towards the night ocean view beside them, saying nothing for a long moment before cutting a look back at her.

"My brother made his own choices, every step of the way, and I have to accept that." he told her finally.

"He never told me about Goodman."

Dicks earlier confession filled whispered unbidden into her mind and she wished the knowledge of it would float away with the alcohol and bad decisions.

"No one else can tell me the things I never knew about my brother."

"He won't ever get the chance to be anything else." she quoted. Mac knew part of him blamed Veronica as much as he blamed himself for his brother's decision to step off that roof.

A riptide of emotions clamped shut his throat, rendering him unable to speak as she repeated his words back to him. When his ex-wife Melinda had questioned him about arranging something so she could meet his family, she had began to go through his Social Media, leading to pictures of Cassidy and articles about his fathers fugitive status. He'd quickly shut her curiosity down and even though she was a smokeshow with great legs, he'd done everything in his power to rip her self-esteem to shreds in order to make her back off and give him a speedy divorce. Opening up to people about Cassidy was always a mistake. His own mother hadn't wanted that conversation, the therapist they'd sent him to only encouraged it for a pay cheque and that was all before he ever entertained the idea of thinking about the loss of his step-mother Kendall.

The one time he'd tried to speak about everything had been with his fathers ex-wife Sadie, his former step-mom as it turned out hadn't shown at the Casablanca's estate to see how he was doing with the funeral arrangements, it had been to deliver a letter with her lawyer that the house was being listed as a legal asset in proceedings for spousal support in his fathers absence.

Some people didn't let a little thing like someone else's grief get in the way of their self-involved priorities.

Dick had refused to talk to Melinda, closed himself off and chased each wave to stay ahead of the nagging questions of Why this had all happened, drank himself stupid to quiet the conversations he couldn't have with his brother and yet... Veronica's interrogating stares had nothing on Mac's sad grey eyes, the way they practically made a spreadsheet of his personal tragedies.

Life was always so much simpler when he focused on surf, sea and a sexy stranger... but that isn't really what he wanted. Dick didn't even dare think about what it was he really wanted, or who.

Dick strove to keep his features neutral. He didn't want to discuss traumatic childhoods, he didn't want to ask her if Cassidy had ever mentioned little league, or Woody Goodman... if there had been signs she'd noticed that he had missed. That was a slippery slope that led to him wanting to quiz his roommate for details he knew would only haunt him.

Choose Now. He always had to choose Now.

Trying to make sense of things in the past only made space for the monsters to take up space in his head.

"Dick..." Mac soothed gently, trying to coax the hipflask from him as he took another swig, the lights of the marina blurring in his watery vision.

"Get on my level, otherwise I'm gonna be drunk, I'll probably go back find Anders, do partying, and you will likely have to fuss over me all night." he taunted, holding out the flask.

"Blackmailer" she frowned reaching her hand out but he shook his head.

"Nope." Dick said with a wry smirk, stepping closer and turning her small body until her ass almost hit the wooden boardwalk railing. He brushed his thumb against her plump lower lip and watched as her silvery eyes dilated, tilting the flask up to her mouth, his blue gaze daring her to test the truth of this delicate truce that could ripple out into all of their friendships.