batmanschmatman | 021 [private to costigan]

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021 [private to costigan]

[Dick sounds... cheerful... er than usual, especially considering he's been a little business mode-y/generally mopey these last few days. What could possibly be going on, Barge?]

Hey buddy! Listen, I know you said you were working on something for a couple days, but can you afford to slip away for a while? We should totally hang out, you know, catch up and stuff. It'll be great.

Oh, and how's your rib? I'm still really sorry about that, by the way. I know I've apologized like, eight times already but I still feel kinda lousy about it, you know?

[Guess who's 100% affected? :|]

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Yeah, sure. What did you have in mind?

The rib's fine, guy. Don't worry about it.

Whatever you want to do's fine with me. I just want to hang out. I've kind of missed you these last couple days.

What are you, a fucking queer? [OH HO HO. IT IS SO FUNNY BECAUSE YOU'RE CLEARLY NOT.... right?]

How about a run in the CES? I missed mine this morning.

[WELL ACTUALLY FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK THAT TODAY ~~what is wrong with me D:~~]

Sure! Meet you up there in like, fifteen minutes? [He's very excited. c:]

Sure, yeah. On deck in fifteen. [He's very oblivious. >>]

[And Dick's just... pacing back and forth impatiently. He's feeling sort of weirdly nervous about this, which is stupid because he's done stuff with Costigan before, it's not like this is something different or whatever, but all he knows is he's excited to see him and sort of worried he won't show up. What if he has something better to do with his day? What's taking him so long?

Maybe he should go make sure he's actually coming.]

[Costigan was a minute late, yeah, but only a minute. He jogged up onto deck with a slightly impatient expression on his face. The inmate was happy to help Rex with what his own warden had done for him in some sense, but it was still tiring. He was in jeans, a white t-shirt and his brown jacket. Mal still had his hat and he didn't really walk around with short sleeves anymore.

When he neared Dick, he held up a hand in a sort of apology and slowed to a stop.] "Sorry."

[Dick immediately brightened when he saw the inmate, and actually for a fraction of a second almost considered hugging him which ~~somewhat fortunately~~ he decided against, settling instead for just grinning like an idiot.]

No problem! Thanks for coming, I really missed you.

[After he realized what he'd said, he cleared his through sort of awkwardly and made an effort to pull it together - because seriously, what the hell was happening, why was he being such a dork? - and gestured towards the CES.] You want to, uh... Go for that run?

[Costigan stared for a few seconds. He didn't actually know the warden well enough to catch on to what was happening yet, but he could tell that something was off and it made him a little suspicious. Instead of wondering about a flood, however, he just figured the warden had something planned he didn't want to admit to yet. Some announcement that he was leaving or some shit.

After a short stretch of silence, he gave a nod and moved to walk toward the door.. ideally with the warden, so that he could actually get in. After another beat, though, he asked without accusation:] "You want to tell me what's going on?"

[Dick happily followed the inmate, just excited to be spending time with him again, and so he basically totally ignored his apparent suspicion over the situation, although admittedly maybe a little worried that he'd done something to make him mad or something, which would just totally suck. So, when Costigan asked, he shrugged, still with the dorky smile firmly in place. He didn't even realize he was doing it.]

I thought we were going for a run. That's what's going on.

[And he went to open the door to the CES.]

Costigan waited at the door, not really moving to give Dick more space since he didn't think the proximity mattered. The two had shared a room for a week in a worse place that personal space wasn't really something he worried about with his warden anymore. The smile was a little disconcerting, but maybe Dick had just gotten laid or something and didn't want to talk about it. That was fair.

"How you been?" There was an awkwardness to his tone that wasn't there a moment before, mostly because he was still nervous something else was going on. "I'm sorry shit came up."

Dick didn't mind the proximity in the slightest. In fact, he kind of liked it, and even as he stepped into the CES - which was back to being a forest - he didn't actually move that far away from the inmate, not really hovering, but definitely close enough to be called close.

He hesitated before answering the question, the dorky smile faltering. Shit had definitely come up, and he'd definitely been feeling really lost and unsure of just about everything for the last couple days, but now that he was here with Costigan, all that didn't seem to matter any more, for whatever reason.

"It's okay." The statement was accompanied by a slightly more typical I promise I'm fine even though I might be lying smile and followed up by a similarly vague and not necessarily accurate answer. "I've been... good."

"How about you? How've things been going?"

Costigan lifted a hand to Dick's shoulder to encourage the guy to move forward, since the warden seemed keen on walking a little slowly. It wasn't a shove so much as a gentle encouragement for Dick to move at the same, increased pace that the inmate was. Once they were inside, the former undercover dropped his hand away and looked around for a decent running path.

The inmate didn't really believe Dick's generic replies with the faltering smile, but he wasn't one to pry about shit like that because he'd do the same thing himself all too often and, in fact, when the question came back, he did just that. "They've been alright, sure. Good."

At the gentle shove, the warden's heart rate immediately skyrocketed, and if he didn't know any better, he might have said he was blushing a little. There was a small part of him that was starting to wonder what the hell was going on, this was weird and totally unexpected and why was he feeling like this because seriously, what the hell, but it was quickly banished by the overwhelming thought of OH MY GOD HE TOUCHED ME and he quickly moved to keep pace with the inmate, trying to prevent his voice from cracking.

"Good."

They were excellent conversationalists.

"How's your project been going?"

"About as much fun as we had on our little vacation together," Costigan replied with a vague grumbling. It wasn't that he was genuinely upset about it, just that it was indeed tiring.

The inmate ran a hand through his hair and then started jogging in place for a second, looking at his warden to encourage him to start up with him so they could actually get to running. Costigan figured both of them were in good enough shape to actually maintain a conversation while running, so he wasn't too worried about it.

Then something else came to mind, something he'd been trying not to think about. "You have anyone here? That you're interested in?"

"That bad, huh?" Without needing to be asked, he started jogging in place as well, and after a moment started heading off in the general direction of away from the entrance.

The question caught him a little off guard, and once again he had to consciously take a moment to compose himself, shooting a sort of nervous glance over the inmate. The answer was obvious - more obvious then it had ever been, honestly - but didn't want to just totally spill his guts to him right now, especially not with the little voice that kept telling him there was something wrong about this. Not wrong like forbidden, necessarily, but just... not accurate.

But the answer was still obvious, so in a hopefully casual tone he responded "Yeah. Why?"

He was weirdly concerned about the answer.

Costigan picked up the pace to begin jogging alongside Dick, occasionally weaving around trees but otherwise staying beside his warden. There was a decent path up ahead that they could probably jog along without risk of tripping or crashing, so the inmate began to aim for that as soon as he caught sight of it.

He was still oblivious to his warden's feelings. While it did surprise him a hint that Dick had said yes, the former undercover was glad for it. After a pause, he continued with the same efforts at nonchalance. "You think something like that could ever really work here?"

Once again the warden sort of faltered before answering, heading in the general direction of the path while still keeping a close eye on the inmate. Why was he asking about this now? Did he feel the same way the warden did? That was almost too much to ask for, especially when he knew they couldn't really do this. Wardens and inmates were supposed to be partners, not in a relationship with each other, and he wasn't sure he'd be able to be okay with testing that professional relationship with... a relationship, even if another part of him was almost desperate for him to say it didn't matter, they could be together anyway, who cared what anyone else thought. It wasn't like this was going to be any less dysfunctional then his previous relationships, and he really did like - no, he really did love the other former cop. They could make it work.

"I don't know. Maybe." He was quiet for a beat, still thinking it over. "Tim's got a girlfriend. Guess it's not impossible."

Of course, Shego wasn't his inmate, which didn't really say anything about his chances with Costigan, but it was still something.

Costigan, meanwhile, was caught up in thoughts of Mal. The one move he had made she had withdrawn from, but she had apologized and wanted to see him again, so maybe he hadn't screwed up completely. Or maybe she was going to pull that bullshit about just wanting to be friends, but he felt like maybe that would be enough to be with her. Maybe he could be strong enough to endure that. He had heard of other couples on the Barge -- Hell, Rex and Wichita had been pretty good together until she had disappeared -- but it still seemed risky. Riskier now with the plans he was beginning to form related to John too.

"Yeah, maybe." He still wasn't convinced. "If you got involved, do you think you'd keep it a secret or be open with it?"

Dick still wasn't sure he should get his hopes up about where this conversation was going, but it was definitely wandering into some very interesting territory. He wondered why he was asking, and the timing of all of it was pretty weird too, considering he'd sort of just been realizing how much he cared about him. Maybe he did really feel the same way, or maybe he just liked someone else and wanted advice, and could he handle that, if Costigan liked someone else?

"I guess that depends on what the other person wanted to do." And after another pause as he considered that, wondering what sort of repercussions coming out and telling people about his undoubtedly awesome potential relationship with his inmate, he turned the question back on Costigan. "What about you?"

Edited 2011-02-18 14:32 (UTC)

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021 [private to costigan]

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[private] plz to be spamming?

[spam] I'm so sorry Costigan :|

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[spam] fu, brackets.

[spam] srsly :|

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