Let's Just Hang at the Bar [Alexei//Open]

[eevee]

Eevee sat comfortably in the car. She knew it wasn't coincidence, or whatever it was called, but the seat was adjusted to her height, and she fit in it very comfortably. She was content to look out the window for a few minutes while Alexei maneuvered through the back roads. But then she realized that this silence might be, to him, awkward. What should she say? What could she say? She was the stranger in this situation.

'You're badass all the other times, girl,' Eevee told herself, 'why not be badass here?' And then her mind answered her own question, 'because you don't know if he'd like it or not.' And, really, it was all about him. She was in his car, she'd walked with him, she'd met him in her bar, but that wasn't the point. The point was, he was taking her to his place. Why not make things a little less awkward?

"So," Eevee finally muttered, turning back to Alexei. She had purposefully looked at other places than his hands--even to his face multiple times--but now she looked at him drive. His driving was unlike any she'd ever seen, considering he didn't have the ability to use his legs. 'Nothing too blunt, Eevs.' She told herself, and then it hit her. He hadn't minded talking about his job before, why not do so now? "How'd you hook up with your job?"

[alexei]

The silence in the car hadn't gotten too awkward yet, but Alexei could tell that unless one of them said something pretty soon, it could start getting awkward. Alexei himself didn't really mind the quiet, he didn't always feel the need to fill space with chatter, but he wasn't sure if Eevee was uncomfortable with silences.

To his relief, Eevee spoke up, asking Alexei how he had gotten into his job. "Well, I've always been obsessed with outer space, spaceflight, astronomy, everything. My friends and I even built rockets in high school. After graduate school, I got a job at this jet propulsion lab, hoping it would help get me down to NASA." They were at a red light at the moment and Alexei looked over at Eevee. "It was always my dream to go into space." He looked down at his useless legs, a corner of his mouth lifting sardonically. "Turns out that didn't work out so well." He paused. "Anyways, I started out as an intern, then just worked my way up the ladder. I'm still at the same lab now."

Alexei was quiet for a second, then glanced over at Eevee again. "What about you, how'd you get started with SWAT?"

[eevee]

Eevee continued to look at Alexei, and sort of smiled when he looked at her at the stop light. It was a crooked smile, only showing on one side of her face, but she was sure he got the point. And she frowned when he said he’d always wanted to go into space. Everyone couldn’t do everything, could they? Just like Eevee couldn’t save Emilee. But this was no time to dwell on the past now. Now she was sitting in a car with a near stranger and telling him things that she wouldn’t tell many other people. She supposed it was all fine, either way.

“You want to know why I started SWAT,” Eevee said, echoing Alexei’s question. She chuckled a bit, “It started when I was in first grade and I saw a police officer take down a drug dealer next door. I lived in the poor neighborhood, see. Well, they took ‘im in, and he never came back. I went through school, and studied in the police college. Then, after a very long wait, I got accepted as one of the only females in SWAT.” Eevee shrugged. “So, there, that’s how I got started with SWAT.”

And then she winked at him, though whether he could see it or not, she didn’t know. “I started my other job because I needed money. That’s all.”

[alexei]

Alexei looked over at Eevee as she was talking about how she had gotten into SWAT, nodding every so often, making sure to glance back at the road from time to time. He had never been able to picture himself in a law-enforcement setting, he didn't think he'd have the guts to pull a gun on someone. And of course that hadn't even been an option, really, after his injury.

They finally reached the park and Alexei parked the car. "Here we are," he said, letting Eevee get out before he pulled his wheelchair out of the backseat so he wouldn't whack her with it. He maneuvered himself out of the car into his wheelchair, getting his feet arranged on the footrest before locking his car and heading for the path that led up to the place. He glanced up at Eevee. "Come on," he said, starting to head up the path.

[eevee]

When Alexei stated that they had reached their destination, Eevee unbuckled her seatbelt. Knowing he'd probably need her to get out of the seat before getting his wheelchair. She'd been enthralled with his getting into the car, now she had the chance to be enthralled with his getting out of the car. But she let the chance fly by when she got out of the car, shut the door, and took in the scenery.

She would not be rude to Alexei again--how he got into and out of the car was his own business. It was beautiful, especially at night. The streetlights cast eerie but satisfying glow-rings around their proximity, lighting only small patches of ground up. Somehow, that fit.

She hurried around to the other side of the car and walked up next to him when he called her. "You know, what we really need now are birds." Eevee said, and waved at the trees. In an instant, the birds sleeping there were alive. Birdsong lit the air, and a few fluttered over to perch on Eevee and Alexei--particularly his legs and his wheelchair. "Birds are so easy to manipulate." Eevee said, smiling at the bird that sat on her finger. It chirped to her and she rubbed its cheek with her finger. "It's the larger animals, the tigers and horses--and don't mention elephants--that are hard to control."

Then she smiled at Alexei as a bird landed on his shoulder, "Bluebirds like to be pet on their heads, like this." She demonstrated on her own bird, which closed its eyes, content.

[alexei]

Alexei stopped at the top of the hill, a little confused when Eevee said that all they needed was birds...but then he saw what she meant. She waved her hand at the trees and Alexei watched, almost enthralled, as several birds came out of the trees, flocking around them, and landing on him and Eevee. He glanced up at her as she went on to say how birds were the easiest to manipulate, and how bluebirds liked to be petted on their heads. He studied the bluebird perched on his leg--not that he could feel it, of course--and tentatively reached forward and lightly stroked its head with a finger, smiling as the bird stayed on his leg, looking content. "So, you can manipulate animals, huh?" He decided now would be an appropriate time to tell her that he, too, had an ability. He grinned, thinking of what he had always wanted to do to tell someone about his ability. He took a deep breath. "Well, that's awesome, then, 'cause I have an ability too," he said in Eevee's voice, glancing up at her with a grin.

Careful not to disturb any of the birds, he gestured out at the view from their vantage point, out at the Hudson River and across the river at New York City, brightly lit up as usual. "So...here it is. My favorite place at night." He glanced up at Eevee. "What do you think?"

[eevee]

Eevee smiled at the birds, and then at Alexei. When she was younger she’d played princess (hard to believe, huh?), and the animals had been her loyal servants. She hadn’t known at the time that the longer she used her powers on the animals, the more they became ‘infected,’ or unable to breath, think, do anything on their own. Soon birds would start to die, and then cats, and then Sport, her Boxer. Now she knew to let the animals go before it got that bad.

Alexei spoke. Surprised, Eevee glanced at the man. ‘This is weird,’ she thought, for Alexei had spoken with her voice. “Well, that’s not strange.” She remarked sarcastically. Then, when Alexei said this was his favorite place, she nodded. And she waved her hand, which wasn’t really needed, but it was to let Alexei know what was happening next. The birds, released from her control, wheeled up into the air, chirping frantically.

“This place is very pretty.” Eevee admitted. Though she may always speak her mind, Eevee doesn’t readily ‘admit’ many things—just like she doesn’t smile much. Alexei was bringing the better side of her out. Eevee sat down where she was, her legs loosely in upside-down ‘V’ shapes, her arms resting gently on her knees. She was sitting like a man would—if he were ‘gangsta’ style—but she put a slightly feminine twist to it. “You come here often?”

[alexei]

Alexei grinned at Eevee's sarcastic remark. "Very true," he said, laughing. "Just thought it'd be a good time to, you know, tell you." He couldn't remember the first time he had discovered that he could imitate any sound or voice, but he had spent endless fun in school saying things in other people's voices, and impressing people with his spot-on impersonations of Darth Vader and the Terminator. It wasn't long before he realized he could do other sounds, too, even artificial ones.

He watched as Eevee made the birds disperse, glancing up into the sky. It was a pretty clear night, and he could see more stars than usual. He looked out at the view, up at the stars, his mind wandering, but then was brought back by Eevee speaking again.

"Yeah, usually at least once a week. It's a good place to just sit and...think, you know, just unwind after a long day." He glanced out at the view again, pulling his jacket tighter around him.

[eevee]

Eevee twiddled her fingers. This was such a nice place that she might start coming here, too, if only to be with someone she could have intelligent conversations with. It was nice, quiet, and didn't have a blanket of smog covering it like New York seemed to have. She sighed contentedly.

Then, after a bit of staring out at New York, Eevee turned to Alexei. “This is fun, and I bet this looks wonderful in the daytime.” It would look even better in the daytime, Eevee realized, than she could imagine. The sun shining off the water, the birds flying, the ducks in the water, the expanse of nothingness out before her. She spent a few moments sitting there silently, just looking, just wondering. Would Eevee stalk Alexei if she came here? Would Alexei think it weird? Did she really care?

Not really, tell the truth. Eevee would come here even if Alexei came here, and even if Alexei told her not to. But Alexei didn’t strike her as the type to complain… or tell people to do something, much less Eevee. Eevee could put a bullet in his head inside one minute, but she never did that—ever. SWAT was really getting to her, she realized, but said nothing about her thoughts. Instead, she just looked at the beautiful expanse around, and before, her.