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[hippie_ninja]

This is Jesus. Leave a message.

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[konstant]

I would like that.

[hippie_ninja]

Where am I meeting you?

[konstant]

I still don't have a roommate.

[hippie_ninja]

I'll head over now.

~~~> Spam ]

[konstant]

The door is unlocked, and the room is in much better shape this time than the last time Jesus was over. He has lights on and everything is picked up, both beds made.

He looks physically a lot better although his expression is still troubled - until he sees Jesus and smiles.

"Hey. Come in."

[hippie_ninja]

He's glimpsed K at work since they went out that night, but he's barely had a chance to speak to him. He hasn't seen him smile until now and he takes it as a good sign, returns it readily.

"I brought this," he holds up a bag of mini chocolate bars, liberated from a shop the last time he was in the Up. He doesn't risk it often up there--now he figures it was worth it.

[konstant]

K at work has looked absolutely miserable, staring at nothing and unwilling to speak or come close, buried in his coat as much as he could get away with doing so.

Now he peers at the chocolate and the smile sticks.

"For me?"

[hippie_ninja]

He grins and holds it out. For you.

"From a boutique in the Up." Which means the chocolate is better than what they have around them, and the chocolates are shaped like little nipples and penises. Because of course they are.

[konstant]

K takes them as they walk back into the room and can't decide if he's more or less amused because of the shapes. He knows for sure he's touched by the gesture.

"Share them with me?" he asks, opening the package and offering it out.

[hippie_ninja]

He takes one and lets it melt on his tongue. It's velvety and soft and he means it when he says, "Thanks."

The place is as tidy as the last time he was here, only K isn't huddled in bed this time. "Should I take off my boots? They're-" the ones he used to kill walkers for a very long time. "--I should take them off."

[konstant]

He wants to, kind of. He's upright and there's color in his skin and he's not shivering but he does keep watching when Jesus moves.

It's not much as far as nerves go, but K doesn't show much of anything.

"If you're comfortable," he offers. K isn't wearing boots. "Thanks for coming here. I - if we were in public I'd have to go shirtless." Which he doesn't particularly want to do.

[hippie_ninja]

He kneels down to untie them. "What happened?"

It's a mild punishment, compared to some he's heard (and the one he went through, but his was intentional so he doesn't know if it counts).

[konstant]

K, in comparison to most people garnering punishment, is a very mild offender. He considers the chocolate in his hand again while he sinks down to sit on a loveseat in the area not occupied by two beds.

"The SIN guards hate me having my coat zipped up. I didn't remove it when I was told. That's all."

[hippie_ninja]

He offers a small, sympathetic nod. He hates the mark on his own throat; he has no tattoos, had never wanted so much as henna on his skin.

"Well, I don't mind being here. I'm surprised they've let you have the place to yourself this long."

[konstant]

Jesus nods. That's it, just nods. K presses his lips together thoughtfully and finally, with alacrity, pps one of the chocolates into his mouth.

It melts some part of him even as it melts itself, and he smiles again until he's glancing up.

"Maybe I'm just too much of a trouble maker. They don't want to expose anyone else."

[hippie_ninja]

"I've been to prison now," he points out. He has no regrets about it, and now there aren't even bruises to show for it. "Maybe I'm rubbing off on you."

[konstant]

"Yes but the system thinks that means you're reformed now."

Jesus is the one who brings it up - kind of - so K considers him for a moment before cautiously offering, "I didn't give you the chance to tell me much about that. If you wanted to."

[hippie_ninja]

"It got rough. My friends got me out of it." He has had time to sit and think about what happened, but there are parts he doesn't want to go into detail about. The whole of it is, "I don't want to go back in."

[konstant]

K thinks they knew that part was likely; other people told them as much. He also thinks that means Jesus has made a decision regarding the things to do or not do that will lead back to that place.

He offers the chocolate again, watching intently.

[hippie_ninja]

He takes one, but the other things he has to say about the situation sit too deep in his ribs.

"What about you? How did the injection go?" Because, his tone says, he's probably in line for that punishment next even if he does stay out of the Zoo.

[konstant]

It worries him, the things Jesus won't say; but he can't make him, and he can't be someone Jesus trusts or wants to tell about it if he's not. He'll do his best to be better, he thinks. He didn't do much for Jesus the last time they sat in a room together and spoke. Next time, if Jesus lets him, he will.

K's eyes drop immediately the moment the injection is mentioned. His mouth goes dry, and he has to work even harder than usual to find words.

"I found someone to... Help." Which reminds him of something he'd thought at the time and now glances up, uncertain in a way that might actually be resolvable: "Is that okay?"

[hippie_ninja]

He hates to see that look on K's face, hates that he had to go through it at all, hates that it looks very much like how he feels thinking about the Zoo. But the question draws him up short in surprise.

"Yes," he says, and laughs softly because, "I wondered the same thing when..." He trails off. Just when. Whenever he's so much as kissed anyone, trying to find ways to make quota, his thoughts have flitted to strange Officer K.

"Are you okay?"

[konstant]

It makes him feel... something in turn. Surprised, certainly, and something faintly like pleased but sharper, more private; it occurs to him only after a moment that he should perhaps say something in turn, although it's not something he would ever have thought to give something as entitled as permission for: "It's okay."

When, it's okay.

As for the other, he struggles not to fidget, ends up rubbing one thumb over the other's knuckle anyway. "It's... a difficult choice. Possibly hurt others, or hurt myself. I don't like it, even though I know which one is right."

[hippie_ninja]

He says it's okay, and of course it is, why wouldn't it be, but he's so relieved to hear it anyway that he's smiling. At least until K goes on.

"It isn't right that we have to hurt ourselves. Nothing makes that right. But for now it's the only choice we have... And I know that. I'm still sorry you had to go through that."

He brushes his thumb along the side of K's hand. "Are you going to miss quota? On purpose, I mean?" He won't judge whatever choice he makes.

[konstant]

"I don't think I can."

K watches Jesus reach for him, watches the path of his light touch almost impassively; almost, except there's always something going on behind K's eyes, and this time he's suppressing a shiver, well aware that there's more behind it now than there ever has been.

Aware that now he knows.

"I don't want to feel like that again. I don't know if it's the same for humans, if it would be the same for you, but - I retired replicants that couldn't control themselves. That weren't themselves on the inside anymore."