let's get crunk! ;; remy, hadley

"Because you make damn good coffee," Hadley replied, as if it were obvious. Why else would he give coffee guy a raise? "I'm acknowledging your talent."

You know what I'm better at? Paul thought, jaggedly. Working in politics. If Hadley had been deaf instead of blind Paul would have laughed bitterly. As it was, he held his tongue.

"How kind of you," he said, keeping his voice level.

Hadley wrote:"You slept with coffee guy?"

"I'm pretty sure his name is Paul," Arizona replied absentmindedly. "But yeah, he let me snuggle in bed with him." She grinned at Paul goofily. What a nice guy. Most guys would have taken advantage of a drunk girl, or kicked her out, but not good ol Paul!

Paul wrote:"How kind of you,"

Arizona could tell that Paul wasn't very amused with Hadley. He was rather impersonable toward his staff. Ari at least knew all of her staff members by name and enjoyed their company. "You really do make good coffee though," she said encouragingly.

"Well thank you, Overloridian," Paul said. Should he still call her that after she shared his bed? Eh, whatever.

Paul wheeled his little coffee cart back into the kitchen.

"Hm. He didn't seem very happy about getting a raise," Hadley said to no one in particular after he heard the little cart wheel away. "By the way, Arizona, you're welcome to take a shower here if you want." He could smell her from wherever she was standing and it was not pleasant.

"I'm sure Remy wouldn't mind if you borrowed some of her clothes," he added, knowing full well that Remy would very much mind.

"Actually, Remy would very much mind," Remy said pointedly. "But you probably should take a shower."

She glared daggers at Hadley, disappointed more than ever that he couldn't see her. But he knew. She knew he knew. It made her even more angry.

"Actually," Arizona replied with a yawn. "I think I'm gonna head home now!" She finished her coffee, then walked over to Hadley. "Last night was fun!" She said while hugging him and pecking him on the cheek. She started walking to the front door. "Thanks for not kicking me out, Rem!" She waved, and then left.

Hadley was surprised when Arizona hugged him, and even more surprised when she kissed him on the cheek. He ended up hugging her back though, mostly just to annoy Remy. Once he was pretty sure she was gone, he said to Remy innocently, "What a nice girl she is."

It was so, so unfair that Hadley couldn't see the look on Remy's face right now. It would have just made this moment so much more enjoyable. He missed being able to see her face so much.

"Oh, the just nicest," Remy said with fake cheer. She'd admitted to herself that Hadley was cute, but he was still an asshole.

And if Remy hadn't hated Arizona before that little stunt with the lips and the cheek and the jealousy, she sure did now.

Remy shut the book she had been studying. She'd show it to tell Hadley about it sometime later when she wasn't so irritated with him.

"Don't ever change, Remy," Hadley told her, leaning over and putting his arm around her in a half affectionate, half teasing sort of way. He honestly did not know what he'd do without Remy. Arizona had provided a nice distraction for the night, but Remy was really the only clio keeping him sane right now.

Remy narrowed her eyes at Hadley. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked a little defensively. Of course he was making fun of her, but she couldn't decide why.

What did she mean, 'what was that supposed to mean'? "It means what it sounds like," Hadley said, slightly bemused. Did she think he was lying or being sarcastic? "I'm serious. Don't change. I," he paused, searching for the right words that he wanted to use, "enjoy the way you are."

Why don't you tell her that stuff you were just thinking? Nila suggested, since his choice of words turned out to be awful. Not knowing what you'd do without her, and stuff.

Then she'd definitely think I was lying, Hadley said. Not to mention, if she did figure out he was serious, she'd hold it over his head forever. He wasn't about to give her that ammunition.

"Ha ha," Remy said, not quite sure what to say. Was he trying to catch her in a moment of weakness?

She decided against keeping the books until later, and swiped it off the coffee table. "In other news," she said, trying to change the subject to something less confusing for her, "I got us these."

She placed the book in Hadley's lap. "Open it up," she told him.

Hadley was incredibly unimpressed with Remy when she dropped a book into his lap. "Really, Rem?" he asked incredulously. "This is almost as bad as my parents sending me a card at the hospital." As expected his careless, clueless parents had never bothered to visit him while he was in the hospital, opting instead to send him the most thoughtless 'gift' clioly imaginable.

"Oh, open it up you big dummy," Remy told him, rolling her eyes. Did he really think she was so stupid? It almost made her want to snatch the book back up.

She sighed and then reached over and lifted the cover of the book, flipping pages till it was opened to the middle. Then she took one of Hadley's hands into hers and brushed his fingers over the page.

"Oh," Hadley said quietly, feeling the little raised bumps under his fingers. "Well, this makes a lot more sense." He turned the page and felt that one too, even though it was completely meaningless to him right now. He wondered how hard it would be to learn.

"Wait, 'us'?" he asked, thinking back to what she had said before. Was Remy going to try to learn this with him?

"Well, yeah," Remy said. "I figured it would be nice. And necessary! Well, I figured this way I wouldn't have to read anything to you, ya know? But I could still read your documents. It's going to lessen my workload," Remy assured him.

"Well...thanks," Hadley said with rare, actual sincerity. Seriously, what would he do without Remy? He decided she was getting a raise, too. He closed the book and carefully moved it to the table. "Oh, speaking of work...wasn't there a thing going on today?"

Although Remy had been basically working for him these past several days, she had been keeping him up-to-date on the events going on in Earalas, and he was pretty sure she had mentioned something important happening today.

"Yeah," Remy told him, smiling a little at the sincerity in his voice. How nice that he was actually thanking her for something without being a little jerk about it.

"I actually was planning on heading out soon. Clara over at the coal plant needed me to check the new tunnel branch and sign off on some paperwork." Remy didn't particularly like the coal plant--it was really dirty--but she knew that Hadley wasn't going to be able to do it. It's not like he could see the tunnel maps or anything, or view the construction to okay it. Sigh.

A trip to the coal plant? Well, didn't that just sound a lot more interesting than sitting in the house all day? "Great," Hadley replied, getting to his feet. "Let me get ready and then we can go. Wanna pick something to wear for me?"

Wait, what? Nila asked. Hadley wanted to go where?

"Wait, what?" Remy asked. Hadley wanted to go where?

"You never even wanted to go to the coal mine when you could see, Hadley," Remy told him suspiciously. "You just want to cause trouble."

"It's my job to go," Hadley said defensively. So what if he hadn't wanted to go before? He wanted to go now and he was going to. The doctor had given him the okay to be up and about as long as he wasn't doing anything strenuous. "And no, believe it or not I actually don't plan on causing trouble in the place where they mine my country's most expensive resource."

He started off in the direction of his bedroom, figuring that if Remy tried to leave without him while he was getting ready, he'd just make someone else go with him and meet her there.

Remy watched Hadley stumble off to his bedroom. This was not a good idea. He would be more of a liability than an asset in this situation. This was dangerous.

Remy thought all these things and many derivatives of these things as she changed into a simple pair of shorts and some sort of shirt she didn't care that much about. It didn't take her that long, so then she walked to Hadley's room. She heard shuffling around inside.

"Are you still seriously planning on coming?" she asked from outside the door. "Because I'm just--it might be a little dangerous for you. Don't you think?" She couldn't hide the worry from her voice.

Nila helped Hadley find clothes that would make him look presentable as an overloridian for his first venture back out into the real world. Doing his hair was a little more difficult, but he was pretty sure he managed and Nila assured him he looked fine. Aside from a few healing bruises that were much less noticeable than they had been, he looked like his usual, pre-assaulted self (according to Nila).

Remy wrote:"Are you still seriously planning on coming? Because I'm just--it might be a little dangerous for you. Don't you think?"

Hadley opened the door. "I'll be fine," he said shortly. He was sick of doing nothing. He was sick of receiving pity when he did try to do something. He was doing this. "I'm ready when you are."

He'd made up his mind.

"Okay, then," Remy said, pulling on a jacket. "I guess we're ready to go then."

She followed Hadley out the door and the pair took a balloon to the coal mine. Clara was there to great them, giving them both hard hats to wear with they were in the vicinity. Another reason Remy hated the coal plant.

Clara looked back and forth from Remy to Hadley with her eyebrows raised. She hadn't been expecting the overloridian. Remy just shrugged her shoulders. She'd learned long ago that Hadley would do whatever he wanted--it was one of the reasons she'd given up on changing his mind so easily.

As the three walked towards the control office, which was really a crude station made up of dividers, Hadley almost walked into a pile of rubble, which was lying everywhere. Usually Nila made up for his lack of eyesight, but with the discarded rock laying all around them, it was probably hard.

"Here," Remy said, walking over to Hadley. She looped her arm through his. "Let's walk together."

She knew she'd probably get made fun of, but she didn't want him to get hurt anymore than he already was. Blah.