Cold Call || Aria, Fish, Toadie
”’Jailbird’? Fuck you, Stark! Not you,” Aria added, nodding in Fish’s direction. “Your no-account twin.” He really didn’t know the half of it, though. She rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue at Toadie. “Just like that, you’ve been dropped in the ranks. Uncle Jax is gaining on you. Guesses like that aren’t helping matters, either, His Fucking Toadliness.”
Still, her mouth dropped open in exaggerated shock hearing Fish be the first one to laugh at her announcement. “I— why does everybody say stuff like that?! They act so surprised!” Aria laughed and covered her face with her hands, muffling her voice slightly from mashing them against her mouth. “I’ve been living with him since they let us out of quarantine.” (He was a homebody, though. And before they’d dramatically cut it off, their awkward press tour with Weyland had taken them to Egypt, where they promptly ditched the parties they were meant to attend to skulk around museums and ruins, so it wasn’t like they didn’t actually “retreat” in Africa. She was willing to fight either or both of the Starks about calling Daniel an “asshole,” but Aria had to wonder if they were all that predictable to each other.)
She moved her hands off to the side, holding them against her cheeks but leaving the rest of her face free. “But… thank you. That means… a lot.”
Aria had a brief thought that she’d never had brothers before, and would it have been like this at all? Coffee and teasing and bickering and being happy for each other, and… I guess, hacking and hunting each other down. She smiled back at Fish, but looked away and turned back to her mug when Toadie wanted a private word.
"Ya damn skippy, His Fucking Toadliness." Toadie wrinkled his nose and narrowed his eyes— decaf espresso— but shrugged back, shaking his head. He knew he and Fish both had picked up little body language quirks (Toadie fidgeted constantly, which put some people on edge, but the alternative of staring folks down hadn’t exactly been a happy compromise for anyone involved), and he knew that, for whatever reason, responding in kind would put whichever brother had moved first at ease. It didn’t make sense; it wasn’t like the little things that they each knew were bigger, like knowing the way Fish’s face panicked and then closed off right before he tensed up when he was nervous, and how that was different than the drowning look he got when things were too loud or brought him back where he didn’t want to be— or that whenever Toadie sat too still Fish could tell whether he was lost in a bad memory or a good one or just thinking. But for all that it was still something between them. Communication. A catchphrase or a handshake more than a code, but still there. Wonder Twin Powers, activate.
Toadie’s face lit up when Fish laughed, and he glanced between his brother and Aria to see how the conversation would play out. It came naturally to Fish when he let go of— everything— to laugh and be happy and have some fun without having to think about it too much, but Toadie knew from everything. So would Aria, at least for some of it, really. They were laughing like they could finally catch a break, without needing to hold onto everything so tight. And Toadie laughed himself when Aria admitted she’d been living with Hargrave nearly a year. “Holy shit, I was kidding about the sex scandal. But oh-ho-ho, what have we here?” Toadie grinned and tacked on, in a much less mocking tone, “Same here, squirt. You have the Royal Blessing.”
He leveled a long look at Fish, watching for— he didn’t know what. If there was something Fish didn’t want to say. If there was a reason to call this off right now. Toadie wasn’t sure if he was trying to read Fish’s nerves or his own, but they were both clearly… rattled, a bit. Fish looked nervous. But was Toadie projecting? Was Turkey really safe? Toadie glanced quickly at Aria before turning back to his brother; he knew damn well Turkey was safe or the old timers who frequented the coffeeshop would’ve been grousing about it at some point. He was reaching. And besides, even if Aria knew something they didn’t (which was, admittedly, likely), she was a scrappy little thing, and she wouldn’t send them into trouble she didn’t at least think she could get them out of herself. Just like a “maybe" from Aria about Robin coming was probably twice as solid (and five times as illegal) as a dozen “definitely”s from anyone else. He resisted the urge to chuckle. She really was too tiny to have stones like that.
But this— this kind of thing, Fish with his walls down, able to chat amiably without resorting to painfully stiff small talk about the weather and long silences about the news— seeing people they both knew, if not from before before, than at least from before… this— that was doing Fish some good. No matter what concerns Toadie might or might not have (that he was absofuckinglutely not going to look into), that was worth giving a shot, if nothing else. Hell, especially for free. But Toadie would’ve paid himself after seeing how well Fish responded to Aria dropping onto their doorstep like Mary Goddamn Poppins.
"Turkey, man." Toadie grinned. "I never thought I’d hear you want to take a break from filing paperwork. Hell must be freezing over. I’m in, bro. And if it sucks, we can always ditch."
As Aria seemed to hide her own blush at Daniel, Fish shook his head in amusement. An unlikely pairing as far as the mercenary was concerned, he was actually genuinely happy that the two of them could find something good out of all of the hassle. Still, his own hand drifted vaguely to his side, at scars fading and yet still fresh in his own mind. He thought of the artificial spleen that Hargrave had recommended, the one that was within him even now.
Smile faltering, he convened with Toadie after.
"It's not my fault the paperwork is less goddamn irritating than the people running around everywhere," he said raising his eyebrows. Were they really coming to an agreement? Fucking Turkey. He could hardly believe the words he was saying, but he knew it would be good for Toadie. Maybe good for both of them, though Fish could hardly tell what was good for himself anymore.
"Yeah, if it sucks, we'll just catch a train next country over. Won't be too hard, right?" Returning the grin, he nodded as it to reassure himself of their decision and took a step back, welcoming Aria within the conversation again.
"The Stark princes have decided," he announced in a faux-stuffy voice (God, he really was a dork, wasn't he?) He couldn't keep himself from grinning. "We can...we'll go. I mean, as long as I get window seats."
Elbowing Toadie, Fish hesitated for a moment before reaching around to grab Aria and his brother for a quick, loose hug. Fish, having grown intensely, almost oddly, quite fond of his personal space since arrival home, let them in for just a moment before releasing the two.
"When do we go?"
