kingdom come

Zan Kent. Yeah, that one. Things were a little easier when I was trying not to kill myself for a living.

[piercingthunder]

Stuck in the Middle With You | RJ & Zan

[piercingthunder]

'Right, and we’ll play this like the very mature twelve-year-olds we both are.'

"Good, at least there’s no denying the truth."

She regretted asking him anything as soon as the question came out of her mouth. The weird thing was, she really did care, at least a little. She could see a little bit of the bruising still left, very faintly, and she knew Nesh had the capacity to do quite a number on someone if he wanted to. Sometimes she hated the fact that she cared more than she wanted to. 

'Better than your friend’s nose, probably.'

And there it was, a reason to not care so much anymore. What a prick. RJ rolled her eyes as he kept on doing his exercises, but she also decided to follow suit. After putting a few weights on the bench press, more than she was used to, really, she positioned herself under it. For some reason she felt the need to do more right now, really not knowing why. The first set was fine, but as she kept going with the second set, she felt herself struggling, grunting a little louder than she’d meant to. She wasn’t gonna just hang it up though. No way.

[zaninspace]

RJ upped the weight on the bars, probably more than she should have. Obviously trying to show the soldier up. Zan knew she was strong, but he watched the wait added and added to a point that he wasn't even sure he could lift it without straining something, let alone without someone to spot him. "You're going to hurt yourself," he muttered, keeping his voice low enough that she might not be able to hear but loud enough to be able to say "I told you so" when she pulled a muscle. He kept his eyes cut towards her, watching her somehow manage the great weight over her, but not without one hell of a struggle.

He shouldn't say anything else, he knew. Whatever she did to herself while they were in lock up was on her. Besides, he didn't need her crawling up his ass yelling about being underestimated or something. The last thing he needed to do was offender on top of knocking her friend around. He'd never get any peace that way.

But he watched her struggle again, in a way that she definitely wasn't supposed to. Zan sighed as he heaved himself off the bench and dragged his feet across the room towards her. "I said," he spoke steadily despite the fatigue that filled his bones with cement, "you're going to pull a muscle like that." He positioned himself behind her, resting a hand gently on the bar. "You need to lower it by about twenty pounds, it looks like this thing weighs two of you right now."

[orsi-curse]

[pt] Well, Vind just asked Lee if we’ve fucked yet, so honestly, not too great.

[zaninspace]

[pt] Is that guy always fucking weird or just when he's around other people? Keep Lee safe for me.

[orsi-curse]

[pt] I don’t know who you’re talking about. Nesh? Is that her best friend? I’m seriously removed from the sub culture aboard this starship. Anyway, you should try and get laid while you’re stuck in there.

[zaninspace]

[pt]: If only I were stuck in here with your dumb ass. How's life on the outside?

[orsi-curse]

[pt] Who the fuck is that? No, wait I know who that is. Aw, she’s cute, that’s not even bad.

[zaninspace]

[pt] Are we talking about the same person? I mean, I broke her bff's nose so she pretty much hates me.

[zaninspace]

orsi-curse replied to your post:[text transmission] I'm gonna fuck your co worker.

[text transmission] Private Burns. Stuck in the mess hall. He found me and Vind. Where are you?

[pt] Stuck in the gym. With RJ...

[zaninspace]

[text transmission] I'm gonna fuck your co worker.

[pt] Which one? Send video. Where are you?

[piercingthunder]

Stuck in the Middle With You | RJ & Zan

[piercingthunder]

This really couldn’t have possibly gotten any worse. Well, maybe if she’d been in here with Jordan, that would have been worse…but Zan wasn’t very much higher on her totem pole either. He seemed just as unhappy with the situation as she did, but that didn’t serve as even the slightest bit of consolation. As Zan swiftly gave up and sat down, RJ turned to the door and attempted to pry it open with her fingers, to an unsurprising amount of failure. Even with all that upper arm strength, all those goddamn pull-ups, the most she could do with it was make the door wiggle a little. A little. “What a hunk of junk,” she muttered, giving the doorframe a swift kick with her boot. Heaving a huge sigh, she flung herself to a bench on the opposite side of the room.

"How’s about you stay over there, and I stay over here, and we’ll wait for somebody to let us out of this unfortunate situation, yeah?” She heaved another sigh and let the back of her head hit the wall, before lifting it up to put her threaded hands behind it. She tried her best to keep her gaze away from Zan’s general area, and when they did make eye contact, she was quick to break it with an eye roll and even a little scoff every once and a while. After a few minutes of intense silence, RJ leaned forward and got out her communicator, sending off a quick message to Nesh before packing it away again. She could hear ringing in her ears with how quiet it was. The silence seemed even louder than the humming of the ship, and it was starting to drive her crazy. Resting her elbows on her knees, RJ put on the most neutral expression she could muster.

"How’s your face?"

[zaninspace]

At least RJ wasn't anymore pleased about the situation than he was. He watched her try to pry open the door with her bare hands, choked back a sudden fit childish laughter at the idea that she could really believe that would work. Zan didn't laugh, though. As much as it hurt his lungs to hold it in. Instead, he wrapped his fingers around the handles of the flyer. It was easier to continue his work out than try to carry on a conversation with a woman who obviously hated him. Not without reason, he reminded himself. Though, even he didn't think he'd earned this much scorn.

“Right, and we'll play this like the very mature twelve-year-olds we both are,” he snapped back at her suggestion to keep to their own sides. It seemed absurd that she'd build up so much hatred towards him despite having had minimal interactions with him. But she was Daniels' friend, and that was probably all that mattered to her anyway. The tension in the room had been at a steady, manageable level. But now the room was swelling with it. Zan felt it closing in on both of them. If the pressure built up anymore, the walls might bow out and explode. That would certainly be one way to escape this predicament.

RJ seemed determined to be as miserable as humanly possible throughout whatever span of time they were stuck together and all Zan wanted to do was ignore her and work out and maybe go pass out on the floor for a few hours. He didn't want to engage in conversation but she spoke anyway, her voice biting and comment clearly meant to irritate. “Better than your friend's nose, probably,” he spat across the room without looking at her.

[piercingthunder]

Stuck in the Middle With You | RJ & Zan

She didn’t know what it was, but for some reason RJ just could not relax lately. Usually laying down and reading or playing a video game in the entertainment sector or eating (especially eating) would be really good stress relievers for her, but she just couldn’t get into them like she use to. Maybe Wyatt had been right, about the end of the tour blues or whatever he’d called it. Everything seemed to be happening so fast and so slow at the same time. She couldn’t wait for it to be over, but she didn’t want it to end, and the conflicting feelings were finally getting to her. 

The only thing that seemed to still be working was the gym, and her body was definitely a testament to that. She’d never felt more toned and fit in her life. She actually told herself that soon she’d have to tone it down a little, otherwise her arms were gonna be too big to fit in with the rest of her body. Still, today she was doing her favorite thing: pull-ups. However, she wasn’t able to focus as much as she’d like to, because she felt eyes on her from across the room. They weren’t the sort of eyes that she was use to. They weren’t the eyes of men on the verge of a ridiculously ill-judged pickup line, or the wandering eyes of a curious (much more welcome) woman. No, they were eyes squinted in a glare, with hate seated steadfastly behind them, boring into RJ’s skin so hard she almost felt the burning. 

Zander Kent, doing machine flyes in the corner that made him look like a nearsighted bird desperate to get off the ground. He might as well be one, seeing as he couldn’t even pass his flight academy entrance exam. The academy wasn’t something that RJ held with as high of esteem as Nesh did, but it was still fun to see Zan squirm with how much it bothered him. On top of that, the way Zan clung to his fame like an addiction made RJ sick to her stomach. It wasn’t like it was something she was jealous of, but the fact that she’d seen quite enough of the unearned entitlement from her siblings that any more of it was an overload on her system. 

RJ made sure her glare was sent right back at him has his figure bobbed above and below the bar she was using to fight the artificial gravity. She wasn’t gonna start anything, and after what happened with Nesh, was pretty certain he wouldn’t either…but that didn’t mean she was gonna back down from his death stare either. As time went on, other people left and it was just the two of them as the ship’s PA system crackled to life.

'Security malfunction code green: All passengers who are able, please report to the mess hall for further instructions.'

RJ dropped from her bar and finally broke her eye contact with Zan. “The hell?…” she muttered as she made a bee-line for the door. A few taps on the touch panel proved the announcement correct. RJ jerked her head toward Zan, still across the room, and promptly rolled her eyes. “Oh this is fucking fantastic.”

[zaninspace]

Zan wasn't sure how they'd manage to lock themselves into this awkward staring contest. He'd tried his best to ignore her. She was a pilot and a friend to the guy who belonged to the nose he'd smashed in just a few days ago. And Zan was already buried too deep in shit to stir up more trouble if it could be avoided. But a casual glance (perhaps mistaken and seen as something more threatening) in the pilots direction had been returned in kind with a malicious glare. And now neither of them seemed able or even a little willing to back down. He watched her, his burning but narrowed and trailing after RJ's as she pulled herself up and down on a bar across the room.

The gym was generally peaceful this time of day. Other people were eating or sleeping or working and Zan was just coming off the over night shift he'd been saddled with as part of his punishment. Nesh, as far as Zan had heard, had gotten a slap on the wrist for his part in the events that transpired. And even though Zan knew she should have gone to his bunk to catch some sleep, it was that knowledge that made his blood boil into a rage that kept him awake and tossing and turning every time he tried. So his pattern had become work, food, gym until he wore himself out, then sleep. And then he repeated. Every day. For two weeks. Without pay.

While Daniels did whatever Daniels did with nothing but a sore wrist to show for it.

This is ridiculous, he thought to himself, letting the weights drop with a loud clank. Zan opened his mouth to say something. To tell RJ that if she didn't want to look at him she could turn around and to her pull ups in the other direction. Or that he wasn't here to start shit and she shouldn't either. Something aggressive and irritated that would let him save face when all he wanted to do was just look at the floor and do his reps in peace. But his thoughts were cut short by the three tone melody that signaled an intercom announcement.

Fantastic wasn't quite the word Zan would have used, but he pushed himself off the bench and dragged his feet towards RJ and the locked door anyway. “Let me,” he said, his voice distant and hollow, carrying behind it an exhaustion that outweighed anything else he might have felt. Because being stuck in a room with RJ for any length of time wasn't going to be “fantastic.” It was going to be down right exhausting. His fingers moved along the glowing, smooth glass surface of the key panel. Selecting the lock down menu, Zan typed in the seven-digit ID code that he knew allowed soldiers access to certain parts of the ships others weren't privy to. Only in case of emergency, though. But it was worth a shot.

Nothing. The teal-blue back-lighting turned an angry red color and “DENIED” flashed across the screen.

“Ugh,” Zan groaned, suddenly feeling as if his bones had been filled with cement. There was no use trying again, and too many wrong tries and the room would shut down completely. Cheik or one of the co-pilots would have to come let them out and who knew how long that would tank. “Fuck,” he cursed under his breath, practically flinging himself around RJ and back towards his bench.

[lee-burning]

Uh…I’m gonna try really hard not to?

[zaninspace]

I dunno if that's a good enough answer, Lee.

[lee-burning]

So are we gonna like, party all day and get loads of chicks and will you let me ride your racer?

[zaninspace]

If I let you ride my racer, are you gonna wreck it?

[lee-burning]

Thanks.

I mean. Thank you, really. That, I dunno, I guess that feels kinda nice..

[zaninspace]

So, now you're obligated, as my friend, to come on a fucking awesome vacation with me, right?

[lee-burning]

I’m really not fun, I swear. Like I’m…the least fun in the world. For my twenty first birthday, a bunch of other soldiers took me to a bar and I fell asleep in a booth and they left me by accident.

I think it was by accident…

[zaninspace]

You're my friend. I need you there.

[lee-burning]

I mean, really? Cause…I mean, maybe. I dunno..

[zaninspace]

C'mon. Go home. See your mom. And we'll all take off together for a few weeks. Can't say we haven't earned it, right?

[lee-burning]

You’re so not kidding, Zan…

[zaninspace]

You're right. You've really gotta come with us though. That part, I'm definitely not joking about!

[lee-burning]

Uh yeah, he doesn’t look like he has emotions and it kind of makes me nervous.

But I mean, if you like him, he can’t be that bad.

[zaninspace]

He's not a bad guy. Plus, I'm hoping to get laid at least once on this trip. He seems pretty into me, so...

Nah, I'm totally kidding.

[lee-burning]

Is that why you guys are so close?

You can always get hurt and get free medicare!

[zaninspace]

I'm hoping to keep him around when I get back on the track. Seems like he knows what he's doing and his bed side manner doesn't suck.

Well, it does. But it doesn't bug me as much as it seems to bug other people.

[lee-burning]

I can’t go to the beach man…The second I step in sunlight I turn into a fuc-fucking lobster.

But I’ll come. Can’t let Nurse Orsi have all the fun…

[zaninspace]

Hey, Orsi's a nurse? You turn into a lobster and he'll fix you. Or we'll just drink until you can't feel it.

Sound good?