biggerstick | (no subject)

Mute.

[pulls the safety glasses off and points at him with the spray gun he's using]

What do you want? I'm busy.

To talk. I'm sorry.

[doesn't lower the gun]

What are you sorry for?

. . . I'm not sure. But I, you know, hurt you, so I'd like to make that right.

[ winces a little, he knows that was lame. ]

You must not like that shirt very much.

I do, actually.

Keep this up and you won't like it for much longer.

Do whatever you gotta do, I guess.

Let's see if I got this right. You came here to see if coming here would somehow make me no longer mad at you.

No. Like I said, I came here to talk about it.

Well. Talk.

Okay.

. . . I know how you feel about it. I mean, I know. It's— what I've been through with Bucky, it's all 'cause I couldn't keep myself out of trouble and he couldn't let me go it alone. It's awful knowing that. It's the one thing that makes me wish I could give it all up, 'cause he's gonna keep goin' where I go.

If you don't wanna keep doing it then don't.

That's not the point.

Pepper isn't a soldier and the harder you try to draw parallels the more pissed off I get.

Bucky was drafted. He didn't want to fight. He still doesn't want to fight. But you really think that's what I'm trying to tell you, that after all that I've got any desire for the same thing for you?

You clearly had no trouble with it up until I got angry.

You haven't got the market cornered on ill-timed humor. Believe me, I knew you'd be angry. Maybe I was hoping you wouldn't be.

Yeah well. Tough luck.

Yeah.

Was that all? I have work to do.

[ drums his fingers on the table for a moment. ]

. . . guess so.

I'll talk to her. How angry I am at you depends entirely on how set she is on it.

Now that's just not fair.

You're potentially ruining my life here. I don't care about what you think is fair.