"So I was an asshole," she continues, even though she doesn't think she was actually an asshole. Sometimes you say something, not because it's true, but because it'll help.
This time, Kristin does reach out, trying again to catch his arm. "But you were sweet."
Reflexively, he lets out a derisive snort. He turns away from her, staring toward the door of the elevator (has it stopped completely?), shoulder checking her if necessary.
"I don't want to talk about it."
It feels like concession, still. How does he recover?
Looking over his shoulder at her, there's a glint of that feral madness that comes from no one meaning anything to him, from loneliness, from isolation. "Unless you're so desperate for a fuck you're bribing the AI to get a chance at Elias' cock."
So he shoulder-checks her, and she turns, keeping him in his sights, and--
Kristin sucks in a sharp breath. Hurt flashes through her eyes, and then a stoniness that means I'm not letting you see me get upset. You don't deserve it.
"What," she hisses, "the fuck is wrong with you?"
Somewhere above them, there's a creaky sound, like a very old elevator coming to a stop. It's entirely for effect - surely this thing isn't powered by cables and cogs anymore.
"I got my reasons," Kovacs says, cool in the face of pain now spread between them. She should feel so rejected. The pool in his chest, the pit of loathing, deepens to his stomach. "What the fuck are yours, for tracking me down like a dog? They don't look real good."
"You were an Envoy." That she'd found out on the way to the Aerium is immaterial - the entire thing felt retroactively justified the minute he turned out to be a terrorist. "You need another reason?"
"I'm here right now because your AI is a meddling piece of shit." It's the only deflection she has right now, because he's right. She would've kept a eye on Elias' body no matter who was put inside it. That it's currently home to a man she's come to respect, someone she likes enough to fuck, just muddies up the situation.
She turns and bangs twice on the side of the elevator (normal arm, not the new one). "Hey, Poe! We're done here!"
"If that's what you gotta say," he drawls, "to sleep at night."
Kovacs pulls out the nemex and shoots the side of the elevator. A glittering redness falls momentarily away-- a hologram to make an old building look new and fresh-- before retracting around the bullet hole. "I'm not fucking kidding, Poe!"
His yelling contains hurt, like a stray dog choking at a new and unwelcome leash.
"You are being such an asshole." As though he doesn't know. As though he's likely to stop. It's almost a relief to use Poe's contrariness as a distraction; the hotel is someone they can both direct their anger toward.
It'd be a relief, even, if it had any effect.
She goes over her current inventory. Gun. Knife. Badge. Not much else of note. The gun obviously won't make a difference, and all she'll manage to do with the knife is dull the blade if she tries to use it like a can opener. What's left? Maybe a maintenance entrance at the top, disguised by hologram, but Kovacs would have to look for it - and she's disinclined to ask him a favor right now.
So she goes over to the door and tries to see if she can wedge her new fingers between it, pull it open through cybernetic technology and pure unvarnished spite.
Kristin wants to punch something. She picks the wall of the elevator, and she's pissed enough that she doesn't remember to use her left hook. The wall dents, metal clanging against the concrete of the the elevator shaft, and it dents enough that the buttons go dark, the hologram blinking out of existence. Turns out it's a clean but dingy elevator cab with faded trimmings.
Fuck.
She jabs at the button for the ground floor, but the elevator doesn't respond. (She's probably lucky this didn't turn into a one-way trip down - the elevator would hit the basement, and she'd hit the ceiling.) "Poe!"
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This time, Kristin does reach out, trying again to catch his arm. "But you were sweet."
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"I don't want to talk about it."
It feels like concession, still. How does he recover?
Looking over his shoulder at her, there's a glint of that feral madness that comes from no one meaning anything to him, from loneliness, from isolation. "Unless you're so desperate for a fuck you're bribing the AI to get a chance at Elias' cock."
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Kristin sucks in a sharp breath. Hurt flashes through her eyes, and then a stoniness that means I'm not letting you see me get upset. You don't deserve it.
"What," she hisses, "the fuck is wrong with you?"
Somewhere above them, there's a creaky sound, like a very old elevator coming to a stop. It's entirely for effect - surely this thing isn't powered by cables and cogs anymore.
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She turns and bangs twice on the side of the elevator (normal arm, not the new one). "Hey, Poe! We're done here!"
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Kovacs pulls out the nemex and shoots the side of the elevator. A glittering redness falls momentarily away-- a hologram to make an old building look new and fresh-- before retracting around the bullet hole. "I'm not fucking kidding, Poe!"
His yelling contains hurt, like a stray dog choking at a new and unwelcome leash.
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It'd be a relief, even, if it had any effect.
She goes over her current inventory. Gun. Knife. Badge. Not much else of note. The gun obviously won't make a difference, and all she'll manage to do with the knife is dull the blade if she tries to use it like a can opener. What's left? Maybe a maintenance entrance at the top, disguised by hologram, but Kovacs would have to look for it - and she's disinclined to ask him a favor right now.
So she goes over to the door and tries to see if she can wedge her new fingers between it, pull it open through cybernetic technology and pure unvarnished spite.
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"Yeah," Kovacs says, shoulder checking her again as he walks past her, toward his room, "have fun riding back down."
He doesn't know what he'll do if she tries to follow him. Probably fucking explode.
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Fuck.
She jabs at the button for the ground floor, but the elevator doesn't respond. (She's probably lucky this didn't turn into a one-way trip down - the elevator would hit the basement, and she'd hit the ceiling.) "Poe!"