050: Just Because I'm Losing Doesn't Mean I'm Lost

[contract_star]

[Hei looks significantly better now than he did back when, yanno, he was almost dying. He's lying on a rather ratty couch, a newspaper folded over his stomach. It's opened to the Classified section, and a few things are circled.]

[Hei yawns and stares up at the Astral Sky.]

I actually missed Sapporo. Nice to have a break from it all, finally...and that construction job should open on the sixth, so...

[He suddenly frowns a little.]

Wait, then... [He gathers up the newspaper and looks at the date at the top. He blinks, mildly surprised.]

Oh...huh.


[ooc: Hei forgot his birthday on the 3rd :|]

Comments

[contract_star]

[>:|] I'm not a kid.

[mercwamouth]

Sure. Whatever you say.

[contract_star]

I'm not. No one's called me a kid in ten years.

[mercwamouth]

I'm sorry. No one's an adult at thirteen.

[contract_star]

Eleven years.

Not an adult, maybe, but not a kid. You're not a kid if you're being ordered to kill people.

[mercwamouth]

Killing people does not make you mature. You may not have had a happy childhood, but you were still a child.

[contract_star]

No, it doesn't. But you're not a child anymore once you start killing. Why the hell do you think I haven't even thought about birthdays in more than five years?

[mercwamouth]

Obviously because you don't think you'll live long enough for counting to matter.

And if you're not an adult and not a child, then what are you?

[contract_star]

[Snorts.] Considering this place? I could live forever. Even less reason to count.

...I don't know.

[mercwamouth]

Don't know?

Sounds like a kid to me.

[contract_star]

Twenty-two isn't--twenty-three isn't a kid.

[mercwamouth]

Really? In what ways do you think you've changed since you started taking hit orders?

[contract_star]

I don't take orders from anyone anymore.

[mercwamouth]

...Then I guess you're not a kid.

Happy Birthday.

[contract_star]

[Mrrr...]

...Right.

[mercwamouth]

I'd get ya something, but I remember how long it took you to recover from my last "present".

[contract_star]

You call that a present?

[mercwamouth]

It's kinda like getting underwear for Christmas. You're not happy when you get it, but when you miss laundry day, God knows you appreciate it.

[contract_star]

You're a bastard.

[mercwamouth]

You know you love it.