mylegacy | ic inbox / drift fleet

You didn't ask if I thought girls would think it was cute. You asked if I thought it was cute. I told you I did. Why are you annoyed?

[...Wait. Why is he annoyed? Normally Joseph would just spit out any old answer whether it was right or not, but he's paying more attention than normal to this entire conversation. He's annoyed because...because...]

Because I don't really care what you think about it.

[A moment later:]

ᄽὁȍ ̪ őὀᄿ

Fuck off, Joseph.

[Also that's a lie, even Caesar can tell. In revenge, not really thinking about it:]

(ʃƪ ˘ ³˘)

[Good Lord, it's a good thing this a texting conversation because Joseph is immediately trying to figure out if Caesar meant to send that or if he even knows what it is.]

You can't even tell what that face is, can you? [Except how can he not? No, he just has to not understand. That's all.] That's not an angry face, dumbass. Look, I'll send you what I'm using.

[Joseph sends along the link to the file a few seconds later.]

Don't insult my intelligence. I know what it is.

[And then, maturely:]

You sent it first.

So? I was just showing it to you.

[He comes very close to typing out Why did YOU send it to ME?, but he stops himself. The question's implied anyway, isn't it? There's no need to ask directly.]

And I was just seeing if you thought it was cute.

[...What? Joseph is intensely frowning at his communicator again. He's starting to think maybe text wasn't the right way to go about this. It's too difficult to get a good read on Caesar even if it's giving him time to think about what's happening.]

[Maybe it's the time to think that's the problem. After probably too-long-to-be-natural delay,]

Duh.

[It's no big deal.]

[He really has no idea what Joseph's damage is. So what if he's flirting a little - it's not as though Joseph ever actually picks up on that. It's just something he does to. Torture himself, probably.]

So you do care what I think.

What?

You cared whether I thought it was cute. Not because of girls. Which was ridiculous to say anyway, you hate when I talk to girls.

[Well, he can't really lie about that now that he's getting called out on it.]

Only because you always get so cheesy. And you lie to the girls.

[He's not jealous though. Forget what Ino says. And hey, this isn't about him anyway. He's trying to figure out if Caesar's gay or not here. That's got nothing to do with Joseph.]

I never lied to Ino.

[He's actually sort of confused about why Joseph got so mad about that.]

It'd only be a matter of time before you tried to pull some kind of Casanova bullshit with her.

She's got a boyfriend, Jojo. And she's my friend. And she's your friend.

You really expect me to believe you've only ever gone after single girls?

No, but I've never gone after a girl who's my friend.

[Because he's never had one. But. He wouldn't want to.]

[He considers doing something that's both mean and stupid. He probably shouldn't. But. Well.]

I wonder if you'd be this angry if I went after someone different.

I didn't get mad after you went after the waitress, did I?

[...Except that he did. Well, no. He didn't get mad. Did he? No. It hurt a little because it felt...intentional, but he didn't get mad.]

That's not what I meant. That's the same as usual. I said different.

What are you talking about?

You can't be this stupid.

[Except he probably can, can't he.]

[The answer to that is yes and no.]

Are you gonna say what you mean or just keep insulting me?

[There's a long pause, here, while Caesar decides whether or not to insult Joseph to distraction or actually say what he meant. It's a gamble. It seems like everything's a gamble, though. So.]

I'm saying I don't think you'd be this angry if it wasn't a girl.

[...Well, it's a really damn good thing that this is a texting conversation because Joseph drops the communicator almost as soon as he finishes reading what Caesar wrote back. He thinks maybe he misread it. He even moves down to the floor and turns the communicator over to read it again just to be sure. But there's no mistaking what he's written or implied.]

[Joseph can feel his mouth go dry. Even though he's sitting on the floor now, he feels a little dizzy, too. And maybe a little sick to his stomach. But wait, no. Slow down, Jojo. Just because A is true, doesn't mean B is true. Joseph slowly picks the communicator back up and stares at it for a little while longer before he starts typing, his tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth in concentration.]

Wait a second, Caesar, is this why you didn't want to explain what Nightingale was talking about the other day? Because it's okay, you know. I don't care about that sort of thing and it wouldn't change anything since I'm not gay or anything like that.

[That's the right thing to say, right? Hopefully.]

I know you're not.

[And again, it's a really good thing this isn't in person, because Caesar's lips are a tight little line. Nothing's going to change. That's the whole point.]

Anyway, I wouldn't care what you thought about it. It's not really your business. I just thought you should know before you made a bigger fool out of yourself.

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;

text;