IC CONTACT | Mask or Menace

[animated]

"Hey, you've reached Charlie Maxwell. Leave me a message. Or just text me. I might get back to you faster that way."

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audio

[stealwithit]

[ Ring ring, Charles. ]

[animated]

[ well, this is not a number he recognizes so-- ]

Hello?

[stealwithit]

Charlie.

[ Her voice is unnaturally calm, doesn't betray how upset she actually is after finding out that Charlie had gotten in contact with Cap about Archangel. ]

What are you doing?

[animated]

[ There is a pause. He knows why she's calling. She's not here to see if he like to grab lunch or something. ]

Oh, now you decide you want to talk to me? If that's the case, I should have joined your little club a month ago.

[stealwithit]

[ There's an audible exhale--one that shakes with nerves--from her end. ]

Charlie, you know this is dangerous.

[animated]

I'm well-aware of that. The brand new carpet in my living room is a great reminder.

But here's the deal Kasumi, we're either having this conversation in person or we're not having it at all. I'm going to hang up, and I'm not answering my phone again until I see you. Understand?

[ He doesn't really wait for a reply, and instead hangs up, just like he said he would. ]

[stealwithit]

[ Kasumi opens her mouth, ready to interject after the carpet quip, but then he's going on, and she doesn't get to say a word before he hangs up on her.

She sighs then, tossing her communicator aside. Apparently, she had been at her apartment for once, and for a few minutes she paces back and forth, wondering what to do. Part of her wants to go, so badly, wants to sneak into the house through the back like she always did, wants to see Charlie's faces, Ken's and Bull's faces--she wants so badly to talk with them and laugh with them and just spend time with them, but--

It's dangerous. Someone like herself can't afford times like that, can't afford friends like that. Not if she doesn't want to go through the pain of losing them later on, because she's felt that pain, still knows it all too intimately, and--no. She should stay. She should...

She should see him. Just for this one last time, and then...

Kasumi takes a deep breath, scrubbing at her face with her hands before she puts on a jacket, pulling the hood up. It's well into the night, now, and Kasumi need only walk into the shadows before she finds herself at the Nonah's back door.

Just like old times. ]

[animated]

[ Charlie is at the kitchen table, staring blankly at his notes on Charter Magic. He had sat down with the intent of studying, but he just can't focus. He's angry and he's hurt and he's worried that he might never see Kasumi at all.

He'd hate himself forever if that was the last conversation they ever have.

But then there's a knock at the back door, and he feels relieved and anxious, and, yes, still angry all at once. He has to take a moment to school his expression into something neutral before he goes to answer it. ]

Fancy meeting you here.

[stealwithit]

[ What... do you even say in this situation. ]

... Hey.

[ Yup. That's it. ]

[animated]

Hey yourself.

[ He steps aside to admit her ] Come on in.

[stealwithit]

[ she nods and does as she's told, although she takes no more than a step in, sort of lingering by the door, like she's not letting herself go any further. She also doesn't say anything; she's not sure what she can say. ]

[animated]

[ He waves the door shut with a dismissive hand gesture, then crosses his arms over his chest, regarding Kasumi silently for a moment. ]

So, are you gonna lecture me first or do I get to lecture you first?

[stealwithit]

[ it doesn't take kasumi much to figure that Charlie has got some Words to say from the tone of his voice, the way he's carrying himself. She'd be very bad at her job that she evidently takes way too seriously if she couldn't pick up on cues like that. ]

Why don't you go first? This was your idea in the first place.

[animated]

To start, I was wondering if you'd care to explain the radio silence for the last month.

[stealwithit]

[ That's when her gaze wanders, coincidentally to the spot on the living room floor where Peter had teleported them in their sorry state a month ago. ]

I... You know why, Charlie. I had to lay low.

[animated]

Laying low includes showing up to Swear-In ceremonies now?

[stealwithit]

[ she shifts noticeably. ] That was different.

[ oh, is it really, Kasumi? Truth be told, if she was doing her best at laying low, she wouldn't have gone. But she wanted to steal something from the Smithsonian, and it doesn't change the fact that maybe (definitely) her "laying low" was done pointedly at the Nonah fellas. At first, at least. ]

[animated]

Bullshit.

Is this how it's gonna be? Every time something goes the slightest bit wrong, every time someone gets hurt, you're just going to cut all contact and go hide in your hole? That's not how you protect people, Kasumi.

[stealwithit]

Okay, it's not a hole...

[ Right now may not be the best time to be a smartass, but it's her gut reaction to be because well--he's not wrong. But disappearing acts are Kasumi's staple. That's what she did when Keiji was killed, what she did when the Normandy was impounded. ]

But things didn't just go the slightest bit wrong, Charlie. People were arrested. God, someone lost her leg. We could've been compromised entirely.

[animated]

And yet I could still get a hold of Hawke. Steve and I had a conversation. I've seen Jacob, of all people, around the network a couple of times.

Just who do you think you're trying to protect here? Your friends, or yourself? You're so scared of loss that you can't see that ignoring us will make you lose us just as quickly.

[stealwithit]

[ Her hands go up to her arms, bracing herself. ]

Then maybe you're better off without me.

[animated]

Hey.

[ He takes a step closer, closing the distance between them, and plants his hands on her shoulders ] Don't you dare think like that, even for a second.

You're my best friend. I love you and I care about you, and I know that my life in this place would not be half as good as it is without you in it. And it's because you're my best friend that I'm telling you that the disappearing thing has got to stop.

[stealwithit]

But--

[ But what? "Then maybe you're better off without me" clearly isn't it. She knows Charlie and everyone else can handle themselves. ]

But I don't want to you or Peter or Ken or Bull or anyone to get hurt because of me, Charlie. I can't--do that--go through that again.

[animated]

The silent treatment hurts, Kasumi. Maybe not as much as a bullet or a knife, but it still hurts.

[stealwithit]

[ There's a long silence on her end.

Kasumi has lived for a long while only having to think about things affect her that doing otherwise--even while she was on the Normandy crew--was a bit of a struggle. And while she's not entirely oblivious to the fact that what she does hurts her relationships, it's hearing it come straight from Charlie that really gets her to stop and think.

In the end, it's all she can really do to apologize, hanging her head low still. ]

... I'm sorry, Charlie. I really care about you too, but I...

[ I don't know what I should do. ]