Simpathetic

"-have attempted to reach Christy D'Clert to get her thoughts on the recent evidence brought to light, but we've been unable to for the moment. Keep up to date on the latest happenings on N54 News.-"

"You listenin' kid?" Maine's voice forces David out of his stupor, the teen blushing slightly as he refocuses on things.

"Huh-, what?"

"God damn it," Maine throws his hands up and sighs, "Someone else key him in, I ain't sayin' it again." he states, lighting up a cigar and walking out.

"Heh, not it! See you later chooms." Pilar laughs, taking the opportunity to leave to, not even realising that Dorio had also left.

Thus, the only people remaining were David, Lucy, and Kiwi... The latter of which shakes her head and puts on a BD headset, causing her eyes to roll to the back of her head.

...

"So-, just saying I'm not usually this tired..." David adds as Lucy ruffles her own hair.

"I know, dunno why people seem to think I'm your sitter but I guess that's my fault for getting you involved in the first place." she sighs.

"You know?"

She nods, "I know you've been spending most of your free time either down the range or at the gym. Not to say I'm complaining but, if it's going to interfere with gigs then you better lay off it."

"That obvious huh?" he mutters to himself.

Lucy just sighs, wondering if the guy got off and feeling sorry for himself. Sure, his mom got flatlined out of nowhere which sucked, but it wasn't like no one else had problems either. "Don't worry about it. Keep working on yourself and you might not die too soon... Now, can you listen this time while I explain what we're gonna be doing?"

He nods, straightening his posture.

"We'll be staking out some suit's lot-, not to steal, but to capture the gonk who's been grabbing cars to pawn off. Maine's hired Falco to act as driver, so you'll probably meet him tomorrow-"

"We're going tomorrow?" David blurts out, "Ain't that fast?"

Lucy bites back her retort at being interrupted and nods, "It is, client fast-tracked things. Really wants a piece of the thief. Especially after they tagged one of his cars..." she shoots him the pic and David can't help but smirk.

"'Vagina was here', that's either the best or worst tag ever..."

"Yeah... Pilar got a kick outta it too." she drawls, prompting a cough from David. "Thief never turns up when the guards are around, so we've been hired to sit around and grab them if they show. all clear for you now?"

He nods, "Got it... Hey, I know this bar near here, wanna go check it out?" he offers.

"No offence David, but I've already gotta take you on walks. I don't hate your company but I'd like some free time to myself sometimes." she remarks.

"That's fine..." he states, "I'll-, just go with someone else then..." he says, immediately regretting it with how Lucy glances at him, her expression all but shouting 'Really?'.

"I doubt there's a bar Pilar hasn't been to." she states, lighting up a cig with a small grin, wondering what excuse David would manifest to keep his dignity. He'd told her himself that he had literally no one but the crew now that Gloria was gone...

David frowns, "I wasn't talkin' about Pilar. We're not exactly chooms you know."

She shrugs, "Obviously, even his sister ditched him... Who're you taking then?"

...

"A friend, they'd been helping me out since I joined the crew..." he states all too conspicuously.

"Uh-huh. You know what? I think I'll take you up on your offer, I wanna thank your friend for taking you off my hands." Lucy allows a small, smug smirk to show on her lips.

David rubs the back of his head, "About that... My friend is-, shy...?" he trails off.

Lucy gets to her feet and snuffs out her cig, "Well, if you and your friend aren't ready by the time I get changed at my apartment you can go on your own." she states, walking out.

...

As soon as she's out the door David hurriedly accesses his Interface and shoots Ori a text, [Hey, are you free right now? I kinda need a wingman asap.]

...

[No.] - Ori

[Help a guy out, I don't wanna miss this chance!] - David

[Busy.] - Ori

David tries to send another text but pauses as it gets rejected...

[You have been blocked until 23:58 hours.]

David sighs, slouching against the seat... He's about to call it quits when he realises he wasn't actually alone in the room. He turns to Kiwi, who was silently watching him with dull eyes. "Er, how much'd you hear?"

"Enough." she sighs and shakes her head, "Come on, let's check this bar out. You're paying for drinks though."

"Y-yeah, alright. Let me just call Lucy and we'll get going." he jumps to his feet.

-----------------------------

Elsewhere :

Ori blocks David and refocuses on the person standing opposite him, "What were you sayin'?"

"I was trying to talk about the last Psycho sighting. You interested in another job or would you rather run around with your crazy input?" Regina questions.

Ori shakes his head, "As funny as you think you are, if we went long enough without a gig I think I'd end up becoming target practice... Gimme the detes then."

Regina pulls up a recorded feed of a camera seemingly positioned three stories up. In the distance it showed someone getting the absolute shit beat out of them by a grey blur, indicating the attacker was equipped with a shit load of chrome to reach such speed.

The victim finally has their head crushed like a rotten watermelon, and the Psycho stops to admire the blood on his hands.. Regina has the image zoom in, allowing them to get a better look at the guy, causing Ori to freeze.

Noticing this, she crooks a brow at him, "You know them?"

"Yeah..." he slowly nods, leaning closer to the image, "You could say we had a heart-to-heart once..."