On the Rocks (Josef)

[Rhea Hartman]

The vandalism case downtown had been a difficult one for Rhea. As crimes went it wasn't much, no one had even gotten hurt except one of the cleanup crew who cut their hand on some broken glass. Rhea was a woman for crises. Ride the adrenaline, get bystanders out of the way, and take the motherfucker down. But what do you do when there's no one to catch, just a mess to sweep up? And what do you do when it was one of your friends stuck with it?

Rhea pressed her face against the front window tapped on the new glass of Josef's clinic. It had been installed last week, and some of the mover's tape still remained on the inside. Her car sat waiting on the street behind her. She was getting Josef out of town for an evening, at least. Rhea had a friend in the next town over who worked at a climbing gym, and she'd gotten her discount prices on their main climbing wall. An afternoon of forearm-rending exercise followed by drinks seemed like a good way to help Josef take his mind off things. They'd made the plans several weeks ago, but Rhea hadn't said what exactly they were doing. She thought a present surprise might help brighten up his otherwise incredibly unpleasant month. “Josef?” she called through the glass. “Ready to go?”

[Josef Muller]

The vandalism case hadn’t been easy for Josef either. No, no one had been hurt. And he was grateful for that. He’d experienced some hatred in his life to absolutely no one’s surprise. But rarely had he experienced anything so…violent. And for no real reason. Why hate metas? He hadn’t used his powers to get ahead in any way that would’ve harmed any others. Yes, it had granted him some extra abilities to get ahead with his physical abilities but it didn’t give him that much of an edge in a fight. Why be targeted? Why be so violently targeted when he tried to do as much as he could for the community, like free self-defense lessons and fairly substantial donations to charities in the town?

Still, he’d scraped into his savings to get a new window. He’d done most of the grunt work himself, with his boyfriend and some of his students helping out in return for some extra help on their forms or prep for tournaments and tests. Rhea had been very supportive, that day and after. He was grateful even if his blood still simmered at the thought of what those people had done. It had just been so—unnecessary.

He and Rhea had made plans several weeks before and he had no intention of cancelling now. He’d been suspecting maybe some boxing or a run—something to take his mind off the disaster. He hadn’t had time to focus on what they were doing, really. He was just grateful his friend would help him get out.

He lifted his head from his insurance paperwork at the tapping and offered Rhea a smile. “Yeah.” He shuffled the papers into a folder, then grabbed his gym bag from the floor and slung it over his shoulder, walking out and locking the door. He was now aware how little this would do if someone really wanted to get in, but it made him feel better. “Where we headed?”

[Rhea Hartman]

Rhea's work schedule meant that she hadn't been able to help as much with cleanup as she would have liked, but she had pitched in some money for the new window. And, most importantly, she had been working as hard as she could to find the people responsible. Unfortunately this had been less than fruitful so far, and she doubted at this point if they'd ever get enough evidence for a real case. It made her grind her teeth to think about it.

She greeted her friend with a smile and a side-hug as he stepped onto the sidewalk. “Good to see you too, Yosefina. Not boxing, don't worry. Wanted to give you a good long while to recover from last time.” Rhea opened the back door to her old red Corolla then ducked to catch a coat hanger and empty Gatorade bottle that fell out. “Sorry about the mess,” she said as she shoved clothes, gym equipment and nerf guns out of the way to make room for Josef's bag. She had said this literally every time she gave Josef a ride anywhere since they had first met each other, except for one trip to the gym when she had gotten a new car half a week ago.

Having completed the necessary terraforming in her back seat, she climbed into the front and shifted out of park. “It's a surprise,” she said with a smile as she nosed cautiously into traffic. “So how's your week going?”