#who could ever leave me darling but who could stay ( lucia & bridger )

[blackhawkcomics]

M!A: you have the uncontrollable desire to find your soulmate for 12 hours

Pick up pick up pick up, Julie silently pleaded. She didn't have to wait long. The first ring had barely faded before she heard the click and Lucia's voice at the other end.

"Hey, perfect timing; I was about to call you."

Her laugh bubbled across the line to lift some unknowable weight from Julie's chest. For as long as she could remember, Lucia's laughter had always been infectious, but the fluttery feeling it planted inside her... That was new. Since the Blip, that was new.

Juliette Rodriguez, you pull yourself together, she scolded herself.

"I'm already on my way," Lucia said.

"Are you sure you didn't acquire an X-gene while I was gone?" Julie laughed, trying to ignore the rush of warmth to her face and not dwell on the fact that 'gone' meant 'dead for five years.' "Because I'm pretty sure you just read my mind."

"Ha! Yeah, Professor X said it doesn't work that way. See you in a few."

"I still can't get over you knowing half these people from our comic books now."

"I know, right!?"

"See you."

They hung up. Julie flopped backward onto her bed in the two-bedroom apartment she and Lucia shared and just laid there for a moment, grinning.

Oh no, she thought. Oh, I've got it bad.

Adrian rolled onto his side, one arm tracing up the contours of Jackie's hip and over her stomach. Pulling her close, he nuzzled into the crook of her neck.

"Let's stay in today," he whispered. His lips brushed along her jaw, trailing kisses until a smile stirred beneath them.

"Mm. I was hoping to get some editing done, but I like your idea better," she murmured. A happy sigh rumbled in her throat, more felt through her skin than heard. "What's the occasion?"

"I love you. Only occasion I need."

"Perfect."

Was she pathetic or what?

Here she was - at two-thirty on a Wednesday afternoon - downing her umpteenth cheap beer with the despondent understanding, deep down, that it would never make her forget that she was visiting the bar alone.

Whenever the loneliness hit her hard, she always ended up here. Or, not here precisely, but at some sad bar somewhere, identical enough to be interchangeable. Not that it ever did her any good. She would get blind drunk, fumble around in the bar's grimy restroom stalls with a stranger's hand down her pants, and eventually end the night telling herself that was enough, that she didn't need anything more from anyone than a quick fuck or revenge. That she was - if not happy - at least fine like this.

It was an unconvincing lie if ever there was one, but it didn't stop her from catching the eye of the pretty woman across the bar and flashing her a suggestive grin. This could end in sex or a fight, and she'd take either option at the moment.

Maybe she'd go after SHIELD directly after this. Take them down before they could do the same to her. That young agent on her case, Castillo - she seemed interesting enough to be a distraction.

She'd take anything, right about now.

Pathetic.

[blackhawkcomics]

Bridger’s super secret smile she shows only to Lucia:

Look how cute she is when she’s happy! I love her already!