wreak havoc

I.

So he's a little strange, but he's just rescued her from Government agents. He's got a beard, and he looks sort of wild, but the war between the gangs and the Government has intensified the last couple of months, so she let's that slide. He's not in the gangs, that's for sure. But considering he just shot the people aiming at her with no problem, she lets it slide. She's feeling confident he's not with the Government, either.

"Anthony Barrett," he says, despite Hallie not having asked. That's when she breaks.

It's all a bit too much - she's never actually seen someone die, despite having been out there for a good while now. That coupled with the adrenaline from having to run through what she'd thought was an abandoned suburb, snipers at her heels, makes her break down in tears. She slumps down on the ground, and breathing is a lot more hard. Hallie's shaking, because the adrenaline of having to run is fading and that means that the panic is settling in, like a steady hand around her throat.

But then there's a hand around her shoulders and he's holding her close and she can't remember what he said afterwards, but she knows he somehow managed to calm her down.

Hallie doesn't think about how he kissed the top of her head without feeling slightly more like a teenage girl with a crush. She blames it on the beard. It suits him.

II.

It's a few weeks since the first time Hallie Stoker met Anthony Barrett, and since then she's been helpfully filled in by Scout and Katty. Apparently he used to be Government. Apparently, he's also been planning on taking them down for a while. Judging from what she saw the day he saved her life, she doesn't doubt that he has the means. Judging from what she's been told compared to what she's experienced - Anthony's not usually the type to sit down and comfort crying people.

Part of that makes her grin just a little. 

Still, even that part didn't ever expect to run into him again. She's on her way back from Tinker's secret hideout, and then there's a caravan of Government jeeps and she's feeling pretty certain that she's going to die - and then nothing happens.

Hallie didn't even hear the gunshots, but she can see each of the drivers falling down from their seats. These are scout cars - a driver in each car, naturally, and their partner. Four out eight agents are already dead. The four alive look dumbfounded, and they slump over too.

She doesn't know how he does it, but somehow Anthony consistently leaves death in his wake. Like a natural disaster. He's saved her life twice now, and she has no idea how he does it. Hallie climbs out of the circle of Jeeps, pretending she has a bit more courage in her bones than she actually does. Anthony Barrett is walking towards her, a rifle of some sort at his side. The beard's still there, but he looks a little less clean-polished than he did the last time. He has a few bruises. Some wounds, even. "Hallie," she says, doing a good job of not letting her voice waver. "Hallie Stoker." 

The tears start trailing down her cheeks, but she feels disconnected. She starts wiping them away, but there's that shock of having been nearly shot and killed - again - coupled with how Anthony has just murdered eight people in cold blood in the matter of minutes. She doesn't question it when he pulls her into a very soft hug. He's an excellent hugger, really, but she doesn't register that while it's actually happening. He doesn't comment on how she begins sobbing as he hugs her, and she doesn't comment on how he kisses her forehead.

III.

Tinker does a good job of not mentioning how she seems different these days. The other Killjoys barely take notice, which, she supposes, is a good thing, because judging from how everyone reacted to Scout dating Mitchell Marrow - she doubts the reactions to her having just the tiniest of crushes on Anthony Barrett would have been taken well.

So it's off to Tinker's she goes, because she likes his company and his cave of a home. It's quiet there for the most part, save for Tinker's consistent working - other than the days he decides he needs company and blasts large-scale and disturbing symphonies throughout the previously abandoned facility. Don't even get her started on the dubstep and electronica.

But then one day, when she's sitting on a bench and he's busy with doing- something- with some wires, he suddenly stops. Tinker looks up, and he has this mischievous grin on his face. She's only seen it a few times. "Something's different," he says, without any further explanation as he studies her as though he can get the answer just from looking at Hallie. "What?" the redhead replies, a disbelieving smile on her face.

"You've met someone." Tinker's still grinning, but the grin looks a little happier as he notes how she just bites her lip in retaliation. Hallie doesn't feel like she can lie to Tinker. ".. Anthony," she finally says, and Tinker just grins. Even applauds a little. "No longer a bachelorette! Well done, Stoker!" They laugh for a good ten minutes, grins on both their faces.

She doesn't admit to how she has dreams about Anthony kissing her more often than she should. Sure, it's a crush, but he's a former Government agent with a penchant for murder. Doesn't exactly make her feel less guilty about how she's pretty sure that dreaming about Anthony Barrett making out with her beneath the stars is cause for being seriously judged by her peers.

So it's cheesy, but whatever. Hallie can dream about what she wants to dream about.

IV.

Tinker doesn't even blink an eye when she asks him if he can hack into the Government's database. She knows he's fully capable - for a seemingly peaceful rebel, Tinker's actually one of the scariest she's met. In a world based on technology and digital information, he's the only one she knows personally that's fully capable of bringing the entire structure down. (She's seen him on his bad days, and she's often wondered why he hasn't done it yet. He says she'll find the answer in the slums and the more ruined neighbourhoods in Battery City.)

"Anthony Barrett," the file says. "30 years old." He's not just an ex-agent, it turns out, he's ex-Black Ops. Tinker gives her a worried sort of look, and she just nods. "30 years? That's not too bad, right?" Hallie says, a light grin on her face, and Tinker just laughs in response.

She doesn't tell anyone, not even Tinker, about she meets Anthony three days later and he kisses her cheek because she can't stop shaking. It feels intimate and it makes her feel like there's butterflies flying inside her, threatening to burst out if she so much as thinks about it. Hallie's vaguely aware that it's beginning to be a bit uncomfortable that people always die when Anthony appears.

V.

Anthony's a bit more dangerous than he is mysterious, because in between Tinker's efficient research and what she's experienced herself, it quickly becomes clear that he's living in the desert someplace himself. That just leaves how he's somehow always able to help her. She asks him once - one of the few times she's stumbled upon him and he hasn't had to kill someone in the area - about how he's always managed to save her in the nick of time.

"I don't know," he replies, looking as apologetically perplexed as she feels. 

He doesn't question it when she sits down by his makeshift-campsite. Doesn't say anything, really. But Hallie can deal with that. She figures that he's maybe a little bit like Tinker - he's been alone for so long that a little company isn't entirely out of the question.

She ends up asking him a lot of questions, and surprisingly, he answers them. That's not what she's heard from Scout and Katty about how he usually is. Then again, it might have something to do with which questions she's asking and the small comments she makes.

Hallie wakes up to the roar of a campfire. She's wrapped in a thick, woolen blanket, because the desert is cold at night. She thinks he might have patted her head a little and maybe even kissed her cheek again while she slept, but she isn't sure. She doesn't mention it for the fear of it just being her having imagined the whole thing.

I.

He's saved her again and she's feeling a lot more brave than she has the other times, because Anthony saving her has somehow become the norm. The adrenaline's still there, though.

So naturally, she rushes at him to give him a kiss full on the lips, terror be damned.

It takes a short while before Anthony starts responding, placing his hands very carefully on her lower back as she cups his face between her hands as she tries to convey everything through the kiss she's giving him. Thank you, for instance. And I think you're pretty damn attractive for a raggedy rebel with a beard and a rifle. I've noticed is another thing.