A Good Excuse

[Jack King]

Jack flipped open his phone at the query. "It's... early..." He said before flipping it shut. "About two thirty in the morning. We're making decent time." He dipped his brush in and began smearing paint over the wall. He thought for a moment before snapping his fingers.

"I gotta do this..." Was all he said before he began spelling out El Barto in fancy scrawl on the wall.

[Hotaru King]

"Huh, only two thirty?" she shrugged. "I've stayed up later." Then Hotaru noticed what Jack was writing on the wall and nearly bursted into laughter. She had to cover her mouth with both hands to keep from making any loud noise. She was still holding her paint brush, thus painting a bit of her cheek purple when she cover her mouth.

[Jack King]

Jack finally finished it up and crossed his arms to appraise his piece. Paint getting all over his shirt and left arm in the process. "Perfect!" He exclaimed after adding a curl to the top of the 'o.'

[Hotaru King]

Hotaru walked over, looking carefully at the letters painted on the wall. "Very nice." she complimented. She noticed the paint that had gotten on him and grinned. "Painting's fun, I wonder why I don't do it too often. With a little practice, I could be pretty deccent at it."

[Jack King]

Jack nodded looking at her designs. "Everyone has to find a hobby, and you could become pretty good given practice and time." He looked down at himself, the paint drips had mysteriously gotten onto his shirt and arms and he looked like an angry mutant smurf from the neck-down.

"Should we set up the final part of the plan?" He asked after making a few more designs on the wall.

[Hotaru King]

Hotaru grinned, clasping her hands together. "Lead the way!" she exclaimed merrily. The damage they had done to the place was incredible, and the rush she got from it all only made her more excited.

[Jack King]

Jack led the way out of the room before carefully balancing the can on the slightly ajar door. "I've always wanted to do this here, never had the chance 'till now though." He grinned as it was finally positioned correctly.

"Now, any other ideas on what to do or should we make our escape?"

[Hotaru King]

Hotaru giggled. "I believe we've made enough damage, we should leave now." Although they were having a lot of fun, Hotaru knew she couldn't risk getting caught by anyone. They were lucky that they havn't been discovered yet. She looked at him for approval. "Alright with you?" she asked.

[Jack King]

(OOC: Can you tell I'm tired?)

"Yeah, I'll have Aiden make us another distraction of some kind." Jack sent the text as they walked back towards the security center. He received one just before the alarms rang and pulled Hotaru into an empty room as three guards ran by.

He grinned as he watched them run by. "Well that was easy." Jack opened the door fully and lead the way back to the security room.

He gestured to the air vent. "Ladies first."

[Hotaru King]

Hotaru smiled softly. "Thank you." she said as the crawled her way into the air vent. She wiggled through the vent until she made it to the end, pushing the grate away so she could get out. She sat beside the hole, sighing as she waited for Jack to come out.

[Jack King]

Jack followed shortly after his friend, making sure to replace the grate in the room so as to not attract attention. He tumbled out of the opening on the outside of the building, grinning all the while. "I'd say that was a successful way to spend an evening, wouldn't you?" He remarked, bringing the grate back up and beginning to screw it in.

[Hotaru King]

Hotaru nodded. "That was awesome!" she exclaimed. She pulled off her hood, messing with her hair a little. She suddenly remembered the short conversation the two had when they were messing with the files. She bit her lip, wondering if she should bring it up again.

[Jack King]

Unbeknownst to Hotaru, jack was having the same thought. To bring it up, or not to bring it up? That was the question. Curse Shakespeare and his writings for invading his mind! Curse them to the rice-pudding lakes of hell! For in his mind there were few things worse than rice pudding.

But back to the matter at hand. Should he bring it up? It would break the silence at least. He screwed in the second screw and spoke. "So, uh... should we finish our conversation from earlier maybe?"

Why was that such a hard topic to broach?

[Hotaru King]

Hotaru nodded slowly. "Uh, y-yeah..." she pulled her legs closer to her, wrapping her arms around them. What should she say? What could she say? "I... well, I, um..." Why was it so hard to talk?! 'Pull yourself together, you're a big girl!'

She took a deep breath and dived in. "I mean, I like you, too. No one's been this nice to me in such a long time. You've brought back a side of me I figured would never come back to the surface." she was too scared to look at him, so she kept her eyes on the ground.

[Jack King]

A lump formed in his gut as he brought the topic up, it diminished slightly as Hotaru spoke, but it didn't leave entirely. So... we both like each other... now what? What to say? What to get her to lift her head first. Small goals. Then tackle the bigger ones.

The third screw squeaked into place and he realized that waiting would make it more awkward than it had to be. "Well I'm glad I managed that." He said, it was a weak attempt at starting his half of the talking, but it was a start.

"I mean, I like you too..." He searched for the right words. "But I don't know exactly how much. A lot, I know that... but I dunno if it made it into like-like territory yet or if it only made it to really-awesome-friend. Either way... I don't want to screw anything up..."

Kind of funny considering he was screwing in the grate, but that was beside the point by about three miles.