Data…

After Mali’s spectacular display of seriously hot physicality, I was ready to take her back to my room and let her manhandle me to her heart’s content, but that would have meant missing my favorite part of these club gatherings. The part where everything started winding down and mellowing out and just a few brothers remained outside by the fire. This was the point I would usually come out of my nerd-cave that was the fishbowl and rejoin them.

I was, for the most part, a mellow dude. While I liked a good party, this part was my idea of a party. I didn’t go for the rowdy stuff. That was all Mali’s department and I was totally cool with leaving it as a sort of more for her.

I was proud of her, and it was fantastic seeing her come out of her shell tonight. If anything, she’d certainly cemented herself as totally belonging. The thought made me smile as I rocked us idly on one of the swings. I had my booted heels up on a round stump of wood, gently bending my knee to give us some momentum. Mali was curled on her side, head on top of one of my thighs, eyes closed but awake and commenting from time to time on the conversation. My arm lay across her where she was snuggled under my jacket and cut, my other hand raising my second or third beer to my lips. I was sipping on it; nursing it pretty well. I wasn’t in the mood to be drunk, but it was pretty refreshing and I didn’t feel like switching to something less flavorful, like water or sugary, like pop.

“So what have you thought about doing, then?” Revelator asked and it was actually fitting that he, Trig, Reaver, and Disney were the ones out here.

“Guess I’ll find something so I can rebuild my supplies. I mean, probably no chance in hell I’ll get my portfolio back. I mean, I disappeared for two months. I don’t think Joey is going to be apt to forgive that,” she said and gave a gusty sigh.

“Fuck that, man!” Reaver crowed, “Your whole tattooing life is back there.”

“Artists are fuckin’ flaky by nature,” Trigger agreed. “Any good shop owner will keep that shit the minimum required by law.”

She snorted, “You’re assuming Joey is a good shop owner, but yeah, maybe.” She shifted uneasily and I scraped my lip between my teeth.

“Place have security cameras?” I asked her, taking another casual sip.

“Yeah, of course, it does; any business in Indigo City would.”

“Want to check and see if it’s still there?” I asked.

“What, you’re going to hack into Indigo Ink’s security systems and check?” she asked. “Just like that?”

“What company do they run through, do you know?”

“Shit, no… but there’s a sticker on the front window. Jesus, I looked at that thing just about every damn day. You would think I would remember what it is.”

“It’s okay, I have a trick for that, too,” I told her and said, “Hey Trig, let me see your phone.”

He brought it over and I opened up Facebook and typed the name of the shop and location muttering as I went through the pictures, “Nope, not there…” I opened up Yelp next and nodded. Google street view sometimes sucked for clarity, so I tried social media first.

“What’s that look like to you?” I asked Trig and handed it up to him.

“Same company I run through, Advanced Guard Services.”

“Want me to grab your laptop out of the fishbowl?” Disney asked.

“Nah, this is going to require the big rig.” I declared.

“It’s past quittin’ time out here anyway.” Rev declared and woke Mandy who was sleeping against his shoulder, murmuring, “C’mon Red, it’s time I put you to bed.”

Sunshine had already gone in, telling Trig to take his time and Reaver simply lifted Doll saying; “I’ll catch up.”

Mali groaned, “This means I have to get up, doesn’t it.”

I chuckled, “Just enough to let me up. You don’t have to come in.”

“Fuck that,” she said rolling off of my lap and landing in a crouch. She stood up and managed to do all of it without letting my colors touch the dirt. I’m telling you, she was made for me and me for her.

“Help piss on this,” Trigger muttered and let fly. It was a cheap and dirty way to put the fire out, but between him, me, and Disney, we got the job done.

“Boys are gross,” Mandy muttered as she leaned on Rev and made her way sleepily down the berm to his club room. Mali just laughed.

“Join you if I could, but I’m just not built that way. Meet you at your mini-command,” she leaned over and kissed me and I shook it off and packed it back behind my zipper, laughing.

We went back inside, and I went to my well-worn and comfortably broken-in desk chair, dropping into it. A swipe of the mouse, and a few clicks of the keyboard and I was in business. I was going through the motions, getting settled into binary and back servers when she slipped into my space. She was like a key in a lock, a custom fit and meant to be there. She didn’t pull up a chair, but rather sank to the floor beside me on her knees, her eyes skating over the screens and lines of code that might as well be alien translated into Greek to her…

She put her hands on my leg, folding them one on top of the other and I closed my eyes for half a second, drawing her energy in, holding it close even though I couldn’t hold her. I opened my eyes and refocused my own energies on getting this accomplished for her. I nudged under firewalls and moved through the web as if I’d spun it myself and found myself in the directories of the security company for Indigo City.

“You’re really good at this,” she murmured as the camera views for the place flickered to life in all their night vision glory on the high-def screens and monitors.

“No, he’s the best,” Trigger said from the doorway.

“You are not lying, brother…” I murmured flicking through screens onto the big screen for her.

“That’s my portfolio,” she said, pointing to one in a line on the front counter, off to one side.

“Which one’s your station?” Revelator asked.

“That one,” she pointed at a back wall of the shop. I went through images until I got a decent close-up.

“Someone’s been using the shit out of it, but that’s all my stuff,” she declared, rocking back onto her heels.

“Well then I say we get some sleep, we’ve got a long ride tomorrow,” Trigger declared.

“Wait, what?” She turned to take in each of our grave expressions as Reaver walked up.

“We riding?” he asked.

“Looks like it,” Rev declared.

“Gotta be tomorrow,” Trig stated. “We got clients the night after. It’ll be tight, but doable.”

“Woah, woah, woah…” Mali chimed in. “We just got here!”

“You can’t let that shit go, Queenie,” Revelator declared and he was right. Every tattoo she’d ever done was in that portfolio. The proof of her abilities. It would take years to rebuild that and her reputation? She was already back to square one with it. With going back to her original name, Lexi Duran didn’t exist.

She looked agonizingly torn and I knew why… She just wanted to go home.

“I have to think about this,” she hedged.

“Better think fast, baby,” Trigger threw in and she looked at me, hopeless, helpless, and I understood. It was a big decision.

“Why don’t you ask them cards of yours?” Reaver said, smiling but not unkindly.

A look, almost of relief crossed Mali’s face and I would do anything to keep it there, to give her peace of mind and so I asked her gently, “What am I after?”

She didn’t know where my club room was. She looked up at me and hesitated for half a second and finally said, “In my messenger bag, wrapped in the purple silk scarf. I need my tarot cards.”

It was late, we’d been up nearly twenty hours, but I wouldn’t deny her anything. I nodded, got up and took myself down the hall quickly and fetched what she asked for. When I returned to the common room, I found her at one of the tables, eyes closed, head bowed; waiting and, I think, finding her Zen or whatever.

I set the carefully wrapped pack in front of her and she sighed. I stood apart with the guys and let her do her thing. Watching her with the cards was something different, something new. I had bought them for her, for her birthday, mostly because I had loved the artistry of the deck and I knew she would, too. Also, because she had been super into her heritage that year. You know, as a gypsy… being descended from the actual culture, her dad filling her head with all these stories growing up when he wasn’t being a bag of dicks. I guess it was only natural she should want to find herself.

Apparently, this was one of the things that stuck. Mali had never, not once, expressed any interest in religion when we were kids, but she was spiritual. A deep, hidden kind of spirituality, but there and solid none the less. She’d always believed what she’d believed and fuck anyone who tried to gripe her ass about it.

I watched her carefully turn and study each card. Watched her frown over some, nod over others, and generally do her best to find her way. Finally, her shoulders sank and she gave an exhausted and defeated sigh.

“Looks like we’re going backward to move forward,” she said.

“Right, get some sleep, talk to your women, and meet back here. Say,” Trigger checked his watch, “No later than noon tomorrow?”

“Sounds good,” Revelator declared nodding.

“You know I’m in,” Reaver echoed.

“Cool.”

“Thanks, guys,” I muttered, a little blown away by their willingness to ride eight or nine hours in a single shot, only to turn around and ride it right back over a single booklet of images. I got it, though. That, and I know they knew what it meant. Shit, it was both Rev’s and Trig’s livelihood too.

“I just want to go home…” Mali repeated with a long suffering sigh.

“You are home,” Rev said and he didn’t get it.

“No, man… she means my place, our place. The house we pretty much grew up in.”

“Thought you lived in an apartment,” Reaver said wrinkling his nose.

“No, man… I live in the house I grew up in. The one my folks left to me when they died.”

“No shit? I thought you lived in an apartment or something, too.” Trig looked surprised.

“Enough of this,” Revelator said. “If I’m going on a long ride, I need some fuckin’ sleep and y’all do, too.”

“Right, night all.” Trigger left, I held out my hand to Mali and she put her cards away. She fell into step beside me as I led her to my room. She didn’t say anything, just tucked her deck away and stripped out of her clothes leaving them in a messy pile on the floor. I didn’t even care. I did the same.

We got into bed and she immediately fitted herself against my side, her head finding that perfect spot that was both shoulder and chest.

“I know you’re disappointed…” I started and she sighed.

“Yeah, I am, but they’re right and the whole Lexi thing happened and is just as much a part of me now as being Amalia was when I was Lexi. I am never going to get those years back, but I can’t just erase them either. I should have taken the damn portfolio… I didn’t think.”

“We’ll get it,” I said and kissed her forehead.

She laughed a little and said, “Yeah, we will.”

I would leave the question hanging for now, even though I wanted to ask, and what do you want to do after that? I knew she wasn’t thinking that far ahead, and that was okay. We had forever in front of us.