Detective Rosa Diaz (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
died8yearsago) wrote2018-10-03 10:06 am
died8yearsago) wrote2018-10-03 10:06 am
Parking Lot at the End of the Causeway and Parts Beyond, Wednesday [10/03].
if she took a moment to think about it, Rosa would realize that this whole thing was probably pretty stupid. So she was trying her best not to think about it, securing a few things in the saddlebag of her bike and doing a few maintenance checks while she waited for Seivarden.
So dumb.
No. She wasn’t going to think about it, it would be fine, it wasn’t anything. And if Seivarden decided to be a smart ass or start to really get on her nerves, well, then, they’d be in a plane hundreds of feet in the air and she could just crash the damn thing and kill them both. That’ll really show her.
So, so, so dumb. Maybe she could just call the whole thing off. There might still be time to just call it off.
It was a good thing Seivarden didn't know about the solution Rosa considered. Obviously she wasn't nervous, but these planes weren't exactly advanced, and they did crash now and then. Nothing of this showed on her face as she was walking up to Rosa and her bike.
The bike ride brought back memories though, and those were far more pleasant than plane crashes.
"So," she said, managing to look more relaxed than she felt. "Is this good weather for flying?"
The planes were sensitive to bad weather. She knew that.
“Forecast seems pretty,” conveniently, “clear,” Rosa confirmed with a nod, grabbing her spare helmet and tossing it lightly to Seivarden. “We’re gonna be riding up to an airfield outside of Philadelphia, about an hour and a half, and then then it’ll be about two hours in the air, give or take, from there to Montreal.”
Her tone was clipped and matter-of-fact, but it finished with that very particular and by now familiar tightening of her mouth that indicated her effort not to smirk at the fact that she’d have Seivarden pretty much at her mercy inside a tiny little primitive aircraft miles in the air for two whole hours, and, honestly, the more she thought about it, the more surprised she was that Seivarden was actually agreeing to this somehow.
Seivarden herself wasn't sure why she was agreeing. No, that wasn't true. She wouldn't let Rosa think she wasn't brave enough. Possibly also… no.
Seivarden caught the helmet and put it on. "At least I know how to ride the bike by now," she said with a smirk, deciding that being the first one to mention the previous occasion would give some kind of advantage. And it concealed, maybe, the fact that she had no idea how to greet Rosa anymore.
“Yeah, well,” some of Rosa’s own smirk leaked out the moment before she covered it with her own helmet and pulled on her gloves (no, she didn’t always wear them when she took the bike out, but it just felt...appropriate today), “just remember to hold on tight.”
Of course she knew she didn’t have to remind her.
She gave the helmet a little adjustment before straddling the motorcycle, slightly glancing back. “You ready?”
Seivarden took a seat behind her, wrapping her arms around her waist. Tight.
"Nice gloves," she said.
They were ok, but there was something hot about Rosa wearing them. Of course, pressing tight against her was too, in a pleasantly exciting way.
“Thanks.” Even with the helmet on and Seivarden behind her, Rosa felt the need to try and rein in the slightly triumphant feeling that comment gave her. But once they were settled, she turned the ignition and got the bike purring, revving her up a little mostly just for show before tearing down the causeway through the barely-there portal that set them heading north for Pennsylvania with Rosa doing absolutely nothing to modify her usual break-neck style of driving despite the passenger. It definitely wasn’t a trip that made it easy for conversation, either, and that suited Rosa just fine. Honestly, it was probably better, much better that they wouldn’t feel obligated to just fill the air with bullshit or banter. It was actually kind of nice, really. Just a hour and a half of her, Seivarden, the road, and her own thoughts, which unfortunately wouldn’t be any more sorted out by the time they reached the airfield than they were when they started.
Seivarden also preferred not having to come up with things to say. Rosa's driving style wasn't exactly making her feel safe, but commenting on it would probably make it worse, as well as making Rosa feel smug. So Seivarden just clenched her teeth, trying not to tense too obviously every time they took a curve at a speed that was possibly unsafe.
Oh, it was definitely unsafe. And it definitely didn’t help that every time Rosa felt Seivarden tense up behind her, she felt the need to push the bike a little faster, a little harder. Not to freak her out or anything, though, surprisingly, but because it seemed that every single shift, every time Seivarden tightened her grip or tensed up, it sent a tingling thrill through every inch of Rosa that she would vehemently deny or chalk up to simply the rumble of the engine. Every. Single. Time. Which only made her try to seek out little daring maneuvers whenever thing started to feel like they were getting settled and comfortable, and after about an hour of that, she was so charged up she was half-tempted to just take the next exit into New Jersey, find the first place with a vacancy, just go to town there and screw Montreal.
But she didn’t. She kept driving and tried not to think about the last time she’d been this wound up and how she was pretty sure it was that last time they’d been on her bike, when they were both going so crazy with the itch to get off that damn island that it didn’t seem to matter with who or how or why…
Rosa was almost disappointed when they got to the airfield and she slowed the bike down enough to stop, flipping up the visor on her helmet enough to yell out at someone on the field who waved when they saw her. “I’m putting the bike in the garage, okay, Chet?” she called out and the person’s wave turned into a thumbs up as she slowly maneuvered her way into the smaller garage connected to a building surrounded by hangars.
Getting off the bike, Seivarden pulled the helmet off and looked out through the garage doors.
"So this is an airfield?"
She sounded amused and a lot calmer than she felt.
“This is an airfield,” Rosa confirmed with a nod, kicking open a side compartment to toss her helmet into, and nodding toward it for Seivarden to do the same, then retrieving a duffel bag from the saddlebag and slinging it over her shoulder after pulling something out and handing it over. “Before we go out there, though, this is your passport, you’ll need it when we land in Canada. Try not to say anything stupid. Try not to say anything at all, if you can help it, but if anyone does ask, your name is Kyle Dummkopf, we work together at an investment firm called Lundin and Mogg, we’re going to Montreal to meet with a client. Think you can handle that?”
Seivarden might not know German, but she knew Rosa well enough to be suspicious of the name.
"Why Kyle Dummkopf?" she asked, opening the passport. "Where did you get a picture of me?"
Why would Rosa have a picture of her? Seivarden wasn't sure whether that was scary or… scary.
Thankfully, Rosa had anticipated that question. Seivarden was an idiot, but she wasn’t stupid.
“It’s amazing what those dumb squirrels will do for some high-end booze,” she explained, grinned, and quirked her head for the door. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
And if Seivarden thought Rosa being able to create a fake passport for her was scary, just wait until she saw what was about to happen next. Almost immediately out of the garage, her entire demeanor changed, face lighting up, bright smile on her face, as the man who had waved earlier approached with a cheerful greeting, “Amanda! It’s been too long!”
“Chet!” Even her voice sounded cheerful as she met the man with a hug and laughed. “I know, I’m sooo sorry, but you know how it can be. I know it’s only September, but tax season seems to sneak up on us sooner and quicker every year! And thank you so much for getting this set up on such short notice, I can’t even tell you how much I appreciate it.”
“You know we’re always here to help,” Chet said, smiling warmly back. “And who’s your friend?”
“That’s Kyle,” Rosa said, moving her hand quickly to intercept the hand that Chet was about to extend out to Seivarden. “Don’t bother with the formalities; he’s a germaphobe, anyway, and we’ll just get out of your hair. You got the Icon A5 for me, right?”
If Chet seemed a little confused and thrown off, it didn’t stick around for long. “Yeah, sure, she’s waiting right around the back for you. And back by tomorrow, right?”
Rosa flashed her best, winning smile in response. “Back by tomorrow, definitely. Sorry we can’t sit around and catch up, Chet, you know I’ve just been dying to ask you about your niece's new baby, but we’re in kind of a time crunch and really gotta take off.”
“Yeah, of course. Be safe up there, Amanda.”
“Always. Thanks again, Chet! Maybe we’ll see you tomorrow. Let’s go, Kyle.”
She gestured for Seivarden to follow her around the corner of one of the hangars, and the moment she was out of Chet’s eyesight, the perfect, peppy posture she’d adopted melted back into a little bit of a slouch with and a relieved sounding, “Ugh.”
The sudden transformations left Seivarden looking visibly confused. "What… Oh, you don't want to use your own name. Or personality."
For unknown reasons, but then this was Rosa and it could just be a normal thing here.
"That smile was a little creepy. So, where's the plane?"
“Creepy?” asked Rosa, who of course couldn’t refuse the chance to bring it out again at full wattage, turning it toward Seivarden with a totally innocent fluttering of her eyelashes as she chirped a cheerful, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
That was almost too much for even her, though, and she snorted, shaking her head as if to chase off Amanda for now. This brought them to the small landing strip at the airfield, though, and the small but sleek plane that waited for them.
“There she is,” Rosa said, and she smiled again, but this was a far more natural, unassuming smile. “Give me just a second to check her out, though. Last time I rented from these assholes, they pretty much gave me a bucket of bolts with a fancy paint job. I’m not having this one crap out on us over Niagra or something.”
Seivarden obviously couldn't say that he liked Rosa better when she wasn't chirping, because that might sound as if he actually liked her.
"Her? The plane? It's a thing." A ship was 'it', as it wasn't a person, and a plane couldn't be any different there.
“Fine,” Rosa grunted, barely holding back a roll of her eyes as she went to look over the propeller, to get in and open up the hatch to inspect the engine; she definitely wasn’t going to get into a debate about something so pointless, “there it is. And it is actually looking pretty good, looks like Chet actually learned his lesson last time.”
Did that mean it was less likely to fall apart in midair? Seivarden didn't let her suspicions show though. "What did he do?"
She walked up to the aircraft, examining the construction. It was primitive, of course, but it looked better than she had anticipated.
“Underestimated me,” Rosa answered, nice and vague with a darkness to her tone that was emphasized by the firm slamming of the panel she’d opened up. She leaned forward on the body of the plane, arms folded, looking over at Seivarden with a frank expression of seriousness and challenge. “Last chance to back out,” she offered, partially because she still couldn’t believe she’d agreed to any of this in the first place. “Otherwise, get in and let’s get this son of a bitch in the air.”
She was referring to the plane. Mostly.
Seivarden snorted, then gave her an amused look, while opening the door to the passenger seat and getting in.
"Yeah, let's to that." She wasn't even sure if Rosa had been referring to the plane.
Once inside the plane, she checked the control panels, trying to get an idea about how this aircraft worked. She wasn't stupid enough to start pushing any buttons, obviously, but she wasn't going to just sit here and do nothing.
And Rosa, after quirking a brow at Seiverden’s observations and fitting on her headset, went ahead and pushed a few buttons and started the engines, making a swift job of checking her specs and checking her clearance, then moving the plane to taxi for the eventual take-off.
“Get ready to be extremely underwhelmed,” Rosa, who had absolutely no delusions about this considering she was talking to a person who flew spaceships, murmured. Don’t think that wasn’t going to stop her from trying to be as impressive as she possibly could with what little she was working with, though.
"I think I've set my expectations at a reasonable level," Seivarden said, leaning back a little. She glanced at Rosa, suddenly missing the closeness and lack of words of the bike trip. This was going to be different. She tried not to make it too obvious that she wanted to lean in and kiss Rosa's neck.
"So, surprise me."
But Rosa’s attention was focused entirely, almost aggressively so, into getting a good, smooth take-off at pretty decent speed, leaning forward, intent on getting settled on the right course, making sure the nav coordinates were solid, taking care of a few notches and buttons slightly overheadthat were probably superfluous but great from a narrative standpoint. She told herself that the unaccustomed tension she felt just then was simply just because she wasn’t used to having a passenger at all, that she would have felt the same whether the passenger was Seivarden or Kitty or Peralta or anyone, but she wasn’t sure she was doing a very good job of convincing herself.
“And here I thought,” she finally said, settling back a little herself now, “the surprise for you would be just the fact that this thing could even get off the ground.”
"Oh, I didn't expect you to take me all the way here without knowing you'd manage that," Seivarden said. "Unless you wanted to make a fool of me. I think you'd prefer to do that in other ways though."
She looked up, leaning closer to Rosa in order to see which buttons she was pressing. Well, mostly for that reason.
“Oh,” said Rosa, trying to ignore that the tension seemed to inch back into her with every inch that brought Seivarden closer; the faint smirk on her face helped chase it away, too, “I’m pretty sure you can manage that pretty much on your own without my help, anyway.”
Seivarden snorted while she leaned back again, glancing out the window to watch the airfield growing smaller beneath them. "So, what does this aircraft run on?"
She had to admit that the take-off hadn't been as bad as she had expected. If she was going to complain about that she would have to lie, that wasn't something she intended to do.
“Fuel,” Rosa answered oh-so-helpfully, and shrugged. “Just like most aircraft or cars. We’ll have just enough to get us there, really. Which means refueling before we head back. Which also means that this is turning out to be one hell of an expensive date, so I’m gonna be kinda pissed if you don’t put out.”
Not that there was any doubt, of course, but she felt it needed to be said.
Seivarden rolled her eyes. "Fuel. Yes. So buying you drinks and food when we get there doesn't even things out?"
She would pay her share. And she would be proud enough not to let it show on her face that she couldn't afford it.
"So what's the place we're going to like?
She also wasn't going to ask about what Rosa meant by 'date'.
“Don’t worry about it,” Rosa said, making a small adjustment on something to compensate for a draft that hit them as they reached altitude. “You’ll like it.”
It was super classy and pretentious as hell. Right up Seivarden’s alley, as far as Rosa was concerned.
“I’m surprised, though,” she added with a smirk, “that someone so bent out of shape about having to get drinks all the time would offer. I was afraid you’d go off about how I was cheating you somehow if I brought it up.”
"Unlike some people I'm prepared to split the bill," Seivarden said, then added: "Wouldn't it be more efficient to reach a higher altitude first and then set the course?"
Rosa would spare herself the energy in pointing out yet again that she footed more than her fair share for the after parties; there was no point in it if she couldn’t reap the benefits of an argument like that for at least another two hours. So she just shrugged a little. “I don’t know, maybe,” she said. “I didn’t really even need to do all that anyway. I can practically pull this route blindfolded if I wanted to.”
Actually, Seivarden didn't doubt that. Rosa was many things, and that included competent, which was frustrating, since the only thing available on the island for Seivarden to be good at was shooting and drinking, and she wasn't even the best when it came to either of that.
"Please don't put on a blindfold. I don't need to know." She leaned over the control panel. "Parachute system?"
“Is that asking what it is?” Rosa ventured after a moment, because, yeah, okay, that would make sense because you couldn’t exactly parachute out of a spaceship, which meant it was going to be real fun explaining this one. “Or just acknowledging that it’s there?”
"I thought parachutes were those things people on some planets strapped to their back in order to get behind enemy lines. It's not very efficient though. I think they mostly used it as a hobby, really." Seivarden's voice betrayed what her opinion was quite clearly.
"Maybe not effective for getting behind enemy lines," Rosa allowed, "but they're pretty freakin' useful when the plane starts to go down."
She tried not to grin as she happened to hit a small patch of 'turbulence' just at that moment. "Unless you'd rather go plummeting tens of thousands of feet to the ground with nothing to help slow you down."
Seivarden had been in enough shuttles not to instinctively tense at the sudden shake, and she snorted at Rosa's comment, but she wasn't actually going to question it. "You're just confirming my opinion about Earth aircraft."
[[ cut for lengthtitle of your sex tape and preplay/preplanned/co-written with the marvelous 1000yearstoolate, who is honestly way too willing to give into my dumb ideas blown up from throw-away lines. Anything past the causeway NFB for distance, NFI, TBC in the comments where there's bound to be weird glove stuff, TMI, BBQ, blah blah blah, and now officially slapping on that NFSW tag for any of you kids still following along at home <3 ]]
So dumb.
No. She wasn’t going to think about it, it would be fine, it wasn’t anything. And if Seivarden decided to be a smart ass or start to really get on her nerves, well, then, they’d be in a plane hundreds of feet in the air and she could just crash the damn thing and kill them both. That’ll really show her.
So, so, so dumb. Maybe she could just call the whole thing off. There might still be time to just call it off.
It was a good thing Seivarden didn't know about the solution Rosa considered. Obviously she wasn't nervous, but these planes weren't exactly advanced, and they did crash now and then. Nothing of this showed on her face as she was walking up to Rosa and her bike.
The bike ride brought back memories though, and those were far more pleasant than plane crashes.
"So," she said, managing to look more relaxed than she felt. "Is this good weather for flying?"
The planes were sensitive to bad weather. She knew that.
“Forecast seems pretty,” conveniently, “clear,” Rosa confirmed with a nod, grabbing her spare helmet and tossing it lightly to Seivarden. “We’re gonna be riding up to an airfield outside of Philadelphia, about an hour and a half, and then then it’ll be about two hours in the air, give or take, from there to Montreal.”
Her tone was clipped and matter-of-fact, but it finished with that very particular and by now familiar tightening of her mouth that indicated her effort not to smirk at the fact that she’d have Seivarden pretty much at her mercy inside a tiny little primitive aircraft miles in the air for two whole hours, and, honestly, the more she thought about it, the more surprised she was that Seivarden was actually agreeing to this somehow.
Seivarden herself wasn't sure why she was agreeing. No, that wasn't true. She wouldn't let Rosa think she wasn't brave enough. Possibly also… no.
Seivarden caught the helmet and put it on. "At least I know how to ride the bike by now," she said with a smirk, deciding that being the first one to mention the previous occasion would give some kind of advantage. And it concealed, maybe, the fact that she had no idea how to greet Rosa anymore.
“Yeah, well,” some of Rosa’s own smirk leaked out the moment before she covered it with her own helmet and pulled on her gloves (no, she didn’t always wear them when she took the bike out, but it just felt...appropriate today), “just remember to hold on tight.”
Of course she knew she didn’t have to remind her.
She gave the helmet a little adjustment before straddling the motorcycle, slightly glancing back. “You ready?”
Seivarden took a seat behind her, wrapping her arms around her waist. Tight.
"Nice gloves," she said.
They were ok, but there was something hot about Rosa wearing them. Of course, pressing tight against her was too, in a pleasantly exciting way.
“Thanks.” Even with the helmet on and Seivarden behind her, Rosa felt the need to try and rein in the slightly triumphant feeling that comment gave her. But once they were settled, she turned the ignition and got the bike purring, revving her up a little mostly just for show before tearing down the causeway through the barely-there portal that set them heading north for Pennsylvania with Rosa doing absolutely nothing to modify her usual break-neck style of driving despite the passenger. It definitely wasn’t a trip that made it easy for conversation, either, and that suited Rosa just fine. Honestly, it was probably better, much better that they wouldn’t feel obligated to just fill the air with bullshit or banter. It was actually kind of nice, really. Just a hour and a half of her, Seivarden, the road, and her own thoughts, which unfortunately wouldn’t be any more sorted out by the time they reached the airfield than they were when they started.
Seivarden also preferred not having to come up with things to say. Rosa's driving style wasn't exactly making her feel safe, but commenting on it would probably make it worse, as well as making Rosa feel smug. So Seivarden just clenched her teeth, trying not to tense too obviously every time they took a curve at a speed that was possibly unsafe.
Oh, it was definitely unsafe. And it definitely didn’t help that every time Rosa felt Seivarden tense up behind her, she felt the need to push the bike a little faster, a little harder. Not to freak her out or anything, though, surprisingly, but because it seemed that every single shift, every time Seivarden tightened her grip or tensed up, it sent a tingling thrill through every inch of Rosa that she would vehemently deny or chalk up to simply the rumble of the engine. Every. Single. Time. Which only made her try to seek out little daring maneuvers whenever thing started to feel like they were getting settled and comfortable, and after about an hour of that, she was so charged up she was half-tempted to just take the next exit into New Jersey, find the first place with a vacancy, just go to town there and screw Montreal.
But she didn’t. She kept driving and tried not to think about the last time she’d been this wound up and how she was pretty sure it was that last time they’d been on her bike, when they were both going so crazy with the itch to get off that damn island that it didn’t seem to matter with who or how or why…
Rosa was almost disappointed when they got to the airfield and she slowed the bike down enough to stop, flipping up the visor on her helmet enough to yell out at someone on the field who waved when they saw her. “I’m putting the bike in the garage, okay, Chet?” she called out and the person’s wave turned into a thumbs up as she slowly maneuvered her way into the smaller garage connected to a building surrounded by hangars.
Getting off the bike, Seivarden pulled the helmet off and looked out through the garage doors.
"So this is an airfield?"
She sounded amused and a lot calmer than she felt.
“This is an airfield,” Rosa confirmed with a nod, kicking open a side compartment to toss her helmet into, and nodding toward it for Seivarden to do the same, then retrieving a duffel bag from the saddlebag and slinging it over her shoulder after pulling something out and handing it over. “Before we go out there, though, this is your passport, you’ll need it when we land in Canada. Try not to say anything stupid. Try not to say anything at all, if you can help it, but if anyone does ask, your name is Kyle Dummkopf, we work together at an investment firm called Lundin and Mogg, we’re going to Montreal to meet with a client. Think you can handle that?”
Seivarden might not know German, but she knew Rosa well enough to be suspicious of the name.
"Why Kyle Dummkopf?" she asked, opening the passport. "Where did you get a picture of me?"
Why would Rosa have a picture of her? Seivarden wasn't sure whether that was scary or… scary.
Thankfully, Rosa had anticipated that question. Seivarden was an idiot, but she wasn’t stupid.
“It’s amazing what those dumb squirrels will do for some high-end booze,” she explained, grinned, and quirked her head for the door. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
And if Seivarden thought Rosa being able to create a fake passport for her was scary, just wait until she saw what was about to happen next. Almost immediately out of the garage, her entire demeanor changed, face lighting up, bright smile on her face, as the man who had waved earlier approached with a cheerful greeting, “Amanda! It’s been too long!”
“Chet!” Even her voice sounded cheerful as she met the man with a hug and laughed. “I know, I’m sooo sorry, but you know how it can be. I know it’s only September, but tax season seems to sneak up on us sooner and quicker every year! And thank you so much for getting this set up on such short notice, I can’t even tell you how much I appreciate it.”
“You know we’re always here to help,” Chet said, smiling warmly back. “And who’s your friend?”
“That’s Kyle,” Rosa said, moving her hand quickly to intercept the hand that Chet was about to extend out to Seivarden. “Don’t bother with the formalities; he’s a germaphobe, anyway, and we’ll just get out of your hair. You got the Icon A5 for me, right?”
If Chet seemed a little confused and thrown off, it didn’t stick around for long. “Yeah, sure, she’s waiting right around the back for you. And back by tomorrow, right?”
Rosa flashed her best, winning smile in response. “Back by tomorrow, definitely. Sorry we can’t sit around and catch up, Chet, you know I’ve just been dying to ask you about your niece's new baby, but we’re in kind of a time crunch and really gotta take off.”
“Yeah, of course. Be safe up there, Amanda.”
“Always. Thanks again, Chet! Maybe we’ll see you tomorrow. Let’s go, Kyle.”
She gestured for Seivarden to follow her around the corner of one of the hangars, and the moment she was out of Chet’s eyesight, the perfect, peppy posture she’d adopted melted back into a little bit of a slouch with and a relieved sounding, “Ugh.”
The sudden transformations left Seivarden looking visibly confused. "What… Oh, you don't want to use your own name. Or personality."
For unknown reasons, but then this was Rosa and it could just be a normal thing here.
"That smile was a little creepy. So, where's the plane?"
“Creepy?” asked Rosa, who of course couldn’t refuse the chance to bring it out again at full wattage, turning it toward Seivarden with a totally innocent fluttering of her eyelashes as she chirped a cheerful, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
That was almost too much for even her, though, and she snorted, shaking her head as if to chase off Amanda for now. This brought them to the small landing strip at the airfield, though, and the small but sleek plane that waited for them.
“There she is,” Rosa said, and she smiled again, but this was a far more natural, unassuming smile. “Give me just a second to check her out, though. Last time I rented from these assholes, they pretty much gave me a bucket of bolts with a fancy paint job. I’m not having this one crap out on us over Niagra or something.”
Seivarden obviously couldn't say that he liked Rosa better when she wasn't chirping, because that might sound as if he actually liked her.
"Her? The plane? It's a thing." A ship was 'it', as it wasn't a person, and a plane couldn't be any different there.
“Fine,” Rosa grunted, barely holding back a roll of her eyes as she went to look over the propeller, to get in and open up the hatch to inspect the engine; she definitely wasn’t going to get into a debate about something so pointless, “there it is. And it is actually looking pretty good, looks like Chet actually learned his lesson last time.”
Did that mean it was less likely to fall apart in midair? Seivarden didn't let her suspicions show though. "What did he do?"
She walked up to the aircraft, examining the construction. It was primitive, of course, but it looked better than she had anticipated.
“Underestimated me,” Rosa answered, nice and vague with a darkness to her tone that was emphasized by the firm slamming of the panel she’d opened up. She leaned forward on the body of the plane, arms folded, looking over at Seivarden with a frank expression of seriousness and challenge. “Last chance to back out,” she offered, partially because she still couldn’t believe she’d agreed to any of this in the first place. “Otherwise, get in and let’s get this son of a bitch in the air.”
She was referring to the plane. Mostly.
Seivarden snorted, then gave her an amused look, while opening the door to the passenger seat and getting in.
"Yeah, let's to that." She wasn't even sure if Rosa had been referring to the plane.
Once inside the plane, she checked the control panels, trying to get an idea about how this aircraft worked. She wasn't stupid enough to start pushing any buttons, obviously, but she wasn't going to just sit here and do nothing.
And Rosa, after quirking a brow at Seiverden’s observations and fitting on her headset, went ahead and pushed a few buttons and started the engines, making a swift job of checking her specs and checking her clearance, then moving the plane to taxi for the eventual take-off.
“Get ready to be extremely underwhelmed,” Rosa, who had absolutely no delusions about this considering she was talking to a person who flew spaceships, murmured. Don’t think that wasn’t going to stop her from trying to be as impressive as she possibly could with what little she was working with, though.
"I think I've set my expectations at a reasonable level," Seivarden said, leaning back a little. She glanced at Rosa, suddenly missing the closeness and lack of words of the bike trip. This was going to be different. She tried not to make it too obvious that she wanted to lean in and kiss Rosa's neck.
"So, surprise me."
But Rosa’s attention was focused entirely, almost aggressively so, into getting a good, smooth take-off at pretty decent speed, leaning forward, intent on getting settled on the right course, making sure the nav coordinates were solid, taking care of a few notches and buttons slightly overhead
“And here I thought,” she finally said, settling back a little herself now, “the surprise for you would be just the fact that this thing could even get off the ground.”
"Oh, I didn't expect you to take me all the way here without knowing you'd manage that," Seivarden said. "Unless you wanted to make a fool of me. I think you'd prefer to do that in other ways though."
She looked up, leaning closer to Rosa in order to see which buttons she was pressing. Well, mostly for that reason.
“Oh,” said Rosa, trying to ignore that the tension seemed to inch back into her with every inch that brought Seivarden closer; the faint smirk on her face helped chase it away, too, “I’m pretty sure you can manage that pretty much on your own without my help, anyway.”
Seivarden snorted while she leaned back again, glancing out the window to watch the airfield growing smaller beneath them. "So, what does this aircraft run on?"
She had to admit that the take-off hadn't been as bad as she had expected. If she was going to complain about that she would have to lie, that wasn't something she intended to do.
“Fuel,” Rosa answered oh-so-helpfully, and shrugged. “Just like most aircraft or cars. We’ll have just enough to get us there, really. Which means refueling before we head back. Which also means that this is turning out to be one hell of an expensive date, so I’m gonna be kinda pissed if you don’t put out.”
Not that there was any doubt, of course, but she felt it needed to be said.
Seivarden rolled her eyes. "Fuel. Yes. So buying you drinks and food when we get there doesn't even things out?"
She would pay her share. And she would be proud enough not to let it show on her face that she couldn't afford it.
"So what's the place we're going to like?
She also wasn't going to ask about what Rosa meant by 'date'.
“Don’t worry about it,” Rosa said, making a small adjustment on something to compensate for a draft that hit them as they reached altitude. “You’ll like it.”
It was super classy and pretentious as hell. Right up Seivarden’s alley, as far as Rosa was concerned.
“I’m surprised, though,” she added with a smirk, “that someone so bent out of shape about having to get drinks all the time would offer. I was afraid you’d go off about how I was cheating you somehow if I brought it up.”
"Unlike some people I'm prepared to split the bill," Seivarden said, then added: "Wouldn't it be more efficient to reach a higher altitude first and then set the course?"
Rosa would spare herself the energy in pointing out yet again that she footed more than her fair share for the after parties; there was no point in it if she couldn’t reap the benefits of an argument like that for at least another two hours. So she just shrugged a little. “I don’t know, maybe,” she said. “I didn’t really even need to do all that anyway. I can practically pull this route blindfolded if I wanted to.”
Actually, Seivarden didn't doubt that. Rosa was many things, and that included competent, which was frustrating, since the only thing available on the island for Seivarden to be good at was shooting and drinking, and she wasn't even the best when it came to either of that.
"Please don't put on a blindfold. I don't need to know." She leaned over the control panel. "Parachute system?"
“Is that asking what it is?” Rosa ventured after a moment, because, yeah, okay, that would make sense because you couldn’t exactly parachute out of a spaceship, which meant it was going to be real fun explaining this one. “Or just acknowledging that it’s there?”
"I thought parachutes were those things people on some planets strapped to their back in order to get behind enemy lines. It's not very efficient though. I think they mostly used it as a hobby, really." Seivarden's voice betrayed what her opinion was quite clearly.
"Maybe not effective for getting behind enemy lines," Rosa allowed, "but they're pretty freakin' useful when the plane starts to go down."
She tried not to grin as she happened to hit a small patch of 'turbulence' just at that moment. "Unless you'd rather go plummeting tens of thousands of feet to the ground with nothing to help slow you down."
Seivarden had been in enough shuttles not to instinctively tense at the sudden shake, and she snorted at Rosa's comment, but she wasn't actually going to question it. "You're just confirming my opinion about Earth aircraft."
[[ cut for length
1000yearstoolate, who is honestly way too willing to give into my dumb ideas blown up from throw-away lines. Anything past the causeway NFB for distance, NFI, TBC in the comments where there's bound to be weird glove stuff, TMI, BBQ, blah blah blah, and now officially slapping on that NFSW tag for any of you kids still following along at home <3 ]]