[past] Where the wild and weird roam

“I mean you won’t hear me complaining about Cooper; I will always say that three men have saved my life and one of them is him” she said clearly speaking with fondness about his friend. “If you had met me in my old times, trust me that fucker would have begged for his life” she said, a bit of a growl slipping on her tone.

“Only the brave travel alone, the stupid too. He’s not a brave man just a bastard with bravado which sounds similar but is not the same, trust me”

“I wasn’t the motherly type until I got pregnant; I am not persuading you to have children, it’s a very personal choice but I have to admit that you don’t know to what lengths you’d go for a kid until you have it” she said with a small smile as she thought about her daughter.

“Nah Cooper knows that I am a grown up woman, he won’t threaten you for coming around and making life a bit more entertaining” she said as she laughed at the mental image of him being chased.

“I killed people because I had to, not because I wanted to but admittedly, even if I am not proud of it, I was good at it” she said with a small shrug “Still want to share a drink after that?”

Danny exhaled sharply, shaking his head with something that wasn’t quite judgment but wasn’t far from understanding either. He twirled his glass between his fingers, watching the liquid swirl before glancing back at Maika with a smirk that didn’t quite chase away the sharpness in his eyes.

Oh, love, if I stopped sharing drinks with killers, I’d be a bloody teetotaler by now. He took another sip, slower this time, his gaze steady on hers. Fact is, most folk who’ve walked the rougher roads either did what they had to or didn’t live long enough to regret it. Sounds to me like you were the smart kind, not the sadistic kind. Big difference.

He leaned back, stretching his arms behind his head. That said, good at it or not, you got out, yeah? That’s worth something. Not everyone does. His grin flickered, something unreadable beneath it before he pushed it aside with a tilt of his glass. So, Maika, since we’re being all *honest and reflective* tonight—what was it, then? The moment you decided you were done with all that shite? Had enough of the blood and the mess? Or was it somethin’ else?

His voice was lighter, teasing even, but there was a genuine curiosity buried in there, an edge of someone who’d spent his life tangled in the same kind of choices.