Free drinks {Lex/Gin}

night needs no favor, weather no shame
storms need no shoulders to carry their rain

There they are again, those three syllables that remind Lex that strangers are a mistake and she shouldn't engage with them. Miss Lionel? Ugh, she could vomit. But the woman standing at the front door had to be persistent to come all the way out here — even if she is so much of a stranger that she's knocking on the door of the house rather than the woodshop. Lucky for her that Lex is working on her porch expansion project today — the Lionel girl had recently finished cutting the decking down to size and had just started hauling the lumber up to the house when she spies the visitor.

"Lex," she corrects, coming up on the stranger from behind, six long boards balanced on her shoulder. "Just Lex." She leans the wood against the side of the house and takes stock of the visitor, who's here for something about the mayoral elections. How are those still happening? The campaigns could end tomorrow and it still wouldn't be soon enough. She'd already been bothered by enough petitioners and peacekeepers over the election to last her the next five years.

"Ask me whatever," she agrees, pulling the leather gloves off of her hands and tucking them into the back pocket of her jeans. "Just make it snappy. Still planning to get the decking installed by dinner, and I've got a lot left to do." There was always a lot left to do, but all of it was preferable to getting trapped in unwanted conversation. "I'll take your bribe so long as it isn't now-or-never. Liquor and power tools aren't a great combination, and I'm taking a break from getting impaled at the moment." Screws and nails were a lot more pleasant than maces and kitchen knives, but not getting stabbed was preferable to getting stabbed in her recent experience.