Seven stared down at the chat, frowning at their newest member's message. With one hand, he reached down and dashed off a questioning reply.
<< What do you mean?
>> This. Taking care of the RFA and their arrangements.
He tilted his head at the screen, abandoning his keyboard to pick the phone up with both hands.
<< It's not my real job. They're just so pathetic I couldn't help but lend them my skills. Like seeing a puppy on the side of the road.
He threw a winking emoji at the end, trying to keep the atmosphere light. For some reason there seemed to be a weight to her words, something beyond the characters on the screen.
>> Ohh, you're a philantropist. Taking care of them from the goodness of your heart.
<< ex act ly
<< you understand
That had been playful, right? A playful tone? He squinted at her message, trying to peer through the screen into her thoughts. He hadn't had this much trouble figuring out any of the others. Maybe he'd just known them longer. Or they all tended to wear their hearts on their sleeves in a way she didn't.
>> I hope you have someone to take care of you, too.
He froze, staring at the screen. That wasn't playful. That was her heart, right on the screen, causing a sharp pain in his, wherever he'd hidden it.
<< God Seven does not require caretaking.
Joke. Emoji. Desperately clawing towards a lighter mood, one that didn't feel like standing on the edge of a cliff.
>> Maybe he should. He deserves it.
>> Goodnight, Seven.
She signed off, leaving Seven staring at her last message. Something rippled through him - annoyance, maybe. How dare she just sign off after saying something like that? Leaving him alone with his thoughts and no one to deflect them off of? That was rude, was what that was.
Well, he had work, anyway. Real work, not babysitting the RFA. Which he did do out of the kindness of his heart, and he didn't need anyone looking after him. He was fine just how he was.
He tossed the phone back onto the desk and went back to his monitors. But every so often his eyes slipped back over to its screen, the messenger still open, and that sharp pain twinged a little harder.
