Lore twisted painfully and awkwardly as she tried to keep the cell phone to her ear while simultaneously tried to unbuckle her boots and take off her cloak. “Why are you up so late, anyway, Jack?”

She could almost hear the shrug in Jack’s voice. “Got distracted by the forums,” he said, and she knew he meant the SAS forums. “And then they had an Indiana Jones marathon on television. Thought I’d see if you were back from patrol yet.”

“I just got back in, yeah. Ouch. It was pretty boring, though,” Lore said, wincing as she accidentally jabbed herself with the latch on her wrist armor.

“You okay? You didn’t get hurt again, did you?”

“No, just a slight wardrobe malfunction. So, you’re still planning on going to Fado’s tomorrow, yeah?” They hadn’t actually talked about their plans for the Irish pub, other than indirectly through the SAS forums, but if he wasn’t still planning on making an appearance, she didn’t want to be there alone with cklug. He was nice, yeah, but it’d just be awkward.

Jack coughed. “Yeah, after work. Not sure how long I’ll stay for, since I have a kinda long shift.”

“Fuck, Jack, why are you still up? Aren’t you opening tomorrow?” Lore put her hands on her hips and glared at her reflection in the mirror as if it were Jack.

At least he sounded repentant. “Yeah, I know. I’ll be dead tomorrow. But then I have two days off, so it’s okay. I just couldn’t really sleep.”

That’s not what he said before. “That’s not what you said before. Why couldn’t you sleep?”

He sighed, and Lore almost felt like going back into the cold night and going up to his apartment. It was late, though, and maybe that would be the worst decision ever. Finally, Jack responded, “I guess it was… just everything that’s been going on late. It just feels like everything’s changing all of a sudden, and it’s strange.”

“What do you mean? Firebird? You’re the one who wanted--”

“No, I know, I know. And I think it’s great, but you’ve changed so much since you started being her, a lot of it’s really good changes, like you seem so much more confident and happy,” Jack said, his voice tired but thoughtful and coherent. “And now… well, you went on that date with that guy, and it just got me thinking. And I realized how much I really didn’t like that idea, and that was weird.”

Lore shook her head, sitting heavily down on her desk chair. “You dated Jen a while ago. That was okay, but I can’t go on a rather crappy date with some guy I met?”

In her mind’s eye, she could see Jack straighten up and his eyes blaze. “It didn’t go well? The date, I mean? That’s – well, that sucks, but I--”

“You don’t have to lie, Jack. I knew you weren’t happy about it, even before just now.”

Jack chuckled breathlessly but didn’t say anything.

Lore bit her lip, then blurted out, “But why weren’t you happy for me? Do you think – did you have a better idea about how I could be happy?” She wasn’t sure where this was going, but there was a vague outline of something out there, something she could almost grasp, something awesome and wonderful and perfect. She’d known Jack forever and she never wanted to not know him. He had inspired her, not only to become Firebird, which had completely changed her life – for better or for worse, she wasn’t sure yet – but from the moment they had met, she had felt something different in him.

Now, maybe, that difference could come to the front.

Jack was quiet for a while longer, and Lore watched the digital clock on her bedside table click through from 2:59 until 3:03 a.m.

“I guess I thought it would’ve been better if you and me saw that movie together,” Jack finally said. Lore could picture him rubbing his eyes with the heel of one hand, while holding his cell phone carefully with the other, long fingers splayed against the red metal of the phone. “If, uh, if we were going on a date.”

Lore swallowed, tugging absently on her braid as she tried to decide what she felt like. “Are you saying that you want to date me?”

“Yes,” he said with no hesitation at all.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Cklug’s going to freak,” Lore commented as she started to smile.

Jack sounded pleased, his voice a little lighter as he replied, “Yeah, there will probably be a ridiculous celebration all over the boards. That is, uh. If there’s something to celebrate.”

Lore took her time this time around, gazing down at her free hand, playing with flickers of fire along her knuckles. “Maybe.” She heard him take a quick intake of breath, but Lore pushed on talking before Jack could say something. “Maybe because that could be awesome, celebrating something and having something to celebrate. But maybe we should go on a date or something. Actually date, but not… be dating right away. Because what if that doesn’t work. And maybe this will work better, or at least let us stop without ruining everything, if it doesn’t work.”

He didn’t say anything, but the silence wasn’t angry or hostile.

Lore asked, “Does that sound like it might work?”

She heard his smile through the line, and not for the first time Lore wished their windows faced each other or at least were slightly visible from the other’s apartment, because more than anything else she wanted to see Jack right now.

“Yeah. I think that’ll work great.”

They hung up soon afterwards, Lore insisting that Jack get some rest before he had to go to work in a few hours, and because she needed to jump around her apartment like an idiot. This could be amazing and it was happening for all the right reasons, at the perfect time in her life. Lore didn’t think about her earlier, firm decision to never date a friend, because Jack wasn’t a friend – he was Jack, and he was the best thing in her life. He knew her better than she knew herself, and he had been responsible for everything good in her life and had been there to support her through all the bad, from flunking out of a class in high school to her parents’ divorce during college. This would be awesome.