Is it just me?

Overthinking. Jude almost laughed.

"Overthinking is kind of my thing," Jude muttered under his breath... but he did as he was told. He rolled over so there was less bare skin, letting his eyes drift shut. "And I'm worried if I follow my gut I'm going to do something I'm really going to regret."

He had a few things in mind.

"I kind of wish I was just... I don't know. I wish we could just watch movies and not have to spend the whole time worrying about bumping shoulders and putting me into a coma."

"I mean," Jude said, "I still have my suit. I could just start wearing that, and then you wouldn't have to worry." But that would look weird, wasn't it? Wearing his hero suit around like normal. Really, he just needed to start wearing more long sleeves, only it was fucking hot.

Why did this have to be such a pain in the ass?

"I mean, I can think of like, two or three dozen stupid things I could do. I could get into drugs. I could start dating someone terribl-" Jude paused for a moment, then twisted his head around glancing up at her. "By the way, Shiro's totally dating someone terrible, aren't they?"

Jude would put that somewhere in the range of seventy-five percent serious. Fifty was being far too generous.

"I'm going to look into it. The skin thing. I want to... I don't know. Figure out a way around it. But I'm not sure I'll come up with anything."

Probably not. Not as long as Giltenn was still inside him. It was just a fundamental incompatibility, like oil and water. The only way it was going to get better was if he found a way to separate himself from Giltenn.

"I mean... I don't even know her that much and it's obvious she's getting involved in something terrible."

Okay, maybe he'd tried to make things go a bit off topic. Going off topic was nice. Going off topic wasn't talking about himself.

"Too much," Jude said with a small snort. "And I'm going to give you like... four of the five? I'm definitely not confident. Especially not here. I'm out of my element." How could she think he was confident? He didn't feel like that at all.

"And you're missing that I've got the emotional intelligence of a rock with a face painted on it. Kind of important for dating. And I'm a sucker."

Fake it till you make it. Jude laughed a bit at that, and then slowly pushed himself upright, turning around to look at Rory again properly.

"I liked you," Jude said. "I don't know if I really told you that or not. I don't remember if I told you like... that truth. But I did. I did really like you, and I told you that I was worried about it ruining the team, but really I was worried that we'd get together, and you'd realize I wasn't that good, and then you'd..."

Jude cringed. He obviously realized just how stupid he sounded, but he forged on anyway.

"Then you'd break up, and it'd be my fault for ruining the team. Because I wasn't going to be good enough. And then I'd finally mustered up the nerve to actually say yes, and then..."

Jude just gestured to his left hand.

And then that.