Lets Talk about Life

The sandwich place wasn't located all that far from the community center, which was, realistically speaking, probably the reason it was still going. Even so, it wasn't like it was particularly obvious. The store was tucked down what looked a whole lot like an alley, only slightly wider, and the only sign that the place was even there was a small A-frame sign, establishing the SUBHOUSE was that way.

It was not a particularly impressive place, but the meatball sub was advertised prominently, and it was, by Jude's approximation, maybe seventy percent meatball.

"Travis swears by it," Jude said.

Jude let out a laugh at the mention of him apparently stealing his organs, waving him into the shop and heading right up to the counter. He wasn't enough of a regular that the man behind it recognized him or anything, but he was enough of a regular that he had his order memorized.

"Seven with extra cheese, please," he said, glancing over his shoulder to Gabe. "Meatballs good. Cheese is good. You can't do much with the bread, but I figure you can eat around it.

He waited until they'd scooted off to the side and grabbed a table before answering Gabe. "If I wanted a kidney, the first you'd hear about it is when you wake up in an ice bath," he said, giving him a grin. "And for the record, I'll probably never need one. Can't get sick."

Doing okay? A look of surprise and confusion passed over Jude's face only briefly before his brain caught up.

"Oh. Oh! Because of the talk? No - I mean, I had some stuff happening, but it's fine. I dealt with a lot worse. Like, pretty regularly, actually. This was more of a good talk, probably."

As much as Jude disliked aura's in general, he was kind of wishing he had Alma's right then. Conversations flowed so much easier when he wasn't doing any of that pesky hesitating or second guessing. Alma's aura was a friendly hand on his back, pushing him through whatever might be happening without letting him stop to worry about it. It was, in Jude's opinion, the very best aura.

"I was actually wondering if you wanted to go out some time."

Oops. Maybe he should have been a bit more clear about that. He'd kind of assumed it was implied, but if there was one thing Alma had stressed it was that implied didn't mean shit.

You had to be clear.

"Uh," Jude said, replaying you're never going to have a one hundred percent perfect track record when you try shit in his head for the thousandth time. "Yeah. Like a date. I don't know how much you know, but I am dating Alma, but it's... not exactly traditional? She has multiple partners, and I can have multiple partners. I realize it's not for everyone, but I figured there wasn't a big harm in asking."

For that matter, he wasn't even sure if Gabe was into guys. That was kind of a pretty big flaw in his whole plan, but it wasn't like there was a casual way to ask without making it obvious.

Well, this was new, unproven ground. Alma had just kind of been like 'yeah, sure!', and since she was the one person Jude had ever actually asked out, that meant he had no experience with covering a topic as broad as 'why I'm asking you out'.

Oh boy.

Jude took a niiiiiiice long breath, mentally sorted through his reasons, and then went for it.

"I think we've got nice, uh, chemistry? I wasn't sure if you were actually flirting with me, or just being flirty, but it was nice. You seem smart, which is a pretty big thing for me. Physically, you're pretty much my type, and I think we have a lot in common, beyond just being from the same place."

Although that was at least a small factor. It was nice having that... shared commonality. Of having someone who knew what he was talking about. But beyond that, Jude felt a lot like they had a similar thing going--that they'd been on opposite sides of the hero-villain thing, but that they were both relived to have a second chance at a normal life.