Vision went to meet with her crew, to debrief about the previous night’s work. She had considered not going, but hadn’t had an answer for what else to do instead. Besides, she wanted Fox to think that everything was normal. Unsurprisingly, Vision herself became the centre of focus. It began with Glass stealing glances at her as the others spoke. She dropped her eyes every time their gazes crossed.
“The setup at Gretta’s works pretty well,” Bones ways saying.
“But for Vision going missing,” Red said, “Do any of you want to explain that? We missed out on a lot of money.”
“It was the poison,” Fox said, “She can only take it once.”
“I see,” Red said, “But that’s only what she told you, you didn’t see it yourself.”
“I was there,” Bones said, “She could scarcely stand. We’ve got one shot when Banagher comes, that’s good to know.”
Red shrugged, “Or she could not use the poison, take customers for real.”
“No,” Fox snapped.
Glass looked horrified but something in his face irritated Vision.
“Listen, Red,” Bones said, “I brought you this job. We’ll do it my way. We don’t need her to do that, she’s part of the crew too and none of the rest of us are doing anything we don’t want to.”
“That’s right,” Fox said with a nod.
Vision found herself watching Glass. He looked… angry. Was he truly upset that she was being protected, just because the one doing the protecting was Bones? She found it difficult to focus on the rest of the meeting, especially once the topic of conversation turned away from her. She watched Glass. Once he realised that she was looking, he tried to act as though he hadn’t caught her doing so. He looked pleased, though. She thought about all of the things that she liked about him. Mostly, it was that he was harmless. She liked to feel unthreatened. That couldn’t be why Daisy liked Fox. Fox was a large, dangerous man – but Fox had other redeeming qualities, like he was ultimately a kind man. Was Glass? His expression when Bones had insisted that she work on her own terms kept replaying in her mind. A kind man wouldn’t have cared who kept her safe, as long as she was safe.
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Maybe Glass wasn’t harmless. The thought jumped suddenly, fully-formed into her mind. He wouldn’t – couldn’t – harm her physically, but he’d hurt her in other ways, she just hadn’t realised it before. He always made her feel guilty for keeping her past to herself. He pushed and pushed, no matter how she asked him to stop. He resented her for doing what she needed to do to survive, and encouraged her to do things that were dangerous, because they suited him. He focused on tearing down her boundaries with no regard for what that might do to her, or why she’d put them up in the first place. Unbidden, she realised what had bothered her about his expression earlier. He had been upset for himself, that his lover would be intimate with other men. She didn’t feel safe around him. He would never save her from real danger, he’d just hover and disguise jealousy as care. It was exhausting to constantly try to prove to him that she loved him when, she realised, she didn’t actually love him.
When the meeting ended and everyone began to peel off, Glass approached her. He waited until they were alone before taking her hand. She forced a smile. Suddenly, she was frightened to tell him she did not want him. What if, in his hurt, he told Red about their relationship?
“Are you okay? I was worried this morning.”
“I just needed some rest,” she said, “I wasn’t feeling good. Didn’t want you to see me like that, it weren’t pretty.”
He peered into her eyes, “If it’s something else, you can tell me. I’ll help you.”
She nodded, and let him pull her into a hug.
“I have to go now,” she said with an apologetic smile as he released her, “Fox is mad at me. He wants me to go and work with him, so he can so I do right.”
Glass’ expression darkened at the mention of her brother. Their fight last night must still be fresh. He nodded though, and let her leave without complaint. She made her way to the outskirts of the slum, where the people were poor, but not quite so cutthroat. She settled in the shade of a tree near the village square. She hadn’t been there long when Bones appeared and dropped down beside her. She raised an eyebrow at him.
“What do you want?”
He plucked a blade of grass and rolled it between his thumb and forefinger.
“What actually happened?” he asked, but his voice was gentle, “The Vixen’s Kiss sucked, but you walked out looking okay.”
She looked at him with wide eyes. Then, when she opened her mouth to tell him to leave her alone, she found the whole story pouring out instead.