Chapter 398: A pretty good run

Becky stomped into the hotel room and slammed the door. Mason let her pace back and forth a few times muttering to herself before he decided to test the waters.

“So uh…what happened?”

"Yer Goddamn brother happened."

She kicked a shoe across the room and flopped on the couch. Then she stood and paced again, looking more cute than scary to Mason.

"I used to go out riding when I was mad. When my family made me so damn angry I could just...punch one of 'em right in their stupid faces."

"Save a horse..." Mason said, remembering the very annoying song.

Becky's eyes flared, but a corner of her mouth twitched as she glanced at Mason.

"Yeah? You seen a cowboy around, city boy?"

Mason grinned and came closer, but he could tell failure definitely wasn't an aphrodisiac for Becky. He just sat in the closest chair and waited until she was ready.

"I couldn't do a damn thing," she said, kicking the other innocent shoe flying. "Couldn't hurt his constructs. Couldn't save Carl or Tommaso. I pretty much just got to watch him take us apart. And I'm pretty sure he fucked with my head."

Mason winced at that. He’d told Blake not to use mind powers on his people, though he knew it wasn’t exactly fair to just cut off a portion of a player’s powers. Blake had plenty of tools, so if he’d used mind powers it must have been pretty intense in there. Becky gave him a side-eye.

"How the hell are you out so fast?"

Mason shrugged. He'd been up against two very mediocre eastern players. And he’d slaughtered them.

"Just lucky, I guess."

Becky shook her head and paced a few more times before finally coming back and sitting in Mason's lap. He gave her a one armed hug, pretty sure she was going to...yep. She was up and pacing again.

"And he acted like taking Annie down was Carl's fault. Except that crazy little bitch wouldn't give up like we agreed, so what the hell was he supposed to do? Then he just killed Tommy. Like it was nothin'. I mean nothin', Mason. He ran off so I didn't even get a chance to see if he was OK."

Mason did his best not to show any kind of irrational, possessive annoyance every time Becky called Tommaso 'Tommy'. That the very few numbers of Nassau’s players were close, especially one on Becky's team, was perfectly natural. Even a good thing. But he just couldn't help it. Becky looked at him and quirked her head like a bird of prey before she smiled.

"Mason Nimitz. Is that...jealousy I see in your face?"

She seemed to forget her loss in a split second, coming forward with all her usual swagger to sit in his lap again and put arms around his shoulders.

"He's pretty good looking," Mason said, "in a punchable kind of way. And he’s good with women. And you have a nickname for him."

Becky laughed, looking genuinely pleased.

"I could start callin' you Macy, if you like."

Mason gave her what he hoped passed for an intimidating look, which just made her laugh more. She kissed him slow and tender and sighed, her head against his.

"You know I watch you literally sleep with other girls, right?"

Mason cleared his throat.

"I realize it's…not even approaching fair. And probably hypocritical. And some kind of...what did you call it? Macho man bullshit. It's just..." Mason sighed, practically seeing Cerebus look at him with a judgmental impatience. "If I'm being honest, I don’t know what I’d do to him if he even tried."

Becky raised her eyebrows, frowning and obviously not sure how she felt about that. She took a breath.

"Since we're being honest, my head says that should bother me. But...the rest of me is a little turned on."

Mason nodded, putting a hand on Becky's back. She wasn't like his civilian girls. She'd eventually told him that as a player she had some kind of 'switch' that controlled whether or not she could get pregnant, so nothing they did carried that risk until she switched it.

It made things...different, in his mind. Less committed and final. And she was also a soldier like him. That made things different, too.

It didn't make him care less about her. As far as he was concerned, he was hers and she was his. But it wasn't quite true. Not if she said otherwise. Because there was no risk of a child.

Mason was an orphan. A bastard. And the idea of ever abandoning a child was maybe even less imaginable than betraying Blake, or someone else he considered family. So once he'd been with a girl in a way that could mean a child, in his mind...well, that was pretty much that. The debate was over. He was involved.

But Becky wasn't like that...not technically.

"Your brain looks busy." Becky poked his head and he did his best to smile.

"Occupational hazard."

"Well." She kissed his cheek and ran a finger down his arm. "You got my mind off things. Least I can do is return the favor."

Mason didn't have to fake the smile, then, wrapping his arms around his beautiful cowgirl and kissing her with growing passion before he stood and set her down with a little shriek.

"Rain check? I need to go see a few people. Hopefully Sylvie. Learn how things are going in the bazaar. And I probably have less than fifteen minutes before another damn match."

Becky nodded, the slowly increasing exhaustion instantly consuming her eyes now that the emotion was calming down.

"Go. Lie down with the other girls I'm sleeping with." He grinned and kissed her eyes as he pushed her towards the bedroom. She gave him a bratty look but almost drooped as she opened the door and stumbled towards the bed.

Mason decided he must have been getting at least a little better at lying. While it was true he should probably talk to Sylvie, it wasn't who he meant to find.

It was time for him and Blake to have another little chat.

* * *

He realized at the elevator he didn't actually know Blake's room number.

"Uh. Blake Nimitz," he announced. The thing didn't move. He sighed and was about to walk to the lobby when the image of a blueish, genderless system servant appeared.

"Greetings, honored Founder. Visiting the rooms of non-house member players is strictly limited to invitation only. Please be reminded that violence in the Neutral Zone will not be tolerated. Would you like us to ask Blake Nimitz whether or not..."

"Yes," Mason said impatiently, and the servant locked in a creepy, frozen smile.

"Thank you for waiting. You may enter now."

The thing dinged and Mason stepped out into a room far more like a typical hotel. Blake smiled and set two cups of coffee on a nearby table. No doubt his expression would have fooled most anyone else. But Mason knew him too well.

"You fucked up in there,” he said, moving to the chair. “You shouldn't piss off Nassau players if you want them to actually help you one day."

Blake sighed and slid the coffee as Mason took a seat.

"I know. I should have predicted...and then I got…a touch protective. Well, it doesn't matter now. What do you send to someone you killed? A fruit basket doesn't really seem adequate."

"Tommaso's probably fine. He's a walking dick with just enough personality to use it. I don't expect an existential crisis. But you pissed off Becky, and I haven't talked to Carl."

"Carl likes me," Blake said, sipping his coffee.

"Carl likes Annie, too," Mason said. "He still put a knife through her heart."

"Touche."

"She alright by the way? You taking care of her?"

Blake literally blushed, and Mason rolled his eyes.

"For Christ sake. We found her screaming and covered in blood. She was seventeen two seconds ago, are you really..."

"First of all." Blake held up his cup like a weapon. "You telling me who or what I shouldn't be sleeping with is laughable. I never thought I'd say this, brother, but you are a legendary manwhore. So I'll be the captain of my dick, thank you."

Mason found he had no credible response. Blake sat up in his chair.

"Second...honestly I hadn't really thought you'd let me get to a second...not that it's any of your business, but I'm not sleeping with her."

The way he said it left out an obvious 'yet', and Mason sighed. They sat and drank their coffee, which like most everything the system did was annoyingly good. Mason eventually put his arms on the table and slumped. Who the hell else could he talk to about these things?

"Speaking of manwhores, I'm sleeping with Lexi now," he said. "She's really great. Like if it was my second date in the real world I'd be bringing her home great. And if I'm honest? My elven bride's mother keeps giving me the eye. I saw her naked the first time we met. It's not a good situation."

Blake spasmed and choked on his coffee. He dabbed at a couple spilled drops and met Mason's wandering eyes.

"Are you…looking for advice? Or is this a kind of confession to your priest type situation?"

Mason snorted as he held back the laugh.

"You would literally be the worst priest on earth."

"I would not. And this isn’t earth." Blake grinned, then tapped his fingers on the table. "Advice? You're courting disaster. Having said that, we've both almost died more times than I can count. The world is mostly destroyed. And there's no obvious reason the human race comes out of this at all. So...have fun? You've certainly earned it."

"It's not always fun," Mason muttered. "I'm supposed to be thinking about how I'm going to stop some power mad emperor from destroying us all, and I keep thinking about some British girl's legs wrapped around me while my wife cheers me on."

Blake raised his cup and shook his head.

"Mazel tov."

"I'm serious."

"So am I. If you die tomorrow I think most men would agree you've had a pretty good run."

Mason winced, thinking about his own death. It wasn't something he could entertain anymore. Not until this Jeong and his empire was pacified. Not until his people were safe without him.

Not that he wanted to die at all, of course, but since founding the Nexus and getting his people real safety he'd stopped being so...concerned with it.

"What if I can't beat him?" he said, not sure how long he hadn't spoken. He looked up and Blake smiled as their eyes met.

"I'm a betting man, so I've thought about that quite a lot. I've seen him fight. Want me to tell you what I think?"

Mason just waited, and Blake winked.

"I'm betting on Jeong. Then I win either way."

Mason kicked him under the table, probably a bit harder than he should have. The system blared some kind of player violence warning. Blake (while hissing in pain) had to wave it away.