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[color=9e0b0f]"Who are you embarrassed of, your father or me?"[/color] It wasn't the way he would have liked to phrase the question, but using 'us' and grouping himself in with Gratia, Beryl, and Luke so soon as Bianca's 'inner circle' just felt like surrendering to a life of misery after only one shot had been fired. 

He wouldn't give up after one shot.

He was a son of Atlas, not of [i]Zephyr.[/i]

[color=9e0b0f]"Doesn't matter to me. I've met a lot of overeager parents today already,"[/color] Jericho said casually, sipping at his cappuccino and tilting his head to look at the abashed birdbrain across from him. The smile on her face had been waxing and waning since he'd walked in, which was odd. Normally her irrepressible bubbly attitude bordered on the downright air-headed. To see her somewhat downbeat left said quite a lot about the state of her family. Not that he could relate - his family (obviously still being alive, a claim that Bianca had observed with skepticism but not actually treated as the joke it was, the goddamn moron) had always gotten along rather well, and the Mindaro household probably would have left him projectile vomiting and shivering on the ground with a gun between his teeth after a week of their endless hugs and kisses and squeals of joy.

But it turns out that, surprise surprise, Bianca [color=9D36FF]"Things are bad all over, Ponyboy..."[/color] Nuit had a troubled home life. 

[color=9e0b0f][i]I even miss Speer already.[/i][/color]

[color=9e0b0f]"It's only one day,"[/color] Jer continued. [color=9e0b0f]"One family day a year, maybe a semester if you're not lucky, multiplied by four years at Beacon. That's four to eight visits, maybe four hours tops, that's still only barely over a day of downtime you have to spend with him before you graduate. That's assuming you try avoiding him over the summers by staying with Gratia, or at some beach resort, or that space hotel Griese Experimental wants to hurl into orbit in the next few years. Then, after graduation, you can call him on his birthday, send him a card or two at holiday time, and wait until he craps out and say something nice at the funeral. Then you don't have to worry about him."[/color]

It might have been harsh calculus, but it was hard to want to shelter a girl from someone who could toss her millions of lien for a coffee shop after one speed dial. Hopefully the news of her dad's impending death would bring Bianca some comfort. Life was too short to worry about who you were forced to spend it with - unless that someone was Bianca Nuit, staring at you like you were carrying a pair of handcuffs and an adolescence full of repressed sexual tension for her to exploit.

Granted, she [i]would[/i] be half-right in that assumption...but the last thing he needed right now was for her to see his handcuffs. 

[color=9e0b0f]"Look, Bianca, if there's one thing I learned in my life at Atlas, besides marksmanship, infiltration, proper surveillance, situational awareness, pain management in the field, hacking, driving cars, flying airships, controlled descent without a chute, how to kiss a guy, how to clean, and how to cook, it's that there's nobody who can survive [i]everything forever[/i],"[/color] Jer offered, trying to be helpful. [color=9e0b0f]"If I put five bullets in your dad's head, that rich old bastard would go down for the count. If your dad's bodyguards put five in [i]my[/i] dad's head, even a trained specialist like him isn't gonna be shaking it off any time in the next year or so. I learned that there's no reason to be scared of any person, because that person can meet death just as quickly as I can, in the same number of ways that I could. So in the long run, they don't have any God-given advantage over me - or over you. So unless your dad's Semblance is actually being God-given, the worst he can do to you is cancel your Palladium card. And unless that [i]really will[/i] kill a spoiled birdbrain like you, you've gotta goddamn [i]relax.[/i] You're making my hair uncomfortable."[/color]

There. No one could ever say he hadn't been a little nice to Bianca Nuit now. He had given her good advice. That was his obligation as a 'good' person, over and done with.

This cappuccino really filled a hole. His glowing scarlet rune settled down slightly.

[color=9e0b0f]"You're [i]welcome[/i]."[/color]