The Thief and The Hacker (torrid & Rekoj)

It was 3:30 in the afternoon before Jemma McKnight decided to wake up. And even then she'd been reluctant to actually get out of the bed, the purple silk sheets felt too good wrapped around her body. She knew she had boxes to deal with, belongings to put away, messes to deal with and she just didn't want too. Moving was a bigger pain in the ass than she had anticipated it would be. Who would have known she'd have that much junk? She certainly hadn't realized it.

She could hear her new roommate tap-tapping away at his keyboard. She'd known him her entire life, their mothers had been best friends since high school and for as long as Jemma could remember Liam and her had been good friends despite their personality differences. With a sigh she untangled herself from the luxurious sheets and tumbled out of bed, she'd never get anymore sleep with all that tapping going on.

Once out of bed, she pulled her slightly curled blond strands into a messy pony tail and wandered out of the bedroom stubbing her toe on a box on the way to the living room. She'd been a little surprised to see that he hadn't set up a desk or anything yet. He seemed to be cocooned in boxes as he worked, and he was so engrossed in what she assumed was a school project that he hadn't noticed her standing there in a pair of extremely short pajama shorts that just barely covered her bottom and a tank top that made the words "Spoil me" stretch across her all natural double D breasts.

Jemma frowned a little, she wasn't used to being ignored or going unnoticed when she walked into a room unless she wanted to be. So she walked towards the kitchen and grabbed a soda from the fridge, needing a caffeine boost. Can in hand she walked up behind him and took in his computer screen with her chocolaty brown eyes and said "Hey Liam.. whattcha doin'?"

Liam O'Harris, short, curly spiked red hair pointing at the ceiling above his head as he kept his eyes fixed on the screen. He was brilliant with the computer, and as he clickety-clacked away he subconsciously noted his roommate's presence. He sat cross legged, keyboard on lap, steaming coffee cup beside his leg and the compute. He had the monitor set up on a box, staring intensely at the new program he was working on. As always, he had taken his school project to the next level, he had finished his assignment a few hours ago. Now he was working on a practical use for his program, which was much more difficult than he had anticipated.

He had extended his program's re-routing scripts to be able to catch an alarm from a sophisticated alarm system, and kill it entirely by re-routing back into its own circuit, or even send it to another address to sent the alarm company the wrong way. But, what use was a program like this anywhere but the black market? He supposed that maybe the alarm companies themselves might be able to use the program, to figure out a counter program. That was when the idea hit him, he needed to create a counter-program to his own program. He smiled with excitement and hurriedly began to work on a new string of code.

His slender, black glasses with full circles shined with the light of the monitor as the white light highlighted his pale, gaunt complexion. His chin was lined with stubble from a few days ago, the dark-red specks grading against his hand as he rubbed his face and sighed with tiredness. He rarely slept, spent too much time engrossed in his world, but he loved it. He loved to create, often spending days creating a string of programs and counter-programs, working around hypothetical security measures all in the name of fun. He never put his talents to use, and the 2nd year course he was taking was already way beneath his level of knowledge. His taut form turned and looked over his shoulder at his roommate, and he sighed before answering in the most generic way possible, "Stuff."

He hated to be interrupted in the midst of creating a new program, it was obvious from his body language that her presence at the moment was annoying him. He was annoyed by Jemma, as much as he liked her, but he was annoyed by many things. When he picked momentum, creating and designing new programs, (which was often) almost anything annoyed him. He sighed, stretching in his black t-shirt, the logo for his favourite band on the chest, resting his keyboard on the grey sweatpants he was wearing he finally turned and looked at Jemma, "Don't you have like... a job to be looking for? Or something else to do? Somewhere else?"

"Nope!" was her only answer to his question. Her fingers played with the pretty bracelet she'd picked up last night. If she wanted to get rid of it, she could probably catch a couple grand from it. But she loved the way the vibrant jewel tones played against her pale skin. "Look what I got last night, isn't it gorgeous?" she asked. She knew Liam was annoyed with her for interrupting his work, but she didn't really care because all he ever did was work.

She didn't wait for him to actually respond to her showing him the bracelet, she just moved around in front of him. She ran her fingers over the couches they'd picked out together, they'd been delivered the other the day but neither of them had bothered to take the plastic off of them. So after setting down her can of soda she bent down, her back to him and her ass in the air she began to tug at the plastic, the jerking motion made her bottom wiggle slightly in the pajama shorts. "May as well get things set up in here so it's more like a home."

Jemma set about getting their living room furniture uncovered and situated, there had been a few times she wished he'd have taken a moment to help her move something but she hadn't asked so she couldn't complain. Once that was all done she began moving onto the boxes that were hers, of course the whole time, she made sure that he had a good view of her as or down her shirt if he glanced up. She slid books onto the bookshelf, using one side and leaving the other for him so they'd know whose was whose when they decided to move on from this living arrangement. Forward thinking, that was Jemma.

As she wiggled her wrist in front of his eyes, he answered before sighing, in a practised monotone, "Very nice Jemma." His eyes never left the screen to actually look at what she was trying to show off, instead choosing to ignore it and get his mind back to his work. It was his work, it was his play, it was his passion. Often he gained nothing from the time he spent doing these things, instead doing it for his own entertainment. Right now was one of those moments, and he didn't want to deal with Jemma's distraction.

It used to frustrate him, how easily this woman could take things that weren't her own and make them hers. How she could steal and smile about it, brag and show off her new possessions. With time, the frustration faded, and he just accepted that that was the way she was. Many times she had flirted with danger, getting close to getting caught, however, it seemed like flirting was her way to get out of danger as well. As she began to move things around him, his concentration was broken which caused him to sigh and occasionally break his eyes away from the screen. He noticed her round bottom wiggle in those tiny pajama shorts, but he quickly took a sip of the coffee and went back to the screen.

She had a beautiful body, he could never deny that, curvy, voluptuous, he had noticed it many times before but had always gotten his mind off of it quick enough. She was his friend, always had been, always would be, it felt like, anyways. His eyes wandered for a split-second to take in the spectacle of the daintily clothed woman. He would not offer to help, he had done most of the lifting to get the boxes inside while she had done a very good job of supervising. He was content with their home situation, he actually quite liked the boxes, they did a good job of helping him keep track of all of his stuff. He only had a few boxes, kept them all close to his computer, with one in his bedroom. Tired of trying hard to gain his focus back, he decided to step away from the computer, walking towards the kitchen, "I'm gonna microwave us up some KD again. I sure as hell don't feel like cooking, do you?"

"That sounds good. I have another job tonight though, so I probably won't eat much" she tapped her fingers against one of the boxes in the living room. It was labeled clothes and she wasn't sure why she'd kept it out here. Instead of lifting the box, she wiggled it back and forth scooting it across the floor to her bedroom. The action caused her bottom and breasts to jiggle and wiggle and her hair worked free of the hair band and fell across her face, she blew out a breath of air and the hair moved aside.

"Hey Liam!" she called from her bedroom "I want to show you what else I got last night" she hadn't stolen it. But it wasn't exactly legit. She pulled a black case out from under her bed and flicked the latches and they opened in unison. The case was large and offered room for more than the tiny pocket pistol she had in it at this moment. She took the 3032 Beretta Tomcat out of the case and stroked her fingers over it.

Her father had never needed a weapon when he'd pulled off his jobs, but times were different now and Jemma wasn't fond of having a security guards hands around her throat because she had beat him to the punch on something he'd been setting up for awhile. The self defense classes had come in handy but she'd need more training than that, and more protection if she was determined to stay on this track.

She walked into the kitchen, with the unloaded gun in her hand and smiling at Liam she said "Look at this beauty. She's just a baby, but the guy I talked to said it was best to start small. You know, since I'm a woman and all." She just loved how men underestimated her.

Liam had put the food in the microwave, turning to walk back toward the living room while he waited for the machine to do its work. He watched her in bemusement as she struggled with the box, yet refused to ask him for his help. She was cute as she struggled to get the box of clothes into her bedroom. He didn't know why she had so many clothes, she didn't seem to get dressed up for much. He rolled his eyes as he doubted he'd be interested in what she had to show off, bracelets didn't interest him.

As he stepped around the corner, his disinterested body language and eyes quickly changed when he noticed what she was holding and... stroking so lovingly. A small pistol, and his eyes opened wide at the sight, he had only seen a few guns and he felt that he had already seen too many. He pointed at the pistol and questioned, "Why... why do you need a gun? Look, I'm OK with you stealing things but shooting people? Come on Jemma- there's got to be a line."

The microwave beeped behind him, but he ignored it, struggling to find the words to describe his internal dilemna with the piece of cold steel. The most eloquent thing he could think of to say was, "...why do you need a GUN!?"

"Why don't I need gun Liam?!" She stomped a foot with a pout. He was her best friend, although she couldn't really remember if she'd ever voiced that to him. When your best friend was a male, it was different then when your best friend was another female. They didn't notice things like a female did, she hadn't even had to wear a scarf or long sleeves to mask bruises because he didn't notice. She doubted that he really looked at her at all in one day.

"I have a really dangerous job and until I get more training in fighting and defense without weapons, then I need something for protection don't I? Besides!" she said excitedly and ran her fingers over the shiny metal "Just look at it. It's like it was made for me!" And so began a fascination with guns that Jemma didn't see fading anytime in the future.

She looked up at him and smiled, she wanted him to understand her so desperately if anyone could she always figured it could be him. "And, if someone tries to break in when you're not home and steal your little machine there" she pointed towards his computer "I can scare him away before he or she steals the love of your life!" She held the gun behind her back because it seemed to bother him and said. "Home protection."

He sighed as he watched her pout and stomp her foot. He stared up at the ceiling and held his head in disbelief, shaking it as he stared at the gun. "I see it, I see it... it's... very shiny. And deadly. Shiny deadly, bad combo." He looked at her with a quirked eyebrow, seeing the way she seemed to live the object and turning around to finish making their dinner. Some butter, milk, and cheese sauce later there were two bowls of macaroni and cheese ready for them.

"Your job wouldn't be so dangerous if you were just smarter about it, started planning heists and robbing actual banks. Like, our local bank just down the street is so under-protected too it's hilarious. They only have a class-4 anti-hack tracer, class 1! What, do they think everyone that lives around here are all idiots or something?" he finished with a scoff. He began to eat his noodles at the counter as he looked to the blond woman with a bemused smile. "Somebody breaks in, what's wrong with stabbing them with a kitchen knife? That's enough home protection for me.. we don't need a death-trigger lying around. Especially one in your hands."

He finished with an accusing look to her, knowing that insinuating he didn't trust her with a gun would drive her crazy. Especially with the way she lovingly held the thing. As a final note, before digging into his food more he added, holding his fork up, "And the computer is not the love of my life, at least, not yet she isn't. She hasn't given me a clear answer about my proposal for marriage yet."

Jemma looked down at the gun, and then over to Liam with a frown. What did he mean by especially one in your hands? She sat down at the table, letting everything else he'd said go in one ear and out the other for now. Her best friend didn't trust her with a gun? It wasn't as if she'd use the thing just to use it. She pouted slightly and laid the unloaded gun on the table, still looking at it.

And why did she care so much anyway? In every other aspect of her life she was confident. When she was clad in an all black catsuit and sneaking into a multi-million dollar house she had no doubts in herself. When she was cuddled up to a man in his bed she had no doubt in her capabilities as a lover. But a few comments from Liam about running smarter jobs or his comments about the gun and she was questioning herself. That shit had to stop. She gave herself a firm mental shove and told herself to knock it off.

With that she dug into her Macaroni, forking up small mouthfuls of the yummy kraft concoction. But not even halfway through the bowl she was pushing it towards Liam "You can have the rest, I'm going to go put this away and you know doing something thinking about how to make my job tonight.. smarter. Let me know how things go for you and your computer, I'd love to be your best man" She raised one perfectly arched eyebrow at him and snatched up the gun and as she walked out of the room she gave her bottom an extra jiggle just in case he was watching.

He had noticed it on her many years ago, and even back then when he had had a crush on her, (with good-looks what teenage boy wouldn't have one?) he loved how cute her pout was. He also loved how easy it was to incite upon her face, as soon as he teased her a bit, as soon as he didn't say what she wanted him to, or sometimes just in a playful mood her cute pout would be there staring at him. However, by now he had learned to play it cool and avert her eyes from her. He stared at his bowl of noodles, polishing them off before placing it in the sink near the rest of the dishes that nobody had bothered to do yet.

He continued to stare at the dishes, running his jaw left and right as he chewed over what to do about them. He quickly turned, noticing Jemma give her bottom an extra wiggle for him. He quickly stopped that train of thought, why would Jemma give her bottom an extra wiggle for him? He had always just been her friend, he remembered hearing about all of the boys who never looked her way in high school over and over and over and over again. Shrugging his thoughts away, he turned once more away from the sink and called out to Jemma as she exited the room, "I'm afraid you're not invited if you don't do the dishes this time. I did them the first two days we moved in, they've been sitting since. I won't let you out of the house to do your job until they're done Jemma," he finished with a grin as he walked back toward her computer. "Then maybe you'll have to get an actual job to pay rent, or stop doing these small-time heists all of the time."

Jemma had almost made it to the bedroom to prepare herself for her job tonight when she heard him call to her about the dishes, she let out a groan and then turned around shuffling down the hallway with her trademark pout on her face. "You eat more than I do! most of those are yours Liam!" she whined a little more and flicked on the water and waited for it to get hot.

It was 4am before Jemma returned home from her job, when she walked into the door of their apartment her mood was clearly written across her face. She was pissed, she was.. embarrassed and she was very close to giving up and actually getting a real job. She walked towards the kitchen, and tossed the little black device on the counter. She rummaged through the drawer for the meat tenderizer, once she found it she swung her arm back and brought the metal hammer like instrument down on the device and smashed it into pieces.

If she'd stopped to look in a mirror to see how she looked she'd be humiliated. Her catsuit was unzipped to her belly button and her large breasts were practically falling out of her black bra. She'd almost been caught tonight, well technically she had been caught. But the security guard very obviously hated his job, and the people he worked for. Since he'd been so easily persuaded to look the other way and let Jemma slip out with her haul. She didn't mind the flirting, she was a natural. What she minded was that Liam had been right, if only she was smarter about what she did she wouldn't have to use her body. The stupid device was supposed to reroute the alarm so she could get in and out without any glitches, without anything to alert the guard. But it had only delayed the alarm and she'd apparently not been fast enough.

She cursed and dropped the meat tenderizer back in the drawer. Tonight had really sucked, there was no possible way for it to get worse.

He vaguely remembered falling asleep, he vaguely remembered getting up. Things didn't change for him much of the time, he'd sleep here and there, taking well-timed naps to keep his body full awake. He was caught in a very good video game, while chatting with his friends, all while working on his program. His brain worked extremely hard, and didn't seem to have an off switch. He was sitting, with the keyboard in his lap, cross-legged, small cup of coffee beside him, glasses reflecting the screen of the light. And that was when she heard him come in.

She didn't notice him, but he looked up over the monitor to see her in the hallway looking upset. A frown came to his face. This was no ordinary pout, (though he could see hints of it), this was body-language down in the dump-everything sucks. He rarely saw her like this, Jemma was supposed to the be the over-the-top upbeat one. He was supposed to be the.. not boring, he was quite funny at times, but as he preferred to see it: The stable one. He was consistent, calm, little smile, never too happy about much but never too sad. She was supposed to be the emotional one, and when she was feeling low, he felt it too. He stared at her and paused his game, sighing as he stood up and quietly began to make his way toward the kitchen. She was pretty beaten down, last thing he wanted to do was scare her. He knocked on the kitchen doorway and then began to speak in a quiet, concerned voice, "Hey, what's wrong kid?" He didn't call her kid very often, he used to tease her with it, but now it was one of the few words he'd use to show a little bit of concern and even affection.

Apparently, it could get worse. Of course Liam was still awake, it was as if the man never slept he was always at his computer tap-tapping away at some program. Futzing around with some code looking sexy as well with his glasses and freckles. She sighed and thought about how she looked right this moment, like hell. Which was fitting since she felt like she'd just danced with the devil and she didn't particularly like being caught directly after that kind of tango.

Jemma normally would have had a fit about him calling her Kid, he wasn't that much older than her. But she really just didn't have it in her tonight, there was no snappy comeback just a shrug as she waved towards the smashed device on the counter "That stupid ass thing didn't work" was all she said as if that were supposed to explain everything. Maybe he'd piece it back together, figure out what it was and what it was supposed to do and then maybe he could figure out why it hadn't done what it was supposed to do and fix it! That wasn't fair, she wasn't mad at him. She was mad at herself, she wasn't bad at what she did. She'd never been arrested or tossed in prison, she even had friends who were cops! She'd never even been questions by a cop. If she had been she was sure she could talk her way out of it. But her recent run ins with the security guards had her wondering if she'd ever get as far as she wanted in her chosen profession.

She wanted to pull off grand heists, maybe she just needed more practice, more knowledge of technology. Maybe she should have gone to college, like Liam had.

Liam stepped into the room, trying to keep his eyes off of her ample bosom which seemed to be put on display. He wouldn't ask how she got out of trouble, he could tell from the way her catsuit was zipped down. No self-respecting thief would try to pull of a heist dressed like that, it was obvious she had to use her assets and her womanly... wiles... to 'talk' her way out of trouble. He sighed softly, his expression softening out of worry and slight affection for her. He stepped forward, placing his hand upon her shoulder, something he didn't do often and gave it a squeeze. He looked at the floor as he chose his words correctly before smiling softly and saying, "Every job has it's bad days. At least you don't have to wear a stupid fast-food uniform like I did for a few years."

He left her to be quickly, picking up the device she had placed on the counter and quickly picked it up. He began to roll it around in his hands, inspecting it with mumbles to himself, "micro-transmitter.." "Ooh, not a bad idea installing the processor right on top of the.." "What in the h-ohhhhh, that's what that is..." and a few moments later he placed it back down looking to her. "The reason that thing didn't work- is that it's a cheap piece of shit," he stated bluntly, before beginning to explain why, "The micro-transmitter was an old grade model, designed to only work through walls thinner than one, maybe two-feet deep. The battery is limited, for as long as that thing has been on it has been getting weaker and waker. Really, if you needed a class-4 alarm chaser why didn't you come to me? I don't even want to know where you got this from. Whoever it is, they're a damn good scam artist."

Jemma hated that he'd noticed her open catsuit, sure he tried to keep his gaze away from her chest which was so obviously on display because of what she'd had to do to get out of there. And he did better than most would have in his situation. She always thought being a female gave her an upper hand in her profession because she had assets a man did not and generally she was right, but she hated when Liam knew that she'd used those assets and that he never asked her how far she went, because if he had.. she could tell him the truth; just flirting.

He'd touched her shoulder, trying to comfort her she imagined but it seemed to have the opposite affect, it set her on edge "I didn't come to you." she said softly as she zipped up the front of her suit. "Because you'd have just told me to get a real job and.." she shook her head and looked away from him, stepping around him walking towards the hallway. She refused to take her frustration out on him, it wasn't right. But it really burned her bottom to have him ask why she hadn't come to him, when he didn't take what she did seriously and spent a great deal of time making her wonder if she wasn't in the wrong profession. "Nevermind.. I just didn't that's all."

He remained silent, he had always just bugged her, never taken his bugging seriously. He let her go toward the hallway, he'd let her get her rest, it was obvious she needed it. He stood in silence in the kitchen for a long time, he remained contemplatively looking at the broken device and at the floor. He felt bad for her, he knew that it had been a bad day but he hadn't eased it. He like to make her feel better, as much as he liked to bug her... it was mostly for the pout. But there was no sign of it today, it was missing from her expression. She looked ready to give up, and that wasn't good for him. If she got a real job, he couldn't bug her to anymore.

Hours passed, she slept, he didn't. He took the broken device and began to find a way to work on a new program for it. Sure the hardware, the physical micro-chips and transmitters were outdated and needed to be replaced but better software would make it better. It was sometime around 10:00 or 11:00 am when he snoozed off. He had made sure to do one last thing before drifting off, he had repaired the device and left it upon the counter with a small note on top of it. The note read: "This should help you any future alarm scares. You won't hear me say it, but I'll let you read it: Don't hurry up and get a real job yet. You look too good in that catsuit."

He was exhausted, he was finished... mentally and physically. His body needed rest and he curled up upon the mattress that was laid out in the living room for him. To save money they had invested in a 1-bedroom together, but the living room was pretty much his own personal living space. He was in the corner facing the wall as he pulled down the blinds to scare away the brightness of the day so he could fall asleep.

Jemma had stripped down to nothing when she'd gotten into her room and let the silk of the sheets embrace her naked body. She slipped into a deep dreamless sleep, this was good for her because often times when she slipped off to sleep after a job it slipped into her dreams and with this one having gone so horribly it wouldn't have been fun to face it in her dreams as well.

She'd kept herself in bed until 6pm that night. She'd woken up a few times and then forced herself to go back to bed. But at 6 she decided it was definitely time to pull herself from the comfort of her bed. Without thought she walked across the hallway to the shower naked. She adjusted the water and then stepped under the steamy water without bothering to shut the door. If Liam were awake, then he'd just have to deal.

Jemma had stayed under the water until it went cold and again, she moved across the hallway with the towel wrapped around her. It seemed as though Liam were still asleep so she went into the room and without pulling on panties or even putting on a bra she pulled on a pair of lounge pants and a t-shirt she'd stolen from him and went to the kitchen to get a soda. She expected to see the device smashed to pieces on the counter and instead she saw the repaired device with a note on it.

"Don't hurry up and get a real job yet?" she muttered at the paper and then tossed it onto the counter and picked up the device. He'd really done it. He'd put the damn thing back together again and improved it, he was amazing and still asleep, she noted as she peeked in. She smiled a little and carried the device back to the bedroom, she set it on the dresser and snatched up her haul from last night and walked out to the living room with it. She poured the contents of the bag onto the couch and began to go through it, examining each piece thoroughly.

He had had a dreamless sleep, the exhaustion overwhelming him as for the first time in a long time he truly crashed and falling into a deep sleep. He had had the rude awakening of things landing on the couch close to his sleeping head. The first sound out of his mouth was a whine, he woke up to that sound. His subconscious had started it when he had heard the noise, he was a light sleeper, part of the reason he rarely slept and he began to roll over to inspect the noise.

His groggy eyes stared at her, though it was obvious there was no thinking behind them yet. Blink. Open, still groggy. Blink. Open, and there it was, his eyes began to look around and put together the situation. He reached and found his glasses, quickly sliding them on as he slid up in his bed and squinted at Jemma with a stretch. He began to speak, but what came out was "Wha-hazzagabbasai?" He looked at her for a few moments, confused as to why she didn't respond to his question. Then, he realized he had absolutely no idea what he had just said. To save face, he questioned again in the midst of a yawn, "What... have you got there?"

She looked down at him when he started to speak, what came out she couldn't quite understand. She raised an eyebrow and shifted around some of the items. In one hand hung a diamond necklace, with the biggest monster diamond she'd ever seen outside of a museum and in the other was first edition novel from 1910 signed by the author. "Loot!" she said happily as she set them into one pile and then began to go to the rest.

Jemma hummed under her breath something that sounded a lot like yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me. We extort and pilfer, we filch and sack. yo ho, yo ho, we maraud and embezzle and even highjack. His note this morning and her haul from the night before had obviously had an affect on her mood this morning. It was a good one, she was happy. She'd shaken out of her funk, but her mind was working on ways to do jobs where she would get paid for stealing instead of getting paid from what she stole. But you couldn't just put out an add to be a thief. She could rob the bank like Liam suggested, but there were always so many issues that went along with that. "Did you sleep well Liam?"

He raised his eyebrows at the loot, shaking his head a little and smiling at her hummed song. He was going to get up and out from under the covers to go to the kitchen and grab himself a glass of water... but he found himself unable to move. He had thick covers, thankfully, and they managed to hide what was keeping him seated. A little morning present, from human biology, which had him sitting up and crossing his hands over his knees as he looked to her groggily and answered, "Yeah.. yeah. Well, as well as I always do. What... time is it?"

He'd set up their living room to be somewhat of a time-warp. The window was practically boarded shut he'd put up such thick covers over it to make sure nobody could see in. He liked to keep the light out, project his own reality of what time it was. He kept a few lights on low, and they rarely turned off, even as he slept. Before letting her answer what time it was he added another question. His question was added with a small smile, wondering if she would pick up on what he wanted, if she'd be able to ignore the note's existence... or at least a little line on it. "So, does this mean you're not going to go out looking for a real job anytime soon?"

"It's 6pm" she answered as she tilted her head at an item that seemed to be solid gold. But it had latches and hooks, and didn't seem to be useful for anything at all. She held it up and asked "what do you suppose this is?" she asked as she held the item up, it was heavy she might be able to sell it to one of those cash for gold places but she doubted any of her contacts would want it. She shook her head trying to figure out why she'd taken it. With a shrug she set it aside.

"No, I'm not going to quit. But.. last night you asked why I hadn't asked you for help. And then you fixed that stupid device for me" she picked up a rolex watch and held it up. With a smile she grabbed his wrist and slid the watch onto it. " Would you really want to help me? Like, maybe you could help me do an easy score on the bank you said has a horrible system." She flopped back against the couch, her unrestrained breasts squirming beneath the t-shirt she'd snatch from Liam.

"I have absolutely no idea what it is, but it looks expensive. Perhaps really expensive, I would hold onto it for a while... at least until the heat from that item wears down. You've got to remember, a lot of these really expensive things could be identification-tagged," he spoke as he held the item and looked at it up and down. "Maybe-possibly it's an ancient time travel device. I'll try to figure it out later."

He looked to her when she continued, smiling lightly when she said she wouldn't quit. He couldn't believe he had encouraged her to steal, but it was better than a reality in which Jemma was just another boring person. Perhaps that was what encouraged him so much, maybe that was why he wanted her to be a thief... because it was different. Here in this time, to be a thief, despite the technological advances and security measures, to struggle against it all and fight through to get what you wanted. He had to respect that, and when she requested his help he couldn't believe as he spoke.

"Sure Jemma... I'll... I'll help you organize a bank heist," as soon as he was done, he laughed. The idea was so absurd... but perhaps they could pull it off. Just maybe they could do it together. "But I want my shirt back, and... for God's sakes, lets have a few drinks for once. We've been here so long, and never really had a house-warming party."

"A time travel device?" she raised an eyebrow at him and laughed softly. "I'm sure that's exactly what it is Liam." She flicked one of the latches and shrugged. "I was thinking the same thing, it's odd. I'm not sure why I grabbed it, it's too unique." Which now that she mentioned it was probably why she HAD grabbed it, she'd never seen anything like it, and it had fascinated her. She remembered standing there for a minute, which was more than she could spare to look the damn thing. Jemma flicked another latch and watched the device, nothing happened, she didn't expect it to she was just trying to take in the fact that he'd just said that he'd help her set up a job.

Her eyes went wide when it really hit her that he'd said he'd help her. Liam, was going to help her pull off a bank robbery. Her mind went into overdrive just thinking about it, she'd really get to test her ability. It would be the biggest thing she'd ever done and her best friend was going to help her. A smile passed over her plump lips as she slid off the couch. "What exactly do you want to drink? Beer, wine, vodka, whiskey. A mixed drink? maybe something with a cute little umbrella in it?"

Jemma made her way into the kitchen, she was so excited that she nearly skipped while she walked. It felt a bit silly, but she couldn't help herself. She opened the cabinet that held their alcohol and scrunched her nose "We have half a bottle of vodka, a little bit of rum. I call dibs on the rum!" she moved some bottles aside "Hey there's some tequila too!" Closing the cabinet she opened the refrigerator and said "There's about five beers in there. We should be good." She snagged a beer and the can opener off the side of the fridge and popped the top off the bottle, taking a deep sip of it as she walked back out to the living room. Offering him the bottle "We'll start with that."

"You know me, I like my warmup beers before dipping into the hard stuff..." he said as he accepted the beer that was handed to him. He began to sip down the liquid, smiling as he felt the initial warmth of inebriation tingle through his body. He stole the beer from her hands and pointed to the kitchen, "Thanks for this, now you can go get your own. And while you're in there, grab the hard stuff... a fair amount of it." Liam wasn't a heavy drinker at all, he had made a pact to himself. When he gets drunk, it should be an event, and if he's gonna do it, he should get drunk. It felt like once, maybe twice a year he and Jemma would share in a few drinks. They were overdue this year, though, as it had been more than a full 365 days since they had enjoyed drinking together.

Which meant, in his mind, that it was time to enjoy it. Beers disappeared down his throat quickly, but then soon enough the hard liquor had been set up in the living room. At some point in the evening, a sheet-fort had been set up and many of the boxes moved to accomodate it. Underneath the ceiling of bedsheets, there was laughter from various YouTube videos, as he had found himself shoulder-to-shoulder with Jemma enjoying showing her all of the humorous things he had discovered. Right now they were laughing at a video of a chimpanzee that had been trained to do a karate kick. He let out another drunken giggle as he swiveled away from the screen back to the table, all still underneath the large fort that had been set up. He began to pour a shot of whiskey, his body swaying with the booze as he smiled to Jemma, "It'sh whiskey time! What... what shot is this? Six? Seventh? Twelfth?"

He turned, smiling at her when he realized just how close she'd gotten to him during their drunken adventures. The fort had been a lot of work, and the southeast corner (as he referred to it) seemed to keep falling out from between the two boxes stacked on top of each other that held it in place, but it had definitely added to the evening. However, it removed the room the rest of the living room offered, and left him and well... her. As he looked into her eyes more and more thoughts seemed to run through, less and less of them consisting of anything besides Jemma. Why had he never noticed her eyes before? Her chocolate brown eyes were so deep and warm, and he found himself getting lost in them as he stared and forgot to pour the shot.

Jemma hadn't had nearly as much to drink as Liam had, she was much smaller than him and it took far less to get her drunk. She'd been stealing sips off his beer and after awhile he'd failed to notice the action. She had tried to keep up with his shot taking, but she seemed to pace herself far better than he did.

Now beneath the tent after countless beers and whiskey shots he was looking into her eyes in a way she'd never thought he would. He was her best friend, they'd grown up together and had been thrown together their whole lives . He was the one person she was always 100% honest with. The one person she could be 100% Jemma, and while he might have teased her endlessly she knew it was just that teasing. He didn't look down on her, although she sometimes thought he was frustrated with her chosen profession he never seriously judged. She loved him for it, she loved him for a lot of reason.

She gave him a shove to break the eye contact that was getting a bit heavy for her and then crawled out of the tent, her bottom in the air facing him. "Time for another shot!" she called as she made for the kitchen to get a new bottle of whiskey since they'd polished off the first.