//𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 (Lee Christmas x Reader)

five

"Well?"

A bit of silence.

"Well what?"

Cigar smoke puffed out into the air along with a deflating sound. Eye roll.

"Well, what did you think?"

"What did I think about the kid?"

"Of course, what did you think about the kid, what else?"

Lee tapped his foot restlessly on the floor in front of the couch, thinking back over the night. He shrugged.

"Naive," he started, looking up to the ceiling. "Young. Soft. Inexperienced."

"Yeah, and?"

"Got a hell of an aim."

"Amen to that."

"She's interesting," he continued, sitting forward to grab his beer from the coffee table. "Dedicated. No doubt she's skilled."

"I wouldn't let her near us if I thought she wasn't."

"Right," Lee sat back again. "She might go and get us killed one day. Or herself."

Barney shrugged. They could all go and do that.

"We take a few easy jobs, see how she is," Lee said, weighing the options. "Take her to Rusty's, see how she holds her beer." A chuckle.

"Alright. That's out of the way," Barney said, rubbing the butt of the cigar in an ashtray on the coffee table. "What do you really think?"

"What do you mean, Barney?"

"I saw the way you looked at her," Barney said, crossing his arms as he sat back again. "So, what do you really think?"

Lee couldn't help the stupid smile that spread across his face. "She's cute," he tried, shrugging. "I don't know. A bit young."

"She's not that young," Barney said. "Young for Tool? Hell, yes. Young for you? Eh. Not really."

"You trying to hook us up?"

"Hell no," Barney said, holding up his hands. "But I saw the way you looked at her."

"I didn't look at her any kind of way."

"You looked at her like you look at women in the bar," Barney said. "Got a hunger in your eye. A shine."

"How poetic."

"We don't need her if she's gonna be a distraction," Barney said. "That's all I'm saying. She's no good to herself or to us if she's a distraction."

"She's a woman, Barney."

"If you all can't control yourselves that much, you have no business in this line of work."

Lee grunted. Barney was right.

"She won't distract me," Lee said eventually, but he wasn't sure, and he didn't sound sure, so he added: "I got Lacy. I think she's the one, Barn, I really do. Won't mess that up for anything."

"Right, Lacy," Barney said, a breathy sigh escaping his throat. "You got Lacy."

"You should find yourself a good woman," Lee chided, annoyed. "Maybe then you won't be so damn grumpy all the time."

"I don't want a woman," Barney groaned.

"A man, then. I don't judge."

Barney's face paled and he shot Lee a look which was met with a light-hearted chuckle.