Looking for a Job Is a Job in Itself

[Aqua]

"Well," Emily rolled her eyes slightly with a smile, "not in a conventional way, I guess no," she straightened up again. "I feel stupid in simple social situations that others seem to resolve just by snapping their fingers," she explained. "With you, for example."

[Pietro Maximoff]

"Not everyone is social," ::Pietro said with a slight shrug. Perhaps he missed the implications, perhaps he held her to the same standard he held himself, or perhaps he had ignored the implications, feigning ignorance, to spare her any embarrassment of focus on the issue in the first place.:: "I am hardly social."

[Aqua]

"Well, you seem to manage, at least," Emily shrugged. "If I could reach this level, I would be satisfied. But I'm not even there yet. And I'm not comfortable with that."

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro had only been in one other situation where a person had been envious of how he lived his life. The year prior, with Scott, when the other man had been drunk and mourning his break up with Jean. Even then, he had been drunk. Emily was sober, which made it all the more peculiar to him.:: "There are two ways to learn to swim; it works for being social."

[Aqua]

"Some people never learn how to swim," Emily pointed out.

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro was aware of that, although it was necessary for survival, to be able to swim. To run, to interact, and to fight.:: "You want to be one of those people?"

[Aqua]

"Well, if I am already one of them, wanting or not wanting will solve nothing, I suppose," Emily replied, sticking to her defeatist views.

[Pietro Maximoff]

"You will go far in life knowing how to talk to others," ::Pietro knew that because he did not go far in life, and he lacked several necessary social skills, or was unable to apply them for great lengths of time.::

[Aqua]

"Do you think I know that?" Emily tilted her head. Pietro had often demonstrated he viewed her in a more objective, clear way than she herself, even if he pointed out mostly her good qualities, which sometimes made him look a bit biased towards her, she appreciated his observation skills nonetheless.

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro was not above judging others; in fact, he lived his life based on impressions he accumulated of those around him. Yet, there were circumstances where he let the judgments slip away, often with those he cared for. As such, he posed her own question back to her; she would need to answer it herself. He couldn't do it for her.:: "Do you?"

[Aqua]

"You're avoiding the question," Emily remarked, but in a benign way, without a reproach. "I think I don't," she replied to his question, "and I'll tell you why." She took a moment to drink some of her cocktail.

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro took a long drink from his bottle of vodka, and waited as patiently as he could for her explanation.::

[Aqua]

Emily pressed her lips together, thinking as she glanced aside for a second, then she looked back at Pietro. "As far as social skills and talking go," she said, "of all the people I have ever tried to be friendly with, you are the only one that has stuck around and still remembers about me. Everyone else has gone out of my life, mostly without a trace. Now, you may say that it's a coincidence and they all had a reason to leave, but what I see is my inability to make friends and get people interested enough to keep in touch with me."

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro could not say with certainty what he'd expected her answer to be, but it was not that. What was it that Samson called it? Sense of abandonment or other such analytical terms. She was right in one regard; he found it to be coincidence.:: "Some people are callous and inconsiderate."

[Aqua]

"Maybe, but what does it say about me, Pietro?" Emily asked. "Why is it me who's in the middle of this particular situation?" It was more a rhetorical question; she'd given her answer to it a minute ago, anyway.