Trouble in a Tank Top

"So, let me get this straight," Ande says as she takes the ice cream cone from Tony. It had been an impromptu first date, but Ande felt like that it was a chance she was willing to take. So far, she didn't regret it. "You have not worked a single day for the last month?"

Tony nods before he digs his little pink spoon into the smooth ice cream in his cup. Ande watches him closely, noticing the two dents under his bottom lip that show where he once had piercings that have now closed up. Ande tries to imagine that he would look like - studs or rings? Truthfully, Ande believes he is a stud kind of guy; his lips weren't full enough for rings.

"Then how the hell have you been able to pay me twenty dollars a day for the past month? That's almost six hundred dollars, Tony!"

"Perry."

Ande stares at him, confused. "Perry?"

"That's my last name. Tony Perry."

"Oh," Ande blinks, trying to remember what she was saying. Lip piercings, money, six hundred dollars a day- oh right! "Don't change the subject, Tony Perry, how the hell have you been paying me?"

Tony just grins as he eats more of his ice cream, but doesn't answer. Ande stares at him, a stern look on her face because she's scared of what his answer would be.

"I just get paid really well."

"Doing what!" Ande is truly curious now, but it is almost to the point where she's nosy. Tony just continued to grin because he enjoyed teasing Ande in this way. The way he gave off his personality at the diner was completely different from this goofy, silly little kid that just wanted to see others smile. Ande must have figured this out because she calmed her stern look and gave a small smile back. "You know what I do, it's only right I know about your job," she compromises and it seems to not even slip through one of his ears before Tony takes off in a run, dropping his cup of left over ice cream in a nearby trash bin.

Ande turns quickly, trying to figure out what he's doing. She watches as he struggles to pull off his shoes and socks once he hits the sand, it's a cross between a jump and a jog, to the side of the sidewalk and then continues until he places his happy little rear end into the seat of a playground swing.

She simply stares, ice cream still in hand slowly melting to slip down the cone and making her hand sticky with the mess. Ande was slightly surprised that the playground wasn't already covered in kids since school should have been out by now for the day, but as Tony began to kick his feet back in forth began to see him as a big kid. The tattoos and the natural dark hair and the piercings were only his appearance, something he wore to give others a slight insight of who he was. His smile and his voice and what he spoke about was the true Tony Perry, though, and Ande was still trying to figure him out.

"Ande!" he yelled, getting the brunette's attention. He waves at her with a tattooed hand to come over and join him in the swing to his right. Ande just drops her barely eaten ice cream in the same trash bin and pulls her sneakers off before walking over to join him. He grins beautifully at her when she sits down and begins to kick her legs back and forth. Soon, they're the same height up, going faster and higher with each pump of their legs.

Ande can hear Tony softly counting, but she isn't quite sure what for until he jumps out of the seat and flies ten feet from the swing seat. His feet touch the sand and sink, wiggling little toes disappearing in the sand. He turns and smiles at Ande, motioning for her to do the same. She feels sick to her stomach, having never done this before, but takes in a deep breath, counts to three like he had just done, and lets go.

She lands, and a sharp stab goes up the nerves in her legs. Ande grimaces and rubs at where the stab feels the worse, but didn't fall on her face and didn't do anything that could terribly injure her.

"I'm a security guard for bank trucks," he tells her, pushing his hands in his pocket. She looks over at him, but he's looking down at the ground, kicking sand with his foot. Ande smiles, and decides she likes Tony because he's just what she needs to keep her young as she gets older and older with each passing day.

"Race you to the shore, loser has to get dinner!" she calls and takes off running through the long stretch of sand there is before the beach shows up. Tony calls behind her, calling her a cheater as he laughs and runs in return. Even with her headstart, Ande loses.

The pout on her face makes Tony laugh before he falls down in the soft, dry sand to lay out on his back and catch his breath. Ande just shakes her head and sits down on the dirt a foot away from his right side. Tony has his eyes shut, blocking the bright afternoon sun, but Ande notices he's smiling, and it's one of the biggest smiles she's ever seen on his face.

"What do you want for dinner?"

Tony answer immediately, "Burritos."

Ande laughs, but nods her head nonetheless. "Alright, burritos it is."

SURVIVE

Tony looks over at Ande as he drives down the back roads of suburbia San Diego. She hasn't not spoken or looked at him since he tossed her in his truck and took off.

After Mike had let it be known that all the information Casey had on Ande, which was a lot to Ande's surprise, was in the confiscated laptop that the police had taken after the heist fell through, Tony barely took more than five minutes for Ande to throw some clothes and her necessities in a bag. Ande told him that she would be fine, it wasn't until just ten minutes earlier that she knew about their criminal life, but Tony apparently wasn't going to let her take the chance.

When it came down to Ande going to a safe place that only he and the guys knew about, it wasn't kept on file or written down, Ande put up a fight and said she was going with them but Tony, to Ande's surprise, just threw her over his shoulder and took her out to his truck. During this time she could hear Jaime destroying her phone.

So now, almost fifteen minutes later, Ande was pissed, confused, and just wanted to take a nap. All the action that had gone on was messing with her head.

Tony hissed to himself when he moved his arm in the wrong way, and look down at it to see a large blood spot forming. Ande glanced over and saw the same thing, and her mood changed almost instantly. Tony had been shot, he was in pain, and Ande was giving him the silent treatment because she was mad at him.

"Don't mess with it," Ande says, pushing the center console up so she can get closer to him. Tony looks at her, but then returns his eyes back to the road as a light turns green, giving him the affirmative to go. He glances over at her every few seconds, watching her movements as she undoes the bandage he already has on it. The bleeding wasn't as bad as they had both thought, but he was still in pain.

"Do you have anymore gauze?"

"In the dufflebag," he tells her. She doesn't say anything more, just nods, and digs around in the bag at her feet looking for it. It's to the right, pressed again the bottle of bottle of whiskey. She opens the bottle and pours a little on the patch of gauze before immediately pressing it to the open wound. Tony yelps, and he swerves the truck slightly from the surprise stinging sensation.

"Sorry," she mumbles, and he grumbles under his breath that sounds like a 'warn me next time'. Ande prays there will never be a next time.

Ande holds the gauze to the wound while Tony continues to drive. She focuses on the slowing of the blood patch until she's certain she put enough pressure that it stopped for now. She wraps Tony's black bandana around it to hold the white bandage in place. And then, much to Tony's surprise, she presses a small kiss to his bicep in hopes that it will help the damage heal. Tony watches her, still trying to figure out the brunette waitress that had caught his eye that day at the bank.

She had been standing there in line, waiting to cash her check, while he and Casey staked out the place looking for any cameras and grading the amount of security. She had been humming something, moving her little hips back and forth while bobbing her head. He couldn't stop staring, not even when Casey hit his arm saying it was time to go. He left, but stayed outside waiting for her. Tony had felt like a stalker but was glad he stayed. She walked from the bank that stood on the corner of the street in an outer part of San Diego, to Oliver's little diner three blocks away, and Tony knew he had to talk to her. The next day, Tony went into the diner, ordered a glass of lemonade with a chicken salad sandwich and a side of onion rings with extra, extra honey mustard. The sandwich was shit and the onion rings were overcooked, but he guzzled that lemonade just so she would come over and refill it for him.

He hated to see her go, but loved to watch her leave. Those little hips had a natural sway that he couldn't stop watching no matter how hard he tried to look away.

Tony looked up, eyeing the light cream colored house that was coming up on their left. He was hoping to never pull his mother into his second life, but this was his last resort right now.

"Where are we?" Ande asks as Tony pulls into the driveway behind a little white sedan. The white picket fence needs a new coat of paint, and one of the shutters on the windows is only hanging by one hing, but Tony still calls this home. Stop pulls the truck to a stop and turns off the engine. It sputters silently. He opens the door and Ande does the same, confused of why she doesn't get an answer.

"Tony!"

Ande stands still, shocked by the small teen girl that comes barreling out the front door of the house. She watches as he jumps into Tony's arms and the girl laughs as she's spun around.

"Where's mom, Tina?" Tony asks as he puts his little sister done. Ande sees the resemblance. The nose, the eyes, the matching grin...

"In the back watering her roses. You are in sooooo much trouble, Antonio! You haven't called mama in almost a month!"

Ande stays back, but she's noticed quickly by the bubbly Tina.

"Oh, is that her?"

Ande's confused of what exactly she means, but Tony nods before walking over to grab Ande's hand and lead her over. "Ande, this is my little sister, Tina. Tina, meet Ande. My girlfriend."

"He's talked a lot about you, when he's home that is. I imagined you to be uglier. Tony isn't that much of a looker so I don't know how he got you."

Tony throws a playful punch at his sister's arm, but she moves out the way and runs back into the house yelling for their mother. Ande just stands there and blushes, uncertain of how to deal with the moment where Tony's little sister just complimented her and insulted her brother at the same time.

"You're gonna be okay," Tony reassures her, knowing she will, in fact, be fine meeting his mother, but he will not. She's going to be so pissed at him.

"Antonio Cesar Perry!"

Both Tony and Ande cringe at the screeching voice of Mrs. Perry. Tony gives Ande an apologetic smile and lets go of her hand to walk over to his mother. The woman, who is barely five feet tall, glares up at her son.

"Hey, ma."

"Don't you, 'hey ma', me, mister! I haven't heard from you in almost a month! You never keep me updated on anything in your life! For all I know, she could be pregnant!"

She points to Ande and the brunette chokes on the breath she had been inhaling. Tony drops his head into his hands. Ande and Tony hadn't reach... that level of intimacy as of yet.

"I'm not, just so you know," Ande said, throwing in a small two cents to the hundred dollar conversation. Mrs. Perry didn't even bat an eye in Ande's direction as she continued to scold her son for not keeping her updated in his life.

"Ma," Tony finally said after a good five minutes of being yelled at, some in English and some in Spanish. "We're in a bit of trouble and Ande needs a place to stay. Is it alright if she stays in my room?"

"I'm not staying here," Ande says firmly and steps forward. "No offense, Mrs. Perry, I'm certain your house is lovely, but Tony, you pulled me into this and there's nothing you can do to get me out of it. It's your own damn fault for doing what you did and part of paying that price is putting up with me."

Tony just looks at her, not phased in anyway. He looks at his mother again. "So, can she stay here?"

Ande glares. If looks could kill.