"Wanna join us for dinner?!" You shouted across the street to your neighbor.

She wouldn't quit staring, like you'd sprouted a second head or had invited the local troublemakers over. Oh wait... One of those applied.

She quickly shook her head no and excused herself as she hid inside. You bet she locked the door too.

"Why the hell did you do that?" Kid snapped, letting himself inside.

"She's too nosey." You let the rest of the men walk in before closing the door behind you.

Food came a little before they did and was already piled on the dining room table. Wire had suggested getting at least five pizzas so you went ahead and got seven. Better safe than sorry.

"It's driving me up a wall." You finished the thought as they all stood around awkwardly, unaccustomed to being invited to people's homes.

Wire had finally pulled his hood down, something you had yet to see until now. The jacket stayed snugly zipped up though and you wondered if he ever took it off.

Ignoring his choice of clothing, you decided to tackle the challenge at hand. The men had no idea what to do with themselves and you needed them to relax.

"I don't bite you know." You said to them, pushing boxes of food in their arms. "Why don't we find something to watch?"

They shuffled to the living room and you noticed Heat looking at the couch and back at you.

"I don't think we're clean enough to sit here." He mumbled.

They were covered in grease and dirt from the work day despite not having much to do, based on what Wire said at least. They must have found something to keep themselves busy.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure they'll clean easy enough."

Three of them dropped down into the couches while Kid busied himself nosing down in your entertainment center, checking out the movie options left there by Thatch.

"Humor me (Y/n)." Killer was already helping himself to food, licking his fingers thoughtfully. "Why invite us over when you hardly know us?"

"Well," You grabbed a slice of pizza from the box nestled in his lap and took a seat in the one empty loveseat. "Wire did help me out today so I owed him and you guys don't seem half bad."

"People around here–"

"Already told her that." Wire cut in with a grunt. "She doesn't care."

"Huh, you're a strange one." Killer said with a small, content smile.

"Thanks?"

"Oh ho." Kid sat up with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. "That's not strange. But I think this may be."

You practically choked on your food as he pulled out one of Thatch's adult movies, flashing it to the other men. You'd completely forgotten those were there.

"That's not mine!"

All eyes were on you after they'd gotten a good look of the cover depicting three scantily clad women hanging onto an equally underdressed and enthusiastic man.

"The guy who lived here before left those and is supposed to come get them!" You tried snatching it from Kid but he stood up and held it just out of reach above you.

"Those?" Heat pondered. "There's more than one?"

"Oh there's a whole stack of 'em under here." Kid snickered and turned his attention back to you. "I don't know if I believe you short stuff, you denied it too fast. You know porn's free online right? You don't have to buy it."

"It's not mine it's Thatch's." You grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and yanked him down.

Kid's eyes widened in surprise as he bent down far enough for you to snatch the offending movie and toss it back down where he found it.

"I remember Thatch being quite the pervert." Killer said.

"He dated half the women around here." Wire added.

They were defending you, that was nice.

"But Kid's right (Y/n), you really shouldn't need to spend money on that." Wire was smirking as you glared at him. He was asking for it.

"You better keep your mouth shut mister if you still want to go through with our deal."

"Wire, are you making shady deals with angry little women?" Kid had recovered from you manhandling him and shoved a normal movie to your chest.

"Just regular ones. I'm going to be doing yard work for her."

"You guys are welcome to help too, I'll pay you."

"It doesn't take four people to mow the lawn." Heat muttered.

"No, but the hedges need work, I'm sure the gutters could be cleaned out and there's the gardening boxes by the shed. I'm sure I could find plenty for you to do."

They were all silent as they mulled it over. Cash must have been tight for them to be so willing to do menial work like that.

"I'm down for it." Killer finally said.

Heat nodded in agreement and Kid scoffed but didn't say no. You assumed that was a resounding yes.

"Great." You smiled, forgetting about Kid's teasing as you looked down at the movie he picked. "Um, are you sure you want to watch this Kid?"

"Yeah. That's why I picked it."

"You ever seen it before?"

"No."

"Well, it's technically a musical."

"Are you saying I can't like musicals?" He growled.

"No, musicals are great."

The other guys didn't seem to have a problem with the choice so you started it up. You didn't think that a tough bunch of bikers dudes would like something like that but that wasn't what had you curious about his choice. It was more the movie plot itself.

You couldn't deny though, Sweeny Todd was a good pick.

The guys sat through it well, seeming to enjoy the horror aspects of the movie and making jokes or sly comments now and then. Heat had apparently seen the movie before and hummed along to the songs quietly between bites.

You were glad you bought more food than Wire suggested, they ended up eating just about everything. You took a mental note to keep plenty of food on hand when they came by to do work for you.

After Kid's teasing and then seeing how relaxed you were around them, they all lost their awkward, uptight feel. It made you almost feel like you were a part of their little group of outcasts.

When the movie ended Kid addressed you with an amused tone. "Don't know why you thought I wouldn't like it, it's a cool movie."

"Yeah, I had a feeling you might not like the meat grinder is all." He did look like he went through one after all. It was nice knowing he didn't but you were curious what actually happened.

"What?" He was confused.

"Just saying it looks like you met up with the wrong end of one."

The other three were trying their best to conceal their snickers to no avail. Kid looked down at his prosthetic and back at you with disbelief. Maybe people didn't usually point that out.

"You're a god-damned brat." He got out of his seat with a wicked grin, ready to dole out punishment for the comment.

"The brat who's going to pay you for yard work." You giggled and slid down in your seat, putting a foot to his chest to keep him away.

"Don't ruin that." Wire grumbled, throwing the empty movie case at his head. "We haven't even started with it yet."

"I'm your boss, I'll do what I want." Kid argued.

"Technically..." You pushed Kid back. "Wire got the job first so I'd say he's your boss around here."

"That's bullshit."

"And I'm his boss so what I say goes."

"How does it feel to be at the bottom of the totem pole with us Kid?" Killer teased.

Before those two could get into it, Heat looked at you with those always sad eyes. "When did you want us to start?"

Everyone looked at you, curious about that as well.

"I work through the weekdays but I'll have tomorrow off. If that doesn't work we could push it to next weekend."

"Tomorrow works." Wire made the executive decision. He had to like being in charge, even if it was really more or less a joke.

"You got a job already? Where at?" Killer asked, tidying up trash.

"The police station."

All of them bristled up at that but no one did more so than Kid.

"Um, why there?" Heat glanced among his friends as he asked.

"I ran into Smoker while I was out and about one day and he mentioned an opening. It's nothing major, I'm just their new receptionist." You shrugged, trying to ease the tension in the air.

"You couldn't find somewhere better to work?" Kid spat.

The animosity was completely unnecessary. "No actually. I did a lot of searching but no one else was hiring. Besides, if anyone else was, I would've applied. I don't care what the work is, I just need income. What's the big deal?"

"The cops here are jerks." Wire didn't look comfortable talking about it.

"If you ask me the whole town is full of jerks, they aren't special. I can tell you guys don't get along with them and that's fine I guess but don't immediately assume I'm going to turn into the wicked bitch of the west for working with them."

"We weren't–"

"Don't lie Killer."

Silence. Like you chastised a bunch of kids for doing something they weren't supposed to. No one could look you in the eye. They all sat there with shoulders hunched and hung heads. You weren't angry, you just wanted things to work with these guys and if they kept assuming everyone was out to get them, things could never get better for them.

"I like you guys. You're nicer than everyone else thinks you are, you're handy, and you have good attitudes. Well, most of the time, sometimes you're a bunch of grouches."

Your nicer tone seemed to ease some of their tension and they started to relax. But shared glances among them told you they were ready to leave. Great, you'd chased them out of the house.

"We appreciate dinner (Y/n) but I think we're going to have to head out." Killer stood and the rest followed suit.

"Yeah, it's no problem."

They shuffled away out the door and to their bikes. The quiet dark was broken by the sounds of three of them starting up. Wire had slung his arms over the handles of his and was staring at you, waiting. You left the doorway and walked up to him, enjoying the feeling of the cool night air on your skin. Give it a couple weeks and it'd really start warming up around here.

"I'm going to need your number so we can figure out what time to come by." He said when you were close enough.

"Oh, yeah I guess that makes sense." You chuckled but it felt hollow. Why did you feel like the bad guy right now?

You gave him your number and then quickly shoved your hands in your pockets, noticing the other guys were hanging around and waiting for the two of you to finish.

"I'll text you later. See you." He was stiff, monotone as he started his bike up and left with the others.

One step forward and two steps back. Making friends wasn't supposed to be this hard. Maybe you could make it up to them tomorrow when they came back to fix your yard up.

----

Or not.

You woke up that morning to a text from Wire.

–Busy at work. We'll come by next weekend if you still want our help.

As annoying as that was, you sent a text back telling him it was fine. Those boys were entirely too touchy about all this and it actually somehow still made you feel like something was your fault. That wasn't the case though.

All you did was get a damn job they just so happened to not like and you didn't even know why they were so angry with the cops around here. You could guess that it had something to do with why everyone kept their distance from them, but it couldn't be that bad.

You decided to get over it and go on with your week. They'd get over themselves and you'd make friends with them. That had somehow become your goal through all of this. They seemed to need more people to care about them and you liked the idea of having people you could spent time with. It'd be a real win-win.

On a good note, Chopper was warming up to you. He expected to see you at the house now and didn't eye you in the suspicious way deer do. He even took food from your hand half the time but usually he'd pull away with it to stay out of reach. That was okay, baby steps. His other antler had fallen out only a few days after you moved in and the spots were working on healing over so he could grow the new ones in soon enough. You'd give it a couple months.

Work went equally well. You got the hang of the job fast and the guys at the station really appreciated all that you did. It took some of the younger men a bit to adjust to how blunt you could be but the older ones loved it. Smoker fell under the latter. He was never one to beat around the bush and liked that no matter what needed to be said, you never worried about how he'd take it. It wasn't your job to concern yourself with what he thought anyway.

The newest guys on the force, Koby and Helmeppo, seemed to really like you. They'd come over to the front desk often during their breaks to chat you up and kill time. They may have had a thing for you, but you weren't interested. Dating co-workers was never a good thing and you preferred to focus on building your new life first.

Besides that, you'd emailed Newgate about the leaky roof on the shed and he promised Thatch would come around with a couple of his brothers to tackle the problem on the weekend. All in all, things were going smoothly.

You never saw your life making the sudden turn it had recently but it was all working for the best. It was getting easier each day to settle into such a different lifestyle. Hell, it had you debating doing things you never thought you could before. Maybe you'd get a dog, pick up a hobby, learn how to make something. It'd be fun to learn how to ride a motorcycle.

You'd ask Wire to teach you if you ever felt up to that last one.