Alex could vaguely hear the conversation going on in the backroom, the house wasn't big after all. He rolled his eyes slightly, going back to trying to fix his leg. He'd done so a hundred times before stealing parts from work to help himself, only being caught a couple of times with little punishment.
Supprisingly, Jax won. Not by much, but he did win. Jemma huffed as her brother stood up and proceeded to flop onto the bed to show off. "You just got lucky." She said, rolling onto her back and sitting up so she could go get a pillow from the couch like Alex had said.
Jax waved his hand dismissively and looked over at her with a small grin, "You wish." He didn't bother to get up and head out of the back room when His sister did, already too comfortable to bother.
Alex looked up when Jemma entered, still hunched over his metal leg. He pointed to the pillows that were sitting on a small couch not too far away from him with a screwdriver, "I'm guessing you're looking for those?"
"Yeah." She walked over to them and scooped up the pillows, not even trying to hide her interest when she saw his metal leg. Just thinking about the mechanics of getting a leg like that working interested her.
"Go on, take a picture, it'll last longer," Alex muttered, though he smiled ad sent her a wink before looking back down at his leg. He didn't think he'd seen someone so obvious about their interest in something before.
Jemma smiled back. "Believe me, if I could, I would," She responded, glancing at his leg one more time to try to figure it out as she headed to the back room again.
Alex chuckled a little with a small shake of his head. If he was being honest, he himself didn't quite know how his leg worked, he was just told how to fix it if it ever broke.
This Alex guy might be a little more interesting than she originally expected, she thought, heading back to the back room with the pillows."I'm back," She said to her brother, tossing the pillows on the ground and flopping down beside them.
Alex hadn't had people stay over for a very long time. He was used to being alone and he still didn't quite know why he offered two strangers a place to stay for a while but… they didn't seem that bad.
He only grunted in response, already almost asleep. Jemma rolled her eyes and looked around, not tired in the least and wanting to find something to do to occupy her time.
The room Jax and Jemma were in was fairly small, after all the house wasn’t big and normally only housed one person. There was a small, broken picture frame sitting next to the bed, the picture shooting what looked to he a young Alex, his brother and his parents.
Her eyes swept around the room and settled on the picture, studying it carefully. She sat up after a minute and reached over, grabbing the picture so she could study it closer.
Alex looked to be about fourteen in the photo, and he didn't have his metal hand or leg when it was taken. His older brother had an arm wrapped around his shoulders and they were laughing at something or another. Their parents stood next to them, smiling at them. There was a clear resemblance between the four and you didn't have to ask to know they were a family.
Jemma lightly traced over each of the people in the photo, easily deciding they were a family. The younger boy in the photo looked like Alex and she decided it must be him.
The family were standing outside the house, though it wasn't as broken and damaged as it was now. Even though it was small, the bright smiles and laughing showed they didn't care and they were happy.
She smiled lightly from looking at the photo, wishing there was a way she could capture her few moments of happiness like this one. They seemed so happy and she traced around the people.
"Hey, did you want anything to-" Alex stopped at the door, and the screwdriver that was fiddling with his left hand stopped, too when he noticed what Jemma was holding.
Jemma looked up quickly when he came into the room, moving to put the photo back quickly while also trying to not wake up her already asleep brother. “I was just looking at it,” She said quickly, “I’m going to put it back.”
Alex sighed a little, “I-It’s okay, it’s just a photo,” He forced himself to relax, “Want anything to eat?”
"Sure, food sounds good." She glanced at the photo one last time before focusing back on him.
"Warning you now, it won't be much." Alex said before he walked towards the small, pathetic space he called a kitchen.
She snorted, "I'm quite used to getting a tiny portion of food." Standing up, she followed him out of the room, wanting to give her brother some quiet so he could sleep.
Alex hummed a little and nodded, "Yeah, I think most of us in level three are used to small meals and tiny portions."
“I think that anyone who doesn’t live on the upper levels or another fancy town is used to small portions.” She said out loud, more to herself than to him as she leaned against the wall and looked around.
The kitchen was connected to the living room, a counter top acting much like a bar. It wasn't big but it was a nice size all together. Alex had always wanted more room but couldn't afford it, not when he constantly needed more parts for his hand and leg.