closed

[detectivetroll]

Who: Reilanin Bainbridge and Nick Burkhardt
When: 11/21 (forward dated)
Where: A coffee shop near or possibly in the library
What: Rei and Nick run into each other off network. She's a werewolf, he's a hunter, and they used to date. There's nothing awkward about any of that.



It's been a long day of missing persons cases and leads that went no where, and Nick's just glad it's over. Or at least - his shift is over, the day itself is still going strong. He should probably go home and get some sleep while he can, since with his regular job, network stuff, and walking a tightrope around Sherman, he doesn't exactly have a lot of time for it.

But he's too wound up for sleep, and he does want to still have something resembling a social life. Vaguely, anyway. So he heads for the closest coffee shop he knows of, and ducks inside, planning on grabbing his usual rather boring cup of black coffee. And maybe a croissant.

Comments

[goldenclothes]

Things could be better.

She isn't actually sore anymore, just feels like she should be. The memory of the pain huants her far longer than the pain itself ever did. Maybe it's the shame that keeps it burning so much longer.

Trying to kill a teenager. Not that he was a teenager at the time. Not that she was herself at the time, either. But it's difficult to separate these things.

Normally she works later, but the director told her to go home. You look awful. Well now, that wasn't embarrassing to hear at all. Work was the one thing she counted on to get her mind off of things, and it hadn't helped at all. Something had clicked with the transformation, and all she can think about is what the other on the network had said.

Blood. She can smell it everywhere. She could before, too, but it hadn't meant anything. She'd caught herself staring at a child earlier and realized she was hungry.

Disgusting.

She doesn't drink much coffee. True to the stereotype, she prefers tea, but she wants something stronger to try and maybe block her nose. Don't coffee beans have some sort of neutralizing smell? Coffee shops are nice anyway, even if there are people everywhere. The smells are better than in most places. This particular shop is surprisingly clean.

She's so inward focused that she doesn't quite realize who it is beside her at the counter while she puts in her card number. She doesn't even think about it when Nick's girl puts his coffee down first, and goes to grab it without thinking. She pulls her hand back at the last moment, frowning.

"Sorry," she says to him, freezing somewhat when she sees who it is.

[detectivetroll]

In all honesty, Nick's out of it enough that he hadn't even been sure that was his coffee when someone else grabbed for it, and he'd been planning on letting it go before the apology.

Even then, he's about to tell her to take it anyway, when he sees who it is and hesitates.

"Rei," he greets with a small smile. There's no reason for this to be awkward, really, it's not like this is the first time they've seen each other since-

And then Nick's ability kicks in, he sees a flash of wolf, and he's probably about to make it incredibly awkward. With all of the strangeness he'd seen since this started, he'd thought he'd stopped being surprised at running into someone who wasn't human. But he can safely he'd pretty much never thought Reilanin would be one of them, especially not a werewolf. His poker face is virtually nonexistent at the moment.

At least he manages not to blurt out 'you're a werewolf' like he did with Lyall, but staring in surprised silence probably isn't much better.

[goldenclothes]

She sees the look and finds herself looking away, an unfamiliar crease in her forehead. Her coffee hits the counter and she takes it up. There was a sudden change in his demeanor- she's gotten used to gauging people's reactions. If she hadn't read it on his face, she can hear it in the rest of him, the beat of his heart, the stutter in his breathing.

She doesn't actually think that he knows. Who could do that? But there's the brief thought that he does, a small, nagging doubt in the back of her mind that she's carried with her everywhere since this started happening. He can't tell. But what if he can? What if someone else can?

She clears her throat a little. "It's rude to stare, Nick." And she takes her and her coffee over to the little station with the cream and the sugar at it, a short glance towards him before she does so.

ack, I'm so sorry, somehow I didn't get the notif for this

[detectivetroll]

He snaps out of it when she calls him on it, feeling guilty. For a moment, he considers letting this go and just walking away, but his reaction had been obvious, and she deserves an explanation.

All right, and maybe part of him doesn't want to just let it go.

So he follows her over, even though he usually doesn't use cream or sugar, and sets his coffee down on it next to her. "Sorry," he says quietly. "I didn't know you were part of the network, too."

At least he'd learned from the last few times something like this had happened, to mention that he was part of the network before telling people that he knew they weren't human.