ash and brian

Who: Brian and Ash
Where: The phone
When: Late afternoon

The list was slowly running down, and Brian was feeling the strain of trying to keep his emotions in check. He was, at his heart, an emotional kind of person-- he'd just learned long ago that it was a very bad idea to let that get the better of him. When he started feeling the edges of short circuit, saying his goodbyes to Jennifer, one of the cooks from the diner, he started moving to the phone.

At least he had Ash's phone number.

Sitting in his truck out on the edge of town, with the radio on but down low, he dialed it in. Good thing it wasn't early morning this time. Maybe Ash would even be awake.

Who: Brian and Ash
Where: Babylon
When: Early evening

All it had taken was a quick phone call, a suggestion of place, and a counter-suggestion of time, and Brian was on his way to Babylon. On foot, seeing as Marlowe still had his car, but that was just fine. He had his cane, he had his cat to kick at now and then if he was feeling annoyed with him-- not that he ever hit; Torziel seemed to think it a fun game to dodge the randomly-timed feet aimed at his paws, and was dancing around them with a very entertained expression-- and Babylon would probably obligingly show up right as he was getting to be in too much pain to continue on. It had an annoying habit of doing that. Too bad it didn't show up when he wanted it to show up. Say, immediately.

The fact that Ash knew about and agreed upon doing their drinking at Babylon said interesting things about Ash, honestly, but all Brian figured it meant was he didn't have to be quite so careful about what he said or did. Maybe. The fact that this might well be the last night Babylon would be Olivia-free for a while meant Brian had really kinda wanted to go there, so he was willing to bring up a place the other party might never have heard of. Hell, he was willing to bring the man there, if he had to.

Apparently he didn't have to.

Who: Brian
When: Really fuckin' early (aka before 7AM)

Hey man. It's Brian. I only have your work number, so I'm calling there. I know it's stupid-early-o-clock but I can't sleep, so I figured I'd get in touch! Or at least call and say "hey, you wanna do somethin'?" So yeah. You wanna do somethin'? Maybe tomorrow? I seem to be making a habit of the drinking thing, and it's much more fun with friends. Give me a call back, and forgive the rambling. Way too fucking early.

Who: Ash and Brian
When: Around 3PM
Where: Ash's shop

Ash had both bay doors open, even though only one was occupied, and the music up loud. It was a good day. He'd woken up surprisingly not hungover, and had an awesome breakfast of microwaveable sausage biscuits. Almost the whole damn box. But it was good and heavy and hot in his stomach, and just what he had the hankering for. Since then, he'd been downstairs in the shop, working diligently on the only car that was left in his care. Which unfortunately was starting to look like it needed more work than he'd originally anticipated. Which he hated telling people. They always thought he was looking for shit wrong and just making it up. And then their shit got all fucked up because they didn't take his advice, and they accused him of sabotaging their cars. Which, okay, that had only happened a couple of times, and maybe he was just being cynical, but at least it was in a cheerful sort of way.

He sang along in sort of a mutter, cigarette clasped between his lips. He was balanced on the front fender of the big blue truck, one knee up on part of the engine while he leaned and reached to get deeper into it. They sure as hell didn't make cars for mechanics anymore, motherfuckers.

Who: Brian and Ash
When: mid-eveningish
Where: randomish sports bar

The rains had stopped around dusk. They wouldn't have prevented Ash from going out, but it would be nicer to do it dryly than soaked to the skin. He'd stood for a long time with the bay door to the shop open, just leaning on the back bumper of a car, smoking, and watching the water pour down. He felt a little strange, had since he'd spent time with Eury, and he couldn't quite place why. The discussion had made him oddly introspective, something that was rarely a good thing, any way you sliced it. Not for him, anyway. So the plan tonight was to go out and get plastered. Somewhere that wasn't Babylon. Why was it that he was always more likely to get hit on by dudes in supernatural establishments? It was a strange phenomenon. Anyway.

Ash changed his shirt, pocketed some cash, locked up the shop, and headed down to a normal-looking sports bar that he'd found in his wanderings. He'd been there a few times, their chili cheese fries were good, and they preferred football over soccer, which was always a plus these days. He wandered in a little after dark, heading for an empty place at the bar and ordering a Killian's Red. It was a dark beer night.

Brian was already there, having been unable to make it all the way home in the rain before his courage ran out. He'd gotten the girl from the library home, but that'd been it. He'd been hopping shops, restaurants, and now bars ever since, working his way in the direction of home or work or both in small, generally two-minute increments. This idiotic fear of rain was probably the most inconvenient, annoying thing in the world, and if he'd had the willpower for it, he'd just get over the damn thing-- and yet, he'd been at it all day, every moment of determination pretty much squelched by the time he got to his truck again. Now that the rain had finally stopped, he just plain didn't have any reason to go home. He had work in a couple hours, he'd been munching all day at his various stop-offs so he wasn't hungry yet, and dammit, a beer sounded good. He deserved one.