Oh yeah, you work here...

Who: Sasha and Ash
When: evening
Where: teh shop

Once it started to get darker -- and colder -- out, Ash meandered his way back toward the shop. It'd be about time for Sasha to go home, and even though he had keys and knew how to close up, Ash had been meaning to catch him with a couple of minutes to talk. So, back he went. He stubbed his cigarette out with his boot right outside the half-closed bay door, and ducked his way under it, looking around for the younger man.

Sasha was keenly aware of the time. In a few hours he had an appointment to go to the nicer side of town with Jules and get completely smashed, which sounded like all manner of fun. But until then he was being paid to work, and work was just what he was up to. He was buried wrists-deep in a recalcitrant engine block, and didn't seem the least bit nonplussed about it. "Think the last time you were cleaned was when they minted you..." he muttered to the engine parts.

When one saw the hood up that way, one could only assume there was a greasemonkey behind it. Ash ambled over around the side of the car and leaned a hip on it, looking down at the back of Sasha's head as he worked and dug around. "How's it hangin'?" he asked, for lack of a better opener. They'd crossed paths briefly in the past few days, exchanged a few notes about particular cars, but that had really been about it.

"Hey boss. S'all good, just...kickin' around. This thing's filthy, I think half the oil system is shitted up. I'm also not entirely sure what's causing the funky smell from the AC unit, but something mighta crawled in and died." Classic Sasha, he tended to miss any implications beyond what he was immediately working on.

The angel chuckled, moving to bend over and lean on his elbows to peer into the engine block with his employee. "Wouldn't be the first time," he remarked. He reached in with one hand to squeeze-test one of the intake feeds. He wanted to ask what had been up. The kid was good people, and things seemed to have been ... off with him. As far as Ash could tell, at least. Facial injuries were never a good sign of emotional wellbeing, in his experience. But he didn't ask yet. You didn't interrupt a man when he was working.

Sasha grunted as he saw the origin of the actual problem with the machine, and realized that poor cleaning was the least of it. "There we go, electrical system's rusted through back here. That looks pretty through-rusted, too, ain't no way solvent's fixing that. Gotta order the parts." He pulled back from the engine, scowling. He preferred a problem he could fix without resorting to part replacements.

It would bump up the bill a bit, and seeing as how Ash didn't know the customer really well, that was something he didn't mind. He nodded a touch and straightened up himself. "Get prices, give the owner a call, get it cleared," he said, even though Sasha probably already knew to do that. "But it ain't gettin' done today, so get washed up and see me in the office." He started to head that way.

"Huh? Uh, alright." Sasha blinked at that, Ash wasn't usually one to do the office thing. Still, if boss man wanted, boss man got. He suspected his little bash with the creepy crawly in the bathroom might be at play. He got himself cleaned up as instructed, taking the time to scrub the grit from his nails. The last time he'd missed that, he'd ended up smudging half a page of paperwork with motor oil. Once finished, he headed for the office to meet with the boss.

Ash was sitting behind his desk, rocked back in the chair as far as it would go, one boot propped up against the edge of the writing surface. He looked up from a cup of fresh coffee as Sasha came into the room, and nodded for him to sit down in the plastic chair against the other wall that served to make up the rest of the furniture in the office. "How's it goin' out there?" he asked first, with a tone of curiosity.

Sasha dropped into the seat. He hated plastic chairs like this, they were so irritating to sit in. "Uh, going alright. Haven't had any serious problems with anything yet, I think I've kept up a good rate of repairs since I started." He really hoped he wasn't about to lose the job...he thought he'd been doing pretty well with it, really. Nothing had come up that they hadn't made money on, at least...

The angel was nodding, as if he expected that answer. Because even with the chaos that had been going on, and his own absenteeism around the place, he had been keeping tabs on the work Sasha was doing. It was his reputation, after all. "Well, you been doin' a damn good job," he said matter-of-factly. "Really glad you're here. Now ... I gotta ask somethin', and I'd like for you to be honest with me. Can you do that?"

Well, that was a comfort at least...if he was doing a damn good job, he wasn't about to get fired. Unless Ash had found out about why he'd left Chicago, that might cause a problem. He pushed that thought aside and nodded. "Sure boss, always."

Ash nodded again, and thunked all the way down onto the floor, bringing his boot down to look more directly at Sasha. "You haven't run screaming outta town, and neither have I, and anybody with two braincells to rub together knows that weird shit's happenin' in this town. That bein' said ... what happened in the restroom?" he asked. Because that damage? Had been rather severe.

"Yeah, that." Sasha made a face, rubbing at the barely-visible scars along his face. "One of those bogeymen shadow things jumped me. I was washing up after work the last night they were around, and got slammed into the sink. We had a bit of a disagreement about whether that was polite, and a mirror ended up gettin' smashed when it was all said and done." Honesty like this could get him committed to a loony bin, but Ash seemed to be understanding of the craziness that seemed to plague Marquette, so Sasha took the gamble.

He could sympathize. More or less the same thing had happened to him in the bathroom in his apartment upstairs. He wasn't sure if that was the whole story or not, but he wasn't sure if pushing for everything was the best idea. "And that didn't have you questioning your sanity?" he asked, as if he already expected the answer to be no.

"Well, between that and the vampires, I was wondering if things were quite as nice here as I'd hoped, but I don't think I'm crazy." Something told Sasha that if Ash knew about the shadow-things, he probably knew something about the vampires as well. He wouldn't be terribly surprised if Ash knew a lot about them, honestly, the guy was an enigma.

That got a laugh out of him. It always caught him a little off guard to realize that he genuinely liked Sasha, but it was nice when it happened. "Good, then, you know what the fuck's up," he said, sounding pleased by that. It would potentially make things easier in the future, were something ... untoward to happen in or around the shop. Wouldn't be the first time. "How's shit otherwise? Your brain's been elsewhere a bit lately." He sat back again and lit a cigarette.

Sasha felt good to know he'd been mostly right about that, then. He relaxed a little more, then shrugged to the next question. "Just uh, personal stuff." He'd said he would be honest, so he kept going. "Saw someone for a bit, didn't quite work out, then a friend had to skip town because his dad's sick. Just a whole buncha stupid. Getting face-crashed didn't help." Now if only Ash would ignore the fact of how fast he'd healed both times he'd come in all gashed up.

Ash wasn't ignoring it, but that didn't mean he was going to straight-out ask, either. Lots of things healed quickly, and he was damn sure Sasha wasn't a demon, so that ruled out the only thing he would really take issue with. Everyone was entitled to their secrets. It was just good to confirm that the younger man had them. "Ah," he said, nodding in understanding. He knew how that whole 'saw someone for a bit, didn't work out' thing rolled. All too well. "Fuckin' sucks, man. Sorry to hear. ... wait, this friend of your's? Wouldn't happen to be named Brian, would he?" He thought Brian had said it was his mom, but he could've been wrong.

"Huh? No." Sasha blinked at the question, thrown a little bit off guard. "I know a guy named Brian, but far as I know he didn't leave or anything. My friend's a guy called Herbert." But what if Brian had left...it wasn't like he saw the guy more than once. He didn't have the cook's phone number, he just knew the guy worked at Mya's. "Do you know someone named Brian that left or something?"

"Yeah, he's a cook at Mya's Diner?" he said, nodding a bit, and kind of hoping it wasn't the same Brian. That wasn't exactly news he was keen on delivering, if Sasha hadn't gotten called or something. "Kinda tall, shaggy hair, sideburns ... kinda walked with a limp. Had a cat. He called me yesterday and said he was skipping town too, his mom was sick. Thought that might be him. But since not ... that's a sucky pair of exoduses, my friend."

Sasha just looked at Ash like he was speaking another language...then he balled up a fist and slammed it onto the seat of the chair next to him. "...god DAMMIT. I gotta talk to Domino, SHIT." He wasn't entirely aware of what he was going on about, because now he was worried about his friend. Ex or not, Domino was someone he liked and the guy had to be a wreck if Brian had just up and left.

Ash blinked mildly at the outburst, but that was about it. That was pretty well confirmation that Sasha knew him. Or knew somebody that knew him. Domino. Inappropriate as it was, he connected the dots and couldn't help but grin briefly. "That his boyfriend?" he asked, already knowing the answer was yes. "Yeah, you might wanna, if you guys are friends. Shitty."

"FFfuuuuck." Sasha slumped, completely frustrated by the whole thing. Nothing good seemed to happen to him or his friends lately, and he was getting pissed. "Yeah, I...they were dating, I mean. I'll call him tomorrow, see if he's ok...Shit." He remembered where he was and sat upright again. "Yeah, shitty. I promise I won't let it fuck with the job, it's just...hard to be upbeat when all this keeps going on."

The angel waved a dismissive hand. "Dude, don't sweat it. Life is what it is, and it's more than work. Don't force upbeatness, it makes you an asshole. Take care of what you need to take care of, just keep me up to speed on whether you're gonna be here or not," he said. It wasn't like he didn't skip out on work for his own shit, too. That was the joy of owning your own business. "I just thought I'd ask. Bossly concern or whatever. Offer's always still open for a beer anytime."

"How about right now?" The werewolf smirked a bit, he intended to get hammered later, but he wouldn't turn down the chance to drink a bit earlier. "Got a party I'm going to later tonight, should warm up the liver a bit before I do my heavy drinking."

Ash was on his feet without hesitation, tossing the kid a crooked grin. "Always good to intro your stomach to it's future slowly," he agreed, never one to turn down a beer. Even if it was his. He motioned Sasha up and out of the office. "C'mon, no time like the present."

"I don't think there's any time -but- the present. That's what my physics teacher kept saying anyway, damned if I know what she meant." Sasha unfolded himself and followed Ash out, happy that things were working out and he wasn't fired, and that there was going to be beer. Good stuff too, not the watery shit some people tried to pass off.