Pride and Obliviousness

Who: Brian and Hunt
Where: Hunt's house
When: 1:30PM

On top of everything else, the world had to go and ruin Brian's day even more. First, he was hungover, exhausted, tense, bored at the diner as so very few people came in, alone in the kitchen because Olivia hadn't come in and nobody else really wanted to chat, and itching to call people again and pester them to make sure they were okay. The icing on the cake, to make all of that worse? It was raining.

True, it was only off and on, but it was threatening to just drop buckets any minute, and now that Brian was finally off-duty and had the dubious pleasure of going home-- or, as he'd planned, going to Hunt's-- it was in one of those periods of "on". So he'd made a mad dash to his truck, all but thrown himself inside, and then made his very much halting and unhappy way to Hunt's house. His trip to the front door from his truck was also a mad dash, and he huddled under the porch miserably after he knocked, hoping to hell Hunt was there and would open it quickly. The water on him was already gone, evaporated as much from his own elevated temperature-- made worse by hovering panic-- as by willpower alone.

Hunt was, in fact, in and the sounds of the various locks and bolts on his front door being undone one by one attested to that. The other man opened the door, then, seeing who it was, stood back. "Fuck man - come in!" he exclaimed, knowing Brian's distaste for wet weather. "You okay - want a towel?"

Come in, Brian did, and quickly, giving his hair an ineffectual shake, mostly just to assure himself he was no longer wet. "I'm good, no towel necessary, but thanks." Inside was worlds better, though, and he did take off the light but very effective raincoat to hang up on the nearest available rack, coat-hanger, closet, whatever Hunt might have handy. "I see you survived the night."

Hunt gave him a 'you're kidding, right?' stare. "Yessss, of course I did," he said, slowly. Should he not have done? Okay, things in the park had got a bit hairy, but he was probably blowing that all out of proportion in retrospect.

"Hey, man, not everyone did. And you've seen the news, and all, right?" Vandalism, missing people, the police out in force, deaths-- though Brian was holding onto hope some of those deaths were vampires, too. "Hell, night before last I know three people personally who got attacked, and hurt pretty bad, both. So yeah. I'm glad you survived the night intact." He grinned a bit at Hunt.

"Yeah, I've seen the news - but you know how the media blows things all out of proportion. Look - they're selling papers. You know the adage 'don't believe everything you read'? Really, man - it's fine," Hunt reassured him, patting Brian on the back before heading for the kitchen.

Brian stared after Hunt briefly, incredulously, before limping a bit after him. The knee was better now than it had been the night before, but it never really went away, either. He wanted, needed even, to bring up just how dangerous it really was out there, but upon reaching the kitchen he finally noticed the lack of a barking dog-- or tail-wagging dog, for that matter. "Did you find Mutt?" he asked, fully expecting a no.

Hunt looked down, away. "Not yet," he admitted. He'd looked and looked and somewhere inside he knew his dog was dead, but somehow he couldn't admit that to himself. "I... I put up posters and left notices in the local veterinary surgeries - I'm sure she'll turn up," Hunt told him.

Yeah, the expected no. "Shit, I'm sorry, man. I'm sure she's fine, just... got herself lost." Though what if she wasn't? Did vampires munch on little dogs, too? Brian didn't have the faintest idea, but it was easier to say something reassuring than to not. "I'll listen around the diner, for you, see if anybody's picked up a stray or something."

"Thanks," Hunt smiled - honestly appreciative of that. "I'm sure she'll turn up. Town's just... crazy right now. I'm wondering if school's going to be in session tomorrow. The way things are going."

"Unless things calm down overnight, I can't think a lot of parents are gonna even take their kids in, even if it is open." Brian settled back against the counter. "Hunt, you are taking this thing seriously, right? The problems the town's having?" He knew Hunt would keep himself safe, stay inside-- he always did, anyway. But with all the brush-offs... it worried him.

"Seriously? Course - I mean... There's trouble. I'm staying in at night, it's fine - it'll pass. Fucking kids," Hunt expressed, rolling his eyes.

"It's not kids, Hunt," Brian said, folding his arms across his chest and watching his friend seriously. "Kids couldn't take two of my employees, sharp ones who can look after themselves, and cut them up like pieces of meat. Olivia needed stitches, and Domino-- Domino's back is a fucking mess. This is the same group who made that mass-- that mess in Munising." Massacre, while also an ugly word, was one he wasn't sure he could say.

"Okay - not kids - then what?" Hunt asked, sounding tired. "What? Some other kind of gang? I can't imagine anything else that would be able to do that," he told his friend.

"Probably wouldn't believe you if I told you," Brian sighed-- even though that was part of the reason he was even here, he could just imagine how Hunt would take it. He'd probably laugh at him, or at most think he'd cracked under the stress. And after Anton's near heart-attack at a demonstration, Brian was reluctant to "show off" his skills to the uninitiated again. "You haven't wondered, at all, why the trouble only happens at night, have you?"

Hunt gave him a Look. "Wellllll, I have been going off of the basis that generally, more crime happens at night. What with the sneaky darkness of it all," he said, more than a little sarcastically. "But no - that would suggest that I want to get into the heads of the people behind all of this. And really, I don't want to do that."

"I've always kind of thought figuring out what a bad guy's plans were helped keep people safe," Brian said, returning the look with one of his own. Hunt wasn't going to pull that kind of sarcasm on his friend without getting a glare right back. He seemed pretty obvious that bringing up "vampires" was, indeed, going to get him laughed at, though... if Hunt was already this resistant just to discussing it. Goddammit. He sighed and added, "Just figure them for being stronger and faster than your average folk." And they probably saw better in the dark, being night-living, but that was only a guess. God, he wished he knew more about vampires.

"Brian, really - the attacks are only happening at night, I'm not going out at night, these guys have a modus operandi - I get that, really. I'll be all safe and sound locked up here," Hunt reassured him. "Nobody is getting in to this place unless I let them in - and I'm not exactly that stupid, so don't worry."

Sighing, Brian said tiredly, "I know you're not stupid, I'm just-- stressed, okay? My two employees-- Anton, too, don't know if you've met him 'round town or not. Comes to the diner a lot. Had to patch him up yesterday, too." And he took the news about vampires just peachy, too. Poor old guy... er, muse, which he still hadn't quite wrapped his brain around. Brian shook that thought off. "Just feels like the town's gone to shit. I don't want to hear about any other friends getting beat up, or I might just snap and go out head-hunting, myself."

"Oh, don't be stupid, Brian," Hunt said, hating that idea of a really visceral level he wasn't going to stop to define. "That's what the police are for - we don't need vigilante bullshit adding to the chaos around here. Look, it's bad out there at night - so, stay inside, make sure everyone else stays inside and leave the shit up to the people whose job it is to deal with it."

Oh, right, leave it up to police who were going missing left and right, if rumor was to be believed. And common sense. Police weren't equipped to deal with vampires-- not that Brian really thought he was, either, honestly. Almost forty and with a bum knee, and worse, in the rain? He just didn't trust his temper, especially lately, if something really bad happened to anybody. "Calm down," he said, "I didn't say I was going to."

"Good - I knew you had brains in there somewhere," Hunt told him with a humourless grin. "This'll pass - it's just shit. They'll get tired and go, or they'll get on top of it. You'll see." Hunt - always the optimist, even in the face of overwhelming odds, he couldn't see what was right before his nose.

Which was a little frustrating to some of his friends. Well, one of them. Brian eyed Hunt a moment, contemplating just blurting it out-- stupid pride, not wanting the man to think him a lunatic or an idiot, warring with worry for what Hunt might not take into account-- but in the end, all he said was, "Got anything to drink?" Hunt would stay inside, at least. Avoid trouble. That was something.

"Sure," Hunt told him, leading the way through into the kitchen. "What're you after?" he asked, checking the fridge to see what he had in.

"Alcohol, and I don't really care what." Brian limped after him, peering around his shoulder at the contents. "No work tomorrow-- you saw the diner's closed on Mondays now, right? So that'll be nice." Actually, it'd suck, having all day with nothing to do. Maybe he'd experiment with food, or something, that usually made him feel better. "Hell, looks like most everybody took the day off today, anyway. I bet it'll be the same tomorrow."

Hunt grabbed a couple of beers and opened his, cautious about hard liquor after their last night together as he passed one over. "Well, I'm gonna be assuming I'll be at work tomorrow, but the news'll tell me one way or another in the morning," he said, philosophically. He couldn't imagine the world stopping turning enough for school to be closed without several feet of snow.

"I'll envy you while I'm trying to think of something to do with myself," Brian answered with half a grin, popping the cap half with fingers and half with will-- Hunt never noticed the small things, though he was careful not to do anything obvious with his ability around him, anyway-- and holding it up to clink with Hunt's. "To work and the town being less fucked up tomorrow?" he suggested.

"All we can wish for," Hunt agreed, tipping his own drink back to his friend's. Now all he could hope was that people would stop being so fucking paranoid everywhere.