Rehasing the Past

Who: Aiden and Manhattan
Where: Third Base Bar
When: 7:30ish

You've got a half hour reprieve, Dathan." Manhattan told her cousin as she rounded the front of her truck at a slow, casual gait. "Yeah, I told your uncle Bryson what's doing." The blonde stepping up onto the curb to make her way toward the Third Base Bar.

Manhattan had been itching for the past day and a half to get out of the house. Home confinement after her "run in" with a demon finally started wearing on her. She wasn't back to 100% yet, still a stretch to go, but the healing had begun. The bruises on her face and other areas of her body were starting to fade and the cuts and slashes were closed and healing. The loose fitting, long sleeved tee the hunter wore did well to conceal the markings on her arms as well as the cast currently worn on her lower right arm(though it did peek out just a bit where it reached to just below her knuckles), and conveniently covered the wrappings around her mid section that was required to help in the healing of her broken rib, what wasn't covered over by her t-shirt was tucked nicely away beneath her jeans.

She knew the thing was still out there, waiting. Only an idiot with be thinking otherwise. So needless to say she hadn't gone out unprepared. Hopefully though the night would go as she planned. One drink at the bar and then over to Dathan's friend Davy's house to pick her cousin up, and then head on home. Manhattan could pretty much already taste the beer she was looking forward to consuming as she headed for the front door of the bar.

One thing Marquette hadn't been short on was bars. There were plenty of them, dotted here and there, and Aiden couldn't help but stop in one as he passed by, after having dropped off Amelia. He hadn't even been in town a week and he was already imagining all the ways he could make his stay much more interesting.

On his third beer, Aiden took a slow drag off of his cigarette, his eyes observant of the patrons. He wondered how many of them were human and how many were just staking out potential victims. Hell, one could say he wasn't any better than they were. It was either finding something decent to hunt, or finding a pretty girl to take back to his motel. Either outcome would suit him just fine.

"Give me a beer." Manhattan told the tender behind the bar when she reached it. The blonde doing a slow turn to face the main of the place as the guy tending bar moved to fill her order.

Even at this early hour of the evening the place was filling up at a rapid pace with patrons who frequented the establishment. Dark eyes only circled halfway around the interior, without catching sight of any familiar faces, before they were drawn back to the bar as her drink was set down on the counter top.

"Thanks." The blonde tossing a couple bills down before taking up the glass full of beer and making her way through the throng of people toward a table in the back.

Aiden watched the blonde order her drink, a slow, calculating grin spreading over his face as recognition kicked in. It was a small fucking world. His gaze ticked over her as she walked to a table in the shadows. Typical. He knew he should go, duck out quickly and avoid being seen. But Aiden was never one to run away from his past and more than anything, he was always up for a bit of nostalgia. If that's what one would call this. Grabbing his drink, and slipping his cigarette between his lips, he left the bar and headed toward her table, dropping his glass in front of the seat next to her and sliding into the chair without permission. Smirking, he grabbed his cigarette from his lips. "'ello lovely. Fancy running into you here."

"Well. Hello there to you too." Manhattan giving Aiden her most sweetest of smiles as she shifted a bit in her chair. A smile that belied the anger that boiled slowly beneath the surface.

And then without warning. Without so much as the slightest of a glaring look a hand shot out, fingers curled into a fist as she sent a left hook crashing into Aiden's right cheek. The pain the action brought to the area around her ribcage and her shoulder was well worth the major discomfort. Not to mention the momentary satisfaction it gave the hunter.

"Fuck, woman!" Aiden jerked back in his chair, pain exploding in his jaw as he took the hit. A couple patrons quieted and glanced their way, but he ignored them as he grinned, rubbing the spot where her fist had landed. Maybe it was deserved. Maybe not. Still, it was thrilling and annoying at the same time. "Bloody nice way of saying hello to an old friend, or is that how you Americans are doing it these days?"

"That. Was for leaving me the fuck in a closet back in Vegas." She growled back. She hadn't noticed any of the looks her altercation with Aiden was drawing to their table, nor would she really have cared if they had been noted. She was in too pissed off a mood with Aiden's emergence in the bar and very well was on the verge of sending him another left hook.

"I didn't leave you there..." Okay, so he left her there. His jaw throbbed, but he ignored the pain and took another drag off his cigarette, leaning back in his chair now, away from reaching distance should she choose to try and hit him again. "Look, love, you know the way this works. I did what I had to do. If it makes you feel any better, I feel bad for what I did." He grinned at her, knowing full well she knew he was lying.

"Bullshit!" She snapped. She knew all too well he didn't. Hell if the tables had been turned she could be the one sitting here not feeling an ounce of sorriness for doing what he did for the cash it would have brought her. But then that wasn't the point. He left her in a fucking closet back in Sin City. Of course Manhattan wasn't taking into account that Aiden didn't nor couldn't know why she was so pissed with him for leaving her in a closet to size of a shoebox. Well that's what it felt like to the hunter.
And that smug grin of his was only making Manhattan wanting to deck him again all the more.

"Look, sweetheart, it's part of the job." He stabbed his cigarette out in the ashtray in the middle of the table. "You would have done the exact same thing to me, and don't try to deny it. You got a pretty face, and you're a woman, so you would have locked me in there and walked away thinking your feminist, women power shite, and I'd have been out a couple hundreds bucks. But because I beat you to the chase, I'm the arse." Aiden shook his head and studied her. "Fine, I don't feel bad for it. If you're that sore, I'll give you half of what I got for that pelt." He paused, reconsidered. "A third."

"No, I wouldn't have." Hissing as she moved to take to her feet. "I wouldn't have locked a claustrophobic in a damn closet." Aside from that, what Aiden had said was true. She would have done the same exact thing. Gotten the info she needed and then made sure he was locked away somewhere while she high tailed out of there to get the target and then collect the pay.

He cocked an eyebrow and looked up at her calmly before spreading his arms out expectantly. "What, was I 'spose to know you were claustrophobic, Manhattan? Did you, during any of the time we spent together, tell me that detail? Because I sure as hell don't remember it. If I had, I guarantee you I would have left you in a bigger closet," he finished, biting back another grin.

"That's not something that one brings up in general or any other type of conversation you smug little Irish bastard." Of course there were times where there hadn't been any type of verbal conversation going on between them, but who needs specifics.

"And as for what you owe me. It's half." Manhattan holding out her good hand as if expecting payment. Something she knew she would never get from Aiden.

His grin spread into a wide smile as he studied her hand before lifting his gaze to hers. Aiden reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, flipping it open, his eyes never leaving hers. He pulled out three one hundred dollar bills and slapped them into her palm. "A third of what I got," he told her again. He took out another fifty and put it on top of the cash. "And for your emotional trauma. Or payment for services rendered? However you want to look at it."

"Keep your damn money!" His gaze met with a narrow eyed glare and had Manhattan tossing the bills back at him before moving around the still seated Aiden toward the door in a flurried rage. She very well may have taken the third he offered, that was until he had to add the extra for her "emotional trauma". Did he really think he could cover the cost of that with a mere fifty? That was more then a slight insult.

Aiden slipped the bills back into his wallet before standing and taking another quick drink of his beer. He followed her out to the parking lot and caught her arm, tugging her back until he stood in front of her. "Okay, look, I'm sorry. If I'd known you were claustrophobic, I would have done things differently. I can't say the end result would have been different. And you know damn well you would have done the same to me." He smiled again, though he knew the charm didn't really work on a woman like Manhattan. He lifted her fingers to his lips. "If I give you half, will you forgive me?"

"We both know damn well if things had been reversed I'd have done the same. It's who we are." Manhattan let her fingers lingering a brief second at his lips before pulling her hand away. "What I oughta do is slug you again, Aiden Quinlan. My forgiveness though will cost you the full amount you collected for the fur that by all rights should have been mine." Faint traces of a smirk tugged at the corners of the blonde hunter's mouth.

Aiden smirked at that and slipped his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Sorry, love, that's not going to happen. We'd agreed to go half and half on the pelt, and that's as far as I go with it. It took quite a bit of effort to hunt that white wolf down, and I'm not about to part with my compensation because I hurt your feelings." He lifted one hand up and brushed it over the blonde hair at her ear. "'Course I could repay you in full in other ways, but money's out of the question."

"Can't fault a girl for trying." She grinned knowing full well Aiden's response wouldn't have been any else but just that. "And that type of repayment will have to be put on hold for the moment as I'm not quite up for that at present."

"Well, it never hurts to try," Aiden lamented, slipping his hand back into his pocket. "If you change your mind, I'm at the Venture motel, for the time being." Aiden leaned forward and brushed his lips over her cheek before slipping cash into her hand. "Really lovely to see you again, Manhattan. I'm sure I'll be catching you around."

Manhattan turned her head at just that precise moment. The one that came a second after Aiden's lips brushed her cheek. The one where the blonde caught his lips with her own for a brief moment before that short step was taken back. "I'll keep that in mind." The blonde giving a slight smirk. The shape she was in was basically the only thing that kept her from paying a visit to the other hunter's room at the motel. She really was in no shape to do anything majorly physical or strenuous or even half of that. Had she been up to par. Well. They both would be getting what they wanted with no strings attached. No false expectations to follow come the morning after. "If you're going to be in town for any length of time than that most certainly is a definite." Manhattan said tucking the bills Aiden slipped in her hand into the back pocket of her jeans.

Aiden grinned at that before reaching down to take her hand, deciding then to try and convince her to join him regardless. He felt the cast and lifted her arm, pushing her shirt up before cocking an eyebrow at her. "Hunt gone wrong there, love?"

"Wasn't a hunt." The features of her face hardening as she drew her arm back, the length of sleeve slid back down to cover the cast once more.

Aiden pulled his pack of cigarettes out, lighting it and taking a quick drag before he observed her through the smoke. He didn't expect her to expand on that, and a part of him didn't really care. Still, he was curious. "Sure as hell wasn't a tumble down the stairs," he finally said. "And I somehow doubt you'd let some asshole push you around. So what was it? Demon? Vamp?"

"A demon who thought I'd make a nice little playtoy to amuse himself with." That had been his misguided mistake. Second had been in his letting her live. "Don't think he realized his little plaything of choice was a demon hunter." Cause if he had come to that little realization Manhattan very well may not be standing there and making conversation with Aiden.

Aiden chuckled at that, glancing at her arm again before rocking back on his heels. "So he's got a death wish, does he? Do you know what kind of demon it was? You need helping tracking it down?" Yeah, it sounded good natured, helping out an old acquaintance and all, but all Aiden was wondering about was the value of said demon on the underground market. Where concern should have been in his mind, it was replaced by potential dollar signs.

"He signed his death warrant the first time he cut me. Yeah I do, and I think I got this little bit of personal business covered." That's what it had become. Personal. Only one that was going to take the creature down was going to be her. And there was the tiny little fact that she felt she knew Aiden well enough to know his offer of help was merely a guise. Only thing he'd be interested in was what cash bringing down the demon would would be brought his way. "Thanks for your offer just the same, Aiden."

"Anytime." He pulled his wallet out and pulled out a small scrap of paper before handing it to her. He didn't do business cards. Too corporate. "My cell. Call me if you need any help. And you know where I'm staying," he added with a knowing smirk. "You're welcome anytime."

Manhattan gave a silent nod when she took the scrap of paper offered to her. "As I said, I very well may take you up on that offer." A grin spread slowly across the hunter's features as she tucked the slip of paper into the front left pocket of her jeans.

"I'm sure you will. Take care of yourself, Manhattan." Aiden shot her a grin and turned to walk back to his car. Like he thought earlier, it was a small fucking world. But he knew now that there was demonic activity going on in Marquette, and the option to make a buck finding out where and what it was.

"You do the same, Aiden." The blonde hunter then turning as well to make the short walk back to where her truck was parked. She still had Dathan to pick up from his friend's place before she could make the trek back home. Something she, at this point, really was ready to do. Rest was really all that was on the hunter's mind now.