silly time between storms

who: kayos and grayson
where: underground 'bunker' aka: a burned out church
when: in a land far far away

The basement was cold. Really cold. Like, bone-chill cold. But there was a furnace, and she had that roaring. Sure, it had taken a good few hours to beat the fucking thing into submission, and it was possible that she'd just kind of 'edited' things along the way with a little force of will, but it was working, damnit! That was the point. And it was kind of slowly heating up the space, just not fast enough for the little blonde's liking. If only the juice were still on to this place, she could use that to help out, but whatever, it wasn't, and hadn't been for a long ass time. At least it was quiet.

She was waiting for people to meet up. This had been the assigned spot, and considering she could teleport her ass anywhere, she'd definitely gotten there first. Plus, her own part of the mission had been fairly cake to her, so it hadn't taken her long, and then she'd just been trying to make the place hospitable. Which included a really run down old couch--but hey it pulled out into a bed so that was what she'd done. She had first aid supplies all laid out on a table she'd cleaned off, and her laptop was open on it, tracking certain news feeds around the world on one portion of the screen. The other was just a list of vital signs with names underneath. They weren't real names, they were just ones she'd given to people, just in case anyone got ahold of her and her laptop, and Teddybear wasn't able to wipe the thing before anyone could check it out.

There were a few that were flat. She knew she needed to remove their bars from the list, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. So, among names like 'Bootman', 'Massive Head Wound' and 'Fuck Muffet' were lines of the dead. Those ones she'd renamed. The deadlines read 'Jae', 'Matt', and most recently, 'Tobias'. As she tossed more wood into the furnace, she looked over at the laptop as it let out a little trilled beep. Thankfully, it wasn't an alert that someone else had flatlined. It was the proximity alert. The name it was under was 'Jack London'. She smiled a little bit, and tossed one more log on the fire before she walked closer towards the stairs, staying just in the shadows as she crouched down, one knee to the concrete. She had her revolver out, aimed. Just because she had people electronically tagged didn't mean it was them. Or that they weren't being coerced into leading people to the others. Though really, she didn't expect to see anyone but Grayson trot down those stairs.

He wasn't exactly a guy who went down in a fight unless he wasn't breathing anymore. So, she silenced herself, even held her breath, and waited for either the man or the wolf to appear.

The cold didn't bother Grayson in the slightest; given that he was essentially half-wolf even if he was in human form, he had a greater tolerance to the chill than most, was better suited for those harsher conditions and those dips and changes in temperature. Still, even though it didn't bother him, that didn't change the fact that he wore one of those trademark black coats of his wherever he went, just one more measure geared towards helping him blend into his surroundings. It wasn't easy for someone of Grayson's height and overall stature to just fade into the background, so he went for more secluded areas where he was less likely to be picked out of a crowd and darker clothes in the hopes that people would overlook him. It was all just a delay, of course, sooner or later one of those people he was trying to avoid was going to notice him, recognise him and pick him out of the crowd in a less than subtle manner; despite being a werewolf, there were plenty of supernaturals out there who could easily best a lycanthrope, even one in feral form, and Grayson was trying to avoid getting caught with his pants down, as the saying went.

As a general rule, he liked to be early to any meeting, and when he could get away with it, he would lope around in wolf form; he was lower to the ground, had his natural weapons already out and ready to use in the shape of always-sharp fangs and claws along with a wealth of other inbuilt benefits, speed and strength and agility. It meant taking precautions though, and here and there throughout the area he had secreted away bags of clothing and supplies; it was the one major downside of his race, he thought, especially when it came to practicality. As many upsides as there were to moving around in wolf form, it was nothing short of a pain in the ass to be without clothing whenever he changed back. Still, the rough years of dismal conditions and almost constant fighting and threat had all but eradicated any shame from the tall male wolf so that when he did transform back, he didn't even care who saw him or how. It was part of who he was, what he was, and given how they lived, there wasn't really any time to be embarrassed.

So when he trotted down the steps into the underbelly of the old church, its hollowed carcass on the surface giving the whole place an ominous air, it was on four legs that he did so, bright eyes performing an immediate scan of the area, his gaze landing on Kayos soon enough, her scent in the air pulling his attention in her direction. Giving a low whuff to tell her she could relax, he padded further into the room to give her a full view of him; she could inspect him if she wanted, but there was no way anyone could plant any bugs or devices on his wolfen body, at least not that he knew of.

When Kayos spotted the familiar wolf, she exhaled a near-silent breath of relief, and she put her gun up right away. She also smiled, and reached out towards him. "There's my favorite furball in the whole wide world." she said affectionately. She gave his head a scratch, knowing by now if there was anything to worry about? He'd warn her in some fashion. He'd find a way. Even if in wolf form he couldn't say 'heads up, I'm bugged!' or anything like that, he'd just...do something out of the ordinary. So, she was confident that he was on the up and up, and hey, he didn't look like he had bloody fur at the moment, so that was a huge plus.

She smiled again, then gave him a kind of half-hug around his neck and she dropped a smooch on the top of his head. Okay, so she realized that she had this huge soft spot for the guy, especially when he was in wolf form. She couldn't help it. He was fuzzy and warm and had these huge eyes, and sure, okay, he also had big pointy teeth and claws and such but--fur! And big eyes! And he was snuggly! There had been more than once that he'd been in wolf form that she'd kind of sought him out to curl up next to, to get a slight bit of a nap before she was up and off again. She just wished he could talk to her like a person while he was in wolf form. Then it'd just be awesomely perfect. Or, alternately, it would totally ruin the wolf thing for her and it would just be awkward and weird. Either way, she stood. "Just us so far...hungry?" she asked. "I was considering cracking into one of the MRE's...I know how much you just love the blueberry crumble in it. Oh! And maybe we'll get baby bottles of tabasco sauce!" Because those little military meal bags...damn near everything tasted at least a little off, and most of it required the sauce to be truly edible. But it was kind of all they had at the moment. She just liked to be enthusiastic about everything she could be.

Really it was only Kayos and Kayos alone who could get away with those enthusiastic shows of affection, everyone else was met with a show of fang or a low growl of warning. He wasn't a pet dog or a mascot, after all, but somehow the perky blonde always put those predatory instincts on hold and he couldn't help but permit the cuddling or the scratches to his ears and he didn't even mind when she curled up against him for one of those naps anymore. It had all caught him off guard in the beginning, made him lift his head with the wolf equivalent of a 'what the hell?' expression before he tried to crawl off to some other secluded corner to rest in peace. But Kayos had always followed him, never relented, and eventually she had just worn him down. Now it was all natural, and honestly, he wasn't looking forward to the day when it all simply... stopped.

A feral kind of chuckle rolled in his throat at the offer of the rations and then he shook out his full pelt before giving a yawn. He was going to have to change back, he knew it, but more and more over the years that had passed with all the combat and hardship he had found his animal form so comfortable, reassuring in a way, not only when it came to his own safety but to that of the others. He could protect them better this way. Still, he couldn't hold down a conversation as a wolf which all but cut him out of the meetings when it came to discussions. Another low bark, rougher than a common dog's, was his response to Kayos' offer; he was a werewolf, he was always hungry, even if decent food was hard to come by nowadays. With that done, he headed off to dig out the clothing supplies tucked into the far corner behind a ratty old chair, at which point he transformed back and proceeded to pull on said clothing, pants first and foremost. "How long have you been down here by yourself?" Not that he was worried she couldn't take care of herself -- well, maybe he was a little, but that was only pack instinct rising of its own accord -- but because she was always first on the scene and he was a curious creature.

Kayos grabbed one of the brown heavy plastic bags and dropped down onto the pulled out sofa-bed, sitting indian style on it. She pulled out her pocket knife and sliced it open, dumping the contents onto the bed in front of her. "Tabasco sauce! Score!" she said, setting that aside, and she glanced up. "And ooo. Fake meatloaf! That is all yours, my friend." she told him, putting that aside too for him. She looked at him when he spoke, and as was usual, she kind of just took a second to appreciate, even if she was doing it without showing it. Though, he was a werewolf, they had crazy active senses and such, so he probably knew she had a habit of checking him out. But come on. Really now, it wasn't like there were a lot of guys around, and he was one spectacularly built man. She just never said anything about it.

When he asked that, she smirked at him a little. "Why, worried?" she asked. "Not that long. A little while. Long enough to sweep the area and deem it more or less safe, and y'know. Start heating the place properly." Even if it was still a little cold for her tastes. "And I tended my owies, and got bored and played missile command with Teddybear." she added with a shrug. "Y'know. Same old. That bastard always beats me though." she added with a mock-Look at her computer.

"...I heard that." The child-like voice of Teddybear came from the computer. "Glad to see you back, Jack." he said to Grayson, since Grayson's vitals were listed under Jack London. It had been Kayos' pick, using the author of Call of the Wild, and White Fang.

Kayos stuck her tongue out and raspberried her computer, then looked back to Grayson with a grin. "I got you something though." she told him, then leaned over to dig through her backpack. "I know you don't really need it or anything." she told him, still digging, til she pulled out a pocket knife. It was smaller, concealable. There was a loop on the end as well, which was why she'd picked that one. "I know that you've always got your natural assets and all, but I figured maybe you should have this just in case you ever are stuck without." What with her knowing the new moon and all locked form, and anyways, one just never knew. She held it out to him. "If you don't want it, you don't have to take it. I just saw it and..." she shrugged, trying to let him off the hook for it possibly being a dumb idea on her part. It was possible she was ever so slightly bashful about it.

If Grayson knew that Kayos checked him out at all as he pulled on his clothes, he didn't let on. Being a werewolf, there was every chance that he did know and was just letting her do it, just one more thing she could get away with, but he had been sort of desensitised to it over the years and didn't really think anything of it when people saw him post-transformation. The current conditions didn't really allow much time for that sort of thing, and he supposed his kind were always the quickest to get over it and move on anyway, considering how often they went through it.

Kayos received a knowing sort of half-smile when she teased him for being worried. It was only natural for him to worry about the others, he was a pack animal after all and the safety of the group meant a lot to him, it always had; he fought hard for the others, tooth and claw, and he had the scars to show for it. He wasn't always successful in his efforts to protect those in his makeshift pack, but he always did the best he could. When it came to Kayos, he always felt that little bit more protective. As for why, he had never taken the time to figure it out, had simply rolled with the punches, so to speak. "Thanks, Teddybear," he said to the computer, always amused to hear that name Kayos had picked out for him. He understood the reasons behind it and had always been secretly fond of that title he'd been labelled with.

Moving to the bed as he pulled a plain black t-shirt on over his head, raking his hands through his hair afterwards, he looked over the assortment of goodies the blonde had spread out and arranged. "You know, I was starting to think the fake meatloaf had become a thing of the past," he said with humour in his voice as he settled himself down. The offer of the pocket knife was met with silence initially, the werewolf weighing the words she spoke before he looked up and met her eyes. "Thanks," he said, meaning it, reaching out and accepting the small weapon from her. "You never know," he went on to add, giving her another one of those half-smiles of his. He appreciated the thought; even if he did have those weapons that nature had seen fit to reward his kind, it never hurt to have a backup. Who knew when he might need something like the knife? "Where did you find it?"

"You're welcome." she told him, happy he took it, and trying not to look like she was happy about it. Since she'd gone and played up the nonchalance of it all and everything, it wouldn't do to over-display the fact that she was happy he'd taken it. She didn't do that fabulous a job at the hiding thing, though. She never really did. Kayos was a girl who often showed how she felt, and wasn't that shy about doing so. It was just now and then that she tripped over herself on things.

"And apparently not. You're just a fantabulously lucky guy, fake meatloaf for you and everything. Dibs on the squeezycheese and cardboard!" she said, snatching the dark green packet of cheese and the lame excuses for crackers. They just referred to them as cardboard because they were about that tasty. "I'm afraid we're going to have to fight for the poundcake. Might have to thumbwrestle for it, or we could always go old fashioned duel on each other. I mean, I know how terribly important it is, and if we don't suss it out before the others get here, then we're going to have to share and I don't know about you, but I say we got here first, the poundcake is ours. They have to find their own damn poundcake."

Turning the pocket knife over in his hand, he studied the small weapon before closing his fingers over it and then shifting enough to slip it into his pocket for the time being. Grayson could tell that Kayos was happy he'd taken it but he didn't make a big deal out of that happiness or the fact that she was trying to keep it reined in. He knew enough about the others to know that they rarely appreciated being called on their feelings and as such, he had learned to keep his mouth shut unless it was important to the others somehow.

With a laugh he shifted enough to get himself comfortable on the old sofabed and adopted a feigned grave expression. "Exactly. First come first served, dammit." That expression didn't last long, and soon enough he was smilling again, as if the world over their heads wasn't filled with death and disaster. Down here, it was almost normal; true, that was a word that had never held quite the same meaning for people like them as it had for humans, but they had their own definition and right now, everything felt almost blissfully normal. Just because it wouldn't last, that didn't mean they couldn't take advantage of it while it lasted. His eyes slid towards the computer, the werewolf hating to break the good mood, but even when they were enjoying that normality there were things they always had on their minds, every single one of them. "Any changes?" Grayson jerked his head towards the screen for emphasis.

"We did. And so the rule of dibs holds true. So it's just down to us, and a death match to the end, to see who gets it." she told him sagely. In reality, she planned on sharing it even if she won--which she didn't expect to, unless he let her win. She was a small girl, he had hands like baseball mitts. If they thumb wrestled, he'd win by default. But it was the game of it all, the pretend prize of the evening. It was the same thing she pulled whenever she found fortune cookies. When she found them, she always made people hand them out and everyone had to open them up and read their fortunes aloud. It was just one of those things, a kayos-ism that people humored her with.

She paused when he turned attention towards the computer, and she looked over, even knowing full well that there weren't any. If there were changes, Teddybear told her if she wasn't paranoidly checking every few minutes like she did on principal anyhow. "No." she said, though her voice was soft then. Whenever she looked she always got stuck looking at the flat lines. The real names. She knew she had to remove them, she knew it, but...she couldn't do it. She needed the reminder there, needed it present. She needed them not to be forgotten, just because they'd fallen. Like she had pictures of everyone on there. Most of them were poor quality at best, but she had them. Making herself look down from Matt's flat line, she tried to tug at the side of the cheese packet, but her fingers slipped, and she sighed. "...wasn't really hungry anyways."

Grayson quite often let Kayos win, yet another one of those things that was unique to her and a little personal anomaly on his part that he couldn't explain even if anyone had the nerve to ask. Not that he was blunt or gruff with everyone who comprised the group, but he had managed to earn himself a reputation as being one of the more serious members of the team, one of those to be approached with caution; mostly it was just wariness thanks to his being a werewolf, a creature who could very literally tear people limb from limb, but enough of them had seen him fighting to know that he didn't take challenges lightly and never backed down. Not around Kayos though, he was always different with her and he knew that it showed, but he didn't have it in him to care.

Reaching out and taking the packet from her, he opened it and handed it back as he said, attempting to shift the conversation back and away from that grim reality that was plastered on the screen not far away, "You didn't tell me where you found the knife."

She took it, and thanked him quietly, even if she didn't quite go to put it on one of the crackers yet. She just held onto the packet and tried to find her center again. The little internal sparkler that kept her going, that she kept going because she knew it helped other people keep it together. Things couldn't be all death and destruction all the time. The shadows couldn't fill up the world or you forgot what you were fighting for incredibly damn fast. So...she kept a smile on her lips. She joked around. She did silly inane things that were just amusing enough to keep people from cracking sometimes. And she was good for hugs. She had a lot of those to give out, like the one she'd given him when he'd first come in.

The knife. In reality, she'd had it for a little while before she'd gotten up the nerve to give it to him. She'd found it in a cabin. It was out in pretty much the middle of nowhere, and it had been jammed into a wooden tabletop. A message had been carved into the table, which had read 'I didn't give up'. She hadn't been able to leave it there, and she'd had the idea to give it to Grayson, but yeah. It had taken a bit to work up the courage to give it to him, considering a lot of the time she figured it was stupid to give a friggin werewolf a knife. Today it had just been a spontaneous decision. "I found it in a cabin." she told him. "It's in good repair, a little worn, but cared for." she said. She gave him the lightest little half smile, and leaned over slightly to bump her shoulder against his. "Kinda like you."

In the past, people like Kayos had never been able to get close to Grayson. He had kept them at arms' length, kept himself separate from them to some degree, not because he found their optimism or their energy distasteful but because he had never been like them and hadn't felt any sort of familiarity with them. It hadn't made sense to get close to those people because he had never thought it was possible. This perky little blonde had taught him just how wrong he was about that. Maybe it was the world they lived in, the outside circumstances, erasing all of those past tendencies of his. Whatever it was, he couldn't keep her at arms' length, couldn't alienate or ignore her. It wasn't possible.

He smiled and laughed quietly but sincerely. "A little worn?" His blue eyes found her face after he bumped her back. "I'm going to take that as a compliment." And he did, on the inside, but he had a reputation to uphold even if that was always far from the front of his mind when in Kayos' company. Being tough and feral all the time didn't matter so much when it was just the two of them.

That brought out a brighter smile, and she turned it in his direction. "You should! But yeah, a little worn." she said. "I've seen your scars. Don't get me wrong--chicks dig scars--but still. A little worn. You can't tell me a guy with a big ole scar on his..." she paused, rolling her eyes up momentarily as if she needed to choose her word carefully. "flank isn't just an eensy bit worn, Jack." she said, at the end there flashing an impish little grin. "Now if you don't want people thinking that you're just going to have to keep your flank out of everyone's view. Otherwise, just go with it. I think you should go with it. It works for you." she told him.

There, she had it again. As much as she helped everyone else out with keeping their sanity in check, and keeping themselves from becoming a collective of really dark, sad bastards, people did for her too. Like he'd just done. It didn't take that much for her, she could latch onto the smallest things sometimes. It was partly because it was her nature and partly necessity.

That managed to get a laugh out of him, and not one of the subdued, quiet laughs either, but one of those rare full ones that Grayson usually held back. "All right, I can't argue with that, can I?" He really couldn't, he wasn't even going to try. Resting back with his hands behind him on the old mattress, he shook his head and looked at her with a lopsided grin on his face. "But hey, I'm a werewolf, it comes with the territory." His muscular shoulders shrugged with an air of nonchalance under that plain t-shirt he wore and his grin became a fraction more wolfen, a touch mischievous.

She was happy she got that kind of a laugh out of him, and that sort of grin. He wasn't the world's most expressive of individuals, he was generally pretty serious but every once in a while, usually when it was just them, she could get something like that out of him, and she was pleased with herself every time. "Nope. You absolutely cannot argue with that. But you should have given up arguing with me about anything ever a long time ago because I know everything." she said with a grin. "Everybody knows I know everything, you need to just give up the ghost on that, man. Roll with it. 'Ask Kayos, she knows everything' should just be the default mode 'round here." she said with a decisive nod. "Wait...so if it's a werewolf thing and natural to you...does that mean that we need to go to you every time we need a strong if mildly scarred butt around?" she asked, far too innocently in tone, but her expression was wholly untrustworthy, playful.

There weren't many people left in the world who could get him into that sort of state, relaxed and open with his moods and expression, grinning and laughing. Way back when there had been a handful of inviduals who knew just which buttons to press to get him laughing or grinning or taking part in games, but now there only seemed to be one or two. "Ah, I see," he said as though hearing something very wise for the first time, but his straight face didn't last long and he was soon smirking again. That smirk turned into another laugh at what she said next, albeit one with a slightly dropped jaw as though she had managed to shock him somehow. Not likely, but they were just playing now, what was the harm? "You shouldn't be looking at my butt in the first place." He said that as if he didn't know that she looked in his direction every time he changed back from wolf to man, which, of course, he did.

She giggled. It was a light, girlish little sound. "Hello! You're the one who goes parading around showing it off all the time, that is so not my fault, mr. nudy-pants." she told him, reaching out to tickle his stomach a little. Which really wasn't the wisest move ever, Kayos was stupidly ticklish, and tended to fold entirely at the first sign of being tickled at all. She had no tolerance for it. But she did it anyhow, just in case he didn't retaliate and turn her to jelly in about .2 seconds. "So if I'm not meant to be seeing yon ass around, you should do a much better job of hiding it." she told him firmly, though her playful expression ruined the stern tone.

"Hey, if I could cheat and not lose my clothing every time, I would have started doing that a long time ago. Don't try and turn this around on me, I'm not the one watching someone else's ass." His words coicided with his little jerk back to get away from her attacking hand, followed up by a harmless little growl in his throat, the one that Kayos knew was more playful than anything, far from threatening while still being a thoroughly animalistic sound. "I'll make sure to take cover from now on while you're around, if it's such a big problem for you." With that, he poked out with a hand and jabbed her in the side, a little warning. If she wanted to keep going with the teasing, he wouldn't hesitate in launching a tickle assault of his own.

"Ohhh don't you go growling at me, mister." she scolded, still grinning at him. "When we're inside we use our indoor voices. Not our growls." she added, very kindergarten-teacher toned. And then, when she was protesting that no, he didn't necessarily need to start taking cover because it wasn't that huge a problem--he tickled her. Or, more he poked her, but it had an immediate effect. She squeaked, and doubled over. "No!" she cried, giggling again. "No no no tickling me! You know I can't be held responsible for my actions if you do that!"

That reaction from Kayos had another grin forming on Grayson's face, bordering on boyish, oddly youthful, taking away some of the grim experience and weight he seemed to carry with him everywhere. Understandably as a werewolf he had seen his fair share of combat and death but in recent years it had taken its toll, and with each new scar and each new loss he seemed to lose a little more of that spontaneity and freedom that he had once had. With Kayos, it was so much easier to regain those lost scraps of the past, something he would have to thank her for someday. "Well you only bring it on yourself!" he pointed out, literally, finger waving in her direction for a second before he lowered his hand again and let a little of his wolf colouring into his eyes, a little flicker of further warning.

"No! I do not! I'm just awesome and you can't handle the awesome that is me, and I know everything, and...oooh don't you do wolf eyes on me!" she said, grinning. Though really, she kinda liked when he did that. It was flat out neat. But then she kind of liked when he growled too, not that she'd ever say so. "You don't want me pulling electricity out of the air, now do you? Your hair'll get all flyaway and staticky and when you go wolf again it'll be a nightmare of static cling! It'll be hell like you never imagined, socks sticking to your fur, shocks all over...do not mess with me, Jack. For I am a sparkler." she told him in mock-warning tones. Then she paused, as if seeing the holes in her own logic. " .....so I'm too bright to look at and while pretty, occasionally a spark hits and it almost hurts but not quite. ...no, that totally doesn't work."

There was a good natured eye roll in response to Kayos' talk, and Grayson's eyes all the while still held flickers of the inner wolf, blue supernaturally run through with gold. It was a strange sort of effect, he knew it, and honestly that was part of why he did it. The gold was such a vivid contrast to the blue that people couldn't help but notice it. It turned heads, got people's attention, and he was a dominant type, an Alpha wolf. When he wanted the attention of others, he did whatever it took to get it. Usually he didn't need to try too hard, there was something about the way he carried himself that just drew the eye, and on top of that he was six-foot-three; people couldn't help but notice him. "You do realise you're rambling now, right?"

"Yes." Kayos confirmed for him, definitely watching the whole eye-flicker thing, because it was just neat. "I realize. Does that mean I don't have a point?" she asked. "...okay, so maybe I don't actually have a point. Should I stop?" she asked him, smirking at him. "Would you rather I sat here in total silence, and ate my crappy crackers and totally didn't say anything at all?" She didn't think he would opt for that. Of course, in the past, she'd failed at being silent when she was asked to be. Only when it truly counted, when her keeping quiet was necessary for a mission did she ever actually keep herself mum. If she was quiet otherwise--it wasn't a good sign. It meant she was dropping into her own mind and that was a pretty scary place. It meant she was getting dragged under, lost in those flat lines on her computer screen. "I bet you a million billion dollars you wouldn't rather I shut up." she told him with a playful tone and she stuck her tongue out at him.

After the whole tickling psych-out, the pair seemed to have calmed down now. There were no lunges at one another, no growls or threats -- not really, nothing more than the playful norm at least -- and now they were back to looking like they had known one another their whole lives, sitting on a pull out bed with freeze-dried food packets spread out on the blanket between them. "No, see, because I know better. You completely and totally fail at trying to shut up, so there's no point in asking for it." Grayson grinned at her again, holding back a premature laugh. "So I just roll with the punches and put up with your rambling."

"My god I should be so thankful." Kayos said, laughing. "But just for that? I'm being quiet. That's it, you asked for it, I will be silent!" she threatened. Then she promptly shut up, grinning at him. she didn't know how long she'd keep it up for--it would depend on him, really. She made a show of putting cheese on her cracker, and munching on it like all was normal.

Kayos' silence was more amusing than it should have been. Grayson sat there watching her, calm as you please, rocked back on the bed with his hands on the mattress supporting him, that same casual smile on his face, waiting for her to crack. Because he knew she would; Kayos being silent for an extended period of time was akin in difficulty to Grayson remaining in human form for more than a day or two. It just couldn't be done. He would have looked at his watch, a subtly dramatic show of patience, waiting for her to break, but instead he just watched her, brows slightly raised, awaiting the inevitable.

She kept it up for a little bit at any rate. Possibly a record for her, unless she had deep shit on her mind and such. But she wasn't letting herself go there at the moment. No good would come of it, so...she didn't let her eyes drift to her screen, she didn't let herself think about the last time she'd talked to Jae. She just sat there, terribly aware of Grayson's staring at her. She ate the cheese and crackers, and grabbed herself a drink of water, looking over at him. She smirked, biting at her lower lip, keeping her eyes on him. ...she so wasn't going to make it long term.

When Kayos turned that smirk on him, he simply returned it, lifting his brows a little higher, a question or maybe it was just a knowing look. She wouldn't last, he knew she wouldn't, because she never did. Kayos always cracked first when it came to spontaneous Silence Contests and this one would be no different, of that Grayson had no doubt. He sat there calm as you please, keeping his gaze on her, the wolf in him thriving on the challenge; it didn't get many playful ones nowadays and it genuinely seemed to miss them.

Silence was difficult. She didn't fare it terribly well all the time, especially when she was in a situation like this. Where they were having a fun time, and it was playful. She started to fidget, tapping her fingers on her knee in an erratic manner. She munched another tasteless cracker, and pretended she couldn't feel him watching her. But she could. As she stole another glance at him out of the corner of her eye, it was confirmed for her, and she made a face at him, sticking her tongue out. She almost said 'nyaa!' but caught it at the last second.

Grayson, on the other hand, could keep up the silence act as long as he liked. Wolves were patient creatures, patient hunters, and he could wait as long as was necessary in whatever state was required. Those little tells of Kayos' broadened Grayson's smile and he held back a laugh, determined to win their little game. That tongue poked in his direction was simply met with yet another grin and then he just went right back to smiling. Waiting. Any second now.

She laughed. It was the grinning he was doing, and she couldn't help it. So, she giggled, and then swatted his shoulder. "Fine! You win!" she told him, conceding the game, though she of course was overly dramatic about it and made it sound like it was the worst thing in the world ever. She made another face at him then flopped onto her back to look up at him. "You know a nice guy would let me win sometimes." she told him, knowing perfectly damn well that he did let her win sometimes.

"Hey now, I let you win most of the time. It's about time I won something fair and square," he pointed out, with laughter still carrying in his voice after his small outburst at Kayos' reaction to losing. The swat hadn't hurt at all, they never did. "Besides, I know you hate being silent so now that the game's over, technically, you could say you win anyway." Again he smirked, a kind of 'what do you think of that?' expression.

She laughed. "Okay. So we both win. Excellent. Not sure how you pulled that one off? But I'm buying it. Yay for both of us winning!" she said, clapping for a moment. "You going to eat your pretendy meatstuffs?" she asked. Or are you not feeling so much like it?" She'd eaten her crap crackers. She drank some water to go with, and handed the bottle to him. "Got any more games that we can both win at?" she asked him. And after she said it, she realized that it could be taken suggestively. Which she really probably shouldn't have done. Fine, she had just a tiny bit of a crush on Grayson. It was hard not to, and she rarely even acknowledged it. But it was down there somewhere, fairly deeply buried.

One of the best things about Kayos was that she was like a child in many ways, most noticeably in the way she was so easy to please; it was refreshing when everything else was so difficult, tangled with complications of one sort of another. With Kayos it was nothing like that, and Grayson almost envied her for her ability to enjoy and laugh so freely. "I'm building up to it," he said, accepting the bottle. "Pretendy meatstuffs," he went on, giving her an amused look for the words she had used and had echoed back at her, "need to be savoured. Or, you know, I'm bracing myself. Take your pick." He drank from the bottle, thankfully managing not to laugh into it or with water in his mouth at her inadvertently suggestive play on words. "If you were a werewolf, I'd suggest we go hunting, but, well." He shrugged, strong shoulders rising and falling beneath the simple fabric of his plain t-shirt.

"I'd definitely say you were bracing yourself. Which really, I can back up, as a course of action." Kayos told him firmly. "I mean as far as edible things go, it only barely makes the list." She was a little relieved that he didn't necessarily seem to notice that she'd kinda maybe sorta said something a tad bit off. "If I were a werewolf, I'd totally want to go hunting with you. Something tells me in my current predicament of being person-shaped and stuff though, that I'd only harsh your game. It'd be a big mess. I'd screw everything up for you. It'd be terrible." she told him wisely. Funny, how she could more than handle hunting down monsters, but she knew if she had to go for a bunny or something she'd not only suck but she'd feel bad. She paused as she eyed Grayson thoughtfully. "Do you ever wish some of us were werewolves? Proper ones?" Lex was a werewolf, but she was kind of in and out. She was a hot tempered woman, and spent most of her time with Doc anyways.

Bracing themselves for the rations they had been reduced to eating was usually the best thing to do; they hardly tasted good, nothing like what they had gotten so used to in the past to say the least, and they usually left a peculiar sensation in their wake, or one of several. Dissatisfaction was usually the main one, at least in Grayson's case. He was a wolf, after all, and processed meat imitations were hardly going to sate a wolf's appetite. He chuckled lightly, good-naturedly, at her remark about messing up a run of hunting and he tipped his head as if to agree with her, but gently. His eyes met Kayos' as she asked him that and he found himself completely silenced for almost a full minute before he pulled in a breath and then shook his head. "That would change who you are. I wouldn't want that."

She hadn't wanted to rush him into an answer, and so she gave him the time to come up with one. She had figured it'd be something that would require thought. She liked his answer, though. That had her smiling a little. "Yeah?" she asked. "And you like who we are?" After she said it, she kind of half wished she hadn't, because she knew his answer would be taken more to heart for herself than it should be.

Finally Grayson reached for the food that Kayos had set aside for him. "Of course I do," he told her with sincerity. He might not have liked everyone in their ragtag group, it was impossible for everyone to get along, but he still wouldn't have changed who any of them were; it would have shifted the dynamic, and therefore the efficiency, and more than anything they were all unique for good reasons. They were a good team. Grayson wouldn't change that.

Kayos shifted, sitting back a little bit, watching him, trying not to be wicked obvious about it. Not that she thought she was fooling him at all. Still, she put in the effort to not be obvious. She didn't say anything as she just kept her eyes on him, watching the werewolf. She tried to think of something else to say, but for the moment, she was out of anything. So, she fell quiet, and just...watched.