Things We Missed

Who: Dorian and Mathias
Where: The Lockwood Residence
When: 9:15 PM

Wednesdays were ridiculously long. Twelve hour shifts at Nevermore should be outlawed, though he didn't have enough business to hire anyone else on part time. With he and Harper working full time, they put in just the right number of hours, but Wednesday was her day off. It meant he had to work after dark, that he had to leave the store while wearing sunglasses. As ridiculous as he looked, it served it's purpose, but he couldn't drive in the dark. Dorian slipped the sun glasses off his face as he entered his home, closing his eyes for a moment as he sighed.

He'd planned to go play poker tonight. He wasn't actually sleepy, just... tired. But some real social interaction would be good for him and would probably make him feel better the day after. All he had to do was grab a bite to eat and get his ass over there. It went till after midnight, so he wasn't exactly late. He just wouldn't be the first to arrive.

Mathias had been making plans whilst the house was quiet. He didn't particularly want anyone else around as he made these particular plans - somehow he didn't think they would go down too well. He knew that they wouldn't go down well when he put them in play and he was fine with that. Just as long as by the time the shit hit the fan, what he wanted was either inevitable, or - if everything went to plan - already over.

He'd tidied up though by the time Dorian was due home. And when his brother walked through the door, Mathias was coolly and innocently watching some reality TV show or other, looking suitably 'bored but entranced'.

"Busy day?" Dorian asked, twirling his sun glasses between his fingers as he looked towards Mathias. It would be nice to have days where he could do absolutely nothing but what he wanted. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to make his house payments if he didn't work. Even at his worst, he couldn't live out of a car the way Mathias did. Dorian had to at least have a hotel room, a dorm, or a cheap apartment of some sort. Maybe he'd have no furniture, but his air mattress had plenty of use and it was all better than the back seat of a car.

"Oh, frantic," Mathias deadpanned, rolling his eyes at the screen and flicking it off with an air of disgust. "I'm losing braindcells by the minute - you know I spent an hour watching four people sleep today?" he lied - but he'd made sure he had the TV on mute in the background so he knew what was going on in the show he hadn't been watching. Just in case - knowing your alibi was helpful. "I'm fucking bored," he moaned. "And you're never in - you're always working. I've been trying to pin you down to talk to you since I got here. I see more of Caleb than I do of you, bro."

"There has got to be something better you can do with your time," Dorian said, plopping down in one of the chairs rather than heading to the kitchen for dinner. "I work a twelve hour shift on Wednesdays. Every other day I'm done by two," he said. Except he hadn't always been coming home then. No, sometimes he went to visit Eury, which always helped with the stalling, and sometimes he just had errands to run. Since his house had filled up, Dorian wasn't near as enthusiastic about being there. "I'm here now, though. What's on your mind?"

Mathias paused, before turning more towards his brother. "Did you know Caleb ran away when they were still in New Orleans?" he asked, frowning a little.

"I found out a few days ago," Dorian said, frowning as well. He hadn't known what to do with that information. It was still bothering him and he wasn't sure there was anything he could do to fix it, other than making sure Caleb knew he'd be missed the moment he was gone while staying with Dorian. "Did you know?" Dorian asked. Because if their parents had known and hadn't told him, he'd be pissed.

"Not until Caleb told me the other day," Mathias said - clearly unhappy about this. He drummed his fingers against the edge of the couch absently. "Mom told me everything was fine," he blurted, finally. "When Caleb was gone - I went back through where I was. Caleb said this was six months ago. I was just settling into LA, finding my feet, getting the lay of the land. A quiet time. Nothing much going on. Which means I was in contact with home a lot." Dorian would know some of this - at least that when Mathias was having a quiet time, he was more likely to keep in contact. "But she always told me everything was fine. Caleb was gone for a week and she never said anything."

"Unfortunately, I think it's because she didn't know," Dorian said, lounging back in his seat, eyes on his brother. He knew why this would bother Mathias, that it proved him disconnected from the one thing he had a hold on, but there was nothing he could have done about it. He'd been just as out of the loop himself. "If there's one thing I've learned since Caleb's come to stay with me, it's that he hates our parents and honestly feels like they've just abandoned him. I don't know what to say to prove him wrong, cause the more I know, the more I think he might be right. I just want him to know that I won't do that to him."

"How the fuck did she not know?" Mathias snapped. "I mean, come on - how do you just lose a child for a week, Dor? Did she just not notice?" And from the sounds of things, he got into all sorts of shit while he was gone. He could have died! "Damnit - he's not like us. He hasn't got all that much going for him. You know, I've a mind to go and find our parents and..." he trailed off, not sure where that sentence was going. Not sure he particularly wanted to find out either.

"You're not alone in that," Dorian said darkly. "I could make excuses for mom. I could say she's a demon and that she doesn't know fuck about raising kids. Dad doesn't have that going for him though." And it was their father that would receive the majority of Dorian's wrath, should it actually come around to that. "He won't tell me how he managed it. He won't even tell me how he got away from the vampire that bit him last week. I don't know what he has going for him, but he's more resilient than I was at that age; I'll give 'em that." Dorian hadn't mastered his telekinesis at that point and glamour did shit in survival mode. Even if Caleb hadn't gone so far to say that's what it'd been, Dorian had a feeling he was right in assuming.

Mathias wasn't going to be commenting on Caleb's ability to survive right now. He had his own thoughts on the matter, but right now, he would be keeping them to himself. "Is there anything else you think I don't know?" he asked instead. "Y'know, I thought I kept in contact - but that relied on mom knowing what was going on. Now? I have no idea where I stand."

"I kept you in the loop to the best of my abilities, but I wasn't home either," Dorian said, hoping that Mathias realized they'd both been slighted in this instance. "I didn't think to ask for Caleb. I didn't realize anything might be wrong until Mom was handing him off to me. If I'd 've known, I'd 've told you." That was one thing Dorian had worked on since leaving home. He knew Mathias better now than he ever had when they'd lived together. They kept in touch, via phone calls. Dorian just didn't have all the information that Mathias needed to know.

"I know you would have," Mathias reassured him. He was used to Dorian - how defensive he got. It had always just been how his brother was, part of his personality. "I'm not saying you wouldn't have done. I'm asking you whether you think there's more that I didn't find out about." He sat up a little. "Look - I know I've been away a lot, but - I always kept in touch. Always. And you know I'd always be there if I was needed. But Caleb - he doesn't seem to get that. At all. It's like as if, as far as he's concerned, I disappeared off the face of the earth. So - I want your take on it."

Dorian was quiet for a minute, trying to gather his thoughts on the matter. It was so similar to what he was dealing with, but he hadn't gone on and said it aloud before. "To him, you did," Dorian said. "You may have asked about him, but he doesn't know that, not if Mom didn't tell him. Did you ever talk to him? Because I didn't. I should have, but I didn't. I'm sure there's more that we don't know about, but I don't know where to start asking. Caleb doesn't know we're there for him because, so far, we haven't been. His perception of family is shit, and the more I hear about how things were for him, the more pissed off I get. Not extremely helpful, but I think that's it."

"Dor - I never even really knew Caleb. He was four when I left home. That's not exactly the kind of age gap where you can just pick up the phone and randomly call," Mathias said - though perhaps that's exactly what he should have done. "I left home and from that day on, when I called, mom was all about how fine and great everyone was. Bro - you were home for seven years after I left. How much of that was bullshit?" he asked, seriously.

There was really only one way to find out. "Did you Mom tell you when I shattered every window in the living room?" Dorian asked. "I was sixteen. You'd been gone for five years. It's not exactly forgettable in my mind, but it makes me wonder if mom saw fit to mention it." If he'd been in the kitchen, they'd have been out of dishes. It was an experience he'd been careful not to repeat, at least not on such a grand scale. "I don't know how much of what you heard was bullshit. We kind of disconnected till I left home myself. I know Caleb was fine when I left, but then he was only eleven."

Mathias laughed. "Mention it? She didn't stop going on about it for months!" he declared. "Dorian did this and Dorian did that - and did you hear... Honestly, you'd have thought you'd won a Nobel prize or something." He rolled his eyes.

Dorian frowned. "Funny. It got me grounded. And do you have any idea how much those things cost? She was pissed as hell. I didn't leave my room for a week, and broke everything in there in the process. Cut up my hands from exploding water glasses, the bathroom mirror was out. It was a fucking mess. Glad to know she was so happy about it when she wasn't screaming my fucking head off." So he was a bit bitter about the situation. He hadn't exactly seen it as an accomplishment.

"Mom likes grounding people. She tried to do it to me all the time - course, I just climbed out my bedroom window every time as well, but she got to ground me," he shrugged. "First thing to learn about mom - she's never nice to you to your face. She'll sing your praises to you to other people, but. Yeah. Not to you." Which was part of the reason he was so thrown about her leaving him out of the loop on things. Normally she excelled at telling him how much better everyone else was.

"Well, I'm not the only one she talks up then," Dorian said, rolling his eyes. Mathias was the golden child, the son that could do no wrong. Dorian had even witnessed half the shit his brother had gotten into in high school, only to hear how wonderful he was for it. Half the time Dorian thought maybe robbing a bank would impress her, but he'd been young then, and fairly stupid when it came to such things. His brother wasn't a God. It took him years to really figure that out. "But I never heard about Caleb. Everything was fine, which either means he wasn't doing anything worth bragging about, or she wasn't paying attention enough to notice. If it'd been you that disappeared, I'd have heard about how you were so strong and intelligent enough to survive alone. She could have talked that up on Caleb. I know she's capable of it."

Mathias considered this. "Okay, here's what I think," he said, a little reluctantly. It seemed wrong to be talking like this about their mother, their parents - though their father never seemed to really come into it. "Mom started really singing your praises the day you exploded the living room. She had a son who could move things with his mind! And we both know I've always had demonic traits, from when I was a kid. Caleb? He hasn't got anything. He didn't develop anything at all. Mom, I guess, likes to brag about the shit we got from her. And he didn't."

Dorian sighed. As much as he didn't want to think of it like that, he was pretty sure that Mathias was right. When it came to inherited demonic traits, Caleb fell short. No physical perks, no mental perks. He was human, like their father, but he didn't seem to play on the strengths that a human might have. Or if he was, Dorian hadn't paid enough attention to notice. "So what do we do about it?" he asked. "I say we reverse this, make him feel like part of the family, even if that's just us, but that's not exactly easy. He doesn't trust us, and I don't blame him."

"We have to do what we can - but you're the settled one, Dor," Math reminded him. "I can't be something that I'm not and I can't be Susie homemaker just to make Caleb feel like he's got a base. Kid's not stupid and he'd see through any act like that I pulled in an instant. Really, I don't see there's anything we can do that we're not already doing. I just can't beleive that they actually did this." Tpically, for Mathias, this was as much about his being lied to as it was about the effects on Caleb.

"I'm not asking you to plant yourself," Dorian said, biting his tongue on the comments regarding his home. He wanted to remind Mathias that it was his house that he was staying in and not to make fun of it. He had the itch to take off just as much as Mathias did; he just ignored it. He wouldn't be what his brother was, no matter how strong the pull might be. "You could call him, like you call me. Check up on him from time to time. That doesn't mean you have to be there to tuck him in at night." Not that Dorian was doing that. He did well just to realize he wasn't home. "I knew things weren't great, just by Caleb's attitude, but I wouldn't never dreamed it was this bad."

"I was always going to," Mathias told him. "Like I did with you. You know I didn't call you direct that much while you were at home. But when you left? You had my number." Of course, he'd had more than his number - Mathias had turned up at Dorian's dorm a few weeks into term and spend a very long, very party-hard weekend kipping on his brother's floor. Mathias smiled at the memory - good times.

"I did," Dorian said, smiling a little. It had been like getting to know his brother all over again. They'd had fun together for the first time in years and Dorian had learned how not to resent him quite as much. "You know, Caleb came to visit me today at the shop. He wanted advice on girls that I think I truly mucked up."

"Yeah," Mathias asked, sitting up a little straighter. "Mucked it up, how?" he asked.

"Basically told him what I would do in his shoes. I don't think he approved," Dorian said, smiling even when he knew he should probably be ashamed. "He likes two girls and wanted to know how to choose between them."

Oh, now Mathias was interested. "Two girls?" he asked, sitting up more and leaning forward. "Really? So, what did you tell him?" he asked. Hopefully, go for the one who's not an angel of wrath, Mathias thought, though he knew that wouldn't be the answer, since Dorian didn't know.

"To keep 'em both and figure it out later. They're polar opposites, and he doesn't even know if they like him back. It's not like he's committed to them," Dorian shrugged. "Caleb didn't exactly like that idea. Saw it as lying to them. Seeing as how my longest relationship's lasted a week, I didn't really know what to tell him."

Mathias raised an eyebrow. "You? Do not get to give out relationship advice. Ever. Again," he told Dorian. "You realise how much they'd bitch slap him if they found out? That's playing with fire, bro - and it's one thing to do it when you know the rules of the game. It's another to recommend it to someone who doesn't." That and whilst he thought that one of them was probably said angel of wrath? Mathias was going to be preaching monogamy.

"He's not following my advice," Dorian laughed. "It's crap advice and we both know it, but I don't have anything else to tell him. Honestly? I don't know what he should do. If I ever find myself in that situation and caring, I'll be asking ya'll what to do as well." Dorian wasn't sure he could see himself in that position, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. Course, at the moment, he didn't have a woman at all.

Mathias laughed at that. "Cos I'm well known for my stable relationships, right?" he said, shaking his head. "Yeah, right. So, baby brother - since we're both fuck ups, should we accept that fact? And, if you're not too dead tired from work all day, do you want to join me out tonight? I'm officially bored and looking for something to do!"

"Hey, gotta ask someone when my own advice is so bad," Dorian grinned. "Actually, I've been invited to a poker game tonight. Care to join me? I think anyone's welcome." If he remembered right, Caius said anyone could come. He just needed to ask about Eury going, in case it was a guy's only thing.

"Poker?" Mathias asked, obviously instantly interested. "Sure, definitely - I'm game. Except - you gonna tell me I'm not allowed to cheat?" he asked, his tone not quite clear whether he was actually joking or not...

"I'm gonna tell you not to get caught," Dorian grinned. "And if you do, don't get me kicked out of the game as well. I live here and it'd be nice to have people to hang out with on occasion." If he'd never see them again, it might be something different.

Mathias grinned at that, and admitted to himself that he was a little surprised. Perhaps Dorian was mellowing a little with age. There would have been a time that he would have been dead against Mathias doing anything of the sort. "Bro - you know I wouldn't do anything if I thought it'd get me caught. I'm better than that. Specially just for some piss ant small town poker game," he teased.

"Good, then. I'm gonna grab a bite to eat, then we can head out," Dorian said, rising from his seat. It'd be interesting to see how this went. He hadn't played cards with Mathias since they were kids. He was willing to bet the rules hadn't changed all that much.