Untrusting Truce.

Who: Reiz and Pandect.
Where: Diner.
When: Morning.

Pandect was an angel of his word, if he said he'd meet the demon Reiz for breakfast, he would meet the demon Reiz for breakfast. And he hadn't lied the night before, he was proud of the demon, he couldn't imagine controlling his natural urges like that, but that pride was mixed up with other emotions. The faint urge to kill, the overpowering need for details, history, facts even though he knew there was no way for him to enact karmic retribution on a demon. Curiosity.

As much as he needed his privacy he needed to assign a threat level to the puppy eyed demon, measure him up. It wasn't a nice thing to do, but you didn't always survive by being a nice person. In his distraction Pandect reached out karmically and almost tripped over the man who had sprawled in front of him. Pandect flushed and helped the man back up again, almost apologizing. But that would bring too much attention to himself. He separated himself as quickly as he could and moved inside the diner.

Reiz was a bit anxious to meet with Garnier for breakfast, but if he was nice enough to offer... then he shouldn't leave him hanging. But as he laid in bed, staring up at the ceiling, he had to wonder: was Garnier for real? There were people at Babylon who knew what he was... but they'd promised it was safe. But if he was outside the bar, he was on his own, wasn't he?

It's not that he was scared, he'd dealt with this sort of thing many times before: he was just cautious. He could handle trouble, but he didn't want trouble.

So he downed a quick can of beer to keep his buzz before he made his way over to the diner.

This might be taken out of his hands, Pandect was the first to arrive and had time to order coffee, black, and build a little two layered house of cards with sugar packets before folding it over with one finger. The coffee they used now a days was usually instant you had to go some overpriced place with people who are overindulged and thought far too much of themselves as a rule. Pandect had no time for places like that, and not enough income to make it worth buying and grinding his own beans.

He swirled the coffee around the mug and glanced at the clock, five more minutes and he was done.

Opening the door to the diner, Reiz took a glance around the place, before seeing Garnier and looking at him, taking a moment to size him up. He walked over, and took a seat on the other side of the booth all slumpy like.

"...hi."

Pandect tilted his head in greeting, as a rule he didn't smile, it got him too much attention (no one seemed to get how much attention smiling could get you, people tended to gravitate to smiles without knowing it, plus he had a dimple) but he made his face a little less solemn. "Morning Reiz. Sausage plate again?"

"Um. ...Sure." Reiz looked down at the table, observing the lines and design, fiddling with his fingers underneath. "You uh. I. Can pay for myself."

Pandect could feel the tension between them, something that hadn't been there before, but now it was probably best that it was. He was an honest man, if he was going to attack someone, he was going to let them know ahead of time. Part of the tension was his own fault, and rightly so. Sneezing once into his handkerchief he waved to the waiter. "Whatever you're comfortable with."

Reiz nodded. He didn't like to depend on other people for the necessities in life. ...Or for things that required money. He just didn't really like to take from other people in general, no one liked a mooch.

"I meant what I said," Pandect told his coffee cup, it was bitter and sharp without the richness that coffee from beans had. All the burn and none of the flavor. But still it was acceptable. "About helping you not hurt people. And about being proud of you. But that doesn't mean..." his hand uncurled from the mug and settled on the table. "I can't get too close to you. I'm not wired that way, to be your friend."

The demon was puppy-eyed, and as much as something clenched inside Pandect sneered at the kicked puppy face he also knew he should be fair. "Its not the way I'm made," he told Reiz's fingers that were scrabbling over the design on the diner table like he could pull up the lines with his fingernails.

Reiz kept his eyes on the table, whilst listening and thinking. Not wired that way... not the way he was made...? There could've been several things that that meant, but there was just one possibility that he had ended up focusing on.

"What are you?" he mumbled, glancing up at Garnier with questioning eyes.

"I'd rather not say, I'm pretty sure you've guessed on your own," he watched the waiter speak to the cook. Could smell Reiz's sausage cooking in the background. He sneezed into his handkerchief again before folding it carefully in his palm. "You don't go around announcing what you are. If nothing else, its habit. A habit that's becoming harder and harder to keep."

Reiz glanced back down at the table, absorbing what he'd just realized. 'Angel.'

So what now? Well... he had even less of a reason to trust Garnier. This was just life for him, he couldn't trust angels, demons, or... well, anyone who'd know about him. He was marked.

Reiz played around with the bandages wrapped around his hand and wrist, tugging and tightening them. Trying to think about what he was going to do. What could he say? A part of him was disappointed that he wasn't going to have a new friend--probably the ascended part. And the other part... well, it was getting a bit fidgety. The thought of an angel right there, there was a mix of caution, and the urge to hunt.

He just swallowed, and nodded.

"This isn't easy for either of us, I know," Pandect said. He had seen the immediate change in Reiz and part of him welcomed it. He saw Reiz fiddling with his bandage. So what? Pandect was fiddling with his coffee cup. "But as long as my secret is safe with you, your secret is safe with me. You can think of it as a courtesy if you want, in between two somethings that don't belong." He covered his smile for the short moment it appeared. "But now you know I suspect you're not exactly hep to send me valentines either."

So, what? Something like a truce? A treaty? Reiz from the start never intended to do anything to Garnier, not before, not now after finding out what he was, but he wasn't as trusting of Garnier now. He couldn't trust that he wasn't going to get backstabbed or something--not if it was an angel concerning a demon.

"...yeah."

Pandect sighed, "I'm taking a risk trusting you," he lowered his voice. "A demon who knows where he can find an angel?" he laughed softly covering his mouth while he did it so almost no sound came out from between his fingers. "Taking the risk that you won't betray me, that your instincts won't get the better of you, but I believe in honesty. I wanted you to know where I stood. Truce then? For now?"

"I don't hurt people," Reiz responded firmly in a quiet voice. It was something he'd promised to himself, what ascended him. Yeah, he could feel his instincts creeping up on him all the time, but if he lived solely on instinct alone, he wouldn't be where he was today.

Pausing, taking a deep breath (and then sneezing because of it) Pandect reached out his hand, "Likewise, not if I can help it." He wanted to attack not make a truce, but he was more than a creature of instinct, if he only relied on instinct he would have had a family by now, and he would have let them down, and let them get hurt, and lost them. He heard the certainty in the demon's voice and he helped him stay his hand for now. (Pandect mentally berated himself at that thought, 'stay his hand?' This wasn't the 19th century anymore, and beside the awful diction it made him sound like a jerk, even if it was in his head where no one else could hear him. No need to be anything but honest about this, he didn't like demons, demons didn't like him, end of story cue the epic: Good vs Evil, Dogs vs Cats, Mountain vs Stream. End of story, roll credits.) "Not hurting people is something I can get behind."

Reiz looked down at the hand, pondering about what he could do with his hand in another's grip and vice versa. But. He didn't want to hurt anyone, and there was a tiny voice in his head that was telling him that there were witnesses right then.

He took Garnier's hand, meeting his eyes as he did.

Maybe this town wasn't so different after all.