Women are Complicated

Who: Dorian and Aiden
When: Evening
Where: Bar

Aiden was in need of a drink. And instead of heading off to a bar solo, he parked in front of Dorian's house and left the car running long enough to get up to the door and knock loudly. It was one of the perks of having his friend back in town, because generally when Aiden needed a drink, Dorian did too, and vice versa. And since Aiden was going to be leaving Marquette soon to start tracking Eury's uncle, he figured he needed to get in as many drinks with the guy as he could, since he wasn't sure how long he would be gone.

Dorian happened to be home, though he'd go along with anything that got him out of the house. Last night had been interesting, though not entirely pleasant, so he wasn't all that sure he wanted to venture out on his own. Going with Aiden was a much better option, and he pulled on his coat the moment he saw Aiden's car out front. "We going out?" he asked, grabbing his keys as he opened the door. Seeing that Aiden's car was running, he figured that was the case.

"I need a drink," Aiden explained, readjusting the hat on his head and leading Dorian back down the steps toward his car. "Guess I should have called first, but I wasn't thinkin' you'd filled your social calendar for the night to where you couldn't fit me in." He slipped the pack of cigarettes from his coat pocket and offered once to Dorian. "No plans I'm intrudin' on, right?"

"I don't have a social calendar," Dorian said, shutting the door behind him and following Aiden. "I can almost always do something, but that doesn't mean I'm at home waiting for something to come up. You just happened to catch me this time." Taking a cigarette from Aiden, Dorian circled the car and climbed in on the passenger side, waiting for Aiden to pass off the lighter. "So what're we drinking for this time?"

"Our health," Aiden chuckled before lighting his cigarette and handing the lighter to Dorian. He exhaled out the cracked window and shifted the car into drive before heading off to the bar they generally frequented. "And don't lie, my friend, I know you were pacing back in forth inside, waitin' for me to show up. You know I'd never let ya down." Settling back, he took another quick drag from his cigarette. "I don't have any specific reason for wantin' to drink. Just seems like the wisest choice to spend my time these days."

"Better than sitting around waiting for something to happen," Dorian said, cracking his window as he lit up. Smoking was one of those bad habits he had that seemed to go hand in hand with his more reckless behavior. He'd completely quit until his life started to unravel. It wasn't high on his list of worries. "And I suppose it's better than actually making something happen myself. Ever got an itch just to go out and cause trouble?" he asked, looking over at Aiden. It wasn't like he wanted to kill someone. Maybe just start a fight. A little excitement would be nice.

"Have you forgotten who you're talking to?" Aiden countered with a smirk. "What kind of trouble are you lookin' to get into? The kind that'll keep us laying low from the cops for a few days, or the kind that'll possibly get us a bloody face and kicked out of a bar?" It had been a long time since Aiden caused any kind of "innocent" trouble. Even longer since he had a partner in crime to do it with. "And you can't just sit around and wait for things to happen, Dor. Sometimes you gotta just suck it up and make it happen, alone or not. Tell me you've been doin' somethin' else other than dealin' with your shop."

"Any kind of trouble," Dorian grinned. "I'm good with both." Catching sight of himself in the rearview mirror, Dorian realized he wasn't wearing his glasses, his eyes vibrant in the dark. Aiden had already seen the effect, so it was no big deal, but it reminded him that he needed to be careful about who else saw him. "Just let me know if I'm gonna need my glasses or not," he said, looking over at Aiden. "And, yeah, I've been out. I ran into your girl Jules last night and had a drink with her. We didn't exactly hit it off." In fact, he'd practically sent the girl running.

"Why would you need your glasses? We'll be inside, right?" Unless they got tossed out, or some big, hulking biker decided to haul them out for a fight. Wouldn't that be fun. He looked at Dorian at the mention of Jules and frowned without even realizing it. Yeah, there was that need for a drink again. He slipped the cigarette from his lips and turned his attention back to the road. He wasn't sure how he felt about hearing that, but Jules could drink with whoever she wanted. So could Dorian. "What happened? Not a lot in common, I'm guessin'?"

"For the drinkin' kind of trouble, yeah, we should be inside." Dorian doubted he'd need them unless they decided to do something other than drinking. "No, not a lot in common," Dorian said with a small laugh. "I don't know how she is with you, but the girl comes on strong. I pointed it out to her, though I probably could have been a bit more polite about it. I'd say the low point was when she almost left me in the bar." Dorian still had the feeling that she would have easily walked if he hadn't stopped her, and part of him would have been fine with that. But he hadn't, and so at least he knew they could get along, if necessary.

Chuckling, Aiden shook his head, keeping his eyes ahead. He knew Jules could come on strong - had witnessed it many times himself. She had tried to leave Aiden in the coffee shop too. Seemed to be a habit with the girl, Aiden supposed. "She came onto you then?" He wasn't sure if that would irk him or amuse him. Maybe if Jules knew who Dorian was, and still hit on him, it would irritate him, even though he knew damn well he'd be a hypocrite if that were the case. "And what is it with you and women, man? Seriously. Almost gettin' ditched in a bar isn't a step in the right direction at all."

While Dorian agreed with him, he didn't know what to do about the problem, other than not be himself. That seemed to be the issue. "I dunno. I don't trust 'em. I especially don't trust the ones that come onto me. And yeah, she did. We met out on the street, and after talking a bit realized who the other was." It still felt weird to Dorian to run into someone who knew one of his friends, but Marquette was a small enough town that it had to happen often. He just wasn't used to it yet. "I asked her if she wanted to get a drink. She kept at it, and when we got to talking about it, I kinda called her easy. Probably not the way to win a girl over."

"I don't know why women get offended at bein' called easy when they are. Hell, you could call me easy and I wouldn't deny it. I don't find anythin' wrong with women who want to have sex, but at least admit it." He shrugged and flicked some ash out of his window. Still, it was a bit frustrating that Jules would come onto Dorian, even after knowing who he was. Maybe it was her way of getting back at him, or maybe she just didn't care. It didn't matter either way, he supposed. "You don't trust women? Since when? You never used to have issue with women who came onto you college. They're complicated, confusing, frustrating bitches sometimes, but they're not all out to get you."

"I wasn't looking to do anything but screw 'em in college. That was easy, and didn't require me to care," Dorian said. College had been easy because none of the relationships he'd had had been all that deep. Which wasn't to say he was looking for something deep now, but at least somewhat meaningful. If he was going to let someone get that close to him, he wanted to know them, and he wanted them to know him. "Now I feel like I care, and they start fucking shit up. They say one thing and do another. They ask questions they don't want answers to. Or sometimes they want answers, but not honest answers. I don't wanna feel like I have to justify everything."

Aiden listened and was quiet for a few moments before he finally spoke. "I think you're talkin' about Eury more than you're talkin' about women, Dorian." He didn't know how to make Dorian feel better on that subject, when he didn't know how to feel about it himself anymore. "Did she really fuck things up for you that bad that you're generalizing all women by what happened with her?" Most of which Aiden assumed with his fault. He hated that guilty feeling deep in the pit of his stomach, but it was there and he had to deal with it.

"I dunno. It fits with Eury, but Jules did the same thing. She would have liked me better if I'd lied to her," Dorian said, taking a drag off his cigarette. It would have been so easy to lie to them both, but he'd been honest and it had gotten him in trouble. "Eury's the only one I've ever considered having something real with. And I know how I fucked that up, but I thought we could at least be friends. After talking to her last week, I don't think that's really a possibility." Which was a shame, really. She'd been his first friend there in Marquette, the only girl he'd ever told what he was. Even if he hadn't gone into details, or said so explicitly, she was a liability. Dorian just had to trust she wouldn't betray his secret.

"So find a woman who appreciates the truth. If they ask you for an opinion and you give it and they bitch you out, or get upset? Not worth the trouble, is she? I've learned it at least it helps you weed out the ones who aren't worth it." He paused. "And you weren't the one who fucked up with Eury. I fucked things up for you. She's... I don't know, she's going through somethin' right now. I don't think she's the same person she was when she left, but I don't know. So," Aiden said, glancing at Dorian. "You're oh for two right now. Doesn't mean you won't find someone interestin' someday who'll appreciate you for what you are and all that shite. Maybe she's sittin' in the bar we're goin' to right now, waitin' for you to walk in."

"I doubt it," Dorian chuckled. "It's not like I'm out to find the woman of my dreams or some bullshit. I just want something more than a good fuck. You'd think that wouldn't be all that hard." But it was, he'd found. That in between stage might as well have been asking to win the lottery. "There is one girl I met, and she's pretty cool. Don't know if there's any real chemistry there, but I like hanging out with her." It was hard to tell with Joey, especially when he was part of the equation. Dorian knew that he didn't flirt it up, which meant she wasn't likely to flirt back, but he was honestly more comfortable with her than he'd been with any of the girls he met in bars. "So how are things with you and Eury? Get any of that confusion cleared up?"

"In a town like this, I imagine it is hard... it's not like there's a whole lot to choose from. But if you're not looking to get laid, and you're having trouble findin' more than that... I don't really know what to tell ya other than to just not focus on it. At least with said girl you met, if you're not attracted to her, at least you have someone to hang out with when I'm not around, yeah? Easier to be friends with a girl when there's no chemistry there." He grinned over at Dorian. "Maybe she'll have better advice about women for ya than I do. I can't even pretend to try and understand 'em anymore. I haven't spoken to Eury, to be honest. I think maybe it'll be easier to do it when I get back. I don't want whatever outcome there is from our conversation to affect a job."

"I'm not focused on it," Dorian laughed, "It just stands out cause I dealt with Eury and Jules in the same week." When it came down to it, there was enough going on in his life that he didn't need to deal with women as well. If something came out of a hanging out with Joey, then great, but he wasn't gonna screw up their friendship by giving himself tunnel vision. He wasn't all that sure about the chemistry because he hadn't been watching for it. "I don't really wanna talk to this girl about my issues with other women. If there is something between us, that'd pretty much ruin my chances with her, I think." He paused when considering Aiden's job for Eury. Eury hadn't give him any details, but it seemed pretty harsh that she wanted her uncle hunted down. "Eury said she was gonna have you hunt out her uncle. She really wants him killed?"

"Ah, touche. Yeah, don't let her know you're a screw up with the female population," Aiden joked. "Clever move." He was curious now, and wanted to meet the girl, but he definitely didn't voice that aloud. He knew Dorian wouldn't be comfortable with that at this point, even if Aiden had no interest other than just making sure she wasn't fucking crazy. He flicked his cigarette out the window and pulled into the parking lot of the bar before answering his question about Eury. "Yeah, she wants him dead. And if he's been doin' what she claims he's been doin', I have no qualms about findin' him and takin' him out. I'm leaving in a couple days, I think. Maybe sooner."

Dorian figured he was supposed to quash his curiosity, but that was easier said than done. He still wanted to know everything that went on in her life, but he had to recognize that she'd omitted certain details for a reason. While he'd initially considered asking Aiden if he could go along to help, he was now thinking that wouldn't be the best of plans, at least not for himself. "When are you headin' out?" he asked as Aiden parked the car. "I offered to help, and she told me to talk to you, but I'm thinkin' it might be better for me to stay out of all things Eury. Your next job, though, I wanna tag along, if just for something to do."

"I have a couple more calls to make before I leave. Maybe Wednesday." That was the tentative plan, at least. He was eager to get out on the road and away from Marquette for awhile. He got out of the car and waited for Dorian before speaking again. "You're welcome to come along. If you'd rather not, I'll definitely keep you updated on anythin' else I have comin' at me." He preferred doing his jobs alone, but he trusted Dorian, and having a telekinetic there was always an advantage. "Might be fun for you to get out of town for a bit."

"That's what I was thinking. I just wasn't sure if going on a job connected with Eury would be the best idea," Dorian shrugged, taking one last drag off his cigarette before stubbing it out. He thought about the lack of information he had and knew that he wouldn't have taken this job for anyone else without asking a lot more questions. Aiden might know the reason behind it all, but Aiden was closer to Eury than he was. At least, these days that was the case. Dorian preferred not to remember when things had been different. "So what else have you got going on?" Dorian asked, leading them inside.

"It might not be the best idea for me either," Aiden pointed out. "It's easier to do a job when I have no emotional ties to anything remotely attached to it. This is different, and I don't want to make any mistakes." He certainly didn't want to end up like the statues Eury had encountered. "Other than that, man, I've got nothin'. I've been waitin' for you to get back to town, but my intention was always to move on afterward. There's not much holdin' me here, you know?" He thought maybe Eury... but now he wasn't so sure.

It was the twisted emotional ties that kept Dorian away from the job, not sure how he'd feel about the whole thing afterwards. This was another thing he needed to map out in that list of rules he was working on, and he made a mental note to draft it up later. "Dude, you can't desert me now," Dorian said. "Who 'm I gonna get drinks with if you head out? Is there not enough work to be done around here?" He knew Aiden's job required that he was constantly on the go and it had been a long stay for him there in Marquette, but Dorian wasn't all that sure he'd be looking to stay himself if Aiden left. Sure, Caleb was going to school there, but Mathias had been doing a fine job of keeping watch over him. Course, he was kind of surprised Mathias was still there as well...

Aiden chuckled and reached out to clap Dorian on the shoulder before opening the door to the bar and letting Dorian step in before him. "I'm sure there's plenty that can be done here in Marquette. The problem is findin' people who want to pay me to take care of it. It's how I make my income, I don't have a job other than huntin'. I think it'd be a bit strange for me to try legitimate employment right now. Besides, I see how much it stresses you out, I don't know if I want that for myself."

"I'm doing my best to move away from the parts that stress me out," Dorian said. He'd cut his hours down to bits and pieces, working only when he wanted and letting his other employees handle the rest. Managing the store wasn't all that hard now that he wasn't selling the books that were hard to replace. "What would you do if you didn't have to work?" he asked. "Say you only needed to take one real job a month-- what would you do with all that free time?"

"I really have no idea," Aiden admitted. "I'm so used to bein' on the road with a purpose that it's hard to imagine having free time. It's been hard enough bein' here with nothin' to do. If I had to take only one real job a month, I'd probably get myself an insignificant job just to keep busy. Or I'd hang around and bug you all day and I'm pretty sure you'd prefer somethin' else." Grinning, Aiden sat down at an empty table and motioned for a waitress. "What do you do with your free time?"

"Not much," Dorian sighed. "I've cut back my hours, but that means I have more time on my hands. Which can be dangerous, cause then I get bored and go do something stupid." He knew his problem was that he didn't need to work, that he'd pretty much stolen all that he'd need for the rest of the year. The work that he had was fine unless he worked too much, and so he was still lacking on the balance that he needed. "Maybe I should go with you."

"Doin' somethin' stupid isn't always a bad thing," Aiden pointed out with a tiny smirk. "If it keeps you entertained, just... be smart about the stupid." He pulled out another cigarette before setting the half empty pack on the table. "Do you want to go with me? You just back in town... your brothers won't mind you skippin' out again so soon?"

"I want something to do. There's appeal in a hunt. The only thing keeping me away is the personal connection to this particular hunt. I don't know that my brothers would mind. I guess it depends on how long we'd be gone," Dorian said, pausing to order himself a beer once the waitress stopped by their table. "I've got an obligation to check on things around here. I have a house here, a store, and now family, and I don't think a month long absence would be a good thing, but if we're talking a couple of days, I'd be in. Which begs the question, do you know where you're going?"

"That's the thing, I don't know how long I'll be gone," Aiden admitted. "I have to find this guy, and once I find him, take him out. I think it might take me a bit longer than a couple days, though I hope less than a month. I'm making some calls to a few contacts in California to see if they can help me get a lead on him, but there's a good chance he's left the state. I've got to start there if I want to make any leeway." He lit his cigarette and exhaled before speaking again. "Add in driving time... I'm lookin' at maybe two weeks, if I get lucky."

Two weeks of tracking didn't sound like any fun to Dorian. He liked the part where there was a fight, not the part where he would be on the road, wandering around after a guy who did who knows what. He didn't even know why Eury's uncle deserved to die, and when Dorian thought about it, he realized he really didn't need to be a part of this. "So maybe I'll stay home," Dorian laughed. "I'll call you if anything exciting happens while you're gone and you can run your ass back to town. What'd he do to Eury anyways?" He was asking casually, but the question was serious, and Dorian wondered if Aiden would give him a clue.

"He lied to her," Aiden explained, though he knew that sounded like a damn pathetic excuse to kill someone. "She's... " Trailing off when the waitress brought their drinks, Aiden waited until she was gone before lowering his voice. "Do you know what she is?" That seemed to the the important thing to get out of the way right now. He couldn't explain Eury's uncle without Dorian knowing about Eury.

Lying to someone wasn't a reason to kill them, at least from Dorian's perspective, but he didn't know what the lie had been. It was a topic he might have pondered on longer, had Aiden not asked a more interesting question. Dorian sat back in his seat, taking a sip off his beer as he studied Aiden. "No, I don't," Dorian said, his voice flat. He hadn't realized it was a question up for debate. Apparently it was another thing she didn't trust him with, even after Dorian had put all that he was out on the table.

Aiden had to debate then, whether or not to tell Dorian. If Eury hadn't told him yet, there could be a reason, but he wasn't sure. He trusted Dorian, but at the same time he wasn't sure if the guy should know. It was a brief case of conscience before he sipped his beer and set the bottle back down. "Have you ever wondered why she always wears those glasses? Given you have to wear shades at night, surely you've questioned her own eye condition before?"

"Of course I wonder," Dorian said. "I've questioned, but didn't press too hard, considering my own secrets. Which is probably why she didn't ask so much about mine." But she knew now, didn't she? That whole period of time seemed fuzzy to him, the memories of what he'd actually said and told her lost in the confusion of finding out she'd been into Aiden instead. He'd trusted her with more than he'd ever given any other woman and it left him feeling bitter and cheated. "There are lots of reasons people might want to hide their eyes."

Nodding, Aiden took another sip of beer. "I felt pretty stupid once I found out... it seems so obvious once you know. Coming from a supernatural stand point, what supernatural beings absolutely have to wear glasses?" he asked Dorian, somehow justifying that if Dorian came to the truth on his own, it wasn't the same as Aiden telling him straight out. "Her glasses... her hair... it paints quite a picture."

"I never thought her hair was part of the picture," Dorian said softly. He'd always loved Eury's hair, the way it moved with her, almost as if it was alive. Dorian closed his eyes, the image shifting, little things taken into account, the way she looked from the corner of his eye. Had he really been so blind? There were many creatures that would want to hide their eyes, but only one that would have to in order to live amongst humans. Dorian's gaze shifted down to the table, where he rocked his beer bottle around on it's edge. "I suppose I feel stupid... though the chance of meeting a gorgon has to be infantismally small. They're practically extinct."

"That's why I never put the clues together," Aiden said with a nod, relieved that Dorian had figured it out. "When she told me, it made sense, given what I knew about her. Her uncle's been selling statues," he explained. "He's... he told her he was getting rid of the statues, but in reality he was selling them to people. He lied to her. Now she wants him dead."

"The status are crying," Dorian said, Eury's state of distress now making far more sense. In a way, he felt cheated; he'd been missing a rather crucial detail to what was going on in her life. But it didn't matter anymore and he had to let it go. Maybe Aiden would be able to help her where he'd been unable to do so. "Is he human?"

"She wants his head. Literally." And he figured that answered that question. "I've never seen her that upset before. It's like... she thinks her entire existance has been a lie. She feels hurt and betrayed, but she seems firm on wanting me to find and take him out. So... I am."

"Don't you go get your ass turned to stone," Dorian warned. Eury was careful about doing so, that much was clear, but if her uncle knew he was at risk for someone coming after him, he might not care so much about who looked him in the eye. "She's also got a lot of doubts about love, if it even exists. It was a poor discussion topic for the two of us... I don't know how that ties in with what's going on with her uncle, but maybe you can do a better job of helping her through it."

Aiden chuckled and tapped his fingernails on his bottle. "Believe me, I'll do what I can to avoid that." The last thing he wanted was to be turned into stone. Eury had always been careful around him, her uncle certainly would not. "I don't know how to help her through her doubts, Dorian. I'm probably the last person who could convince her that love exists still, because I don't know if I believe in it. I don't even know if she'd want me to be the one helpin' her through other than gettin' rid of her uncle."

It annoyed Dorian that he found himself worried about a girl that probably had no interest in talking to him ever again. Things weren't supposed to go this way. They were supposed to remain friends, but he hadn't been capable of what that took. Thinking it brought him back to his problems with women, whether this would always be the case when it came to him or not. "Do you think she's really this complicated, or we're just idiot?" Dorian said, taking another sip of beer.

That was a good question, and it took Aiden a moment to really think of a decent answer. His feelings for Eury consistently confused him and frustrated him. "Maybe a bit of both? Women are, at their core, complicated creatures. And I think guys like us? Are idiots for fallin' for it. But I'm not sure you'll ever find a woman who isn't complicated. You just gotta figure out if she's worth the trouble."

That seemed like an awfully hard decision to make and Dorian wasn't all that sure how to even start. How did one decide if a woman was worth it? It seemed just as much chance as anything else, or a feeling that he should have, to help base upon his decision. At this point, he didn't know, but hopefully he would when he found it.