Who: Brian and Coby Where: MacBeth Woodworks When: 1:30
Coby woke up and showered throughly, threw on jeans and a t shirt, then grabbed her sneakers and headed out. A walk wouldn't hurt, and it might help clear her mind. She found herself thinking not about Sonny, her new friend and also the guy she'd been with last night, but about Brian. She hadn't seen him in a few days, and while she wouldn't admit it, she wondered what he was up to. It was no surprise when she found her feet had taken her to his shop. She gave a helpless shrug and walked in.
"Brian? Ya here?" She called, glancing around the gallery. Coby ran her hand over a nearby headboard that was absolutely beautiful, admiring the smoothness and stain of the wood. While she might not have known much about woodworking, she did know it took lots of time.
Brian almost choked on some of the last of the ham, starting and then looking in dismay at the mess. He'd been enthusiastic about his meal and most of it was shredded n the large plate, his knives completely forgotten. Pika had eatten until she was stuffed, and passed out on the table, laying with her mouse toy clutched in her paws. He got up, grabbing a towel and trying to wipe off his chin and both hands, frowning at the grease stains on his shirt. He hadn't enjoyed a meal like that as a human in a long time.
Exiting his office he swallowed what was in his mouth and blinked at Coby owlishly. "Oh. Hello," he said, completely confused as to why she was here.
Coby arched a brow at his appearance. Well, that was new. She sniffed the air and could instantly tell it had been pork. Her mouth watered at the thought. Ever since she had been bitten, she'd had constant cravings for meat. Even as a human.
"Nice to see you too," she said dryly. "I thought I'd ask if you wanted to go on a run tomorrow night, maybe grab something to eat beforehand so we don't wipe out the Scarlet Oak deer population." Coby grinned, still staring at his shirt and face. She was trying not to laugh, she really was.
He flushed. The smell was everywhere in the shop, overpowering for a normal human. He could see the flash in her eyes and was sheepish with himself, upset that he'd let his control slip. "Ah...." he blinked and returned to the present moment. She was so stunning today... but tired. He wondered if she'd been sleeping well, or enough. "Dinner sounds... great. Um, sorry. I'm just a bit... I was just eating lunch..." he looked back at his kill. There was still good meat on it, and he straightened and tried to de-grease his hands again with the already overwhelmed cloth. "Are you hungry? I just fixed it today."
Coby hadn't been sleeping enough, her job was seeing to that. But she had the next night off, so she could sleep then. She watched as he stammered, trying to find something to say, and just smiled. God, how could he be so fucking adorable? "It's okay, not a big deal. I am a little hungry.." Her stomach growled to accentuate her words. "Okay, I'm hungry. Haven't eaten yet today." And it smelled amazing. She took a step closer, eyeing the meat. "You definitely tore into that thing. Did it insult Pika or something?" That was the only reason Coby could think of for Brian attacking anything.
"No," he chuckled, embarrassed and shuffling back to let her into his office before he hurried over and tried to clean it up a bit. He picked Pika up and moved her away carefully. She stirred, but barely lifted her head before snuggling her mouse. Brian tried to clean up the plate as best he could, then gestured for her to take his seat. "Help yourself, I think I've had as much as I should," he said, almost bashfully.
Coby had to laugh at that, but took his seat anyway. "I don't know about you, but I can't ever get enough to eat." She picked up a piece of meat with her fingertips and ate it, surprised at how good it was. "Damn, that's amazing. Seriously, I should bring you in as my personal chef. Been living off microwave meals since I got here, this is so much better." She continued to eat, noticing that Pika had passed out. She grinned and looked up at Brian, he was definitely tall as hell when she was sitting. "So how've you been?" She hoped that wasn't too awkward of a question. They were friends, right? Didn't friends ask how their friends were doing?
Brian shook his head, color on his eartips. "It's just a ham, and you put a couple seasonings on it and stick it in the machine," he said. "I don't cook at all really, but it's nice to bring it all to work and have a big lunch." He was really glad she liked it, and resisted telling her he'd cook for her any time. She wouldn't want to hear that, being young and independent. "I've been alright. Trying to figure out how to tell Familiars from common mutts," he shrugged and sat down in the visitor's chair, his long legs extending out. "How about you? Have you found work yet?"
Coby grinned at his blush, it was cute, no matter what she tried to think otherwise. "It's a good idea. Hope you don't get any pissy familiars in here who wouldn't want to talk to you. Otherwise I don't know how else to tell." She'd done her research on familiars, but was actually glad that Austin didn't have one. A kid was bad enough. "Yeah, 'm working at Shimmer. Doesn't seem so bad, only been there a few days." The strippers were more of other people's bodies than Coby wanted to see in such a public setting, but whatever. She was hoping they'd eventually fade into the background and she wouldn't notice them.
Brian nodded, still bitter about the whole incident earlier this afternoon. "Well they'll have to talk, or they're not coming in," he decided. Then he tilted his head. Shimmer.... where had he heard that name before? Then he paled slightly. Shimmer was that... that homosexual club that had passed around the fliers welcoming supernaturals. Oh god, had they really gotten Coby? He grew much more concerned and moved his chair a bit closer, studying her. She needed sleep, definitely, but was she traumatized, too? "What are you doing there?" he asked, struggling to keep the worry out of his voice.
"They give me a paycheck every two weeks?" Coby said, eying him. "My boss is pretty cool, they're lenient with hours. I have tomorrow night off. It's not so bad really." She grabbed a few more pieces of ham, momentarily distracted by the meat. "Don't worry, I didn't get up and pronounce myself as a supernatural. Last thing I need is some fucking hunter hunting my ass down." She thought Hamish had balls, opening up not only a gay club but one that supported supernaturals.
"But what are you doing?" he asked again, unable to help himself. He couldn't stop himself from worrying about her being made to work in an environment of drugs and live porn (in his view), and constant exposure to men feeling each other up. Sure, it might be more of a nightmare for him, but he thought himself to have good morals and felt she had the same, despite her habit of cursing. He didn't think it sounded like a decent place at all to be somebody with old fashioned morals.
"Electrical work, setting up the music and videos." Coby watched him, trying to stave off her anger until she decided what he was so upset about. It was a club like any other, even if it was gay. The one she'd worked at in Detroit had been similar, nudity was something she'd grown accustomed to. Now it was just a diffrent setting. "It's not like I've been propositioned there, Brian." She finished off the rest of the ham and sucked her fingers clean, not willing to let any of the juices go to waste.
He looked at her in surprise, then flinched inwardly. He could tell he was making her upset, and he understood why. The mention of propositioning stirred jealousy in him, but he kept it to himself carefully and picked up the limp Pika, holding her carefully and petting her thoughtfully. "Well. I... hope you enjoy it," he managed finally, sounding sincere and secretly wishing he could beg her to work for him, even though he knew she'd be bored to tears here.
"It's not bad, and I get to work with what I love." Coby was surprised that she'd said that. She had never thought of electrical work as something she loved, but she supposed she did. A lot of the love came from her father being in the same profession. She smiled as he petted Pika. "Could be worse, I could be stripping." The werelioness laughed at that. She'd never do that--well, unless she was totally broke. "Which I wouldn't do, if that makes you feel any better." Unless it was a strip tease show for him. Bad Coby, don't think about that.
His ears burned at the thought. Brian had never even set foot in a strip club, as a young man or otherwise. He couldn't imagine going into one, either. "That's good," he admitted. He was an old fashioned fogey and she might as well know it now. "It's always best to work with something you love," he sighed, very aware that he'd loose any future arguments on the subject just because of that. "So have you been enjoying yourself in your personal time?"
Coby couldn't help grinning at his embarassment. Why did she love to tease him so much? She teased everyone she knew, but she got special satisfaction from making Brian blush. "I'm sure you love woodworking," she said, glancing out into the gallery. He had to. "Sleeping a lot. Roomie has a new girlfriend. It's weird to smell another woman around the house." She made a face at that, it was more than weird. It got Coby's hackles up, and she wasn't even interested in her roommate. It was more the fact that another woman was in her territory without her permission.
He nodded and wondered about the roommate again. He could've said "I feel the same way when I pass by your house and smell him there", but that would a) inform her that he walked by her house often to check up on her, b) inform her that he was jealous because he thought of her as his, and c) inform her that she was, in fact, jealous herself. The third thing was something no woman wanted to hear, and he knew better than to try, even if rationally he knew it was just because of her instincts. "It's hard to have strangers you don't know in your home," he settled on. That sounded innocent enough, right? "Is he going well otherwise?"
"It'll take some..time, for me to adjust. He said he's only gonna be there until he gets himself settled, a few months maybe." Coby shrugged. "I figure it's mostly the whole lioness thing freaking out about a chick in the house. He's good otherwise, his little girl should be coming up sometime soon. That'll be..interesting." She laughed and shook her head. Coby wasn't great with kids, had never been. "How've you been?" The werelioness had to admit, she was curious.
"Doing my work," he shrugged. "Orders for animal equipment have gone up. Perches, beds, steps. That sort of thing, you know, with all of the familiars. I'm thinking about advertising something, it's not that bad of a business. Still, I'd have to sell off some the gallery pieces to make room to show off that type of product." And get used to more dog piles on his floor, in all likelihood.
"So glad I'm not a witch, the last thing I need is an animal following me around. Though if they were as cute as Pika, I might not mind." She smiled and reached over to scratch the kitten's head. "There are sure a shit ton of them around, you could definitely make money on it. And I'm sure it'd be easy enough for you to sell off your gallery pieces, they're gorgeous." Coby hoped that Brian would ignore the offhand compliment to him, that he did good work and it was beautiful. She blushed a little, realizing she'd said too much. "Anyway. Right. I should head home and try to get a few more hours of sleep before work." Coby stood and brushed off her t shirt, grinning again at how messy Brian was.
Brian smiled slightly in thanks at her appreciation of his work. That was always the easiest way to make him smile. "Thanks," he said, then chuckled. "It's been surprisingly beneficial. I can take Pika into cafes now and let her eat on the table next to me. She sure likes it better than having to stay in my pocket all the time." And he always cleaned up after her. When she said she had to go he stood politely, then looked at her and nodded. "I'll call you about tomorrow. Or you can just drop by when the shop closes," he offered.
Coby hadn't thought about that. Pika had to appreciate it. "You'll need my number then," she said, pulling her blackberry out of her pocket. It wasn't a bad idea for him to have her number, you know, just in case. Yeah. Just in case. Coby waited for him to grab his cellphone, then realized that he probably didn't have one, and glanced around for a piece of paper to write it on.
He took out his number book. He did have a cell phone, but other than entering a number and hitting 'call' he had no idea how else it could or should be used. He didn't have a single stored number on the thing. He went to H and carefully wrote her name down in his neat script, then looked up at her. "Alright," he said, prepared to record her number.
Coby rambled off her number to him, it was one of the only numbers she had memorized. Besides her home number. "Just give me a call around dinner time, I'll probably get up around three or four. You do have some kind of phone, right?" She couldn't help the snarky comment, but her grin showed that she was only playing. "I mean, a crank phone or something." Okay, she started to giggle at that.
Brian gave her a patient, if exasperated look, and dug around in his pockets for a moment before pulling out a very basic Nokia pre-paid whone. It was splattered with pain, had sawdust stuck in the keys, and had obviously been put through the washer once or twice, but it was a cell phone. "I'm quite modern, considering," he decided and set it down. Some dust drifted off it and fall on Pika's head, making the kitten sneeze.
Coby smiled as prettily as she could at his look. And then giggled at Pika's sneeze, how could anything be more adorable than kitten sneezes? "What's your number?" Yes, she was asking for his number. But he already had hers, so it wasn't as embarassing as she thought it would be. She didn't often ask guys for their number, leaving them to call her if they wanted to. Which reminded her, Dusty still hadn't called her back. Maybe it was for the best, even if the sex had been hot.
Brian nodded and wrote the number down for hr, giving it to her and smiling slightly, glad to be just a little closer to her than he had been before. "Tomorrow, then. Enjoy your rest," he rumbled, wanting to embrace her before she left but stopping himself, instead awkwardly holding out Pika so she could give a kitty kiss in farewell. "I'm glad you liked the pork."
Coby beamed and nuzzled the kitten, knowing how strange that would look to anyone except Brian. She wouldn't have minded a hug, she was craving contact. After a moment's hesitation she hugged Brian, squishing Pika between them. "It was good, thanks. See you tomorrow."
"Hm," Brian sighed happily, hugging her back, then nodded and let her go, watching as she left. Pika mewed, and he looked down at her, shoulders slumped. "Yes, I miss her too. But you can't act like that," he said sorrowfully, then chided the kitten lovingly. "She's not really ours, you know. C'mon, help me clean up the mess."