Kane Owen (sellingsouls) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2022-12-10 15:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | #july 2018, adrian, adrian x kane, kane |
Who: Adrian, Kane, and Cecilia
When: late morning into afternoon, Sunday, July 8th
Where: Portland, car, Cecilia's farm
Status: Complete, Part 1
Waking up and getting their stuff together to check out of the hotel was harder than Kane would’ve expected. As his phone alarm was going off, all he wanted to do was linger in bed with Adrian’s warm body pressed against his, both of them breathing deep and slow. He was almost compelled to try and tempt Adrian into another day, but Kane knew he had a shift at the hospital coming up and needed to not fuck up that job. It wasn’t like nurses had tons of options in a town like Point Pleasant. So Kane got his ass up, brushed his teeth, washed his face, and threw clothes and toiletries into his bag while Adrian did the same.
They were too sleepy to talk much, and maybe that was a good thing. Kane wasn’t a morning person in the first place, and he felt like so much had already been said the night before. Maybe too much. He had sincerely meant everything he’d said, but as they rode the elevator down to the lobby to check out, he started to get a little nervous. Was it too much, too soon? Would things look different to Adrian in the light of day, once they were driving away from this romantic weekend getaway? He could practically hear Bailey calling him a fucking moron in the back of his head. Since when did he allow himself this level of stupid vulnerability?
Kane was a little glad for the brightness of the outside, the excuse to put his sunglasses on, like he needed to shield himself a bit while he got his bearings again. They’d agreed on brunch before they left, and Kane desperately needed some coffee before he drove them back, so he found the closest little diner and took them there. Soon enough they were sitting across from each other in a small booth where they could both see the door. Kane took off his shades and picked up the menu, eyeing their breakfast offerings.
There was a weird sadness hanging over everything that Adrian wasn't sure he could fully attribute to being tired. He had to keep reminding himself that this wasn't the last time they were spending together, but going home felt a bit like returning to a cage. He was relieved Kane wasn't feeling chatty for that first hour of the day and grateful that things seemed to go smoothly between them. He'd never had to tell Kane he had problems with feeling vulnerable in public but then Kane probably felt the same. They both had trauma on their backs, just from different sources.
He settled in and read the menu, stifling a yawn and wondering if he was going to be that asshole who slept the whole way back while Kane did all the driving. He hoped not, maybe the coffee would help. He sure as shit hoped so. No matter how tired he was now, he kept reminding himself it had been worth it. Last night had been amazing and terrifying all at once. It wasn't like they'd been drunk or high so there was no excuse to hide behind when it came to confessing their feelings and unlike Kane, he didn't really feel worried about it. It felt right, though he wasn't entirely sure what exactly it all meant. All he knew was that Kane was willing to give him time and space and he would do the same in turn.
It wasn't long before they got service and Adrian ordered himself a decent breakfast, then watched Kane as he did the same. There was something so nice about it, watching him interact with a stranger, his attention elsewhere so Adrian could look at him without being observed himself. He looked tired and Adrian felt just a sliver of guilt for that, smiling warmly at him as he nudged his foot under the table after their waitress left.
Kane’s eyes had been scanning the restaurant as their waitress walked away, his subconscious always on alert and looking for danger. The touch under the table brought his attention back to Adrian and he smiled faintly back. Once again, he felt like he had novel-length things to tell Adrian, stuff that was far too heavy for breakfast conversation and probably shouldn’t ever leave the confines of his brain in the first place. Kane fiddled idly with the napkin-wrapped utensils and tried to think of something sensible to say. Fuck, he wished smoking in restaurants was still a thing, he was craving another cigarette. Something struck him finally and his brows quirked up. “So something weird happened the other day,” he started. “You remember, in the woods, what we saw ... after it was done?” Kane glanced around, as if anyone around them might know what he was talking about.
There weren't a lot of instances Kane could be talking about and even if Adrian hadn't seen it himself, he knew what Kane was talking about right away. It was hard to forget the fact that souls were real and that they'd released a whole bunch of them in Blackwater. "Yeah, the people?" he asked, wiggling his fingers a bit to indicate that he was speaking metaphorically, but he wasn't about to start rambling about souls out loud. Not that anyone would care, there were plenty of crazy people talking about crazy things in the world and it wasn't like anyone was paying close attention to them. The other few people in there were talking among themselves and Adrian thought it would be pretty obvious if they stopped talking to actually listen to them.
“Yeah, the people,” Kane murmured with a nod. That was the part that was giving him the most pause. They didn’t deserve to wander aimlessly around Blackwater, lost souls in a place that seemed so cursed to begin with. But was that worse than whatever Cecilia had in store for them? That was the question Kane couldn’t answer. “So a couple days before we left, this woman knocked on my door. Older lady, called herself Cecilia. She knew what happened and what I can do. She wants me to go collect all those people and bring ‘em to her.” He’d been meaning to tell Adrian about the old woman’s visit, but he kept getting distracted by too many emotions.
Adrian furrowed his brows as he studied Kane's face but he was hard to read, seemingly not really bothered by it. "So how'd she know you? Through a client?" he asked and that was just another thing he didn't really understand about Kane's work: How did people get in touch with each other? How did someone advertise for souls or know how to find a reaper? It was all so beyond him as he'd lived most of his life above board and even during his stint of homelessness he hadn't gotten involved with any shady people. He'd heard of the dark web of course, but he had no idea how to even start trying to get there - not that he wanted to - and he had no idea how else people did these things. Funnily, he didn't really want to know either, fully aware he was not equipped for that world.
“I still don’t know, she wouldn’t give me any names. Just an old friend who only talks to her, she said.” Kane huffed and shook his head a bit, passing one hand over his face. “She knew a lot though, and not just about me. She called that thing a collector. The souls it had were people from the place it came from, where you were. She wouldn’t tell me much, but she wants ‘em back.” Or she was going to make more. Kane couldn’t quite bring himself to say that part out loud yet, he was already worried about Adrian’s reaction. Saying it all out loud to someone who didn’t live this sort of life was making it sound even worse than it had to Kane in the first place. He wet his lips and glanced around again. “She knew shit she shouldn’t know. I fuckin’ hate that.”
"Wait, did she threaten you?" Adrian asked, his voice getting quieter, and a little worry line forming between his brows. A mysterious old woman who knew shit she shouldn't know and didn't want to tell anyone anything about it sounded like trouble. She knew where that thing had been and what it had done if she knew where the souls were from, did she know about Adrian? How the hell had this conversation gone? It all sounded a little off and while Kane didn't look distressed, Adrian knew he could be masking it. "What do you mean she wants them back?" He couldn't help it, he was going over the people he could remember from the facility and there had been some older women there, the witch and one of the shrinks early on.
“No, not really,” he answered. He kind of liked the clear concern in Adrian’s eyes, he couldn’t help it. Bailey told him to be careful and called him an idiot for taking risks all the time, but she seldom seemed worried about him. “She just indicated ... if I don’t go collect them and bring them to her, more people are going to have to die to replace them. No idea how or who, but ... I dunno, that kinda means I have to, doesn’t it?” He eyed Adrian, maybe looking for more guidance than he’d realized at first. “They were people though, and I don’t know what she wants them for, and I just ... I dunno.”
"That... sounds like a threat," Adrian said hesitantly and almost questioningly because while it might not be a threat against Kane explicitly, it sure sounded like dire consequences. "Did she say that? Because that... sounds like she's threatening mass murder." And Kane had been so casual about it too, maybe Adrian was misunderstanding something but 'more people are going to have to die' sounded pretty clear cut to him. He had to wonder if this was something Kane should bring to the police, but given the subject matter, that probably wasn't very efficient.
“Yeah,” Kane said grimly, pursing his lips a bit. It was a threat of mass murder -- which Cecilia kept saying she was just the messenger of -- and that was beyond fucked up. Had he underreacted to all of this when he’d been talking to her? Probably. “So I gotta do it.” Going to any so-called authority was out of the question, there was no way any of them would understand. “I asked Bailey to check up on her, run her name or whatever. I kinda don’t think she’ll find anything, though.” Cecilia didn’t seem like a woman who would have an arrest record, but maybe there’d been complaints about her over the years or something. ‘Crazy’ people calling the cops to complain about black magic being done next door.
That was right, Kane had one foot in the door with the cops thanks to his sister but Adrian didn't know if that would help much, the PPPD was not exactly well equipped to deal with things like souls and monsters as far as he knew, even if the sheriff was a believer. "What exactly are you gonna do?" he asked since none of it seemed clear to him. Maybe he was just going to go wandering around the woods looking for souls but even that sounded awful. Blackwater was huge and Adrian doubted stray souls were easy to find even for a man who could see them. "And what does she want with them?" He narrowed his eyes again as he tried to piece together what Kane had said. "And what do you mean she wants them back?"
Kane obviously wasn’t explaining any of this very well, and he had a moment of regret that he didn’t wait until they were settled in the car to bring it up. Not that he had the answers to all of those questions anyway. Before he could respond, the waitress turned back up with their drinks, and Kane immediately pulled his coffee in closer and pulled out a few sugar packets to dump into it. He waited until the girl was gone again, after smiling reassurances that their food would be out soon. “She said there’s something she can give me, a beacon of some kind, that’ll draw them in. So she wants me to gather ‘em up and bring them to her. Apparently that uh ... thing was hers somehow, or she had something to do with it ... I dunno man, she wasn’t real forthcoming with me,” Kane said as he stirred his coffee a bit too aggressively. Some of it spilled over and he cursed softly as he snatched up a napkin. “She said she’s got this like, farm outside of town? I wanna go scope it out before I go talk to her again, you know?”
Adrian's gaze ticked from Kane's face to his coffee as he took in all the little ways his aggravation was showing but the only way his own came through was in the bouncing of his knee. Other than that, he was calm, his hands steady as he got his own coffee ready. "I'm going with you," he said and hoped his voice left no room for arguments. "We can do it on the way back." He almost tacked on 'if you want to' but that left room for argument so no, he was deciding this now and they were doing it now. And if Kane had no idea where to find her farm, they had smartphones to look it up. There was no way in hell he was letting Kane do this alone and he had a feeling Kane didn't want to, or he'd have kept it to himself.
It was impossible to miss the resolve in Adrian’s tone, and it made Kane’s heart squeeze with anxiety. “No,” he said, just as firmly, giving Adrian a flat look. It wasn’t that Kane didn’t want the company, he just didn’t want to put Adrian at any risk, and they had no idea who or what they were dealing with in this case. Outside of wendigo-mode, it seemed that Adrian was just as squishy and vulnerable as any other human, and if anything happened to him because of Kane, he would never forgive himself. After he’d slaughtered everyone he could on Cecilia’s farm, that was. “No, I told her not to involve you in anything, that it should all stay far away from you, and she agreed. So ... you should stay far the fuck away from it.”
Adrian didn't say anything for a moment, just slightly arched an eyebrow as he took the first, much needed sip of coffee, staring pointedly at Kane as the seconds ticked by. "So she knows about me," he said when he put the cup down. Kane hadn't specified what exactly this lady knew but if Kane had told her to stay away from him then she either knew what he was or what he was to Kane - if not both. "I'm coming with you." He was too curious now to stay away, some old lady who was connected to the monster he'd killed, who knew what Kane was, who might be responsible for all that death in a facility that had tried to kill him. He didn't know if that made her friend or foe, honestly, but she'd obviously rattled Kane. "Should have kept your mouth shut if you didn't want me there," he added with a touch of a smirk.
Kane sighed and rubbed one eye -- that much was becoming clear, at least. He hadn’t had any conscious goal in mind with telling Adrian about Cecilia, it had just seemed like something that ought to be shared, since they were so much closer now and all. Maybe he should’ve waited until he heard from Bailey. He took a drink from his own mug, hoping the caffeine kicked in fast. He obviously needed it. “Yeah she knows about you. About what you are, where you were, what they were doing to you ... that you’re the one who killed it. And she knows about us, don’t ask me how,” he said, lifting a hand to stave off the questions he knew that prompted. “She wouldn’t say. But she seemed interested in you, and it creeped me the fuck out. I don’t know who or what she really is, she could be dangerous. I don’t want you taking any dumb risks before I know anything.” Kane raised his brows meaningfully back at Adrian.
"Sounds like a witch," Adrian said quietly but then he knew he really had no idea what was really out there. He hadn't known reapers were a real thing before he met Kane, he hadn't known something like that monster in the woods could exist until he was face to face with it and the monster he'd just killed was like nothing he'd ever even seen in fiction or myths. "I won't take any dumb risks, you're the one who suggested scoping out some omniscient lady's farm." He couldn't shake the bad feeling that this was the same woman who'd given him his tattoos and that was how she knew about him, but that didn't explain how she knew about Kane - unless the foundation had been aware of him. God, it was a potential spiral of conspiracy theories and paranoia and he didn't want to go down that path. "Is she like fifty? Gaunt face?"
“Yeah well, I’m a little more covered than you are right now,” Kane muttered, lifting his coffee cup again. His own tattoos were supposed to shield him at least somewhat from things that meant him harm. They hadn’t done shit to hide where he lived from Cecilia, so they either weren't working or she didn’t mean him harm. Maybe she didn’t now, but if he didn’t do what she asked ... Kane tried to shake off the thought. There was something haunted in Adrian’s eyes as he asked about her, and Kane regretted telling him anything even more. “No, older than that, I think. And chubby, definitely not gaunt,” he answered. He paused, then nudged Adrian’s bouncing foot under the table. “She didn’t work there. I asked her that and she seemed disgusted by the idea. I don’t think she liked those people. If anything she said was true, I believed that for sure.” Adrian hadn’t given voice to his fears, but Kane knew what he would have been paranoid about if he’d been in Adrian’s shoes.
"Well, I didn't like those people either," Adrian replied and forced himself to keep his leg still now that Kane had brought his attention to it. He kind of liked the idea that this woman might be responsible for those deaths and at the same time he felt guilty for it. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you and don't rejoice in their slaughter at the hand of an abomination, right? It was hard not to though, after what they'd done to him. It was even harder when he thought about Mila and Aaron showing up to rescue him. If that creature hadn't killed everyone already, what would have happened to them? Maybe he should feel worse for killing the monster... "So, are you gonna go scope that place out? Or are you just gonna go see her? She seems to know a lot of shit, maybe she'll know you're there."
“She might, but she probably knows it’d be smart of me to do a little recon before I just roll in there blind,” Kane said. He wasn’t going to take the SUV straight up the driveway to stare at the farm, he planned to go in from the side in the woods and watch a bit from afar, see if he could glean any weirdness. If Cecilia was straight up slaughtering people out in the open, that would be a bad sign. If she was a witch, she might know he was on her property, but it seemed foolish not to go look first. He eyed Adrian a bit more, keeping the toe of his boot touching the side of Adrian’s shoe. Kane felt like he needed that contact, at least at the moment. “Maybe they deserve to be scooped up and turned over to some witch,” he murmured. “If they’re all the people at that place. I dunno why she wants them, but after what they did to you ...”
"Yeah," Adrian murmured and smiled wryly. "Maybe I'm the bad guy. For killing that thing." To be fair, it had been charging at his boyfriend at the time so it could technically be called self defense - even if they had been out there looking for it. "It sounds a bit like I destroyed her property and now she wants you to pay for it. That doesn't seem fair." Not that he had the ability to gather souls himself, nor did he have the kind of money to pay for that many souls, or the means to do something else worth this woman's while. He doubted it at least. "I wasn't sorry," he said, leaning over his cup of coffee for some more privacy even if they were talking in hushed enough tones already. "Seeing them all dead. There must have been at least twenty of them. Thirty maybe. I didn't even know them all."
Kane didn’t really think the monster was the point, it was what it had been carrying. He wasn’t sure that he considered doing some of what he did all the time as paying for it. As long as Cecilia didn’t try to drag him deeper into some fucked up situation, it probably wouldn’t even be that hard. Kane had just been wrestling with the fact that they were human souls ... but as he stared into Adrian’s eyes, he felt his resolve click into place. Fuck those people, they’d been the real monsters. “That’s so fuckin’ hot,” he murmured, a tiny smile toying with his lips. There was an understated fierceness in that dark gaze that gave Kane a little flutter in his belly. He licked his lips and lifted his mug for another sip. “That big asshole tried to kill me and Bailey, so don’t be sorry for that either. I don’t mind doin’ the clean up.”
Adrian's brows lifted in surprise and then he let out a low chuckle, shaking his head softly. "You're a freak," he murmured because talking about a bunch of dead people should not be hot. He got it now though, it was easier to hate and discard human lives when those very people had left him locked up and might have hurt his sister if given the chance. Would have. Mila would have stubbornly looked for him and they wouldn't have let her leave, maybe they might have even realized she was different and locked her up too. So, there was no bite to his statement, if anything his gaze softened a bit and he lightly kicked Kane's foot under the table in a playful way. "Takes one to know one, I guess."
He kicked at him back, grinning now. “You like it,” Kane accused quietly. It wasn’t all of the death itself that was hot, it was seeing that unrepentant strength in Adrian. He was a compassionate guy, he was a nurse for fuck’s sake, but there was a steel core in him too that Kane found ridiculously attractive. They were both men who would kill if they had to, and it reminded Kane of being with fellow soldiers. The place he’d felt most at home was in the Corps, amongst the warriors. It gave Kane the vague desire to bring Adrian the head of everyone who’d ever hurt him. It sound like most of them were dead already though, so maybe he could fuck over their souls instead. If it would prevent more deaths, it was probably the right thing to do anyway. “You really wanna come with me to check out her farm?” he asked after a beat, sitting back a bit.
Adrian did like it and the sound of Kane's voice when he told him as much sent a pleasant shiver through him. He smiled as if to say he knew it was true and then hid that smile behind his cup of coffee for a sip. The question was unnecessary, they both knew he was going to that farm whether Kane wanted him to or not but he was fine with driving the point home. "Yeah, doesn't sound like she'd gain much from hurting you but I think it'd be smart to check it out anyway. You're the soldier though, I'm just your nurse." He smiled again, liking this idea of being Kane's field nurse - so long as he didn't actually get hurt in any serious capacity of course. It did appeal to him though, stitching him up, fixing him, soothing his worries and fucking his pain away.
Kane liked that idea too, and so far Adrian had been soothing his worries and fucking his pain away, that was part of why Kane was so damn addicted to him. “Yeah I am, so you’re gonna listen to me out there, right? If I tell you to do somethin’, you do it -- promise. Otherwise I’m driving you straight home.” He did his best to sound firm, but he’d obviously caved already. Kane would just do anything he needed to do to protect Adrian while they were out there, and hope for the best. If Cecilia meant them harm, she was going about it in a weird nonsensical way. Maybe she wouldn’t even mind being checked out.
Adrian leaned over his cup of coffee again but this time he was smiling slyly and his voice was hushed for completely different reasons. "You're taking your sugar daddy role a little too seriously right now," he murmured. "Especially the daddy part." Maybe he wanted to make Kane squirm a little, or laugh - Adrian just loved getting a reaction out of him, no matter whether it was embarrassed, horny or amused. "But yeah, I'll be good." And he would be! As long as his wendigo side didn't come barging in and taking over but if that happened he felt invincible so it only felt right to take charge and do whatever the fuck he wanted.
He did laugh, quietly, and felt his cheeks heat up a tiny bit. Hearing Adrian say ‘daddy’ to him was way more appealing than it should have been. Kane had never much been into that, but he’d never really connected with anybody else like this either. “Yeah you better,” he murmured back, half-grinning as he tangled their ankles together. “Or I’ll have to punish you.” He felt silly saying that out loud, but in a warm playful kind of way. He could be heavily dominant, but not in a diner over breakfast. This was another time he wished Adrian could turn the wendigo on and off, his speed and agility when he was in that mode was incredible, and Kane didn’t mind being outpaced when it was important. But hell, maybe any real danger at all would flip the wendigo switch, so maybe he didn’t have anything to worry about.
"I mean, you could try if I gave you a reason to," Adrian teased back and while it didn't get his blood rushing to his groin, that had more to do with their location and sleepiness than the words themselves. A nice banter and the idea of Kane getting all bossy on his ass was definitely a turn-on. He wiggled his foot against Kane's, his expression softening into something warmer when he spotted the faint blush in Kane's cheeks. God he wanted to eat this man up, metaphorically, of course. "So do you know where the farm is already?" he asked, leaning back as their waitress returned with their food, giving her a little smile and a murmured 'thank you' before focusing on Kane again. Kane really struck him as a guy who did his homework and if this woman had shaken him, he probably already had done all the digging he could do.
Kane was instantly famished when the food arrived, and he said his own thanks to the waitress before she trotted off. His body was tired, and if he couldn’t give it sleep, it wanted food, so he was glad he’d ordered quite a bit. “Yeah, I got the address,” he answered as he unwrapped his silverware to start to dig in. Thinking tactically was probably smarter than letting his mind wander off on just how he could ‘punish’ Adrian. Every naughty idea that popped up would be more pleasurable than painful ... a real punishment would have to involve depriving Adrian of things he himself didn’t want to be deprived of. Kane wasn’t even sure that he could really make Adrian squirm, he was so stubbornly bratty sometimes. “We might need to circle around it a bit, get close from the side,” he went on, trying to keep his focus on this new mission and not sex. For once.
"What are you hoping to find out there?" Adrian asked, and it was hard to imagine some old lady had dubious things going on out in the open on her farm. Then again, who knew. He'd seen some weird things by now, maybe she had spells to keep them hidden, maybe Kane had some ability to see through them. "Or not find, I guess," he added and helped himself to his own food, a somewhat pathetically small portion compared to Kane's but he just never felt like eating a lot after the ritual. "You think she's up to something on that farm? You gonna sneak up and peek in her window or just... Scope out the place itself?" This wasn't some overseas war zone, it was just a farm in Maine so he wasn't sure what Kane was expecting to see, but just like a war zone, a witch collecting souls was so far outside his wheelhouse that he didn't think he could begin to imagine what was going on there.
“I’m absolutely positive she’s up to something, I just dunno what or if it’s something we could even see,” Kane answered, feeling a touch of annoyance at being questioned. He was going to have to get used to that, he supposed. “I just wanna get the lay of the land, see if there’s anything blatantly fucked up happening out in the open, map out exit routes for when I do go see her, just in case. It’s reconnaissance, not tryin’ to get a peek of her in her panties or some shit.” He shot Adrian a look and forked up some eggs into his mouth. He hoped by the time they got to Witcham Road again, he wouldn’t be too exhausted to do any of this. Or maybe that would be better, because then he could go some other time, alone. Once he’d washed his bite down with coffee, he added, “If you think it’s stupid, feel free to uninvite yourself.”
Adrian smirked because he probably deserved the prickliness and so he didn't really take it to heart. "Aw no, I'm gonna cling to you like a koala," he murmured. "Follow you around like I'm your shadow." Even without the wendigo in full blast, he knew how to be quiet and careful and he was fairly fast and strong. His only real combat experience might be from laser tag but it wasn't like they were going into battle. "Did she seem... Dangerous to you?" It was a question asked more out of curiosity than worry and he knew looks could be deceiving but Kane's instincts could be strong so his take on it was worth hearing.
As long as Adrian was good to his word and listened to what Kane told him to do, he thought they would be okay. He ate another bite as he pondered the question, shrugging one shoulder. “She said some weird shit that kinda gave me the creeps, so ... yeah maybe. She at least knows someone dangerous. So stay close,” he echoed. “I don’t fuck around with witches, if that’s what she is.” it occurred to him then that he could ask Brianna about her. If Bailey didn’t turn anything up, maybe another witch would know something. Kane felt vaguely guilty that he wanted to see her again for any reason, but he tried not to dwell on it at the moment. That was shit he could muddle through on his own time.
"Koala," Adrian promised again and the mental image of Kane literally carrying him around on his back while scouting had him amused, so he was probably more sleep deprived than he thought. "Hey," he said softly, nudging their feet together under the table. "I won't get us in trouble, plus it sounds like she needs you." He raised his fork again but stopped halfway to his mouth and narrowed his eyes. "What did she say, anyway? That gave you the creeps?" Maybe it didn't translate easily to a story, Adrian had met some crazy people at work whose presence alone had unnerved him even if they didn't exactly say or do anything threatening.
Cecilia did seem to need him, but Kane knew how quickly ‘do this favor for me’ could turn into ‘do this favor for me or I will kill you and everyone you love.’ Not to mention there was the whole thing about finding a new batch of people to slaughter for their souls. Fuck, he hoped he wasn’t going to be helping usher in some apocalypse, what if she was in some black magic death cult or something? Or leading one? Kane waved his fork a bit and squinted. “Besides knowing everything about me -- and you -- nobody’s supposed to know? ... no, I dunno, it was more just ... this aura about her,” he said, struggling to find the words for it. “Like on the surface, nice calm older lady, sure, but there’s somethin’ deeper there. Plus, y’know, basically threatening to kill another few dozen people.”
It was hard to keep tabs on second hand encounters so Adrian wondered if this woman had straight out said that or just implied it. Kane didn't exactly strike him as a tall tales kind of guy but hell, as well as he knew him, he didn't really know him at all. "Do you think she's even human?" he asked quietly, his thoughts straying to Westin whose humanity was seriously in question. "Like that guy who told me about the tunnel... Looked human enough but nothing human has that kind of pull." If Cecilia was anything like Westin, Adrian wasn't so sure he wanted to go near that farm, but he wanted Kane to go there alone even less.
“Fuck if I know, man,” Kane murmured with a sigh, shaking his head a little and sounding more resigned than defensive. “Am I human? Are you?” He cocked a brow across the table and lifted his coffee mug again. Maybe Cecilia was human, but a special flavor of it. “She kept sayin’ she was just the messenger. Could be a lie, but it could mean she’s just working for something non-human. Or owes a debt to something that wants souls. I dunno.” There were too many possibilities, they weren’t going to figure it out by themselves just speculating. Maybe they’d never know. He glanced up at Adrian while he forked up some more breakfast. “You ever seen that guy again?” he asked.
"No," Adrian said with a little frown. "But he did tell my brother in law where to find me when I was locked up so I know he's not done with me." He dreaded the day he'd find out what it was Westin wanted from him because even if it ended up being something seemingly meaningless, he had a feeling it would have horrible consequences. On his more optimistic days he kind of hoped Westin was just a chaotic and neutral kind of creature, more of a trickster than a demon, but what were the odds of that? With his luck he was about to get his soul sucked into hell and Mila was going to suffer too. In a weird way it felt too big to spend too much energy on worrying about it, like climate change or war. Just giant cosmic shit that he had no control over. "You're human enough," he added with a faint smile. "And I guess so am I."
Thinking about it gave Kane a knot of anxiety in his stomach, and he hardly knew anything about it. He probably ought to have a million questions, like Adrian had about Cecilia, but Kane almost didn’t want to know. It wasn’t like he could do anything about it, and he hated feeling helpless. It made him want to grab Adrian and jump in the SUV and just drive south, away from everything, into a brand new life they could build together ... he knew better, though. Nothing was ever that simple. Kane just wanted to protect him, but he wasn’t naive enough to think that was fully possible. Kane returned the small smile and nudged their feet together again. “Human enough,” he agreed quietly. “Except when you’re a koala.”
Adrian huffed a little laugh and nodded. "Koala," he echoed and nudged Kane back with an affectionate smile because he was only going to be a koala for Kane. It might be a joke but it wasn't hard to imagine riding around piggyback and clinging. Kane could easily carry him and Adrian loved wrapping his arms - and legs - around his body, it just wasn't the most effective way to scout out a potentially dangerous woman's farm land. He continued eating, fine with not talking for a bit as they both quietly processed what they were about to do and finished their meals. He almost suggested delaying their trip home a bit but Kane was driving and he was tired so Adrian didn't want to drag this out. He was also very curious about that farm, even if part of him wanted nothing to do with it. "I've got some late shifts next week," he murmured. "I could probably get away with coming over for a bit after, if you want."
Kane finished up his food and tried not to think about how small and powerless they really were. Wendigo Adrian was a physical powerhouse, but what good was that against the truly scary cosmic shit that went on around them, and the beings who could tap into it? It was the same sort of ‘cog in the machine’ feeling he got when he dwelled on his reaping. He sat back a bit as Adrian spoke again, vaguely grateful for the distraction. “Hell yeah, I want,” he drawled with a little smile. “I want as much of you as I can get.” It was kind of a bummer that they weren’t going to be able to see each other every day, but hopefully that would change soon. It was probably healthy to have a break now and then, but ‘healthy’ was probably too high a bar for them anyway. Kane just wanted to see Adrian as much as possible. “Just lemme know.”
Maybe it was dumb to make sure if Kane wanted it, they were both on the same page there, the desperate desire for more was hard to miss, but he kept expecting that to end somehow, at least on Kane's side. Maybe Kane felt the same way, they were both a fucking mess. He smiled at Kane's words, momentarily comforted by them. "Might not be much fun, depending on how the shift goes but, I'd wanna see you," he added and it felt like such an insignificant thing to discuss so soon after talking about the mystery woman and her intentions. It was good though, balancing. They needed to have things to look forward to in this maelstrom of crazy that was their life. "I'll show up unannounced so you better be decent," he added in a teasing drawl.
Even if Adrian showed up exhausted, just wanting to clean up and take a nap together, Kane wanted to see him too. He didn’t even need to be conscious to be fun, he was so magnetically beautiful. Kane smiled at him as he leaned to the side and pulled his wallet out. “I ain’t ever decent,” he said, giving Adrian a playful little smirk. “Show up whenever. And if I’m out, text me and I’ll come back.” It wasn’t like Adrian would have to wait for long, it took no time for him to drive from one side of Point Pleasant to the other. He tossed enough money down on the table to cover their food and a generous tip, then started to scoot out of the booth. “C’mon, let’s get this drive started.”
"Well, you don't have to be decent, just be present," Adrian tittered as he followed his lead and really, he just didn't want him to have someone else over. That was a weird thing he didn't really want to voice because he didn't want to bring up a topic where he might have demands he had no real right to making. He barely knew what they were, he just knew that they hadn't made any commitments to each other and neither of them was ready to - probably - for very different reasons. "I like that you tip well," he said once they were outside and he indulged himself by leaning in closer to Kane, gently butting his head against his shoulder. "And you're nice to waiters."
Lucky for everyone, Kane didn’t have anybody other than him over to his apartment in the first place. It cost more in hotel bills, but he had money to burn and he appreciated the anonymity. It didn’t really matter though, since he didn’t feel like he was going to be looking for any one night stands for as long as this thing with Adrian lasted. Brianna might be another story ... Kane was still unsure about her. Juniper was their spot though. It felt like his apartment belonged to him and Adrian, and only them. He chuckled at the headbutt as he pulled his keys out. “You like that I’m not a total asshole?” he rephrased, amused. “Well thanks.” Kane patted Adrian’s ass before they had to part ways to get into the SUV. “Nah, they’ve got a hard gig. And it’s always a bad idea to fuck with the people who handle your food.”
"I worked in a restaurant for a while," Adrian told him when he got in. "You'd be amazed at how many people don't know what common decency is." And didn't consider what could happen to their food. "You don't do just the bare minimum, you actually tip well and you're polite. That's a lot. Betcha it makes someone's day on the regular." And possibly surprised them. Kane looked like a scowly bastard half the time, he just had that kind of hard face when he wasn't laughing, so people probably expected trouble from him. Adrian kind of loved that he surprised them like that but then he was so disgustingly into him that he was a little biased. "Don't let it get to your head," he added teasingly, even if it wasn't the most intense compliment he could give him. It certainly wasn't up there with the 'I love yous' he'd showered him with the night before.
Kane had had some shitty menial jobs, mostly during high school and then between leaving the Marines and turning his curse into something lucrative, but he’d never done restaurant work. It had always seemed especially tough and underappreciated to him, and he didn’t have enough patience to deal with the general public like that. So he hoped Adrian was right, and he left a string of relieved and pleased waitstaff behind him. It was a nice thought and he grinned a little as he fished out a cigarette. “You make it so hard to stay humble,” he said, adding sarcasm he didn’t really feel just to tease. “I can’t take all this flattery.” He obviously did appreciate it, it was a sweet observation to make, Kane was just bad at accepting genuine compliments. He lit his smoke and started the engine, glancing over at Adrian.
Adrian almost made a joke about keeping him humble on his knees but it didn't fit at all and he didn't want the joke to land wrong. There was nothing really submissive about the way Kane worshiped his body, if anything it humbled Adrian. "Aww, I'll throw in an insult here and there, just to keep you from getting too big headed," he said and fastened his seatbelt before relaxing into the seat. "Poke me if you get too tired and I'll take over. Don't want you to run us off the road, dipshit." If there was a way to insult someone more affectionately, Adrian had a hard time imagining it and he smiled warmly at Kane as he kept his promise to humble him just a little.
A titter escaped Kane’s throat before he could stop it. He not-so-secretly loved those kinds of casual insults from Adrian for some reason, so he was good with that method of keeping his head from inflating. Not that that was a real danger, there was still a lot about himself that Kane loathed, but the banter was fun. “Sure thing, asshole,” he countered, his own tone warm. Even that felt like a big deal -- no one but Kane ever drove his vehicle, but he felt like he’d be fairly comfortable letting Adrian drive, if it was necessary. It turned out not to be, this time. They listened to music and chatted here and there on the ride north, and while Kane felt tired, he wasn’t terribly sleepy, so he was fine driving. Before he knew it -- how did Adrian make time go by so fucking fast? -- he was turning onto Witcham Road. “Alright, keep your eyes open for a mailbox, I guess,” he murmured to Adrian as he started to do the same. “The address on the card she gave me is number twenty-three, Witcham.”
Adrian couldn't say he'd ever been to any of the farms off Witcham so they were slowing down and peering at signs at every turn-off* . "Twenty-three," he said after a while. "Brooklands Farms." It was a little surreal to know there were farms out here, Blackwater didn't seem terribly friendly to any of its visitors and it was hard to reconcile that fact with someone actually living there but the road they took off the main right in there for a while until the trees got less dense. "You wanna walk the rest of the way?" Adrian asked as they drove when it was becoming clear they wouldn't have the cover of the woods working for them much longer. It was hard to tell just how far the actual farm was but Adrian had never minded walking and it wasn't too late in the afternoon.
Wary of security measures he couldn’t detect, Kane didn’t take them too far down the drive before he rolled to a stop, right as Adrian started to ask. He idled there and pulled the map up on his phone, switching to the satellite view to see what the best direction of approach might be. It wasn’t a super detailed map, of course, but it was enough to give him a good idea. “Yeah, we’re going in from the left,” he murmured as he pulled over to the side of the long driveway. Kane got out and walked around to the back to get a pistol out and loaded, glancing up at the surrounding area every handful of seconds, just in case. He knew this wasn’t a hunt, but he felt that same heightened awareness, the prickle at the back of his neck that said to be careful.
It was kind of nice getting out of the car and Adrian really wasn't thinking of this as some dangerous mission until he noticed what Kane was up to. He felt that familiar tension in his spine as apprehension seemed to crawl all over him and clutch at his muscles, making his whole body feel stiff. It wasn't even as bad as usual because it was Kane and he wasn't pointing that thing at him, but just knowing it was there... Well, he knew already because where there was Kane, there were guns, but it was different seeing it in his hand. He bit back his protest, knowing he didn't have a leg to stand on when he wanted to tell him this was overkill. What the hell did he know? That didn't mean he didn't hate it and everything suddenly felt too serious too fast. He tried not to let it show, knowing Kane would go without him if he did and there was no way he was letting that happen and at least he put on a holster and tucked that thing away. Adrian just had to hope he was going to stay cool and not pull it unless he absolutely had to.
Kane had been trained -- and had found out from personal experience -- that the best way to stay alive was to assume there was danger, and be pleasantly surprised if there wasn’t. They’d established they didn’t know jack shit about this woman and her farm, and walking in there unarmed seemed idiotic to him, especially with Adrian at his side. Kane didn’t plan to start any shit, but he was going to defend his man with everything he had if he had to. He noticed Adrian’s disgruntled expression as he locked the SUV and started to move away from it and toward the treeline. Kane didn’t say anything about it, he knew the other man hated firearms, but it was what it was. “We follow the trees around this way,” he said, gesturing as they walked. “There’s a ridge up there that should give a pretty good view of the layout.”
Adrian a little more than 'hated' firearms, they terrified him in a way that went beyond reason and his body felt a bit wooden as he moved to follow Kane. Kane might as well have been carrying a highly radioactive rock the way Adrian could still feel its presence, uncomfortably aware of its existence and location. It just served as a reminder that he was out of his depth here, he wasn't even sure what they were doing. Planning escape routes? Did Kane have anyone he could call to cover him for when he did go in there? Was he expecting to see guards, monsters, something else? Adrian followed him a little reluctantly now, despite his earlier enthusiasm, his gaze ticking to Kane's side where his jacket concealed his pistol.
After a few minutes of walking through the trees, Kane really registered how quiet and serious Adrian had become. He glanced at his face a few times from his constant scanning of their surroundings, an uncertainty growing in his gut. Maybe his first instinct to come alone had been right. “You all right with this?” he asked quietly, glancing over again. He wasn’t sure if it was the gun or just that this whole recon mini-mission had become too real all of the sudden or what. Despite everything Adrian had been through, he wasn’t a soldier.
"Yeah," Adrian said almost automatically because he really didn't want Kane to have an actual valid reason to send him back to the car or worse, take him home and come back later alone. Adrian might not be equipped for this at all, but if things went the worst way possible, he had something inside him that was far more powerful than Kane's gun. If everything blew up, he wanted to know about it rather than fretting and wondering just what had happened to Kane later. "Just keeping quiet." It was a valid excuse, they were scouting and while that was fun when playing a game, it wasn't so much when his boyfriend had a loaded weapon and they might get found by some legions of actual evil. So far that seemed like such a surreal possibility though, they were coming up on the ridge and he could already see some cows in the distance. Did the legions of evil have livestock? It would have been funny if the answer wasn't a likely yes. Evil needed to eat too.
Kane wasn’t sure he believed that, but he let it go, since there were other priorities at the moment. He would keep Adrian safe, that was all he needed to know. And if the shit really did hit the fan, maybe the wendigo would kick in and he wouldn’t need protection. They would see.