Revelations Who: Avery and Lochlan When: Afternoon Where: The pub
Avery felt all kinds of guilty, having forgotten about wanting to see her brother the day before. Finn had come over after they had a few beers at the bar, and they had spent another hour or so making out, which had been really nice and time consuming. But she didn’t think Lochlan would mind it too much. It just seemed like maybe she inherited some of the Lochlan O’Reilly flakiness too.
In jeans and a simple green t-shirt, Avery headed over to the pub after receiving his text message. She moved immediately across the room to the bar and planted her butt on one of the stools, her expression one of guilt and apology. “Sorry about yesterday. You didn’t, like, hang out at the gazebo waiting for me, did you?”
Lochlan had his head in his hands, his elbows on the bar, bent at the waist and trying to think. But it was difficult with all of the what-ifs and stupid shit floating through his mind. It had been bad enough to have tried to fight Patrick. Twice. Now Aidan was suggesting they build a pen in the basement and lock him up because he might be a danger. That meeting about werewolves. He needed to talk to Eily. He didn't want to burden Avery with his freak-out right now. But he'd wanted to see her so when she walked in and sat down and blinked several times and stood up straight.
"Beer?" he asked? He'd had 12 already and only now just feeling some minor sensation of a buzz. He pulled out a glass for her and shook his head. "Not too long. Thought I saw Chiri but must've been a ghost." He tried to chuckle at the joke but it stuck in his throat so he coughed. "What did you get up to instead?"
"Yeah, sure." She folded her arms on the bar top as she waited for the beer, her eyes studying her brother's tired looking face. "I was hanging out with Finn," Avery explained, though she wasn't really thinking about him at the moment. "Are you okay? You look all... what's that word... haggard?" She had read that in a book once. It was a good word. And described her brother, for sure.
Lochlan made a face at her. “Haggard? Wasn’t that a character in Harry Potter? I have no overgrown facial hair, thanks.” He filled her glass and swung it across the bartop to her with flourish. “Finn, huh? It’s finally happened,” he sniffed audibly. “Someone’s more important than your old brother.”
Avery couldn’t help but laugh. “No! That was… uh… Hagrid? Oh my god, I don’t even know. I never read those books. Haggard means like, tired! Duh.” She took the glass and took a sip before answering him. “Finn’ll never be as important as you. We’re just hanging out, that’s all.” And she loved him for not jumping on her immediately for being with a boy. Avery lifted the beer to her lips and shrugged one shoulder as she drank. And drank some more. Then she lowered the glass and licked her lips. “I don’t even know that he likes me, anyway. Like, really likes me. So… it’s just whatever.”
He arched a brow at her. "Since when are you a nerd?" he asked, eyeing her as though she might be sick or something. "I look tired? Yeah, I guess I'm tired. Eily's couch is getting old." Truth be told, it was his preoccupation with werewolf stuff that had him overlooking her being with a boy. He'd probably think about it later and realize he should've hassled her -- especially because she'd stood him up for this boy! Right now he was glad for the distraction. "Why don't you know? Is he defective?"
“I’m not a nerd! But like, everyone knows Hagrid and Harry Potter, right? But yeah, you look tired, Lochlan.” And the mention of Eily’s couch had another thought popping into Avery’s head, but she didn’t mention it just yet. Maybe if she got him liquored up a bit too. Giggling a little, Avery shook her head. “Finn’s not defective. He’s really nice. I like spending time with him. But, like, you know when you really like someone? You kind of want to know about them, right? Ask silly questions, or not so silly questions, just so you learn more about like, who they are. Finn doesn’t really do that. Ask me questions, I mean. At least not without some prompting, or like, me asking him questions first.” He liked kissing though. And so did Avery. But she sort of got the feeling like he would rather just kiss her than anything else. Avery tapped her nail against her glass. “I think it would be nice to have a boy really like me… enough to really want to talk to me about stuff. Even stupid stuff.”
"I meant the word, you nerd." He laughed and had the momentary desire to reach out and ruffle her hair. He kept that to himself though. "Sounds defective to me," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I mean, you've heard me flirt. Given me a hard time for it too. You're right. Asking questions, learning the details, the stupid stuff that doesn't matter but is fun knowing because you like the person. That's what it's about." He shrugged. He didn't like knowing she didn't feel really liked by this guy she was interested in. "But, you know, maybe he's very into you but just very shy. Maybe he's better with his hands. And if that's the case I'm kicking his ass."
She laughed and shook her head quickly. “He hasn’t put his hands on me at all, promise!” Only she was totally lying, but Avery wasn’t about to tell her brother about sitting on Finn’s lap. And kissing outside and inside and… well, all over. Nope. “Yeah, maybe he’s shy though. I don’t know. We’ll see.” She liked Finn a lot. Avery just wasn’t sure how much was a lot. Maybe her expectations were too high. Or maybe she just didn’t really want a boyfriend yet, and she was pushing her into it to show Darcy she could. “So whatever. Anyway… is it just Eily’s couch making you look like poo? Are you okay? How are you feeling, like… with your wounds and stuff?”
Lochlan looked sideways at her, looking like he wasn’t sure if he actually believed her though he did. “Yeah, he better not. Tell him I said it takes just about the same amount of force to snap a carrot as it does a finger.” He didn’t figure Avery was up to no good. Not so soon after really getting to know the guy. He knew she thought about it, he was pretty sure because what teenager didn’t, but she had a good head on her shoulders. He’d tried to see to that. “Give the guy a little time. If he is shy, he’ll warm up and step up.”
He gave a snort. “I look like poo? Well thanks so much for that, Aves.” He stuck his tongue out at her and thought a moment. “I suppose it’s other things like not being able to cool off sometimes. I get so hot when I’m sleeping now that I’m restless.” He shrugged. “I guess it’s just the stress of being attacked by a wolf.”
She rolled her eyes, as she felt obligated to do whenever Lochlan threatened to hurt any boy who might come near her. Avery knew he would never actually do it. Or at least, she hoped not. But she took his advice about Finn to heart and smiled faintly with a nod before moving on. “You get hot? It’s not that bad outside, or anything. Are you still smelling odd things all the time, like before?”
"I love it when you do that when I'm talking to you, by the way," he said, waving a finger at her after she rolled her eyes. "Makes me feel loved." He chuckled and topped off her glass, sort of on auto-pilot bartender mode rather than thinking about the fact she wasn't a patron. "Mmhm, everything - outside the bar which was already pretty pungent before - smells like garbage most of the time. Too many smells layered together and it's amazing how many people in this dome had dodgy hygiene."
"It's my duty as your sister to roll my eyes when you talk," Avery said simply. She lifted her glass again after he refilled it and took a long swallow. She wasn't going to stop him if he wanted to give her more free beer. It might be nice to feel buzzy for awhile. Licking her lips, she drew her brows together and then lifted one arm to sniff at her armpit. "I don't have dodgy stink, do I? That's super weird, Lochlan. You say you can't get cool at night, and you smell weird things. If you start sprouting more hair or begin howling at the moon, I'm going to go ahead and say you're a werewolf now," Avery teased.
"One of these days your eyes will get stuck and then you'll be sorry. 'What's that Finn? I'm trying to look into your eyes. But...'" He mimicked her eyes being stuck almost looking straight up. Then he sniffed at her. "Oh you're rank. You should go home and shower, hang your head for a while," he said though his eyes glittered with teasing. He blinked at her assessment of what he'd been saying. Had he underestimated her perceptiveness or was he that careless with what he shared with her. He wasn't sure he wanted her to know what was going on with him in that much detail. He didn't want her to be scared of him or for him. "Yeah," he said, letting the word trail a little then echoed what he'd said a short while ago to Aidan. "Just call me junkyard dog."
She giggled as he made fun of her eye rolling, though the sound was cut off by her lifting the glass to her lips again. “If I smell,” she began but had to pause to keep from dripping beer down her lips. Giggling, Avery wiped her chin with the back of her hand. “If I smell, it’s ‘cause I’ve been rolling around in the park with a hot lumberjack. That’s man smell you smell.” Avery set the glass down and then leaned over to jokingly sniff at the air. “You kinda smell like dog though. Not wet dog, thankfully, but dog. I’m going to buy you flea collars.”
Lochlan loved it when she let down her guard enough to laugh like that. Made things feel a little less hectic for him too even if his ears all but twitched at the mention of the lumberjack. He had smelled something like that. Man smell. It wasn't the same as the man he'd smelled in the aroma surrounding Eily. It was more earthy and hadn't really aroused much suspicion in him. He gave her a look though. "Rolling around? Do we have to have the talk about that again? Because I will go awkward on you." Which was already apparently happening but not in the same way. He played along though, sniffed his pits, and shook his head. "That's not dog. That's run-in-the-park-without-a-shower-afterward you're smelling!"
“You go awkward on me all the time,” she pointed out simply. Though Lochlan’s version of awkward always made her laugh. Avery set her elbow on the bar and rested her chin in her palm, still eying him. He totally looked tired, but she didn’t know if something was really wrong, or he was still sore from his injuries from the wolf attack. “Maybe you should, like, get a real place to live and stop sleeping on the couch or here. I bet you’d feel better.”
He stuck his tongue out at her and crossed his eyes for a moment in response to that. Of course she'd purposely miss the point. He mimicked her pose, chin in palm, elbow on the bar and sighed when she mentioned getting his own place. "What would I do with the rest of the space? I'd have to clean it and make sure it wasn't falling apart. Nah," he said and shook his head. The truth was that he was tired. Emotionally mostly at this point. He'd won the arm wrestle with Aidan and it had both spooked him and firmed up his resolve not to be a total whiny girl anymore either. But he'd run the gamut before that.
Avery shrugged, then decided now was as good a time as any. “You could live with me,” she suggested, lowering her hand from her chin and letting it drop with a light slap on the bar top. “I don’t want to live with Darcy anymore, and you should have a real place to live anyway, and you’re my brother, so you totally know I wouldn’t risk ever bringing any boys home to fool around with. And I could do the cleaning and stuff.” Not all of that was entirely true. Avery would probably bring boys around if she knew for a fact Lochlan wasn’t home. And she hated cleaning with a passion, so it was likely they would both live like slobs until one caved and cleaned, but still. She needed to make it sound appealing so he would say yes.
Lochlan frowned, not disregarding her offer but picking out something in what she said that concerned him first. "What's going on with you and Darcy? You girls have a peachy arrangement considering when I was your age no one would have ever let me, or any other teenager, live without adult supervision." Not that he was sad to hear she didn't want to live with Darcy anymore after all she'd told him about Darcy's ideas about boys and appropriate behavior therewith. And also not that he even remotely believed Avery would clean - he'd seen her lack of motivation in that direction at work - or be innocent in the bringing home boys department.
"Nothing's going on with me and Darcy," Avery said with another shrug. Then she took another long drink of beer, licking her lips afterward before continuing. "We get on each other's nerves. She thinks I'm boring." So what if Avery didn't want to go fuck around with every guy who smiled at her? She at least wanted the first guy to be the right guy. Was that so wrong? "She just doesn't like me. I even asked her the other night if we could try to be friends, and she didn't want to do that either. I just... I'd rather not have to be around her if I can help it." Avery picked up her beer again, eying Lochlan. "It'd be a peachy arrangement with you too, because at least you don't make me feel like crap."
Lochlan stood up and laughed, he couldn't help it. "She thinks you are boring? Has she met you?" He could see how they'd get on each other's nerves though if they weren't seeing eye to eye on things. Especially if they couldn't be friends. "For real, Aves? She won't even try? That's rotten. I'm sorry." What was the matter with that girl? He'd like to have a talk with her but there didn't seem to be much use. She was apparently much more of a spoiled little brat than he'd realized and he'd be glad not to have Avery around her. It struck him as odd that she'd give up her utter freedom to live with him but he was definitely not going to question that. "Hm. Peachy with me, huh? Well, I can't see anything wrong with it. And I'm sure the family would love to see me settled a little. But we'd have to establish some ground rules."
If they had ever gotten along, Avery was sure she and Darcy could have given every member of their family heart attacks with how much trouble they could have gotten into it. But it just wasn't meant to be. That was life. "Not your fault," Avery said with a shrug. It wasn't a big deal. Darcy was Darcy and Avery was Avery and they just didn't mesh. A flood of relief surged through her when it seemed like Lochlan was agreeing to her proposition and she grinned, having not realized how much tension she was holding in her shoulders until he spoke again. "Oh yeah, definite ground rules. Like, no girls past nine o'clock, and certainly no girls who're my age." She shot him a look. "Clean up after yourself, leave the toilet seat down and let me know if you're not going to make it home. Simple enough, I'd say."
Lochlan watched her visibly relax and wondered just what she had thought was going to happen that had her that wound up even after two glasses of beer. "That all that’s going on with you?" he asked.
He snorted at her rules. "If you're going to police my room after 9pm you get what you get. Just saying. You respect me, I'll respect you. No toilet seats will be left up. Scouts honor." And he saluted with the wrong hand, two fingers to his ear. He chuckled. "Seriously though, I don't feel the need to set a curfew or anything. You've been managing on your own to be responsible with that. Do your thing. But really, no boys in your room with the door shut, okay? That's my one real rule."
“There’s nothing going on with me,” Avery promised. She figured it was just normal teenage stuff, and nothing her brother really needed to worry about. But she was feeling pleasantly buzzy now and she didn’t want to ruin that by whining anymore about Darcy. Instead, she was amused with his one rule. He sounded like a total parent, and she wondered if he knew that. “No boys with my door shut,” Avery said with a solemn nod. Unless he wasn’t home. Then the door would be shut. And locked. Although, other than Finn, she wasn’t sure who she would have in her room at all. Or if she would even had Finn in her room. Avery still wasn’t sure about that. Avery shook some of her hair back. “But, just… remember that I’m not a baby, okay? I can take care of myself. But I promise you won’t be seeing a parade of boys coming through the house, like… ever.”
When she assured him nothing else was going on, he nodded and took that with a grain of salt. There was probably always something else going on with her but he wouldn't push. He was, after all, her older brother and kind of parental. Not her BFF. She didn't need to tell him everything but he'd always worry about whether or not she was happy. He didn't believe for a minute though that she'd obey his one rule. What teenager would. "I don't want to hear bed springs squeaking, Aves. I'm serious. No." That and he wasn't sure he could handle it if she ever came to him and said she was pregnant. He almost shuddered at the thought and wished again that he was able to drink. "I realize you're not a baby. Which is why my next question is, where and when do we begin our house hunt?"
Avery shot him a Look, but said nothing about bed springs. That just meant she was going to jump up and down on her bed as hard as she could when he was home, just to give him a heart attack. “Maybe I’ll go down to the town hall and see what they have? You probably don’t have any, like, weird preferences right? I don’t either.” She doubted Lochlan would be home all that much anyway, and Avery was always out and about. “You wanna come with? Or do you trust me to do it?”
He chuckled at her look and could just imagine what she was thinking. He was a little surprised she didn't toss that back at him. "You sure you don't want to make rules about girls with fruit names or some other such stipulation?" He thought a long moment about any preferences he might have about where they lived. It seemed strange to have a teenager going down to town hall to get them a house but then, only because he hadn't been part of the house hunting process ever before. "As long as there are two bedrooms - ugh it'll be nice to have a bed finally - and somewhere to eat, I'm good. But it could be fun tromping around looking at whatever's available. I can't imagine there's much, but who knows, right?"
“You already know my feelings on fruity names,” Avery pointed out. And girls who were judgmental bitches. Hopefully she would never come home to see Chiri in the house because… no. “Two bedrooms, a bathroom and kitchen. I think most houses would have those things. A shower is definitely needed so you can wash your stinky ass after you go running.” Avery took another drink of her beer and then nodded. “We can go look together if you want! Brother and sister bonding, for the win!” She reached across the bar top and punched him playfully in the arm. “We’ll have so much fun!” Avery would just need to tell Darcy she was moving out. Which wouldn’t be that hard. Darcy would probably be ecstatic about it anyway.
It was Lochlan's turn to roll his eyes at her. "My stinky ass? Gee, love you too, Aves." He thought about house hunting with all the smells and things that would be associated with it now. And then he thought about what he'd been trying to avoid thinking about. If he was, in fact, a werewolf, would Avery be in danger living with him? Should he tell her and let her decide for herself? Trust that the rest of the family would help out enough to keep him and Pat from hurting anyone? "Hey, uh. Before we do that, I think I should tell you something. But only if you promise not to freak out too much. Remember, you told me you're not a baby..."
She giggled at that and sat back on the stool, drinking more of her beer. When Lochlan spoke again, Avery lifted her brows and licked her lips of the alcohol. “Okay…” she began slowly, wondering if he was being serious now or about to make another joke. “I can promise to try not to freak out too much. Just don’t tell me you’re thinking about becoming a woman, or you got some chick pregnant or something, okay?”
Lochlan made a strained face and rubbed the scruff on his chin. "Yeahhh, it's possible this is worse than that," he said and wanted to gauge her reaction before going on. He wasn't sure this was something she really could handle but he knew she'd have to find out eventually if it was reality. There wasn't a way to keep it a secret if he started sprouting fur and fangs and getting locked in a pen in an O'Reilly basement on the full moon.
That sounded kind of ominous, because Avery couldn’t imagine what would be worse than her brother knocking some girl up. Avery frowned and wrapped her hand around her beer glass tightly. “Okay,” she began slowly. “What’s wrong?” Maybe he was super sick. Or had gotten rabies from that wolf, or something really bad. It made her stomach hurt to think about it, and Avery was struggling to keep all kinds of morbid thoughts from racing through her mind.
It occurred to him that she might just laugh and think he was joking but since he'd already started he may as well finish. Good grief he wished he were able to drink right now. "Ah, see... I know you picked up on the fact that I could smell things in the hospital. And I bested Aidan in an arm wrestling match earlier. You know that would never happen under normal circumstances. I can hear a lot better. Like every time you lick your lips it's like listening to sand paper scratch." He chuckled and took a breath. "So, I went this meeting of people who'd survived wolf attacks recently and the general idea seemed to be that we're all... ahh... werewolves." And immediately he topped up her glass.
Avery's brows drew together as Lochlan spoke, and she wondered where he was going with everything. Smells. Arm wrestling Aiden. Hearing. And then a meeting of wolf attack people. Victims. Something. Avery was a bit confused until he said the word werewolf. "I already made that joke," Avery pointed out, unsure as to whether or not she should laugh, or take him seriously. Usually she could tell when Lochlan was pulling her leg about something, and she looked at him incredulously, but with a small, tentative smile. "Junkyard dog, remember?"
He shook his head and scratched the back of it in a sort of stretch. "Yeah, you made a joke. I'm being serious, Aves. Though only about what they said we might be. I don't know if I believe it but Aidan thinks we're better safe than sorry. I can agree with that." He sighed and chewed his lip. "The worst part, I guess, is that I can't get drunk apparently." Because clearly that was the biggest issue about being a werewolf.
Okay, he was being serious. Avery stared at her brother for another quiet moment, trying to process what he was saying. Was he telling the truth, or had he, like, cracked? Mentally. “So… you were bit by a werewolf, and now you think… you’re a werewolf.” Avery paused and twitched her lips to the side briefly. “And you think the worst thing about that is that you can’t get drunk?”
"I don't know what that thing was but it looked like a regular wolf when it attacked. So who knows. And I don't know if I believe I'm a werewolf, but I know I'm very different physically since then. Unexplainably so." He sighed and nodded. "Did I ever show you this?" he asked, bringing up the bottle with the hazardous warning label full of a clear liquid. He couldn't remember if he'd shown it to her but may have, especially to tell her it was off limits. "I made this so highly alcoholic that it should take only a couple swallows to get a buzz. I took a big shot of it earlier with Aidan. Nothing. I took two more after he left. Nothing. Then I drank a few beers and after a little while I started to almost feel a buzz coming on. And now I'm sober as a nun again." His expression stated that it was so not fair.
Avery was silent for several moments as she digested everything he was telling her. It was laughable, to be sure, because werewolves weren’t supposed to be real. But what if they were? He had healed stupidly fast. And he had been complaining about smelling and hearing too much, and then being too hot when he slept. Obviously it worried Avery, because she didn’t know what it meant, if it were true. Would he be in pain if he was a werewolf? Would he try to hurt people? She was thoughtful for a moment before releasing a breath. “I think… if it’s true, then… your inability to get drunk should be, like… the last thing you should be bummed about. I mean… what if it’s true?”
Of course she would go straight into thinking about the stuff he wanted to completely avoid thinking about anymore. Why shouldn't she though. After all, she'd proposed living under the same roof. She ought to be concerned with her own safety and he was sort of proud of her for that. She really was a lot more self-sufficient than he probably gave her credit for when he went all over-protective on her. "Believe me, I've already thought about all of it. Been doing lots of running in the park to clear my head over it. It honestly has me very worried and so focusing on the drinking issue feels safer." He sounded tired then because he was. Exhausted from the emotional ups and downs he'd been on for the past few days.
“But…” Avery trailed off and chewed on her lip before her eyes widened a bit. “So wait, that means Patrick is one too? I mean, he got attacked by a wolf, and he’s out of the hospital already. You’re both…werewolves?” She whispered the last word, because suddenly she wasn’t sure she wanted anyone to overhear. Not that there were many patrons in the bar at this time of day.
Lochlan nodded and glanced around to be sure there weren't any listening ears other than hers. "If that's what we are. And you really can't spread that around. People might not understand. They might decide to hunt us down. We'd be as dangerous or worse than zombies. Okay?" He twisted the bottle with the warning label in his hands.
“I’m not going to tell anyone.” Avery shot him a Look, as if that should have been obvious. She could just imagine people’s faces if she went around revealing that her brother was a werewolf. “And if anyone tries to hunt you down, I’ll hunt them down, because that’s messed up. I mean, obviously it’s more than just you and Patrick…” She paused abruptly, thinking of Eli. Did that mean Eli was a werewolf now too? Did Finn know? “This is just so bizarre. You definitely should live with me now, so I can keep an eye on you.”
Lochlan rolled his eyes at her expression. How would he know if she'd be prudent enough to keep that to herself if she thought it was cool. He wouldn't have been able to zip his lips at 17. Relief flooded him briefly at her words. He hadn't realized just how much he cared what she thought, but with the possibility of her withdrawing her offer to live together over this, he'd sort of held his breath. Which he let out in a soft sigh through his nose. "Fantastic. You can babysit me in non-wolf mode and if I ever do become a werewolf, you can come feed me raw steaks in my basement pen."
“Raw steaks is better than having to chase rabbits and give you those instead. Because I couldn’t do that to a cute animal.” Avery hopped off the bar stool quickly and hurried around the counter to throw her arms around him in a tight hug. If this was true, and something was happening with Lochlan and Patrick, then she wanted to make sure she could help somehow. Or at least… be supportive or whatever. Avery wasn’t sure what she could do. It felt so completely out of her depth. “We’ll totally build you a huge, metal cage in the basement or something. You can just tell your girlfriends you’re super kinky.”
He grimaced at the idea of eating a rabbit she'd killed. "Yeah, let's do the steaks. No cute animals. Nothing that still has a face." Though the thought of her running around after rabbits was kind of amusing. When she hugged him, Lochlan had a momentary premonition-like feeling that as she got older Avery would become one of his best friends in life. He hugged her back and ruffled her hair affectionately. "You're okay, you know that? But I'm not telling any girlfriends that I'm a werewolf unless they're marriage material."
“No faces,” Avery said with a laugh. “Just some nasty. raw meat for you. Yum.” She pulled back and batted his hand away when he messed with her hair. “That sounds like a good plan, though. Keeping the werewolf thing to yourself. And I promise I won’t tell anyone.” She was pretty sure Lochlan wouldn’t find any girl who was real marriage material. Well, maybe he would, but it wasn’t likely Avery would approve of her at all. “You want to go home? I can probably work for a bit if you wanted me too…”
"Deal then. Because the way raw steak smells now, I can promise you it'll be my favorite thing to eat if I go all wolfy." He grinned at her batting at him and batted back lightly. "Nah, you don't have to," he answered when she asked if he wanted her to work for a bit. "My shift's almost over anyway. I just have to clean up the mess I made in the back earlier." He glanced through the door to the desk where he'd left his empty glass and food plates from lunch. "Unless you want to do that for me," he said and batted his eyelashes.
Avery glanced toward the back before grinning. “Not a chance. Look, just ‘cause you’re gonna go all furry on me now doesn’t mean it’s like, some big brother sympathy card you get to play. You need to clean up your own messes, especially if you’re going to be living with me.” She poked at his side and turned to leave. “Drink the rest of my beer for me, okay? Since you can’t get blasted anymore, you should have no problem!” She was teasing him of course, but teasing felt much better than getting all serious and letting her worries overwhelm her. Because she was worried. She just didn’t know what to do about it.
He grinned at her, having known what her answer would be to that. "Yeah, yeah. No sympathy cards. But hey, I'm glad you're taking this so well." And he was. Impressed too that she could make jokes about it, but if she was like him, the jokes masked the jittery nerves jangling around inside about all of this. "Thanks but no thanks," he said to her offer of the rest of her beer. "It's warm and has Avery germs in it. Might catch something worse. Lumberjack syndrome or something." He winked at her then he trotted out to take care of his mess. "Have a good afternoon, little sis," he called after her.
They were definitely related by blood, because Avery did find it easier to joke about serious issues than to deal with them head on. She didn’t know how to deal, and she didn’t want Lochlan worrying about her when he had enough on his plate. Avery almost made a joke about supposed Lumberjack Syndrome, but decided to leave it alone with only a laugh. She blew him a kiss and headed out, determined to go straight to the library to see if they had any books on werewolves.