Who: Leon Orcot, Old Lace, and Chase Stein What: Leon is drunk and thinks Old Lace is a woman When: July 22nd Where: Some street Rating/Warnings: alcohol, Chase, a dinosaur getting loose. You know the usual Orange County shenanigans Status: Complete when posted
As far as Leon was concerned, tonight was a pretty good night. He’d had a few drinks after work, enough to get a good buzz on, and then had gone to pick up a pizza for dinner for him and Chris. He was just walking home now, when he saw a woman, wearing a snakeskin print dress and a pair of snakeskin heels, looking through the garbage. His steps slowed, and he frowned to himself. He still had a bit of time before the babysitter dropped Chris off, and he was feeling generous. Besides, his job was to protect and serve, whether someone was rich or homeless.
He sighed, looked up to the sky, and prayed that she wasn’t on a whackload of drugs, and then said “Hey, are you hungry? I’ve got some pizza here.”
***
Old Lace looked up when she heard someone talking to her, for a minute thinking it was one of Chase’s friends having found her but she didn’t recognize the man. And she sniffed at him but didn’t pick up anything familiar in his scent. Except for the food in that box. She knew that smell. Chase brought that home sometimes for himself and would let her eat a slice. Never more than that because it upset her stomach. But it was tasty. She looked back down into the garbage can before stepping towards him slowly. People seemed to get scared when she came at them fast so she moved slower as she nodded at him. “Hungry.” The noise that came out of her barely resembled the word but she hoped the meaning would come across.
***
Leon raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, I bet you are,” he said, opening the box and offering it out to her so she could take a slice. “You been drinking tonight, ma’am?” Not that Leon really had any room to judge if she had been.
***
Old Lace took a piece of pizza from the box, taking a step backwards to eat it quickly so that he couldn’t change his mind. It took her a moment to remember the sound she heard people making when someone gave them something nice and she tried to replicate. “Thanks.” It came out more guttural than anything but this guy seemed smart.
She wrinkled her nose up at that question, shaking her head. “No. Smells.” It also made Chase feel weird through the bond but she couldn’t express specifically how. Just that she didn’t really like it.
***
Leon frowned. “It doesn’t smell that bad,” Leon muttered, trying to give the front of his shirt an indiscreet sniff. He frowned a little, giving her another lookover. If she wasn’t drunk, something else must have been going on. “Drugs?” he asked after a moment, though he didn’t really recognize any signs of drug use here. He ran a hand through his hair. “Listen, lady, why don’t we try to see if we can’t find you someplace to sleep tonight?”
***
Old Lace looked at the pizza box and then back up at Leon, hoping for another piece. She shook her head at his question about drugs, inching closer to him again. “Go home soon.” She told him, sitting down on the ground.
Chase came around the corner, panicking a little bit as he tried to figure out where Old Lace might have gotten off too. He could feel her nearby, getting closer as he looked for her. He didn’t know how she’d gotten out of the apartment, and was going to have to figure that out. But later. Right now he needed to figure out where she was and get her home before she ended up getting hurt or hurting someone else.
He let out a relieved sigh as he saw her sitting on the ground near someone and he broke into a run, seeing her head turn to look at him and hanging her head in shame at what he must have been sending to her through their bond - annoyance and worry all mingled into one.
***
“You know, you can sit on the bench too,” he said, giving a bit of a puzzled frown when she sat down on the ground. He handed her another slice of pizza, before he really realized what she’d said. “Home?” she asked. “Wait, you’re saying you have a home? What the hell are you digging through the trash for then?”
He didn’t notice the sudden change in demeanour, and he followed her gaze, wondering who exactly it was that could fill her with such shame. He put the box of pizza down on the bench and stood up, prepared to protect her if he needed to, and then scowled. “Oh, it’s you,” he said, frowning.
***
Old Lace nodded slowly as she bit into the second slice of pizza Leon gave her. “Home. Went out. Hungry.” And something in that trash can had smelled so good to her and she’d wanted to find it and eat it. At least until the even more delicious smelling pizza had been offered to her.
Chase reached out with one hand to rub her head gently. “I was worried when you just took off that way.” He told her quietly, ignoring the man she’d been with for the time being. He looked up and then noticed who it was and bit back a sigh. Just what he needed. Her to run into the cop that had threatened to arrest him if she ate anyone. God he hoped she hadn’t attacked anyone. “Evening officer.”
***
Yeah, there was something definitely wrong with this girl. Of course, it probably wasn’t helped by the condescending way that Chase was rubbing her head. “You know her?” he asked Chase, nodding toward Old Lace, and shooting her a bit of a glance that seemed to ask her if everything was okay. He wondered if she’d even be able to pick up on it.
***
Chase’s hand moved to her neck, thumb stroking it idly in the way he knew she liked. “Yeah. Old Lace lives with me. I’ve been keeping her from eating people officer like you told me to so that I don’t get arrested.” He said, unable to resist going for a little dig by reminding the older man of the unnecessary threat.
***
It took a moment for Leon to figure out what Chase was saying, and then he raised an eyebrow. “This is your dinosaur?” he scoffed, giving her a ‘can you believe this guy’ look? “Listen, son, she’s not that much older than you.”
***
“This is my dinosaur.” Chase gave him a mostly amused look as he felt Old Lace start to get a little irritated at the look the officer gave her. He laughed out loud at that comment from Leon about her age. “How much have you drank?”
***
“That’s none of your business,” Leon muttered. He’d had a lot to drink, but even if he hadn’t, it wasn’t any of Chase’s business. “I’m of age, remember.”
***
“It might not be my business but you’re sitting talking to a dinosaur so it seemed like a good question to ask.” Chase said with a half shrug. He really didn’t care actually.
***
Leon frowned, wondering why he kept calling his friend or sister or whatever she was a dinosaur, and wondering even more why she didn’t say anything about it. He glanced at her, and balked. Her teeth were suddenly longer, sharper, and then her eyes became slitted and he backed up a step.
“Goddammit, not again,” Leon cursed, grabbing his pizza. This was like when he’d been talking to Backup and thinking he was a human, wasn’t it? Except this time it could have gotten him eaten. The fuck was wrong with him? Was he losing it?
***
“Again?” Chase asked, one brow arching as Old Lace shifted closer to him at the sudden change in Leon’s attitude.
***
“Nevermind,” Leon snapped. He was losing his mind. And he’d just shared a whole lot of the pizza he was going to take home to Chris with a dinosaur. He wondered if the rest of it was still good to eat. “I’ve got to get going. You’d better not let her run off on her own again. I mean it.”
***
“Well damn. Because her getting out and scaring the shit out of me worrying about if she’d gotten hurt was exactly what I’d planned for a Saturday night.” Chase said unable to resist the chance to be an ass. It wasn’t like he’d let her out on purpose after all and this guy had it out for him anyway.
***
Leon didn’t have the time or the patience to deal with this, especially now that what he saw was a literal raptor, like from Jurassic Park, instead of the woman he’d been talking to before. “Just…” he said, floundering for a moment. “Do better,” he finished grumpily, already walking away down the street.
***
Chase rubbed Old Lace’s back soothingly as they watched Leon walk away. “It’s alright Lace. Let’s go home. See if we can’t get a pizza sent to the apartment for our dinner. Or maybe two. One for each of us. And tomorrow - we’ll see what we can do about getting the locks changed so you don’t get out and run into him again without me.” He said as they started walking away.