→ Sullivan had been skulking around the main house. He'd gotten a talking to by Hunter for bringing a vampire onto the premisis and for generally being a snotty brat when confronted about it. He probably deserved a lot worse than he'd received. Still, life was not going so pleasant for the wolf and when he wasn't working in town, he was working in the garage at Wolf Haven. He'd sold his truck because it was finished and now he was working on another that he'd bought with the proceeds of his last sale. Really, at the moment, he wasn't working at all, just sitting in the beat up cab, drinking a beer and wiping sweat off of his forehead.

→ When Austin heard about the vampire he knew that Sullivan was trying to get back at him for Lewis, which was hardly fair at all since Sully had started this whole mess in the first place. Coming to the garage, he just leaned against the door and looked at the wolf while he sat there, drinking his beer. Austin was fresh out of the shower, wearing just a pair of jeans. His arms were folded over his chest and he waited for Sullivan to notice him and say something, otherwise he didn't plan on talking to him at all.

→ A clean, alluring smell broke through the bitter veil of hops and grease. Sullivan was anything but clean, smudges of motor oil on his cheek from where he'd rubbed his face, and black stains on his jeans and white tshirt. He knew it was Austin before he stuck his head out the window to curve his gaze around the hood of the truck which was still popped open from when he'd actually been working. Instead of saying anything right away, he turned the keys in the ignition, letting the motor grind and whine before he got out and sat the bottle on the roof of the car. "Fucking thing worked when I bought it." He said to Austin, or the trees, or maybe the truck itself.

→ Austin stepped down off the step and into the garage as he walked over to peek in the truck. He wasn't going to pretend like he knew a damn thing about cars, he was just going to look at him. "Well you have a knack for breaking valuable things." He said, as if maybe he only meant the truck when really he didn't mean the truck at all.

→ Sullivan frowned, thick, but not so dense as to miss the double meaning. "Yeah, I guess so. But the truck will end up running. I haven't junked a car yet." A bit of a challenge, or maybe a plea to remind Austin that he always ended up fixing things after breaking them. Shutting the cab door, he walked around to the front of the truck, looking into it with the same regard a fortune teller would look into a crystal ball.

→ Austin was careful not to touch the car, he really didn't want to get dirty and he didn't want to have to shower again if hecould help it. For a moment he was just quiet, watching Sullivan as he stood there looking into the engine as if the truth was written on it. "Is it telling you what you want to hear yet?"

→ "Not yet." Sullivan spoke without looking at Austin, though he was acutely aware of his every move in his periphreal vision. Yet. He still believed everything would work out for the best in the end. Nothing ever got to him so much that he lost hope in the pack, or in his relationship with Austin. It was unbreakable, no matter how many hits it took, of this, he was convinced.

→ Without being able to help himself he picked up his hand and laid it against the center of Sullivan's back. He drug his fingers slowly down until they rested at the top of his pants and they just stopped there. It was his way of saying he aws sorry, he supposed. For Lewis. Though he didn't really think he was the one that needed to apologize. Lewis had been willing and had been a comfort to him while he was there.

→ Sullivan knew he didn't deserve an apology, so he didn't accept the touch like one. It was just a touch, something he always wanted from Austin, even if it hurt. "You heard about the vampire." Not a question, but a statement of fact, one that was meant to prompt a response telling Sullivan how angry it had made Austin. Part of him wanted Austin to be hurt by it, the other part just wanted him to shrug it off.

→ "Hunter said that he looked like Campbell." Was all that Austin really had to say to that, though there was an edge to his voice that said the idea of having Sullivan fuck a vampire was something that raelly hurt him. In fact it made him a little heavy. "Why would you do that?"

→ "He was there." Which was the worst reason he'd ever given for doing something. But it was the only one he could really wrap his mind around. "Because you had one from that house, and I wanted one too." It wasn't that he was a vampire, it was that he'd smelled like Lewis smelled. It was a childish display of oneupmanship, the ever present sense of struggle for dominance, or struggle for self-respect.

→ Shaking his head a little bit, he looked away for a second and let his hand fall away from the small of Sullivan's back. "Lewis was here for me when you were off with Haben and Robin." Austin told him. "He wasn't just here, he wasn't just convenient." He was those things but he was something else too. Turning away from him he walked back to the door, not wanting to be out there anymore.

→ "It'd be better if he was just convenient." Sullivan said, shutting the hood of the truck with a quiet slam. He wasn't angry, he was just finished with the garage. "You can have anyone you want; I can't stop you." Because that was just the way it was. "I just never thought you'd want anyone else."

→ "I didn't." Austin said as he looked over his shoulder at him. "I still don't. I was just lonely." And jealous and upset. And Lewis had been there to cure all of that, at least for a little while. "It doesn't matter. There isn't going to be anyone else. Not anyone at all. I want to take a break. I need to get my head in the right place." And he needed to learn what it meant to be a good alpha and he couldn't do that whiel he was constantly worrying about what Sullivan was doing.

→ Sullivan followed Austin, feeling strangely right in doing so, as if his place had been and always would be, right behind Austin. "A break?" He didn't quite understand what that meant, but it sounded bad. If Austin was actually leaving again, it would crush Sullivan.

→ "I need to be alone right now. I don't want to have to worry about who you are sleeping with and why you aren't sleepign with me. So we wont be together. I'm not going anywhere but i'm going to move back into my own room. So you can have yours." He might even stay at Shane's, he hadn't decided yet.

→ "Oh." Was all Sullivan could say. Not sharing a room with Austin would be alien, and incredibly lonely. His home base had always had Austin in it, even when they were fighting. Now it would be profoundly empty, just like his chest was feeling right now for lack of a heartbeat. "Would it be better if I just moved back into my father's house?"

→ "No." Austin said. Because he knew that not being in the same room woudl beu nsettling enough for Sully but to make him move back to his father's house would be worse. "I was thinking about going to stay at Shane's. He's off doing some work for Hunter and the twins are staying with Cole."

→ "Do you hate me?" Because his brain was having trouble making sense of this, and it made him feel vulnerable, which was something only Austin could really accomplish. "I'm not being fair. I've never been fair." He had no right to be greedy with Austin's time or presence, but he was. He swallowed, looking pathetic.

→ "No, I don't hate you." Austin just leaned his shoulder against the door and he looked at Sullivan. "This is something I need to do for myself, Sullivan. It really doesn't have anything to do with you." Because it was about finding himself and figuring out if he could ever be alpha or not.

→ Sullivan didn't quite believe it didn't have anything to do with him if he was one of the things Austin felt he had to get away from. But he wasn't in a place to argue. Sullivan shifted his eyes to the ground, glad that Lewis was gone, but somehow wishing him back so that the sight of him could fuel anger that would drown out the feeling of emptiness. "Then I'll be here when you're finished." Finished doing whatever it was Austin felt he needed to do.

→ "All right." He leaned his head down and brushed a kiss to Sullivan's mouth. "I'll see you around." He turned and went back into theh ouse then, leaving the wolf behind as he wandered back upstairs so he could move some of his stuff back into his own room.