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[Jun. 24th, 2009|01:18 am] |
John's hand was tight around Gabe's wrist as he walked them away from the Mansion. Dawn's bright fingers were itching up the horizon and he knew this had been the perfect time to leave. If they really wanted to stage an attack, they could have, but it would have needed to be a swift one. With his bag slung over his shoulder, he stood in front of the huge house staring at it and dropped Gabe's hand. "No one's coming for us."
John might have dropped his hand, but Gabe reached right out and took a hold of John's again and this time he was holding onto him. Bernadette had scared him. Through and through. So even though they were leaving her in their wake, he couldn't help but think she'd be lurking in the shadows waiting for them as soon as the sun went down again. "I don't know what to do if she comes find us."
"She won't--I know her type, she gets bored." There was the slightest hint of regret to his voice, as if he couldn't stand the idea of being boring to anyone. Being boring to someone like Bernie hit him even harder, because as much as it had pained Gabe, John had been fascinated with the woman. But no part of him looked afraid and he glanced at Gabe with a smile. "Want to go looking for any other creatures? Bigfoot?"
"No." Gabe no had now interest in superantural beings whatsoever. The werewolves were assholes and the vampires were isnane, so he didn't even want to know what any of the rest of them were like. Faeries? Witches? Fuck that. "Let's just go find some place to be alone."
John hadn't expected Gabe to want to seek out more, though John very much was curious to find more of his own kind. He offered a shrug, going back to his casual self, not the mess he'd be inside those walls. Tugging Gabe in the direction of their old place, he wondered if there was someone occupying their apartment. "We'll need to hit a pawn shop first," he mused out loud.
"Fine. That's fine." They had stolen plenty from Bern's that they could pawn and from there they could just hide out for a while. That was all that mattered. Hiding out and being safe. "I'm glad we got out of there."
As they walked, the night clung stubbornly to the sky, even if John could see the morning edging up. "You're really afraid, aren't you?" He frowned at Gabe, tipping his head. The small downtown strip was within sight after they'd walked awhile. The mansion was in a residential part of town, but still close to the main drag.
There was no reply to that that wasn't a lie or wasn't embarrassing, so he didn't bother. Instead he just shook his head a little bit and kept on walking with him away from the mansion, never once looking back. Of course he was afraid. Terrified.
John leaned in to Gabe, whispering in his ear. "You could level this whole fucking town, and you're pissing your pants over a pretty girl." He knew it would rile Gabe, but that was part of John's job. Before Gabe could react, he pressed his lips to his cheek.
The kiss was the last soft touch. Gabe's hand let go of John's and he whirled on him, slamming his fist into his jaw. It never took much for him to lose his temper and any more he was quick to resort to violence. "Fuck you."
"Ow, fuck." His head was knocked to the side with the force of it and he spit a little bit of blood onto the asphalt. "You know that just turns me on, Gabe." He straightened up, running his tongue down along his lip to smear the red over them. Blood, it would never taste quite the same again.
Instead of saying anything else he just turned his head away from him and started to walk towards the town. He kept his arms folded over his chest and he just walked quickly. John would catch him, more than likely, but he wasn't sure.
Speeding up his steps, he caught up with Gabe easily and walked beside him no matter how fast the little fucker went. "I'm afraid of Elgyn," he admitted, almost afraid to say the name out loud. He knew that if Bernie wouldn't bother with them, Elgyn might. But they'd be ready for him.
"He's her pet. She's the one who controls him. So how can you be afraid of him and not her?" Because he was terrified of Bernie and her power, though not so much Elgyn.
John shrugged. "Because he's a fucking pitbull. She lets him off that leash and we've got problems. Bernie never really hurt us." Certainly debateable, but John still defended her sometimes.
"Bernie never really hurt you. But she would have killed you slowly." And she had damn near killed Gabe, so he still wasn't feeling all that friendly towards her. "She ripped my throat out."
Clenching his jaw, John looked suddenly guilty--a very foreign look on his features. "I don't want to talk about Bernadette anymore," he said sternly as they got to the little pawn shop that was next to one of the seedier bars in town. "24 hours," he smirked to himself. The sleazy never slept. He jerked open the door and went inside.
When they got into the pawn shop he just looked around, trying to figure out how much they were going to get offered. They had a lot of nice stuff but this place was really shady, so he wasn't sure what to do. He kept his mouth shut as they walked around inside the pawn shop.
John had taken what was worth money and he knew how to play with these people. He'd spent a lot of his life stealing and selling when he couldn't steal money. Dumping one of the bags out onto the counter, he filtered through some of the nicer pieces and haggled with the owner. Eventually, as was common with John, the words got heated and at one point, the man across the counter grabbed John by the collar of his shirt. John didn't bat an eyelash though, and kept talking smoothly, holding his hand out to be sure Gabe didn't do anything stupid.
Gabe's fists clenched and it was only John's motion of his hand that kept him from lunging forward and just taking the guy down flat. Instead he just stood there, pissed off and trying not to get too upset about it. One of these days his temper was going to get them in trouble, if John's didn't first.
The man set him down after a couple of seconds. All part of the negotiation, John thought to himself. If only that asshole knew what kind of fate he may have just escaped. Taking the wad of money that was somewhat less than what John was hoping, he left the place. By the time they got back outside, morning had come. "We should find a different apartment," he said off hand.
"Yeah, I would say so." It wasn't really like they had any posessions at this point aside from the clothes on their backs. But Gabe had found that he was quite resourceful when he needed to be, in a lot of ways.
It wasn't that John hadn't liked their old apartment. He just didn't like to stay in the same place too long. Normally, he would have urged them to skip town, but something was holding him here. Grabbing a newspaper from one of the bins along the street, John walked to the little park up the road. It was going to be a warm day, and even though the early morning was crisp, it didn't affect John's warm skin. Sitting on the grass, he opened the newspaper to flip through it.
Instead of sitting down Gabe just stood, arms folded over his chest while he waited and watched John looking through the newspaper. "Do you see anything? We could just, I don't know. I don't care where we sleep."
Glancing up at the impatient thing, John frowned. "Just sit down. Lean against me and sleep if you want. We can find a place this afternoon maybe." John had spent enough nights sleeping in alleys to appreciate the cush of grass beneath him.
Sitting down in the grass finally, Gabe leaned over against John,. It went from a lean, gradually to laying across his lap while he looked at the paper. Gabe never thought he would fall asleep, but before long he was just out, completely gone in John's lap.
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