[OOM] + EP: Old dogs need a place to lie sometimes

[zenigatcha]

[ An unexpected visitor creates both tension and opportunity. Zenigata has a lot to think about. ]

The door opens -- the quiet of a Lyon evening on the other side of it. Traffic sounds in the distance. A street lamp glows, haloing the man in the door way who stands there, briefcase in one hand and his mail in the other.

This is not the apartment Zenigata expected on the other side of the door. That's okay, though-- means he doesn't have to go to the bar after dropping some things off. Instead, he orders some dinner and drinks, goes to a comfy spot by the fire, and settles on the couch.

By the time his food comes, Zenigata's already melted into the couch to doze, hat an angle over his face and his hands on his mail. It's been a long week, and it shows. So much for being refreshed from his vacation -- life took a hard turn as soon as he got back, and he's still not caught up from it He'll rouse now and again to eat some part of his dinner, but it'll be cold by the time he finishes and he's eating to recharge, not taste.

Comments

[take_that]

There is another man vegging out in the seating area, eyes closed.

He pokes one eye open at the familiar face.

"Hey," Phoenix says.

[zenigatcha]

A grunt comes from under the hat.

"Hey."

[take_that]

Geez, he looks more tired than I do most days.

"Long day?"

[zenigatcha]

"Long week," Zenigata said, voice low and a little hoarse. "Came back from a vacation into a complete shit show at work."

Which is putting it mildly.

[take_that]

Phoenix gives a sympathetic grimace. "That sucks."

Not that I would know. Haven't for a while now, anyway.

Zenigata looks tired, but Phoenix waits all the same for him to talk more about it, if he wants to.

[skyhigh_seance]

Klaus sprawls in one of the armchairs, scrawny elegance in leather pants and a pink crop top.

No, he doesn't know where his shoes are either. Thanks to the molly in his system, he truly doesn't care. He's currently focused on the little egg-shaped toy in his hands.

He forgot how cute Tamagochi are. Why is it he never kept one of these before?

(He'll remember in three days when the damn thing dies after an hour of inattention at the wrong moment.)

[zenigatcha]

"Hey," Zenigata eventually says, before he takes up one piece of mail -- a tabloid -- and waves it in Klaus' general direction of the couch. He doesn't bother to get up, or move his hat from his face. "We made the news."

He wiggles the tabloid again. C'mon, you know what you want to see it.

[skyhigh_seance]

He really doesn't. He's seen enough of his face on covers of shit to last a lifetime.

"They have better have appreciated my ass." He opines, firmly. So many magazine articles, so few comments about his ass. It's a tragedy.

[zenigatcha]

"Tragically, they did not."

Zenigata could have at least gotten behind that.

Oh, wait. He's in the tabs because he did.

[skyhigh_seance]

"Their loss. Would've sold out." Klaus snorts, trying to train his little electronic pet. It's not going well. Stubborn non-alive pet thing.

"... Wait. Did they appreciate your ass?"

[sunbaked_baker]

The scent of warm cinnamon-sugar, gooey icing and good yeast dough will likely reach him first, with his hat over his face.

In any case, the plate being set within easy reach on the coffee table can barely contain the two massive cinnamon rolls upon it.

[zenigatcha]

Having been tiredly picking at his food only to give in to weariness now and again, Zenigata only hums softly where he starts to catch a whiff of delicious baked goods. Then he wriggles up the arm of the couch into a somewhat more upright position, tipts his hat slightly, and exchanges the mail (bills, tabloid) on his chest for the plate of cinnamon rolls.

"Thank you, Sunshine-chan."

[sunbaked_baker]

"You're welcome," she replies, mildly. His shadows get him a brief hug, that is - at this angle - mostly just her leaning down to loop an arm around his shoulders and lean her head against his for a moment as she comes around the end of the couch. Something's up, and she doesn't need her Dark Sight to see it.

[zenigatcha]

Hugs are great. Hugs from warm friends are even better.

Scooting so he's more upright, Zenigata begins to break off pieces of cinnamon roll, eating it without complaint (but small murmur of pleasure; ugh they're so good.)

"You're a life saver, Sunshine-chan."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Mm-hmm," she agrees that her cinnamon rolls are amazing, though there's curiosity in her look as she takes a seat in the nearest tall-backed chair next to the couch. Her Dark Sight tells her some, but she would sometimes rather ask - like a human person - than try to delve too deep in what someone's shadows can tell her.

"Is your life in need of saving?"

[lupintrois]

Lupin's starting to warm up to the bar as an entity, in part because she keeps surprising him. Sometimes she's the inside of a bank vault, and the heist is put on hold so he can have a nice drink. Sometimes she's a way to vanish halfway through a chase, sometimes she's the door out of the bathroom and he's only wearing a towel. (The rats brought him someone's old dressing gown, and also a pair of comically printed boxers he plans on showing off only when he gets Zenigata alone. Or if it's really funny.) Betrayal's a woman's finest accessory and the bar is supposed to be a woman, no? Wouldn't be called Millie if she wasn't.

Anyway, the point is that Lupin's barefoot in a dressing gown that hangs to his hairy calves, coming out of the kitchen with a martini to find Zenigata like he's about to be painted like one of your French girls. Except he looks kinda miserable about it?

"Hey, pops, why the long face? People are gonna call you Seabiscuit if you keep it up." he says, poking the man's shoulder.

[zenigatcha]

"It's been a week," Zenigata said, before he shifts, and fiddles with his mail. Then he holds up a tabloid. "Made the news without you."

In the worst possible way, because the front page corner splash the little two-page article on him with very blurry pictures with him and Klaus being on dates, and a "gay love affair" scandal being fabricated by the tabloid.

"The Bild France has next ot no readership and is on it's last legs. It's expected to go under any time now. But it made some higher ups a little cranky," he explains.

[lupintrois]

For a brief panicked moment Lupin thinks it's him that's been caught. It's not until he's frantically pawed through and squinted at the blurry photos that he realizes it's...

"Is this fucking Klaus? Christ, I knew he couldn't keep his mouth shut." Pops is his man, how dare someone else have a scandal with him.

[zenigatcha]

"First off, I am the public figure who should have realized I could have been watched, and maybe cared a little more about being caught out with another man," Zenigata says as he tips his hat back a little more. "All Klaus did was accept my invitations out."

Eventually Lupin's jealousy will go from 'something to put up with' to 'something that has to be stomped on.' For now, he's not there yet. But it's pushing it, little by little, at Pops' genuine anger.

"My superiors are mad. The Director of National Security dropped by. It's been--- it's been a week, Lupin." Only now, ONLY NOW, does he register: "...what the fuck are you in, anyway?"

Is that a dressing gown?

[lupintrois]

"I dunno, it's a loaner from--wait, the French Director? D'Andresy? Smug blonde fucker?" Lupin's demeanor immediately swaps again from casual to tense, bony shoulders up.

Oh, how dare that fucker.

[alongfallfromgrace]

At some point, Wei Ying settles in beside him, a quietly self-contained unit, idly (or perhaps obsessively) running his fingers over the ridges of his bamboo flute. It's not Chenqing, but... what is even the same anymore?

[zenigatcha]

After a moment, Zenigata tips his hat up, peering out from it with one gray eye. Then he takes it off entirely and sits up, till his shoulder to shoulder with Wei Ying.

"Hey," he says, giving a gentle prod with his shoulder. "You okay?"

[alongfallfromgrace]

Wei Ying startles slightly, before nodding and offering a smile.

"Mmm, I'm fine."

It's a wartime smile, to go with a wartime lie. Goes with the whole wartime memories package he's picked up today.

[zenigatcha]

Zenigata slung an arm around Wei Ying, quiet for a moment.

"You tell me about your day, and I'll tell you about mine. Is that fair, then?" So everybody has problems, and it's okay, because problems can hopefully be solved. Or at least, burdens can be lightened.

[alongfallfromgrace]

Wei Ying burrows into the hug, because he'd let himself become ridiculously touch-starved in the last years of his life. He may never stop being a little greedy about it ever.

"Met someone who has had problems with being controlled. Offered to help, of course, but that meant I had to explain why I knew so much about it. Turns out the ghosts are still loud, even in memory."

This is glossing it over almost as much as he did with Bucky - ignoring the sharp nails of hunger and the way power had crackled like lightening in his blood and the screaming that seemed to emanate from the spiderweb of cracks that made up his bones...