By Choice

A Word: Inspired by a Tumblr post where Seb is a PI and Ruben goes to him to find the arsonists behind the fire. Seb takes it even though he's uneasy and feels like someone's watching him sleep that night. Then it ended with SecretPsycho!Ruvik x Lonely!Sebastian. I had to do it. This bitch isn't done yet though. It keeps kind of growing on me. The first few parts are solid now at least.

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"The good thing about changing careers," Joseph remarks unnecessarily as he looms over Sebastian's shoulder and creepily watches him fight with the expense sheets, "is you can't afford to feed more than one vice at a time now."

"Fuck off, Joseph," Sebastian grunts and pushes back from his desk hard enough to roll over one of the man's shoes before going back to trying to figure out where the hell two grand in profit disappeared to. It sure as fuck didn't go to whiskey or cigarettes despite Joseph's dry remarks.

It's a common and often repeated line from the young man, and Sebastian has gotten used to hearing it. It's still a kick in the gut knowing how badly he'd scared his former partner with the drinking. It'd never effected his work and he never went in with so much as a whiff of it on him, but Joseph had never seen it as a thing Sebastian did off duty. Mostly because he was the one who always seemed to find his sorry ass in the bars after Myra, or stumbling down the streets trying to get home.

It wasn't too surprising when Joseph confessed how very far he'd been willing to go to try and 'save' him from it before Sebastian had gotten fed up of being stonewalled at the precinct and called it quits with them. Hell, if he'd stayed on a few more weeks having IA called down on him by his own partner probably would've ended up with the same results. Sebastian out of the precinct and being forced to confront all the shit in his life stone cold sober.

"Don't you have something better to do with your day off?" Sebastian finds a good chunk of the money and nearly groans. Kidman. Of course he's paying her, the work she does is top notch and her filing system actually makes sense unlike the last college kid he tried hiring to help around the office. All electronic files with no paper back up at all. Which would theoretically be fine if Sebastian didn't have an on/off relationship with the power company that was almost permanently in an off phase at the beginning of his business. "A life to live? Socks to iron?"

"A partner to check on and risk getting fired, or worse, for bringing him highly sensitive information?" Joseph answers and circles around to sit in the seat in front of the desk. One gloved finger tapping pointedly on the closed manila folder that Sebastian is itching to start chasing down. There's names and addresses in it and it's the best lead he's seen yet for finishing Myra's case, but he's going to have to sit on it for a while if he doesn't want to get Joseph in hot water.

It's not buddies to get Joseph into this shit. Plus it'd lose him one of his most reliable informants, and a good chunk of money to boot because like hell he'd let Joseph just hang in the wind with no job. Which would be a problem as he's having a hard enough time with just Kidman on his payroll.

"Bullshit," Sebastian finds the rest of the money in the unlabeled category of 'bribes' as usual, and tries not to remember how much of that was just wasted on bad leads this month as he sets the sheets aside. He's made enough to eat and keep his relationship with the electric company going good for another month, and that's really all he needs most days. He wasn't expecting to make it rich when he became a PI after all. "You came to stand around and stare moodily at my secretary. Just ask her out to dinner already, Joseph. Or coffee. That's what you hipster kind do right? Coffee and book readings?"

Joseph makes a point to adjust his ridiculously in fashion glasses -ridiculous because Sebastian knows he got the frames from his Grandpa and wore the damn things before they were considered 'hip'- just to be a snarky little shit without having to say anything. "Speaking of-"

"I knew it!" Sebastian crows, because he's been calling that shit for months now and Joseph's remained stubbornly close mouthed about it.

"Speaking of," Joseph repeats, forcefully ignoring Sebastian's laughter with the ease of year of friendship. "Where is your secretary? Usually she's the one riding your back to get the finances done on time."

"Something came up. Personal," Sebastian waves the questioning look away because Kidman's good at her job but she isn't all that forthcoming to him about her private life, and Sebastian has come to respect that. He doesn't like it, but he doesn't have to really. "She left me a list of things to do before going though."

With an ultimatum because Kidman's been around just long enough to figure out how things work with him. Maybe if she sticks around a little longer he can actually start to get to know her well enough to use her first name. Or at least learn why she prefers her last over her first. He's seen her answer her own personal cell phone with a clipped 'Kidman' after all.

"And that was the last thing on the list?" Joseph asks with honest enough sounding curiosity that's strange from him. He's dragging his feet about something, Sebastian just doesn't know what yet.

"First. I've actually got a client coming in at four. Figured I'd get this done now and get going after that," Sebastian responds and looks his former partner over critically. The man's wearing better clothes than he usually does. Joseph likes his clothing neat and fashionable, but he's also realistic enough to know he gets into too much shit on the job to wear things that actually are nice. The shoes he's wearing were shiny before Sebastian rolled over them, and he's been in one too many foot chases to wear shoes that'll take a shine to work. Joseph's dressed up nice for a reason, and it sure as hell isn't to impress Kidman. "Are your parents in town?"

Joseph's lips tighten just that extra little bit to let him know he's hit it right on the head. The Odas are a great family and Joseph loves his parents dearly. He just loves them best when they're not in his immediate living space and asking about the fifty grandbabies he apparently made a blood promise to give them when he was five.

"Should've made a move on Kidman earlier. Would've saved yourself a lot of trouble if you had a girlfriend to introduce to your parents," Joseph says with a grin because he's met the Odas and has seen Joseph's tiny slip of a mom verbally beat him from one side of a room to the next over his lack of dating prospects.

"Are you serious?" Joseph snorts before reluctantly dragging himself up out of the seat. "If I so much as mention a woman's name to her now she'll be sending out wedding invitations and planning nurseries."

"Say hi to your parents for me," Sebastian says with a grin as he starts to put his paperwork away in the proper folder so he doesn't have to watch his coffee for sudden foul tasting and/or slightly poisonous additions.

Joseph mutters something back but he's too far out the door for him to catch it. Probably for the best. Sebastian smirks at the now closed door and stretches. He's got about an hour to kill before his next paying client comes in. He reaches for the folder Joseph brought.

The information is precious and Sebastian can't ever thank Joseph enough for unbending enough to share it. His former partner doesn't like doing this. The risk to him is huge, but he does it anyway. Usually without complaint. Sebastian knows it's as much their friendship as the fact that Joseph sees how very little the investigators are doing with Myra's case.

The little they're doing with just about every missing persons case coming in now. Badly and obviously enough that Joseph, while still the most reliable source he has, is no longer the only cop who comes to his office with information. It hasn't escaped very many people's attention how the solve rate at the precinct's missing persons branch all but crashed when Sebastian took off. Something to feel proud over, he supposes, but it's hard to feel pride over something as painful as people disappearing every day in the city, and never being found.

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