Civcopter ID#34-09-37, 12:17 P.M., the following day...
"Oh, look at it all! This is all Castletown? It's so big!"
These and other appreciative comments were spouted with abandon as Monster took in a skyline ten thousand years away from the one he knew. Despite the fact that his side of the copter also had a perfectly suitable window, he was leaning over Callaghan to look out of his. Every now and then, he'd turn his head to gaze a little longer at a particularly impressive (or suggestive) skyscraper, the movement being just enough to make one of his earchains flick Callaghan in the face. He was unaware of the fact that one of Callaghan's eyelids seemed to be twitching. Monster wouldn't have been surprised.
Meanwhile, Callaghan had found himself with a lapful of supernaturally irritating Monster, and had to keep reminding himself, often, that Monster couldn't be killed. And Monster's neck was right there; it would be so easy just to reach out and...SNAP! '...Nah. He'd be pissed for years. I don't have that kind of time...'
"Don't lose track of what you're supposed to be doing," Callaghan said, making Monster look at him for just an instant to grunt affirmation. "I don't expect you to goof off and generally make a worthless pest of yourself. Are we clear on this?"
"Crystal, dear," murmured Monster, who was only half listening. He wouldn't have been listening at all if his ear hadn't been so close to Callaghan's mouth to begin with.
Apt. 99, 1:30 P.M...
Link was enjoying the first boring day he'd had in a week. Well, boring after he'd gotten over that little dream conversation... Carefully sprawled out on the sofa-of-questionable-safety, he was trying to find his place in a book he'd started who knows how long ago, and was getting the sinking feeling that he was going to have to start over again.
Sheik had decided to read, too. Curled up on the floor, leaning against the sofa, he happily flipped through the yellow pages of the phone book. ...Well, it beat staring at the walls.
The outdoor tables outside of "Dobie's," 2:00 P.M...
"You know, when I said I was hungry, this isn't quite what I'd meant," Monster said between slurps, "not that this isn't good, though. What is this called again?"
Callaghan sat across from him at a (of all idiotic things...) pretending-to-be-wrought-iron table shaded by a hideous red and white striped umbrella, surrounded by people eating ice cream and generally looking very out of place. He was also, at the moment, trying to look as though he and Monster didn't know one another at all. "Toffee-flavored ice cream," he grumbled. "Hurry up and finish so we can get going."
Monster rolled his eyes, but refrained from saying anything, seeing as he was giving his nearly undivided attention to his ice cream cone. He had to admit, he didn't eat food very often (he preferred what he subsisted on), but this stuff was pretty damn good. 'I wonder how they make this and get it cold and whatnot...'
Callaghan risked a glance across the table, and made as much of an embarrassed face as he would allow himself. "For Goddesses' sakes, don't eat it like that!"
Removing the ice cream cone from his trap for a moment, Monster raised one eyebrow and asked, quite innocently, "Like what?"
Callaghan made a few inane gestures with his hands, opened and shut his mouth a few times, and finally, for lack of anything better to say, replied, "Just...stop doing what you're doing."
Monster removed the cone again and tilted his head to one side in confusion. "Stop eating it? But I thought you wanted me to hurry up and finish it."
Callaghan covered his eyes with one hand and slumped down in his uncomfortable pretend-wrought-iron chair in defeat. "No! Look...you can finish it, just...you don't need to...don't..."
Meanwhile, Monster went back to work on his cone, seeing as it was threatening to melt onto his hand. He hated feeling all sticky...
Callaghan still struggled. "Just lick the cone on ONE side, like everybody else! There are kids here, you know. And you're going to gag yourself if you..."
He was interrupted by a cough and some weak sputtering from Monster, who had surprised the little hanging-down part in the back of his mouth with something very cold.
"...shove that thing any farther back into your GAPING MAW!" he finished, drawing more than a few stares from the other people in the area. Monster coughed once, and decided that he was done with his ice cream. Gagging like that had almost put him off his appetite.
As they walked down the street a ways, Monster gathered up enough gall to breach the cloud of grouchiness and doom that always seemed to hang around Callaghan whenever he was in his associate's company.
"I'm hungry."
"Tough shit."
Monster sighed. "Can't I go hunt just one very, very quickly? One hour?"
"No."
"Forty-five minutes, then?"
"No." Callaghan was stopped by the sound of someone's foot stomping the ground. He turned to see a rather unhappy Monster standing in the middle of the sidewalk with his arms folded.
"Why not?" Monster barked, in a sort of whiny tone. "I've fasted for ten millennia; why won't you let me go hunt now?" The poor thing was in a city of well over one million people. It was like leading a starving man through a Las Vegas buffet without giving the man a plate.
Callaghan walked over to his impossibly annoying associate and grabbed hold of one of his arms. "I'll tell you when you can hunt," he hissed, "People are staring at us; now come on. The building is only a few more blocks away."
Reluctantly, Monster gave up on causing a scene and resumed following his incredibly uptight associate. His thoughts were wandering off on their own somewhere, when they chanced to light on a certain dairy-based subject. A devious smile graced his features and his eyes lit up with the happy glow of comprehension, like someone who's just gotten a joke a full half-hour after it was told. "Oh, I think I understand now, with the ice cream. You thought it looked like I was-"
A razor-sharp glare from Callaghan was enough to wither the words on Monster's lips, but the little Sheik-copy indulged in a very satisfying snigger.
"Who'd have thought that you would imagine something like that. You have been living with the hylians too long, dear."
Keaton St. Pub, 10:04 P.M...
Reggie's seat had been empty the night before. No one else had taken the stool closest to the tap out of habit; that's where that woman sits. Always. And she hadn't been there yesterday. That had been slightly...well...awkward for her companions. The bar just didn't feel quite right.
Reggie was here now, though she was, as some would term it, in a state. She still wore her customary broomstick skirt, but wore a big ol' well worn sweatshirt over it, had her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail (that was looking rather tortured), and was sans make-up. She was also wearing sneakers. Something was wrong in the universe. One could see that by looking at her clothes, but it would probably be easier to arrive at the same conclusion by noticing that she was sobbing with her head buried in her arms on the bar, two empty shot glasses keeping her company. So far, only Kaylee had been able to understand the muffled whimpers emanating from the distraught Reggie as words. She'd been acting as a sort of translator for Doru and Link, Doru sitting in Kaylee's usual seat while the zora sat next to Reggie, and Link listening from wherever he happened to be while working the bar. Sheik really didn't know what was going on, but that's okay.
"She says it just happened last night," Kaylee explained. The three had learned so far that Reggie's beau had more or less dropped her like a hot potato after an...unfortunate accident.* In front of quite a few people. Bastard.
The goron blinked. "So why's she here? Shouldn't she be," he shrugged, "I don't know, at her mom's place, or something?" Two glares were aimed his way. "What? ...Oh. Yeah; forgot about that for a minute."
Kaylee was the first to remember Doru's question. "When crap like this happens, it's important to stick to your routine. That, and I guess Reggie's going to get herself plastered. Don't blame her." She turned to Reggie again, laying a comforting fin on the hylian's shoulder. "I hate to be the one to say something so cliché, but there are plenty other fish in the sea."
Reggie had gathered herself up enough for her next comment to be somewhat understood by all parties concerned. "But I don't want another fish," came a muffled, somewhat slurred statement, "I liked the fish I had."
Link made perhaps one of the more helpful interjections of the evening. "Reg, you want some coffee, or something?"
"Yes, please." Sniffle.
Kaylee leaned down near Reggie's ear. "How'd he find out, anyway?" she asked softly.
Lifting her head and wiping her eyes with one voluminous sweatshirt sleeve, Reggie cupped her hand around the zora's earhole and whispered. Kaylee's eyes widened and her face, by degrees, contorted into an enraged snarl.
"He did WHAT right there with people watching?!" she hissed. Reggie nodded and rested her chin on her arms in utter dejection. "Ick! What a slimeball!"
"What? What'd he do? I'm out of the loop over here," Doru said, curiosity piqued by Kaylee's reaction. At a nod from Reggie, Kaylee turned to the goron, and, beckoning Link to come closer, related, in hushed tones a heavily edited version of what she'd been told by Reggie. Two pairs of eyebrows rose as Kaylee finished her narrative.
"Ick," Doru agreed, not elaborating any further on what he thought was icky.
Link snorted and finished pouring the derelict Reggie a cup of coffee. Setting it down in front of her, he went to work cleaning some glasses and absently mixing a few orders, dragging everything down near the end of the tap, so he could sit within earshot of the conversation.
Doru was gamely trying to be comforting to a person he was used to giving hell to. Well, he was trying. "So...um...How long were you with this guy, again?"
"Three months," Reggie muttered, sipping coffee and staring at a wood knot in the bar.
Doru's eyebrows looked like they'd have shot right off his head if they weren't attatched. He slapped the bar. "Damn! And you held him off that long?" He shook his head. "Well, be glad he's gone because he was cheating."
This sparked enough interest to actually get Reggie to make eye contact for a second. "How do you know?"
Doru chuckled. "No guy's gonna wait that long to get into anyone's pants, Reg. He had something on the side." He winked. "I mean, would YOU wait that long?"
"Yes." Reggie went back to her coffee.
Doru coughed and found a fascinating light fixture on the ceiling. Things had gotten awkward very quickly, even for him. He had to regroup, and fast. "Well..." he started off again, "It's not like you can't find someone else; I mean," he fumbled for words, "You're..." Not beautiful, not handsome; in fact, Doru had always be of the opinion that words couldn't describe Reggie. They weren't twisted enough. "Attractive, I guess. For a hylian." Reggie glanced over, a little jolted by the sound of a compliment coming from the goron's mouth. And Doru could have stopped there. COULD have, but didn't. "I mean, you look pretty shitty right now, with your eyes all bloodshot and halfassed crossdressing, but..."
Reggie sighed and went back to her coffee.
"But you know what I mean!" Doru was grasping at very slippery straws. He gave it up for now; he didn't need this kind of stress.
The Hailey Building, 69th floor, 2:47 A.M...
"Seven," Monster stated with a touch of pride. "Seven in three hours! But you know," he mused, stroking his chin thoughtfully, "It was the strangest thing; I must have hunted more than thirty hylians, and most of them were so frightened of me I'd have to leave. Why are they all so jittery?" he asked Callaghan, who was wishing Monster had stayed out longer, "They act as though I'm diseased."
Callaghan was also wishing that he'd had the sense to disappear for a few hours. He rubbed his temples. "That's exactly what they're worried about. A hylian who acts like you do would be swimming with disease. Unpleasant ones."
Furrowing his brow, Monster crossed his arms and stared at the floor for a few moments. "What, like the flu?"
Monster was whiter than usual when Callaghan finished explaining that, no, the flu wasn't what the hylians were leery about. Callaghan had taken the liberty of being quite a bit more graphic than was absolutely necessary, and was fighting to keep a straight face.
"Oh," said Monster. There was a heavy pause. "But they should know that I can't give them anything like that; I'm-"
"You're an idiot, is what you are," interrupted Callaghan, anxious to get the stupid conversation over with so they could get on to business. "It's been too long; no one can tell what the hell we are anymore."
"Neither can you, if this place is any indication," mumbled Monster under his breath.
Callaghan got up and walked to the windows. "I don't suppose you even thought to look for your counterpart while you were out."
"I still don't understand why you need to find mine to find yours," Monster said from his perch on the back of a sofa near the office door.
Callaghan faked embarrassment. "I...I can't feel mine anymore. I've been away too long. I need a place to start looking."
Not swayed, Monster immediately counter-pointed. "But wasn't your counterpart always closer to the air kymmate's** counterpart, anyway? Why didn't you ask her for help?"
Callaghan scoffed and turned to his associate. "And where the hell would I find her? Can you find her? Right. She doesn't care. She's too busy sulking around feeling sorry for herself because she's so goddessesdamn weak and stupid." He looked pointedly at Monster. "Right?"
Monster shot a sullen glower Callaghan's way when he was sure his ill-tempered kymmate wasn't looking. Callaghan could make himself very trying at times. Most times, actually. But Monster was aware that what was once a minor annoyance was now no slight threat to anything that triggered Callaghan's prodigious mean streak. In all the time Monster and the other kymmates had been sleeping, or wandering, or fooling around, Callaghan had been hunting, insatiably. And it showed. Callaghan's little freezing stunt in Monster's ruins had really HURT, and Monster hadn't been able to do a thing about it.
Still, there were always weaknesses to work with. 'Since he seems to be in such a great hurry to find his counterpart,' Monster thought to himself, thinking one of the longest and most complex thoughts he'd attempted in a while, 'it wouldn't do him much good if I'm too injured or angry to do my part.' Simple as he may have been in other areas, Monster really did have a very good sense of when it was time to push his luck and when it was time to back off. With this self-reassurance, Monster settled into the sofa cushions for a light snooze. Such good hunting after ten millennia of nothing was certainly welcome, but if this was how every hunting trip would be, Monster strongly suspected that he'd drop from exhaustion.
Callaghan turned from the window, curious at the lack of asinine chatter. Monster was sleeping, a big dopey grin on his galling, insufferable, abrading, incredibly maddening visage. Callaghan entertained the notion of shattering those delicate little facial bones into a fine paste with a baseball bat. 'But...wooden, or aluminum? Wood is, of course, traditional, but aluminum does make that lovely "ping" sound when it connects...' After an intense internal struggle, Callaghan decided that hitting Monster while he slept would not be wise, because then Monster would wake up. And a Monster asleep meant a Monster that wasn't talking, or pestering him, or trying to be cuddly...
Callaghan was a bundle of nerves. He had hoped that Monster would have started looking for his stupid, anal-retentive little counterpart by now. He'd let it slide for a few decades, but the mortal kym were long overdue for an Awakening, and Callaghan would much rather nip the whole thing in the bud before the situation got messy. But, damn it all, he hadn't been all bluff when he'd fed Monster that tripe about not being able to feel his counterpart. He could feel his, all right, but he couldn't for the love of Nayru feel WHERE he was... And if he let them Awaken, and couldn't derail what always came after, then there'd be hell to pay... But if Monster proved himself worth Callaghan's time, and he did find just one of them, then if there really was an Awakening on the way... 'They always find each other; they can't help it, and then it'll be easy to just,' he snapped his fingers softly on his way out of his office. 'And if there isn't an Awakening, better safe than sorry.'
He was worrying too much. He needed to relax, take his mind off things. "Hold my calls, Sylvia," he said to his secretary on his way past her desk to the nearest elevator. Stepping into an empty elevator, he flipped open a blank panel under the buttons and pressed one of the small buttons revealed underneath the cover. Express to Basement Five.
Apt. 99, 4:00 A.M...
Link had woken up. Water was sometimes too much of a good thing. With that little errand taken care of, he stumbled back to bed. Settling down to go back to sleep, Link glanced over at Sheik, who had been surprisingly quiet today, well, technically yesterday, but... 'It's a break from all the perkiness, though...'
The 'bot had what could only be accurately described as a big dopey grin on his face. As Link watched, the 'bot hugged up his pillow and sighed contentedly; every now and then one of his servomotors would twitch.
Link decided that it would be a good idea to lie on his other side and stare at something that wasn't disturbing, like a wall, or something like that. 'I don't want to know, and know not I shall...not...know...of...things.'
The Hailey Building, 69th floor, 4:01 A.M...
Monster was having a lovely day, even if he was currently sleeping. His counterpart was easy enough to find in dreams, now if only Monster could remember how to feel him while they were both awake. He regretted ignoring his counterpart for so long. Especially now that he was so sweet and agreeable...
But, of course, that was something to ponder when Monster was awake. At the moment he'd rather not think more than was strictly necessary. If it was at all possible, his grin curled a little wider.
##
Aaaaaand, that's the end of that chapter. I hadn't intended for Callaghan to be so angry, but...I think this works better; it makes him a much better foil for the Monster. I hope I wasn't too obscure with the ice cream gag. I didn't want to just be crude and spell out what it looked like Monster was doing to that poor little ice cream cone; it would have lost something. I also didn't want to spell out Monster's hunting practices, but I think that that was more obvious. It'll get explained, sooner or later. From now on, I'll have to be careful not to trip myself up... Questions? Comments? Concerns? :) The third chapter DOES tie into the story, I promise. Trust me. And, yes, Kotake "Ice"... Koume "Fire" will appear later... Good use of deductive reasoning. Speaking of deductive reasoning, most of you are guessing who certain people are...? Monster's been given away already; and I can only imagine what some of you are theorizing... Whee! Fun, eh? I wonder who will be right...
"Oh, look at it all! This is all Castletown? It's so big!"
These and other appreciative comments were spouted with abandon as Monster took in a skyline ten thousand years away from the one he knew. Despite the fact that his side of the copter also had a perfectly suitable window, he was leaning over Callaghan to look out of his. Every now and then, he'd turn his head to gaze a little longer at a particularly impressive (or suggestive) skyscraper, the movement being just enough to make one of his earchains flick Callaghan in the face. He was unaware of the fact that one of Callaghan's eyelids seemed to be twitching. Monster wouldn't have been surprised.
Meanwhile, Callaghan had found himself with a lapful of supernaturally irritating Monster, and had to keep reminding himself, often, that Monster couldn't be killed. And Monster's neck was right there; it would be so easy just to reach out and...SNAP! '...Nah. He'd be pissed for years. I don't have that kind of time...'
"Don't lose track of what you're supposed to be doing," Callaghan said, making Monster look at him for just an instant to grunt affirmation. "I don't expect you to goof off and generally make a worthless pest of yourself. Are we clear on this?"
"Crystal, dear," murmured Monster, who was only half listening. He wouldn't have been listening at all if his ear hadn't been so close to Callaghan's mouth to begin with.
Apt. 99, 1:30 P.M...
Link was enjoying the first boring day he'd had in a week. Well, boring after he'd gotten over that little dream conversation... Carefully sprawled out on the sofa-of-questionable-safety, he was trying to find his place in a book he'd started who knows how long ago, and was getting the sinking feeling that he was going to have to start over again.
Sheik had decided to read, too. Curled up on the floor, leaning against the sofa, he happily flipped through the yellow pages of the phone book. ...Well, it beat staring at the walls.
The outdoor tables outside of "Dobie's," 2:00 P.M...
"You know, when I said I was hungry, this isn't quite what I'd meant," Monster said between slurps, "not that this isn't good, though. What is this called again?"
Callaghan sat across from him at a (of all idiotic things...) pretending-to-be-wrought-iron table shaded by a hideous red and white striped umbrella, surrounded by people eating ice cream and generally looking very out of place. He was also, at the moment, trying to look as though he and Monster didn't know one another at all. "Toffee-flavored ice cream," he grumbled. "Hurry up and finish so we can get going."
Monster rolled his eyes, but refrained from saying anything, seeing as he was giving his nearly undivided attention to his ice cream cone. He had to admit, he didn't eat food very often (he preferred what he subsisted on), but this stuff was pretty damn good. 'I wonder how they make this and get it cold and whatnot...'
Callaghan risked a glance across the table, and made as much of an embarrassed face as he would allow himself. "For Goddesses' sakes, don't eat it like that!"
Removing the ice cream cone from his trap for a moment, Monster raised one eyebrow and asked, quite innocently, "Like what?"
Callaghan made a few inane gestures with his hands, opened and shut his mouth a few times, and finally, for lack of anything better to say, replied, "Just...stop doing what you're doing."
Monster removed the cone again and tilted his head to one side in confusion. "Stop eating it? But I thought you wanted me to hurry up and finish it."
Callaghan covered his eyes with one hand and slumped down in his uncomfortable pretend-wrought-iron chair in defeat. "No! Look...you can finish it, just...you don't need to...don't..."
Meanwhile, Monster went back to work on his cone, seeing as it was threatening to melt onto his hand. He hated feeling all sticky...
Callaghan still struggled. "Just lick the cone on ONE side, like everybody else! There are kids here, you know. And you're going to gag yourself if you..."
He was interrupted by a cough and some weak sputtering from Monster, who had surprised the little hanging-down part in the back of his mouth with something very cold.
"...shove that thing any farther back into your GAPING MAW!" he finished, drawing more than a few stares from the other people in the area. Monster coughed once, and decided that he was done with his ice cream. Gagging like that had almost put him off his appetite.
As they walked down the street a ways, Monster gathered up enough gall to breach the cloud of grouchiness and doom that always seemed to hang around Callaghan whenever he was in his associate's company.
"I'm hungry."
"Tough shit."
Monster sighed. "Can't I go hunt just one very, very quickly? One hour?"
"No."
"Forty-five minutes, then?"
"No." Callaghan was stopped by the sound of someone's foot stomping the ground. He turned to see a rather unhappy Monster standing in the middle of the sidewalk with his arms folded.
"Why not?" Monster barked, in a sort of whiny tone. "I've fasted for ten millennia; why won't you let me go hunt now?" The poor thing was in a city of well over one million people. It was like leading a starving man through a Las Vegas buffet without giving the man a plate.
Callaghan walked over to his impossibly annoying associate and grabbed hold of one of his arms. "I'll tell you when you can hunt," he hissed, "People are staring at us; now come on. The building is only a few more blocks away."
Reluctantly, Monster gave up on causing a scene and resumed following his incredibly uptight associate. His thoughts were wandering off on their own somewhere, when they chanced to light on a certain dairy-based subject. A devious smile graced his features and his eyes lit up with the happy glow of comprehension, like someone who's just gotten a joke a full half-hour after it was told. "Oh, I think I understand now, with the ice cream. You thought it looked like I was-"
A razor-sharp glare from Callaghan was enough to wither the words on Monster's lips, but the little Sheik-copy indulged in a very satisfying snigger.
"Who'd have thought that you would imagine something like that. You have been living with the hylians too long, dear."
Keaton St. Pub, 10:04 P.M...
Reggie's seat had been empty the night before. No one else had taken the stool closest to the tap out of habit; that's where that woman sits. Always. And she hadn't been there yesterday. That had been slightly...well...awkward for her companions. The bar just didn't feel quite right.
Reggie was here now, though she was, as some would term it, in a state. She still wore her customary broomstick skirt, but wore a big ol' well worn sweatshirt over it, had her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail (that was looking rather tortured), and was sans make-up. She was also wearing sneakers. Something was wrong in the universe. One could see that by looking at her clothes, but it would probably be easier to arrive at the same conclusion by noticing that she was sobbing with her head buried in her arms on the bar, two empty shot glasses keeping her company. So far, only Kaylee had been able to understand the muffled whimpers emanating from the distraught Reggie as words. She'd been acting as a sort of translator for Doru and Link, Doru sitting in Kaylee's usual seat while the zora sat next to Reggie, and Link listening from wherever he happened to be while working the bar. Sheik really didn't know what was going on, but that's okay.
"She says it just happened last night," Kaylee explained. The three had learned so far that Reggie's beau had more or less dropped her like a hot potato after an...unfortunate accident.* In front of quite a few people. Bastard.
The goron blinked. "So why's she here? Shouldn't she be," he shrugged, "I don't know, at her mom's place, or something?" Two glares were aimed his way. "What? ...Oh. Yeah; forgot about that for a minute."
Kaylee was the first to remember Doru's question. "When crap like this happens, it's important to stick to your routine. That, and I guess Reggie's going to get herself plastered. Don't blame her." She turned to Reggie again, laying a comforting fin on the hylian's shoulder. "I hate to be the one to say something so cliché, but there are plenty other fish in the sea."
Reggie had gathered herself up enough for her next comment to be somewhat understood by all parties concerned. "But I don't want another fish," came a muffled, somewhat slurred statement, "I liked the fish I had."
Link made perhaps one of the more helpful interjections of the evening. "Reg, you want some coffee, or something?"
"Yes, please." Sniffle.
Kaylee leaned down near Reggie's ear. "How'd he find out, anyway?" she asked softly.
Lifting her head and wiping her eyes with one voluminous sweatshirt sleeve, Reggie cupped her hand around the zora's earhole and whispered. Kaylee's eyes widened and her face, by degrees, contorted into an enraged snarl.
"He did WHAT right there with people watching?!" she hissed. Reggie nodded and rested her chin on her arms in utter dejection. "Ick! What a slimeball!"
"What? What'd he do? I'm out of the loop over here," Doru said, curiosity piqued by Kaylee's reaction. At a nod from Reggie, Kaylee turned to the goron, and, beckoning Link to come closer, related, in hushed tones a heavily edited version of what she'd been told by Reggie. Two pairs of eyebrows rose as Kaylee finished her narrative.
"Ick," Doru agreed, not elaborating any further on what he thought was icky.
Link snorted and finished pouring the derelict Reggie a cup of coffee. Setting it down in front of her, he went to work cleaning some glasses and absently mixing a few orders, dragging everything down near the end of the tap, so he could sit within earshot of the conversation.
Doru was gamely trying to be comforting to a person he was used to giving hell to. Well, he was trying. "So...um...How long were you with this guy, again?"
"Three months," Reggie muttered, sipping coffee and staring at a wood knot in the bar.
Doru's eyebrows looked like they'd have shot right off his head if they weren't attatched. He slapped the bar. "Damn! And you held him off that long?" He shook his head. "Well, be glad he's gone because he was cheating."
This sparked enough interest to actually get Reggie to make eye contact for a second. "How do you know?"
Doru chuckled. "No guy's gonna wait that long to get into anyone's pants, Reg. He had something on the side." He winked. "I mean, would YOU wait that long?"
"Yes." Reggie went back to her coffee.
Doru coughed and found a fascinating light fixture on the ceiling. Things had gotten awkward very quickly, even for him. He had to regroup, and fast. "Well..." he started off again, "It's not like you can't find someone else; I mean," he fumbled for words, "You're..." Not beautiful, not handsome; in fact, Doru had always be of the opinion that words couldn't describe Reggie. They weren't twisted enough. "Attractive, I guess. For a hylian." Reggie glanced over, a little jolted by the sound of a compliment coming from the goron's mouth. And Doru could have stopped there. COULD have, but didn't. "I mean, you look pretty shitty right now, with your eyes all bloodshot and halfassed crossdressing, but..."
Reggie sighed and went back to her coffee.
"But you know what I mean!" Doru was grasping at very slippery straws. He gave it up for now; he didn't need this kind of stress.
The Hailey Building, 69th floor, 2:47 A.M...
"Seven," Monster stated with a touch of pride. "Seven in three hours! But you know," he mused, stroking his chin thoughtfully, "It was the strangest thing; I must have hunted more than thirty hylians, and most of them were so frightened of me I'd have to leave. Why are they all so jittery?" he asked Callaghan, who was wishing Monster had stayed out longer, "They act as though I'm diseased."
Callaghan was also wishing that he'd had the sense to disappear for a few hours. He rubbed his temples. "That's exactly what they're worried about. A hylian who acts like you do would be swimming with disease. Unpleasant ones."
Furrowing his brow, Monster crossed his arms and stared at the floor for a few moments. "What, like the flu?"
Monster was whiter than usual when Callaghan finished explaining that, no, the flu wasn't what the hylians were leery about. Callaghan had taken the liberty of being quite a bit more graphic than was absolutely necessary, and was fighting to keep a straight face.
"Oh," said Monster. There was a heavy pause. "But they should know that I can't give them anything like that; I'm-"
"You're an idiot, is what you are," interrupted Callaghan, anxious to get the stupid conversation over with so they could get on to business. "It's been too long; no one can tell what the hell we are anymore."
"Neither can you, if this place is any indication," mumbled Monster under his breath.
Callaghan got up and walked to the windows. "I don't suppose you even thought to look for your counterpart while you were out."
"I still don't understand why you need to find mine to find yours," Monster said from his perch on the back of a sofa near the office door.
Callaghan faked embarrassment. "I...I can't feel mine anymore. I've been away too long. I need a place to start looking."
Not swayed, Monster immediately counter-pointed. "But wasn't your counterpart always closer to the air kymmate's** counterpart, anyway? Why didn't you ask her for help?"
Callaghan scoffed and turned to his associate. "And where the hell would I find her? Can you find her? Right. She doesn't care. She's too busy sulking around feeling sorry for herself because she's so goddessesdamn weak and stupid." He looked pointedly at Monster. "Right?"
Monster shot a sullen glower Callaghan's way when he was sure his ill-tempered kymmate wasn't looking. Callaghan could make himself very trying at times. Most times, actually. But Monster was aware that what was once a minor annoyance was now no slight threat to anything that triggered Callaghan's prodigious mean streak. In all the time Monster and the other kymmates had been sleeping, or wandering, or fooling around, Callaghan had been hunting, insatiably. And it showed. Callaghan's little freezing stunt in Monster's ruins had really HURT, and Monster hadn't been able to do a thing about it.
Still, there were always weaknesses to work with. 'Since he seems to be in such a great hurry to find his counterpart,' Monster thought to himself, thinking one of the longest and most complex thoughts he'd attempted in a while, 'it wouldn't do him much good if I'm too injured or angry to do my part.' Simple as he may have been in other areas, Monster really did have a very good sense of when it was time to push his luck and when it was time to back off. With this self-reassurance, Monster settled into the sofa cushions for a light snooze. Such good hunting after ten millennia of nothing was certainly welcome, but if this was how every hunting trip would be, Monster strongly suspected that he'd drop from exhaustion.
Callaghan turned from the window, curious at the lack of asinine chatter. Monster was sleeping, a big dopey grin on his galling, insufferable, abrading, incredibly maddening visage. Callaghan entertained the notion of shattering those delicate little facial bones into a fine paste with a baseball bat. 'But...wooden, or aluminum? Wood is, of course, traditional, but aluminum does make that lovely "ping" sound when it connects...' After an intense internal struggle, Callaghan decided that hitting Monster while he slept would not be wise, because then Monster would wake up. And a Monster asleep meant a Monster that wasn't talking, or pestering him, or trying to be cuddly...
Callaghan was a bundle of nerves. He had hoped that Monster would have started looking for his stupid, anal-retentive little counterpart by now. He'd let it slide for a few decades, but the mortal kym were long overdue for an Awakening, and Callaghan would much rather nip the whole thing in the bud before the situation got messy. But, damn it all, he hadn't been all bluff when he'd fed Monster that tripe about not being able to feel his counterpart. He could feel his, all right, but he couldn't for the love of Nayru feel WHERE he was... And if he let them Awaken, and couldn't derail what always came after, then there'd be hell to pay... But if Monster proved himself worth Callaghan's time, and he did find just one of them, then if there really was an Awakening on the way... 'They always find each other; they can't help it, and then it'll be easy to just,' he snapped his fingers softly on his way out of his office. 'And if there isn't an Awakening, better safe than sorry.'
He was worrying too much. He needed to relax, take his mind off things. "Hold my calls, Sylvia," he said to his secretary on his way past her desk to the nearest elevator. Stepping into an empty elevator, he flipped open a blank panel under the buttons and pressed one of the small buttons revealed underneath the cover. Express to Basement Five.
Apt. 99, 4:00 A.M...
Link had woken up. Water was sometimes too much of a good thing. With that little errand taken care of, he stumbled back to bed. Settling down to go back to sleep, Link glanced over at Sheik, who had been surprisingly quiet today, well, technically yesterday, but... 'It's a break from all the perkiness, though...'
The 'bot had what could only be accurately described as a big dopey grin on his face. As Link watched, the 'bot hugged up his pillow and sighed contentedly; every now and then one of his servomotors would twitch.
Link decided that it would be a good idea to lie on his other side and stare at something that wasn't disturbing, like a wall, or something like that. 'I don't want to know, and know not I shall...not...know...of...things.'
The Hailey Building, 69th floor, 4:01 A.M...
Monster was having a lovely day, even if he was currently sleeping. His counterpart was easy enough to find in dreams, now if only Monster could remember how to feel him while they were both awake. He regretted ignoring his counterpart for so long. Especially now that he was so sweet and agreeable...
But, of course, that was something to ponder when Monster was awake. At the moment he'd rather not think more than was strictly necessary. If it was at all possible, his grin curled a little wider.
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Aaaaaand, that's the end of that chapter. I hadn't intended for Callaghan to be so angry, but...I think this works better; it makes him a much better foil for the Monster. I hope I wasn't too obscure with the ice cream gag. I didn't want to just be crude and spell out what it looked like Monster was doing to that poor little ice cream cone; it would have lost something. I also didn't want to spell out Monster's hunting practices, but I think that that was more obvious. It'll get explained, sooner or later. From now on, I'll have to be careful not to trip myself up... Questions? Comments? Concerns? :) The third chapter DOES tie into the story, I promise. Trust me. And, yes, Kotake "Ice"... Koume "Fire" will appear later... Good use of deductive reasoning. Speaking of deductive reasoning, most of you are guessing who certain people are...? Monster's been given away already; and I can only imagine what some of you are theorizing... Whee! Fun, eh? I wonder who will be right...