"I can't believe you only bought two shirts and one pair of pants," Lydia complains. Blaine smiles as he eats his frozen yoghurt. They had dropped off their purchases in Lydia's car—because Lydia of course bought some things and so did Allison—and are now just hanging out...like they were normal kids. He's missed this.
"Life on the run, remember?" Blaine reminds her. "Cooper and Sam and I have one bag each and if it can't fit in the bag, then we can't bring it with us. The fact that I'm smaller than they are means I actually do have more clothes than they do but as it is, I think I'm going to have get rid of a shirt or two to fit the new clothes in."
As Lydia dragged Allison to a shop window to look at shoes, Blaine thought about how much he has changed. Not the obvious one where he's now a monster out of a horror story, but the little things. He actually had no desire to get a bow tie even though there were several really nice ones that were on display. The pants he bought, his first consideration was how much freedom of movement it would give him and if the material could stand a lot of abuse, color and style were only considered because he needed to know if it would make him blend in or stand out.
He actually wants to go to Huntington's and check out their selection of knives. They haven't been able to get their hands on a gun, mostly for Cooper since he and Sam had their own ways of protecting themselves, and fortunately in the months they've been on the run they didn't really need it. In fact, there were several instances that it was a good thing that they didn't have one on them when they were pulled over a couple of times for speeding (always when it was Sam driving).
Knives, though, they have been able to buy some knives (and machetes and hatchets "for camping") especially in Indiana, and they had held Blaine's fascination since.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
Blaine starts and sees Allison smiling shyly at him. Blaine smiles back. "I was just wondering if Lydia will freak out if I told her I want to check out some knives." He indicates the store with a nod of his head. "Where is Lydia anyway?"
"Single-handedly ending the recession," Allison answers blithely, she walks up to Blaine with a puzzled expression. "You like knives?"
Blaine grins. "Sam and I can take care of ourselves but Cooper needs to be armed and we didn't exactly know where to pick up guns while running for our lives. We bought a few knives in some town in Indiana and what can I say? I think they're cool."
Blaine walks over to a trash can and dumps his empty cup.
"It's more for Cooper, really. I just feel better with him armed," Blaine continues as he rejoins Allison. He smiles up at her. "You don't happen to know any black market dealers in firearms who would sell to a couple of guys on the run, do you?"
Allison gives Blaine a huge grin. "Funny you should ask..."
Blaine suddenly stiffens. His eyes involuntarily narrows as something feels off to him. He didn't lie to Scott and the others, not really, more like he didn't tell the whole truth. His senses are sharper because of all the animals he had to feed on but that isn't why he can tell if there are other aswangs about. He can sense them. Ever since his...birthright...awakened, he could always tell when there was an aswang about. He can sense one of them now.
"Blaine?" Allison asks softly. He looks at her and he sees that she's alert, aware that something is wrong.
"Get Lydia," Blaine says quickly as he continues to look around the mall, trying to pinpoint his quarry. "One of them is here."
Allison nods and quickly heads to the store as Blaine picks up his phone to call Cooper.
