AN: So I finally decided just to press forward with this and get the next section out. Trying to get through writer's block can sometimes seem impossible. Hope it flows all right.
"So who's your friend?" Duncan asked, his tone overly casual.
Earning himself a disgusted look from the teen. "What're you doing here, Mac?"
"Finding you." The Immortal told him evenly.
The man's odd attempts at humor were not working on the teen at all. "So?" When the Scotsman continued to look at him innocently, the teen pressed on. "What do you want?"
"Who's your friend?" Duncan asked again.
The teen gave him a sideways glare. "Just a guy. Now what do you want?"
"You left." The Immortal told him flatly.
Earning him a yet another sideways glare. "And?"
"And I wanted to talk to you about it." The man replied.
Richie stared straight at him this time. "So? Talk."
Looking into the teen's eyes, desperately attempting to gain some perspective on what was going through his employee's mind, Duncan was more than a little disappointed to realize that his searching was pointless. Richie had gone stone cold. "What happened between you and Tessa?"
"Exactly what she told you." The teen told him flatly.
The response caught the Immortal off-guard. "How do you know what she told me?"
Richie shrugged smugly and gave his fingernails a quick once-over before reengaging his cool stair. "I don't. What's it matter? I'm cool with whatever she wants to make it."
Duncan racked his mind frantically for an appropriate comeback. "Wants to make what?"
The teen raised his eyebrows at the man, remaining silent in response. The Immortal wasn't ready to give up just yet, though. He decided to try a new tactic. Blunt honest. "She said she asked you to stay in the back while she waited on the important clients."
The tactic didn't work. "So?"
"So you got ticked and took off." Duncan once again attempted to prod the youth into talking.
The response he got was not exactly what he had hoped for. "So what are you asking me for? You already know what happened."
"Alright." The conversation was not going the way he wanted at all. "So what are we going to do about it?"
"Do about what?" Richie returned flatly.
The unflappable façade was starting to drive the Immortal mad. "About you and Tessa."
"Wasn't planning to do anything about it." The teen told him matter-of-factly.
Duncan was not at all comfortable with that idea. "You were just planning to sit here for the rest of your life?"
"Right." The youth scoffed at him.
The Scotsman wasn't exactly surprised by the sarcastic response. "So then, what's the plan?"
Richie rolled his eyes at the repetitive questioning. It seemed every day since he had moved in with the Immortal, the man inevitably asked some form of that question. Apparently, he was hell-bent on knowing every 'plan' the teen ever made. "Well, I was planning to have lunch before you drove off my company."
"Let me guess, an old, long-lost friend?" Duncan questioned.
The teen wasn't taking the bait, though. "Something like that."
"Well, I guess I'll just have to take his place then. Can't have you eating all alone. It's bad for the digestion."
"Mac." The youth leveled him a sour look.
Which Duncan chose to ignore. "Have you ordered yet? I think I'll have the chicken salad sandwich. Are the fries good here?"
25 minutes plus two cases of acid indigestion later, the check arrived. As Duncan reached for it, the teen stubbornly clasped his hand over the man's to stop it. "I'll get it."
"It's on me." Duncan replied lightly.
Earning yet another scornful look from the teen. "Fine, we'll split it."
As the teen tossed a crumpled 10 bill on the table, the Immortal quickly followed suit, hang the change, and hurried to catch up with the fast-moving teen.
A few feet down the sidewalk, Duncan caught up with the teen. Matching the youth's pace, he realized that his two primary objectives had failed. He hadn't gotten the teen to talk and he hadn't even cracked the brick wall the boy had around himself. Hang it all, he wasn't failing on objective #3. "You ready to head home?"
As Richie skidded to a startled halt, the Immortal came within inches of skidding right into him. "What?"
"I said, are you ready to head home?" The Scotsman annunciated each word slowly.
The teen turned fully to look at the man. "You mean to the loft?"
"You have another home I don't know about?" Macleod asked lightly.
Richie nodded his head back and forth slowly and silently, his eyes unusually wide. He finally found his voice. "But Tessa…I…"
"Relax, Rich. We'll figure it out." Duncan told him calmly.
The teen was not nearly as sure as his employer, though. "I didn't think you'd…"
As the sentence drifted off, the Scotsman chose to temporarily ignore its implication.
"Come on, Tessa's probably near frantic by now." The Immortal said simply as he placed a gentle hand on the teen's shoulder and led him to the nearby car.