Night's Omen

Prompt List

• Drink
• Warning (http://angdar.com/nightsomen/index.php?topic=1922.msg32682#msg32682)
• Memory
• Summer
• Give Up (http://angdar.com/nightsomen/index.php?topic=1922.msg32685#msg32685)
• Reminisce (http://angdar.com/nightsomen/index.php?topic=1922.msg32684#msg32684)
• Miracle
• Masquerade
• Rain (http://angdar.com/nightsomen/index.php?topic=1922.msg32715#msg32715)
• Danger

Zahra leaned back at her desk, trying to wake herself up. It was summer, it was hot, and for whatever reason, the air conditioning in the office she shared with Sean had taken to malfunctioning. Sean had already gone home, proclaiming that it was "way too fucking hot". Zahra was trying to stick it out, but she was losing. It was still light out, but it was rounding seven in the evening, and she was at her energy drink limit for the day. If she had another one right now, she'd never go to bed.

A knock at her door startled her, and she snapped out of her tired stupor with a jump. She motioned for Dev to come in. He had been her mentor, from trainee to level three, and she always enjoyed a few minutes with her esteemed teacher. "What's up?" she asked, closing her laptop with a hand while the other gestured for him to sit down.

He waved his hand at her invitation. "Not here to stay, just wanted to let you know a bunch of new open jobs posted. I know you said you were getting bored with the admin side, so I figured I'd give you a head's up."

"Oh, shit," she said, blinking rapidly. "Yeah, okay, anything good?" She was already in the process of opening her laptop back up, and went to the site where they all tracked their information from. "Wow, there are a lot," she muttered, surprised. "These all just hit at the same time?" she asked, glancing up at him as she dragged her fingers across the trackpad, sorting by priority.

"About sixty seconds before I walked into your office. It's the day after a holiday, I am assuming whoever does the vetting was closed," he said with a shrug. "I don't pretend to know how they hold their postings. What I do know is that these are open, meaning guilds aren't the only people vying. If you're looking for work, that's your best bet."

"Yeah, thanks," she said, eyes drifting back down to the list. "A lot of hi-pri on here," she mused. "Oh, shit!" she exclaimed suddenly. "Dev, I know one of these HVTs! Come here, look - do you recognize him? That's Orestes, he's an ancient. He's helped us out before," she added.

Dev bent down to get a better look at the laptop screen she'd spun towards him. "So it is," he said, stroking his chin in thought. "I do recall he's been rather useful to us in the past, you are correct. This isn't a guild hit, though, this is just the open list. And, it appears the job has just been claimed." He turned the laptop back around to show his colleague. "Right there," he said, tapping the greyed out image. "Mere seconds ago."

"Oh, shit!" she said again. "Isn't there a way to find out who claimed it?" She began clicking around on the screen, attempting to access further information.

"Well, it isn't as though we use our real names on these sites. Generally speaking, guilds don't go after open jobs. You'd be better off asking the mercenaries we know - but if I were you, I'd advise staying out of it. If you care about Orestes, you can do him the courtesy of warning him, but it's unwise to get into the middle of these contracts." He paused. "You know we don't take too kindly to other guilds stealing our kills, imagine how much more competitive it is on the outside."

"No, you're right, I'm not interested in getting in the middle of it," she said, but she was already up and headed for the door. "But he is an asset, and he's more than capable of protecting himself. I'm still going to take the professional route and notify him that this is happening. He didn't do anything wrong to us to not deserve a warning, right?"

Dev inclined his head slightly. He couldn't argue with her logic. At least he had taught her about appreciating their assets - hunters like Zaine burned bridges left and right, while Zahra, even though she had taken a back-seat to hunting lately, had always maintained a much more business-like attitude about it. That extra little bit of compassion set her apart from others at her level. And, she'd had a good teacher. "Be careful, Zahra," he warned. "Whoever took this might see you as competition. Get in and get out. That's my advice."

"I will, I will," she assured him, patting herself down to ensure she had everything. Keys, wallet, phone. "I'll let you know how it goes." She gave him a pat on the shoulder that was not at all reassuring, and Dev frowned as she rushed out.

Zahra flicked her cigarette into the ashtray idly, brown eyes wandering through the glass that separated her from her friends. They'd finally all landed in the same place at the same time. She smiled fondly as they danced along with the rest of the customers at the crowded bar, to whatever poppy music was playing along inside. Outside on the smoking patio, it was significantly less crowded. These days everyone was concerned for their health. Bittersweet Symphony played on the speakers, giving her full effect nostalgia.

"And I'm a million different people from one day to the next - " Jonathan sang loudly, squinting his eyes shut and using his beer bottle as a microphone.

"Cos it's a bitter-sweet symphony!" Shaunessy came in, dropping to one knee with his own bottle, holding Zahra's up to her face to try and get her to sing.

Zahra leaned forward from the bench, pursed her lips, and blew over the neck of the bottle, the sound utterly off-key with the music. Shaun made a noise of defeat and stood up, letting go as she took it from him. "Very nice," she said, brows raised in amusement. "I think a few more of these and you two will be very ready for karaoke night down the street." She took a swig of the beer, picking up her cigarette from where it had been nestled in the notches of the tray.

Shaun sat down across from her, and Jonathan sat to her right. "You know," Jonathan observed, idly scratching at his beard with his almost-empty beer while the fresh one sat, sweating in the summer evening air of the city. "We might be the only people here old enough to even remember when this song came out."

A collective groan came from the trio, and Shaun shook his head. "Man, you might be right about that," he admitted sadly. "I haven't felt old in a while, but my little sister ran me through the ringer this week. It'll be a cold day in hell before I underestimate her again," he said. "What are you feeding your hunters?" he asked, looking pointedly at Zahra.

"My hunters? Oh no, she's not in my guild," she deflected. "They do things a little differently in her neck of the woods." That was all Zahra cared to comment - the bullshit that erupted from Onyx on what seemed like a monthly basis (to her) stank of mismanaged talent. Sean had put in a transfer to go there and help with the undertaking that was getting their priorities back in order, but he certainly had a long road ahead of him.

"Your inner officer is showing, ma'am," Jonathan teased.

Zahra rolled her eyes, then when he lifted his fresh beer up to take a drink, screamed "turtle fucker!" and clacked her own bottle against the butt of his, causing both of them to overflow - which caused them both the need to chug their beers, lest they be wasted.

"Wow, you still do that," Shaun exclaimed. "Do you remember when we were in Honduras and she did that the first time?"

"Do I," Jonathan laughed. "You dropped your bottle you were so stunned. Rafi had to clean up the mess because we were too rowdy and they were looking to kick us out. He finessed them with his Latino witchcraft."

"Yeah he did," Zahra agreed. "Hey, speaking of, have you guys heard from him at all? I mean, I get it, we all have lives, and Jonathan and I see eachother all the time, but still, he just kind of dropped off..."

Shaun leaned back a little on his seat. "Come to think of it, not for a while. But he was never much for keeping up with people long-distance. He said so himself, he was too 'out of sight, out of mind'," he offered with a shrug. "I wish I could relate." It was apparent he was speaking of his own family then, and though he was half-kidding, he was also half-serious.

"Speaking of long-distance, what's up?" Zahra prompted. "Are you visiting? Or are you back? She glanced at Jonathan, who looked pointedly to Shaun. It wasn't his news to tell.

"I'm back," he said. She began to speak, but he spoke over her, calming her before she got carried away. "I'm back for now," he said, finishing his sentence. "I actually have an interview here in the next few days, and it was an excuse to come see Kaylee. I came ahead as the scout so I could meet her new boyfriend and report back to the pack with my findings," he said, making it sound more ominous than it was.

"And what were your findings?" Jonathan asked, raising his brows.

"Right? I'm dying to know how the Macaw stood up to your scrutiny. You always did have standards of the highest caliber," Zahra teased.

Shaun rolled his eyes. "Very funny. For the record, I was drunk and it was dark and it was fucking Ibiza, I am absolved of all guilt. But, seriously - he's a good dude. He seemed a little nervous to meet me. I think Kaylee's been telling him horror stories about us," he snorted.

"Okay but the horror stories are mostly true," Zahra reminded him.

"Yes, however, they were also the ongoings of a wild bunch of boys. Donovan has more than mellowed out," he protested.

"Donovan put a hit out on 'McDonalds' for not serving him a McFlurry when he was drunk," Jonathan said flatly.

"Yeah, but he was younger - "

"Dude. It was like two months ago," Jonathan said.

"Yeah, when he was younger," Shaun said defensively. He laughed, though. "Benji, though. It's like he took the worst parts of all our personalities and decided that was the best course of action to develop his own personality. I really, deeply hope that it's a wolf thing, and he'll grow out of it." He sighed. "But I don't know. My hopes aren't high for that one."

"I'm sure he'll relax. Look at you! When I first met you, you wanted to fight everything that wasn't spinning," Zahra reminded him with a genuine grin. "Just give it time."

"I'll drink to that," Jonathan said, raising what was left of his beer after chugging most of it down. "And, speaking of drinking, Chief, it's your round," he added, pointing to Zahra with his finger on the hand that still held the beer.

"Ouch, is that what this is devolving into?" she laughed, standing. "If that's the case, we can't even be drinking together. It's fraternization."

"Yeah, god forbid you rub off some of your etiquette and fancy officer dust on us," Shaun joked.

"Hey, I'll sprinkle my dust anywhere I please," she countered. She went inside to get the trio more icy cold adult beverages, leaving the two men out on the patio by themselves.

"I'm stoked you're back - pending your job, of course," Jonathan said, and he meant it. He had never been hurting for friends, so to speak - Chase had a good family, and he got along with them just fine. But it wasn't the same. He'd done back to back deployments with Shaun and Zahra, and it was a different sort of bond that one formed. He was eager to have another person he could trust implicitly at his back. "Where are you interviewing, anyways? I'm surprised you didn't consider the guilds, to be honest."

Shaun laughed a little, eyes glancing up to the speaker as Wonderwall began to blare out. This place was really hitting all the notes tonight. "I could say the same to you," he offered, gesturing to Jonathan with his empty bottle. He sighed and set it down off to the vacant side of the table where the others were slowly collecting. "They're just really not my gig, truth be told. I know you know what I mean. I need something a little more structured, but a little less militant." Jonathan made a noise of agreement.

Zahra came back out with three more beers, distributing them to the men. "What did I miss?"

"I was just telling Jonathan about my interview. It's for a firm called Garden Security. It's going to put me spending significantly less time overseas in some shithole desert - and by significantly less, I mean zero time.  Have you heard of it?"

Zahra shook her head. "No, must be new," she said. "I hope you get it. It would be nice to have the group back together.

"Yeah, no shit," Jonathan said wistfully. "We're still missing Rafi though."

Shaun shrugged. "He'll turn up eventually. I'm sure we'd bore him to death, reminiscing about all the fun we used to have. If you could call it that."

"The parts where I wasn't trying to dodge rocket attacks were pretty fun," Zahra pointed out.

"Yeah for you," Jonathan laughed.

"Should have been a pilot," she said, raising her beer to her lips.

"TURTLE FUCKER!" Jonathan absolutely hollered, reaching out with his bottle and making solid contact with Zahra's.

Zahra rolled her wedding ring around in the palms of her hands. She was seated on the staircase of her townhome in Georgia, her flight bag at the bottom of the stairs. The house was sparse; there were a few boxes that were packed with the rooms they belonged in written on them in permanent marker, but they were pushed aside as though they had been cut from the move at the last minute. It looked like someone had left in a hurry. The time was about eight in the morning, and Zahra had just come home from a special assignment that had tasked her out roughly fifty days. She looked down at her phone, and pressed send on Rafi's name.

---

"It isn't about the money, Zahra!" Jace argued. "I never see you! It's like I married a ghost!"

Zahra wound her hair into a bun quickly, then turned to face her husband of seven years. "You were the one that pushed me to take this job! We could have stayed in Colorado, or in Hawaii! You told me not to miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity. Your words, Jace. Not mine," she reminded him angrily. "Why are you blaming me for taking your advice?"

She pushed past him, ignoring the dark look he gave her as she dredged up his encouragements long since past. She hurried down the stairs, scanning for her boots, and then dropped down in a chair to pull them on. Nimbly, she laced them and tied them, all the while following Jace's form as he descended the stairs slowly, waiting for whatever he'd say next. This had become such a routine, and she was so fucking tired of it.

"I wish I'd never supported you with this one," he said finally.

"Well, at least you've learned to tell the truth," she shot back, shocked by how much he'd wounded her just then. She stood up, continuing to gather her things.

"That's not fa-" he began.

"No," she said, holding a hand up. "No," she said again, this time more for herself. She snatched her flight bag up, hoisting it over her shoulder with a grunt. "Look. If you are done, if you are giving up, that's fine. Let's just quit dragging this out worse than it needs to be."

"Zahra, I didn't mean - "

"But you did," she said, her voice soft, but in a tone that suggested it wasn't good to try and argue anymore. She paused for a long moment, and then nodded. "Please don't be here when I come home." And with that last directive, she turned away from her husband and walked out the door. She was already mapping in her head how she was going to have to handle all their assets; on the way to work, she'd call the lawyer she'd been scouting since her last assignment. She'd have everything drawn up and done, and when she came home, she'd just sign paperwork and be done.

When she arrived at the terminal, Raf and Shaun were there waiting. "Hey," she said, handing her keys over to the friend she'd finagled en route to pick up her jeep. She shrugged her bag a little. "Sorry I'm late. Something came up," she said, waving her hand. They met Jonathan inside and proceeded to where they'd been told to meet the rest of their team. As they walked, Rafi tugged the sleeve of her overshirt, pulling her back to the rear of the group.

"Hey, is everything good?" he asked, brows furrowed.

"Yeah," she said. When he stopped walking and made her do the same, she made a noise of irritation. "Yes, everything is good. Jace and I just had the fight. It is what it is, dude," she said with a shrug. "Now, can we go?" And with that, she pressed forward.

"Wait, the fight? Like, the last fight?" he asked, stunned. He had to speed walk a little to catch up to her, which he did not appreciate - nor did his hangover, which he wasn't presenting much but was still very present all the same.

"Yeah, the last fight," she confirmed. When he gave her the Look to stop fucking around, she sighed. "I told him not to be in the house when I come back."

"GOD DAMN!" Rafi blurted out, causing Jonathan to turn back around and glare. He slapped his hand over his own mouth, making a pained sound. "Jeeeeesus Zahra," he said, this time at a much more appropriate volume. "You're a fucking savage."

"I wasn't trying to be. I just don't need any additional bullshit on top of my normal stress," she said defensively.

"No, I get it, I get it," he said, hands up to show that he wasn't attacking her.

"Can we drop it for now?" she asked, her voice betraying her impatience at having to keep rehashing an unpleasant moment out. The topic was dropped at her request, and, in fact, didn't get brought up again after that. At least, not until she came home and Jace had done exactly what she told him to do.

---

"Hey, I know we just got home. No, everything is fine. Can you come over for a little, though? I just don't want to sit here in total silence. Okay, see you soon." She set her phone down on the stairs next to her, then lowered her head into her hands. All of the stress and mental anguish hit her chest like a freight train, and it felt like it was consuming her, rendering her unable to do anything at the moment but ball her knees to her chest and cry.

Zahra stood on the roof of Shaun's posh high rise apartment building, eyes scanning the skyline absently as she patted herself down for a lighter. She'd already screwed a cigarette into her lips, thankful that she'd gotten to stop and get another pack before she had arrived. Shaun had bomb-dropped she and Jonathan about Odin's resurfacing, and she had taken a moment to herself when she found an opportunity so that she could go and clear her head. It wasn't that she didn't love Odin like a brother; in fact, he was like the brother she'd never had - to all of them, in varying degrees. Zahra was the actual only child of the bunch, but she imagined that if this was the love siblings felt, then she felt it just as strongly as the others.

The problem she had wasn't with Odin, or anyone else for that matter. No, her problem was with herself, and her inability to admit some pretty horrible truths to the guys about where their other friend was. She wasn't ready for the deep dive into her memories that the conversation would bring down there in the apartment, surrounded by those judging eyes, but maybe up here, she could think about it. She'd been avoiding thinking about it for two years, give or take. Pretty much the day after it had happened, she'd done what she always did - what needed to be done - and she'd put it in a dark corner of her mind, to revisit at a later date. Or not at all, as it had been in reality. But now, with Odin back on the grid, and all of the questions flying around, and with how damn perceptive everyone had become, could she really keep the truth from them? Maybe she could pare it down.

The last time she'd spoken to Rafi had absolutely not been as vague as she'd told them. She knew everything about the last time she'd spoken to him. She knew the expression he wore on his face, one mixed of disappointment and frustration, and of something else. Not desperation; that was beneath him. Anticipation? No, more like - like a knowing. She knew what he'd worn, she knew what time his watch face displayed on it when he turned to leave. She knew that they'd ended up yelling at eachother just to be heard over the rain as it poured down in its usual fashion at her house in Georgia. And she knew he'd left, and that was the last time that she'd ever seen him again. And she didn't want to tell anyone that she thought it was her fault that he hadn't tried to contact them - when the truth was, he would never have held that against them. But it was easier to believe that she was bad and had ruined things. Zahra had a good track record of it.

He'd come over, saying he "needed to talk to her about a new job", and Zahra had honestly no idea that the conversation would turn into quite the mess it had; if she had, she'd have told him she wasn't home, or she just wouldn't have answered at all. She'd have lied in one form or fashion, as she always had, to avoid having to reconcile with her feelings. In the past, he'd always laughed about it. Wasn't so funny when it was him facing that wall of denial, though, was it?

The talk wasn't so much a talk as it was a way for him to force her into a corner about things he'd always known. When he looked at her, waiting for her to respond to him about taking the job or not, she felt every bit of that corner, too, and so she'd done what she always did and lied and told him, "I think it will be good for you to go. It's a good opportunity."

That had been the last lie he'd been willing to tolerate, as it turned out, because he went from his normal seated position on the front porch where they were sitting (with beers neither of them had touched) to standing, directly in front of her. She'd willed herself not to stand up, too, resisting the confrontation that he wanted to force. When she didn't react like he'd hoped, he dropped to a knee in front of her, putting his hand on her knee.

"If you don't want me to go, just tell me," he said. His brown eyes were fixed on her, squinted just a little. She could see beads of sweat at his brow, a combination of the Georgia heat and nerves.

"Rafi, if you don't want to go, you don't need me to tell you," she said, and gently removed his hand from her knee. "I can't tell you what to do, you know that." And, if she recalled, the last time she'd told anyone what to do with their life, it had ended in a rather painful divorce. No, men didn't want to be told what to do. They said they did, but the truth was, they absolutely didn't. It would just give them a way to blame you on the backside. Well, she'd already fucking done that dance. She had no need to go in for round two.

That was when the actual confrontation came. If she'd thought that he'd been in his feelings up until that moment, she had been poorly mistaken. He exploded suddenly, standing up and declaring, "Damnit Zahra, I'm not fucking Jason!" It didn't help that as he had made his statement, thunder rolled behind him, a flash of lighting directly on its heels. The rain started, filling the background with angry, white noise.

Zahra finally stood up, too, but she wasn't keen on indulging this situation any further. He'd just gone straight for a kill shot with that, and she absolutely didn't appreciate it. "I know!" she shouted back hotly. "I know you're not him," she repeated, voice still raised, but not to the degree it had just been. She was barely speaking over the rain, now. "But I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear."

All of the anger left his face for a second, replaced by something else. Hurt. If he had served her the first headshot, she had returned with a deathblow of her own. She always could finish a fight, he thought to himself bitterly. Was it even worth it, to keep doing this? She wasn't the only person guilty of repressing feelings. He'd known how he'd felt about her for a while, but he'd always been so careful. Now, he laid it out on the line, and she just - pulled a Zahra, really.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked her, voice barely audible as he pulled together his resolve.

Her own face betrayed her doubt. She looked to the side for a second, while internally she wanted to grab him and shake him, to yell at him and demand that he fucking let her think. But she knew what he'd say. He'd say that she'd had time to think - that she'd had years to think. And if she didn't know, and she couldn't answer, then that was his answer.

"No," she said honestly. It was the first honest thing she'd said to him where her feelings for him were concerned in she didn't know how long - and neither did he. "No, I'm not sure, Rafi. But it doesn't matter what I think."

He stared at her for a second, and then let out a long sigh. What did he expect? "I should have known," he told her. She opened her mouth to speak, but he held a hand up. "Don't. Don't, or we will never break this loop." He reached out and put his hand at the back of her head, leaning in and dropping a long kiss on her forehead. He touched her brow with his own, eyes closed, and he knew hers were, too.

"Okay?" he said.

"Okay," she breathed.

"I'll see you," he said. He meant it.

"I'll see you," she echoed. She meant it, too.

A tap on her shoulder roused her from the sort of fugue she'd gone into, lost in her own thoughts and completely unaware of the world around her. Zahra made a noise of acknowledgement, looking to the direction the tap had come from, following the arm attached to the fingers to a slender feminine form. The form made noises at her, and it took Zahra's brain a second to catch up. It was a second too late, though -

"Ow, fuck!" she yelped, pain fully putting her back into the present. She let the cigarette that she'd lit and forgotten about go, spreading her fingers open and watching it drop to the ground, the cherry burned down to the filter completely. "Shit," she laughed, still shaken from the jolt. She rubbed her fingers together at her side, trying to will the sting away.

"Yeah, I tried to get your attention, but... " the brunette trailed off. She lit her own cigarette, hand cupping it to shield from the light breeze that New York summers seldom brought. She exhaled the smoke of her successful venture, then held her pack out to Zahra, an offering. "You were really gone, huh?"

Zahra held her stinging hand up to decline, the other showing her companion her own pack. She pulled another one out, lit it, and knew that she wouldn't forget about it again. "Yeah, I guess I was," she admitted. "Not my finest moment."

"It happens," Dawn said. "Sometimes I go, and I wish I could just stay gone." She held Zahra's eyes for a second, and then shifted her body to face the balcony, leaning on it and wrapping her arms around the rail to fully support herself against the concrete wall.

"Yeah," Zahra agreed. The two fell into a comfortable silence, each thinking about the things that kept them up at night, and the things that helped them sleep in return.