Night's Omen

Ryan didn't knock as he entered Christian's office. As the younger Shane brother, he felt slightly entitled to things like that. He knew Christian wasn't in, anyways - Ryan had a habit of coming by when he wasn't here, rummaging through his things, and then leaving without a word. He was still behaving like he was an unruly teenager, and that suited him just fine. He took what he wanted and left the rest behind, so long as his brother wasn't there to catch him.

Today, he lit a cigarette, shuffled through some papers, and settled down in Christian's comfortable chair, muddy feet on the desk, beer as a paperweight, letting the condensation soak through to the probably important documents beneath. He was reading some of the newest assignments to come in - some of it was marked for Christian's eyes only, but, you know. Nobody was there to tell him no.

The older and much more grounded Shane brother had just returned from serving one of his hunters MLA papers - Mandatory Leave of Absence. He'd had to forcefully put Capricia on maternity leave, lest she kill herself. He knew she wouldn't give her body any time to recover from having Anastasiya, and he went ahead and pulled rank on her - for her sake, and for Connor's. She wouldn't disobey a direct order, or so he was banking on (and he'd be mostly right).

He paused as he saw the light on in his office, and glanced questioningly to a passing guild member, but said nothing. The faintest scent of cigarette smoke wafted under his nose, and he growled a little. There were a handful of people who would do this - and he was sure Verde was accounted for. That left Capricia, who was gone, and his brother.

He popped through the swinging door and put on his best nonchalant, bored expression. "Well, what have we here? Ryan decided to grace us with his presence?" he asked, his tone on the border of a yawn. Ryan thrived on negative reactions, Christian had discovered this early on. That meant the less he reacted, the more angry Ryan would get.

Christian could always count on him to lose his temper. It was a very big constant for his sibling, which is why they were so different.