Night's Omen

Of course the gun wasn't needed any longer, but Connor still didn't put it away immediately.  He just laid it against the floor appreciatively and tried to take note of his injuries, not even paying any further attention to either of the men until Ken addressed him.  Progress?  More like, Erik hadn't wanted to die, but Connor wasn't about to point that out.

"I'm fine.  Give me a minute and I'll be out of your hair," he replied firmly, fully meaning it as he pulled himself first to a kneeling position, then finally to his feet.  He was shaky and dizzy, in a lot of pain, but not about to complain.  "Matsumori, stop by my office tomorrow.  Lucio, no more stunts like this without supervision.  Got it?"

Of course Batten would be telling him not to pull anymore 'stunts'.  Once Ken was off of him and he had a chance to think, he was actually pretty pissed off.  He'd wait until Batten got out, though.  "Yes, sir," he forced out.  He wasn't going to argue with the guild leader, that much was for sure.

Ken, though?  Oh, yeah.

He stuck by that, too.  It wasn't until Connor had nodded, looking a little pale and worse for wear, and had stumbled for the door that he worried about Ken.  Surprisingly, he wasn't too worried about Batten.  The man would survive nuclear holocaust, so he wasn't worried about him making it back home in one piece. 

"Ken.  I seem to remember mentioning that I didn't want your ass in my house tonight."

Kenji was almost certain Connor would be more mangled after being attacked by a giant tiger, but apparently he was still in good enough condition to leave the house under his own power.  The raven shrugged; Batten wasn't guild leader for nothing.  He pushed his concerns to the back of his mind, however, when Erik began to speak.

"I could hardly stand by and do nothing," Kenji murmured, though he did sound a little contrite.  After all, he'd nearly become tiger food.  Again.  "I feared you might escape through a window."

This whole situation was absolutely infuriating.  Did NOBODY have ANY faith in his abilities to figure this situation out without a babysitter?  Obviously, not.  Ken was just as bad as everyone else, which didn't happen THAT often. 

"How do ANY of you expect me to figure out what I'm doing with this mess when nobody will leave me alone for a few hours to try to do something about it?" he demanded, pulling himself off the floor and kicking aside a chunk of what used to be his kitchen table so that he could get a cup of coffee.

Wait until he realized that caffeine didn't do anything to shifters.

"Did I look like I was going for a window?"

Of course, he couldn't be sure because his control was just THAT bad that he didn't remember if he'd gone for a window, but he was pretty sure that he'd have a busted up window if that had happened.  From the sounds of things, nobody was very successful at stopping his tiger form from doing much of anything.  He would have been proud of that if he could have claimed that HE could stop it from doing what he didn't want it doing.  That was his whole problem with the situation. 

"That is the point, Lucio-kun.  We cannot just let you 'figure things out' for yourself, at the risk of you losing control of your tiger form and hurting somebody."  No longer so contrite, Kenji had that firm, stubborn tone in his voice. 

Meeting the challenge in Erik's eyes, the raven crossed his arms and straightened himself nearly to his full height.  Now there was a hint of accusation in his words:  "I don't know, Lucio-kun.  Were you going for a window?  Because I could not see whether you were or not, as you had dimmed the lights and drawn the blinds.  I could not tell whether you were even in tiger or human form, or if you had fallen unconscious, or if you had already escaped somehow without my noticing.  I didn't know what was going on, so I did what any responsible partner would do:  I called for backup, and I went inside to check on you."

His entire body was stiff with anger, and his words were crisp, though still quietly spoken.  This was about as close to riled as Kenji normally got, and it took a LOT to even get him to this point.

Usually, Erik and Kenji didn't fight or argue.  When they did, it was bad because neither wanted to admit that they were wrong, and this was definitely one of those times.  Erik had never appreciated too much interference in his life, which was certainly understandable (he thought), but all he'd gotten since he'd arrived in China had been interference.  He was sick and tired of it.

"This is one of those points where you remember that you claim to TRUST ME, and stop trying to babysit me!" he snapped right back, setting a coffee mug down a bit harder than he needed to, which somewhat distracted him.  It didn't break, but he had the feeling that was a lucky thing.

At least it calmed him down somewhat, though.  The last thing either of them needed was for him to get too pissed and shift accidentally.  "Listen, Ken.  It freaks me the hell out to be constantly watched like this.  It's driving me up a wall.  Everyone's treating me like I'm going to go nuclear and explode at any second, and it's making me even more paranoid than I'm already feeling," he finally explained, honestly frustrated. 

Kenji pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, breathing deeply and slowly for a moment.  It wasn't often he let himself get so upset, though he'd had more temper problems than most avians since he was a child.  Still, even he recognized that it would be no good to get into a heated argument with Erik when he was this easily triggered.

Returning to his stoic, calm state with no sign of his earlier agitation, he leveled Erik with a very serious, gray gaze.  "I trust you," he said with quiet emphasis on the 'you', "but I don't necessarily trust what you've become."  It pained him to say it, but it was the truth.  "Your tiger form is dangerous.  You don't have control.  Until you have that, I must continue to keep an eye on you.  I know it's inconvenient, but it's necessary."

There it was.  Ken trusted him, but he didn't.  All that they'd been telling him about him and the cat being the same person, not two separate things, and now Ken was going to try to separate them for his own purposes.  Great. 

"It wouldn't be dangerous if I had time to work it out," he retorted, getting slightly more angry again.  "I'm not about to intentionally shift if someone's nearby, considering how bad it's been every other time.  The LAST thing I want to do is purposely end up hurting someone!"

Why wouldn't Ken accept this and work with him on it?  Hell, if he felt the need to secure Erik's house and keep him from escaping, that was one thing, but Erik wasn't about to get any level of control if he felt uncomfortable with where he was and what was going on every time he shifted.  More than likely, the cat would just pick up on that and exaggerate it to a dangerous point.  Not good. 

As much as Kenji hated to admit it, Erik had a point.  "You're right.  This isn't very productive," he grudgingly agreed.  "Watching you constantly is only making you paranoid, and that's not good for the tiger part of you.  To be honest, I'm more worried about the times you don't mean to shift, than the times you do it on purpose in your own home.  Although," and now he looked pointedly at the busted kitchen table, "your house is not exactly tiger-proof.  We might want to do something about that if you're going to practice in here, alone."

The raven found a chair and perched on it in his usual fashion, feet tucked beneath him and knees to chest.  He nibbled on his thumb, a habit that seemed to be a carry-over from preening behaviors in his avian form.  "I can't promise to stop monitoring you, Lucio-kun," he said finally, "but I can try to be less... invasive about it."  At least he was willing to compromise.

Of course Erik had a point.  He was a pretty intelligent individual, especially when he tried.  Ken just never gave him any credit for it, and that was mostly because Ken was insanely smart, himself.  Erik just didn't think like that, but that didn't mean he was the village idiot. 

FINALLY.  Progress! 

"If I can get control when I shift voluntarily, wouldn't that mean the likelihood of shifting accidentally would go down?" he asked, trying to go for logic.  Logically, he'd assume that control was control.  It should help no matter what.  As for monitoring..."You'd better be less invasive about it, or I'll have to invade your space with something sharp."

There.  His threats were getting better than just 'I'll kill you'.  Sure signs that he was slowly recovering from everything.  He still had a lot of issues, but those wouldn't be going away anytime soon. 

Kenji knew Erik was no idiot, not that he'd ever say such a thing out loud, but it didn't keep the raven from treating him like one sometimes.  One of the drawbacks to being sort of a genius, or at least that's how he'd justify it.

"Theoretically," Ken replied, drawing the word out slowly.  "Though if something were to go wrong while you were 'practicing', I'd still need to be on hand to make sure you didn't escape and cause any trouble."

He ignored Erik's threat with his usual selective hearing.  Which was actually a compliment, in a way, since it meant he wasn't making fun of Erik's threats, as he had been for the past few days.  "Perhaps if there was a remote way to monitor you...  A device you could wear, that would notify me if you change, so I can be sure to stay on the alert," he mused.

Somehow, Erik was doubting that Ken could really stop him if he wanted to escape.  Maybe when he had better control, that was something they should try.  See if bird-brain's intelligence could handle him.  In the meantime, it needed to work, even if he didn't like it.

"I think you're getting a little complicated here," he warned, but he also knew better.  He didn't want Ken trying to fashion some sort of invisible fence or whatever to alert him if Erik shifted or tried to leave his house.  Just the idea of that was undignified, and somewhat worrisome.  He didn't know how much he trusted whatever Ken might cook up in that regard.

He could just imagine himself walking out of the house and suddenly getting electro-shock therapy while Ken rushed over.  No way.  Not happening.

Blinking apologetically at Erik, the raven dipped his head in a sort of shrug-nod.  "My apologies.  I do tend to over-think things, don't I?  Anyway, I was only trying to devise a way to be less intrusive, but it seems that electronic methods would be just as bad as if I were hovering over your shoulder."

He sighed, just a huff of breath through his nose.  "In any case, I'd rather not spend anymore nights outside in a tree."  There was a slight tilt to his head, though, and a sideways look that meant he was more amused than anything.

Once more, Erik snorted his retort rather than bother with one, though his mood had certainly improved.  Discussing the situation instead of being given ultimatums or orders truly helped, and though he wasn't happy with it, he was less likely to snap and throw the raven out.

It WAS cold out, after all.

"Fine.  You can have the couch," he conceded, though he wasn't sure how this was supposed to work in the long run.  How long would it take for Kenji to be satisfied with his situation.  "For now, anyway.  We'll see how long this lasts.  You're still going to have to get out of dodge when I try shifting, though.  I'm not trying it out with someone else present again."

THAT was something he wasn't budging on.  He wanted to try it without outside interference, to see if he might be able to get a grip on it without having to worry about someone getting in his way, provoking the cat before he could get a handle, or running.  That was the worst.  His memories of the first shift had slowly come to him, and he remembered Lore running.  Not good, ever. 

"Thank you, Lucio-kun," Kenji murmured gratefully.  Though he didn't sleep much, a couch was far more preferable to a cold tree branch.  "I will only stay tonight."

Leaving the kitchen chair, the raven made himself comfortable on the couch, which was already conveniently outfitted with a throw blanket and a pillow.  Obviously, Erik liked napping out here. 

He was glad that his partner didn't seem inclined to throw him out into the cold anymore.  Progress.  There had to be a way they could work this out to both their satisfaction.  Erik needed to be monitored, but even Kenji could admit that he didn't need to be watched twenty-four-seven. 

"How would you feel about a few security cameras placed near main exits of your home?" he proposed after a moment.  "That way, someone will only come over if a tiger bursts through a window, or something similar."

He nodded at Ken's acceptance of the sleeping arrangements, and the agreement that it would only be for that night.  Good.  They were on the same page. 

It was true that Erik liked napping on the couch, which he'd proven earlier that evening by passing out for quite some time there, but he didn't mind Ken taking up the space.  If he had, he wouldn't have offered.  He could do better than just the throw blanket and pillow, though.  "You know, I can make the couch up with sheets, if you want," he offered with a shrug.  "It's what I do anytime Sarah stops in to crash."

Sarah was his baby sister.  She got the couch, despite being the 'baby' sister.  His bed was his bed, and they were agreed on the fact that she didn't really want it.

"I'd feel like I was being watched, but since that's the point, I guess it doesn't matter.  It's better than a babysitter."