Reunion

[Shaunessy Miller]

Shaun was sometimes thankful for his natural resistance to alcohol. When he'd parted ways with Zahra and Jonathan, he'd watched them stumble to a taxi, able to communicate but not able to walk a straight line. It had been the shots following several rounds of beer, for sure. Shaun had declined those - not because he'd get tipsy (which he might have at that point), but because they were doing tequila shots, and tequila was fucking disgusting.

He slowed his walking when he heard raised voices, and sped back up as those voices became muffled thumps. Ahead of him, a man was being walloped with a cane.

"Bro, you tried to pick-pocket a blind person? How close to front-row seats are you TRYING to get in Hell?" the man demanded. Every time the thief went to move, thinking that maybe if he were quiet enough he could just run away, he got smacked with the cane again. And that shit HURT.

"I'm sorry!" the guy yelled. "I didn't know you were blind!"

Shaun wanted to intervene, but at the same time, it seemed like the intended victim MORE than had the upper hand here. He approached quietly, and came to a stop just out of swinging range of that cane. "Would it have mattered if you had?" he asked, alerting them both to his presence.

"No, it wouldn't have," the blind guy said, jabbing him with the end of his cane with every word to punctuate how he felt about the matter. "You're actual trash, dude. Actual." THWIP. He hit him again, this time across the face.

"Okay," Shaun said, uncrossing his arms. "I think he's learned his lesson. Before you beat him to death, do you want me to call the cops? I'm pretty sure he's not going to try and run." He tilted his head to look beyond him to the man defending himself poorly on the ground.

"No, no I'm not gonna try and run! Just TELL him to STOP HITTING ME!" he begged.

When the blind man turned around to "look" at Shaun, Shaun actually choked on his spit. "Hellstrom?" he managed, coughing aggressively. He felt so fucking undignified. What an apex predator. "Since when - how - what the fuck dude, you're blind?"

Truly, a creature of elegance and grace.

[Odin Hellstrom]

Odin would understand Shaun's opinion on the tequila because he'd made those mistakes before, and he'd regretted it every time.  The only one who seemed able to maintain a fairly decent mood through the resultant hangover seemed to have been Rafi, but Odin didn't know that he wasn't around to have joined the others.  In his defense, he didn't know that the others were around, either, so he wasn't exactly missing Rafi anymore than the rest just yet.  His concerns were to figure out where the fuck he was staying, since he might have been very capable, but learning how to use his phone without being able to see the screen had proven to be a pretty constant source of annoyance.  The guy who showed up apparently out of an alley, his mental map less put together than usual because he was tired and felt a smaller headache coming on, was just bonus irritation, and he'd initially sighed, shaking his head at the stock dialogue demanding his wallet.

"We really gonna do this?" he asked, and then the show was on.

Normally, he'd play a little less intense on exactly how capable he was - he'd had a really nice lady offer him her arm at the bus station to help him to his bus since none of them were labeled in any way that would help him - but this guy?  There was nobody around, he was annoyed and the dude was seriously willing to mug a blind guy who was pretty obviously lost, if he was at all a judge of that sort of thing.  It was a shitty thing to do, and so he didn't mind beating the crap out of the guy with the cane that he'd collapsed to give it a bit more strength - didn't want to bend it on this jackass.

Having someone else arrive, which he hadn't noticed while he was paying so much attention to his would-be attacker, made him flinch, but he otherwise just kept on what he was doing until the guy called it quits.  He almost agreed to calling the cops, more than willing to have this guy arrested for his dumbassery, but when he turned to face the newcomer more completely only to have the man say his name, he blanked for a few precious seconds.  The voice, he hadn't even recognized it, and he really had no excuse, what with the accent and everything.  It sounded like Shaun was choking on something, and Odin wondered if it might be the realization, which followed close after.  He narrowed his eyes behind the sunglasses he was indeed wearing at night, brows knit together in further irritation, though this time at himself, and he thwapped the mugger with the cane again.  "Get out of here, asshole.  I suggest you don't pull this shit again."

The guy seemed happy enough to scramble to his feet and take off, and Odin turned his face to Shaun again.  "Uh, yeah.  Surprise?  What the hell are you doing out here?  Wasn't expecting to run into anyone familiar, to be honest."

[Shaunessy Miller]

Blind or not, Shaun was pretty impressed with Odin's ability to maintain control of the situation without actually fucking the guy up. He'd always been a little less violent than everyone else, but he protected his own pretty fiercely. He may not have been a wolf, but he certainly felt like a little brother to Shaun all the same. He was a little stunned to learn that he was blind - and he intended to find out more, but he was done stumbling over the awkward questions for the moment.

"Okay then," Shaun said to Odin's blunt answer. He didn't want to push the issue - but he DID want to greet him properly. "Hope you're a hugger," Shaun warned him, before reaching out and pulling him in to a tight hug. He kept it brief (and manly), by clapping him on the back lightly, and then released him.

"I actually just moved here," Shaun admitted. "I came out on the recommendation that I should apply for a job with a security firm here, so I did. It's a lot more clean than defense work," he added. Bitch you thought. Shaun had no idea what was in store for him, or anyone else on Leon's team. "Actually, you know who else is here? Jon and Chief. In fact, I just left them at a bar not too long ago. They're probably both home now, but - kind of funny, we're all together again."

"So where you staying? And what are you doing here, anyways? I didn't think you had any family here." Odin had family in Iceland - or Finland. Or somethingland. He couldn't remember.

[Odin Hellstrom]

It was something of a relief that Shaun just let everything go, for the time being, and accepted his lackluster answer.  Honestly, he knew he was going to have to explain properly, and he absolutely knew Shaun deserved to know, but he also just hadn't been prepared and didn't really want to stand there on the street where he'd just almost gotten mugged for that particular conversation.  He didn't know where he wanted to have it, but here definitely wasn't it.  The hug, however, seemed aptly timed and he wasn't about to admit that he wouldn't have minded if it went on longer.  Truth be told, he was lonely and his life pretty much sucked, but he also couldn't stand to be at home, so a hug from someone who gave a shit about him?  Yeah, that hit a little harder than he was expecting, just like everything else about being around Shaun and any of the others was likely to.  Damn, had he missed them.

"Seriously?  They're both here, too?  How the hell..." he muttered, actually a little baffled that he'd managed to somewhat randomly just decide to make this move at the same time that the others were around, though he shook his head.  "Just Rafi missing, you heard from him at all?  Kept meaning to call everyone, but things have been weird, so I never actually got there."

Considering the last time he'd seen Ramirez had been kind of a rough spot, he couldn't help worrying, but he'd assumed that it was his own fault for falling out of contact, just like with the others.  "I, uh, was actually trying to figure out where I'm staying.  I reserved a cheap room, but I need to actually find it, first," he admitted, then gave a shrug that somehow managed to be joined with a smile.  "No family here, that's kind of the point.  Nobody was happy at home, so I'm getting some space, gonna figure something out, I guess.  Security firm sounds exciting, though, good for you.  You get it, or still applying?"

[Shaunessy Miller]

"Dude, yes," he said, laughing a little. "And Ramirez came up tonight, too. Zahra hasn't talked to him," he said, his voice betraying just a hint of - something. Concern, maybe? More like a mixture of that and amazement, because they had been very close. Not romantically close, but whatever was just on the other side of that. "She asked us if we'd talked to him. Kind of dropped it after that, so..." he shook his head a little. "I don't know." He didn't want to admit he was worried, but none of them had talked to him? None of them had talked to Odin, either, though. Shaun felt a pang of guilt, but pushed it back down. No, not now, he thought to himself.

"Okay, well, cancel your reservation. I have a sweet apartment not too far from here, which I can afford on my own because I got the job. I say 'on my own' because my younger brother was staying with me for a month or two until he got his own place, and he did supplement it a little, but now it's just me." He paused. There was a moment where it seemed like he'd say how awesome it was, but he didn't. Instead, he said, "It fucking sucks bro," he admitted.

"Anyways, my little sister is here too. And get this, she's dating someone Donovan doesn't hate," he added, clapping Odin on the shoulder. "Fucking wild, right? You never got to meet her, but man, you'd love her. She's like, the best of all of our traits. And a few of the bad ones, but not as many as you'd think." He paused. "Mostly the temper."

Shaun already just assumed Odin was going to come along with him, so he gave him a tug on the sleeve. "Come on, let's get a cab. Do you have any stuff or do you need stuff? because I have a surplus of stuff, and we're still about the same height."

[Odin Hellstrom]

Hearing that even Zahra hadn’t heard from Ramirez was WEIRD, considering how close the two of them had always been.  Odin had asked about it once and gotten the equivalent of ‘work spouse’, which he guessed made sense and that was the end of that.  If anyone had still been in contact with him, it would have been her, but it was definitely worth the concern that she wasn’t, at least as far as Odin thought.  They’d lost contact with him, too, and look why that had happened.  Not that he thought Ramirez was in his exact situation, but there were a lot of other things that could go wrong in their line of work.  He didn’t comment other than to make a thoughtful sound when Shaun confessed he didn’t know, but the other guy didn’t require much else to move on to everything else on his mind.

“Hell yeah, of course you got the job,” he said with a grin, though that faded just a little when Shaun admitted it sucked being just him.  Odin could relate, and frankly, just listening to him fill the silence already felt better.  It had been one thing being at home, and it wasn’t like he wasn’t loved or anything, but everything felt so damn tense there.  Shaun felt easy, just being around him already, and that was a relief in itself.  Had he been considering turning down his offer (instructions? He hadn’t really asked), that was over pretty damn fast in favor of surprise and then another laugh at the description of his sister.  Odin hadn’t met her, but Shaun had talked about his family so much that he was pretty sure they all felt like they knew all of them, at least a little.  For Donovan to not hate whoever she was dating was impressive, but her having Shaun’s temper was even more impressive.  Also, dangerous.

The clap on the shoulder turned into a tug on his sleeve, and Odin used it to set a hand on his arm, mostly because he trusted Shaun enough to not walk him into a streetlight or tree if he let his map down for a rest, though he turned and reached out to feel for his bags.  “I have some stuff, but I dropped my bags when that little shit came at me.  Pretty sure I remember you being a lot bigger than me, even if we’re the same height, and I doubt you bulked down,” he pointed out, more than willing to get off the street so that he could relax his guard a little, but he couldn’t help the fact that his brain wanted to go nuts on all of the ways his life had just changed, and it revolved entirely around Shaun and his friends just suddenly, unexpectedly, being right there from nearly the moment he arrived.  Fucking wild, is what it was.

“Guess I’ll get to meet your family, huh?” he asked, and he was not at all worried about that.

[Shaunessy Miller]

"You CAN meet my family," Shaun said, helping him load the small amount of belongings he'd brought into the taxi he'd flagged down. "But you don't have to if you don't want to." Shaun was having to actually, consciously, try not to be excited and dump a bunch of obligations onto Odin. Even if he was like a better, significantly less shitty little brother than Benji, the fucker.

He was trying not to sound too excited at the idea of having someone around. Honestly, he wished he could be more like Zahra when it came to that quiet, stoic kind of aura she had. He had no idea how she could go from zero to one-hundred so fast, either, because even after all these years he never really saw the moment right when her temper would explode. He understood her fuse was pretty long, but she had personal motivations she didn't divulge that could occasionally set her off way, way sooner. Shaun on the other hand was like a pup with many things - he was too. Too enthusiastic, too angry, too sad, too everything. One would absolutely not tell by looking at the man, or his career, that every day there was a part of him bouncing around in his head going a thousand miles an hour.

Was wolf ADHD a thing?

"I did not bulk down," he said, an afterthought as they got into the taxi. "But you aren't quite what I'd call a bean pole." Odin didn't give himself enough credit - he may not have been as wide as Shaun, but he had always held his own. Rafi was the wiry one, honestly. He and Zahra standing next to them always looked funny. He'd heard the "Take your kids to work" joke more than once. It never ended well for whoever was tossing the insult.

"Well, you can stay for as long as you want, man. Like I said, being alone is really lame."

[Odin Hellstrom]

"We'll just play it by ear then."

Obviously, he had no way of knowing he was being referred to as a better and significantly less shitty little brother, but he sure as hell wasn't going to complain.  Shaun was so quick to make it clear that he didn't have to do something instead of making instant plans for whatever might lay ahead of him, and while that seemed like a weird issue to notice, Odin's mother had been overplanning everything from the time he went home.  It seemed like the only way she felt like she had any control over anything that was happening when her boy came home with that nasty word 'disabled' attached was to have everything figured out down to whatever detail she was capable of.  He loved her, but he hated it, and so had his dad, which was a lot of their problem anymore.  He was just done with it.

"Wouldn't ever think you did," he conceded about Shaun's bulk, but he'd been a big guy for as long as they'd known each other, and he couldn't imagine the guy quitting on that literally ever.  He'd picked the gym back up himself eventually, after he'd gotten home and everything had settled down in his life a bit, and that had been one thing he'd kept up on since, but he also hadn't seen himself in a mirror in three years, so it was easy to forget or lose track.  It was easier to feel out exactly how much Shaun had not bulked down once they were getting in the taxi, considering it made the backseat more cramped than he was used to, but it sure as hell wasn't the first time they'd been crammed into a vehicle together.  For being the smallest in the group, Zahra and Rafi always seemed to score the front seats, mostly because she drove and swore that he was better with the map than the others; Odin hadn't argued about his own abilities, but Jonathan had swapped in a few times and left Rafi to be squished into a mass of bruises in the back with them.  It was never not funny.

"You're right, being alone is definitely lame.  I appreciate this, man, a lot.  I don't know what exactly I was planning to do when I got out here, but this makes it all seem a lot less stupid," he admitted, and it felt stupid just saying it out loud that he'd come all this way with half of a plan and a need to get away and do something, but given the kind of crazy shit they'd done as a team, he figured Shaun and the others would understand an unclear need to be up and actively doing shit better than anyone else in his life.  He'd sat, he'd recovered, he'd learned what he needed to learn, and he wasn't helpless, he just occasionally benefited from a little help.  Life needed to move on, and he refused to just casually accept that he was 'disabled'.  It was true in the strictest sense, and there were things he had to accept that he simply couldn't do anymore, or would struggle with, but that didn't mean he couldn't make his life work again.

[Shaunessy Miller]

Shaun wouldn't have been very surprised if Hellstrom had chosen to vocalize how frustrating his home life had been. From what he could remember, his parents weren't entirely on board with him joining the military. He'd had to give up a dual citizenship for it, which of course had pissed them off (they were PROUD of their country and had only come to the US for his dad's company branch opening in the states if he could remember what little Odin told them). There were other things, too - obviously violence. It was a big part of Shaun's family and way of life, not so much Odin's. He'd always been the more quiet and sensitive one of the bunch. Well, Rafi had, too, a little, but it paled where Odin was concerned. He was definitely the heart. It made Shaun feel more guilty about not knowing any of this shit, but he knew better than to "I/Me" into Odin's problems. He hated that shit. His own family did that, just in different ways.

"Well, nothing ever got done without someone taking a chance, man," Shaun said, coming back into the present. "There are some specialists here that might be able to help you, if you're down to talk to them. People that can help - well, people like me," he said, and the implication was supernaturalpeople - which meant there may be magical avenues to Odin's problem. Shaun didn't particularly feel like there was anything wrong with him, but he felt like it would be weird to tell a dude who used to do shit like draw little comics and had a knack for sharpshooting that there was "nothing wrong with him" when he'd lost his fucking eyesight. No, there was nothing wrong with Odin's character or personality, but yeah, physically, some things were not factory settings anymore. He wouldn't pretend they were. But he also wouldn't pity the kid. It wasn't very on brand, for either of them.

"If not, no big deal. Have you considered what you might want to do for work? I know being a trapeze artist is off the table now though, but you're blind, not dead." Shaun closed the trunk of the taxi as he spoke. The ride to his apartment had been really fast - they probably could have walked, but Shaun didn't think Odin needed to drag his shit around anymore that night. "Wait here a second," Shaun said, then his footsteps got further until a buzzing sound was heard and the distinct sound of a metal gate opening followed. The footsteps came back.

"Okay, after you get over the curb, it's a pretty straight shot to the doors. If you hear water, it's because there's a fountain. I know, man. Fucking fountains and shit. Who'd have thought?" Literally nobody. Shaun took Odin's bags easily. "Here, hold on to this," he offered, and put Odin's hand on the strap of one of the bags on his shoulder. It was reminiscent of instances after they'd all been smoked out and had to follow eachother out of buildings in training scenarios. Weird how the military prepared you for the most unlikely circumstances.

"At least this place has a working elevator," Shaun said. "My last building was like six flights of stairs every day. I have the quads of a Greek god," he laughed. He lead them to the elevator, which was entirely too spacious compared to a normal apartment elevator. Honestly, Benji had NOT deserved to live in a place like this, the little bastard.

[Odin Hellstrom]

"God, don't ever say anything about specialists anywhere my mom might hear it," he remarked, letting out a short huff of air, and really, that probably said everything Shaun might need to hear even without getting the full explanation.  Odin wasn't opposed to trying to get help for himself, especially if it worked and wouldn't be some kind of crazy 'be careful what you wish for' kind of 'help', but he wasn't exactly in the biggest rush to jump on it, either.  His mother had been on the hunt for some magical fix through the medical field, and his father had been all about accepting the situation he was in and moving on, which had put the two of them at odds on the whole situation and Odin himself in the middle.  He could tell towards the end that his mother's hope for a fix was more desperate and that the sad acceptance was starting to settle in her mind based on some of her behaviors seeming far too....final wasn't the right word, but it was the one that came to mind.  It was almost like she was coming to terms with his situation for him, and just deciding how the rest of his life would obviously have to be.  He wasn't interested.  He loved his parents, but he'd gone home because he hadn't known what else to do and the support while he was dealing with it all was really helpful for awhile, but he hadn't ever intended it to be permanent.  She seemed to have decided that it would be, and he'd heard talk about going back 'home', which he also wasn't wanting to do.  It was nice to visit, but he had no intention of being whisked away to a place that he hadn't ever really lived.  "Maybe at some point, after I get settled, you know?"

The question of what he would do for work had occurred to him, but unfortunately, he didn't have the answers that he wanted.  He got assistance that would get him by for the moment with what he'd been saving at home, which Shaun would likely already know, but that wasn't what he wanted out of life even if it did pay all of his bills.  Still, he grinned at Shaun's mention of being a trapeze artist being off the table, because the guy had absolutely no reason to think otherwise, but it was still a little amusing to have an ace up his sleeve.  "Oh, you never know, man.  I might still make a great trapeze artist," he shot back, but he waited dutifully when Shaun instructed him to, listening to the footsteps and the gate buzzing before it opened.  He couldn't quite resist the urge to reach out and feel some of his surroundings, but he was already worn out from his trip to the city, and the headache he'd been warding off pressed more insistently when he reached, so it was a very soft outline of the edges nearby, sketchy and only the slightest bit helpful.

Actually, that was him being picky, because it was better than nothing and Shaun's descriptions clarified what he already had pretty damn well.  Curb, gate, fountain, and his friend even went so far as to grab his bags and set him up with the shoulder spot to hang onto in such a way that it all seemed fairly natural and sent his own thoughts back to training scenarios.  "A fountain?  Bougie shit, man, who are you?  I remember a guy who was so hungover he napped on the hood of the truck while it was still hot cause he said it was 'cooler than the fucking sand', and now you live in a place with decorative fountains and...this feels like a really big elevator."

He wasn't even going to comment on the 'quads of a greek god', because Shaun had always been built really well, and Odin might have gotten back to working out, but he was pretty sure he wasn't where he'd been before, which was annoying.  He'd have to see if he could talk Shaun into taking him along for workouts.

[Shaunessy Miller]

Shaun laughed. Truth was, he'd come from humble beginnings. He'd been fortunate enough to stay out of whatever crime syndicate his brother was running and had enlisted just to get away from things. A lot of blood, explosions, chaos, and some deeply buried PTSD later... and there was a fountain in his courtyard. "Well, I felt like maybe it was time I lived one of those lives I dreamed about," he said Was it really a dream, though? He wasn't sure yet. And, unbeknownst to him, the shit that his boss was involved in was less dream and more nightmare, and Shaun was about to be dragged into it.

So much for coasting.

"Hey, Dawn," he said, passing a girl getting into the elevator as he lead Odin out.

"Hey," she said, her voice more husky than what one would think when they saw her. Dawn sang and chain smoked. Shaun didn't sing, but he did have a chain-smoking friend, and on more than one occasion, they'd bumped into her up on the rooftop garden thing when she was taking a break from whatever she was doing. Usually, it was late. In fact, this was about right on time for her, judging from how the numbers on his watch displayed just past midnight.

Once the elevator doors were closed, Shaun spoke again, guiding Odin down to the end of the hall. "Sorry, I didn't introduce you because - you know what, if you decide to stay, you'll see for yourself," he concluded with a laugh. It had taken a while for Dawn to even say 'hey' back to him, and he still got the impression that she was - wary? He wasn't sure. There was something about her, a roughness that Shaun didn't really understand. It was the wolf in him picking up on it more than he did, but he often listened to that inner creature, and it said approach with caution, and so he did. He did know that she had a sister, who was much friendlier, even if she set his radar off, too, albeit significantly less.

"Here we are," he said, opening his apartment door. He realized that Odin couldn't see anything to fully appreciate it, so he saved the fanfare for later when he could describe his decor - or lack thereof. Shaun had been slow at doing much with it aside from get furniture in. "I can walk you around and give you a quick essential tour," he offered.

"Kitchen, fridge. Water, beer, coffee creamer. Here to the right is the coffee maker, which is automatic. Cups are actually those insulated things so if you drop one, it's not ceramic and won't shatter. Sugar, here. Silverware here." He let Odin orient himself until he was fairly confident he had it, and then took him to the second bedroom. "Bed, here, closet here, bathroom conveniently located here - I lucked out on getting an apartment that had two master bedroom-style suites, so you've got your own space almost entirely."

Once the tour had concluded with things Shaun thought might be important (coffee, beer, bathroom, bed - what else was there?), he stifled a yawn. "Do you think you've got it for the night at least? This is way better than a shitty hotel room, even if you've got some ground to cover from the bed to the kitchen," he added. Shaun hated hotels. They reminded him of weird barracks rooms - who has a kitchenette across from their bed? Nobody wants that.

[Odin Hellstrom]

For obvious reasons, Odin didn't know the full extent of Shaun's family issues, but none of them knew everything about each other.  They'd learned through action, and whatever each other had talked about while they were out there.  Zahra was close-lipped about whatever was going on in her marriage and then it was just done, even though Odin was fairly certain that Rafi knew the gory details because those two were close, but Rafi himself had a pretty happy family life and he hadn't really seemed to withhold much of anything about it - a fact that probably filled the space and kept the people who didn't want to talk about their shit from having to, which Odin hadn't realized was happening at the time, but he fully believed now that Ramirez had probably done on purpose.  As a result, he knew the guy had a younger brother and two sisters, his parents had been married for about a million years, his mother really _did_ have house shoes and that she was a fantastic shot with them against moving targets, and the guy spoke both English and Spanish fluently.  Mostly.  Rafi had literally never been able to remember 'dustpan' in English, for some reason, and after watching him struggle for the word, he'd never let him live down calling it 'the I don't know, dirt tray thing, fuck you Hellstrom, it's a recogedor, give it to me'.  It had forever after been called 'the dirt tray thing'.

Given how long it had been, he wondered how many of the things that had become normal among their team had been left by the wayside as they all went their separate ways, or if being around each other again would bring those little details back into play.  Shaun said that everyone except Rafi was in town now, and as much as Odin didn't really relish 'the Big Reveal', he had sure as hell missed them all.  Even just being around Shaun again was starting to fall back into place as something way more comfortable, and the ease with which the man was taking everything in stride certainly helped.  There was no weirdness about guiding him through the building or that weird pause after saying something offhand like, 'you'll see for yourself', which people strangely seemed to think was some awful turn of phrase to use, like Odin hadn't been able to see his entire life until recently and wasn't so used to hearing phrases like that that the meaning of the individual words was basically lost.  His mother had not been a fan of him starting to make blind jokes back at people whenever the awkwardness threatened (or he felt like it), because she'd said it was 'in bad taste'.  Maybe it was, but it was easier than being weird about it.

"Sounds ominous, you setting me up here?" he asked, also with a laugh, but he'd also heard enough actual warnings given with a laugh in the past because whatever had prompted the warning had been hilarious in retrospect.  Since he hadn't gotten much of a feel for Dawn, he didn't know what it could be, but he was certainly curious.

The tour went about as expected and covered the essentials quickly, as Shaun promised.  Realistically, all he needed was bed, bathroom and refrigerator to begin with, so the rest was just bonus.  Even with it being as late as it was and how tired he happened to be, he was able to sketch out the beginnings of a map that would make the morning a little easier to get going, and he didn't see Shaun as being the type to sleep until noon, so he would probably not have the place to himself in the morning, or likely not for long.  It all just depended on how well he slept that night. 

"I'll take some space between my bed and the coffeemaker, if that's the takeaway from not having to deal with a shitty hotel.  I appreciate this a lot, man.  Can't believe you just randomly found me, anyway," he said, finally giving words to that particular line of thought, because how the hell did he run into someone he knew so well out of all the people in this big city?  Fucking lucky, that's how.