((ooc: Many apologies for the long delay.))

> "You'd save a lot of lives."

It wasn't what Rupert wanted to hear. He kept eye contact with Tarin, but his jaw clenched. What did he want to hear? Damned if he knew, but that wasn't it.

> "I know you're not interested in sob stories Rupert,"

--Damn straight he wasn't--

> "but if it wasn't for her powers, you don't even want to know the sorts of things that would have happened to her....besides me."

Rupert's mouth opened. The words 'Should I care?' almost came tumbling out, until he realized that would be playing into the man's first statement. That thought made him a little angry, for some reason. He shut his mouth. Tarin's whole attitude was making him angry. Even if the guy was dead tried, he could at least be... be... something besides an understanding doormat.

> "Are you trying to convince me that I shouldn't trust you Rupert?"

Rupert jerked slightly where he stood, standing up a little straighter.

> "That's exactly what you're doing, isn't it? It'd be so much easier to hate me if that was the case, wouldn't it?"

He made a small sound of denial, like a tch; his head turned slightly to the side.

> "To hate Lee if she was trying to toss you out the window instead of being terrified of you and hiding."

Yeah. Yeah, Tarin sure knew how to press his buttons. "Well you've just got it all figured out, don't you?" He asked, dangerously low. For a long moment, that's all he could think to say. What else was there? Tarin was an idiot to trust him; and hell, of course it would be easier if the freaks all hated him as much as he loathed them. He set his own cup down on the table with a sharp crystalline click. "Thanks for the drink. I hope I didn't get you in too much trouble with your fiance." There was a distinct finality to his statements. There was also a seething undercurrent of unfocused anger. At least he wasn't taking it out on the mutie.

Not that Tarin had given him a reason to. That was half the problem.

Yeah, he didn't care. This night seemed to be the equivalent of a niagra falls of mistaken words. Tarin could tell by the look on Rupert's face, the tense stature of his body that he was angry, and getting more so by the moment. Every encounter he had with Rupert ended up being tense like this, like both of them were fighting for the same air bubble in a submerged car. It was all under the surface though. Well, it had been.

Tarin saw Rupert's body flinch when he asked about the trust, he was hitting close to home. Pushing it further at that exact moment might have been too far. Not only because Tarin figured it was a bad idea to really anger a man who had this much potential power of him. There was also the fact that despite his obvious feelings Rupert had still come into the apartment knowing that there was a mutant involved, that kind of pulled on Tarin's guilt strings.

Rupert spoke and Tarin sighed into his glass, listening as Rupert put his down and thanked him for the Scotch. Tarin knew the termination of a conversation when he heard one, but he felt bad for pushing so hard in a situation that couldn't be called anything but strange.

"You're welcome for Scotch any time, here or at the shop. And I don't think that I know everything Rupert. I'm just trying to figure out why someone who seems to hate my very nature would try and help like you did."

Tarin paused and leaned more heavily on the kitchen countertop, shrugging at the second half of the other man's statement, "I brought that on myself." he said, referring to Lee's anger, "And she's really more angry at you than me...whether you deserve it or not. If you decide you do want me to look into spirits around you, let me know. And thank you again, for your concern."

There wasn't much more to say in reality, Tarin hadn't missed the finality ringing in the other man's words or stature, and at the risk of angering him further, Tarin decided he wouldn't push it.

> "You're welcome for Scotch any time, here or at the shop. And I don't think that I know everything Rupert. I'm just trying to figure out why someone who seems to hate my very nature would try and help like you did."

Rupert looked down at the glass on the table. A ring of Scotch still clung to its bottom; those last few drops a man never could drink. "Damned if I know, either."

> "If you decide you do want me to look into spirits around you, let me know. And thank you again, for your concern."

Rupert could actually feel the anger, deflating out of himself. "I... Thanks for the offer, but no thanks." He didn't look at Tarin; he looked towards the door out of the apartment, instead. "If they are still hanging around there, then I already know why." He knew what they'd want done, too. Who could rest easy when two of those three killers were still on the loose? Frankly, the Camps were too good of a place for the ribbon-haired girl. Better than having her loose on the streets, and better than having her in a normal prison, but the fact that she still had a fighting spirit after all these weeks said it clearly enough: the Camps were too good for her like. When the time for the breakout came... he was going to have to decide what to do with that one. Honestly, he'd rather see Raina rot than see that girl free.

Rupert could actually feel his self-loathing, flowing back in to fill the void his anger had left. "Get some sleep, Tarin." He said, walking towards that door. He didn't look back at the man.

Back at his own apartment, he didn't make a pie. He just turned up his stereo, lay back on his couch, and stared at the ceiling as he petted a warm poodle on his stomach and just let the someone else's words fill his head for a little while. He had himself a Tom Waits marathon.

"...There's a leak, there's a leak in the boiler room
The poor, the lame, the blind
Who are the ones that we kept in charge?
Killers, thieves and lawyers

God's away, God's away
God's away on business, business
God's away, God's away on business, business

Godddamn there's always such a big temptation
To be good, to be good
There's always free cheddar in a mousetrap, baby
It's a deal, it's a deal

God's away, God's away
God's away on business, business
God's away, God's away
God's away on business, business..."