Courier run

[cian_oneill]

Odd jobs was definitely a part of Cian's work description, but he didn't mind this sort of thing so much. It gave him a chance to get on his bike and ride, even if it was just up to Searchlight.

He pulled up outside the library, opened the pannier on the side of his bike and pulled out the bundle of books that had to be returned. Some family had forgotten the concept of borrowing from the library meant actually returning them at some point, and had just left them in the room at the resort when they had checked out.

He took off his helmet and leather jacket, leaving them on the seat of the bike, and tucked the bundle under his arm. The heel of his boot crunched on the gritty pavement outside the library, and the rush of cool air that hit him as he walked inside was welcome. There was no-one at the counter when he walked in so he stood and waited, making the most of the air conditioning, before heading back outside on his next errand.

Comments

[wolfs_daughter]

His accent made her imagine rolling green hills and bagpipes. Or were bagpipes from Scotland? Maybe she should look that up in a book.

"I actually do have transportation of my own, but the town is small enough that I can walk it in a day," Echo told Cian. "It's nice weather for a motorcycle ride, though. I don't know if it cools off much when the fall comes, but maybe it won't be in the nineties every day."

The librarian had left her station at the desk again, probably to shelve more books, and the hybrid peered past the man to make sure she was out of earshot. "How long have you been...well, you know. Could we talk outside?"

[cian_oneill]

"Long enough," he grinned, leaning over and pushing the door open for her.

He could smell there was lycan involved, but there was something else about the younger woman he couldn't quite figure out, and his curiosity was at a high.

[wolfs_daughter]

As she and Cian exited the library, Echo saw his bike where it glinted in the sun, and she let out a low whistle as she tucked her hands into her pockets to keep from touching the handlebars or the seat. Some people were particular about that, and she didn't know how clean her hands were.

"Nice," she remarked in a complimentary voice. "Papa had a bike when he was younger, but he sold it after I was born so he could buy a car with a backseat for baby stuff. There's a big framed picture at the house in Seattle of him sitting on it."

The tall man was not kin to the Wolf, but he was a shifter, she could smell it. She wished she knew more about her own kind. It might be easier to ask a stranger questions, though.

[cian_oneill]

"Thanks," Cian replied, nodding his head as she talked about her father. "So y' father's livin' in Seattle?" he asked, jerking his head a little toward the shade of an awning that was meant to keep the bright Nevada sunlight from damaging the books shelved inside the window. It offered a little shade against the wall.

[wolfs_daughter]

"He's a writer, sort of," Echo answered, following the motion of Cian's head before stepping beneath the awnings. "He writes stuff no one ever reads, though. Textbooks, things like that. He's really smart."

She drew an invisible line on the cracked concrete near the window, looked up into the Irishman's face. "When you, uh...when you change, what does it look like?"

[cian_oneill]

She was gutsy, he had to give her that, and her level of curiosity was almost on a par with his own.

"Isn't tha' like askin' a woman her age?" he teased, arching an eyebrow and the twitch at the corner of his mouth ensuring she didn't take fright, or offense. "I'd pick y' f' lycan, but there's summin' diff'rent abou' y' I can't quite put m' finger on," he said, as usual sidestepping direct questions until he had enough information to be sure of who was asking.

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo laughed, but it came out sounding a little nervous. Rejection by and exile from the commune had done a harsh number on her psyche when she was younger, which was why she was borderline paranoid about telling anyone about the Wolf. Holly had been different because it had been clear those sort of things were exciting to her, but the world at large thus far seemed ready to condemn anyone who was different.

Still, if she couldn't tell Cian, who had a slightly different smell, who could she confess to?

"Papa passed on the Wolf," she told him in a whisper, and her eyes glowed a soft golden color as she let her other self show just a bit. "It was an accident, that's why I'm his only kid. Mama didn't know if it might not happen again."

[cian_oneill]

"That's what it is," he said, nodding slowly and leaning back against the wall, then quickly rethinking that and pulling away again. He leant on his shoulder against the rough surface instead. While the abrasions on his back were now well on the way to healing they were still a little tender and his t-shirt wasn't enough padding at this point.

"Y' wolf by birth, but not by y' ma." He paused, wondering what it would be like to be born with it. He'd never come across one born to it before, let alone a hybrid one. "How was that?"

[wolfs_daughter]

She noticed the way he moved, as if he'd been hurt, and she chewed on her lower lip rather than comment on it. Her shoe drew another line on the ground.

"I was born in a commune just outside of Seattle," she told Cian, averting her gaze because this was hard for her. "Mama met Papa while he was doing history research, and they moved in together in the compound. Everything was really great for a while. And then they found out I was a half-breed and that it was because of Papa's genes. They said we had to leave."

Shame. Echo was used to shame. At the way she'd been treated, the way it made her feel, the way people she had thought were friends had looked at her. As if she were a freak. It made her heart hurt.

She looked up into his face, curiosity battling it out with caution. "Does it hurt when you shift? Is that why your back's bothering you?"

[cian_oneill]

A smirk crept across Cian's face, eyes now fixed on hers. "Only a little, and no," he answered directly, wondering if it was perception, or something else that made her ask.

"'n that's pretty lame, turnin' y' family out f' tha'," he continued, a small crease appearing as he frowned slightly. "You 'n y' pa weren't rippin' folks head off were y'?" he asked, not fully understanding the status of the commune, or why they would turf anyone out.