fandomtownies | Caritas, Saturday Evening

Entry tags:

$caritas,
mike lane

Caritas, Saturday Evening

Mike had no visitors this weekend. He still didn't even know there was another thing happening currently. As far as he could tell, it was what passed for a normal weekend on this weird island, and he was having a normal shift at the bar.

But he'd finally shaved his beard and mustache off.

Tino seemed glad about this.

[ooc: No ocd because laaaazy.]

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Atton was still on team Let's Avoid Being Alone In An Apartment With Meetra Karking Surik tonight, so hitting up Caritas seemed like a fantastic idea.

"This is probably the lesser of the two watering holes we have around here," he said casually, "But it serves everyone, so we don't have to deal with the fact you don't have ID, and hey, I come here a lot."

Like anyone who looked at either of them would think they were 21. ... Well, okay, maybe him, but they knew him.

Really, he was just here in case he needed to get drunk and karaoke.

"You frequent a cantina that doesn't come with its own pazaak den?" Meetra asked skeptically. "I'm not sure I believe that."

She leaned up against the bar, letting Atton order the drinks. This once. She trusted him not to get her anything that would floor her too badly.

"Hey, I have layers, okay?" Atton griped. "It's not all pazaak, all the time."

... When Tino came along, he didn't actually order anything alcoholic. He'd figure out later tonight if he could handle this for another few hours without needing a stiff drink and a terrible pop song.

Well, thank god for that, Mike. Because Derek didn't want to deal with his mom implying that he'd fallen into a bad crowd.

A bad, bearded crowd.

"This is Mike. He lives at the house."

He owns the house.

Talia nodded along with the same sort of amused expression that she'd had all day at her son's embarrassment over everything. "Hello, Mike."

"Hello," Mike replied, even if he had no concrete idea of who he was saying hello to. Didn't stop him from smiling in that easy way of his. "I own the house, actually."

"This is my mom," Derek ground out.

"Talia," she said, offering a hand to shake. "I'd apologize for my son's manners, but he was raised by wolves."

Bah-dump-ching.

Mike got over his shock with some admirable speed. Mostly, anyway. Well enough that he didn't have any trouble reaching for her hand and giving it a shake. "I'm used to it," he said. "Found him squatting in my house when I moved here."

Derek gave him a look for this betrayal. Et tu, Mike?

"I was not--" Damn being unable to lie to people who could hear heartbeats and smell stress on you.

"Derek," Talia tsked, turning her attention onto him. "He always did like his drama."

"I don't know, he's relatively low drama as a housemate," Mike mused. Sure, there'd been some stuff like the Kate incident, but that wasn't all the tim. "I've had worse."

"You have?"

Jack eyed the dark-haired woman with Derek for a long moment before greeting them. Talia figured so large in Derek's mythology that it was almost strange to see she was just a woman.

"Hello," he said, smiling as he felt the situation out. "So, anything interesting going on?"

Derek made pathetic eyes at Jack like that would convey the sheer level of 'oh god' of this moment.

"I think you should buy drinks with a question like that," Talia replied, smiling at her son's packmate. He was shorter than she expected. "On a day like this."

Jack was a completely reasonable height; everyone else was just too tall.

"I know," he admitted, smiling back and offering his hand. "But sometimes I pretend to be clever. I'm Jack, by the way. It's a pleasure."

"Talia," she replied, looking down at the hand briefly before tugging him in to hug. And possibly scent a little.

Derek sighed and mouthed 'sorry' at Jack behind her back. "She's already met Stiles. And skyped with Cora."

"Oh, aren't Stiles and Derek adorable together?"

That was Jack being a brat. He pulled away from Talia once the hug was done, having scented her enough to get a sense of power and love.

"Very," she replied with a knowing little smirk that would not have been out of place on her brother. "Though the number of bite marks on the poor boy were a little worrying."

That strangled little whine? That was Derek trying to find a hole to swallow him up to avoid this whole thing here. "Does anyone want a drink?"

"I wouldn't turn down another vodka tonic if you're buying," Jack said cheerfully, and then turned his attention back to Talia. "I know. But somehow he hasn't been accidentally turned yet. They manage."

"White wine," Talia said, giving Derek a patronizing little pat on the arm as he shuffled over to get those drinks.

"It's sweet. Young love and all. It was the same with Derek's father and I."

She blissfully ignored the quiet crying coming from Derek.

"Was it?" Jack asked, leaning toward Talia. "Well, maybe there's hope for Stiles and Derek.I wouldn't be surprised to see them end up with a litter of their own."

Ignoring the biological issues there.

Talia's eyebrows went up at that. "Do things work differently where you're from?"

Jack coughed with surprise once he realized what Talia meant. "No, I was just talking."

A beat.

"They could adopt."

"He was very good with his little sister." Meaning he did everything she demanded. "How exactly did you meet my son?"

"In the woods, wasn't it?" Jack said, glancing toward Derek for correction if it was needed. "I'd lost something. He helped me find it, and when he realized I didn't have a pack he took me on."

He glanced away, shy about the rest of what he had to explain. "I hadn't been bitten long before that, and I didn't know any wolves who knew much more than I did. Meeting him helped a lot."

Derek looked vaguely sheepish as he returned with the drinks in hand for them. "We do better in a pack."

"I think meeting you probably helped him too," Talia replied, letting her eyes go red.

Jack couldn't look away from those glowing eyes.

"I think so too," he said, agreeing with them both as he accepted his drink. "And cheers to that."

Derek would have muttered that he was doing just fine, but that would have been a lie.

"Cheers," he muttered with a glass of water.

"It's good to see you're both doing well," Talia added, lifting her glass.

"And it's an honor to meet you," Jack said more formally, once he'd sipped his cocktail. "I should have known it might happen, given where we live, but I didn't expect it. But Derek's only said good things about you."

Talia had to smile at that. "You get used to the strange with lives like ours."

Jack wouldn't have been in the island's inferior bar twice in one week --but when your packmate texted you to come meet his dead mother, he was willing to make an exception. He waved to Mike as he took a seat.

"I'll have a vodka tonic with absolutely no dead loved ones on the side."

"Good, because I don't think we have any in stock right now," Mike noted as he went to get him his drink. "Get any of your own?"

He paused.

"Is that even a thing that's okay to ask?"

Jack waved a hand. "You see me naked at least once a month and we don't even have any fun. I'd say it's okay to ask me whatever you want."

A beat. "And no. But Emma's brother showed up, so I get a dead almost-in-law. Hooray?"

"Hooray," Mike agreed, although it was pretty wry. "I didn't get anyone, either. But Derek's mom's here."

"He invited me down here to meet her," Jack nodded. "How's that going? What's she like?"

He hadn't gotten much around Derek's panic.

"She seems nice?" Mike offered. Honestly, for the most part he'd been doing his best to get over the fact that he'd been talking to a dead person, and not the Allie kind, either. "More social than Derek, anyway."

Jack smiled tightly. "Not as if that's a hard way to be," he pointed out. "But good. I'm glad this is going better than it did when his dead uncle turned up."

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Caritas, Saturday Evening

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