we will shrink and then be quiet as mice,

[trollverine]

WHO: lolverine and Selina
WHERE: Selina's place
WHEN: Monday sometime??
WARNINGS: None
SUMMARY: Sometimes you just have to stupidly stalk someone you don't want to talk to.
FORMAT: words



He was fine during the flight back to the city, all the way to long-term parking. Logan was nothing more than a recurring annoyance in the back of his mind, a mental mosquito hum. It wasn't until he'd tossed his luggage in the passenger seat of his car and slammed the door that he wondered: where had Logan been since that day?

There were four obvious possibilities, and only one of them came with a much reduced chance of actually having to see his father. He told himself that it would be a waste of time, and it was a short argument: there weren't any good counterpoints. And yet, minutes later, he sat at the intersection for the highway and had a brief moment of indecision. All he had to do was go north, upstate.

But the light turned green, and he headed for the city.

Somewhere between hitting Selina's street and stopping on the curb half a block from her apartment, things started to look reasonable. It would be fast, he decided. Nothing could go wrong. He'd either find that Wolverine had been there or find nothing, and then he'd be done.

He checked his phone and gave himself two minutes, got out, and headed for Selina's building.

Comments

[meowminx]

Daken wasn't the only one headed for Selina's apartment. Selina herself had made a grocery run and was on her way home. A bit loaded down with bags; the cats had made it clear she owed them for disappearing for four days. When you had a small feline army protesting inside your head, a couple of pounds of fresh salmon was a small price to pay for a bit of silence.

[trollverine]

It didn't take long to determine that Logan hadn't recently been near the front of the building, at least. That didn't make it an absolute certainty that he hadn't been there at all, but probably not was close enough. He turned to go back to his car.

And there was Selina.

It was too late to back out now. He'd have to walk right by her, and she'd probably seen him. He put on a lazy smile and went to meet her. "Perfect timing."

[meowminx]

If she was surprised to see him, she manages not to show it. Instead, he got a slight smile in return. "Daken. Been a while. When did you get back?"

She suspected when and why, of course.

[trollverine]

"Just today," he said, leaving it at that; "I was on my way out of the city. I thought I'd drop by." Never mind that he'd taken a major detour to get here. He'd been careful about mentioning the house, though. For all she knew, he was staying just outside the city limits.

He gestured to the groceries. "May I?"

[meowminx]

"Thanks." She handed over the load. Left her arms free and it's wasn't like he didn't know where she lived already. "I think I have an open bottle of Scotch."

She always had an open bottle, so it was a fair assumption.

[trollverine]

"It's like you always know exactly what to say." It was just the first response that came to mind, and it sounded much more casual than he felt.

He was going to stay because he had to, and she was going to bring up Logan. Maybe not immediately, but she would. It was inevitable. And he had to be patient and wait for it, some question he wouldn't want to hear.

[meowminx]

She didn't say much until they were back in her apartment, the groceries in the fridge and the scotch in two glasses. Selina kept the bottle nearby because she suspected she might need it.

"So, why are you really here?"

[trollverine]

If he'd learned to expect anything from Selina, it was suspicion. Not without reason; she was just more perceptive than the average person. Still, he wasn't going to actually admit to tracking Logan.

He smiled at her. "Do I need an ulterior motive? Despite what you may think, Selina, I do appreciate good company."

[meowminx]

"Who just happens to have good alcohol." She tipped her glass towards him like she was dropping the issue.

"Interesting timing for coming back, though." Or maybe she wasn't.

[trollverine]

He sipped his scotch before bothering to answer, and set the glass down very calmly.

"I have better things to do than drop everything and hunt down my father." Irritation crept into his voice. "I had some business in Middle East. Yesterday, that business concluded." He paused: that was too honest, and at some point he'd stopped smiling. That part, at least, was easily fixed. "Besides, it's impossible to get drinks there."

[meowminx]

"True enough. Haven't been to that part of the world in years." She sipped her own drink, matching the amount he had drunk. "Bad experience in Egypt with a mummy."

She sounded totally serious.

[trollverine]

It took him a second to decide that it wasn't a punchline. It made a certain amount of sense, anyway, an art thief stealing a mummy.

More importantly, conversations about her life were much easier territory than conversations about his.

"I assume there was a curse involved," he said, much less serious.

[meowminx]

"He thought I was an incarnation of Bast and wanted to marry me."

She was still totally serious.

[trollverine]

"And how did that work out?" he said, not missing a beat. Either it was the most deadpan joke she'd ever told, or it was (somehow, ridiculously) true; he was leaning towards the former. Strange things happened every day, but an actual mummy was too Hollywood.

Regardless, it was easy to roll with.

[meowminx]

"Had to destroy a very pretty necklace to put him back to sleep." And she got shot too, but that has more of an accident. "Seen anything like that in your world? Or is magic not as big a thing there?"

[trollverine]

"I think that's more of a capes thing." There was no way to say it without at least a little bit of derision. "They deal with a lot of--" a vague dismissive gesture-- "so-called gods and time travel and reality-altering, et cetera. I tend to stay out of that business." He tossed back the rest of his scotch.

[meowminx]

Ever the friendly host, Selina pushed the bottle over to him. Her own glass was still half-full. "That does sound like home. I've gotten pulled into that kind of thing more often than I'd like."

[trollverine]

He suspected that she didn't dislike it that much at all, but ridiculing her for being what convention called a good person didn't seem like the intelligent thing to do.

"It's like being a magnet for weirdness," he said mildly, filling up his glass.

[meowminx]

"Guess that comes with putting on a costume." She took another sip. "Are you wearing one of your own, these days?"

Besides Wolverine's was the unspoken question.

[trollverine]

A pause marked his annoyance. What did it matter to her? There was no need for her to know; no reason for her to ask.

Unless she was asking questions to give Logan answers. And of course she was, he realized. She could get information where Logan himself couldn't; she probably had a hundred reasons to do him that favor, and none to do anything for Daken except tell his father whatever she knew. It didn't matter that he had told her almost nothing worth knowing.

A month earlier, he might have given her a truthful explanation--but suddenly, much more than when he'd come in, he found that he didn't want her conversation or her scotch. He had walked right into this. It was insulting that she thought he wouldn't catch on, but it was worse that he almost hadn't.

He turned his back to her to set his glass down again. "Do you think I'm an idiot, Selina?"

[meowminx]

In truth, Selina was asking because she was curious. Because Daken had been here a while and he was still a question mark to her. It was clear his question caught her off-guard. At least it would be if he was looking at her.

"What are you talking about?" Maybe it was clear in her voice too.

[trollverine]

"What was the next one going to be?" He turned back to face her, all the conscious lazy charm gone. "Where are you staying? How long will you be in the city? What have you been up to? Why don't you tell Logan I said if he wants to ask questions, he can come and fucking find me. In fact, I look forward to it."

With nothing else to say, he headed for the door.

[meowminx]

She stared at him silently for a long moment. Then, incredibly, she started to laugh.

"Seriously? You come here looking for Logan and then accuse me of trying to dig up info?" She suspected he wasn't really a safe person to laugh at, but still. It took her a moment to calm down.

"I haven't even seen him, Daken," she added when the chuckles subsided.

[trollverine]

Daken hesitated not far from the door, and looked back at her, suspicious. Nothing indicated that she was lying, but she didn't have to see Logan to talk to him.

It didn't matter. If she wasn't lying, he'd said too much, and it didn't change the fact that Logan had turned her into a potential informant against him just like that. Just by appearing.

He broke eye contact. Every alliance is temporary, he reminded himself. No exceptions.

He let himself out, shutting the door behind him.

[meowminx]

Well, that had gone well.

Selina set her glass down, shaking her head. It wasn't like he was a friend. He was dangerous. Someone who wanted information from her, most likely.

Of course, the problem with being a contrary person was that she was on her feet a moment later, following him out the door. "Daken?"

[trollverine]

He stopped, in spite of his better judgment, but it seemed pointless to bother with false penitence; too much effort for something that had run its course, and he was too angry to fake it for laughs. He glared at her.

"What?"

[meowminx]

She leaned against the wall, crossing her arms. "You're really going to let all that effort you put into getting on my good side go to waste?"

[trollverine]

He just looked at her for a moment, a little caught off guard. It didn't make sense for her to go along with it if she had known that that was all it was--not unless she had been doing this for Logan since the day he had shown up, which possibility was now bitterly clear.

Not that her reasoning mattered anymore. He put his hands in his pockets and affected a grin. "What effort? Sending you a cat I was going to get rid of anyway? Conversations over drinks? There are worse ways to kill time."

[meowminx]

It had been in part because of Logan. But not the way he thought.

"Luna's doing much better now than she was before," she said quietly. "So maybe you were just killing time, but it still means a hell of a lot to us."

[trollverine]

"I'm so glad it means something to you, Selina," he said acidly, throwing a dramatic hand over his heart; "Now I know it was all worthwhile. Thank you."

He turned sharply and headed for the street.

[meowminx]

She couldn't help but roll her eyes as he stormed off. "Fine. Whatever," she muttered as she slipped back into her apartment.