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[powerdealer]

Seth ended up passing up Gabriel's offer for lunch. In fact, as soon as he woke up on Gabe's couch, he took a quick shower, grabbed an apple from the fridge, then disappeared out the door. He'd found himself in Hell's Kitchen, which seemed somehow appropriate. Since then, he's been staying in a different place every night.

Turns out, it's really easy to steal if you can phase through things. Just find something that's well locked up but badly supervised, and grab it. Easy peasy. Not a long-term plan, since while he has no real respect for the police, he doesn't really like taking other people's stuff.

And then he'd just find empty hotel rooms or apartments, walk right through the door, and crash there for the night. It worked well enough, and he felt safer being on the move for a while. A few nights he'd gotten comfortably drunk, too. He'd missed that. Dancing with strangers in bars. Starting to feel like a human being again, not an appliance or a lab rat.

Still, it's not a way to live. He seems to have forgotten how to settle down, how to make friends. So he goes back to the one person who has an idea how crazy his life has been recently, but still was nice to him, and maybe see if his offer of a couch still stands. Or maybe he just wants to thank Gabe for his hospitality.

So he shows up back at his door a morning over a week later, with a bag containing one turkey sandwich, one apple, and one bottle of beer, and knocks on his door.

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[has_a_horn]

When Gabriel answers the door, he's in silk boxers with a dark blue robe, untied at the waist. A small scruffy terrier at his feet runs forward, barks twice at the newcomer, then runs back behind the barrier of Gabriel's legs, waiting to see if Seth is going to do anything fishy. Gabriel just chuckles and holds the door open, allowing him to come in.

"Thought you were never going to show back up." Well, he'd not been sure, but implying that he knows all of Seth's motivations is more fun. "Come on in. You can put your stuff in the fridge."

[powerdealer]

Seth smiles in relief that it was apparently that easy, no hostility for bailing without warning, no explanations demanded before being invited.

"Yeah, sorry, I bolted," he answers as he steps inside. "Survival instinct. But I wanted to replace your stuff." He pulls the things out of the bag and puts them in the refrigerator. They're obviously mostly symbolic, since it's really that not much to replace.

"You got a dog to replace me?" he jokes, finally crouching down to greet the puppy.

[has_a_horn]

"He's cuter." The puppy in question seems to have forgotten that moments ago he'd been entirely suspicious of Seth's motives, because now he's happily trying to lick his face.

"So much for having a watch dog." He waves a hand between the two of them, making introductions. "Scout, Seth. Seth, Scout. Hey, Scout, leave the poor guy alone." He bends down, commands the dog to sit, then feeds him a treat that seems to have come from nowhere. After that, Scout licks Gabriel's hand and, as Gabriel stands, contents himself to sniffing at Seth's shoes.

[powerdealer]

"Can't argue with that," Seth agrees, smiling at the puppy's enthusiasm. He's generally a lot more relaxed than last time Gabe saw him, and doesn't look quite so much like death warmed over.

"Too be fair, he did bark. Never had a dog, me. Too energetic for me, I think," he says as he straightens up again.

[has_a_horn]

"There are some that are pretty relaxed. Terriers tend to be the opposite of relaxed, though. Especially young like him."

Gabe leans up against the kitchen counter and looks Seth over. He seems to be looking healthier than when Gabe had last seen him, though he's not surprised by that. "Were you hoping for an early lunch?"

[powerdealer]

"Yeah, sure, if you're up for it. Brunch, I guess." Somewhere in the back of his head, a heavily accented voice is going 'wot tha fook is broonch?', and he smiles a bit to himself.

"And I was wondering if the offer of a couch still stands." It's not an ideal living situation, but it would be a nice to have a safe place to sleep for a while. And he finds himelf not particularly eager to live on his own, after so long deprived of socialisation.

[has_a_horn]

"What happened to your survival instinct?" Gabriel asks, raising an eyebrow. "Or have you decided that I'm safe now?" He probably isn't safe, not completely, but Seth is in no danger here for the time being. Gabriel's interest in Seth and the power he possesses mean that the closer he can keep Seth to him, the better of friends they are, the more likely it is that he can use Seth's power when and if it's ever needed.

[powerdealer]

"Safe enough," Seth answers. Friendly and willing to help and probably doesn't need to take advantage of him. He decided he has to trust someone. And there might well be ulterior motives, because everyone always has those, but as long as he's not a prisoner, then it's hopefully okay.

"It helped that there was nothing keeping me here," he adds. Big sign towards trustworthiness, that. Well, or machiavellian levels of plotting and knowing Seth would return and trust him more. Alright, so Seth might have a problem trusting anyone at the moment.

"I just..." He shrugs, looking away awkwardly. "I've been alone for so long." Have some uncharacteristic levels of honesty, Gabe.

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel considers Seth for a moment before nodding. He knows the feeling. "Yeah, alright. No need for the big puppy eyes, I've already got enough a' those."

He pushes away from the counter and pats Seth on the shoulder as he passes him. "Welcome home, Felix. I'll put on clothes and then we'll do brunch. You can ask all your questions then." He's assuming that he has them. Most people do when confronted by suspicious hospitality and things appearing out of nowhere.

A few minutes later, he's returned from his room in jeans, boots, button-up and jacket. As he hooks up Scout's leash he asks, "What do you want? There's a pizza place across from the park down the street. Deli, of course. Indian. They do a good Chicken Tikka Masala."

[powerdealer]

Was he puppy eyeing? He definitely didn't mean to be puppy eyeing. He doesn't get the reference, or else he might've objected to the comparison. As it is, he just pets Scout until Gabe returns to put a leash on him.

"Pizza," he decides fairly quickly. Granted, he's had a week to re-acquaintance himself with the concept of getting to choose what and when to eat, but there's just something so satisfyingly familiar with pizza and junk food.

[has_a_horn]

Scout, happy to be leaving, starts jumping around excitedly at the end of the leash. Gabriel spends a moment scratching him behind the ears before he looks back up at Seth. "Grease of a slice it is, then." He's definitely not complaining. He's all about junk food. Just wait until Seth sees his stockpile of candy.

One elevator ride later, they're at street level. As he crosses the street, he looks back at Seth. "So, what'd you do for a week?"

[powerdealer]

Seth shrugs, hands stuffed in his pockets. "Readjusted to society?" he answers. "Kept on the move till I was sure no one was gonna haul me back down there. Got drunk. Binged on fast food. Stuff like that." Nothing terribly interesting to talk about, really.

"What about you? I mean, what do you usually do?" he asks.

[has_a_horn]

"Explore, entertain myself, get other people to entertain me." He shrugs. "Work, occasionally. Maintenance, painting, stuff like that." The work is more like a front for his real work, but he occasionally gets a paycheck from it, so he's counting it.