takecourage | (no subject)

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caleb

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Alex is still getting used to having a car at her disposal every time she wants to go somewhere. It definitely makes living out at Black Elm easier. Today, she's sitting behind the wheel, idly drumming with her fingertips as she waits for Caleb. It's not much to look at, boxy and kind of a piece of shit, but it's her first car, one that she brought with her own money that she earned (albeit doing something that Darlington's still not entirely happy about), and she's kind of proud of that.

She grabs her phone off the dash and shoots off another text to Caleb.

It's okay. Take your time. I've got nowhere to be but here, bud x

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A few moments later, a text rings back.

Fuck, sorry, I couldn't find my phone lol. Your text came just in time.

A moment later, he rushes out the door of High Gate, narrowly avoiding a passer-by with a rushed "Fuck, sorry, sorry!" as he jogs the short distance to the curb.

Rolling her eyes, Alex leans across the passenger seat and opens the door, shooting him a look.

"It's like you don't even want to hang out with me, Michaels," she says, knowing that he'll feel that she's joking.

"Fuck, you caught me," he says, settling into the seat with a huffed laugh. "I'm only in it for this sick ride."

"I did unspeakable things to afford this car," says Alex, glancing into her mirrors before she pulls away from the curb. "And I think I love it more than I love you, so be careful."

"No way," Caleb says sagely. "There's only one person in this whole city you love more than me." He gives her a charming grin when he says it, very sure of himself.

"Yeah, well, he's on my shitlist too," says Alex, grinning. She's got no real sense of where they're going, other than she feels like being in the car and driving for a while. "I had to go save his ass from East Hallow."

Caleb had been avoiding the strange new neighboring town since the first week or so it'd been there. He and Neil had gone a lot together, but the last time they'd gone, he'd nearly had a panic attack — and he still hasn't figured out why.

"What d'you mean?" he asks, frowning. "What happened?"

"He doesn't know how to leave well enough alone," she says, shaking her head, her dark eyes still on the road. "He took the bullet...that's the thing that lets him see Greys when he's doing his Virgil gig."

"Wait, I thought that stuff was like, really fucking bad," he says, frowning. Daniel had always made it sound like it was some sort of poison, liable to kill someone. And he just went and took it?

"It's basically poison," says Alex, and she knows that Caleb will be able to feel the anger that flares up just at the thought of it. "He promised me he'd save it for emergencies - times when it would be really useful if he could see them too."

"This doesn't sound like that," Caleb notes, tone going sour as his chest fills with Alex's anger. "What the fuck."

She hears him flare up and she makes a conscious decision to calm down, sucking in a breath through her nose, feeling the snake inside curl comfortably around her ribs again and close its eyes. She reaches out and squeezes Caleb's arm.

"It's okay," she says, softly. "He's okay."

He realizes what's happening only a heartbeat after she does, and he takes a slow, deep breath as her hand grips his arm, and releases it when she squeezes gently.

"Sorry. I'm good. I-I just. Okay, but like. Why did he do that?"

"Because he doesn't know how to leave well enough alone," she says, gently as she can maage. "His work back home was important to him and, in his head, he's always going to be that. Virgil. The Gentleman of Lethe."

Caleb shakes his head. "I still don't get it," he admits. "What work does he think he has to be doing?" Caleb's stayed away from East Hallow after the first couple of weeks. He'd started getting weird not-quite-panic-attacks, and they'd agreed to give the place some space until they knew why — but then they'd stopped happening after they'd stopped going, so they just hadn't gone back.

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