making friends with the maid.

Rafael

Month, month and a half, and Cassidy hasn't seen head nor hair of her employer. First run of days chef still kept coming in. Meals were prepared and set out. Gas warmers ran dry. Cold plates went untouched. Sometimes entire roasts went bad waiting for a wolf that never came.

Cassidy dumped a lot of food those first two weeks. Kept the place spic'n'span, though no one ever saw it. Wolf's girlfriend seems to have moved out -- that room's all empty. Wolf himself is gone too. His bed goes unslept in. His mail piles up.

After two weeks someone tells the chef to stop coming. Someone -- perhaps the woman that hired her -- calls Cassidy and tells her to stop buying groceries. To go clean the place up once a week. Someone keeps paying her at her full-time rate, though, and no one tells her what the hell is going on.

--

And then, without an ounce more notice than he'd disappeared, wolf is back. Cassidy unlocks the door for her weekly cleaning and the TV's on. Wolf's lounging in the big recliner, feet propped up, remote in hand. He's watching something on Netflix.

Turns to look at her around the edge of the couch. Green eyes, intense stare. Settles back when he sees who it is.

"Hey," he says.

Cassidy

A month and a half, and she kept showing up. Rain or shine. The first run of days, the chef came and Cassidy made sure that they were taken care of. She took some of it home, too, because it wasn't right to waste that much food. That much good food at that.

She stops buying groceries, though, does as she is told and knows that her employer isn't dead, because she's still getting paid, or maybe this was a Silver Fang severence package. They just kept paying you until someone figures out how to break it gently your employer died in glorious battle and your services are no longer required.

She wasn't sure how that works, truth be told Cassidy has never been fired. She's pretty good at what it is that she does. She looks back at him, with eyes less intense and certainly not green. Maybe blue. Maybe brown. Hard to tell, but her hair is brown because it's grown out enough that he can tell she's not a real blonde, as if he couldn't already tell.

"Do you want some pizza rolls?" she asked.

Because since she was going to be cleaning the place and didn't know when he would be back, she kept pizza rolls here.

Rafael

Wolf's sunk deep into that comfortable leather recliner. Low laugh drifts up out of all that cowhide. "Pizza rolls?" he repeats. "Didn't see those in the fridge or I would've eaten them already.

"Yeah. Sure. Heat up some pizza rolls. Then have a seat. You have Netflix?"

Cassidy

"I have been secretly hiding pizza rolls underneath the healthy looking things you have in the freezer," she informed her employer, a grin crossed her face and she pulled out the bag from underneath a palate of frozen kale. Wedged between frozen mango chunks and stir fry vegetables. She wasn't kidding. Cassidy really did hide her pizza rolls.

Done like a woman who was raised with multiple people, good enough to fool ravenous teenagers.

"I've got the ship a DVD to your house netflix, not the streaming Netflix," she told him. Oven preheating, cookie sheet found and primed with aluminum foil, the whole bag is unceremoniously dumped on the tray.

She knows how much garou can eat. She also knows that she fucking loves pizza rolls.

"What're we watching?"

Rafael

"Huh. More movies that way. This is faster though."

She puts pizza rolls in the oven, turns it on. He flips the remote around in his hand, holds it out to her end-first.

"You decide." It's currently tuned to some sword-and-sandal hack-and-slash flick. "Surprised you're still here," wolf adds.

Cassidy

She sauntered over. Half sauntered half swayed and she took the remote and scrolled down, down, down. "Yeah, I got the delivery service because of Shawshank Redemption. They took it off streaming and I was like-"

She catches her breath, because soon enough a movie catches her attention. Cassidy moved around the couch and sat down.

"Oh sweet Gaia they have Unbreakable. It's one of the few non-shitty M. Night Shamaylan movies."

Rafael

"Never seen it," wolf says, offhand. "Got a twist ending like all his others?"

Cassidy

"A predictable twist, but a twist. A lot like his newer stuff, but it has Bruce Willis in it. It's kind of a super hero origin movie?"

Rafael

"Huh. Okay. Put it on. We'll watch it. Giving you a few hours off." Generous wolf. "They tell you where I been?"

Cassidy

She looked at Rafael and smiled. Something genuinely pleased. She then hit play and leaned back enough to look at him.

"They were pretty hush hush about it. I'd like to know, though, I was kinda getting worried for awhile."

Rafael

First time since that first glance that he looks her way. Smirks. "You worried about me? Or about your paycheck?"

Wolf looks different: got a haircut. Mowed his hair down close to the scalp. Shaved too, possibly with the same clipper settings. Both look like amateur jobs. Wolf looks pale, too, like he hasn't seen sunshine for a while.

"Was off on a quest. Got sent back in time, and then to the Underworld for a rite to wake the spring. While I was gone my body was on autopilot, sort of. So I went to the Sept. Had them keep an eye on me."

Cassidy

"I can get another job. I can't get another boss that scrubs fomor off the ceiling with me," she told him.

Because it's true. Most people won't scrub fomor off the ceiling with you, which is really unfortunate because it's a pretty nice team building activity.

"So you went back in time, and then had to wake spring? Like guide Persephone from the underworld, what all does that do?" she asked, "glad someone was watching you, though. Guess they anticipated you being gone for awhile?"

Rafael

Sort of a rude thing for him to say, really. Assuming such materialism of her. Maid keeps her cool though. Fires one back that leaves wolf feeling at least a little chastised.

"Point," he acknowledges. Onscreen, opening titles play. Wolf's watching them. Glances over only when maid speaks again.

"Had to go through seven gates," he says. Eyes go back to the screen. "Seven trials. Had to give something up, or be tested somehow, at every one. Was actually a quest within a quest. Like Inception." Smirks at his own joke. "Was in my past life's body the whole time, I think."

Amusement fades. Wolf's pensive a moment. Then shrugs his shoulders: "Guess so. Don't think they knew how long I'd be gone. I sure as hell didn't. Would've had someone tell you if I did." Beat. "Maybe. If I remembered."

At least he's honest.

Cassidy

"Seven's an auspicious number," she replied.

There was a bit of silence, and at least he was honest. She grinned a little, "y'know, if you forgot to tell me I probably wouldn't notice for awhile. I'd just think you were being really tidy."

Rafael

"Heh. That's me. Captain Tidy. Mr. Clean."

Pizza rolls are starting to smell good. Wolf proves himself Not Your Average Fang again when he pulls the handle on his recliner, pops himself upright. Gets up and pads into the kitchen to inspect the oven himself.

"So what do you do when you're not here," he wants to know; question spoken like a statement. "Got friends, family, all that?"

Cassidy

What does she do when she isn't here?

"I have a girlfriend," she told him, "kind of. We're on again off again. Got a few friends, go to a lot of dance parties but I just like the music. Family's up in New Jersey so I'm sending my mom a college fund for the rest of us. Figure if I'm smart I can get a semester of community college out of the way for each?"

She shrugs, watches him go check on the pizza rolls.

"Things aren't so hot with me and Nora right now."

Rafael

"Nora," wolf repeats. Oven door opens; Cassidy can hear that. Baking pan clangs down on the stove, and then wolf dumps all the pizza rolls into...

...a pot. Kills the oven, grabs a six-pack of coke out of the fridge. Comes out of the open-plan kitchen holding that steaming pot of fresh-baked pizza rolls. Sets it down on the coffee table.

"That the girlfriend?"

Cassidy

"Yeah, she's an attorney," she said, "she gets stressed and then launches into the I can't believe I'm dating a felon what has become of my life tirade We're both pretty much just waiting for the you need to go make babies because we're dying thing, which I'm cool with but she's not cool with so- ugh. Like, I figure we can still date for awhile."

Rafael

Might be more information than he wanted. Probably is. Wolf eats pizza rolls. Breaks a can of coke off the six-pack, pop-fizzes it open. Gulps.

"She kin? Garou? Human?"

Cassidy

"Yeah, Uktena kin," she replies, pops a pizza roll in her mouth, "so I get it, I mean I'm not mad."

Rafael

"If she's kin," wolf replies, "what the hell does it matter if she's a lawyer and you're an ex-con? You're in the same boat. Tell her to grow the fuck up."

Cassidy

"Right?" she said, grabbing a coke and popping the top, "we've got a more important common denominator."

Rafael

"Yeah. Got bigger things to worry about." He grabs another two pizza rolls. Pushes the pot over closer to her. Sets the cans of coke down too, in case she wanted one. "Who's the 'rest of us'? Got siblings?"

Cassidy

"Oh god, yeah, my mom and her husband tried to win the whole genetic lottery thing. Have as many freaking babies as possible because at some point one of them might be true, right? So there's seven kids total. I'm number two."

A beat.

"What about you? You have siblings or are you a lonely only?"

Rafael

"Got a half-brother," wolf says,

leaves it right there. If Cassidy thinks he's redirecting with the next question, she'd be right: "So did your parents win the lottery in the end? Got any wolf brothers or sisters?"

Cassidy

"They did! Maddie's fourteen and a crescent moon so fuck all if she's going to be a cliath before she's eighteen because, seriously, I do not know any fourteen year olds that are wise."

She chooses to take the redirection, doesn't push because her job wasn't to ask questions. She knew what she could press.

"I dunno, she's got a good head on her shoulders. I'm kinda biased, though, on account of being family."

Rafael

Wolf makes a noncommittal sound to that: on account of being family. He stares at the TV. He drinks his coke. He pops the last of his pizza roll in his mouth. Reaches for another.

"Glad for you," he says finally. "Nice to have family." Nods at the TV, the movie that started some moments ago -- "Wanna watch this?"

Cassidy

"I've got spares if you ever want awkward little sibling stuff," she said, turning herself around to look at the movie that was still going on.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm really bad about talking through movies."

Rafael

Corners of wolf's mouth flicker. "I'll let you know," he says.

And to her apology -- "Nah. I was asking questions. Wasn't you."

Shuts up then, though. Leans his recliner back again. Eats those pizza rolls, drinks his soda. Watches the movie with her. Turns out wolf's the opposite of a movie-talker. Just sits there stone-faced, occasionally frowning, even more occasionally letting out a huff of a laugh.

Gives his verdict, hours later:

Not bad. Should do that again sometime.