[crow]

Luke was holding a bag, and she could just make out what looked like six packs of jerky sticking out of it. She frowned, and Bastien sighed.

"Yeah," he said. "I know."

"You would think he'd get... I don't know, protein poisoning or something," she said. Well, probably not, since he worked out so much. What really didn't make sense was how he stayed so slim, working out like a pig and then downing beef bowls like his life depended on it.

[crow]

No accounting for genetics, she supposed.

Glancing over at Bastien, she clocked the drink in his hand just as he took a sip. The smell of coffee drifted over like her own private demons, tempting her down the path of restless energy. "Oh, come on," she groaned.

"Want some?" he said.

She shot him a look of indescribable loathing and despair. He chuckled. "Well, I'm not going to share."

"Good. Don't," said Lyra. But they walked back to the bus together, piling in just after Hazel and Akira, who were carrying a truly ridiculous amount of snacks.

[crow]

Akira was doing most of the carrying, and Hazel was doing most of the dictating, going on animatedly about something Lyra couldn't parse. It was funny, watching the two of them together. Hazel was still pretty awkward with the rest of them, but with him, she seemed like a completely different person. And Akira was as unassuming as he always was, so quiet himself that he seemed to fade into the background.

Lyra knew better, but Lyra had seen him fight.

[crow]

And those among them who could sustain multiple contracts... It wasn't like she could sense them, exactly, but there was something about Akira and Bran both that felt like looking into a mirror, familiar and uncomfortable all at once.

But even then, there were distinctions. With Bran, it felt like she was being analyzed. He probably couldn't help it, considering his line of work, but it felt like his scrutiny was picking at her seams, showing her all the places where she'd been cracked and hadn't quite healed right.

[crow]

With Akira, it was harder to say. The intent felt... gentler, maybe; less confrontational. It wasn't that he meant well and Bran didn't. For all of Bran's cynicism, he had good intentions, probably. And she didn't know enough about Akira to say whether he was squeaky clean either. But with Akira, there was a sense of comfortable give and take, like he knew where the boundaries were and was content not to cross them. In comparison, she felt a hunger in Bran's scrutiny that she could never quite place.

[Wild Pet Found]

[crow]

Not for the first time, she wondered at what could have happened to him in the years that they'd been apart. But it wasn't her place to ask, just as he didn't pry into her affairs, aside from a few 'lucky guesses' from time to time.

... That she knew of, anyway. If he was doing background checks on the lot of them, she didn't know about it, but if she was being honest, she didn't want to find out either.

[crow]

Akira and Hazel had taken over the booth, so Lyra found herself a seat somewhere else. Bastien settled to the left of her, one seat over but still within reach. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Bran watching the two of them. She turned, smiling at him, beckoning him over with a toss of the head, but he merely sighed and turned away, walking to the front of the bus.

"Friendly guy, that cousin of yours," Bastien said.

[crow]

"Oh, come on," Lyra said, elbowing him in the side. "Give him a chance. Like you weren't ever an awkward twenty-something."

Bastien shot her a look; for a moment she thought he might point out the obvious, which was that he was still in his twenties--- no way he'd cop to being awkward, at least not out loud, when she was the one calling him out on it. But instead he sighed. "Look," he said. "I get it. He's family. You want to make this work."

[crow]

Bastien leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees, hands together, fingers laced. Even in a luxury party bus, he had to hunch down; even sitting, you could tell that he was tall. "But he's a cop. And he's not exactly doing himself any favors with that attitude either."

Lyra fell silent at that. She didn't know much about Bastien's background, but he'd told her himself that he'd had a rough patch, and that rough patch had involved at least a little trouble with the law.

[crow]

She couldn't ask him to trust Bran just like that. But if he didn't, she wasn't sure where else to start. Luke was too much of a straight shooter, and the President was a consummate professional. Akira and Hazel... They were the ones who had a history with him, and the complexities of that weren't something she could touch.

Out of everyone here, she thought Bastien might understand Bran the most. But even then, it was a difficult gap to bridge.

[crow]

There wasn't anything to say now, she supposed. "What do you think we'll find when we get there?" she asked.

Bastien shrugged. "Mals. A fight, sooner or later. Besides that, who knows."

---

They arrived around seven in the evening, too late to do anything more than tumble out of the bus and into their accommodations for the night. Hazel, who had fallen asleep on Akira's shoulder on the ride, had energy enough to marvel over the 'swankiness' of their 'digs', but she was the only one.

[crow]

Luke seemed oblivious to it; and Bran strode smoothly into the lobby in a way that seemed almost a pointed rebuttal of Hazel's open gawking. Once she caught sight of him speaking to the clerk at the lobby, she quieted down and stuck to Akira's side again, not quite subdued, but definitely checked in her enthusiasm.

Bastien leaned against a wall. Lyra could tell he wasn't comfortable, but between his resignation and Luke's non-reaction, she could guess that this was standard conduct for the President.

[crow]

Lyra took in this tableau, and decided to close ranks with Bran. "How many rooms did we get?" she said, watching as the clerk typed something into a surprisingly old-looking computer for such a fancy hotel. Maybe they were going for that 'antique' look, but she didn't think the computers were where their efforts ought to be going. More likely they were just trying to cut costs somewhere.

"Your reservations are for three rooms," said the clerk. "Just a moment please..."

[crow]

Within minutes, they had acquired three key cards, and Lyra had taken the liberty of explaining the situation to everyone else.

"Oh my god," Hazel said. "We have to buddy up. What if there's only one bed, like in all the fanfics?" That was very obviously a joke, but beneath her words, Lyra could sense the undercurrent of anxiety radiating from her. She still wasn't familiar--- or comfortable--- with anyone except Akira, and the prospect of spending a night stuck with someone else loomed over her like a wraith.

[crow]

Honestly, three rooms wasn't idea. Six would have been a little opulent, but even four might have been better. In theory, Lyra could see how the President had thought it out: two girls, four boys, three rooms. Easy. But the problem was that the politics in their little dispatch squad didn't quite shake out that way.

"Are we okay with co-ed rooms?" said Lyra. "I mean, we're not kids anymore. Most of us." Hazel was still in high school, which presented a bit of a problem, but still.

[Wild Pet Found]