After The Hunt [Finished]

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

And as quickly as it had come, the emptiness left. A mood swing that left Hobbs feeling breathless with the storm. Had he ever considered that he might be bipolar?

He wanted to continue drinking and honestly Hobbs was all up for that. But, why'd he keep a cool box in his car boot? Did he often sit on cliff tops and drink? He was a weird one.
She watched him go over to the car, speechless. It had been a brief emotional tempest, come and gone so fast it gave her whiplash. He put the cool box by his tyre, took one out and hopped up onto the car bonnet. Like a cool guy.
"Should I even ask why you keep a cool box in your boot?" she asked, "or is that a story for some other time?"

He wanted to forget what just happened, but Hobbs couldn't let it rest. Not like that. He wanted to throw a strop, drive halfway across the city, then let the matter drop? Well hey, Hobbs wasn't one to pry into people's personal lives, but he'd laid his story bare before her anyway. But what was it that had made him suddenly burst and feel the need to let it out? Wrong place, wrong time?

"You've got some serious issues, man," Hobbs said, moving towards the car. She picked out a bottle of beer from the cool box and stared down at it in her hand, seemingly contemplating the thing for a few moments. Then she used the edge of the carbon fibre panel on her leg to pop the cap off and clambered ungracefully onto the bonnet beside him.

"Stark," she began, trying to choose her words. "I don't pretend to be an expert on psychological trauma or anything, but I do know what you're going though. Honestly. You can't just vent everything out in one blow and then shut yourself off pretending that it doesn't hurt, because I know it does. I'm probably being hypocritical here but I do the same thing, just without the venting."

She was sitting forwards, and she stared down through the neck of the beer bottle before taking a swig. She looked back at him, then looked away, wondering whether or not to tell him. It only seemed fair, since he had told her everything about him.
"I... I lost my leg in Afghanistan," she said, staring out at the city before them. There was no wobble to her voice. She wasn't about to start tearing up as he had done. "I was British Army, Intelligence Corps. We were out on just another recon run when the next thing we know an RPG falls smack bang into the Jackal. It blew apart three of my men right in front of me and took my leg with it." She took another swig of beer and then appeared to examine the label of the bottle closely.

"When I came home... I lost it... I just went catatonic. I didn't tell anyone about what was really going on and in the end it was up to my brother to haul me out of my misery. I thought that suffering in silence was noble, that it proved strength, but it just made things worse." She laughed to herself, watched droplets of condensation run down the side of the bottle. "Though to be honest, it's not like much has changed. I'm not falling apart at the seams any more, but I still don't sleep, and I still have nightmares when I do. I don't tell people that I was in Afghanistan and I make jokes about how I lost my leg to avoid telling people the truth. Perhaps worst of all is the fact that I go by Hobbs and guard my real name like it's some big secret. I'm still a mess, really, but I keep it together fine." She lay back against the windshield, folded one arm behind her head. "Or enough that people don't ask, which I guess is the main objective." She rested the beer bottle on her stomach and began to hum Bon Jovi's It's My Life under her breath. Damn tune was still stuck in her head.

[Dante Stark]

Dante and Hobbs had been alike in so many ways, she had been disfigured physically and he'd been disfigured mentally.. Maybe that's why he felt a small connection of friendship with her and when she began to tell him of her tour of duty in the army he suddenly didn't feel so painful and tragic she'd seen the harrows of war too.. Dante leaned against his car as she began to tell him more and more about herself.. She'd never even mentioned her real name to him yet, was it that much of a secret or didn't she like her real name.

"I understand you've got my back Hobbs, I'm just sorry it seemed so pathetic.. I'm not the type to vent i guess it's just the stress of tonight stirred up a lot of mixed feelings, I'm sorry about the stuff that's happened to you.. We've both got our issues and we deal with them in our own way, we've both suffered and that's made us stronger people than we'll ever care to admit.. I just... Sometimes what we do rattles my brains cage... I've just been doing this job for too long.." Dante sighed he'd never give up his profession it'd consume his life at some-point and even though he'd try to leave his career behind him it always crept up back on him.

He sipped the beer and looked up at the sky, Hobbs had probably seen Dante at his weakest point by now but it didn't faze him, he knew that he could trust her to keep this between the two of them and he'd stick to the same code of conduct had she asked him.. It was nice for him to talk with someone who knew what could really happen in a moment's notice and Dante just gained much more respect for Hobbs.
"The Story of the cool-box eh?... Well i sometimes travel along the road and when i do finally stop it's nice to enjoy where i am and have a cool crisp beer.. I mean sure company would make it much better.. But there's not a lot to tell about it. " Dante smirked as Hobbs had been humming a familiar tune and Dante rested his bottle on the top of his car and looked towards her with a gleeful smirk.

"It's my life.. it's now or never.. I ain't gonna live forever.." Dante playfully snug as he picked up his beer and took a sip.. This was still an evening worth salvaging for the pair.. If they could both move past their own inner demons.

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

"I just wanna live while I'm alive... It's my life, my heart is like an open highway," she sang along. He'd prompted her to abandon humming and adopt the lyrics instead. It was a decent song.

"Everybody needs to vent every once in a while. Perhaps I was just the best possible person for you to do that to. But, don't apologise for what happened to me, don't say you're sorry for how I am now like Logan did. I don't regret going to war and I don't wish things were different. If they were I'd never be here now, doing what I'm good at. Just don't apologise. There's nothing to be sorry for."

She took a few long gulps of the beer. "Listen, if things ever get shitty again, don't just run off to a cliff top. Tell me, yeah? Maybe we can end up doing this more often." Then she paused, and seemed to remember something.
"Oh," she rolled onto her side and punched Dante hard in the shoulder. "Tell anyone about what I said tonight and I'll take off my leg and beat you with it. I'm serious, this stays between us." She didn't want people knowing she'd been to Afghanistan. She didn't want to be known as the woman who went to war and didn't come back whole.

Balancing the bottle precariously on her stomach, she dug around in the pockets of her leather jacket, pulling out a crumpled packet of cigarettes and her cheap yellow Bic lighter. After pulling one of them out and lighting it up, she offered the packet to Stark. She had no idea if he was a smoker or not but she didn't see why he would have a fancy Zippo lighter if he didn't at least occasionally.

[Dante Stark]

Danticus had been singing with Hobbs while drinking beer together, in a way they had sort of bonded more than anyone else ever had with him and he was thankful he'd vented slightly to her and she'd returned the favour to him and now they had been observing the stars and singing Bon Jovi like a pair of good friends.

Dante had been colourfully damaged by his war time service he'd made it past his initial training of four months and he'd been pushed to the limits his body never knew and now he was finally getting out into the battlefield so many dropped out before him complaining they weren't ready for war. He'd fought alongside his fellow man and finally after watching his friend die.

Irrelevant to the fact Dante had zoned out he looked at Hobbs realising he hadn't spoken in awhile. "Yeah venting is good, i also like to think about my favourite animal... Which is coincidently a giraffe.. But that's beside the point I'm enjoying the time we're spending about... Dante smirked as he flicked on his radio and more classical rock tunes, He sipped his beer as he and Hobbs continued to converse about hunting and already planning their next hunt together in a way they had become and unofficial team.

Stark moved over and took one of Hobbs cigarettes out of the packet and lit it up as he looked over at the sky again, it was peaceful and the cold had began to set in and Dante wished he'd brought a jacket.

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

With one arm still tucked behind her head to cushion her skull against the windshield, Hobbs stuck the cigarette in her mouth to free up her other hand. She pulled out her phone and flipped it open, checking the time. It was late. Later than Hobbs had thought it was. Seemed that shooting down Lycans and sorting out emotional issues took longer than she'd thought. She had to get back to the base, if not because she had to shut down the lab - and that could take about twenty minutes some days - but because she supposed she had to at least try to get some sleep. She could go through the motions and make an attempt at least, even though she knew that she'd either end up lying awake in bed until the sun rose or getting out of the base again to find something to do in the city.

She snapped the phone shut and took the cigarette from her mouth to flick ash from the end.
"Fascinating shit, bro," Hobbs said dryly. "I wish I had time to think about what my favourite animal was." She sat up, finished the rest of the beer, and tossed it over the edge of the cliff. It vanished past the edge and she could hear it distantly clonking on rocks and dirt until the sound died out. Next, she finished the cigarette, flicked it to the floor, and stood on it as she hopped off the bonnet of the car.

"Well, this has been fun," she said, beginning to walk away. In mid-step she turned and began to walk backwards towards the bike. "Some other time, yeah?" She casually saluted him goodbye, got on the bike, and after a few moments, vanished into the night.