lt_safe_house | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Date: 18 May, evening
Location: Bar
Status: Public
Summary: This is all so frustrating... I need a drink

Nothing, nothing, nothing! There were lots of different creatures around here that weren't Terran Barbarians, but none of them had given him the slightest opening yet. Well, he had learned to be patient over the past millennia.

Still, there were times when he needed some distraction from his fruitless search for a way home. The bar was likely to be a good place to go looking for it. He'd see if they had some decent wine.

He entered the bar and quickly looked around. There didn't seem to be any guests yet, but the grey-haired man with the cane, whome he had encountered back when that Raphael had arrived here, was busy behind the counter.

"Wine," he ordered as he walked up to him. "Red, dry." Then he waited to see what, exactly, the man would serve him.

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"Hey," Joe told Raphael as he poured a glass for the latest arrival. Oh yes, hisbar was filling up very nicely now. "I'm here for everyone. I can easily distribute my attention between three guests."

He put the glass on the counter for the other man to pick up. "There you go, Mike."

Atlan glanced at the newcomer. He was a short man who looked rather like one of the barbarians. He probably was one, but it probably couldn't hurt to keep an eye on him as well.

Raphael was seriously considering returning to speak with Joe another time, but he would not be a coward. Not anymore. Closing his eyes for a moment he thought of the small blue flower and the lesson he had learned from it.

I will have Faith... I will grow and do my best... A gardener never forgets his flowers, even when he has to prune them.

... It is then that they are stronger...

"Joe... I wanted to apologize for the mess I left in your bar. I had lost control and well... I was wrong in doing such a thing. And you..." He turned to Murdoc. "I apologize for the other night. I wasn't in my right mind. I hope you will both forgive me."

Even sitting relaxed on a bar stool, the white-haired man whose name he didn't know triggered every bell in his mind that said 'dangerous'. When he moved, he did so with the economic grace of a fighter. Well, lucky he wasn't here on business.

He couldn't quite help a rueful smile as he reminded himself that if nothing went awry he never would be anywhere on business again.

As the redhead addressed him, he turned to face him. "There's nothing to forgive," he said. "I assume you had your reasons..." for falling apart like that. "...for being preoccupied."

Joe raised an eyebrow in Raphael's direction. "You seem to have a talent for bleeding on my floor," he stated drily, but with a smile lurking in the corner on his mouth.

Then he reached out to touch the angel's hand. "Relax, Raphael. There was no harm done that could not be fixed easily. Though if you feel penance is in order, you can help me clean up when I close down the place tonight."

That would relieve Rose from doing most of the work tomorrow morning - which would only be fair, since she'd done most of the cleaning up.

Raphael smiled gratefully. "Yes, I will help you clean up tonight. Thank you."

How could he have believed all humans were bad? Or demons? If someone had told him he would have entrusted one of his treasured feathers to Belial... well...

He thinks of the dead leaf he had plucked away from the poor plant and the realization that had struck him.

I will be strong. A gardener is never closest than when he is pruning...

I was wrong... So so wrong...

"May I have another?" he asked. "With marshmallows?"

Joe smiled fondly at Raphael. "Of course," he told him and quickly prepared another cup.

"Marshmellows, eh?" he said. "If you ask me, those are only edible if they've been roasted over a nice, big campfire."

Raphael chuckled and plucked a half-melted marshmallow from the cup, biting into the melted part. "They taste good with chocolate, too, you should try some!"

"I'm not too fond of chocolate, I fear," he admitted.

Then he added, because the moment seemed to call for something else to be said: "Have you been staying here for long?"

Raphael swallowed his bite of marshmallow, licking up a fleck of chocolate from his lip. "A little over a month," he said. Has it been that long... He thought for a moment of when he had first arrived.

"Joe and Atlan..." He motioned to them both. "They saved me when I arrived."

Joe smiled at the angel. "More he than I, I fear," he said. "I didn't do much that night."

A very, very good observer would have noticed that he tensed ever so slightly upon hearing that. Like everyone who grew to the ripe old age of 30 in his trade, let alone to 40, he was ready at all times to deend himself or attack, wahtever was called for.

"What happened that night?" he asked, his voice sounding perfectly casual.

Atlan sat silently back and watched the others. He had been there 'that night', but he was far from up do date on what had happened before he had arrived.

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