neutral_omens | (no subject)

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Date: January 8th, 2001
Status: Public - Adam and Brian
Setting: Brian's room and the bar
Summary: Just innocently checking in...

While Pepper was talking to Wensley, Adam decided to seek out Brian, just as he'd promised. So he headed to the room diagonally across from his own and knocked lightly on the door. "Brian?"

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"But you keep the old ones?" he smiled.

"Well...I was goin' to pitch 'em, just haven't got around to it."

He wasn't playing terribly well any more. Distracted. Adam had to have a reason for being here - wasn't often he came around just to hang out these days.

Adam meant to make more time for his friends. It was just that running the Manor was so time consuming. He felt like a combination babysitter, middle manager, and general. Making a New Year's Resolution to spend more time with them, he cleared off a chair and sat.

"Somethin' on your mind?" he asked patiently.

Brian sighed, realizing his guitar just wasn't going to be enough to hide behind this time. "Somethin' on yours?" he said.

He smiled faintly. "Coupla things. But more'n anythin' I just missed you. You kinda disappeared..."

"Well...I s'pose I just didn't feel social. Gotta practice my licks!"

Brian winced at the weakness of his own forced cheer. Not to mention the innuendo.

Raising his eyebrows, Adam just looked at him.

"Yeah. Licks!" Brian wagged his tongue over the guitar's grotty fretboard, cheesy-metal-style.

He flashed Adam a sad look of resignation, much the same kind tanking comedians give their audiences.

Adam winced sightly, vaguely wondering how filthy the guitar was and then deciding he didn't want to know. "Brian... we been friends a long time. I c'n tell when you're not happy."

"A long time is right." And I liked it a lot better when I was a friend to you and not a responsibility of some sort. Who'd wanna be that? "And you've seen me bein' not happy plenty o' times before."

"An' I tried to make you feel better whenever I did, 'cause that's what friends are for, right?"

A general doesn't care about the feelings of his troops. He doesn't care if they're happy as long as they're alive and do what he says. Adam never wanted that. Not with the Them. Had they really grown so far apart? He couldn't even remember a time when three-quarters of them had been so unhappy at once and the only reason he could think of for that was that they didn't spend enough time together the way they should be. It was like having your legs and one arm wander off by themselves...

"Sure is. You wouldn't happen to have a nice pint in your pocket, would you?"

So it seemed Adam was Concerned and he had a Talk in mind. For sure he meant well, but without making time for the fun stuff, Brian thought at the moment he was coming off more like a school counsellor than a bloke you'd actually want to Talk to. Which was a damn shame. With a little more horsin' around and maybe some drinkin' and just plain shit-shootin', Brian couldn't think of anyone he'd rather Talk with. Except the one he couldn't.

"Nope. But we c'n go down to the bar an' get one," Adam suggested. Then he winked. "I know the bloke that runs the place..."

"Now 'at's more like it!" Brian said, winking too. "Good thing you know 'im real well or that'd be one hell of a tab."

"C'mon, then." Adam stood and headed for the door. "I hear the Manor's at least not losin' money, anyway."

"That's a wonder. I s'pose a lot of this crew's never had to think about it much."

Much better. Brian peeled off his sticky guitar, and at the prospect of leaving his room, it felt like he'd shed a lot more weight from his shoulders than that.

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