May 3rd, 1890 - Jude's Apartment

I've been tryin' to keep my grip
Yeah, I think I'm over this

Kieran had not spoken to Jude since the May Day disaster the other day, had not floated by the Augurey, had largely gone off the grid. But the thing with being a werewolf was that one could not truly go off the grid - not when the full moon was tonight and Kieran didn't have any reasonable alternatives. So he'd spent most of the day on a day-drunk bender in the apartment with Eileen, had taken a lengthy nap, and had apparated to the street outside of Jude's apartment with the rabbit cage in hand, a canvass bag of its food over his shoulder. His head pulsed and, post-apparition, his stomach was churning.

The fluffy white thing wrinkled its nose at him.

There was an hour left until sundown and Kieran knew that he stunk of whiskey. He was also significantly rumpled; a significant con of day drinking was the hangover when the sun was still out, but it wasn't as if he'd had other options today. He stepped into the building and walked up to Jude's apartment, banging on the door with his fist twice.

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   Jude Wright

It was one of those days where seeing Kieran was about the last thing he wanted to do. But Kingsley had left for a night-shift half an hour ago; it was that time of the month again; and Jude had no choice besides, since the knocking at the door could be no one else.

Not that he would be seeing Kieran for very long in what was left of the evening, that was. So of course he was at the door in an instant, standing aside as he pulled it open.

“Hi,” Jude offered, not quite in a grin-and-bear it mood, but attempting a small smile - until he caught the stench of whiskey clinging to him, which about killed the smile dead. He was already halfway to shooting Kieran a wordless look when his eyes landed on the pet cage Kieran was holding, and the stormy expression was unceremoniously mangled into utter bewilderment.

It was a rabbit. Jude didn’t know what it was for, precisely, but he suspected it was not intended as a peace offering. He didn’t comment. Probably didn’t need to comment, when his raised eyebrows would communicate his question clearly enough.

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"Oh, right," Jude said, putting on a show that he was surprised by Jude's question, as if there had been any universe in which Jude would not comment on the rabbit.

"Jude, this is Sandwich," Kieran said, waving at the rabbit with his free hand. "Sandwich, Jude."

Naming the thing had been a more or less inevitable decision - he was taking care of it, after all - but since the rabbit was probably doomed, Kieran had not wanted to pick a real name for it. So: Sandwich.

Somehow he doubted that Jude would be satisfied just with Sandwich's name.

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It was a struggle not to scowl when Kieran decided to skirt around the obvious questions in favour of offering up the rabbit’s name - because why make any conversation simple when it could be more like pulling teeth?

He didn’t smile at the introduction or at the objectively stupid name for a rabbit. Instead, he reached around to push the door closed after Kieran - given that Kieran was busy holding a rabbit cage - with a little more force than necessary, as if that would press his impatience without him needing to air it. Still, this was too weird, even for Kieran, not to unravel it; and tonight, of all nights, they didn’t exactly have the time to drag things out unnecessarily. So.

“And what exactly is it -” (he was ignoring Sandwich for the time being) “- doing here?” Jude asked flatly.

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Kieran leaned against the closed door, eyes half-lidded. He was too hungover for this. He was potentially too still-drunk for it, too. "Sandwich is here for science," he explained. Sandwich's little tail wiggled.

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“Kieran,” he said, sighing in exasperation. (Already.) He knew how this went - they’d known each other long enough - but sometimes it still irked Jude that, as much as he had hoped one day he’d be immune to it, and no matter how little effort Kieran put in and how hard Jude tried, the outcome was inevitable every time: Kieran would goad him into getting angry.

He tried to keep the fuming to himself. “If you’re not going to tell me, I won’t bother asking,” Jude said, turning to move down the hall whether or not Kieran followed him, “but I’m not pet-sitting for you.”

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   Cassius Lestrange

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"Did I ask you to babysit Sandwich?" Kieran said, snarky as he followed Jude down the hallway. He was being combative on purpose; he was mad about May Day still, and a little hungover, and Jude's comments were valid but Kieran wanted to pick a fight as much as he could.

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“Asking isn’t usually your style,” Jude bit back. Usually it was down to Jude to ask because god forbid Kieran ever ask for help or tell him anything without being forced into it. Jude couldn’t begrudge the system they had, because at least it was a system and it wasn’t as though Kieran had an abundance of other options, but knowing that Kieran was only here because he had to be didn’t exactly make things easier.

“Was the drinking a planned part of the science experiment, or just another spanner in the works?” He added acidly. As far as he would have thought, any serious science was presumably best done sober.

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   Ophelia Devine

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Kieran paused and set Sandwich's cage down on the floor; the rabbit did not much appreciate being jostled, and if he didn't put him down now there would certainly be some jostling.

He turned to Jude and spat, "I'm sorry, are we just pretending that May Day didn't happen?"

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Now there was real vitriol. Kieran had snapped out of his snarky indolence -  not that Jude thought this was a good thing, but at least now it felt less like he was arguing to a brick wall. (Despite that, this was probably a bad thing. There was a strong possibility Kieran was still drunk.)

“You know, I’m sorry about May Day,” Jude began, swallowing hard, “but if you wanted to talk about it you’ve had the time -” it had been days, and Kieran had been nowhere with nothing to say and now he wanted to be pissed about it, now he wanted to face the full moon with whiskey on his breath and probably no sleep, and Jude didn’t even want to think about what miserable state he’d be in by the morning. He ran an exasperated hand through his hair, about ready to start tearing it out. “And seeing as the moon will be out very soon and we don’t have time to cover all your grievances, I thought I had better prioritise.” The rabbit. What was with the fucking rabbit?

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The moon would be out soon, Kieran had grievances and so did Jude, and they ought to just get Sandwich up into the attic. He should let it go as soon as he could - certainly this was not best discussed when Kieran was halfway between drunk and hungover - and this wasn't doing either of them any favors. He was exhausted, and frustrated, and lashing out - and he knew it, could feel it happening.

He didn't stop.

"Why would I spend time talking about May Day when you never want to fucking hear it?" Kieran said; his voice was thicker than he wanted it to be.

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Jude had to laugh at that last question in sheer incredulity, his frustration falling somewhere between bitter and weary. “Go on then! But when have you ever held your tongue before? For that matter, when have you ever told me anything I wanted to hear?”

Everything that came out of Kieran’s mouth was a verbal shutdown or very bad fucking news.

But fine, let him rant about May Day if he wanted, let him say nothing else about Sandwich - realising just how loud he had gotten, Jude threw up his hands in a gesture of silent surrender... although as well as do what you want it also meant but for the love of God please get up to the attic.

Having a just-transformed-werewolf on the loose would be one way to end an argument.

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"If you don't see -" if Jude could not see the ways Kieran held his tongue every day, then Kieran didn't know what to tell him. His next sentence came with an expansive gesture of his hand, "You're the sun, alright? And I'm just - trying to fucking orbit you."

He had said too much. He wasn't sure it made sense, but it was too much. He picked Sandwich's cage back up and took the first step of the ladder up to the attic, with a helpless glance at Jude.

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Sorry, what? That was...

Jude frowned in confusion. He hadn’t the slightest idea what Kieran was trying to say, and that was so far from the expected plane of a response that he didn’t know what to do with it. He - he couldn’t even tell if he was angry anymore, or frustrated or just defeated or...

Maybe he was still drunk, and it was utter nonsense. Otherwise, if by talking about the sun and orbits and whatever he was trying to say that Jude tried to make himself the centre of every conversation they had or everything they did, then Jude didn’t have a fucking clue what planet Kieran was living on, because that was the furthest thing from the truth; and if Kieran couldn’t see that, then every May Day, every Friday meeting at the Augurey, every full moon spent up in the attic was obviously lost on him. If their lives revolved around anything, it was not -

Oh.

Oh.

Something sank in at last as Kieran started up to the attic, cage in tow.

“You’re going to let it out of the cage,” Jude said, now that it had dawned on him, meeting his gaze when he looked back. “The rabbit. Aren’t you?” Sandwich. In case it turned out the wolf fancied a midnight snack.

He could not even be suitably impressed or apprehensive or satisfied in having figured that out, because this night was one conundrum after another; the moment he solved one,  lo and behold, Kieran gave him another. (“The sun”, honestly. What was he supposed to do with that?)

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Kieran had rather hoped that Jude wouldn't figure it out until later; he slid the cage onto the attic floor but remained perched on the ladder, looking down at Jude. "It was M's idea," he said finally, as if Jude had any idea who M was - while mostly sober by now, there was something about day drinking that always left one addled.

"To see if it - if I hurt it," Kieran said, "Or if it'll leave animals alone."

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With half his mind still on the cryptic nonsense about orbiting suns, Jude regarded the rabbit cage above him in a new light while Kieran slid it out of sight.

Like some muggle magician’s trick turned askew.

“That’s... sensible, I suppose,” Jude said, though he supposed he ought to be sorry for the rabbit, more than anything, in case it did not make it through the night. Any surprise in his tone had come from the fact that sensible was not always foremost amongst Kieran’s ideas, but then, he had just explained that too - Em’s idea. Or M? Jude furrowed his brow, wondering whether he was stupid for not knowing who Kieran was talking about. It couldn’t exactly be Meredith, could it?

“Who’s M?” He asked, folding his arms to feign carelessness, or... not as much concern as he felt. He didn’t want the argumentative tone to rear its head again - and perhaps he would have been better off not pressing for an answer - but it sounded like M knew about Kieran being a werewolf, and that was too important not to ask about.

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   Juliana Ainsworth

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