Lex and Nick | Hunting

[x-lexington.livejournal.com]

Nick finds Lex cleaning his gear before the hunt.



Lex put the whetstone back on the ground and examined his blade. He'd long ago perfected the art of sharpening his survival knives, but he always stopped to admire his work and make sure the blade was holding up well. Sliding the blade into its sheath, he stood and looked over his gear. He didn't know if Nick was going to take him up on the offer to team up for hunting, but he was hoping the kid would. He wanted to try hunting with a feral, see if they were as good at it as they seemed to be. He'd already run into Nick once in the forest, and he was looking forward to see the wolfman in action.

There was a knock on the door and Lex went to answer it. "Nick, is that you?

The boy in question stuck his head in through the door, his eyes wide. "Yeah, it's me..." If the people at the mansion didn't know any better, they would assume that the boy was homeless, his sweatsuit already ripped to near tatters. But really, he was just thinking ahead, knowing that he was planning on transforming today, and not really looking forward to having to take another trip to Goodwill anytime soon. He stuck one barefoot inside the door to get more leverage. "You mind if I come in?"

"Sure, I don't have many visitors so it might seem a little messy." Lex said, pointing to the large towel spread across the floor with all of his cleaning gear on it. He walked to it and started stowing everything back in it's case. "So, I see you're wearing much the same clothes as when we first met. You want me to pack a spare pair of sweats for you?"

Nick shook his head as he pushed a bit of hair out of his eyes. "Nah. I've got this set pretty well broken in, so I think I'll be set for today." He liked being in the company of Lex. The hunting equipment and instincts reminded him of home. "Is there anything I can help you get ready with?"

Lex thought about it, after he put the whetstone away they would be ready to head out. "No, but if you want to take a seat, I'll be done in a moment." He picked up the case and dropped it in his room, grabbing a pair of sweatpants and throwing them into his bag, just in case.

Falling down into a chair, Nick continued looking around the room, trying to get a better feel for the newest member of the mansion. "So are you adjusting any more to the mansion? I imagine it's not too much like your time in the military." It was hard for the boy to find the thin line of questioning that wasn't awkward, he still wasn't the greatest conversationalist.

Lex couldn't help but laughing. "If you'd asked me that on Saturday I would have answered in the affirmative. Now, I'm not so sure. In the military there were definitive rules for what we could and could not do. Here, I seem to be crossing everyone, and I don't even know why." He paused, not wanting to drive the conversation into darker territory. "What about you, made any progress since our chat last week?"

"It seems like I'm moving rapidly in reverse actually." Nick couldn't help but simply shake his head at this. "You know just when you think you know yourself, something comes up and just kicks you right in the teeth." His eyes began to glaze over slightly for a second, before he gained his wits about him, making sure that he didn't go into another brooding moment about Catseye. "You think someone up there has a sense of humor?"

Lex could feel the tension in the boy's voice, and with recent events he wanted to lend a helping hand. "It's the only way I can get through the day, and even if you say you're reversing just remember that you're able to talk to me, anytime." He laughed and extended his hand. He spoke with more confidence than he felt. Everyone seemed to be pissed at him, everyone but Nick. "Now what do you say, let's go bag us a buck."

"That's what I'm here for." The boy popped up with a smile. He quickly began heading towards the door, but after only a few steps, he suddenly stopped and turned towards Lex once again. "Hey, sorry to bother you, but before we go, can you grab anything that has your scent on it?" The boy let out a laugh as he scratched the back of his head. "I know it sounds weird, but there's a reason behind it."

Lex laughed, he remembered Catseye asking for the same thing back when he first arrived. It was kind of strange having someone else sniff his clothes, but Lex didn't care too much because he knew it meant the difference from being fellow hunter or prey. He went to his dirty clothes hamper and picked out a relatively dirty shirt and held it up. "Will this do?" he asked.

Nick tied the shirt around his waist, making sure it was secure with several tight pulls. He gave a quick thumbs up to Lex. "It looks like we're good then." He quickly turned and began walking towards the door again, a look of determination on his face.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

With the deer slain, Lex and Nick talk about women while carrying it back to the mansion.



The deer lay before them, a bloody mess of mangled flesh for it's throat. Lex smiled, as he looked down at the kill, he had to admit it, the ferals were amazing hunters. He knelt down next to it's rear haunch and examined the corpse. The buck was big and it would almost be enough for the luau. Gently patting the beast he paid homage to it, "You did well... and we almost didn't catch you. Well, I almost didn't catch you."

He turned his attention to the wolf that was circling to tear a bite from the beast's ribs. "Hey, Nick, I don't know if you can understand me, but if you can, could you stick to the parts not edible by humans." He didn't think the wolfman would understand but he had to try.

The giant wolf slowly began to shrink. Within seconds it was a gangly teenager once again, breathing heavily as he steadied himself against one of the trees. "I'll leave the cooking to you, Lex." He bent down to his knees so he could get a better view of the animal that he and his hunting partner had just taken down. "And the only raw meet that I can handle is sushi." He flashed a wide grin.

Lex gave the boy a sidelong look, "What?" He tried to figure out how the boy could think that he was slipping back to the primitive side when he didn't eat anything raw, besides fish. Maybe he misjudged the situation, or he might never have had a clue as to what the boy was referring to earlier. Either way, he decided it was time to try at playing the responsible adult. He figured he couldn't do any more harm than he already had. "You know what, don't worry about answering that."

He moved over to the deer, pulling the sweats and a bit of rope from his pack. "How about you put these on, and tell me about what's going on with you, while I show you how to bind a fresh kill to keep it's meat intact."

Nick happily pulled on his clean pair of pants to replace the ones that had been torn to shreds. "Not too much has been going on with me actually." He quickly moved forward, squatting down next to Lex and looking over the kill more thoroughly. "I mean things are tense with me and one of the other students, but nothing too significant."

Lex quirked an eyebrow, "Just one student? This wouldn't happen to be a girl, would it?" He hated to prod, but he wanted to be as helpful, if he could.

"A certain purple-haired one at that..." Nick was trying to focus on the deer, but his mind was quickly fading. "You know if hunting and women were the same, life would be so much easier."

"I couldn't agree more," Lex said, chuckling softly. "It's a damn shame." He tied the deers legs together and made a handle with the knot. "So, Catseye..."

"Yes, Catseye," Nick added with a bit of both confusion and longing in his voice. He tried desperately to keep up helping Lex, but his awkward teenage hands, combined with his mind beginning to wonder wasn't making it an easy go of things. "I just seem to be mucking up everything this week. Can I ask for a hand?"

"Sure," Lex thought he could feel the boy's distress. Lifting the carcass in unison, they managed to bring it up to their shoulders and both grunted with the exertion. "You hunted this beast like it was laying there on a silver platter, no mean feat if you ask me. As for the girl troubles, at least you didn't fall for one who was already taken," he said, and whispered to himself, "and crazy to boot."

Nick struggled to keep his balance, but he didn't want to disappoint Lex, so he just kept struggling along. "Uh-oh..." He readjusted the deer, thinking how much easier this would be if he were a wolf. Of course his wolf-form this close to the deer would most likely send him into a feral rage. "You can talk to me about it. I'm not the best with the advice, but I've been told I'm a halfway decent listener."

Lex shouldered more weight, and realized that even though he was trying to help Nick, he probably could use someone to talk to. "Yeah, I seem to have found myself at the butt end of some cosmic joke." He paused, trying to figure out how to continue. He could tell the boy everything, which would probably make him seem like less of an ass, or he could stick to the most recent stuff. He decided he'd go the long route, hell maybe the boy would open up in return.

"As I told you last time, I was in the military and I got kicked out and all that. Well, when I got here I ran into a particularly attractive blonde by the name of Lil. I thought she was too good to be true, especially cause she likes motorcycles as much as I do. Well, we bonded and went out for some drinks, and I started getting a feeling I hadn't had since I joined the military...a feeling of more than just bestial lust... no offense." That's one way to start, he thought, feeling more than a little relieved.

"While I haven't met Lil, she sounds like you're type." The boy mentally went over the checklist of things that he had learned about Lex during their uncomfortable meeting a week ago. "But you said she's already taken? That seems like a slight hitch in the plan to say the least." Nick hopped slightly to make sure the deer didn't fall off of his shoulder.

"She's married," Lex sighed, "I can't believe I didn't realize it, and now she's really pissed at me because I aired my problems on the journals. Really, I just pointed out that something had happened, and nobody besides her would have ever known, except that she decided to blurt it out to everyone, and twist it to make me seem like a sexual deviant." Rotating his neck so it wouldn't cramp, Lex realized that the boy ahead of him was having a hard time keeping the deer up.

Lex was in no hurry. "Let's take a break, I think I misgauged how large a buck we took out."

The boy was happy for the rest as he let the deer come crashing down onto the ground. He quickly took a few steps back, rotating his shoulders in the process. Cringing slightly, he realized that now he was more or less wasting time because he didn't really know what to say. "Well I..." He scratched the back of his head to buy even more time. "Well... damn.." It was the only think he could really think to say.

Lex sat down a little way from the dead buck. "Yeah, that's what I thought." He stared down at the ground, trying to figure out if there was anything more to say. Realizing that it would probably just sound like bitching, he decided he'd turn the spotlight on Nick. He enjoyed the kid's company and didn't like seeing him distraught. Looking up, Lex tried to read him while asking, "What about you and Catseye?"

"I have absolutely no idea what's going on between me and Catseye." Nick let his head bounce roughly on the tree behind him, closing his eyes as he talked. "I kind of flaked out on her recently because I have no idea what's going on." Pushing his feet out, he broke into a wide stretch of his entire body. "In fact, I was going to go try and find her when we get back. I'm tired of this whole thing weighing in on me."

"A sound plan," Lex knew exactly how the kid felt. "You do know she's out here, somewhere, don't you?" He said, rising to his feet and preparing to lift up the buck. "If you want, you can go look for her. I think I can drag this big boy back to the meat locker." He grunted as he began hefting the beast's hind-quarters onto his shoulders.

"Are you sure you wouldn't like some help? I'm pretty sure I'll have to stop by the mansion and make her something to eat." The words came out calmly, but his mind was already starting to fly into a fit of ideas, worried that he may already be too late to redeem himself to her if she went into the woods without telling him.

Lex could see that his friend, and friend was definitely the right word, was working it over in his mind. "Nick, I'm gonna have to insist. Even if you have to stop by the mansion, I can take care of this. You just go find her. It seems like the two of you have a lot to talk about." He hoped he hadn't overstepped his boundaries, but he wanted the kid to take care of himself, and commanding him to do it seemed to be the only way he'd respond.

Nick looked down at the dear for several seconds before realizing that he needed to take Lex up on his offer. He placed his hand down on the man's shoulder. "Thanks Lex, I appreciate it." He quickly jumped into a half sprint down the path, before he turned back to Lex one final time. "And good luck with the whole Lil situatition." With that the boy was gone.