Private Finished Breakfast, Beer, and Brawl

Addy.

Lochlann had been prepping the glasses for two burly men at the end of the bar when she came in. He nodded towards her but was grateful he was working on making sure there was the perfect amount of head on the beers to avoid having to say something immediately.

The last thing she'd done had been kiss him and bite him on the neck. He still had the mark, but it was faint now, and the chain of his amulet hid it. If anything was visible that Lochlann normally kept hidden, it was a thick banded scar over his neck.

He hid it everywhere else he went but not here, not at the bar, because it gave a few of the rowdier men the impression that Lochlann had survived his throat being slashed in a fight.

It was partially true. He had survived, but only because the woman fucking him didn't want him to die.

"Hey baby girl," Lochlann greeted her. She was acting like nothing had happened, and Lochlann suspected that was because her brother was here. She introduced him and Lochlann nodded a hello.

"Hey Alaude," he said, using his full name rather than the nickname Addy had called him for. The man wasn't smiling and the way he was looking at Lochlann reminded him...

...oddly enough of how his brother eyed him up before knocking Lochlann over.

He tried to tell himself he was just over thinking, but the truth was he was distracted by Addy's presence. He was hard to forget what had happened. He felt like a famished man being offered a glass of water.

Lochlann swallowed.

"Really now?" Lochlann said, and he arched his eyebrows at Addy and gave her a wink. He wasn't fond of how Alaude had said blabbering, but he ignored it.

I could come over and fuck your sister and then she'd be really noisy everytime she said my name, Lochlann thought, and then he shook his head because jesus Lochlann what the fuck.

He said, "So do you two want breakfast? We've got the platter on special, as usual. Eggs, sausage, biscuits with gravy, some waffles, hashbrowns, a bowl of grits, and a side of scrapple. On me, of course."

It was a disgusting amount of food so early in the morning, but it's why the place was popular with the dock workers who'd put in long shifts overnight. Luckily, there weren't too many people in the bar and most of them had been served already, so Lochlann had a considerable amount of time to socialize.

And to think about what the hell had happened the last time they were together. It'd been all he thought about.

For some reason it bothered Lochlann that Alaude wouldn't let him treat them to breakfast.

If he really thought about it--which he didn't, because he was stealing glances at Addy every chance he get--Lochlann would realize it is because of the cultural connections from eating. Eating with humans was important. It was how he learned to adapt, how to fit in. It's why he was decent at preparing his own meals. It was why, sometimes, he went and just sat in food courts and pretended to look at his phone while he watched other people eat. It's how he learned what it meant to be human.

And Alaude not letting him do this struck a nerve, but he ignored that, because he was Addy's brother, and if he wanted to treat his sister to breakfast, that was fine.

Lochlann was considerably more irked when he cut her off about the beer. His dark brows furrowed for a moment, but he regained his composure fairly quickly.

"We cater to a lot of folks who work the night shift," Lochlann explained. His voice was level but barely. "It's why we're open early. We definitely serve beer. There's a lager that we actually use to cook the sausages."

He gave them both a smile.

"Let me at least get your beers then," he said, and he reached for two glasses and started to fill them. He glanced at the clock on the wall and said, "I can probably join you two in a few minutes."

He slid the two beers across the counter from them and then Lochlann excused himself to go check on the two other men at the end of the bar. He put their order in with the kitchen, closed out a tab, and then returned to talk.

"I started working here after Dani died," Lochlann started to explain, and then realized that Addy would have no idea who Dani was, how she died, or what her whole death started. He wasn't ready to go into that now, so he quickly continued. "The hours are weird but I can't complain. It's much better than the other bar I was working at down by the beach."

He knew Addy would know the real reason he didn't want to work on the beach itself, but he gave a short laugh and said, "There was soo much sand and it was impossible to keep it off the counter."

Lochlann liked a clean counter.

"The only downside is there isn't much room for Lamby here so he's out at pasture," he said.

He was trying to make casual conversation, trying to play the same game Addy was, but he wasn't doing so good at it. And Christ, Alaude irked him. Lochlann felt like the other man looked like he just stepped in dog shit. What the fuck was his deal?

But Addy was here, and that was enough.

Lochlann hadn't missed the glare between Addy and Alaude, but he didn't read too much into it. He had a brother and a sister, and he was square in the middle of them, so if he wasn't fighting with one, he was fighting with the other.

Alaude sort of reminded him of Lawrence which, unfortunately for Alaude, was not a great thing. Alaude actually seemed like he'd be Lawrence's type. He usually struck up relationships with the other farm hands, very broke-back mountain, but he liked to munch on the pretty ones. He'd probably find Alaude's red eyes as alluring as Lochlann found Addy's.

Lochlann caught Addy's look and gave the slightest tilt of his head in acknowledgement.

"Lamby is my sheep," Lochlann explained. "I used to raise them back in the states. Addy's met him quite a few times."

She also made sure he was taken care of when Lochlann was in the hospital, but that's not something he was going to bring up.

"So what is it that you do, Alaude? Addy said you're going to open up a shop?" he inquired, trying to keep the conversation going.

This was important to him. Addy was important to him. So Lochlann did his best.

He realized just how much of his life had happened in the last year. He did have a lot to tell Addy, when they are alone at least, but not a lot of it was pleasant. Rehab hadn't been pleasant. Dani dying hadn't been pleasant. Guin hadn't been pleasant, but..she became sort of pleasant. Any one single one pleasant thing that had happened was tainted by something else that Lochlann had fucked up.

Just like he'd fucked up that kiss.

"Yes I did," Lochlann laughed, shaking his head at the memory. Damn, that was right. He'd actually forgotten how he came across Lamby, but he hadn't forgotten the day he'd met Addy.

Unfortunately, whatever good feelings Lochlann had died pretty damn quickly.

Fucking Alaude.

I kill people back home, Lochlann mocked him in his head.

Yeah buddy, well fuck you, I kill people here, he thought back. But he didn't say it, because killing was not something Lochlann was proud of...even if he was damn good at it.

"I'd love to stop by some day," Lochlann said, and his voice was remarkably level and flat. His face was doing a pretty good job at staying perfectly normal. Addy, though, would be able to pick up on the tightness in Lochlann's jaw, and the way he held his head perhaps a little bit too high, like a horse right before he kicked.

Alaude's question caught him off guard and some of that tension left, but the blank expression on his face didn't.

He decided right then that he hated Alaude.

But he loved Addy even more in that moment.

Because she hadn't told him.

Lochlann knew what it had meant for Addy to have discovered her brother, to have finally found him. It was one of the last positive things she'd shared with him before he tried to eat her. This was the person in the world Lochlann expected her to feel closest to but....she'd kept his secret.

Lochlann took a deep breath in, and exhaled, and he was about to just drop it and offer him another beer when Alaude brought up Seth. Addy froze and went silent.

And Lochlann snapped.

It happened so fast he didn't even realize he was doing it. But it was the memory of pain on her face when she told him about Seth. It was knowing that someone had hurt her so deeply, had scarred her in places that Lochlann could never reach, that prompted him. It was the casual way Alaude just brought him up, like he wanted to hurt her, wanted her to feel bad. It didn't matter that he was her brother. It didn't matter that it really wasn't a smart idea.

All that mattered was that he'd hurt her.

Lochlann wasn't exactly sure how he got over the bar, just that he dove over it and collided into Alaude's chest and knocked the other man down to the floor.

Lochlann was not a skilled fighter. His only advantage was that he was fast, very fast, and he was strong. If he could get a few well-placed hits in, he might stand a chance, but otherwise he was useless. They were close enough to the ocean at the pier that Lochlann could probably just shift, grab him in his teeth, run and--

no.

Absolutely not.

No ocean.

Lochlann you fucking idiot this was Addy's brother.

He wasn't thinking that it was Addy's brother when he aimed another punch at the man.


Meanwhile, the kitchen staff came out carrying the two breakfast platters. They were stacked high with food. He eyed the ticket, saw Adelene at the end of the bar, and slid the plates onto the bartop. He refilled her beer, too.

"Enjoy," he said, ignoring Lochlann and Alaude on the floor.

For that matter, none of the other patrons were paying any attention, either.

It was that kind of bar.

Alaude's knee collided with Lochlann's stomach, but Lochlann was lucky because it hurt, but it didn't knock the wind out of him. The other man kicked him towards the stools and got up, landing his own punches down at him.

Alaude had his collar and aimed another punch at him. Lochlann's head was swimming with pain, but he lowered his skull like a ram might, leaned back and brought his knee up. He didn't even bother aiming for the other man's crotch, but instead Lochlann hooked his leg behind Alaude's knees and yanked, trying to unbalance him to send him back to the ground.

Unfortunately the other man had the collar of his shirt so Lochlann went down with him, crashing into the bar stools again. He tried to position himself so he could lunge back ontop of the other man, just like he had when he came off the bar stool, but this time he aimed for Alaude's ribs.

Lochlann was not fighting to kill. He didn't kill that way, and even if he did, he wouldn't kill Addy's brother.

But right now, Lochlann wasn't thinking. He wasn't feeling. He was a white hot ball of furry and pain and a whole lot of self-hate, and that manifested in how he fought. He didn't seem to care if he got hit, as long as he hit back.

A lot of self-medication had made Lochlann very numb to pain.