Parking Lot, Wednesday Evening

[not_a_whiner]

Off-island drinks with Dean... was starting to become a habit.

Not that Kaidan really minded. He considered the fact he had a couple of friends around here to be a blessing in and of itself - and it was another night he'd get to focus on something else rather than his personal ghosts. So he showed up to the parking lot pretty early, finding a place to wait by the Impala.

The sun was coming down earlier and earlier these days. Probably wouldn't be too long until winter really hit the place.

[[ for Dean ]]

Comments

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan shot him a look. "Besides," he said, dubiously. "Hauntings? Really?"

[6buckstohisname.livejournal.com]

"Hey, nothing easier than a simple salt and burn," Dean shot back, pulling the driver side door open.

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan slid into the car on the passenger seat side. "Salt and burn," he echoed. "That doesn't mean actually setting something on fire, right?"

[6buckstohisname.livejournal.com]

Dean stared at him for a moment, keys in the ignition. "Sure," he replied with a shrug.

[not_a_whiner]

"Like what?"

[6buckstohisname.livejournal.com]

"Okay, so ghosts. You believe in them? And not that spiritual we go into nature bullcrap," Dean said, starting the car up with a roar of the engine. Hisbabywassowonderful.

[not_a_whiner]

"In my universe? No," Kaidan said, leaning back. He'd gotten SLIGHTLY less terrified in the face of Dean's driving. "That they might be hanging around in some other universe somewhere...? I've been wrapping my head around that."

[6buckstohisname.livejournal.com]

Hey, he was an amazing driver. Just, you know, hold on tight and buckle up.

"That's how we get 'em to move on. Salt and burn the remains."

[not_a_whiner]

"You find a lot of remains just lying around like that?" Kaidan asked, fascinated in spite of himself.

[6buckstohisname.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, they're usually called graveyards," Dean replied with a snort.

[not_a_whiner]

"Not what I meant," Kaidan said. "But fine, point taken."

[6buckstohisname.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes people keep a lock of hair or something. That's enough to keep a ghost going," Dean replied. "One time we had to burn a pair of gloves because they had enough of the crazy motherfucker's DNA on it."

And they hadn't even been themselves for it! Oh, memories.

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan's eyebrows were crawling up towards his hairline. "Seriously?" he said. "No wonder you're still in business."

[6buckstohisname.livejournal.com]

"Welcome the the messed up world of hunting," Dean replied with a grin.

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan snorted. "How did you roll into something like that?"

[6buckstohisname.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a loaded question for a hunter. "Like pretty much every hunter I've met," Dean replied, smile going vacant for a moment. "Lost someone to this crap."

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan winced a little. "Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to get personal."

[6buckstohisname.livejournal.com]

"Nah. I was a kid." The first time. Oh god, his life was unending pain.

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan glanced at him from the corner of his eyes. "How long have you been doing this?" he asked.

[6buckstohisname.livejournal.com]

"Since I was a kid," Dean replied like that should have been obvious. Look, his horrible childhood was completely normal. With the constant vigilance and the weapons training.

[not_a_whiner]

"How old were you?" A kid-- what, sixteen? Younger? Jesus.

[6buckstohisname.livejournal.com]

"First real hunt? Sixteen." That wasn't counting the whole thing with the Striga, of course. "Wasn't exactly a normal life, but it was better than being something's chew toy."

[not_a_whiner]

"Still, jesus," Kaidan said, rubbing at his forehead. "That's not okay."

Sure, he'd been at Brain Camp at that age and he'd had his own crap to get through, but that was different.

[6buckstohisname.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, that's most of life," Dean muttered. "Next hunt I come across you can come on. See what it's like."

Meaning one not involving demons or magic. That shit sucked.

[not_a_whiner]

"I'm not buying that," Kaidan said. "There's a difference between the normal kind of hard everyone gets-- and this kind of hard."