Breakdown

[Saccharin]

(For RWW)

Ever since his unfortunate encounter with a vampire who hadn\'t understood that it was polite to ask before opening a man\'s jugular, Orias had been over protective, near stifling in his perceived attempts to keep him safe.

Fortunately for Gene, his boyfriend couldn\'t come out when the sun took to the sky, so he was free to do whatever the hell he wanted without catching disapproving glances or hearing for the umpteenth time that it really wasn\'t safe for him to go out alone at night. He knew Orias only did it because he cared, but it didn\'t stop him from feeling a guilty surge of relief when he was able to get out and about on his own during the day.

He\'d completed several errands under a sky without a cloud in sight, and it was warm enough to justify rolling up both the sleeves of his light blue button-up shirt, not just the one he\'d had to push back so to accommodate the white plaster cast that encased his left forearm. He had the window of his old black Silverado down and was tapping his fingers on the steering wheel in beat with the country music he had playing. He\'d even started to sing a little when his truck shuddered and began pushing wisps of white from underneath the hood.

That couldn\'t be good.

He steered the limping heap of metal to the side of the road he\'d been on that would\'ve eventually led him home, hoping to hell it wasn\'t what he thought it was.

"Son of a bitch!" he exclaimed as he backed away from the cloud of smoke that was released after he popped the hood. Across the street were several store fronts, one of which was a diner that Gene knew to have amazing root beer floats and bacon cheeseburgers. If any of the patrons were looking out the window, they would see that he walked around the side of his truck - kicking a tire as he went - and climbed back into the cab.

He sat in the driver\'s seat for a moment, his head in his hands and his arms resting against the steering wheel, before leaning over to search for the cell phone Orias had insisted he start carrying around. He\'d rolled his eyes at the device when it\'d been handed to him, but it would actually come in handy given his current circumstance. If, of course, he\'d been in the habit of taking it with him wherever he went. It really didn\'t do him much good when it was still sitting on the kitchen counter where he\'d left it.

Gene sighed and got back out of the truck, running his hands through his dark blonde hair and making it stick up in all sorts of interesting directions. While he wondered if God really meant to test him like he\'d been, he returned to the front of his truck and tried vainly to assess the damage through the plums of white smoke that still poured forth.

[realworldweirdo]

Mario was trying to eat and explain something to a particularly out of touch vampire on his bluetooth headset at the same time. This was never a good thing, especially when it was this particular vampire.

"Conner, no... yes, I know all about what you\'re trying to.... no, the computer doesn\'t.... listen to me, here, you\'re being an ass, man. Those character sets have to be installed.... yes, I\'m listening. No, it does not speak English, or German and.... can I talk to Scott? Is he up right now?"

How he\'d been wrangled into being tech support for this man was a near mystery to him. What the hell Conner was doing up during the middle of the day was anyone\'s guess. What really mattered right now was that he was being prevented from eating his loaded fries, so he made an executive decision and hung up the phone.

Staring out the window, munching triumphantly on a cheese-laden fry, brought his attention to a broken down truck spewing white smoke with a frustrated looking man doing a classic cellphone search in the cab. When he popped back out of the truck with no phone, Mario winced. His usual tendencies as a good samaritan were battling with his desire for cholesterol-soaked carbohydrates. He\'d already paid for his food, so....

He flagged down his waitress and asked her to keep an eye on his table for him, he had to run outside for a moment and would be back in a flash. A quick glance over from her and a casual nod in the affirmative got him the answer he wanted - his fries were safe. The fact that he was still dressed for his interview in a medium-blue oxford shirt and black slacks probably helped his case.

Strolling across the parking lot and crossing the street took him a minute, but it wasn\'t rush hour so it wasn\'t difficult.

"Hi! Do you need a hand?"

[Saccharin]

He glanced at the man who\'d approached him, his lips pressed together thinly. "I need this week to be over," he said glumly.

When he realized how rude that must\'ve sounded, he shook his head and took in a deep, cleansing breath. "Sorry," he apologized, dropping one hand to hook his thumb in his jeans pocket and lifting the other to rub the side of his nose. "I don\'t think there\'s much to be done right now, \'sides getting her towed to a garage."

White smoke meant something to do with his radiator, and he prayed it was only a broken hose and not something that would require costly replacement parts. He\'d already had to take out a loan of sorts from Orias to pay for the emergency care he\'d needed after being attacked. Having to ask for more money would deal a crushing blow to his already damaged ego. God, he needed to find a fulltime job.

"I\'m gonna go in there," he said, pointing to the diner, "and see if they\'ll let me use their phone. Thanks for the offer though."

[realworldweirdo]

Mario was amused by the first answer, but let himself get distracted by the cast and the stitches on the stranger\'s neck. The pattern of punctures and semicircles was absolutely vicious. He whistled in appreciation of the severity of what had probably occurred.

"Jesus christ, what happened to you? You look like you were attacked by a vampire." It was easy to get away with little indiscretions like this; everyone would assume he was joking. Unless they didn\'t assume he was joking. Then there was usually a story to be had and something to let Jake know about.

"You can use my phone, by the way. No big deal."

[Saccharin]

Gene did his best suffocating fish impression as he opened and closed his mouth again. He hadn\'t thought of a viable excuse for his injuries because he hadn\'t figured anyone would care enough to ask about them. So he floundered about in his mind for something, anything that would explain things away.

"No, not a... Was a dog. Big dog." Of all the things he was, he wasn\'t a good liar, and that was probably why he\'d been fixed so he couldn\'t even discuss vampires with people who weren\'t already aware of them. "Like a pit bull, but bigger," he elaborated, his hazel eyes shifting nervously from the man who stood in front of him to anywhere but where he stood.

"So yeah. Phone. That\'d be good." He smiled, and in his anxiety, it was clownishly large and sickly looking.

[realworldweirdo]

Oh god, it was a vampire, Mario realized with a wave of remorse. This guy could neither lie nor keep himself out of trouble from the looks of things. Still, with battle scars like that, he was probably lucky to be alive at all.

"Here," he said, holding out his phone and unlocking it with a flick of a finger and a complicated swipe of the thumb. Another two taps of his index finger, bending his knuckle at an odd angle to do so, and a dial pad had appeared on the large flat screen. His free hand was pressing the control button on his headset, turning it off so the phone would unpair and make calls normally.

He\'d forgotten that his current wallpaper was of him and one of his vampire friends in Risk, with some blatant feeding going on in the background.

[Saccharin]

He took the phone, grateful for a chance to stop talking about himself. Within a matter of minutes, he\'d not only made a call for a tow truck, but he\'d left a terse voicemail to let Orias know he\'d shouldn\'t be wrought with concern if he woke up and noticed a certain truck was missing from the driveway.

"I\'ll be back as soon as I can," he finished, ending the call after some fumbling with all the overcomplicated settings.

In the middle of handing it back, he stopped and blinked at the screen. The place wasn\'t familiar (even with Orias\' coaxing, he\'d never been to Risk), but he recognized what was going on just behind the camera\'s focus.

"You... go there often?" he asked, looking up from the phone to Mario, his eyes searching.

[realworldweirdo]

SHIT.

Fucking Adrienne and her goddamn obsession with pictures.... should have known she\'d plaster that up on my wallpaper.

A moment of tense awkwardness went by, then Mario abruptly grinned and laughed awkwardly, which sounded more like a quick cackle than a real laugh. Well, that had certainly backfired.

"I don\'t suppose you\'d believe me if I told you that was a Halloween party from a while back?" he asked sheepishly. "Because it totally was. With lots of dogs. They\'re like pit bulls, but bigger."

[Saccharin]

After the phone had been taken from his hand, he turned to slam the hood of his truck shut, knowing that if any kind souls went by and thought he still hadn\'t been helped, that they\'d stop and offer their assistance. It\'s what he\'d do, at least.

  "Alright," he said, crossing his arms over his chest; it was an awkward posture to take on, with the way he was forced to hold them because of his cast. "So it wasn\'t exactly a dog, but it sure acted like one." He\'d been able to say all that without encountering the wall in his head that would make him stutter like a fool before it silenced him entirely. In fact, he\'d felt something like a gate open when he\'d spied that picture, but had been afraid to walk through it..

"I\'m Gene," he said suddenly, uncrossing his arms so he could hold his uninjured hand out for the other man to take if he was so inclined.

[realworldweirdo]

"Mario," he replied, shaking Gene\'s hand in a thorough but quick sort of way. The phone had reflexively returned to its place on his belt, and as soon as he was disengaged from the handshake, his headset was being turned back on.

"It\'s hot out," he pointed out as he remembered his forlorn heart attack on a plate. "I\'ve still got food waiting for me inside. Let\'s go in and get into the AC and grab some lunch."

Even though he didn\'t live as a donor at the Oligarchy anymore, he was still bite buddies with a few of his friends; Adrienne was one of them. She\'d just earned herself a place at the bottom of the list, though. As a result of the relatively constant blood loss, he still ate like a starved man pretty much all the time. Those fries were calling his name pretty loudly.

His phone went off with a dramatic, cheesy gothic ringtone that indicated Conner. He double-tapped his earpiece, signaling the phone to ignore it.

[Saccharin]

He might\'ve made some quip about pixilated plumbers, but he was probably one of only a few people in their twenties who\'d never touched a Nintendo. Even if he had played video games as a kid instead of going outside, he was still far too polite to say something that might piss off someone he\'d just met.

  "I am hungry," he admitted, and his stomach growled in agreement. The last he\'d eaten had been at the gas station where he\'d filled up his tank earlier that morning. He\'d sent himself on a sugar rush of grand proportions by grabbing a packet of powdered doughnuts on his way out to go along with his coffee. "And they said they\'d be at least an hour."

He felt somewhat reluctant to leave his truck\'s side, though. He\'d hauled countless loads, slept in the bed when he\'d been too far out to make it to a hotel before falling asleep and been halfway across the country in it. In return, he was was going to up and leave her when she broke down? His stomach reminded him of priorities by clenching tightly. But a man did have to eat. She\'d just have to understand.  

He patted the hood tenderly and then walked around to lock the doors. "Okay," he said, stuffing his keys in his front pocket and patting the rear one to make sure he had his wallet.

[realworldweirdo]

Once Gene was satisfied he had his personal effects, Mario led the way back across the street and to the diner. Once back inside, they were met with a wonderful blast of air conditioning that dried the humidity and cooled him down right away. The joys of the modern age. Sometimes he considered becoming a vampire just to see where it would all go in a hundred years. Then again, with the advances in medical science, he might not have to resort to such extremes to see it.

"My table\'s over that way," he said, indicating a forlorn looking plate of loaded chili fries, topped with bacon bits that looked like they were experiencing some serious abandonment issues. The poor dears. Someone should do something.

[Saccharin]

He took the seat opposite Mario\'s fries and when the waitress came by to see if he needed a menu, he declined it and ordered from memory. If a place had cheeseburgers with slices of bacon cooked just right (a bit floppy, not too crunchy), he didn\'t need to look at anything else they offered.

"Sorry about getting between you and your meal," he said to Mario once she\'d left. "But thanks for coming out. I really appreciate it."

[realworldweirdo]

"Not a problem," Mario lied smoothly, already reaching for a fry. "Help yourself, I was just getting warmed up."

While the waitress was there, he\'d also ordered some more food. A large bowl of chili with scrambled eggs and garlic toast on the side should be emerging with Gene\'s cheeseburger.

"So you know," he asked, indicating the stitches and the cast. "You\'ll have to tell me how you didn\'t, well you know. Die. Never heard of a lone man standing up to a dog that vicious before."

[Saccharin]

Back to the prying. Gene really disliked talking about himself, but he didn\'t think he could successfully worm his way out of discussing his injuries like he had the first time.

"Well," he began, but fell silent shortly after. He feigned great interest in organizing the silverware in front of him, making it just so while he tried to figure out how to explain to Mario what\'d happened without going into too much detail. "My boyfriend is one too, but better behaved. He got me to a doctor afterward."

And there it was... in under twenty words.