born again apex.

Vic laughed quietly, probably a bit too entertained by how excitable Dominic was by all of this. He was happy to see Dominic again, of course, but he was still asleep enough that it wasn’t really showing. Not yet, at least. 

“Picking me up at my place sounds great.” Vic stretched and yawned, shaking off the last bits of sleep and finally sliding out of his best. “That gives me some more time to actually get ready.” Plus he felt strangely giddy about the idea of Dominic coming to pick him up… but he’d never say that out loud.

“What time should I expect you?”

"Sounds good to me. I’d say... a little more than half an hour? Just need to do a few things before I leave to your place.” Dominic finally felt himself becoming more composed. Still, he couldn’t help the big smile on his face from getting to see Vic again.

“Well -- I’ll let you get ready then. I’ll text you when I’m on m way.” One of the few times he actually used texting.

Dominic tried not to rush through getting ready, giving Vic as much time as he needed, but he couldn’t to feel as though he did rush through it. Eager was never something someone would use to describe Dominic. And yet here he was, nervously going through his clothes to get ready for a date.

December in New York was always a little rough with the cold, but being a werewolf and packing on the jackets and scarves always helped. Besides, it snowed a little last night and it left a pleasant twinkle to everything on the streets.

Soon enough Dominic found himself climbing up the stairs of the building Vic lived in and in front of Vics condo. And just before he was about to knock on the door, he remembered -- he forgot to text him he was coming -- really not a big deal in the grander scheme of things but he still felt bad.

Vic stretched a bit while listening to Dominic talk. He figured he must be a bit excited about something since he was kinda rambling a bit. It worked for Vic since it actually gave him a little more time to knock off the haze from his sleepiness and actually wake up some more.

When Dominic made his proposition, Vic pulled his head away from the phone and pushed his hair our of his face as he looked at the time. “I don’t go in to work until 10 tonight.” The last word tapered off into a yawn. “I’m definitely in the mood for some coffee.” 

He snorted and threw in at the end. “Is your friend back there gonna be joining us?”

Despite Dominic perking up from Vics acnswer, he tried not to let his excitement show too much. Something about wanting to keep a cool demeanor. 

“Awesome! That’s awesome.” It’s showing.”I can pick you up at your place again? I know I said that the metro nearest me could take us but I think the one by your place can do the same. It just might take a few minutes longer which should be fine...”

Vic wasn’t much of a fan of sleeping in late but when he had as good of a night as he did the night before, he’s willing to indulge a bit. He didn’t get calls all that often in the morning so it was confusing at first when it was going off.

He looked at his phone.

He rubbed his face over his hands.

He looked at his phone again, noticed the name and picked up.

He didn’t even get a chance to say anything before the man on the other end started talking. That wasn’t a problem since he really liked Dominic’s voice. 

“Yeah,” he smiled a bit to himself. “Hey. What’s up?”

Dominic swore that his heart actually skipped a beat when he heard Vics voice. He sounded like he just woke up, did he wake him up? He pushed aside his own worries to respond.

“Hi!” You already said hi, pendejo. “Uh -- sorry for the early call, I hope I didn’t wake you up.” Don’t. “Um -- well, first off I just wanna say thaks, for last night. I had a really good time last night.” Dominic couldn’t help but to smile at the thought of last night.

“So, uh, I was wondering if you wanted to get some coffee? Maybe even take a walk through Central Park? If we catch a metro near my place we could probably get there before 1.” He caught himself getting ahead of himself. “I -- If you want! I don’t wanna pressure you or anything. Or if you have work. I mean -- especially if you have work.”

From the background, Angel yelled out, “Smooth! Very smooth!”

Dominic didn’t respond, simply staring emptily into the air, phone pressed to his chin. He wasn’t sure how long he was sitting there, overthinking the whole thing probably. An unnecessary amount of overthinking no doubt. Finally he moved and next thing he knew, his phone was making the sound of calling someone. It took until the third ring that he finally pressed the phone to his ear.

When he heard the ringing stop, as if someone had just picked up, he spoke into the phone. “V--Vic? Uh -- hi! It’s um, Dominic. From last night?” Of course he knew it was last night, you idiot.

“Well, uh…”

“I’m having a party in the park this weekend. You both could come to that?”

“Now if I was really lucky, I’d get you to bring in your dog all the time.”

Vic laughed right back.

“Okay, good point. You got me there. Sorry, was just curious. We don’t get many police officers in here but the few that we do usually rant about their day and their families.”

He holds in the little sigh that instinctively wants to come out.

“Really? I thought that was, like, required for cops. Every guy who is a cop on tv is married.”

That got a slightly bigger laugh from the werewolf.

“It’s not your fault, seriously. I was the one who brought it up.”

A short pause as Vic really wished he had some more alcohol in his system before asking.

“So, what does your, uh, significant other think of your roommate?”

Dominic laughed a bit at his question. He needed that laughing, feeling himself ease up after their last subject of conversation.

Vic snorted.

“Are you apologizing for my apologizing?”

“Oh, ah. Uh…”

There was so much information there that Vic hardly understood but he was smart enough to know a sore subject when he heard one. “Sorry. Bringing that up, I mean. Sometimes I don’t know when to stop asking questions.” A small, apologetic smile. “A bartender who has problems talking to his customers too much. Who knew?”

Realizing that he made the other feel bad, Dominics expression changed to somber to surprise to then a rare smile. “Oh uh -- you don’t have to be sorry. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just -- you’re fine! You weren’t asking too many questions. It’s just --” He wanted to find other ways to say that he doesn’t have to worry -- why was he even so flustered by this?

Ah, a “roommate.”

“I’m guessing your roommate is your, uh, friend that you got the stuff for that one day? When we first met, I mean. Interesting guy.”

His face sombered a bit when the subject changed to Angel.

“Aw, he’s a puppy!” Vic couldn’t help himself. 

“I don’t know what your brother does for a living but I am so jealous!”

Now that drew out an actual laugh from the moody werewolf.

“I only have ‘em for a little while, usually. The longest I had the same one was… seven weeks? Little guy needed a little rehabbing after a bad family.”  Vic shrugged. “Probably for the best. I usually don’t have a lot of free time between my jobs.”

He tilted his head to the side a little bit, nodding when one of the other patrons in the bar signaled that the wanted another beer. He grabbed a glass and started pouring one from the tap. “How old is Chalk?”

He frowned a lil when he heard about the cat with the bad family. Dominic hated seeing or even just hearing about hurt animals.

“Nah, I’m really bad at it, actually.”

Dominic had shared so it was only fair that he did the same. “Every once in a while I have cats that I keep with me until they find homes and, uh… they took naming rights away from me. I’m that bad.”

That got another small laugh from him. “You have cats? That’s cute.” He meant that too, given the inflection in his voice. “You seem like a cat person honestly. Well, an animal person but you look like you’d have a cat. I like cats too it’s just --”

“Now why would I make fun of a name like that? That’s a great name!”

Vic smiled hard, enjoying the bit of blush he might’ve gotten from the man. He was usually all frowns and hard stares when he was talking to anyone else in the bar. “I don’t think I would’ve come up with something cool like that.”

The smile was slightly infectious, making the lycanthrope smile just a little bit wider. Just a little. Genuine compliments were usually no big deal, he’d just shrug them off. But from Vic? They brought out a different reaction from Dominic.