#damber

[ @gradiandamian​ ]

It was one of those evenings — Tobias had suffered through a long and busy day, nursery runs, meetings, conference calls, business calls, he’d never really had a moment to stop. And with Monday being a night on which his Nanny didn’t work, it should have only added to the stress, having two children to deal with, but it was actually the contrary. Tobias looked forward to this time with them, even if it meant running around all over the flat, it still lifted a weight from his shoulders to hear their laughter.

But alas, the work still did not stop. Though he may have preferred to spend the evening laying back, relaxing from a hard day, there were still matters at the pub to attend to — namely, menu additions that the chef wanted to discuss, and although he wanted to be a bit lazy for a change, he put business before that, like he always did, thankful at least that it could be done in his own home, where he didn’t have to miss any of his time with his children.

Haisley and Maxwell had been bathed, and Tobias had them happily distracted playing with toys on the floor, and a movie playing in the background on the TV that he’d caved and bought for just that purpose. Leaving the living room for a moment, he went to the door that opened to the stairs heading down to the back of the pub and unlocked it, leaving it open slightly so that Damian could let himself in, before heading back into the other room, sitting down on the floor with his children with a content smile as he watched them play.

It had been yet another long day, one after another, and it was making Tobias very eager to move out of the pub and into the estate once it was furnished, so that he’d be able to conduct far more of his meetings from home instead of having to travel out of town as often as he was. Once again, there had been another meeting that hadn’t ended as he’d hoped, but at least it wasn’t as bad as things had been out of late.

He’d left Alastair out of it this time, not filling him in on how it had gone, knowing he had bigger things on his plate that Tobias wanted him to focus on. And though they were slowly bringing Vivian into the business, there were still a lot of meetings Tobias would have to take care of himself, and it was a good thing that he had taken this one on himself. He’d rather himself walk away with a gunshot wound than his brother or Vivian, and he was lucky, considering the fate of the two men he’d had the meeting with.

He’d arrived home in much the same state as after his and Alastair’s last meeting — there was a lot of blood, though this time it wasn’t just the blood of the other’s, but his own as well, though the bleeding had subsided now from the pressure he’d kept on it. He got himself upstairs, and heading straight for his bedroom, thankful the kids were already asleep in their rooms. Within a few minutes, his shirt was off, the bullet was out, a lit cigarette between his lips, and now the focus was stopping the bleeding yet again, getting cleaned up, and bandaged up before the other arrived.