[Fin] This isn't supposed to happen!

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Abel," the blond supplied in response to the other man's introduction, taking a moment to stand and try to wipe more water from his face. It didn't help much, given the persistent downpour. "Nice to meet you Kurt, even if under kind of shitty circumstances."

He took a few steps closer to bring him about even with Kurt and hooked his thumbs into his pockets as he stared down at the prone man on the ground. Isaac stalked closer and leaned against his trainer's leg, his ears flat against his back as he hissed menacingly at the human - not that he really succeeded in looking that menacing. "What to do with him, huh?" Abel hummed lightly in thought. Luckily for Aulus, Abel did not particularly care for the police either, so even if that option came first to his mind - report a failed theft to the police as soon as possible - he easily kicked it down below the rest. If he'd brought Sonia along he would've asked if she would like to menace him with her illusions, but he didn't... "That's a good question," he said with a frown. What he really wanted to do was just punch the guy, but he wasn't sure if that was a valid suggestion or not.  

[TawnyAngel]

Well that was a good start, no calling of police. "Well whatever we do let's do it fast, I want to get out of the pissing rain," Aulus said as a gust of wind gave his face an especially heavy dousing. So then what to suggest? He didn't want to go too vicious and arouse suspicion, but then again he really wanted to ******** this b*****d up. Criminal underworld problems, or something. "Could give him a good kicking and leave him to ponder his life choices," Aulus said after a thoughtful but brief pause. "With his voice up an octave or two from a well placed boot he could be the voice of his own obnoxious conscience."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Agreed," he said with a frown; the rain was obnoxious enough in its own right, but did it have to try and get into his mouth every time he had to speak? Did it have to get into his eyes every second? Yes, it seemed it did. "That sounds good to me," the blond said with a crack of his knuckles, even though he didn't particularly care to seriously beat the guy up. Not that the would-be thief needed to know that, of course.  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus would have cracked his knuckles but that was the sort of thing it was hard to do one handed so he settled for cracking his neck instead. "Right then." It wasn't really fair to kick a guy being held down by a Charizard but then it wasn't fair to set your Liepard or somebody in order to steal from them either and so evening it up was probably fair, was karmic anyway.

Aulus kicked the thief somewhere it would hurt rather a lot and then stepped back as he gurgled. That seemed like it was probably enough from him but for good measure he added; "And if I ever see you again, you stupid little b*****d, I'll let Char roast you."

Threat communicated he turned to Abel and gave a satisfied nod. "Well I feel a bit better now."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

One kick seemed like enough - especially from this guy - and truth be told, he wasn't that big a fan of kicking anyway. If the thief was standing upright he would have no issue decking him but he couldn't help but feel sort of bad about kicking someone that was already down. "Me too," he said, which was half true. Still, to be fair, he looked down at his Espeon. "How 'bout you, bud?"

Isaac made a displeased growling noise in his throat, his ears still back, and without responding to his companion he darted forward to sink his small fangs into the would-be thief's arm, then slunk back to Abel's side. Normally he wouldn't care to attack anyone outright and would leave his friend - or anyone else - to take care of offenders, but kidnapping was the most serious offense one could commit. Or, rather, the second worst thing - but still very serious indeed.

"Alright, I think we're good," Abel said once Isaac returned to his side and glanced up at the other man. "So what now? Just leave him I guess?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Hu, I suppose." Aulus shurgged and gestured lightly to Char. "Let him up then."

Rather to the credit of his constitution as soon as the thief was released he scrambled upright, returned his fallen pokemon, and fled down the alley.

Only a moment later Puck floated over the wall holding Aulus' by now rather soggy bags of shopping. Aulus sighed, took them, returned Char to get the fire type out of the rain and muttered; "I need a ******** drink." And a hot shower, and dry clothes, and to not be bruised and have possibly ruined gifts. Ugh!  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The pair watched the would-be thief get up, both becoming just a bit more tense until the pathetic man ran off, and Abel felt himself relaxing little by little. Isaac made a soft growling noise in the back of his throat again though as he curled around his friend's leg, his ears still slicked back, so the blond knelt down to offer a few gentle, quiet words and a bit of petting to try and calm his friend down. Once finished he straightened up with a sigh, ignoring the rain at this point as she shoved his thumbs into his pockets. "Man, me too," he lamented, glancing down at his soaking wet companion. Isaac didn't look to happy, but to be honest, neither was he. That was way too close a call - way too close, and it left a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach to think of what could've happened if they hadn't caught the thief.

Forcibly pushing that thought aside, the blond looked towards the other man and pointed a thumb over his shoulder, "There's a pretty good bar nearby, if you wanna go. I dunno about you but it's out of the rain and has a bathroom with towels, so that's where I'm headed."  

[TawnyAngel]

Oh hurray, a native guide! And he actually meant that in a non-sarcastic way, warmth and alcohol sounded really really good right now. He should have been more careful, perhaps he should always make sure to have one of his team out no matter the weather. There were some bad people in the world who would take anything they could from you given half the chance... and he wasn't going to think too hard about that for now because it only led to self recrimination.

"That sounds good," Aulus said after a couple of moments with a nod. "Anything to get out of this bloody awful weather." Maybe he'd find a motel afterwards and crash for the night, he didn't have to be on shift early tomorrow or anything so he could perhaps work out what was ruined first thing tomorrow and replace it before he went back. Nobody ever needed to know about this little incident.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel nodded, attempting to ignore the drops of water than ran down his face due to the gesture. "Yeah, right?" He said as he turned and began heading down the sidewalk, Isaac right on his heels. "Wish I'd known it was going to be this bad before going out today. Oh well, can't go back and change it now, yeah?" If only. He wouldn't have come out at all if he'd known it was going to be such a rotten evening.

It didn't take long at all to reach the bar, and Abel hopped up the few steps to open the door and hold it open for his company. The colorful Espeon darted in first and lingered near the entrance so he could shake himself off near the door and not in the middle of the floor. While he wanted to be dry, of course, he didn't want to cause anyone to accidentally slip and fall.  

[TawnyAngel]

It wasn't far to the pub - bar, whatever - but on the way there the adrenaline faded and Aulus really started to feel the bruises from his fall and the Thief attack. The scar on his face ached too and he could feel his arm where it wasn't, it seared and stabbed and was generally ******** annoying.

He stepped into the bar with a grunt of thanks to Abel for holding the door and dashed water from his face again. "Ugh." He was soaked, soaked! His jeans were stuck to his legs, even his shirt was wet where the water had soaked through his jacket. Ugh. "Anyone would think Kyogre was hanging about in the neighborhood," he muttered as he fumbled with his jacket, getting it off before it got him any wetter sounded like a good idea.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The blond followed after his company, letting the door close behind them on its own because he'd already started copying Kurt and was trying to take off his sopping wet jacket. Some good that'd do now... Oh well. With a light sigh he moved to one side where a rack stood for coats or jackets such as theirs, and he hung his up so it could drip there. Maybe it'd dry out some...

Leaving it there for now (after making sure he didn't have anything important in its pockets) he turned to continue, paused, turned back to Kurt and pointed to the direction he had begun heading towards, "Oh yeah, bathrooms are this way." Whoops; he didn't want to be rude and just abandon his company without a word. That done, he looked down to the shivering Espeon on the floor with some amount of guilt, "C'mon bud, let's go dry off, yeah?" Isaac made a noise of agreement through his chattering teeth and trotted hastily off towards the bathrooms, Abel following after so he could open the door for him and for Kurt if he joined them, then hummed lightly as he glanced around the bathroom. A single chair stood in the corner by the door - why it was there, he had no idea, but he wasn't about to complain - so he grabbed it and dragged it over to set it beneath one of the several automatic hand dryers they had on the walls. "Here you go bud." No sooner had the words left his mouth than Isaac eagerly jumped onto the chair. With an amused smile on his face, Abel offered the Espeon a pat on the head before he turned the dryer on for him, then moved to the one next to it and stuck his head under it once he'd turned it on. Ahh, warm, dry air... It was like heaven or something compared to the torrential downpour outside.  

[TawnyAngel]

In one of those overly optimistic moments of 'what a lovely day it is' Aulus had opted to go out without a jumper which - now he was standing around in a very damp black t-shirt - seemed like a terrible idea. Drying off sounded good and so he nodded to Abel, pausing only to let Char back out and tell him to start drying the coats off a bit before he followed.

He entered the gents' and looked at the chair. "What the bloody hell is that doing there?" he asked more or less rhetorically as Abel put it to use. The fact that his impromptu companion put his pokemon first made Aulus smile internally but it stayed firmly internal, he didn't want Abel thinking he was some kind of softie. It was a bit weirder when Abel stuck his head under a hand-dryer but after a moment of thought Aulus decided that it actually made a lot of sense and hey, there was a third one. Aulus moved over to it, turned it on, and shoved it head under it.

He felt like a complete tit.

To compensate for the aforementioned he started scrubbing at his hair with his hand in an attempt to make it dry faster.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Don't know don't care," Abel responded with his head still under the hand dryer. All that mattered was Isaac had a place to stand so he could be under the warm air without the blond having to hold him the whole time - and considering the fact he was wet too, it probably wouldn't have been as effective. Taking a leaf from Kurt's book, Abel started running his fingers through his hair as well, hoping it'd help it dry faster - or at least make it not as wet. The last thing he wanted was to have the occasional drop of water running down the back of his neck in a little bit.

The Espeon happily stood with his forepaws on the wall to get higher, his eyes shut tight and his face right beneath the dryer. It bothered his ears - which were kept firmly down - but it felt nice all the same, and most importantly it was warm. He needed such warmth when his fur was so short and thin. After a few moments he dropped down onto all fours on the chair and turned in a circle, hoping the warm air would get on his back to further dry him off. Unlike the humans, he would probably dry off much quicker. Poor things.

After another minute or two Abel stood up with a sigh, satisfied that his hair wasn't soaking wet anymore. His clothes, on the other hand... Well, they'd dry eventually. Frowning down at himself - seriously, why had he decided to come out today again? - he sighed a bit then looked up at Kurt. "Don't think we can do much better than that, huh?" Well, they could dry off in the bar while having a few drinks.  

[TawnyAngel]

That Esepeon. That Espeon was so cute! He'd already seen that it was smart, full of its own personality and all but the under the hand-dryer dance sealed it; he loved the little psychic type. He knew he should probably steal such a nice specimen but he was damned if he would even consider it. Smart Rockets judged their moment and their target in any case, and neither were good.

"Probably not," Aulus agreed, straightening up and rubbing at his aching semi-arm with a thinking-frown. "I'm not going back out there though, not yet. Want to grab a drink?" May as well, right? Maybe a snack too.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Me either," Abel agreed with feeling; there was no way in hell he was going back out there, not yet. When he did, he'd probably... possibly stuff Isaac in his coat or something, or at least most of him, so he could stay somewhat dry. That sort of depended on his jacket being dry by the time they left though. "Drinks, though - drinks sound like the best idea. You ready bud?"

Isaac chirruped as he hopped down off the chair, quite pleased with how dry he was now - which was almost completely. He tried not to think about the fact he'd need to go back out in the rain later, though.