[FIN] We Meet Again

[BlackFireKitsune]

While their business hours had shortened after the holidays - not that anyone was really in any sort of rush to purchase firearms, holiday or no - Abel at least still got full shifts most of the time, and today was no exception. Rather than helping customers in the shop or offering instruction in the ranges, however, he found himself kept mostly in the back, carrying heavy loads, organizing various boxes, and just in general handling inventory. He didn't mind it really, though he would've much preferred to be out assisting people at least part of the day so he wouldn't be doing heavy lifting throughout his entire shift.

Unfortunately for Abel, his wishes diminished until eventually he gave up, and at the end of his shift he emerged from a door marked 'employees only' in capital letters, his hands pressing on his back as he leaned backwards a little to try and stretch it out and ease the tension that had worsened over the past eight hours.

"Got everything off the truck?" A voice asked, cutting into his thoughts.

Abel's two-toned eyes shifted to an older man behind the counter, the glass case in front of him unlocked and opened with one of the firearms missing from its place inside and instead in pieces on top of the counter. "Yeah, everything's off and put away, inventory's done.. Everything should be all set."

The man listened as he squinted at one piece of the gun in his hands for a few seconds, then applied some oil to it before wiping it down with a dingy-looking cloth. "Alright, thanks man." He raised a hand to clasp Abel's, thought better of it, and returned the greasy hand to polishing the gun. "Have a good rest of your night."

Abel offered the man a pat on the shoulder instead. "You too, Chris. Don't work too hard," he added, and received a good-humored snort in response, then turned with a light sigh to exit the shop, his hands dropping back to his sides.  

[Suudonym]

Luke had never gotten used to shooting, despite repeated efforts. He had become fairly comfortable with the motions behind drawing and aiming a non-functioning replica, but somewhere along the line, he had decided that it was unnecessary. He didn't want to hurt people, and as long as he had his pokemon, he wouldn't have to.

Recent events proved that mentality untrue, and he no longer felt completely safe going anywhere publicly without being armed. His mere affiliation with the League, apparently, was enough to make him a target, and so for the first time in so long, he made a point of affixing the sword's scabbard to his belt before going anywhere. His destination for his current excursion was the shooting range - he was glad their opening hours exceeded those of the embassy - on the thought that he perhaps should give the skill another chance. Swords were flashy and intimidating, but firearms were more efficient in the event of in-progress assault.

As he arrived, he took casual notice of someone else departing, recognition dawning in his features as he realized that he knew the individual. "Abel," he said, just suitably surprised by the coincidence - he really couldn't be but so shocked, though, given the man's profession. "Hey, long time no see."

Passingly he thought of the irony; the last time he had spoken to Abel was after his assault at the hands of the vigilante trainers, and now it was after the assault of the Rocket interlopers. He supposed he probably looked like a person who was assaulted fairly frequently, and he supposed that that actually... wasn't that inaccurate. Jeez.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel's thoughts had wandered to various topics, mostly debating what he'd have for dinner when he got home, when someone saying his name gave him pause and pulled him from his thoughts. Blinking a bit in mild surprise at being addressed - surely his boss didn't want him to come back and do anything else before he could leave, he'd finished everything - but as he realized the voice was one he knew that didn't belong to his boss, coupled with the person his gaze fell on, caused a light smile to form on his face.

"Hey," he replied amiably, shifting his posture to hopefully not look nearly as tired as he felt. A moment passed before he noticed the bandage on Luke's head, which caused him to notice the subtle discolor of parts of his face. His eyebrows rose as his surprise showed plainly in his face and his words, "Whoa, what happened to you, man?"  

[Suudonym]

"Oh--" He reflexively reached a hand up towards the bandage. "Uh, would you believe me if I said I don't make a hobby out of getting attacked?" He gave a slight shrug and a sheepish smile. "I was attacked by some Rockets a while ago... It's a big part of the reason I'm here, actually." He nodded faintly towards the nearby shooting range.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Though his brows remained raised, his expression morphed to one of amusement. "I dunno if I could believe you after what happened last time," he said with a light chuckle. Well, the time before last, anyway - last time he'd seen Luke was at Dith's party. Before that he'd been assaulted by some group of trainers.

Still. "I'm glad you're alright though. It looks like they gave you a pretty hard time, huh?" He would've felt awful if he heard anything more serious befell Luke, especially after the engagement announcement. An engagement between two people he didn't even know knew each other, let alone were dating. Small world.

Reverting to the topic Luke brought up, Abel nodded and slipped his hands into his pockets. "Here to practice again?" He ventured, unable to help it as his gaze flicked down to the younger man's waist in case he'd acquired a gun at some point in a holster, though found himself surprised a second time when the weapon he did see wasn't one he even expected. "...is that a sword?" What did Luke have a sword for? Weren't those kind of medieval?  

[Suudonym]

He shrugged noncommittally, "I'm not terrible at hand-to-hand, at least, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been." Or perhaps it was much worse than it could have been if he had just put his hands up and done as he was told from the beginning, but who could in good faith just stand there obediently after being kneed in the stomach from an implicitly professed Rocket?

Luke nodded his response, giving a word of affirmation. The question to follow, however, wasn't answered so immediately. "Uh." He angled his arm aside, following Abel's gaze to the hilt. "...Yes." A certain amount of surprise to be expected. Anyone who walked down the street with any frequency would know that such archaic weaponry was far from commonplace. "It's mostly just for show, but I could use it if I had to."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Well that's good," he commented with an approving nod. "Having a couple different forms of self-defense is a good idea though." Which, it seemed he had in mind - hand-to-hand, firearms, and, apparently, swords. He leaned to one side a little, tilting his head as he did so, so he could see it better. It didn't help much, though. "That's pretty cool though. I don't think I've ever seen a sword before. Not in person, anyway," he amended quickly. "Seen plenty of pictures."

He straightened up and raised a hand to idly scratch his chin when he realized Luke hadn't come there to have his sword gawked at and questioned - he'd come to the shop and firing range for a specific purpose, and that could only be firearms. Setting his curiosity about the blade aside for the time being, he lowered his hand to his pocket again. "So what're you here for? More practice, or buying a gun, or...?" He couldn't imagine Luke needed further instruction. Maybe he needed to learn how to properly clean a gun..? No, that likely wasn't it.  

[Suudonym]

Luke would have offered to draw the blade to present a better look at it if Abel was interested, but unsheathing live steel in public for no reason hardly seemed like an intelligent course of action. It was a weapon, after all, and a fully functional one at that, regardless of how archaic it was, and it was no more suitable to brandish it openly than it was to point a gun at someone.

"Practice," he clarified with a nod. "I, uh... I got pretty good at dry fire drills with a model, but I never managed to get used to the feeling of actually shooting." It was loud and powerful, and it made human life seem frighteningly fragile.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel nodded with a smile. "Good, that's good," he said, pleased to hear that Luke had been practicing at home. "Dry firing's really important, so you should be able to adapt to practicing with a real gun pretty easily if you got that good with a model." He'd still need to practice more, of course, since a model was vastly different to a real gun, but still, he'd likely have an easier time of it. The thought of not being able to get used to shooting guns, while foreign to him, was at least understandable. He'd grown up and been raised around them and so it had been natural for him to get into, but he knew someone who was just getting into them for the first time wouldn't have nearly as easy a time working with them and getting used to them, especially given their nature and use as offensive weapons by certain types of people.

"Well, practice should help you there," he encouraged with another smile. "They can be a little hard to get used to, but you'll be alright. If I remember right, you didn't do too badly when you were here before." To be fair, that had been some time ago, and he didn't exactly remember too well, but he at least remembered a lack of 'wow he did really poorly' and so he could only assume that meant he'd done pretty okay.  

[Suudonym]

"I really hope so," Luke said with a nod. "I feel like I'm sort of behind now, in a way... It seems like a skill that once you decide you need it, you need it kind of quickly." A big part of that feeling was likely just leftover anxiety from being taken off guard and forced to fight outnumbered and unarmed, but regardless of the cause, it just felt like he couldn't pick up efficiency with the skill fast enough.

"Out of curiosity," he ventured curiously, "what would be the next step, for practical use in actual dangerous situations? That kind of stuff isn't taught here, right?" He vaguely recalled asking about it once before, but his memory was accurate, he had dismissed that concern as a bridge to cross once he had learned the basics. It might have been looking a bit far ahead, given that he had just admitted that he didn't know if he was comfortable with gunshots yet, but as far as Luke was aware, that was what would follow.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The blonde reached a hand up to rub the back of his neck a bit. "Well, that depends on your reasons for picking it up in the first place," he began thoughtfully. "A lot of people start for recreation or to start going hunting or something, and things like that usually mean they aren't in any hurry to get really good really quickly. I mean, they probably want to get better faster, but they don't necessarily need to. You, on the other hand," he continued, dropping his hand to his pocket again, "said you wanted to use guns for defending yourself if you have to, yeah?" Made sense, given that was two times now he'd seen him during or after he'd been assaulted, and now he carried a sword, and wanted a gun - he suddenly found himself incredibly curious as to what Luke did for a living, if he needed to be so ready for danger at any given time. "Something like that, yeah, you'd probably want to get better as soon as you can so you'll feel safer sooner, and having the confidence that comes with knowing you have a weapon you can handle and use effectively in order to protect or defend yourself." Though, now that he thought about it, Luke probably realized all of that, and thus likely rendered that entire point of discussion wholly unnecessary. Oh well.

Luke's question made him pause to consider it, trying to choose his words carefully since his boss was still within earshot. "No, it's not taught here. We have stationary targets that can be moved to different distances, but that's about it. We don't have any sort of moving targets or anything like that, or lessons on using them for self-defense. Stuff like that's usually relegated to practicing dry firing," he explained with a roll of his shoulders in a shrug. While the offer to help him privately with more practical applications remained in the forefront of his mind, he refrained from voicing it in the middle of the store, just in case, and he hoped Luke wouldn't bring it up just yet for the same reason. He didn't know if such offers would get him in trouble or not, but he figured it better to be safe than sorry.  

[Suudonym]

Luke nodded to confirm the statement and again to agree with the sentiment. "Confidence, huh... It feels awfully different from before," he mused aloud, referring to the last time he had endeavored to gain proficiency with firearms and how he had hesitated and hesitated over the decision. "Compared to before, I can think I can understand a lot better now why you fired at those trainers-- Or, I guess it wasn't really at them... It was a bluff all along, right?" In much the same spirit as the reason why he carried a sword on his belt now, and why he wanted to add a gun to the arsenal. There was a lot to be said for intimidation.

Luke frowned thoughtfully at the reply, giving a faint "I see" in response. It was a firing range, after all, not a self-defense class. He thought that he recalled something about the matter that Abel had offered once in the past, but it seemed sort of rude to bring it up now; few offers were permanent.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel offered a smile at Luke's words, then nodded to confirm, "Yeah, it was a bluff. In that instance, it was obviously for self-defense," he started to explain, both so his boss wouldn't think he was shooting at random strangers and because, he recalled, Luke had seemed temporarily blinded, likely due to the flash that had drawn Abel to the situation in the first place. "Two people against at least five or six, with one of the two on the ground. I only had one Pokemon who hasn't been trained for battling, against however many Pokemon all of those half a dozen trainers had. If they ganged up on you, they probably would've tried to do the same to me, and to be honest I'm not that great at hand-to-hand, so if they came at me and I was unarmed, then that whole situation would've ended much differently than it did. Instead, I scared them off with my gun and prevented further injuries to either of us and also them. Long story short: Just because you have a weapon and use it in defense of yourself or someone else," he said, raising a finger to emphasize the point, "doesn't automatically mean injuring another person with it."

Returning his hands to his pockets, he shrugged a shoulder in the direction of the door, "Unrelated, but you wanna go talk outside for a bit? I just got off and so it feels kinda awkward to stand around and talk shop still. Plus I don't know how much my boss appreciates it," he added, aiming a half sheepish, half amused glance to the man behind the counter, who could only offer a slight snort in response that didn't really hint to his thoughts one way or the other.  

[Suudonym]

Luke nodded in response to the explanation, agreeing with the anecdote's conclusion. It left him feeling sort of embarrassed, though, as he recalled his own behavior at the time of the event in question. "Sorry for the way I acted then," he said, referring to how he had adamantly defended the attackers who broken bones and stolen possessions. "I think I was a lot more naive than I am now - or, I hope so, at least."

The mention of Abel's boss threw Luke back to memories of his mentor, and he immediately nodded, "Oh, yeah, sure. Sorry." He didn't know what kind of relationship they had, but he knew that he wouldn't like any of the ambassadors overhearing their discussion.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel waved off the apology, though he left it unclear as to which apology he waved off. "No need to apologize man," he said with a shrug and a good-natured smile as he moved past Luke to open the door to step through, then held it open for the redhead to follow. "You don't have anything to apologize for, it's all good. There's no need to be sorry for being idealistic or optimistic." Honestly it was a little silly to be sorry for those reasons - though he was one to talk.

Once outside and a few paces away, the blonde dropped his voice a bit to further prevent his boss from overhearing - they were probably fine, but better safe than sorry, after all - and turned to face Luke. "Sorry, I didn't wanna mention it in there, but my offer from before still stands. If you want help or anything about more practical shooting, I'd totally be willing to help. I just didn't think my boss would appreciate one of his employees shamelessly stealing customers or anything," he finished with a mildly sheepish grin. "Or trying to, anyway. It's entirely up to you, after al, if you want any extra help or anything."