Of Gods & Fey

Tonight had been an odd night. Isa and Jude, brothers. It made me vaguely recall running into Jude back in ISOA days but... He looked a lot different. Acted a lot different too. Time sure did take its toll on people. Now they were both over here seeming to argue which was not what I signed up for tonight. At least I cloud see the beginning signs of it starting, having my own sibling made it that much easier to spot. Glancing at the girl as she asked for a drink I gave her a bright smile ignoring the two boys.

"I got you, don't worry." I said to her, she was pretty.

Dark hair, natural beauty to her. She seemed to have a bit of spice to her as well, given the attitude she'd thrown already. I had to say? I liked her. Looking back at Jude though I gave him a look as if saying he'd lost his fucking mind which really? I felt like he had just lost his damn mind, there were a few things I wanted to say but getting involved in any form of family affairs was not something I wanted to do and something that i knew better than attempting to ever do.

Isa had said something didn't he? Right, Pyro. I glanced at him. "Pyro, right," I said slowly. "Oh wait, Pyro! Of course! He's your nephew!" I said and looked at Jude right after. "Jesus you two act alike how did I never stop and think about it...."

Shaking my head I started walking away, and found Pyro quickly. Isa wasn't able to stay with everything going on, so I needed to tell Pyro so he could tell Alexion. Finding him I relayed the message quickly and then watched as he looked over my shoulder towards where they were sitting and somehow managed to turn even paler than he was before taking off. Right, well then... I started on the girls drink and as soon as I was done walked back to the area and slid it to her.

"I'm just going to throw my two cents in here for you at least..." I said to her, leaning against the bar top. "But, if Isa ever thought of you as nothing more than a one night stand? He'd never check here to see if you stopped by. He does it, daily. Believe me."

Isa looked at me almost dumbfounded before looking at Jude, something was said before I heard a growl of. "Don't fuck with me right now, I barely have patience for you as it is." Christ, they were horrible right now.

Jude's smirk seemed to fall away from his face as he heard my voice, staring straight at me before looking back to Isa. "Wait, Pyro's my what?" He asked slowly, his brows knitting together. "That kid? Figures... What the hell did I do?"

Noticing the look in Isa's eyes he simply laughed, god I hated my job some nights. I loved these two to death to varying degrees but this was a lot.

"Do you think your little wolf scares me, f*cker?" He snapped at Isa.

"Enough you two!" I snapped. "Calm the f*ck down!"

"Go console your little one night f*ck and leave me the hell alone."

I was going to scream. I really was going to just scream in a second from these two.

"I'm not a slut..." The girl said slowly and I looked over at her, of course she was in on it now too. "And I look younger than I am. I could crush you if I really wanted to, you know. I play with the dark arts, what was your name? Jude?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose as I listened to the three of them, this was actually getting beyond out of hand. I heard the sigh of the girl before looking up at her and seeing her smiling sweetly at me. "Can I have another, please? I'll probably take it to another table."

I saw her eyes immediately avert and linger on Isa after, soon a blush seemed to creep along her cheeks and she looked anywhere but him. Despite the stupidity going on, this part of it was adorable. They needed to talk.

Opening my mouth to speak, I felt a faint pain stab my abdomen and then my head before it was entirely gone. Flinching from the pain, I blinked my eyes a few times and watched as Isa's fist slammed into Jude's face before he grabbed him by the front of his shirt. Nope. No. This was not happening in my bar. Groaning, I made the girl another drink and slid it to her before raising my hands and flinging them in different directions watching as they were both ripped apart from one another immediately. Folding my arms over my chest I glared at the pair.

This was beyond stupid at this point, they were acting like literal children. It was almost embarrassing how childish they were acting and over what? Their egos? F*cking men. They were lucky I liked either of them because had they been anyone else I would've thrown them out already.

"Isa, I'm going to say this once. Go somewhere, until you are calm enough to think straight." I snapped at him, pointing away and then set my eyes on Jude. "And you, come with me."

I let out a sigh and came out from behind the bar, making my way away from it with a beer in hand towards a booth in the far, back corner away from everyone else. Pyro came from Alexion's office, seeing me and I gave him an apologetic look before gesturing to the men and he only motioned for me to go. At least he understood.

Was this how these two always were? Ready to go at one anothers throats for any given reason they could rationalize?

Hopefully if Isa got away from him and just cleared his mind things would work out a little easier and maybe then he could speak to that girl. Zen, I think I heard be used for a name. As for Jude though, I had to hope maybe if we got out of that situation he'd calm down a little himself and not be so... rude? I didn't know any other way to explain how he was acting.

He was being extremely asshole like towards his brother though and seemed to be having fun with it which only got under my skin more. Because, with me, he never acted that way. I didn't want it to turn out that how he was with me was a lie or something, I didn't think it was so as quickly as the thought came to mind I shrugged it off.

Getting into the booth, I let the curtain fall back over, blocking any eyes from us and vice versa as I waited for him to get in as well. It was a privacy booth. In a place like this there were many different uses for it but right now the main use was going to be me getting to understand what the f*ck was going on in his head or trying to.

Hell, they had me worked up even. I never was this anxious or annoyed. Maybe I needed it just as much.

'And you come with me.'

Sh*t. Ok, maybe I had gone just a little bit too far with Isa. Dahlia had never had such... Dominance in her voice with me before but f*ck. It was hot. Sure, that wasn't the point but it was. Even I had to admit I was being an asshole but to be fair, I'd never really had a brother before and we hadn't exactly grown up with one another.

I never even knew that he existed until a few years ago when he just showed up.

"Dahlia, I can explain..." I said once I entered the booth with her.

My mind immediately instead went to all sorts of dirty directions that I knew it probably shouldn't have gone. Somehow I wasn't sure if now was exactly the time for something like that. When the curtain fully closed though, I stared at her. "Ok, know what, nevermind. I can't really explain it."

She just stared at me and I almost felt like she was judging me from it. Pulling her hair slowly up into a messy bun, I bit back a groan as I watched her. Not the time, Jude.

"That kid has been going through hell," She started, her voice eerily calm. "Somehow I just get the feeling you don't know about any of it though?"

I was silent as I listened to her. She was right, I didn't know about any of it because how would I? I hadn't seen him in years now. He was always a bit of a pest to me but I just didn't know how to handle him at all. Her eyes seemed to search my face for something before she nodded slowly.

"I'm not going to go and judge you two, I don't know what your relationship is with him fully but I do know from that small bit of time we've spent together? You're never like this."

I just stared at her and then looked away. I really couldn't figure out why I acted like I did myself. Shrugging my shoulders at her as if I were nothing more than a little kid getting held up in detention for picking on a younger kid I breathed out some air and looked back at her as I spoke.

"We're brothers. Brothers fight. It's not that unusual is it?"

Ok so that was definitely aa lie. Isa had been incredibly close to my ex-mate, Ashlyn and seeing him just brought back memories of her and truthfully? That made me angry. Not at Isa himself but... I just hated thinking about her. Thinking about how things ended. That period of time had been painful and I didn't want to relive it.

And that was honestly something that I didn't want to tell Dahlia because you didn't just go around and talk about your ex with someone you had romantic interest in. I liked Dahlia, a lot. That may have been a conversation for another point in time but not right now that was for sure.

"Siblings fight, yes. But... you didn't even speak to him as if he..." She paused and breathed in deeply, holding her hands up some. "It's not my place."

She was right and I knew she was, she didn't even need to fully finish that sentence. I didn't treat him like he was my brother or any form of family. I treated him like he was absolute sh*t, I did it more often than I wanted to ever fully acknowledge. I couldn't help it though, I just... sh*t. I could help it. I just didn't want to.

"Do you you know about his kids? The situation with his ex-mate? Any of that stuff? He's spent the better half of a decade now blaming himself for what happened and I'm honestly surprised that hybrid or not he hasn't drank himself to death." She frowned as she spoke, clearly they were close.

Her nails drummed idly oon her leg, I watched as she seemed to put her words together in her head that she wanted to say. Like she was almost skating on thin ice and trying to make sure she didn't cause any cracks anywhere. I hated it.

"Downside to being a bartender you know. Sometimes you're also stepping in as someone's therapist and he's had absolutely no one around but me to talk to." She looked at me, giving a sad smile.

I stiffened some as I took in all of that, every detail of her words about Isa. It wasn't that I hated him, because I didn't hate him at all. Before, when we had first met there was alot of resentment between us because well, Isa got the family and father that I never could have. I resented him for it more than I did anything and that formed in the way of me treating him as shittily as I did.

Now I was having issues with him because the moment I looked at him tonight. The second I saw those eyes. The very second that I acknowledged just who he was, I thought of Ashlyn and it hurt more than anything. Ashlyn didn't leave entirely at first, she pretended to stay with me and live int he condo until Jeremy would go to sleep then every night she'd take off doing who knew what.

Then, once he turned eighteen she was gone just like that. She didn't wait. She was out of our lives. 'Jeremy doesn't need me anymore, it's ok.' she said. Part of me wanted to scream back at her 'But, I do!' but I hadn't. I let her go. Any reminder of that killed me. It was why I drank so much, so that I didn't constantly think of Ashlyn. So I didn't remember those times. Isa probably didn't deserve that though, I knew it.

"I had no idea..." I said slowly, pressing my lips together. "Last I heard of him, he was dead. Look... I don't hate him if that's what you're thinking, I don't. We just have some complicated -" I couldn't even finish that sentence because I didn't know how to respond to it. Grunting I looked away from her.

What did I say to her? 'Yeah, he reminds me of my ex-mate and because of that I just can't stand being around him. I know it's not his fault but he brings up bad memories!' Because that would've gone over great with her. It probably would've made her lose any interest that she remotely had in me, if she even had any. I wished I knew if she did or not, it would've made all of this easier in the end but I hadn't asked and didn't think now was a great time to ask about it.

She cared though, that was better than nothing. If she didn't she would've never done this or treated us like she did.

Knowing I upset her enough to do this though and force us apart like she did? I felt horrible. I was taking away from her work time, away from her living and for what? So she could babysit me and my brother? F*ck I needed a drink. I scrubbed a hand down over my face, rolling my shoulders some as I watched her intently.

"I don't think you hate him at all." I frowned at him, studying his face. "I know he doesn't hate you, I just don't think you two know how to speak to one another."

"He had a mate, for a while a demoness named Mia. They have four kids together. Pyro, i'm sure you've seen him at the bar with me. Ember, Flare, and Ashe." I finally breathed out. "Mia up and left them all when the twins were a few weeks old. Left Isa for her ex, refused to come back into the kid's lives at all and never has since."

This wasn't my information to give out exactly but I didn't want Jude to just sit here in the dark and know nothing about Isa. I didn't want him feeling anymore lost than he probably already did. It wasn't fair to him any and frankly, it wouldn't have been fair to Isa either because somehow I could see it stemming far more fights.

Clearing my throat some, I shrugged, "I just really think you two need to calmly talk to one another. Honestly, I think he needs you but doesn't want to acknowledge that." Without much thought on what exactly it was that I was doing, I reached my hand out and curled my fingers around his hand, lightly running my thumb over the top of his hand. "But maybe, do that when things cool down. Because right now I don't think it'll end well."

Watching him silently I could see him practically getting lost in his own thoughts as he listened to the words I said. I frowned for a second until I saw his eys shift to look down at my hand and then my face. It was like he had come out of his haze suddenly.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

I gave him a small smile, silence filling the space between the two of us. Leaving my hand where it was, I felt a small chill run up my spine when I felt the contact of his thumb clasping down on my own. It was almost sad how just literally his touch caused that reaction from my body. Did I seriously like this man that much? At first I just enjoyed seeing him nightly but it was like somewhere along the way it changed and I don't even know when it happened.

"He reminds me of my ex mate..." He said suddenly and I blinked a few times getting caught off guard by that. "They were uh, close. Always hanging out and talking and shit."

He cleared his throat and his eyes fell towards our hands. "I don't want to go into details... not yet. But, seeing him again it just.. Brought back those emotions that I'm not ready to deal with just yet."

The fact that he was opening up at all made me the smalles bit happy, I wasn't sure how serious he took anything with us but if that wasn't a good sign then I didn't know what was. It wasn't like we were dating or anything but... I never knew if making a move was a good idea or not. My gaze softened some as I looked at him, shifting my hand so I could grip his lightly to let him know I was thre.

Isa and Jude, they were both going through their own hell's weren't they?

"Then, look..." I started, offering him a smile. "What you should try doing and I'm not saying do it now or tomorrow or even this week but, you should tell him you don't hate him. Just let him know that you need some time to sort out things and that you are trying. Let him know you're still there, that he's still your brother, just that you've got a lot going on too."

People in general were absolutely horrible, being a bartender you saw all of it constantly. The bad and the absolutely disastrous of people showed up. These women though... Just... Who in their right minds would so happily destroy someone like they both did and still sleep peacefully through the night? It was absolutely sickening to me to see the pain others lived with from people who did things like this. Neither of them deserved what they had to go through, things that they were still trying to actually heal from.

It felt like this topic was going on for a little too long, it was starting to almost feel suffocating because of it. Shifting the way I was sitting, I leaned forward just a bit and looked him in the eyes, tilting my head a bit.

"Are you hungry? Want anything to eat or drink? I'm more than sure I can go and grab you something." I shrugged. "I can stay back here with you as long as you want, there's more than enough people staffed tonight, they won't be missing one bartender, I promise."

This by no means was anywhere near a normal night for me. Usually helping with any of the patrons issues resulted in me sitting down at the bar, giving them a beer or two and listening to them simply vent to me about the bullshit that had happened recently in their lives but when it came to Jude? I wanted to give him the f*cking world. I wanted to let him know someone was there, to listen to him, give any advice I possibly could.

If I were honest, I'd fallen for the man months ago. Considering my job though, I didn't ever make a move because I didn't want to make it awkward for him but every time I saw him it was like things instantly were better. The night always flew by, I was always a thousand times happier. Even Pyro would comment on it. Tease me about it even. He just, brought out the better side of me and that was a scary thought because if he didn't feel the same at all? Then I was just caught up in my own feelings and that wasn't a good thing.

That's also why I wanted any excuse to leave for a moment because I couldn't think straight. All I could think about was how much I wanted to bitch slap whoever the f*ck his mate had been for causing the pain that lingered in his eyes. I wanted to strangle her and I didn't even know the woman and that for me? That wasn't a normal emotion. I was normally far more rational than I was being right now but thankfully he didn't know that. He didn't need to know that.

Also who the f*ck abandoned their child? Regardless of how angry they were at their ex, who in their right mind took off going 'It's ok he's an adult now.' seriously? Did she even know how to be a f*cking mother? Nope, i was doing it again. Calm down, Dahlia.