The rough skin on his thumb brushed the side of a cold lighter, slipping upwards to push the top open and then depressing the ignition with a muffled click. Lighting his smoke, heavy footfalls meandered through the park regardless of where they stepped. He walked on pavement and grass alike with cold green eyes directed towards the distant lights of quietly powered suburbs. Daithe knew that somewhere in that mess of houses lived his Mother and Cord, he knew it because he’d just come from there. Three hours of wandering in the dark in a new city brought him to a very empty park just beside an obviously well to do graveyard. The mood suited him because he felt morose and cut off, like the last tie that held him to the morality his Mother had been forcing down his throat was severed. Her control was gone now. What was he supposed to do? Search out his Father? The last time he’d seen that man the guy had tried to kill him.

Stuffing the lighter back in his pocket, he steered away from the graveyard and began for a small grove of manicured trees set against a manicured lawn. Smoke hanging between full lips, a hand lifted as he neared the tree – tired fingers splaying outwards as his palm came to rest on the bark. Why did they have to leave Germany? Why did he have to be so stupid all the time? Angry and very much at the end of his rope the hand that rested against the tree lifted and moved backwards, closing while in motion. A few seconds later the tree shook with the force of his punch, it shook again and again until his knuckles were bloody and the tree looked like it had had enough. Resting his forehead against the smooth bark where he hadn’t damaged it, Daithe paused to reign himself in and take a breath. The last damn thing he needed to do was let himself go here in a park..

Hello testing facility, death or even jail.

Dai didn’t really know which was worse but he didn’t want to find out, so quietly the tall shifter made his way towards the parks exit, pausing by the iron fence for another look back at the suburb he’d been so intently watching. Whatever emotions he should have felt when she kicked him out were coming now in full force, unforgiving, they overwhelmed him until he had to pause again halfway down the street just so he wouldn’t scream out of sheer frustration. “She brings me here to a new city.. A new country and then she kicks me out.” What the fuck was he going to do now, live at the coffee shop? Get a job? How the hell does a German underage boy get a job that pays?

Easy. Lie. Nodding to himself, Daithe focused on the steps needed to move forward and idly hoped that the walk to downtown would calm him more than the park had. Gods knew all he wanted right now was to go home, back to Germany, back to the life he’d had before even though he’d hated it.  At least there he knew what to expect. Moving along the nearly empty street he noted the time on a clock outside of a corner store that read ten fifty seven in blinking neon blue lights. Might as well find a bar. Rounding the corner he came upon exactly what he’d been looking for, a small pub with a sign that said happy hour lasted all night. Snorting at that, he stepped into the smoke filled room and walked right past the bouncer at the door.

Apparently he looked old enough. Or maybe they just didn’t care. A few short minutes later found Daithe seated alone at a table near the stage where a band was playing. He watched them idly with a beer in one hand and a smoke in the other, both feet resting on the chair opposite him. He had the look of complete and utter comfort; funny how that could be portrayed externally when he felt nothing but chaotic inside.

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