[UNRECORDED]

[harvdent]

There's few things Harv hates as completely and totally as he hates winter; always has. But today, standing on the train platform in District 12, he's absolutely certain he has never hated winter more than he does right then at this very instant. The cold bites into his face and there's very little he can do about that besides grit his teeth and hope it's over with soon. 

By the time the train arrives, finally, his mood hasn't improved any. He'd have preferred to do this some other time. Later. Inside, someplace actually goddamn heated. That's not in the cards, though, so he wastes very little time - the sooner he's done with this, the sooner he can go back inside and warm up. Harv gives the two Victors just enough time to get off the train and get their feet on the ground before he strides over, face set in a likely unnecessarily stern, and more or less barks out, "Welcome home."

Even the little puff of condensation his breath makes in the air annoys him. He wishes he cold feel his nose. God, he fucking hates 12.

Comments

[caroflower]

"Technically I let a kid name him Egg," Caro says with a shrug. "I had no idea what to name a dog." The dog in question trots along agreeably, at least for the moment.

As they walk, Caro mostly keeps her sights on the Peacekeeper ahead of her. She doesn't get the impression that he's leading them into some sort of trap or something, and she's pretty sure Walter is keeping an eye out anyway. Her attention drifts for a moment and then she suddenly realizes... she's looking at a Peacekeeper's ass. What the fuck, Lichfield. She's annoyed with herself, and even more annoyed when she notices that it's a nice ass. Stupid Peacekeepers and their stupid tight pants. Caro's glad it's so cold; hopefully no one will catch on that she's blushing a little. She decidedly aims her eyes elsewhere and... oh hey, they're heading for the Victors' Village. Huh.

[illdrinktothat]

Though the Peacekeeper is largely Walter's biggest concern at the moment, he can't not notice where Caro's attention ends up. Despite his general inebriation and faux air of uselessness, very little gets past him; unfortunately this means he also ends up noticing what, exactly, she's staring at. Those are some really stupidly tight pants.

That they end up heading into the Victors' Village is something of a surprise. Even moreso when Dent aims for Caro's house. Walter scowls deeply at that development, and just in time for the Peacekeeper to turn and catch it.

"You don't want to show us your new office?" Walter remarks, raising his brows.

"As much as I'm sure you'd feel right at home in Cray's mountain of empty liquor bottles, no," Harv says as he stops at the edge of Caro's yard.

[caroflower]

Caro quietly hopes Walter didn't catch her staring at Dent's ass. She's a little surprised they're apparently going to her house, but maybe she shouldn't be. Whatever. She awkwardly steps around him and heads for the front door so they can all at least get out of the wind. Egg pauses to sniff at the new person's boot and then gives him a hopeful tail wag. Isn't Egg a nice dog? He is. You should pet him, new person.

"All right, let's save the sniping for indoors, guys." God, she hopes the house heats up fast.

[harvdent]

As eager as Harv is to get in out of the cold for a bit, he's polite enough to wait patiently while Caro lets them in. The dog follows her right up until it's got to pass by Harv, where he just... sniffs the Peackeeper's boots and wags his tail eagerly. Harv hesitates a moment, staring down at that fluffball of a puppy. He can't really resist it, though. It's a puppy, how could he?

Harv ends up kneeling down and petting the little furball, smiling at him despite himself. It's been a long time since he was around a dog. Caro's distracted getting the door, anyway, and Sullivan is... probably paying more attention than Harv would otherwise like.

[caroflower]

Egg is very pleased indeed when the new person kneels down to pet him properly. Some of the people Egg's met on his recent journeys just didn't understand dogs at all. This guy knows what's up, though. Egg rears up a little, you know, to make it easier for the nice man to pet him. (But only a little, or he'd get in trouble.) If that happens to put the man in face slurping range, well... he knows about dogs. He won't mind, will he?

Caro struggles with the door a little. It's hard to do anything dexterous like using a key when you can't really feel your fingers. But she gets it finally and turns back to see... Egg happily licking the Peacekeeper's face. She blinks. "Come on Egg," she calls after a moment, "you can be adorable inside where it's warm." Since they're all going in anyway.

[harvdent]

No matter how Important or Serious the business he's on is, Harv can't bring himself to refuse the puppy. Not even with Sullivan watching and looking a little drunkenly smug. It's a puppy. He's basically obligated to pet it and let it lick his face.

He is grateful when Caro gets the door open, and even moreso once he stands and heads inside. Somewhere behind him, he hears Walter mutter at the dog, "Making friends, you little shit?"

Sullivan's not really interested in wasting time, though. As soon as the front door is shut, he's already a little too into Harv's personal space. "Now what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"An incident you were involved in," Harv says as casually as he can manage. "You and a couple in the Hob, some months back. After years of being mostly harmlessly drunk. You wanna explain to me what prompted that?"

[caroflower]

Caro was planning on maybe herding them all into the living room, but Walter has other ideas apparently. Well, all right. And then Dent answers, and Caro can't hear anything for a moment over the roaring in her ears. She takes a deep breath and unclenches her jaw to try and answer before Walter says something stupid. He does that a lot for such a smart man.

"My parents. They had it coming." That's not nearly enough answer for a Peacekeeper, but it's all she can make herself say.

[harvdent]

Caro answers before Sullivan has a chance to. There's a very tense moment while Harv very visibly ponders that. It's not what he'd expected to hear. It's also something he's god a very good hunch is very much the truth. Caro's upset enough that Harv immediately notices it, and Sullivan... well, Harv's just glad all he can apparently do is scowl deeply down at him.

Harv frowns thoughtfully and half-shrugs. "Alright."

"Alright," Walter repeats. "Alright what?"

"Officially, I'm obligated to say I'd like you to not assault or threaten people in my jurisdiction. Unofficially? I don't have much objection to this. I can turn a blind eye to it without much hesitation. But," Harv pauses only a beat, grimacing. "I'd rather you bring it to me instead of going vigilante. I can step in legally even if our laws don't really cover going after... well, you know."

[caroflower]

Caro just stares at Dent open-mouthed. Really? That's... not something she ever thought she'd hear a Peacekeeper say. "I uh..." She almost says 'okay,' but she really can't promise that she would take any uh, problems like that to Dent. Even an apparently okay Peacekeeper is still a Peacekeeper. "Really?"

She doesn't feel all that bad about how disbelieving she sounds. "That'd be a first." That, however, Caro hadn't meant to say.

[harvdent]

"Uh-huh, sure I will," Walter sounds anything but convinced. Harv really isn't surprised by the disbelief. Caro's staring, Sullivan's frowning and squinting. It's more or less what he was expecting.

"Yeah, I know." Harv sighs, rubbing the back of his neck a little awkwardly. There's no amount of talking that'll convince them of any of this. He knows it, they know it. It's a waste of all of their time. So he'll just.... have to back it up with action. "Look, I'll, uh. I'll let you two be. I'm sure you're sick to fucking death of dealing with people."

He'll just let himself out.