Lukas couldn't help but notice how scenic the rain was. The observation was less than appropriate, given that Kristjan was sobbing on the floor and biting his fists, so Lukas pushed the pattering rain on the windows out of his head for a few minutes. Kristjan stopped to breathe, steadying himself by grabbing the couch with strength that reminded Lukas of a crueler time in their lives.
"I don't know how to fix it." Kristjan didn't look at Lukas, or at anything in particular, when he said this. He instead stood up, gripping the arm of the couch tightly and using it as a crutch. "I messed up."
"There's nothing to be done," Lukas said, watching Kristjan collapse onto the couch Lukas had vacuumed only a day before. Now it would need to be vacuumed again. The former stared longingly into the fire; Lukas was certain he was wishing for the life he had before thirty hours ago. "That's how dying works."
The cat hadn't liked Kristjan a bit, but then, that was the type of company the Dane was used to. Lukas never cared for the animal, though the way pampering and spoiling it kept Kristjan busy was not unappreciated.
Losing a cat (as in, it going missing) is hardly uncommon. However, the manner in which Kristjan managed this (the cat going missing only to be discovered by local children to be dead in a nearby abandoned meat-packing facility) was both unnerving and impressive.
The fire crackled too loudly, and Lukas reached to turn off the gas (his favorite modern upgrade by far). The room turned dark and lost its warmth more quickly than expected.
Kristjan patted the seat next to him-as if he were inviting the cat-to encourage Lukas to move from the windowsill and join him. Lukas ignored this.
"Kind of gruesome, the way he was caught in that old machinery. A shame the children had to see that," Lukas commented, mentally encouraging a raindrop on the window to beat the others in the race to the bottom.
Kristjan sighed before standing up and moving to join Lukas on the windowsill seat. "Yeah. I feel awful about it."
Lukas tore his eyes away from the rain and looked over the Dane for a moment. Taller, louder, stronger. Nowadays better, kinder, nothing like who he was-Lukas wondered if he was, on the inside, now closer to their brutal roots than his companion. Kristjan was crying over a kitten. Had Lukas changed at all?
"You should . . ." Lukas started. He didn't finish.
Kristjan was watching the rain, perhaps wishing success on some raindrop Lukas didn't know. "Would it be childish to bury him?"
Lukas felt his face twist and his throat tighten. After all this time and all this death, so much of it at Kristjan's hands, the former viking that had Lukas by the throat only a few centuries ago was upset about a cat?
"Yes," said Lukas. "But I will help you."
