Yellow Pages voice emerging in the night so loud and clear

The problem with conversations was that you could think of a million and one things to say after they were over. Driving home had certainly felt like that between the quite of the cabin and sound of road beneath moving tires, the smudge of wrongness of cheetah in the territory amplifying until it finally left and his brain could try to wipe off the feeling except the ghost of it was there. There were some very choice words he’d kept at bay, but his car heard them, the cat ate them as Frank’s solo member audience.

By the time he got home though, Frank really needed a friend that wasn’t his own thoughts.

Staring out into the the darkened backyard as he stood on the patio, Frank dialed Eli, figuring it was late enough that the pediatrician was off work.

Incoming call

Frank

Off work, nearly home. He was driving, but that didn't stop him now.

Frank, how are we?

Placidly said, they had plenty of normal phone calls quite frequently. But it was a bit of an odder hour. A little early for a casual check in, a little late for a regular favor.

The sound of the line picking up didn’t take long and soon the sound of his friend not directly on the speaker and of movement answered. Possibly, driving?

He let out a sad sort of chuckle before it broke out into a sigh, defeated.

You’ll never guess who visited Alameda today.

Frank

Oh no, he hated it when Frank sounded like this. It was so hard to fix, and it always ended up making him mad at someone he couldn't justify clobbering.

So he had a good guess, but...

Oh Frank, there are somehow just too many goddamn good options. Tell me everything.

Eli probably knew where this was going.

I thought it was one of the other cheetahs hanging out at the food truck park after being away for a while and color me surprised when it ended up being Mathis. He was just waiting there.

Frank

If he hadn't been driving, Eli might have closed his eyes in sheer exasperation. Instead he just gripped the steering wheel a bit harder than necessary.

That son of a bitch.

Audible, very audible sigh.

Waiting for you?

Knowing that Frank would show up, because he was a good king who took his job seriously. Or worse, that Frank would be inclined to say hello to just about any other cheetah, including but not limited to ones he didn't even know. Mathis, playing around with things he knew about his ex, manipulating accordingly?

Frank ran a hand over his face, Eli’s vocalization of his frustration with it was of course felt. He’d lived it, was still doing so, but it also felt entirely validating to hear someone just as upset by the event even happening.

He hummed an agreement.

Yeah and he was there for some time. I had to wait till my shift was over to check.

Frank

Gonna kill him! He so wished that Frank had realized, then sent Eli in his stead. How great would that have been?

I cannot believe this man. You block him and he thinks the right move is to show up where you can't ignore him and... what? What did he even want?

If for some reason Mathis showed up again, Frank wasn’t entirely sure what he’d do, but this wasn’t how he wanted their conversations to pick up going into the future.

Besides not wanting to “intrude”-

God.

He had a list of things to cover. He wanted to tell me that the vampire who’d burned the Kiln was finally dead and blamed his whole, I don’t know, his everything on an obsession with the damn thing. He then apologized for hurting me, really tried to drive it home that he wasn’t sure why he’d pulled away, but it wasn’t intentionally meant to hurt me.

Frank

Eli said 'whoop-dee-fuckin-doo' very quietly after the bit about the vampire being dead. Like Frank needed his peace interrupted to know that. Like... sure, great, but who cared? Damage, done. It wasn't going to change anything at all.

But he listened to the rest, no more happy about that than he'd already been.

Oh wow, I'm so glad it wasn't intentional, that makes all the difference. What a guy, real winner.

Deadpan. If tone could kill, Mathis would have experienced a very unexpected pain in his chest, uncharacteristic of their kind.

He chuckled a sort of yeah noise, giving into the want to move around the porch, the moon offering an audience.

Fuck.

It was a whole side to a person he thought he’d known that continued to sour the image of him.

You’ll be glad to know that none of it was my fault by the way. He finally figured whatever the fuck was going on wasn’t because of me like he’d originally blamed.

Frank

What are the odds you think he wanted to test the waters of getting back together?

Sorry, there was just not other reason for this... other than trying to hurt Frank, or give himself the reason to tell others 'I tried my best' when that was blatantly a lie.

The comment was so out of anything Frank had even thought of it had him pause in thought, voice, even his feet stalled where they were. What? And then he thought through the entire interaction over again, looking for something missed.

I don’t- I didn’t even think about that. What the fuck. Is that what it sounds like?

Frank

I mean, showing up to talk in person? Wanting you to not blame yourself? Telling you the thing that apparently made him crazy is gone now?

There were other explanations, but Eli thought there was a solid non-zero chance that Mathis knew he'd really, really fucked up and wanted what he no longer had.

Well, put like that, yeah it did have an opportunity to sound as Eli said. If that had happened, if Mathis had outright tried, it wouldn’t have changed anything. He might be hurting, might wish to go back before it all, but it was something impossible to do. It would be greenlighting that what had happened was okay. It wasn’t.

Thank god he didn’t try it.

Frank

No joke. So... you what, told him to drop dead and get out of your territory, or what?

I should’ve. I should’ve also punched his god damn face in. Instead, I just let him know I didn’t forgive him and left. He didn’t stay much longer after that.

Frank

It was nice to hear Frank mad. Willing to talk about harming the man who had harmed him. Of course he hadn't followed through, which was probably for the best, but STILL.

Good for you, Frank. Seriously. Don't ever forgive him, it won't do you any good.

So very Christlike, Eli. You're doing great.

I still can't believe he thought that was a good idea. What a prick.

Frank gave a hum of agreement. He wasn’t really looking for praise, but it was always good to feel validated. Who didn’t need that? Especially, when it came to situations like this that left him frustrated long afterwards. Forgiveness was hardly on his to do list at any point so Eli had very little to worry about.

I guess he noticed I blocked him, finally. Pretty hard to do that in person, but at least he didn’t choose to show up at my job or at the house.

Frank

None of those options would have went well at all and it had him moving all over again at just the idea of it.

I wish he'd show up at mine...

A grouse from a man who would have loved the chance to do something very stupid. You know, for honor.

Whatever, I hope that's the last of it. You okay? You want to do lunch or something tomorrow? Don't even have to talk about any of this, just...

It was hard to tell what Eli would actually do if that were to ever happen, but none of the options were pretty. He gave an small aborted chuckle at that all the same.

Frank hoped and prayed it was the last of it too, but the world really did like shoving this issue into his face every six months as some sorta litmus test. Around a year ago, he’d rather just hole up, but today wasn’t then.

Yeah, I’d like that. I’ll be okay, but, I need to get out of the house.

Frank

Perfect. I'll find us a place near work.

Aka, Alameda.

Out of the house you shall get. You call me if anything else comes up, though? Otherwise I'll see you tomorrow.

That worked great.

Sounds good, thanks Eli. I appreciate it.

Frank