forum A Different Kind of Anti Villain (OxO with @Dayzed, MATURE)

Started September 24, 2023 by @Desvelarse pets

tune

Vaughn was glad that his peace offering of money seemed to help the situation. He didn’t have a large amount of money, but he would pay the small price to get himself out of a possibly shitty situation. He didn’t want Kohen trying to start a street fight with him, because he knew that to keep out of trouble, he’d have to let Kohen win. He didn’t want to have to get arrested for fighting. It would get him on the radar of the police and get his prints in the system. He wore gloves when killing but would rather not take any chances.

When Kohen snapped at him about the street fighting, he held up his free hand in a surrendering sort of motion. “Sorry, sorry,” he said quickly. Maybe he was wrong to assume, but he had seen how Kohen reacted in a situation where he may have to fight. Sure, there was a murder involved, but that didn’t mean too much to him. Kohen had taken a defensive position, but he froze. He wondered if Kohen was any different in a fight he was prepared for.

Vaughn scoffed softly when Kohen started to say something negative about his name, shaking his hand in return with a firm grip. Looked like Kohen also needed to learn how to hide his emotions a bit. That was made even more clear when he saw paranoia in the man’s face. Vaughn looked around, wondering what he could possibly be looking for. Whatever it was, he wanted to find out. Kohen had peaked his curiosity now. Before, he had wanted to get as far away as possible, but now he wanted to know more.

“Yeah, let’s go somewhere else. We could grab those shirts, if you would like,” Vaughn suggested, bringing his cup of coffee up to his lips to take a sip out of. It was burning on his tongue, but he didn’t mind the feeling.

Kohen eyed the guy when he apologized.
"Apology accepted," He said, pleased to know Vaughn had taken it back even though the poor guy hadn't said anything.

Kohen's eyes grew a bit wide at the firm handshake, now trying to match the guy as well. He had a sort of frown on his face as he concentrated on outdoing the guy before they both let go. Kohen rubbed the palm of his hand discreetly, though doing a poor job of hiding it.

He noticed the now curiosity on Vaughn's face but dismissed it completely, not really thinking much of it.
"Right," Kohen said before turning to leave, making a beeline towards the door. He paused outside when the other talked about buying the shirt.
"Oh, yeah, right, I'll just do that later," He said, waving Vaughn's concerns off, watching the guy take a sip of the boiling liquid. Kohen gave him a look, before turning away.
Kohen had met a lot of people in his life, but never had he met someone this calm. He wondered what was up- or if that's how people generally acted. Kohen never got close to anyone for a multitude of reasons, only ever knowing his father's anger and the ill-tempered gang member he ran with. Kohen had never been a member himself but had seriously considered joining one.

"We can go to the gas station a few blocks this way or the arcade in the other direction" Kohen shifted his weight onto his other leg as he glanced at Vaughn. "Your pick"

Vaughn had noticed Kohen’s little frown at the handshake, overthinking it a bit. Was he squeezing too hard? He didn’t think so, he was just shaking his hand normally. It was most likely because of their size difference. He wouldn’t worry too much about it, as it was only a quick handshake.

He followed along behind Kohen, looking around as he did. He wondered what Kohen was so paranoid about. Did it have any connection to why Kohen was at the house that night?

When pressed with a choice about where to go, the mention of a gas station had him worried for a moment. He always thought of the gas station where he lived, it being an abandoned one outside of the city. No one had bothered with it much over three years besides teenagers coming to drink in the parking lot. He knew that Kohen wasn’t talking about his gas station though, he was just being antsy.

An arcade could be more interesting. He hadn’t been to one of those since he was a little kid. He had gone with his mother when he was around ten. Adeline, his sister, didn’t get to go because she was sick. It had been a fond memory with his mom, until he remembered the black eye that she was given afterwards due to her spending too much money on him. He didn’t want to think about that. “Let’s do the gas station,” he decided on quickly.

If Kohen knew who the person walking by his side was, there would have definitely been some hesitance there to get even remotely close to him, the faint bruising on his neck from that night being a pain to explain to his father. This has never happened before! You don't fight them! He had said to which Kohen had rolled his eyes to. If only he knew.

"Gas station it is," Kohen said, hiding his excitement of imagining the absolute giant cup of a slushie that he would get.
"I come to that coffee shop now and again, not frequently, but I've never seen you around before. Do you live around here?" Kohen casually questioned, trying to learn more about the guy and his fighting abilities- that part really seemed to have piqued his interest.
"Do you go to any of the boxing clubs? I used to have two friends who went but stopped going when they went to college" Got pretty lonely around here… He wanted to say but refrained from doing so. There was no use ruminating over the fact that he had been left behind with his shit dad and basically cried himself to sleep every night.
No.
No one needed to know that. It was a stupid thought.
As they walked and Kohen kept talking, they passed by the house where the man had died that night. They had put yellow police tape around the property as they investigated, it was still there at the moment, but the house itself had been cleared out. Kohen was almost a hundred percent sure that if you went into the bedroom, you'd still see the stains from the blood, though, the floor would get ripped out and replaced eventually.

Vaughn had noticed the faint bruising on Kohen’s neck. He guessed it had faded over the past couple of days, and that worried him. He hadn’t realized that he had choked the other so aggressively. All he had wanted to do was pin Kohen down, that was all. Maybe he did have a stronger grip than he realized, or maybe he got caught up in the moment with the adrenaline.

When asked about where he lived, he had to think quickly on his feet. He thought of himself to be a decent liar, having learned how to do so well throughout foster care. “Yeah, I have an apartment in the city. I go to that coffee shop around once a week. It’s a bit far, but worth it for the quiet,” he answered. As they walked, he still had a faint limp in his step like he did the night of the murder. It wasn’t as prominent, but still there. The wound on his thigh was looking much better, though not fully healed. “What about you? Do you live around here?”

“I don’t go to any clubs, no. Just one of the gyms downtown,” he said. He looked like someone who worked out frequently, and he did, just not in the most conventional way. It took a lot of strength to be able to kill a grown man with any sort of weapon or bare hands. He had gained quite a decent amount of muscle mass from doing so over the years.

When they passed by the house, Vaughn stared at it closely, unable to peel his gaze away. What had happened there was nothing short of a nightmare, and he was happy to see that it was cleansed. “Hear about what happened there? Crazy shit, huh?” he commented, ripping his eyes away from the house and down to Kohen. He was trying to gauge his reaction and pick up on any recollection. It made him nervous, though. Would thinking about the house help Kohen to remember his voice? He surely hoped not.

Kohen was no stranger to getting pinned down and choked out by his own father, those days were the worst- but his father didn't have many of those days as long as Kohen kept him happy and ran errands around for the man like his little lap dog. It ticked him off greatly but the unwavering fear of what would happen if he stopped really had him in a chokehold death grip.
As the thought passed through his mind, he subconsciously brought his hand up to massage his throat a bit. If he thought about it for too long he'd actually start to feel the sensation of having pressure on his trachea. It was all very uncomfortable.
"Ah, the city…" Kohen said, trailing off, as if disappointed for some reason.

In his mind, Kohen may or may not have thought about making this guy his friend and asking him to let him crash some nights when his father got a little more than trigger-happy, but he knew that was only wishful thinking. Course, if he did ask, he wouldn't outright say why he would be staying, maybe just make some other bullshit excuse up- he was good at that. Maybe hanging out? Though, that was a bit of an odd excuse, even for him.
Kohen's shoulders seemed to tense a bit as he thought about ways to help himself the best he could.
"Yeah, kind of, just a bit aways from here- know that group of old shitty farmhouses by the tracks? I live in one of those, it's not really that big, but it's decent" He said, now kicking a pebble on the ground, as if slightly upset to be talking about the place he currently lived in.

He looked up to the guy, snapping out of the trance he was in, his eyes having been trained on the ground for quite a while as they walked.

"Guess that's also one way to build your body" He glanced down at Vaughn's figure, a fever-inducing thought passing through his head before he quickly looked away. Though, with the way Kohen acted, it all seemed pretty obvious- always rubbing a hand on his face as if trying to wipe away the hotness from his face.

When Vaughn asked about the house however Kohen tried his hardest to act normal.
"Y-yeah," He started, already failing to be cool about it, his hand reached to the back of his head to rub at his neck, there being a dull pain where he had hit his head when touched. Though, Kohen was too busy trying to not freak out at the events that had unfolded in that house as they came to mind to even try to focus on Vaughn's voice.
"Heard from a friend that it had all seemed pretty violent…" He said slowly, a nervous smile on his face now. "Terrifying stuff-" He swallowed harshly.

Vaughn knew exactly the place that Kohen was talking about when he explained where he lived. He had almost picked up a job there. A woman was getting beaten by her husband and he had gotten let off with a warning. He had been about to approach the woman with his usual offer to help get her out of the situation when her husband landed himself in jail after causing an accident while drunk driving. He guessed that was the better outcome for everyone involved, including the husband.

Knowing where Kohen lived gave him a bit of an upper hand. He thought about maybe watching the house, scoping it out to see if anything there happened. Not for the purpose of his killing. It would be just because he was a bit nosey and curious.

Vaughn caught on to the look that Kohen gave him. Was Kohen attracted to him? He bit the inside of his cheek at the thought. He tried not to get involved with anyone in that way. There were a couple of drunken nights where he had left bars with people, but that was on a rare occasion and definitely not with someone who had caught him killing. He also hadn’t had a proper relationship in years, not since before he started killing. He could acknowledge that Kohen was attractive, but he could be wrong about the whole thing. Maybe there was another reason why Kohen’s face got a bit pink when he looked at him.

Brining up the house and the murder definitely changed the mood of their conversation. Vaughn could see clear as day how nervous Kohen became. It made him feel a bit bad that he had instilled that much fear in someone that wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place. “All of those murders have been pretty brutal, the guy’s a maniac,” he said, tone sounding flat. While he hated speaking about himself that way, he knew that was how most people thought of him. A homicidal maniac that probably got off on killing those men.

Kohen only seemed to tense further at Vaughn's words, now looking back down at the ground, crossing his arms as he looked ahead to where they were going.

"Maybe," Kohen said, all edge gone from his voice. "You don't know me and I don't know you- maybe I'm getting too comfortable with a stranger that I shouldn't be getting comfortable with but…" There seemed to be a lot of hesitation on Kohen's part as if what he would say would condemn him. "…we need people like that." He said, wetting his lips a bit as he felt his lips become a bit dry from talking. Kohen was someone who could easily talk to others, he may be reserved about some things, but that didn't get in his way to get along with others- even if his firey personality said otherwise.

He cleared his throat, now lifting his head a little higher as he kept talking. Feeling like he was acting a lot like how he would with his father.
"What I wouldn't give to be able to do what he does, if not for others then just for myself," He said softly, talking about how he couldn't lay a hand on his father and wishing he could. It wasn't that easy, because of course it never was.
Kohen looked over at the guy, who probably thought he was the killer now. He let out a nervous laugh.
"I'm joking, relax a little." He said, though it didn't sound too convincing. "I don't have it in me to kill." He lied. "Still, I don't care what others think of me when I say I look up to people like that" He shrugged. If Vaughn had a problem with it, he'd just fist-fight the guy, simple. Agree to disagree and part ways.

It wasn't long before they got to the gas station, Kohen immediately bouncing off to the back of the store where they kept the slushie machines.
This particular gas station had about three small tables outside, vending trucks came by around the area since a lot of homeless were around, and it was all very convenient. Other than that, however, there really wasn't much to the place.

Kohen half expected the guy to follow him to the back, looking to see if he had and when he confirmed it, he gave the guy a wide grin.
"Want anything?" He asked. "I'll just use the money you gave me, and other spare change I've got," He said.
He knew that he had wanted to save the money for later, but the thought of sharing a "meal" with someone who wasn't his father was very appealing to him. In a way, he craved closeness to someone who wouldn't put him against the ground for being himself.
He looked away from the guy as he seemed a little in thought now.
"Anyways" He spoke again. "I'm gonna get a fizzy cherry cola slushie" He turned to grab one of the cups. "Want one? Would recommend, ten out of ten"

Vaughn’s brows raised when Kohen spoke his thoughts about the killer- about him. He wasn’t saying anything negative, and seemed to be agreeing with him in a way. It interested him greatly. Kohen would do it if given the chance to.

‘What, Finley? Thinking of having a little apprentice?’ Figure hissed from behind him, and he resisted the urge to flinch in surprise by its sudden voice. If he could, he would roll his eyes. While that was a thought, it was a crazy one. Kohen saying that was just a thought, nothing more. It took a lot to be able to kill someone, and his impression of Kohen made him think the man wouldn’t have it in him to do something like that. That was confirmed by Kohen shortly after.

“Yeah, you and me both,” he said with a bit of forced laughter. A lie, he had the desire to kill more often than not. He itched for it, was addicted to it. The adrenaline rush and satisfaction of seeing someone’s last breath was euphoric. He didn’t get off on it, but he came pretty damn close.

Vaughn followed Kohen into the gas station, looking around. It looked a bit similar to his own, just more alive. He hadn’t planned on having anything, settling to finish his small cup of coffee. Though he felt a tad awkward not getting anything. “I’ll have what you do. Sounds good,” he chimed. He hasn’t had a slushee in years by that point. Why not relive a little happy bit of his childhood for the evening?

While Kohen did also less than desirable things like Vaughn, he never fully got involved in them. He never in his life had killed someone with his bare hands or slammed the knife so hard into someone's throat that you could hear the knife getting stuck on the floor beneath them. A shiver ran up his back at the memory. People like that were frightening no matter how tough Kohen made himself out to be.

Kohen suddenly beamed at Vaughn accepting his offer, now grabbing another cup for the guy. Once he had filled it to the top, he capped it, then continued to fill it past the line so it barely spilled from the top, a small cackle coming from him as he did so.
"Okay, we can go pay," He said, walking off to the register, setting down the two cups, and handing the money to the person on the other side of the counter.
Once that had been taken care of he grabbed them and motioned for Vaughn to follow him outside.

Kohen picked the table with the most shade and sat down, putting the large cup down and sliding it over to Vaughn, holding onto the other- at some point Kohen had snatched two straws for them, now handing that over too.
He grabbed the straw and placed it on his leg, pulling down on the wrapper so the straw slid out. Then put it into the mushy drink successfully. A small satisfied sound coming from him.

There was a long awkward silence as Kohen sipped on his drink for a moment. He didn't exactly know what he was trying to do- bringing a guy like this to hang out with him. Maybe he had other things to do and Kohen had just ripped him away from that.
"Were you planning on doing anything today?" He asked, now feeling a bit guilty for whisking him away. I mean, if the guy had wanted to, he could have shot him down. Gave him the money and went on his way.

Some part of him wondered why he hadn't. It's not like Kohen was particularly interesting. He was just another kid that roamed the streets according to the people there.

Vaughn had gone with Kohen for information, nothing more. That’s what he tried to tell himself at least. Kohen was on the attractive side, though it was very unclear whether or not he liked men. Not that Vaughn had any right poking around like that. He was just curious- yeah, that was it. Blame it on the curiosity.

Vaughn followed behind Kohen like a dog, lingering nearby at all times. He was socially awkward and was more than happy to let Kohen take the lead at the gas station. The less people he had to talk to and involve himself with, the better. He looked down at Kohen as he snickered, and he found it a tad endearing. That thought earned a sharp hiss and what felt like a smack upside the head from Figure. He softly flinched from the smack, covering it up with a short cough.

Once they sat down, Vaughn took the straw, hitting it open against his thigh. He pulled it from the wrapper by his teeth before sticking it into the cup. By that point he had discarded his cup of coffee as it had grown a bit cold and sour tasting. When asked about if he had anything to do that day, he hesitated. He had planned on going to the library to look at the public registry to find a new victim. Maybe he could still get there before it closed. What would a normal person do with their free time? “Ah, not much. Was just planning on hanging out at home. You?”

Vaughn's strange behavior hadn't been lost on Kohen, seeing the "limp" that was barely even there, his brain trained to pick up the smallest of details. The flinching covered by the cough, and the way his eyes had lingered on the house like he knew something. Now, Kohen being Kohen, could have easily put two and two together, but even with all of this compelling "evidence" there was no use accusing a stranger of something they hadn't done. Kohen didn't know anything for sure and the thought gave him goosebumps, but he had been wrong before and who was to say that this wasn't the same situation repeating itself?
So he trashed it. Trashed the idea of Vaughn being anything else but just some guy who had spilled his coffee on him, besides, it would be too much of a horrible coincidence that he bumped into the killer of that night- he wouldn't just go parading around, and Vaughn acted differently than the other guy too- he seemed very awkward in holding a conversation, very odd to Kohen.

Instead of thinking about useless things, his brain already doing overtime with all his overthinking, he listened to Vaughn explain what he had planned with his day- but his answer made Kohen arch an eyebrow.
"That's all you do?" He asked, wondering how the guy didn't go crazy from just sitting around all day. "Nothing fun? Skateboarding park? Arcade? Library?" He asked, those just being a few things he enjoyed doing. "How old even are you? You seem like you'd go to college" Kohen said finally, slurping up a bit more of his drink when he had finished talking, now thinking about what to say himself. It took him a second to get his thoughts together.

"Well…" He put the giant cup down on the table. "I don't know." He frowned. "I was going to buy a cup of coffee for my father" There being a slight edge to the word 'father' that he really hadn't meant, but it was something that came naturally, hating the guy from the bottom of his heart, even if he tried to disguise it. "Then I guess wander the streets till I found something good?" He questioned. "Today's a Sunday so I don't have to worry about college, I can just do whatever, but tomorrow it's back to hell," He said, wrapping his hand around the cup but not grabbing it, just tapping it lightly, like he didn't know what to do with himself.

"You should get out anyways, do more boxing perhaps- not to be that guy but talking to others could do you some good," He said, having noted his silent behavior, not really initialing conversation. Kohen sounded kind of like a parent, scolding a kid, but it was just his way of offering to take the guy places to have fun- maybe. There wasn't much to it, but Kohen did want a friend.

Vaughn took a sip of the slushee, enjoying the taste of it. It reminded him of his childhood, this time with no bad memories to follow it. It was comforting, and he knew that he would be back to the gas station again to get another in the future- all to relive the fond memories in his head. He had spaced out a tad when Kohen speaking snapped him out of it. He trained his focus back on Kohen, knee bouncing as he sat.

“That’s all for today, I think. Maybe a library trip to pick some things up. Don’t have a computer at my place, so I use the one there,” he answered. He did things, he just couldn’t talk about the things he did- stalking, murder, etc. When pressed about his age, he considered lying again, but didn’t see a point ultimately. “I’m 24. I never did go to university, had no interest in it. What are you studying?”

Vaughn had wanted to be a police officer, or maybe a detective, as kid. He would daydream and pretend to fight and catch bad guys. It was a bit ironic that he turned into something his childhood self wanted to get rid of, and that he now hated what he had wanted to become. His lips twitched in a slight frown at the thought, but he quickly wiped the expression off of his face and replaced it with a more neutral one.

Vaughn’s head tilted to the side at the sting in the word ‘father’. That interested him. He clearly had some issues of his own when it came to the man that was his father. He wished so badly to be able to relate to Kohen, to talk about his father to him. Talking about how his father murdered his entire family in cold blood didn’t sound like a good conversation piece, though. “Sounds like you have just about as much planned as I do- nothing. Am I holding you up from seeing your father?”

When the comment was made about him needing to talk to more people, the frown was back on his pursed lips. “I talk to plenty of people. I’m talking to you right now,” he contradicted, the ‘plenty of people’ being those he killed and their victims. Outside of that, he didn’t really have any friends. The only person he spoke with on a rare occasion was his old foster sister from his most recent home. He thought about his own real family, how he wished he could speak to them on occasion. His tattoo of the name ‘Adeline’ was showing on his left forearm, scratched out in kids handwriting. He had taken her handwriting from an old school assignment that he smuggled away with him when he was put into foster care. It was one of the only things he had to remember her by.

“I go to the gym often to box. Once a week, at least,” he added. He usually killed someone once a week, sometimes every two weeks if things got difficult to track down.

Kohen stared at Vaughn for a moment. The guy really was odd…who didn't have a computer in this day in age? Though, Kohen figured that maybe there just wasn't enough money to afford something like that- he understood that. Kohen himself barely had anything to get by the day so he wouldn't blame others for the same.
"So you go to the library often?" He asked. "Do you do anything other than pick stuff up? Maybe read a book or two?" He asked. Kohen, being a huge fan of checking horror novels out. He might not have been an avid reader, reading every second of his life, but he could enjoy a good book now and again.
"Oh, two years older than me" He commented. "I'm in school for law enforcement, thinking of joining the FBI," He said as if it wasn't the most surprising thing ever. Kohen didn't really look the type and you'd be right about that. He definitely wasn't the type.

"I don't even know if I'll make the cut when the time comes, but there are high hopes," He said, his expression being nothing of excitement when he said this, just very neutral like he couldn't care less. There weren't high hopes from him, however, his father having high hopes for Kohen to pursue a career similar to his, just more "important" than a simple police officer. And for a while, Kohen had actually been fixated on that- wanting to do something more with his life. The thought that maybe if he went off to do this one thing, there would come a time when he could get away from everything his father was. Maybe find something that would get his father scored into jail. Then he wouldn't be able to do anything to him anymore.

Kohen tensed at the mention of seeing his father. There was a slight displeased sound that came from him- almost like a small hissing noise.
"Holding me up? No." He said firmly, though, didn't elaborate on anything.

At seeing Vaughn's frown, there was suddenly a grin on Kohen's face. He seemed to have hit a nerve and Kohen was good at that. It was part of his more unattractive personality traits.
He arched an eyebrow when Vaughn got defensive.
"So you have a lot of friends?" Kohen asked, it seeming more genuine and there being more curiosity there than anything else.
Kohen had noticed the tattoo but hadn't said anything about it yet, it seemed like a very odd tattoo to have and while he would immediately bounce at the opportunity to strike up more conversation, he decided to leave it. For now anyways. He didn't want to seem like he was all over the place.
"Membership?" Kohen asked, his eyes now growing at the thought of having a gym membership. It was heaven, he thought. I mean, you got to work out, and have free showers?? It was perfect. What's more, is that Kohen was pretty sure he'd find some place in that building to sleep through the night if he was allowed in.

Vaughn was at the library more often than not. Always researching, always pulling documents. Anything that would get him something new to do- or rather, someone new to go after. The public wifi was the most helpful thing to him. If anything was every found out, it wouldn’t be linked to him, just the library servers. He had thought so much into covering up his tracks, it was a bit ridiculous. He was paranoid, he couldn’t help it. Better to be safe than get caught later because of something stupid.

What sort of books would he read? He didn’t read too often, not finding enough time for it. “Almost every day, honestly. I read sometimes, mostly thriller type books,” he answered. He was beginning to feel like he was sitting in in an interrogation when Kohen said something that made his breath catch in his throat.

Kohen was studying to be an officer- specifically an FBI agent. He knew the FBI had picked up on his case, he heard it on the radio one day. Could that have been why Kohen was at the house that night? Was he chasing a lead on his own and got in over his head? Did Kohen know he was talking to the killer right now?

Vaughn took a long sip of his drink, hoping the freezing liquid would shock his nerves back to normal. He had just begun to settle, but now felt all worked up again. “That sounds interesting,” he commented about Kohen’s studies, keeping the conversation short so they could hopefully move to something else.

“Ah, I guess?” he said in an unsure voice when pressed about if he had any friends. Besides his foster sister and Figure, no. “I stick to myself mostly, though.”

Vaughn would lie about the gym membership. He didn’t think it through at first, but he knew he would have to cover that lie up later with more lies. Would he really have to go and get a gym membership now? That would be a bit of a pain, but maybe he could actually get some use out of it when he wasn’t sore from killing. If anything, he could run on the treadmill for stamina work, though he went on runs every once in a while to keep up. “Yeah, I do have a membership. Thinking of getting one?”

Kohen gave a light hum at Vaughn's choice of books. He could also get behind a good thriller book.
"That doesn't sound too bad" Kohen commented, then watched Vaughn freeze at his words. Yeah, very odd guy.
Kohen shifted uncomfortably in his seat, not exactly to Vaughn's surprised look, but because of the internal fear that he was probably being overbearing, but before he could ruminate into those thoughts anymore, he shook them away.

"Yeah- interesting" Kohen echoed, not really having anything else to add to the conversation- I mean, no one really wanted to hear about things like that unless you were an older adult or found it fascinating in some way.

He messed with the cup a bit before picking up again and taking another sip, wondering if this was all a huge mistake on his part. Kohen's eyes flickered up at Vaughn, taking in his answer.
"You guess?" Kohen questioned- he never thought there'd be an in-between of knowing if someone was your friend or not. It was either yes, they're my friend or no, they're not, even if you would associate yourself with them, but he supposed everyone was different.
Though, Kohen took it as a no. If you didn't know then how could you be friends with someone them?
"Nothing wrong with that," Kohen said, knowing that he was the same now, even though he wanted to make new friends of his own. People who'd have his back if things went sideways in his life.

Kohen looked down at the table as he continued to sip from his drink for what seemed like an eternity before he stopped to answer his question.
"No, I can't afford something like that" Kohen gave the other a small smile. "But it's a nice thought" He admitted before going silent again.
"If I'm keeping you from anything, you know you're free to leave…right?" He asked, a half-hearted smile on his face now. Kohen never knew when to shut up about things, but one thing he did know was when someone didn't want to be there, sure, he could blackmail Vaughn into staying and talking with him, but Kohen wasn't like that, there was nothing more he despised than someone putting on a pretty smile for him and pretending to like talking to him.
The thought seemed to make him bitter, now looking away, and focusing on finishing his drink as fast as he could.

Vaughn was grateful that Kohen didn’t push the FBI conversation any further. The last thing he wanted to think about was his ‘work’ at the moment. He was trying to seem normal, trying to have a normal conversation. He thought he was doing a good job. He didn’t have a clue that Kohen thought he was being strange. He was decently socially awkward, which didn’t help one bit on picking up on social cues.

“Yeah- I guess,” he confirmed with a nod. He didn’t want to be too descriptive. While he could make up imaginary people that he was friends with, that would be one too many lies to keep track of. He would surely forget the names he gave them by the next day, as scatterbrained as he was.

Vaughn felt a small pant of guilt in his chest when Kohen invited him to leave. He was quite nervous, given their original meeting situation, but Kohen was growing on him already. It was a bit difficult to admit, and Figure muttered something about him being pathetic. Was he really so starved for interaction that he would seek out a friendship with someone who knew too much about his crimes? Maybe it was pathetic of him to do so. He glanced down at his hands, picking at one of his nails briefly. Would it be all that bad if he tried to make a real friend?

“Do you want to come with me to the library sometime?” he blurted out suddenly, looking back up at Kohen. He hadn’t acknowledged Kohen’s question directly, but it was enough of an answer, he thought. He hoped he got the point across that Kohen wasn’t much of a bother and that he wouldn’t mind speaking with him further. Figure cursed at him for being so stupid, but Vaughn brushed the harsh words off. If anything, it was better for him to keep up with Kohen to see if he said anything more about witnessing the murder. That would be the excuse he used for covering for him craving some sort of relationship.

To be quite honest, Kohen saw Vaughn as a pretty…plain guy- normal, even though his social awkwardness sure was something. Plain also never really meant bad in his book, sometimes it was a very good thing. Kohen really could use a bit of "plainness" in his life, he had too much going on and while he thought Vaughn to be a bit odd, the guy gave off calming vibes- Kohen never really knew that someone could give off such pleasant vibes before. Vaughn was both patient and very easy to talk to- even if he seemed to be in his own world sometimes and didn't speak much.

Kohen's eyes shot back over to Vaughn's form, blinking a few times as if surprised that the guy would even offer something like that at all. It felt that what he was getting from him had been the opposite- wanting to be left alone. Typically, Kohen forced others to interact with him, his little habit of bullying others never having gone away- no one really corrected him on that behavior, instead, it was encouraged. However, this time around, things had come easy, the guy wasn't really rejecting him even though it felt that way and Kohen was a bit exhausted to pull any of his usual stunts. He thought about leaving Vaughn alone even though he really wanted this- figuring that it might not be worth the effort. After all, he didn't know him too well, like he would know people from school. That was a bit easier.

Kohen slowly stopped sipping on the icy drink, grimacing a little as it nearly froze his brain, now massaging the palm of his hand over his temple to make it go away.
It took a second for Kohen to stop and give an answer.
"You want me to go to the library with you?" He asked in return, as if he hadn't heard perfectly clear what the other had said. There was another moment of silence as if Kohen loved dragging out his answers.
"Maybe," He said, as if he didn't want to jump on the offer immediately. "Give me your phone number and we can text and figure out what works best with our schedules," He said casually, his leg bouncing at unholy speeds at the thought of hanging out with someone else, literally giving away that he was excited, a small smile forming on his lips as he took up his drink again, pretending to be causal about it all.

Vaughn was beginning to regret asking Kohen to hang out with him when he was silent for so long. He bit his tongue, wondering if it was a boring or dumb thing to offer. He hadn’t thought so, at least. Going the library was enjoyable for him, mainly because he enjoyed how quiet and calm it was all the time. It helped to settle the voices in his own brain. “Ah, yeah, if you want to,” he started, ready to offer an alternative or to tell Kohen to just forget it altogether out of embarrassment.

The tension left his shoulders when Kohen said ‘maybe’. While that wasn’t a yes, it wasn’t a no either. He would take that as a small win for himself. Then there was the act of giving Kohen his phone number. It could be risky, giving out his phone number to someone possibly in the police or FBI circle of things, but he couldn’t swing another lie. It was barely believable that he didn’t have a computer- which was true, but for the wrong reasons- but telling Kohen he didn’t have a smartphone would be laughable.

Vaughn took his smart phone out of the pocket of his sweats and opened up the contacts app, sliding it over for Kohen to exchange information. He was grateful that he never did any of his stalking on his cellphone much. He wouldn’t have to be worried about Kohen accidentally seeing something on his phone.

While Vaughn waited, he saw a text notification pop up on the screen. He couldn’t see who from, but the message read ‘Are you sure you have nothing on here to hide, Finley?’. In reality, there was nothing there and it was only his brain playing tricks on him. Still, he quickly grabbed the phone from Kohen and looked at the screen. That was when he realized it was all a trick of his mind, and his face began to feel hot with embarrassment. “Sorry I, um, thought I saw a notification from someone- something important,” he explained quickly, setting the phone back down.

Kohen watched Vaughn slide his phone over to him, a happy smile painting his lips as he took it and started to type his information in.
He started by putting his number in, then his name- or well, where his name should have gone, but instead he wrote "Slushies guy" with a shaved ice cream emoji at the end of it. He was about to add another one when Vaughn suddenly snatched it away from him, Kohen nearly jumping out of his skin at the action. His hands quickly going into a blocking position, though not all the way.
It was so sudden it left him out of breath, a slightly fearful look on his face as he tried calming his breathing. He looked away from Vaughn for a second, now holding his hands near his chest as if trying to play it off, his teeth gritted slightly from the fear that momentarily ripped through him.
Deep embarrassment washed over him as his shoulders tensed and he turned his body away from the other just for a second to try and collect himself. Still, the slight look of terror never really left him, the initial moment over, but the feeling lingered inside of him.
There was a long moment of silence as Vaughn apologized- but Kohen couldn't look at the guy after that. What did he think of him? That he was a fucking freak after assuming that position?

"T…That's alright, I don't mind…." He said quietly, his eyes trained on his shoes, looking at all the marks and caked dirt from wearing them, focusing on that seemed to really help a lot. Kohen had never gone to therapy, but he had quickly figured out that focusing on something helped a lot to curve anxiety and panic attacks- not all the time, but sometimes it was a lifesaver.

"You can change the name if you don't like it…." He said, wondering if that was what had triggered him to snatch the phone away even though Vaughn had said he thought he had seen a message pop up, but that felt a bit silly to Kohen when it was clear as daylight that nothing had popped up….unless he was seeing things that weren't there….

Vaughn felt a bit unsettled by the trick his mind had so suddenly played on him. Usually, when he was calm, the most he saw was Figure and flashes of things that he could normally pick out as not being real. It was when he was stressed that things became more vivid and indistinguishable from reality. He felt calm, so he wasn’t sure why his mind was playing tricks on him. Maybe that was Figure’s way of pushing back against this connection he was trying to make.

Vaughn had noticed Kohen’s startled reaction. It was similar to the stance he had taken at the house that night, one of attack. It made more sense to him now, knowing that Kohen used to street fight. Of course he would take a defensive position if felt threatened. He felt a bit bad for having startled Kohen the way that he did, all because of a little mind trick.

Vaughn took a look at the contact name that Kohen had put in, shaking his head a bit. “No no, the name is ok. I like it,” he answered, shaking his head. It was a bit silly, but in an enjoyable sort of way. He needed more of that energy in his life. He felt Figure hovering behind him and resisted the urge to shoo it away. He hoped thinking about that would be enough to get the point across to it.

“I’m sorry for startling you, Kohen,” he said, deciding to apologize again. He could see the anxiety on Kohen’s face, clear as day. He recognized it well. He found himself growing anxious more often than not. As a teen, he had been in therapy where he learned different tactics to help calm his nerves. While most of them didn’t help much for more serious things, when it came to little moments, it worked.

Kohen turned back to Vaughn, now placing his elbows on the table and resting his face in the palms of his hands. A small tired smile on his face now. It didn't look as genuine as the ones before, as if it had been shocked out of his system, but he seemed to be trying.

"Well, if you say so" He moved his head, it looking almost equivalent to someone shrugging.

When Vaughn kept apologizing- maybe for good measure, Kohen slumped down a little further into himself, but not exaggeratingly so. Just releasing a bit of tension he hadn't realized he'd been holding onto. His face was now dusted with a red blush, not really being able to hide it and not bothering to hide it anymore either.

"It's fineee, it's fineee" He said a bit loudly as if protesting against something, maybe making it clear for Vaughn to not apologize anymore.
"Wasn't really your fault" Kohen said, his words a bit slurred together as if he had an accent to him. He did in a sense but mostly picked up the informal way of speaking from people out on the streets- mostly gang members.

"I know I just dragged you out here, so do you have anywhere you want to go? We could also always go back home or continue what we're doing but that's kind of boring" Kohen admitted, staring at Vaughn to see what his reaction would be. Hanging out with a stranger had not been in his plans that day, but Kohen was very much the type of person who let himself get dragged along with the flow of things- and if God decided this was what he should be doing, then so be it.

Although Kohen was an adult, being twenty-two years of age, he still, embarrassingly so, had a curfew. He'd have to be back at home by ten at the latest, but there was still time and he was planning to spend it in the best way possible. Maybe pull a few reckless stunts, who knew?

Vaughn nodded his head, deciding to drop the topic entirely. He could tell that Kohen was embarrassed as well, judging by his reaction. He wouldn't push the conversation any further, not wanting to upset him or push him away. He had an opportunity here, and he wouldn't mess it up so soon because of a bit of anxiety.

Vaughn was pleased to know that Kohen still wanted to do something despite his little outburst. He made a note to keep himself more aware and not to fall for little things that were so clearly tricks created to throw him off. Figure didn't like Kohen and wanted to separate the two if possible. It would be up to him to outsmart the figment of his imagination, which would prove to be difficult consider it lived in his mind and knew exactly what he was thinking. That was reminded to him thanks to a hiss that came from somewhere behind him.

Vaughn had only planned to go to the library and research to find his next kill. He could push that off to spend some time with Kohen, as he wasn't in too much of a rush to jump back into things. He could let his leg heal fully in the meantime, maybe. The slash was still stitched up messily and was around a week away from healing, at the most. He hummed in thought, taking another sip from his slushie. He was almost finished with it by that point.

"We could go to that arcade you mentioned earlier," he suggested, tilting his head as he looked at Kohen. "Doing something with you sounds much better than what I had planned."

A blush made its way onto Kohen's face, seeming different than the embarrassed flushed look he had on before, his subtle surprised movement giving him away that he appreciated Vaughn telling him that he thought Kohen to be a fun time. Much better… He repeated in his mind, his eyes now trained on the table, his lips pressed into a thin line to keep himself from smiling like an idiot, but it seemed that not even that worked, the excitedness on his face clear as day.

Kohen thought for a moment, taking Vaughn's suggestion into consideration, while also trying his hardest to pull himself together.
"Yeah, we could go to the arcade then maybe hit up the pet shop down past it? I heard they have a new litter of kittens…." Kohen said, almost becoming a mumble at the end. It had been on Kohen's to-do list but he hadn't gotten around to seeing what colors the kittens had come out to be.
He frequently visited the shop- sometimes helping out the store owner who was an old lady in her eighties, still holding onto the shop for her late husband who had passed away about a year ago.

"So what? Wanna go now?" He suddenly asked, now getting up as if making it a point that that was what they were doing next. Kohen had also finished his slushie far before Vaughn had, he was good at that, even if it gave him brain freezes.
In the past, he had raced his then friends to see who could finish it the fastest- and the loser? They coughed up ten bucks, which had been a pretty huge deal to Kohen.

Vaughn wished he could have run back to the gas station to find his medication so that he could have a somewhat normal time with Kohen. He rarely took it, and it was on purpose. It made the voices go away, and while it was nice to have some quiet for a while, he got restless in the silence. It was never quiet when he was without his medication- there was always a soft voice in the back of his mind. Figure would also go away when he took his medication. That would end up not well for him. Figure would take it out on him physically or mentally. Physically, it would end up in some sort of accidental self-harm, and mentally, it would end with him curled up on the floor having some sort of breakdown.

Vaughn's brows raised at the suggestion of also going to a pet store. He hadn't been to one in quite some time, so that idea was exciting to him. He enjoyed animals quite a bit. They had the same innocence about them that the people he helped did. It was a type of innocence that you wanted to shield from the rest of the dirty and disgusting world. He had considered getting a cat at one point, being much more of a cat person than a dog person, but he realized that it wouldn't realistically work out for him. He could barely take care of himself, much less an animal that would completely rely on him to survive. "Yeah, I like that idea a lot," he replied to the mention of going to see the kittens.

Vaughn watched as Kohen got to his feet. He could spend a day not thinking about killing. He could be normal for a day. How hard could that sort of thing be? A small, genuine smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he stood up as well. "Let's go now," he hummed, picking up his cup to toss in the trash. He grabbed Kohen's empty cup while he was at it, tossing it away for him as well.