Loyal Old Demon, Brave Little Human.

Back to the Grind.

Shane woke up the next morning early, seeing a text from Ryan about TrueCrime and a panicked set of phone calls from TJ about a missing camera. Shane texted Ryan back a calm okay, before responding to TJ by explaining that he had the camera. He had accidentally set it in his stuff, then forgotten to remove it later. He chose to lay there in bed until his alarm alerted him to his allotted time. He got up at that point, a soft groan escaping his mouth as his joints popped and shifted, and began to get ready for the day. He had plenty of time before work, but Sara had started calling him every morning to chat. Shane enjoyed the conversation, since she and him didn't hang out much at work and it was nice to start the day off with a bout of Sara. He had admitted by this point that he was rather fond of her. Sure enough, she called him as he sat at the table drinking his first of many coffees of the day. She rambled on about daily life, and her annoyances about some new kid that was having trouble with some of the camera stuff while Shane listened calmly. He was beginning to like the sound of her voice. It wasn't as soothing as Ryan's tended to be, but it still relaxed some knot in his shoulders as he listened to her voice. He thought about Ryan, and mentioned it to her when she had finished her fuss over the poor kid.
"Have you noticed something up with Ryan recently?"
Sara paused in thought. "Now that you mention it, yeah. He seems more tired than normal. I wonder if everything is alright."
"I dunno. I just noticed his ener-" Shane paused a second to correct his slip up before he had to explain auras to her. "His energy seemed low, and he seemed short."
"Yeah. Maybe you should talk with him today. I know Helen hasn't been at work recently, so it's quite possible that she is sick or something."
"I guess. Shoot, I gotta get to work."
"Cya there then!" Sara said, and ended the call. Shane smiled at her, and darted out the door. He jogged down the street, narrowly missing people on the sidewalk beside him. They would give him dirty looks sometimes, one guy even swore. It never really bothered Shane, since, in all fairness, he was just swearing at a demon, and that was enough of a fool's errand to make Shane ignore the man. He made it to work on time, and scrambled into his desk as Ryan walked out from the break room. To say he looked like shit might have been an understatement. The bags under his eyes had bags. His eyes themselves were much more dull and tired than any other time Shane had seen him. His skin even seemed dull, like the copper vibrancy had faded to an old penny. He started to say something, but held his mouth closed as the man seemed to look right through Shane as he watched him. Ryan sat down at his desk and typed slowly and gingerly, as if the tapping of the keys was giving him a headache. Shane found himself doing the same thing, gently typing on his laptop so as to not disturb Ryan.
"Hey Shane." Ryan said after a long time.
"Hey..." Shane responded, unsure what else to really say.
"I need a favor."
"What's up?"
"I need some help moving things around in my apartment."
Shane startled a little. Remodeling? "Sure man."
"Thanks. I can give you a drive after work."
Now Shane understood. He needed to talk. That seemed to be the thing with Ryan. If he needed a talk, he would always say something about driving Shane to wherever they were going. Shane didn't know if he did that with other people. Or if Ryan did it because it reminded him of their Ghost Investigations and that was becoming something Ryan enjoyed more than the camera got to see.

•••••••

The day had passed slowly, but it was over now, and Shane followed Ryan out to his car and got in the passenger. Ryan got in the driver's and started the car. He pulled it out of the lot, and began the drive home. After about five minutes, Ryan spoke up. "Thanks for helping me."
"Always."
"I know I've been...off lately. I'm sorry."
"Don't be. We all have shitty days."
"Guess it's a part of being human, isn't it?" Ryan said, and something about the way he said it gave Shane the creeps.
"Y-yeah."

The rest of the drive was spent in silence.

They pulled up to Ryan's apartment about 30 minutes later, and Shane was happy to be out of the car. Ryan seemed to be as well, the shorter co-host taking the time to scoop in large breaths of fresh air before going to his door and opening it. Inside, it looked starkly different to when Shane had seen it last. The colorful walls that had been glowing at New Year's now seemed to hold a hollow sadness in their walls. The couch was gone. Quite a few of the pictures that had been on the walls were no longer there. Then it clicked.
"Ryan..."
"Yeah." He said in a sad tone. It just sounded...defeated. Like he had lost all hope in the world. "She left two days ago. I think she is trying to get out of LA too."
"Ryan, I'm so sor-" Shane didn't finish, as Ryan turned and wrapped his arms around Shane's waist, and broke down in tears. Shane put his own gangly limbs around Ryan, and they both sank to the floor. Shane just sat there, running a hand soothingly through hair that had been halfheartedly washed and had been given none of the usual effort. After a moment, Shane heard Ryan ask him for a favor. It had been so quiet, he had almost missed it.
"Will you talk? I just want you to talk to me." Ryan asked him. Shane had heard it, and began to speak. For some reason he avoided Sara, but everything else was on the table, except for the demon stuff. He talked about history, and told him stories. He talked about Chicago, and about the memories he had as a kid. The real ones. He humanized it obviously, but he gave him true stories about him running away from home when he was nine, or eating to much candy one year for halloween, or the time he had found a stache of liquor and had drank a whole bottle, only to be found drunk on the floor two hours later. He slowly heard Ryan's breathing calm, but he didn't move. Not even when the smaller man began to snore softly.
He was one Loyal Old Demon, if nothing else.