Mr. Cavan to See Mr. Sivart {Preston, Travis}

[ken]

Why did Angela have to have Travis for a father? It was a cruel joke, is what it was. Honestly, Kennedy didn't want to see Travis right now. What he wanted to was to scope out the area. See what Travis did, and where he did it. Because when Angela finally introduced them, Kennedy didn't want to get caught off-guard. He had a feeling that he was fighting an uphill battle as is.

So he paced outside what he thought was the office of Travis Sivart. It was hard to tell, exactly, if that's what it happened to be. The sign seemed to indicated it, and when Kennedy had asked, this is where people had pointed him. But there didn't appear to be a whole lot here, and Kennedy still couldn't figure out what it was that Travis did.

"Should I go in?" he wondered, pausing to stare at the imposing building. It didn't matter if the building was imposing in itself, the sheer fact that Travis might lay in wait within scared Kennedy.

And he'd dated a vampire.

"I could always just dart in and check," he mused, cupping his chin in his hands. "Maybe he's not in... or he's got a receptionist or something..."

But honestly, who would work for Travis Sivart? Willingly?

[pwn]

Preston rushed past Kennedy toward the doors of the building, struggling to keep a pair of coffees and a small bag of donuts balanced as he navigated the crowds. He seemed to be in quite the hurry to get back in the building, but he found the time in his busy schedule to do a double-take and stare back at Kennedy with a curious look on his face.

Wait a wink, gorgeous hunk standing looking like he's going to cry soon after Travis sends out for Angelica's boytoy? This must be Dell! Oooh, that blond ditz is lucky...

"Hi!" Preston said enthusiastically, turning to walk back to where Kennedy stood. "You must be ---" and he coughed here, while saying something not entirely unlike Angela "---'s boyfriend! I'm Preston, Travis' secretary? He was wondering when you'd come. We're on lunch right now, but we can make an exception for you." He paused for nary a second to get in an obvious wink before going on. "Could you get the door for me? Thankyousomuchyou'readooooll."

Without waiting for an answer to anything he'd said, he left for the doors to the building once again, waiting by the door for Kennedy with a barely concealed look of impatience on his face; Travis did not appreciate cold coffee, and Preston did not appreciate grumpy Travis.

_{Sorry for the wait, but my Preston!muse was otherwise occupied, so I ended up having to stumble through writing him by myself. ><}

[ken]

It was all Kennedy could do not to gawk at Preston. Of all the people he'd been expecting to work for THE Travis Sivart, someone like Preston had been near the bottom of the list.

Kennedy managed to close his mouth as Preston motioned for the door. And he even opened the door for the busy clerk, though he did follow soon after.

"Um, yes," managed Kennedy, getting a word in edgewise with Preston was clearly a difficult endeavor. Still, Kennedy was up to the task. "I'm with Angela..."

Technically engaged to the girl, but Kennedy wasn't about to tell the clerk before he told the father. That didn't strike him as being an overly intelligent thing to do.

"So, uh, is he in a good mood today?" asked Kennedy, trying to grin.

[pwn]

As soon as the door was opened for him, Preston rushed in, navigating his was across the building's atrium, which was currently littered with everything from paint cans to old wooden desks with sheets thrown over them. He spoke as he walked, though, his voice echoing slightly in the large, open space.

"The silly man has been here since before the crack of dawn and ugh, is he ever a mess! I don't see what the appeal is behind renovating; getting dirty and playing with wood sounds like..." He paused for a moment as the thought continued in his head, but didn't pursue it. "Well anyway, he put up some new um drywall is it? yesterday and now he's painting. The paint-splotched coveralls could be cute, but not on a man of his age. It makes his look positively childish. Don't tell him that though, he hates it when you bring his manliness into question."

Preston looked at Kennedy and rolled his eyes knowingly, as if their guest would know exactly what Preston was talking about.

"So yes, I guess you could say he's in good mood, but he'll be happier when he finds out his muscle is here." This was accompanied by an entirely obvious sweep of Kennedy's arms and chest by Preston's eyes before turned to continue the journey to Travis' office.

Before he made it there, though, his phone rang, and he switched all his parcels to one hand with surprising dexterity to answer it. "You're speaking to Preston, make it worth my time? Jorge? I thought I told you not to call me at work! You're going to get me fired, you silly man! One second..."

He leaned his head in Travis' office and yelled upward. "Travis? Come get your coffee and doughnuts... What do you mean you're busy? Well, the guy you've been waiting for is here!"

_{so... forced... going... to die....}

[Ϛ Travis Sivart]

No sooner than the words had left Preston's mouth was a commotion heard from Travis' office as he descended the ladder he'd been perched on, swearing as he missed a step and nearly fell into a tray of paint. A moment later he appeared in his doorway in his paint-splattered glory, grabbing a coffee from Preston and staring at Kennedy with a confused look.

"Oh, I thought you meant Angela's boyfriend," Travis said to Preston, though he was still looking at Kennedy. "You must be the electrician, then? I didn't think you were coming for a few more hours..."

But he didn't look satisfied with that explanation either. The young man just looked so familiar. "Wait, you're Cavan's son, aren't you?" he said, looking no less confused than before. "Has something happened?"

He could think of no other reason the son of a former coworker would have randomly showed up at his place of work looking so uncomfortable.

Preston, for all his ditzy moments, was actually a very bright bulb, and was beginning to piece things together for himself, as was evident by the look of sheer horror on his face.

[ken]

OoC:I think I moved this up to past the engaged point... I think, I got confused now about time. I'm going to try and wing it, but we might have to try and hash out when exactly this happened...

Preston wasn't too bad, really. Kennedy actually liked the flamboyant clerk, and had no qualms with helping him out. He even moved forward to help, but it didn't look like Preston really needed it.

"Muscle? Uh, thanks?" Kennedy blinked, not entirely sure how he should handle this. Small town Illinois boys aren't used to having guys flirt with them. Even ones like Preston, who are obviously... flamboyant.

When Travis arrived, Kennedy met his eyes. No need to force a smile or try to be polite. This was Travis Sivart. Travis Sivart did not smile. Travis Sivart did not appreciate other people forcing smiles upon him. Travis Sivart probably ate smiles for breakfast.

"Actually..." he began, but found that Travis was more or less ignoring him, so Kennedy trailed off. Finally, Travis addressed him directly. "Yeah, I'm Eoin's youngest son."

Not youngest child, of course, but the message worked.

"And, uh, I am Angela's..." what to give him for now? "boyfriend?"

[pwn]

Whatever works for you.

"Jorge? I'm going to have to call you back, babe."

Preston hung up his cell and put it away, moving quickly but cautiously, as if he was working on defusing a ticking time-bomb. This wasn't really too far from the truth.

"Why don't you sit down?" he offered Travis, pulling an old chair from a nearby desk. The thing weighed a ton, and normally Preston would have balked at such heavy lifting, but the situation warranted extreme measures. He placed the chair carefully behind Travis so the man would be able to sit in it.

Normally, this gesture would precede (or follow) news bad enough to make the recipient collapse, but Preston simply wanted Travis to sit so this Cavan boy would have as much time as possible to get the hell out of Dodge when Travis figured out what all this meant.

He glared at Kennedy around Travis, giving him a look that suggested what he had just done had been a very bad idea, and that if Travis didn't kill him when he went berserk, Preston probably would for making the personal assistant deal with the temper tantrum. Preston could actually almost sympathize with Travis on this matter; he goes out of his way to be a nice dad and actually approve of Angela's boyfriend, Dell, and then she goes and dumps him for another guy without even telling her father?

He certainly wasn't growing any more fond of Travis' daughter.

[Ϛ Travis Sivart]

Travis nodded as Kennedy confirmed who he was, almost in a dismissive 'of course you are, would I ever be wrong?' sort of way, but he still didn't look any less confused. He hadn't seen Eoin in who knows how long, why was his son suddenly here? Maybe the kid wanted a job as a PI? Travis hoped he didn't intend on trying to use the fact that Travis knew his father to try and help him get a job, that would be just plain pitiful and annoying.

The boyfriend comment seemed to pass right through Travis as if it had never happened, perhaps because in his mind, his daughter would never pull such a stunt, so the fact that he had heard what he heard was so impossible, it wasn't even worth processing.

However, when Preston began acting strangely, more strangely than usual anyway, Travis' mind went on rewind until it came across something unusual in the records.

"Excuse me?" was all he said to Kennedy, a look that was impossible to translate to a particular feeling upon his face.

He didn't sit down.

[ken]

Wow, this looked to be going over about as well as Kennedy had expected. Even the receptionist looked about ready to skin him alive, and he'd been downright chipper only a few moments before.

Maybe he should have waited until Angela passed word along first...

"I'm seeing your daughter," Kennedy reiterated. He tactfully left off any details, such as how intimate they happened to be and just how much they were seeing of one another. For that matter, now probably wasn't the best of times to go mentioning a certain bundle of joy that should be arriving in nine months or so.

"We've been together for several months now, actually," offered Kennedy. He then paused, studying both men's faces. How exactly were they going to take this? Kennedy tensed in case he needed to bolt, hoping that either Travis or Preston had a speedy Gift he could hijack.

[pwn]

The assistant sucked in a loud breath, shaking his head frantically as he did so. But Kennedy kept talking. Kept digging that hole in the ground. He was asking Travis to bury him! Preston pressed two fingers to the area between his brows, as if he felt a head ache coming on. He squeezed his eyes shut, but eventually peeked with one. This was a trainwreck. It was designed for people to watch despite themselves!

"Mr. Sivart, you should really sit down," he said through his hands. "Can I get you anything? Scotch maybe?"

Preston's feet hadn't moved, and yet he was flitting worriedly about like a hummingbird, clearly too stressed by this whole ordeal to stand still. He kept moving as if to touch Travis' shoulder, but always decided better of it and withdrew his hand almost as if burned. This calm that Travis seemed to be exhibiting was entirely disconcerting; in Preston's experience, it simply meant that when he blew up, it would be even worse.

Preston was not looking forward to having to explain the situation to the police.

[Ϛ Travis Sivart]

Just last week, Travis had been told by a very nervous doctor that he should probably be watching his blood pressure. Even though the frightened man had quickly added, "You know, if you want to," Travis had got the message. This had led to him attending an entirely unsuccessful anger management session ("Though it was a good start!" the therapist had said), and although nothing they had tried had worked, Travis at least had a few tips to work with.

So it was that while Preston hovered and Kennedy reiterated the situation with his daughter, Travis closed his eyes, took deep, slow breaths, and counted to ten.

One.

Two.

"I'm seeing your daughter."

...........Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

"We've been together for several months now, actually."

NINE.

He exhaled quickly just then and his eyes snapped open to glare at Kennedy, before he remembered another technique. Repeat a calming phrase or word, wasn't it?

Keep cool, Sivart. Keep cool. Keep cool. It's only your precious daughter, the only one you'll ever have, keep cool!

Nothing seemed to be helping. Didn't they say physical exertion could help? Seeing as he didn't have a stress ball, he clamped his hand over the edge of a nearby vintage wooden desk and squeezed. However, when the wood began to mulch beneath his fingers, he decided it wasn't a good idea. Kennedy's neck, however, looked very appealing.

"What happened to Dell?" Travis said through gritted teeth, ignoring Preston once again as he tried to distract himself from the fact that Angela was with someone else and just concentrate on her not being with Dell. That he could handle. Maybe.

[ken]

Kennedy felt sorry for the poor figurine. He found he couldn't tear his eyes away from it. or the mulch it was quickly becoming. Did Kennedy have a good offensive Gift? Maybe teleportation, teleportation would be good. The wedding would be all kinds of awkward if the father of the bride and the groom got into epic warfare in the f.o.b.'s office.

"Dell?" Kennedy repeated, blinking. It took him a few seconds to realize just who Travis was referring to. Tristan. the other guy. The one that Angela had been seeing prior to the whole incident that resulted in, well, Angela and Kennedy becoming an item.

"Tristan, uh..." how exactly to word this. "Tristan and Angela separated." Yes, that was tactful. Technically Tristan dumped Angela and Kennedy swooped in like a vulture to snap her up. But something told Kennedy that comparing himself to a vulture and Angela to a piece of meat wasn't going to go over well with Travis. "Quite a while ago, actually. And then Angela and I got together. This would be back in..."

He tried to think of when exactly this had all occurred. Well, the initial incident had been in, what, February? And they'd gotten together in October or something, right? During the Fall Festival. It was all rather hazy to Kennedy ,and it was a shame he didn't have an archive to go to, to double check such things.

"I honestly don't know what he's doing now," admitted Kennedy.

[pwn]

Preston's hands moved to cover his entire face in an obvious display of dismay and/or shame. Didn't Kennedy know that if he was going to date Travis' daughter, steal her away from Travis' approved choice for Angela, he was going to have to do better than 'Dell?'? Luckily, the new victim recovered, but it wasn't really much of a recovery.

'Tristan and Angela separated'? That's the best he has??

Who would have though Preston would be the first to snap?

Putting on his very best pissed-off-gay-man face, he slid around Travis, took Kennedy by the shoulder,and marched him out of there, finding a more isolated office to cuss him out in.

"Do you know who that man is? Since he knows your father, I'm going to assume you do, which must mean you're an idiot, because coming in here like that is a good way to get yourself fatally wounded. Travis Sivart is not a man well known for controlling his temper. I don't care if we called you, you do not come here this unprepared to deal with the consequences of whatever it is you did, no matter how good you look, because you know what? I don't enjoy dealing with his temper tantrums. But that's my job, so the less angry he is, the less work I have to do, and the happier I am. And the happier I am, the easier your life is going to be. So..."

He crossed his arms as if he was waiting for something.

"You're going to get your story straight right now so I don't have to deal with him blowing up the next time you say something idiotic. Why don't you start from the beginning?" It was clearly a rhetorical question; Kennedy was going to start from the beginning, and he was going to like it.

It's amazing how threatening the flamboyant man could look. He practically defined fierce. Travis must have been rubbing off on him.

[Ϛ Travis Sivart]

Travis had, actually, been just on the threshold of losing it when Preston intervened. The personal assistant must have been developing something akin to Spidey-senses, because he had impeccable timing.

As it were, Travis was left standing there, his anger completely replaced with confusion. Hadn't there just been something in front of him a moment ago, making him extremely angry? And where had Preston disappeared to?

This was why he'd been advised to watch his blood pressure.

However, his confusion was replaced with contentment as he espied his coffee and doughnuts lying on a desk nearby. Not smiling, but not frowning either, he found a Boston Creme and took a contended bite before sitting down and having a sip of his coffee. He blatantly ignored the commotion coming from the other side of the building.

I haven't spoken with Dell in a while...

[ken]

"Yes, I know who he is," snapped Kennedy, eyes narrowing. Being told off did not put the young man in a good mood, and the shallowly buried rebel was beginning to resurface.

Kennedy fought the urge to punch Preston.

"How much of the story would you like to hear?" the words came through gritted teeth. "Tristan dumped Angela after an... incident. I was there to pick up the pieces. Simple as that."

Not hardly.

"I honestly couldn't tell you what happened to Dell. Near as I can tell, he dumped Angela then dropped off the face of the Earth. I've been with her since then... which would be several months now." Kennedy frowned. How many months had it been, exactly? Angela and Kennedy had known each other for... a year and a half? It felt like forever, probably because of all they'd gone through.

Kennedy looked to Preston now, his expression somewhat thoughtful. "You want to get wholly technical, Angela and I are engaged."

He waited to see how that went over, before even approaching a certain small life...