~4~

Just as Bryan feared, Kieran pulled up into the parking lot of an expensive looking restaurant. 

He could admit that it was quaint, quaint in the way that only a select few could afford it.

And here he was dressed in nothing but ripped, black jeans and a fitted, striped t-shirt.

"Are you good?" Kieran asked when Bryan had been staring into space since he parked the car.

Bryan shook himself out of his thoughts, slightly long auburn hair swishing around. "Yeah."

They got out of the car, Bryan questioning a lot of things.

A uniformed waitress walked up to them and beamed at Kieran, the sight of it made Bryan feel like a shard got stuck in his heart.

"Welcome again, Mr Banes." The blonde waitress said with familiarity.

Well, Kieran did say it was his favorite restaurant but Bryan hadn't been expecting him to be on a literal first name basis with the waitresses!

"Thanks." Kieran replied curtly.

"Your preferred table is empty, would you like that?" She asked, looking eager to please.

"Sure, thanks." He muttered again, glancing at Bryan in slight concern.

Bryan hid how he felt well, it was something he was learning to do.

"If you and your associate would come with me." The waitress invited, sashaying ahead.

Bryan wanted to tackle her to the ground, why was she going around putting labels on them? Kieran hadn't even disputed it.

But then again, what exactly had he expected from the Head Beta?

He guessed that it just stung that he wasn't even seen as a compatible love interest for Kieran.

What was he doing here?

He should have gone to eat lunch and then pulled out some vague excuse from thin air to leave early and then spend the rest of his day sulking in his room.

Kieran touching his hand made him jump and snatch his hand back, pulling him from his absorbing thoughts again.

Kieran frowned at this. "You don't seem very comfortable here." He noted, taking back his hand.

Bryan had taken back his hand like touching him burnt, it unsettled him for some reason. "You didn't have to come here, you could have gotten something from the Kitchens."

Bryan held his hand close, feeling it tingle where Kieran had touched him. "I'm fine really, you don't need to keep checking up on me like I'm some kid." He snapped out without thinking.

Kieran narrowed his eyes, there it was again, the issue that he was treating Bryan like a child.

But he wasn't! Right? 

The waitress came with their menus before he could respond and that line of conversation was cut off but Kieran had a feeling that it would be coming up very often between the both of them.

Kieran waited for him to make his order and Bryan really didn't mind, he thought that this was progress of some sort for them but all it managed to do was show him how inferior he was to Kieran.

His eyes widened briefly when he heard Kieran's order, he had only ordered for some wine. 

Of course, did Bryan really think this was a date? It was merely Kieran taking him to eat lunch, all by himself, just like he said.

Kieran noticed a dip in Bryan's scent, he was clearly upset and he didn't need the change in his scent to notice, the black scowl on his face was more than enough.

But he couldn't ask what was wrong, or he would risk another outburst again and he didn't want that.

A tense silence reigned at their table until their orders were brought, the waitress that had been trying to flirt with Kieran was quick to make herself scarce when it was obvious that Kieran didn't even notice her presence. 

She and every other waitress that worked at the restaurant already knew that Kieran wasn't just resistant to their charms but frankly didn't give two fucks about them but at least he humored them on the average day.

Today however, every bit of his attention was taken up by the scrawny kid he brought with him. 

The realization hit her then that she had never seen him bring anyone else, it was why they kept flirting with him even though he was so blatantly unavailable. 

Bryan stiffly ate, every time he stole a glance at Kieran, he found the other watching him with an unreadable expression. 

Bryan didn't need to think too hard, he knew that Kieran was just watching him to make sure he ate and didn't ditch his veggies or something. 

If it were any other time, Bryan would have asked why Kieran hadn't ordered some food for himself but he had come to realise that the werewolf lived solely off alcohol and cigarettes so even if he said something about it, it wouldn't change anything. 

He was still going to keep trying to get him to stop smoking because as much as being around Kieran was slowly driving him insane, he couldn't leave him to smoke himself to an early death.

The now familiar click of a lighter alerted him and he looked up to find Kieran lighting up a cigarette, the small flame flickering in front of his face.

"Kieran!" Bryan whispered yelled, his fork clattering to his plate as he looked around nervously, expecting waitresses to come running with fire extinguishers. 

"Put that out, don't smoke in a restaurant…" He batted his hands at him, trying to snatch the cigarette from his hands.

Kieran just lifted the cig above his reach, wondering what he was getting all worked up for.

"Window tables are permitted to smoke." He pointed out a sign to Bryan, take a puff.

"Fine, then don't smoke at all, it's bad for you." He said a little too snappishly.

Usually, he tried to nicely coerce Kieran but today he was already at the end of his rope.

Kieran reached across to take his hand again, properly this time so that Bryan didn't have a chance to snatch his hand back.

"It might be bad but it does what it's supposed to." He said in an empty voice, his grip on Bryan's hand tightening. "Now eat up."

Bryan gulped at this, going right back to eating after Kieran let go of his hand to take a sip of his drink.

What just happened?