He'd made it back to the hotel without incident, had used the pen between the empty parking lot and the lobby before going in. Check in had been problem free, and he'd gotten to his room, showered, and crawled immediately into bed.
His alarm woke him in the morning, but since it wasn't safe for him to go to class he turned it off and got another couple of hours before getting up, grimacing at his clothes from the day before, and ignored them for now.
He'd call Rider first. Worry about clean clothes after. He dialed as he rubbed at the back of his neck, chewing on the inside of his cheek as he thought over what he was going to say. It was all still so incredibly foreign to him.
It rang, and rang, and eventually went through to a voicemail -- a voicemail which was not for someone named Rider. Instead it was for James, and breezily said that he was out of town at the moment, but to leave a message and he'd get back as soon as he could.
Tucker pulled the phone away from his ear to frown down at it, rereading the number, and then sighed and hung up. That wasn’t going to work. Rabi had told him not to mess with the fae, so that ruled out the next safest, and left...
He sighed as he thumbed in Lukas' number, stomach already twisting anxiously.
Three rings on this one before he answered -- distracted and a bit unfocused. "I don't know this number."
Well at least he answered. "I got it from Beau." His voice came up at the end, questioning. "I've got a magician stalking me, and I heard you could help with protection."
"Beau." He made just a faint disgusted sound, but at least he paused to listen. "How much protection?"
He had to think about that, because he didn't want to leave anything out. "Making my dorm safe, first and foremost, but if you could make it so I can move around campus and get to my classes again that'd be amazing."
He paused, then, calculating. When he answered, there was just a faint mocking edge to his voice. "Got a trust fund?"
He blinked, frowning. "N..no. Um. I think I was getting help with paying, but I don't know the specifics..."
Again, he paused and chewed it over. "Anything worth trading? I can lock up the dorm, I'd say, but...mobile protection is nuts."
Dark brows creased. "I don't think so, I don't really have anything..." He had the pin, but that was definitely not leaving his possession unless it was going into Rabi's, and he had Beau's pen, but that wasn't his.
"You're screwed, then, I think. You want your place buttoned up anyway?" Someone said something in the background and he put his hand over the phone to answer, muttering.
The knot in his stomach tightened, and he bit back a small noise. "Y-yeah. At least that much."
"Where are you?" He was so casual, coming back on the phone, like this was normal for him; no big deal.
"I'm at the Baymont hotel." He ran his hand back through his hair and down to rub at the back of his neck.
"Eighty bucks to come out there and look; we can negotiate from there." He sounded absent about it. "Unless you've got something else to offer."
Eighty... He could do eighty. "I don't know, but that's fine. It's not here I need buttoned up, though. It's my dorm at the college." He could maybe get a hold of Rabi before he met Lukas...
He huffed out a sound, amused and annoyed both. "The address there, then, and I can meet you."
Well shit, he was going to have to get dressed, call am Uber. "Do you want me to text it to you?"
"I don't care what you do, kid, just get me the address and I'll meet you there." He paused again, with a hand over the receiver, assessing. "I can get out of here in about two hours."
He bit back an apology, mostly because he wasn't sure what he would have been apologizing for. "Okay, I'll send it to you." Two hours gave him enough time to get back, to get clean clothes, to call Rabi.
Rabi would answer a little breathlessly, when he did call -- in the middle of something, or distracted. "Emergency?"
Tucker was buttoning his pants but he paused. "No, but I have to go back to campus to meet that Lukas guy at the dorms. I couldn't get ahold of Rider, his voicemail said his name is James and he's out of town." He said it was a sigh, zipping up and grabbing his shirt.
Rabi drew in a couple deep breaths. "You're meeting him now? When?"
"Not now, like two hours." He swiped his hand through his hair, trying to tame it and failing. "He's charging eighty just to meet me, and I have no idea what he wants to just block the dorm. He kept asking about trading, but I don't have anything to trade." He sounded stressed, but all things considered that was reasonable.
"You could always try sexual favors." The sound behind him settled as Rabi paused somewhere, assessing. "If he wants money, though, that's easy enough."
Tucker stiffened, quiet for a moment. "I didn't think that was what...I mean I assumed he wanted like, artifacts or something." Rabi might have been able to hear the flush. "I don't know what he wants. He said we'd negotiate when he gets there."
He actually laughed at Tucker -- the tension in his voice like a balm to Rabi, anyway. "If he opened with cash he'll take cash."
"Yeah, but how much?" It was mostly rhetorical, because how would Rabi know that.
"A lot, I'm sure." He yawned into the phone, face turned away to smother the sound. "I can probably be there in two hours."
Tucker made a strained noise on his side and then sighed. "Okay."
"Maybe don't go over until close to that time, though." He hesitated, thinking. "And use the pen."
It made him slow down, sink down on the edge of the bed. The urgency leaking out of the moment, and his voice. "Okay, but I want enough time to change. These clothes are filthy."
"If you'd like. I might cut it a little close, though." He checked the time as he said it. "I'll try to beat you there."
Tucker glanced at the clock next to the bed, chewing on the inside of his cheek. "I'll do my best, I've got to get an Uber, makes things tricky." There was a pause, like Tucker expected that to be the end of the call, but he spoke up again. "Rabi? Can you bring my books with you?"
It got a huff of breath, annoyed. "Maybe. I'm not sure yet."
"Okay." No argument, just acceptance. "I'll see you there, then."
"Yes." He hung up, back to whatever had him running around a bit. But he'd show up at the dorm around ten minutes before the two hour deadline. Not that he looked like himself, in this moment; instead he took on a college student, in battered jeans and a beanie.
Tucker wasn't long behind, but he'd set the pen to look like the young woman, the most college appropriate, he thought. He hurried up to the building looking a bit skittish, gaze scanning the parking lot for cars that looked suspicious, but he hadn't seen John's, so he didn't know...
Inside, up the stairs, he probably walked right by Rabi without looking at him.
He fell in a step or two behind Tucker, shifting a bag up on his shoulder. "Cutting it close yourself."
Tucker jumped, hitting the wall as he jerked away from the voice, and stared wide eyed at the other kid. Recognition came a second or two after, and he made an impatient huff as he pulled his keys from his pocket to unlock the door. "You told me to cut it close." He should have just enough time to change, hopefully.
"I didn't think you would, though." He said it absently; he still sounded like Rabi. Mostly.
He shouldered the door open as he turned the key, leaving he door for Rabi to close behind him. "...we hit traffic. I thought I was going to be late." Which explained why he looked so annoyed a moment later as he clicked the pen to drop the disguise. He didn't waste time though, just jerked the dirty shirt up over his head to throw it in his hamper.
Rabi dropped the bag on the bed and stretched -- and he kept the cute-but-unimposing college student look on. Safer that way, maybe. "I have enough cash to cover it, probably."
Safer, but distracting. Tucker paused long enough to actually look at him, brows drawn, before turning to shove his jeans off slender hips. He scooped them up, pulled the pin free, and tossed the pants in the hamper as well. "I have some cash in the desk drawer, if we need more, but not a lot."
"I've got about twelve grand." He said it absently, looking down toward the bag -- and then blinking back up at Tucker. "How much do you have?"
"Not twelve grand." His shoulders rounded, thumbs hooked in the waist of his boxers, but he stopped there. Opened his drawers instead to pull out a white tee shirt and a pair of soccer pants. "Maybe two hundred. It's supposed to be for emergencies." This counted, he supposed.
"It's fine." He dropped onto the bed, stretching out his legs: head tipped back a little while he considered. "Twelve grand should be more than enough."
Just being in clean clothes helped, a lot. His hair was still a bit of a fluffy mess but he seemed less frazzled on a whole as he moved to sit on whatever bit of the bed Rabi wasn't currently taking over. "Yeah."
"Unless he changes his mind about cash." Rabi shrugged, watching him with his eyes narrowed. "I don't think I should be here, or at least not visible, when he arrives."
He blinked, head turning to look back at Rabi. "Why?" Rabi being there made things...easier. Like at the bar.
"Because, anyone who figures me out will be...." He flexed his hand a little, uncomfortably. "They'll try to steal it."
Tuck frowned thoughtfully. "Oh, right." That would have been bad, especially if it was anyone with magic. "Can you make yourself unseen?" He gave Rabi a puzzled look, like he was wondering just how many other tricks the man had up his sleeve.
He made a small sound. "Not reliably. He might see."
He glanced around, lips twisted to one side before dipping his head towards the bathroom. "If he can't see through walls you could hide in there. Or the closet." Pale eyes flicked back to Rabi again. "Or there's a common room down the hall?" They were mundane suggestions, but they'd get the older man out of sight.
"Uh huh, I can go to the common room; I wasn't going to go far, but I'm definitely not staying here." He cocked his head just a bit toward the money. "You want me to leave that, or take it?"
"Take it, just in case." They -- well, mostly Tucker, he didn't know if Rabi knew Lukas -- didn't know if they could trust him. He hoped so. Lukas probably wouldn't have been recommended to him if he ripped everyone off, but...
He still felt twitchy, nervous.
"Uh huh. You can just call me if you need it." He shrugged, scooping up the bag and swinging it over his shoulder -- and then paused. "You said you've got two hundred, in case he asks for up front?"
Tuck nodded, folding his hands together and tucking them between his knees. This seemed somehow worse than meeting Beau, but he wasn't sure why.
Rabi paused, then to count out another handful of twenties and peel them off to hand to Tucker. "That makes five. Just in case."
He blinked as he moved to take it, and opened the desk drawer to dig out the two hundred he had to add to it. His bills were wrinkly, old, worn, stained. "Thanks." All of it was tucked into his pocket.
A contrast to the nice crisp bank-fresh bills Rabi had given him, all tidy twenties. He hummed, looking Tucker over, and then shrugged. "Don't offer him all of it up front. Haggle, at least a little."
"Okay." Like he had any sort of experience in that. He glanced at the clock as he sat down again, then back at Rabi. "I don't know how punctual this guy is." They'd already been cutting it close to begin with.
"Is that you trying to throw me out?" It made him smile suddenly, all teeth.
Dark brows dipped, then smoothed as he cracked a small smile. "Sort of." Not that he wanted him to go, but if he was planning on keeping a low profile, standing in the middle of his door when Lukas walked up wasn't going to make that easy.
Rabi made a low sound of amusement and then just stepped back and disappeared, with the cash tucked over his shoulder, unconcerned. It left Tucker alone with his thoughts.
As ever, his thoughts weren't exactly kind ones. Mostly he tried not to think of all the ways he could screw this up. He slouched back against the wall, waiting.
Lukas showed up almost twenty minutes late -- pausing at the door to look around a bit, obviously not quite sure where he was supposed to be but also not worried about it. He had a briefcase thrown over one shoulder, the sleeves of a dark blue shirt rolled up over his arms, black slacks. The effect was almost professional, except he wore it more like a costume than like he belonged in the nice clothing.
The man in the hall stood out in a way that caught Tucker's attention immediately. He didn't fit here. Not a college kid, not a student. Pale eyes were a touch wide as he sat up straighter, and a hand came up automatically to try to smooth out his hair, to no effect. "Lukas?" Had to be him.
It caught his attention, made his head turn to look Tucker over -- and he smiled, an easy smile like a shark, both eyebrows raised. "Really?"
The rise of color into pale cheeks was instantaneous. "Really what?" Unsure of if he should be defensive of that one word question or not it just came out puzzled.
He hummed just a bit, stepping into the doorway, then, to look around the place. "You have a single, at least?"
