Catching up

[Kaleb Parker]

Kaleb leaned against the wall of the Daily Prophet, the newspaper in his hands.
His dark brown hair, fell hazily into his blue eyes, his black jeans faded and the sleeves of his red t shirt were rolled up to his elbows.
Typical look for Kaleb, according to Noah, he looked like 'a stable boy, just minus the plaid.'
He chuckled to himself, lighting up a cigarette, taking a drag and blowing smoke in the opposite direction, eyes scanning the page.
"Got a lot of catching up to do."

[Nathan Dawson]

"Well would you look what the moomin dragged in," Nathan muttered under his breath as he walked past his cousin leaning up against the wall in the Daily Prophet.
Him and Kaleb didn't always get along at the best of times, and this was definitely not the best of times. As the nicer members of the family would put it, they were at each others throats.
Instead of striking up conversation as he might usually do with a family member, he just carried on until he got to the desk, handing over the reports from the auror department he was supposed to be delivering. Statistics put the publics mind at ease or something.

[Kaleb Parker]

Kaleb briefly glanced up as his younger cousin passed by.
He would have been fine it had been anyone, anyone other then him.
Nathan.
Kaleb, gripped his newspaper slightly, as his cousin strutted past.
The relationship between the two of them was a bit strained, to put it nicely.
The two had never quiet seen eye-to-eye, and now that the war was in full boom, tensions we're even tougher.
Kaleb had been in the war since the begining and had been sent out into the field, he had seen more things then any of his family, including Nathan.
To Kaleb, he thought Nathan saw this war as a game, as he often saw everything else.
"Done being a dog for the Ministry?" He mutters gruffily, as Nathan walks right past him.

[Nathan Dawson]

"It's called a job, dumbass," He muttered, not stopping to look at him, drumming his fingers on the counter.
He couldn't stomach Kaleb's attitude.
He couldn't stomach the fact that Kaleb would always assume he had it worse, he'd done more, seen more, would be more than anyone else in the family would. Because he was wrong.
He wasn't the only one involved in this war.
"What you doing? Looking for spies? Warriors? Not everyone's either a traitor or as noble as you, you know," He remarked witheringly.

[Kaleb Parker]

"Yeah, slaugtering innocent people, some job you have there Nathan." Kaelb replies witheringly.
Kaleb thought the Ministry was a complete waste of time, that it was useless and a bunch of bull.
When you became part of the Ministry, you became their dog, you were only there to do their bidding.
Kaleb folds his newspaper, closing his eyes in an attempt to calm himself, and trying hard not to put his hand over his left arm.
A secret he kept from the rest of the family, a secret he protected with his life.

[Nathan Dawson]

Nathan snorted, shaking his head slightly, "Yeah, I'm on my lunchbreak from homicide, you know. Thought I'd pop off down the street," he glanced at the watch he wasn't wearing, "Need to be back in a few, gotta a lot of slaughtering to do before I can call it a day," He rolled his eyes.
He didn't think his cousin quite grasped the concept of the ministry. They were there to help, not once had anyone, in his department at least, ever been called upon to slaughter someone innocent, and not once had anyone been slaughted through any fault of his own. The people who deserved it...the death eaters who wouldn't come quietly...they didn't count as innocent.
This thought caused a prickle to run up his left arm and yet again he wasn't sure if it was his imagination doing that or if it was supposed to. He'd never worked it out, despite the years he'd spent in service.

[Kaleb Parker]

"Always joking around, aren't you Nathan?" He replies shortly.
He couldn't stand how childish his cousin acted sometimes, here he was, 22 years old and acting like a fucking 2 year old.
"When are you going to grow up and realize what's actaully going on out there?" He asks,"This isn't something you can ingore, or pretend like it's not out there and it'll just go away. Like your 'beloved' Minister keeps saying, when he's fucking keeping the truth from everyone out there in the real world."

[Nathan Dawson]

"Yes, yes I am. Because unlike you, I have a sense of humour," He replied, still not turning to speak directly to his face which he hoped would annoy him just that little bit more.
He laughed shortly, although there was more of a threat in the laugh then in his actual words, "Don't tell me I don't understand Kaleb."

[Kaleb Parker]

"Please, a sense of humor?" He scoffs rolling his eyes, a bit annoyed that his younger cousin didn't even bother to look at him, but not letting it show.
"Oh, you honestly think you understand? You don't have a clue."

[Nathan Dawson]

"Yes, that's what it's called when you don't have your head shoved too far up your ass to be able to make and understand jokes," He replied vaguely as if he wasn't paying him his full attention.
He rolled his eyes, "Fuck you Kaleb, you're the one that has no idea. Maybe if you bothered to try and understand you're not the only one who's actually alive and real at the moment, you'd work it out that a lot more other people than you have been out there."

[Kaleb Parker]

Kaleb's jaw clenched slightly, an defensive mechanism he had gotten from being out in the war.
That and many battle scars.
"Please, I am not that thick. I know other people are out there, I've seen half of my friends die right next to me," He snaps,"But everything I've seen no one else will, ever. Cos it's not something you want to relive Nathan. It's somethng that stays with you til you die." He jams his hands into his pockets, as an attempt to keep them from shaking.

[Nathan Dawson]

Nathan glanced backwards nonchalantly at him, then back at the wall behind the counter.
When he spoke, his voice was no longer hostile in the slightest, instead strangely empty.
"I know," He said simply.

[Kaleb Parker]

Kaleb glanced up, raising an eyebrow at him.
He could tell his cousin was being sincere for once.
"Oh?" He says simply.

[Nathan Dawson]

"Yes," He replied bluntly, pushing past him on his way out of the place.
He didn't like being serious, and he didn't like having to adopt that tone of voice or act this way at all.
He much preferred to laugh it all off, but if the only way to make his cousin understand was to act this way, then that's how he'd be.
He didn't understand where the rest of his family had thought he'd been between the time when he'd graduated Hogwarts and when he'd turned up back here not so long ago. Did they just think he'd been wandering around being a complete idiot all that time?

[Kaleb Parker]

"Where have you been all this time?" He asks after a moment.

[Nathan Dawson]

"Where the fuck do you think?" He snapped, "You're not the only one who's been out there."

[Kaleb Parker]

He keeps his calm by not snapping back.
Got more in common then you thought.

[Nathan Dawson]

Nathan spared him another glance, then made a half jerking movement with his hands in exasperation, then turned his back and carried on out of the place and down the street.

[Kaleb Parker]

"Nathan!" He calls down after him before he can stop himself.

[Nathan Dawson]

Nathan stopped dead, trying to make sense of what had just happened, but it didn't work because what had just happened did not make any sort of sense. Not even to him.

[Kaleb Parker]

"Maybe..maybe your not as thick as I thought." He replies, then turns around and heads off without another word.

[Nathan Dawson]

"Maybe I was dead on right about you," He murmured under his breath, carrying on back to work, although he knew he wouldn't be able to concentrate now.