Bors was irritable, something about towing cars and not getting paid did that to him. He was still pissed that old man had refused to pay him and called the police on him for trespassing. Then the asshole cops saying it was civil matter he should take up in small claims court. Stupid, he'd provided a service per his end of the bargain he should be paid. Humans and their foolish laws. He was also sort of depressed he needed some money soon, he was low on everything. If things got too bad he'd go stay in the woods as a bear for a time. At least it would make him feel better, he was thinking he might anyway.

Right now he was sitting, hulking, out on the hood of his tow truck eating a pint of icecream......with his bare hands, a sticky mess, but when he gets agitated he sometimes reverts. The clerk in the mini mart he was parked in front of seemed to be enjoying the spectacle of his snack immensly. In Bors' defense the nerdy clerk had been unable to provide a spoon when Bors bought the stuff, and Bors just needed some comfort food right now. It couldn't be helped.

He got some weird looks from people pumping gas. He emmited a low rumble while he ate. He looked like a savage sitting there eating ice cream with his bare hends and getting it in his beard. His grungy jeans and work shirt did nothing to help his image.

If He looks like a savage then she looks like a...oh wait...she is a show girl. Of sorts. The shaddier sort. And she's far too young to be. Obviously.

Salem is dressed...well...almost not dressed is a better description. She's wearing a pair of short short shorts that could put Daisy Duke to shame. She managed to juuust keep her butt from hanging out the back, what a tease. Her shirt was once a tee shirt until she got her hands on it and chopped it in half at the waist, flashing flat, firm belly with a soft tan and a little silver loop in her belly button. The neck had been cut out to hang off one shoulder too, showing she didn't have a bra on.

Her boots are work boots, Stanlys, black, half calf high, if that. Long stretch of shapely leg. She has the night off, which is nice because recently she'd been working seven hour shifts at night for six nights a week. In one hand is a pepperspray disguised as a minature key chain night stick attatched to only one key.

Victoria's boyfriend had wizzed through the apartment between shifts where he worked and eaten everything, Ashely wouldn't be home tonight. That left Salem to walk two blocks to the minimart and pick up something throw in the microwave, some milk, maybe soda.

She stops at the door to watch him eating Icecream with his hands. Frowns, then goes inside. A few moments later she emerges with a brown paper bag in her arms. The clerk put the milk and frozen TV dinners in the bottom, the bottom of the bag was growing wet. Great. She struggled with the door for a moment.

As the indecently dressed girl is leaving the counter Bors is using the water spiggot on the side of the building to clean up, while making hideous faces at the clerk. He is careful to get the icecream out of his beard too.

The girl comes out the door, and it is obvious she is but a girl, no matter how much she flaunts her womanly attributes. Bors watched her struggle with the door and her bag of purchases that was turning into a sodden mess. "Jackass." he rumbles at the clerk while he holds the door for the girl. The idiot should have given her a plastic bag or bagged the stuff better.

"You need a hand with that stuff? Maybe a ride?" he asks her much more softly than he had spoken to the clerk. Still the rumbling is so deep it is hard to understand him. He has stopped making faces at the clerk only because he has made eye contact with the girl, and he doesn't wantto alarm her while she might drop all her purchases.

She felt the door pull back from her back where someone else was holding it and didn't hesitate to step through, glancing up and smileing. Pretty smile, full lips, flashing no teeth. Super model quality, just too young. Her vivid green eyes scan his bearded face once.

Her fingers are wrapped around the bottom of the bag, attempting to keep the soggy mess held together. She had half a mind to yell at the clerk, make him give her another bag. But that's what he wanted, he always did it. Usually he did it to Victoria, because he enjoyed watching her get pissed, and she was the easiest to piss off. Not worth her time or energy to give him what he wants.

"No thanks. It's two blocks. Not much." Really she'd just learned as a homeless thirteen year old four years ago that taking rides from strangers, no matter how nice, was usually a very bad idea.

The door closed and the clerk flipped him the bird. "Hmmm, You sure?" he rummbled more,"This isn't a nice neighborhood." He ought to know he's lived here for about a decade and watched it grow steadily worse. "Your folks know you're out on the streets dressed that way?" It occurs to him it's asking for trouble. Men are pigs after all. Bors deosn't in any way consider himself a man. He is what he is, a bear, who sometimes wears the trappings of a man.

She made a soft sound in her throat that escaped her lips as a light-hearted, sarcastic laugh. "My boss knows I'm out here like this." It's what had gotten her the job, after all. Maybe that might key him in. No Parents. That or they just don't matter.

She should have been insulted by his comment. A regular teenager would have blown up about that. you don't like it don't look. She just smiled softly, avoided his eyes. She'd also learned while living alone that people have their oppinions. There isn't anything you can do about that.

"I'm sure. It is a bad neighborhood and I don't ride with strangers. Thank you though."

"HHHhhhhmmm," a soft rumble "I could walk with you then, carry that stuff. Your boss send you to the store, where you work dresed like that?" he has a pretty good idea, but you'd be amazed just how much more you can learn from people when they assume you are as dumb as you look. Because of this Bors has mastered seeming like a simpleton. It serves him well.

He's followed her out of the minimart lot now. Hopefully he won't get decked for being to forward, a normal guy would act just like he was right now for completely dishonorable reasons.

As he leaves the lot the clerk opens the door and yells after him. "You can't leave that parked here."

Bors just laughs and hollers back in a booming rummble. "NNNmmhhhhuuuummmm, Call a wrecker then!"

She smiled again, her green eyes sparkling. "You can walk me but you need to stay three feet away. It's a general rule." His arms could probably reach beyond three feet, but it gave her enough room to jump back and go for the pepper spary. "No my boss did not send me to the store, my roomies did." She replied to his question with total seriousness. "I'm a Dancer for night time entertainment," then a smile and a sideways glance. "It's pretty for stripper but I think you know that."

He could walk with her, but she's not offered up the bag yet. Not stubborn, just determined to let the clerk watch her carry it without help out of that parking lot. "Prick," she muttered when the clerck shouted after the man accompanying her.

The girl had pretty eyes, one thing Bors did find truly attractive about humans, their eyes, so many dazzling colors and variations beyond the black and brown of bears.....he always found himself drawn to look at people's eyes.

" Yup, he is a prick, I think he couldn't find the spoons on purpose." Bors says. Per her request he maintains a respectful distance while he walks with her.

"A stripper....Explains the threads at least." he says. For all he cares everyone could run around naked, but humans aren't civilized enough to behave if such things went on. He doesn't find her clothes offensive, it simply bothers him the type of reactions her dress might inspire from some of the local low lifes.

A lot of the local low lifes have already had a few run ins with her. And some of her friends, who happened to be older, bigger bouncers at the club, happened to not like those people. A lot of those people havn't bothered her, Ashely, or Victoria since then. But it would inspire some stupid ones to try something.

"Is that why you were eating the icecream with your hands?" She giggled, yes. Soft and cheerful giggles. She's still just a teenage girl after all. Or maybe thats an adult in a teenagers body? Maybe.

"Well you know what I do. What do you do?"

"The tow truck isn't a good clue?" he asks with a low rummbling chuckle. "Actually I antogonize minimart clerks.....I'll let you know if we have an opening." he says smiling back. He looks much less formidable with his big grin and more like and overgrown stuffed toy of some sort.`

"It's called Idle conversation with a stranger and a poor attempt to not get into anything personal." She replied, still smiling. The fact that when smiling he looked less forboding did absolutly nothing to make her trust him more. Some of the nicest people were the worst trouble and some of the least forboding are the most dangerous.

"I'm Salem." No last name. That's called 'getting into something too personal.' Any clout could go to a phone book and try to look up a last name. Even if her last name isn't on the phone bill, she still doesn't give it. They are now half a block from the Minimart.

"Bors." he rumbles in response to her giving her name. "You sure you don't want me to carry that for a spell?" he offers.

They get some odd looks as they walk, they make such a mismatched pair, Her a pretty little thing, and him a big ugly beheamoth. "How long you been away from home dancing?" he asks. Not the safest question, but not the most invasive either, there are a lot of ways she could chose to answer.

There are a lot of ways she could answer that. What does she choose?

She choses to smile again and say "that's getting into something personal." She looked over her shoulder to see if she could still see the minimart. Nope. She hefted the bag upwards and a little away from her body, holding it out to him. It was begining to tear apart in the bottom. He'd have no problem carrying the bag that she found heavy. "Sure." Then, "How long have I been away from home or how long have I been dancing?" Two different answers, which question does he want answered.

"Which ever one you wanna tell me, or you can tell me to pike off." he says easily in his low rummble. He scowls at the dilapitated bag and wraps it and all it's contents securely in the crook of his arm. "Can't beleive that jerk isn't more considerate when he bags things up for people. certainly ain't how he ought to treat pretty girls anyway." he rummbles more as they keep walking.

Somewhere he can smell bbq cooking and his stomach gives a rummble almoat twin to his voice.

"I've been gone for four years. Then found out there was no home to go back to," even though she hadn't planned on it. There was a home, just the only one she'd wanted there was dead. "I've been dancing for a year." So five years total. She watched him wrap the bag in his arm.

"Thanks." Then she looked over her shoulder again. "He does it every time. Tries to piss us off, get us to come back in and beg for another bag. Ashely started carrying a backpack to put it in so she didn't have to crawl back there for the sake of his amusment." She didn't sound the least bit bitter, her eyes didn't even darken. "People will be people and low lifes will be low lifes. Right?"

Her question is met with incoherant grumbling. The bear has a very hard time understanding the nature of assholes. Part of what drives him to drink.

"It still doesn't make it right at all." he said.

No home to go back to, she had said, he could very much relate. He'd lost his mother to hunters and then lost his foster father just as he became an adult. He moved to the other side of her so he was on the outside edge of the side walk and her on the inside edge as a car down the road approached at a slow crawl woefully below the speed limit.

As the car passed the teenaged boys in it whooped, hollered and catcalled, but nothing more. Still you never could tell with people and so Bors had tried to put himself in the way of possible danger to her from the car. He remained on the outer edge of the walk even after it had come and gone.

The boys whooped, as she had already leanred to expect, and sometimes even appriciate. But she smiled because he moved her to the inside of the sidewalk. It was amusing and sweet, protective and she again took no offense. And as the car rounded the next corner she looked up at him, stopping on the curb to look both directions and continue on to the second block.

"You a dad?" Because whether she had a proper father or not, she knew the attitude when she saw it.

"No, I live alone." he said saddly. He liked children, and cubs, but he couldn't imagine starting a family living in two worlds as he did, they would suffer either way when he shifted to live in the other. He just couldn't simply be the man, or the bear forever, he was both.

"Oh," she replied, her smile wilting around the corners at his saddened tone. She'd upset him? Opps. She tried to smile again. "You act like what I always thought a dad might." She started across the road. He's right, she wouldn't want to be his child and miss him for the long periods that he choose to live as a bear.

With her experiance, she'd accept a father figure but she needed a father like she needed a hole in the head.

He stayed closer while she crossed the street than her three foot rule. In case something happened in the road, he could be fast, but better safe than sorry. Once they were on the other side he resumed his station on the outer edge of the side walk as he followed her lead. His arm was still wrapped around the sodden grocery bag.

She frowned at him. “Three...” But then they were on the other side of the road and he was once more three feet away, leaving her gripping her key ring suspiciously. But she didn’t say anything after that, simply turned her head forward and watched the cracks in the sidewalk as they moved over them. They were nearing half a block away from the shabby brick building she’d called home for a little less then a year. “Do you usually spend your spare time walking slutty girls home and playing dad?” She said it in a soft, kind voice. Nothing harsh about it.

Seh started to say something while they crossed the street, but didn't finish as they reached the sidewalk on the other side.

He shook his head at her question. "Slutty girls....grumble....rummble.....I didn't see any girls like that....And I'm not anybody's daddy. You got some strange ideas." he told her. Which was his way of telling her he didn't believe she was a slut simply because she dressed the part.

She smiled, understanding his way of telling her what he didn't think of her. "Thanks. But you didn't answer my question. Are you usually this nice?" And fatherly...or is it protective. She couldn't often tell the differance between someone acting like a parent and someone just being protective. And if that's the case, why would he be protective of her? He didn't know her.

"Not really, sorta hard when everyone runs away from you..."" he told her. It was true, most girls found him much to intimidating no matter how nice he was. He was too big and if they got around that, most were simply too scared of his deep rummbles. He was loud even in simple conversatinal tones, it was just how his voice carried. "If people cooperated I would though." and there he goes talking about people as if he weren't one again.......

To her it sounded more as if he were talking the way she herself did. 'If those people would just get smart' or 'if people would just leave me alone'. Its sort of like...she is a person but she isn't part of the masses, she's not a people.

"Well," she replied after a minute. "not saying you aren't nice or that I'm afraid of your or anything," since she wasn't afraid, just cautious, "but you are a little intimidating." It was just his size in her case, the voice wasn't frightening. To her it was more strong then anything.

"Mmmmm all the hair?" he asked, that was it for most, big & hairy, for others it was simply that he was ugly. That was before they even knew how strong he was. It's not wonder he keeps to himself so much. People don't even know him and automatically don't hold him in very high oppinion. He'd grown used to it. Not to say he liked it at all, but more than ten years of ridicule just for being who were and not based on anything else.....he was definitely used to it.

She shook her head. "Nope." Then she squinted slightly as if trying to see if the fact that he had so much hair was intimidating to her at all. "No. Definatly not the hair. I'd have to say it's that I'm so small and your so...not." She smiled despite herself and stopped at a curb, not a corner, to cross the street. The red brick building was two buildings up and across the street. She looked both ways, then started to cross. "Not that your so much intimidating as I am weiry of...people in general but to be specific men." Not a liar, very truthful.

"You should be. They aren't very nice most of the time." he admited after hearing her words. He knew exactly what she meant, he'd seen a lot of bad things happen to young, pretty girls in his life, not first hand, but word got around. Sometimes young men bragged of their wicked deads, or sometimes they simply left their victims. It saddened Bors, how could they mistreat thier own kind so much. It seemed to go against all nature.....except for human nature.

She nodded agreement. Across the road and in front of the building she pauses, smiles, holds out her arms for the bag. "This is it," she says, preparing the single key attatched to the single mace keychain for easy unlocking of the door. "Thanks a lot for your help. It was nice for once." To have help that is. Usually people stared or whooped at her but otherwise left her be.

Very carefully he placed the bag in her arms. He made certain not to let the theing spill forth in a mess as he gave it to her. His arms both free he now pointed eastward, "Two blocks down, is a little grey house with a sign outside, "Big Bear Wrecker" If you need to find me. You be careful around here, Salem." He told her in his voice like thunder, but it was gentle thunder.

She leaned forward and looked down the street as if to look for the gray house and then strightened and smiled at him. She flipped her head slightly, trying to push her bangs back without the use of a hand, they did go back, then slid right back over her face. "Thanks Bors. I'll do that." She turned and went up the first stairs, pulled open the door with a little struggle, then winked at him and disappeared in side. Later pop. He really should be someones dad.

He waited to be sure she was safely shut behind the door before walking back to his truck. Now that he was walking alone he smoked a cigarrette. He took his time walking back, part of him was just daring that stupid clerk to tow his tow truck.