Blood Bourbon

The Calm

Ryker hated the hours spent in board meetings, even worse when they had nothing to do with anything interesting and he was merely standing in the background behind Alesky, watching them watch the endless drone of presentations. The only thing that made this even marginally tolerable was the knowledge that he was going to see Daryl walking through those doors eventually. In the suit Ryker had gotten him.

Some of the proposals had been alright, though he was biased and was certain Daryl's was going to blow them out of the water. And then the cocky, trust fund brat of a human walked in and started pulling up... monstrosities that were more about looks than function and completely missing the point of what Ryker could understand what the project was about. The presentation had been cut short, and though the rejection had been polite enough, Ryker had almost grinned at how brutal it was.

The woman after 'Chad' was better, and she had been muttering something along the lines of 'the worst they can say is no' as she walked into the room. She was more on point, though she was young and Ryker nearly scowled as the board talked about her inexperience when she left the room. He had never understood the proclivity to ignore talent in favour of experience. She would never get any if she kept being passed over.

There was a brief lull, before he heard his cowboy walking down the hallway. Standing in the background and mostly out of sight, forcing himself to watch for threats in a room of very differently aligned people, Ryker frowned as he realized the air in the room changed subtly.

There were humans on the board, a fair bit of them, but they almost seemed to catch on to the interest of the supernaturals, who were all suddenly incredibly aware of the man who stepped into the room.

Daryl walked in when one of the guards opened the door for him, and Ryker bit back a growl when he noticed the shifter lean in and very noticeably breathe in Daryl's scent. His cowboy was either so focused that he was oblivious, or pointedly ignoring the oddness of it, glancing around the table and flashing them his brilliant, charming grin.

He had them then, probably could have just stood there grinning at them for half an hour and they wouldn't have noticed anything amis. But Daryl then ducked his head and started talking in his easy drawl as he set up the model and the scale drawings he had prepared. Daryl spent some time speaking about what they had indicated they wanted, before translating that into what he had envisioned.

The board was eating out of Daryl's hands, and not just because of their decided interest in him, though Ryker did growl softly when the first few stood up to join his cowboy as he went over the proposal. Alesky glanced back at him, giving him a firm, yet oddly understanding look before rising himself and stepping up to Daryl's side.

His boss' presence was enough to give the other supernatural's pause, though Ryker was only marginally less inclined to rip Alesky apart for being so close. He forced himself to breathe, to continue scanning the room and watching the assortment of guards that had accompanied the other board members.

Though he did see the moment Daryl really glanced at Carbry and stopped mid sentence. His cowboy recognized the man, brows raising for a moment, before he shook his head and turned back to his presentation.

"Mr. Martin, we're going to have to sit down for dinner to discuss this further, you and I ." Alesky flashed Daryl a charming grin, offering his cowboy a wink and guiding him towards the front of the room once more.

Like that, Carbry took control of the situation and signaled an end to the presentation, effectively extracting Daryl from the swarm of attention the human had been fielding with deceptive ease. Ryker couldn't decide if Daryl could tell what had happened, or not, but his cowboy looked a little relieved as he moved towards the door with Carbry.