Ares knew that his little wolf was awfully jumpy, but he supposed that she would have to be with the current climate. There was always someone looking to hunt her and her kind down. Personally he didn’t care one way or another about the wolves. If they didn’t bother him, then he didn’t care what they did. In fact, Amaris was one of his better employees. Maybe it was the fear that she would lose her job at any moment, or the fear of him himself, but he didn’t care either way. She was almost like a stray pet that he had taken in off of the streets, and that was so scared he might turn her back out one day. He smiled to himself as she fussed around behind the bar. He was making her incredibly self-conscious, but he couldn’t bring himself to really care.

True, he was being nicer than normal tonight, but that in and of itself was probably causing her to worry. He knew that it would have made him worry in the old days. Someone known for being decidedly nasty to those under him was all of a sudden nice. That would be startling. He shrugged, not his problem. He was being nice, because having to look for a replacement if she fell too ill would be a pain in his arse. She didn’t need to be all sick and weak on the job. If the booze helped, then by all means she needed to drink some of it.

He was scribbling some notes on who he needed to contact, and who he needed to check in with when she stopped moving all together. “You don’t have to freeze.” He rolled his eyes. “I just meant you don’t have to fuss because I’m sitting here. Relax.” He looked up at her. Though he was sitting they were almost even in height. “If you are that much in need of something to do, I’ll take a glass of water.” He had finished his bourbon, and he didn’t want another one right now, but he didn’t want nothing either.

For obvious reasons, Amaris liked it better when Ares was in his office, or otherwise just not around. His presence immediately put her on edge, because he was the one that could fire her at the drop of a hat if she did something wrong, and she couldn’t let that happen. She was lucky to have this job at all, even if she knew that Dorian hadn’t seen it that way when he was alive, and Eric probably didn’t like it either—but it was all that she could get. She needed to contribute somehow. Merlin bloody knew that she would never be able to find another job, really… there was a much smaller bar deeper into Knockturn Alley, but that was even more dangerous than this one, and she wasn’t even sure they would want to hire her either. She had been surprised when she had gotten this job, which meant that she had to do absolutely everything she could to keep it. That was easier to do when Ares wasn’t around, able to watch her every move, but it was far easier now that her manager was gone. He had really made it next to impossible for her to get through her shifts—he hated her for some reason or another, and while she had never known why that was, she knew better than to ask questions.

So while she was glad that he was gone, having Ares around more was intimidating. It made her question everything and anything that she was doing at any given moment. It made her wonder if she was doing something wrong, if she was wearing something that she shouldn’t be, and it made her think that he had something to say about her performance every time that he looked at her. It was why she had to keep moving. He certainly couldn’t get mad at that, after all, and him getting pissed off at anything that she did was what she needed to avoid at all costs. She needed this, now more than bloody ever. She might feel awful with the approaching full moon, and she might be doing everything she could do avoid thinking about what was going on in her life… and that might be bloody killing her, but she needed to keep working. If she stopped moving, she was sure she’d start thinking, and she couldn’t have that right now. She didn’t know what she would do if she let herself catch her breath. Every time it happened so far, she nearly fell apart, and normally only Eric was around to see that. She couldn’t let it happen at work like this. This was a distraction that she needed for a bloody reason.

The moment that Ares told her stop moving, she immediately froze, wondering what the hell she was supposed to do. She just didn’t want to piss him off and make him think that he could find someone better to do her job, which was why she made sure to do bloody everything that he asked her to do… but not moving didn’t really make sense to her, unless he was just getting irritated by her constant movement. “Oh. Sorry.” She said in response, though she still didn’t move. If she didn’t have anything to ‘fuss’ over, then she didn’t quite know what to do. “Water—yes, okay, good,” Amaris agreed with a nod, before pulling out a glass. Once she had filled it up with water, she passed it over to him, and then glanced around the room to see if there was anything to do. But there still bloody wasn’t…

Ares knew that the things that he was scratching out on the paper that she had handed him were going to surprise the living hell out of her. He had come out here to watch her, though he didn’t know if she knew why. Hell, he was pretty sure she didn’t know why, and that was a good thing. For some reason he trusted her. Okay, maybe trust was a strong word, but he was confident in the fact that she needed this bloody job bad enough that she wasn’t going to do something stupid that he would have to fire her over. Sitting out here tonight though, it wasn’t so much about watching her work, it was about how she handled running things. Since he had fired the last guy he had put in charge of this place he had been running it himself, and he didn’t have time for that. He needed someone to handle things here while he handled other things elsewhere. That’s where she came in.

“You don’t have to apologize.” He chuckled as she flitted off to get the water. It wasn’t that he really even wanted the bloody thing. He just wanted her to relax before he blew her mind, but no such luck. “Amaris?” He asked for her attention once more and he did his best not to smile. “Here.” He handed the list he had made over to her. “I want you to think about this.” It was a job offer. A promotion of sorts. If this rebellion started to pick up he wasn’t going to be here, and he needed someone that would be here. The bartender seemed like the logical choice. She could run the place from behind this bar just fine, and he was going to offer it to her. Ares didn’t really expect an answer, and he wasn’t in a hurry, but he wanted to put the idea in her head. There was a new number for her pay, a new list of responsibilities, and a new title. Manager. He watched her face as he handed over the paper.

Ares had been spending more time in the front of the pub recently, and that was a fact that constantly put her on edge. He was intimidating. Well, she supposed that most people were to her at this point, because she knew how the years had changed her. After all, when she looked in the mirror, she barely even recognized herself… barely even remembered the girl that was never afraid of bloody anything. That just wasn’t her anymore, and she knew that she couldn’t change that. She didn’t like herself much at times, but it couldn’t be helped. She couldn’t do anything about it, and there was no use trying to. She had accepted her circumstances a long time ago, and she just made do with what she had. Being around Eric helped her. She could almost feel normal when he was with him—could almost feel like her life was entirely different than how it actually was, but that reality was always there. She knew that their relationship wasn’t going to be good for him in the long run, but she was too selfish to let go of that when she loved him as much as she did. He was the one part of her life that did make her feel entirely normal and almost happy for a change.

At work, she was… the Amaris she knew. The one she recognized. It had taken a lot to get to this point. Throughout the years, she had become numb to the anger she was used to people taking out on her… she was used to the distain and the hatred and she had just been able to be numb and not care about any of it. But she’d never been able to push aside paranoia… fear. It was aggravating, but it had been the one emotion that had never gone away. It was so far opposite from how she’d been before she’d been turned into a werewolf, but it was all that she was now. Amaris had to be paranoid… had to be on edge, because she could never know for sure what was about to happen. Of course, now that Eric was back in the picture, all of that numbness was fading away, and with Dorian gone, sometimes she would certainly would rather be numb to feeling all of that. But she couldn’t anymore.

But she could put it off, with distractions, obviously. It was why work was something she needed at times. She might be paranoid in Knockturn Alley, might not like dressing up, or being in the presence of Ares for a prolonged period of time, but it did offer her the distraction that she greatly needed. And Merlin, she needed it badly. However, with the full moon coming up slowly, it was difficult to even remain upright at times, let alone work through an entire shift. But she did her best to stay busy, particularly since Ares was out there. Ares was confusing her, that much was for certain, but she was grateful when he mentioned water, because it gave her something to do that didn’t involve standing still and doing nothing. “Sorr—I mean… okay,” she commented, quietly, as he mentioned not apologizing. Finally, she passed the glass over to him, and then paused for a moment wondering what to do next. Before she could do much else, he was saying her name, and her eyes flitted nervously over at him. She wasn’t sure he’d ever called her by her name before. It didn’t happen often, at least. Her brows furrowed as he passed her the paper he’d been writing on, not sure that he could relax enough to read it; but she focused on the words anyways. “Think about… what?” It looked like a management position of sorts, and her heart just about stopped in her chest when she thought about him hiring someone else like the past manager. Certainly, that had to be what he was thinking about, because there was no one in house to do the job.

Ares had plans, and he was making sure now that when he set them in motion come early this spring that everything here would be taken care of. He had been watching this place, spending more and more time out here in the front taking note of how things worked and what was happening all around. It has surprised him, originally, that Amaris seemed to be the best thing he had out here as far as employees went, but when he looked back it really didn’t. She was smart, and she was quiet and she got things accomplished, no matter how minimal the task. He needed someone out here that would get the job done and not draw attention to themselves. She was perfect at that. Hell, how long had it even taken him to learn her name? Long enough that he was sure he was the person he wanted for the job. If she would accept it of course. He would give her time, he wasn’t ready yet anyhow, but he planned on asking her come spring, and if she was ready, well, then it would be hers.

He tried to suppress his chuckle when she was obviously confused by the fact that he didn’t think she needed to apologize, and that she didn’t need to fidget. It was the fidgeting that really got on his nerves. Maybe it was his proper upbringing and his mother’s rules, but fidgeting was never allowed and it was a habit that he couldn’t stand. He could sit and be still for hours and hardly move a muscle and she couldn’t stand there for more than a minute without shifting and fidgeting. Oh well, what did it matter really? If she was getting things accomplished with her fidgeting and fussing then it didn’t hurt anything. It was just that he didn’t want her doing it while he was sitting there. “That position is yours if you want it.” He smirked slightly. “I need someone that knows how this place works to run it while I’m otherwise engaged. You seem to be the perfect fit.” He shrugged and picked up his water glass. “You don’t have to answer me right now. Just think about it. I’m hiring a manager eventually either way. Wouldn’t you rather it be you than someone you can’t stand?” He quirked an eyebrow at her, and carrying the glass of water got up and walked back in the direction of his office.

Yours to end dear!

When she had first moved to London, rather against her will since Dorian had all but dragged her home, Amaris knew that she needed to get a job. She wouldn’t allow Dorian to support her and just stay at home, even though she knew he wouldn’t have even cared if she did. He made it clear that he just wanted her to be safe and have somewhere to stay, and this, that, and the other, but she wanted to be able to contribute something. It was the least she could do when she hadn’t even wanted to come home to begin with. And, of course, finding a job had been next to impossible. She hadn’t had… official employment before, so she’d never really experienced actual job interviews or anything like that. Amaris supposed that her expectations were a bit high at first—she hadn’t even considered the fact that she would be all but pushed out of the door in pretty much anywhere she went into to interview. She shouldn’t have been surprised.

In many ways, she didn’t know why she had been. She’d gone through enough in the years she’d been traveling to know exactly what people thought of her kind, and it made sense that none of them would be bothered to even pretend they were interested in hiring her. There had been a few that let her interview, but she was quite sure that they hadn’t realized what she was right away—because they usually ended up cutting the interview short very, very abruptly. And then, there had been the time that a shop owner followed her and cornered her in an alleyway and tried to strangle her—but that was an extreme situation. One that she didn’t care to think too much about, and it had been after that that she’d given up on working anywhere even slightly respectable, and that was when she first ventured into Knockturn Alley.

At that point, Dorian had all but locked her in the damn apartment with his desire to have her not work as opposed to even thinking about applying to places down here. But she needed money, and she was out of options. There was no point in working in the Muggle world… she might as well just give up on the magical world entirely if she went that route—and she knew that the werewolf capture unit would frown upon her purposefully being so close to Muggles… as if she was doing that purposefully in order to attack them, or whatever the hell people thought a werewolf would be doing in the Muggle world. So with Knockturn Alley as her only option, she was lucky to even get this job. She would do whatever she had to do to keep it, but she was bloody glad that the last manager was gone. He had made working here more hellish than she’d ever thought possible. So when Ares had passed her a piece of paper, she didn’t know what to think. She didn’t know why he would offer a job like that to someone like her, and she found herself at a complete loss of what to say. She knew she should say… something, particularly when he brought up the fact that if she didn’t say yes, he’d just hire someone else—and Merlin knew how badly that had gone last night. But still, no words came to mind, and soon, he was walking away as she still stared at the paper he’d given her, thinking that it had certainly just been a joke. With that thought in mind, the fact that he couldn’t have been being serious, she set the paper back down and headed down to the bar to take a newcomer’s drink order.

-END OF THREAD-