Settling Down

Barry watched as Owen walked down from the overlook of the Raptor pen to where he stood with a far off look on his face. Like his mind was wondering elsewhere and his body was operating on auto pilot; that made him concerned. So he reached out and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder and offered a smile.

"What's wrong Owen? You're not the type to be this silent after a session with the girls." Barry asked, keeping eye contact with him to see if he could read his thoughts.

Owen shrugged his shoulders and offered a boyish smile back. "Nothing really, just thinking about stuff."

"Like what? You don't space off unless it's about someone or something important to you...you're thinking about her aren't you?" Barry finally said after a moment of silence, smiling wide and chuckling a little.

Owen looked at him like he had grown three new arms on his body. "Who?"

"Claire Dearing." Barry replied with another chuckle, playfully shoving Owen's shoulder like they were two kids in school. "You've got it pretty bad for her don't you."

Owen gave a laugh of his own and shook his head at the accusation. "I haven't thought about that woman since our date three days ago. I'm NOT thinking about her."

"You're a great Raptor trainer but you're a terrible liar. You haven't stopped looking in the direction of her office building since your date. You can't hide it from me brother, I know you." Barry stated as he walked with Owen to the table, sitting down and cracking open a beer.

Owen shifted his weight on his seat and looked away from Barry's intense eyes. "I'm not hiding anything, I'm just not in the mood to talk about her."

"Oh come on, you two are a match made in the stars. She's exactly the kind of woman you need in your life that'll always keep you on your toes. I think it's time that you thought about settling down and get together with Claire." Barry said, keeping his tone playful but honest like he was already drunk.

Owen took a swig of his own drink and snorted. "Me? Settle down? That's a joke."

" Owen. Seriously, why're you so against the idea of settling down? Don't you wanna start your own family?" Barry questioned him honestly, now looking at him like a mother concerned for her son's future.

For a moment there was silence between the two as they listened to the wind blowing through the trees and the park off in the distance. Finally, Owen looked at him again and gave almost a sad grin as he said, "I'm not against the idea of settling down Barry. Hell I'm not even against the idea of settling down with Claire for the rest of my life. But I just got some things that I need to sort out first before I do any of that shit."

"I'm not expecting you to drop on one knee and propose to her right away, there's no way she'd actually say yes after your...disagreement on your date. But hey I'm just glad you admitted it." Barry replied as he took another sip of his beer.

Owen raised an eyebrow, "Admit what? That I wouldn't mind settling down?"

"No. That you wanna settle down with Claire." Barry replied with a smile, causing Owen to cough on his drink and look at him with a embarrassed look on his face.

All Owen could say to that was "Shut up" before he got back up and went to watch his Raptors run free inside the pen on the walkway. Pissed and embarrassed that his friend had gotten him to admit that he wouldn't mind settling down with Claire.