8686/Bro Talk

Bro Talk
Date of Scene:	14 November 2021
Location:	Gymnasium - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	Victor and Hank work out their difference with a heart to heart. And then a good old fashioned beat down of each other to cap it all off.
Cast of Characters:	Hank Hall, Victor Stone

---

Hank Hall has posed:
    The gym of Titan's Tower is empty save one man. Hank Hall is at the weight benches, doing reps. There is a small stereo next to him that's playing commentary on the evening NFL game Kansas City at Las Vegas.

    Despite, Donna's quip about him being out of shape he looks anything but. His muscles are thick and tight and swell as he strains against the massive dumbell he is currently curling. Sweat beads at his temple and over his chest under the tank he wears along with athletic shorts and running shoes.

    He stops mid curl as the announcer over the feed gets excited for a split second and then deflates, forcing the man to shake his head and finish the rep before starting a new one.

Victor Stone has posed:
    "You shouldn't pause mid-lift," comes Victor Stone's voice from the doorway. He's been keeping an eye on Hank's T-comm, mostly just to try to find a time to talk when the guy was in the Tower and not visiting Dawn or in a public area. The gym's not /private/ but it's not nearly as public as, say, the main room.

    He walks on over and looks down at his old friend. "Need a spotter?"

Hank Hall has posed:
    Hank hesitates at Victor's commentary. Then he shrugs. "Sure" he says. "Grab a second five for me he says moving to the stake of weights and grabbing a 5kg cylinder before moving back to the bar and latching his one one side."

    "I want you to know I haven't been avoiding you, if that's what you're thinking." He says without preamble. "It's just... still adjusting to being back and... all that with..." He pauses and looks at his old friend. "It's been a lot."

Victor Stone has posed:
    Victor shrugs as he grabs the weight, five kilos easy to pick up for the cybernetic man. "I know," he says as he latches the weight onto the other side. "You came back a couple times, so I figured you were taking your time or whatever."

    He looks at Hank directly as he straightens from latching the weight onto the bar. "I can leave if you don't want to talk." Another olive branch. Not forcing this. They have time.

Hank Hall has posed:
    Hank shakes his head. "No. Here is a good place for us to talk as any" he says, eying the sparing mat. "If things get heated there's a place nearby that won't lead to anything more than us getting broken." There might be a smile on his face at that.

    He positions himself and bends at the knees for a deadlift of the bar. It's at around 100 kilos at the moment and he manages it with little trouble.

    As he lowers the bar from his curl he looks at Vic. "I'm... what I did was wrong. But you know how I got without Don around and..." he pauses, with a frown an curls again, "I just couldn't handle it all."

Victor Stone has posed:
    "Which part?" Vic says, and doesn't bother keeping the bitterness out of his voice. "The part where you burned your uniforms in front of the Tower? Acted like Don's death was our fault? The part where you stayed away all these years and ignored every attempt to contact you?"

    He's keeping a close eye on the spotting, though, carefully. However angry he is, he's not going to let his friend down on this.

Hank Hall has posed:
    Hank frowns and nods. He expected this and he let the man come in so that's a good as signing for it. "Yes?" he offers. "All of it. Shit, man. I can't make up for the four years I was gone, but... I'm back now..." Begrudgingly, sure, but baby steps.

    "I know shit won't get fixed immediately, but I..." he lets the bar down, finishing his fifth rep. "What do I need to do to mend you know..." he gestures between Cyborg and himself. "Us. We were best friends man. You said it yourself. And... yeah, I fucked it up. I know. But I want to do right now. I want to make it right."

Victor Stone has posed:
    "Yeah, that's just it--we were /best friends/. We were /family/. And you just... took off." Vic frowns, focusing his attention on the bar. "I know losing Don was hard on you, man, I... I /get/ it. But you're supposed to turn to your family when that shit happens, not run away."

    He shakes his head. "I mean... I get having to leave, I get not having Dove around made it hard, but the way you acted? Like... like it was /our/ fault? You think... you think we didn't do /everything/ we could to... we pulled out all the stops in that fight! You think I don't still have /nightmares/ about..." He shakes his head again. It's hard to talk about.

Hank Hall has posed:
    Hank moves away from the bar and over to a small backpack. He pulls out a sports drink and a bottle of water. After a few chugs from the orange drink he opens up the water and pulls more than half of it down.

    "I know!" he all but shouts. He takes a slow deep breath and collects himself a bit. "I *know* okay?" he says, a bit softer this time. "I got that through my head about 6 months after I left. But by then I was just so... I was so angry. At myself. At the team. At Hawk. At everything." He shakes his head. "I should've come back a lot sooner. But... I was a cop by then and it was helping. Mostly. Kept things in check. Gave me a regimen that helped keep the urges in line."

     He pauses and gazes off to the side, his gaze going distant. "And then Donna and you came around and it just... it swelled up again... The anger. The pain. I wasn't ready."

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic steps back a bit, giving his friend some space. "Six months later? /Only/ six months?" He sighs, and shakes his head. Then he laughs. "...Six months... that's..."

    He goes to sit down on a bench. "You know how long it took me to get all that through my head? /Three years/, man. When they started getting the Titans back together I ignored everyone, ignored /Gar/. It took Terry hunting me down at Planet Herowood for me to even give them a chance. And I still... with you and Don not here, with Kole dead..."

    He shakes his head again. "I'm a damn hypocrite, is what I am. You had a /reason/ to stay away--how hard it is for you to control Hawk without Dove. Me? I was just afraid of losing my family again."

Hank Hall has posed:
    Hank frowns and grimaces. "I... I get it. And I'm sorry. I... I just I wanted to call out when you and her were at the door down in DC. I did" he turns to face the taller man. "I tried. I opened my mouth and... and nothing came out. I couldn't cry out to you, to say come in, to do *anything.*"

    His hand clenches into a fist, crushing the now empty water bottle in a crackle of plastic. He lets it go and the bottle falls to the ground bouncing a few times before rolling away.

    "But it wouldn't let me. It knew Dove wasn't there and that going back would just end up with me and Donna or Cait at each others' throats again. I... I couldn't handle that." That was the only way to get Hawk under control in the past, Donna and Cait were the only ones who could even think of talking him down. Oftentimes with their fists.

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic goes to pick up the water bottle, more for something to do than out of any real need for it to be picked up. Well, the Roombas are out of commission for the moment, so... maybe it's better that he does.

    "When you showed up... I dunno, I didn't figure you were /back/ back. I figured it was just..." He shrugs. Sighs. "But it's Dawn, isn't it? Granger, I mean. The new Dove. She's why you're here. If not for her..."

    He rolls the bottle around in his hands. "Look, I... I get it. I think I do. You can't be around, without Dove. It's just..." He huffs out a breath, tosses the bottle in a clean arc toward a nearby trash can.

    "Just be nice to think the rest of us mattered that much, you know?"

Hank Hall has posed:
    Hank shakes his head. "It's not just her" he says. "She's a part of it... but... not just." He moves to the window and looks out of the tower. "I live just over there" he says, gesturing out into the city. "Got an apartment on the second floor. I look out my window, you know what I see? This tower. I patrol, I'm a bike cop, got a simple beat. A few miles square and one of the parks. "Know what I pass time and again on my beat? The tower."

    "You know what I've been thinking day in and out since I showed up? I wonder what Vic and the others are up to." He continues. "I'll sit in front of my TV, Saturday and Sunday. Know what I think? I wonder what Vic would have to say about that ankle breaker the wideout put on that linebacker."

    He shakes his head. "I can't get away from you guys. No matter how hard I try. And then when I was out drinking. Stupid mistake on my part, been five months since I had a drink but I slipped and ended up in front of the tower. Because of you. Because of Donna. Because of Cait. And Dick. And Kori. And Rachel. All of them. And yeah... because of Dawn."

Victor Stone has posed:
    "So you're staying?" Vic turns to look at Hank. "You moving back into the Tower? I mean... we can get it all set up pretty easy. Get you back in your room and all that. If you want, I mean. I know a lot of people like to have a place away from the Tower and all its... chaos." He smirks at the other man.

    "It's been bugging me. You not being here. There's been a lot going on. There's a... leadership council now. Dick, Donna, Gar, Damian... me." He shakes his head, smirks. "Can you imagine? Me, helping /lead/ this place?"

Hank Hall has posed:
Hank turns to look at Vic. "I'm more surprised you let Gar Logan in a position of leadership" he says with a grin. "You've always had a knack for it. You were a *QB*, Vic. *The* most important leadership position in all of sports. So yeah, I can definitely see you helping to lead this place, Vic."

    He moves back to his backpack and nods. "Yeah. I think I am back. Staying. Moving in... I might need a little longer for that. But I'm not leaving the team again. That is..."

    "That is if I surive the rehearsal that Donna's liable to put me through to let me back on the team." He is smiling though, seeming actually to be looking forward to the likely beating he's going to take from the Amazon.

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic smirks and stands up, walks over to the mats. He rolls his shoulders a little, then turns to look at Hank, raises his eyebrows.

    "You want to try and take me on? I mean... if you can't beat me... you've got /no/ chance with Donna." Seems Hank might get that chance for them to hit each other after all.

Hank Hall has posed:
    Hank smiles at Victor. "Alright. But you gotta not hold back..." he says. "You know how it works. If I'm not in actual danger... I'm just an average guy. You gotta want to hurt me..." He pauses and gives his old friend a wicked grin.

    "Oh I see how it is then..." he takes a deep breath and says. "Hawk..."

    It's as easy as breathing for him. Easier than he expected. Nothing changes, not really but there's a presence and a sense about him that he's just... *bigger* than he was before. Victor's analytics would register that his muscle mass increased by magnitudes of order and his heart rate increased by a factor of three. His body seems denser than it was before as well. More solid. As if hitting him would feel more like a brick wall than a man of flesh and bone. "I see. I am in danger... alright big guy." He says, the grin still on his face. "Let do this."