[CW: There have since been enough sexual and murder references to bump this up to PG-13.]

Shabbat was approaching, as it did every Friday evening. The stars had not begun to come out yet, and Zechariah was so certain he could finish this book before it was time to light the candles!

As long as his sister did not deign to stop by again. Thank God it was only she who had found him!

Uriel had been nagged to visit his older brother, Zech, and Uriel had not been that thrilled to do so. Instead, he had found himself.... distracted by a sweet redhead with a strange appetite for him. Ahh, their encounters were still with him as he knocked upon the door, humming a cheerful tune that lamented his would be nun. All he had to do was just catch a whiff of her scent and he was putty. And he wanted very much to keep wooing her until she decided to be his wife, she was, after all, going to have his child. Of course, mother and father would both be horrified if he married Kitty, but one did not simply rush into wedlock with a woman of a different faith without there being some sort of thought put into the relationship, if one wished to convert to the faith of the lover... It was not exactly an easy choice to make.

Not that he was a man who practiced being a strict Jew, specifically because there were certain food temptations that were far from Kosher, but nobody needed to know he had sampled bacon or ham, that was between him and God, right?

But the writer digresses.

Uriel rapped a few times upon the door, a nice wine tucked neatly under his arm. He wore a slightly too-small suit and bowler hat, and there was the faint little bit of fur at his upper lip as he thought to change his looks to be more masculine. He continued to hum and whistle as he focused on his thoughts of fiery hair and tried not to excite himself in the process.

The butler answered the door, raised his brows, glanced at the bottle and noticed the Hebrew on it. With pursed lips, he stepped aside and gestured to the drawing room.

“Mr. Meijer should be out momentarily.”

There was a flip of pages down the other way, and a drawn-out nose sigh that Uriel was probably well familiar with. He put his book down without bookmarking it and stepped out to meet his guest.

If God had any mercy, it was in allowing Zechariah not to notice his own brother’s questionably occurring hard-on when he opened the door.

For now.

Unaware of the grace offered to him from above, Zechariah’s face dropped with the notion he had been cursed. Whitby. Whitby! Hours and hours of travel and heckling strangers for directions to a place he had had to travel to by carriage in the end! A place he had been confident for years that no one could find him.

Alright. More wishful than confident.

Uriel certainly had persistence – he would give him that. Perhaps it would take him places after all.

“Uriel,” he said, and it was as much greeting as sigh. “Had I known you were coming –” he could have prepared the perfect excuse as to why he could not. “... Shabbat Shalom,” he relented with a tired smile.

"Shabbat Sholom," he said and then held out the bottle of wine. "Mother instructed me to visit. You know how she is, anything to get rid of me," he chuckled. Thankfully, his member had cooperated the moment Uriel began to think of things that were not very sexual in nature. There was no hard-on to hide by the time Zech met him.

"I won't stay long, I have to study. It's the only reason I was able to take a month off." He knew he was a pain in the ass, but for once, he had no intention of bothering the shit out of his brother when he could very well use his time doing something more fun... like getting into certain troubles with Kitty. She did, after all, offer him a place to live while he was taking some time off from University.

He was certain it was a bad time, but the other seemed to come as he pleased to see the constable when it came to work, so why couldn't he? This was not going to be long, just a quick drop off. He looked at the bundle of papers tied together the other had asked for for some sort of court case. He couldn't remember which one as the records he had gathered seemed so unrelated.

When Mr. Crane approached the door, he was surprised as it seemed busy. Normally the man seemed somewhat reclusive. It was perhaps a party or he had more friends than Elijah realized. He knew he didn't know him very well, it was always very professional. He had gone all this way though, so he wouldn't go home just because he didn't want to interrupt.

He brought up a gloved hand and knocked firmly but not too loudly upon the door. "I hope it isn't so loud he can not hear me."

The exasperation was hardly hidden, though it softened to sympathy when Uriel brandished the great peacemaker: wine.

“She just wants to see you take proper flight, Uriel.”

Far, far away. Alright. Maybe that was just Zech.

“Study,” Zechariah repeated, with no small amount of relief, and patted him on the shoulder. “Perfect. It should be sundown soon – you can see the stars come out from the study’s window.”

Fair enough. He could handle Shabbat with one brother, even if it was the loud one. No sooner did he think that than did he hear another knock. The butler would get it if he left it long enough, but it was an excuse to flee Uriel.

He opened the door, blinked, and tilted his head with a skeptical look. Was Crane Jewish? Then his eyes hit the papers. Oh, right. Holiday did not mean he could escape his work (more like he escaped into it), and this location 'coincidentally' made poking around painfully convenient for an ongoing case.

“Good evening, Mr. Crane.”

Uriel said, "I have, she just doesn't believe it. I found a job, I am almost through with my first bit of University in History, and there are other things I'll tell ya about." Like the fact that you're going to be an uncle in four months or so, he added silently. Damn, but he had a hard time not cheesing after that thought. He took himself to the study and peered out the window, pulling his pipe out of his jacket pocket and sticking it between his teeth without lighting.

What Zech did not know was that Uriel had bought property, got off his lazy ass and helped to build his own house, and did it in this area even before mother had pushed him to go away. Uriel had no idea his brother was in the same town until mother'd said something. He had merely wanted to get away from that blasted Ghost town where everything was gloomy and gray.

He stood in thoughtful silence and thought about his incoming child with a heart full of joy. He knew the family would be furious but it was HIS life and his choice. Perhaps Zech might be the only one who gave two shits.

Elijah nodded to him, smiling awkwardly as he attempted friendliness though it never seemed to be accepted by the barrister. "Sorry to interrupt.. I didn't know you had company. I just wanted to deliver this on my way home. I know you're a busy man and didn't want to put it off long so you could get to it at your..ah.. own time." 

His words stumbled over themselves as he truly knew how impatient the man seemed to him sometimes. Between wanting to explain  himself so that Mr. Meijer wouldn't mistake his visit as trying to pick him at a bad time and wanting to get it out quickly so he could let him go and not put his foot in his mouth about being surprised the man has acquaintances well enough to have at his house on such a night, he found himself a bit tongue tied.

"I hope they will be useful to you. I'll let you get back to your ..um.. gathering ?" He knew of the man's religious affiliation, but to say he knew anything of the religion itself would be generous.

Mr. Meijer took the papers, tucked them under his arm, and then put a firm hand on Crane’s shoulder. He smiled, and yet it still managed to look annoyed.

“Come in.”

It sounded more like an order than an invitation.

Elijah was surprised by the invite. He rose his brow as he knew the man was very... he couldn't think of the correct word. He had things his way. It wasn't a bad thing, his work was cut throat and he supposed there were a lot of benefits to never hesitating and being upfront. At least, that was how he saw things.

"Thanks.. I hope I am not inconveniencing you.." He said quietly as he walked inside along with him and looked around. He wished he still had the papers as it would give him something to busy his hands, instead he folded them neatly behind his back. "You have a.. a lovely home."