Stone Circle daddy did you think that you could outrun the holy ghost

Murdock's ears flicked forward at the abruptness of Ezekiel's rebuttal; he didn't appreciate the tone that was being taken with him. But the other was quick to correct his behavior, and Murdock wasn't the type to dwell on things like that, anyway. He let is slide without comment, not feeling that the insult had been serious enough that he needed to waste him time addressing it. Besides - young wolves like Ezekiel would act however the hell they wanted, and old men like Murdock would just have to learn to let their delicate sensebilities go.

Letting his grumpiness fade, Murdock tried to focus in on what Ezekiel was saying, and found himself feeling genuinely confused. He'd had very little to do with Ezekiel, and the younger male's bad additude at the borders had been rather inconsequential to the Blue Ridge man. Thus, he could only respond with a polite quirk of his head and a rather deadpan stare.

"I wasn't aware you'd ever been cruel to me," the male admitted. "We've only talked once or twice, haven't we?"

He was beginning to get a weird feeling about this young wolf. Murdock wondered if Ezekiel had spent much time thinking about him, and then began to hope quite ardently that he had not. Looking to save the both of them a bit of face, Murdock hurried to move the conversation along. "But hey - no harm done. And it wasn't a problem. I did what anyone would do." Now that was cruel. "And I didn't do it to be there for Valette. I did it for Stephie. So you can stop worrying about me getting close to your sweetheart. She's not interested."

Murdock felt as though all bases had been covered, at this point, but waited to see if Ezekiel had anything more to say for himself. He'd summoned Murdock from his bed for this little heart-to-heart, and Murdock thought he ought to give the other male the choice of when to end it.