003 || Action

[sangreine]

[A timid face peeks around the corner of some building, no attention paid to the exact location or the fact that she's laughably terrible at being covert. A Chiropteran Queen reduced to a trembling escapee, fearing the very shadows she should embrace.]

[Taking her leave of Diva and Karl's mansion had been strangely, unexpectedly easy, even as Saya's heartbeat jumped into her throat at every imagined sound, every shifting shadow. She even bumped a table, upsetting several knickknacks in what surely must have alerted someone -- and yet a few frenzied glances about had revealed nothing. Perhaps they weren't keeping as close an eye as she'd thought?]

[The thought does nothing to keep her calm, but she has to at least try. Finding out whether Charlie was okay, and Setsuna, everyone who had been at risk simply for knowing her... it's worth the risk. It would help to have more a plan than "sneak around and try to glimpse them from afar" but the newly reborn aren't much for strategy. She dares not even use her device.]

[Skittish already, it takes only a minor sound, a glint of light, for her to turn and blindly flee. It wouldn't be surprising at all if she were to run directly into some random passerby.]

Comments

[beyourarmy]

[Just so happens she does, running right into one of the people she had been concerned about. Not that Setsuna is the best at looking where he walks at times.]

[Before the person he's run into could step back, Setsuna gently reaches down to catch her arms, eyes going a little wide. He honestly wasn't sure when he would ever see her again.]

Saya? What are you doing out here? Did they - [He wanted to ask if they had let her go, but it seemed too unlikely.]

/o/

[sangreine]

[Her stammered apology isn't quite fast enough, and her own eyes go wide with her name spoken in that so-familiar voice. Shock, yes, but more urgently: fear.]

[Saya looks him over, reaching out and patting down his shoulders and chest, seeking injuries. In her near-panic, she's forgotten how quickly he heals.]

You're okay. [Her eyes well up and only then does she let herself pitch forward, arms thrown around his neck.]

[beyourarmy]

[Not a single injury to be found. Setsuna watches Saya with confusion.]

Of course I'm o-

[His words break off when Setsuna can feel her so close, still surprised by any little thing. Even Saya hugging him. He has to hold her in return, just to make sure she's real.]

Saya, do they know you're out here?

[sangreine]

[Against his shoulder, her head slowly shakes.] I have to get back before they know I'm gone. [She clings tighter to him, the very thought enough to make her crave the security she's found in his arms, from the very first day she awoke. But this is an interlude only, a brief respite from what is really her life. A monster beset by her own forgotten memories.]

[She slips away with slow determination, her full will carefully focused into the unwinding of arms, a single step backward.] I just wanted to see you. [While not precisely her intent, it's true enough.]

[beyourarmy]

[And after feeling her cling to him, after having her in his arms for a moment, she really thinks he'll just let her run off like that?]

[As she starts to step back, Setsuna reaches for again, expression hardening, though he remains concerned for her. Still, he can be firm.]

No, you don't. You don't have to go back. You have other options. You know that, right?

[sangreine]

[Her head shakes again, mournfully, side to side. What she is, what she's done... she belongs there.]

How is Charlie? [An inquiry into her well-being of course, but also a point that needs to be made. Setsuna may be able to protect himself, but not everyone can. How could she risk them, for her small, simple, futile wish to be human?]

[beyourarmy]

[When Saya doesn't answer him, Setsuna frowns, but answers her anyway.]

Charlie's fine. But don't try to side-track this. [Setsuna takes her hand.]</small. Do you really want to go back there?

[sangreine]

[A glimmer of hope is crushed into dust before she dares acknowledge it. No matter what she wants, there's no other option. The easiest thing, for everyone, would be for her to nod her assent, walk away and never look back...]

[She looks down at Setsuna's hand, holding hers.] And if I didn't? [Her tone isn't inflected as a true question, but a rhetorical one. They both know what that will mean with Karl's threats shadowing over it, and that Saya can't live with the inevitable result.]

[beyourarmy]

[Threats are something Setsuna's never heeded well. The City stifles him enough, imprisoned him. To be further controlled, to watch someone else manipulated this way, he can't handle it. Not when Saya herself makes it all too clear she doesn't want to return.]

[Rhetorical or not, he's still going to roll with it.] You're a queen, right? You don't want to, then don't. [He makes it sound simple, granted, to him, those sorts of things are.] Fight them.

[sangreine]

[Fight. That word has two meanings now. A richly rounded voice inside her that sounds so certain, like a part of her she hasn't quite discovered. And then the crazed, bloodthirsty rage of a wild beast.]

[Her hand is limp in Setsuna's grasp. Can't he see that she is fighting, the only way she can?]

You want me to stay, even if it means people get hurt? If you have to fight your friend? [She hasn't forgotten what he told her weeks ago about Karl, how sad he looked when he thought he'd lost a friendship.]

[anunluckypenny]

[Penny (no master of sneaking about herself) spots Saya and, as she tends to do, approaches her with a smile.]

Hey there!

[beyourarmy]

No. I never said that.

[He attempts to squeeze her hand.] I want you to not deny what you want. What purpose is there to you allowing yourself to be imprisoned from those people? Sure, no one's going to get hurt, but everyone's unhappy, aren't they?

Charlie misses you. I miss you. Don't you miss us, too? Why else would you be out here?

And Karl.... It's a one-sided friendship to begin with. If I have to, if you can't, I'll fight him. I'll fight him for you.

[worldofourown]

[ He's behind her without sound. Almost without motion. But her blood will surely sense him. ]

...In the mood for hide and seek?

[sangreine]

[Gone is the enthusiastic girl who was so thrilled to help Penny with a group Thanksgiving, drowned beneath layers of harsh reality. Still, the last thing she wants is for yet more people to get involved in the savage world she's coming to call her own, so she does her best to smile. Act normal.]

Hello. [Saya makes sure her back is against the wall, as hidden from view as she can be without looking it.] How are you?

[anunluckypenny]

I'm good, thanks.

[It's evident that something's off with Saya, but Penny doesn't feel that she knows the girl well enough to pry. Casual concern, however, is acceptable.]

Is everything okay, Saya?

[sangreine]

[Like a sheep called for slaughter, she nearly locks up when she feels him. But, she decides in a glorious burst of ire: no. She is no lost lamb to be docilely herded.]

[She spins just as his stance settles, eyes flashing in stark defiance even as cold fear skitters over her oversensitive nerves.] I'm going back when I'm done.

[For now, that's truth. Will it be in an hour?]

[worldofourown]

I never doubted that. [ He doubts everything she does. She's not her true self yet. That puts her in a spotlight of fierce scrutiny. ] But surely I can tag along? Hm~? [ He offers her an arm. A perfectly polite, old-fashioned gesture that's at odds with his sneering smile. ]

[valentineluke]

[Soft brush against subconscious's circumference.

What??!!

Running a few errands, taking in the City's holiday decorations; own fault for letting his guard down. At least he noticed it while was still some distance from his present location.

No outward sign of Luke's alarm. Long ago trained himself to keep a cool appearance when 'personal warning system' got tripped.

Pretending to study a window display, he cast his senses fully outward. Trying to pinpoint the presence's erratic path so as to move in the opposite direction from it - her.]

[sangreine]

[It would be easy to say yes, so easy to be blinded by his promise to fight for her, how very much she does miss him. All of them. But it would only mean a life of dread, never being able to relax, seeing shadows around every turn.]

[But -- isn't that her life now? These past days huddled in her room, straining for the sound of footsteps and wishing, praying that they would pass her threshold by? Always waiting for the next inevitable time when mad eyes would stare through her? Expectations that curdle into threats, coaxing that is really a honeyed demand?]

[Slowly, haltingly, she squeezes back.]

I miss you.

[beyourarmy]

[If her life has been spent jittery and miserable, then Setsuna would say to do what she wants. At least she would be free, and with people she wants to be with. But he's a fairly different person from Saya.]

[When she says she misses him, his eyes water over, and he pulls her into another embrace so she won't see him cry. Not like this, not when she's sneaked out and they have a brief time together.]

They better be treating you well. I'll fucking kill Karl if he isn't.

[nosympathy]

[Given Xhex's symphath side there's no way she could miss the frazzled emotional state of the girl as they almost collided--not that Xhex would have let that happen in the first place.

It would have been easy to just keep walking, ignoring the girl. But she reminded Xhex of too many of the women who worked at Rhev's club when they first came in--fearful of every shadow, noise, the ghost of whatever haunting them. Damn.]

Are you alright?

[sangreine]

[With a phantom Karl on her tail, Saya's path is not only erratic, but fast, blindingly so. Darting from alley to alley, shadow to shadow, changing direction on a dime.]

[Her flaring red eyes will surely give her away. But by then she'll be too close to avoid.]

[sangreine]

[Oh, so evident. Saya is as awful at hiding her feelings as she is at -- well. Hiding.]

[So she dodges the question.]

I'm just looking for some people. I got a little mixed up. [aka, lost]

I give up on decent prose tonight ;;

[sangreine]

[Half-incredulous, she stares at his arm. More of this feigned act, when he's stated clear as crystal that he wants to kill her. Twisted games wrapped in faux courtship.]

Why? [Disgusted barb or genuine question, even she can't decide.]

I love all Lena prose, ssh<33

[worldofourown]

[ He tilts his head at her, eyes gleaming. His voice is liquid, almost seductive in the way he hums it out. But there's an edge of something darker beneath it. Madness? Amusement? ]

Does family need an excuse to spend time with each other?