The woman straightened up when Levi asked something about her going back to whatever she was doing before. She shook her head. "Not the type to go prancing around town half naked. Looking like this." A hand went to accentuate the few nicks on her body. The jeans were torn and tattered, but people probably wouldn't have looked twice about that. It was the style to buy **** that was ripped up and worn looking. The blood on them, was a different story.
"I was probably gonna call it a night. Sorta. Hit a pet store after getting a shirt and a new pair of pants. Don't suppose you would be interested in any of that?" Prudence asked, guessing she already knew the answer. Levi had barely said anything about the dogs, and sure hadn't reacted to them in any way. Her shoulders rolled, painfully as she let the offer rest there. "It wouldn't take long. Just a bowl, some kibble and a leash." Prudence wouldn't have been bothered if he declined, this was her attempt at being nice at him. Or at least acceptable to his presence in her life. He may have moved from the black sheep of the family, to the smallest acknowledgement of being one of CC's tonight. However, that didn't mean she liked him. She couldn't stand one of Kennedy's; the ****** was always doing stupid **** and dying.
Prudence didn't really wait around for a definitive answer from Levi as she bent down, wrapped her arms around the dog's body and hoisted it up, the creature giving her a small growl as she did this. With it tight to her chest, Prudence moved to the door. "Otherwise, I'll be at my bar later. It's not far from CC's place. It's a saloon a couple blocks down. Can't miss it." Prudence stopped in the doorway, turned a little to look at him. "Ya coming?" She offered before Prudence walked through the threshold of the old building and headed to the flats; her pretty private sanctuary.
Levi listened to her go on. She ******* lover her dogs didn’t she. Madonna. It was then, when she mentioned how she was going to pick up a new shirt, that he realised he was being a jerk and actually gave a ****. She had a point; he’d just neglected to see how it mattered until now. Maybe he was too used to CC prancing about in her underwear that it never really occurred to him; that or he just enjoyed the view too much. Levi watched her walk off toward the exit of the bar as he smoked the last of his cigarette. He hadn’t given her any indication as to whether he would join her or not yet. In his mind he hadn’t made his choice. On the one hand it involved giving up his time to, what? Escort some girl around the city on a shopping spree? That didn’t exactly sound like something he would do – ever – not even if there was money involved. On the other hand though, if he did decide to give her some time maybe he would earn something a bit more valuable than cash. Levi made up his mind: he would go with her.
On his approach to Prudence, Levi tossed the smouldering butt of his cigarette aside and took off his jacket. He’d had to empty out the pockets of his cigarettes and mobile phone, but it was quickly held in her direction. It wasn’t much, but it would easily cover her down to the arse. She was kind of slight – the opposite of him – so it would no doubt sag here and there and look a little ridiculous, but that was up to her pride and vanity wasn’t it. He wondered what Prudence would prefer; to dash around half-naked or wear this man’s jacket that was clearly too big for her. After all, they didn’t exactly get along and despite him helping Prudence out tonight, that probably wasn’t going to change for a while to come. The girl was stubborn, but he respected that really.
“Here,” he said gently, nudging the offered jacket toward her. “On loan til you get that new shirt.”
The jacket was fairly new – Levi had to replace them more regularly than he ever had to before, but what did he expect when he was cruising sewers and caverns and killing supernatural beings every night? The jacket had cost him a fair amount of cash too, so he’d want it back if she didn’t manage to wreck it on their way to the shops. Left in his white shirt, gun holsters exposed, he’d have to get that jacket back sooner than later anyway. Levi had forgotten about the scrunched up paper in the front pocket with a phone number on it. He definitely shouldn’t have forgotten about that, but he was nowhere near perfect. The number traced back to some hired muscle in Boston and he’d already added the number to his contacts, which was why he’d forgotten about that piece of paper. Ordinarily he’d just burn them when he was done, but nothing was going to plan tonight. Shortly realising that his words to Prudence hadn’t exactly sound like a confirmation of his attendance, Levi decided to pipe up.
A coat was offered to her, and Prudence just stopped. Levi, she was sure didn't have a nice bone in him, which was a pro and a con for her. He was a dick to the general populace, but she was included in that populace. Most the vampires in the city weren't worth the time of night in her eyes, so she couldn't and wouldn't blame him for being a dick. She had been called a lot of things too, not that they bothered her. In fact, Prudence tried to live up to some of the things they said about her, which had its pros and cons.
But when he offered her his coat, she didn't know what to do. No one had done that before to her. She knew it was a grand gesture of sorts, having seen it a billion times before in movies, but never in the present day and age. Prudence thought movies just overplayed some ideas that might have existed once, a long time ago, but didn't now days. She took the coat. She took something from the man she didn't really know and didn't really trust.
"Uhhh, thanks." She held the dog with one arm to her chest, while the other worked its way through the coat, then did the same with the other, the dog complaining as she jostled it around. "Well, I was heading to my apartment just a few blocks south here. To get that new shirt." Prudence realized that he was tagging along and that would mean he would know where she lived if they went to her apartment. And with the jury still out on Levi, Pru was hesitant. "I mean the jacket is nice and all, but still might get a few too many looks." Pru decided in that moment that he could see where she lived. If he became a problem, Prudence wouldn't have any issue shoving a bullet between his eyes.
Prudence would lead them to the flats and to her floor, and then her apartment. Even though she's lived there just under a handful of months, there were still boxes shoved up against walls and a lack of decor. It seemed to imply she either didn't know what to do with the place, or she didn't spend a lot of time here. It was a bit of both, but mostly the latter. "I'll be a couple minutes. Feel free to make yourself at home." The redhead disappeared down a hallway with the dog, who would be put into the master bathroom, just in case it would either chew everything to bits, or make everything in her bedroom, its own private bathroom.
She slid open the closet door, took a quick look at her clothing, then pulls out a black shirt that has moons on it, of varying phases. She heads back through the bedroom as she shrugs out of his coat. The shirt is just over her head and resting on her shoulders when she pops back into the main part of the apartment where she left Levi at. "Ready?" She asked as she finishes putting the t-shirt on, the coat tossed in his direction. When she tossed it, the piece of paper in one of the pockets fell out, Prudence seeing it for the first time. She hadn't gone through his pockets, that wasn't the sort of person she was. But now that it was there, on the floor between them, it certainly had her attention. She reached down and snatched it up, looked it over, then gave it to him. It wasn't anything interesting to her, just a phone number. Everyone had a phone and a number. But it was interesting that a guy who was a dick was given a phone number. Surely, not by some woman?
The tension between them was obvious and it actually amused him. It was different to the strain between him and CC, but whether that was a good thing or not remained to be seen. He still didn’t like the woman, but he tolerated her an awful lot more than he ever thought he could. She was kind of like a war wound – a permanent and hindering presence in his life, leaving Levi with little choice but to accept her or tear himself apart in trying to get rid of her. He’d already done the calculations and if neither of them could die, there was no point in suffering the agony of pointlessly fighting her off. There were other ways of getting rid of people after all. Levi figured that if CC was going to leave him alone, it would have to be a decision she would have to come to. Of course, he was perfectly happy to manipulate the situation so that she thought that. Just like his relationship with the Patriarca, Levi would play nice on the surface and stick to doing his own things in the shadows. He would get what he wants and they would think they’re getting what they want. Everybody wins until they lose.
Prudence on the other hand, was less of a war wound and more of a wild cat. She could scratch you if you didn’t keep your distance – maybe even rip you apart – but that didn’t seem to be her major motivation. Her assaults seemed to stem from impulse; if she perceived an attack, she would fight back – even if that attack was a figment of her imagination. Prudence wasn’t comfortable being around him because he’d proved that he wasn’t one of those people that came praying and bowing to her self-perceived magnificence. In fact, Levi was something of a wild cat himself, which explained why they were circling one another with their hackles up. Even when she took his coat she was unhappy about it and he, frankly, didn’t blame her. In her position, he would have questioned the incentive behind the offering as well; what was he trying to gain by offering her the jacket? In a way, he’d left himself in the open by doing that. If someone saw him walking the streets so boldly armed to the teeth, he would probably be in trouble. Levi and the police were like oil and water – better kept separated – and it just so happened to be big for his ego too, giving her that jacket. His only motive was to see what she would do, really, and the result was intriguing to say the least.
Levi wasn’t much of a talker, so it was just as well that their journey to Prudence’s apartment was fairly short and silent. She left him in the reception room as she went to get changed, taking the dog with her for whatever reason. Levi didn’t mind so much as it was probably better that she didn’t leave the mutt with him; one of them was probably at risk of being bitten. She’d told him to make himself comfortable and he’d looked around the place and given her back a stark look as she disappeared. How was he supposed to ‘make himself at home’ when it looked as though Prudence had yet to do so for herself? She’d clearly managed to sort her bedroom out if she was heading in there for a change of clothes, but the rest of the apartment had been neglected. Levi couldn’t tell if Prudence had just recently moved in or was either too busy or too complacent to bother unpacking. He guessed that the latter was the reason because despite being busy himself, **** still got done on a personal level – even if that personal touch was someone else’s. You could hire people to sort an apartment for you, to furnish it and decorate it and all that crap; Prudence was clearly just not bothered with the place.
By the time Prudence came back to the room, Levi was checking his phone for messages. There were half a dozen or so missed calls and a handful of text messages; nothing that couldn’t wait a few hours. Most were from employees asking where he’d vanished to, so, there was no need to dignify those with a response. There was one though that sparked him to compose a reply, but by the time he’d gotten a few words in, she’d come back and interrupted him. He had to think fast to move the texting hand out, away from the phone to grab the jacket which was launched his way. When he saw the paper that had fallen out of the pocket, he didn’t bother moving to fetch it. Umber eyes moved to Prudence instead, watching her bend over to pick it up. A small burn rolled in his stomach, but was quickly extinguished when she gave the paper the once over and then handed it back to him. To her it was just a phone number, nothing special, so he didn’t bother to break the illusion. He stuffed it, along with his other belongings, back into the same damn pockets they had come out of.
“Grazie,” he said casually, throwing the jacket back on and concealing his guns again. “Ya not bringing Tequila then?”
Well, she hadn’t brought the dog out with her so it was a valid question.
The thank you was heard, but not replied to. The fact that Levi had a phone number that wasn't hers, CC's, Kennedy's or Mordie's just astounded her. People wanted to be his friend? They must be desperate. When he asked about Tequila, Prudence shook her head. "Nope. Dun know how her real disposition is yet. Can't afford the attention if she might attack someone. Or seeing her put down because of her ****-head owner." A shrug was given to Levi as they left her apartment, the woman locking it up with a single key. She hadn't installed a deadbolt, only because nothing was out in her apartment. And anything in there she could replace or do without. Mostly, the latter. She packed up more things than she would have liked to, things that would probably remain in boxes for weeks, months or even years. Yeah, she had moved on from Cliff some time ago, or he her, but that didn't mean that she hadn't cared for and loved the guy. Or the things he had gotten her, or they had gotten together. Prudence wasn't exactly sentimental or materialistic, but something had made her keep a couple things. To remind her of what wasn't important. Gifts were nice, but they couldn't ever replace or fix the damage, distance or voids put between the two. Prudence would never claim she had been completely innocent in their separation; she wasn't one of those types. The ones that would claim everything had been fine and their world had been completely ripped apart or shaken up due to the other. No, she had watched it fall apart and eventually just let it. A person could only be so strong for so long.
"Ya ever been to my bar? Over by CC's place? I'm sure ya've been over to hers a few times." Prudence stated, though it was more of a question. She jabbed the elevator button to call it to them, then looked around. Mostly at Levi. Sizing him up. Well and truly for the first time. He was taller than she was. Just barely. That didn't intimidate the woman any, given the short discrepancy in height between them. He was broader than her, but that was typical of almost all vampire males. Again, nothing that swayed Prudence from believing she would wipe the floor with him if she needed to. She had seen the guns, but as her eyes fell on the outline of them beneath his coat, that was the one thing she was uncertain of. His abilities with a gun. He was good, better than she anticipated. Was he better than her? Did that matter? If she could get close enough to him, then no. At least that was what she told herself. His skin was tan, where most vampires she had seen and knew personally were not so. That enhanced his characteristics, which, weren't all that bad. Not that the redhead would actually admit it or act on it, because being in a relationship was by far, the farthest thing from Prudence's mind. She actually didn't mind 'flying solo,' as she told CC.
Still, Prudence could appreciate the appeal the male had, which explained a lot to her. Why CC was so possessive of him and why she was trying to get in his pants, or had already gotten in them. She didn't care, it wasn't her business, so Prudence looked away from him when the elevator opened for them. "What are ya using?" Prudence pressed the button needed, quickly, then expanded on her question. "Gun wise. Ya happy with them?" She had a wide variety of guns, about as wide as her knowledge on them.
Her answer about the dog seemed valid enough; the only surprising thing was that she’d been able to think that far ahead. Levi gave a shrug of his shoulders and didn’t comment; anything he had to say wasn’t worth the effort of saying it or enduring the consequences of pissing her off. That was generally how his calculations went whenever it came to speaking, which was probably why he didn’t say much. Besides, if you’re busy talking, you’re not busy thinking and that’s not where you want to be. Levi had seen and heard of people getting killed just for speaking; either they said something stupid or saying anything at all was a bad idea at the time. In the end, being stupid got you killed. Though it seemed the mortality rate in his own Malavita was higher for idiots than it was in the wider world. That was a shame, some people just didn’t deserve to breathe – not that they deserved to be undead either. Levi hadn’t met many other Vampiri –just the idiots that he was supposedly related to – but he had a feeling that the remaining Vampiri didn’t deserve the gift of mortal life let alone the immortal kind. He could be wrong, but, he doubted it.
Prudence and Levi had left the apartment without any kind of delay – no chit-chat, no small-talk – just the way he preferred it. When they got to the elevator though, things changed. Two serious, umber eyes stared down at the red head as her lips started flapping. He really hated her question, mostly because it felt like an accusation more than a query. Prudence seemed convinced that him and CC were some kind of an item when really, he wanted nothing more than to stay the hell away from her. He’d even told CC once that he wouldn’t go near her like that because he hated to think about what nasty things might crawl out of her vagina. Actually, he’d likely been blunter than that. He couldn’t exactly remember CC’s reaction either, but it was probably a crack about him being a homo again. Levi could feel himself becoming tense and he wasn’t sure how long he’d been glaring at Prudence exactly, so he quickly looked away – looked anywhere but at her. The first place his eyes moved was to the far left, down the corridor, but since that was boring, he looked the other way; glancing at Prudence in the process. Oh yeah, that ******* question, he remembered; he had to reply with something.
“I’ve been to a lot of bars,” he told her matter-of-factly; still being evasive. “And yeah, I’ve been to her Silks far too ******* much.”
The moment Levi had said it, he regretted it. Despite the grumpy tone, his words were probably confirmation to Prudence that him and CC were *******. That or he had a serious itch to scratch that only pole-swinging hookers could reach. He felt sick, but any kind of back-pedalling would have only served to make things worse. All he could do now was suck it up. If Prudence wanted to believe him and CC were screwing, or that he was some creepy weirdo that only got his rocks off when ogling strippers, there wasn’t anything he could say to change her mind. In that case, it didn’t really matter what he’d said. People always believed what they wanted to and if he was going to waste his time trying to educate one person, he might as well start reading to orphans or feeding the poor. **** that, bullets were cheaper. At least Prudence didn’t make a comment in return, almost like she hadn’t heard him. She just absorbed the information and started looking him over like she was curious as to whether or not these clothes were his. She only really looked away when the elevator opened. There was a pause and then another question, but Levi just frowned at her for the meantime. He obviously needed a lot more information than that if he was going to bother making an answer. It wasn’t until they’d both stepped inside the elevator and she’d pressed the button for the ground floor that the question was clarified. It didn’t take him long to come up with an answer.
“I ain’t happy about anything,” he said with a smirk. You really didn’t have to know him that well to believe him when he said that. Still, he added, “But the guns are fine.”
Levi didn’t really want to tell her why he was packing them above any other kind of gun. Sure he had better ones, but he still liked to carry these two – the BHP and the Berretta. There wasn’t any mushy sentimental value attached to them; he wasn’t carrying them because they were his father’s and he missed him or anything like that. In fact, the night he’d heard his father was sent to prison was the night he threw a party. Well, Levi’s version of a party anyway, which mostly consisted of drinking alone, but, that was how he preferred it. People could be convinced that he was upset about it and they would be wrong; they had no idea what kind of a relationship those two had. William D’Amico, perhaps because he was so damn stressed all the time, wasn’t much of a father or a husband. Either he wasn’t there in person, or he was so caught up emotionally in the pressures of trying to be the top dog that his temper turned on his own family. It wasn’t that he was some drunk that pounded on his loved ones; he was a vicious ******** who took to belittling others to make himself feel bigger. Sometimes it involved his fists, but William had other ways of making you feel small without turning to beatings. After all, they left marks that people would question.
As much as Levi hated his father, in some way he respected him. He wanted the same things out of life: power and respect. And maybe because it made him sick to think he idolised his father, he decided to idolise his father’s guns instead. They weren’t all that great at shooting and he wasn’t all that good at fixing them, but these were a capo’s guns. As capo, you didn’t need to shoot people because you had people for that. So if someone saw you carrying a gun – or in fact, a pair – they probably had at least two more reasons to be scared of you. Fear was a brilliant motivator and if you knew how to utilise it properly, you could get a lot of power out of it. So while the Berretta and the BHP might not have been particularly formidable weapons, they were a powerful symbol. It became a matter of habit to carry the guns, wear the fine Italian suits and treat everyone like they were ******* idiots and not worth his time. As it turned out, not such a smart habit to have around vaguely intelligent beings. He’d created the friction between himself and Prudence and now, because he was sure he wanted something out of her, he had to try and fix the damage. For that, however, he needed to get to know. Time to put on the charm.
“So you know a lot about guns then?” he asked, feeling as though that followed up on her question. “I don’t remember seeing you use one.”
She wasn't surprised he had been to Silks for a few reasons. None that she commented on, but logically, she was his sire so Prudence assumed he popped in from time to time. And with the good possibility that they were, whatever, it seemed like a no brainer to Prudence. The redhead just nodded her head at what little information he shared about that aspect of his life. Which was fine with her. What little Prudence knew, meant she couldn't be put in the middle of any drama when the **** hit the fan and it inevitably would at some point. It always did.
Prudence stopped when he asked about her knowledge of guns. It was true, Legi hadn't seen her handle a gun before, now that she thought about it. Well, here was her chance right now. When he was close enough, the woman turned and reached into his coat, attempting to take a gun from its holster. She couldn't get it out quick enough, not to do what she wanted to do, but that didn't matter. Instead of taking it out with her predominant shooting hand, Prudence shifted the plan to have the gun point inwards and at his ribcage. She would have loved to have put it under his chin, but she had to make do with the fact that his holster was damn good and her stealing skills weren't what they used to be now that she focused on a lot of other things.
Her other hand shoved him against the nearest wall and she leaned in so she could whisper in his ear while the gun remained shoved inwards. "Wanna find out?" She moved back, just a little bit and looked him dead in the eye. It was a momentary stare down, until her hand let go of the gun and she cackled softly, with a single shake of her head. "Just kidding, Lee. I bet you're so much better than me. I can't even get a gun out of a holster right!" She would let him think that. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt her.
Prudence was quiet, which ordinarily would have rung alarm bells in his head, but Levi was distracted by the idea of insulting her – that she was perhaps too stupid to come up with an answer right away. He saw her move toward him too late to block and by the time he felt her reach inside his jacket for one of his guns, she had the muzzle pointed into his ribs. Levi stood still in that moment; hands down at his sides like anchors, fists curled, muscles tense. His mind, however, was on fire trying to figure out which gun she had hold of and what his options would have been. If she had her hand on the BHP, she’d need to **** it before she fired. The single-action design was a bit of a ******** like that, which gave him a couple of seconds more to react and maybe even a couple more if she was dazzled by the fact that it wouldn’t fire immediately. The BHP wasn’t the quickest to fire, but it scored plenty of points in intimidation. People watched a lot of movies, so when they heard a gun ****, it terrified them, built up the anticipation and generally made them surrender before any bullets were fired. The problem was, he just couldn’t remember which gun he’d put in which holster.
Generally Levi used the Beretta, but things had developed so quickly tonight that he hadn’t really thought about it. Both guns weighed about the same, looked about the same and while the BHP was normally kept on his right – the Beretta on his left to be in reach of his better shooting arm – he wasn’t 100% sure he’d left them that way. He should have been a lot more organised and this ****-up was pissing him off in equal measures to Prudence’s threat. As the rage built up, it put a haze over his larger thoughts, singling out one instruction: head-butt her. Still, he hesitated, staring into the eyes staring into his. As she goaded him, the instruction became ever more present and just when he was deciding to listen, she moved back, cackled and dropped her hold on his gun. Levi continued to glare, however; still tense, still clenching his hands into fists. She might have been kidding around, but this whole ordeal was deadly serious to him. **** ups like this could leave him… well, not dead, but stuck in Sheol for a week, which was definitely less appealing than the sweet relief of death.
Levi growled under his breath as she began making idle comments. With her speed and his uselessness, she didn’t need to be any good with a gun to get one over on him apparently. Besides, she was probably packing a lot more brutality in her supernatural abilities than he really wanted to try out personally. As nice as it would be to see them in action, he didn’t want that first-hand experience. He had to concentrate on breathing, and treat her like she was someone important so his rage wouldn’t get the better of him; make him do something he’d come to regret. He still really wanted to head-butt the smug cow, but he also liked all his limbs where they were. Adding it up, there really didn’t seem to be anyway that he could win, but his pride pointed him in the direction of actions which would end up costing the least. To do nothing was just as bad as losing, it told him. Besides, she just called him Lee – she was asking for it. He wasn’t about to be walked over and since he was sure his quota of ‘good’ behaviour had been filled, it just left one question: why the hell not?
Firstly and swiftly, Levi checked the floor number to give himself a time limit. Provided no one was going to call the elevator, he could get this over and done with before anyone would be within eyeshot. He had to be quick, nevertheless. Levi reached into his jacket, flicking the buckles of the shoulder holster open and withdrawing his gun – definitely the Beretta – in one quick movement. Then he pointed the muzzle at the side of her skull – metal hovering above bone (safety still on, but he would see if she could tell).
“Maybe it’s an angle thing,” he told her. There was a pause before he drew the gun back and returned it to the holster. “Don’t worry about it, Prune.”
If she was going to start the awful nickname game, he would make her regret it.
There was a long, drawn out pause from her counterpart as Prudence waited for his reaction. And when it came, she had to admit, Prudence was surprised and slightly impressed. The galls of it all, but at the same time, the stupidity of it all. Did he think she wouldn't notice that he wouldn't be able to fire the ******* thing? Ha!
The gun was stored away without Prudence saying anything. Even about the nickname. She had been called a lot of things. '*****,' '****,' 'dumb-redneck whatever,' 'Prude,' so one more thing wasn't really going to bother her. Prune? Really? That was the best he could do?
The redhead leaned in close to him, a smirk on her face before she licked her lips and shook her head. "Doubt it's an angle thing, baby. Not when ya don't have much to work with." She winked, laughed and moved away from him as the door rolled open. It was a slight jar at his masculinity, or lack there of. Would he pick up on it? She would see. "Next time, don't be such a tease. If ya wanna blow my mind away, follow through." She lightly cackled, then rolled her eyes. How very, CC like of her. But that was the crowd he hung out with and what he probably assumed she was exactly like. Just like CC, and Prudence was fine with pretending to be ignorant about guns. Heck, she was even fine with him walking away thinking he pulled a fast one on her tonight.
She moved through the corridor of the main floor, leaving him in the elevator. Eventually he would catch up with her and either follow in line (which was probably unlikely), or come up to her level and walk besides her. Walking in front of her was unlikely, because she never said which store they were going in to, so she would either have to lead or walk besides him. Neither choice bothered her. "Ya don't have to come, ya know. I can manage getting a collar and ****. Any ******* idiot should be able to." He hadn't touched the dog. Not once. Either he had a strong aversion to them for some reason (maybe a victim of a dog attack?), or Levi didn't like them. She would guess the latter, only because Levi looked the type to not like a lot of things. Her especially. It made her smile.
Once outside, she looked north and pointed to the river. "Easiest way to get through the city." It was half a suggestion, half a 'we're going this way,' mention. "The mall will have what we need." Pru didn't mind the mall, but would have preferred hitting a small pet shop instead. But they weren't open usually as late as the mall was, so she would suck it up. Have to for Tequila's benefit. "See ya on the other side." With that she headed on the half-frozen river, enjoying the silence she afforded herself. Being a conversationalist wasn't her strong point, so with him not around, Prudence didn't feel obligated to talk.
Prudence Another PC Moderate Intellectual Levi DAmico Safety check Succeeded
Levi had watched the flicker in her eyes as she surveyed his gun. He didn’t think he believed that crap about eyes being the windows to the soul, but eyes certainly said a lot about a person. The cues were subtle, even if you knew how to read them, but she’d definitely looked to the side of the weapon. That glance toward the safety at least confirmed she’d used a gun before, whether that was conclusive evidence that she was good with them or not remained to be seen, however. Levi figured that most people in this city knew how to fire a gun and considering the crap he’d seen – including sword-wielding freaks outside of Japan – he had to assume that people… Vampiri… must know how to handle themselves. So it just left him with the question of why they were both pretending that Prudence didn’t know how to handle her self. Levi wasn’t in competition with her – that he knew of – but he understood her caution nevertheless. He’d seen this tactic before – big men pretending to be small so they could catch you off guard – he was playing this tactic with the Patriarca. So he’d let Prudence play her game, he wasn’t interested in taking her down anyway. In addition, he wasn’t interested in taking her down in other ways either so he rolled his eyes at her weird flirty mocking.
When they reached the ground floor, Levi held back to let the woman walk on ahead – it seemed like the courteous thing to do and it seemed like he had to; he didn’t know where he was going anyway. He followed after her down the long corridor, which would eventually lead back onto the streets. Prudence was a couple strides ahead of him, which would have been easy enough to catch up on, but he just couldn’t be bothered. Levi’s attention quickly turned to his phone, which had collected another couple of missed phone calls since he’d last checked. Once again, he was really only concerned with the one number that kept trying to reach him; he should have called the other man back, but he couldn’t have that conversation with Prune around. He glanced up from his phone to monitor their proximity, but the prospect of taking on that slight increase of speed to close the distance seemed like the offering of a marathon. As fit as he was, he was also very lazy; it was only his pride and her words that made him put his phone away and finally catch up to walk at her side.
“Yeah, well, I said I would,” he said casually.
By the time the words had filtered down from his brain, past his vocal chords and out of his mouth, they actually sounded more like a complaint. Nevertheless, the admittance was nothing to get worked up about. As much as he was worried about dropping his responsibilities tonight, he was determined to earn something for his troubles. Once they were outside, Prudence pointed to the river and told him that crossing it was the quickest way to get to where they needed to be. Levi was fine with it – he could walk on water after all, though with the temperature drop lately, so could anybody because the river was probably frozen over. What Levi wasn’t fine with, however, was finally learning their destination.
“******* malls,” he grumbled to himself.
Grumbling never helped, however. Prudence was off marching again, leaving him to follow in her wake or change his mind, but he was stubborn so he walked after her again. There was a lot more distance between them this time, which sure came in handy when his phone began vibrating in his pocket. Levi checked the screen before deciding whether or not to answer – he’d had his fill of being social for one night – but unfortunately for him, it was the same damn pain in the arse that kept calling. Levi took a deep, unneeded breath and answered the call. He was going to get this over and done with.
“Ciao.”
Well, at least it started off civil.
“Don’t give me that. Why the **** haven’t you been answering my calls?” came the clearly irate voice of Shiro from the other line.
The Japanese man had, in fact, shouted so loud that Levi had to check to see if Prudence had heard it. His eyes were maybe up from his feet and looking in her direction for about a second before he was stood on the ice staring up at the sky, watching large thunder clouds spill out between his lips. Just keep calm and breathe, he told himself.
“So? Do you have an answer for me or not?” Shiro continued.
Shiro’s voice hadn’t gotten any softer and neither was it about to; anything Levi had to say was not about to douse the man’s wrath. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to say anything at all, but Levi was quietly enjoying the other man’s posturing as he kept quiet.
“Answer me, you piece of—”
“Are you done?” Levi said, cutting him off at last.
“No, I’m not ******* done. I’ve been trying to call you for an hour—”
“So you figured you’d waste a bit more time by shouting my ear off, is that it? What the **** do you want… and make it quick, I’m busy.”
“**** you,” Shiro growled. “Why are you so ******* busy? And where the **** are you, as a matter of fact. No one has seen you since the power cut.”
“So? Look, it doesn’t matter. Like I said, I’m busy. I’ll call you later.”
“So we can get half way through a conversation and you can run out again?”
“I’ll call you later.”
It wasn’t wise, but, Levi had to end that call. If he didn’t, he’d have to listen to the stupid shark go on bitching for an hour and he certainly didn’t have the time for that right now. He had to get to a pet store with a woman he barely knew to buy a dog a leash and other very important accessories… Yeah, he knew how it sounded. In the grand scheme of things, this shouldn’t have been even above a spit on the sidewalk in terms of his priorities, but he saw a long-term venture blossoming out of small, insignificant events like these so he had to take the opportunities as they came. Levi wasn’t sure if telling Shiro that he was going shopping with a chick instead of dealing with work would piss him off and in turn, amuse himself, or just end up costing Levi a migraine from listening to the sushi-eating psycho go off on one – which was sure to happen because Shiro was crazy and Levi couldn’t touch the ********. Diplomatic immunity sucked as far as Levi was concerned…
