The Matador-(open)

[Louvel von der Marck]

Weirdo?

Louvel was still processing that when the woman started in on all the toxic or deadly possibilities that could be attacking her without her even knowing it as she stood there. Hannah was paranoid piece of work and perhaps he should be as well now that he started waking up. It was the whole ‘weirdo’ reference that presumably was just given some kind of support with her assumption he was gay based solely on something that she saw in his suitcase. His golden brow arched up and he was instantly wide eyed and fully alert.

“Are you always this comfortable calling someone a weirdo when you don’t know them from a hole in the wall?” His mossy orbs were feeling warm. “Last time I checked, Hannah, it is rather poor practice to look through someone’s luggage and assume their sexual orientation based on what you find. It certainly isn’t the first thing you should be thinking about.”

Hannah seemed like a candidate for an intervention of some sort. Perhaps it was way before she boarded that last flight that ultimately landed her in the room she was currently standing in. Or maybe this was it. He shrugged.

“I think you are already losing the battle to what was on your flight. Common sense could be the first thing to go with the onset of whatever it is you are carrying.” Louvel’s lips formed a hard flat line inspired by indifference. “That halo you stuffed in your baggage… it was damaged beyond repair. You can relax. The set of twisted horns you made sure to plastic baggie survived your trip back.” He still was surprised customs didn't stop her for it before she boarded her flight.

Louvel was giving the room a slow scan while he leaned back in his seat. He had to remember next trip to pack even lighter. Everything he would take with was staying in his hand boarding gate to boarding gate. No exceptions. Anything that didn’t fit on his carryon would be acquired after he arrived. He would not be subjected to the lesson at hand a second time. The longer he sat there with the door locked and he was contained with the woman the more committed he was to his new policy on future travel.

[Hannah Lynn (DELETED 8242)]

Hannah looked up at Louvel from where she sat, feeling slightly defeated. In one breath, he was right. She wasn't typically one to blurt out her opinion on people's choice of life style or be so bold and brazen, but this wasn't a typical scenario either. Obviously, they were both wanted for some reason or another, because it seemed like the airport security was content with letting them sit here and rot. At least that was how it felt.

Then he proceeded to do the same thing she did, but with a little more...kindness (if there was such a thing, when calling someone a devil or demon from hell), and her eyes narrowed. There was a splash of color to her cheeks at the mention of the baggie, knowing full well that he went through her stuff. "You went through my things?" She glared at him accusingly. "So you just opened the case up and saw what? Girlie scrubs, a couple thongs, bikinis and thought...oh, this is totally my suitcase...where did I put my...ben wa balls at? With my frilly nighties maybe?" Her head tipped back against the wall as she groaned and then leaned flat on her right side. She was getting tired, obviously cranky and defensive, because who knew just what he found in her bag?

"Look. I'm sorry. I don't care what your orientation is. I don't even care if you took some of the cash out of my luggage or anything else at this point. As long as there are some clothes in there. I just want to get out of here, go take a shower and figure out what sort of plague was on board that airliner. But a word of advice? You should put that stuff on your carry on next time." Hannah said before rolling away from Louvel, not worried about how weird her might actually be anymore. She just wanted to get out of here and away from the airport and him. Glaring at the wall helped her focus off him and the stuff going on in the other rooms with other people.

[Louvel von der Marck]

Louvel was ready to let it go. Just like that annoying song that took a couple months to get out of his head once his nephew, August, accepted the fact he was no where as into it as the kid thought everyone should be. Louvel could hear the chorus in his head as soon as Hannah started up with a rant about seeing the inside of her suitcase. Like she didn't see the inside of his? It took a lot to get him upset but there she was being exceptional in less than ten minutes of meeting her. It hit a switch and he was back at being a contender in a verbal sparring match with the woman who had a mile high soapbox she needed to get off of. What did the ben wa balls Martin sent him have to do with anything? He shook his head. She found the small photo album. As quickly as it escalated she was trying to make amends with it being okay if he took her money.

Money? He never saw any money. Then again how would he have? The shock of finding the footlong feeldoe that took up a significant portion of the bag it was in was all the sign he needed that it was not his bag. He closed it up promptly. Well, he tried to but her ‘Nuns with Juicy Buns’ magazine slipping out meant he had to tuck it back in and then close it. Just as he was about to set her straight she proved she wasn’t finished. This is why he loved his mother. She was so far from the moody, confusing emotional train wreck that Hannah was proving to be. Not that men couldn't be as well but those were the ones he didn't waste time hanging with.

Ben wa balls? What did the ben wa balls Martin sent him have to do with anything? He shook his head. She probably found the small photo album Martin included in his monthly ‘let’s get back together’ care package while he was in Chile. Hannah saw enough that meant there was nothing left to the imagination. What a relief it was that she was ‘okay’ with the fact that he happened to be gay among many other wonderful things.

"Thank you. Me and my people are so appreciative for your generous acceptance and support.” He lifted his hands to weave and lock behind the back of his head. “I will take your advice and would extend it back to you if your footlong funstick would actually fit in most overhead compartments. I understand why you chose to pack it. Just surprised it wasn't considered a possible weapon. My Burmese walking stick was that I tried to bring back last year.”

[Hannah Lynn (DELETED 8242)]

Hannah felt her eyes rolling in the back of her head. How he was taking her words was not how she intended them to be, but it seemed he wanted to take another jab at her. With eyes to the wall, she slowly closed them and counted backwards slowly to try and calm herself. Hannah didn't like confrontation, not really. She liked to avoid it, but knew that was impossible. So she typically tried to calm things over and smooth them out as quick as possible, but Louvel seemed to be a person who just wanted to pick at her words and argue for the sake of arguing.

He went on to talk about the things in her bag and Hannah all but jumped and turned to look at him. "WHAT?" She wore a look of bewilderment, confusion and anger on her features, not one hundred percent sure what he was talking about. "Fun stick?" Arm crossed at her chest as she sat on the ground glaring at him. What she thought he might have had questions about was not what he hinted or implied about.

What Hannah had been worried about was her excessive 'No Doubt' gear. At 28, she should probably be listening to something other than Gwen Stefani and the band her brother started years ago, but the band was her absolute favorite. Inside her luggage was not only the things she mentioned in passing, but 'No Doubt' t-shirts, hoodie, coffee mug, all the cds on top of the usb stick of their music along with others she enjoyed and a few other odds and ends that were all about the band. Embarrassing? Maybe. Probably, but not nearly as embarrassing as ben wa balls or whatever this 'fun stick' was.

And then it hit her when Louvel talked about whatever it was being a weapon. Her roomie and best friend didn't take the news well when Hannah said she was leaving and not planning on coming back for at least a year or longer. It had to be the only logical explanation. That she put something, or a lot of somethings in Hannah's suitcase in an attempt to get her in some sort of serious trouble as to not be able to board the plane, let alone leave the country. Hannah was going to give Kazumi some serious hell for everything once she got out of here, showered and slept. But for now...

Thinking and believing it was something pretty harmless, like a vibrator at best, Hannah rolled her shoulders. "So? Everyone, including this girl, has needs. You should know as well as anyone in this room." She jumped up from her sitting position to pound on the door. "Hello? Not that it hasn't been fun in here with Mr. Ben, but I am requesting my own room, or my release as I've done nothing wro-"

And that's when the door opened and in came two people. One male, and one female. Both wearing lab coats that came to their calves. Both seemed to simultaneously grab gloves from either side of their pockets and the female went to Hannah, the male to Louvel. The male talked, informing them of the possibility of being exposed to hand foot and mouth disease. Apparently, there was a case of two children and one parent with it on board Hannah's flight, sitting a few rows in front of Hannah. If they could open their mouths, show off their hands and take off their shoes, they would be happy to get them on their way once they were confident neither of them were infected with the disease. "Fine! Wonderful!" Hannah eagerly slipped out of her tennis shoes, peeled off her socks and showed off her pink painted toe nails as she wiggled her feet around, beginning the process of proving she wasn't infected.

[Louvel von der Marck]

Louvel knew when to call it good and drop the topic. It seems that point had come. Especially when anything further would be debating her needs. He continued watching her because there was nothing else moving in the room. When she took issue with their confinement by applying her fist to pound on the door and announcing her desire for her own holding space it became music to his ears. He was prepared to be amused with her efforts but was denied that.

The unexpected sound of the door mechanisms unlocking and the door opening gave him every reason to rise from his seat. Without word each step he took towards the doorway he felt closer to the freedom he had taken for granted hours before. He would be grateful to feel the handle of the luggage in his hand, the clanking sound in the engine as he drove out the distance to leave the city behind and return to the estate and to the small caretaker's cottage that he was prepared to enter and go straight to bed. All of it had his eyelids weighing down the more thought that he put into what he was going to do as soon as he cleared the doorway.

That is when two more bodies joined the room making it a full fledged party of four. This time the white laboratory dusters that draped the man and woman’s bodies were accessorized with a sterile appearing set of gloves. He froze in his steps.

Hand and mouth what?

While Hannah wasted no time on tearing off her shoes and wiggling her pedicured toes he was a little less inclined to join in. He wasn’t even on the flight to begin with so what did he have to prove? That he was tired? Cranky? More than ready to get the hell out of Dodge? He pulled off his sandals revealing each foot to the male in the room. He opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue and even made noise in case that was needed. He stuck out his bronze hands and flipped them back and forth to reveal the tops and the clear palms like a magician about to perform a trick.

“Now can I get the hell out of here and go home?” He growled moving towards the door. “And I want my suitcase. Now!”

[Hannah Lynn (DELETED 8242)]

Once her feet were checked, and hands, all that was left was Hannah's mouth. There was an expectant look from the woman in the lab coat, before Hannah rolled her eyes. "Don't most viruses take about forty eight hours or longer to spread?" She said before opening her mouth to be inspected. While she was just a physical therapist, she did have some basic medical knowledge. At least enough to get her by and know what was just a cold, or what might be more than a cold due to the time progression of things.

"Please, typically gets a more positive response." Hannah chirped up after her mouth was inspected by the woman after Louvel's demand. "Unlike my...friend here who lacks any manners,I do not. I would love to go home now if everything seems clear. It has been a very long flight. Also, may I please have my suitcase, because everything I own at the time is in there. Outside of furniture and the like." Hannah beamed at the woman who raised a brow and looked at her partner in crime.

"All luggage can be picked up at the desk once it has been TSA checked." Hannah's cheeks once again spotted a bright pink, due to the uncertainty of not knowing what was in her suitcase. "Wonderful." She said, knowing there was nothing that could be done about it now. "Are we free to go then?" She looked at the woman, who was finished with her. The woman in the lab coat nodded her head, applied her badge to a box inside the room and the door clicked unlocked. As Hannah passed by the woman, a paper about signs and symptoms was pulled off a clip board and passed to Hannah. It would be balled up later when she was out of their line of sight. "Thank you." She said in a weary, but pleasant voice as Hannah ducked out of the room and headed down the hall to where she remembered the counter to be at. She was almost there. Freedom....at least this thought was in her mind...until she saw the line that greeted her. With at least ten people in each line, this was going to be a long, long day with no sleep in sight.

[Louvel von der Marck]

Surprisingly this time around no one attempted to block him from leaving. When the paper was held out in the air in offering to him he brushed past it and found himself for the first time in what seemed forever outside in the general population. Bodies hurrying back and forth with labeled luggage in their hands. Some looked optimistic in their expressions, several even happy as they scurried in various directions to check or even enter the gates to begin their adventures that cost a few more pennies than taking a bus. Louvel usually was in that mix. He never was one to want to stay in one place for too long. The rest of the world was too huge, too tempting to leave unexplored by his own eyes.

Palming his face he gave the skin beneath a slow gentle massage to bring some of the blood to the fragile skin that was burnt. A jump in the fresh water in the woods when he got back home would be better than the aloe that he had applied liberally before leaving and really was doing little to no good. Once his hands dropped from his face he stepped to the side of the person currently at the baggage claim desk.

“Glad to be back?” Louvel smiled as if he knew the guy that was wearing a straw hat that was quite possibly weaved in the same place that was advertised across the front. Puerto Rico. “Nice hat. I am waiting for them to find mine. Pardon me…” Lou stepped in front of the guy as he stepped back to look at his travel companion baffled as to what was going on.

“Sir, you need to go to the end of the line until your turn arrives.”

The faces behind the desk had changed since the last time he was standing there. Of course they had. Those he saw before likely were at home or enjoying a meal with someone or if they were really fortunate in bed fast asleep with no care in the world and all their important possessions safe and accounted for around them.

“No. I don’t.” Louvel’s hand patted the counter in front of him like he was placing down some poker chips and calling the employees bluff. “I will tell you why.” His right foot folded over the left and he nodded. “My turn was at least four hours ago. Maybe even longer than that. Since then I have been without my luggage, subjected to carrying someone else’s home and back and then when returning it denied my original suitcase which has my property inside and...AND” His voice raised. “Detained by your men in black and white in a locked room with a woman who supposedly has something growing on her hands feet and mouth that she was exposed to on one of your flights.” He looked behind him and did a double take. Spotting Hannah was easy enough and really helpful. “That woman right there.” He pointed her out. “As sick as she could be and as contagious you leave her to wait. You don't even give her a mask to protect the rest of your customers standing in line.”

The line of bodies between he and Hannah started shifting as parents pulled their kids outside the formation. Whispers changed to a sudden silence and soon half of those waiting moved off in search of answers at other desks.

“I think we can get your bag for you so you aren’t detained any further, Sir.” The luggage he was separated from by a strange twist of fate finally appeared on the exchange space beside the desk. “We are sorry for any inconvenience.”

“I bet you can.” He reached over and tugged the suitcase with him as he turned to head out before anything else tried to stop him. “I am buying my own plane. Screw this.”

He was on his way and moving along uninterrupted until he got to the security checkpoint. The routine of placing the luggage down to be scanned was no different than any other time. He walked through and no beeping or personnel stepping in his path to hold him back for further inspection. Not until his bag was halfway through the ride on the conveyer belt. Then the process came to a freezing halt. A security officer looked to the side of the screen directly at him and blinked.

[Hannah Lynn (DELETED 8242)]

Hannah was fine with waiting. As fine as anyone could be who was tired and weary. She turned on her phone to see the battery life at a whopping twenty percent, sighed and turned it off again. It was as she pocketed the phone back in her purple sweatshirt that a voice-a very annoying voice at that started on a big charade. She watched with mild amusement, expecting for security to come take him away, but the second the spotlight was turned on her, thanks to him, everyone seemed all too eager to get him on his way and focus on her.

Narrowed eyes glared at Louvel, and her lips parted to say a few choice words, along with calling him a few choice things, and eventually stoop down to his level, but whens she noticed the reaction of everyone, it was actually sort of a blessing in disguise. The line parted and she was that much closer to the counter. What he thought would get her riled and worked up did the exact opposite and Hannah seized the opportunity for her own benefit. "That's right. Super contagious here." She turned to look at a woman who was staring her down, all to which Hannah coughed and then waved the air around her around. "Whooping cough they think." This caused the woman to grab her two children and step even further back. "Or TB. Who knows? But something very viral." Hannah said with a glance to the only man in front of her, smack dab at the counter.

Hannah took a few steps closer to the guy, coughing her right lung out before he rolled his eyes and muttered, "Jesus Christ, lady." With everyone out of her way, Hannah looked at the woman behind the counter. "My bag. It looked just like his, but much nicer." She pointed to the bag that was the exact replica of Louvel's, the one with the marker that told Hannah it was hers, as the woman more than happily gave her the bag, after grabbing a tissue and wrapping it around the handle.

With her bag in her hands, Hannah gave a few more dramatic coughs before she was on her way to the security check point. Hannah saw Louvel, but veered far left to avoid him like the annoying plague he was. With her passport in hand, Hannah showed it off to the guard before glancing over to Louvel, who was three down from her. "I don't know who to tell...but..." Hannah licked her lips debating if she should sink to his level and decided yes, yes she should. He deserved it because who knew how many people might actually come into the hospital that she was going to work at and see her. "I saw...that man over there." Hannah stopped to glance in Louvel's direction before pointing to him. "I saw him leave a bag on a chair near terminal 13."

The guard followed her finger as he gave the passport back to Hannah and pointed at Louvel as well. "That man there?" She nodded solemnly as he got on his walkie to alert the guard Louvel was with, for suspicious activity as Hannah skidded around the guard to her right without further hesitation. No way did she want to stick around for what might be going down.