Path of the Vampire forum

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

* Cosimo Alessi had no idea what he was doing as he sat in the booth, staring at the empty seat across from him. He'd timed it from the moment he'd woken up; but he'd ended up at the restaurant early. Athena's bag was on the seat beside him - he hadn't opened it - and the book was beneath his fingers at the table. He'd ordered some of the spaghetti - the Amatriciana. The last thing he ate as a human, from this very restaurant. He couldn't eat it, but he liked the smell. They didn't recognise him, the waiters. He was cleaner, now. He didn't smell. His clothes were clean and ironed. He didn't have lice. There was no reason they would throw him out. But, what was he doing here? Why a public place? Maybe he was a thrill seeker. Or maybe he just cared more than he knew. There was just one question he wanted answered by the end of this meeting. So long as he had that answer, he would be happy. The waiter came by and asked if Cosimo needed anything else; he shook his head and waved him away.

* Athena walked in with an air of confidence she hadn't had before, while she had worn leather before it was a piece of her now. The leather skirt just long enough, the black top she wore above had been cut and she had torn is so it was ripped above her belly button to show off the fresh ink that covered both hips. When she saw him, she smiled almost gently and slid into the booth in front of him, her back leaning against the booth as she crossed long legs, though they were covered in knee-high socks that covered her vans covered feet."Cosi."

* Cosimo Alessi , of course, noticed as soon as she walked in. How could he not? Every head in the place seemed to turn toward the woman, who had an aura of ... what? Cosimo couldn't put his finger on it. And as he watched that elegant catwalk of hers, and the way she slid in across from him, he felt like something vital was missing. Too much to consider, right now. He couldn't quite figure it out. He straightened up in his booth and nodded; he started to smile, but didn't know whether he should. What appeared was a greeting smile only. "Athena," he said. It was different, seeing her in proper light. "How are you?"

* Athena hadn't noticed anyone besides Cosi, she smiled back at the man and fixed her sitting position."I'm fine." she glanced down then towards the table and almost laughed at the food they couldn't eat. "Oh, Cosi, how can you torture yourself?" she raised one slender shoulder and then dropped it in a half-*** shrug at his actions. She didn't judge. "Did you bring the stuff?" she asked, now realizing she hadn't even looked for it.

* Cosimo Alessi smiled down at the food, as if it were something precious. "I like the smell," he said. She was right, though. He had thought he would like the smell, but now it was torturing him. The whole place was torturing him. He shrugged his shoulders. "I did not know where else to suggest," he admitted. This was the first place that had come to mind. He then laughed, and patted the bag on the chair beside him. "You make it sound like we are doing a deal."

* Athena continued to smile gently at him. "We could have just gone back.. this is more.." she wrinkled her nose just slightly, trailing off for just a second. "Public." she turned her head and looked straight at him. "Are you worried about your well-being?" It was a simple question. Athena didn't look at all hurt by the idea. She had almost brought the house down on top of him. It wasn't a bad assumption that she was capable of doing so again. She was capable of it, and now she knew it. The power was enjoyable to her.

* Cosimo Alessi actually thought about it. Was he worried? When he asked to meet in a 'civilized' location was it actually code for 'public'? He shook his head. No. How did he know that what happened in the Mausoleum might not happen here, too? And he wouldn't just be putting himself in danger, but a bunch of other people, too? He didn't rightly know why he had asked to meet her in public. He licked his lips and leaned forward. The steam from his food swirled around beneath him and it caused his stomach to rumble. "Should I be worried? Is there a... safe word? A... list, maybe, of things that I should not do," he said. He'd ease into the seriousness, maybe.

* Athena stared at him, almost through him for a moment. A list? Of what to do and not to do? What did that even mean? Her lips pressed into a thin line and while holding eye-contact she leaned forward, as if to get closer to him. The edge of the table touched her flesh, almost as if it kept her from getting too close to him. "No, stop.. driving me crazy." she closed her eyes for a moment, her head shaking side to side before she turned to look away, annoyed. She had no out-right answer. She didn't know herself. "I don't know what it is." her lips opened to explain more but just as quickly they closed again.

* Cosimo Alessi had that smile slip from his lips. Athena leaned forward, and though there was still distance between them, Cosimo leaned back. It was a subconscious reaction. Maybe instinct. Even his feet shifted backward, as if they might get too close to Athena's. There was a small amount of residual anger, there, that had caused Cosimo to say what he had said. And he did not like the way that her lips pressed into that thin line. He took a breath that he did not need, and did not stop watching Athena even as she looked away. "How am I... how do I drive you crazy?" he asked, even as she had said she didn't know what it was.

* Athena turned back to look at him, her blues more piercing than ever before. Honestly, she didn't know what it was about the man that just drove her mad. It was both good and bad. Mostly bad, it had made things weirder than before between them. Her nose wrinkled again fully now, her lips pressed again in that thin like she didn't know he didn't like. "I don't know, Cosi. It hardly matters, anyway." her hand waving in the air, as if to dismiss the entire idea of it. "I get it." she said suddenly, gesturing then with that very hand around them at the public place. "I brought you books that I don't expect back."

* Cosimo Alessi frowned. "What is it that you get?" he asked. He had no idea what she was talking about. Again, he had no idea what he had said to have her close off so thoroughly, when she'd seemed open only seconds before. He deliberated. "I think it does matter. I once said that I understand but I do not. Does anyone else? Do you have anyone else you talk to?" he asked. He had not intended to ask so soon, but it seemed as if she were ready to just get up and leave. He had to ask before she did.

* Athena tipped her head at him, she didn't understand. Of course she didn't. They had this problem. Understanding each other. It didn't seem to go away. "Cosimo," now using his full name in her irritation. "That matters not either." she turned then, looking down at the bag she had brought with her, it was a simple draw-string bag that held two books. "I brought you two books and I do need my bag back." she looked back over at him now. That's all she came for, she kept reminding herself that. It was fine. She was fine. Everything was fine, fine fine.

* Cosimo Alessi 's hand lifted, as if he were about to slam it back down onto the table. But it hovered, his fingers curling in against his palm, and he shook his head. "It does matter. I ... assume that person responding on the Crow was your sire, si? I was going to inform her, there, that she should ... I do not know. But I did not, because I respect that you have privacy. But you are angry. And... I do not believe I am that ... esas..." his hand waved in the air as he searched for the word. "I cannot be the only cause," he said. No one deserved to be alone. That was what he was implying. Though he did not say it out loud.

* Athena 's narrowed in on him. For a moment, a beautiful second she pictured herself flying over the table between them and slamming the poor man into a wall. Any wall, her fingers around his throat. He made her so crazy. "Maybe not," she let out a breath of hot angry air. "But as I said... It doesn't matter." Now her fangs and teeth started to grind together, testing her patience just by continuing to sit there in front of him. "Leave it alone, Cosimo. Drop it." those last two words snapped. "I am a big girl. I do not need your nose in my business." she pressed her lips together again. "I've already tried to talk to you!" her voice raising, some people around them turning to look out of sheer surprise.

* Cosimo Alessi did not look away, like some people might. In a semi-crowded restaurant with a screaming woman, most men would probably get really uncomfortable about now. Fidget, or give apologetic winces to nearby consumers. Instead, Cosimo stared at Athena incredulously. He would drop it. He wouldn't again reiterate that it was important, and that such potent rage could not be healthy. It was almost enough to have him stand up and leave, if she'd left it at that. But she had to add that she had already tried to talk to him, which only cause him to shake his head in disbelief. "We did talk. I thought it went quite well," he said. At least, better than the first interaction they'd had. "About this... anger? No. When?"

* Athena couldn’t believe him, no she simply couldn’t. He expected her to talk to him about her anger? What was he her friend? Her lover? He was none of these things. He already knew too much. He already had too much of her and she was too selfish to share the rest. He knew her past, of who she had been before being turned into this woman of death. No one else knew. Gently, she cursed herself for not sharing this information with someone else. It had been too intimate and now it caused him to be too involved, or maybe just involved enough. Athena wasn’t sure which. Blue eyes widened in her disbelief anyways, he expected to know such intimate things about her now. Didn’t he know better by now? Long fingers curled into fists, her hands were holding onto the bag still that held the books she had brought just for him. Now? She just wanted to use the bag and hit him across his stupid face with it. “Cosimo.” she snarled his name, about ready to slide out of this booth and throttle him. Thankfully for him she exploded, lost it this time but with her words and her questions. “Why should I talk to you about anything? Why do you feel so deserving of my intimate details? Why do you care so much, Cosi? All you do is make me mad and all we do is fight!” her eyes locked with his, voice rising again. “I do not understand you at all!” her voice still loud as ever. “You bring me here, what? So I won’t hurt you?”

* Cosimo Alessi was aghast. He leaned back in his booth and just stared at the woman as she berated him for things he did not feel at all responsible for. There was a barrage of explanations that he could give to her, of clarifications and misunderstandings, but the only thing that wanted to come out was more questions. Maybe an accusation or two of his own. He did not care, at this point, if they were causing a scene. That was his own fault for suggesting they come to a public place. "We fight? I do not fight. YOU fight. I do not get angry. I get a little frustrated because I do not understand what I have done wrong. But we fight? Because you start it! What I am trying to say is not that I deserve these things, but you do. If not me, you deserve to have someone to open up to. It is your choice to hate me. The very least I deserve is to know why," he said, his voice not quite as raised as hers, but raised enough.

* Athena suddenly threw the bag of books onto the floor next to her. She was so annoyed with him, for one reason or another. "We fight, it's not just me." she snapped at him, her voice staying right at yelling at him. "You just want to know everything, don't you Cosi? This isn't about me, this is about you wanting to know." she shook her head slowly. "How is making me angry going to make me open up to you?" she almost snorted. "I do not hate you, Cosi. I do not know you. You infuriate me. You make me crazy.. that is what I know."

* Cosimo Alessi was starting to feel slightly outraged. "You say that as if I do it on purpose! How can I stop making you angry if you will not tell me what it is that I have done to offend you? You do not have to tell me anything you do not want to and I have never suggested that you should. You do not know me? You are... the second person in this city to know anything about my past at all," he said. Not that it was a past he wasn't willing to share - and she didn't know everything - but she knew enough for him to at least be considered more than just a stranger.

* Athena looked like she was going to physically explode at any moment now. "I've told you over and over again that I do not know!" she shouted, louder than before. Her blue hues widened then at him, her arms tensing as she attempted again not to throw herself at him to hurt the man. "Yes, and you are the ONLY person I've told all that to, Cosi. You keep bringing it up and you keep making me feel it again." she slammed her palms then on the table. "Do you enjoy making me mad? Do you ENJOY this?" she asked, her control getting harder to keep with each exchange. "I do not UNDERSTAND you!" she said again, more true now than ever.

* Cosimo Alessi pressed his back up against the booth's leather, his own hands gripping the edge of the table. Out of the corner of his eye he could see two waiters looking at them, and talking to each other; he could see the one walking toward them, and he knew what they were going to say. To please, keep it down. Or to take it outside. They were disturbing the other diners. Except, the waiter stopped short. Tendrils of shadows broke out between the vampires and the waiter, who was soon backing up. Backing away from the massive, misshapen monster stepping into existence just beyond their booth. "Stop, Athena..." he said, a tremor in his voice as the monster focused on Cosimo. All disjointed flesh and ink, with a head looming somewhere below huge, hunchbacked shoulders. A head consisting mainly of sharp teeth. He recalled the shadows as they'd shifted and pulsed from Athena in the Mausoleum, and this... was made of shadow. How could he not assume she'd taken it a step further? "Please, I don't...." he stammered, before he was screaming. He screamed along with everyone else in the diner, chairs scraping and tables overturning. Except they screamed because they were scared. Cosimo screamed because his guts were being mauled by this monster, skin tearing and organs ravaged, and there was nothing he could do. And then the thing was gone, as quickly as it had come. Disappearing into thin air, leaving Cosimo shaking and bleeding, his trembling hands not daring to touch the bloody, gory mess that his stomach had become.

* Athena was going to probably toss his food over his lap. Something, anything to get at the man. She knew better, however, than to do anything big. Rion would have her sweet little ***. Rion would make sure to make everything hurt, she knew. That's what kept her grounded. It didn't take much to be scared of the woman with the blue-hair. Athena was too focused in her rage to notice the waiters at first, her eyes were on Cosimo and her mind on how to hurt him. Then he suddenly asked her to stop. Which made her take a moment to pause from her rage to blink at him. Stop what? She parted her lips to ask just that before her question got stuck in her throat. Everyone around them was suddenly screaming, he was screaming and now he was being hurt. That made her pause. The fade beast didn't seem to scare her though inside she was terrified. Why wouldn't she be? Athena’s body stiffened, she knew there wasn’t much you could do to avoid them so she tried to be still and be invisible.

* Athena knew though, that this was possibly an opportunity to hurt him as well, it made her body twitch in a subconscious question before she pulled her legs up so she could put her feet on the booth's seat and jump from her seat to throw herself over the table and then on top of Cosimo. She hadn't even made sure that the monster was gone before she had just leaped onto the man. No, she hadn’t even paused to think this over. Was she really going to hurt him more? The fade beast, having already hurt Cosimo disappeared back into the thin air it had just came out of. Athena fell onto Cosi's lap, a hand’s long fingers gripped tight around his throat while the other seemed to fall over his bleeding stomach in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Her head was turned away from him, her eyes narrowed where the beast had disappeared while the dark energy around them sparked and sizzled. Almost as if her rage turned the energy into electricity, it sparked. As her rage grew, her body heaved as she took breaths she no longer needed to regulate the powers she was using. Instead of like before, the energy didn’t attach it’s self around her but instead- around them to form a circle of black matter that took every ounce of shadow that had once been in the place.

* Athena hissed, the palm over his gory mess pushed harder as she turned to look into the man's face, closer than ever before. "Stop ******* screaming, Cosi. It's gone." she snapped, the energy sparked again with every word she spoke.

* Cosimo Alessi was terrified. He hadn't the willpower not to be. He couldn't try to look like some macho man who wasn't afraid of anything. What the **** was that thing? Before he had the time to even think of his tome, or of getting to his feet and fleeing, he was trapped. Trapped beneath Athena's body, with her hand at his throat. He couldn't feel anything else beyond the agony in his gut, a mangled mess that would scar. It would most definitely leave one hell of a scar. Athena told him to stop screaming, and he sucked in a breath that he held. His head was swimming. The world darkened around them, but Cosimo assumed that was just his own perception; he assumed he was on the brink of passing out, maybe, except that he felt more alert than ever. She was going to kill him. He was going to die here in this restaurant, he was certain of it. "I am sorry," he stammered. "I did not mean to make you angry," he added, almost as if he were begging for his life. But then his eyes hardened and, though his lip trembled, he focused. "If you need to kill me to make yourself feel better, then you should just finish it," he said.

* Athena tightened her hold over his throat quickly then at his words. What the ****? She had just thrown herself over a goddamn table to save him and he was just going to accuse her of trying to kill him, really? Athena let out a sigh, her hand over his throat jerked away from him and she continued to stare into his face with utter annoyance. "Are you serious, Cosi? I just tried to save you from that monster and you're.." she shook her head at him yet again, her other bloody hand moving quickly as she started to slowly right herself. Her body was pressed too close to his, the table's edge was digging into her back which only made this more awkward for her, it pushed her chest- to- chest with him.

* Cosimo Alessi was breathing, even though he didn't need to. It was habit. Huge gulping lungfuls of air that he thought might help with the pain, but they didn't. They just shifted the organs around some more and made things worse. So he tried not to breathe. He tried to focus; to understand what it was that Athena was trying to say. Her words were not computing. He was utterly convinced, and he could not shift the conviction. Not in his current state of mind. "Why would you save me from something that you... it was you, wasn't it...?" he asked through panting breaths. For a few incomprehensible seconds, their hands touched, fingers tangled as they both tried to hold in the blood that profusely gushed from Cosimo's wound; though he felt like his insides would spill out. It wasn't just the blood he was trying to stem. It only occurred to him in the back of his mind that they were so close; it should have caused a fascinated wonderment, but instead it only inspired fear. He did his best to keep his hands away from Athena.

* Athena stopped moving, she had her hands now on either side of both of them and was trying to slide away and off of him without trying to hurt him more. His words silenced her for a second before she stopped all together. "I didn't do that to you, Cosimo." her voice didn't rise with emotion, in fact her voice was emotionless, her face once painted in worry was now blank. The realization that she had tried to help him and he only thought her as a monster was enough to make her jerk away from him, moving quickly to separate them with a shake of her head. "I had tried to help you, I put my *** on the line and used my powers in a public place.. " trailed off, in disbelief at both herself and him. "I won't make that mistake again," now parts of flesh and fabric covered in his blood. The energy around them dropped and dispersed with the lowering of her shoulders. He had hurt her feelings, not that she would tell him or anyone else that.

* Cosimo Alessi leaned forward as soon as Athena had vacated the space on his lap. Both his hands, his arms slipped over his mangled torso and he cringed as a new wave of pain threatened to overwhelm him. He looked up at Athena through the hair that had fallen over his eyes, his face twisted into a grimace. Here he was with his guts in his hands, literally, and she expected him to feel remorse? "I do not know what your... your powers look like. I do not know everything. What else was I supposed to think? You were angry. The last time you were angry, you..." he stopped and gasped as something shifted in his gut and his nerve endings screamed. How does one recover from a wound like this? He had no idea what to do with it, or with himself. The restaurant was empty. He wondered, vaguely, whether anyone had called the authorities. "Your anger, it comes to life. I am sorry."

* Athena muttered under her breath, her eyes narrowed at the man. Of course he didn't know. Of course, she expected him to. Really though? She wanted him to shut up. The bloody hand lifted and she used her palm to rub over her forehead in her frustration. Athena wanted to leave, she wanted to leave and lick her emotional wounds but she saw how hurt he was. She knew. "Stop talking, quit breathing. You don't need to." bending over now, she ripped both her stockings off for the material and moved towards the man to help him once again. "Lean back some.. I'm going to rip your shirt too, sorry." she said, getting into his booth again to sit next to him. Now sitting awkwardly at his side she moved to place the pieces of her stockings aside. “Just.. let me help you.” she didn’t dare look at him, she moved to rip his shirt then and then again to make pieces so she could make-shift something to hold his wound together.

* Cosimo Alessi was feeling all kinds of discomfort when Athena got up close again. Not because he was afraid of what she might do - he trusted, somehow, that she actually did intend just to help him - but because of his own issues. It wasn’t so much the proximity, but the fact that she was tearing at his shirt. If he could get any paler, he would have. If he’d been in the state of mine to realise, earlier, that she was straddling him like some kind of rider on a horse, he might have reacted differently. He did stop breathing, and he did stop talking. For now, at least. He did lean back, though he wondered what stockings could possibly do. He needed bandages. And… a shower, maybe. Later. He swallowed. “If you help me… will you let me help you?” he asked, his voice quiet. Halfway through the question, he regretted asking it. It seemed that whenever he offered any kind of sympathy or expressed any kind of concern, that was when she blew up. But he could not help himself.

* Athena pressed her lips together, this time she was concentrating on him. She took the ripped pieces of his shirt and used them as a makeshift bandage, using the ripped pieces of her stockings to tie them around his body to keep his insides in. She half listened to him, trying not to focus on the fact that her hands were covered in his blood. That it smelled delicious and that she wanted nothing more than to lean back and lick her fingers clean. "Fine." Hues lifting from his bloody mess to his eyes to lock with his for a brief moment. "But...you first. We need to get you somewhere, anywhere. I need to clean your wound so it doesn't heal badly..." Her nostrils flared, his blood smelled delicious.

* Cosimo Alessi almost breathed a sigh of relief as his question didn’t spark Athena’s rage. The answer was positive, though he did not know Athena well enough to know whether she was a woman of her word. At least, now, his intestines didn’t feel like they were going to slip haphazardly from his gut and spool at his feet, glistening and useless. He nodded. They did need to leave. Someone would show up, soon, and the last thing he needed was for some concerned stranger to try to get him to the hospital. “Yes,” he said, visibly wincing as he tried to shuffle out of the booth, to stand. He even found it within him to laugh. “I seem to always end up wounded around you,” he said. He swayed, and clutched at the edge of the table to keep himself firmly on his feet. “Your bag. And… the book,” he said, pointing to the Joe Hill, miraculously unscathed but on the floor nearby. Her belongings - the main reason they were here, right? Better not forget them.

* Athena wanted to laugh but she didn't. Instead, she sighed at him and actually moved to help him stand up after she was standing by the table. An arm wrapped its way around him, leaning against his side to keep him against her so he didn't have to put much weight on his wounds. "It’s not my fault you're an idiot, Cosi." Mumbling, her head turned to glance towards her stuff that he had pointed out, only to sigh yet again. "Its fine, I'll come back for it later and you can also buy me another pair of stockings." Then she paused. "Where do we go...?" She sure as hell couldn't take him to the Andras hotel. That picture wasn't pretty.

* Cosimo Alessi was hesitant to put his arm over Athena’s shoulders. His arm hovered there in mid-air. He had promised to never touch her again, given that she seemed so sensitive to it. But there was no way he could avoid it. So his arm finally came to rest over her shoulders; that’s all it did. Rest. “You say this as if… what was that thing?” he asked. He didn’t know. Was there something he had done to cause the monster to want to come and rip out his insides? Was that his fault, if it wasn’t Athena and her anger that had summoned it? But then she asked where they should go and Cosimo did not know how to answer. “I would say that we could go to Ivory Towers, but I do not have the ability to let you in,” he said. His own apartment was not on the ground floor; Athena would have to join him in the elevator, and he was not sure the building would let her. “A… I do not know,” he said. Useless.

* Athena turned her head in an attempt to look at him. "You were attacked by a fade beast. They are terrible!" She almost shuddered. Letting him put his arm around her, she adjusted so that she was both not hurting him and holding him straight so that they could walk towards the door. "It’s fine, I have... an idea." Slowly but surely, they moved across the floor and around or over broken various things on the cafe floor in the others haste to leave when the beast had appeared.

* Cosimo Alessi tried to recall. Had he heard that name before? Fadebeast. He had been told so much in the first couple of weeks of his existence, it sounded as if it rang a bell, but at the same time… he definitely could say that he had never seen one before. He tried to relax as they made their way toward the door, keen now to get out of the public eye. “Why… would a fadebeast attack me?” he asked. Athena sounded as if she knew what she was talking about. Maybe she would have some idea. There were a couple of people milling around outside the restaurant, and Cosimo tried to straighten his shoulders, to walk mostly on his own. His fingers splayed over the makeshift bandages, and he was aware of his torn shirt, and the scars that littered the rest of his body. His head was down. They needed to get out of sight.

* Athena held onto him tightly, they moved swiftly but she was very careful not to jostle him. Not wanting to hurt him this time. As they moved outside, she moved her body closer to him to try and make it seem more of an intimate embrace than what it was as to not attract attention. Most people would look away when they thought they were just necking. Her head was ducked against his, moving them quickly from the sidewalk to the darker portion of street. "They are monsters produced from vampires who are not careful when they have sex." She paused, it was awkward now the answer with her body so close and pressed against his. "So...wear a condom and you should be fine." Her head turned then, looking over at the area around them to move in the direction of the hotel she had just started to stay at. "They want you because you're a vampire, simply."

* Cosimo Alessi tensed next to Athena. The softness of her touch, the tender way that she turned into him, her face against his neck, was so unlike anything he had ever experienced with the woman before. He was not stupid. He knew what she was doing. His head spun and his gut churned and he couldn’t figure out whether it was due to the pain and the information that she was now giving him, or due to something else. It was an unidentified feeling that left his mouth dry, and which stirred… something. But she mentioned sex. And condoms. And he cleared his throat, before he started to cough; an uncontrollable fit that caused his stomach to painfully clench, as if his innards were trying to force their way past the stockings and the torn up shirt. “Maybe no sex,” he wheezed, his eyes watering. It wasn’t as if he could commit, anyway.

* Athena figured that he tensed because he was hurt, because now he coughed and her hand was now over his wound to keep everything intact. Cursing again under her breath that the hotel wasn't anywhere closer. It was still a block or two away. "It's the only sure way." Her comment seemed far-away, thinking about her own emotional shortcomings for only a second. Holding onto him tighter, she moved them faster with her hand over his wound still. "Come on, Cosi. Faster, I know you're in pain but we have to get that wound looked at." Hissing softly as she rushed them along.

* Cosimo Alessi was glad of the agreement, and the change of topic. Sure, he remembered what sex was like. He just didn’t imagine it as often as he used to, these days. Right now, though, with the suggestion hanging in the air? The reminder that such a thing could happen? He couldn’t help the images that threatened to flood his brain. The ghost of ...something curling in his stomach, stirring things that had not been stirred in a very long time. All banished, as soon as Athena hissed at him. As soon as he remembered those gnashing teeth and the way they’d so easily ripped into his flesh. He shuddered and nodded, forcing his feet to walk a little faster. “Thank you…” he breathed, before he stopped breathing again. Held it in his throat, in case there was another coughing fit.

* Athena was focused now on helping him. She didn't linger long on the thought of sex. As far as she was concerned her only hope of such an act was already dead. He had been dead for years now and still she hadn't wanted anyone else. "You're welcome." She held him tightly, her palm firm over his wound as they walked quickly. "It's on the first floor, be thankful." Teasing him, trying to be funny as she turned them into the dark parking lot of the cheap and simple model she stayed at. On the far right side of the lot sat an old motorcycle that was obviously in the middle of being restored. It wasn't finished yet, and still only bits and pieces of what it would come to be. "Almost there.." rushing them now past the motorcycle and to the off colored pink hotel door. Number 3.

* Cosimo Alessi ‘s own palm was also pressed over his wound, their fingers again threatening to touch in that dual purpose of keeping him together. He hardly noticed the motel, or the bike, or the room number. His head was bowed and his chin tucked against his chest, his eyes on the ground and the scuffling shuffle of his feet. But he could also see his stomach, and though he couldn’t fully see the mess, he still felt like throwing up. He felt...something. Dread, maybe. But what did it matter, how he healed or what it might look like? It didn’t. Not one bit. He was sure the scars on his gut would be less of a turn off than the scars he had elsewhere--those he’d gained before being turned. As soon as they were inside, Cosimo wanted to lurch toward the bed. All he wanted to do was lay flat on his back, pass out, and forget. But he was aware of his own blood, still seeping from the wound. And didn’t quite make it to the bed. “I am a mess…”

* Athena gave a sigh as they made it into her hotel. It was actually rather clean despite the random articles of clothing on the floor. They varied between tops, bottoms, stockings and socks. Even a few shoes were thrown about the room's floor. "You usually are." She dragged him if need be towards her bed. She didn't think, she moved to help him turn around and lower onto his back to sprawl across the mattress, blood be damned. "Lay here, don't move." Once she was free of him and he was comfortable on the bed she walked away and towards the little mini fridge and the offered items. "You can take pain, can't you?" Sighing, she grabbed the little bottles of tequila they offered and made her way back to the bed. "This is going to hurt.." trailing off, chewing now on her lower lip.".. even more." Looking at him like this, she actually frowned.

* Cosimo Alessi did happily sprawl on the bed. He happily stayed right there, and didn’t move. The mattress was soft and his eyes drifted shut, a frown furrowed deep between them. Athena had asked if he could handle pain, and of course it dredged up memories of the pain he had suffered in the past. The most notable of which was only a few months ago, in this very city, and to remember it now had him, again, wanting to roll over and empty the contents of his gut onto the motel carpet. Rather than tell Athena that he had been forced to take pain--they had tortured him to the very edge, and just as he wanted to black out and escape the pain, they would stop. They would do what they could to keep him awake, so that he could feel every single agonizing second of it. “Si,” he said. “Yes, I can take pain,” he said, opening his eyes now, and half sitting up to watch. As if he needed to be prepared.

* Athena sighed, her head shaking as she moved to slowly crawl onto her bed. She was careful not to jostle the man with her movement or the shifting of the mattress. "Lay back down, just let me do it. Okay?" Her lips pressed together tightly then. Why did she feel so badly for him? This wasn't her fault and she had done absolutely everything to try and protect him. More than she ever thought she would do -especially for Cosimo. A man who only made her feel negative. Leaning over, her palm gently reached out to push him softly back down. "You don't have to watch or help." Moving slowly to get right next to him, putting the little bottles by her side as she untied his makeshift bandages. She didn't look at him and her hands were only slightly shaking as she concentrated on just him, not how she felt about it all.

* Cosimo Alessi grunted as he was pushed back down. His skin, where not covered by cloth, was littered with scars. Knife gashes and bullet wounds, claws and scrapes. On his upper arms and a little on his shoulders were the tattoos that he kind of wanted to rip away. He’d prefer the scars to the memory of that time that he wanted to forget. That brief five minutes as a soldier forced into a service that he had not understood. The tattoos a kind of ritual, a hazing, maybe. He had not enjoyed those. He lifted his hands away from the wound, bringing the heels of his palms up to dig into his eyes. “Be quick. I do not care how much it hurts. Just… like ripping off an aid, si? Get it over with,” he said between clenched teeth, his toes curled in his boots as he waited for the fresh wave of agony. Whatever he did, it couldn’t have been any worse than the initial contact, the mauling of that beast’s jaws in his skin.

* Athena paused, she now noticed how littered his skin was with scars. What had this man gone through? What hasn't he told her? She ignored that thought, she pressed it to the back of her brain. It didn't matter. None of that was something that she needed to know. It was none of her damn business but why did it bother her so? Not that he hadn't told her but- that it happened. That someone, somewhere had done this to him. She swallowed down her rage and focused on him. Solely him. "Just like a band-aid, Cosi." Agreeing, she tossed the bloody cloth away from her. Now she grabbed a bottle of tequila and raised it to twist off the top. "I'm...right here." Trying, desperately to offer some type of comfort. She was here. She cared. The hand that was no longer holding onto the bottle slid a blood crusted palm down the man's side gently, kindly. The first touch of hers that was gentle and almost meaningful. "I'm sorry." But what was she sorry for? She didn't know and before she could think too much on it. On her words, on the way her palm grazed over his skin - she poured the tequila over the exposed wound.

* Cosimo Alessi relaxed. Although his elbows remained raised, it was to cross his arms over his eyes rather than to press his hands into them. As if he were laying in the sun, bathing at the beach. He did not breathe, but he felt like he could. When was the last time someone had touched him with such tenderness? Elizabeth could be caring, but she had buried him. She was not one to coddle, or caress. She had a husband. She had buried Cosimo and forced him to dig his way out in order to prove his strength. Before that? Maybe in Italy. Maybe it was … he couldn’t remember her name. And he couldn’t remember whether she was the sort to caress. He almost forgot about the pain. Almost. Almost, until the alcohol hit his broken and mangled torso and his body jerked. He was expecting it, wasn’t he? So why was it such a surprise. A shout inadvertently escaped his lips, and another couple of those foreign curses. He forced himself to still, to stay silent. To wait it out.

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

* Athena winced, she thought about the last time she touched Hunter. It had been his face, she remembered after kissing the man goodbye. They always kissed goodbye. Pushing that away too, she narrowed her eyes and focused on helping him. His sound of pain made her twitch, she forced herself again to focus at the task at hand. To help, Cosi. "Please, Cosimo, you're okay.. it'll be okay.." So while she poured again, she moved her hand down his side in another gentle caress. Turning then at her side to grab the spare pillow and rip the pillowcase for another makeshift bandage. Pressing the fabric gently over his wound again. "It'll be fine. I need to get my sewing kit.." Crap, why had she forgotten that? She was an idiot.

* Cosimo Alessi wanted to smile. He wanted to laugh, but couldn’t when his head spun so dangerously, when his whole body seemed to be on fire--or non-existent, aside from the wound. She was being so gentle and soothing, as if he were sobbing and crying and fearing for his life. He was just a man dealing with a great amount of pain, but he knew he would survive. He wasn’t worried about that. He knew it was going to be okay. But he relished the sound of her voice, anyway. This was something to remember, the next time she got angry at him. Something to temper his own furious reaction, if there was going to be one. And it wasn’t over, yet. He did smile, now. He moved his arm so that he could open one eye to look at Athena, resisting the urge to reach down and trap her hand with his against his side. And anyway, she was no longer caressing him, he realised, though he still imagined he felt the touch against the unmarred skin. Instead, she was pressing a pillow case against his stomach. “I can be a project,” he said. “You can make me look pretty,” he added. Though, he couldn’t really be held accountable for what he said, now. He was near delirious.

* Athena looked over at him, her head tipped and her eyes gazed over the man with amusement at his words. "You're the worst kind of project." Teasing back, though she began to move off the bed. Now sitting on the edge for a moment, she slid off her vans one by one. Kicking them and the rest of her stockings aside. She knew he must be fine now. So now she stood, bending over quickly after taking a few steps away from the bed to sllip on a pair of shorts under her skirt. Quickly, she unzipped her skirt that was over her shorts and shimmied them down. "There's no way I can make you pretty." Kicking the skirt aside, grabbing onto her kit that was conveniently laying on the little fridge. "But, let's see what I can do.." crawling back on the bed and sitting back next to him and click open her kit. "How does pink sound?"

* Cosimo Alessi didn’t turn away when he saw the woman changing. Well, kind of changing. She didn’t show off any skin, so what was there to turn away from? He watched with a vague, distracted kind of air, licking his dry and cracked lips as he realised that he was hungry. Thirsty. Whatever they wanted to call it. He had lost a lot of blood. But he wasn’t desperate. He continued to watch as Athena grabbed her kit and came back, settling again on the bed beside him. The pain was a dull ache, now. An itch that he could not scratch. He felt exposed, but not as exposed as he could be. At least she hadn’t tried to get him to the shower; at least she hadn’t tried to undress him in some noble attempt to get him clean, before stitching him up. “Pink…” he mumbled, and gave another dazed smile. “Perfetto… maybe some...uhm… viola, too. Si? To match the bruising…”

* Athena shook her head again, this time to try and make him shut up. "Quiet, Cosi. This'll be quick. I've half assed made my clothes over the years." Looking over at him then to give the man a reassuring smile. Talking as she grabbed her needle and black thread, nimble fingers making quick of the act and the knot. "Then I'll clean you up, okay?" She mumbled, now quieting down herself as she went ahead and started to stitch up the man's mangled torso so that at least hopefully this wound would heal well. Athena hadn't lied, she did make quick work of stitching the man up. She was sure to try and make sure to only be hurtful when absolutely needed. When she finished she asked. "How much energy do you have?" Moving then to turn around and crawl to the other side of the bed to grab a blood bag she hid in her bedside table. "This might taste like crap but..." Looking over her shoulder at him as she grabbed the bag.

* Cosimo Alessi tensed as she suggested cleaning him up. As if she had read his mind, and was now going to do the one thing that he was glad she hadn’t. He didn’t say anything, yet. Just laid back with his arms over his head again, trying not to breathe or physically twitch or react at all to the constant prick and sting of the nail piercing his skin. It didn’t matter how quick and painless someone tried to make stitching, it was never a very comfortable thing to sit through without some kind of anaesthetic. Cosimo drifted as he lay there in how own personal darkness, trying to focus on anything but. In the end, though, it was all he could concentrate on; trying to imagine where the needle was and how much more she had left to go. When she was done, he breathed a sigh that he did not know he had been holding. He glanced over at Athena as she asked how much energy he had, and frowned at the bag she pulled from the drawer. He didn’t like blood bags at the best of occasions. “In the… how long has it been in there? Do you want to poison me, too?” he asked with an arched brow, incredulous, but only afterwards realising how thankless it sounded. He slowly shook his head. “No, thank you. It is okay. I am… fine,” he said, rolling over and slowly sitting up, painstakingly shifting his legs from the bed. “I can clean myself up. I am a big boy,” he said with a smile tossed at Athena over his shoulder. Hadn’t she called herself a big girl, earlier? He didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. He didn’t want her to think it was a big deal. He’d just prefer privacy while in the shower. He glanced down at his torso, fingers tentatively touching the stitching. “This is good work. Thank you,” he said, gathering his wits so that he could stand.

* Athena was turning back around, moving then to sit on the bed near him with the bag in hand. When he accused her of wanting to poison him, she frowned rather deeply. It flashed over her facial features before she gathered herself again. "No, I wouldn't poison you." Licking her lips in an attempt to keep herself from snapping at him. How dare he! But she knew he was in pain. He had been all night. Maybe he was entitled to a little uncharacteristic rudeness. "You are, I was just going to offer dapping your torso down so you didn't pop a stitch..." A hand gestured towards the bathroom. "But you're welcome to the bathroom, Cosi. Just.. try not to mercilessly tease me." She sighed, she knew what he would see. Hand-washed undergarments that were hanging to dry. "You're welcome, Cosi. I'll send you with a needle and thread so when you leave..you'll be all set." Athena didn't move to help, he was a big boy, after all.

* Cosimo Alessi caught the whiff of disappointment. Was it disappointment? No. Offense, that’s what it was. He caught it, as he glanced over at Athena again, that peculiar tone to her voice as if he had hurt her. “I am kidding,” he said. He hadn’t actually thought she was trying to poison him. Why would she have gone to all that trouble to stitch him up, only to poison him? “But… I do think blood, it should be in the fridge. Kept cool, no? Like meat, or it will go bad. I am not sure you should drink that either,” he said, nodding to the bag she held in her hand. He shuffled toward the bathroom and, peering inside, understood why she might ask him not to tease her. He didn’t want to tease her. As glad as he was that she seemed to have found somewhere to sleep--had she listened to him, or was this her own doing?--he still was unable to stop the first thought that came to mind. That she had no one who cared enough to give her a place to live. And that he wished he had somewhere that she could have access to. There was no teasing. Not even a judgmental look. Only an arched brow, as he disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. Locking it, even. He was glad that he could not see himself in the mirror, as he fumbled with the clasp of his belt. He did not bend more than he had to, to get the jeans and boxers down and off, toeing off his shoes at the same time. The blood had soaked through. He needed a good shower. A hot shower. Though, it took him some time. Twenty minutes, maybe longer, to navigate the stall and the soap and the sponge, to wash away all the muck, and then to consider what to wear. There was a dressing gown on the back of the door. He didn’t know whether it was Athena’s or whether it was provided by the motel. But, after donning his boxers, he pulled the dressing gown around his torso. He did not tie it too tight, but held it closed none-the-less. His jeans were soaked with blood. And was that spaghetti sauce, too? When he exited the bathroom, he was holding his jeans in his hand--there was a tome in one of the pockets that he might need. He exited in a billow of steam. “I hope you do not mind…” he said, searching for Athena in the room, referring of course to the dressing gown.

* Athena wrinkled her nose then at the blood bag, perhaps he was right. She nodded and tossed it towards the trash can by the wall. Ew, she didn't want to drink it anyway. Fresh blood was so much better and she almost licked her lips at the mere thought. When he disappeared in the bathroom, she slid off the bed and stripped it of its now bloody sheets. She tossed those too, in the trash. Useless now. She had a fresh spare and made the bed before cleaning the blood from the room as best she could. When she heard him return, she was pulling clothes from the provided dresser for her own bath. "I-" Turning her head to look at him, she laughed at the sight and held her clothes in her hand. Cosi was definitely too big for that bathrobe, his legs too long, arms too muscled. It looked several sizes too small, better suited for Athena's small thin frame rather than Cosi's broad one. "..Don't mind. Luckily, no one will see you like that if you tome." Athena assumed he had one, she didn't know for sure. Then suddenly she asked. "Are your stitches alright still?" Trying not to laugh at the sight of him again.

* Cosimo Alessi had not been able to see himself in the mirror. He had no idea what he looked like. He figured the robe might be too small, but just how ridiculous he looked was evident only in the way Athena now laughed at him. “I have a tome,” he said. That was his thoughts exactly as he had donned the robe. He could go straight back to the gardens, and to his own apartment. The only people who saw him would be his own family, and that he did not mind. He didn’t have to explain that he had no other clothes to change in to. His hand pressed over his abdomen, where he was sure there would still be seeping blood. He had been careful in the shower, and had checked the wound before he had come out. He nodded. “They are fine, thank you,” he said, keeping the robe closed. Wearing only his underwear underneath, he was not exactly keen to open the robe and show off his gut. Not without showing everything else off at the same time. He moved slowly, and sat on the edge of the bed. “Maybe I will owe you a robe, as well as new tights,” he said with a small smile.

* Athena looked concerned about his stitches, of course she was. But she let it go with his response. If any had popped she was certain that he'd have told her by now. She let it go, he was a grown man. It was fine. After she closed the drawer she sat the pile of clothes in her hand on top of the dresser on the empty space by the TV she didn't watch. "I'll hold you to that, Cosimo." Turning her head to give him a small smile in return before she looked down at herself, covered in his blood still. Knowing now it was definitely time to shower. She paused, looking at him again she wasn't sure what to say. Goodbye? Shake his hand? Offer him a blanket? Athena did what she did best- she avoided the situation and walked to the bathroom and closed the door. She would shower now and he'd be gone when she came out, right?

* Cosimo Alessi checked the stitches again as soon as the bathroom door was closed. Satisfied that he hadn’t been lying, and that the stitches were all just fine, he wrapped the robe around himself and looked around. He should go home. But it felt odd, to leave without… another thank you. Or a goodbye. Or… something. So he continued to sit, to wait. But ended up laying down again, his back stretched out, staring at the roof. Now that it was done, that he was all stitched up and he was clean, he allowed himself to relax. His muscles slowly eased, and he blinked. Each blink got longer. The night had taken its toll. Until he blinked for the last time, eyes closed and sleep settling over his limbs. It wasn’t often that he slept when the sun wasn’t in the sky. His hands were settled over his chest, but one slipped and landed heavily against the blanket. His head tipped sideways, hair wet and askew. The robe slipped, some of the stitches within view. He might have snored, if he breathed. But he didn’t breathe. He may as well be dead.

* Athena came out of the bathroom, a wave of wet heat following her as she used the towel she had to rub down her damp hair. She paused then in the doorway when she saw the man sleeping. Thankful she had some spare clothes in the bathroom. Athena had a habit of forgetting to bring her clothes in with her. Just like this time. Giving a sigh, she tossed her towel on the floor and walked over to the man. Leaning over him she gently re-tied his robe closed, leaning over his body once again though careful not to touch and disrupt his sleep. Her hand found the blanket and as cautious as she could she covered the sleeping man chin down. As she straightened, she fixed her satin tank top before she paused again. Where would she sleep? Now suddenly aware she was in a stupid pyjama set. It didn't matter though. She was exhausted. Tonight truly hadn't gone as she had originally thought. With a yawn, she gave up and climbed back into her bed to curl up by herself on the opposite side of him. Just like him, she fell quickly asleep.


________________________________________

* Cosimo Alessi slept, to begin with, like a man would sleep if he were napping during the day, during an illness. For a couple of hours he slept heavily. But he stirred with some subconscious realisation that he was doing something out of the ordinary; when he woke it was drowsily, his alertness having taken a holiday. He shifted his legs beneath the blanket, blinking at the woman sleeping on the bed beside him. Uncovered. He cringed as he remembered his wound, but continued to slowly manoeuvre and tug at the blanket until it covered both of them. If he touched Athena, it was only through the blanket; one hand resting for two seconds over her shoulder. He’d rolled onto his side, and after the blanket was in place, he’d promptly fallen back asleep--this time with the rising of the sun, dead to the world and unmoving. He should have been worried. He was already going to end up scarred after the night’s activities. Were the windows covered? Was the sign on the door, to keep the room service out? He should be worried about the sun, but he wasn’t. Sleep came easy like it always did. The both of them, beneath the blanket. Not touching. But together regardless.

* Athena woke up suddenly, as she always did some nights. With a nightmare. The spirits spoke to her and on occasion they whispered in her dreams. Now she was sitting up, her eyes were wide and the blanket was over her lap. She was right next to him, curled up once under the blanket and closer to the man than when she started. Still yet, not touching him in the least but close enough to make her slowly slide backwards on her bed. The sun would go down soon, maybe in another twenty minutes. Athena had always been an early riser. “..What..?” she whispered to herself, looking around as she tried to work herself from the haze that had been her dream to what reality was. Cosimo was in bed right next to her, he had covered her with her own blanket and now she was.. confused.

* Cosimo Alessi could not wake up early. Even if he tried. Even if someone shoved him or stuck a knife through his palm, he wouldn’t feel a thing. So while Athena waited for the sun to go down, Cosimo stayed right where he was, rolled on his side with his head resting on his own crooked arm, the other hand nestled into the sheet beneath him. The expression on his face was mostly serene, with only the slightest frown etched into his brow. There were no dreams. Not that he could ever recall, anyway. When the sun finally dipped below the horizon, his eyes blinked open, as if he were released from a spell. That was probably exactly what it was. A spell. He blinked a couple of times, trying to remember where he was; his gaze found a rise in the blanket, where a pair of feet existed beneath. His attention travelled up the blanket, over Athena’s lap and up to her face. And then he remembered the restaurant. The Fadebeast. The stitches. He cleared his throat to clear away the sleep, happy to know that he wasn’t burned. Or dead. He sat up slowly, shifting the robe aside just a tad so that he could get a glimpse at the wound; it was already starting to heal around the edges. But not fast enough. “Buonasera,” he mumbled, awkwardly. He had stayed when he could have gone home. He had accidentally fallen asleep, and she had fallen beside him. He scratched a stray itch at the back of his head, and gave Athena a sheepish smile. He didn’t know what else to say.

* Athena was still on the bed next to him when he woke up, her knees pulled against her chest and her chin resting on top of her right knee with thin arms tight around her legs. The woman looked like she was lost in thought because she was. First, she attempted to make sense of her dream. Was it about Hunter again? Maybe about that family she kept dreaming about. No, it was just a fog of images that she didn't understand. But why did she feel so guilty? It burned mercilessly in the pit of her stomach, spreading all over her body and plaguing her heart. Blue eyes squeezed tightly shut as she tried to ward off both the guilt and her foggy dream. What was it about anyway? Is that why she felt guilty or was it because she slept next to a man? A man who she didn't understand. A man who drove her absolutely up a wall and down another. The same man she had sworn not to see again. A man who wasn't Hunter. The guilt kept crashing over her despite that it hadn't been for romantic reasons. Had it? No- Cosimo's voice stopped her from making sense out of anything. As usual, he distracted her. "Are you well?" Turning her head to look at him with her searing blues. Worried that he had popped a stitch in his sleep. Slowly, she began to relax her body and sit back up and allow her legs to stretch out in front of her. Then bringing her arms up towards the ceiling in a stretch. "Will you continue to be of the undead?" Teasing him in her attempt to repress her guilt that she couldn't make light of. His easy awkward smile helped with that. Maybe his optimism tonight would make her feel something other than pure rage.

* Cosimo Alessi was sitting with his back abnormally straight; he had to shuffle to the edge of the bed so that he could swing his legs off, and plant his bare feet on the ground. His shoulders rolled and he flicked the nightgown aside to get a better look at his gut and the pink stitches that held his skin together. If his features contorted into a grimace, it wasn’t because there was anything wrong. It was because his stomach looked like some kind of art project. Obscure, gory. Cosimo couldn’t claim to be spectacularly toned. He was no candidate for a half-naked men’s calendar, even on a good day. But he could at least be a little proud of the body that he had achieved. No one could accuse him of letting anything go. Not that anyone would notice, now. The taut lines that might once have existed would now be obscured by scars. Hopefully the stitched would hold and it wouldn’t be as bad as he was assuming. More reason to keep his shirt on, though. He chuckled at Athena’s question, but gave a mock frown. “I am not sure. I might become dead dead, still. There is still time,” he said. He turned back to Athena, that smile back in place. The concern about the wound was banished in favour of the fact that he was still alive. “I have been attacked by a… what did you call it? Fade...beast. And I have lived to tell the tale. It will be a good story!” he said. Which he said of most things, really. Most, not all. They’d always be good stories.

* Athena tipped her head at him, ebony bed hair falling to the side before she managed to laugh, lowering her arms. “I would hope not after all that effort to keep you in the club.” a hand raising to tuck messy hair behind her ear. “Does everything make a good story for you, Cosi?” she snorted gently, her head shaking at him as if she expected anything else. Of course he reacted this way. He was the man who was most optimistic. It almost hurt her eyes. With one sweep with blue eyes over him they rolled. “I don’t know how you do it.” teasing him, now using her hands to help scoot her to the closest edge to land on bare feet and stretch yet again. Once she was done stretching she used her hands to try and finger-comb the tangles from her messy hair. “Are you alright though?” she asked though this time with a bit more emotion than the last.

* Cosimo Alessi shrugged and nodded. He thought perhaps it required some explanation; he didn’t want to come across as too frivolous, as if nothing mattered. Things did matter. But it was one’s perception of life that made it either hell or worth living. She didn’t know how he did it, and sometimes Cosimo didn’t know, either. He licked his lips, his fingers grazing over the wound, goose-pimples rushing up his arms as he felt the lingering pain, as he recalled the way those teeth and ripped into the flesh. “I am fine. Thank you,” he said, before properly turning to face Athena. He should probably go home. He should probably leave her to her night. He couldn’t get dressed; he would have to go home if he was going to leave this apartment. He wasn’t going to walk the streets in a too-small nightgown. But he didn’t stand up just yet. “There is no point constantly focusing on the negative,” he started to explain. “If we do that, then we drown. We are immortal now, si? What point is living forever if we live it in… in sadness? Or… fear?” he shook his head. He could have been terrified. He should have been. But he had survived. And he would continue to do so until he didn’t.

* Athena stood there and looked at him. Her hair was a mess, she was still in a satin pyjama set and yet she made no push to make him leave. He should probably go home and that thought lingered in the back of her mind while they talked. Why were they still talking, anyway? Had it not been enough to share a bed and a blanket? That thought made her wince for a split second before he started to talk again. She knew she had to work tonight. It was a given that she had to work almost any night. Athena made sure to keep herself busy. It was time now to do her morning-stretches and her pilates tape but she still made no move from her spot. Still no move to banish him from her space and most importantly her bed. He didn’t know her well enough to realize that she had meant her promise earlier. She would talk to him now. Maybe that was all she needed not to blow up in his face. To know he really actually cared. “Yes, we are immortal.” she paused, as if that were painful to say. Her features twisted as she attempted to both make sense of his words and how she felt about them. How could she explain if she didn’t have the words? Or even know how she truly felt about anything? She’d at least try. “But I can't help but to.. feel the pain. Maybe it’s just coming back to me. Maybe I’m too focused on it as you think I am but.. I am death now, Cosi. I am a necromancer and that is what I do.” she licked her suddenly dry lips. “You might not see it but this is a sad joke. Make the girl death, someone said. Am I not allowed to feel sadness?”

* Cosimo Alessi watched as Athena continued to stretch, more out of a vague kind of curiosity than anything else. It was an inquisitive gaze; inquiring both into Athena’s own psyche, and his. Here was a woman dressed in her pyjamas--satin pyjamas--and he had slept in the same bed as her. He had, for all intents and purposes, tucked her in. He obviously cared for her. This woman he’d only met a handful of times, and who yelled at him more often than not. In his own way, he was trying to help her, though he had no idea how he could. With her mussed hair and… when she looked at him, his gaze slid away, narrowing toward a sock on the floor. Thinking about what she said and how she felt, rather than dwelling on how she looked and how he felt. “You are allowed to feel whatever you want to feel. Maybe it is me who is the coward. I run from the things that I feel, if they are too much. I do not…” he shrugged his shoulders and turned back to Athena, though his eyes didn’t meet her face. They rested somewhere around her wrist, or her hip. This time, the frown isn’t as fleeting as it has been previously. But as was his habit, he forced it away, replacing it with a smile. His forehead wrinkled, gaze finally returning to Athena’s face. “Maybe I just do not really know what I am talking about.”

* Athena continued to look at him, her own forehead wrinkled as she got confused. This wasn't the response she thought she would get. In fact, now she could feel her own confusion just that much more. He didn't belong here. He didn't belong in her bed. She didn't belong letting him be in her bed and yet she knew she didn't want him to leave. It was faint and confusing and she pushed that down as she did with most things. It didn't belong. She didn't understand. She would run from it later. Whenever she was alone again she would find her footing and run far far away-
While she looked at him she saw the frown that he attempted to cover with a smile. It frustrated her, the frown did. That didn't belong on his face. "Please don't frown, Cosi." Athena paused. She wanted to add that it looked wrong but she didn't. "We're all allowed to be in the dark sometimes.. it'll all be figured out eventually.."

* Cosimo Alessi wondered what she could mean, by asking him not to frown. That she would ask, first, how he could do it. How could he smile all the time? And that he would explain - that it was better for the soul to be happy. To try to be happy. For her to ask if she wasn’t allowed to feel sadness, as if she should be completely free to feel whatever she wanted to feel. But then to be told not to frown. She was allowed her sadness, but he was not allowed his? Though he didn’t particularly take it that way. If he was a coward for running away from his sadness, then she was giving him permission to stay that way. And that was completely fine by him. Ignorance was bliss, wasn’t that what they said? He laughed, though. Again, he laughed at his own misfortunes. It wasn’t a bitter laugh. If no one knew any better, they would think he genuinely thought that his past woes were hilarious. “Some things are not puzzles. They do not need to be figured out,” he said, arching a brow at Athena as he stood. He, too, felt the need to stretch his legs, though he didn’t get very far with the stretching of the arms. The movement tugged on his stitches, and he was forced to sharply bring his arms back down again. “Some things are facts. Broken things that cannot be fixed so…” he shrugged his shoulders again. “One must move on, si? I am referring to myself, of course. Everyone is different.”

* Athena struggled to understand then why he would just laugh. She knew he wasn't laughing at her but at himself and it made her shift uneasy in her spot. The entire thing made her feel weird. Athena didn't like him laughing at himself, at the pain she was oblivious to. Everyone had pain and to someone who was consumed by her own, it was no laughing matter. It had swallowed her entire being and in her opinion it made her in charge of the dead. It made her the necromancer she was today. The last joke had been on her. When her mouth opened she spoke from her heart. As if she had known this all along yet ignored it herself. Because she had. "Broken things, Cosimo?" Her head very gently shook at him as it always seemed to. "Maybe not everything can be fixed but you can't run from it either." She bit her lip, making a sweeping gesture with her hand that caused the shadows around to spark as if woken from a sleep. "Trust me, I've been running from this pain for many years now and it's done me absolutely no good." The sparks simmered down once her hand dropped back down to her side. "You're right, everyone is absolutely different but no one is exempt from dealing with things either..." Athena cleared her throat then. She hadn't meant to get too deep into it with him, but she had promised to help. She had promised to be there and since the beginning he was there too. This time she wouldn't fail him. This time she could be stronger. Maybe this time, they both could understand.

* Cosimo Alessi rubbed his palms on the outside of the robe, as if they could be sweaty. Habit. Of course they were not sweaty. They were saying a lot without saying much at all. A lot of vague conceptions with so few words. Broken things. Running. Dealing with things. Cosimo had a very clear knowledge of what was wrong with him, and he supposed he wasn’t running away from the main problem. The main problem was something that he had to deal with because it was just… there. When the shadows sparked, he resisted the urge to back away. She wasn’t angry, was she? But there was something there. Something profound, if not anger. Cosimo watched Athena, side on, his hair mussed and fallen over his eyes. All of a sudden he wanted to change the subject. She had asked the question. Broken things? He wasn’t going to answer that. He wasn’t going to explain. “I have to deal. I have dealt,” he shrugged. “I feel… angry. As anyone would feel angry, about things done to them. But they have been done. They cannot be changed. Anger is no good, not when there is no use for it. There is no turning back time,” he said, even as he kicked at his dirty jeans and tried, very slowly, to reach down to pick them up off the floor.

* Athena knew this wouldn’t go any further. They both wouldn’t let it. Two steps forward, three steps back. There was everything to say yet no way to say them. When she opened her mouth to speak she had so many questions to ask. So many things to say but the only thing that left her was silence. The only thing she did was take those three steps backwards and push her feelings, her uncertainty down where everything else lived. She wasn’t ready yet. If she couldn’t face her own feelings, she wouldn’t pry to make him explain his own. Not this time. “There is no turning back time.” she agreed, she wasn’t angry, her arms loosely crossed over her chest. With nothing beneficial to add, she moved towards the man to help him gather his things off the floor. It was easier for her to bend than for him to, she held his clothes in her hand and looked into his face as she straightened. “Have you left anything else here? I could get it for you. I imagine you’re still in pain.” Athena swallowed, she knew that hollow tug at her stomach was simply that she didn’t want him to leave. She needed him to leave. If he left, she would be alone. When he left, she wouldn’t have to deal with everything he brought with him. She would have silence. She would have space.

* Cosimo Alessi wore a half smile as Athena did what he could not; collected his clothes from the floor. The way they were dumped, and the way the room was laid out and with its lived-in look, any onlooker might think that the two had done more than just sleep in the same bed, mostly fully clothed, without touching. It amused and scared him, though he wouldn’t admit to the fear. Was it really fear, or was it just confusion? A little frustration too, maybe? The half-smile was also sheepish; that she should be picking up after him. He could have managed on his own, but he didn’t want to ruin the good work that Athena had done. He didn’t want to pop any of the stitches. He slowly looked around and shook his head. He had in his hands his jeans, his boots and socks, and the wallet, phone and tome that were all discretely tucked into the pockets of his jeans. As he blinked down at the small smile, he remembered: “The restaurant,” he said. “We did not go back. To collect… your things,” he said. He’d been about to say ‘our things’, but had changed his mind. None of it belonged to him, did it? “I can… go back. Do you want me to go back? After I go home and get dressed,” he said. After all, hadn’t she said something about using magic in public? Maybe she would not want to show her face. Cosimo was less wary. More careless, maybe. In and out, no questions asked. If worse came to worst, he could practice his thieving skills.

* Athena smiled again at him, this time it warmed her face at his consideration. Of course, he was the least selfish out of the both of them. "No, just leave it. I'll get it after work, Cosi." With her hands free she crossed her arms over her chest and took a small step back. She knew she should get dressed now. Work was soon and she would probably drown herself in it. It was easier than dealing with whatever feelings she had. She was still unsure of them. She still hid them from even herself. "You can... Email me if you need me to look at your stitches again..but do take care of yourself." Athena bit her lip for just a second before she smiled. No, she refused to entertain the thought of him staying. "Until I trip you again.." trailing off, she straightened her back. She wasn't sure how to say goodbye. It had to be done. Giving him a smile none the less at her attempt at a joke. It was lame but what else could she do? Hug him? Kiss him? Nonsense.

* Cosimo Alessi nodded, though he wasn’t letting her get off the hook that easily. Not that he thought she was on any hook to begin with; he wasn’t even thinking about hooks. But email was so archaic, and his phone was archaic, too. He had to track down a computer to read them, and it was tedious. Folding his shoes into his jeans, he held his bundle of belonging in one hand while he slipped his phone from the pocket of his jeans. “You had books for me,” he mumbled as he pressed a button to turn bring the phone to life. There were no messages. There rarely were any messages. If Elizabeth ever wanted to speak to him, she summoned him. And his progeny seemed to mostly be independent. “I would… still like them, if that is okay? Maybe we should… phone numbers, si?” he said. This was far more awkward than it ought to be. How hard was it to give away a phone number?

* Athena wrinkled her forehead again. He was frustrating her. Of course he was. He always seemed to. With a nod she continued to smile despite her wrinkled brow. "Of course, I'll bring them to you." How? She wasn't sure but when the time came she'd figure it out. maybe. When he spoke about phone numbers her forehead wrinkled even more. Now they would have the ability to directly contact each other and that gave her stomach a weightless feel. It was a brief idea that maybe he caused butterflies in her stomach but just as easily the idea was gone. "Sure, Cosi." A shoulder raised in a lazy shrug and she moved forward to gently take his phone and call herself. "There, you can...call me if you need me." Handing his phone back with a sort of smile.

* Cosimo Alessi gave the phone over easily, and watched as Athena called herself. As if it were the most fascinating process in the world, when he was actually making a concerted effort to look uninterested. Or was he? Maybe he was tired. Tired and hungry. There were plenty of things he had to get done over the rest of the evening. Cosimo responded with a regular smile; the kind of smile he always has ready and waiting, eager to show itself. He went to put the phone back in his pocket and realised he wasn’t wearing his jeans. Obviously. So continued to hold it, while also fumbling through the pile of clothing to find the pocket with the tome in it. “Si. And you can call me. If you need me,” he said, bowing his head as he finally found the tome. Somehow, the entire interaction had all of a sudden become very awkward. There was the urge to try to fix it, and stick around. But to what end? He needed blood. And he needed to get dressed in clothes that weren’t covered in blood. He took a step back. “I will see you soon, Athena. Thank you… for the stitches,” he said. He didn’t wait for a reply before hastily whispering the foreign phrases on the tome; before disappearing into thin air. He told himself he shouldn’t feel guilty. Athena herself had used her tome as an immediate escape. Twice. Frustratingly. This was a taste of her own medicine. But as he landed amongst the foliage of the rooftop garden, he couldn’t help but think he’d left something behind.

* Athena was amused when she watched him attempt to put his phone in the jean pocket he wasn't wearing. She cracked a smile at him, this one colored in her amusement before she nodded. Of course she knew that he would be there if she needed him. That much didn't need to be said, after all. Wasn't that where they were at now? Her mouth opened then to say something else but with a whiz of air he was gone. Athena blinked for a moment before she stared at his empty space and laughed. She might have deserved that one. With a giggle, she moved about the hotel room and got ready for her night. She had work and responsibilities, for now she would ignore how she truly felt about the space he left behind and would focus on the tasks at hand. Avoidance.